I'd pick bishop, cause its more active playing. Theres so many dualboxed prophets that.. ehh.. its sad.
Bishop has the best heals, interlude gives them really good skills and you'll be needed in every siege, raid, pvp... just finding a party when youre not in a good clan may be harder. But there's also a small solo ability - nuking undeads.
Live prophets are ofcourse awesome, but yeah somewhat rare and you would still need a healer if you're going somewhere harder places. Tho their pre 40 heals work kinda fine also, when there's relaxed partying with no real threat.
So up to you. If you want to be useful in sieges, raids, but harder to get parties - bishop. If you want parties and during sieges, raids mostly sitting - prophet.
Both are good classes, best at what they are doing :)
Well I cant find my old post so Im guess Ill try to retype everything.
BISHOP:
Pros
- not very gear dependent (you don't need top weapon/armor)
- cheap to equip
- best healer in game
- has the highest possible rez %
cons
- hard to find group from lvl 40-60s outside clan/ally
- very dependent on groups to level
- you end up most of the time sitting on your *** to regen your mana. Stand up, heal, sit back down, repeat.
Note: Bishop have to be able to multitask and keep track of alot of things at once. Hp, incoming mobs, mob control, debuffs, poison, etc... Kinda boring sometimes if nothing happens. Everyone in the group depends on your for survival :P Very stimulating at times, can be very fun to play.
Pure buffing PROPHET
pros
- easy to equip, cheap compared to DD classes.
- It shouldn't be hard t find a group
- very very cheap to level
cons:
- you buff and sit on your behind for 20 mins .... should I say anything else?
- very dependent on groups to level
Note: You could always get a good weapon and join in on the damage, but if your not set up right , you wont be doing much damage
Battle PROPHET
His stats, tats, weapon and armor are tweaked for max output damage.
pros:
- with heavy armor (has masteries) you can solo
- good damage output for a support class
- fun to play, your never sitting on your behind
cons
- can only buff small ~4 people parties
- you need good equip, so its more expensive to equip and level
I envy bishops heals and the new interlude things are really nice.
EE does everything medicore - no battle heals, no group heals, no purify, no high % rezzing.
Only thing they got more - defencive buffs and party return.
-EE casts 20% faster than a human.
-EE MH and Bish GBH casting speed is similar, except EE MH is much more MP efficient.
-EE should not need Group Heal. If you need group heals outside of PvP, then either the tank or healer is not doing their job correctly. Group heals are very MP inefficient unless you have four people in party that desperately need to be healed at the same time.
-No Purify...never did make sense.
-EE Rez - 80%, Bish Rez - 90%. EE only loses out in Interlude, when people can give up a buff slot for a 100% Bishop rez.
-Other EE skills that Bishop does not have:
Party Return
Defensive Buffs (Shield, Unholy Resist)
Recharge
Wild Magic + Concentration
Group heals break for MP efficiency exactly at 3 people who won't 'top up' on the heal - have you never been in the rift? It's pretty difficult to CC the martyrs/magi.
I think it does need to be emphasised that EEs probably have one of the best buffsets in game... not for levelling, but simply for amount of useful unique buffs (AdvBlock/BTShi will be required in Interlude, Resist Shock and Clarity are always nice).
Between Prophet and Bishop I would say 'mostly the bishop is more fun to play, and the prophet more wanted in parties'. However, at higher levels, you wind up with the prophet frequently replaced by out-of-party buffers unless you have a good clan. It can be frustrating to compete against, especially if you're just kind of wanting to buff and then leech for 20 minutes.
I would susggest the prophet only becasue he can get in heavy, grab a sword and solo if you need to. Whith his own buffs he doesnt have to have anyone to level.
Bishop. Let's not even get into all that EE talk again either :/
Bishops get, as far as heals go
Heal
Group Heal
Battle Heal
Greater Heal
Greater Group Heal (unique to bishops and SEs)
Greater Battle Heal (unique to bishops)
Major Heal (bishops and EE's only)
Major Group heal (bishops only)
Vitalize (bishops and EE's only)
Restore Life (bishops only)
Balance Life (cardinals only)
Body of Avatar (bishops only)
Purify (bishops and SE's only)
Mass Rez (bishops only)
Greater Rez (higher than an EEs)
Prayer (bishop only)
Mass rez, restore life, balance life, and group heals make you god like at raids of all kinds. You're trouble at sieges thanks to mass rez and nobless blessing as well.
