Teepster
01-13-2009, 08:22 PM
Warning: This is not a funny post. =( I am getting serious about my RK so I thought I would put up a more practical post.
I have been working with Staniel over the last few days and noticed a change in the way that she interacts with me. I wanted to note these changes because it might confirm a few suspicions that you might already know about Rune-Keepers.
Healing and stuff:
1. A competent RK can deal notable damage or heal their fellowship comfortably. One facet of play that separates a good RK from an excellent one is their ability to switch in the midst of battle from one branch of attunement to another. This is part of the art of playing an RK. Now that we have that established, please note the following: When possible, it is always best to let your RK friend know when you want them on heal duty vs. battle duty. Therefore, the assumption should always be that the RK is dpsing and that you will just mention before the pull if you want your RK to be prepared to heal. While it is true that a skilled RK should be able to switch on the fly, it is similarly true that a good fellowship will always mitigate surprises when it is easy to do so. Consequently, Staniel will generally mutter heal duty if she is going for a big pull. That minimizes the stress of me having to switch attunement.
2. It is quicker to attune for battle than for healing. As a supplement to the point above, please note that if an RK first starts off fighting, they will quickly move up the battle meter in seconds. Many fighting skills have little or no induction and we are practiced in dealing out significant damage quickly due to our solo experiences. Even if the fight goes on for 10 seconds, you figure that it will take some time and focus to get back to healing if an emergency happens. 10 seconds is forever when a health bar is less than 50%. So, again, while we can likely switch attunements faster than 10 sec, it still helps to let your RK know if you expect a need for their healing ahead of time.
3. Like battle effects, healing takes time to build to sufficient effectives. There are two reasons for this:
a. Attunement – some skills increase in effectiveness as you are further attuned.
b. Tiers – Some heals increase in effectiveness when a second HOT of the same type is laid on top of the first. It is typical for full effectiveness to be reached in 3 tiers. 3 Tiers with a few seconds cooldown means that you would not see significant healing effects for the first 5-10 seconds of a fight. This also assumes that you are the only one being healed by the RK. Receiving significant heals could take longer if other people in the fellowship are also being healed.
4. RK fellowship healing works best if Aggro is managed well. As noted below, we need to layer our HOTs on the tank and if we are constantly spamming HOTs on other group members, then everyone is getting a tier 1 heal and no one is getting a tier 3.
5. If an RK tells you to die, then DIE. RKs have a skill that will auto-rez you if you are defeated. Therefore, if it is cast upon you, there is no need to panic, waste pots or cooldowns. Just die and come back ready to fight.
a. The skill is Do Not Fall This Day
b. When cast, the group member has 30 seconds to die
c. The cooldown on the spell is 15 minutes.
d. When you rez, you rez next to the RK and NOT at the spot you died.
e. We can NOT cast it on ourselves.
6. RKs have a poison and wound debuff. Although with experimentation they appear limited in utility. When either skill is up (I am assuming poison), it is up on the entire fellowship. It will prevent the next poison attack that hits you. If you already have a poison effect on you when the skill goes up, it will remove one poison effect as well. The down side is that the skill has a 1 min cooldown. So, if you get hit with another poison effect in rapid succession, you are out of luck. This is one of those it is better than nothing skills.
7. We can not rez in combat.
8. We can rez out of combat as much as we like.
What we are not so good at:
A. Tanking. It is no mystery and I am sure you have heard by now: we are seriously squishy and die pretty quickly. We have one stun that can help buy time (5-10 seconds base/10-20 seconds traited) if we have aggro. But if we have two (of even one) mob on us, it would be prudent to grab that aggro back quickly.
B. Fast fights. It takes time for us to build up to anything. We contribute but not spectacularly when the fights are less than 15 seconds.
C. Direct Healing. We have no significant direct heal that can be used in a pinch. Consequently, if it hits the fan and the minstrel is down, things start getting really exciting. As mentioned above, it is worse if we are not properly attuned.
D. AOE Damage. We suck if the whole fellowship is hit with damage. There is not only a chance that we will die, but our healing becomes far less effective when spread thin.
E. Healing under duress. There is almost no such thing. Many of our heals take induction times and as I mentioned above, we are squishy. I am not saying we are simply dead, I am just saying that we are not built to withstand long bouts of aggro while healing. I have a 50 Minstrel and it is my honest opinion that I can heal better while being hit on my minstrel than I can on my RK. In fact, it is not even close.
Where we excel:
I. Long fights. If a fight takes longer than 30 seconds, it is my current opinion that we will out dps any other class (except Hunter) in single target fights [THIS IS PERSONAL OPINION AND POSSIBLY EPEEN. YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE IT AS GOSPEL]. The constant layering of DOTs supplemented by fully attuned DD is impressive. When I single target, signatures, the fights are fairly easy despite my squishyness. Once I layer three DOTs (and this is without a capping skill which really sets the guy on fire), I simply assume the fight is over. I will post numbers later. But, keep in mind that while DOTs are running, I am also hitting the enemy with direct damage spells at a fair clip. Moreover, I can also go buck wild and throw a second class of DOT from my cold branch when my hands are free and the fight is long.
II. Healing 1-2 allies. As mentioned above, if we have only 2 members to heal, it is manageable. But, it is my experience that if we have 1 ally we are focusing on, then their health bar almost never goes down in a regular fight and stays pretty much full in most battles.
These are just a few notes I wanted to put out there since many people still ask me questions about my healing and are surprised at what I can and can not do. Moreover, I noticed that my questing with Stan has been seamless because she recognizes most of these points and knows how to approach our battles accordingly (which means she pretty much tells me to get into heal mode when a pull may be hairy).
