by Jeff Woleslagle on Dec 05, 2004
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1 - Credits & The Basics
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2 - Quests
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3 - NPC Locations
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4
- Spell Upgrades: Finding and Comparing Them
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Chapter 5 - Weapons
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Chapter 6 - Armour
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7 - Spells
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8 - Methods and Techniques
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Chapter 9 - 1H+Shld vs. 1H+Symbol vs. 2H Debate
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10 - Where To Hunt
8.0 – Methods and Techniques
8.0a - Spell Breakdown
These tables illustrate the "spell progression" - or natural upgrades to your spells by level and spell name. Note that after the Live Update 13 Combat Changes, there isn't an unworthy spell in your repertoire; you should be using almost all the spells available to you when you pull that mob.
Augmentations for you and/or your group's stats. Toss as many of these on your tank and group as you can handle, and don't forget the buffs in the "Utility Heals" section too.
HP / Melee Offense Buff 16 - Redoubt 30 - Pious Redoubt 43 - Sacred Redoubt 58 - Holy Redoubt Arcane Resist / HP Group Buff 16 - Symbol of Transal 30 - Symbol of Ryltan 44 - Symbol of Pinzarn 58 - Symbol of Naltron Stamina / AC Group Buff 5 - Courage 19 - Daring 33 - Bravery 47 - Valor STR / WIS Buff - One Target Only 26 - Protectorate 40 - Praetorate 54 - Divine Praetorate Arcane Damage Ward / Arcane Resist Buff 29 - Protective Faith 43 - Shielding Faith 57 - Aegis of FaithThese are one of the Templar's strongest heals after the Combat Changes. While it means that you may not be as able to keep the tank in the green anymore, you're a better major hit healer and already somewhat suited to take the aggro that come from heavy healing.
Single Target Insta-Heal (<= level 10) 3 - Minor Healing 4 - Minor Arch Healing 8- Healing 9 - Improved Arch Healing Single Target Minor Insta-Heal 15 - Combat Healing 22 - Ameliorate 29 - Amelioration 43 - Greater Amelioration 57 - Grand Amelioration Single Target Major Insta-Heal 18 - Archhealing 32 - Restoration 46 - Greater Restoration 60 - Grand Restoration Single Target Reactive Heal 12 - Bestowal of Vitae 19 - Bestowal of Vitality 26 - Supplicant's Prayer 40 - Greater Intercession 54 - Grand Intercession Single Target Large Reactive Heal, Drains Power and Immobilizes Healer 50 - Focused Benefaction Single Target Heal / Procs Addt'l Heal 20 - Bounty of the VirtuousNot as much bang for the buck. Consider using "Utility Heals" like the "Fate" line in lieu of group heals when fighting many linked (or grouped) mobs.
Group Insta-Heal 14 - Prayer of Amelioration 28 - Healing Touch 42 - Word of Restoration 56 - Word of Atonement 70 - Word of Reparation 80- Word of Redemption Group Reactive Heal 14 - Soothing Sermon 28 - Intercession 42 - Crucial Intercession 56 - Fateful Intercession 70- Dire Intercession 79 - Holy IntercessionAnother one of our fortes, and this word comes from Lockeye, the Spell Design Lead, himself. If you're not using these, you're handicapping yourself.
Group Heal When Target is Slain 20 - Amending Fate 34 - Redemptive Fate 48 - Atoning Fate Chance for Heal and Trauma Cure on Melee Hit 35 - Involuntary Healer 49 - Involuntary Curate Cures 6 - Cure Noxious 13 - Cure Trauma 19 - Elemental Aid 28 - Arcane Aid Cure Arcane & Trauma Impairments 42 - Resolve 56 - Ardent Resolve Replenishes Ally's Health as They Use Power 52 - Reverence Procs Chance to Absorb Melee Hits 45 - Vigilant Benediction 59 - Unyielding Benediction Procs Chance to Heal Group on Successful Attack 47 - Glory of Combat Prevents Group From Control (Stun, Root, Stifle, Fear, Mez) Spells, 1% Chance to Break When Hit 55 - Sanctuary Equalizes Group's Hit Points, Sum of Group's Remaining HPs is Divided by the # of Groupmates and Distributed 58 - Divine ArbitrationThe unwelcome guest at our post-Combat Changes dinner table, all of these mezzes are extremely short in duration. Soothe works well, but for an indeterminate amount of time, and the stun will require some major skill work by the time you can use it.
