Healing build

Healing build

Hello all.

I've always played MMOs as a healer, and I'm not planning to change that in The Secret World. However, I have only been able to really participate in one beta weekend (the last one) and in it I mostly spent the time trying out each of the societies to choose the one I'm gonna play come early access.

Now I am not a big fan of the magic stuff, I am so looking forward to playing this game particularly because there is the option to be just a "normal" person with just guns and stuff, and so I decided to use the assault rifle as my healing weapon.

What I'd like to know is, will I be able to main heal instances and stuff efficiently with just the assault rifle, or do I have to combine it with claws or (God forbid) blood magic? And if I won't have to use claws or blood magic, what would you say is the best weapon to complement the AR with? I have paired it up with pistols and I kind of liked that, but am not sure if it's the best combination healer-wise.

Thanks a lot for your input guys And sorry for all the questions, I just really didn't have that much time to test everything out and since the EA starts tomorrow, I want to be as prepared as possible

Here is the ideal typical Healer build

Active Abilities
• Anima Burst: An Assault Rifle Burst attack which hits one target several times. This ability also heals your defensive target for a small amount and gives a Leech effect which returns some of the damage dealt as healing. Builds one Resources for each weapon.
• Transfuse Anima: An Assault Rifle attack which hits one target. This ability also gives your defensive target a Leech effect which returns some of the damage dealt as healing. If the target hit is Hindered you place another Leech effect on your defensive target for several seconds. Consumes all Assault Rifle Resources.
• Linked Veins: A Blood Magic Chain ability which heals and places a Barrier, which absorbs some incoming damage, on several friendly targets in an area around you. Builds one Blood Magic Resource.
• Blood Pact: A Blood Magic ability which places a Barrier, which absorbs a high amount of incoming damage, on several friendly targets in an area around you. The affected targets also receive an effect which causes the next opponent which attacks them to be Impaired and unable to act for a few seconds. Consumes five Blood Magic Resources. Can be powered by your own health.
• Energize: An Assault Rifle Ability which places a Leech effect on your defensive target, which returns a considerable amount of the damage they deal as healing for several seconds.
• Mortar Support: An Assault Rifle ability which heals several friendly targets in the targeted area.
• Re-animator: An Assault Rifle Elite ability which is channelled for several seconds to hit your defensive target with several heals for the entire duration.

Passive Abilities
• Sanguineous: Whenever you place a Barrier you receive a heal.
• Vessel Walls: All your Chain abilities cause you to receive a Barrier which absorbs some incoming damage.
• Anticoagulant: Whenever you apply a Leech effect your target becomes Afflicted with a damage-over-time effect which lasts for several seconds.
• Leech Therapy: Whenever you hit an Afflicted target with a Leech effect, you heal several friendly targets in an area around you.
• Post-Op: All your Leech effects give a heal when they expire.
• Shadow Medic: All your healing abilities heal for a higher amount.
• Veteran: Whenever you apply a Leech effect you build up a counter. When this counter reaches seven all group members receive a heal and a Leech effect, which returns some of the damage they deal as healing, and which lasts for a few seconds.

I am very interested to hear the responses to this thread as well. I intend on going a full healing build from the start and was thinking of fists/blood but also on the fence about AR/blood. Not sure how the two stack up against one another.

I played in all the betas but just didn't get around to testing any sort of healing build.

From Keridan's post above mine, AR looks pretty darned nice in the healing scheme of things.

I've been trying to figure something like that out as well in this thread: http://forums.thesecretworld.com/sho...t=35392&page=1

… but I got kinda mixed answers.

Assault rife and blood are best combinations for pure healer build.

I enjoyed AR/Claw a lot for healing. Early on it's a bit rough as it lacks big emergency healing. Until you get a ways into the outer ring at least. From what I see a good passive selection that you are triggering constantly is going to be a large portion of your healing done. I only plan on taking one cell (warming up) in claw's outer ring to Healing Sparks. The rest of my build up to around QL 9 will likely be all in AR.

In the early stages of the game, Blood Healing is king, just because you have access to both builder and consumer pretty easy, and if you are familiar with shields and their mechanics, hot's are more friendly than leeches when paired with shields, so you can't go grong pairing blood with claws.

Later on, when you have access to outer rings, everything is viable, and personally I enjoyed healing with rifles so much that I didn't use any secondary weapon.

I've also always been a healer, and felt a bit dirty playing Polaris/Inferno as DPS in the beta weekend.

Healing in TSW just doesn't appeal as much as in other games, and like the OP I'm not into Blood Magic, I also like the idea of using actual weapons.

I'll be starting out with Pistols/Blades, going for the Paladin deck outfit, and I've got some ideas about a Focus-based solo build.

But I will also be going for AR, getting at least the inner circle and one or two outer circle healing abilities shouldn't take much away from anything else. This way I can at least be offhealing in dungeons (Did this in beta too), and have something for when melee might not be suitable.

My 4th weapon will probably be Fists. I don't like them damage-wise, but i like them more than Blood and they have some useful synergy with AR, such as Burst abilities. There's an AR burst healing builder, a AR ability that makes Bursts 7.5% more effective, and a Fist passive that gives a HoT any time you use a burst attack.

One major reason to get Fists or Blood though is that with AR you heal just fine as long as there is something to shoot. When there's not, you can't heal. Comes in very handy to have something else to use then.

Anyway, I like the concept of Leech and HoT healing more than shields. I'm very comfortable with not having an "oh crap" button or big ST heal after having spent a lot of time as a Resto Druid (With tree form ofc!). In fights where all damage comes in big spikes it's a different thing, but in general it's a style I enjoy.

You can read my healing builds here: http://tswguides.blogspot.com/p/builds.html

I did not use AR to heal in dungeons in the closed beta (so I disagree with the folks that say they are the only way to go, I used AR to solo and duo). I felt like it was too dependent on "leech" effects, which just don't work on a tank. I used Claw/Blood. Claw is a very good healing build, and solid for dungeon runs.

I also have a "My first 60" version of the build, which can solo heal Polaris and the first Hell dungeon.

I plan on writing up a AR healing build soon (tm), hopefully sometime today.

Thank you for the guide. Added it to my favorites. I think that for healing and duoing with hubby who is going a tank build from the start, I may do the claw/blood build. I will start to add in AR at some point but this will be my first priority.