Cleric healing while in the melee in Shroud?

[voodoogroves]

I notice folks don't do this that much.

As my clonk gets up there, he's going to end up 3/17 w/ Radiant Servant and Fists of Light. I'm sore tempted to stand in the melee w/ the Radiant Aura going mass healing on me when required. Is that generally "bad", or do others have experience with it?

[FuzzyDuck81]

i have my FvS sit in the middle of melee using mass heals on myself a lot of the time, but there will usually be a healer further away from the fight throwing mass heals in too - so long as the group keeps 1 near & 1 far it should be fine, its mostly just a precaution against lag when the blades get close

[taurean430]

I think that you should gauge what your group can handle before actually going through with it. In my observations so far, there are groups that don't have a spasm when the healer steps into melee range... they are like 1 in 8 though.

If you feel you have the hp to survive I don't see why not. Oftentimes you will find my main in Harry's face swinging away in between mass cures/mass heals. In a competent group this isn't an issue. Many groups though will freak out on you for doing so. You might even hear a gasp or two over the mic, lol.

[twix]

I melee and heal with my Battle Cleric every time i do the shroud with him. Ive done this on hard,elite,and normal of course.Its actually not that hard and im surprised I dont see other battle clerics doing this.I made him to melee and heal and thats how i play him.In pug groups there are questions at first but after i explain my build and then prove i can heal and fight at the same time all is well.

[rendet]

Don't try this with less than 500hp though. I always melee in shrouds even before the aura came out. Once you get sp regen items like the torc and a conc opp it is very efficient.

[gott_ist_tot]

It depends on whether you/your toon is ready for this.

My experience is this: when i was 400ish HP lag killed me once and I stopped meleeing out of shame. I started to melee again when I hit 500 hp and never looked back - I stay alive in spite of occasional lag spike. With lots of sp and amrath belts I can settle on throwing max+emp+quickened mass cures only and contribute to dps more than if I used mass heal.

But if I'm a sole healer in inexperienced PUG which can result in quite-a-few rounder, I do cast mass heals.

[aristarchus1000]

I did this on my favored soul/monk for a while, it works ok, but you should make sure you don't risk the raid in case of bad luck. In this case, make sure you have plenty of hit points to survive a lag spike, a meteor swarm with a failed save (a roll of 1) and a few melee hits. This generally means around 500+ hitpoints.

[voodoogroves]

Thanks guys for the advice

I'm sitting near 400 HP right now; need to make an HP item and a Con-Op item; got the Torc already.

My thinking was the radiant aura is basically free - it takes nothing to cast and if I'm on a cycle of the healing burst and mass cures / heals interspersed then it's even "more", let alone if I land a healing curse or the fists of light finisher.

[twix]

My BC has just about 500 hp.Think hes at 495 and hes never died while meleeing in the shroud.Playing a battle cleric is more about twitch skill with healing then how many hit points you have.If you can break through 400 hp on a full healing toon and you have the skill to know when to heal yourself as well as the people around you you will be fine.

[phalaeo]

Don't try this with less than 500hp though. I always melee in shrouds even before the aura came out. Once you get sp regen items like the torc and a conc opp it is very efficient.

I do it all the time with 424.

[Bacab]

Its a great idea.

Just make sure you have enough HP.

And I am suprised no one said this...

Have Quicken Spell.

No if's and's or but's. Quicken is a MUST if you are going to melee Harry/Sully/Horoth/insert boss here.

Also have the following spells hot-keyed...

Mass Protection from Elements (after a delayed blast fireball or w/e), Heal (for yourself or say a WF Melee with bad healing amp), Mass Heal (for Everyone), Remove Curse (can be potion form...mainly for healing curses like from Judge or Sully) and some random other mass cures.

I generally target the boss and have auto-attack on. I then use my left hand to hit the "F" keys for party/alliance members. And I use my right hand for my spells. That way I can "dance on the keyboard". I am right-handed so my right hand recovers quickly from the 1-9(10) keys and to my mouse when needed. My left hand can stay hovered over the "F" keys and can bounce to the "9(mass heal)" and "0 (heal)" buttons.

