Are they real healers, or kind of a novelty show?

It can be challenging to do at times, but I've ended up solo healing groups through experts as one most of the time. A bard as support is definitely nice to have on some bosses too.

The majority of healing comes from hitting the enemy with the nature's touch spell, and anything you can do to boost up your spell power so it hits as hard as possible is what to aim for. Keep radiant spores up so everyone can get some extra healing off their melee, throw in some extra life based nukes as you can (ruin, withering vines, vile spores, nature's decay, stream of reclamation, etc) but always lead with nature's touch when it's up. The direct heals bloom and flourish are really your emergency heals because of the long cooldowns. Entropic veil is also an awesome spell from the chloro line, and you should be using it as often as you have charge.

I'm in total agreement about the tactics as main-healing goes (I'd prioritize some of my skills differently if my job were just healing my group) -- but is it enough for a raid-class encounter, or do you just plain need Clerics?

For a raid no, you can't stack chloros very well on an MT since they can only main heal one target at a time, while everyone else gets half the healing. The healing a single chloro can pump out is very high though so you would absolutely want at least one present.

To reiterate what waring said, yes at least 1, at times 2 chloro's are close to a requirement for some of the more challenging fights. While doable with out them its fairly stupid to not use them.

There isn't a single raid fight in the game that I get significantly out healed by a cleric, 95% of them I am top healing with the very rare occasion one of our clerics stays close or slightly edges me out on very intense AE heal fights like GS. But since I got my relic staff I haven't had anyone get close. Plus with some dps related time checks its always good to have a healer that is on par with any cleric also putting our 300-650 dps depending on the quality of your chloro.

Best class in the game as far as I am concerned!

For single group T2 stuff I would rather have chloro healer and allow me as the cleric to melee dps with support heals for trash and switch to main heals for bosses.

It's really boring and no dps as main healer for clerics where Chloro healing is nice cause there is a bit of dps involved with it.

So the routine would go: Chloro heals for yard trash, then group-heals for bosses while a Cleric steps in for the tank?

Well Garb and I just did a group together and we did it pretty much the way he said with me being chloro the whole time. He had to go healing on the last boss (AP) to keep the rest of the group alive, but the tank was still pretty much my responsibility.

Btw this is my chloro build for 5 mans, tweaked with it a bunch and I've been real happy with this: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zzRv ... Edhuo0c.xx

For raids you would (optimally) want one mage as 51 archon for max buffs and the chloro mage to spend their points about equally in chloro and lock.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zRvz ... .xx0G0VVxo

Was my normal raid spec, can drop a point out of the 70% damage reduction on fights you have no damage but its fairly useful on most the hard fights on those "oh shit" moments. We wouldn't have beat GS our first time if I hadn't popped it and blazed through like 5 plants. Also can potentially drop the 3 in photo if you aren't bosses with add's and go for additional crit chance on flourish/bloom.

I might have dropped a point of Vitality and put it in Neddra's Torture, but I'd have to play with it to be sure.

I'm only lv 15 but we had a Bard in our rift/invasion group last night. It was interesting to have one, and I wish it was not soo rare haha. I figure at the low levels it's not that big of a deal, but high end content it might be

I'm actually leveling a defiant bard on Belmont using the free 7 day trial. So far the game seems good and easy to get into. Some of the graphics and sound leave a bit to be desired an example being my bards little "fox form" thing she gets. Thing looks like it's made of gray clay or something..as if the graphic is missing a layer or two of detail.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

The fox is in a sleath like mode, so I think that is the way it's meant to be. But, I see where you are coming from for sure. One thing, the graphics are better than WoW, and runs MUCH smoother than Warhammer

I think the game over all looks better than both of these games in my eyes. And, it's a lot of fun to play as you gain more levels. Rift is a keeper for sure.

Oh, and I PvPed for the first time, and it was fun...all three games we won (the Guardians). I'm building up for the PvP soul I hope to have this weekend. Then, the gear to get some good upgrades for my necro.

