Slothasar: Quick Healing Rev Guide.

[narcx.3570]

Hi all...

These days we have more and more healing revs showing up in the PUG Raid scene, which is great for both a Revenant viability and a build diversity standpoint--yay!

However, not to knock the community as a whole, but just a general observation is that a lot of the Rev's out there seem to be pretty inexperienced in some of the fights and their class... Since the patch I've had 3 different rev's in my Slothasor pugs that didn't know how to group stun break. :frown: Soooo, long story short, I thought I would post a quick guide for a lot of the newer Revenant healers out there, or for you older Revenant healers who don't quite know the fights yet due to being out of the meta for so long. Or just for anyone who might want to try out raiding as a support rev and doesn't know all of the tricks yet... So, here you go:

SLOTHASOR - Ventari Herald Guide

The Build(gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAW8un3gmNSuQzJRboNlsP0oS4I6UJ4ENskFNFqdABoBrJZKXxegLshA-jxxGQBA4IAkrHAQtU+Nk9HI3FBQRq/4RlgrDGAs7u72o7u7u7uBA-e)

So, first off... One of the great things about playing support as a Rev is that there's a lot of good traits for different situations... Especially in the Salvation tree. The posted build has what I feel are the strongest traits when using full Magi Gear with Monk Runes. If you're using Water Runes (which are undeniably better for kiting hands on Deimos, and who wants two heavy healing sets?) and/or aren't in full Magi, you might benefit more from taking Tranquil Balance and Selfless Amplification to artificially spike your outgoing healing. However, I think you benefit more from pulsing regeneration and dropping extra healing shards once you already have some high healing power numbers. You might even consider taking Eluding Nullification if your group has terrible slubling control/distort timing/can't dodge shakes for some extra, no energy cost, condition removal.

The two traits that are required for this fight, however, are Assassin's Presence, and Harmonize Continuity. Even if you have another Renegade in your Subgroup, you should be the one running Assassin's Presence, freeing him up to take Invocation and increase their personal dps a little... However, this will almost never be the case since Slothasar is a pretty horrible fight for Renegades and most experienced dps will be running a power build. Aaaaaanyways, yeah, always take AP... It's the MAIN reason people are taking Rev healers in the new meta, so don't show up without it. Harmonize Continuity will be what you use to break your subgroup out of Slothasar's Fear Roar, which--aside from healing--is your most important role in this fight. There's a lot of extra things you can do to make the fight easier for your group, but the absolute number one thing you have to do and will be expected of you in every group you join will be to break that bar and the ensuing fear.

The Fight, Fear, Projectile Denial, and Mega Cleansing

Okay, so we're going to assume that you know the basics of the fight, and if not, there's tons of guides/videos online already, so we're just gonna briefly go over the important parts and how to make them facerollingly easy as a support Rev.

Slothasar's Breakbar and Fear Roar (80%/60%/40%/20%/10%)Here, as we mentioned before is where you get to shine as a support, you bring more CC than any of the other healing classes, and can execute it much faster than a Druid trying to do double cc pets. What you're going to do is position your tablet on Slothasor(*) and as soon as the breakbar comes up, you use Sword 2, Energy Expulsion (can be used during sw2's animation), Swap weapons and stances, activate Facets of Darkness and Chaos, Staff 5 through the boss, and unleash Chaotic Release and use Staff 2-2 if need be. Once his bar is broken you want to make sure to get hit by the fear and then immediately unleash Gaze of Darkness to fear break your subgroup.

(*)Try to position your tablet in a way where you don't knock any collected slublings back into the middle. If there's a lot of slublings waiting to be cleaved and your group has sufficient cc, you'll probably want to skip using Energy Expulsion altogether. Same goes for using Chaotic Release--don't knock the slubs back into the middle... This will drive your poor chrono's crazy. Sometimes you might even want to consider bringing an Axe instead of the Shield for the "safe to use all the time" cc. Shield's definitely not required for this fight, it's just nice for another heal in Glint and being able to block the flame breath when you're the fixated to save your evades/not spin the boss.

Projectile Denial (When slublings are excessive)One of the strongest things you can do in this fight is to channel Protective Solace over your group to provide almost permanent shelter from the Slublings. This is especially important after 30% when evolved slublings start spawning. It can be tempting to channel PS permanently, but remember to use smart energy management--you want to be able to heal/cleanse your group incase of a failed Shake.

