Silver Flame or Sovereign Host Capstone

[Indubitably]

Need some helpful 1st hand experience (or very good educated guesses) at what would be a better SLA for a pure Favoured Soul.

The FvS in question is going to be a WIS based character with a heavy focus on solo ability and defense.
The plan is to use a shield and shield mastery to go with the 10/- DR.
I realise there is such a thing as "too much survival" and that a 2hd WF or twf would do more melee damage...but I want a solid caster here....slow but steady.
The hope is that against really tough enemies, shielding up and relying on archon and DP might be a viable solution where more melee or offensive focused soloists might fail.

The dilemma:
For all my theory and number crunching, I can't fathom what would be more likely to be useful end game.

Endless small heals or
free spamable lazer beams.

CLW has obvious use right throughout and can really do wonders for making your SP pool last, something that will always get used and goes right along with a defensive build (also comes with longsword proficiency and Unyeilding which is a plus I'll admit). But it pales in comparison to a proper 'Heal' and you don't need THAT much SP for self healing.

Searing Light on the other hand. Being a weak melee FvS, having a free fully meta enabled spell to spam would do wonders for damage and saving SP when melee just wont cut it and you know your SP won't last the fight (or to the next shrine).


So, experienced people.... what would win out in long runs, long fights, hard fights...
and any suggestions (overkill on defense, STR beats WIS for solo (unlikely I think, especially for shield), WF really is that much better (I have a WF Wiz so I know the joys of WF).

Long Fights,
Long Runs,
Hard Fights....

CLW or SL better ?

[Bodic]

The FCLW is nice to maintenance a high Heal Amp Tank, as a buddies paladin took a 599 crit FCLW so a free heal.

the searing light is also good.

so flip the coin unlimited healing or unlimited DPS both not the best, but work well.

[Jaid314]

my thoughts:

you can replace the free CLW with a heal scroll, or potentially even a CCW wand.

try replacing the searing light with a wand or scroll and see how that does.

both have their uses, but one can have those uses replaced by 1-2 inventory slots.

[Chette]

I would almost always go with the free searing light. If you are single target healing, a heal scroll will do the trick (as was previously mentioned). You will not keep up any but the highest healing amp tanks with the free CLW, especially as the cooldown is longer than the actual cure spells. The free searing light however can provide significant DPS at no cost, and is always useful. There will be plenty of times when there is nobody to heal, but there will be few times when there is nothing to kill

I also really like the free Searing Light because divines don't have a lot of single target damage spells like arcane casters do. You won't really lack for healing spells though. You'll want to max out your smiting lines, including crits, for Divine Punishment anyways, so that really leans in favor of Searing Light, IMO.

[Seph1roth5]

Are you the type of player that's going to spend that much $$ on heal scrolls? I bring them along for raids and hard quests but I reaaaally don't want to blow that on everyday quests.

My fvs is definitely more defense-oriented, but I use the free CLW all the time. It's especially useful if you pug a lot and run into a lv 20 character with 180 hp.

I bring wands and scrolls too but that costs $$ and time spent buying more. The free CLW is like the cleric's aura, it keeps everyone topped off and saves you from having to spend SP when you don't have to,

[HarveyMilk]

The free cure is quite handy when you're taking dmg. If you solo at all, I'd go the free cure. You don't want to juggle heal scrolls while you're blade barrier kiting.

Personally, I use heal scrolls and the free cure on horoth tanks and keep them up easily by myself, as long as they have half-way decent heal amp. I use my sp for divine punishment to make the fight faster.

[thewalex]

I mainly use my capped, geared FvS for raids and solo epic scroll farming. The CLW is great for keeping myself topped off while I BB kite.

[Matuse]

The other consideration is the weapon you get.

CLW is longsword
Searing Light is longbow

If your intention is to smack stuff in the teeth, this can have an influence on your decision.

[WruntJunior]

I take the free CLW for a different reason...the ability I have to take to get my PrE is more useful. Free heal once every 10 minutes that gets rid of DEATH PENALTIES? That can be a pretty big side-step out of the way of the fan when the **** hits it.

[blade_of_will]

Personally, I think I would go with the free healz. Raids and such where your primary focus is healing, free clw + heal scrolls can save you a lot of sp, and (despite what some zergers may think) staying alive is more important that killing everything quickly (but if you can do both thats a plus ). Plus, its free healing! You cant go wrong with that.

Searing light sla seems decent, but isnt as appealing to me as clw sla. It saves you some sp but.. soloing, you wanna group stuff up and aoe it, in a group you want to ether melee, group stuff up and aoe it it, or heal. Might be worth testing to see how much damage it does at endgame on trash when you solo.. but not sure it would be for me.

