SWTOR launched with a single PVP bracket for warzones that spans levels 10-50.
Viewers of my YouTube videos have posted comments similar to this one:
Wait if your level 18 in PvP why is there a level 50? Or is there a way that they even up the fight
SWTOR implements a Bolster PVP mechanic to help lowbies compete with higher-level opponents.
Here’s how Bolster works:
Bolster scales your damage / healing tooltips to level 49
Bolster scales your stats to level 49
Bolster does not provide the talent points that a sub-50 would have earned by 49
Bolster does not provide new abilities that are not trainable until a higher level
Does Bolster provide parity for lowbies against higher-level opponents? No, but it does help to minimize the gap and help lowbies to be competitive if not equal.
An interesting implication of #2 is that a low-level player who is geared in solid greens and blues for their level can hit hard in PVP. I’ve put up 200k damage with various RDPS classes at levels 10-12 in PUGs while focusing on winning the match not padding my stats. On an early Sniper stream, I delivered ~9k damage with 3 abilities thanks to crits.
If you keep the same gear across levels, you’ll find that your damage / healing decreases as your level increases. Bolster takes your current stats and scales them as if you were level 50. As such, a level 15 player in 13-15 greens and blues hits harder than a level 40 player in 30 greens for the same ability, assuming it’s not talented (e.g. the armor ignore talent for Powertech / Vanguard in the Advanced Prototype / Tactics tree). Therefore it’s important to keep your gear relatively up-to-date. The other thing to consider is that as classes level up, they gain abilities that provide utility, e.g. CC, buffs, debuffs, etc. What I’ve found as I’ve leveled up my Bounty Hunter Powertech and Trooper Vanguard is that I spend a lower % of GCDs for damage abilities compared to other abilities. While your abilities may hit or heal for less at higher levels, this is more than offset by the increase in utility and survivability gained with talents and abilities.
In addition, from a stats perspective, level 50 characters have access to level 50 PVP gear, which has the PVP stat Expertise. Expertise increases damage / healing and reduces damage takent in PVP, and the stat is not available on lower-level gear. This is a significant advantage for level 50s over level 10s.
In my opinion 10-49 should be one bracket and 50 should be a separate bracket. As I discussed in my streams during Beta, the last thing I want is to face level 10 players when I’m level 50 – it would be unchallenging.
Per the recent Best Buy Dev Chat, BioWare said they’ll be putting level 50s in a separate bracket:
Guest-346: In regards to PvP, are you guys planning on bracketing off level 50′s in warzones once there is a high population of them?
Gaming-BBY: >>Gabe: Yes, stay tuned for a Developer’s Blog with more on this and other PvP features coming soon.
When 50s are moved into their own bracket, I think having 10-49 all together will be fine.
On a related topic, the red buffs in warzones do provide +15% Expertise, so even if you are below level 50 you benefit from getting the buff.
UPDATE (2012/04/26): per the 1.2 tooltip for Bolster, the buff upscales players in 10-49 up to 49. Previously I had thought it bolstered players to 50.
UPDATE (2012/01/18): the level 50 PVP bracket for warzones was implemented in Patch 1.1. So there are now two brackets: 10-49 and 50. This is exactly what needed to happen.
This Guide discusses my M*A*S*H RIFT Cleric melee-healer spec, which blends the Justicar, Shaman, and Warden trees. This Guide has been updated for Patch 1.6.1.
Please post your feedback, tips, and questions!
Revision History
The first version of this Guide was posted on August 27, 2011. Here is the change log for recent revisions:
2011 December 22: updated for 1.6.1 and added link to Zibnik’s post on melee/spell and mitigation/avoidance mechanics
2011 November 12: updated note on Surging Rapids, per Errosion on the forums
2011 October 10: updated runes
2011 October 8: added videos for 1.5 and notes on Mien of Leadership
2011 October 4: removed Deluge from the healing macro, as it’s no longer part of the recommended M*A*S*H spec
2011 October 2: added note re: Hit reducing target’s chance to Parry and Block
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H) refers to an Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations.
The M*A*S*H healer is a highly-mobile, durable melee Cleric with strong AoE healing capability. This spec differs significantly from traditional Cleric healing specs in that it is not based on cast-time abilities.
