Archmage Healing
I'm definitely not much of a min/maxer but I love standing on a rock overlooking a battle and nudging the outcome in our favor. I don't go through different specs or gear and compare, but I've routinely come out on top of the healing charts (hit my first 150k last night!). Although I don't see that as a measure of success by itself, I thought I'd explain what I'm doing for anybody interested.
Spec/Gear
I originally put my points into damage for solo/questing, but I quickly realized that since I enjoy healing in RvR way more, I might as well spec for that. So far, I've put all my points into the healing Path of Isha, and I've picked up Balanced Mending. When I'm healing in battle, I use the +wil Discipline and +35% healing (-15% self-healing) Balanced Mending tactics. I've been thinking about going for +10% crit heals and the 50% less AP on crit heals path too. I have a feeling that that'd be almost more useful -- certainly more than in PvE where damage is much more predictable. I often throw out heals to people I know are about to drop, and the chance for a crit might help more than 40% more base healing.
As for gear, I obviously pick up a lot of willpower, but not as much as you might think. It turns out that surviving is much more important than uberhealz in RvR. I'll get more into how to stay up later, but in terms of gear, I'll easily pick up something with big wounds over something with average willpower and big intel. I don't really focus on gear right now (lvl 28) but when I get nearer to 40, this will become a much bigger deal and I will probably have to try out a couple sets to find out what I like.
For now, I try to stay pretty balanced with willpower my primary stat, but wounds, toughness and resists are huge (and intelligence is a bonus even if it doesn't help my healing one bit). I also pick up initiative where I can -- it helps survivability a bit but even more importantly, it reveals pesky witch elves so I can throw out my nuke and expose them before they crit me in the back.
Gameplay
Out of the gate, my first priority is to keep myself alive. There are certainly situations where I choose to heal the guy with the thingie instead of running away from tanks, but it's rare that one or two heals will make THAT much difference and in any case, sacrificing yourself doesn't take long so I don't think about it too much.
Survival means moving around. I'd MUCH rather stand still overlooking the battle and pick my targets carefully, but that's not a good way to stay alive as a healer (although when destro lets you, that's usually when you get the huge healing totals). For healing, I use primarily my HoT on the run and stop here and there for a quick heal. As well as surviving, zig-zagging around friendlies like a madman makes you VERY hard for melee destro to hit and makes them a prime target for anybody who gets nervous with a big orc running by. It's amazing, but I can usually "lose aggro" pretty fast just by running around like a madman.
Drain Magic is also huge. If you get a witch elf on you, you need to get rid of their action points ASAP so they can't finish you off in two shots. Drain Magic might take a third of their APs and slow them down just enough to save your butt until they get tired of running after you or knocked down by a swordsmaster.
Staying alive is great, but you also have to focus on your job. When a tank runs up and starts pounding on you, throw yourself a HoT and start running around but don't stop healing your team! You'll have to use tab-targeting (as you're navigating with the mouse) but even though you're a little less effective, you can't let that guy following you around keep you from healing YOUR tanks. If you're in a good group, you'll get heals, dps will start harassing the tank, and eventually they'll get tired of running around after you and go bug somebody else.
Of course, this assumes you can stay up for 30 seconds against a tank. If you focus on upping your wounds, resists and toughness (in that order for me), you should be able to stay up for 30 seconds against ANY single opponent. Of course, there's that never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed witch elf Blade that can one-shot anybody, but that doesn't really count. I find that if I get killed, it's either because I wasn't paying attention, or I got caught by 2-3+ destro (often snared while retreating).
Wind Blast helps a TON with survivability. It's good for thowing toons into the lava in Tor Anrok and throwing destro off objectives now and again, but it'll also give you just enough time to get lost in a crowd when you find yourself zerged on the front line.
Triage
If you stay up longer, you'll do more healing, but now that you're alive longer, who do you heal first? Your first priority is (almost) always yourself. Sure, there's once every few scenarios that you think you can keep the guy with the thingie alive just long enough for them to get to safety, but on the whole, if the healers go down, everybody else follows in short order.
