Curse

Sheriff · May 08, 2007, 07:43 AM // 07:43

Hi,

I was wondering if there's any good rest build using SLW? I think I've seen one in the forums before but I couldn't find it after a couple of searches.

I tried to run one like:

[skill]Resilient Weapon[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Vengeful Weapon[/skill][skill]Spirit Light Weapon[/skill][skill]Wielder's Boon[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Recuperation[/skill][skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill]

But I seemed to run out of mana very fast (something that didn't happen with a similar [skill]Wielder's Zeal[/skill] build).

What am I doing wrong? Can someone please help me?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I was using Recuperation, not Restoration!

Ishtar Serket · May 08, 2007, 08:36 AM // 08:36

Well you're replacing an elite skill that gives you energy each time you cast a weapon spell on an ally with something else. Because of that change, you have no energy management skills. Outside Wielder's Zeal there's Boon of Creation but you only have two rituals on your bar so you'll hardly get the full effect of it. Unfortunately for your build, most rit skills used for energy management (Attuned was Songkai, Offering of Spirit, Reclaim Essence, Sig of Spirits, etc.) are elites and therefore can't be included with Spirit Light Weapon. You could always go with a secondary that has some energy management skills though that would take away from your build. Power Drain and Leech Sig are usually effective energy management skills from Mesmer secondary and with a small amount of att points into Inspiration they can really help a lot.

Oso Minar · May 08, 2007, 03:40 PM // 15:40

[skill]Spirit Light Weapon[/skill][skill]Soothing Memories[/skill][skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Protective was Kaolai[/skill][skill]Inspired Hex[/skill][skill]Flesh of My Flesh[/skill]

I think one of your problems could be coming from Resilient Weapon and its 10e cost. Bringing that skill as your ONLY way to deal with Conditions / Hexes looks like it could be trouble, especially in areas with a lot of Conditions or Hexes. Rather than waste the energy trying to cover them up, Mend Body and Soul is a good skill to help you both heal people under fire and remove a condition (or more, if other people bring Spirits). Similarly, instead of worrying about covering up a Hex, Inspired (or Revealed) Hex allows you to just get rid of a Hex with some energy gain back to you at the same time.

I'm not impressed with Wielder's Boon. You already have Spirit Light as a "Big Heal", you probably won't be needing Wielder's Boon unless you're seriously up the creek or trying to solo-heal a party. By adding in Mend Body and Soul, you'll get just about the same heal for the same cost, but without the requirement of a Weapon Spell. That way, rather than using the 5e to slap SLW on first, THEN using Wielder's Boon, you can simply use MB&S to heal, and when you can, get your spirit up.

Vengeful Weapon is a great skill. In a build that has potential energy problems, however, such a wonderfully spammable skill spells trouble. You can bring it along later (I eventually replaced Soothing Memories with Vengeful Weapon), but while you're learning the ropes of energy management, it might be best to just use SM.

I like Protective was Kaolai to use as the platform for Soothing Memories. Yes, your energy will drop when you're holding an item, but with careful use, the skill can pay for itself. Soothing Memories becomes free in this case, and PwK's drop benefit is actually great for a healer, as it gives a party-wide heal. Thus, keep it in your hands, and if you're struggling to keep up with energy for your party, drop it not only to let you have your weapons' energy back, but also give a full-party heal in the process. Watch your timing with Life, however; I always hate it when things look bad, so I drop PwK only to have Life expire a second later.

One of the biggest things to learn is energy management, however. Very few builds out there will let you be completely careless with regards to energy. Save SLW for characters you know will be needing it, such as the Warrior and other front-liners. Try not to OVERheal; if the person's at 90% health and stable, chances are you won't have to give them Spirit Light, Soothing Memories will do. It takes practice, but learn what percentages of health are represented in your health bars, and learn which spells to use in which situations. There could be a Conditions arrow on one of your teammates, but in the heat of a battle, that person can probably live with whatever Condition they have and you can save your energy for another person.

Healing is a lot more team-oriented than you might think. Both (or all) healers have to really work together to keep people alive, there aren't any builds that let people solo-heal an entire group through difficult areas. If your Monk brings Dismiss Conditions and Blessed Light, that will be less you have to worry about Conditions and Hexes, but you may need to heal a little more. It's all about working together to not over-heal your party.

Also, this may be a dumb point, but make sure you're gearing yourself properly for the job. That'd mean either a +20e staff or a +5e/+12e weapon and offhand. Halycon/Radiant armor, the works. Give yourself the largest energy pool that you can.

