Healing in EverQuest or any other game in general is a crucial part either while in battle, after battle regening your health or just healing up after a good old battle.  During battle healing is almost always directed towards your tank or “Main Tank” if you are in a raid group.  But there can be a darkside to healing that many have encountered many a time when those many are over zealous.

Hopefully with some nice tips here you can avoid that nasty incident where the creature can turn on you wanting to bash your brains in.

Healing Classes:

Cleric Class:  EverQuest 2 clerics are your basic hit regen people casting reactive heals on the tank wherebye every time the tank gets hit they are healed.  They can do a single target heal, single target ward, a group heal *I believe*, and a group ward regen spell.  Clerics also get two nice buffs whereby if a target is hit they have an X amount of chance to have that damage negated a “Stone Skin” and they also have a nice group heal buff.  This buff activating every time a person melee attacks an opponent which can be great in a pinch.

Druidic Class: The Druidic Class in EverQuest 2 dramatically changed in LU13 having alot of our heals being redone however there is a great distinction between a warden and a fury.  Fury class druids are great for having a bit of dps in the group and some healing capabilities alongside that dps.  Warden class druids are great healers with low dps having 5 healing spells putting them alongside their templar counterparts in the healing department.

Shaman Class:  Shamans are the undisputed king of damage wards in EverQuest 2 with their ability to negate damage all together.  Shaman wards when placed on a target allow that target to be immune from a certain amount of damage for a certain period of time.  The best part is when that single target ward is comboed with a group ward it can be a dramatic help when facing a rather tough enemy.

Heal Spell Types:

Regen Class: Regeneration or Regen heals are specialtys that are associated with the druidic Heal over Time or HoT spells.  These can range from simple small heals per 1 second or the warden’s large single regeneration HoT spell.  In the advanced section I will talk about how to combine regeneration spells to get the most benefit from them.

Shield Wards:  These are associated with the shaman class aka Mystic/Defiler class whereby damage is negated instead of allowing it to happen then having it be healed.  Wards can be crucial in situations and some healing classes can get specialty wards like the Warden Class.  These specialty wards quote “warding” off a certain amount of damage from a specific attack such as elemental spells.

Reactive Heals:  Reactive Heals are the domain of the cleric aka Templar/Inquisitor whereby every time the target is struck when this spell is on yourself/tank it heals for a certain amount.  This can be a unique situation where the damage is somewhat negated from an enemy if used correctly.  Again I will talk about this “Correct” usage in my advanced tip section below.

Instant Heals:  Instant heals are a healers most powerful spells that I have only encountered on my warden so far.  These spells can heal for a certain amount with no power cost nor cast timer thus being “Instant Heals.”  However they have a downside where they have an increased regeneration time.  A good example of this is the Paladin Lay on Hands line wherebye they can heal for upwards of 3k+ health however it has a 15m cool down time before it can be used again.  This is why it takes careful planing and crucial judgement before using it.

Healing Tips and Basic Healing 101

Healing 101

1.  Your spells and You-As a healer the first thing you must do and I mean MUST DO is KNOW YOUR SPELLS!!! In many a fight if a healer has to fumble around looking for his spells you will cause your tank to die, your group mates to die, then yourself to die.  This action if done enough times will get you on a “Secret Blacklist” that many a server may have.  However if you arrange your spells appropriately on your Hotbar knowing where your single heals, group heals, and large heals are you can help out your groups immensely.  By doing this you are atleast 25% on your way to becoming a good healer and becoming in high demand for groups.  I myself am a top notch healer on my server and when i’m on I can get atleast 4-5 tells during peak hours for groups. These tells being for groups in high end instanced zones like HoF, SoS *lower part*, etc… and including raid zones like Lord Vymns Labratory.

2.  The Power Of The Spell-Your spells are only as good as you are and one thing you must do is level up your spells.  By increasing the rank of the spell you can heal, regen, and ward for more than you would if they were simple app I or appIV spells.  Sadly as healers to get the full potential of our spells we must have atleast adept I then for raid content atleast adept III to be superior healers.  It will be tricky to upgrade your spells but in the long run it will deffinately be worth it and for your Master II spell I always recommend picking your best healing spell if you can.

