[AM] Hybrid Guide

[BluIzLucky]

Hi all,

It's often said you can't do hybrid (healing+DD), and to some extent that's true, in very competitive content (organized city and ranked) you either sacrifice too much survivability or dmg for it to make sense, but PvE (if the team is decent) and especially in ORvR and forts (and PUG/dominating city) it can be very fun and hectic.

I recommend first going through [AM] Heal Guide and How AM and Shaman for fundamentals.


Hybrid AM Guide
This build is awesome, you have a lot of punch in both heal and damage department, it is a little lackluster on taking hits, but for most content simply switching to wounds focused gear is enough.

And it offers a lot of flexibility around it's core set of abilities based on tactics..
> Did your WB/SC/party lose a healer or just need more heals? switch tactics and focus healing
> Did your WB/SC/party lose a DPS or is taking little damage? switch tactics and focus DPS
> Somewhere in between? best of both worlds, go full hybrid and take advantage of the AM Mechanic.
> Seeing a straggler running away? DoT them up and blast them with Searing Touch.
> No dedicated rezzer? 1.6 sec rezzes

Broadly speaking, you'll want to start engagements by pre-hotting at least 5 times, then DE followed either by EoV to close gap for SoC or SoC followed by EoV. These 3 abilities will be your bread and butter to use on cooldown, landing them well and timely will make a big difference.
At this point, it's pretty standard healing, if the fight is in your favour (no/low healing needed), focus on killing otherwise focus on landing big EoV and quick resses until DE and SoC are back up.

With WW you can opt to get 5 tranq stacks and then spam EoV, but would only do so if SM is always using WW on cooldown.

If pulled of correctly you can get a 10-30% heal boost over a Willpower AM, with EoV being 1-2x stronger, while doing 20-50% the dmg of a DPS with good DBs and using more utility than normal.
If done wrong, your heals will go down and you'll have the highest death count and barely do any dmg...
Is it worth adding strict requirement to use mechanic (with need to plan new rotations constantly as things change)
And now have to worry about choosing the right offensive targets, and assisting MA and joining morale bombs..
All while being way squishier, so positioning and detaunting also matter way more..


Builds
Lifetap/DPS focused - Sov+2 0-13-13
This is the build I run 90% of the time nowadays.
1 mastery point and tactic slot is left open, use it to pick up the proper tactic/ability for the content (see Tactics section below).


Alternative Builds

Spoiler:

EoV/Utility focused - 9-0-13
This build is all about maximizing EoV output, and getting enough int so that with mechanic TF and BE are not a wasted GCD.
EoV is your primary heal and should do +60-80% of your total heal, you'll want to use it on cd and with Tranq point, this means casting 2-3 spells and then back to EoV, e.g. 1 heal with either TF, SOC, LoG, BE and then 1 heal or 1 heal with 1-2 utility spells. Casting just 1 utility spell with BoI/group heal or res is fine as it gives only a small window before EoV and will get you AP tick, saving you from potting later.

Sov+2 version with FE
This build is a mirror of the standard +6p main sov heal build, except using Warlord (see gear) for Int instead of Willpower and picking up SoC, your damage will be a lot lower than the main build but EoV will remain strong and you will gain a lot of ST healing power as well as the slow puddle.

Sov+2 - Fort M4 Bomb w EoV - 0-15-13
EoV can be insanely impactful in forts, but going DPS for the SoC>DE>FoP combo is sometimes too fun to give up.
This build is a compromise, so you won't have to feel bad for not healing
You can now instead go EoV>DE>FoP>EoV.
As EoV and the M4 (FoP) don't benefit from magic crit and DF, I suggest going with gear and spec of the EoV/Utility focused - 9-0-13 build.

Tactics
The graph shows standard tactic layouts depending on content.


Tactic detailed explanations:

Spoiler:

Master Of Force: 10% chance to crit (counting both heal and damage) makes this the ultimate hybrid boost combined with the 7p Warlord proc. It's the core tactic to all variations.

Discerning Offense: 10% block/disrupt strike-through, not always needed with 6-15% from gear and 20% from EoV/TF, but will make you hit 95-100% of the time, run it in ORvR and Forts.

Arching Power: will sit around 4-6% of your total heal, also not a bad buffer against heal debuffs.

Radiant Burst: to add more AoE dmg/lifetap and good filler while other stuff is on cooldown. Also opens 5 tranq + Focus Mind for sustained AoE burst.

Magic Dispel: adds passive damage when removing Blessings from DoK and Zealot, decent utility, won't add much direct damage.

Khaine's Touch: Pick this if you want option to switch to full ST DPS, particularly in SC, roam or solo.

Penetration Syphon: since you are going full int/magic crit, EoV can now heal 2x on a heal debuffed target compared to standard AM build.. But.. It is not a great trade and BE has this on by default as a nerf, should tell you all you need.

