Break the double druid habit - Alternative Healers and their perks

[Yasi.9065]

@MoriMoriMori.5349 said:

@GeraldBC.4927 said:If you're at the point where you already have several legendary pieces or 400+ Legendary Insights, then sure, who cares whether a boss dies, you're not doing it to beat them any more. But when you're still on the way there

On the way

where

, sorry? And what is so special about that vague destination you want to sacrifice a fun of playing a game for it, and instead turn it into a chore? I really hope you're being paid for that hard work, with hard enough coin )) Otherwise I fail to see any reason in such decision. Getting

anywhere

in an online game like this one (not even a real cybersport kind of game, where you could get something from it, in the end; though, cybersports... meh, whatever :P ) is an utterly pointless achievement which brings literally nothing (even those digits on remote servers don't actually belong to you, if you'll check the EULA). Zero, nill. Only the game and fun it brings with it does matter, in the end, and chores are better done IRL, at a good $/hour rate.

@GeraldBC.4927 said:and every pug you join is a gamble whether their eminence the squad leader will debase themselves so far to take on someone like you who has only 100-200 LIs outside of a fruitless training raid, you're very happy to put better prospects towards beating the boss over 'teh challeng'.

I would say it's time to find a good, seemingly-minded people and play with them on constant basis instead. I would, if it wasn't a total inversion of the actual situation out there. It's much, much more likely you'll encounter a leader which is extremely toxic and demanding, and has the only goal of beating everything as fast as possible because he is obsessed with that "getting there" thing and can't waste a single extra minute to play the actual game and have some fun. But hey, if you indeed bump into groups doing it for fun and challenge on regular basis, be a good fella and send me their contacts. Because I'm having hard times finding any, actually ;)

See, the thing is... for some its fun to kill raidbosses in as challenging a way as possible. For others the fun lies in a smooth (and pleasant) kill. Just because your definition of fun is differently, doesnt mean others dont have fun. Just because someone rather prefers smooth kills over hectic-at-the-limit-to-wiping ones, doesnt mean that person sees raiding as a chore and is only there for the loot.

But even if someone is only there for the loot, and derives all fun out of raiding only by killing bosses... thats not for you to judge tbh.

Also, imo, you are having this quite mixed up. The norm is running 2 healers, and some players go for 1 druid healer for the extra challenge, or a (often only perceived) slightly swifter kill.

[Zenith.7301]

I must say that renegade feels awful as a solo healer without the proper support of side buffers like a quickbrand.

Did Artsariv with We Bleed Fire and Frailty and this healer's weaknesses are plain obvious.

No perma prot whatsoever, we were getting chunked right and left. Your healing is stationary and tied down to longish cooldowns on Kalla.

The energy system is atrocious because just by trying to maintain might and alacrity, and the uptime on 25 might is worse to sustain on a hectic fight where you need to spend a lot of energy on condi clear or heals and because it just feels plain better to maintain might on druid with a mobile CA and C3 on hectic fights plus quickdraw Warhorn. Want to CC on renegade healer? No energy for other stuff. My druid gets big CC for free on just his pet and one big healing skill.

But really, most importantly it's the lack of prot and stab tied down to the fact that renegade has energy intensive healing tied to ground placed mechanics while trying to be the might and alacrity provider.

It's a straight up showcase of how terrible the energy system is for the revenant class and how it has crippled it as a whole.

[Yasi.9065]

Theres several points where you are wrong, and Im pretty sure its because you didnt really look over all traits and skills, sorry to be so harsh.

First off, your mainheal on kalla is NOT your healskill. Its your kalla elite. Your healskill is for moments where you get damage but cant attack anything, or for "oh shit this hurts" moments. You dont have to perma channel it, so you can kinda "move" it by stopping the channel and casting it new on a new position after roughly 2 seconds. Your staff autoattack heals as well, in a fashion, people just have to be aware that those shiny bubbles on the ground are friendly. Though usually you spawn so many of them, they get eaten up without really noticing.Re-channeling kalla elite has another really nice benefit. Everytime you do that, you buff 8seconds of protection thanks to the trait "All for One". You can stack protection 5 times, so if you do that a few times... but thats pretty annoying tbh.... so here's what I do... prestack around 36seconds on singularity, then swap to ventari. Start fight -> staff5 cc + alacrity -> swap kalla -> heal + icerazor + kalla elite. Then just before I have to swap of kalla, I either use up remaining energy with bloodrazor/icerazor/heal or re-channel kalla once. Perma protection really is quite easily possible this way.

