Healing question/clarification for all of you sorc healers out there. Like the title says, which of these is better, or at least more important. The other day me and a friend were comparing heals, and while I pretty much only use DH in emergencies, and just DI all the time, he is kinda the opposite and always does resurgence dark heal except when popping recklessness. I tried out using DH a lot more, and only really DI'ing when popping recklessness, or when the target is like between 50-80 % health, and I actually felt like I did a lot better. So was I hallucinating or which is more important?

Disclaimer: I PvP and only PvE for lols when we're bored. This is all coming from a PvP perspective.

 

If you're spamming Dark Heal, you'll be out of force in very short order. Particularly now, force management is what makes sorc healers' skill cap so much higher than op healers' who have absolutely no resource management issues.

 

Personally, I use DH sparingly - and only use it on either my top DPS or tank (in rateds) when nothing else will keep them up before I get a long cast off. I use it twice with recklessness (not always time to spend a global on Resurgence if you don't already have the buff) and then cast DI to top them off with Mental Alacrity going, then Innervate.

 

Very much in contrast to pre-2.0, you have to really reserve DH for the "oh ****" moments IMO.

Yeah the force issue was why I never used it before, but just to clarify I wasn't saying I put either of these above innervate, which is really really helpful with force management. I hardly ever PvP so it'll probably be kinda different perspectives, but during the fight I tried prioritizing DH over DI I felt that I had to focus a lot more on fore managment but that I was putting out more heals.

Also a lot of the time I feel like by the time my DI gets off the other healer has healed a good portion of whomever it was I was healing, so its almost like a wasted big heal.

I rarely use dark heal on my sorc as heals.

I'd say like 80% of my single target heals is innervate with the odd dark infusion when someone drops rly low. In emergencys i like to use recklessness and polarity shift then dark infusion into innervate. so op.

Edited April 22, 2013 by AngusFTW

I rarely use dark heal on my sorc as heals.

I'd say like 80% of my single target heals is innervate with the odd dark infusion when someone drops rly low. In emergencys i like to use recklessness and polarity shift then dark infusion into innervate. so op.

 

Dark Heal is in an odd place now that they've buffed it's heal by a significant amount. It all boils down to how you're chaining your abilities and your personal style (as well as the other healer in your group and their particular strengths.)

 

For emergencies, Polarity Shift -> Triage Adrenal -> Resurgence -> Dark Heal -> Recklessness -> Innervate -> Static Barrier.

If the target is good at this point then, self Static Barrier, consume as many times as necessary to top off, then either self Resurgence or Unnatural Preservation or talented Overload depending on my health (as well as others around me). Otherwise Resurgence on target to eat the remaining Recklessness charge. This should all fit inside the Adrenal's benefit period and Polarity Shift should drop off around the last tick of Innervate.

 

The Resurgence -> Dark Heal is quite compelling as with a decent surge rating/bonus heal, a crit DH will hit for around 5.5 - 6k whereas a normal DI will be around 5.8 with the same stats. Granted a crit DI will be close to 10k... but it's an emergency situation and the extra second to gain 4k more heal could mean wipe or success.

 

Not saying this is the best, just something I'm testing out as I'm trying to wean myself off of Dark Infusion as the goto heal. I know DH is less force efficient, but really force shouldn't be an issue if you can keep people topped off. I find force is more an issue when I'm trying to catch up due to the long cast time of DI.

 

Please feel free to comment on my newbness.

 

Cheers

Infusion + Polarity Shift = Best friend.

I personally dont use DH as even with the added bonus healing the cons still outweigh the pros in this case.

 

The main rotation should still be the same as pre-2.0, SB->Resurgence->Innervate, then you should choose cuddle puddle or consumptionx2 depending on your force management and crit success with Innervate. Rinse and repeat.

 

Use Polarity Shift before DI when you can to reduce it's casting time, also try to make sure Recklessness is up. DI should only be used if Innervate is on cooldown or you feel comfortable that the target of the cast wont die in the time you take to cast it.

 

For Operations you should always have a resolve stim on (nano-infused), I typically run with a reusable when doing dailies.

 

The triage adrenal and clicky relic should be used on cooldown or before a big fight.

I personally dont use DH as even with the added bonus healing the cons still outweigh the pros in this case.

 

The main rotation should still be the same as pre-2.0, SB->Resurgence->Innervate, then you should choose cuddle puddle or consumptionx2 depending on your force management and crit success with Innervate. Rinse and repeat.