It's harder to level sure but no one boxes a bishop like they do prophets.
Tho I have EE, but only cause I like elves generally, not cause of their skillsets. And i wanted good healer. So i got one. But i still think bishops are much better healers.
EE has enough <3 and is the most interesting class to play. But if someone is forced to choose between Prophet and Bishop, then... well, Bishop indeed has better heals :p
From a PvE point of view... I speak up for Bishops...
I remember a conversation with my friend while in a catacomb in our high 30s. We both argued for our class change choice (she, prophet; me, bishop) with the same argument: Want to be able to actively play in the game... Well, I was right. She now duals that prophet and has an archer that she uses as main. Altho I suppose it could be done, you rarely see a dualed Bishop. They need to be live.
As was said above, Bishops really can't take their eye off the game for a minute, having to watch for heals, chosing the most appropriate skill, crowd-controlling with trance, hold undead, etc... and of course, usually relegated to being the picker-upper!! But it's okay :) I have found it interesting and a lot of fun. Love playing my bishop (now cardinal) and am really happy I made that choice.
As for the other point said above, that it is hard to get groups 40-60 without a clan, well, that was not my experience... My clan at that time was very inactive... so I used to go to the catas and shout for a group and it was very rare that I wasn't grabbed up right away. I don't know how the catas are now, but in those days they were always full with pick-up groups.
Once you have a bishop in party, they usually realize that it's the only way to go :) Once you hit 70+ you better have a good clan. Very rare to pick up a group in the higher level hunting areas.
I had alot of difficulty finding a group with my Bishop from lvl 40 to 60 because of this:
I go to a cat/nec, and I see people shouting "lf healer"
So I pm them , telling them Im a healer and Im looking for a group . They ask me my class and lvl. So I respond with XX Bishop.
The answer I got back?
"No, we want an SE"
Then why the -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- [insert very colourfull swear words] were they shouting "lf healer". Go figure.
Anyways, that was my experience leveling my Bishop. That was way way before the greater heals got changed to over time healing. When everyone wanted a SE (cause they could buff AND heal) and the Bishop was leftover scrap. Might be different form server to server, and I might have been unlucky because everyone was going through that OMG we must have an SE phase. Tis a good thing I had my clannies most of the time.
Oh yeah, as for PVP/seiges.
A bishop is ALOT more fun to play with than a prophet.
I find that in the short time I played my Bishop (I love the class). that picking up a group is hard, it's really bad on your mp if you don't have VR on your Meele.
But it gets boring hunting in Catas all the time as a Bishop, Great XP, but still boring if your not healing.
Best places to lvl a Bishop, and not be bord....Antharas Lair, Devils island, Ct (1/2), Imp tomb, MoS, pagens. With a WL. with a SR that has a SE.
When I newst to play my HE, I loved a short duo I had with a bishop. I had a SE so buffs and mp was covered.
And with the Bishop, I had zerk 1, BoA, holy weapon. And Great heals, so I could spam away on PoS. and he could help nuke the undeads; and sense I had a SE he always had mp...so there was nothing but up time. only had to pop a GSAP to keep atk speed up.
I love bishops, Their only problem is their skill set from 64-74. there isn't much there, prayer at 66, but that isn't used much (takes up a buff slot)...am I right ellie, do you ever use prayer?
On raids sometimes, but almost never. The boost isn't enough to waste a buff slot for the entire party.
Yeah thats what I was thinking to. Thanks for clearing that up!
I was thinking that the boost mite couple well with balance life. Sense the Skill increases life returned...IDK maybe I'm wrong...theres no way for me to test that theory. Maybe Ellie could test it. (or has done so)
o.0 I use prayer all the time... especially since now most people have the extra buff spots. It boosts my heals maybe 75-100 points, if I remember correctly. The people in my parties never complain either. :) In fact, a lot of times they request Prayer.
And it looks like I just had "good luck" during my 50s and 60s. With my buddy the DA and my other buddy the PP, we always had a group, and just filled in where necessary for the DDs and usually found ourselves an SE for VR. And, yeah, DVC was a great place to xp and we spent a lot of time there and the catas.
Not necessarily, cuz heal usually is thrown before you are all the way down... And the great thing is the choice of heals... sometimes Restore Life is the better heal, sometimes Greater Heal, sometimes major Heal, or the group heals, and Benediction can retore 100% HP under the right circumstances... and Balance Life and put it close to full also, etc. etc. Part of what makes it an interesting toon to play.
