Healing

The Ways of Healing

Just as there is more to fighting, there's more to healing than just touching injured people. Topics covered include trainers, priorities, and training strategies.

Healing Items

Healers have four devices with which to heal: the moonstone, the slyphstone ring, the caduceus, and the mercurial staff.

Moonstone

Master Hekus gives you a moonstone when you decide to become a healer. To use it, equip it in your right hand and touch (bump into) someone wounded. Healing someone consumes spirit and drains your health. The amount you heal a nonhealer is twice the health you sacrifice. Healers heal other healers more than thrice the cost in health.

The moonstone can also be used to heal yourself: "/useitem moonstone". One use is often referred to as a "pulse". Healing yourself is much faster than healing others, but you will also consume spirit much faster, and quickly exhaust your spirit pool after not too many pulses. Occasionally, healers will compare how many pulses they have before exhausting their spirit, much like fighters will compare how many swings they have, but such a number is less important for healers, since for most their primary job is to heal others. Every healer should have some single-key self-heal macro, which at the very least does "/useitem moonstone N", which will give you N pulses in a row.

The normal amount of self-healing one gets from the moonstone, for a given expenditure of spirit, is the difference between how much healing that amount of spirit would heal a nonfighter, and how much health that would cost you. This might seem obvious, except that note you're healing a healer -- yourself -- without getting the bonus that healers get for healing other healers. Consequently, it is generally faster for healers to heal each other than to heal themselves. With special training (Awaria, Sprite, Master Spirtus), one can increase this normal amount of self-healing to some extent.

Sylphstone Ring

The sylphstone ring is available to 2nd circle healers at a cost of 240 coins. 30 lessons with Sylpha are required to be able to use it. When equipped, the sylphstone ring will automatically give you self-heal pulses whenever your spirit pool is full. No need to "/useitem". Each pulse consumes as much spirit as a moonstone pulse, but only gives you half as much self-healing.

Healers use the sylphstone ring so they can self-heal while holding something other than their moonstone in their right hand: such as when cadding, chaining, or fighting.

Fifth circle healers can train 30 lessons with Metta Sylpha, which increases by 50% their self-heal using the sylphstone ring, to 3/4 as much as a moonstone.

Caduceus and Proximus

The caduceus, commonly called cad, is available to 3rd circle healers at a cost of 1000 coins. Cadding allows one to heal others at some distance. One's range with a cad is how far one can heal with the same effectiveness as healing with a moonstone. Immediately beyond one's range, the spirit and health cost will double, while the rate at which one heals will halve. Further out the cost continues to increase dramatically, while the healing effect decreases just as dramatically. Cadding beyond one's range can both hurt a lot and not be effective. Those who cad get a good feel for what their range is. The challenge in battle is to keep in range the people one is cadding while they move around. Fighters can be insensitive to this.

Training with Proximus will increase one's range by approximately one exile-width per 40 lessons. However, it takes 5 lessons just to make touch distance in range. There is also a maximum distance a cad will work, which increases with training, but that rarely matters except for supplying horus to an inaccessible fallen, like from Kizmia's Island's coast to the shore.

One drawback to a caduceus is that, unlike a moonstone, one cannot use it to heal oneself.

Mercurial Staff

The mercurial staff, commonly called merc or staff, is available to 4th circle healers at a cost of 1300 coins. Or one can trade in one's caduceus for a mercurial staff for 300 coins. A mercurial staff does everything a caduceus does. In addition, by touching someone wounded, one can "burst" heal: expend all of one's spirit in a burst of healing. Bursting requires that one's spirit pool be at least half full. Burst healing is also much less efficient than healing with a moonstone. For a given amount of healing, bursting drains twice as much health and expends four times as much spirit as using a moonstone. But sometimes the speed is worth the price. Burst healing is primarily dependent on Sespus. Increasing the amount of Faustus that one has does not increase the burst.

One can burst while cadding, which means the mercurial staff can allow one to heal two different people at the same time, as well as burst the same person one is already cadding. Except, one cannot burst heal a fallen while cadding that same fallen.

Asklepian

The Asklepian is essentially a caduceus with the added ability of aura healing. It takes a caduceus and 750 coins to make an asklepian. To enhance the abilities of the Asklepian, one must train Radium.

Asklepian Staff

The Asklepian Staff is essentially a mercurial staff with the added ability of aura healing. It takes a Mercurial Staff and 750 coins to make an Asklepian Staff. To enhance the abilities of the Asklepian Staff, one must train Radium.

