-Sections-
I. Why healer?
II. Int vs Str
III. Essential Skills
IV. Leveling
V. Item sets
VI. PvP
I. Why play healer?
Pros:
-Excellent tanks (if built right)
-Awesome PvP (gets to use more than 3 or 4 skills)
-Spells not affected by tohit and def
-Spells do consistent damage
-Paralyze skill
-Fun/challenging to play, variety of skills to use
-Extremely annoying to mages
-Everyone loves 400cc
-Back from near-death to full hp in seconds
-Self-Res
Cons:
-Hard to level (after JC)
-Challenging to play
-Subpar damage output
-Weak PvM
-Don't even try to pk other slayers
-Drops like a fly if stats are not in the right places
-Drops like a fly if set is not good
-Drops like a fly if denial magic wears off
So how to make a healer that owns?
II. Int vs Str
Basically, slayers have a pre-defined stat allocation up until JC, when at that time they most likely will distribute points into the main attribute. However, as a healer, you want to break away from this trend and start putting your points into Str. Why?
Let's look at the benefits of int.
-2mp per Int
-Slightly increased spell damage
-Buffs are slightly more effective (unconfirmed)
To start off, mp is completely useless. First of all, you have a passive skill that naturally regenerates mp at a rate usually much faster than what is being used up. Second, even you do run out of mp, you can pop a mana amp and can look at a full bar in no time. Third, you even have a skill to deal with this..Sacrifice, which takes a small amount of hp in casting a spell if mana reaches 0.
Next, spell damage. While this is proven true, the damage increase is very slight. While you are dishing out more damage, you are trading your survival with it. Your goal should be to outlast the opponent, rather than deal more damage than it can do to you (Which will never happen unless you are fighting complete noobs).
Buffs. I am not sure if this is true, but I heard the protections (not denial magic) are slightly improved with more int. I suppose this is a valid argument, but this guide is not meant for support healers pussying out in the back casting 3 minute buffs. Besides, that's what moju is for.
Then is the argument that more int = stronger heal. This is proven false..Great Heal always heals 143, Cure all 85, and Passing 120. The heal strength depends on domain rather than int. If int does really affect it, it would be a ridiculously large amount for a couple points. Tested with +/- 30 int, no change in healing strength.
Now for strength..
each point of strength gives +2 hp and 1 prot. So compare a lvl 161 pure int healer compared to a str healer:
80 Str
80 Dex
315 Int + 40 points = 355 Int
Str/Int
195 Str + 40 points = 235 Str
80 Dex
200 Int
Points follow general trend of 475 max basic, +4 extra per level after JC, and not counting items
The Str/Int healer has over +300 more hp, and over 150 extra protection. The pure int has slightly increased damage, shit protection, useless hp, and heals exactly the same amount as the str/int.
Attributes should be distributed as follows:
80 Dex
200 Int minimum (151 supposedly does not cast if less than this amount)
Rest Str..get up to 400 points before thinking about going into int.
Now for the good stuff.
III. Essential Skills
**Protection from Poison/Curse/Blood/Acid**
This buff grants nearly 4 minutes of resistance to whatever is casted. I believe the amount is 15+ resistance..but I'm not 100% sure. This is really useful for bumping up curse to 90+ so you won't get paralyzed.
**Regeneration/Cure Critical Wounds**
Recovery over time. Regeneration affects a fixed 3x3 area which it is casted on, and Cure critical affects a 5x5 area around yourself. If you can, try having these constantly healing yourself and you're looking at a good 75ish hp regen per second. Edit: Regeneration has been shown to have slightly increased effects with more int.
**Cure All, Great Heal, Passing Heal**
Instant hp. The numbers which they heal are stated above. Cure all removes most negative status effects as well as healing. Great Heal cures any level of vampire bite, but not status effects. Also heals the most. Passing Heal launches an orb that is essentially an improved cure all, except that it also bounces to the nearest slayer within 2 tiles and heals them. It will bounce quite a few times at level 10 (max). This skill works best when you are standing next to one other slayer, where the orb will bounce continuously between you two and can heal a HUGE chunk of health. Edit: These skills do not heal more with more or less int. Graph of int vs hp healed
**Remove Curse**
Removes all vamp curses from yourself, the only skill that can remove death. Does not heal any hp. Make sure to stick this guy to an easily accessible hotkey..once you see that skull on you, you want to remove it ASAP or paralyze will most likely break through your resistance.
