(PVE)Shepherd Guide - The Guardian of Sheeps

[thegreatestviz 59]

(feel free to share the guide with my credits where ever required)

Hi Crusaders,

A shepherd /ˈʃɛpərd/ or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards herds of sheep.

As Ironic as that is Crusader of light has one of the hardest(and most fun) jobs as a Healer available because keeping an eye on the tactics (things to avoid and do) while watching HP of team mates and reacting accordingly in the right timing.

Golden Rule of healing: Don't sacrifice the tank or overall raid for saving one person. ex if someone has 10% hp remaining and is far off and the boss is doing continuous AOE, you should focus on saving the raid first instead of that one dps.

Healing abilities and usage: 4 Primary abilities and 2 additional abilities for healer

You can read what the skill does but here's my version:

Mystic Galaxy: Most powerful single target heal

Arcane Shield: To be used Pre large hit by boss or when Mystic galaxy on CD. Ideally to be used before Mystic Galaxy

Purifying Blast: The largest and most powerful AOE healing skill to be used before Consolation

Aurora: Shield + % healing should be used to protect before large aoe or topping up raid

Light Sigil: Your Healing Over Time ability. Should be used with Aurora for large AOE heals if Purifying blast is on (CD) Cool down

Consolation: your not so powerful AOE but instant AOE heal

Rune upgrades:

Academic(enhance mystic galaxy)

Propriety (enhance normal healing)

Prowess(Enhance Arcane Shield)

Order (Enhance Aurora)

Insight( Strengthen healing).

You can either spend some runes on rest for HP bonus or save for these runes but later on the cost is enormous per upgrade and should be saved for effective healing.

The reason why we chose to reduce CD runes(for Shield and Aurora) instead of increasing its healing/shield effect is because right now not everyone has high HP and lower CD gives a higher chance to save people. As we reach mid/end game content(2-3 months probably) we should also use runes on the efficiency.

Path upgrades:

Max everything. Yes it does cost a lot of exp, but if you cannot max out everything first thing to focus is the main Shepherd path and Synchrony for powerful single target heals.

Gems:

Spell Damage on weapons

HP where ever possible

Some gear cannot embed either of the above for them a combination of Defense and Spell Defense.

Stats Priority:

Intellect (powerful heals)

Spell Damage/Magic attack (powerful heals)

HP (capacity to survive)

Spirit (Mana capacity + defense Spell and defense)

Spell Crit ( Chance to crit)

Healing Sets to aim for:

Natures Blessing (Healing mist proc chance)

Gift of Nature Set ( not discovered yet)

Mystery Set ( Mystic Galaxy healing increased by 30)

Note with the latest patch note you can extract and replace Set bonuses with Swap set feature so you can use the set bonuses on your strongest Gear ( except D0 which cannot be extracted/ swapped)

With this you should be able to protect your allies like a Sheep Herder.

Remember that a dead healer cannot heal anyone. So save your self before someone else except when boss is at 0.1% where your sacrifice is worth downing the boss.

Hope this helps the new healers and gives some pointers to the existing pool of healers.

if you have any questions in game I'm on forest valley (+3) ign: Viz

May you guide the sheeps well

Edited August 10, 2017 by thegreatestviz

[rainy 5]

If you have enough stats as it is defense, hp, vitality wise, 12k hp is fine at level 45 path 40, you want crit at least 30% at this point for heal crits

[thegreatestviz 59]

8 hours ago, tribse84 said:

Very good guide, thank you.

 

 

which diamond is the choice for a healer? Moontears due to the extra percentage of heal or any other you would recommend?

 

Thank you tribse84. Regarding your question which gem to choose for a healer

 

the BiS for early game i.e. early 45 is going to be % increase in healing since any heal on someone who needs it is going to keep them alive.

 

As we move on the heavy content ( good geared and 6 slots for our spell gems) its a good combination to have 3 gem of % healing and 3 gems of % spell crit. 

 

This is because apart from your raw heals the % chance to crit gives our AOE heals a boost. Imagine everyone is at 20% hp - you hit your purifying blast if you dont have crit you bring everyone to 50% and then top off spending more mana and burning more ports but with higher crit you can bring the raid to 70% and save mana overtime.

