Arcanist Done Right
Originally Published by Sausaletus Rex
Professions: Elementalist / Monk
If you’ve tried the ready made healing options this build will be familiar as it comes from the same base that the Arcane Healer does. However, it’s been updated and refined much more than a build designed to be played by thousands. If you’re looking for a healer that can keep healing until the cows come home look no further.
This build is for healing. Pure and simple, the idea is to pump out more healing than anyone can get through and to keep pumping it out as everyone else is running out of energy. Quick recharging, low energy cost skills are the order of the day because what other healers are going to achieve through brute force this build aims for with volume.
A high Energy Storage (You’ll want at least the Energy Storage headgear, the All Seeing Eye for a total of 13 and if you can find an Energy Storage Rune, so much the better. As a Monk I want as much health as possible for protection when I’m getting focused so I think the health hit for that extra +3 or +6 energy is a bit too much to bear so I wouldn’t use more than a Minor Energy Storage Rune for a total of 14.) and a decent focus puts you in the 70 to 80 energy range or more than double what everyone else should have. Combined with good energy management from the economic healing skills and cost reduction from Glyph of Lesser Energy that deep energy pool becomes a huge advantage. Yes, a primary Monk with high Divine Favor is going to heal for a good 30 or 40 more health than you are each and every cast but the point of this build is that while that primary Monk might be able to cast only 5 or 6 of those heals before relying on regeneration or the ubiquitous BiPer this character can easily keep casting, 4 pips of regen working the whole while. In an optimized PvP team, this character is going to be part of the healing base and is going to be laying down a constant stream of mid-level healing for minutes at a time before running into the ever-present energy crunch. The idea is volume or being able to keep that healing target not at full health but away from 0 health. The further away the better but it doesn’t matter how many hit points someone has as long as they’re not dead so there’s little practical difference between healing someone for 60 hp or 100 hp when they’re hurt for 80 damage. The difference comes when they keep getting hurt for 80 damage and that’s when it becomes a race between damage per second and healing per second and, again, the deep energy pool that lets this elmo keep casting helps turn that race into a marathon and gives them a greater chance for success. When you play this character you’re committing to healing
Of course, you’ve got plenty of tools available to be healing. Looking at the skill list you can tell it’s heavily biased towards healing. In fact, it’s all healing. The workhorses of that skill bar are going to be the first three skills. Word of Healing, Orison of Healing, and Healing Breeze. Word and Orison are both low-cost, fast cooldown, quick cast healing spells. WoH has a bit longer cooldown than Orison but you can pretty much use one while the other is recharging with very little downtime when you can’t cast either. WoH gets even better the less health your target has as it adds bonus healing if your target is below 50% health so if your target is below half health that’s the spell to cast first. Even without that both will heal for a good 60 health meaning with the 5 second recycle time for both you’re talking at least a healing per second at least in the 20s (How long you keep casting determines exactly what the HPS will be because of the desynchronization of Orison and WoH due to the differing recharge times. You’ll get 60 odd health every 3 seconds and another 60 every 5 seconds. After 15 seconds or 3 Words and 5 Orisons that’s nearly 500 health or 30 odd HPS. And that’s if you’re target stays above 50% health the whole time.) or more than enough to deal with any one attacker. Healing Breeze is there to help you out even more. Although it’s more costly than Word and Orison it’s still reasonably priced and it recharges fast enough that enchantment removal isn’t really a concern. You can put it on the target you’re healing to chip in another 18 health per second (It’ll be 9 pips of health regen for 10 seconds at a Healing of 9 and that’s good for 180 health over those 10 seconds) blunting the effect of damage on your target even more. Or you can use it to put on someone else taking damage, giving them a bit of relief while you concentrate on someone who’s really going to be in trouble if you don’t heal them and then come back to that secondary target once Breeze wears off. It’s also good to use to defend yourself in a similar manner. If you get in trouble yourself, throw up Breeze and spare the occasional Orison and you should be able to last a while. Remember that you can’t self-cast WoH so don’t bother with it and save it for someone else.