3.  Use Them Wisely-I follow a very old saying and that is “It’s not the weapon that makes the man but the man that makes the weapon” meaning you could have a Master II ungodly heal spell however if you don’t know how to use it properly it is useless.  As a healer it takes time, effort, and patience but soon after many groups with some minor failed attempts you will learn how to use your spells correctly.  Out in the field soloing I will heal myself in combination when attacking something varying my strategy with what I face as a warden.  I will say hands down it is very difficult for a healer to solo anything by (___) mobs but with strategy it is possible to face 1 tier higher than that.  Then going further passed soloing group healing is 10x different than healing in a raid situation.  But again through trial and error as well as expert tutilage you can learn how to heal in those different situations.

4.  Over Confidence-When grouping either in a raid situation or regular group you as a healer must be very cautious.  I have a good tank that has been in many a bad situation where the healer has gotten over zealous causing mobs to aggro onto him.  This is why as a healer you must “Gage” your healing so that you don’t use too much mana thus making you useless in a dire fight or aggroing mobs onto yourself constantly making it so your quote “Blacklisted”.

A. Every group you go into will be different unless you are grouping with the same group before.  You as the healer of the group will have to make sure to judge each situation you encounter carefully making sure to not heal too much or too little.

B. If the tank starts getting bashed in the head loosing health fast heal as much as you can when you can.  Also make sure to keep an eye on your other commrades if they start to loose health.  Every now and again try to fire off a quick AoE heal if the enemy you are fighting is letting off a nasty AoE damage abilities.  This helps to keep the group in the fight and keep your dps in the fight helping to achieve victory.

5.  Armor Up- A healer without his stats is nothing more than a nice fat target for the mobs you are about to face.  Having certain stat increasing armor allows a healer to be 10x more effective in battle then a plain clothed healer with just mitigation clothing.  As a healer you will almost always want to have armor with the wis stat on it along with power.  I have to say almost every single piece of clothing my warden wears has a power stat increaser or a wisedom stat increaser or a power stat+wisedom stat increaser on it.  Wisedom not only helps you to increase your resistances but can also help to increase your power pool as well “aka Mana pool/MP.”  The more mana you have the more times you can potentially cast your healing spells.

6. Misc.-Flowing through thought items are very tricky to come across in the EverQuest realm almost always being tied to legendary items.  These Flowing Through Thought items help to increase your in-combat power regeneration by a certain amount aka FTT I=+1.0 to your normal regen in combat FTT II=+2.0 to your normal regen in combat etc.. up to FTT VII I believe *Flowing Through Thought 7 if you can’t understand roman numerals.*  These items aren’t necessary but can give a nice extra push during battle.

A must have though for healers is good power regeneration food aka “Drink.”  This can help you to regenerate mana during a cool down phase of your battle helping regen lost power in your out of combat situation.  Player made food can be the best to procure but can be a tad expensive so it is best to shop around, some player made foods can even have stat increasers on them as well.  Alchemist can also make potions with stat increasers on them and while these are not need it can give a deffinate boost sometimes making the price of the potion worth it.

This is a must when you first get into any group and sometimes even the greatest of healers can forget it.  When you first come into a group use your “Give Feather” spell which will give everyone in the group a temporary item.  This item will allow them to rez you if you die while in the group and they survive an encounter.  There has been different situations where I have kind of kicked myself for not giving out those feathers seeing as they can be very crucial in a nasty fight.

Advanced Healing Techniques:

1. Interlacing Heals-This technique can be very tricky ending in disaster if not done properly however if done properly this can make you a very effective healer.  When I interlace heals what I mean is I will apply my single target heal to the tank then my group regeneration spell on the group as well.  This coupled with my single target heal provides double the healing capacity to the tank.  But like I said it has to be done properly because if you do this too often you will acrue too much hate thus causing your group to die.  You must use a light touch unless you are in a dire situation where your group is being pounded on by enemies then you must couple all your group heals with your single target heals on the tank that way you have a fighting chance.

2. Preperation Healing-Preperation healing is mostly done in raid situations but is good to do in group situations if you have a cleric/shaman class healer.  Druidic healers i’m sad to say are out of this loop because it doesn’t make use of our full potential to pre regen the target.  The only time this would be a good idea for druids to do this is if you have a warden and they are level 55+ then they can use their tree spell Protecting Grove.  Also if you are going up against an elemental style enemy you can have your local warden use his/her “Special” elemental ward spell.

A.  Before you have the tank attack a target have the healer “pre ward” the group meaning have them put up their Reactive Regen if they are a cleric both single and group.  Or if they are a shaman class healer have them put up their single target and group ward buffs before engaging the target.  This will allow you to basically get a heal for free allowing a second or two for the healer to regen mana and let the heal they just used refresh.

