Healer

Healers are one of the basic roles available in DCUO. Their main task is ensuring that the rest of their group stays alive. Healers have the ability to heal and buff their team mates with high levels of restoration and power. All healing powers specialize in different healing methods and it is therefore preferred that Raids and Operations have two different healing powers.

In PVP Healers have a disadvantage against Controllers.

=Healing Role=

In order to acquire the Healing Role, you must select either Nature, Sorcery, Electricity or Celestial as your power set. Once you reach level 10, you will automatically acquire the Healing Role. In the Healing role (and your natural form) all damage you cause is penalized by 25%. All Health restoration and damage prevention effects you trigger are increased by 65%.

All bonuses from Weapon Skill Trees stack, regardless of what weapon type is currently equipped. Starting at level 10, a player is allowed to spend skill points in multiple weapon skill trees.

=Stats= In order of importance for stats are:
 * 1) Restoration
 * 2) Critical Healing Chance
 * 3) Power
 * 4) Critical Healing Magnitude
 * 5) Health

All other stats have next to no benefit for any healer.

Restoration
Restoration increases healing. 4 Restoration = 1% base healing increase. A weapon skill with 45 points provides an 11.25% increase to base healing. For example, if you have a base heal of 200 points and 400 Restoration, you would see a heal of 400 (200+100%).

Critical Healing Chance
The chance to perform a critical heal. A critical heal directly increases your healing ability by providing an additional 50% output. In other words, a heal that would normally restore 100 health would restore 150 health as a critical. Obviously, the more healing you have from Restoration, the more direct benefit you get from critical healing chance. This has no value past 100% though it is currently impossible to reach this number - 14% appears to be the maximum attainable, plus any found on equipment or ability benefits.

Power
Power is required to use powers in your loadout, and is drained as they are performed. Without investing here, you will only be able to cast 4-6 abilities before needing to refill.

Critical Healing Magnitude
Increases the amount of health restored with a critical heal. The bonus is additive to the critical bonus (50%), so that 40% critical healing magnitude equals a 90% bonus on a critical heal. The current maximum appears to be 56%, minus any found on equipment or ability benefits.

Health
Health measures ability to withstand knockout. As with all classes, this is very important. Increase your health up to 2,500 or more. If you die, don't worry; just come back and try again. Keep an eye on your armor; if it breaks, make sure to repair it, or repair it regularly before it does break.

Critical Healing Chance vs Critical Healing Magnitude
There is a debate as to which is better and that depends on what statistics you have. The game seems to provide a basic ratio between critical healing chance and critical healing magnitude of 1:4, as clearly seen in the weapon skills and theoretical maximums. When we try to compare both, we'll keep this ratio in mind.

Let's say your heal restores 100 health, and you have a basic 10% chance to critically heal. On average, one in every ten heals should critical. In ten heals, this amounts to 1050 health restored, for an average of 105 health per heal. A bonus of 10% critical healing chance brings the total chance to 20%, meaning one in five heals should critical. In ten heals, this amounts to 1100 health restored, for an average of 110 health per heal. Whereas, a bonus of 40% critical healing magnitude (the 1:4 ratio mentioned above), with the basic 10% chance to critically heal, should amount to 1090 health restored over ten heals; an average of 109 health per heal.

The extra critical healing chance is a near linear gain on your heals. Each critical healing chance % increases your damage by 0.5%. Critical healing magnitude is non-linear, since it depends on your spells critically healing. It works out to be your critical healing chance % multiplied by your critical healing magnitude. In the previous case, 10% of 40 is 4.

At maximums of 14% critical healing chance and 56% critical healing magnitude and a base of 100 points healed, your average heal comes to about 223.

=Powers=



Nature
See Also: List of Nature Powers

Nature focuses on Healing over Time (HoT) spells and Shield spells to avoid damage. At level 30, you will have enough points to go into both aspects of your Power source, though with the ability to queue only 6 skills and overlap between them, you won't find huge benefits in doing so.

Several Nature powers release Pheromones that provide Healing over Time (HoT) while Blossom consumes all Pheromones in an area for a large heal.