When that level of healing isn’t enough you’ve got Infuse Health for your panic button. A panic button is what a healer uses as a last ditch effort to keep someone from dying. It’s not something you’ll lose regularly because it’s either too costly or won’t work that often (both are true with Infuse, by the way) but when someone’s about to drop you’ll really be glad you have it. You’ll lose half your health and essentially transfer it to your target. If you’re near full health you’re talking about easily a 300 health heal and that should be enough to pull someone out of the fire for a few seconds at least. Cast a Breeze on yourself after you press the panic button and you’ll soon be able to do it all over again. Infuse Health is an instant recharge, so watch out that you don’t accidentally cast it more than once (something I’ve been known to do) and go from full health to a quarter health in the span of a few seconds. It’s also something you don’t want to cast when you’re getting focused at all because you obviously can’t cast it on yourself. Healing Seed you also can’t cast on yourself and is something that breaks the pattern of being low cost and short recharge but it’s more than worth it. It’s excellent for that target being focus fired healing them for a good 20 health or more each and every time they’re hit. Not only that it heals every friendly target around them so it’s an excellent counter to focus and AoE tactics. You won’t be able to run it all the time as you will with Healing Breeze but it’s there not to be used constantly but only when you really need it.
As for the cost, that’s what Glyph of Lesser Energy is for. It’ll drop the cost of your next spell by 15 energy for a cost of 5 energy and a few seconds of casting time. Forget it when time’s a factor but use it whenever you can to reduce your energy consumption. Use it before Healing Seed or Healing Breeze to turn those skills into much cheaper versions. Or, use it before a battle or when resting because it lasts for a good 30 seconds before fading you can cast it and then wait a few seconds to regenerate the cost and then be able to cast your first Word or Orison or Breeze without losing any energy, letting you save that 5 or 10 energy for when you really need it. And Restore Life is the all but required resurrection spell. This build is one developed through PvP and bringing someone up with a good chunk of health and, more importantly, full energy is too good to pass up there so it’s my rez of choice. Rezzing is not the first priority of a healer but it’s something that should be on every healer’s bar if only because of how much you’ll miss it if and when you need it so I seldom go without.
That’s seven skills and I select the eighth depending on what I or my party needs at the moment. If I’m with several other Monks who’re more diversified, some specializing in running buffs and others in removing the various nastiness on the battlefield, I’ll take another heal. Heal Other is my usual because it works well alongside of Word and Orison. It’s a big stick for healing but it’s also very expensive. When using it I’ll try and use the Glyph first or save it for when it’s really needed. If, on the other hand, the other Monks are more dedicated to healing, I’ll throw in something like Remove Hex or Purge Conditions so that there’s at least some stab at anti-hex or anti-condition on our team. Anti-hex is generally more important but being able to remove things like Dazed and Blindness is also pretty important. Purge Conditions is in an attribute line I’m not specializing in but I don’t’ worry about that as the point is not the healing that the Protection link provides but the removal of the conditions that I’m really taking it for. And, if I’m the only Monk on the team or our healing base is light, I’m going to look to defending myself much more than I would otherwise. I’ll take along a defensive buff or something like Aura of Restoration, in such a case. With the high Energy Storage, it’s a decent level of self-healing especially as I intend to be throwing out as many spells as I possibly can even if they’re not individually very costly.
The ability to heal well and heal fast and heal long is the main point of this build. It’s a character designed to set up casting and keep casting until the team is out of danger. The big, deep energy pool means that it can do so for a long time and means that this character is less dependant on a BiPer or another energy management character to keep healing. And, although not as good at individual heals as a primary Monk, it still has a very high healing output taken individually or over time. A wide variety of healing skills means that this build can cope with most scenarios because it has the means of avoiding the more general counters that would knock out a build relying on only healing spells or just on enchantments. It’s a character that specializes in healing and in the right hands will be able to find a way of healing its team in almost any case.
