The End of Effectiveness

So after Mike went to have dinner with his parents I joined Nirvaesh, the bossman back on Norn. It's been a while since I played a Zealot, let alone a high-tier one. It seems that, during the time I was on Azgal lots of healers have been making themselves purty. Although I didn't see the likes of Ukyo and Ultelot (the TRAITOR!) seems some other phAt healers have gotten all geared up in their Darkpromise and Warlord and Tyrant and are healing the crap out of everything that runs, chops and gets blown away.

I kept getting the feeling that I was doing something wrong, that something wasn't quite right. Part of it might have been because I'm now accustomed to having AP whenever i need it. With Drain Magic and the Master of Tranquility and Wild Healing tactics slotted, I've got all the AP I need to spam Blessing of Isha and Lambent Aura outside of the party. If someone sees me, I slap on a PB Mistress of the Marsh, hide in a bush (so that other dessies don't notice me... except for the flashy Christmas lights) and use the ever useful Walk Between Worlds so I dont get setback. It's usually enough to make any mdps give up on me. They run out of AP and I'm not dying anytime soon.

So what was I doing wrong with Ehone? I remember back in the day, before they nerfed the AOE heal radius I could get 300k+ healing in a SC easily. And that was before all the Sentinel gear. Still, I stuck with my AOE/HoT build and prayed we got decent healers on other parties so I didn't have to worry so much. I decided on this mostly because my Dust of Pandemonium healed the same (or maybe slightly more) than my Elixir of Dark Blessings, going all the way up the AOE tree. But it now seems that the AP cost difference is starting to take its toll.

Of course, some scenarios are easier to test builds than others. Reikland Factory for instance (loathe) has me running around like a headless chicken between capture points merely throwing HoTs around hoping they hit something useful that'll get hit in the next 15 seconds or so. So I didn't get all the feedback I wanted from my respec into the single-target tree.

That's another thing I'm not used to. With the AM I can just spec for healing. I mean, that's what I want to do. With the Zealot, I gotta decide on what type of healing I want to focus on. I spend less points on the trees because I'm not interested in the damage abilities/tactics but my points are spread thinner. I find my brain often fritzing and I just stand there wondering if I should be spending my few remaining AP points pocketing that one WE or casting a DoP to heal a party that is only under 75% hp in total.

And then I die. Which is another thing. At rk 32 I don't just die with the AM against a WE or a Choppa. I die, but I get a few steps to prolong the inevitable. With the Zealot I see a flying WL and I don't get half a second of cast time in before I'm slain by the muddy boots of a cat breeding elf. I know Order is OP. I' playing it. But with all the wounds and toughness I've put into a rk40 Zealot you'd think that I'd be more like a piece of cheap wood and less like hot pudding.
 /endrant