I tried the search function but didn't really find anything useful, might be that I just suck though :P
Anyways, I subbed a bishop and so far I'm having a blast ^^
So what I'm looking for is a bit of advice on what skills to train and which ones to avoid and ideas about tattoos. Currently I'm planning to get +4 WIT -4 MEN tattoo and using Mysterious Sword acu, Karmian set and sor*sor for when I don't have anyone to heal. For B-grade I'm gonna have BW robes but I was thinking of keeping the Mysterious Sword. Also any suggestions for solo areas, other than Dragon Valley, are welcome ^^
Mysterious sword with acumen is fine till any level for PVE, if your going to pvp you might want to get a SOM /w acu at A grade. Blue wolf also will take you a long way, if u cant afford DC or tallum.
Skills i would avoid learning unless you have a lot of extra SP, are requiem, repose, and vitalize. Maybe Sleep also since you get trance, although Sleep can still be good in PVE since it lasts longer. Once you get Major heal and Major group heal its up to you whether to keep learning Greater Heal and Greater group heal, the latter two are cheaper to use but less effective.
Unfortunately there are not very many good solo areas for a bishop. When you get turn undead at 56 you can solo high hp undeads using the lethal strike, but its very expensive to use.
Parties are your best bet on bishop unless you have a lot of money to spend on spirit ore.
Its been a while since I been a low lvl bishop so i can't think of much else to tell you, maybe someone else will have some more advice. ^^
I agree with most of what Caracarn says. IMO, Benediction, Restore Life (until higher levels) and Sleep are a waste of SP. In playing a healer for almost 2 years, I have yet to use Benediction at all. Restore life doesn't matter until you are healing toons with a TON of hp. (High level Dwarves and Orcs.) If you wanna try to ninja in to Antharas, it might be a fun way to get you KoS. Sleep is a waste of SP since the nerf. You'll most likely be dead before it goes off.
As for odd skills I have found very handy, Peace is definitely one I would learn. Peace has saved me so many times, and I never thought to use it before a friend suggested it.
As far as gear goes, like Caracarn says, a Myst Sword is fine. Matk isn't as important to us as it is to a lot of classes. However, if you plan to do crowd control, (Peace, Trance) matk matters. If you can afford a homon, I'd go that route. Also, unless you do a ton of pvp, Acumen isn't a must. I used a Homon/conversion until I got into the pvp game. Conversion is something you need to get used to, though, as it drops your hp quite a bit. Also, in A grade, I recommend Maj robes. They are by far the best robe set for Bishops who fight in groups. I also have a DC set for when I need to nuke undeads solo. And, people will say that your rez% suffers in Maj. In reality, if you go +5 wit on tatts, you lose about 1/2%. 89% vs 90% isn't a real difference. It isn't worth the mp, and mp regen you gain in Maj, imo. The run speed on DC is nice, and the mdef on Tallum is nice. But, all in all, Maj is the best.
That's it for now. Good luck with the healer. It's an awesome class, for those that can do it.
I agree with most all Boundless and Caracarn have said.
Weapon:
I used a +7 Homu/acu till about 3 weeks ago!!! and it worked just fine for me. I now have SoM/acu and I'm very happy!! I'm not so familiar with the Mysterious Sword, so I don't know about that.
Skills:
Benediction = NO. When they changed Benediction to MP based instead of HP based, I haven't once needed it. The only time I really used it when it was HP based was when we would jump off the cliff en masse for FP catacomb :) So it was for entertainment.
Sleep = YES. IMO I would learn Sleep. Altho you have trance, sleep lasts a lot longer. If you have the time to cast sleep, it's a good one to use.
Peace = YES. You can also Peace any mobs after you have cast trance/sleep so that they don't aggro you after they come out of it. However, Peace generally lands only at higher levels. I think mine didn't really become effective until my 70s. But definitely get it. You can move through, for instance, a catacomb to get to your party being wise and throwing peace when you actually do aggro a mob.
Restore Life = YES. I can effectively save the tank thrown in the right circumstance. Later on, Balance Life will be used more for this... but until you hit 76, use Restore Life.
Vitalize = NO. It's expensive to cast, and purify generally does the trick.
Requiem/Repose = NO!! I only cast them to show off cuz they are pretty.
Benediction yes, theres only 1 level of it, and even though its not as useful anymore, i still use occasionally, although mainly on epic raids. It can be a party saver if you are low on mp.
Restore life also yes, i use it all the time on high HP classes, or even on archers with COV + vitality song on raids.
Thanks for your opinions :) A-grade gear isn't a problem, since I can just use my main's DC robes and SoM acu.. But what about tattoos? Going to take +4 WIT for sure, but should I bother with +4 DEX and +4 CON?