 

Use Polarity Shift before DI when you can to reduce it's casting time, also try to make sure Recklessness is up. DI should only be used if Innervate is on cooldown or you feel comfortable that the target of the cast wont die in the time you take to cast it.

 

For Operations you should always have a resolve stim on (nano-infused), I typically run with a reusable when doing dailies.

 

The triage adrenal and clicky relic should be used on cooldown or before a big fight.

 

The only con with using Dark Heal is the force cost, and right now force really isn't an issue for Sorcs. Using Resurgence with Dark Heal will almost guarantee a 5.5 - 6k heal, whereas DI, you're lucky to get the 10k crit heal, but most of the time you'll only get the 5.2-5.6k non-crit heal (this is due to the strategy a lot of folks are adopting to go full power only and skip on crit rating, thus dropping your crit to roughly 25% or worse on DI).

 

I agree that main rotation should be Resurgence -> Innervate, rinse repeat as much as you can (and if you're rocking the 2 by 2 PvE bonus for 6s cooldown Innervate, then even more so). Just stating that situationally, DH isn't as bad as it used to be.

I role with DI all the time, it does more heals over tme with less force. I do DH when there heath is under 30% or to cap there heath. Before 2.0 I never used DH at all but since they change it, it has become more useful. (This is from a PVE view)

For a DPS sorc who is either full Lightning or Hybrid, Dark Heal is often the better option, as Lightning Effusion makes force costs negligible, and speed is of the essence in WZs and intense PVE encounters.

Disclaimer: I PvP and only PvE for lols when we're bored. This is all coming from a PvP perspective.

 

If you're spamming Dark Heal, you'll be out of force in very short order. Particularly now, force management is what makes sorc healers' skill cap so much higher than op healers' who have absolutely no resource management issues.

 

Personally, I use DH sparingly - and only use it on either my top DPS or tank (in rateds) when nothing else will keep them up before I get a long cast off. I use it twice with recklessness (not always time to spend a global on Resurgence if you don't already have the buff) and then cast DI to top them off with Mental Alacrity going, then Innervate.

 

Very much in contrast to pre-2.0, you have to really reserve DH for the "oh ****" moments IMO.

 

Heyo, thanks for the reply. I have a healy sorc and a healy operative. I, too, PvP almost exclusively. I personally find that it is harder to manage resources on my Operative compared to Sorc, especially if I hot many people up. Don't get me wrong, I think it is A LOT easier to stay alive as an operative, but resource management seems harder on my operative.

 

Your strategy on when to use DH makes sense to me. Thanks, friend.

Simple answer DH= PvP only skill never use it in a OPs Raid healing it will destroy you!!!

I haven't seen any numbers, but Dark Heal did change with 2.0. It heals a lot more now, so the 'best' cast or rotation may not necessarily be the same as it was pre 2.0, when DI was stated as the best option.

 

Also, In PvP DI is just too slow. If your target is really being attacked, there is a fair chance they will be dead before your cast is finished.

 

I ran into a sorc the other day who did 1.3mill heals in hypergate, and always tops 1m every time I see her. I asked her what she does. She never uses DI - and her rotation never runs out of force. I think the key to that, from memory, was to cast Consumption every time after casting Innervate - and using resurgence at every opportunity.

 

For me, the difference in cast time - as I mainly pvp my sorc now, means that I am not interested in using DI, especially as I am not having resource issues now.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Kirjalax

Dark Heal for quick healing when Innervate is on cooldown. It's pretty good burst healing when combined with Recklessness, too. (Don't waste Recklessness charges when you have Resurgence proc up, I'm talking about when that along with Innervate is on cooldown.) If I REALLY need to pour on the burst, I'll add Polarity Shift to that.

 

Dark Infusion when there is time to cast.

 

When in doubt about whether there's time for Dark Infusion, I Dark Heal.

 

My Force management can get pretty spikey at times but as I've gotten used to going back to Corruption spec I've gotten more used to it. If you can kite/los you can usually consume--the key is proactively taking available consumption opportunities with your Force Bending when you don't intend to use the stacks for Revivification right then. When I first went back to corruption for 2.0 I was no longer used to this so my Force management sucked, but now it's rare for me to be ooF for more than a couple seconds.

 

Disclaimer: I only PVP.

Edited May 13, 2013 by AdrianDmitruk

The reality is that I rarely use DH or DI, unless there is just some massive damage burst that I otherwise cant fix.

 

I generally just do: shield, resurgence, innervate and then make a decision on whether to cast aoe, consume, etc.