Healer Trainers

Healer trainers can teach you anything from how to heal faster to how to heal more severely fallen. A well balanced healer can heal indefinitely, while a specialist can heal a high Histia fighter from red to white in a matter of seconds. For every training decision there are trade offs to be made. Deciding what type of healer you wish to be makes training decisions easier. Knowing what each trainer does is critical to you and your party's survival because it will allow you to train in such a way as to become a valued specialist or an all around steady healer.

To see descriptions of each of the healer trainers, click on the this link or the "Healer Trainers" (title of this section).

Types of Healers

Most Healers specialize in one of the following after they reach second or third circle. Healers in the upper circles sometimes specialize in two of them.

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Rods

Rods train a good amount of Higgrus to be able to take massive amounts of damage without falling and Sprite to heal themselves and allow others to heal them faster.

Cadders

Cadders train a high amount of Proximus, a third circle trainer, in order to be able to heal from greater distances.

Horus Specialists

Horus Specialists do just as the name implies, train large amounts of Horus, a second circle trainer, in order to raise those that have fallen and taken a lot of damage either as they fell or after they fell.

Faustus Specialists

Faustus specialists focus on being able to heal an exile quickly at the expense of losing spirit very fast, and sometimes losing health fast as well.

Balanced Healers

Balanced healers tend to train a high amount of Eva, or train each trainer independently but keep their attributes close to each other. Often these healers have a high Respia/Faustus ratio so they can heal indefinitely.

Fighting Healers

A fighting healer is not meant to be a replacement for a fighter, but instead allow a healer so inclined to help clear junk that might otherwise bog down a party or cause the party to fall. A healer who is able to fight has less chance of getting trapped by junk and having to call for assistance. Being able to fight can also be helpful in places like South Forest, where it might be necessary to kill some of the creatures in order to rescue a fallen. A fighting healer can approximate a low second circle fighter, because of the inability to train Atkus or Swengus beyond what is offered in Bodrus or Hardia. In addition to a good self heal like a Rod, including training with the Sylphstone ring and the Respia to support it, these trainers max out Bodrus at 100 ranks. However training Hardia is not necessarily recommended since the additional Atkus-like training can take away swings, which lessens the ability of the healer to clear junk in critical situations. Thanks to Lorikeet, Xepel & Cinnamon for their insight into this (via the Sentinel).

Healing in a Heated Battle

Healers and Fighters are there to help each other. Knowing your own capabilities and those of your party, and also knowing the capabilities of your opposition, will help you to make the right decisions about when and who to heal, when to stay out of the way, and if and when to step up to take a hit. It’s critical to always pay attention so that you can make the right decision. As a point of etiquette, being in the way of a fighter who's sharing with you hurts you and them if they don't make a critical tag or kill something quick enough. It would be akin to a fighter chasing the queen bee for a tag while a healer was pounded on by the swarm of worker bees. There are things healers can do to maximize their party's effectiveness.

Awareness

Try to put yourself out of harm's way by keeping a close eye on where beasts and fighters are going. Watch for monsters in a feral attack pattern. Move and don't let them put you at the center of their circling attack.

• There are other ways to cause death and destruction while trying to do the right thing. One of them is trapping a fighter who's trying to get away from that valley panther who just put on his bib with a little halfling drawn on it.
• Often circlers will get behind the fighters and start circling you. Move toward a fighter and make it circle the fighter instead.

There are exceptions to this, for example, when you're rodding a monster, or if you are capable of rodding a monster that the fighters are bricking. Be aware of how much damage the fighters are taking and how many monsters are around so you can decide if and when to step in and rod until the danger is over. Even then you want to give fighters access to the monster, maybe by sliding to the side or even going around to the far side. Or, depending on the monster, just taking the initial hits, then getting out of the way so fighters can pound on it while the monster tries to recover its balance.

Retreating

When retreating from a snell, if you are healthier than your fighters, run so that your fighters are ahead of you and the monsters are behind you - if you can take the hits without falling. If the fighters are red, and you are green or yellow, this may save your fighters until you can get to a safe area where you can heal the fighters.

If you do this, let the fighters know ahead of time that you will practice this tactic, as too many fighters try to be the last ones out, despite their health, in an attempt to protect you the healer. Fallen fighters are no good at protecting a healer (unless they are used like zu). But, be wary of doing this if you're the last unfallen healer -- in that case, the fighters behind you may be doing the right thing by sacrificing themselves to make sure you get to safety.

The Combat Zone

If you are not rodding, try to stay outside of the immediate combat zone. If a fighter has to move around you they lose precious seconds that in a heated battle could mean life or death for another party member. (The same applies to fighters who've already tagged or are running in opposite directions to tag each other's beast.* (covered in group fighter tactics.))