Other than myself, I try to gauge the flow of battle and prop us up where we're weak. If the enemy is bunched up and just chewing up anybody who gets close, I throw my heals onto that one tank who charges into the middle like River Tam into a hoard of reavers. If the enemy is a bit less organized and seems to be tab-targeting (as most do), I try to help out our DPS. In that case, the faster we burn them down, the less chance they have to turn the tide. Bright Wizards are a personal favorite because they just turn heals into more DPS while at 100% combustion. Basically, I watch for dropping health bars over wherever I see the most chaos because that's the focal point. If we break them there, we kill a couple and another half dozen run for safety giving us more time to do damage unhindered.
Because it's so situational, I rarely use the party/warband bars for indiscriminate healing. Unlike PvE, I have no idea who's in range on that bar, and if I did, I wouldn't know who really needs heals. I use a mixture of tab targeting (yes, I use tab for friendlies and Ctrl-tab for enemies) and actually clicking on toons for healing. I waste a second or two here and there getting my targets, but I think situational targeting makes up for the slightly slower heals by affecting the battle more significantly.
I don't heal everybody to 100%. The Archmage is designed with HoTs/DoTs in mind and even the quick-heal has a significant HoT component. At the start of every Tor Anrok, I throw HoTs on the first three or four of us to make it to the top of the hill. I throw a HoT on ANYBODY who's under 100% if my AP is full, and if a tank isn't in immediate danger, I throw the hot first to get it going before I start on real heals. Yes, if a tank is currently taking damage, overhealing is a great idea, but that bright wizard who just made it to the back lines after narrowly escaping only gets a quick heal and a hot. He'll be fine in a few seconds, and my heals could be better spent on somebody who's actually changing the course of the battle. Running away is a great stratagy -- I use it all the time, but once you're relatively safe, you don't need uber heals.
I also don't use my big heal, Boon of Hysh much at all. It's significantly more efficient than the quicker heal/hot Healing Energy, but it gets set back a LOT if you're getting hit and in a chaotic battle, quick healing is much more effective than big heals. I do try to save my moral Divine Favor for emergencies and as it instantly heals more than Boon of Hysh, it's saved many lives over the last few weeks!
Finally, don't be afraid to let your friends die! When somebody gets blown into the lava, my first reaction is to heal. I might actually spend a good 15 seconds healing up a teammate if he's close to shore and can just jump out, but it's a waste of action points to throw a heal to somebody who will never survive. At the same time, if a bright wizard is dotted up and starts jumping up and down in front of me with 4% health, I don't even try a quick heal. They'll go down on the next tick of their dot and I'll have wasted 5 seconds before I realize they're dead. I love to bring people back from the brink of death, and I'll throw heals like a madman even if I know it's hopeless if the guy I'm healing is distracting five or six opponents, but it's a waste of AP to throw heals on the lionherder who realized his mistake and is now running, snared, away from five sorcerers.
Damage
All this healing puts quite a few points toward my damage abilities. I've found that I'm a much less effective healer if I try to do significant damage mainly because I run out of action points too fast. I can put out significant DPS, but I usually don't try in RvR because healing is so key to battles. That said, I end every scenario with a few thousand well-placed damage points.
I don't hesitate to DoT up key opponents when I get the chance -- especially with Transfer Force, my DoT that heals my defensive target! Certainly those that whack on me get dots -- witch elves and even tanks to help the DPS take them down quickly. I try to save my damage for finishing moves though -- as a tank (or any enemy I notice) gets below 20%, I'll throw out my Drain Magic spell that does a little damage and steals a third to a half of their APs then I throw maybe a DoT or two to help finish them off. My DoTs won't really affect the battle if spread all around (as long as I'm specced/geared for healing anyway) because enemy healing is so much cheaper than a healer's dps. At the same time, removing a toon from battle is more important than healing a few hundred damage points in most cases, so I always try to step in and throw in some DoTs when the enemy is low enough that they'll go down before it can be healed.
I'm only level 28, and I haven't even begun to try to optimize my gameplay. I don't know what will get me the optimal healing numbers or if there's some combination of spec and gear that could make me a great healer AND DPSer unlike the pure healer I'm playing now. At the same time, I feel effective, I'm enjoying my Archmage, and people (even in PuGs) keep telling me I'm doing it right. I'm not really interested in being the 'best healer on the server/in the scenario' but if I can make my group (even my PuG) better than the destro group we're fighting, I'll be a very happy elf indeed!
