A brand new World Build Guide for the Life Staff (Healer). The Life Staff Healer Build Guide is designed to heal expeditions and assisting your team with AoE damage using the Ice Gauntlet. This is a Build for PvE which is mostly used for Expeditions but it could also be used in difficult PvE environments that have Elites. It can also be used for PvP as well. If you've been looking for a suitable Life Staff healing Build, then this Guide is perfect for you.
The approach this Build works is that when your party pulls a group of enemies, you'll fall Ice Storm to AoE and slow enemies. After that, you will swap with your Life Staff to start healing. You'll choose to use Beacon as well as Sacred Ground depending on what enemies you are facing before you use Light's Embrace to heal in-situ when required.
It is possible to switch between Ice Storm and Ice Storm whenever it's off cooldown , to boost DPS in addition to make use of Entombed to restore your Mana if you are looking like you'll run out. Ice Pylon is there to created an Frosted Area, which can be used to get the benefits of passives like Refreshing Frost.
Since you'll primarily be using a Life Staff as your primary weapon, and because Life Staff healing is dependent on Weapon Damage, you will need to make sure you put plenty number of points to Focus. You can also place them into Intelligence as well for more Ice Gauntlet damage, but it is recommended to put an Amber Gem inside your Ice Gauntlet instead. This can change a portion the amount of Ice Gauntlet damaging to Nature, which is an even better damage kind than Ice as it's much less resistant on average, as well as increases the damage you receive overall.
Put some points into Constitution so that you don't lose too much. I recommend taking CON to at minimum 50 for the increase in consumable healing, however you could take it greater or lesser as the time you realize you're not dying. It probably wouldn't hurt to increase this up to 100 at the maximum level (60).
The Skills I'll discuss in this section are designed for Expeditions, and you can shift these as necessary as solo content or PvP. I'll provide some suggestions for how to accomplish that at the end of this section. In the first place is Life Staff Skills.
Life Staff Skills
The Sacred Ground - This skill creates an AoE healing over time at the specific location. This could be based on the position of another player, or even the ground that is targeted. In general, you will want to alternate with Beacon to ensure that you have a Heal Over Time (HoT) is constantly up on your team, however, in dire circumstances you can cast both for some really excellent healing.
Beacon - This Skill applies an AoE Heal Over Time on the enemy, so that all players near the area are healed. This works best when used against tough to kill enemies in Expeditions because it is removed when the enemy is killed, however you can also use this skill to hit your tank when you need to put it on him. Always try to alternate between Beacon as well as Sacred Ground so that some healing happens on your group.
Light's Embrace is your spot heal, utilized to top your team's health or to heal the ones who have suffered more damage then you'd like. It's got a brief timer, but has a significant Mana cost, which means you should use it sparingly and let the HoTs do the work when they can. It is possible to scroll through targets to heal using your mouse wheel, or aim yourself effortlessly with CNTRL. CNTRL button.
Absolved is a must-have passive as it permits you to use your Light Staff without using Mana as well as save you a ton of Mana. Besides this you want to consider passives that improve the healing that is done and received, and finally take The Divine Blessing as the final capstone of the Healing Skill Tree.
Ice Gauntlet Skills
Ice Storm - This is quite massive AoE that deals solid damage as well as slowing enemies in the region. It is possible to lead this to increase the damage to your squad and then switch the Ice Storm to Life Staff to begin healing. You can swap back once it's off cooling down and repeat the skill when you're required to. Make sure you don't do the previous upgrade for this skill, or the AoE will end when swapping weapons. This is a glitch which is expected to be corrected in future updates.
Entombed can be very useful in recovering Mana quickly. It is useful when you start to run out of Mana and you see an opening where your party is not at risk. It is also a good option in the event that you gain a bit of annoyance against a potential adversary that could be a threat to you in the event of needing to defend yourself. This is particularly beneficial in PvP in which this occurs frequently.
Ice Pylon Although you don't make use of this skill all that often the skill can cause damageand create an Iced Area that may be beneficial in the event that you have specific passives like Refreshing Frost or Quick Frost. Do not worry about it while you're still learning how to build then add it after you've become more familiar with the build.
The weapons you should use for this build include an Ice Gauntlet, a The Life Staff as well as An Ice Gauntlet. Find ones with the greatest damage that can be done that will not only boost your damage, but also your healing through your Life Staff as healing is determined by Weapon Damage in many cases. Look for Weapons with focus to improve this Stat in addition to Crit Chance and Crit Damage. It is also beneficial to heal yourself should you locate it on a Life Staff.
Be sure to drop an Amber Gem into the Ice Gauntlet for maximum impact and add a Diamond to your Life Staff to boost healing when feasible. It's not necessary, but they can help you become more efficient.
Lighter Armor enhances the amount of healing that you receive, therefore you likely want to be within the Light Armor threshold for this build, but you are able to go with Medium if you need a bit more protection easily enough. It is possible to wear Medium Chest and rest Light to stay under this, and also gain protection fairly quickly.
Check for Focus and Constitution on your Armor in order to increase the damage and healing as well as surviveability. Anything that reduces cooldowns is also beneficial, since you often have gaps in your game that make your party members vulnerable. Anything you can do in order to minimize your vulnerability is a big help.
This Build works rather well in Expeditions where enemies are fighting other players, however it can struggle solo PvE battles when there are many opponents. Take care to take out as many targets from the distance as you can and be sure to use Ice Storm to soften up groups of enemies. It is important to use Entomb when things look bad and you require Mana and also consume food prior to when you use it so you can replenish your HP faster inside.
You can utilize Mana recovery food in Expeditions to help maintain your Mana up. If you're with a great group then you don't have to worry about your health too much. However, if you're getting damaged a lot the healing food might be a better option. It's possible to manage your Mana easily enough with Entombed which is why it's not such a huge difference.
If you are planning to play PvP with this Build I would highly suggest you use at least Medium Armor to ensure you're active for a while, but you don't have to. Also, it's a great idea to switch out Ice Pylon for Ice Shower. Ice Shower can slow down enemies and allow you to fight from behind it safely and it is great to make other players feel uncomfortable, particularly in smaller engagements. It is a skill that can be game changing.