I was thinking about getting weapon for combat for my SE. C and/or B grade, that would be a second weapon to valhalla with acu. What type of weapon would you recommend? I don't intend to use dyes.
Staff of Evil Spirits with Bless the Body 5. Use this while buffing. Something with acumen (Wizards Tear) is great for heals or roots.
Personally, I don't like grouping with an SE that is swinging at the mobs. That means they are not watching to see if my heath is down, if I am poisoned, or if the tank is low on mana. People easily die when the SE is not doing their job.
Only consider a dagger if you are willing to go for a third weapon and expect to actually attack something.
I watched a level 72 SE repeated fail to root a mob attacking her, and die. I had to laugh as my level 62 SE easily rooted the same mob. I had SoES and blesseds, she was using duals. Guess she thought she was a DD.
They probably "thought" they were a DD because to most people, "only" buffing, recharging, healing, and paying attention at all times to things like HP levels, and possible debuffs isn't enough and the SE is just being a big fat leech.
Its a question of practice and concentration. There is NO reason to worry if you have an SE who knows what they are doing and wants to attack to help the party...and a dagger with focus is the perfect weapon.
An SE has to keep a close eye on everything happening in the party and decide if they can afford to attack or need to babysit the party more. Duels are not a good weapon for an SE becasue if something happens that she needs to heal/cure it takes longer to respond (has to complete the 2 hits before starting the spell rather than 1 quick stab then the spell).
In duo's and small parties the damage an SE/Prophet/Bishop can do can make a lot of difference. Don't listen to those who claim its pointless, take it from someone who has done it quite a while now. Plus it makes it more fun too. Just don't forget the party does rely on you for other things.
In larger parties chances are you'll need to attack less and buff then sit or heal (more if you are not lucky enough to have a Bishop or a Prophet along too).
Due to this I take 2 weapions around with me and programmed on my hot bar...an acumen one for when buffing or the party needs more of my healing and a focus one for when it needs more attack power. If it needs both at the same time then you really need to rethink the party or area lol.
Also even when attacking keep your spirit shots turned on, they don't get used when you swing but are then ready when you need to heal/root etc. Just remember to turn em off when you buff and on again afterwards.
On a side note you say that you don't intend to use dyes...I do hope you have wit dyes and just mean you won't be adding melee ones lol.
Focus Dagger. I love 'em. Allows you to keep your shield on, doesn't gimp your cast speed, and works like a charm with your focus/death whisper.
Yes, Kris/Focus for example is a wonderful weapon. Even with only the SE buffs you do lots of crits and the overall damage you do really DOES make a difference. So when I go in a larger party where I know I will mainly recharge/heal (that is, I need to regen mp and cannot attack), I use my acumen weapon (or the conversion one when it's a raid), and for smaller parties I grab the Kris and help dealing damage. With a SwS in party, you do LOTS of crits (I think I then have something like 360 or 370 crit rate) and the damage is decent.
I really love going to a Cata/Necro in a trio with a BD and a SwS. Nearly no healing with VR4+Dance of Vampire, unless you pull too many mobs, and the mobs die super fast - you need several rooms actually. Of course everybody has to use GSAP, but it is worth it.
Focus Dagger. I love 'em. Allows you to keep your shield on, doesn't gimp your cast speed, and works like a charm with your focus/death whisper.
Yes, Kris/Focus for example is a wonderful weapon. Even with only the SE buffs you do lots of crits and the overall damage you do really DOES make a difference. So when I go in a larger party where I know I will mainly recharge/heal (that is, I need to regen mp and cannot attack), I use my acumen weapon (or the conversion one when it's a raid), and for smaller parties I grab the Kris and help dealing damage. With a SwS in party, you do LOTS of crits (I think I then have something like 360 or 370 crit rate) and the damage is decent.
I really love going to a Cata/Necro in a trio with a BD and a SwS. Nearly no healing with VR4+Dance of Vampire, unless you pull too many mobs, and the mobs die super fast - you need several rooms actually. Of course everybody has to use GSAP, but it is worth it.
You got so close to going back to Orvieta...so close...
Focus Dagger. I love 'em. Allows you to keep your shield on, doesn't gimp your cast speed, and works like a charm with your focus/death whisper.