Second, ventari. Also, your mainheal on ventari is NOT natural harmony. Its your tablet move skill... your healing skill. You dont have to move it through anyone to heal with it, just move it a tiny bit and it heals in a radius around the tablet. For example, if you are standing at Artsaariv, you just swapped to ventari because you need more heals or energy. If there's no other reflect already up -> cast your ventari bubble. Then move the tablet around tiny increments while buffing might and alacrity. Use staff4 to remove conditions and for a burst heal. Staff autoattack to spawn friendly little bubbles. And only use your big skill if someone drops below 50%. Using it before, is just plain wasteful. Natural Harmony is like CA3 on steroids, and thats why it costs so much. Im not real happy about that, Id rather have lower energy cost and lower healing... but you dont really need it with tablet move heal anyway.

Third point... cc. Im sorry, but what? Your tiny pet cc is laughable compared to staff5. Staff5 hits multiple times, and removes up to 1k defiance bar (big hitbox). Your tiny pet removes what? 232? 300? And it takes forever to cast. Sorry, but thats one complaint I simply cannot take seriously. Its like saying pre-nerf moa was bad.

And last but not least, your energy complaint. I kept that for last because well, its the one that showed me what REALLY was the trouble for you. You didnt swap your legends properly. Didnt know what to use before swapping so to not waste energy. Didnt know on which legend to start a fight, because yes... that depends a lot on each fight. If you need instant cc, alacrity and might, you always start on ventari. Staff5+alacrity+might -> kalla. If its a small hitbox, you dont get 5 hits out of staff 5, so you should start on s/s with sword4 into staff5 -> alacrity -> might -> kalla. If you get some little intro scene where you are already in combat and can load up energy, you start on kalla. Use alacrity first, while boss still invuln, then icerazor/darkrazor (depends on your bs) -> staff5 -> might -> kalla elite.Did you explode your tablet on ventari before swapping to kalla? My guess is, not. You cant treat legends like weapon swap. You have to use up all energy before swapping of a legend... or at least as much energy as possible.

Granted, playing with energy system on revenant needs a bit getting used to. But as soon as you found the best way to handle it, you get so much more out of it. Druid is so limited in comparison to renegade, utility- and skillwise. A well played renegade can easily solo heal, maintain perma protection on 5, AND increase dps by a lot... all while bringing the currently best cc skill in the game.

Dont just play it once without even reading what your traits and skills do, without comprehending how the energy system is supposed to work... and then go complain on forums how it sucks and anet should just change it. Show at least some effort and LEARN the build before starting to complain.

/edit: Btw, Ive played with a harrier renegade for over a year in my casual daily t4+cms static. First as a chrono, now with a power quickbrand. Everytime we had to bring in a druid because our renegade had to work, it was straight up worse. CC was worse. Healing was worse. DPS was worse. This isnt just some theoretical stuff Ive been posting here. Ive tested every build extensively, and renegade healer is the most powerful healer in fractals atm. Nothing comes even close. Firebrand is a close second, though its really hampered by agony. And in light of how much more burst power firebrand can bring compared to diviner renegade, its the logical choice to keep the harrier renegade and bring in a power firebrand to supply quickness, retal, aegis and utility (reflect, stability, extra aegis etc.).

[Zenith.7301]

@"Yasi.9065" said:Theres several points where you are wrong, and Im pretty sure its because you didnt really look over all traits and skills, sorry to be so harsh.

First off, your mainheal on kalla is NOT your healskill. Its your kalla elite. Your healskill is for moments where you get damage but cant attack anything, or for "oh kitten this hurts" moments. You dont have to perma channel it, so you can kinda "move" it by stopping the channel and casting it new on a new position after roughly 2 seconds. Your staff autoattack heals as well, in a fashion, people just have to be aware that those shiny bubbles on the ground are friendly. Though usually you spawn so many of them, they get eaten up without really noticing.Re-channeling kalla elite has another really nice benefit. Everytime you do that, you buff 8seconds of protection thanks to the trait "All for One". You can stack protection 5 times, so if you do that a few times... but thats pretty annoying tbh.... so here's what I do... prestack around 36seconds on singularity, then swap to ventari. Start fight -> staff5 cc + alacrity -> swap kalla -> heal + icerazor + kalla elite. Then just before I have to swap of kalla, I either use up remaining energy with bloodrazor/icerazor/heal or re-channel kalla once. Perma protection really is quite easily possible this way.