I do not claim that this is the best PVP healer spec, but this spec supports a dynamic and different playstyle from traditional cookie-cutter Cleric specs.
Here is the 28 Justicar / 26 Shaman / 12 Warden spec:
I invested enough points in Justicar and Shaman to get the tree-defining abilities Reprieve (big burst heal) and Battle Charge (gap closer, snare/root remover), while still having enough points to reach Healing Flood (instant-cast AoE HoT) in Warden.
With the exception of the 3 filler points in Armor of Virtue, the remaining 25 points in Justicar provide value in PVP. For the Shaman tree, the 26 points synergize well with the mechanics of this spec and provide value in PVP.
With the investment in the Shaman tree, the spec has strong Crit mechanics, which synergizes with the talents Endless Winter, Light Makes Right and the passive healing buffs Salvation and Reparation. I do not use Crushing Blow or Massive Blow, because those abilities deal Physical damage and therefore do not generate Convictions. As such, I skip the talents in the Shaman tree that provide synergies and burst for Crushing Blow and Massive Blow.
The 12-point investment in Warden provides some excellent abilities, notably an instant-cast AoE HoT (Healing Flood), a knockback (Crushing Wave), a cleanse (Cleansing Waters), a snare/root remover (Dissolution), a heal booster (Tidal Surge), and a spammable ranged instant-cast attack (Waterjet). The Warden talent Surging Rapids boosts all instant-cast healing by 15% – including Doctrines, the Warden HoTs, etc.
Strengths
Terrific mobility. Battle Charge (26-pt Shaman ability) and Dissolution (11-pt Warden ability) remove all movement-impairing effects, and the vast majority of GCD abilities are instant-cast
Excellent instant-cast healing abilities, including an AoE HoT (Warden’s Healing Flood), an AoE heal (Justicar’s Doctrine of Loyalty), and a huge emergency heal in Justicar’s Reprieve
High durability, with 13% passive, non-dispellable mitigation (10% from Justicar’s Shield of Faith talent and 3% from Shaman Thick-Skinned talent), and at R6+ a combined 30+% boost to avoidance (Dodge + Parry)
Functional support DPS, via spammable melee and ranged attacks
Positional control via a ranged snare (Justicar’s 16-pt Humility) and Crushing Wave (Warden knockback ability)
Weaknesses
No CC breaker (e.g. Break Free in Templar), so there is no counter to control-based effects (fear, stun, etc).
No AOE mitigation, as provided by Sentinel’s Protect the Flock and Templar’s Reinforce. This weakness is partially mitigated by the fact that in many warfronts there is a friendly Sentinel-spec’d Cleric, and PtF and Reinforce from multiple Clerics do not stack
Limited single-target burst healing. Your single-target burst heals are Doctrine of Righteousness, which requires Righteous Mandate to be on the target, and Reprieve. Healing Current is an OK heal but does not have much upfront burst
While M*A*S*H is not a DPS spec, it does provide functional DPS and burst via Jolt procs and the high melee crit rate.
Honestly. Before anyone knocks this spec, read this guys guide on it, then when you feel you have a comfortable grasp on how this spec works, you have the macros installed, and you can take your mind away from what a traditional cleric is, go out and run this spec. With 1400 SP/700 crit and P6 gear I topped the healing charts ALL night long in addition to putting out some impressive DPS. I tweaked this spec just a smidge for survivability purposes as I like to think Im a warrior and rush right into ****, but thats ok because with this spec Im able to take a BEATING.
I thought I tried all of the possible mixes, and matches for Cleric, but I missed this one, and must thank you for a very well put together, and thought out guide, and spec. This is by far the most fun I have had as a cleric, and I will continue smashing faces, and healing friendlies with it.
Currently I use this as 1, just 1 of my PvP builds. I did grind to rank 7 in wf’s after wf’s, but tbh Warfronts are a lot of fun, and keeps me going in rift. I pug almost every warfront, and enjoy it feverishly. I’ve done the duracell, i’ve done the Inq/Cab/Ward, inq/cab/sent, INquisicar, Cablicar(not good synyergy fyi), Full cabalist, etc etc etc. This build imo, is amazingly FUN for pvp. Its a jack of all trades…And you can customize it to your liking.