**Cause Critical Wounds**
Toothpick, stake, cross, you name it. This skill does slight damage and a paralyze for about 3 seconds. Everyone hates it, as nothing can prevent being ccw'd except for magic avoid. Be aware there is a chance for it to miss..and it can very well cost you the fight.
**Bombing Star**
Primary pk skill. 5x5 huge aoe, and the best damage of all healer skills to boot. Spam this and illendue to make short work of vamps..giving them some decent silver in the process as well. Edit: Moderate damage increase from int. See damage graph below.
**Vigor Drop**
Lowish damage but hits 3 times, making this an excellent skill to use in conjunction with hp steal. If you have the magic damage+10 bible, it applies to all 3 hits, making the damage nearly equivalent to that of bombing star. If you don't have it though, it is better to use illendue for pk instead.
**Activation**
Approximately doubles the rate at which ampuls regenerate mana/health. A party skill that is extremely useful..if your starts to dip just pop and ampul and watch your hp zoom up.
**Whitsuntide**
Resurrection with a 4 tile range. Make sure to wait about 5 seconds after your buddy dies before using so the resurrect icon can appear.
**Peace**
All adjacent non player enemies will change their target to the next nearest enemy. Some monsters cannot be peaced. A good counter for annoying gore glands, and good for getting unstuck when surrounded by monsters. Be aware that if you aggro those monsters they will come after you again.
**Inverse Illusion or Illusion Inversion**
Set class skill, heals 45% of damage dealt. Deals a fixed level of moderate damage (about 260) until int is greater than 400. After that, damage increases like the motherfucking US national debt. See the damage graphs for details. <information from noobert>
**Denial Magic**
And the best for last..This baby reduces all magic damage taken to a measly 30-40% (maybe even less). Watch and laugh as hellfire barely tickles you while your cure critical outheals the damage. Only downside is that it lasts for a very short time and has no visual icon, leaving a big responsibility on your part to watch your status bar. If this goes away..expect yourself face flat on the ground extremely soon. A good tip that I found is that you can cast this with Activation, which has the same duration and a visual (blue flames on your back). This will give you a heads up when denial wears away.
EDIT: New info on STR vs INT
Recent information has shown that INT does have a respectable effect on the damage skills of healers. You will have to make the choice whether the damage increase is worth the loss in protection and hp. Take a look at the data from noobert's recent findings. As you can see, the damage of the set class skill is fucking amazing as int increases past 400. The damage of bombing star and illendue are not too shabby either. But while it may seem attractive to deal over 600 damage in a single hit, this is extremely unrealistic as nobody is going to get 1000 int any time soon. If you like high damage spells, you should probably make an enchant instead (since int also gives hp in the form of mana for aura shield). I personally don't think the damage is worth the sacrifice in survivability. Also note that these findings were from a version of darkeden currently outdated in the JP/KR/Global servers, and some of the privates.
IV. Leveling
0-80: go wherever you can survive and just spam your single target skills on whatever you find. Make sure to raise all your skills to level 100.
80-150: Use ONLY vigor drop to level..all the other aoe skills give crappy exp, including bombing star. Just stick on a shitload of hpsteal and go lure some big mobs. Remember you can hold down alt and click on where you stand to hit the most monsters. More monsters you hit = more exp. With this, regeneration, ampul/activation, and cure critical, you can pretty much level anywhere. Always go for the highest defence armor and accessories..at this stage it is better to have more def and less option than a godly option on a 1dan item. If you're in a jam, just freeze ring or use peace to give yourself some breathing room.
150+: It is essential to train with a party at this point. Equip a sword and shield when training to raise your basic str. Also, your damage is pitiful compared to the other classes so you will need their help in gaining a decent amount of exp.
Also, healers are notorious for being able to macro their way to 150 in a very short time. Please don't be a noob and follow this trend..you will regret it later when you have 100k fame and a rank of serent. You will need a lot of fame to carry bibles, and reaching litena rank is a MUST. You will definitely need that bonus curse resistance to save you trouble from paralyze. So get in a strong party and start grinding your ass off!
