(Mage) Why Chloro/Warlock? and Archon or Dominator?Follow

So the subject kinda says it all. Why are most mage healing builds coupled with Warlock? And when it comes down to the third one, Archon or Dominator? I know Archon is good at buffing the party, while dominator is good at debuffing the enemies, but unless you went Chloro/archon or chloro/dominator, you wouldn't get deep enough in the tree for it to matter, right?

So far, from my experiments in chloro, it doesn't couple well with any other offensive build, or am I just doing it wrong? haha

so would a build involving 10 in warlock (i'm assuming 5 to Magical affinity and 5 to opportunity?), and the rest between Chloro and Archon (mainly chloro) be a solid healing build? I'm only level 17, so I'm mainly looking for dungeon (non end game) right now.



Edited, Apr 16th 2011 7:31pm by Shalazar

Even 0 points in Dominator gets you one of the best CCs in the game. Plus, if you go 10 into it, you pick up 10% more int. 10 points in Domi will also get you a targettable spell reflect, a cleanse, a damage relfect buff, and a mana drain. All solid tools for a Chloro to have.

I dont see much reason to go much past 32 points in Chloro, There are great benefits to be gained by going far down the warlock tree. Being Chloro doesn't get its own armor 30 points in Warlock will get you Warlock armor and the "Improved Warlock Armor" Talents. Healing as a chloro is all about how much dmg your can do.

Wordington answers some questions in this THREAD and gives some tips about builds.

The archon buffs are pretty great and stack with all other buffs. While the soul seems to have less widespread appreciation as the bard, the role is pretty similar.
But on the note of not spending more than 32 points in chloro, I'd have to respectfully disagree... i can see around 36 points of branches that are worthwhile to max out. With 10 points in lock that leaves 20 for Archon

20points in archon would give 3 5min party auras to maintain, and you'd need to cycle in sering blood (instant cast) and a pilliaging stone to maintain your stacks during combat.
3 aura's = 12% decrease cost of skills + 10% from chloro skill, although these may not stack
and 3 auras = 6% decreased casting time... doesnt seem like much, but in a long boss fight that comes in handy.
And depending on how you put skills into archon, you would probably end up with alot of mana management, i know my healer never has to stop cause of this.

heres along the lines of my build.
[link=http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zvRz.xx.EdIuoVckoo.hMeoMbM]

If this is true, than the tooltip or the skill is bugged. The way it reads, any healing effect from the mage should be benefited.

And basically the reason i focus on further points into Archon cause at 20 you get Vitality of Stone, which is a pretty powerful buff for parties and raids...
The reason I'm still concerned with mana is that Living Shell and Sacrifice Life may not always be viable to use during combat, depending on bosses... their may be constant raid wide dmg, leaving empathic bond, and in those situations the tank usually doesnt take as much dmg.

So far I've never had issues with healing, and most people really enjoy the archon buffs i can provide on the side as well.

Well i know what I'll be posting on the trion forums soon enough, that tooltip needs to reflect the true nature of that skill.
So basically i would go with this as my new set up.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zvRz.xb.EdIuo0ckok.hMeoMbi00M

Should be able to test it on a 50 mage in a couple of days, but I have a decent feeling that all the archon buffs will make the mage pretty similar to a deep warlock secondary, with maybe only a small decrease in dps.

Wow im honestly impressed. My first thought was "No way, losing to much" but after looking at it, It seems just as viable. Personally, I would want to play the Chloro/Lock for being a Main healer. Maybe more a matter of playstyle. But right now, when i use my Chloro spec its for pad healing while still dpsing. I played a pyro/arch mix once to achieve dps while still buffing/support and got really annoyed with keeping up the buffs cause they where not my primary set of spells. I wouldnt want to be worried about it while being a primary healer but for what I use my Chloro/lock build for at the moment...this might work better. This would integrate even more support into the build while still dpsing and pad healing. My hats off you to sir, Nice mixing of souls.

@TheRocky: That build is close to what i would have but I dont think I would use Efficiency. Aside from keeping up your buffs you not casting alot of Archon spells. Also you have: Living Shell, Empathic Bond, Sac life:mana, Exhilaration, Altruit, and Leeching flames to conserve mana. I would drop one point in Mental Flare (just incase) and 1 in Rockslide (never used it but looks solid) the remaining 3 can can put anywhere. I was thinking of THIS

This thread, although very helpful, has got my head hurting!! I'll start by thanking everyone.

so last night I had my first attempt at healing a dungeon (Iron Tomb, I was level 18 with a 17 cleric tank who it was their first time tanking and also had no taunt) and it didn't go too well. I haven't respecced yet, but after reading through these posts, I think I'll probably have to. Here is my current build (I have 6 more points to spend, as I am now level 23). Should I be going into the warlock tree now or should I wait a little longer and focus on Chlo? I'm also thinking a Chlo/warlock build with 0 dominator might be more to my play style than Arch (although I was right in how much benefit an Arch can give, so I might try it once at higher level) I just don't seem to be healing for enough. On one fight (fight with 3 elites after the second boss) I burned all my CD's, spammed everything and anything I could think of and he still died, same happened the next fight. (although I'm also thinking it could be the tank since i hear 17 really is too low for it) We got through it thanks to a 23 warrior who has no idea how to actually play the game (has a Dps tank hybrid that doesn't do either that efficiently, but he's a friend so what am I supposed to say??) taking over tanking, the cleric taking over healing (with a rogue backup), and me taking over DPS.