I think I've rambled on enough. Good luck to you

ArKaiN · May 09, 2007, 04:20 AM // 04:20

I dont understand SLW.
From the description and effect in theory, it should be nothing short of awesome. It's like Healing Breeze on crack, right?
But for some reason it doesn't play out like that, at least not for me. The regen it provides is never that impressive, and I prefer something like preservation(which, granted, isnt awesome, but it does stick around forever so Light works w/o sacrifice and its free heal every whatever seconds)

Oso Minar · May 09, 2007, 10:38 AM // 10:38

Why doesn't SLW "play out for you"? At 16 Restoration, SLW gives 16 health per second if they aren't within earshot of a spirit, and 32 if they are. That means that if an ally isn't in range of a spirit, it's 8 pips of regeneration, and if they are, it's 16 pips. Rather than being capped at 10 like Healing Breeze can be, the health by SLW is delivered in short bursts, allowing it to get around the rule that says you can only have +-10 pips of healing/degen on you at any one time.

SLW provides at LEAST the same amount of healing over ten seconds (could be double if used on a backliner) as Healing Breeze. It costs 5e less, but also recharges 3s slower. Also, it's a weapon spell, so it cannot be stripped, unlike Healing Breeze. The two can overlap, however. If Healing Breeze is "impressive" to you, then SLW certainly should be as well.

So yeah, I suppose you could call it "Healing Breeze on crack", even though you can only maintain it on two people at a time (without fast recharges). It doesn't completely replace the skill, but it's certainly an effective healing skill. Same drawbacks apply from Healing Breeze, though. Because it's a Heal-Over-Time spell, it's never going to be very useful against spike damage. Perhaps that may be why you don't see it as "impressive". It's a great skill for PvE, when aggro is normally spread out and you have to focus on many allies at once. I feel there are better options for a PvP elite, though.

I'm not a fan of Preservation simply because of three little words: "In The Area". If you've checked out the aggro ranges, you can see that "in the area" is pretty darn small (about half your aggro range). If folks spread out a bit or have to kite around, they'll be out of range for Preservation to heal it. Combine that with the fact that you have no idea who it heals, and I just personally think that it is outshined by many other Ritualist Elites. The only nice thing about it is that it's only 5e and has a recharge of 20s. Aside from that, it's a blind healer with no range whatsoever.

Cebe · May 09, 2007, 11:03 AM // 11:03

I use a build very similar to Oso Miner:

[skill]Spirit Channeling[/skill][skill]Protective was Kaolai[/skill][skill]Soothing Memories[/skill][skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Feast of Souls[/skill][skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill]

I don't often need Spirit Channeling and so Spirit Light Weapon could be used. There's just something about Spirit Light Weapon that I don't like, and i can't put my finger on it. I take feast of souls with me and, although I rarely need it, it's handy if a large party heal is required. Protective was Kaolai is amazing.

I stopped using Preservation a long time ago...really, it needs a larger range. The only thing it could be useful for is for skills which require a spirit due to it's cheap cost and recharge time...but it's not really worth taking over another elite. I'd be happier with it if they increased the range, and to compensate, increased the energy cost.

ArKaiN · May 09, 2007, 07:04 PM // 19:04

Oso, I think healing breeze sucks. But since it's a monk skill, you at least get a spike heal from Divine.
It *might* be better that breeze(I'm really not sure. Has anyone added up the healing taking into account Divine?), but it's an elite, and I'm sure we can do better. As I said, I'm not a fan of Preservation either, but it does seem like a better elite.
I usually run Wanderlust+pain+shadowsong+whatever and Spirit Light+ Mend b&s+whatever if I'm in rest, but I love wanderlust.

Trylo · May 09, 2007, 09:07 PM // 21:07

[skill]Spirit Light Weapon[/skill][skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Essence Strike[/skill][skill]Gaze of Fury[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Deny Hexes[/skill][skill]Divine Spirit[/skill]

bam.

Life can be replace with recoup, Bloodsong, w/e you please

the amazing synergy leetness of life + gaze is fun, same with essence strike for energy. DO NOT OVERSPAM. Wait for Spirit Light to recharge, its THE healing spell of the game (there is NO BETTER...and no im not arguing with anyone). Spirit Light Weapon is reassurance against melee attackers and degen. It heals for 320 within a spirit. thats a lot, and usually works very nicely against assassin, warrior, dervish attackers on the backline. Mend Body and Soul is an amazing heal with 3/4 cast time, its also your condition remover. Deny Hexes and Divine Spirit = hax together.