This build should come with a “Terms of Use” policy. Dont hate it till you try it, and even then, you have to ensure that your “DOING IT RIGHT”. I provided this build to many many clerics on my server, few were willing to try it, those who did….are in love with it as well.
When we’re just pvping, I usually just log and wait till the raid starts, but yesterday decided to drop one of my raid roles and pick up this M*A*S*H. All I can say is THANK YOU! I had so much fun last night. Did Wf after Wf, pvp rift after pvp rift. I was top heals in every single WF at rank 3! I had survivability, mobility, and some dps to help out.
Can’t wait to get to rank 4 for the first time in months ; ).
Big thanks Taugrim, for the first time sins i dinged lvl 50 i´v enjoyed pvping as cleric, thing i´v tried every single build exept this one, either i die asap and DPS or heal great or the other way around, or i run out of mana, last 2 weeks i´v been running 28sent/12Inq/26just, works nice but boring as hell.
The biggest praise I can give this spec, is that it plays like I feel a Cleric should play. It’s not got overpowering DPS, but man does it have utility. You can feel your usefulness when you play this spec.
Before I found this spec, the only viable spec I found for world PvP was deep warden, and then all I would do is run away–hardly satisfying.
Thankfully, I’ve found the MASH spec, and although I do enjoy it as a healing build, where I think it really stands out, and where I think it hasn’t gotten nearly enough credit, is as a viable build for walking around a PvP server in. I no longer fear getting ganked by a rogue and dying before I can act, or having a ragestorm warrior kill me without even hurting him. I’m not saying I always win 1v1 vs an equally geared and skilled member of another class, but I do, finally, feel like I’m not a free kill out in the world any more, and for that, I want to say thank you very much!
4. PVP Videos
Videos listed in reverse-chronological order (most recent first).
Level 50 Rank 7, Patch 1.5
For more about the above video, please see the blog post about it.
Level 50 Rank 7, Patch 1.5
For more about the above video, please see the blog post about it.
Level 50 Rank 4, Patch 1.4.1
For more about the above video, please see the blog post about it.
Level 50 Rank 4, Patch 1.4
For more about the above video, please see the blog post about it.
Pre-Level 50 Videos
I’ve published Cleric PVP videos while leveling up to 50, so if you are looking for more tips for your Cleric while leveling up, the videos should be a helpful resource:
Dispels strip buffs in the order that they were applied, so you want to apply your least important buffs first. Cavalier and Mien of Honor, our 2 most important buffs, can not be dispelled. Therefore, I recommend the following order:
Cavalier
Mien of Honor
Vengeance of the Winter Storm
Heart of the Fire Mountain / Frozen Sea
Courage of the Eagle / Jaguar
Salvation
Reparation
By buffing in this order, you protect the 2 most important dispellable buffs, Salvation and Reparation, by layering less important buffs in front of them. You can swap Salvation and Reparation if desired.
Pre-Combat Preparation
Right before engaging in combat, it’s a good idea (mana permitting) to do the following:
Cast Glacial Shield (lasts 30 seconds, 30 second cooldown). Use Glacial Shield whenever it’s off cooldown, except for situations where you are saving it to bubble-cap a flag.
Pick an ally as your Righteous Mandate target. You can always put RM on another ally in-combat, but this way you have it set before going into combat. I often put it on another healer or a front-line melee
Cast Healing Spray on yourself
Cast Healing Flood
Mana and Conviction Management
When your mana is low, in most situations it’s recommended to pop both Purpose and Ageless Ice together, so that you can re-fill your mana bar with the fewest number of attack GCDs possible. This allows you to interleave some healing GCDs between those mana-generating attack GCDs. Battle Charge counts as a melee attack so if you have no nearby targets, you can pop Purpose and Ageless Ice together and then Battle Charge to a target to use as a mana battery.
Aside from mana, a M*A*S*H Cleric requires a steady stream of Convictions for Doctrine healing. Therefore, the only Shaman GCD ability that I use is Lightning Strike, which provides excellent damage and synergizes with Stormborn. Of course, the spec leverages the excellent Shaman off-GCD abilities Jolt, Fated Blow, and the self-heal Glory of the Chosen.