Plants
Specializing in Plants grants +5% critical attack damage and +2% critical healing chance.
 * Blossom - Restores health to the most injured group mate within range or yourself. In Healer Role, removes Pheromone effects on allies for an equal amount of healing.
 * Bloom - Restores health to yourself and nearby allies. In Healer Role, releases Pheromones.
 * Cross Pollination - Creates a wave to heal yourself and all allies within range, growing in strength with every ally healed. In Healer Role, releases Pheromones.
 * Savage Growth - In Healer Role, releases Pheromones.
 * Harvest - In Healer Role, releases Pheromones.

Shapeshifting
Specializing in Shapeshifting grants +1% critical attack chance and +5% critical healing magnitude.
 * Metabolism - Accelerates healing over time for yourself and your teammates. In Healer Role, releases Pheromones.
 * Regeneration - Regenerates health and power over time for you and your allies (50% Supercharge Cost).
 * Insectoid Form - Only available to the Healer Role: Transforms you into flying Insectoid form, with increased healing capability, reduced damage output, new weapon combos and powers of flight.
 * Hive Mind - Dramatically increases Might and Restoration for yourself and group members.
 * Swarm Shield - Brings a swam of insects to surround and shield your most injured group member and yourself from damage, equal to 125% of your Restoration.



Sorcery
See Also: List of Sorcery Powers

Sorcery focuses on direct healing and area of effect healing.

The Destiny tree produces the Golden Soul Aura effect which increases your critical healing chance by 10%. It also produces the Bad Karma effect, which causes the affected enemy to heal their attacker.

Summoning grants the Red Soul effect which only really affects one healing ability. You can only have 1 soul active at a time. Since you have enough points to go into both trees, it's important to manage which souls you are using at a given time.

Destiny
Specializing in Destiny grants +5% critical attack damage and +5% critical healing magnitude.
 * Rejuvenate - Instantly restores Health to the most injured group mate or yourself. Grants Golden Soul Aura.
 * Invocation of Renewal - Heals yourself and up to seven nearby allies. Grants Golden Soul Aura. Heals the same amount as Rejuvenate, per target.
 * Circle of Destiny - In Healer Role, grants Circle of Protection, an area of effect field that heals all members within it over time.
 * Arbiter of Destiny - Transforms you into the ultimate agent of Destiny by imbuing all Destiny powers with inexhaustible power; weapon attacks are not usable in this form and movement speed is reduced. Provides a new Powerset that you need to configure, and effect lasts 22 seconds.
 * Shared Fate - In Healer Role, heals you and your allies.

Summoning
Specializing in Summoning grants +1% critical attack chance and +2% critical healing chance.
 * Conjure Soul Well - Conjure a Soul Well to damage nearby enemies. In Healer Role, will heal nearby allies each time they knockout an enemy. Grants Red Soul Aura by accessing the souls of enemies defeated near the Soul Well.
 * Summon Watcher - Summons a Watcher. In Healer Role, imbues the Watcher with healing ability. Heals for 250-300, but does not increase in power. Grants Red Soul Aura by accessing the souls of defeated enemies.
 * Transcendence - Channels a spell that protects you from damage and impulses, while recovering heavy health and power over time for yourself and your allies (50% Supercharge Cost). Heals for a lot per second and about 50 power per second. Lasts 8 seconds.
 * Sacrificial Offering - Heals allies, restores power to summoned demons, and non-player allies over time - at the expense of your health. Heals for the same as Rejuvenate, per player. If Red Soul Aura is active it is used instead of your health.
 * Life Element - Summons a healing crystal that releases Health-restoring energy when smashed or thrown. Heals the same amount as Rejuvenate, per player.
 * Boon of Souls - Summons a barrier to prevent damage to you and up to 3 of your group members. Prevents damage equal to 125% of your Restoration. When Red Soul Aura is active, enemies will take damage when they strike your shield.



Electricity
See Also: List of Electricity Powers

Electricity has two emergency Healing abilities that only kick in when the Health of a group member falls below 35%. These emergency abilities are a big life saver when in a hard raid or alert. Electricity has very good direct burst heals, but this comes at a price, being that electricity is the most power hungry healing power.