Long fights: Nether is essential, but healing sla saves you sp if you are healing the tank in a place where you cant aoe heal everyone with him (horoth fight for example) and saves your sp so your prepared for the o**** moments. If its not a fight where you need to be healer full time, or dont have to worry too much about sp (shroud), searing light could be better.
Long runs: In groups, healing. Solo, toss up, maybe favoring searing light, depends partly on the quest (how much can you zerg and aoe?) and what your melee capabilities are (more melee => free healing better as you already have free damage).
Hard fights: Tempted to say neither, because in hard fights you will be using stuff other than your sla's. May go with what I said for long fights, healing sla saves sp for the important stuff.


I would say its partly opinion and playstyle. I (dont own fvs but think that I would) prefer clw sla on my fvs for saving sp healing tod and other raids like that, and for group maintenance in harder elite quests.

[WruntJunior]

Personally, I think I would go with the free healz. Raids and such where your primary focus is healing, free clw + heal scrolls can save you a lot of sp, and (despite what some zergers may think) staying alive is more important that killing everything quickly (but if you can do both thats a plus ). Plus, its free healing! You cant go wrong with that.

Searing light sla seems decent, but isnt as appealing to me as clw sla. It saves you some sp but.. soloing, you wanna group stuff up and aoe it, in a group you want to ether melee, group stuff up and aoe it it, or heal. Might be worth testing to see how much damage it does at endgame on trash when you solo.. but not sure it would be for me.

Long fights: Nether is essential, but healing sla saves you sp if you are healing the tank in a place where you cant aoe heal everyone with him (horoth fight for example) and saves your sp so your prepared for the o**** moments. If its not a fight where you need to be healer full time, or dont have to worry too much about sp (shroud), searing light could be better.
Long runs: In groups, healing. Solo, toss up, maybe favoring searing light, depends partly on the quest (how much can you zerg and aoe?) and what your melee capabilities are (more melee => free healing better as you already have free damage).
Hard fights: Tempted to say neither, because in hard fights you will be using stuff other than your sla's. May go with what I said for long fights, healing sla saves sp for the important stuff.


I would say its partly opinion and playstyle. I (dont own fvs but think that I would) prefer clw sla on my fvs for saving sp healing tod and other raids like that, and for group maintenance in harder elite quests.

In all honesty, I don't use the free clw to heal raids unless the tank has amazing healing amp (really rare). It's not that great for healing a raid, though it can be a good thing to toss on a tank if, say, he's tanking horoth and just took a disintegrate (and heal didn't fill him up) to get him out of the danger zone. However, when soloing, the free clw is amazing....10 dr + free clw (no empower healing but decent healing amp) hitting me for ~60 on a non-crit = easy soloing.

[thewalex]

To get him out of the danger zone.

[WruntJunior]

Really? REALLY?

[voodoogroves]

The other consideration is the weapon you get.

CLW is longsword
Searing Light is longbow

If your intention is to smack stuff in the teeth, this can have an influence on your decision.

Kinda sorta. Both are weak, if he really wanted to melee he's probably better off swinging a dreamspitter, shaow staff, nonproficient sos, etc.

[Iaga]

I play a similar build - max wis, minimal str, no melee, shield feat - loads of fun and tough as heck.

I went with the free CLW capstone. I spam that thing all the freakin time. It tops people up for free between fights, makes soloing loads easier, lets me know if a target is within range or cursed prior to casting a regular heal.

I think the sov host is the better option.

[Dwarfo]

go sov host, use it all the time in eDA/tod/other epics. its really useful for topping off people in between fights and using it on tanks everytime it goes of timer, espeically nice to use on high ac/healing amp tanks.

[Mellkor]

[QUOTE=

Long Fights,
Long Runs,
Hard Fights....

CLW or SL better ?[/QUOTE]


With the above in mind, neither. Melee based Lord of Blades can go a lot longer swinging a weapon and just self healing and with a torq and conc op, SP last a lot longer too. IMHO. (having played both caster and melee builds extensively).

[jandhaer]

CLW capstone FTW its another heal on a seperate timer and with that much DR, and some decent healing amp, it will keep you capped off more then you think. Its free and you dont have to worry about making the roll for it to go off. When your shield blocking and taking alot of damage the sure thing is a safer bet.

[gloopygloop]

My capstone gives me Greatsword proficiency and I *LOVE* it.

There's something about a shield spell too, but that pretty much just gives me a bonus 1st level spell slot, so it's not really that amazing.

[Pewf]

My FvS currently has 188% Amp with a ship buff, and with Ardor the FCLW hits around 150~ ish. 200~ Crit wise.

I know, I sacrificed some AP's and gear for amp. But I think it was well worth it...

I swapped out Searing light last week and never realized simply how much I use the FCLW! :P