How do YOU heal ToD?

[PNellesen]

I recently got my capped Cleric flagged/booted for ToD, though I've run it maybe 4 times on my capped Ranger, so I have a little experience for what happens in the various parts (haven't been in a group that's done the optional yet, though). From what I've seen, it looks like the part with the Judge/Jailer would be the most hectic/toughest to handle from a healing perspective. It seems you might be able to heal a big part of the Shadow room with Burst and scrolls (assuming the guy kiting is doing a good job), and the end fight as well? I haven't had time so far to pay close attention to the healers' SP bars, so not sure just how SP intensive this one is. I haven't heard them complain about having to chug 15 pots or anything like that, but that doesn't mean they didn't... (This all assumes lag doesn't rear it's ugly head, of course.)

Thanks in advance for any tips

[Cam_Neely]

Shade has a good description in here, that helps fill in what some of the other parts of the raid are doing. Also there are some links to youtube videos that allows you to take some time to see what is going on, where as in the heat of the moment you might miss it.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Tower_of_Despair

Good Luck!

[mute_mayhem]

I would agree that part 1 is usually the most hectic in terms of healing. There have been so many times I've seen a health bar quickly dropping and been unable to locate the person that needs a heal. People not removing curses also tends to drain my sp pretty quickly.

Part 2: I'd be very careful about using bursts/aura, as these can aggro the shadows, leading to a pretty quick wipe.

Part 3: It completely depends on the party as to how many resources I have to use. I've had groups that I've needed to drink 3 or 4 pots to be able to keep healing. These groups are typically pugs that are not so well put together. On the other hand, I've done guild runs with some of the better guilds on my server and had to use zero resources. These groups have great tanks with high AC, high Healing Amp and can hold aggro against anybody, these things together make for a super smooth run. In one of these better groups, I actually finished part 3 with over 90% of my spell points remaining, granted that was on a FvS with the healing capstone, but it serves to illustrate how the right group makes healing ToD a breeze.

[Enoach]

Stage 1: Judge/Jailer

If assigned healing duty on the first boss to be taken down, usually Judge, I recommend picking one melee that you know will spend most of their time at the boss's feet. Utilize mass spells. Depending on your feats and equipment you will get more bang out of either Mass Heal (quicken) or Mass Cure Line (Equipment that lowers cost such as Noxious Embers or the Daggers from Cove Event). Don't be overly concerned with Curses from the Judge as the melee should be doing what they can to remove them. If working in tandem with another healing the group, get in sync with them so that your healing hits group alternating between theirs and yours. However, be ready for a quick scroll use, or curse removal if time permits.

For the Jailer where there is a single toon assigned to keep them busy while the other is being beat down, alternate between scroll and Heal/Cure spell. Jailer when group is on them is the same as judge without the curse when the group is on it.

Stage 2:

Find a spot out of melee reach and not infront of a portal spawn point. I like the corner behind the boss up on the dais. Mass heal/cure, watch for the Kiter/Tanker of Shades and if you can throw them a heal as needed. Be ready with a BB just in case you need to keep the shades off the group.

Stage 3:

Clerics and FvS are usually put on the main boss tank if there is a WF tank for sulu, with the caster taking the Sulu tank. If duo healing alternate Heal between you and other healer. Depending on the tank, heal with a follow-up heal scroll - this is a good place to use Ardor clickies as your hands will be needed for other tasks such as scroll healing. A goal is to work to not let the main tank get less then 2/3rds their HP.

Stage 3 is more SP intense when dealing with low AC/High hitpoint tanks then it is with high AC/Mid-High Hit point tanks. Obviously the faster the group takes down Sulu the less resouce intense the quest becomes.

The most Major pots i've used in this quest on the final fight is 8 (wish I could say it was an elite or even hard run, but it was not) and the least I've used was Zero. The amount of resources needed for a cleric is actually directly related to the skill and cooperation of the entire raid party.

[krackythehoodedone]

As the Healer Tod can be a huge minefield for you.

Really it's all about the end fight. if you dont make it that far count yourself lucky because the endfight would have cost you.

The end fight is the only place where you are at significant risk of a large outlay of resource

You can heal a group and breeze through thinking this is a piece of cake with SP remaining.