Single Target Mez 21 - Sign of Weakness 35 - Sign of Debility 49 - Sign of Infirmity Group (AoE) Mez / Hate Reducer 13 - Distract 27 - Placate 41 - Harmony 55 - Greater Harmony 69 - Complacency Calms Aggressive Targets 10 - Soothe Short-Term Stun 39 - Prostrate 53 - Force Submission 67 - Forced Humility 77 - AwestruckThe cornerstone of your solo Heroic Opportunities, and consequently your only hope of doing real damage. In HOs while soloing, you can save yourself some damage by turning off melee then sequencing a smite then a strike (in that order!) before casting your DoTs. If you do this, you'll take no damage between when you finish casting smite and finish casting strike, which can be huge. DoTs and auto-melee will break the mez.
DD - Bonus Dmg to Undead 3 - Smite 11 - Radiant Strike 25 - Celestial Strike 53 - Consecrated Strike DD - Short Term Mez (single target) 10 - Admonishing Smite 17 - Greater Smite 31 - Reproving Smite 45 - Condemning Smite 59 - Judging Smite DD - Group DD (AoE) 32 - Beams of Faith 46 - Rays of Faith 60 - Blaze of Faith 74 - Blazoned FaithA two-edged sword in that these break mezzes, though Symbol of Corruption is one of the nicest multipurpose WIS debuffs in the game.
Divine DoT 23 - Combative Faith 37 - Warring Faith 51 - Warring Conviction 65 - Warring Axiom 77 - Warring Deities Divine DoT / WIS Debuff 35 - Symbol of Corruption 71 - Smite CorruptionAlways use these on your target; post-Combat Changes there are no marginal / weak debuffs.
Strength Debuff 7 - Weakness Divine Resist Debuff / Chance to Heal on Melee Hit 18 - Mark of Pawns 32 - Mark of Princes 46 - Mark of Kings 60 - Mark of the Celestial 73 - Mark of Divinity AC Debuff 10 - Rebuke 24 - Disgrace 38 - Reproach 52 - Admonishment 66 - Spurn 77 - ReprovalFor only the worst of times. Always always always load your group up with a rez stone! It's really easy to forget.
Grants Priest Revive Stone 11 - Divine Awakening Resurrection 8 - Revive 50 - Resurrection (with full heal) In-Combat Resurrection 22 - Battle's Reprieve Group Resurrection (AoE) 36 - Blazon Life
I used to think a Templar was poorly suited for soloing, that is,
until I began the second part of the armor multi-quest (see chapter 2 for details). While slaughtering Giant Kodiaks for quest components, I
noticed a 23 Berserker, likewise soloing bears, was killing and
recovering slower than I was, me being level 20 at the time. I only
mention this to say that our Heavy Armor (save up and get fitted out
for it at lvl 20, you'll need about 1.5g + what you get for selling
your equipped items) allows us to hold our own against even cons at
level 20. Soloing, therefore, brings up two things, confidence (no
small thing) and less-used skills (not spells, but what you use to cast spells), like Disruption (used
for DD spells). Keep your skills at their caps for maximum
effectiveness (press “L” to check on skill levels).
Here's what I do when soloing: first of all, know where to run if
things go sour, think long and straight with no aggressive mobs (roads
aren’t always the best way to go, a zone wall however is generally free
of mobs).pick a lower level mob to start with, and find a location to
pull to where aggressive mobs don’t roam. Make sure you’re buffed up
(Courage, Symbol, Redoubt, Protective Faith (if fighting magic users), and Protectorate lines), turn on reactive heal, hit the
mob with Weakness, Mark of Pawns or Rebuke (or whichever takes
the longest to cast at your level, see the spell list in Chapter 7),
and pull them to your safe location ("camp"). Turn on melee, then use
the rest of your debuffs (Mark of Pawns, Rebuke, Weakness, and – if
you’re facing off with a grouped mob – Amending Fate). From here on,
its Heroic Opportunities (HO) one after another, only pausing to
refresh the reactive heal and occasionally cast a click heal on
yourself.
Here's the lowdown on our solo Heroic Opportunies. Again you'll want to cast a smite then a strike when doing solo HOs:
Don’t be afraid to run – no one’s going to know, promise. And the
debt you’ll accumulate if you die easily could be worth the exp gained
by killing 10 mobs, 20 mobs
or more. I use “half & half” as a rule of thumb, if the mob isn’t
down to half health (or if fighting a group, half the group isn’t
“dead” with half my power gone, or if an aggressive mob engages you
while you’re attacking something else (called an “add”) its time to
think very seriously about high-tailing it. When running, turn off
melee, turn around and run in your safe direction, and “/yell” to break
the encounter. This 1) makes you healable to passers by, and 2) lets
you off the hook faster – you won’t have to run as far to lose the mob.
