To Master Wands and Scrolls or to not...

[sirgog]

I advocate taking 2 or 3 ranks in wand/scroll mastery. The use of consumable supplies that are easily bought greatly increases the potency of any toon. For healers, the use of heal scrolls and cure moderate mass is the secret to solo healing advanced raids on the higher difficulties without mana pots. Cure moderate mass scrolls are pretty low-functioning without this enhancement line, but climb to worthwhile levels with it.

In my experience the clerics that haven't mastered scroll useage are the same ones that are always low on mana pots. I have hundreds of these in my bank and rarely need to use them. Spot healing a low hp toon with heal scrolls is the only viable method of spot healing with masses, otherwise the mana cost is similar for a mass and a heal spell to spot them. The method of using mass cures with spot healing from scrolls saves alot of mana.

It is one of those things though that can make you much more effective, but does add to complexity of play. If you compare the type of cleric that is extremely efficent and capable of solo healing high end raids at higher difficulties solo, to a cleric that continuously uses quicken and never uses scrolls, you have two results. The first is a highly functional cleric, while the second is easy to play but requires mana pots continously. To people that are not observant both are capable, while players often get tired of funding the inefficent overhealer.

A great example - back when the level cap was 16 and we were doing VoD on hard regularly. We would often solo heal this with various guild clerics with 0-2 mana pots with up to 8 PUG players. We brought in a respected healer, he went through 3 mana bars, but kept everyone up. He was congradulated for his healing skills by the unobservant tanks - but really he pretty much stank, not because he couldn't keep up a group (most competent clerics can given enough mana), but because his skills did not allow him to do it efficiently. This is the skill difference between a good cleric and an average one.

I couldn't agree more with this. When running VoD elite (which is about as tough at 20 as VoD hard was at 16), my approach is simple - aim have at least 90% SP left when Suulo hits 40% and flies up for the trap/trash phase, at least 60% left when the second Orthons spawn, and at least 20% when the suicide bomber firebats spawn.

That way, even if the group was careless enough to belt Suulo from 40% to 20% hardly killing any of the trash (and this happens), you have the SP to just brute force heal through it all, and to drop a bladebarrier to get most of the orthons and trash aggroed onto you so you can kite them while healing the group.

[phalaeo]

Spot healing a low hp toon with heal scrolls is the only viable method of spot healing with masses, otherwise the mana cost is similar for a mass and a heal spell to spot them. The method of using mass cures with spot healing from scrolls saves alot of mana.

This is exactly what I do.

It is one of those things though that can make you much more effective, but does add to complexity of play. If you compare the type of cleric that is extremely efficent and capable of solo healing high end raids at higher difficulties solo, to a cleric that continuously uses quicken and never uses scrolls, you have two results.

What's wrong with continuously using Quicken? Mass Heal is cheaper than Mass Cure and I don't know anyone who doesn't Quicken Mass Heal. I'm assuming you are saying that one should turn Quicken off for Cures and back on for Mass Heal? If there's a lull in combat, maybe.. but I can't see doing that at the end of a VoD.

The first is a highly functional cleric, while the second is easy to play but requires mana pots continously. To people that are not observant both are capable, while players often get tired of funding the inefficent overhealer.

I see what you're saying, but what if a player does not use scrolls by habit and only consumes 1-2 pots per week of non-Epic raiding? If they are not relying on mana pots to subsudize poor play, what's the argument?

OOC, what do you consider to be an acceptable consumption of both scrolls and pots for a weeks worth of raiding . Assume you're running the higher ones- 2 VoDs, 2 ToDs, 2 Hounds, 2 Shrouds, 2 Abbots on Normal or Hard. Add on 2 EADQs and 2 EVoNs.

[Duke-H-]

Back when cap was 16 i always maxed it out due to using a ton of Mass Cure scrolls and Heal.
Since the aura have mostly replaced those scrolls in the situations i used them alot, particularly mass cure for healing trash damage in VoD and simliar situations. I now tend to only take 3 tiers and spend those points in other places (qualifying for radiant servant).

Also: I love Heal scrolls, even my characters without UMD carries a stack incase the party needs them at some point.

[Chimeran]

1 AP for the 25% is all you need. There are so many spell point boost items now, esp the medium shard ones with 20 charges on them, has almost made scroll healing redundant. Trial and error is the best way, are you using a lot of scrolls? If you heal at 50% targets health is the scroll not fully healing them up? ( not including Warforge who have opted not get healing amps = tisk tisk boil in your own oil then sucka )

[The_Great_Samulas]

What's wrong with continuously using Quicken? Mass Heal is cheaper than Mass Cure and I don't know anyone who doesn't Quicken Mass Heal. I'm assuming you are saying that one should turn Quicken off for Cures and back on for Mass Heal? If there's a lull in combat, maybe.. but I can't see doing that at the end of a VoD.

Continuously using quicken on an endgame cleric uses about a mana pots worth of mana alone. My default cure is cure critical mass/amarath clickie/empower healing/staff of petitioner or cure light mass/amarath clickie/empower healing/maximize/staff of petitioner/noxious embers clickie - both of which are more efficient (because of overhealing with mass heal), quicker, and allow more time for spot healing or damage mitigation (notice no quicken). The end of VoD is one of the few times I actually use quicken regularly.

I see what you're saying, but what if a player does not use scrolls by habit and only consumes 1-2 pots per week of non-Epic raiding? If they are not relying on mana pots to subsudize poor play, what's the argument?

OOC, what do you consider to be an acceptable consumption of both scrolls and pots for a weeks worth of raiding . Assume you're running the higher ones- 2 VoDs, 2 ToDs, 2 Hounds, 2 Shrouds, 2 Abbots on Normal or Hard. Add on 2 EADQs and 2 EVoNs.

If they are able to maintain a stock of 30 mana pots (without harping on everyone else to donate - I know clerics that swig mana pots like crazy then complain about people not funding their poor play), there really is no issue other than I wouldn't take them on hard/elite content. These kind of bad playstyle issues are prevalent in healers that do mostly normal content, where you can get by just fine that way.

1-2 pots per week of non-Epic raiding sounds fine with the schedule you put forward. Although, epic raids are where its at for me. One pot every other raid is about as high of a useage as I would allow, with most raids taking none, and using 2-5 when things go bad. Most recent for me was a really bad lag spike in Epic Dragon, where everyone died but me (thanks to DI). Getting everyone back up and completing took 3 pots or so. The cost of the use of scrolls is inconsequential. The amount of money you make at endgame can fund at least 20X my scroll useage, just for regular loot sold at the vendor - and it gets funny to even consider when you discuss epic loot (what's the going rate for a red dragon scale?).

In the end, its a game. The question is will you have more fun doing the harder raids regularly? Do you enjoy just running normal difficulty raids? Your capabilities as a healer will determine how successful you are at the higher difficulty raids. The use of scrolls adds to your healing ability without a doubt. Not using them regularly makes you out of practice for when you do need to use them. Remember, it is a game, have fun the way you like. For me, it isn't fun if it doesn't at least have some degree of challenge (even if that challenge is solely how efficient I can be).