B. This is for us druids here and we can’t really pre ward the target however we can if we must.  If we are facing a cruical enemy the best thing to do is put in your single large target HoT regen, then the group HoT regen comboing them together.  You can then rest for a second regening precious mana and letting your heals refresh themselves to be used quicker in the fight.  Druid classes arn’t great at prewards however we make up for that with our ability to use HoT spells.

3.  All Out Healing-This is a last resort style of healing that I do not recommend unless your tank is really outnumbered i’m talking 5 enemies to 1 odd tank style outnumbered healing.  You will need the tank to acrue as much hate as possible before Engaging in your Berserk style healing that i’m about to detail for you.

A.  First use your large single target ward, reactive heal, single target HoT spell, then use your group ward, reactive heal, single target HoT spell.  Comboing these or “Interlacing” them as I detailed in the first part of the advanced healer training.

B. Set a rythm up for this so you can quickly repeat this process getting into a timely.  By doing this you won’t be spamming heals left and right at a frantic pace trying to save the tank wasting mana.  To give an example of what i’m talking about I will use my single target HoT massive regen, then my single target large heal with small regen, then my mini heal with HoT regen, finally going to my group HoT regen rounding it out with my group Heal+HoT regen.  Then I will go back to my Single Massive target HoT regen repeating the process until 1. I’m out of mana or 2. the creature is dead and the group is victorious.

C. This part is an extra step that can help out in certain situation and it requires the manastone as well as the manastone 2.0 item.  The manastone is from stilleto’s orders intercepted which is a heritage quest producing a nice item that converts health into power.  The second “Manastone 2.0″ is called The Vessel of Fyr’un and has a quest titled the same thing which you do in the Living Tombs.  It produce an item that has similar properties of the Manastone however takes a much greater toll giving more power.  If you complete the next step after examining the vessel of Fyr’un you can get the OverFlowing Vessel of Fyr’Un which gives alot more power, transforms you but costs more health.

Now when power healing you will want the manastone in your hotbar alongside the Vessel.  When you get low you can use these items in unison giving you enough mana to heal either A. The group if you want to try a stretch or B. The tank giving your group a fighting chance if the tank doesn’t take too much damage.

D. Power feeding goes alongside step C wherebye you can have the group’s Conjuror/necromancer give a power item.  Or you can have the group’s wizard quote “Power Feed” you giving precious mana allowing you to cast your healing spells.  I have been in a 2 group raid where I have had to play the cureanator in a lab run.  I will begin to run out of mana and the wizard will shout “Power Feeding Healer” wherebye they will transfer their power to me allowing me to keep up my current healing on the tank.  Wizards are very stressed to keep this up on me so you must be cautious when doing it cause it is tough to keep that steady stream of mana on you.

4. Impairments-I’m putting this in the advanced section because some impairments aren’t too concerning however some are.  Curing Truama, Noxious, elemental, as well as Arcane impairments can be cruicial to help your group succed.  Doing lab runs it is crucial that this be done the reason being 1 droag in Lord Vymn’s Lab has an impairment that reduces the mighty tank to nothing more than paper.  Thus as I stated it is crucial to cure this impairment so the tank isn’t “instantly wiped or insta wiped” and the same can be said of other impairments.

Make sure to put your cure spells on the same page of your knowledge book and flip to that section when you first load up.  During battle I will quickly press K opening my knowledge book then press the cure that is needed for the tank then press K again closing my knowledge book.  By doing/learning this technique I reduce my hotbar to 1 line thus putting my precious heals all in one line not having to fumble around with multiple hotbars.  However as a healer you must develope your own style of healing allowing for fast paced action in your group.

Closing Remarks

Healers are a special breed up there alongside dps and tanks taking time, energy, effort, practice, as well as patience to learn.  When I first started my MMO days I began as a healer on EverQuest Online Adventures playing a druid *EQOA to my homies *.  It took some time but I learned when to use my heals, when to back off, then when to let the tank go attacking the creature providing an extra push for dps.

EverQuest 2 was no different when I first came here relearning how to be a healer, how to play the healer class and then learning how to play the warden class.  It took me a good month to learn how each spell worked apart then atleast another month how to combine those spells making them 10x more effective then by themselves alone.  We healers are not tanks and can survive a very few seconds up against a nasty opponent, thus is why we have to rely on tanks when taking on bigger nastier creatures.

By using some of these guidelines incorporating them into your own techniques you can become a better healer landing you in many groups.   With all of that said and done I say good luck, happy hunting and good healing to my fellow healer bretherin.