Voltage
Specializing in Voltage grants +1% critical attack chance and +2% critical healing chance.
 * Bioelectric Surge - Instantly restores health to the most injured group mate and yourself.
 * Electrogenesis - In Healer Role, creates a healing aura on yourself and your closest ally (NPC or player) in range.
 * Ionic Drain - Drains energy from the environment (enemies) to replenish yours and up to 7 group members Health. Provides a large group heal at the end, but is vulnerable to interrupts.
 * Arc Lightning - Strikes an enemy with a bolt of electricity that can then jump to and damage more enemies or jump to and heal allies.
 * Electroburst - In Healer Role, Electrified enemies will Heal nearby allies.
 * Group Transducer - Protects all teammates from damage with electically charged barriers, healing them with each incoming attack while also damaging their attacker.

Amperage
Specializing in Amperage grants +5% critical attack damage and +5% critical healing magnitude.
 * Bio-Capacitor - Instantly restores Health to the most injured group mate and yourself; also restores Health once each for you and up to 3 group members if their Health falls below 35% within the next 2 minutes.
 * Galvanize - Creates a wave to heal yourself and all allies within range, growing in strength with every ally healed. In Healer Role, heals over time.
 * Invigorate - Restores Health and Power over time to you and your allies and protects against control effects. Also restores Health once each for you and up to 7 group members if their Health falls below 35% within the next 2 minutes (50% Supercharge Cost).

Celestial
Celestial is a combo power like light but is more complexed. This power uses some of the same elements from the other 3 healing powers. Having the ability to buff the group, burst heal, Area of effect (AoE) and heal over time (h0t). Although this power is mainly a heal over time it will not conflict with a nature healer in a group. Celestial uses stat buffs and shielding spells like nature and sorcery also. Being a combo power celestial is the hardest healing power to master. An advantage of this power is that it is the least power hungry of the 4 healing powers.

Buffs
Some healing powers can buff the group.

Iconic Powers
There are two tiers of Iconic Powers available: those that unlock at level 10 and are usable abilities and those that unlock at level 22 and are passive bonuses. The active ones do not provide healing benefits. The passive ones are best acquired in the order below:
 * 1) Empathic Healing: +3% Critical Healing Chance.
 * 2) Wisdom of Solomon: +50 Vitalization and +100 Power.
 * 3) Miracle Worker: +10% Critical Healing Magnitude.

Power Management
Most abilities actively require Power in order to use them. All alone, you will likely have enough power to use at most 6-7 skills before you empty out. If you don't have an ability to heal, you can always use a Restoration barrel. They are often found around bosses for just this reason. In order to acquire more Power there are 3 options:

Drinking Soda
This costs cash but it allows you to regain a significant amount of power in short order. It is a great option in emergencies.

Group with a Controller
Controllers have innate abilities that will restore power to you or to your group. They won't give you infinite power, but it should be more than enough to keep full if the group is paying attention.

Build your Combo Hit Meter
The higher your Combo Hit Meter, the faster you will regenerate Power. Dual Pistol's Full Auto, Bow's Flurry Shot, Staff's Martial Flowers and Hand Blaster's Pulse Beam are easy to use attacks that quickly build up the meter.

An experienced player could easily rake up over 140 hits per minute (reasonable estimate given mistakes) with Pulse Beam; however, its main disadvantage is the tedious clicking (two quick right clicks then a right hold, with an accurate timing, otherwise the Pulse Beam would become a Charged Blast).

Another viable weapon is the Staff, with the Martial Flowers move. It has a simple click pattern that is easy to recover even at the event of a misclick, and 150 hits per minute is not difficult to achieve. Its main disadvantage is that Martial Flowers is a melee move. Dual Pistol's Full Auto actually has a relatively low hit rate, at around 90 hits per minute, but it is the easiest to do, simply right click hold for 20 consecutive hits; remember to restart it before the current barrage runs out to further build the combo meter.

Defeating opponents
Defeating most open world opponents grant 110 power.

Skills
Given that a healer's power regeneration is directly linked to their Combo Hit Meter, the faster the weapon, the better. In addition, since most enemies move around and deal area damage, you want to be as far away from them as possible, while still being in range of the area of effect spells you cast. All weapons have a ranged mode but few have very quick attacks.