Cleansing and the Shake (50% and every ~45secs after)This is the mechanic that kills most pug groups due to members failing to evade it or relying on distorts that don't come. As a healer you always want to assume your group is going to kitten up... Luckily, you have plenty of access to power cleansing... Purifying Essence will cleanse 3 for 25 energy, Staff 4 will cleanse 2 for 15 energy, Energy Expulsion will cleanse 1 condi/10 energy spent, and if you traited for it, your evades will cleanse 1 each. This means that you can easily cleanse/heal through even the most disastrous shake as long as you're aware of Slothasor's healthbar/timer and aren't caught in Glint with zero energy.

And, well, yeah, that's pretty much it... Break the bar, break the fear, bubble the slubs, and cleanse the shake. Simple, right? Hope you all have fun in the raid scene and don't let any lingering toxicity discourage you--Happy Reving!

[lunaeclipse.6843]

Thing is, you don't need the heralds group stun break.

If you didn't realise, fear is technically soft cc and more importantly, a condition. Malyx's pain absorption baseline removes conditions off allies, onto you and gives you resistance (with no cool down).

With this in mind, you can run the renegade line instead for more alacrity and healing (ventari/ malyx setup) and just make sure ur on malyx before break bar ends.

Long story short, Herald is obsolete for group healing and only used for hand kiting.

[narcx.3570]

@Ertrak.9506 said:Thing is, you don't need the heralds group stun break.

If you didn't realise, fear is technically soft cc and more importantly, a condition. Malyx's pain absorption baseline removes conditions off allies, onto you and gives you resistance (with no cool down).

With this in mind, you can run the renegade line instead for more alacrity and healing (ventari/ malyx setup) and just make sure ur on malyx before break bar ends.

Long story short, Herald is obsolete for group healing and only used for hand kiting.

Eh, I disagree... Herald lets you carry harder by having 2 infused lights to rez people who went down in the death zones and/or to eat a halitosis or shake while rezzing. Plus Harmonize Continuity is guaranteed to break the stun... Pain Absorption only transfers 1 condition from each member of your sub group, so if slublings are up or if someone has a stack of poison on them from evading into the green or something, now you're playing the RNG game with their lives hoping that PS getsthe fear.

And honestly, if you're in a group that's good enough to have 100% perfect slubling control and doesn't fail mechanics, you're probably only running one healer anyways (And it wouldn't be a rev.) Running double healer is a safety strategy compared to a speed run, so why wouldn't you want to RNG gamble a wipe to eek out a little more dps?

As for alacrity and might, yeah it's nice to have extra... But your chrono's should already have 100% alacrity up time and might should be no problem anymore. Weirdly, in the new meta, the boon that's most needed is FURY (lots of groups are just making the chronomancers pick up the war banners for this, womp) and Herald also fills that gap with zero percent effort.

[lunaeclipse.6843]

Don't forget PA also applies resistance to allies as well, which actually works out better for bad slubling control since it negates all conditions. Especially since, as a healer, you're not using energy for anything else other than PA while channeling mallyx (although you could).

If someone goes down in poison, the one druid you will always have should be using S&R anyways, and just as you said yourself, ventari bubble for projectile destruction will ensure a res.

Also, you and i know no chrono gets perfect alacrity in a raid unless you're qt or whatever. This especially true at sloth due to the fight mechanics (phantasms dying, ppl moving, distortion, etc). If your chrono can get perfect alacrity on sloth, your not running 2 healers, contradictory to your point of this build being for imperfect teams. That alacrity is a lot more beneficial to squad dps than you think.

Lastly, altruism runes go a long way with fury when coupled with the chrono.

[narcx.3570]

I guess if you built 100% boon duration people would only have to eat 1 second of fear, which isn't a big deal... Or you could double cast it... At that point it's probably just better to eat the 1 second tho so you still have some energy left to do all these extra things that you want to try to renegade. But now you're building concentration and running altruism runes, which takes away from your healing output and any condi damage/duration that you need to make running renegade actually worth it. Unless you're just running Renegade for for Orders and Command and not to trying to do some additional condi dps, which I still don't think is a worthwhile trade... At least not for this fight.