 

This does not mean % Crit > % healing because your single target spell benefits the % healing the most a 2k normal heal with % + healing means 2200 thats an addition of 200 hp recovery and can save someone's healing pot CD which can be used in a more critical situation.

 

I cannot stress this enough the Mana and HP pot large costs only 30k a piece and it the difference between surviving a raid or wiping.

 

Ideally healers should use a combination of special potion and mana potion as special recovers HP+MP. You can use 2 healers instead of 3 on certain fights where DPS requirements are high 

[Esrun 81]

I find 3/3 Nature's Blessing set to be very good. The description says "low chance" to proc but I find it to be pretty OK. Maybe they buffed it in recent patch.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Esrun

[thegreatestviz 59]

7 hours ago, tribse84 said:

Thanks again for the extensive feedback.

 

reading the above I get the point that spell crit is most important in the long run. Taken that point into consideration the diamond of choice is the lunar diamond then? Thats the only diamond which has spell crit...

short term i might still opt for a few dazzling diamonds first until i am not that squishy any more (lvl 44, only 10.5k HP)

Spell crit is important but not more important than % healing as the latter contributes to raw healing increase and the former is just the chance to crit and may be only successful sometimes( say 10-30% of the times). For level 44 10.5k HP is very good. Keep it up !

[thegreatestviz 59]

On 8/15/2017 at 0:44 AM, Esrun said:

I find 3/3 Nature's Blessing set to be very good. The description says "low chance" to proc but I find it to be pretty OK. Maybe they buffed it in recent patch.

Yes Blessing set is good, I am currently using the same. its determined by a Yellow Greenish ball that bounces from player to player - easily seen when using normal healing.

[SpellCzech 48]

Something I had typed up in response to a guy who was feeling underwhelmed with his Sheppard in PvP. I figured I would add it here as it contributes a little bit to the topic at hand.

My main is Sheppard and I assure you, once you are set up right, it will take 4+ people spamming CC's to have a chance to kill you, and even then, you will probably survive long enough for your mates to arrive and stick a pinky in their bum.

That being said, if you plan on pvping a lot, I would highly recommend investing in the runes on the far right path (I think it's the 2nd one down on the right, at work so I cant check) But the ones that give you a % chance to resists crowd control effects (Stuns/snares/Roots etc) as well as the one next to it that buffs you for a few seconds after resisting. This procs a lot in large scale battles like GvG and world pvp quest zone where people try to group sex you by spamming crowd control moves.

Nothing says "Middle finger" like watching a character who depends on their cc landing to kill you in a global cool down, run around confused when you don't get knocked up/feared/stunned and you're free to skip away auto healing on yourself singing "so long, farewell"

Also, your load out is a factor. Depending on the scenario I run different load outs. The skill I choose to swap out is Aurora shield. If I am with a good group/friends, I usually swap in Dread fall to help cc and set them up for my teammates to kill. If I am with randoms or solo, I like the mobility and CC breaking ability of Void Walk (if you are stunned rooted feared etc, void walk breaks it, great ability.

Sets/paths etc. I am currently running 3 piece natures Blessing, 2 piece that increases arcane shield, and 2 piece that increase mystic galaxy, and 2 piece Tyrant (increases crit & spell by 2%). This was achieved by lucking out with a pendant that came with tyrant.

Anyways, Try to aim on reforging for +Int > Spell Crit% > HP/Spirit >other stuffs (unless legendary gear, then try to get a passive + ability that helps you like Mystic Galaxy/Arcane Shield/P.Blast etc.)

You want at least 10k+ hp, I have 14380 hp. If you find you are having mana trouble, which shouldn't happen unless you are spamming like crazy, you can reforge more spirit. 

Try to aim when Starting off to have at least a lvl40 rare gem in every available slot. Pick specific focus for your gems you want to power up and each day you should buy what your silver can afford from the trade house, Medal reward tab, the gems you will need to polish the rares into epics. You have a cap of 8 level 40 rare gems you can purchase a day. It only takes 6 to polish a rare into an epic. 