Use your ranged Life attacks to build Convictions as soon as possible, and rotate between Conviction-building GCD abilities and Doctrine abilities. Keep Healing Flood up as much as possible – while it is mana-intensive, it outputs excellent healing.
This spec has a cleanse, so make sure to remove critical debuffs, e.g. the Dominator Traitorous Influence, which will drain your mana when you use an ability.
Mobility and Positioning
With the M*A*S*H spec, you have tools to influence positioning, so use Humility, Battle Charge, Crushing Wave, and Dissolution as needed to control your mobility and position and those of your opponents. One of my favorite tactics in Codex is to get perpendicular to casters/healers on the outcropping at Codex and punt them down to the water below. If you are taking focus fire, kite back into your friendly lines and use LoS, covering your retreat with your snare, knockback, and movement-removing abilities. If you are newer to kiting, check out my Guide on that topic.
Try to keep enemy MDPS in front of you as much as possible, via strafing not backpedaling, especially when trying to gap them. As long as an opponent is in your 180 forward facing, you retain your ability to Parry, which is huge. If you are learning how to strafe, I highly recommend watching my Guide video.
PVP Tanking
In some situations, it’s worth switching from Mien of Honor to Mien of Leadership to gain the armor mitigation and higher max HP:
You are the FC and you are being healed by other Healer(s)
You are taking focus fire from multiple players, including Rogues/Warriors
You are soloing World PVP quests and want to start off with high HP in case you get jumped
You do lose the 50% Doctrine healing bonus from MoH when you use MoL, and in MoL your non-Justicar healing and damage are lowered by 40%, but in some cases MoL can be a lifesaver.
Single-Target Healing
For situations that require single-target healing (e.g. Black Garden FC), you should stack your HoTs on your ally, cast Healing Current, and if you have Convictions you can put Righteous Mandate on the ally to heal with Doctrine of Righteousness.
AOE Attacks and Rogues
This spec has three AOEs:
Even Justice: hits between 2-5 targets (4 with this spec) in a frontal arc, builds Conviction
Strike of the Maelstrom: hits up to 6 targets in a PBAOE centered around the player. Does not build Conviction. Very useful for popping a Rogue out of Stealth
Righteous Imperative: hits up to 10 targets in a PBAOE centered around the player, builds Conviction
6. Macros
Single Target Spam
#show Bolt of Radiance
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Jolt
cast Fated Blow
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Strike of Judgment
cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Sovereignty
cast Waterjet
Note that BoR, Sovereignty, and Waterjet are after the melee attacks. While BoR and Sovereignty deal higher base damage than SoJ, I save them for Conviction-building from range.
AOE Spam (Builds Convictions)
#show Even Justice
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Jolt
cast Fated Blow
cast Even Justice
Big AOE Spam (Triggers Cooldown-Based AOEs)
#show Strike of the Maelstrom
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Jolt
cast Fated Blow
cast Strike of the Maelstrom
cast Righteous Imperative
cast Even Justice
Heal Me
#show Glacial Shield
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Glacial Shield
cast Doctrine of Bliss
Heal Single Target
#show Healing Spray
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast [ctrl] @mouseoverui Healing Current
cast [ctrl] @self Healing Current
cast @mouseoverui Healing Spray
cast @self Healing Spray
AOE Healing
#show Doctrine of Loyalty
suppressmacrofailures
cast Glory of the Chosen
cast Tidal Surge
cast Doctrine of Loyalty
Note that I macro Tidal Surge with DoL. I find the burst healing helpful for keeping groups alive.
Valor > Focus (under the Hit Cap of 5%) > Endurance > Intelligence = Spell Crit > Wisdom = Spell Power
Keep in mind this spec synergizes strongly with Crit. When you Crit, you get
2 Convictions for Life-based attacks
Mana from Endless Winter for melee attacks
Bigger heals from Reparation and Salvation
The proc to make the burst reactive melee ability Jolt usable, even if the Crit was from a heal
Based on my experience with Warrior and Cleric, you need ~5% Hit (for melee attacks) / ~5% Focus (for spells) to reduce your chance to miss / be resisted to 0%. At level 50, reaching the Hit Cap requires 25 Focus for Justicar or Shaman builds.