My noob may be showing, but what fox form?

Send me a tell tonight and lets get you guilded.

I assume he means the Kelari racial ability.

Yes he is talking about the Kelari racial. Thinking of, the game has useful racial abilities for the most part.

Ahh

Yeah the ones now are decent without being unbalancing. In beta they were a little OP.

Kelari for instance had a passive +10% more crit damage and an activated one that gave an extra 10% (i think) chance to crit for about 30 seconds. Thus almost everyone that wanted to play a damage dealing class went Kelari.

Then on guard side the dwarves had a passive all incoming damage reduction and an activated half health insta heal, mathosians I believe had a bonus to incoming heals and high elves a bonus to outgoing heals.

Those racials were taken out a few weeks prior to launch, but I think that racial legacy is the main reason the guardians seemed to be so heavy on warriors and clerics while defiants were heavy on rogues and mages.

Eth Shield-Generator racial was stupidly OP'd lol, I played Eth Warrior in beta for weeks and as a tank you pop it and win ! fairly fast reuse timer as well

What guild should I be looking for? Starting to get into things on the bard. Taking a bit to get used to the way the screen is setup \but the rest of it is very Wow like.

Just wish I could see my buffs w/out having to click myself and that weird "spotlighteffect" when clicking someone/something needs to go away. Totally washes out what I'm trying to look at.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

I believe they are called <Lanys Refugees>.

I made a new role this weekend, and I love the setup of this class! First, PvP is a lot of fun owning the healing charts, and doing some DPS as well lol

I love seeing all my green numbers all over the battlefield, and I feel more helpful than just a necro DPS etc (even tho the class is really a lot of fun as you level up). Solo is pretty good as well. The necro hands down kills faster, but I love the change of pace and enjoy the chloromancer.

I have not healed any pve content yet, but I plan on running a few instances to see how it goes. There is only one issue with the chloro in pvp, and that is the cooldowns on the direct heals. It makes it tough to save a person who is almost dead when they are on CD.

But, I am only lv 27 and once I get Wild Growth...maybe things will be a bit better.

Some changes are incoming next week for the Chloromancer class with 1.3:

Greetings!

We wanted to provide individual threads for each archetype to discuss and share their feedback. Please use this thread to provide your feedback for the upcoming changes in Update 1.3. Your feedback is important and can help shape and refine these changes - nothing is permanent on the Public Test Shard and your feedback is vital to the process!

As always, please keep your feedback constructive, on-topic, and with respect to the opinions of others - thanks


COMBAT
* Stealth: Fixed a bug with toggling melee auto-attack would cause stealth to break.
* Fixed a bug causing the Class Mechanic UI to display effects from other players instead of just your own (ex: Stormcaller, Necromancer).
* Fixed some effects on pets to be lost when teleporting.
* Fixed an issue causing abilities to fail to work properly against players that had just been stunned while jumping.
* Mana: Changed the way mana-regeneration is calculated to now include diminishing returns. This should have little impact on leveling characters and is only noticeable once higher levels of gear are attained.

MAGE

ARCHON
* Lingering Dust: Now reduces melee and casting speed of the target by 20% for 20 seconds. The buff portion is unchanged.
* Casting speed debuffs will no longer cause Archon auras to gain a casting time if points have been spent to make them instant-cast.
* Burning Purpose: Damage procs are now affected by the Rising Vengeance ability. Reduced base damage dealt by Burning Purpose procs.

