The Spirit Realm

since almost every raid target includes AE dots/ramp/DD i use group heal exclusively on raids. its on my raid spell setup. i cant think of any raid where im sitting in the distance with the mages and clerics casting from a safe haven. Co9, Vish, Queen sendaii, AMV, theatre of blood, and every other named im within casting range of my group. i move around alot on raids as targets shift and melee react (eggs, derves, etc). its part of the fun of playing a shaman...im not a sissy druid/cleric cowring from the ae's...I charge into battle with my melee group. plus panther has a short range and i cant stand too far away and get it to reach



Advice for the EQ Shaman:
Selected Gleanings from Snoww Silverhammer, Rabid Bashy Bear of E. Marr (now retired)

- September 2004:

3. You are not some small puny thing that stands in the back! We are kin to the bear and wolf, and when the pack hunts we walk beside them with hammer in hand and blood on our lips! Curses flow from us to weaken and slow our foes, and the call of the wolves will not be stood against for long. Allow the spirits to take from your body so that your spirit will become stronger and use that power often. It is your right to change the material to the spirit within yourself, just as you are changing your spirit to mend the blood and bone that keeps you and your friends alive.

Given our guild is short on Clerics, Shaman often fill group cure / heal roles ....

A list of encounters I have used GoR for:
Yarlir, Vishimitar (dont raid Rikki / Kess anymore, but would have it up for those too), Vule, 90% of Tacvi mobs, KtH, Ture, WH, Jelvan, AMV, OMM, ToB Maestro, ToB Mad Maryanne, ToB Gnarlibramble, ToB Anastasia, ToB Valik, Daosheen 1st born, Porthios 2nd born, Razorthorn ghosts, and pretty much every encounter so far in DPoB ....

It's a useful spell in that it gives you time to do other things .... it may not heal the group completely, but it buys you enough time to heal the lowest HP group members, or to reslow that mob that just lost slow, etc ....

Tek

Vule has a dot AE; Porthio's AE, does that have a dot? don't remember, think it does; Relic dragons if your group are dumb and take emote AEs, a group hot could be a good heal, esp on casters who won't be risking any AE ramp;
plus in general for those AE ramping mobs, if melees are non-suicidal and back out when low hp, them being hot'ed can a) save time healing them back up, and b) top them back up to full if they take a light round, so that they don't die the next time the heavy comes round... it also has the plus as mentioned of supporting you doing something else for a couple ticks by being a mitigating safety net, it's also low aggro!

Of course it's not the thing to cast when two melee in your group have just taken a 9k AE ramp round... it's an awesome tool though, when used on things it is suited for!

I use Ghost of Renewal all the time on raids. I am frequently in a DPS group so I can go crazy with Champion and Panther. When it comes time for AMV, I'm generally the only healer in my group because my GL knows I can keep people alive, cured, and happy with Panther without breaking a sweat. Ghost of Renewal is a part of my standard raid set, and I love having it. It's specifically great for AMV, Jelvan, and Vishimtar. I use it in Tacvi, Yar Lir, COT9, Draygun, etc. etc. Pretty much everywhere.

I was grouped with a druid this last time on Vishimtar and I must say that I did not enjoy myself, heh. His group heal made mine useless, but it was amusing when he went OOM long before it came time to kill the mana cloud and Ghost of Renewal was one of the tools that allowed me to pick up healing the group without a hitch.

Do I wish we had a group direct heal like the druids? Yep. But I'm happy with Ghost of Renewal. I think it's a great tool to have around, even though I think it could use a tweak here and there.

Hell, you can use this in PoTime past p3 for any mob that has an AE DD or DoT. Mobs that come to mind most vividly are cazic thul, bertox, and quarm. I did time last Friday, and had a non-leet group with people who were getting hit by their AEs. The group hot was enough to counteract the dots on everyone except the OOR chanter who refused to get into range (he died from being less than smart.) Also, Several rage raid mobs have AEs this is useful for iirc.

Also, in terms of this being more powerful than the druids spell i beg to differ. Each of these 2 spells is used most fully in different instances.
1-The shaman group hot will have more power counteracting ae DoT damage (in general) because it will heal each tick with the dot. A druid would have to wait for the dot to further lower the HP of people (potentially dangerous) to get full benefit of blast healing them.
2-The druid blast heal will be more useful counteracting ae DD damage (in general) because it will quickly heal the damage done, where as it would take a shaman hot much longer to heal (potentially dangerous.)

These 2 examples are in no way extremely specific, but they give a general idea (imo) of the strong and weak points of these spells.

*avelariel's point of low agro is great too! When it can take 10+ casts to land a slow and one doesn't have silent casting up, a high agro blast group heal right after one finally lands slow could potentially draw agro! Pallys use group blast heals as a form of agro/aeagro>stun...

I love our group hot for raid situations. I wouldn't mind it healing just a little more HP per tick, but i can't have everything i want =p

In my opinion in most situations where you actually need a group heal a Group HoT is more useful than a direct heal. The most common reason to heal the group on a raid is because of an ae. Ae dd or dot doesn't really matter since there is almost always time before the next one hits and group hot is much more mana efficient and lower aggro. Moonshadow is 1500 hps for 1100 mana base and GoR is 630 x 4 for 1260 mana base. Noticably more efficient and more healed and beneficial spell extension provide more benifit than healing focus/aa does (80+ extension and crits).

I've always relied on my HoT's pretty heavily for healing my groups since it's always been more effective than our regular heals and GoR just makes that even more so. I'd definitely rather have GoR than Moonshadow. A group direct heal would be nice for a few situations but a group HoT over all is more useful more of the time.

I never have any other healer in group, barring the rare ranger. Suchun, Dao, Porthio, Ghost, Snowtail, Mayong, Sullon, every mini in ToB, Vishimtar... I miss any? I find Ghost to be an excellent tool. Typically, besides my own group, I keep it on the tank group full time as well in fights with AEs.

I recently had a break from EQ due to RL commitments, as a result, today was the first time I took on Rikkukin with GoR in my spellbook.

As usual I was healing a group with no cleric (even been solo times, though today i had a druid with me) and the fight was significantly easier with Ghost of Renewal.

You see, even if your team is awake and dodging all the directional AoE's, Rikku does an AOE (massive range) DOT which is pretty much impossible to resist (at least at our gear level) and is done so frequently that it is impossible/hopeless to cure.

So you have the entire group taking a few hundred damage every tick. Ghost of Renewal is the perfect counter for it.

Rikku was a very stressful fight for shaman healers. With GoR it's not stressful at all.


just my 2 cents,

Vince