Or it can all go to **** and you can chew through ten pots in the blink of an eye.

Sometimes this is unavoidable and just bad luck..then you have a really tough decision to make because success or failure depends on the outlay of pots you and your fellow healers are prepared to sink.

And of course the darlings in the party will be the first to blame you for mucking it up?

Whilst not giving you any Pots back if you use a stack (Yes it sux being a healer). Tbf some people are really good about this but the majority couldnt care less how much resource you chew through

However sometimes the party just isnt right and as the healer you are on to a big expensive loser.

So here are a few pointers i look at before volunteering to heal A Tod.

Check out the party. Is their plenty of well known players from respectable guilds in the group ?

Or do you know personally that they are Ok?

Check out the tank. Is he/she/it healer friendly. Ive healed an awesome tank on scrolls alone, and spent a fortune on a huge hunk with a big impressive Axe and zero healing amp.

Dont let the party leader talk you into solo healing the Horoth tank. In my experience this is often very expensive.

Dont get into groups that are very short on heals (heals can include Bards and Casters if you are using WF tank/s).

Use your judgement carefully but dont be afraid to call it and bail if it's getting out of hand. (something i should have done last night)

Take at least a 100 heal scrolls into every Tod.

That should help...however i did one last nite that went **** up...cost me 18 pots and the other healer said he went through 50!!!

[MrFister]

Part 1: Beat on the Judge with your aura going, burst as needed, quicken mass heal as needed. Let cursed melees with no pots die. Repeat with Jailer.

Part 2: Beat on the Shadowmaster with your aura going, burst as needed, quicken mass heal as needed. Shadow tank (what kiter?) shouldn't ever lose aggro even if your aoe heals hit them.

Part 3: Alternate Heal and Heal scrolls on Horoth tank. When DPS is on Horoth, stand near enough to apply aura and bursts. When DPS is on Sully, stand more in the middle and people should come to you as needed for bursts/aura leeching. Depending on DPS, uses about 30 heal scrolls, no pots.

[Kalari]

Drunk- no seriously not trying to be a wise ass with this one.

But here is my break down drunk or no

part one since there is normally two of us though I have solo healed it on normal we tend to have one tank on the judge one on the jailor if the tank on the judge is a forge we have a caster watch him with a spot healer watching the caster if they cannot self heal and that same person will heal those on trash mobs just in case their evasions fail on a one. I normally see this task given to newer clerics/favored souls on our TOD runs since its not really time consuming and it gets them a feel for keeping an eye on multiple targets.

My cleric meanwhile keeps up the group on the Jailor till he is down spot healing those who need it if im alone or if the other healer goes down. When either the Jailor or the Judge are at 20 percent if the group is not taking tons of damage I begin to add my DP to help get the boss down finally.


Part two I center mass cures on myself and it hits the party fighting the shadow master sometimes due to my unusual build (caster cleric with enlarge) I am the one to keep an eye on the kiter due to my choice in feats I am able to get a kiter up from where I am standing at the Nythrios fight so that tends to be my side job along with keeping the fighters on Nythrios up. The other divine and I will try to alternate heals though if its laggy we just spam mass cures till the fight is over.

Final fight we tend to split up again I will get main tank most times unless we want to break in a new divine to keep an eye on him/her. The second Sully tank tends to get a healer though if its a forge like part one a caster will do. All the casters and divines stand close in the same range for our monks to put grasp and aligning on us (not all are that lucky but glad I am it really saves us troubles) When Horoth is at 20 percent I will advise the other divine to begin to put our Dp's on him I keep my radiant aura going so that anyone standing around me gets healed and back up healer keeps an eye on the full group. Since I am running a torq and concordant op on my cleric I do not mind orthons getting a few hits in since it gives me sp back

Thats how I take on TOD with my cleric and favored soul but I do run builds that many would not.

[Dispel]

When I heal in ToD I do so on my caster and I have everything into repair amplification so I get a base 300 Reconstruct, but to save SP that's *all* I use. I will not use Repair Critical Wounds unless it's an emergency because with metamagics, it still does less, but costs more SP.

Therefore, I usually hit Reconstruct everytime the tank gets hit.

