Healer

The healer is a role responsible for healing injured allies and ultimately keeping them alive.

What to Know
Healer is one of the more challenging roles Rift has to offer. Unlike the other roles, healing has no rotation. A DPS typically keeps DoTs on the target, and uses all his cooldowns as they become available.

"Thing is alive &rarr; kill it faster."

Healer on the other hand only heals when it is needed, so cooldowns are usually left alone.

"Thing takes damage &rarr; heal &rarr; wait for thing to take damage."

This gets much more complex when dealing with different types of damage: killing blow, group AoEs, burst, cleanse, aggro loss. These stack up on top of each other, and sometimes they happen so fast you must anticipate the damage. Already be in the middle of casting the heal before the damage hits, and finish the cast right after it does.

Terms

 * Heal over Time
 * Abbreviated as HoT. Heals the target each second until its timer runs out. Typically the healing ticks are small, but over its entire period it does more total healing than a normal heal.


 * Raid Heals
 * Any heal that affects more than one party member. These are sometimes called group or AoE heals.


 * Absorb
 * Protects a targets health by intercepting part or all of a set amount of damage. Indicated by the faint cyan-blue on top of the health bar. Sometimes called a shield.

The mage soul Chloromancer is heavily reliant on this because all of the damage attacks heal the person with the tank buff, Synthesis. No tank buff = no healing.
 * Tank Buff
 * A buff the healer has that is usually casted on the tank or the target that is receiving the most healing. This buff will apply a small amount of extra healing, an absorb, or damage attackers.

Don't Blame the Healer
When a group wipes it's not always the healer's fault, but it's easy to blame the healer because it's your job to keep people alive. On the contrary, groups have group responsibility. As you can see, so many things must be done. It's so much more than the healer's responsibility. If you ever get wrongfully blamed after a wipe just keep calm and realize some people are just idiots.
 * People shouldn't be standing in fires.
 * They have to be within range and not hiding behind a wall to get healed.
 * Tank should be holding aggro.
 * DPS should be interrupting blue casted skills.

How to Heal
This section is intended for all classes so it is more general purpose; intended to get you on your feet. Again, healing doesn't follow any pattern. The majority of the time healing is situational, and knowing how to react.

For Dungeons

 * 1) Before the tank pulls, make sure you are ready:
 * 2) *Mana, power, or energy is okay.
 * 3) *Check your healing buffs on the tank.
 * 4) *Check your healing buffs on you.
 * 5) Immediately before the pull, cast your HoTs and your absorbs on the tank and on yourself. This gives you more breathing room.
 * 6) If you gain aggro, run to the tank to make it easier for him to pick up the missed adds.
 * 7) Try to anticipate the type of damage that will be taken. Things to look for:
 * 8) *An accidental pull about to happen.
 * 9) *Someone standing in fire.
 * 10) *Something about to explode.
 * 11) *Something charging up a big attack such as a laser.
 * 12) Adjust your rotation to the damage taken. See list below.
 * 13) When in doubt, cleanse everything. Many DoTs do more damage than normal attacks.
 * 14) Take advantage of the down time. When the tank is fully healed, use that time to reapply HoTs, absorbs, or any debuffs you have.

Adjusting to Damage Received

 * Casual
 * Use your weak heals, re-apply HoTs as they fall off. Help with DPS if you're bored.


 * Medium
 * Alternate between weak and medium as you see fit, re-apply HoTs.


 * Heavy
 * Use cooldowns and heavier heals, ignore HoTs unless a gap opens up. Cleanse everything.


 * Burst
 * Use cooldowns and heavier heals, but don't waste all your cooldowns. Spot heal anyone with low health. The Purifier should cast its symbols. Symbols reapply themselves if removed quickly. This makes it great for burst damage, and makes it one of the most powerful standard heals.


 * Sustained Heavy
 * Start to conserve your cooldowns, put gaps of medium heals between each CD. Most tanks will help the healer if their HP drops low.

The Sentinel's Vigilance and Physician's Life Insurance can prevent the target from dying, even if the damage brings health below zero. Purifier can treat this the same as burst damage. Use Firey Will and Flashover, then cast Symbol of the Sun. This will make a powerful burst absorb. Additional cooldowns, Rite of the Forge followed by Spiritual Configuration, can be stacked on top if necessary.
 * Killing Blow
 * This damage type must be anticipated and can only be dealt with on several roles.

Tips

 * If the tank dies, immediately cast your battle rez, and start healing the DPS.
 * In risky situations, it's best to save the battle rez for the tank.
 * If both you and the tank are at risk for dying and you can't heal both, choose the tank. When the tank dies, the rest of the group immediately gets toppled like dominoes. When the healer dies, the tank still has a few seconds of life.
 * Clerics have multiple healing roles. Pick up all of them if you can. Some are better suited for different boss encounters.
 * If all else fails, a group wipe with all your CDs off and with no mana usually means you did the most you could. Understand what went wrong and try to change it next time. Make sure the rest of the party is taking care of their roles.

For Raids
When in a raid setting, healing generally follows the same rules as dungeons. You're still putting up your HoTs, and you're still adjusting your healing to the damage taken. Only there's much more people. You will be working with other healers, sometimes multiple tanks, and lots of DPS.

Do your part. Listen closely to the tank or leader's instructions, because the mechanics are much harder than dungeons. Even though the group's success will be dependent largely on you, raids are a team effort. As long as you are doing your part, you will be okay. Don't get yourself down from anyone else's mistakes.

