INTRO

Well, there’s been alot of fuss over whether clerics should heal, or whether they should fight. Some people have argued we are free to play as we wish, and some have argued that we must maintain teamwork and heal when needed. All these arguments are valid, and have been bouncing around for some time now. So, in response to this, I would like to propose a compromise between the two halves. Thus, the Battle Healer is born. It even has a nice ring to it, Battle Healer ~cha!!

I can almost guarantee anyone you party with will LOVE you if you do this properly. At least that’s been my experience thus far XD

WHAT THE HECK IS A BATTLE HEALER?

The way I like to see it, a Battle Healer is cleric who fights while they keep their party alive. Your satisfying your own need to kill mobs while satisfying your party’s needs by healing them.

I would first like to say that being a Battle Healer requires great skill. It has taken me years of MMO play to get good at playing clerics, it will take practice to get this down pat. Also keep in mind that it’s not always possible to be a Battle Healer. If your party is on the threat of dying, you MUST save them! Know when to call it quits for a while. If your party is struggling, consider switching back to full healing for the moment. Remember, you’re a cleric and therefor the party is expecting you to keep them alive to a certain extent. Even if you are doing great, clerics are a support class…Always remember this. If we aren’t doing our job, other classes will stop partying us.

It is recommended you duo, or trio as a Battle Healer. AoE is much more tricky but can be done.

TECHNIQUE

Keeping a close eye on the party window is key. You must be aware of your partner’s health at all times, as well as your own. You will ‘bash’ and attack the monsters in between healing your partner(s). If your partner is taking too many hits, switch to full healing until some mobs disappear. If you get mobs on you, this is when you need to use stones. Instead of targeting the mob your partner is on, target the one on you. Heal your partner, bash the mob, use HP stones. If it’s just one mob you can usually alternate heals between you and your partner. Hopefully your friend will remove the mob from you, or attack that mob to kill it quick.

UPDATE: Now that Trip does a ton more damage you can actually use it instead of bash, while bash is cooling down. I don’t play my cleric anymore so if someone wants to write something up or make changes just let me know and I’ll update it.

My Technique

I shall call it M0J0 Healing!!! Heh, JK

This is how I personally do it when I’m duoing. Keep in mind, you don’t have to use all the fancy keyboard shortcuts, but I like to. You don’t have to use the assist function, but it really helps. Have your hotkeys setup something like this (assume this is your #1 slot, so not Ctrl+1):

To attack: Press F2, then 1, then 2 (this will attack the mob your partner is fighting)
To heal partner: Press F2, then 3 (this will heal your partner)
To heal yourself: Press F1, then 3 (or stone, or pot)
To cast invis on partner: Press F2, then 4
…etc

- F2 will select your partner automatically, F1 selects you.
- The ‘assist’ function will automatically target the mob your partner is targeting.
- You can adjust skills, and skill locations as you like.

As I mentioned, you can simply click your partner, or click the mobs…It really doesn’t matter, I just personally find this method the most efficient and simple to use.

Example of Chains

Basic Battle Heal
- F2, heal, assist, bash
- F2, 3, 1, 2

Restore heal attack (my fav)
- F2, restore, heal, assist, Bash ~attack until heal needed ~repeat
- F2, (hotkey), 3, 1, 2

Invis heal attack
- F2, invis, heal, assist, bash
- F2, 4, 3, 1, 2

Self heal, attack, partner heal, attack (if both of you are being mobbed, lightly)
- F1, heal, F2, assist, bash, F2, heal, assist, bash ~repeat
- F1, 3, F2, 1, 2, F2, 3, 1, 2

Not so hardcore Battle Healing

Again, keep an eye on health gauges at all times. You don’t have to use fancy chains or combos just do the main things. If you want, you can target random mobs and just keep bashing until your partner needs heal. That’s the basics of battle healing. Attack mobs until your partner’s health goes down, then heal, then continue bashing mobs. So this however you want. I’m simply showing 1 technique, I’m sure there are lots more.

AoE Battle Healing

I haven’t personally attempted this many times, but it’s definitely possible. Especially if you are duoing with a tank. You will probably end up taking some mobs as agro, I recommend you use a build with END because of this. Chains are very important, you MUST create your own as well to compensate for your partners habits and limits. AoE Battle Healing is more a personal thing. Once you have partnered with someone for a long time, you can work so well together that you can fight while healing them at the same time. They need high DEF and HP, otherwise you will be constantly healing them XD Arguably, battle healing might seem a bit pointless in an AoE party though. If you attack the mobs that will be left over, or have recently attacked your partner this is when it works.

Originally Posted by Thasmudyan

Finally, about AoE parties: There are times when you can fight, but don’t go into an AoE party (especially if you’re the only cleric) and think, "I’m gonna show everyone how awesome I am by fighting and healing at the same time." Most AoE parties require constant healing. If you’re looking for a place to contribute damage, it’s at the end of the pull, when most of the monsters are killed and there are just a few stragglers (or perhaps an elite mob that the AoEs didn’t finish off yet). Clerics are good for helping finish these off. Again, make sure everyone’s well healed before the killing.

