What's the best way to heal?

[hollerer]

What do you think is the fastest and best way to heal a single target? My common problem in combat is that a enemies for one reason or another like to shoot a single target or one dude just gets in trouble and needs healing like immediately. Even if the cast time is like 0.4 seconds it often isn't enough. Quite frankly, almost all healing abilities take like 1 second by default, making them equally useless. And often my characters are already under recovery time.

 

So are there any instant healing spells or ways to save someone from dying? The most useful thing I've found so far are items with second chance ability but they can't be transferred mid-combat.

 

 

[Boeroer]

There is only "instant" stuff like Watchful Presence that triggers as soon as you drop below a certain threshold.

 

Besides that it's way better to either anticipate who will get hit a lot and cast a healing over time in advance (Lay on Hands, Moonwell and so on) or to use passive healing that doesn't need to be triggered at all (Ancient Memory, Exalted Endurance etc.).

[Gromnir]

What do you think is the fastest and best way to heal a single target? My common problem in combat is that a enemies for one reason or another like to shoot a single target or one dude just gets in trouble and needs healing like immediately. Even if the cast time is like 0.4 seconds it often isn't enough. Quite frankly, almost all healing abilities take like 1 second by default, making them equally useless. And often my characters are already under recovery time.

 

So are there any instant healing spells or ways to save someone from dying? The most useful thing I've found so far are items with second chance ability but they can't be transferred mid-combat.

given the efficacy o' heals, some o' the longer cast times seem warranted.  then again, restore is a tier 1 aoe ability with a base half-second cast?  am not certain how fast a cast you are expecting.  there is chanter phrases and paladin auras which require no cast time if you prefer, but priestly holy radiance and restore is low-level heal staples which is, relative speaking, fast-cast. more powerful and enduring heals tend to have longer cast times, which is, in our opinion, a good way to balance heals.  moonwell and consecrated ground have relative long durations to balance their lengthy cast times.  fair.  

 

nevertheless, am thinking the herald healer might be worthy o' your consideration if you want persistent heals w/o casting times... coupled with a couple powerful cast heal abilities.  lay on hands variations have a half-second base cast, and provides a strong single-target heal.  am knowing some folks hate dying, but the reviving paladin abilities are also quick cast and provide a massive single health transfer. am admitting we never actual choose two-fingers of daylight, but is a quick invocation which provides restoration equivalent health to multiple allies.  these kinda cast heals work in addition to persistent healing auras and phrases.

 

but to the initial question, am s'posing the best way to technical "heal" a single target is with various resurrection abilities.  no single heal ability provides as much health as the resurrection stuff.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Enoch]

but to the initial question, am s'posing the best way to technical "heal" a single target is with various resurrection abilities.  no single heal ability provides as much health as the resurrection stuff.  

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Barring Death's Door is an infinite heal. 

[MaxQuest]

What do you think is the fastest and best way to heal a single target? My common problem in combat is that a enemies for one reason or another like to shoot a single target or one dude just gets in trouble and needs healing like immediately. Even if the cast time is like 0.4 seconds it often isn't enough

Shieldbearer's Lay on Hands)

 

But it's better to avoid getting that low in the first place.

Some enemies (in PoE1 for sure, and I guess in Deadfire too) are checking your current_hp/max_hp proportion, distance, if it's required to run to you, and if they are already engaged, and with all that data select the best fitting target. Against such enemies, they lower you get - the higher the chance to get focus fired.

Thus... heal preventively. For that purpose, I prefer lifegivers, kind wayfarers, moon godlikes...

Edited December 27, 2018 by MaxQuest

[Flucas]

Use the ai pre emptively. Ie:

 

A cheap long lasting heal over timeor a degensive spell at <75% target health. A decent heal over time at 50% and another one at 50% (both with a short non-repeat timer) Something insta at <25%.

 

Also second wind at 50 or 25%. And try to think of a class' own spells, like knockdowns or pushbacks.

[Marigoldran]

Put everyone in heavy armor.  Also, for striker get a monk or two.  Single class monks don't need recovery speed when they get Whispers of the Wind, which is where most of their damage comes from.  