Desperation: Great tactic for switching to heal focus, as EoV will hit up to 24 friendly targets, some on them will likely benefit from the 40% heal buff. Gets even better with the build variants picking up Magical Infusion.

Master of Tranquility: 10% heal crit, works with EoV and the rest, better than Discipline.

Restorative Burst: while the mechanic discount does a lot, if you need to spam heals and mess up, you'll run out of AP quickly, RB reduces AP management a lot which is nice in an already busy spec.

Run Between Worlds: Run this in City or SC. You are squishy, this helps, a lot.

Transfer Magic: If you ever run in an organized warband, that either want more cover debuffs (beyond the 3 you already got) or AP drain, this is great. Can also replace RB if you manage to hit more than 2 targets consistently.

Bolstering Boon: your heal crit will sit between 20-34% so will still proc a decent amount.

Morale 1
Isha's Ward: Very strong 3600 absord, makes up for a lot of the squishiness of the build, generally I run this.
Divine Favor: 1600 heal, decent since you will lack strong ST heal in DPS variants not running Arching Power.
Steal Life: 900 lifesteal, very rarely, when you can go full glass cannon and want more DOTs.

Morale 2
Rampaging Siphon: if your WB comp lets/needs you to get close, this is great, otherwise very risky.
Blinding Lights: great for the utility focused builds and to add WB survivability
Focus Mind: dual function, great escape tool and to continue mechanic speed burst after using all stacks.


Abilities

Archmage Mechanic (Force/Tranquility a.k.a. stacks)
A lot of the strength of the hybrid comes from using the mechanic as close to 100% as possible, to take advantage of:
AP Costs: reduced by 40%
Instant spells: +20% stronger
Time Casted Spells: +40% faster

On heal side, this makes up for missing willpower/heal crit and on damage side, makes up for less time spend on DPS.

Energy of Vaul (EoV): is what makes the build, will do decent amount of damage and majority of your healing. Focus on MA's target or where you can hit 5 soft.

Details:
Enemy hit cap: 5
Friendly hit cap: 24
Enemy Crit: No
Friendly Crit: Heal Crit
Damage/lifesteal Scales with: Intelligence
Base Heal: ~1125
Base heal scales with: points in Vaul Mastery tree (willpower has no effect)
Total heal modifiers: same as normal heal, impacted by heal buffs and debuffs.

EoV (without Penetration Syphon tactic) counts as a heal rather than a lifetap meaning heal modifiers impacts the amount healed (heal crit, % heal (de)buffs), however there's no Willpower scaling on the 1125 base heal, leaving int and heal modifiers as your only way to increase.
Luckily the Int to heal scales 0.20-1:1 (0.2 per hit) before absorbs and mitigation, about 0.5-0.8:1 after which is in line with group heal wp:hp scaling.

Dissipating Energies (DE): this along with SoC provides about 20-30% of your damage, which considering the long cooldown is great, put on your front runner when they reach the middle of the enemy blob. Even better with Arching Power or Dispel Magic.

Storm of Cronos (SoC): provides +400 spirit debuff and has a great AoE range. Also great for ST heal with Arching Power. No gain from AM mechanic, but will add Force counter.

Scatter the Winds (StW): DoT and heal debuff, picking this up makes you a lot more deadly in 1v1 and ST DPS, and makes the build a lot more flexible.

Balance Essence (BE)/Transfer Force (TF): with lots of int, magic crit and Tranq stacks, these become a potentially potent ST heal.

For healing abilities, please see guides linked at the top.


Gear
BIS Gear: 7p Warlord + 2p Victorious (body, ring:54 magic power), 2p scholar genesis
Weapon: Bloodlord staff

Additional gear info:

Spoiler:

If more survivability is needed switch to Fortress Heal Staff and add Victorious Belt or the budget version.


Gear/Ward journey after 40
Conq/Vanq Ward:
Do dungeons GB/CT to pick up all Sentinel including the ring

Invader Ward:
Do BS until you get the weapon. At this point pick up Victorious body and belt, if Invader ward is not complete, the choice is between going back to BS for last pieces or buying missing from Victorious.
There are no bad Victorious pieces, they are all great, so if you have excess crests or don't like PvE buying these are not a bad option, and 4p is considered BIS by many for solo/ST DPS.

Sov Ward:
1. Buy every piece of Warlord, except body, in the order of pieces you don't already have Victorious for.
2. Buy Victorious Ring to complete Hybrid BIS.
3. Buy Warlord Body to complete fashion.

Note: if you plan on getting getting Invader ward completely by Bloodlord gear, you can pick up 7p Warlord before getting any Victorious to finish the budget build.