[KoboldKiller]

Basically I use spells that are designed to give the party HP back.

[bendover]

On Horoths back DPS'ing with the main tank targeted for the heal. So it kinda looks like:
Heal, swing, swing, swing, swing, heal, swing, swing, mass, swing, swing, heal. You get the idea!

[grodon9999]

This is how we do it, and there is more than one way to do it right.

Part 1: Caster takes on the elementals and the doggies, we usually have a self-healing ranger, bard, or paladin stall the orthon. We take the chicken over by the doggie doors on the right and put both healers on the group. if you stand by the doggie doors it's almost impossible to get thrown into traps (it happens, but it's the safest place to be). The two healers are on the group and since we have almost no WF melee any more and and average everyone has some healing amp 90% of the healing can be done with alternating MCLW. Everyone gets their own curses.

Part 2: we have the guy with the most threat stand in the devil's crotch and everyone else hits from the back. This keeps things controlled in case the kiter dies or anything strange happens. MCLW and the occasional mass-heal for those (90% of the people . . .) who don't have poison or disease immunity.

Part 3: Depends on what's tanking. On up to hard you can take a 0 AC barbarian/kensai with 30+20% healing amp and have two people alternate scrolls on him with blue-bar heals while the scrolls are on cool-down and they'll finish the raid with half their SP left (elite's a little tougher, but we did it once with three people alternating scrolls and it was easy). That's really the trick to meatbag tanking, use two "healers" for the horoth tank. We usually have the bard assist the Horoth healer with scrolls. if the horoth tank has AC we'll only use one healer.

Sulu tank will only need one healer as well whether he has AC or not as Sulu doesn't do that much damage and a no-AC meatbag will have the HP to take the hit. Don't be afraid to remove the Sulu-tanks curses but everyone else should be on their own.

If i have two guys fit for tanking, one with AC and the other without, I'll put the AC guy on sulu because those curses are a pain. Last night the we had an AC guy on Sulu and his cleric did all the healing with scrolls and Radiant aura, this let him dump his entire blue-bar into Divine Punishment

it all comes down to the tanks, better groups with have people with healing amp so it's gonna be easier. if you have a no AC WF with 0% healing amp it's gonna suck.

[Lehmu]

This is how I hjeal ToD:

Part 1(lazymode):
I park myself in a place where I can reach both the group on judge and jailor tank. I cast mass heals on a random Judge beater and an occasional heal on the judge tank when he needs it.

Part 1(not-lazymode):
When I'm not casting a heal, I'm with the melee dps, playing like I'm melee dps. Otherwise as above.

Part 2(lazymode):
I run past the pit fiend, cast mass heals on the group, just like shroud part 5. If the kiter takes damage and doesn't do anything about it, he gets a heal when he runs past me. If he dies, I'll drop a bb on the stairs and run like crazy if I'm the assigned backup kiter.

Part 2(not-lazymode):
When I'm not casting a heal or kiting, I'm with the melee dps, playing like I'm melee dps. Otherwise as above.

Part 3(Horoth tank hjealer, nobody is giving me backup):
I make sure to get rid of any invisibility some "helpful" caster throws my way ("Invis is so great here, you won't aggro anything!") and aggro an orthon to fill my sp bar. I move around in a little circle while hjealing to keep the orthon shooting at me. I'm in no danger as long as I have my radiant aura. I ask the group to leave my pet orthon alone. I spam heal scrolls every time the tank takes even a bit of damage and cast a real heal when the tank's at ~66-75% HP. I keep doing this until it's over. If it looks like it might take a while(read: we're taking sully down), I try to use bauble as soon as possible, but only if the tank's at full HP and I've got a heal spell ready to go.

Part 3(Horoth tank hjealer, another healer's giving me some assistance with tank's healing):
I skip the pet orthon. No need to make life harder on the other healer nor the light monk*, who's trying to keep grasp of the earth dragon on both of us hjealers. Otherwise as above.