CHLOROMANCER
* Due to the below changes, characters with soul points spent in Chloromancer will receive a free soul point respec.
* Casting speed debuffs will no longer cause Bloom and Flourish to have a casting time if you have two points in Healing Slipstream.
* Call of Spring: Updated description to better indicate which abilities it affects.
* New Ability: Lifebound Veil - Causes Life damage dealt by the Mage to heal up to 5 allies within 20 meters for 15% of the damage done for 1 hour. All other spell damage dealt by the Mage heals allies for 5% of the damage done. Spells that damage more than one target have healing generated by Lifebound Veil reduced by 80%. Life based damage over time effects heal allies for 25% of the damage done by the first damaging tick of the effect. The Mage cannot receive healing from other Lifebound Veil or Lifegiving Veil effects while affected by this buff. Does not trigger a global cooldown. Cannot be purged.This is obtained after spending 11 points in the Chloromancer soul.
*Synthesis: Now increases healing received from Lifebound Veil by 100%. Reduced cooldown to 10 seconds. This cooldown is shared with Lifegiving Veil and Lifebound Veil. Now applies or refreshes Lifebound Veil when cast. Will no longer be removed when the affected player changes zones.
* Lifegiving Veil: Increased the base single-target Life damage to Healing conversion to 80%. This now shares a 10 second cooldown with Synthesis and Lifebound Veil. This can no longer be purged.
* Natural Fusion: Now increases the Synthesis bonus to heals from Lifebound Veil by 20-60%.
* Essence Surge: Debuff portion of this ability has been removed.
* Destructive Growth: Removed branch ability; the effects are now part of the base Wild Growth ability.
* Wild Growth: Reduced cooldown to 1 minute, increased radius to 25 meters.
* New branch ability - Nature's Swiftness: Reduces the casting time of Nature's Fury by 0.5-1 second, and reduces the cooldown of Natural Conversion by 30-60 seconds. Tier 6 branch ability.
* Entropic Veil: Removed cooldown.
* Empowered Veil: Now increases the damage bonus from your Entropic Veil by 13-19%, increases the healing generated by Lifegiving Veil from Life damage to 90-110%, increases healing generated from your Lifebound Veil by Life damage to 20-30% and increases the radius of Lifegiving and Lifebound Veil by 5-15 meters.
* Flourish: Reduced healing done.
* Bloom: Increased healing done.
* New root ability - Natural Healing: Single target heal with a 2.5 second casting time and no additional cooldown. Obtained with 51 points in Chloromancer.
* Circle of Life: Now affects Natural healing.
* Empathic Bond: Increased the mana return to 20% of the damage received by the Synthesis target.
* Nature's Touch: Reduced base damage of this spell. This spell now triggers an additional heal from Lifebound Veil, instead of Lifegiving Veil.
* New ability - Living Infusion: A passive ability that increases the percentage of Life damage converted to healing by Lifegiving Veil by an additional 0.5%, and Lifebound Veil by an additional 1.5%, for each point spent in Chloromancer above 31. Obtained at 32 points in Chloromancer.