I have watched footage of myself at 50 with 25 Focus (from a crafted 2H mace) and 0 Focus (with R4 PVP 2H mace), and missing 5% of the time is not only noticeable, it’s detrimental to effective play. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to stack Focus (which for Justicar and Shaman is converted to Hit for melee attacks) to reach the Hit Cap.
For more information on melee/spell mechanics and mitigation/avoidance mechanics, check out Zibnik’s excellent post.
Weapon
Stick with a 2H weapon, because the healing from Salvation and Reparation scale based on weapon damage.
You might wonder whether it’s worth swapping to 1H + shield to boost survivability. The short answer is no. Your damage and therefore damage-based healing would take a significant hit, and moreover your survivability won’t increase that much.
In other games, where block is avoidance, swapping to 1H + shield provides a huge benefit. In RIFT, block is mitigation, and for a Cleric without the talents for increasing block, the base block % is anemic (~1%). So all you practically get for swapping from 2H to 1H is armor, but Cleric shields don’t have much of that stat and armor is only good against Physical damage.
Recommended Runes
Helm: Spell Power +5/Focus +18 (under the Hit Cap) or Wisdom+10 (or better)
Legs: Spell Power +5/Focus +18 (under the Hit Cap) or Wisdom+10 (or better)
Boots: Endurance +8 or better
2H Weapon: Spell Crit +30 (or better)
Ranged: Spell Crit +16 (or better)
Planar Essences
Every one of your lesser planar essences should have Valor on them. You can buy the green +10 Valor essences on the AH or get them from PVP Rifts.
There are three approaches for filling your planar essence slots:
Fill the 4 lesser slots with World PVP faction essences and fill the 2 greater slots with proc-based essences (see list below), or
Fill 5 slots with World PVP faction essences and fill 1 greater slot with a proc-based essence (see list below), or
Fill all 6 slots with World PVP faction essences
Which approach you go with depends on which Greater Essences from the list below you have acquired:
Recommended Proc-Based Greater Essences
Consuming Faesource (purchaseable from AH) or the Crystal Vine (sold by Rare Planar Goods NPC): chance for HoT proc on heal. Note that Salvation and Reparation count as heals, so the essence’s HoT can proc from your attacks
Faded Shadesource (purchaseable from AH): healing spells have a chance to increase your targets Attack and Spell Power by 30 for 20 seconds. Note that Salvation and Reparation count as heals, so the essence can proc from your attacks. This is better than the Flooded Tidesource as the buff can affect multiple targets
Flooded Tidesource (purchaseable from AH): healing abilities have a chance to increase Spell Power by 33 for 20 seconds. Note that Salvation and Reparation count as heals, so the essence can proc from your attacks
I played a Justicar/Shaman as a healer in PVP Warfronts from 10-49, because I wanted to whack opponents to provide support DPS while delivering high healing output. I love specs that enable a highly-mobile, fluid playstyle and have strong kiting mechanics.
Throughout the leveling process, people in-game and on this blog told me “yea that might have worked in the previous bracket but it won’t in the next one.” I wanted to see for myself what the performance “ceiling” for the spec was in each bracket: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50. With some spec tweaks and playstyle adjustments, I’ve been able to output top healing in each bracket, even at lower levels/Ranks.
9. Acknowledgements
Thanks to the folks who have provided corrections / content that I leveraged to update the Guide:
The stickied Protection Paladin Cataclysm PVP Guide on the WoW Pally forum. During my time in Cataclysm, I was the only Prot Pally rated 2k+ in the 2v2 and 3v3 Arena brackets in my battlegroup
As you may know, there is an option in RIFT for self-cast: Settings > Interface > Combat > Auto Self-Cast
If you enable the option, when you have an enemy targeted and cast a beneficial spell that can be cast on other players, that spell is cast on you, but your enemy remains as your target. This is the behavior I typically want in PVP.
However, that UI option does not work if you are using a macro!
