Nefarit wrote:If you're willing to withstand countless abusive people telling you that you're **** even though you're above them in damage and healing, go for it. You will never get Guarded by a tank, most dps won't help you but rather just stand there and laugh as you get ganked, and you're not likely to be healed by other healers. It's not really valid because of the pure RNG of the heals post-30 (the constant aoe heal is good but once you get up there and people parry every third attack, it becomes very RNG and you overheal alot), the numbers aren't great in general. Sadly Az has put Grace on a hold (Wrath sucks, Grace would be the only valid option) which means we won't see a fix to them and DoK's in the near future, but it's so fun to play. My advise would be - make some gold, then whenever you feel like group orvr or SC's, play salvation. And whenever you want to solo farm rats for xp or run around 1v1-ing in orvr, go Grace. It's near impossible for any class to 1v1 you post-30, the pesky ones are Squig Herder, DD zealots, DoT sorcs etc. basically anything that is able to kite you with DoT's or movement casts and deal substantial damage while you can't hit them and heal. I give Grace a 9/10 for solo/farm and a 6/10 in SC/Grouped ORVR.
@OP: The above summarizes my Sac DoK experience. Game mechanics are mostly to blame, the rigidness of WAR's meta shares blame also. Meta says Guard = mDPS only, groups are 2/2/2 tank/heals/dps, and melee is supposed to assist train on the armor types from squishiest to toughest. The only place the Warrior Priest or Disciple of Khaine fit in this meta, is in the backline babysitting health bars.
On the contrary, a group could run 3/2/1 (t/h/d). Both healers have Guard, the DPS has Guard, two of the tanks are defensive, one is offensive (the offensive tank guards the ranged healer, a ranged healer is necessary for group heal, cleanse, and resurrection). In this setup, Grace/Sac can flourish. The problem is finding a guild that embraces unorthodox game play. I find this funny because if you watch certain twitch streams of RoR, you can see the 3/2/1 comp 6vX with ease.
In your case: Play what you want. I will admit that Kusheline has taken a backseat to an alt, played orthodox, but orthodoxy is both optimal and fun with that class. Backline healing with DoK/WP is optimal, it's just not fun, that's why people like us gravitate to healing in melee. I would suggest DoK over WP, simply because dual wielding = 10% Parry by default, and having two weapons will proc your covenants more often. Not having either puts Grace at a disadvantage.
Soloing scens will be painful (see the constant bitching as quoted above). RvR will also be painful because you will not be Guarded, and the same faces will get to know that you are a squishy healer in range of both melee and the enemy rdps backline. You will be focused. Another downside of note, your T3 gear is in scenarios... you'll have to deal with a lot of BS for a long time if you want to have full Duelist (if you go WP, forget playing scens at night NA time, Destro will roll you constantly). On the contrary, RvR is less shitty, but Devastator has Willpower which is useless to you. As of yet, there is no way to exchange Medallions for Emblems or vice versa... there really should be...
To not get blown up, I would suggest playing like an unguarded mDPS. You stay midline, between the tanks and healers, and jump on the assist train when a frontline target is mid-low hp. Also, people will be like, "OMG, why you focus the tank?" Use enemy tanks in your backline to heal your party. The tank won't die, but hopefully, neither will your allies, nor you as a result of being just too far for enemy rDPS to make you hate your life.
Even with Guard you are still squishy. Your DPS does not match that of an mDPS, even if you slot STR talis in everything. Going defensive helps only slightly in this regard, but not much. Kusheline has, by herself, 41% armor reduction and ~40% resists across the board. She's still squishy, even with Guard. Third downside of note, you will be parried, blocked, knocked down, knocked back, snared or rooted constantly. You cannot heal anything during any of those conditions, since your tactics to be effective in melee will nerf your actual heal spells by 40% <- this should probably be looked at, but DoK/WP makes people cry 1v1 so probably not.
Stick to your guns and tune the haters out. Tell them if they don't get off your case, you're going to spec Wrath/Torture and
really give them something to complain about. You will have to do this more than once. You are a duck, the insults are water.
Anyway, good luck.