My focus when doing the above was of course my Magic damage gems (magic damage = healing power as well) I will point out though, when you go to polish your magic gems (the purple color) go through your "Equipment" tab from your menu, if you go to polish from just clicking the option from the gems in your bag, it is going to take you to the spell crit/penetration gem every time when it comes time to upgrade your gems from epic to Diamond. The reason I say this is because you will want to choose the diamond type you are upgrading to for healer, allowing you to polish the +% healing diamonds as well.

When the game first came out, I gemmed primarily physical defense, rangers ruled the world in those days. I have since opted to balance my spell and physical defence with the new rise of the Rogue Robe Brigade that has emerged since recent updates.

Speaking of gems and stats, You might try a healthy balance of Crit% % +Heal%. For me, I aim for around ~25-30% crit, anything more is all +heal%. You can get to these percentages through reforging gear, set bonuses, factoring in your passive rune talents (like the one that passively increase your chance to heal crit%), and lastly through gemming. 

The reason for the crit heal hype is due to our rune that provides us a buff allowing us to heal 3 people with the next mystic galaxy when our normal heal crits. Not only that, but if you have ever been on the receiving end, or been the one dishing out, a 12k mystic galaxy heal crit or a 8k purify blast heal crit, it can change your life lol.

For your path, I would focus getting them all up with the exception of the one in the top right (% chance to reset sigil bit) that particular skill is a % chance and not a direct impact on your healing like the others, so warrants less focus/emphasis till later on. The same applies with your rune skills. Always focus the ones that are going to directly contribute to your output, and opt for the % chances stuff later when the main ones start costing an arm and a leg in essences and runes.

[Torque 2]

8 hours ago, SpellCzech said:

My main is Sheppard and I assure you, once you are set up right, it will take 4+ people spamming CC's to have a chance to kill you, and even then, you will probably survive long enough for your mates to arrive and stick a pinky in their bum.

 

You had me at bum... but really, nice writeup! Seriously... I like the way you talk, keep talking. j/k (maybe)

[SpellCzech 48]

10 hours ago, Torque said:

 

You had me at bum... but really, nice writeup! Seriously... I like the way you talk, keep talking. j/k (maybe)

Haha. Cheers mate. I plan to make informative\guide videos soon. Much easier to follow, and beats typing^^

[Celtic 38]

On 8/16/2017 at 6:07 AM, SpellCzech said:

Also, your load out is a factor. Depending on the scenario I run different load outs. The skill I choose to swap out is Aurora shield. If I am with a good group/friends, I usually swap in Dread fall to help cc and set them up for my teammates to kill. If I am with randoms or solo, I like the mobility and CC breaking ability of Void Walk (if you are stunned rooted feared etc, void walk breaks it, great ability.

 

If I read you correctly, you can still cast void walk while being stunned - it will break the CC??? It never worked for me... if I get perma stun, no chance in hell to survive!

Also, the CC resist rune only work for slow and bind according to description. So no resistance whatsoever to dreadfall (knockback) and dread blast (fear)...

I don't have the two pieces for tyrant for now... focusing on divine set at the moment (I'm full nature).

[Aviee 0]

On 8/16/2017 at 4:02 PM, SpellCzech said:

Haha. Cheers mate. I plan to make informative\guide videos soon. Much easier to follow, and beats typing^^

Is this video out yet?

[Marcy 0]

Viz can you post Best in Slot (BIS) gear for shepard in PVE. Exact item names and where/how to acquire them. Sorry for asking too much.

If you can do more. Include BIS alternative (if you have hard time getting the BIS itself

And the gear to aim before getting the BIS itself (easier to acquire gear than BIS)

[thegreatestviz 59]

20 hours ago, Marcy said:

Viz can you post Best in Slot (BIS) gear for shepard in PVE. Exact item names and where/how to acquire them. Sorry for asking too much.

If you can do more. Include BIS alternative (if you have hard time getting the BIS itself

And the gear to aim before getting the BIS itself (easier to acquire gear than BIS)

Hi Marcy.