 

They're also tanky as hell with Iron Wheel.  If the AI is going to focus the easiest to hit, you may as well use a class that benefits from it.  

Edited December 27, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

Single class monks are nice and all. But that doesn't mean you have to praise them in every single thread no matter if it fits or not. Seriously: you come up with two monks as strikers while the OP asks how to improve his healing.

 

"What's the best way to heal?"

"Take two single class monks as strikers because Whispers of the Wind and Iron Wheel are great. Also: Herald!"

 

Sweet sweaty Jesus...

Edited December 27, 2018 by Boeroer

[Climhazzard]

I like to use the Shield Bearer Herald, their sustained AoE healing is great and their single target healing is fast and powerful.  They can't heal themselves though so I usually have a secondary healer like Xoti or a Druid.

[McQuirk]

What do you think is the fastest and best way to heal a single target? My common problem in combat is that a enemies for one reason or another like to shoot a single target or one dude just gets in trouble and needs healing like immediately. Even if the cast time is like 0.4 seconds it often isn't enough. Quite frankly, almost all healing abilities take like 1 second by default, making them equally useless. And often my characters are already under recovery time.

 

So are there any instant healing spells or ways to save someone from dying? The most useful thing I've found so far are items with second chance ability but they can't be transferred mid-combat.

 

I'm wondering if your problem is not that you can't heal fast enough but that some other aspect of your strategy could be improved?  Perhaps you could be making better use of various "escape" abilities (e.g. smoke veil, shadowing step, dimensional shift, withdraw, barring death's door...), or things like leap, flagellant's path, charge, into the fray etc to get your strikers in there.  Abilities to break engagement e,g, mule kick, efficient anguish, skyward kick, clear the path, out of the fire... There are loads of ways to avoid characters being focussed down, it's just a question of figuring out how to use your squad as a coherent whole.

 

To answer your question, potions and scrolls of major and miraculous healing are useful to get you out of a tight spot.  Pre-emptive heal-over-time spells: Moonwell, Consecrated Ground, Symbol of Eothas, and paladin and chanter abilities.  Also you can get a seriously large radius heal from Minor Intercession or use spell shaping to get a smaller radius but more powerful version.  Greater Lay on Hands, a large single-target heal but the range is pretty short.

 

Death prevention: barring death's door is the spell you want, or withdraw for emergencies (scrolls again).  

 

There are other tactics too - a fighter with refreshing defense and Charge, always enter combat from stealth, fighter goes in and tanks while the party buff themselves in stealth mode.  Once the buffs are up, the rest of the squad can get stuck in.  You can start most fights this way and it's a great way to draw the attention to your tank.

 

I dunno dude, like heals are a sort of emergency measure for me - I kinda feel like if you're relying solely on healing to keep your squad in the fight, you're missing out on a whole toolbox of other strategies.

[Marigoldran]

Well, the author WAS asking about how to keep his strikers alive, and the simplest answer is:

 

Use monks 'cuz they're the tankiest ones of all. 

 

And heal them with heralds.  

 

The AI always targets your easiest-to-kill characters, so the counter to that is to make EVERYONE A TANK.  High-level monks don't need recovery speed to do damage because of Whispers of the Wind, so you can put monks in heavy armor making them tankier than the other DPS options like Rogues or Barbs, which DO need to wear ight or medium armor to do their damage. My point is that instead of just thinking "how do I heal my squishies," a better idea would be to think: "how would I make my squisihes less squishy, but still effective at damage?" 

 

And the answer is: THE SINGLE NO-SUBCLASS MONK. They do a ton of damage and they're incredibly non-squishy and they're amazingly noob-friendly, just like heralds.  

Edited December 28, 2018 by Marigoldran

[braab]

One minor tip Ive been using a lot in my PoTD runs is if you hover over each enemy the character they are targetings retical will change so you can identify who is about to get incoming damage.

 

It makes it easier to identify might need some pre-healing hots. Helps the most at the start of combat. Wish I could say I always remeber to do this but its all a learning curve.

 

Hope it helps and good luck!

[Haplok]

Well, the author WAS asking about how to keep his strikers alive, and the simplest answer is:

 

Use monks 'cuz they're the tankiest ones of all. 

 

And heal them with heralds.  

