Are Mages Required for healing?

[ThisIsMerlin]

How do you effectively heal without a Mage in your party? I am playing around with Sorcerer now that Mage is maxed out but without Anodyne to heal up between battles I blow through healing items faster than I gather them and constantly need to camp. Is that just WAD, am I doing something wrong, or should Sorcerers be thought of as archer substitutes rather than a caster substitute?

[Chaos]

Mage is the only one with healing.
If you don't use them then you got to use camping or curative WAY more often.

[Michael]

Sorcerers are just DPS. Other than mage Magick Archer can also function as healer, and you can always carry a mage staff around as a Warfarer just for heals.

[Asphe]

Curatives in Inventory (Chirurgeon helps) are a thing but either you have large stocks or you find a way to hit mobs so they can't hit back.

Taking Sorcie as an example, Levin potentially paralyzes mobs (you can then do follow-up strikes) while Seism definitely does some crowd control. But if you can sneak close and let off a big one (SPELL not smell) you can make the fight easier and shorter.

That said, I usually hire a Mage (typically I have one Fighter, one Mage and two Sorcies - therefore only one sorcie needs 'those' rings) because of Paen and Celerity (they boost Stamina, Stamina Regen and speed - both attack and movement). Two sorcies also mitigate the 'always interrupt' effect of Calm inclinations (or you can go with Simple)

Mages also get Empyrean. It's a low-damage, large radius AOE that gives a long lasting lantern effect (Paen has an even bigger lantern lighting effect) but it really does a number on undead with decent CC.

I prefer Mages that have Empyrean, Paen, Celerity and either Solemnity / Halidom, i.e. no healing weapon skills (you have Anodyne). Preferably with Endurance / Augment / Subtlety augments too

[Moddeang]

After really early game in DD2 and back in DD1 I will run my party without mage. You got ton of consumable item to heal you and your party all days :D

[D. Flame]

No, you can get by with healing items alone, but having a mage lets you save on items.

Later on you can play a warfarer and have a mage staff equipped for pocket heals as well, since Anodyne is core skill.

[Accel Lex]

Besides the curatives (plants are plentiful so I have more basic potions than I need) and vocations (mage and magick archer), there are some rings that give you health.
One that gives some for killing enemies. Another that heals you if you take a lot of damage. I haven't needed to use them so I cant vouch for their utility, but I prefer using knockback rings myself.

I personally like having a mage. I don't get damaged often that much, but their stamina field ability, cure debuffs, and healing comes in handy considering I do good damage myself.

[VeraelHasta]

The Magic Archer has a skill for healing but I can't say how effective it is, I didn't test it.

[Keldrath]

give pawns potions and they'll heal themselves.

[VeraelHasta]

Originally posted by Keldrath:

give pawns potions and they'll heal themselves.

While it works, they chug a lot of them like some alkoholics.

[Keldrath]

Originally posted by VeraelHasta:

Originally posted by Keldrath:

give pawns potions and they'll heal themselves.

While it works, they chug a lot of them like some alkoholics.

yeah its kinda nice tho cuz the storage does get full on em pretty fast

[Incomparable Groan]

Mage is the only vocation (available to pawns, anyhow) that can heal. They're not necessary though. I've been playing with arisen (Sorcerer) and main pawn (Warrior) only, and we've mostly been fine.

You do need to pick up a habit of looting/gathering all plants in sight though, or you'll be camping a lot. The healing spellbook (I forget the name) has been pretty MVP too.

[Michael]

Originally posted by VeraelHasta:

The Magic Archer has a skill for healing but I can't say how effective it is, I didn't test it.

It's very effective. At full charge it aoe heals and instantly revives. You can partial charge to fully heal individuals. It heals you at the same time.