Am I just doing something wrong?

Edit: I just took a more detailed look into Warlock and with 30 points in (to get 5/5 imp. war. armor), taking the path to give the most passive advantages (only way I could see using it with a chloro), you get some pretty awesome abilities not only to help parties and raids, but also yourself (Neddra's Might, Sacrifice Life: Damage and Mana). So...assuming I was level 25, what do you all think of this build? I choose what I did because Neddra's Influence gives +15% DoT damage (which helps Withering Vine) and 20 points in Chloro for the ability to bring back to life.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2011 7:51pm by Shalazar

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvRs.xx0h.xzIuoc
I would have to say that if you were going to be using the DoTs, might as well put in the skills that makes your spells that you normally cast a DoT (again not sure if it works together, but would have to assume so). Never really found the need to take the instant blooms early on over anything else but I guess you could swap out a couple points into the living grace talent (If that one works properly?). I also would put having the int +25% better then 5% more damage since it adds damage and also lots of abilities work off maximum mana, but again could be wrong.

Most Likely not, Group make up can make a huge difference. If people are assisting to kill as fast as possible, are people CC'ing to help control pulls, stuff like that. Bring a bard if you can, these guys make low level dungeons (when not everyone has key abilities) easy. As TheRocky said though "Dont expect it to be easy". At low levels its really hard to heal as Chloro due to the lack of key talents, but it will get easier. At level 23 I would spec like THIS. At this point you can kind of go in a direction you want. I would finish out Opportunity then back to Chloro tree till I had my 32 points in it, but its really a personal preference. I think with Natural Fusion maxed out you should no longer have a problem healing.

Naddra's Influence isn't really helping you. I wouldn't even take it. Withering Vine is a great spell but its more of an AE healing tool. I keep on up on my main target (easy to keep in a rotation) and if my take is topped off and I'm not refreshing something else i will tab around and start dropping them on extra targets. My basic rotation is:

Radient Spores
Withering Vine
Ruin, Natures Touch, Vile Spores on same "nuke macro"
-spam my nuke macro till something drops off or my charge fills
-at full charge i make sure Radient spores is refreshed then I use Entropic Veil and then Stream of reclamation.

Bloom, Flurish, Wild Abandon, Nature's Cleansing, Natures Conversion (on casters) as needed. I don't use Dark Touch or Life leech. Only thing Im using from Warlock is Sac Life:mana. I try to work one of these in every 15 or so sec to keep my mana high. The AE healing I always tops me back off.

@TheRocky: I know the build will work, I just didnt care for it in a primary healing roll. Only needing to cast Searing Vitality and Pillaging Stone once at beginning of each combat wasn't bad. But i kept wanting to use Ashen Defense and Crumbling Resistance, I also had Volcanic bomb in my nuke macro. I was probably trying to do to much. As an off healer I do think it is a great build that can bring support and pad healing to a group.

Glad you like it. Sadly from just my regular parsing of runs, it isnt too uncommon to be near the top of regular DPS early on in the game for at least up to DSM. I mean it's kinda annoying to see a regular person pulling 40 DPS when you are over 100.

I don't get why youre not taking nature's corrosion? I don't remember the link from the other topic but it is a healthy increase to the healing from ruin and vile spores.

Much better then an endurance increase. The bloom instants are kinda bleh early on too, I don't think ive had to cast it very often at all or at least not enough to make it worth taking it over that other talent

@Sadboosh at first, I didn't take Natures Corrosion because I read it wrong (oversight on what exactly it did) and

@dhae I also, when making that build, forgot Call of Spring didn't work on all healing, I was doing that build so fast I forgot everything this thread talked about!

So I've fixed my build for level 46 to look like This, by level 50 I should know where to put the extra points.

I would aim at this for 48 (minor tweaks to your 46 spec): http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvRs.xx0V0Vqxo.EdIuo0czRo

You're very close to the warlock survival cooldowns and you pug a lot, so I'd recommend grabbing them. If you were always running with good tanks/dps/etc, go ahead and skimp on the points, but it's not like they're going to be doing you a ton of help elsewhere. You can also drop Empathic Bond without having mana problems, presumably; worked for me and most people I've seen discuss it. Living Shell is awesome, mana potions are good, and SL:Mana is always there. If you need it, of course, don't skip it. Easy!

As for the order of skilling down the trees, I wasn't in a rush to pick up the later points in chloro (I've never specced past 32 chloro, though some day I'll go 51 for science), so I stopped putting points in chloro at 24/26 until I was done with lock. Stopping at 24 (living shell and 3/3 natural fusion) or 26 (wild growth and nature's fury) get you to imp warlock armor faster, which seemed better to me than getting to corrosion/living energy/essence surge. I do love corrosion (probably too much, but it's fun!) and living energy, though I've never actually used ES in a fight. If you really want to pick them up sooner, go for it. My suggestion would have you at something like this at 32: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvRs.xx0V0c.tdIuo0cz Then here at 42: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvRs.xx0V0Vqxo.tdIuo0cz

That's a LOT of points to throw into Warlock just to pick up Improved Warlock Armor.. you give up some pretty hefty utility from Chloro, and I'd probably say that without Living Infusion, you're probably reducing your overall healing ability