If you've gotten this far, you should be experienced in dungeons, know how to set up your heals, and adjust to the damage taken. To be a raid healer, use the same experience you learned from dungeons, but follow these priorities:
 * 1) The tank must survive. Period.
 * 2) Do your part.
 * 3) *AoE healers should heal the group
 * 4) *ST healers should heal the tank
 * 5) Help the other healers (only after you've done your part).
 * 6) *Spot heal low members with health
 * 7) *Heal the group with any AoE or HoT you have
 * 8) Rez with caution. Several other healers are in the group, and only one resurrect is needed. Additional resurrects can be casted which wastes the cooldown. With the exception of the tank, it's best to wait before casting. If someone yells their res, don't use yours. You should also prioritize members to use it on. This is how your priorities should stack:
 * 9) *Tank
 * 10) *Off-Tank
 * 11) *Healers
 * 12) *Support
 * 13) *Highest DPS
 * 14) *Other DPS

PvP Healing
Healing for PvP is very different from dungeons. Player damage is more intense than boss fights, and a split-second reaction time could mean the difference between survival and death. You will be using your cooldowns the majority of the time.


 * Pay attention to the objective.
 * More than often you'll find yourself running out trying to save anyone, but your group isn't always on task. Your team wins by completing the objective, not tunnel-vision PvP.


 * Stand behind your group as much as possible.
 * Anyone that spots a healer out in the open will target them, and you don't have much to defend yourself.


 * Cleanse everything.
 * Those DoTs stack up after a while, making healing much harder. A select few debuffs should not be cleansed, however unless you are familiar with these it's best to cleanse everything.


 * Expect the worst.
 * Use those cooldowns, crowd controls, your break free, and any potions you have.

Crowd Control
Any ability that stuns, snares, debilitates, confuses, or otherwise makes the target loose control somehow is a Crowd Control (CC). All classes get one skill that removes all of these: Break Free. The cooldown is very long, so you should use it sparingly. In addition to Break Free, a few souls get an additional skill that removes CC. There is also a potion that does it too.

Main Types of CC
In descending order:
 * 1) Debilitate – Interrupts the current casting skill and prevents skills from being casted.
 * 2) Stun – Debilitates and prevents movement.
 * 3) Root – Prevents movement, usually casted by a charging melee.
 * 4) Confuse or Fear – Debiltates and makes target run randomly, breaks on damage.
 * 5) Transmogrify – Confused, but breaks if health is below 85% and receives damage.
 * 6) Snare – Slows movement.
 * 7) Incapacitate, Mesmerize, or Sleep – Stuns, but breaks on damage.
 * 8) Pacify – Debilitates, but breaks on damage.
 * 9) Prison – Stunned, but immune to all damage. Has a purple glow.

Dominator
A Dominator is a soul specifically built to kill healers in PvP. It has a huge variety of crowd controls. Its main ability drains mana, energy, and power. However many of its skills are debuff based, so all you have to do is cleanse it.

In descending order the quickest way to identify a Dominator is to find:
 * 1) Someone transformed into a black ghoul with multiple around him.
 * 2) Someone casting Mana Wrench or Malevolent Bolt.
 * 3) Nearby allies turned into squirrels.

Defense
The best defense against a Dominator is to cleanse everything, run away, and rely on your teammates. Never begin by healing, especially if you are directly targeted by the Dominator. If you try healing, you take the risk of getting debilitated, and mana drained.
 * Priest's Laminate has a 60% chance of debilitating anyone casting a beneficial ability. 5 stacks.
 * On initial application of Transference your mana is attacked, and it doubles the mana cost of spells. 1 stack.

Cleanse
Cleansing is a first-in first-out system. The first debuff you receive is the first one that will be cleansed. Cleansing is also stack based, meaning it removes stacks of debuffs and not the debuff itself. So if a debuff has 3 stacks, you need to cleanse it 3 times, or use a skill that removes more.

Dominator abilities are cleansing covers. Meaning they make it difficult to cleanse by hiding more debuffs underneath. The DoTs apply 10+ stacks, and the AoEs reapply themselves to anyone standing inside.

Assassin
Assassin is a rogue soul that attacks from stealth and has a huge amount of burst. Although it is not built to drain mana like the Dominator, it is still a tough opponent. Assassins rely most on their stealth, stuns, DoTs, and poison attacks. By getting rid of any of these, it makes them a lot easier to deal with.

Defense
First try removing their stealth. Assassins will remain hidden as long as they do not receive damage or get too close to an enemy. By removing stealth, you will prevent their strongest DoT - Jagged Strike from hitting you. If you have an AoE attack use it. This includes:
 * Cleric Purifier – Fire Wall
 * Cleric Sentinel – Flash of Radiance
 * Cleric Warden – Crushing Waves
 * Mage Chloromancer – Wild Growth
 * Rogue Physician – Mass Blood Transfusion works best
 * Warrior Liberator – Mass Oppression and Conflict Avoidance

Second, if unsuccessful at removing stealth, you will quickly find yourself stunned. The first stun is usually an Incapacitate. Unlike a stun, this breaks on damage and can only be casted when you are outside of combat. So the assassin cannot attack you while it remains active. Most rogues, used it to get their target to waste their Break Free. You should save it for the other stuns they have. Once the rogue appears you should expect real stuns to hit you, so use your Break Free.

Third, now that the rogue is out of hiding you'll get hit by DoTs and poisons. They have about four debuffs that can be cleansed, so this part is easy. You should also run while cleansing, this makes it harder for them to apply their poisons. Assassin attacks are all melee range. When you run away, they become reliant again on their stuns or a sub-soul range attack which is much weaker. Use any speed buff or CC you have.

Even though assassin is a powerful burst DPS, it is weak when picked apart like this. You should be able to heal through their attacks long enough to get help from your team.

Healer Skillsets
Comparison of Healer Souls