Best Healer? Need some advice :)

[Darkreaver1980]

Hi there,

i finaly want to start playing this masterpiece and i wonder which hero i should roll.

I want to be the party healer, so i need a class/race with very good healing powers. I would also like some crowd controll stuff, like sleep, stun etc. This is only optional, main focus should be on healing. I plan to have a full party with custom made heroes.

my plan is to have my main hero as healer + 1 Barbarian + 1 Paladin + 1 Sorcerer + 1 Thief/Rogue + Ranger. I have absoluty no clue about synergies so i will likely just chose to take the first best subclass that i see :P

Also i read that the conquest system is a nightmare and everyone seems to dislike it. I wonder if i should select the conquest dificulty at relaxed or even simple? Im not sure how that will affect the game at all so i have no clue what to chose.

[MjKorz]

"Healer" is not a real occupation in this game. You're never supposed to take anything more than a lucky hit on an enemy's natural 20 roll or some partially-resisted spell damage.

That said, your best bet is a pure Cleric 20, because you will be able to combine healing abilities with very strong domain powers. They're not going to give you CC capabilities, but they do give extremely powerful buffs and debuffs. Community, Law, Madness domains should be your top priority.

Divine casters (i.e. "healers") in general do not have good CC capabilities, because they are strictly and massively inferior to arcane casters in terms of increasing their spell Difficulty Class, so I wouldn't chase that function on your "healer".

[mudakonn]

Oracle can do it with Life Mystery - Daeran is already kitted like this. Ypu blow some mythic perks on him like selective channeling, mythic channeling, pump CHA and there is your healer, take secondary Mystery as Nature to get pet to transport him in battlefield

[Schlumpsha]

Cleric and Oracle are the most common healer classes. Certain archetypes of them are even more attuned to healing. Divine Herbalist and Priest of Balance in particular.

I am pretty fond of the latter myself for its boost to both positive healing and negative healing. Which comes in handy should you decide on a dhampir character (or a whole party of 'em) for instance. Since that particular race can only be healed by negative energy.

There are other healing-themed archetypes from different classes as well. Such as the White Mage, or the Chirugeon. But I wouldn't consider them to be particularly one of the best healers. Still could be interesting if you value roleplaying as one.

[Darkreaver1980]

Now im unsure, it sounds almost as having an pure healer is bad? Arent they good enought to keep the party alive?

[Schlumpsha]

It's not "bad". But depending on your difficulty, enemies will deal out more damage than you can heal. Faster too. Core or lower difficulty isn't a problem. Albeit it can become somewhat repetitive to only heal.

At least with a Priest of Balance you can also attack via channel negative energy, while still having channel positive energy for healing your party. Otherwise Cleric is limited to but one type of channeling.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Darkreaver1980:

Now im unsure, it sounds almost as having an pure healer is bad? Arent they good enought to keep the party alive?

Not really. The issues being pointed out for you are:

1. Clerics/Oracles/Shamen/Witches etc are all healers but are also buffers and bottom line is buffing is more important in this game than healing, as @MjKorz put it:

Originally posted by MjKorz:

"Healer" is not a real occupation in this game. You're never supposed to take anything more than a lucky hit on an enemy's natural 20 roll or some partially-resisted spell damage.

I don't necessarily agree that you've totally failed if a monster can hit you with anything less than a nat 20 but the point he makes is valid - healing is no big deal if you aren't being hit much in the first place and it's the buffs, of which there a gazillion in this game, that stop you getting hit.

2. Your story companions are already going to include one Oracle, one Cleric, one Shaman and one Witch. Pretty much any combination of two, three or even just one of them can look after all your healing and buffing needs if built right. Therefore there is a strong case for picking a class for your MC that excels at dealing maximum possible damage reliably.

You get Solseil, who is a Cleric and Daeran, who is an Oracle. These two are both very strong buffers and healers. Some folks like Solsiel better for his powerful domains and others prefer Daeran for the flexibility of his spontaneous casting. Both are totally viable. I think the vast majority of players use one of these two in their parties. I certainly wouldn't leave home without one of them.