 

The only time I am using DI is when innervate is on cool down (and set bonus is immensely important so you need the 1.5 second reduction), and so that really should just be 1 time before you go back to innervate.

 

In pvp, Ill use dark infusion if someone is getting really destroyed, but generally the cast time is to long and by the time my first 1 gets interrupted innervate or resurgence is ready again.

I rarely use dark heal on my sorc as heals.

I'd say like 80% of my single target heals is innervate with the odd dark infusion when someone drops rly low. In emergencys i like to use recklessness and polarity shift then dark infusion into innervate. so op.

 

 

So glad to see someone who knows what they're talking about.

 

 

Resurgance before every heal, Revivification always on cd, innervate always on cd, SB when they're both on cd.

 

In rare situation that's both those heals are on cd and your target is Deionized, you may throw in a DH or DI, but its almost worth it to just bubble other targets then just wait for them to be off cd. 75% of your total healing will be done from your aoe and innervate. Using the other two really doesn't do much, and the cast times are barely worth it.

Dark Heal for quick healing when Innervate is on cooldown. It's pretty good burst healing when combined with Recklessness, too. (Don't waste Recklessness charges when you have Resurgence proc up, I'm talking about when that along with Innervate is on cooldown.) If I REALLY need to pour on the burst, I'll add Polarity Shift to that.

 

 

Disclaimer: I only PVP.

 

Burst healing? Interesting word choice lol. Recklessness makes it more likely that you will crit, doesn't add burst or anything, and should always be used for an innervate and a Revivification. Not a dark heal. EVAR. Polarity shift is kind of like an emergency thing if you're low on force as it regens force faster when it's up. It's got too long of a cooldown to be used as something to add burst, pop it early or save it till you're low on force.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Sardonyyx

For 2.0 dh is king with consumption. You should never run oof. Edited May 16, 2013 by crunchbarry

Burst healing? Interesting word choice lol. Recklessness makes it more likely that you will crit, doesn't add burst or anything, and should always be used for an innervate and a Revivification. Not a dark heal. EVAR. Polarity shift is kind of like an emergency thing if you're low on force as it regens force faster when it's up. It's got too long of a cooldown to be used as something to add burst, pop it early or save it till you're low on force.

 

I've never ever seen Innervate consume Recklessness charges, and this is something I've tested under controlled conditions outside of PVP. So I've come to the conclusion that either it's bugged and doesn't work, or it's like Static Barrier in that (other than having the proc), you can't control crit, Though static doesn't crit at all.

 

Adding Recklessness to Reviv is good for number padding, yes, but Reviv won't really save a high-value ally (or for that matter myself) who needs fast, immediate heals. I prefer to save Recklessness for the moments when critting on some fast heals will mean the difference between someone important living or dying. Though I can see the number padding being more useful in PVE where AOE damage is predictable, of a known quantity and duration, and must be healed through while still keeping most of the heals on a single target (or known collection of targets) that will hold predictable aggro..

 

Note that I don't ONLY use Recklessness for Dark Heal, just that it's an option that I sometimes utilize in the situation I mentioned. Other times I do use it for those "low on force, need to consume and get my health back immediately with a big crit" moments.

I dont even have Dark heal on my spellbar, its pretty much useless.

There sure are a lot of Dark Heal naysayers in this thread.

 

So serious question... How many of you have actually tried it post 2.0 in comparison to Dark Infusion? And for those that are successfully using Dark Infusion, are you one of those that went full power + alacrity?

 

I'm interested in seeing what heal style is driving the particular comment. For me, as I don't stack alacrity and prefer a more balanced stat distribution (which yes includes NOT going full power and allowing some crit to stay on my gear), I tend to like the Resurgence -> Innervate or Dark Heal combo. As others have said, Static Barrier -> Resurgence -> Innervate/Revivification is my go to combo, but in a pinch I'll Resurgence -> Dark Heal for the almost always guaranteed 6k-ish heal.

 

Dark Infusion is just too darn slow to cast and not really a big enough heal.

 

Thanks

Usually my preferred heal is resurgence and innervate, and I do something else in the down time (bubble consumption, aoe heal, etc...). I do not use dark heal at all in PvE. Its very cost inefficient, and as long as you manage your healing, you do not really need it, because tank should not go low enough that you need to cast an emergency heal within 1.5 sec.

 

From PvP perspective, I have not PvPed with my sorc since the expansion. With the buff I can see dark heal being used every once in a while as an emergency heal.

so which are yours specs?