However, like any specialist it runs into the problem of over specialization. There’s not much beyond healing that this build will be good at, for one. And one look at the skill list reveals that anyone running such a build is really hoping that they don’t get targeted by a Mesmer or a Ranger. A quick casting build is very vulnerable to things like Backfire or Scourge Healing because you’re going to hurt yourself a lot in a short space of time. Quick cast spells make being Dazed by Concussion Shot or nailed by Disrupting Chop a bit harder because with luck you’ll be able to finish casting by the times those skills land. Not all the time but you’ll have a better chance with the 1 and less second cast times here than you would with things like Heal Area and other longer casting times. Energy denial will hurt as it’s taking away your advantage of massive energy stores but with those massive stores you’re less likely to be completely wiped out even by a good Power Leak. The real danger for a Mesmer interrupt is Power Block which if it hits you casting one of your heals will lock out all your skills from Healing Prayers. Since that’s pretty much all of the skills this character has, that takes you well out of the fight for an excrutiatingly long time. This character is extremely vulnerable to the sort of tactics that teams like to use to disrupt another team’s healing base. You can be prepared for it but you can’t completely avoid being disrupted.
Like all dedicated Monks you’re hanging a big target on your back. The other team is going to want to squash you and squash you flat. And like all Monks the character on your team you’re least able to defend is yourself. You can’t target yourself with Word or Seed and Orison and Breeze make for nice self-healing but they’re going to buckle under a concerted focused fire effort. You’ll last longer but if the other team targets you en masse you’re in trouble. Still, that’s why you have more than one Monk on your team. Hopefully they can keep you protected and alive while you’re being focused and you can do the same for them should it come to that.
And although this character is designed to spend a long time away from the energy crunch state it’s still lying in wait there. If you get Power Leaked and Energy Drained and more you’ll be out of energy just like everyone else. And even if you don’t you can and will eventually run low if you keep casting. Once you’ve burnt through the initial large store of energy you’re stuck with the same regeneration as every other Monk and you’ve lost any advantage you had. So although you’re less dependant on getting a BiP and can last a lot longer than everyone else – It’s not just that you start with more energy it’s that your larger energy gives you more time to regain the energy you’ve lost while you keep casting, too – you’re not immune to the concerns of energy management and will occasionally need an energy boost, especially if you’re in a tough fight.
Although optimized for PvP play, specifically the Tombs, this character can work just as well in other situations. Disruption is the biggest problem for this character and disruption is generally less prevalent in PvE. The long-distance healing this sort of character provides is less important when faced with a series of battles rather than one, fierce, pitched one but who’s going to pass up the raw healing power a dedicated Monk can provide? A few minor changes, such as swapping Restore Life for the more PvE friendly Rebirth and perhaps respeccing a bit less Energy Storage for some Protection – dropping to Energy Storage 10 means you’ll have 42 AP to sink into something other than ES or Healing, that’s good enough for a rank of 8 in Protection or anything else you might want – along with some changes to your tactics and this character will work well in a mission setting. Altering it further, you could include more Protection skills, buffs or anti-hex or condition. As long as you keep that spam-friendly core of Orison, Word of Healing, and Breeze, you won’t be too uncomfortable.
Shifting to Protection can also be done if your team needs not a dedicated Monk but the third of fourth Monk in a healing base. That lets you couple things like Remove Hex, Purge Conditions, and more, as well as perhaps Vengeance or another more situational resurrect to compliment the other Monks on your team. Covering some gaps, being able to plug some holes they leave open, as well as being able to chip in with healing when needed. This also leave you less vulnerable to the Power Block problem as your skill bar won’t be dedicated to one singular attribute.
One change I don’t recommend is to try and include some damage. Adding Fire Storm or Flare or things like that sounds nice in principle - you’ll be able to do something more than just heal and that’s a nice things to be sure - and you should have more than enough energy to spare for the occasional offensive volley. However, unlike most other roles healing is absolutely vital. As long as the battle is being contested there’s going to be healing to be done. And time spent following a target and using offensive skills is time spent away from that crucial task. When healing becomes unimportant is before engaging or in mop-up time, the time when the enemy is broken and it’s just a matter of time until they lose. Before engaging the enemy you don’t need to heal because no one’s hurt, but you’re also out of range to be doing any damage and after the initial engagement you’ll want to be recovering as much damage as possible. As for mop-up time, your team has won at that point, so who cares how the mop-up is done, your character doesn’t need to be involved then beyond the chip damage of a decent wand. The rest of the time you’ll be too hard pressed to find the time to tear away from the health bars of your team to worry about the other team's. It can be done but, personally, I find it too chaotic and difficult to split my attention and energy in so many different, conflicting directions.