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Using Terrain

File:Terrain-healer rod.png

Use terrain instead of or in addition to rodding to hold off that "one too many" monster. Why take multiple hits and lose vital health, when you could park a mob of creatures on a tree or rock within sight of the party while cadding those that you can or moonstoning those that are smart enough to come to you for healing? See Creature Terrain and Terrain for ideas on minimizing the damage you're taking by using terrain.

Backpacking and Side Healing

Backpacking is touch healing from behind, moving as needed to maintain contact. The advantage for the healer is that they are protected. However, fighters and even some healers dislike healers backpacking them because it restricts their motion, particularly in the direction of escape.

Healing from the side allows a fighter to easily retreat when his/her health gets low enough for them to be uncomfortable bricking, and you to run by a beast instead of into its mouth. If healing from the side blocks fighter access to a monster, step away to let the fighter in, then heal in the narrow gap between the two.

If you are forced to backpack directly behind a fighter, be ready to fall back to let the fighter retreat at the first sign of red. If a fighter that's bricking and you're backpacking turns red, or you see him/her face you, move away quickly to let the fighter out, and avoid trapping him in for a fall. Also, ask fighters if they mind backpacking. Even some who do might call out "backpack" in certain situations. In addition, if you are able to rod the creature that is being bricked, you can tell the fighter you are backpacking to pull you when he is ready to run.

However, conversation in combat may not only be awkward but also potentially detrimental to the battle, so it's better if you can choose someone appropriate to touch-heal without having to ask or be told. The basic strategy is to touch-heal someone who isn't likely to want to move for awhile. In battle, consider four categories of people: holders, darters, pounders, and cadders.

A holder might be a brick, or a tank, or a rodpoint; regardless, the holder's job is to stand still to keep one or more creatures attacking them. As such, not only will the holder not be moving for awhile, but they will appreciate all the healing they can get. They are the best choice for backpacking.

Darters are generally of three types: those who use movement as their defense by avoiding getting hit, those who are trying to hit creatures from behind, and those who recklessly tag with abandon. In any case, you should avoid chasing darters to try to touch-heal them: let them come to you, or leave them to cadders. (Or in the case of reckless taggers, wait until they fall, and then they won't be moving for awhile!)

Pounders are those who repeatedly hit creatures to take them down. Since they pound for awhile, touch-healing can be appropriate. But because they lack the ability to be a holder, they will likely want to retreat when low on health, so be ready to accommodate that. If you have a fast touch-heal, either by having very high faustus or by having a large burst, touch-healing pounders may be particularly appropriate, since you need not maintain contact for long.

(Holder, darter, and pounder are fighting roles that vary with the situation. One fighter may occupy all of these roles at different times. Thus, be aware that a fighter who has been a holder in most situations may need to switch to being a pounder against feraling creatures or a darter against a creature that does a lot of damage.)

Cadders are often a good choice for touch-healing, since they usually don't need to move around as much. Also, healing cadders with your moonstone is much more efficient than their sylphstone ring, and frees them from having to switch to their moonstone to self-heal (which is less efficient than being healed, anyways). Some cadders are fragile (having focused their training on effective distance healing, and relying on that distance to stay out of trouble), so by touch-healing them you can also be in position to protect them from stray monsters. While long-range cadders may move little, be aware that short-range cadders may need to move to stay with their targets, especially in a fast moving engagement.

Rodding

Rodding is an effective tactic when damage cannot be avoided. The defense that fighters train (Detha, Balthus) does not protect at all against many range attacks, like fire, rocks, and lightning (hence the name). Rodding can also be viable tactic when no fighter in your group has enough defense to brick a creature -- to avoid all but the residual luck hits.

The rod point -- the focus of the damage -- is usually a healer, for two reasons. First, healers naturally heal other healers more effectively than they heal nonhealers or even themselves. Second, healers have better training options for amplifying being healed than nonhealers. Healer rodpoints generally train a good amount with Higgrus (to be able to take a lot of damage) and with Sprite (to be healed quickly).

Note that when rodding a creature, you're occupying a space that a fighter might use to attack the creature. With enough fighters, less space means they have to rotate more so all get a tag, which slows the takedown. Or, with less cooperative fighters, some might even miss a tag.

Here's an excellent guide to rodding: <http://www.windsofdawn.org/guide/rodding.html>.

