Guide: How to Heal

Feel free to repost my guides anywhere you want. I would suggest including a link somewhere back to this post though (shortlink: https://redd.it/6p403r), as patches may modify the contents and I will generally only be updating this post.

 

^(Disclaimer: I try to verify the accuracy of things in my guides, but am also frequently wrong and have bouts of insanity, so feel free to post or message any corrections.)

#Patch Updates

Patch 2.0.3 - Added Infernal Cache weapons, Efficiency now works with healing, added expected elite 5+ mechanics and dungeon drops.

Patch 2.0.2 - Guide creation.

#Key Concepts

##Targeting

Unlike combat, healing in SWL is based on the more traditional concept of a "defensive target", which is a friendly character you can keep targeted without having the reticle pointed at them. In order to change your defensive target, you have 4 options.

For targets in your group:

• Scrolling the mouse wheel will cycle your defensive target through all group members within range.
• The F1-F5 keys will select the 1st-5th group member displayed in your group UI if they are in range.

For targets outside of your group:

• Ctrl+Tab (Default command for "Target Nearest Friend") will cycle your defensive target through the nearest friendly characters.
• Alt (Default command for "Toggle Target Mode") will allow you to directly click any raid member in the GUI to set them as your defensive target.

Also note that most healing is group wide, not raid wide. Any ability which says it affects your group will only affect the 5 members in your group, and not the other 5 members in your Raid. In order to directly heal your raid members (or players not in your group), they must either be manually targeted before casting the ability or the ability must have an AoE component such as the Fist ability Wild Surge or the Assault Rifle abilities Anima Canister/Essence Grenade.

##Barriers and Heals over Time

• Barrier effects will heal for their barrier amount if they are reapplied while any amount of the original barrier is still active.
• Heal over time effects will instantly heal for their remaining amount if they are reapplied while still active.

##Hatred

The aggro mechanic.

• 1 point of healing/barrier generates 0.5 hate. Overhealing generates no hate, but does add to the hate table. Barriers will always generate hate on application.
  • When everyone on the hate table is at 0 hatred, the most recent addition to the hate table will take aggro. This is why when your tank facepulls with a HoT on them, the healer gets aggro - the tank gets added, then the HoT tick adds the healer.
• Healing will generate hate on ALL enemies that are in combat with your healing target, even if your team is not actively fighting them. For example, Doctor Klein in fight 6 of the Ankh. After being interrupted by the tank, the healer will build hate with Klein by healing the group which can result in Klein switching aggro to the healer.

##Kiting

When adds spawn, the healer will usually become their target. If the tank is unable or unwilling to move to pick them up, the healer will need to move to the tank to allow the tank to grab them.

##Subroles

Healers generally have the most freedom when choosing which abilities to use, so cleansing and buffing, both of which do not require hit rating, will generally fall to the healers. Common non-healing weapon abilities used for these purposes are noted below.

##Raid Composition

Due to the difficulty in being able to heal the other group, raids will likely be composed of 2 healers:

• A "main" healer in the tank group who's job is to keep the tank(s) and tank group alive
• An "off" healer in the non-tank group who's job is to keep the non-tank group alive

Depending on the amount of damage the non-tank group takes during a fight, the off healer can be completely dropped, be a DPS with one groupwide heal, or a main healer for a second tank.

#Gear Requirements

In general, healers are not dependent on their gear to be effective, and their gear requirements are inversely proportional to their tank's gear - A better geared tank will require a lesser geared healer, and a lesser geared tank will require a better geared healer. As healers are not heavily dependent on their gear, swapping out heal rating for health talismans is a viable option for more survivability.

Healer gearing is variable based on healing style, but is generally composed of a full set of heal rating talismans and a mix of critical and critical power glyphs, with enough hit to not glance if healing with an assault rifle. The ideal split at end game will be 5 critical/3 critical power for fist and blood healing, and 5 critical/2 critical power/1 hit for rifle healing. Note that in general, glyphs and effects on weapons only apply to your character while that weapon is active.

