Healing
From EQ Clerics Wiki
In general, healing in any MMOG involves the same principle. To advance in experience and/or equipment, one must slay monsters (NPCs) and sometimes other players (PvP). In the course of the ensuing battle, players take damage. This is done in a variety of ways but the effect is to remove hit points(HP) from the player's pool of available hit points. If this pool ever goes below a value of one, the player is generally considered dead (an exception is EQ which allows players to go unconscious below zero). Therefore, a class (or group of classes) that is devoted to healing be available to return these hit points while engaged in combat becomes increasingly important the further along in the game you progress.
In EverQuest there are specialist classes, of which clerics are the specialist healers (hence why this site exists). There are four different methods of healing available to clerics (with a 5th supplemental, situational type that combines two elements):
- 1. Direct Heals (covers quick heals, normal heals and group heals)
- 2. Heal Over Time
- 3. Promised Heals and Buff heals
- 4. Equalizers
- 5. Heal/Cure combinations
In EQ your HP is represented as a bar that goes from 0% to 100%. Most user interfaces (UIs) use the classic bar which has five bubbles, each representing 20% of a player's health. Your own HP bar can be seen inside the player window. Actual numbers can be found in the inventory window or you can download a custom UI that displays this number at all times. Other players can see your bar either by targeting you or by grouping with you. Once you are grouped your HP bar appears in their group window and vice versa. There is no way to see another player's total HP in numeric terms, however.
To heal another player, simply memorize an instant healing spell into a spell slot, target the player you wish to heal and cast your heal spell. Provided their HP is less than 100%, you will receive a message that says:
- "You have healed Player for X points of damage"
and they will receive a message that says:
- "Cleric has healed you for X points of damage"
You should notice their HP bar move once the spell has landed.
Note that you can not heal Mobs, but you can heal yourself, other players, or player's pets (including mobs that have been charmed).
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[edit] Direct Heals
Direct Heals are the most basic heals in a cleric's arsenal. They come in three versions, Remedy, Light and Complete. All of these heals will immediately restore the target's hit points when you cast the heal on them. They tend to generate the most hate of all the healing methods, but they are your most common spells.
The Remedy heals generally heal for less than the Light heal of similar levels, but they tend to have a very fast casting time.
The Light heals are likely your most common heals. They generally heal a moderate amount of damage for moderate mana costs, with a relatively quick casting time.
Complete Heal is an exceptional heal. Clerics receive it at level 39, and never receive an upgrade to it (other than via certain focus effects and Alternate Abilities that improve facets of it.). It has a long casting time, but it heals a lot of health for a very low casting cost. This spell made possible the idea of healing with 'Complete Heal chains' where a number of clerics would coordinate their casting so that a complete heal would land on the target every few seconds.
[edit] Heal Over Time
Heal Over Time (HOT) spells do not function like instant heals. Like the name implies, the spell places a shot term buff on a player that heals them once per tick (6 seconds). HOTs are useful because the agro (mob hate) generated by a buff is far less than that generated by an instant heal and the efficiency of the heal is greater than most instant heals.
[edit] Promised Heals and Buff Heals
The Serpent's Spine expansion introduced the spell Promised Renewal, which added a new type of healing. This spell, when cast, will give the target a buff that will last for a few seconds. When the buff fades, the target will then be healed.
This heal is advantageous since the initial casting is low aggro (see the notes on HoT's) and the actual heal is no aggro. It is dangerous however since it is 2-3 ticks before the heal will actually go off, so your target may need patch heals to tide him over before the big heal goes off.
Also in this category (since it does not really fit anywhere else), is the cleric spells Death Pact and Divine Intervention. These spells (which requires pearls for Death Pact and emeralds for Divine Intervention to cast), gives the target a buff. If their health drops below a near death point, the spell has a chance to go off and heal the target. The Charisma of the target at the time of the cast determines if the buff will go off. The higher the Charisma the better the chances.
[edit] Equalizers
Clerics get abilities via AA's (Divine Arbitration) and their Epic 1.5/2.0's that can equalize the health of the group. It is not really a heal (other than the Epic 1.5/2.0 which have healing components on top of the equalization), but it is a very important tactic to learn to use well.
Equalizers work by taking the total damage on the group (within range) and reallocating it to the rest of the group.
For example, assume a full group and everyone has 10,000 HP each. One person takes 6,000 damage. A cleric can use their equalizer and the total damage (6000) will be spread out to the group, so each person will now be at 9,000 HP. The most hurt person gets 'healed' while the rest of the group takes damage.
The cleric AA ability "Divine Arbitration" is the AA Equalizer, and a cleric's best friend when they can get it. Not only can it save a tank or puller from damage, but it is completely aggro free so it is useful, for example, to use when the puller is coming in heavily damaged, perhaps even DoT'ed, and a regular heal could pull the mobs to you instead of the tank.
There are 3 levels of Divine Arbitration. The first two levels will have a 'penalty' applied when applying the equalization. So when the damage is equalized, a small percentage more damage is added to everyone. For example if you do not have Divine Arbitration maxed in the above example, instead of everyone having 1000 damage after the arbitration, everyone may have 1100 damage after the arbitration. The third level of Divine Arbitration removes all penalties so the only damage applied is what the group had on itself in total.
The Cleric epic 1.5 and 2.0 are basically Divine Arbitration with a healing component. So when clicked, the group's health will be equalized without penalty, and then a small group heal will be applied. Be aware that heal is NOT aggro free; using your shield click may put you on the aggro list. So do not use the shield click to try and save the puller who is low on health from trying to split mobs.
[edit] Heal/Cure Combinations
Omens of War gave clerics their first heal with a cure component Word of Vivification. This group spell heals the group with a direct/instant heal while also curing disease, poison and curse counters. At least two events in the final raid/end zone allow this spell to be used to cure a 'death touch' dot. The spell has also picked up value in more recent expansion raids as well, and while it has a higher mana cost because of the cure, it is useful in many situations.
Depths of Darkhollow gave clerics their first single target heal with a cure component Desperate Renewal. This spell is a direct heal which also cures a fair amount of poison, disease and curse counters. To compensate for both being in one single spell, the spell was given high mana cost AND a long recast timer (30 seconds), so it has situational use.
