Return of Reckoning

So I have done quite a bit of DoK in my time here and I've seen the class evolve a lot. I never was able to play on live but I did my best to watch every live video I could. I realize that the class itself was made to be this front line (sort of) healer hence why it's AOE's don't necessarily have HUGE ranges, and why it also has a life tap heal. But as Melee is my favorite spec I thought I may be able to incorporate this into a build and I'd tried it on WP several times and on DoK several times but maybe I needed to learn how to do both backline and melee well enough that this set up made sense? Regardless here is the build and I'll explain how I have been playing it.

waronlinebuilder.org - Disciple of Khaine build

Tactics:
The three tactics I have slotted are the "bread and butter" i normally run as our role as a cleanser is a very important one in m eyes. Keeping casters on their toes a little bit so they don't get too lazy with boiling bloods by constantly cleansing everything I possibly can. I chose to slot empowered transfer as I've seen a few heal doks have it before for fun but I don't believe any of them realized how "onto something" they were. The fourth tactic is really up to you. I sometimes run Discipline, and sometimes run bound by blood.. really can't find what I like the most there as is the curse of having tactics that used to be too good and now are just there to fill space.

Playstyle
So here is where it is going to get a little trickier to explain this but basically you want to have the mind of a melee healer who just had his primary healer die and is about to be rez'd so your trying all you can do to keep everyone alive. For instance, backline healing is fairly simple. You keep your AOE HoT on as many people as you can, if it a fairly settled front line you also put your single target HoT on the DD's. You save your shield for Oh **** moments, and also for when you need to use blood offering. This is all very similar to regular backline healing.

But that moment when your front line starts to get in trouble, or you might get a WL over on you and your gut will say detaunt, but this is where it gets different. Rather than detaunt the WL you start Transfer Essence on him. Now the rotation is pretty simple. Khaine's is a 5 second CD, Your AOE HoT is 10, and your AOE heal is instant. Normally you double AOE heal essence lash double aoe heal essence and repeat. But our heals aren't what they used to be and cleanse wasn't a part of that. So with this setup you keep your AOE hot on, if they are close, essence lash sure. But between AOE hots your job is different.

1 - AOE HOT
2 - Transfer Essence
3 - Transfer Essence
4. Cleanse
5 - Transfer/AOE HEAL (to proc shield if it is out and Bound by Blood if you're low on hp)
7 - Transfer
8 - Transfer
9 - Cleanse/AOE HoT depending on your speed/timing of how this is going

- Start all over again - This rotation allows the silence to have less of an effect on you, and if you are getting hit your AOE "spam heal" can take longer to get off and transfer is just instant. Sure you can get KD'd but that is the same for both this version and the traditional backline spec, but this combination allows you to deal with heal debuffs better as your transfer is not going to be affected.

Gear Setup
Obviously you put armor in your tali slots on gear. For weapons I prefer willpower or wounds - but armor also works. Two rings you must have are Torment and Strife for 4% parry and 2% Parry Strikethrough. The cloak you need is the Ravak's from T3 Dwarf with 20 wounds and 2% parry 2% Parry strikethrough. You will use an armor pot and an str pot to help with the innate WS parry because lets be real it doesn't do much but you don't want to be parried more than have you to be. I prefer the wordbreaker for the corp resist, and then I also use the genesis 2% dodge Disrupt ring as my 4th.

Renown
Here is where the most debate is going to come in but personally I run 2 in CW, 1 in RD, and then I mix in 1-2 heal crit and the rest in Disrupt, possibly one in Parry. I'm sure there is a better setup, but I've really fallen in love with R2 Cleansing Winds + M2 as two very very good "oh sh**" buttons.

- Overall I have been able to heal like l used to back in T3 more so than I have not been able to in SC's/RvR. If it is a game where you entirely end up in the back free casting. your heals will not not be far from where they currently are but yes they will be slightly decreased. Where I've seen this shine is when you are working on kiting as the dok has no kite/run heals. So you can use this to get some fairly decent AOE heals off in addition to your hots. It also helps a lot in engagements in SC's when a Tank/DD sort of break through a bit as you get one very nice tool to keep the heals coming and building a lot of SE in the process to always have it up for cleanse, and AOE Heals when you really need them/your bubble is not proc'd.