Budget Gear: 6-7p warlord, 3-2p Sentinel (helm, ring, shoulder) OR 2p Fury of the Sandstorm LotD set (cloak+ring), 2p Scholar Genesis
Weapon: Bloodlord staff, Fortress Heal Staff, SC Staff, The Sight

Talismen:
Int gear: Intelligence
WP gear: wounds

Renown:
DPS focus: int > magic crit > FS
HPS focus: heal crit > FS > int

Potions/liniments:
Tolling Bell, 100 int potion

Stat Screenshots

Spoiler:

Good city fights:


In this one there was another AM in my party so we both had WW, though he left after stage 1, at the time he had 5-10% more healing, but I had 400% more dmg (my dmg to heal ratio was 1 dmg : 3.4 heal, his was 1:13) and I had done 15 vs 2 resurrections (neither of us using Hurried Restoration):






By dmg (note some dps was low lvl or not there for the whole time):


A particularly good scenario:


Max EoV PvE Test

Had Bloodlord staff, got heal crit, 40% Desperation, 15% Focus Mending and RP 25% heal Buff against 5 mobs with 120 toughness and 400 spirit debuffs.
Still missing ranked int ring, and did not bother with 54 magic power talis, so about 200 int+power below max, also did not run Arching Power, translating to ~1-1.5k less healed than possible.

PvE Build

[Paxsanarion]

Still learning AM and play heal only for now but I enjoy your insights….and will try when I feel more competent with this class thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Pax

[facundo7777]

i open forum to ask about hybrid build and i found it xDD thanks Bro

[facundo7777]

i would like to ask what is the willpower amount to be somehow useful as healer while mostly speced into dps asuryan/vaul?

[BluIzLucky]

i would like to ask what is the willpower amount to be somehow useful as healer while mostly speced into dps asuryan/vaul?

If you use either of above builds or variations of them, don't worry about Willpower (wp), +50-80% of your healing should come from EoV (less in SC) and assuming you are running all offensive tactics, including Divine Fury with -20% healing, any scaling from wp you get will be significantly reduced.

So let's do an example.. 100 wp will increase healing spells by about 5%, but only 30% of it counts since 70% of total healing comes from EoV, TF and BE which doesn't scale with wp, then you have DF which will reduce it by a further 10-15% (half your non-EoV healing spells won't get a 20% mechanic boost or you might not use mechanic at all when e.g. pre-hotting), so a 100 wp only really nets you 1-2% total healing, this would be about the same % lifetap healing you lose from having 100 less int/magic crit and now all your dmg is less (against the reason you go up Asur in the first place).

If you go up Asur and Vaul focus on lifetap (int and magic crit), EoV is good enough to be cast without boost so you don't have to worry about mechanic, just use it to boost 1. rezzes, 2. shield, 3. other heal, you are damage dealer that supports your healers.

If you go with EoV focused build (Isha+Vaul), you can get some wp items as long as it has heal crit on it, e.g. Sent helm+Ring (6%), Invader/sov Shoulder (2%), fortress heal staff (6%), since it will still boost your overall heal enough, here you are a healer that supports your dmg dealers.

[BluIzLucky]

Updated with..

• Corrections and formatting

• Stat Screenshots

• Fort specific build with Flame of the Phoenix

[BluIzLucky]

Wanted to bump and update this again since now is a very good time to run hybrid builds to increase crest gains and try in the new rat scenario, on top of release of LotD cloak+ring set and with now Victorious ring more accessible..

• Rat SC Build + Screenshot

• Updated gear sets

• Formatting

[BluIzLucky]

A little bump now that I've gotten the Victorious ring

I've settled on 7p Warlord and 2p Victorious (body+ring w. Magic power), 2p Scholor Genesis and Bloodlord staff with 100 int pot or Tolling Bell as BIS.

This setup gives the incredible 7p Boost proc, 8AP/sec (enough to run without other AP gains) and +2 mastery points which gives the build a lot of flexibility, and gives massive contributions in fort.

With the 45% nerf to puddle and because more dmg is fun, this is now my main spec:
Lifetap/DPS focused - Sov+2 0-13-13

Originally, I put the heal debuff dot (Scatter the Winds) as optional, I now consider it core (with EoV, DE, SoC), this is because it greatly improves your solo and kill potential, which means you can run this spec in all types of content and just switch tactics to improve certain aspects.

That leaves 1 mastery point, which I generally spend on Arching Power, but would rather give it up that StW.

One last finding is that Master of Force gives critical hit rate stacking with the Boost proc making it the only must have tactic for this build.

[Tugnut]

What Tally's are you utilizing in the gear?

[BluIzLucky]

For BIS and generally 7x Int + 1x Wnd + 54 Magic Power.
For any willpower gear use wounds and heal crit (e.g. 2p Sent (helm+ring) + 7p Warlord) would be 6x Int + 2x Wnd + 4% heal crit.

But you can trade a couple int talis for wounds after you reach 900 int, if you are struggling with positioning.