Introduction

Hello fellow healing rats! Guide is up to date now with Season 2 changes poggies. Bear with me because my thoughts are a little hard to put into words sometimes - I’ll do my best. I will be updating this guide as new thoughts and findings come along so be sure to check in semi-regularly!

Why AOE healing?

With the current Meta being full Melee team comps, single target heals are honestly just wasted. Throwing down your AOE and then going into your VG to support your team is a massive increase in group DPS and utility - and ultimately keeps you safer than if you camp your Lifestaff at range.

TLDR

Basic gameplay: don’t heal until your tank is where they want to be. Use LS abilities, switch to VG and go wild. Remember to dodge. See skilltrees below.

Attributes

All attributes are total numbers with 40-stat food included!

• 200 Intelligence - The Dodgeroll mana gain is insanely good and almost entirely makes mana potions unnecessary. + some more damage on your VG!
• 265 Focus - Minimum 250 is necessary for the mana recovery on group kill. You can drop down to 250 so if you need to switch jewellery mid-dungeon, don’t worry about losing 15 Focus in favour of some Con or Int.
• 50 Constitution - Any less than that would be taking unnecessary risks.

I do not think that running less int for more con or more focus is worth it. These are the stats I concluded were the best (for me) to go with. I wouldn’t change anything regardless of mutation.

Small tip, the cheapest foods to buy off TP are the following:

Pork Belly Fried Rice - 24 Constitution, 16 Intelligence

Venison Tenderloin with Blueberry Glaze - 24 Focus, 16 Intelligence

Slow-Roasted Bear Flank with Root Vegetables - 24 Focus, 16 Constitution

Gearing and Abilities

Lifestaff

Abilities

Orb of Protection - Fortify and Health regen for your entire group

Sacred Ground - Same as above, cast where you kill (turn off target healing in your settings), ideally so it reaches both your tank and your DPS.

Beacon - AOE Healing and group-wide Crit Chance buff (via Keen Beacon). Super useful on clumps and bosses without backs (Cilla, Neishatun, Chardis, Ifrit, The Blighted Greenskeeper )

Weapon

Ideally you would use a lifestaff with Blessed + Refreshing Move + Fortifying Sacred Ground (FSG). The reason for this change over Will of the Ancients (WotA) that had previously been suggested is that FSG now doesn’t persist if you swap weapons and the perk is on the armor. Running one of the Keen Beacon staffs (Staff of the Throne & Staff of the Befouled Temple) is wasted, as you want to spend time in your VG, not camping your Lifestaff. The reason for this is that if you swap off of your lifestaff the bonus effects don’t get applied e.g. you’re not getting the increased crit chance from keen beacon but you do still get the bonus refreshing from WotA.

Void Gauntlet

Abilities

Voidblade - DPS, Rend, CDR, Fortify. There’s nothing VB doesn’t give you.

Oblivion - Empower for your entire group, mass weaken on mobs. Additionally, a cleanse for the Genesis soldiers’ fortify and Forge Men-at-Arms buffs.

Scream - Up to 30% Fortify, 1-2 second root on a low cooldown, self-heal on crit, disease when needed. So much value. Really good in clumps.

Essence Rupture - Healing and Stamina on hit, AOE heal on duration end. A great ability for bosses and for smaller clumps where Scream is not that important.

Weapon

In order of priority, you want Refreshing Move, Bane (e.g. Corrupted Bane) and Enchanted. Vicious for bosses that you can backstab. Multiple Gearsets make swapping very easy these days so if you can afford it, get one of each of these VGs.

Refreshing Move is unmatched in terms of value.

Gems

Depending on the mob type you can use the following T5 gems in your Void Gauntlet.

Mob Type	Gem
Ancient	Diamond
Angry Earth	Ruby
Corrupted	Sapphire
Lost	Amber
Human	Diamond

Gear Sets

Armor

Mandatory weapon perks in every dungeon

• 5x Ward of the specific mob type
• Fortifying Sacred Ground (only if you don’t have it on the staff)
• Keen Beacon
• Voracious Blade

For example, I run the following:

• Headpiece - Ward, Keen Tondo (if Rapier DPS in group) or Refreshing (if no Rapier). The exceptions here are Genesis and Forge, which is Ward & Nullifying Oblivion.
• Chestpiece - Ward, Voracious Blade
• Gloves - Ward, Keen Beacon
• Pants - Ward, Fortifying Sacred Ground (Refreshing if FSG is on staff)
• Shoes - Ward, Putrefying Scream (in Vampiric/Compost mutations)/Refreshing (you can grab a Keen Tondo perk here on your Angry Earth set for when Disease isn’t needed)

Anywhere that you don’t need weapon perks, stack Elemental Aversion if possible (mutator drops - Lazarus light Ancient (Forgotten Protector) set comes to mind), otherwise Refreshing everywhere as your 3rd perk. You know, if you’re loaded and wanna gamble on all the BiS gear.

Jewellery

Amulet

Health.

Elemental (e.g. Nature) Protection

Empowered. One for each element.

Earring

Refreshing Toast.

Beloved.

3rd Perk: In Void and Fire Mutations you can go for Refreshing. In Nature and Ice Mutations, as well as Tempest regardless of Mutation, always go for Purifying Toast. I just run it everywhere.

Ring

Sacred.

Hearty. Never drop either of these.

For your 3rd perk, grab Keen Awareness. Refreshing is okay if you can’t find KA.

Heartrunes

If no one else in your group is willing to run Brutal Vines, then it falls on you. (but they should). If you don’t have to run Vines, then here we go.

Fire Mutations: Cunning Stoneform - activate when all the little explosions go off. All other mutations: Brutal Detonate. Due to your ability to be Empower capped almost all of the time, it’s the best choice and you really shouldn’t be able to feel the increased damage taken.

Note: Stalwart Bile Bomb is great for when your team needs a bit of extra healing.

Gameplay and Skill Trees

Rotations

Please note that most of your gameplay is intuitive and adaptive, there is no fixed rotation that will always apply, but here are the basics:

When you start a fight, wait for your tank to get into position. Cast your Sacred Ground and Beacon, then use Orb of Protection. Try to hit as many of your group members as possible. Switch to Void Gauntlet. Start out with Oblivion, then Scream after your DPS have used their grouping abilities. Get your Voidblade out and start swinging. In clumps, your abilities will reset insanely fast, keep spamming them. Especially Scream, as it keeps mobs in place.

I strongly recommend looking at my YoutTube Vods to see when I decide what to do skill-tree wise.

Skill Trees

The following Skill Trees apply to all dungeons, with the exception of Tempest. See below for details.

Import

Import

Mending Touch will allow you to get your Tank unstuck if their Purifying Toast is on cooldown, so it’s nice to have, even if not used often. Listen to your tank - if they’re stuck, help them. Make them tell you.

Import

Splash of Light can be used in Nature Mutations because unlike the Ice Mutation’s Glacial Crystal, Nature Pool (roomba) will ensure that the people you want to cleanse are not full HP (which is the condition that has to be met in order to cleanse). The cleanse will either get rid of the pool’s DOT or the root.

Import

Import

Import

In Closing

I genuinely hope that you enjoy this playstyle as much as I do! If you ever have questions in regards to any of this, please approach me anytime - on Twitch when I’m live, in our discord server in my channel, or in DMs. I’m happy to help wherever I can.