And even after all that, it's still not a 100% safe choice since it still comes down to RNG for the last 2 breaks because evolved slublings will be out corrupting boons en masse and you just have to sort of hope they don't hit resistance. I would recommend going the Herald route to newer raiders every time because its guaranteed to work and not result in them getting kicked by some impatient commander who got feared into the death zone.

Off topic, getting high alacrity uptime is so much easier than people who don't play chrono think... You literally just do what you'd normally do. Distorting shakes shouldn't affect it at all since you're traited to resummon your phantasms on shatter. Anyone missing your alacrity is either eating shrooms or is off dropping poison, and will get reupped as soon as they get back.

[lunaeclipse.6843]

Well as any support rev you should be building boon duration anyways. Even as a renagade you can supply some useful boons.

You can run altruism because of all the healing modifiers you get from salvation alone. Even wth 1k healing power you can still output overkill healing (and i mean pug overkill not speedclear overkill)

Furthermore, the Herald trait harmonize comtinuity, only breaks stun when you 'successfully' break stun. Meaning this only occurs when you, as the rev get cc'd AND THEN beak stun. At sloth, this means that you can't free your party from fear unless you also get the fear, which is completely up to RNG. This is the most probable reason why the revs you played with weren't breaking the fear.

Alacrity: please show me a log of a pug run where you get 90+%, hell, even 80% uptime on alacrity and ill believe you. This statement honestly implying you really don't play chrono often, or at least not often enough at sloth.

Look i get it. A lot of people want to be able to play they're heralds in raids. But I'm sorry, it doesnt bring anything worth while that other classes/ specs can't do better. Besides the boons, which are covered by the other mandatory classes, it literally doesn't bring anything to the group.

[Cinnamonfox.4965]

@Ertrak.9506 said:Well as any support rev you should be building boon duration anyways. Even as a renagade you can supply some useful boons.

You can run altruism because of all the healing modifiers you get from salvation alone. Even wth 1k healing power you can still output overkill healing (and i mean pug overkill not speedclear overkill)

Furthermore, the Herald trait harmonize comtinuity, only breaks stun when you 'successfully' break stun. Meaning this only occurs when you, as the rev get cc'd AND THEN beak stun. At sloth, this means that you can't free your party from fear unless you also get the fear, which is completely up to RNG. This is the most probable reason why the revs you played with weren't breaking the fear.

Alacrity: please show me a log of a pug run where you get 90+%, hell, even 80% uptime on alacrity and ill believe you. This statement honestly implying you really don't play chrono often, or at least not often enough at sloth.

Look i get it. A lot of people want to be able to play they're heralds in raids. But I'm sorry, it doesnt bring anything worth while that other classes/ specs can't do better. Besides the boons, which are covered by the other mandatory classes, it literally doesn't bring anything to the group.

I agree with @Ertrak.9506 pretty far. Overall renegade is the better option.

@narcx.3570 you do have very good points in favour of using herald for this particular fight. However, Harmonize Continuity only works if you actually were feared. If you happen to get aegis or distortion to negate the fear you can't break the fear for the others with Herald ventari/glint setup. @Ertrak.9506 suggests Pain absorption as the breakstun, but you are right in pointing that Pain absorption has the weakness that it might pull another condition instead of the fear.

I would like to suggest something that comes between the two above mentioned build options. I disagree on the importance of Assassin's presence, it's not considered a standard meta buff for any benchmarks and overall power builds are not that common at the moment. Invocation gives you so much more support capacity with the new traits, that especially if you find your team filled with condi dps give it a try. If you want to stay herald, that's fine, but take invocation (1-1-2) instead of devastation, and slot mallyx/ventari instead of glint/ventari, you can have the best of both worlds for this fight. You'll get a stunbreak on legend swap, which you can share with harmonize continuity trait, and you can use Pain absorption should that fail. Mallyx's resistance is a very good damage mitigation/prevention on Sloth, and Spirit boon gives you some for free. Charged Mists will give you more energy after swaps, hence you can apply more alacrity or cleanse more freely.