And I tested it last night. Prayer adds almost 200 hp to major group heals. 1483 without and 1664 with (but with empower, the heal goes up over 1700.) Astounding now, that the major group heal is more than the major heal. Something weird about that, or a communist plot to sell more spirit ore :)
Even though i love my prophet and have even been hero, i would say Bish if not EE. Prophets never get parties because everyone has a duel boxed one. Except seiges and raids then at end game your the second choice after wc. bishops have a lot of fun from my observations. if you have the money and willing to solo, battle prophets are fun. I did soloing up till lvl 77.
Thats it i am rerolling prophet!! To much prophet hate in here lol, but picking a class all depends on play style if you like to heal and rez and crowd control the go bish, if you like to buff and do some dmg then i would go prophet. When i pole party i always have my boxed SE and will accept any bish into the group IMO best pole party grp, and if i happen to pull to much an die i get a nice % rez win win :)
But plz let us know what you picked very rarely do people come back and say what happened.
I had alot of difficulty finding a group with my Bishop from lvl 40 to 60 because of this:
I go to a cat/nec, and I see people shouting "lf healer"
So I pm them , telling them Im a healer and Im looking for a group . They ask me my class and lvl. So I respond with XX Bishop.
The answer I got back?
"No, we want an SE"
Then why the -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- [insert very colourfull swear words] were they shouting "lf healer". Go figure.
Anyways, that was my experience leveling my Bishop. That was way way before the greater heals got changed to over time healing. When everyone wanted a SE (cause they could buff AND heal) and the Bishop was leftover scrap. Might be different form server to server, and I might have been unlucky because everyone was going through that OMG we must have an SE phase. Tis a good thing I had my clannies most of the time.
Oh yeah, as for PVP/seiges.
A bishop is ALOT more fun to play with than a prophet.
It's because an SE is > a Bishop in C/B Grade, sorry :(
Superior buffs, more utility, and heals that are more than adequate unless you are rifting, or hunting in othe very dangerous places. But for doing cata groups and pole groups, VR will more than make up for the difference in heal power on an SE, and the SE will still have better buffs than the Bishop. This seems to go on all through B grade and until people move out of Apostate and start hunting in Witches/ToI/etc. The Bishop then begins to shine as there is more risk in the general leveling experience.
I did an Apostate Pole group on my SE with a Healer in group and an SK tank. Both me and the Bishop were mid 50s but the SK was level 48. We were rather deep in the Cata - mobs were red to him. But, with VR2 I could heal him fine. If my heal landed before the Bishop's heal, he had just wasted his mana. This is on a Low-Level/HP/P.Def tank. A higher level tank probably wouldn't need heals with VR2 there but every 3-4 minutes or so. With my buffs and Greater Heal/VR2, the Bishop was effectively a useless XP leech.
But cata leveling is boring anyways. I get invites on my SE more often than I see Bishops yell LFG and and actually get a group. Heck, I even get invites from Party Matching Room now - I'd have never known.
Bishop > PP for sure, but for C/B grade unless you make friends in the right places (do raids in D Grade, you make lots that way :P) you will be stuck doing catas all the time and because of that you will have to compete with all the SEs at that level - people will take the SE before they take the Bishop. They are simply better Buffs+Heals+Utility at those levels for the amount of risk involved in that type of grind (which is little).
FWIW, I prefer to play a Bishop over a PP when it comes to team-tactics. Bishops get wicked-great heals (Life Balance is definately one of my favorites, but so is Benediction..) and are the mainstay of any high-level Pve/PvP Party. If you have a good Bish in a Siege then you can last a *long* time.
PP's are fun as well, but they are more solo-based then a Bish is. PP's are great for leveling Hatchlings/Striders, and although they lack VR, they do get other specialized buffs that imo have a much better effect, given you have the proper party dynamic(s). But then again, not everybody has a clan to hook up with, so it's very dependant on what's available to you...
go pp. more skills, you can watch tv/read books while you play, and more of it on olympiad and 1vs1 pvp you rock bigtime!
besides its cheap class, wanted in most partys, and every big clan will want you casue more and more live pp are dying due to boxed ones.
cause i realised pp are so good when i was 75 ;p
so was to lazy to reroll, and pp on sub is not so good(no oly on sub)
besides SE is very simmilar to pp.
i buff and sit for 5min, than pow, sit 5min, pow.... and so on.
only in small parties i have to heal from time to time ;p