Sheriff · May 09, 2007, 09:41 PM // 21:41

Oso Minar,

Thank you for your build suggestion

I haven't tried it yet but it definitely seems like a better version than the one I'm using. How should the stats be distributed? I presume not many points are needed on Spawning, since I would only carry one spirit?

One thing I seem to infer from your words, SLW wouldn't be your Restoration elite of choice, would it?

Another thing I'm wondering... why isn't Recuperation used more? It seems to help a lot if there are MMs in the team.

Thanks once again!

Dodo The Extinct · May 09, 2007, 11:47 PM // 23:47

......Its looks like nobody uses Generous Was Tsungrai anymore

Recouperation is great. But, I know that I don`t like paying the 25 energy....

Of course....if it affects minions, I`m sure it can work in some situations.

Oso Minar · May 10, 2007, 03:44 AM // 03:44

Sheriff, my elite of choice actually isn't even in the Restoration line at all! My current favorite is [skill]Offering of Spirit[/skill] out of the Channeling line, actually, even in a Restoration build. I was just giving you one of my builds that I use for PvE healing. The build works, but I find it a little...lacking in Hard Mode. As per your question on attributes, not many are spent in the Spawning line. I want to say that I used a 12/10/8 split between Restoration/Inspiration/Spawning in that order, with a major rune + headpiece for Restoration. You just want Inspiration high enough so you get a positive energy return with each casting of Inspired/Revealed Hex.

Recuperation is a wonderful skill in certain missions, but I find that for most situations it has a few drawbacks that I don't like. For one, that 25e is a killer. I don't think that the healing is enough to justify the 15e at the very start of a fight, when damage is normally flying around the most that you need to heal. The 45s recharge also hurts its appeal, as many missions require a "RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO" strategy where everyone's running every which way. You need your platform to be ready when you need to heal, and sometimes 45s is too long to get it down before a fight starts. Life is just much more convenient. It's 15e cheaper, it recharges 25s sooner, and it also will heal all allies and minions.

I'll sometimes use Recuperation in a Channeling build, though. Although it doesn't do any damage, it helps the healers out in tough situations such as Hard Mode. In addition, with a dedicated Channeling line you can run both Offering of Spirit and Essence Strike, which greatly help to ease that huge 25e hit.

SLW is definitely viable, especially if you're in a party with, say, a Prot monk and a Motivation Paragon. The synergy between Enchantments from the monk, your Weapon Spell and healing, and the Shouts and Chants from the Paragon make for a very effective way to keep the party alive. Don't take it as the ONLY Restoration build out there, though. It's nice to have options for different areas.

-------------

Dodo, Generous was Tsungrai is a faaaaantastic skill, I love bringing it in PvP! The thing is though, in purely PvE situations it's often more beneficial to bring a generalized party heal (through PwK) than it is for a large spike heal on yourself. I almost always include GwT in my PvP builds though, it's an awesome self-heal, almost always included in my bar. Seeing as how I think that SLW is most beneficial in a PvE environment (seeing as how it can't keep up with spike damage, which is most prevalent in PvP), I just assumed that we were sticking to PvE builds here. If a PvP thread came along though, you'd be good to bet on GwT being on my bar.

Sheriff · May 11, 2007, 07:17 AM // 07:17

Oso, I know it's a bit offtopic, but was wondering if you'd share your Hard Mode build(s) ?

I have been playing Restoration on one of my Rts and Channeling on the other (this build to be more precise: http://www.pvxbuilds.com/index.php?t...uick_Channeler ), but would love to learn to play them better.

Thanks once again

Ritualist duuuh · May 14, 2007, 04:51 PM // 16:51

i would go for:
[skill]spirit light weapon[/skill][skill]wielder's boon[/skill][skill]mend body and soul[/skill][skill]lively was naomei[/skill][skill]spirit light[/skill][skill]life[/skill][skill]ghostmirror light[/skill]
and one last skill that might be [skill]soothing memories[/skill] etc.

ArKaiN · May 15, 2007, 04:04 PM // 16:04

3 glad points with this yesterday:
[skill]Spirit Light Weapon[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Mend body and soul[/skill][skill]Shadowsong[/skill][skill]Pain[/skill][skill]Disenchantment[/skill][skill]Frenzied Defense[/skill][skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill]
15 rest, 12 Communing, rest into spawning.