Rifle healing has the ability to use attack talismans instead of heal talismans while still remaining an effective healer - the choice of how many attack talismans to use will depend on the tank, as the ability to heal large amounts of damage (emergency healing) is reduced as more attack talismans are used.

##Elite 1

Elite dungeons are the first content in SWL progression which requires roles. According to the developers, elite 1 is tuned to a character who has finished the story mission and has all superior (blue) items with 1 epic (purple) item.

1. At a minimum, aim for a full set of unglyphed unleveled superior (blue) healing talismans.
2. Glyphs are useful, but not necessary at this difficulty.

• 5% glance reduction from hit if healing with a rifle

##Lairs

Lairs are the next step in SWL progression after elite 1 in order to obtain signets. According to the developers, lairs are tuned to a character in full epic (purple) gear.

1. Aim for a full set of fully leveled (level 25) superior (blue) healing talismans with fully leveled (level 20) standard (green) glyphs.

• Note that some lairs and bosses will require better gear.

2. Glyphs are more important at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• 18% glance reduction from hit if healing with a rifle
• Critical Rating, as much as you can afford. Endgame glyphing will use 5 critical rating glyphs (technically 6 - one on each weapon, although this is up to preference)
• Critical Power, but no more than 3 glyphs

##Regionals

Regionals are the "final boss" of lairs, and are the hardest content in the game at the moment (excluding scaling elite dungeons). I don't believe there has been developer commentary on regional boss tuning, but from what I've seen it's tuned to a character in fully leveled epic (purple) gear.

1. Aim for a full set of epic (purple) healing talismans with fully leveled superior (blue) glyphs.

• Note that some bosses will require better gear.

2. Glyphs are more important at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• Around 31% glance reduction from hit if healing with a rifle
• Critical Rating, as much as you can afford. Endgame glyphing will use 5 critical rating glyphs (technically 6 - one on each weapon, although this is up to preference)
• Critical Power, but no more than 3 glyphs

##Elite 5

Starting from Elite 5 difficulty, dungeons reintroduce the old TSW nightmare mechanics as well as significantly scaling up the health and damage of bosses. I don't believe there has been developer commentary on elite 5 tuning, but from what I've seen it's tuned to a character in full mythic (yellow) gear.

1. Aim for a full set of epic (purple) healing talismans with epic (purple) glyphs.

• To reach 450 Item Level, you will need a fully leveled set of epic talismans/glyphs/signets in each slot at the minimum, with possibly 1 mythic to compensate for the lack of wrist signets.
• Note that some dungeons, notably Ankh may require better gear.

2. Glyphs are important at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• 22% glance reduction from hit if healing with a rifle.
• Critical Rating, as much as you can afford. Endgame glyphing will use 5 critical rating glyphs (technically 6 - one on each weapon, although this is up to preference)
• Critical Power, but no more than 3 glyphs

#Gear

##Weapons Flame-Wreathed weapons give a small chance when healing to also apply a barrier.

Fist

• Bladed Gauntlets will let you use the powerful Invigorating Wrath more frequently and enables neat offhand fist healing builds reliant on Invigorating Wrath as an emergency heal.
• Surgical Steel increases the strength of Invigorating Wrath heals.
• Invigorating Razors will generally give you time to use one more Invigorating Wrath ability.

Blood

• Compendium of Wards increases the strength of barriers.
• Soul-Infused Manuscript helps manage martyrdom self-damage.

Assault Rifle

• Orochi Tactical Carbine is essentially a constant 7.5% healing boost.
• Orochi Medical Launcher improves group healing capability.
• KSR-43 makes grenade abilities on-demand.
• Auxiliary Loader seems to add an additional 5% chance to load a grenade when failing to load a grenade.

##Weapon Affixes

In order of general usefulness:

• Efficiency will allow you to use your elite ability more often. Note that efficiency has diminishing returns when stacked with other CD reduction.
• Energy will allow you to use more abilities resulting in better sustained healing.
• Havoc will increase the power of your critical healing resulting in better burst healing.
• Alacrity will increase your movement speed to dodge telegraphs and kite adds more effectively.