Yelling purely to increase power and health regeneration no longer
works, it seems.
Resurrecting players, or “rezzing” – At this point, you have to be
grouped with a player to rez them. This was done, ostensibly, to
prevent malicious rezzing in the middle of a group of aggressive
creatures. You can now rez and heal players outside your group.
Remember to use all your group buffs, and give everyone a token to
rez you should you die (via the level 11 spell, Divine
Awakening). If anyone complains about the lost activatable or inventory
slot,
reason with them. If they’re really causing a stink, I offer, in /tell,
to give them a common drop item that fell to me when the group
breaks. Most of the time they’ll realize how silly they’re being
and be too embarrassed to take it later on. In any case, its worth the
insurance. Then give the MT (main tank, or "meatshield) Vigilant Benediction if you have it- keep an eye on this spell since it has a tendancy to go cold in mid-battle.
Your energies should be focused primarily on healing the main tank.
Stack up your reactive heals on the main tank/puller and group right
before combat begins; casting beforehand keeps you from building hate. For tough situations, stack your single target reactive with your group reactive and the arcane-warding Protective Faith line if need be. Be sure to debuff the target fully before entering combat- your debuffs make a huge difference.
To melee or not to melee? Some temps prefer not to melee to focus on
their tasks as Main Healer, which is fine. Unlike EQ1, power regen is
uniform throughout combat, whether fighting, casting, sitting, or
dancing- so this shouldn't be part of your decision criteria. The
common arguments against meleeing your Temp is 1) the fear of breaking
a mez if the MT tabs through targets, and 2) the additional hate this
can bring.
Personally, I like being in the action and find I can heal just as
well while swinging a mace as otherwise. Breaking a mez this way is by
all accounts a rare (if devastating) thing (often caused by the tank your "casting through" mis-targetting, and can usually be solved
with your quick-cast hate reducer (Placate line spells - some seem to
have trouble with this spell actually building hate on a resist, I
personally can't report any problems). The hate I've earned has
always been attributable to a premature debuff or group reactive heal,
and while meleeing adds aggro, it's simple enough to toggle auto-attack
off while the MT taunts the mob away. What little damage we do
(augmented nicely by our Blessed Weapon proc - which adds a fair amount
of damage every seven swipes or so) is nonetheless helpful - if nothing
else we're like a little DoT that doesn't wear off or cost power. So
(again personally) I turn on melee when the mob arrives, get in a
couple little swings while the MT builds aggro, and use the rest of the
reactive healing "window" to debuff the mob.
Debuffs are cheap with regards to power cost, and Mark of Pawns and
Amending Fate, for example, can help you heal- big time. For
example, Amending Fate heals the group as much as Healing Touch at a
sixth of the power cost! It's not much use when fighting
single-pulls, but for those long tough grouped mobs- it's magic!
[Thanks Winstar of Oggok for reminding me of Amending Fate]
Debuffs help you
to heal simply by helping to kill the mob faster. Watch for reactive
heal
to wear off (on the maintained spells windows on the left side of the
screen, by default) and refresh as appropriate. Also, watch for
negative effects popping up on the group status bar and use your
cure/aid spells to cure these ailments immediately. Throw in a minor
Healing spell to make up for the damage
above what the reactive heals can handle, and if you see the bar still
dropping, hit a major heal for a more powerful heal. Most importantly,
keep reactive heal on at all times.
If another member is taking damage, I throw a click heal at them,
and if the bar still keeps dropping, you’ve got two “tanks” on your
hands. If you happen to be one of the players taking hits, use your
hate reducer (Placate). Two tanks
uses up your power twice as fast, so I have a macro that goes something
like this “/g %T is being attacked, tanks please taunt mob away.” The
game fills in the players name in place of %T if you have them
targeted. Hopefully this will solve the problem.
And if everything starts to go the way of the buffalo, Radiance
(no-cast time +500 pt reactive heal with 15 min recast time), Healing
Touch and Prayer of Amelioration (mana-heavy group click heals), and
Battle Respite (in-battle rez) are your bread and butter while
continuing to renew reactive heals. A word about battle rez - use it!