Benediction yes, theres only 1 level of it, and even though its not as useful anymore, i still use occasionally, although mainly on epic raids. It can be a party saver if you are low on mp
Good idea. I kind of took it off my bars when it got changed. I'll have to remember that for epic raids.
Peace = YES. You can also Peace any mobs after you have cast trance/sleep so that they don't aggro you after they come out of it. However, Peace generally lands only at higher levels. I think mine didn't really become effective until my 70s.
Could this be because you were partying with people much higher level than you (higher mobs)? Because I never had a problem landing peace on at least up to yellow mobs.
The earliest memories I have with peace, was when I was relocating and arranging portas in Cruma, and it worked like a charm :)
For tattoos, I'm very fond of my +dex and +con (as well as of course +4 wit).
I did say that restore life wasn't as useful -until higher levels-. It is very handy for high level tanks, dwarves and orcs. Your A grade tatts are pretty flexible. The wit tatt is almost mandatory. You need 26 wit to max your rez %. After that, it doesn't matter. At 75, in maj robes, with +5 wit, I have 25 wit. If I'm going specifically to rez someone, I swap over to DC. In an xp group, the mp bonus, and mp regen bonus make maj a far better option, imo. Also, bear in mind, DC robes have -men, which means less mp regen. I harp on mp and mp regen, but if you run out of mp, your party dies. I, however, am a care bear, and don't pvp much at all. When I played a cardinal in a pvp clan, I wore Tallum. In Tatt jewelry and Tallum robes, I had almost 1100 mdef, even buffed with zerk. If you fight more physical damage types, maj has the shock resist, DC has a pdef and run speed bonus. All in all, I still say maj is the best all around robe set for a healer. Since I wear mostly maj robes, I have +5 wit from tatts. If you are going to wear DC, +4 wit/-4men, +4dex/-4str, and +4con/-4str would be an outstanding tatt set. Also, I used a +'d homon for a long time, then got a wizard tear, and now have a spiritual eye. The only down side to a homon is that it used 3 shots each time, so you have to carry more to hunt for the same amount of time. (And, imo, a good healer should -always- use shots when healing a group. People have disagreed with me, but they make too much difference in heal power and casting speed.)
And, as far as Peace goes.... I was in a duo with a 75 EE in FP Cata the other day. She didn't understand letting the undead mobs aggro naturally, and cast at on while it was in the room, drawing the other undead, and the Lillim and Nephlim with it. Because of Trance and Peace, we survived, and didn't have to PR. Peace has seriously become one of my favorite skills.
Hope this helps. Like most things in L2, your play style and available money will decide what gear is best for you, though. However you decide, best of luck!
I cannot speak too much since I just got a low Bishop (46 yet :<) but I'll say that Peace is mandatory. Saved my life more than once (even when I was Cleric :o). I havent learnt sleep tho, cause I dont see any use for it now that's nerfed so badly.
Requiem... absolutely YES (at least 1 lvl). Its effect is awesome :3 and well, about restore life.. mine is 15% atm, so it's not too good but I guess, as it's already been said, that at higher lvls it is a really great spell.
About equipment... No problems with weapon, but you might want to try Mana Up / Conversion, especially last one. About tattoos, I guess +4 WIT is the only one really needed. +4DEX/CON wont be bad tho :p
Like Boundless, I have +5 wit in addition to the dex because I use Majestic Robes... and I agree with him... the bonuses are worth the diff in Tallum. I had to get rid of my +4 con tat to do it tho. Altho a lot of pvp bishops use DC. I'm sure there's a reason for, but I don't care :)
I remember being in AB in a very precarious position trying to find my aoe group. I thought I would be fine.... threw Requiem or Repose (can't remember) ... lol. I don't think there was one undead mob in AB that DIDN'T attack me. :(
Vitalize is one of those spells I've used maybe once, there's almost never a situation where you need to cure poison/bleed and heal at the same time.. and since we aren't an EE with gimp heals, we don't need to substitute it as an extra non-hot (heal over time). Though before you learn major heal I guess it would be an expensive non-hot.
Benediction is a nice spell in theory, if it cast like battle heal. I keep it on my bar just on the off chance that my party and I are almost dead and I have just enough mp. You never know!
Repose/requiem, good for looking pretty, that's about it.
And I use DC for pvp since these days, archers dont bother to stun healers since we are 1-2 shot anyway, so the extra speed is needed. it's a shame too because I used maj when I got stunned all the time and the resist to stun was godly... sigh.
If you intend to pvp, a shield is an absolute must. I can't count how many times archers have cursed at me after a 1hp crit, because my shield defense succeeded. Not sure if it still works like that, because I went care bear a while a go. But, it used to work well.