##Talismans

Listed below are the best in slot healing talismans currently available in the game. The benefit from an extraordinary item compared to its non-extraordinary counterpart is minimal, so it is generally better to have a 3 pip normal talisman over a 2 pip extraordinary talisman. Note that currently available drops are only dungeon drops - when raids release, we are likely to see much more powerful effects.

Head - Pharaoh's Blood. This slot triggers on healing the same target 5 times.

• Pharaoh's Blood grants a heal over time effect, which will generally be more useful than the small amount of damage mitigation provided by Blood Halo.

Finger - Band of the Bacab. This slot triggers when attempting to cleanse.

• Band of the Bacab provides additional healing, while Belobog's Blessing provides additional damage mitigation. Since this triggers when attempting to cleanse, and cleansing is usually to remove DoT effects, the additional healing tends to be more useful.

Neck - Linen Amulet. This slot only triggers when healing a target under 50% HP.

• Although the Caduceus Amulet does provide a better effect for tanks when under 50% HP, your other group members are more likely to fall under the 50% health threshold from groupwide damage. Getting a refund on the often expensive group healing abilities is more useful than the small amount of mitigation provided to your tank.
  • Special mention to Seed of Aggression for rifle healing, as it's trigger for energy gain is on enemy targets below 50% health, which is much more frequent than allies being under 50% health.

Wrist - Bone Timepiece. This slot only triggers when healing a target without any detrimental effects.

• Bone timepiece provides extra healing, while Red Weed Timepiece has a 10% chance to provide an effect that prevents the next detrimental effect within 3 seconds. While the effect from Red Weed Timepiece to prevent detrimental effects is nice, it does not last long enough to be meaningful.

Luck - Chit of Kinich Ahau. This slot triggers on critical healing.

• In general, the extra healing from Chit of Kinich Ahau is worth more when compared to the small amount of mitigation that Tarot Cards provides.

Waist - Khonsu's Disc. This slot triggers on healing an ally with 7 meters.

• Khonsu's Disc provides movement speed, while Serum Pouch reduces hate generation. Initial hate generation is usually the problem for healers, not generating too much hate, so the movement speed will be more useful.

Occult - Rakshani Charm. This slot triggers whenever an enemy is defeated.

• The bonus energy from Rakshani Charm is overall more useful than the bonus healing from Ankh which will likely unintentionally be used up by overhealing.

##Signets

Head - Per weapon, with a choice between cooldown reduction and increased output. Healers will probably want cooldown reduction, as the neck and finger signets already increase output.

Neck/Finger - Per weapon.

Wrist - No wrist signets in game yet.

Luck - On crit effects. Healers should choose between Amelioration/Laceration/Echos for more healing, or Empowerment for more damage.

Waist - Modifies gadgets. Healers should choose between cooldown reduction or increased healing.

Occult - Modifies active dodge. Healers should choose between breaking movement hinders, increased movement speed, and reduced cooldown.

• Breaking movement hinders on demand becomes extremely useful and frequently mandatory in future content. Cleanses are generally on abilities with 20s cooldowns, so being able to free yourself without expending a cooldown is quite valuable. Also, it removes filth stacks!
• Movement speed after an active dodge is useful as a healer when targeted by adds to kite them towards the tank.

##Gadgets

Gadget usage is not affected by the GCD, making them great for emergency situations, but will trigger a GCD when used.

• Compact Catastrophe Shelter - Defensive CDs for your tank.
• Concentrated Anima Jet/Mnemonic Guardian - Cultist/Mnemonic Guardian - Deep One - Emergency Heal
• Mnemonic Guardian - Oni - Group Heal
• Superluminal Bridging Device - Movement
• Purification Drone Model UW-0 - Cleanse
• Phoenician Support Stratagem - CC Break
• Manticore X13 Distractor - Detaunt

#Builds

While not as dependent on gear or stats, healers are highly dependent on their abilities and passives. Heal builds will generally follow the same format:

1. Basic Heal
2. Single Target Heal
3. Group Heal/Elite
4. Emergency Heal/Elite
5. Utility/Elite
6. Utility/Elite

Keep in mind that this is only a general template, and will change depending on the fight and your group. I will just be categorizing the abilities by weapon following the above template below.