Getting a dead tank or DPS off the ground free of aggro and back in
action can be a lifesaver! If you need to constantly group heal, its
time to run. Keep the group informed of your power level when it gets
low, give them an “OOP!” (out of power) when its all gone. If your
groups stays when your OOP, turn on melee if you haven't already and
keep trying to heal as your power regenerates. Templars
stay to the bitter end! But that's usually because we’re the second to
die!
If you have to heal someone other than the MT and are
auto-attacking,
turn off melee. Why, you ask? Because you’ll attack what they’re
attacking, and if its an OT drawing aggro, you’ll keep attacking what
they are after they switch back to the MT’s target. Turn melee back on
when you return to healing the MT. It’s also VERY important in zones
where mobs are packed tightly together to make sure you stop attacking
when the last mob dies.
Sound like common sense? Nope. Unfortunately as the healer, you
target players, not mobs, which means you’ll stay in melee mode after
the last mob dies. A function new to EQ2, called cast-through, means 1)
if
you target a mob, your beneficial spells will enhance the target of
that mob (i.e. a group member) and your harmful spells will attach to
the mob itself and 2) if you target a group-member, your beneficial
spells will attach to him/her and your harmful spells will affect
his/her target. Very handy. But if you target the main tank to keep a
close eye on his/her health, and upon the death of the MT's last mob
he/she puts his weapon away and switches to a non-aggro target, and the
mob is within your reach, you’ll hit it. And the group has to fight
again, presumably in bad shape. The best way I've found to handle this
problem is to change the setting “Show NPC Health” to always under the
User Interface options, then click on the last mob when it has only a
smidge of health left.
When in a group with two healers, coordinate your heals. One healer,
preferably the highest level, should devote him or herself to keeping
the MT "in the green." The other should debuff and heal others that are
taking riposte/barrage etc. (have ALL melee'ers except the MT stay
behind the mob to
avoid riposte damage, which can easily take away half a mage's or
priest's total HP in one shot with 20+ mobs) or aggro damage. If you
and the other healer happen to be of different subclasses, you can
stack your reactive heal with their ward or heal-over-time on the MT at
the start of the battle. Remember though, your reactive heals will not
stack with another Templar's or Inquisitor's, and will be cancelled by their casts if
they're of higher level. Your group must have healers with different classes to be most effective.
Don't underestimate your buffs and debuffs! I've gotten plenty of
remarks from smart tanks who comment on how much AC and health I've
added to their pools. And your enemies with die much faster with your
combination of stamina (defense) and AC debuffs. Throw in a strength
debuff, and you've got a healer that combines good heals with short
battles :) And if you happen to have a summoner in your group, he/she
can summon you a mana enhancing item for your activatable slot!
Thanks to Hideus Orkhammer of Butcherblock for some great soloing and
grouping tips!
8.1 - Your U.I. Setup
Here’s a couple things I do, but figure out what’s comfortable for
you. You’ll be amazed how much frustration is saved by taking a few
moments to plan out your interface.
Use at least two chat windows, one for combat and reward text and
the other for chat. You can filter the messages you’re receiving by
right clicking and choosing “Chat Options.” I put all player text,
wornoff spell, and reward messages in one, and all other text in the
other.
You can open multiple hotbars, three layers covers my spells quite
nicely for now. Melee attack, heals, and cures (aids) go on the primary
hotbar, which I put at the top of the screen right underneath the group
member status bar for fast access. Secondary is group heals, debuffs
(Weakness, Rebuke lines), and hate reducers (Distract, Faith Respect
lines) with one space left empty between. Tertiary bar is HO
starter and DD spells with misc spells (like Summon Food & Water)
on the other side.
I keep my top bar full of heals, and it just happens to be "Hotbar 1." Then I always keep "Hotbar 6" loaded with all my tier one / tier two heals (Bestowal of Vitae, Combat Healing, etc.) - that way i can quickly switch to the low power cost heals if need be.
I would shy away from putting /yell or “Call for Help” in any
hotbar, especially not in the primary one (primary uses keys 1-9). In a
panic, stop melee, turn and hit numlock to autorun, then its easy to
type /yell to break the encounter. Calling for help in a legitimate
fight (especially on a quest mob) is a good way to build aggro on the
part of your groupmates!
href="http://eq2.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=16&meid=56">Chapter
1 - Credits & The Basics
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2 - Quests
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3 - NPC Locations
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4
- Spell Upgrades: Finding and Comparing Them
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Chapter 5 - Weapons
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Chapter 6 - Armour
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7 - Spells
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8 - Methods and Techniques
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Chapter 9 - 1H+Shld vs. 1H+Symbol vs. 2H Debate
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10 - Where To Hunt