Take for example the following Cleric macro which is intended for self-healing:
If you have an enemy targeted and cast that macro to heal yourself, the target in the UI switches from your enemy to you if the spell cast is Healing Breath or Healing Grace, because those spells can be cast on other players. This can be really annoying to deal with, especially in group / raid fighting when you want to keep the same enemy targeted.
There is a simple fix to get Auto Self-Cast working for macros. Simply add the @self parameter for any spells that you want to be cast on yourself without causing a target switch:
I have tried many different Warrior specs in this patch, but before I list them, let’s review some of the key changes that impact Warriors in PVP:
Two categories of CC immunities were implemented: one for movement-related CC, and one for control-related CC. For a given CC category, the 1st application will last its normal duration, but the 2nd application within 24 seconds will have half the duration, and any further applications will have no effect until 24 seconds have passed from the initial application. This sounds confusing, but what it basically means is it is much more difficult to apply movement CC’s and control CCs
Notably for Warriors, Snare effects were added to the movement-related CC category. This has made it very difficult for Warriors to stay within melee range of a target, especially considering that all gap-closing abilities for Warriors (e.g. Riftwalk, talented Bull Rush, Shield Charge, Rift Summon) trigger a root effect. So if you pop a gap-closing ability and then try to Snare, the Snare only lasts 50% of its normal duration, and then you can’t movement-CC the target until 24 seconds after the initial root
The Void Knight (VK) tree for Warrior got a significant overhaul. Notably Pact-consuming abilities now only consume up to a fixed number of Pacts, and the Pact-related Ravenous Strength and Ravenous Defense buffs now last as long as Pacts (i.e. 30 seconds), and it’s easy to refresh the duration on a stack of Pacts. These changes have made VK stronger in PVP
My Pre-1.2 Specs
Prior to Patch 1.2, I had played two Riftblade specs while ranking up:
You can read more about those specs in Section 8B of my Riftblade PVP Guide. Keep in mind that through most of Patch 1.11 and 1.12, I was not particularly well-geared and was using a blue 1H sword (21.7 DPS).
The first spec lacked purge (offensive dispel) capability. Both specs lacks a healing received debuff.
I did try putting 15 points in Vindicator to get Improved Trauma, but that didn’t turn out to be the silver bullet for providing healing received debuff, because you can only keep it up 50% of the time.
Some of the 1.2 Specs I Tried
In my PVP experience across many games, I’ve generally found that it isn’t worth running a high DPS but squishier spec until you are geared sufficiently. In 1.2, with the changes to Favor and rep requirements, I finally felt ready from a gear perspective to try running 2H specs. I purchased the Port Scion 2H axe (33.4 DPS) for 17k Favor and was able to get a Valor piece for each Armor slot.
Here are some of the specs I tried in order and my comments on their pros and cons. Please note that I tried variations of the specs below as well, moving a few talents points around for various tests in warfronts.
Has the 11-pt VK talent called Spell Sunder, which removes 3 buffs from an opponent. This purge ability has a range of 35m and its cooldown is 15 seconds
Durable
Cons:
Lacks high burst / sustained DPS
No capability to drain mana from range. Therefore draining can take a nontrivial amount of time, especially if your target is kiting
This is basically the same spec as the previous one, but with the -15% crittable from VI to make it more durable. I preferred this spec to the previous one. That being said, I think for 2H specs that use VK as the secondary tree that 26 points (to get Rift Shield) is probably a good stopping point. So for example a 2H 38 RB / 26 VK / 2 PA spec would make more sense.
After trying the above RB specs, I wanted to give Champion a go.
Pros:
Excellent burst and sustained DPS: can melee chain-Crit for 1k+ per Crit
Lingering Wounds provides a powerful healing received debuff
Very Power efficient, especially with Rising Waterfall interleaved between AtPt-generating abilities and Grim Satisfaction
Cons:
Very susceptible to being kited, and DPS drops steeply when not able to stay in melee contact
Limited CC breakers
Very squishy: low mitigation combined with lower HP pool
The main thing I noticed about this spec is that it typically wasn’t worth using GCDs to mana-drain a target (unless they were close to going dry). It was simply better to use GCDs for damaging abilities to “hulk smash” the target into oblivion.