DOMINATOR
* Due to the below changes, characters with soul points spent in Dominator will receive a free soul point respec.
* Fixed an issue where enemies would sometimes be able to continue casting or using abilities when affected by Mass Exhaustion, Disorient, or Overpowering Will.
* Mass Exhaustion: Fixed a bug in certain builds where Mass Exhaustion would end on all enemies if broken on one affected target.
* Thunder Blast: Will now deal damage and interrupt casting even if the target is immune to the knockback portion of this ability.
* Charged Shield, Mass Charged Shield: Will no longer land on an ally who already has a mage armor buff other than Charged Shield.
* Transference: Now blocks energy and mana regeneration on the target for 7 seconds, up from 5. Damage is now a flat value influenced by Spell Power and is no longer based on the amount of Energy, Power, or Mana drained.
* Microburst: NO longer reduces the damage of Storm Shackle.
* Deny: Reduced cooldown to 10 seconds,
* Mental Shock: Reduced cooldown to 20 seconds.
* Empowered Presence: Now increases the radius of your Arresting and Reflective Presence by 2-6 meters. Increases the chance for your Reflective Presence to reflect spells by 5-15%. Gives Arresting Presence a 33-100% chance to proc an interrupt on up to 10 targets within range, each second.
* Priest's Lament: Will now interrupt the target when it attempts to silence them. The interrupt will occur even if the target is immune to silence.
* Disorient: Now blasts the enemy with a burst of negative energy, dealing Death damage and leaving them stunned for 3 seconds and confusing them afterwards for up to 30 seconds. Damage done will break the confuse effect. 30 second cooldown.
* Memory Wipe: Now causes a group or raid member to appear less threatening, reducing their threat by 20% with all enemies within a 25 meter radius.
* Overpowering Will, Iron Will: Removed.
* New root ability - Incompetence: Reduces the target's effectiveness in battle for 15 seconds, increasing the cost of healing abilities by 20% and causing damage done by the target's abilities to heal up to 5 of the Dominator's group or raid members within 15 meters. 15 second cooldown. Obtained at 20 points.
* New branch ability - Ineptitude: Increases the healing ability cost debuff of Incompetence by 1-5% and increases the healing done by target's damaging abilities by 4-20%. Available after spending 20 points in Dominator.
* Chastise: Removed.
* New root ability - Traitorous Influence: Causes the enemy, and up to 5 additional enemies within 15 meters, to suffer Death damage and lose 30 Power or Energy, or Mana equal to 5% of the Dominator's maximum mana, every time the target uses an ability. This can occur up to 5 times over 15 seconds. Available after spending 30 points in Dominator.
* Draining Presence: Removed.
* New root ability - Mass Betrayal: Generates chaos within the enemy's ranks, cursing up to 10 enemies within the targeted area. Abilities used by affected enemies cause the target and up to 5 additional targets within 15 meters to suffer Death damage; they also lose 30 Power, Energy, or Mana equal to 5% of the Dominator's maximum mana each time they use an ability. This can occur up to 5 times over 15 seconds. Available at 51 points in Dominator.
* Fixed a bug where pets spawned by Split Personality were not gaining benefit from the caster's Spell Power or Spell Critical Hit.
* Split Personality: The pets spawned now take 95% less damage from area effect abilities.

ELEMENTALIST
* Planar Expansion: Corrected the description on the final rank of this spell.

STORMCALLER
* Lightning Field and Charged Field now only check for stacks of Electrified applied by the caster.
* Lightning Field: Reduced base damage of this spell.
* Forked Lightning: Reduced base damage of this spell.
* Static Discharge: Can no longer affect a target more than once per minute.
* The class mechanic UI for Electrify will now update properly if Lightning Field removes a stack of Electrified from an enemy.

WARLOCK
* Sacrifice Life: Damage: Can no longer be cast if Empowered Darkness is active.

PYROMANCER
* We’re still in the process of making Pyromancer changes specific to PVP regarding burst damage. These changes will have little to no impact on PVE.

How are the Chrolo's liking/loving or hating the new changes? Void Life and Nature's Touch seem to be the new spells to use now.

It's hard to say, it has been a while since anyone but MT in group has taken real damage. The new 2.5s heal has been useful in some fights, especially with bosses that cycle through going immune.

MMO's are an interesting beast for me. One, I do enjoy questing and reading the text for the story elements. Yeah, I know most are pretty simple but I still like it. But at max level, I do not enjoy the grind for gear and stuff like that.

Like instances, I play once or twice and I'm done with it...I don't like repeating over and over again. So far, with the T1 and T2 instances it's been fun as a Chloromancer tho. I think it's because I'm always on my toes due to the challenge of healing, and making sure the group is kept alive.

I do pvp as well, but why do I always choose the losing sides when it comes to warfronts (aka battlegrounds)? lol In Star Wars, I will need to wait and see which side will be better at pvp I think. The grind would be a lot faster if I won most of the battles and stuff. Then again, I have not really done any of the open world pvp dailies tho.

So, we will see how long Rift and even Star Wars will keep me playing at the max levle content. I don't like dealing with grinds and all MMO's are the same...once a char is max level. At least instances are fun as a Chloromancer haha, and pvp too but I don't have the gear to stay alive like I would like too.