If you’ve tried the ready made healing options this build will be familiar as it comes from the same base that the Arcane Healer does. However, it’s been updated and refined much more than a build designed to be played by thousands. If you’re looking for a healer that can keep healing until the cows come home look no further.
Gear | ||||||||
|
This build is for healing. Pure and simple, the idea is to pump out more healing than anyone can get through and to keep pumping it out as everyone else is running out of energy. Quick recharging, low energy cost skills are the order of the day because what other healers are going to achieve through brute force this build aims for with volume.
A high Energy Storage (You’ll want at least the Energy Storage headgear, the All Seeing Eye for a total of 13 and if you can find an Energy Storage Rune, so much the better. As a Monk I want as much health as possible for protection when I’m getting focused so I think the health hit for that extra +3 or +6 energy is a bit too much to bear so I wouldn’t use more than a Minor Energy Storage Rune for a total of 14.) and a decent focus puts you in the 70 to 80 energy range or more than double what everyone else should have. Combined with good energy management from the economic healing skills and cost reduction from Glyph of Lesser Energy that deep energy pool becomes a huge advantage. Yes, a primary Monk with high Divine Favor is going to heal for a good 30 or 40 more health than you are each and every cast but the point of this build is that while that primary Monk might be able to cast only 5 or 6 of those heals before relying on regeneration or the ubiquitous BiPer this character can easily keep casting, 4 pips of regen working the whole while. In an optimized PvP team, this character is going to be part of the healing base and is going to be laying down a constant stream of mid-level healing for minutes at a time before running into the ever-present energy crunch. The idea is volume or being able to keep that healing target not at full health but away from 0 health. The further away the better but it doesn’t matter how many hit points someone has as long as they’re not dead so there’s little practical difference between healing someone for 60 hp or 100 hp when they’re hurt for 80 damage. The difference comes when they keep getting hurt for 80 damage and that’s when it becomes a race between damage per second and healing per second and, again, the deep energy pool that lets this elmo keep casting helps turn that race into a marathon and gives them a greater chance for success. When you play this character you’re committing to healing
Of course, you’ve got plenty of tools available to be healing. Looking at the skill list you can tell it’s heavily biased towards healing. In fact, it’s all healing. The workhorses of that skill bar are going to be the first three skills. Word of Healing, Orison of Healing, and Healing Breeze. Word and Orison are both low-cost, fast cooldown, quick cast healing spells. WoH has a bit longer cooldown than Orison but you can pretty much use one while the other is recharging with very little downtime when you can’t cast either. WoH gets even better the less health your target has as it adds bonus healing if your target is below 50% health so if your target is below half health that’s the spell to cast first. Even without that both will heal for a good 60 health meaning with the 5 second recycle time for both you’re talking at least a healing per second at least in the 20s (How long you keep casting determines exactly what the HPS will be because of the desynchronization of Orison and WoH due to the differing recharge times. You’ll get 60 odd health every 3 seconds and another 60 every 5 seconds. After 15 seconds or 3 Words and 5 Orisons that’s nearly 500 health or 30 odd HPS. And that’s if you’re target stays above 50% health the whole time.) or more than enough to deal with any one attacker. Healing Breeze is there to help you out even more. Although it’s more costly than Word and Orison it’s still reasonably priced and it recharges fast enough that enchantment removal isn’t really a concern. You can put it on the target you’re healing to chip in another 18 health per second (It’ll be 9 pips of health regen for 10 seconds at a Healing of 9 and that’s good for 180 health over those 10 seconds) blunting the effect of damage on your target even more. Or you can use it to put on someone else taking damage, giving them a bit of relief while you concentrate on someone who’s really going to be in trouble if you don’t heal them and then come back to that secondary target once Breeze wears off. It’s also good to use to defend yourself in a similar manner. If you get in trouble yourself, throw up Breeze and spare the occasional Orison and you should be able to last a while. Remember that you can’t self-cast WoH so don’t bother with it and save it for someone else.