PS. Just a thought for fury, which can indeed be a bit of a problem nowadays. It could actually be the rev healer who picks the banner up... Our legend swap is same cooldown as the banner ability Furious rally (so we have a natural timer there) and a bundle doesn't interfere with our healing abilities at all. In more mobile fights we have quite enough micro management without that, but so do the chronos. I guess the rune of altruism would be an optimal way to provide that, or a combination of these two to get full coverage.

[lunaeclipse.6843]

You mentioned charged mists and there's something I've been constantly wondering about.

Song of the mists when swapping into ventari provides a base like 1k heal aoe. I've been wondering if it would ever be useful to run that over charged mists.

[narcx.3570]

@Ertrak.9506 said:Alacrity: please show me a log of a pug run where you get 90+%, hell, even 80% uptime on alacrity and ill believe you. This statement honestly implying you really don't play chrono often, or at least not often enough at sloth.

Actually, I probably have more Wing 2 clears as chrono than my main role as dps these days... Two shield phantasms give your subgroup a steady 80%ish alacrity uptime, which you overfill with wells. Three phantasms give you a no effort 100% alacrity uptime, but it wonks your traited SoI quickness rotation quite a bit to do this, plus you lose reflect uptime from having no Phantasmal Warden, so I wouldn't go that route... I think a lot of chrono's miss their alacrity uptime on Sloth because they start trying to do literally everything by taking their heal mantra to cleanse fears, feedback for extra reflect, and moa for a stronger break--all while keeping up more focus phantasms than shields. Which I mean, isn't necessarily wrong, but it's sacrificing group dps for extreme safety mode.

@Cinnamonfox.4965 said:However, Harmonize Continuity only works if you actually were feared. If you happen to get aegis or distortion to negate the fear you can't break the fear for the others with Herald ventari/glint setup....PS. Just a thought for fury, which can indeed be a bit of a problem nowadays. It could actually be the rev healer who picks the banner up...

The thing with that is anything that's going to give aegis or distortion to you is going to give it to your entire subgroup, so it's not really a problem. Anyone too far away from dropping a poison to not get aegis'd is also going to be out of range of the roar. Plus, if you have a DH there, he's probably just f3'ing the entire fear anyways, but I suppose that's an unfair assumption for a PUG group.

Also, as for the Rev healer grabbing the banners for fury, I think it works best with the chronos because they have 100% boon duration and they're also going to sync it with their SoI rotation to get an extra 10 seconds out of it.

This is all extremely off topic though... Talking about DH's and Mesmer's more then revs. :anguished:

So, in conclusion, if you want to run Renegade instead of Herald for Alacrity and hybrid dps... Go ahead. But just be warned that it's not as solid of a carry for this fight since you're going to be focusing a big portion of your energy on Alacrity up time, your dps will be much lower here than it is in a lot of other boss fights due to Sloth's constant immunity/soft condi reset, and you might get RNG screwed on the fear breaks.

[Jack Skywalker.5674]

Wasn't Kala's stunbreak aoe on cast?

[Cinnamonfox.4965]

@Jack Skywalker.5674 said:Wasn't Kala's stunbreak aoe on cast?

Darkrazor's daring is an aoe as a daze field, but stunbreaks self only, and if you run Kalla legend you would use that for the cc bar just prior to the fear.

[lunaeclipse.6843]

All I'm saying is under normal circumstances you can just have 2 shield phantasms and call it good just like you said...but your phastams get killed/ shatter very often at sloth.

And your still rng'ing with harmonize continuity because even factoring group aegis or group distort (chronos shouldn't be distorting this tbh) its very possible for some of your group to to feared but not others since that attack targets 5 ppl at random, not the whole raid.

Therefore.. This build isn't going to hard carry... But then nor does any healer rev tbh.

[narcx.3570]

@Ertrak.9506 said:And your still rng'ing with harmonize continuity because even factoring group aegis or group distort (chronos shouldn't be distorting this tbh) its very possible for some of your group to to feared but not others since that attack targets 5 ppl at random, not the whole raid.

This can't be true, can it? I've literally been feared every single break phase every single time I've done sloth for a year... Is my RNG just that good? :astonished:

Plus, how does Gale Song so reliably break it then too? Because that works exactly like Harmonize Continuity... I'm pretty sure the fear hits all hostile targets.