Please let me know if you find something that needs to be corrected.
Teep
I have been working with Staniel over the last few days and noticed a change in the way that she interacts with me. I wanted to note these changes because it might confirm a few suspicions that you might already know about Rune-Keepers.
Healing and stuff:
1. A competent RK can deal notable damage or heal their fellowship comfortably. One facet of play that separates a good RK from an excellent one is their ability to switch in the midst of battle from one branch of attunement to another. This is part of the art of playing an RK. Now that we have that established, please note the following: When possible, it is always best to let your RK friend know when you want them on heal duty vs. battle duty. Therefore, the assumption should always be that the RK is dpsing and that you will just mention before the pull if you want your RK to be prepared to heal. While it is true that a skilled RK should be able to switch on the fly, it is similarly true that a good fellowship will always mitigate surprises when it is easy to do so. Consequently, Staniel will generally mutter heal duty if she is going for a big pull. That minimizes the stress of me having to switch attunement.
2. It is quicker to attune for battle than for healing. As a supplement to the point above, please note that if an RK first starts off fighting, they will quickly move up the battle meter in seconds. Many fighting skills have little or no induction and we are practiced in dealing out significant damage quickly due to our solo experiences. Even if the fight goes on for 10 seconds, you figure that it will take some time and focus to get back to healing if an emergency happens. 10 seconds is forever when a health bar is less than 50%. So, again, while we can likely switch attunements faster than 10 sec, it still helps to let your RK know if you expect a need for their healing ahead of time.
3. Like battle effects, healing takes time to build to sufficient effectives. There are two reasons for this:
a. Attunement – some skills increase in effectiveness as you are further attuned.
b. Tiers – Some heals increase in effectiveness when a second HOT of the same type is laid on top of the first. It is typical for full effectiveness to be reached in 3 tiers. 3 Tiers with a few seconds cooldown means that you would not see significant healing effects for the first 5-10 seconds of a fight. This also assumes that you are the only one being healed by the RK. Receiving significant heals could take longer if other people in the fellowship are also being healed.
4. RK fellowship healing works best if Aggro is managed well. As noted below, we need to layer our HOTs on the tank and if we are constantly spamming HOTs on other group members, then everyone is getting a tier 1 heal and no one is getting a tier 3.
5. If an RK tells you to die, then DIE. RKs have a skill that will auto-rez you if you are defeated. Therefore, if it is cast upon you, there is no need to panic, waste pots or cooldowns. Just die and come back ready to fight.
a. The skill is Do Not Fall This Day
b. When cast, the group member has 30 seconds to die
c. The cooldown on the spell is 15 minutes.
d. When you rez, you rez next to the RK and NOT at the spot you died.
e. We can NOT cast it on ourselves.
6. RKs have a poison and wound debuff. Although with experimentation they appear limited in utility. When either skill is up (I am assuming poison), it is up on the entire fellowship. It will prevent the next poison attack that hits you. If you already have a poison effect on you when the skill goes up, it will remove one poison effect as well. The down side is that the skill has a 1 min cooldown. So, if you get hit with another poison effect in rapid succession, you are out of luck. This is one of those it is better than nothing skills.
7. We can not rez in combat.
8. We can rez out of combat as much as we like.
What we are not so good at:
A. Tanking. It is no mystery and I am sure you have heard by now: we are seriously squishy and die pretty quickly. We have one stun that can help buy time (5-10 seconds base/10-20 seconds traited) if we have aggro. But if we have two (of even one) mob on us, it would be prudent to grab that aggro back quickly.
B. Fast fights. It takes time for us to build up to anything. We contribute but not spectacularly when the fights are less than 15 seconds.
C. Direct Healing. We have no significant direct heal that can be used in a pinch. Consequently, if it hits the fan and the minstrel is down, things start getting really exciting. As mentioned above, it is worse if we are not properly attuned.
D. AOE Damage. We suck if the whole fellowship is hit with damage. There is not only a chance that we will die, but our healing becomes far less effective when spread thin.
E. Healing under duress. There is almost no such thing. Many of our heals take induction times and as I mentioned above, we are squishy. I am not saying we are simply dead, I am just saying that we are not built to withstand long bouts of aggro while healing. I have a 50 Minstrel and it is my honest opinion that I can heal better while being hit on my minstrel than I can on my RK. In fact, it is not even close.
Where we excel:
I. Long fights. If a fight takes longer than 30 seconds, it is my current opinion that we will out dps any other class (except Hunter) in single target fights [THIS IS PERSONAL OPINION AND POSSIBLY EPEEN. YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE IT AS GOSPEL]. The constant layering of DOTs supplemented by fully attuned DD is impressive. When I single target, signatures, the fights are fairly easy despite my squishyness. Once I layer three DOTs (and this is without a capping skill which really sets the guy on fire), I simply assume the fight is over. I will post numbers later. But, keep in mind that while DOTs are running, I am also hitting the enemy with direct damage spells at a fair clip. Moreover, I can also go buck wild and throw a second class of DOT from my cold branch when my hands are free and the fight is long.
II. Healing 1-2 allies. As mentioned above, if we have only 2 members to heal, it is manageable. But, it is my experience that if we have 1 ally we are focusing on, then their health bar almost never goes down in a regular fight and stays pretty much full in most battles.
These are just a few notes I wanted to put out there since many people still ask me questions about my healing and are surprised at what I can and can not do. Moreover, I noticed that my questing with Stan has been seamless because she recognizes most of these points and knows how to approach our battles accordingly (which means she pretty much tells me to get into heal mode when a pull may be hairy).
Please let me know if you find something that needs to be corrected.
Teep