 

BiS for Shepherd is Divine Gear ATM[advantage - 2x pblast cast]. You can spend 10 flower of tonnaris to get 3 piece set and the last offhand costs 20 flower so total 10x3=30 and 20x1=20 thats 50 flowers for the divine set which you can swap on your gears after upgrading them 3 times. Thats ur first aim with flowers. Next get healing sets available. Crafted gear usually gets D0 or D1 ( with the use of gollen u can reroll them) aim for Secret[advantage - improves ur mystic galaxy by 30%] or Flock [ advantage - improves ur arcane shield by 30%]. 

Most easily available and retained till you find something better is Bloodthirst[advantage - Spell Crit] and Grace [Advantage - increased healing effect and crit healing effect]

Sets acquirable by raiding should be D3 Electric field[advantage - free aoe heal]

Sets acquirable by raiding and courage medal is Conflagrus Fire shell[advantage- free shield on auto attack heal] and Natures blessing[advantage- healing ball for 3 players]

 

As a new player i recommend this sequence based on easier to get and them upgrade

Natures Blessing 3/3

Conflag fire shell 3/3

Secret or and Flock 2/2

Grace preferably over bloodthirst 3/3

Divine Gear 4/4 (never remove the bonus cuz its BiS, always swap it over stronger gear)

Electric Field 3/3

Latest content introduced some new sets but most of us have not tried them as content clearing is pending but does not seem to be insanely stronger than currently existing one. Essentially you will have 10 slots to put gear on. by the time you reach 40-45k char rating you should be having atleast a. 4 divine set b. 3 natures blessing or 3 electric field c. 3 grace or 2 secret

 

Look me up on Viz on forest valley if you're there. Although i main a dps now i still have OS as healing

[Esrun 81]

13 hours ago, thegreatestviz said:

Grace preferably over bloodthirst 3/3

 

Explain?

My understanding is that Grace is just a nerfed version of Bloodthirst. Bloodthirst gives crit chance and crit damage on all spells (including healing), Grace only gives crit chance and crit damage on healing.

[thegreatestviz 59]

5 hours ago, Esrun said:

Explain?

My understanding is that Grace is just a nerfed version of Bloodthirst. Bloodthirst gives crit chance and crit damage on all spells (including healing), Grace only gives crit chance and crit damage on healing.

okay.

 

Grace:

2/3 Healing effect +2% 

3/3 Crit Healing effect +10%

Bloodthirst:

2/3 Increase Crit and Spell crit by 2%

3/3 Increase crit and spell crit damage by 10%

As a healer you will invest points in highest virtue rune upgrade especially Propriety which increases the crit of normal healing by x%. Also you should ideally be using healing gems as well that increase your healing by 1.1% per gem minimum. 

Your base healing and base crit healing will be increased with the above gems and rune upgrades so when you use Grace over bloodthirst your crit will be higher as a healer due to 3/3 set bonus. bloodthirst 3/3 set is spell crit damage . Spell power affects healing and damage differently with your gem and stats. Although there is no advanced attribute note for healing, but passively Grace will benefit you better when it comes to healing.

 

Hope I've clarified 

Edited November 14, 2017 by thegreatestviz

[Esrun 81]

15 hours ago, thegreatestviz said:

Spell power affects healing and damage differently with your gem and stats. Although there is no advanced attribute note for healing, but passively Grace will benefit you better when it comes to healing.

 

You haven't explained anything. My position: Spell crit +2% gives also healing crit 2%. Apparently you are saying that spell crit 2% gives less than 2% healing crit. Where do you get that idea?

Why do you talk about Healing crit runes and healing gems when we I asked about Grace vs Bloodthirst?

[Esrun 81]

At least can we agree that 3/3 effect is the same w.r.t to healing i.e. it gives 10% critical heal both from Bloodthirst and Grace. Yes, 2/3 effect is _slightly_ better on Grace, but let's be real - noone wears Bloodthirst (or Grace) for 2/3 effect. Wasting 2 gear slots for what can be achieved with single diamond gem is not smart. Full 3/3 set is what matters.

In the end Bloodthirst will be better because it will enhance the damage in addition to healing. And of course there's nothing stopping you from wearing both sets.

