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Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

Moderator: MiRai

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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:38 am

Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

There have been multiple posts in multiple threads about getting the most effective healing from Background Slave DC Healer(s). My goals in this thread are to document the best encounter powers for background DC's & what keybinds to use for them... My hope is that the community can help come up with the best Healing keybinds and include them in shared setups (like NeverBoxer).

One thing I have learned from playing the DC solo is that the Divinity Meter (DM) is hard to use in chaotic combat but the DM really increases the output of certain spells & is crucial for increasing output. For those not used to the Cleric the Divinity Meter is the arc with 3 +'s to the left of the character. The DM is yellow when Divinity mode is off & during this time you can build up the DM. The DM is blue when Divinity mode is on and each encounter power you use uses a + off the meter (the +'s are called pips). The pips (+'s) take awhile to build up when the DM is yellow and can be used up very quickly & wasted if Divinity Mode isn't managed properly when the DM is blue.

Encounter Powers that stand out to me while in Divinity Mode:

- Astral Shield: Without Divinity (woD) it just mitigates damage but with Divinity (wD) it is a DC's major Area of Effect (AoE) heal. Even after it was nerfed awhile back it is still the best & I save my pips for this & try to keep it up as much as possible.

- ForgeMaster's Flame: woD it does Damage over Time (DoT) & slows but wD it also Heals over Time (HoT's) anything around the monster targeted. If I have extra pips I use them on this & if not I cast it to help DPS and slow the target.

- Sun Burst: woD it does an AoE Heal/Damage centered on the Cleric and wD it does a larger heal and does a push back throwing enemies away. I generally only use pips on this when I have extra & am getting overwhelmed in PVP or with adds to give me some temporary breathing room.

- Bastion of Health: woD is a long cast medium AoE heal and wD is an instant cast AoE heal (long cooldown & I don't personally like to use pips on this);

- Healing Word: 3 charges that build up every 15 secs: woD is a HoT and wD it also does an initial heal and doesn't consume a charge (I don't personally like to use pips on this);

Note: Please denote in any replies any other encounter powers you think should be added to this list and I will try to keep it updated.

In my next replies I am going to try to post keybinds that I have tried to automatically turn on the Divinity Meter, cast the spell, and turn it back off (whether successful or not).
Last edited by nodoze on Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:40 am

Approach for Testing...

My recommended approach for ironing this out is to first get this working consistently in one slot with one healer in the Forground where we can focus on & monitor. My reasoning is that if we can't get this working in the Foreground then we have little chance of getting it to work consistently in the Background (even with VFX bringing info to the Foreground).

Setup wise I recommend first turning 'Location Targeting Activation' to be "On Release" in the Neverwinter setups which can be found under Esc > Options > Game Play (thanks to Zandokan for pointing this out earlier).

I plan to experiment with my healer solo in the slot 1 primary foreground window just to focus on consistently turning on Divinity (via the default Tab key), casting the Encounter Power, and turning off Divinity… When I have time to complete the testing I will report back my findings & I will try to post my keybinds whether successful or not so others can duplicate/improve…

Even better someone will beat me to it and post keybinds that they have tested and have working...
Last edited by nodoze on Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:41 am

Summary of DC Abilities w/wo DM & whether stackable or not..

The following are some notes on Abilities planned for parties of 2+ DCs (http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Devoted_Cleric) for 5mans... Using high Divine Meter & Action Point generation builds the following are the planned abilities I think might be best (requesting input from others to determine optimal configuration):

Note: Regarding DC At-Wills, Brand of the Sun (BotS) is a Damage over Time (DoT) so it doesn't necessarily make sense to spam that repeatedly if the initial hit is less than other options... The DoTs do stack but not sure if there are better options to SPAM while the DoT is doing it's damage in the background...

- Spam? At-Will: Sacred Flame (SF): (Does NOT stack from multiple DC's according to Lesmartes's testing) : 80' Range Damage and grants Temp Hit Points every 3rd hit; If 2 or more DC's are using this and they are out of sync then you should be getting the Temp Hit points on multiple hits...

- Refresh At-Will: Astral Seal (AS): This Stacks (Lesmartes confirmed) : 80' Range Damage & puts Debuff on target that heals all Allies that hit the Target (entire party & pets/companions); Refresh as needed...

- 1st Encounter Power (Spammed): Sun Burst (SB)(normally cast with out Divinity): AoE centered on cleric (25' Burst radius cast at 0' range) that both heals allies & damages foes; Used to help build up Divinity Meter & to keep alive the Healers & any DPS near the Healers. If being overrun/swarmed can use a Divinity Meter pip to Heal more and knock back the enemies)...

- 2nd Encounter Power: Forgemaster's Flame (FF) (cast with Divinity when pips allow) : Heals Stack (confirmed by Lesmartes) : This will be cast on Boss to heal the GF and anyone near the Boss (pets/Companions). GF should be approx. 60' from party (near the edge of Hallowed ground keeping Boss from rest of party) & has 80' range;

- 3rd Encounter Power: Astral Shield (with Divinity) : AOE heals (need to confirm if these stack) + Damage mitigation : This only has a 40' range with 20' Radius so plan is to use this to AoE heal the Healer/DPS group (plan to keep them clustered together) & only use it on the Tank/pets if the FFs, Astral Seals, SFs, & potions aren't enough to keep the Tank & pets up.