The 1.2 Spec I Settled On
So I spent a lot of gold training abilities, experimenting with various specs, and thinking through the mechanics. The conclusion I reached for the 1.2 mechanics (and this will seem fairly obvious) is that the most important capability that Warriors brings to PVP is the healing received debuff, not being able to purge or mana drain. CC abilities are still important but they are no longer critical as they were pre-1.2.
Even with a decent set of Valor gear (21% mitigation), I found 2H CH to be squishy and susceptible to kiting.
The main concern I had with this spec was that I might not Crit often enough to proc Lingering Wounds. However, I noticed that with an unbuffed 18% Crit rate, which goes up to 23% with Rift Strike, I was getting plenty of procs of Lingering Wounds in actual combat to keep a target chain debuffed.
I have been able to solo competent, geared Clerics of various specs simply by limiting their healing received. And in group contexts, Lingering Wounds is terrific for bringing down a focus-fire target.
This is the highest-utility, most well-rounded spec I have tried so far in 1.2.
You can find more information about this spec in Section 8C of my Riftblade PVP Guide.
The default keybinds for every MMORPG do not support skillful play.
Consider this illustrative keybinds diagram from the game RIFT (this is not a knock on RIFT, it’s been my favorite game of 2011):
What we see is that the vast majority of useful keybinds for your left hand are being used for:
a common movement setup – WSAD and QE – that is incredibly limiting (more on this later)
UI functions that have no relevance to actual combat, e.g. “G” for Guild panel, “B” for Bags, etc
All you have to work with is the number key, and unless you have the reach of Liberacci, that leaves you with only 6 keybinds (“1″ through “6″) to work with for your abilities. This entire approach makes no sense.
Many players accept it as-is and work around it, either by adding modifiers (i.e. Shift/Control/Alt) to trigger abilities or getting hardware that helps to address the lack of available keybinds.
However, most players don’t address the root issue – by not fixing the default keybindings you are placing an artificial ceiling on your skill level. It’s like trying to run but with your feet chained together. Yes, you can do it, but no, you’ll never hit your potential stride, and that’s what this is all about. Raising your gameplay.
By comparison, here are the keybinds that I use for most classes across MMORPGs:
I have over 20 keybinds to activate abilities / macros with a single keypress, which enables me to to fluidly circle-strafe and kite-strafe while activating abilities. Which brings us to our next topic.
Before You Keybind, You Must Understand What Proper Movement Looks Like
Real combat is all about good movement. Flanking your opponent. Taking angles to set up your punches and kicks. The same principles apply to combat in MMORPGs.
Any keybindings setup should
provide the ability to circle-strafe and kite-strafe to keep a target in your facing as much as possible, and
enable high fidelity / accuracy for using abilities quickly, and
not give you carpal tunnel
As discussed in the video, the setup I have landed on after years of iteration and tweaking is:
right hand on the mouse for character turn, camera rotation, and forward movement
left hand for left strafe, right strafe, and all abilities
Please note that I do not use a gaming mouse or keyboard, nor do I have any plans to do so.
Keybinding is a sensitive topic, so keep in mind that the intention of this video is to show “one way of thinking about it.” The way that you feel comfortable setting up your keybinds may be very different from mine – what matters is that you are able to execute the 3 numbered points above. I’ve had many gamers adopt my setup or its philosophy and they have reported good success. YMMV.
EDIT (2011/11/24): here’s another illustrative video of how to strafe-kite properly, with footage from the game RIFT:
How to Learn New Keybindings
Realize that rebinding your keys is one of the most disruptive things you can do. It’s like learning to walk all over again. Therefore, you have to be patient. It typically takes a week of playing to get the muscle memory down for a new setup.
Do not remap your keybinds and then queue up for PVP or join a PVE raid. You will find yourself struggling and getting frustrated, because your natural reactions are to use your old keybinds. And then you’ll come blame me, and I’ll have to quote this section.
The easiest way to learn a new set of keybinds is to roll a new character, experiment, and by the time you hit level 10 or so, you’ll be well on your way to feeling much more comfortable with it. At that point you can try your new keybinds on higher-level characters.
for this build?