If you target the boss and hit a mass spell its centered on you. If you hit Heal...its centered on you.

Your number one priority is to keep yourself alive when you do this.

I also like doing this because I get to know the bosses HP 100% of the time and can pace my SP better.

I really hope this helps you; and good luck.

Oh one more thing...Fire Absorption gear really helps with reducing spike dmg.

[Therigar]

I've been on Shroud runs with players who do this. It works but....

The aura healing really doesn't keep up with the damage and if timing is off on the mass heals there can be 1 or 2 dings. That just prolongs the fight against Harry and can turn a 2 round encounter into 3 or 4 real fast. If you're grouping and doing Harry in 1 round then it won't matter. Otherwise, it might.

Where I see it most often w/o any negatives is when the group is healer heavy with 3 clerics/favored souls. Normal Shroud can be done with a single cleric/favored soul when the player is really good. It is usually done pretty easily with 2. So, once the group gets past that 2d healer then I don't think it matters much.

Of course, it really all depends on you and how good you are. If you can manage to keep your focus and spam the cures/heals (rather than trying to watch HP bars) it should work just fine (this assumes you have the AC/evasion/HP to stand toe-to-toe with Harry to start with).

[phalaeo]

Another thing I noticed that I didn't know before I stood in melee-

Harry does STR damage.... I never knew until I saw it on the corner of my screen.

Now, what I do is different- I concentrate on mass heals, which I alternate with Pos. Energy Bursts and the occasional single target Heal or Mass Cure.

Regarding the HP- as mentioned, I'm ok with my 424 in Normal runs and I've done Elites where I can plump my HP up to the 480s (not Temp. HP, real HP...I just need to switch gear).

I may be a little cocky in my recommendations- I forget sometimes that not all Clerics have evasion and I'm doing this on a Clonk... Evasion helps, as do Firestorm Greaves... so I'm changing my suggestion slightly to say that if you're a non-evasion Cleric, you may want to get those HPs up slightly higher than I'm recommending for a Clonk.

[Loceish]

For me, it would be dependent on the group. If the group is doing well, and I feel that they won't need much more than 'casual' healing, then I'd jump in. Otherwise, stay out. I've had a few shrouds, where I don't even know how we got to part 4, the dps was soo bad, and multiple people must have either thought it was funny to take off their con and heavy fort items, or were just levels and levels behind on gear. Some "fun" groups may require the extra attention that isn't needed with others.

Just make sure you don't let anyone die. If are attacking Harry, some people would tend to blame your healing when they die. If you are outside, just chilling casting heals, they'll just call it a lag death like any other. -Though, i've let someone who was exceptionally lower in hp than anyone else die just because it made healing more regular for me-

[voodoogroves]

General thanks: You may have read me posting this before, but getting to high levels is easy - I appreciate the advice since much of the content you can level through without it. Towards the end though I notice some shifts in strategy as requirements and really appreciated the feedback.



Thanks Bacab for the advice. I do have quicken and am in the habit of leaving it on most times anyway and always during a raid. That and empower healing are pretty much always on.

Therigar - i'm not thinking the healing aura will keep up ... just that it's THERE. I mean, not using it seems like a waste - it's free HP. If I can mass-heal from right there, everyone else will be ticking some amount of HP per second anyway.

Phalaeo - clonk here - monk 2/cleric17. Hovering around 400 HP, could probably put on the Dusk Heart or something for some more. Still working on my 2nd DT set.



It sounds doable, which is good. The whole point is to get the boss down as quickly and efficiently as possible right? If I *can* swing a pair of metalline/PG kamas (got one, still looking for the 2nd boss beater - Greater Evil Outsider Bane may suffice in the short term) then I'm helping chop the HP. If I'm still mass healing (and one cast heals me over 500) and mass protecting from elements, as long as I don't get the aggro and I'm just worried about splash damage, it should be doable. Then the bonus from the radiant aura is kinda gravy and helping keep the edge of some of the spikes and I can toss the radiant burst in as another thing if my cool-downs are timing oddly. I've got a Torc and once I get a ConOp crafted, even the splash damage should help me regain mana more quickly than jumping in and out of the pool in the corner.