When that level of healing isn’t enough you’ve got Infuse Health for your panic button. A panic button is what a healer uses as a last ditch effort to keep someone from dying. It’s not something you’ll lose regularly because it’s either too costly or won’t work that often (both are true with Infuse, by the way) but when someone’s about to drop you’ll really be glad you have it. You’ll lose half your health and essentially transfer it to your target. If you’re near full health you’re talking about easily a 300 health heal and that should be enough to pull someone out of the fire for a few seconds at least. Cast a Breeze on yourself after you press the panic button and you’ll soon be able to do it all over again. Infuse Health is an instant recharge, so watch out that you don’t accidentally cast it more than once (something I’ve been known to do) and go from full health to a quarter health in the span of a few seconds. It’s also something you don’t want to cast when you’re getting focused at all because you obviously can’t cast it on yourself. Healing Seed you also can’t cast on yourself and is something that breaks the pattern of being low cost and short recharge but it’s more than worth it. It’s excellent for that target being focus fired healing them for a good 20 health or more each and every time they’re hit. Not only that it heals every friendly target around them so it’s an excellent counter to focus and AoE tactics. You won’t be able to run it all the time as you will with Healing Breeze but it’s there not to be used constantly but only when you really need it.
As for the cost, that’s what Glyph of Lesser Energy is for. It’ll drop the cost of your next spell by 15 energy for a cost of 5 energy and a few seconds of casting time. Forget it when time’s a factor but use it whenever you can to reduce your energy consumption. Use it before Healing Seed or Healing Breeze to turn those skills into much cheaper versions. Or, use it before a battle or when resting because it lasts for a good 30 seconds before fading you can cast it and then wait a few seconds to regenerate the cost and then be able to cast your first Word or Orison or Breeze without losing any energy, letting you save that 5 or 10 energy for when you really need it. And Restore Life is the all but required resurrection spell. This build is one developed through PvP and bringing someone up with a good chunk of health and, more importantly, full energy is too good to pass up there so it’s my rez of choice. Rezzing is not the first priority of a healer but it’s something that should be on every healer’s bar if only because of how much you’ll miss it if and when you need it so I seldom go without.
That’s seven skills and I select the eighth depending on what I or my party needs at the moment. If I’m with several other Monks who’re more diversified, some specializing in running buffs and others in removing the various nastiness on the battlefield, I’ll take another heal. Heal Other is my usual because it works well alongside of Word and Orison. It’s a big stick for healing but it’s also very expensive. When using it I’ll try and use the Glyph first or save it for when it’s really needed. If, on the other hand, the other Monks are more dedicated to healing, I’ll throw in something like Remove Hex or Purge Conditions so that there’s at least some stab at anti-hex or anti-condition on our team. Anti-hex is generally more important but being able to remove things like Dazed and Blindness is also pretty important. Purge Conditions is in an attribute line I’m not specializing in but I don’t’ worry about that as the point is not the healing that the Protection link provides but the removal of the conditions that I’m really taking it for. And, if I’m the only Monk on the team or our healing base is light, I’m going to look to defending myself much more than I would otherwise. I’ll take along a defensive buff or something like Aura of Restoration, in such a case. With the high Energy Storage, it’s a decent level of self-healing especially as I intend to be throwing out as many spells as I possibly can even if they’re not individually very costly.
The ability to heal well and heal fast and heal long is the main point of this build. It’s a character designed to set up casting and keep casting until the team is out of danger. The big, deep energy pool means that it can do so for a long time and means that this character is less dependant on a BiPer or another energy management character to keep healing. And, although not as good at individual heals as a primary Monk, it still has a very high healing output taken individually or over time. A wide variety of healing skills means that this build can cope with most scenarios because it has the means of avoiding the more general counters that would knock out a build relying on only healing spells or just on enchantments. It’s a character that specializes in healing and in the right hands will be able to find a way of healing its team in almost any case.