 

The AI always targets your easiest-to-kill characters, so the counter to that is to make EVERYONE A TANK.  High-level monks don't need recovery speed to do damage because of Whispers of the Wind, so you can put monks in heavy armor making them tankier than the other DPS options like Rogues or Barbs, which DO need to wear ight or medium armor to do their damage. My point is that instead of just thinking "how do I heal my squishies," a better idea would be to think: "how would I make my squisihes less squishy, but still effective at damage?" 

 

And the answer is: THE SINGLE NO-SUBCLASS MONK. They do a ton of damage and they're incredibly non-squishy and they're amazingly noob-friendly, just like heralds.

Because the OP will of course spam those Whispers of the Wind at levels 4-7, when the most difficult fights and most dangerous damage spikes happen. Low level monks aren't tanky at all. Not that great at damage either.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Haplok

[protopersona]

So is there a way to mute or hide a poster? Just curious...

[Boeroer]

You can go to your profile pagename-->My Settings-->Ignore Preferences.

 

But it's a pretty drastic move. I didn't use it on anybody yet. Most people come around at some point.

[msyoung]

What I don't see mentioned yet is that there are items that you can equip that will provide constant healing like the troll belt. The only monk I usually include is Xoti and I equip her with the Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff, mythic of course. This time, though, she is Contemplative.

[Flucas]

What I don't see mentioned yet is that there are items that you can equip that will provide constant healing like the troll belt. The only monk I usually include is Xoti and I equip her with the Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff, mythic of course. This time, though, she is Contemplative.

Yeah good point. Theres also troll hide cape, ring of regen, leandras devotion, blackened plate armor,fleshmender.. im probably missing a few.

 

And weapons that heal on crit; aldris blade, sanguine sword.

[hollerer]

I'm wondering if your problem is not that you can't heal fast enough but that some other aspect of your strategy could be improved?  Perhaps you could be making better use of various "escape" abilities (e.g. smoke veil, shadowing step, dimensional shift, withdraw, barring death's door...), or things like leap, flagellant's path, charge, into the fray etc to get your strikers in there.  Abilities to break engagement e,g, mule kick, efficient anguish, skyward kick, clear the path, out of the fire... There are loads of ways to avoid characters being focussed down, it's just a question of figuring out how to use your squad as a coherent whole.

 

I dunno dude, like heals are a sort of emergency measure for me - I kinda feel like if you're relying solely on healing to keep your squad in the fight, you're missing out on a whole toolbox of other strategies.

 

 

 

I guess I have to explain my strategy. Difficulty is path of the damned with level scaling, so there's a lot of enemies and they pretty much always hit and do a lot of damage. I have team of 2 rangers and 3 chanters, I rely heavily on summons because summons soak up a lot of damage and block the enemy. Maybe I just can't make a tank but I seriously hate big melee fights because of pathfinding, disengagement hits and getting stuck. So it's much handier to block the enemy with mass summons and focus fire targets with ranged.

 

I'm not saying I suck, I just want to be better. So sometimes my chars do get in trouble and they need healing right away. I mean big fights are chaotic, there might be several enemy spellcasters doing spells and I can't tell which spells they are and who they are targetting. So suddenly **** just hits the fan, some dude needs healing fast or he dies. I Used to have a priest with withdraw, but found out I hardly ever use it because I don't need it that often but almost every time I did need it, the target died even though the cast time was like less than second. And sometimes it got cast even though the character wouldn't have died and he ended up being rest of the battle in that healing bubble. When I need normal healing, I just use 3x ancient memory, second wind, move the character away and put more summons where he was. The chanter healing spell two beams of sunlight is surprisingly unrealiable by the way. No idea what's it like with spell shaping.

 

So my point was actually: is there a instant healing spell/items. Because there's a lot of things in the game and I don't know everything. Also If there was some way to just megabuff a priest so that he can cast spells in 0.1 seconds that'd work too.

[guildwriter]

No wonder you have so much trouble controlling fights.  Your team has no CC and no one who can use engagement to hold the AI in place.  One or two people with 3-4 engagement slots in the frontline should be all you need to hold down incoming meleers or to grab someone who leaps into the backline.  It's really important that you are able to control the characters that are responsible for holding engagement and placing them in ways to block access or provide support quickly to your backline.  I really recommend you make at least one character a dedicated tank complete with shield and plate.  Especially on PotD upscaled where everything gets +2 Pen and shreds as a result.

