Protect? Really important? Low level content

[Seryl199]

Protect should be in the first slot, always. Cleric Stance should never be the first. Blizzard II is only useful for FATE's and is general worthless in all content.

A SCH should have Protect and CS from CNJ, Swiftcast from THM. Stoneskin and Aero are of dubious value. Remember that when you play SCH in sub-level 30 content, you have no SCH skills to use. Just the fairy. So if you need a shield, that's where Protect and Stoneskin are of value.

There's honestly no need for Protect in Sastasha or Tam-Tara, if players are dying because of the amount that Protect would have mitigated then there is a much graver issue at hand. Cleric Stance is absolutely viable considering that a healer's best DPS at low levels is DoT's, which means you can easily switch back to healing at any time and still have damage ticking. Where you slot Protect after that comes down to your preference and the party's demands.

Lets be realistic here for a moment, protect will have a bigger effect on your ability to dps than stoneskin. In low level dungeons aero doesn't typically have time to fully tick. Even when it does, one 200 potency attack isn't making a run super fast. Other than cleric stance none of a healers cross class abilities make any significant difference in low level dungeons. Is it really worth everyone being so hostile because people like to have protect in dungeons?

Aero is actually pretty good at low level. You'll have a hard time fitting it in for it's full duration if you try applying it to the primary target, so you should reserve it for after you've applied Miasma and Bio to every target, then put Aero on any mobs that aren't the primary target. Once you've done that, nuke the primary target until DoT's need to be refreshed. It also bumps up your single target DPS for bosses.

[Yorumi]

Aero is actually pretty good at low level. You'll have a hard time fitting it in for it's full duration if you try applying it to the primary target, so you should reserve it for after you've applied Miasma and Bio to every target, then put Aero on any mobs that aren't the primary target.

That's what I mean by not fully ticking. By the time you've applied bio and misama to 3 to 4 mobs, you'll get aero on 1 mob? Compared to just casing ruin that's not doing a whole lot. Basically no skill you can cross class at low level makes a difference, but lacking protect causes unnecessary stress, so why knowingly doing that when nothing makes any real difference?

[Seryl199]

That's what I mean by not fully ticking. By the time you've applied bio and misama to 3 to 4 mobs, you'll get aero on 1 mob? Compared to just casing ruin that's not doing a whole lot. Basically no skill you can cross class at low level makes a difference, but lacking protect causes unnecessary stress, so why knowingly doing that when nothing makes any real difference?

In three mob packs, you should be fitting in two Aero's, with two mobs you'll get one. That's a 120-240 potency increase on every pull. It's almost as much as getting an extra Energy Drain every pull. What doesn't make a difference is how much Protect mitigates. Eos is capable of healing, and if you're forced to heal, having Protect or not won't change that you only need one Physick to bring the tank from 50% to topped, at which point you can go back to DPS'ing. I'm not sure what unecessary stress you're experiencing, you can be partied with a first time tank in Sastasha or Tam-Tara, mobs bouncing everywhere, and still heal and DPS because the damage is so trivial.

[echoica]

I must agree, Blizzard II is an awful skill to have. Get your protect it help a lot.
Especially if you are a SCH, because it allow the fairy to solo heal the whole time.

The best is "Protect, swiftcast, stoneskin, cleric stance, aero"

This ^^ ...

[Sandpiper]

I must agree, Blizzard II is an awful skill to have. Get your protect it help a lot.
Especially if you are a SCH, because it allow the fairy to solo heal the whole time.

The best is "Protect, swiftcast, stoneskin, cleric stance, aero"

Blizzard II is really good on big mobs, when you get the chance to DPS. This is after bane-ing dots, Miasma II + Spirit Flare. A fine example is using Blizz II in A2, which can make a scholar's dps potentially hit 900 if the other healer (ideally WHM) is willing to solo-heal a huge chunk of the fight.

I never cross-class stoneskin for scholar. Because scholar's heals massively rely on their own (more efficient and faster casting) shields, it becomes somewhat useless. There IS the use of having an extra buffer on a tank before a huge pull, but tbh I'd rather have BlizzII in case I can dps, which can do massive damage on huge pulls.

[Wizarus]

Blizzard II is really good on big mobs, when you get the chance to DPS. This is after bane-ing dots, Miasma II + Spirit Flare. A fine example is using Blizz II in A2, which can make a scholar's dps potentially hit 900 if the other healer (ideally WHM) is willing to solo-heal a huge chunk of the fight.

I never cross-class stoneskin for scholar. Because scholar's heals massively rely on their own (more efficient and faster casting) shields, it becomes somewhat useless. There IS the use of having an extra buffer on a tank before a huge pull, but tbh I'd rather have BlizzII in case I can dps, which can do massive damage on huge pulls.

Blizzard 2 is flawed in a way. It's only better than Broil when there are 4+ enemies and Aero when there are 5+ enemies. But when you have that many enemies you generally don't have time to do more than Miasma 2 after you Shadowflare and Bane, and by the time you do stabilize, you have to reapply dots or the mob shrunk so much that Blizzard 2 isn't worth using anymore.

[AlexanderThorolund]

Is this a troll thread? Protect your party. It's your job!

[Cynfael]

Protect buff icon is more of a placebo in low-level duties (you could turn off the effect while leaving the icon up, and absolutely no one would notice) but yes, it's an ingrained expectation. Probably just as well since most people learn to wait for buffs this way.

[Wizarus]

Cleric Stance, Aero, Swiftcast, Protect, Stoneskin in that order. Protect isn't anywhere near as good as Aero until level 40ish.

[Viviza]

Brayflox is the first dungeon where I would actually care about protect.

It's a graveyard for tanks, especially new ones. The difficulty spike to a new player is very real. Making it harder on them is unkind.