It might be riskier in part 5 due to the existence of those pools, but in part 4 when there's isn't really a regen option in the environment it seems like it may make more sense.

That said, I've never done it and the first time I try I'll likely bungle something. I need to find a non-completing set of runs to try it out in part 4 with an agreeable group.

[grodon9999]

Don't try this with less than 500hp though. I always melee in shrouds even before the aura came out. Once you get sp regen items like the torc and a conc opp it is very efficient.

That 500 HP is WAY conservative if you have evasion. I have 404 and do this all the time and have never died in Shroud with my healer.

[Spoonwelder]

My BC has just about 500 hp.Think hes at 495 and hes never died while meleeing in the shroud.Playing a battle cleric is more about twitch skill with healing then how many hit points you have.If you can break through 400 hp on a full healing toon and you have the skill to know when to heal yourself as well as the people around you you will be fine.

I was in a shroud with Stoneheals a few weeks back - pretty sure it was him...Part 5 I didn't even need to heal - I was only throwing out heals to the range/arcane types and the occasional mass heal to the group that probably wasn't needed. Finished with 80% of my SP left. It was a good group and I am sure the extra DPS Stone brought helped speed it up a bit....but I was impressed until someone asked my why my blue bar was still full. I didn't take offense - I just said that Stone was doing the job just fine, I was waiting for him to get low before I took got busy.

So yeah it can work just fine - I am not built for it as I am more caster/heal and as such I am missing gear and a toughness feat to make it fly. On TR I will be building for the ability to do this though.

[moops]

Gage the group first.
My Battle Cleric melee'd alot when she had less than 400 HP--but she had evasion, gear, and was not the only healer.

If you know it is a good group, and know them to be good players--it should be no problem. Ive been in a few shroud recently where both healers were meleeing and mass curing--which became even easier with the lag getting better in the u5 update. However the lag has been pretty bad soem run in the past week, so. . .gage the lag.

[Zendura]

Its a great idea.

Just make sure you have enough HP.

And I am suprised no one said this...

Have Quicken Spell.

No if's and's or but's. Quicken is a MUST if you are going to melee Harry/Sully/Horoth/insert boss here.

Also have the following spells hot-keyed...

Mass Protection from Elements (after a delayed blast fireball or w/e), Heal (for yourself or say a WF Melee with bad healing amp), Mass Heal (for Everyone), Remove Curse (can be potion form...mainly for healing curses like from Judge or Sully) and some random other mass cures.

I generally target the boss and have auto-attack on. I then use my left hand to hit the "F" keys for party/alliance members. And I use my right hand for my spells. That way I can "dance on the keyboard". I am right-handed so my right hand recovers quickly from the 1-9(10) keys and to my mouse when needed. My left hand can stay hovered over the "F" keys and can bounce to the "9(mass heal)" and "0 (heal)" buttons.

If you target the boss and hit a mass spell its centered on you. If you hit Heal...its centered on you.

Your number one priority is to keep yourself alive when you do this.

I also like doing this because I get to know the bosses HP 100% of the time and can pace my SP better.

I really hope this helps you; and good luck.

Oh one more thing...Fire Absorption gear really helps with reducing spike dmg.

to me hp means i fyou get hit once for a certain amount . you can always heal for any damage less than the amount of hp you have . if you have lot of hp and take a lot of total damage requiring lots of heal how can you heal party too ? survivalist build 17 clr/2 monk /1 rog and it has only 323 hp and does fine in shroud fighting and healing at same time for the most part . some times i do get stuck in lag or have to back off to heal party more thna usual . perhaps becasue other players dont have their character built up enough in defense etc . ive gone in epic with 1400 or so sp and fully heal them thru and do some melee as well . :-) i get a choice i can just heal or jump in hehe