Part 3(hjealing the party):
I skip the pet orthon, this job isn't as taxing to my blue bar. Seriously, if the group's not dumb, their damage can be healed by anyone willing to spend a few heal scrolls. I offer to take care of Horoth tank before Sully shows up. I stand where the Horoth tank's healer is standing and heal the group from there to make things easier on the light monk*. I throw an occasional heal from a scroll on Horoth tank to make the healing easier on the other healer, even if I wasn't asked to.

*in case there's no light monk around, I stand wherever I feel like standing. Often with a pet orthon. In these cases, mantle of the worldshaper FTW.

[PNellesen]

... stuff...

Good Luck!

Well, the first time I heal it, you're going with me, and you're gonna tank. I want someone I KNOW can take a hit or 5 and can keep aggro. Last thing I need as a first-timer is bosses running around uncontrolled chasing after the 200HP AA who pulled aggro off the "tank" (cough) after he supposedly had the boss's attention [I notice in spyderwolf's videos the Judge and the Jailer pretty much each stay focused on one guy the entire time - that's what I call "tanking" ]

Thanks for the responses guys - about what I expected based upon my melee runs, but I like to do a little research before healing raids for the first time.

[Tirisha]

In Part 3 of TOD if you are on Horoth tank duty. *usually get to heal horoth tank or the group* then you'll want to make sure you have a Mantle of the Worldshaper to absorb the banishes because they will stun you. A typical tank will not survive the time it takes you to recover from the stun. Most parties will assign a light monk to help by earth grasping (makes you immune to stun) you but they cannot guarantee you being grasped 24/7.

Bring a stack of 100 heal scrolls for normal and make sure you have curse pots for yourself. If you are unsure about the Horoth tank, I do recommend having a person assigned to heal scrolling the tank while you alternate spell and scroll until you have a better idea of what too expect.

[Bodic]

the only time I have any SP pot needs is when solo healing the entire thing (FvS) and the tank fubars or when healing the main party that is not TCoYoC so I have double heals that waste my SP.

[protokon]

proper party setup (and proper preparation) will save you a lot of grief. and a bit of luck as well.

part 1 is really easy. everyone for the most part piles up on the judge, chugging curse pots as needed. on normal, and most of the time on hard, can just cycle mass heal and spot heal with healing scrolls, usually have 50%+ sp left over. on elite mass heal is too slow for the damage the judge dishes out, and have to conservatively land mass cures (being conscious of peoples curses here really helps, but sometimes you just have bad luck).

part 2 is cake, in our guild groups a caster sits on the stairs and heals himself through shadows. mass cures on nytherios he usually dies way before you even think about running out of SP.

part 3 depends on the gruop setup, and what equipment your packing. one of my divines uses an ioun stone making him immune to stun, so i typically heal the horoth tank (also has a mantle for backup as well). the tank you use makes a HUGE difference on difficulty of healing him. a good tank can be kept up just using heal scrolls, a barbarian or DPS tank is going to be kept up alternating between heal scrolls / heal spell, and if there a brick (no healing amp) your going to need at least 2 healers to keep them alive reasonably, less you start spamming cures between your scrolls and drain your SP.

a tank with healing amp goes a *long* way. healing tod is like healing any other raid, group setup is all that really matters for how difficult it will be.

[LordPiglet]

In Part 3 of TOD if you are on Horoth tank duty. *usually get to heal horoth tank or the group* then you'll want to make sure you have a Mantle of the Worldshaper to absorb the banishes because they will stun you. A typical tank will not survive the time it takes you to recover from the stun. Most parties will assign a light monk to help by earth grasping (makes you immune to stun) you but they cannot guarantee you being grasped 24/7.

Bring a stack of 100 heal scrolls for normal and make sure you have curse pots for yourself. If you are unsure about the Horoth tank, I do recommend having a person assigned to heal scrolling the tank while you alternate spell and scroll until you have a better idea of what too expect.

My first ToD I was extremely lucky and had 2 ac tanks, and a very good bard who I way underappreciated since I was the only "healer". My second I blew through some pots and 100 heal scrolls. Pot usage was in part to running out of scrolls, so I carry 200 now. Luckily, I know have an ardor tod belt (get on, this is something that should be straight offered by any non-divine, there's 2 different ones and you want both). ****** dps can also lead to huge resource usage. If you're an AoV don't forget to name the tank you're responsible for as champion and pass your shield.