Other Encounter Power: Break the Spirit: Stacks : DoT and Damage Debuff which can cause the Boss to not do much damage.

Other Encounter Power: Prophecy of Doom: Stacks : Defense Debuff and Damage at end (only one DC gets the AP bonus for the kill).

- 1st Daily Power: Hallowed Ground (HG): Round-Robin on Healer sub-group as HG doesn't stack : Feated with Moon-Touched will AoE a large area (60' Radius)) giving everyone Healing, mitigating damage, & boosting damage (plan to keep up as much as possible during Boss fights).

- 2nd Daily Power: Currently Hammer of Fate for max single target DPS at 80' range to totally eliminate one add; For situation of multiple adds consider testing instead:
----- Flame Strike for 80' range AoE damage with 12' Diameter & knocks upwards and out/away;
----- Guardian of Faith for 80' range : See if multiple damage and multiple targets Prone;

Thoughts: Maybe multiple knockdowns & knockbacks with AoE damage will be better for multiple Adds to take them all out and slow down the tempo by knockdowns/etc...
Last edited by nodoze on Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:29 pm

Re: Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

Reserved
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:59 pm

Best Keybind for Forgemaster's Flame with Divinity on (FFwD)

The below is the best key map I have been able to come up with to have the Healer cast Forgemaster's Flame with Divinity on(FFwD) consistently with a single key stroke.

Note that while this works in a single key stroke consistently, that keystroke needs to be a deliberate/slow keystroke as it fires the first step on press and the second step on release... I also tested various binds including single step binds & other multiple step binds with various permutations of "Do not advance to the next step", "for at least 0.X seconds", "and only trigger once", as well as "Reset to Step 1 after 0.X seconds" but found them unreliable. This simplest keybind seemed to work the most consistent and if I got too excited or hurried a simple extra tap would turn off Divinity Mode (and not re-fire as the FF was still on cool-down). I spam in PVP so this isn't great for that environment...

Note also that my testing was done with just my Cleric in my Foreground window & would need to be modified to instead send to only the healers in the background windows and to leverage Assist but this gives a good building block...


Note: to review/test the below keybind do the following steps:
- First Highlight the below XML from beginning (<?xml...) to end (...</Box>);
- Then do a Control+C to copy that text to your clip-board;
- Then Right-Click in ISBoxer on your Mapped Keys and...
- Then select "Paste Mapped Key from Clipboard";

The keybind for 'FFwD-Forgemaster's Flame with Divinity - 2 step' follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Box xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<ObjectType>ISBoxer_Toolkit.Configs.KeyMaps.MappedKey</ObjectType>
<SerializedObject>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
&lt;MappedKey xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
&lt;Name&gt;FFwD-Forgemaster's Flame with Divinity - 2 step&lt;/Name&gt;
&lt;Description&gt;Generated by Mapped Key Wizard with 'Key Re-map'&lt;/Description&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;E&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;Modifiers&gt;None&lt;/Modifiers&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;E&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;Code&gt;18&lt;/Code&gt;
&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;Hold&gt;
&lt;Value&gt;false&lt;/Value&gt;
&lt;/Hold&gt;
&lt;UseFTLModifiers&gt;
&lt;Value&gt;false&lt;/Value&gt;
&lt;/UseFTLModifiers&gt;
&lt;SendNextClickBlockLocal&gt;false&lt;/SendNextClickBlockLocal&gt;
&lt;ManualLoad&gt;false&lt;/ManualLoad&gt;
&lt;ResetTimer&gt;0.4&lt;/ResetTimer&gt;
&lt;ResetType&gt;Never&lt;/ResetType&gt;
&lt;Mode&gt;OnPressAndRelease&lt;/Mode&gt;
&lt;Steps&gt;
&lt;Step&gt;
&lt;Stick&gt;0.1&lt;/Stick&gt;
&lt;Stop&gt;false&lt;/Stop&gt;
&lt;Stump&gt;false&lt;/Stump&gt;
&lt;Actions&gt;
&lt;MappedKeyAction xsi:type="Keystroke"&gt;
&lt;Target&gt;self&lt;/Target&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;Tab&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;Modifiers&gt;None&lt;/Modifiers&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;Tab&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;Code&gt;15&lt;/Code&gt;
&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;RoundRobin&gt;false&lt;/RoundRobin&gt;
&lt;UseFTLModifiers&gt;false&lt;/UseFTLModifiers&gt;
&lt;/MappedKeyAction&gt;
&lt;MappedKeyAction xsi:type="Keystroke"&gt;
&lt;Target&gt;self&lt;/Target&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;E&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;Modifiers&gt;None&lt;/Modifiers&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;E&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;Code&gt;18&lt;/Code&gt;
&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;RoundRobin&gt;false&lt;/RoundRobin&gt;
&lt;UseFTLModifiers&gt;false&lt;/UseFTLModifiers&gt;
&lt;/MappedKeyAction&gt;
&lt;/Actions&gt;
&lt;/Step&gt;
&lt;Step&gt;
&lt;Stick&gt;0&lt;/Stick&gt;
&lt;Stop&gt;false&lt;/Stop&gt;
&lt;Stump&gt;false&lt;/Stump&gt;
&lt;Actions&gt;
&lt;MappedKeyAction xsi:type="Keystroke"&gt;
&lt;Target&gt;self&lt;/Target&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;
&lt;Combo&gt;Tab&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;Modifiers&gt;None&lt;/Modifiers&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;
&lt;Key&gt;Tab&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;Code&gt;15&lt;/Code&gt;
&lt;/Key&gt;
&lt;/Combo&gt;
&lt;RoundRobin&gt;false&lt;/RoundRobin&gt;
&lt;UseFTLModifiers&gt;false&lt;/UseFTLModifiers&gt;
&lt;/MappedKeyAction&gt;
&lt;/Actions&gt;
&lt;/Step&gt;
&lt;/Steps&gt;
&lt;/MappedKey&gt;</SerializedObject>
</Box>
Last edited by nodoze on Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:09 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:59 pm

