Blood/Feral Healer

Disclaimer:
Ive put together this guide help to help new players avoid making the mistakes I made. This isnt be all and end all and it will be updated continually. It is a list of builds I used and found effective. Ive played many Healers in many MMO's im not the master, but I do know a thing or too.

For You:
Healing in The Secret World is hard. Dont let anyone say any differently. If you dont have the right build or the right kit or you dont know how to use your abiliies, your making it hard from the get go. Further to that your already disadvantaged by having an interface that requires you to look left for health, bottom left for points, bottom right for skill recharge and then, centre to avoid the shit that will get thrown at you. This is not an easy role in TSW, made harder by the amount of points you have to spend and how crippling it can be to soloing.

Further to that, be prepared to be told your shit. It will happen, many times. TSW forces your playstyle to change drastically. Be prepared if something fails, your Tank says your the worst Healer hes ever saw. Tell him to Ram it, go away, and rethink your tactics. Theres nothing that abit of research, number crunching and time cant fix. Ive done it twice already and I expect ill do it again. But after all that, if your new tactic works, everyone will utterly love you!


Points:

Your standard group as ive seen it requires 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 3 DPS. Imo Ranged DPS are better as they can keep out of the way of boss damage. But they're a pain to heal when you switch to AE Heal/Shield later on. Imo the most important things to your groups success is the Healer and the Tank. You are the Healer so square yourself away and make sure your on it. As for the Tank, he needs to have a good amount of HP to buffer damage, ussually double everyone else, he needs to have both Single Target and Area Taunts. Without it your group will crash and burn. The rest, obviously DPS helps but it will inevitably come with good players. But having switched on players that avoid AE damage and react quickly will help your healing. If a player isnt avoiding damage, your well within your rights to kick off about it, as hes making your job harder. In the best groups I've been in, I very rarely have to heal anyone but the Tank. IMO thats how it should be.

Equipment:

Ive found it to be far more beneficial to rely on equipment with one stat purely, E.g. Heal or Health. I will have one or two pieces with pure health and the rest pure heal, as this seems to give the biggest stat benefit. I try to keep my kit as 4/5 pieces Heal stats and 1/2 pieces health stats. This provides enough of a heal boost to provide effective healing and enough health to keep alive. Further to that, make sure you have a second set for DPS so you can solo. This can throw difficulty in instance as you essentially need everything. I tend to roll 'need' on most heal items, any health items the tank doesnt require need I roll 'need'. Same goes to DPS. Build a stockpile of Health and Heal items, so you can switch out item slots to find what kit works best. But be careful what you roll for, as your group will quickly catch on and you'll get booted. Diplomacy is good tact here.

Also note, equipment has a great deal of an effect upon your character, if you havent equipped healing gear, dont expect to be able to heal. Invest in it.

Ive split it down in levelling groups, ive not included DPS skills, those are down to yourself. Heres what I recommend to be able to heal the relevant instances, if it doesnt work, let me know, otherwise, invest in some of the skills in the build below:

Polaris - Kingsmouth - 45 AP

Actives:

Nurture (HoT)

Surgical Steel (DH/HoT)

Blood Shield (DH/Shield)

Angelic Aegis (DH/HoT)

Pack Leader (Buff)

Passives:

Nururing Gift

Rapid Shield

Angelic Touch

Alpha Wolf

Out of the Woods (27.5% heal boost)

Playstyle:

Blood Magic is all about preventative Healing. Use shields to prevent damage. At start of fight spam Blood Shield & Angelic Aegis on Tank to provide buffer health. This will keep 10 seconds of Out of the Woods (heal buff) running. As soon as tank health drops below 80% start spamming Nurture and Surgical Steel. This should provide enough heals to keep the tank up. Also use Pack Leader during boss fights to help boost DPS.

Inferno - Savage Coast - 123 AP

Actives:

Cauterize (DH/HoT)

Surgical Steel (DH/HoT)

Empathy (DH)

Blood Shield (Shield)

Hematic Rites (AE Shield)

Pack Leader (Buff)

Passives:

Hot Iron

Rapid Shield

Alpha Wolf

Out of the Woods (27.5% heal boost)

Playstyle:

This is where you start to change your healing/shield from single target to AE. Again using preventative Healing. At start of the fight spam the Tank with 2 Shields, then hit Hematic Rites. This will boost your entire group protective AE Shield. You can hit two shields and the AE shield every 3 seconds. Providing healing to your tank and protection for your entire party. If your Tanks health starts to drop below 80% stop shielding and switch to your Feral Heals. Cauterize is a more powerful version of Nurture, also provides some nice benefits later on with passives. Spam this five times then hit Surgical shield. I also swear by Empathy, a timed skill that heals the same if not more as Surgical Steel. You can throw that on the Tank or other team members that happen to get in the way. Point to note, always keep your feral points at max during and before a fight. It gives you two direct heals that can be popped at any time if the situation gets bad. Once again pop Pack Leader to boost DPS.

Darkness War - Blue Mountain - 312 AP

Actives:

Cauterize (DH/HoT)

Surgical Steel (DH/HoT)

Empathy (DH)

Linked Veins (AE Heal/Shield

Hematic Rites (AE Shield)

Pack Leader (Buff)

Passives:

Hot Iron

Healing Sparks

Vessel Walls

Alpha Wolf

Out of the Woods (27.5% heal boost)

Subtlety (anti aggro)
Splatter (+2 to chain)

Playstyles:

This next phase you're switching your shielding to pure AE shields. Using Linked Veins, you build one Blood point each cast, with Vessell Walls and Splatter it spreads to up to 5 party members within 5 meters. Providing a heal and a small shield. After two hits of Linked Veins, throw up Hematic Rites to provide a bigger shield buff. this can be cast every 3-4 seconds providing a huge shield boost and a moderate heal to your tank and nearby party members. I keep this running even when my partys health is full, as you dont know when your going to get an AE, or a huge amount of damage, additionally it keeps out of the woods running. This is Blood Magics prevenative healing to the max. If other party members start taking damage, throw down Empathy or Surgical Steel, remembering to recharge points with Cauterize afterwards. Once again, if your group gets below 80%, Spam Cauterize, Empathy and Surgical Steel until back to full health, once full continue Shielding. You will need subtlety to help the tank out  Dont forget to throw in Pack Leader Buffs!

This is where im at now, ill keep updating as I go. If you disagree, think its shit. Let me know ingame, happy to hear other builds. But constructive critique please.

Skills im heading towards

Fired up (AE Heal)

Empowered (HoT Crit DH)

Chain Feed (+7.5% to chains)

Happy Healing!