V. Items
I suggest 2-3 sets for a healer.
The first one should consist of hp steal and high defence items. This will be for your training and PvM. Khali accessories should work fine for this.
The second set should be resistance..a mix of moju and curse. If you are having a hard time getting moju, just go for curse 10's..they are cheap and do the job well. You need about 90ish curse to block most paralyze, and 70 (acce+10) + the curse buff should be sufficient. If you can get a full set of moju 9, that's even better. With that and denial and protections, INT vamps should be mere annoyances (if they weren't already).
The last set should be of highest defence and str. If your basic Int is still high, you can buy a 8dan balance ring int>str 5% for about 50m in one of the guilds. This set will be for fighting dex/melee type enemies in PvP, or mage ousters (as moju does not affect them).
If you can, forge the last 2 sets together and lilith them..and you're looking at a solid, indestructible set that can deal with both mages and melee types.
VI. PvP
Finally, what you've been waiting for. You've worked your ass to JC now, got your STR up past 200, and now it's time to start kicking ass. Generally, you should wear a sword and shield for pking as it gives extra def and an extra option. Unlike the other servers, in global, hp will remain the same whether you are wearing a cross or sword. Just know that your mp will drain in seconds as your passive mp regeneration will not work without a cross.
MATCHUPS
Int vamps:
If you've gotten your resistance set, these should be a piece of cake. Make sure to keep that denial up at all times! If they cast gore, quickly freeze it and cast peace next to it. The rest is up to getting in lucky shots through their darkness and a chance ccw if they come into vision. Try to estimate where they are in the fog and rain hell on them. If they're really persistent with the darkness, just step out of range, heal, and they will come to you. Their health isn't regenerating, so they will do all they can to stop you from doing it. In the end, it will result in the following ways:
1. Your denial fell off and you're a dumbass, so you died.
2. They casted death on you, and you didn't remove it, so you got paralyzed and you died.
3. They died, because they simply do not have the stamina and health to keep casting spells and taking hits.
Hopefully you outlasted them and achieved #3.
Dex vamps:
These bitches hurt, but are not too hard to deal with when you understand how they work. They want to get nice and cozy up close to dish out the pain, so all you need to do is kite back and cast a ccw. Always pay attention to your health, and pop and ampul immediately after taking damage. It is better to use one now instead of when you have 10 hp left and panicking. This also plays a role in demoralizing them: they will see that all the damage they have dealt to you is regenerated to full in seconds while theirs is steadily dropping. When your hp is looking good, throw some bombing stars and immediately kite away if you see them gliding to you. If they use wild wolf, cast great heal. Because it knocks you back so far, it will give you a free opportunity to heal while they try to close the distance. If they use werewolf, basically ccw and run until it wears off. They most likely will use wolf bug, so dealing any sort of damage is useless. If they don't, well..it is not worth the risk. A couple hits from werewolf can bring you down in seconds. An important thing to remember is that ccw will fail if you are getting hit by wild wolf or set afire. It will also fail while they are gliding. Try to predict when those happen so you can land a successful ccw.
Dex ouster:
These are your greatest enemies. They can spam pupas which are equivalent to ampuls..and they will regenerate life extremely fast. They will probably hit through any kind of defence you have as well, and have spammable ranged skills. Cast a ccw and try to pack them with as much silver as possible, while making sure your hp stays up. Chances are though, you will not run into one of these dudes because there are hardly any ousters playing on global..
Fire/Earth ouster:
These should not pose a problem. Make sure denial is always up as usual, and keep them ccw'd as much as possible. Also be sure to stay out of any aoe spells, such as prominence, RoF, meteor shower, etc. Most of these will run away at the sight of a healer, so encounters are not that common.
Water ouster:
Assuming that it is built right, this will be a battle of patience and frustration. Waters are the ouster counterparts of healers. Both of you will probably suck up every single amp in the inventory. They will gain health just as fast as you will. It will all boil down to who can remember to keep buffs up..for you denial, and for them divine spirits and whatever they have. Because this will result in such a costly and frustrating battle, I suggest to immediately call peace and go separate directions. It's really not that hard.