I'm definitely not much of a min/maxer but I love standing on a rock overlooking a battle and nudging the outcome in our favor. I don't go through different specs or gear and compare, but I've routinely come out on top of the healing charts (hit my first 150k last night!). Although I don't see that as a measure of success by itself, I thought I'd explain what I'm doing for anybody interested.
Spec/Gear
I originally put my points into damage for solo/questing, but I quickly realized that since I enjoy healing in RvR way more, I might as well spec for that. So far, I've put all my points into the healing Path of Isha, and I've picked up Balanced Mending. When I'm healing in battle, I use the +wil Discipline and +35% healing (-15% self-healing) Balanced Mending tactics. I've been thinking about going for +10% crit heals and the 50% less AP on crit heals path too. I have a feeling that that'd be almost more useful -- certainly more than in PvE where damage is much more predictable. I often throw out heals to people I know are about to drop, and the chance for a crit might help more than 40% more base healing.
As for gear, I obviously pick up a lot of willpower, but not as much as you might think. It turns out that surviving is much more important than uberhealz in RvR. I'll get more into how to stay up later, but in terms of gear, I'll easily pick up something with big wounds over something with average willpower and big intel. I don't really focus on gear right now (lvl 28) but when I get nearer to 40, this will become a much bigger deal and I will probably have to try out a couple sets to find out what I like.
For now, I try to stay pretty balanced with willpower my primary stat, but wounds, toughness and resists are huge (and intelligence is a bonus even if it doesn't help my healing one bit). I also pick up initiative where I can -- it helps survivability a bit but even more importantly, it reveals pesky witch elves so I can throw out my nuke and expose them before they crit me in the back.
Gameplay
Out of the gate, my first priority is to keep myself alive. There are certainly situations where I choose to heal the guy with the thingie instead of running away from tanks, but it's rare that one or two heals will make THAT much difference and in any case, sacrificing yourself doesn't take long so I don't think about it too much.
Survival means moving around. I'd MUCH rather stand still overlooking the battle and pick my targets carefully, but that's not a good way to stay alive as a healer (although when destro lets you, that's usually when you get the huge healing totals). For healing, I use primarily my HoT on the run and stop here and there for a quick heal. As well as surviving, zig-zagging around friendlies like a madman makes you VERY hard for melee destro to hit and makes them a prime target for anybody who gets nervous with a big orc running by. It's amazing, but I can usually "lose aggro" pretty fast just by running around like a madman.
Drain Magic is also huge. If you get a witch elf on you, you need to get rid of their action points ASAP so they can't finish you off in two shots. Drain Magic might take a third of their APs and slow them down just enough to save your butt until they get tired of running after you or knocked down by a swordsmaster.
Staying alive is great, but you also have to focus on your job. When a tank runs up and starts pounding on you, throw yourself a HoT and start running around but don't stop healing your team! You'll have to use tab-targeting (as you're navigating with the mouse) but even though you're a little less effective, you can't let that guy following you around keep you from healing YOUR tanks. If you're in a good group, you'll get heals, dps will start harassing the tank, and eventually they'll get tired of running around after you and go bug somebody else.
Of course, this assumes you can stay up for 30 seconds against a tank. If you focus on upping your wounds, resists and toughness (in that order for me), you should be able to stay up for 30 seconds against ANY single opponent. Of course, there's that never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed witch elf Blade that can one-shot anybody, but that doesn't really count. I find that if I get killed, it's either because I wasn't paying attention, or I got caught by 2-3+ destro (often snared while retreating).
Wind Blast helps a TON with survivability. It's good for thowing toons into the lava in Tor Anrok and throwing destro off objectives now and again, but it'll also give you just enough time to get lost in a crowd when you find yourself zerged on the front line.
Triage
If you stay up longer, you'll do more healing, but now that you're alive longer, who do you heal first? Your first priority is (almost) always yourself. Sure, there's once every few scenarios that you think you can keep the guy with the thingie alive just long enough for them to get to safety, but on the whole, if the healers go down, everybody else follows in short order.