Second, ventari. Also, your mainheal on ventari is NOT natural harmony. Its your tablet move skill... your healing skill. You dont have to move it through anyone to heal with it, just move it a tiny bit and it heals in a radius around the tablet. For example, if you are standing at Artsaariv, you just swapped to ventari because you need more heals or energy. If there's no other reflect already up -> cast your ventari bubble. Then move the tablet around tiny increments while buffing might and alacrity. Use staff4 to remove conditions and for a burst heal. Staff autoattack to spawn friendly little bubbles. And only use your big skill if someone drops below 50%. Using it before, is just plain wasteful. Natural Harmony is like CA3 on steroids, and thats why it costs so much. Im not real happy about that, Id rather have lower energy cost and lower healing... but you dont really need it with tablet move heal anyway.

Third point... cc. Im sorry, but what? Your tiny pet cc is laughable compared to staff5. Staff5 hits multiple times, and removes up to 1k defiance bar (big hitbox). Your tiny pet removes what? 232? 300? And it takes forever to cast. Sorry, but thats one complaint I simply cannot take seriously. Its like saying pre-nerf moa was bad.

And last but not least, your energy complaint. I kept that for last because well, its the one that showed me what REALLY was the trouble for you. You didnt swap your legends properly. Didnt know what to use before swapping so to not waste energy. Didnt know on which legend to start a fight, because yes... that depends a lot on each fight. If you need instant cc, alacrity and might, you always start on ventari. Staff5+alacrity+might -> kalla. If its a small hitbox, you dont get 5 hits out of staff 5, so you should start on s/s with sword4 into staff5 -> alacrity -> might -> kalla. If you get some little intro scene where you are already in combat and can load up energy, you start on kalla. Use alacrity first, while boss still invuln, then icerazor/darkrazor (depends on your bs) -> staff5 -> might -> kalla elite.Did you explode your tablet on ventari before swapping to kalla? My guess is, not. You cant treat legends like weapon swap. You have to use up all energy before swapping of a legend... or at least as much energy as possible.

Granted, playing with energy system on revenant needs a bit getting used to. But as soon as you found the best way to handle it, you get so much more out of it. Druid is so limited in comparison to renegade, utility- and skillwise. A well played renegade can easily solo heal, maintain perma protection on 5, AND increase dps by a lot... all while bringing the currently best cc skill in the game.

Dont just play it once without even reading what your traits and skills do, without comprehending how the energy system is supposed to work... and then go complain on forums how it sucks and anet should just change it. Show at least some effort and LEARN the build before starting to complain.

/edit: Btw, Ive played with a harrier renegade for over a year in my casual daily t4+cms static. First as a chrono, now with a power quickbrand. Everytime we had to bring in a druid because our renegade had to work, it was straight up worse. CC was worse. Healing was worse. DPS was worse. This isnt just some theoretical stuff Ive been posting here. Ive tested every build extensively, and renegade healer is the most powerful healer in fractals atm. Nothing comes even close. Firebrand is a close second, though its really hampered by agony. And in light of how much more burst power firebrand can bring compared to diviner renegade, its the logical choice to keep the harrier renegade and bring in a power firebrand to supply quickness, retal, aegis and utility (reflect, stability, extra aegis etc.).

I disagree on some aspects of your post. For one, we were dealing with Frailty and Adrenaline Rush Artsariv, people spread out, and Kalla is only effective when people are grouped and able to attack a target which is not the case dring the CC intermission phases where people still take damage. Second, with We Bleed Fire and the chain lightning from the adds, I could only have ventari bubble up so much while still buffing might and alacrity, which meant condition spikes during Kalla whenever the heal skill wasn't up was a real issue and staff 4 wasn't making a difference. I can't just CA4 the group and throw a CA3 on the warrior doing balls like I can on the druid either. It really does feel like renegade was much more reliant on efficient grouping by the people I was trying to heal around either my tablet or the charr warband.

Those are just my observations, not to mention the might stacking I mentioned earlier (especially since you can't might prestack either as renegade, you have to ramp it up with 2 casts of your F2).

I do want to thank you for your ample feedback. You were right about the ventari elite and most definitely right about using the tablet moving as an alternate, more efficient heal with the point on the radius.

The druid CC is not just the pet. It's a quickdraw CA3, a CA5, the gazelle's passive ability and then it's F2, all able to be used without competing with healing resources since they're part of the healing and buffing rotation whereas a staff 5 uses the same resources that could be used for the legend heals or condi cleanse. You may not see the revenant energy system as a crippling aspect for the class, but I see it essentially as a thief initiative system on not only the weaponskills but on the utility, elite, heal, and class F button skills with only legend swap as a source of replenishment with little trait support.