RA Weapon spell healers?

Zawk Tirson

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2010

R/

I'm curious as to whether anyone has any insights towards making a weapon spell healer for RA. The biggest problem with the usual restoration route is that it's reliant on a spirit being up and near you. If they target the spirit, you're SOL.

Obviously monks will be better at healing in RA. But that's missing the point of this post.

Is it possible to make a weapon spell healer? Spirit Light Weapon seems like an obvious choice, but that mostly helps with pressure, not the big heals that are oftentimes necessary. Wielder's Boon would fix that to an extent, allowing for up to 138 point heal, if the target is within earshot of a spirit. But then it still relies on a spirit to make SLW worthwhile!

Xinrae's and WoRemedy both end fairly fast (especially if using as a prot, which people probably would be in most cases), so you'd need another weapon spell to use in conjunction with WB. Resilient Weapon pops to mind, but that forces you to use Xinrae's, since WoRemedy might get rid of the condition, which would make Resilient useless except for a way to apply WB! So at this point, you've used up 20 energy to heal a dude for 193 hp.

And that's not even trying to manage your energy. There's no good way that I can see to manage energy. You could use OoS, but that would require you to either suck up the sacrifice, or use a spirit (and at that point you may as well run a spirit resto rit). Use Wielder's Zeal to lower the cost of your weapon spells? That seems like a sucky elite. Use Attuned was Songkai and Renewing Memories? 70% off base cost of your spells is nice. Turns your 5e spells into either 1e or 2e (not sure how it rounds...), and at that point energy regeneration could possibly take over. But that takes up two slots.

So, can anything be done?

tl;dr: How can rits heal without using spirits?

Rushin Roulette

Rushin Roulette

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2007

Right here

Ende

I played a few rounds of the N/Rt Sabway healer in RA a while ago and it actually worked pretty well. Never had a Monk or resto rit on my team while running that build, so I was the only healer.

Tried to time FomF resing with the Life recharge (together with dropping the pot), so the sac was minimal. Condition removal was pretty good, the only thing that really was lacking was Hex removal.

Im sure you can exchange Sig of lost souls with a Rit energy management.

Its efective but there are better healing and protting options out there.

Zawk Tirson

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2010

R/

That doesn't really get around needing a Spirit around though. Your main heals and condition removals require the spirit, and if you face an opponent with even a little bit of intelligence, they'll go after the spirit.

That's why I'm specifically wondering about using Weapon Spells and related things as the main method of heals.

edit: Thoughts about this build? (C/P'd from my pvx userpage )

template: OACiEykMNxc9kxEPpJSMtsdxA

[build prof=Rt/any spawningpower=12+1+1 restoration=12+1][Resilient Weapon][Weapon of Shadow][Weapon of Warding][Wielder's Boon][Mending Grip][Attuned was Songkai][Renewing Memories][Flesh of my Flesh][/build]

With AwS and Renewing Memories, spells will cost 80% less, making your heals cost 1e, and the weapon spells 2e. I think that would be within the realms of "let energy regen be your emanagement".

Downside: There's a period of 15 seconds where your spells will only cost 33% less (for when AwS hasn't recharged yet, but the duration is done). Powerblock will screw you up something fierce. Mending Grip kinda sucks.

Rushin Roulette

Rushin Roulette

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2007

Right here

Ende

I used Life as the Spirit... most players werent intelligent enough to go for the spirit though, so usually (about 80%) of the time it stayed the full duration... just dont place it in the middle of the field. insted try to set the spirit somewhere where it would be difficult for ranged and direct line of sight spells to hit it.

The bigest problem was interrupts for the Spirit cast. Everything else was 1 second cast time or less, so interrupts on the weapon spells themselves at 1/4 seconds is pretty unlikely unless you set up a cast pattern that the others can follow and predict.

Edit: Ty for the clear up there about PB... overlooked that it would not affect spirit rituals.

chullster

chullster

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2008

Blighty, Land of bad weather and plucky Brits

R.I.P. DJ HMS [BZRK]

Has PB changed to effect skills now instead of just spells?

Edit: Checked it, and no, Powerblock doesn't work on rituals, so no worries from that skill.

Only hard rupts can get your rituals, or KD etc.

I find a Xinraes/vengful-spam build most effective, using 3 spirits and one direct heal only. Two 1/4 sec spam spells and passive healing surprised me how much fun it was to play.

As always hex stack removal is an issue, but isn't it always? just hope you get a team with no melee professions, easy 25 streak then.

Lanier

Lanier

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2010

[Pink]

P/

Its been awhile since I ran a SLW healer in RA, but when I did, I rarely had troubles keeping up my Life Spirit. For one reason or another, they rarely targeted the Life (maybe because of its low recharge and its heal on death?) and it had a relatively short recharge which made it easier to keep up. I believe I used Wielder's Boon, Spirit Light, and Mend Body and Soul as my heals with PwK to hide energy and give a party heal, Weapon of Warding for obvious reasons (I <3 block skills and always used guardian when monking as well) and GoLE for maintaining energy with PwK and WoW.

Its been awhile since iv used this build (or RA'ed for that matter) but it worked fairly well.