However, like any specialist it runs into the problem of over specialization. There’s not much beyond healing that this build will be good at, for one. And one look at the skill list reveals that anyone running such a build is really hoping that they don’t get targeted by a Mesmer or a Ranger. A quick casting build is very vulnerable to things like Backfire or Scourge Healing because you’re going to hurt yourself a lot in a short space of time. Quick cast spells make being Dazed by Concussion Shot or nailed by Disrupting Chop a bit harder because with luck you’ll be able to finish casting by the times those skills land. Not all the time but you’ll have a better chance with the 1 and less second cast times here than you would with things like Heal Area and other longer casting times. Energy denial will hurt as it’s taking away your advantage of massive energy stores but with those massive stores you’re less likely to be completely wiped out even by a good Power Leak. The real danger for a Mesmer interrupt is Power Block which if it hits you casting one of your heals will lock out all your skills from Healing Prayers. Since that’s pretty much all of the skills this character has, that takes you well out of the fight for an excrutiatingly long time. This character is extremely vulnerable to the sort of tactics that teams like to use to disrupt another team’s healing base. You can be prepared for it but you can’t completely avoid being disrupted.
Like all dedicated Monks you’re hanging a big target on your back. The other team is going to want to squash you and squash you flat. And like all Monks the character on your team you’re least able to defend is yourself. You can’t target yourself with Word or Seed and Orison and Breeze make for nice self-healing but they’re going to buckle under a concerted focused fire effort. You’ll last longer but if the other team targets you en masse you’re in trouble. Still, that’s why you have more than one Monk on your team. Hopefully they can keep you protected and alive while you’re being focused and you can do the same for them should it come to that.
And although this character is designed to spend a long time away from the energy crunch state it’s still lying in wait there. If you get Power Leaked and Energy Drained and more you’ll be out of energy just like everyone else. And even if you don’t you can and will eventually run low if you keep casting. Once you’ve burnt through the initial large store of energy you’re stuck with the same regeneration as every other Monk and you’ve lost any advantage you had. So although you’re less dependant on getting a BiP and can last a lot longer than everyone else – It’s not just that you start with more energy it’s that your larger energy gives you more time to regain the energy you’ve lost while you keep casting, too – you’re not immune to the concerns of energy management and will occasionally need an energy boost, especially if you’re in a tough fight.
Although optimized for PvP play, specifically the Tombs, this character can work just as well in other situations. Disruption is the biggest problem for this character and disruption is generally less prevalent in PvE. The long-distance healing this sort of character provides is less important when faced with a series of battles rather than one, fierce, pitched one but who’s going to pass up the raw healing power a dedicated Monk can provide? A few minor changes, such as swapping Restore Life for the more PvE friendly Rebirth and perhaps respeccing a bit less Energy Storage for some Protection – dropping to Energy Storage 10 means you’ll have 42 AP to sink into something other than ES or Healing, that’s good enough for a rank of 8 in Protection or anything else you might want – along with some changes to your tactics and this character will work well in a mission setting. Altering it further, you could include more Protection skills, buffs or anti-hex or condition. As long as you keep that spam-friendly core of Orison, Word of Healing, and Breeze, you won’t be too uncomfortable.
Shifting to Protection can also be done if your team needs not a dedicated Monk but the third of fourth Monk in a healing base. That lets you couple things like Remove Hex, Purge Conditions, and more, as well as perhaps Vengeance or another more situational resurrect to compliment the other Monks on your team. Covering some gaps, being able to plug some holes they leave open, as well as being able to chip in with healing when needed. This also leave you less vulnerable to the Power Block problem as your skill bar won’t be dedicated to one singular attribute.
One change I don’t recommend is to try and include some damage. Adding Fire Storm or Flare or things like that sounds nice in principle - you’ll be able to do something more than just heal and that’s a nice things to be sure - and you should have more than enough energy to spare for the occasional offensive volley. However, unlike most other roles healing is absolutely vital. As long as the battle is being contested there’s going to be healing to be done. And time spent following a target and using offensive skills is time spent away from that crucial task. When healing becomes unimportant is before engaging or in mop-up time, the time when the enemy is broken and it’s just a matter of time until they lose. Before engaging the enemy you don’t need to heal because no one’s hurt, but you’re also out of range to be doing any damage and after the initial engagement you’ll want to be recovering as much damage as possible. As for mop-up time, your team has won at that point, so who cares how the mop-up is done, your character doesn’t need to be involved then beyond the chip damage of a decent wand. The rest of the time you’ll be too hard pressed to find the time to tear away from the health bars of your team to worry about the other team's. It can be done but, personally, I find it too chaotic and difficult to split my attention and energy in so many different, conflicting directions.
MMO Guru Network