##Healing Styles

Healing styles in SWL are based on the healing weapon used:

Fist Healing - Difficulty: Easy; Example Build

• Directly restore lost health
• Pro: Strong single target sustained and burst healing options
• Con: Entirely reliant on cooldowns for group healing, useless at full HP

Blood Healing - Difficulty: Medium; Example Build

• Prevent damage with barriers
• Pro: Versatile single target, group, sustained, and burst healing options
• Con: Martyrdom management, limited raid healing options.

Assault Rifle Healing - Difficulty: Hard; Example Pure Heal Build, Example Hybrid DPS Build

• Leech health from enemies. Has the unique potential to do damage without sacrificing healing ability.
• Pro: Strong group and raid healing options. Scales with group gear.
• Con: No on demand burst healing, no cleanses, and healing requires a target to attack.

##Basic Abilities

Basic heals require your defensive/offensive target to be in line of sight, but will redirect healing to the lowest group member regardless of if you can see them.

##Power Abilities

Fist Healing

Single Target Heal

• Renewal - A direct single target heal. The passive grants additional single target healing.
• Feral Regrowth - An indirect single target heal. The bulk of the healing is in the heal over time effect, which will instantly heal for its remaining amount if it is reapplied. The passive adds a small additional heal over time effect.

Group Heal

• Invigorating Wrath - The fist healing speciality and group healing cooldown. Gives you the ability to apply a strong groupwide heal over time and heal the entire group for a little less than renewal strength for no energy. The passive adds an extremely powerful emergency heal.

Emergency Heal

• Ferocity - Instantly heals for a large amount and also consumes any active HoTs for additional healing. The passive adds additional healing over time.

Utility

• Wild Surge - An AoE that heals for a small amount and cleanses all allies standing in it every second, and also slows enemies if you need to kite them. The passive adds a burst healing effect.
• Savagery - A single target damage buff and fury generator. The passive adds even more fury generation and some healing.

###Blood Healing

Single Target Heal

• Sanctuary - A barrier effect which will heal if the barrier effect is already on the target. The passive increases the amount of health restored while the barrier persists and removes the martyrdom damage penalty from this ability.

Group Heal

• Convalesce - A group heal which also provides a barrier for group members under 35% health. The passive increases healing to group members with this barrier by 15%.

Emergency Heal

• Redemption - Martyrdom dump. Also cleanses. The passive increases the healing done and improves the martyrdom dump effect based on the health of the target.

Utility

• Runic Hex - Martyrdom dump. Applies a DoT which heals allies attacked by the affected target, with an AoE heal when the DoT effect expires. Also applies debilitated. The passive applies a weaker version of Runic Hex to nearby enemies when the DoT effect expires.
• Rejuvinate - Martyrdom management. Prevents martyrdom damage and heals you for a small amount The passive increases the healing and also makes the healing ignore the healing reduction from martyrdom.

###Assault Rifle Healing

Single Target Heal

• Vital Shot - A leeching heal which requires an enemy target to shoot. Is as powerful as the other single target healing options at baseline, but scales considerably with crit/crit power/buffs. The passive provides the target you healed with their own leeching effect for 4 seconds.

Group Heal

• Anima Canister - A friendly TAoE which will heal up to 6 allies (including raid members) around the target for a small amount, and all group members regardless of where they are for a large amount. The passive provides your group members with their own leeching effects for 4 seconds.
• Unveil Essence - A direct group heal which also debuffs the target with an effect which heals all attackers. The strongest raid healing option. The passive increases the leech amount for critical attacks.

Emergency Heal

• Energise - Increases assault rifle healing and adds a purge effect to all attacks for 6 seconds. The passive slightly increases all healing to your group.
• Lock & Load - Grants 4 assault rifle energy. The passive adds a chance to load a grenade when using this ability.

Utility

• Essence Grenade - An enemy TAoE which applies debilitated and heals up to 6 allies (including raid members) around the target for a large amound. The passive leaves a small healing field in the area of effect for 5 seconds.