[thegreatestviz 59]

for hybrid healers bloodthrist is better( obviously) if you're progressing HC raids and kothas then grace. Healing runes and gems affect your spell healing whereas not your spell damage so lets say u have average 1000 spell damage. because of healing runes of healing crit your spell crits are increased by lets say 10% thats 1100  spell damage now(passively, your spell damage is still 1000 but spell healing is 1100) Grace will increase ur healing on 1100 instead of 1000( not taking gems into consideration) 

i know its not accurate maths but i just wanted to give a picture for most effective healing.

[DaveSB 0]

Maybe someone can help me.

I have bought 4/4 divine, 3/3 nature´s blessing.

Legendary equip I have got: weapon (currently blood thirst - but got weapon with secret in bag), pauldrons (currently nature), beeches (virtue for 4/4), sash (flock), cape (flock)

What I want to ask is:

is  3/3 nature, 4/4 virtue, 2/2 flock and 2/2 secret is still best in slot?

or if I need blood thirst, and only 2/4 from divine virtue?

[Esrun 81]

1 hour ago, DaveSB said:

is  3/3 nature, 4/4 virtue, 2/2 flock and 2/2 secret is still best in slot?

I don't think 3/3 nature has ever been best in slot. It's a starter gear that is not that useful and wastes 3 slots.

3/4 virtue, 2/2 flock and 2/2 secret will always be BiS as they give huge enhancement to healer spells. BiS is not really correct term here as you can move them around quite a lot to different pieces to accommodate other sets you may have. Exception is Divine gear that is limited to offhand, helm, chest and pants.

 

Btw, returning to Bloodthirst discussion, after doing some testing I conclude that I was wrong - 10% crit damage enhancement does not apply to healing spells. Only way to get 10% healing crit damage enhancement is from Grace. (Spell crit chance stat still applies to both healing and damage)

[thegreatestviz 59]

Editing not allowed on main post so updating it here:

Currently the best sets(in order of precedence)  are

L- Shepherd (available via snowfall)

2/4 All Skill Levels +2

3/4 Increase damage resistance by 20% when your HP is less than 30%. Lasts 5 seconds

4/4 Consolation increases healing effects 30% and reduces cooldown by 3 seconds.

 

Grace 

2/3 Healing effect +2% 

3/3 Crit Healing effect +10%

 

Virtue

 

Flock

2/2 Increases Arcane Shields effect by 30%

 

Secret

2/2 Increases Mystic Galayx's damage and healing by 30%

 

Electric Field

 

Conflag fire shell

 

Natures Blessing

[DaveSB 0]

Esrun and thegreatestviz I thank you both, for clearing up things for me.

How important is the 4/4 boni from virtue?

Is it better to have secret 2/2 and only virtue 3/4, because I have got breeches with secret on it, and for the weapon too ("only" need to get rid of D0 on it), so I can activate secret with some luck soon.

 

[Esrun 81]

4/4 is only for survival. If you get a big hit and almost die, you get a free shield and a free Purifying Blast cast. It won't protect you in cases where the damage you take is more than HP you have. I'd say it's nice to have but not essential.

You can see when it gets triggered. If you never see it then most likely you don't need it. Even if you see it being triggered, like maybe on Elemental Lords, it doesn't mean you need it because you would have survived the AoE even with 3/4 Divine, it's just that you would need to heal up manually.

[DaveSB 0]

Thank you for the information!

And what about gems and star sircle?

I see most shepherds have 

- spelldmg + spell crit in main and neck

- spelldmg + heal in off and ring

- spelldefense + spell resist in head, chest, shoulder, leg and earring

- hp + dodge in shoes, hands, sash, cape, amulet, bracelet and waist pendant

is this the way to go?

 

Also I see that many shepherds have star circle "flourish" activated, which you get from flower of torannis. Is this "the" shepherd circle?

 

 

[snizzle 5]

Speaking of legend sets, is the shepard set the best set to use on a healer?

I have 2 pieces of the set so far, i keep rolling Mags judgment set on the other pieces, should i use that set for the +2 skills until I can roll another shepard set?