Bright Wizards Are Insincere

"I'll be more careful next time, hun." lied Fredek, winking to the ample breasted Warrior Priest who had just fished him out of the growing pile of corpses that littered the ground in front of the keep.

He immediately resumed his attempts of exploding the gigantic bowl of steaming oil that poured its foul contents at regular intervals and, slowly but surely, was syphoning the health of the door's assaulters. He soon realised he was hitting nothing but the bowl itself and what little of it he could chink away was being quickly restored by unseen defenders.

He grunted as he received reports that the small resistance at the postern door had been overrun. He turned his fire to the main door, mindlessly hurling the countless bouts of the same spell at it, taking almost as much from his own life as from the sturdy wooden gate.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on his ankle and, as he fell on his face, he noticed the Chosen laying on the ground with his teeth clenched to his leg, blood quickly soaking the surrounding robes, its red suddenly enriched by his own vital fluids.

As he lay dying, Parsley said something he didn't understand.

Knights Stand for Honesty

Tebas stood nose to wood in front of the massive door, splinters striking his cheeks as fireballs, arrows and the occasional ram hacked away at the sturdy gate.

"Stand firm, men! Hold the line," he yelled, while equally brave men, elves and dwarfs toppled over around him, dead, at least for the moment.

He held strong to his shield as he felt his life draining and then quickly refreshed in overwhelming waves of blessings and curses from varied gods. He could hear battle howls from Greenskins and Chaos warped men and women from the other side of the door as they toiled away, relentlessly building up the defenses that were sure to destroy his efforts.

"Door is almost down," he reported, trying to hold up the morale of his companions, knowing they would owe what little victories they could muster to the dumping of their combined sheer force of will at a critical moment.

In a moment, the door collapsed and his nose greeted the black gleaming horned helm of a warrior. In his eyes he detected the grin of one who is sure of his victory but Tebas wasn't going down without a fight.

"Into them!" Bright light flared  from his forces as they pushed forward into the wall of dark armour that barred their way. He focused his hacking on the grining warrior and, after a salve of arrows and fiery explosions hit him, he struck the final blow, cuttind him down just seconds before a ray of green light struck his chest, ending this chapter of Tebas' life.

DPS Zealot, The Double-Edged Dagger

I've done some serious testing, even FRAPSed it (although chances of it becoming an actual posted video are close to none as I don't have much free time on my hands to devote to learn how to make a presentable thingy).

I was surprised, impressed even, at the Zealot's ability to deal real damage and real kills, despite most of them being stolen. In the same exact specc, changing only my tactics and toggling on/off the Harbinger, I was healing the same as usual, which was very good.

Bear in mind we're talking about a rr70 Zealot in good gear so results may difer.

So, what I did was:

Tactics: Divine Fury (yes, I ended up using it after all cuz, frankly, I don't need to switch back to healing when in a premade with (an)other good healer(s)); Chager's Touch (the heal debuff is as sweet as I expected); Waves of Chaos, Scourged Warping.

I had to turn on Duff timer, which I don't usually use with my healer, so I could have some visual input of when Scourged Warping ticked and to check the efficiency of Changer's Touch.

I am pleased.
I would recomend all you Zealots started switching to DPS as well, if the battle is going in your favor.

You Can Take The Postern Door If It's Raining Or It's Cold

As the group approached the keep, the familiar cries of the horrors of war reached their ears and they shared a colective grin as they decided upon their strategy.

The softer ones would head for the postern, avoiding a possibly dangerous confrontation at the front gate as Parsley would move in on the unsuspecting backlines to stagger them and help the current defenders get a better foothold.

After they parted, Parsley dismounted and did the best he could to protect himself from retaliation so he could get as close to the keep's walls as he could.

But then something caught his eye. Something orange and red and hot all over.

"Fredek..." he grunted between clenched teeth and, as his grip around the hilt of his sword tightened, he discarded the plan he had agreed upon and moved in for the kill.

The memory of all their previous confrontations flooded his mind and warped his vision and all he saw now, as he removed his helm, was red. Fredek was being his usual casual self, disregarding his safety for the sake of high burst damage and Parsley timed his charge just right so he would reach him when he was at his most vulnerable.

But he was spotted as he walked up the hill, a lone Shadow Warrior beggining to shower him relentlesly with her poisonous arrows. Parsley lurched forward, his speed incredibly reduced, and dodged as much of the arrows as he could. Fredek was still blissfully unaware of his presence as he got within striking range of him but the archer's assault was unrelenting and Parsley fell to his knees.

With his last flicker of strength, he reached for the Wizard's leg and bit down hard on his ankle, feeling the flesh tear between his teeth like veal.

Fredek looked down in horror as poison rushed from the wound to the rest of his body and the last speck of his vitality was drained. He fell down, face first and, as he saw the life go out of his eyes, Parsley growled with his own last breath:

"Touch of Parsley, bitch!"

It's a Light and Tumble Journey From The Outter Wall To The Keep

Thyme rode after Rose as they prepared to step through the first postern. They had left Parsley behind, although Thyme wasn't completely sure this plan was bound to succeed. Parsley seemed to have a tendency to lose track of what he was doing and... overextend, the knowledge of having two healers as support making him feel god-like.

They got through the first door unopposed and gathered up with some fellow comrades that had just made short work of a couple of foes. They all waited for them to collect their mounts, fully aware of the strength numbers provided, especially with them being without their favorite meat-shield.

As they approached the final door, they saw a couple of dwarfs anxiously looking around and griping their arms with shaken resolve.