##Weapon Passives

Listed in order of usefulness

###Fist Healing

• Warmth - Adds additional healing when healing with a fist weapon.
• Second Wind - Grants 4 fist energy when Invigorating Wrath ends. Worth taking if you frequently find yourself low on energy.
• Keen Senses - Adds additional healing when your healing target is under 35% hp. The amount added isn't much, but it does add it when you need it.
• Wild Nature/Furor - Generates additional fury if you find yourself using Invigorating Wrath frequently. Wild Nature is strictly better than Furor.
• Potent Wrath - Adds a small heal over time effect to your group after using Invigorating Wrath. Since Invigorating Wrath consists of entirely group heals, the usefulness of this ability diminishes.

###Blood Healing

• Rites of Refuge - Gives ~3% damage reduction on targets affected by your barriers.
• Crimson Pulse - Adds a small heal over time effect on critical heals/barriers.
• Sanguine Charm - Increases your healing when you dump martyrdom. Possibly bugged at the current time.
• Shroud of Retribution - Increases your barrier strength by 3%.
• Red Tide - Increases your healing when you quickly gain martyrdom.
• Absolution - If you have trouble managing martyrdom or don't want to take a martyrdom dump.

###Assault Rifle Healing

• Anima Dispersal - Increases your assault rifle healing every time you launch a grenade, which you should be doing frequently.
• Ground Marker Rounds - Same effect as the Essence grenade passive, but applies to all grenades as well as stacking with the Essence Grenade passive.
• Field Medic - Adds a small amount of additional healing while you remain within 7 meters of your defensive target.
• Jungle Style - Useful if you find yourself running out of energy.
• Explosives Expert - Useful if you have trouble managing grenades or to give you more time to launch a grenade when it's needed.

##Elites

The Elite abilities for each weapon generally address the healing weakness of each respective weapon.

###Fist Healing

• Primal Instinct greatly increases the strength of all heal over time effects. The passive makes critical heals even stronger.
• Regeneration is an extremely strong group heal, and the passive makes it into a powerful emergency heal. It is also supposed to cleanse, but that does not seem to be working reliably at the moment.

###Blood Healing

• Eldritch Scourge heals allies that stay nearby the target over time, and provides a burst of healing when it ends. The passive increases the healing.
• Communion is an extremely strong group barrier, cleanse, and heal, and the passive makes the barriers restore health to your group when they are broken by damage. Note that Communion does not affect the caster.

###Assault Rifle Healing

• Anima Suffusion is a strong single target emergency heal that grants immortality to the target for 1.5s. The passive increases assault rifle healing for a short time afterwards.

##Cleanse off-weapons

• Cleanup from Shotgun
• Clean Slate from Pistol

##Buff off-weapons

• Opening Shot from Shotgun
• Reconstituting Shells + Passive from Shotgun
• Ice Beam + Passive from Elemental

#Healing Quick Notes

##Elite Dungeons

Healing in dungeons usually involves keeping your tank alive through sustained incoming damage. Group healing abilities are generally a convenience instead of a necessity.

For Elite 5+ mechanics, as they have not been fully confirmed, listed below are the expected mechanics based on Nightmare dungeons in TSW, designated with a *. These mechanics will be updated as they are confirmed.

###The Polaris

• Boss 4: Haugbui Mother
  • Watch for the adds that spawn near the chest. They have a hinder+explode combo that will instantly kill. CC immunity will prevent the damage.
• Boss 5: Primordial Dweller
  • Watch for the same adds as in the previous fight.
  • Psychic Death Zone places a persistent AoE on the crates and makes the boss invulnerable for a while. Adds will spawn and likely aggro onto you, so run to your tank.
  • [Elite 5+] Synapse Spasm chains and now deals considerable damage, so do not stand near the tank during this cast.
  • [Elite 5+] The boss now frequently casts Psychic Death Zone without the persistent AoE or invulnerable effect just to force players off the crate.
• Boss 6: Ur-Draug
  • Be ready to deal with the high amount of incoming damage.
  • Rending the Veil (blue phase) is an aggro reset. Try to avoid healing so that Ur-Draug does not aggro onto you.
    • Do not be seen by the boss during blue phase, as you will likely die if you are.
  • When the boss reaches low health, he will make all the pillars explode and gain a permanent Strength From Beyond buff which will reflect damage to attackers, so don't stand too close to pillars and be ready to heal your team.
  • [Elite 5+] Extinction will root all players after the cast, so make sure someone has a cleanse handy.