So the argument goes that since you've already got these two available picking a cleric/healer type class yourself is just reducing your pool of companions from which to make up a solid balanced party by two and picking something different for your MC, especially something optimal for kicking demon arse, is going add a lot of extra value no matter what companions you settle on for your A team.

[Rainnd]

Originally posted by Darkreaver1980:

Now im unsure, it sounds almost as having an pure healer is bad? Arent they good enought to keep the party alive?

"Pure" healer would be deffinetely bad, I would probably even say useless. Best way to keep party alive is kill/disable biggest threats as fast as possible and healing is just something you need once in a while and can be done by many classes as secondary or even tertiary role.

[Darkreaver1980]

I plan to go the angel mystic path, is that good with a oracle or cleric?

[mudakonn]

Originally posted by Darkreaver1980:

I plan to go the angel mystic path, is that good with a oracle or cleric?

It is good with both - like ppl pointed out there are plenty of healers in the game so You can opt to be Battle Oracle. As I have understood Oracle is most OP class in the game anyway, can do anything you want

[mk11]

The conquest system is fine. It just gets tedious on your nth play through.

[Schlumpsha]

Originally posted by Darkreaver1980:

I plan to have a full party with custom made heroes.

You won't be able to start with a full custom party from the start. Earliest point in where you can switch story companions out for mercenaries is act 1 in exchange for not a small amount of gold. Gathering enough gold for a full custom party will likely take some time.

As an aside, the game allows you to respec your character. So you can experience as many classes as you want without worry. It's even free of charge for the first couple of tries. So just start with whatever catches your eyes.

[Darkreaver1980]

Originally posted by Schlumpsha:

Originally posted by Darkreaver1980:

I plan to have a full party with custom made heroes.

You won't be able to start with a full custom party from the start. Earliest point in where you can switch story companions out for mercenaries is act 1 in exchange for not a small amount of gold. Gathering enough gold for a full custom party will likely take some time.

As an aside, the game allows you to respec your character. So you can experience as many classes as you want with worry. It's even free of charge for the first couple of tries. So just start with whatever catches your eyes.

i installed some mod to give me enought gold to have any custom party as soon as possible, so that wont be a problem.

[.O.]

Originally posted by Darkreaver1980:

I plan to go the angel mystic path, is that good with a oracle or cleric?

If this is your first time and you want an easier to use class, I would go base cleric probably Aasimar race, I forgot which heritage but one of them gives a bonus to Wisdom.

Once you merge with the Angel spellbook you get a big upgrade to your buffing potential, and if you also take Enduring and Greater Enduring spells it's really great.

Pure cleric definitely has some debuffs and crowd control, but if I remember my spells right, not as good as the crowd control and debuff that an arcane caster can provide. But you do get them as well.

I wouldn't recommend an Oracle for a first timer because you then have to pick and choose spells and first timers would have a harder time doing that. Clerics get all the standard spells and then their extra domain spells.

For your Paladin if you want to be mounted, I would recommend base Paladin or maybe Warrior of Holy Light(?). If you don't want to be mounted, then I think Divine Scion is the best DPS paladin

For Ranger, considering what the majority of enemies are, your best bet is Demonslayer, takes away some of the choices that may be confusing for a first timer and gives you the best options for this particular campaign/story.

[Gorwe]

Witch Doctor Shaman. Though Life Mystery Oracle is also very good. Hospitaler Paladin is also surprisingly effective at this. And, ofc, Cleric.

But my vote goes to Witch Doc. Especially if Angel / Azata.

[belangf]

A few extra tips for cleric:
Cleric is good because you can convert memorized spells to healing. You can prepare buff or offensive spells and just convert them to healing when you need to. This is probably the easiest class for a beginner.

Get charisma at least 13 so you can take the selective channeling feat (otherwise the channeling also heals enemies). Your limit per day is also based on charisma.

Once you get some mythic levels you can take boundless healing that allows you to heal from a distance. Most healing spells normally require to be standing next to the target.

If you will use offensive spells, take the spell penetration feats. Most enemies have high spell resistance in this game.

Angel can merge their spellbook and caster level to cleric, but Azata (chaotic good) also has some great superpowers for casters.