"Oh," whispered Mary as she dismounted. "It's on." Thyme watched as her figure became ever more transparent and flickered until all he could see of her fine frame was its outline. Following her lead, a couple more of her sisters performed their own disappearing acts and the rest of the group charged in on their horses to create the distraction.

The Ironbreaker looked as stout as any rock Thyme had ever seen but his fellow Engineer's shakiness completely robbed the duo of any menacing look they might have possessed. Apparently resigned to go out in a blaze of glory against overwhelming odds, the Ironbreaker led out a terrifying howl that stunned everyone in front of him. Thyme sidestepped just in time as to not be affected by it and began trying to soften him up a bit as he saw the covenant of Witch Elves close in on the softer target.

The Engineer's rifle shot repeatedly in desperate blasts, causing but a little annoyance to the group's ears and he yelled in panic as a group of tall, pale women suddenly leapt at him with pointy knifes raised above their perfect heads.

The Ironbreaker turned just in time to see his Oath friend gush out the last remnant of his life and yelled a curse at the beautiful elves that now started to move in on him. Thyme continued his rotation of softening as Rose refreshed the witches and Sage bombarded the dwarf with shattered shadows.

Mary had waited for just the right opportunity to reveal herself and, as she did, she cut the life out of the valiant dwarf with a single, swift blow, much to the grumbling of her sister witches.

They all rushed inside and Thyme reached the front wall to find the assaulters unstaggered and Parsley's seemingly dead body laying next to one who he indentified as Fredek, a notorious flame-wielding Wizard.

As he slowly raised his staff to restore Parsley up next to him, he heard the Chosen babble something at the Bright Wizard's dead body.

He rolled his eyes at the grinning Parsley, once he was back up, and added in the shriekiest voice he had ever uttered: "I'm not rezzing you again!"

Something Tells Me It's All Happening At The Keep

Parsley wiped the green ooze from his helmet and then looked around for something to wipe his gauntlet to. Sensing his intentions, Thyme quickly retreated out of his line of sight.
"Well, what now?" asked Rose, sporting her new Carcass Guard and overhealing the group to test out her new abilities.
"I would suggest getting out of these sewers first," Sage chimed in, sounding overly calm for one covered in slime and nurgling bits.
Mary appeared from behind a rock that hadn't been there a minute ago and unfurled a scroll she produced from... somewhere. "Says here one of our keeps is being attacked in Reikland. Might be worth taking a look." Her eyes glinted at the prospect of a few real kills, against opponents with real talent, something far from the mindless charging of the dirty beasts she had spent the better part of the hour cutting down.
"Yes... Sounds good," nodded Parsley, eager to try out a new skill of his own device. His companions rolled their eyes until they turned white.

The Healer's Hassle

That's my title, that is.
I've been trying something different, not necessarily good, but I've quite ejoyed it.

Long overdue, I've been trying to DPS more often, taking advantage of my new found intteligence softcap (sitting at 1070 with the Int buff an the Harbringer set to offensive). The result has been... satisfying and I've found myself trying to raise alternative healers for my scenario parties so I can DPS. I've taken revenge on WHs and WLs alike, closing in the gap in my Dammaz Kron. Oh yeah, I dinged 70. Also, long overdue.

But let's continue our DPS Zealot musings.

With my new found renown rank came a new mastery point which I spent to buy Chaotic Agitation. It is actually quite a good spell and I'll tell you more about its potential shortly.

I could feal the evil glares as other players started noticing the Scourge coming from my focus so I tried to not switch to DPS tactics very often, remaining in healer-friendly tactics and only turning on the harbringer once in a while.

But I've been thinking of completely rehauling my specc to slot in some new goodies and possibly make my Zealot a true force to be reckoned with while DPSing.

My DPS friendly-tactics have been Waves of Chaos (rituals pulse with damage), Divine Fury (25% more damage but 20% less healing; that or the other way around), Something-Or-Other (20%? chance to proc an absorb shield of 700~? on being hit) and Scourged Warping (each tick of Warp Reality - the DoT - has a chance of making the next Scourge cast in 10 seconds to be insta cast). All well and good but I'm not happy with Divine Fury. The extra damage is good but the healing gimp is noticeable when I have to turn off my Harbringer to save myself (and, possibly others) from certain death.

So I've been looking at other tactics to buy to slot in instead of it. I could go for Manipulation, to keep damaging while I turn back to healing. But there's too many 25%s in tthat equation, making its damage output quite gimped.

Chaotic Force wouldn't be half bad either, considering I mainly cast Tzeentch's Cry and Scourge while Chaotic Agitation cools down. But taking up a tactic slot for just two abilities seems a bit of a waste.

But what really caught my eye was Changer's Touch. Chaotic Agitation crits nicely, even though my crit is subpar (sitting at around 16%). But Chaotic Agitation has some very nice points going for it: the hits are close together; if the target goes out of range (oh, say, to the backline next to his juicy healers) it keeps on hitting, wether I lose LoS or just range; my AP ritual makes its AP cost almost null. Now, from the recently discovered usefulness of the Shadow Warrior's heal debuff (yes, only now have I started seeing Shadow Warrior's actually use it on a regular basis) I can assert that a 50% heal debuff is not to be taken lightly, especially if u can AoE it. 2k heals will only heal 1k and previously useful HoTs of 500~will be cut down to 250ish. Not terribad, in my opinion.

I'm left to wonder if it stacks with Windblock, but I'd need some help in testing it out.

I'm also thinking of scraping up an extra point to buy Boon of Tzeentch, if its axis problems have been fixed (I've heard nothing to confirm this), mainly to improve my own survivability against those pesky pouncers and stealthers.

I also wonder if anyone out there has tried these things out and can shed some light on the subject. My bloodthirst would greatly apreciate it.