Dragonknight
DK healers don’t always get to see the light of day - the age-old popularity of DK tanks throughout the patches and the superior damage output of DKs since their sustain woes were heard in U32 meant that a group almost always included DKs to provide class benefits. That said, DK healing can be a challenging and fun departure from the usual, and can do well as a parse-heal class.
DKs are the main source of Minor Brutality, providing the entire group with +10% weapon damage. This requires casting an Earthen Heart ability every 20s, usually Stone Giant or Cinder Storm. They can also provide a unique 6% boost to flame damage through Engulfing Flames, a unique damage buff through Stagger from Stone Giant, as well as group-wide Major Brutality and Major Sorcery through Igneous Weapons. The latter has can be useful in groups using non-standard potions without Major Brutality/Sorcery, and Igneous Weapons’ range makes it exceptional for open-world PvP.
🟧 Ardent Flame 🟧
▫️ Engulfing Flames: An AoE DoT which applies an up to +6% Flame Damage taken debuff on enemies hit. To maximise this value it should be enough to have all the correct attribute points, buff-food and golden weapons. Excellent for groups with a lot of flame damage, though it is also standard damage skill on DDs and may be covered already in group compositions. Ideal for use as a Zen DoT and for EC (Fire) - especially since it moves with its targets.
▫️ Unrelenting Grip: A ST chain ability to pull enemies into stacks. Typically a tank skill but can be slotted by a healer to help out in trash pulls or to chain the archers during the first boss of Sanity’s Edge. Also soft-taunts the target, making them attack you until a tank taunts them with skills as Frost Clench or Pierce Armor
▫️ Cauterize: A cheap and relatively powerful burst or ambient HoT which is unique in how it works. It provides four separate ST bursts over 15 seconds (on cast, after 5s, 10s and expiration) and can be cast or recast early when active to provide an instant ST burst. While it will always target the lowest Health allies, its long duration between procs makes this a difficult skill to use effectively. Since it is also ST, there are better uses for skill slots in group environments. Its still a useful self-survival tool in PvP.
🟧 Draconic Power 🟧
▫️ Choking Talons: An AoE skill around you which roots enemies in place, applies Minor Maim and provides a damage synergy to one group member on adds that are rooted. While it’s not usually a healer skill, it can still be beneficial to root small adds so they don’t walk away. The synergy does not apply on bosses or elites but they will still be affected from Minor Maim. Talk to your tanks about it if you want to slot this, rooting enemies at the wrong times can make them CC-immune and really mess things up!
▫️ Deep Breath: An AoE damage ability that interrupts enemies casting, sets them Off-Balance and then stuns them. On rare occasions it can be useful when you have to interrupt many enemies at once.
🟧 Earthen Heart 🟧
▫️ Stone Giant: Applies one stack of Stagger (a damage-taken debuff) to enemies per cast for a max of 3 stacks, causing them to take +65 damage per stack from each attack. Doesn’t sound like much on paper until you consider that this means +195 dmg from each LA, each spammable and each tick of every DoT from 12 players - it adds up very quickly! Works great as a stam-dump in conjunction with MK. Make sure to maintain Stagger stacks by recasting it within 6 seconds and take its travel time into consideration as it counts as a projectile. Also, pay attention to the recast every 4th cast which has a cast time.
▫️ Igneous Weapons: Provides Major Brutality and Major Sorcery to the group for 72s (including Eternal Mountain passive). DDs usually source these buffs from potions or gain it from their own skillsets but this can be useful in case group members want to use Heroism or Tri-Restoration potions or don’t have access to these buffs via their class tools. Note for MK: You will get back 1120 Stamina on cast!
▫️ Fragmented Shield: Provides you with Major Mending for 8 seconds and shields 6 allies, which can be useful to heal through mechanics like vSS Tombs/Ice Cages or vCR’s Baneful Mark. Note for MK: You will get back 1120 Stamina on cast!
▫️ Cinder Storm: One of the game’s two most powerful AoE HoTs, which lasts longer than Springs and is excellent for encounters where your group can stack tightly as it’s severely limited by it’s small radius.
Eternal Mountain [Passive]: Extends the duration of all skills in the Earthen Heart skill tree by 20%. The durations on this list take this passive into account and are with it enabled.
Battle Roar [Passive]: A key part of all DK playstyles. This passive returns resources whenever you ult, tying your resource regeneration to your ult. HealDKs and MagDKs have historically always suffered a bit from sustain but as a healer you can build more into recovery than you would on other classes and eliminate the need to rely on ult timing for your sustain. When running MK, be aware that as soon as you ult, you’ll usually be back at 100% stam.
Mountain’s Blessing [Passive]: Provides Minor Brutality for 20 seconds upon casting an Earthen Heart ability. Also provides you with 3 Ultimate once every 6 seconds when casting a Earthen Heart ability, especially noticeable when using Stone Giant.
Helping Hands [Passive]: Returns 1120 Stamina each time you cast a non-Stamina-costing Earthen Heart ability or your Ultimate. Be aware of this if running MK as this can be really unhelpful if you time it wrong!
TLDR:
- Healing Springs vs Illustrious Healing: With recent testing we learned that Healing Springs does not smart target on each single tick, but Illustrious Healing does. With this knowledge Illustrious Healing should always be the preferred morph. Read through <#1248427339008839784> for more information.
- If your partner has group buffs overlapping with you, talk it out to split the work, for example:
- Overflowing Altar only needs to be cast from one support. Either coordinate who casts it or keep it on your bars just in case.
- Stone Giant is also a typical tank skill - if your tank is already doing it or the content doesn’t allow you to use that many skill casts on it then drop it.
Changelog:
- Echoing Vigor added to staple skills.
- Changed Illustrious Healing to preferred morph.