Movement Skills provide no direct benefits to Healers as they require Supercharge, which can be best used elsewhere.

Leveling a Healer
You have two main options when leveling, either solo or group play. A healer can solo play easily as a DPS with some healing skills, though you will need to respec once you approach level 30, in order to re-distribute your skills. Up until that respec, select any abilities you wish and the weapon style you enjoy the most.

Real group play doesn't start until level 9 and your first alert. Waiting until level 10 and acquiring your healer role is a better option. At this point, you will level solely in Alerts until level 30 and having a plan for your skills will save you a respec later on in levels. This will mean point hoarding until you reach the appropriate level to spend them and a lack of DPS ability. This can hinder you during the time you are waiting to enter an instance but is quite manageable. Once in the group play, make sure you are in the Healer stance (default T button to switch).

PvP play is another option that is available to level. It requires a more defensive play style and situational awareness. You never want to be alone, so you will find yourself typically following 1-2 other players around on the map. Staying close to melee range means you are a less vulnerable target.

Nature Healing
Always in Insectoid Form unless you need to move or deal damage. Blossom is your basic heal to top a single target. Cross Pollination is best used when the group is close together; too spread out and you lose a lot of healing power. Metabolism is a good group heal that should be used frequently, when you have over 80% power. Hive Mind should be used in conjunction with another group skill, such as Metabolism to quickly heal the group or Regeneration (requires 50% Supercharge) to quickly boost everyone's health and power.

Keep an eye out for Healing Barrels and try to get your Combo Hit Meter above 20 to increase your Power regeneration.

Sorcery Healing
The main issue here is ensuring you have Golden Soul Aura active instead of Red Soul Aura. That 10% bonus to critical healing chance is very good and Red Soul Aura only affects 1 skill. Rejuvenate is the basic heal to top off members. Circle of Destiny should always be used when the group is going to be standing still for more than 10 seconds and on every boss. Be sure to be standing in range as well to get the healing effects. Invocation of Renewal takes a while to cast and is best used when the entire group is in range of you. Arbiter of Destiny allows you to spam your healing spells for a short period. The Summoned Watcher heals for good amounts but is incredibly fragile. Summon Soul Well combined with Circle of Destiny gives out a ton of healing for little power but requires everyone to be in range. Sacrificial Offering should only be used if you have Red Soul Aura active and therefore aren't casting Destiny spells.

Keep an eye out for Healing Barrels and try to get your Combo Hit Meter above 20 to increase your Power regeneration.

=Healing Formulas= Since Restoration is the only stat that affects base healing (Might affects damage dealing abilities), the basic damage modifier is M=(Restoration/4)/100. With 700 Restoration, you have M=1.75.

Sorcery
=Things to Note= You cannot target a healing spell; the game automatically heals the appropriate person, depending on the situation. All heals require Line of Sight to take effect. Someone who is rolling, behind a pillar, a box, an enemy or otherwise un-targetable will use up your healing spell and power but not get healed. In practical terms, this works out to be about 10% of all heals.

Single Target Heals
These will typically target the person with the lowest hit points, in range. If the person is in range but not targetable, you will still cast the heal but no heal will take effect. You can usually address this by getting closer to the action or flying above it. Be warned that flying makes you a target and once grounded, you lose a few seconds of action and any combo you might have had.

Group Target Heals
These work very similar to single target heals. Rarely will you hit everyone that is in range due to line of sight, so it's best if the group is aware that they need to stick close together and not roll away when in dire need of a heal.

Area of Effect Heals
If you have nothing targeted, then the spell will be cast at your feet. You can un-target someone by pressing "c". If you have someone targeted, it will put the effect at their feet. This is very effective when dealing with a boss but odds are it will not affect ranged group members. It is up to them to move into range of the effect once they see it.

PvP Flag Preventing Healing
If any of your teammates have their PvP flag on, you will not be able to heal them, unless they deactivate it, or you activate yours. This prevents exploits on PvE servers where a healer would be able to heal in PvP without being targetable. Many healer complains about broken healing, but often it is a PvP flag that has been activated.