###The Darkness Wars

Every boss here has adds. Watch for add aggro.

• Boss 4: Unbound Ak'ab
  • When he burrows, the will target the furthest player and try to emerge at their location. The emergence deals a large amount of damage and should be avoided.

###The Ankh

• Boss 2: Doctor Klein
  • [*Elite 5+] Dreaming Shroud lasts for 10 seconds and is a hard heal check during which the healer must keep their tank alive.

###Hell Raised

• Boss 3: Hardwired Fleshtank
  • [*Elite 5+] Players are periodically afflicted with Lifeburn which is a constant DoT that must be cleansed.
• Boss 4: Traumadriver
  • [*Elite 5+] Players are periodically afflicted with Lifeburn which is a constant DoT that must be cleansed.
• Boss 5: Recursia, Many-in-One
  • This boss is a heavy DPS check. Consider bringing CC or damage to help if the DPS are having problems.
  • [*Elite 5+] Players are afflicted with Lifeburn during phase transitions which is a constant DoT that must be cleansed.
• Boss 6: Machine Tyrant
  • [*Elite 5+] Players are periodically afflicted with Lifeburn which is a constant DoT that must be cleansed.

###Hell Eternal

• Boss 1: Archaean Seismocratist
  • [Elite 5+] The cast Hot Iron will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
• Boss 2: Lustrehunter
  • You can avoid the stun from Fallback if you LOS the boss.
  • [Elite 5+] Occluding Lens is now a reflect shield and cannot be purged, so prepare to heal your DPS.
  • [Elite 5+] Fallback will afflict players (usually the tank with aggro, but not always) with a Hot Iron effect which will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
  • [Elite 5+] The Lustrehunter now pulses a PBAoE after using Fallback which will likely kill non-tanks, so prepare to heal your tank.
• Boss 3: Prime Maker
  • [Elite 5+] Players are periodically afflicted with Lifeburn which is a constant DoT that must be cleansed.
• Boss 5: Hadean Guard
  • Watch for your teammates leaving a trail of Immolation Invocation right at your feet
  • [Elite 5+] The cast Hot Iron will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
  • [Elite 5+] Occluding Lens is now a reflect shield and cannot be purged, so prepare to heal your DPS.
• Boss 6: Eblis, Dominus Inferni in Profondis
  • Never stand in front of Eblis.
  • Consummation does 70% of a random player's HP in damage.
  • [Elite 5+] The cast Hot Iron will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
  • [Elite 5+] Occluding Lens is now a reflect shield and cannot be purged.
  • [Elite 5+] Solar Collapse will now spawn tracking targets which will kill you if they are touched.

##Lairs Healing in lairs usually involves keeping your tank alive through a mix of sustained and burst incoming damage. Group healing abilities are generally a convenience instead of a necessity.

• Shadowy Forest
  • Special mention to the Shadowy Forest lair, which will require cleansing if your group refuses to remove any DoT abilities they may be using.

##Regionals

• Aspect of the Long-Toothed - Healing is composed entirely of recovering from spikes of damage. Tanks will take 15-20k hits approximately every 2 seconds even with active mitigation abilities, and will need to be at full health before the next hit.
• Aspect of the Many-Limbed - Healing is composed almost entirely of raidwide damage. The boss has an infinite cleave radius in an approximately 180 degree arc in front of her, and will hit all players in that arc for around 3k damage about every 2 seconds.
• Aspect of the Great Winged - Healing is composed mostly of recovering from spikes of damage. Tanks will take 10-15k hits approximately every 2 seconds even with active mitigation abilities, and will need to be at full health before the next hit. Most of the fight is avoiding the whirlwinds spawning around the area.