Yes, Kris/Focus for example is a wonderful weapon. Even with only the SE buffs you do lots of crits and the overall damage you do really DOES make a difference. So when I go in a larger party where I know I will mainly recharge/heal (that is, I need to regen mp and cannot attack), I use my acumen weapon (or the conversion one when it's a raid), and for smaller parties I grab the Kris and help dealing damage. With a SwS in party, you do LOTS of crits (I think I then have something like 360 or 370 crit rate) and the damage is decent.
I really love going to a Cata/Necro in a trio with a BD and a SwS. Nearly no healing with VR4+Dance of Vampire, unless you pull too many mobs, and the mobs die super fast - you need several rooms actually. Of course everybody has to use GSAP, but it is worth it.
You got so close to going back to Orvieta...so close...
I try to deal the best I can with the current SE situation...
Most of the time, I have to deal with things like:
"we could go to <high lvl good exp place>"
"yes, but we need a buffer"
me: "T_T"
"and we would also need a healer"
me: "T_T"
It's the small parties like the one I mentioned in the post above where I really feel like me being there makes a difference. Sure, such parties only work because BD dances plus SwS songs together are very powerful, but in such a party I can buff, and the buffs help, and I can clobber the mobs, and I see lots of juicy crits (well, juicy for a SE), and the xp is good, and afterwards the others say "we have to do that more often!" Then I smile and am happy, and try not to look too hard at some other players talking about that uber exp CoV party they had or the super difficult sepulcher party which only worked because of the nice new major heals...
It's the small parties like the one I mentioned in the post above where I really feel like me being there makes a difference. Sure, such parties only work because BD dances plus SwS songs together are very powerful, but in such a party I can buff, and the buffs help, and I can clobber the mobs, and I see lots of juicy crits (well, juicy for a SE), and the xp is good, and afterwards the others say "we have to do that more often!" Then I smile and am happy, and try not to look too hard at some other players talking about that uber exp CoV party they had or the super difficult sepulcher party which only worked because of the nice new major heals...
I'm jealous :mad:, I wish I could feel useful like that, oh well.
The SE is and feels most useful in small parties - that's what having all the buffs that matter (except holy weapon and resists I suppose) and decent enough heals, plus recharges, is good for. :p
I would simply not join a group on my prophet if it meant I didn't have enough MP to stand up and help out.
No, it IS perfectly possible to watch the buff, HP and MP bars (which also indicates debuffs of course) and still assist in melee - assisting in melee is a mostly mindless job you can do while 'waiting for input' for you to do something - right click once to see target, right click another time if the target has no AoE debiliating abilities.
Your melee assisting might be a bit poorer than others' because you are watching and because of low stats, you just have to sort out your priorities.
Of course in bigger parties, if you are actually BUSY watching health bars, things are different - that's the kind of party, I suppose, a bishop would be in.
Different parties work with different mindsets, and an assisting healer who is still doing his job is valueable in a small party, where a 'standby for trouble' healer would just, indeed, be a leech.
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In PvP, I think a main weapon is definitely appropriate (acumen) unless you are 1v1 - in which case I can only say: Not so sure for an SE, for my prophet the dagger does good against heavy but horribly against light classes. I can literally hardly hit daggers, while I mow down heavies and robes (all self-buffed of course - externally buffed 1v1 is not worth it for a buffer).
People easily die when the SE is not doing their job.
Define SEs job in C5 then. We USED to be healers - not ideal (slow cast) healers, but still some. Now we are not.
Very good in parties with warlords AoEing. VR + the GHPs every Warlord carries billions of means your heals are more than sufficient, and your buffs certainly make the AoE possible. Of course they could take a warcryer but the SE gets higher levels of buffs sooner than the WC. Greater group heal is still a pretty nice skill especially in areas with monsters that use AoE skills.
Nowadays, the spectrum tends to run:
Bishops - Pure healers
EE - Mostly healers with some buffing ability
SE - Mostly buffers with some healing ability
Prophet - Pure buffers
IMO the SE/EE are finally at a decent balance between the classes now. The SE used to outheal AND outbuff the EE, now they still outbuff but no longer outheal.
In small parties especially with VR, the SE's a more than capable healer; VR tends to heal enough that it's much less common to need to spam heals. Even our EE usually can do greater heal instead of major in small parties and be just fine.
SEs are better healers for small partys nowdays then they used to be. SE heals are 120% of what they used to be, but over time. unless its AOE party, or if you usualy agro a full room then start killing, SEs are great healers. but yea, in those other partys they will be out of mana very soon.