 

Summons are not a panacea.  Spells like Ryngarim's and Chill Fog etc are invaluable for keeping incoming damage predictable.  Defense in RPGs can generally be broken down into three legs of a stool: mitigation (healing), absorb/resistance, and avoidance.  The best approach usually has at least two legs and ideally all three.  You can survive with one leg, but it's not that stable.  Paralyze, Stuns, Blind, Terrify, etc. will make your life much easier.

 

You don't need more healing,  You need more diversity in your play style and tactics.  

Edited December 28, 2018 by guildwriter

[Marigoldran]

The answer to your problems is Tekehu:

 

Specifically, Moonwell (AOE heal that lasts a long time) and Chill Fog (which in Tekehu's case is Foe only).  

 

Multiclass your chanters with paladin and send them in first.  Or build your party in a way that it doesn't matter if one or two characters die.  

Edited December 28, 2018 by Marigoldran

[hollerer]

No wonder you have so much trouble controlling fights.  Your team has no CC and no one who can use engagement to hold the AI in place.

 

My 2 ghost wolves do that and later in battle, summons. Sometimes I don't even get hit in fights because the enemy is knee deep in summons. So like I said, I mostly don't have any problems.

 

And another reason I don't like CC characters is that they split the team. It's easier to control the team when it can move as one. Then all buffs and chanter abilities are always applied. If fight goes badly, I can just disband and leave the summons fighting. Grab some air and come back.

 

What I dislike about paralyze, blind and whatever else afflictions on enemies is that they are unreliable. I've found that most enemies that are vulnerable to those are easy to just kill. Enemies that are hard to kill are usually immune to those effects anyway. It's like that in all rpgs. In no rpg I know of you kill difficult enemies by stunlocking them immobile. And since it's always accuracy vs something roll, my accuracy with affliction abilities is usually like 30% so the ability is often wasted. And even if it hits, the duration isn't particularly long compared to the enemy's hit points. If there was a way to reliably parazyle an enemy for like 30 seconds and it always worked, then I would consider that good. I like reliable and universally applicable abilities. For example I think it's always much better to bless your own team than curse the enemy, because your own team is never immune to blessings and when you kill a single enemy, you lose the benefits of the curse.

 

Anyway, I'll try some priest multiclass with as high dexterity as possible to reduce cast time. 

[Frog Man]

The answer to your problems is Tekehu:

 

Specifically, Moonwell (AOE heal that lasts a long time) and Chill Fog (which in Tekehu's case is Foe only).

 

Multiclass your chanters with paladin and send them in first. Or build your party in a way that it doesn't matter if one or two characters die.

Have you tried single class monk?

[Boeroer]

ROFL.

 

To be fair: Tekehu is indeed great at both preventing DMG with his Chillfog and stuff and also good at healing with Moon's Light and Moonwell etc.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Boeroer

[Frog Man]

Yeah in my mind Tekehu is the only companion that is flat out better than even created characters. Love having him round out my teams as he can fill so many roles (even within the same battle!), heals, blinds, stubs, shield cracks, even AOE nukes with storms plus upgraded Lord Darryns Voulge.

 

PLUS YOU CAN HAVE SEX WITH HIM

[Flucas]

Yeah in my mind Tekehu is the only companion that is flat out better than even created characters. Love having him round out my teams as he can fill so many roles (even within the same battle!), heals, blinds, stubs, shield cracks, even AOE nukes with storms plus upgraded Lord Darryns Voulge.

 

PLUS YOU CAN HAVE SEX WITH HIM

 

I actually go out of my way to create a custom character who I cheat to be tekehu's classes - just so i dont have to deal with his gayness. For me, Obs did a horrible job with the new companions.

 

On topic; there are 6 types of afflictions (1 for each attribute and in 3 varieties of potency) and then a handfull of other usefull debuffs. They definitely make a large impact on your battles. Perhaps if your party comp relies less on summoning, you could see their potential more clearly.