Need advice about healer&sm duo

[kloker]

I am planing to play a Pac healer/sup sm group. I now need advices bouth how to spec the healer and how to play them, and where?

Also looking for a lvling guide of some kind, or atleast something better then the daoc.catacombs bestiary.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

For the healer I'd probably go full pac until at least lvl35 when you get Pox4. You won't have to heal a massive amount on pulls if you can time the stuns so that the mobs are all nicely stacked and though your heals will suck ass you can regen power so fast you can cast lots of them before running out of power.

After that you can probably juggle your spec however you want to play the class. I personally am going a rather unorthodox spec on my healer and I'm probably not the best person to ask.

 

[boomeruk]

if your going to duo a sm and healer... spec full summoning untill 40.

focus pull reds at a time, let focus shield do its damage and get healer to heal pet (healer full pac) then at 40 just respec to whatever spec you want to rvr with.

even better is getting a shammy in there too, givf pet shammy buffs, baslines and get healer / shammy to heal pet... can take high purps no problem... xp is a breeze

need to be quick though before mr nerf-bat comes along

 

[pudzy]

Don't listen to Roo he sells drugs to school kids!

 

[grejmo]

imo 44 pac 30ish mend or 47 pac 25 ish mend on the healer

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

I'd only go Summoning until 40 if you absolutely only intend to duo with this pair. If you hope to group with others semi-regularly I would go Sup as said in original post.

Combined with a pac healer either spec is good for rapid xp: A summoning based pull team does high level (red/purple) mobs. A Suppression based pull team does lower level mobs (orange/red) but lots of them.

And Pudzy... not funny

 

[boomeruk]

found it a lot easier to get a group with summ spec than i did with suppression spec roo

anyway, since when have suppression specc'ed sm's been able to do lots of oranges/reds? i struggle with 2 oranges a pull, pet wont hold aggro from them both, so when i pbae it turns round and slaps me

stunns have to be timed (and not resisted) prefectly else you get "good ol 2 shotted" very quickly from red con mobs

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Sounds like you have a twitchy trigger finger then Boomer

I've not played the SM in these duos but have played the healer and its quite easy to pull several oranges at a time or a couple of reds or so. Yes its risky at times but where's the fun in no risk?

I've sometimes had to root the mobs so the SM can retreat and I can heal him. Then I reset the agro and pet goes back to mobs. And no, it doesn't always work. Timing is all, aided by a little luck

Summoning is way easier though because all the SM has to do is stand there while the focus damage shield does all the work.

Ideally you want to do it hibby style for efficiency:

1 Summoning SM <--- puller
1/2 Suppression SMs
1 Shammy
1 Healer

Its not quite the same as the Hibbies because a mana chanter has both the focus damage shield as well as the pbae nuke on the same line. Worth noting that this style of pulling has been crippling Hibbies for a long time because if you are not a druid, bard, mana mentalist or chanter it can be very hard to get a group.

Given current game mechanics, though I've not done it I suspect the most efficient xp group in Mid would probably be:

1 Summoning SM
3 Suppression SMs
1 Pac Healer
1 Mend Healer
2 Shamans

Focuspulltastic. It doesn't matter if the damage shield gets nerfed for this kind of pulling, its only there to get the agro on the pet and keep it there.

 

[boomeruk]

agreed

although, the way the new focus shield works means it wont hold aggro like it used to...

apparently, any attacks on the mobs hitting the focus shield will automatically draw aggro onto that player.... and aggro is split 50/50 between player and pet.

not sure about healing... im guessing that will cause a lot of aggro too..

anyway roo, you got any clue as to what on earth they are going to do to the summ line of a sm? as you say, chanters already have pbae in the same line so they will be ok, but im guessing, unless something really appealing is given, the summ line will become totally redundant after patchday.

i respecced back to supp the other night and ran into HW in a pretty decent pickup group..... im so glad i've retierd him. hes going to stay in a little box untill mythic make casters a bit more usefull / fun to play.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Don't think anyone knows what is coming for Summ SMs, if anything. If you think about it, that spec has spent most of the last 2 years pretty much redundant. Just when it becomes attractive even though just for farming purposes, it gets nerfed.

My feeling is the only way to fix the summoning line has always been to give a Summoning SM a variety of pets to choose from and that the pets should be based on the various classes in Midgard - perhaps a hunter style pet with a bow, maybe a Thane style pet with Mjoll. Even a runie pet possibly. (A pbae pet would be funny, but possibly overpowered - would be shedloads of fun though). Obviously, these would have to be toned down from their player-counterparts as the nerfwhines would be loud and strong. The general idea is sound I believe.

The biggest problem the Summ SM has always faces is little to none ranged damage and no area effect spells of any kind. These types of pets would address the issue. If a Summ SM can summon a pet appropriate to the type of group he is playing in, then suddenly their desirability in RvR groups would go up. Well possibly. Some people religiously stick to a set style of group unthinkingly because a few other players proclaim it wtfpwnage etc.

 

[Makwaerk]

in the small Focus pulll groups, and shamy is not very needed imo ..the SM has doubble buff in his summoning linie anyway so pet needs no buff's the buffs you need from shaman is piety buff to SM and dex/quick to seer's

Seer's will be bedst if they cast the small baselinie heal as it has the bedst power/heal ratio.

if you go due I suggest the healer go 2/3 pac and 1/3 mend ... you need some mend to improve you r small base heal

 

[Old Nicodemus]

I've said it once.. i'll say it again..

Mythic only want SM's to have one viable line. Suppression. Get used to it kids.. it ain't pretty but the one trick pony is here to stay.

And yes I am a cynical old bastard.


The other way to play a Healer/Sm duo is to go 10 levels higher in one spec than the other.. e.g 32 supp/22 dark. That way you will always get a good but not insta aggro PB damage and will also allow you to do reasonable darkness damage when you need to concentrate on one mob..

Has worked very well for this old gimp and provided more than a single hoop trick for me to perform too.

 

[old.Spug]

As Mak's said, no need for the Shaman, full spec Summon means your buffs for your pet are as good as a shamans.

I played Summon on Kliren for a while, doing most of the higher dungeons, he was full summon, with backup from my healer, 43 pac, 5 aug, 32 mend.

depending on how many mobs were beating on the pet at once, small heals were enough. when doing the mammoth hunt quest, with a shaman helping my duo, we pulled the entire camp... 12 yellow to orange mobs... was a bad pull, but we won.

one thing to bear in mind, if you run out of power, and need to MCL, so long as your pet is fighting, you cant. put him on passive, and after about three seconds, even with mobs on him, you can MCL.