Triage

If something can go wrong, something will go wrong, at least some of the time. Smart fighters will recognize when to forget about maximizing tags and instead fight for survival. Smart healers should do the same. The general rule is, when survival is at stake: heal those standing. Not only does it take significantly more resources to heal a fallen's damage, but the fallen will be extremely vulnerable upon being raised (not to mention briefly frozen), and most likely will just fall again, possibly worse than before. Exceptions are specialists who may be essential to the particular battle, and may not need to be fully healed to be effective. Post battle, if the environment is threatening, join with other healers to raise someone together, rather than raising someone yourself. It's usually better to have one person up and ready to fight, than two or more people in the process of getting up. In a word: focus.

If a person is fallen too badly for you to heal alone, say their status (i.e "Silky is mms.") to indicate you are trying to heal them and need help. if you are standing around trying to solo heal fallen that you can't raise alone you waste valuable time. So, if no healer has taken charge, take charge by checking the status of each fallen and healing the person you feel is most return on investment, and calling for help on the person you select. (i.e. "All on Yor, please.")

Raising

A fallen exile's status generally indicates how many Horus ranks are required to raise them. The amount can be rather miniscule in that healers with less than 10 Horus ranks can raise a fallen by themselves, to rather large where thousands of Horus ranks are required to raise an exile who is "Perilously Near Death" (aka PND).

The amount of Horus required to raise a fallen is additive. The Horus ranks of all the healers who are trying to raise a fallen are added up. Then depending on the fallen's status, if the amount of Horus being applied is greater than that required, the exile will be raised. Otherwise, the healers will receive status messages indicating how badly fallen the exile remains. These messages will decline in severity as additional Horus is applied from the Healers attempting to raise that fallen.

Messages and number of Horus ranks approximately required to heal - from least severe to most severe. (thanks to Arbitur, Evita and Taryn's research) Note, the higher messages have a larger band of Horus required.

Fallen Messages

• Healer Message [fallen's message - /examine moonstone] ~ ranks min - ranks max

1. You don't quite have the training to heal Exile's injuries. [You are not easily healable] ~ 30 - 50
2. (LMS) Exile's injuries are a little more serious than you can heal. [Your injuries are serious] ~ 150 - 170
3. (SMS) Exile's injuries are significantly more serious than you can heal. [Your injuries are grave] ~ 200 - 325 (325 will get all)
4. (MMS) Exile's wounds are much more severe than you can heal. [Your injuries are severe] ~ 400 - ?
5. Exile's body has been maimed more severely than you can heal. [You have been ?]~ x
6. Exile's body is too mangled for you to heal. [You are ?] ~ x
7. (FTM) Exile's body is far too mangled for you to heal. [You are ?] ~ x
8. Exile's body is mutilated well past your ability to heal. [You are ] ~ 900 - 1050 (1050 will get all)
9. (NU) Exile's body is nearly unrecognizable. [You are ] ~ x
10. (ND) Exile is nearing death. [You are ] ~ x
11. Exile's body is deteriorating.
12. Exile's body is deteriorating a little more seriously.
13. Exile's body is deteriorating significantly more seriously.
14. Exile's body is deteriorating much more severely.
15. Exile's body is severely decayed.
16. Exile's body is far too moldered for you to heal.
17. Exile's body is putrified beyond recognition.
18. Exile's body is all but perished.
19. (PND) Exile is perilously near to death. [You are ] ~ x

PNDs are a special case in that the minimum required to raise a fallen from this state is affected by how much damage the exile took after falling, from rocks, pebbles, fire, lightning, etc., and how long the exile has continued to suffer damage from rats or other scavenging creatures. The Horus required may be much higher than that readily available.

When healing a fallen, your health and spirit are drained at the same rate, but you heal damage half as fast. Therefore, raising a fallen will drain more health (higgrus) than healing a standing exile because of the larger amount of time required. Of course, healers who don't lose health while healing will not notice the drain.

Rescuing

Rescuing is the act of finding a fallen exile and either raising him/her or getting him/her to a safe location (such as town) where that person can be raised safely. Due to the many different types of situations, Rescuing has its own page.

Pets

Healers have gained a new ability to acquire pets. Currently, an explanation of the mechanic and a list is needed.

Studying

With Teysia

You can find Teysia in the Healer temple through the west door in the Healer trainer hall. She explains that you can practice your skills in the workroom. She also suggests learning from the company of other healers. The room is a convenient one for healers to use in healer discussions. Teysia also cautions that you cannot learn as well if you don't use what you have learned.

Teysia is not a trainer. She is just letting you know this is another place you can safely log off. Essentially, this is equivalent to studying in the free library.