Keybind for Astral Shield with Divinity on (AShwD) on Reticl

The best Keybind I have come up thus far with for Astral Shield with Divinity on (AShwD) being cast on where the Reticle points is essentially the same as the 2step (on press/release) FFwD keybind above so I am not going to post it...

Suspect there will end up being 2 different Astral Shield keybinds (one for around the GF near the Boss & one for the Healers/DPS group).
Last edited by nodoze on Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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lemartes99

Posts: 123

Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:27 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:09 pm

Re: Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

Temp HP from Sacred flame does not stack from what I can tell.

Brand of the Sun and Astral Seal both stack.

Not sure if Astral Shield stacks, only 1 instance shows on the buff bar. How I have this setup now is my main will cast this over the characters, and a second guy will target the boss and cast it protecting the tanks (only lands on target about half the time).

Break the spirit stacks, and with 4 on a boss he does next to no damage to the pet tanks.
Prophecy of Doom stacks, but only 1 cleric can get the action points when the mob dies.
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:29 pm

Re: Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

lemartes99 wrote:Temp HP from Sacred flame does not stack from what I can tell.

Brand of the Sun and Astral Seal both stack.

Not sure if Astral Shield stacks, only 1 instance shows on the buff bar. How I have this setup now is my main will cast this over the characters, and a second guy will target the boss and cast it protecting the tanks (only lands on target about half the time).

Break the spirit stacks, and with 4 on a boss he does next to no damage to the pet tanks.
Prophecy of Doom stacks, but only 1 cleric can get the action points when the mob dies.
Great info. Sad that the Temp HPs don't appear to stack but maybe if we stagger them somehow each DC will do their 3rd hit at different times refreshing the Temp HPs more often.

Assuming you have a GF in the Foreground window, if you have both Brand of the Sun (BotS) and Astral Seal (AS) slotted as your At-Wills for your DC's in the background, which At-Will do you Spam on the DC's in the background when your other powers on cool-down? BotS is a DoT so Spamming it on the boss only refreshes it (not upping damage) & Astral Seal is a Debuff with some damage but longer than average At-Will animation... One tactic is to try to dot the boss and as many adds as possible with BotS to max DPS but I am thinking that my focus will likely need to stay mainly on the Boss and AoE the rest and trying to focus the Tank in the Foreground window to keep the DoTs on all the adds will get my party killed (maybe not).

Can you post your keybinds for casting Astral Shield (ASh) on yourself and the Tank (even with it landing inconsistently)?
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lemartes99

Posts: 123

Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:27 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:27 pm

Re: Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

All my macro does is cast astral shield for me and hard target lock off. It casts shield on the clone while still locked onto the boss. I manually place my shield and when I click both go off.

Another neat thing i have been doing is on one of the clones he has astral shield instead of sun burst, so every second sun burst a shield goes off. He targets his pet with it, and most of the time it lands on target.
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nodoze

Posts: 471

Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:46 pm

Post Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:38 pm

Re: Effective Slave Background DC Healer Divinity Meter leverage

lemartes99 wrote:All my macro does is cast astral shield for me and hard target lock off. It casts shield on the clone while still locked onto the boss. I manually place my shield and when I click both go off.

Another neat thing i have been doing is on one of the clones he has astral shield instead of sun burst, so every second sun burst a shield goes off. He targets his pet with it, and most of the time it lands on target.
With adding your GF to your team and making the GF your Foreground window we will need to automate the things you were doing manually on your cleric (this thread and the other 2 should hopefully allow us to solve all the outstanding issues).

On your slaves are you casting yellow Astral Shields (regular) or Blue Astral Shields (with Divinity on).

Also, when you cast Forgemaster's Flame from your slaves are you casting yellow ones or blue ones?

If doing blue ones of the above on your slaves, how are you currently managing your divinity meters on your slaves?

Did you setup a key bind to send Tab to them and then cast the encounter ability and then send a tab to turn it off or do you have a toggle key to turn it on/off on the slaves or do you use some other method?
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