SKILL EMPOWERMENTS (see post 3 for heal effect empowerment)

Priority
- Max heal cooldown
- Max bash damage
- Max bash cooldown

Secondary
- Max heal SP use reduction
- Max bash SP use reduction

Leftover points
- Where ever you like (invis cooldown, length…etc)

BUILDS

Pure = All into stat
Full = after other stat is met, all into stat

Pure STR
- Recommended if you plan to solo alot, or want to maximize your bash damage
- If you use this build, get as much critical as possible
- Recommended if you can afford cash shop critical sets and glasses, etc

Full STR, 25 SPR
- Good if you want to solo but don’t have much critical adding gear
- Good if you cannot or will not buy critical sets and glasses from cash shop
- As a rare plus, it adds onto your SP, and magical defense

Pure END
- Great for AoE battle healing
- Lots of HP and DEF, makes your job easier (you don’t worry about your HP as much)

Full END, 25 SPR
- Again, gives you some Magical defense, critical for your bash, and SP
- At the same time, gives you HP and defense

Variation Builds

*Basically, you can customize how you want to be a Battle Healer. You can chose to go 1:2 END:SPR , 2:1 END:STR ….There’s TONS of combinations you can chose from. Use these builds if you know what you’re doing, that’s all I have to say. They work great if you know what you want.

EQUIPS

You’ll want to use a hammer for maximum damage output. You won’t really need to worry about the speed of your attacks, bash will be your main attack.
Not much to say here really, but if you wanted to know…Just look for equipment that adds SPR, END, or STR. Critical earrings, high critical weapons, and even critical licenses if possible. If you can +9 your weapons or shield, GREAT! If not, don’t worry about it. From my experience, getting a hammer to +9 doesn’t really change that much anyway; maybe a difference of 50 damage on regular attacks at lvl 45 …..Ya, 1g+ for 1 less attack per mob XD…..Anyway XD

KINGDOM QUESTS

Ok, I know lots of people wanted this posted lately. First of all. Clerics. As members of an MMO in a free country you are allowed to do whatever you want with your character within the rules of the game. If you want to attack rather heal you are allowed to do that. However. There gets to a point where you need to wake up and accept the fact that other classes need you to heal. Especially at bosses, you MUST heal the tank. If the tank dies, the boss will kill mages, and clerics VERY fast. I’ve been in a few KQs where it just went downhill so fast because the tank died. KEEP THE TANK ALIVE.

Kingdom quests are designed in such a way that each class can perform a specific task to contribute overall to the success. Think of it like a table. There’s four essential legs that hold it up. If you remove, one of the legs, the table will fall. It can balance on three legs if nothing goes wrong, but it’s very hard. Mages need to deal damage and AoE, Archers need to poison and do whatever it is archers do ;P , fighters need to tank, and clerics need to heal. That is the foundation of all KQs. In the earlier KQs it is possible to get away with no healing, or a cleric tank. But later on you will learn that if clerics don’t heal the KQ falls apart in no time at all.

Good news though, you can be a battle healer in a KQ as well. As long as there’s no more than 2 people who need heals in your party you can still attack things. With 3 people, it gets very tricky. You never know when someone will need a heal and it’s hard to keep up while attacking. If possible, tell them to stop taking so much agro. Afterall, it is hard to heal 3 people at once anyway. If there’s two clerics in the party, you’re golden.

PROS & CONS

Pro’s

- Mobs die faster, more exp
- It’s hela fun!
- Your partner will use less SP per mob, while you use more. Perfect, clerics have tons of SP
- You can be an active part of the battle while keeping everyone happy and alive
- If you get tired of battle healing, you can just switch back to full support

Con’s

- It requires alot of attention and skill
- If you don’t do it properly it can become more of a burden to your partner than anything
- It’s possible to attract agro, and die easily if you aren’t careful
- Some people will spam you when you log in, begging to party again

TIPS

- Restore can buy you some time between heals and attacks, use it often
- Stick close to your partner, let them see when you have mobs on you
- Always keep your partners health up. Don’t expect them to use stones unless it’s an emergency.
- Remember, you can always go solo on your own, don’t let attacking take priority over healing
- Again, remember…If your party dies, you die.

Conclusion

I made this guide because after making a new mage character, I really started to see what people were talking about. Clerics aren’t healing nowadays. I can see why too you know, but you really need to fulfill your responsibility while your in a party. Clerics are a support class, yes they can fight, awesomely, but you do need to do your job when your in a party. This guide is showing you a great way to fulfill your need to bash monsters to a pulp, and fulfill your party’s need for heals.

I’m sure you’ll develop your own techniques and style, but in the end….My hopes for this guide was to deliver the main message here:

You can heal without being a healbot. You can fight without letting your comrades die. And most important of all, you can restore everyone’s faith in clerics by being a Battle Healer.

// Any suggestions are welcome. I’m sure higher levels clerics may disagree with some of the stuff posted, but I would also say that the problem is more apparent in lower leveled clerics, not higher ones.

A NOTE ABOUT EMPOWERING HEAL EFFECT

Originally Posted by Thasmudyan

I recommend similar empowerments to any battle cleric, as it covers the skills you use most often, both solo and party.

Credits go to yourmojo.

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