Other than myself, I try to gauge the flow of battle and prop us up where we're weak. If the enemy is bunched up and just chewing up anybody who gets close, I throw my heals onto that one tank who charges into the middle like River Tam into a hoard of reavers. If the enemy is a bit less organized and seems to be tab-targeting (as most do), I try to help out our DPS. In that case, the faster we burn them down, the less chance they have to turn the tide. Bright Wizards are a personal favorite because they just turn heals into more DPS while at 100% combustion. Basically, I watch for dropping health bars over wherever I see the most chaos because that's the focal point. If we break them there, we kill a couple and another half dozen run for safety giving us more time to do damage unhindered.
Because it's so situational, I rarely use the party/warband bars for indiscriminate healing. Unlike PvE, I have no idea who's in range on that bar, and if I did, I wouldn't know who really needs heals. I use a mixture of tab targeting (yes, I use tab for friendlies and Ctrl-tab for enemies) and actually clicking on toons for healing. I waste a second or two here and there getting my targets, but I think situational targeting makes up for the slightly slower heals by affecting the battle more significantly.
I don't heal everybody to 100%. The Archmage is designed with HoTs/DoTs in mind and even the quick-heal has a significant HoT component. At the start of every Tor Anrok, I throw HoTs on the first three or four of us to make it to the top of the hill. I throw a HoT on ANYBODY who's under 100% if my AP is full, and if a tank isn't in immediate danger, I throw the hot first to get it going before I start on real heals. Yes, if a tank is currently taking damage, overhealing is a great idea, but that bright wizard who just made it to the back lines after narrowly escaping only gets a quick heal and a hot. He'll be fine in a few seconds, and my heals could be better spent on somebody who's actually changing the course of the battle. Running away is a great stratagy -- I use it all the time, but once you're relatively safe, you don't need uber heals.
I also don't use my big heal, Boon of Hysh much at all. It's significantly more efficient than the quicker heal/hot Healing Energy, but it gets set back a LOT if you're getting hit and in a chaotic battle, quick healing is much more effective than big heals. I do try to save my moral Divine Favor for emergencies and as it instantly heals more than Boon of Hysh, it's saved many lives over the last few weeks!
Finally, don't be afraid to let your friends die! When somebody gets blown into the lava, my first reaction is to heal. I might actually spend a good 15 seconds healing up a teammate if he's close to shore and can just jump out, but it's a waste of action points to throw a heal to somebody who will never survive. At the same time, if a bright wizard is dotted up and starts jumping up and down in front of me with 4% health, I don't even try a quick heal. They'll go down on the next tick of their dot and I'll have wasted 5 seconds before I realize they're dead. I love to bring people back from the brink of death, and I'll throw heals like a madman even if I know it's hopeless if the guy I'm healing is distracting five or six opponents, but it's a waste of AP to throw heals on the lionherder who realized his mistake and is now running, snared, away from five sorcerers.
Damage
All this healing puts quite a few points toward my damage abilities. I've found that I'm a much less effective healer if I try to do significant damage mainly because I run out of action points too fast. I can put out significant DPS, but I usually don't try in RvR because healing is so key to battles. That said, I end every scenario with a few thousand well-placed damage points.
I don't hesitate to DoT up key opponents when I get the chance -- especially with Transfer Force, my DoT that heals my defensive target! Certainly those that whack on me get dots -- witch elves and even tanks to help the DPS take them down quickly. I try to save my damage for finishing moves though -- as a tank (or any enemy I notice) gets below 20%, I'll throw out my Drain Magic spell that does a little damage and steals a third to a half of their APs then I throw maybe a DoT or two to help finish them off. My DoTs won't really affect the battle if spread all around (as long as I'm specced/geared for healing anyway) because enemy healing is so much cheaper than a healer's dps. At the same time, removing a toon from battle is more important than healing a few hundred damage points in most cases, so I always try to step in and throw in some DoTs when the enemy is low enough that they'll go down before it can be healed.
I'm only level 28, and I haven't even begun to try to optimize my gameplay. I don't know what will get me the optimal healing numbers or if there's some combination of spec and gear that could make me a great healer AND DPSer unlike the pure healer I'm playing now. At the same time, I feel effective, I'm enjoying my Archmage, and people (even in PuGs) keep telling me I'm doing it right. I'm not really interested in being the 'best healer on the server/in the scenario' but if I can make my group (even my PuG) better than the destro group we're fighting, I'll be a very happy elf indeed!