Currently trying to implement using the 20% more direct healing on defensive target with a crit has failed but in its current state it would take skill that I really don't have to swap Defensive targets that rapidly while managing everything else. I've noticed WAY more melee DoK's because I think they are getting bored of their sit back and have sub par heal - specs.. So this is what I've been running the last few weeks. I'm not the first healer to do it, but I believe I'm one of the first to do it with a semi hybrid mindset. Keep in mind you are also in range now to get off your shatter enchantments, if your DD's pull out after someone or a WE pops she'll have your snare cov on her b/c you aren't super far back. And it honestly surprises some people because it adds another level of "I'm not going down that easy"

I will continue to keep working on it but honestly it has been a lot of dang fun and I hope to keep improving on the spec. If you guys have any questions or comments please them below and we'll work to sorting this out as I really do think just a few more tweaks and this could have DoK's back on as a good healer.

Thanks and I hope you guys have fun with it

- Convert

Tested some more?

I ran a similar playstyle while leveling T1-T3 i really really had a blast.
Problem was when there was to much range vs range trade and passive playing.
But in the scenarios when melees actually fought head to head i dont thing alot of ppl noticed i was a melee "healer"

Atm i just entered T4 and its not doable at all, i get one shotted. What i found out so far is that you have to be very tanky in the frontline.

The spec is one of the most fun specs iv done. Your in the heat and do damage and healing

Atm im in heal spec beacuse my gear dont allow me to run this at all, req very good gear.
But as soon i have the gear i will go back to something like this, just love the playstyle of it

I agree that this setup would be very difficult for a newly-minted t4 DoK. I think once you're 40 (or closer to it anyway) and have a mix of anni and ruin you could revisit this build with much more success.

Its simular to how I like playing it aswell. The problem is that DoK survival got nerfed into oblivion and the ICD on procs is VERY problematic for the life tap procs wich helps alot when you get CC'd wich happens ALL the time due to the class's weakness of having to be closer to the frontline.

Its funny how the idea was to make DoK more of a melee healer, but the RoR nerfing of it's self sustainabillity actually made it even less of a melee class as now you're forced to play it even more as a pure gimped backliner against competative opposition due to the loss of survivabilliy.

Something needs to be done tbh. The changes make 0 sence.

Any updates to this experiment? I was just considering trying something very similar

(http://www.ror.builders/career/disciple ... ,4979,5002)

because, honestly, I tried the usual cookie-cutter backline heal spec and it felt terrible. Constantly running out of Essence was the main issue.

Penril wrote:Any updates to this experiment? I was just considering trying something very similar

(http://www.ror.builders/career/disciple ... ,4979,5002)

because, honestly, I tried the usual cookie-cutter backline heal spec and it felt terrible. Constantly running out of Essence was the main issue.

Slot Fueled actions and use Essence lash on cd. What makes DoK feel competitive at all for me is positioning in a way that I get hit by abilities now and then to restore essence but can still back away from morales.

As for the build itself, you would gimp your group by running Empowered transfer over Bloodthirst. And honsestly, if you are good enough to play the class properly and take advantage of Fueled actions the whole playstyle suggested here becomes nothing more than a hazzle. If you party is in real danger the heals from TE won't keep em up in warband play, and if you have the time to use it your party don't actually need the miniscule heal it provides.

Edit: Actually clicked your build to check, good on you for using Fueled actions already. Just one thing to point out is that Terrifying aura won't work with a chalice, are you actually playing dual wield and melee-healing?

Transfer Essence is just a filler like I stated. Obviously in those "Clench" moments - you just spam essence lash, and then 2 aoe heals, essence lash 2 aoe heals and hit shield if it is off cooldown.

But it is an extra 400-500 ish AOE heals. It builds mechanic for those moderate heal moments. not to mention I believe transfer essence is actually faster than the GCD. So it isn't that bad of a move. I promise other than the 1200 willpower max heal crit spec I did for purely backline healing.. this spec will poop out more heals than any other spec in the game for DoK.

Lets face it, DoK's can't heal as well as any other healer in the game. We have the least and I mean LEAST amount of healing per second. We have essentially no burst heal at all. Our strength is in durability. If you are silenced... you can still TE and that tactic is actually REALLY nice for a bit more umph. I do love fueled actions as well but bloodthirst is super lackluster. On my melee DoK bloodthirst was a 5%-7% increase in total damage. that was with and w/out potent cov's proccing it literally as fast as possible. The ICD made that tactic pretty much useless since one target can only get 1 proc on it per GCD.. 99% sure 1 target, if hit by 5 people only gets 1 proc of that on it. FOR SURE you can only proc it once, on one target with AOE - further making any covenant tactic essentially useless. I tried to fight for them to be changed, but they are still gauged as "too strong"

Swear I am the only one that tests anything rather than "It feels better" /s /s /s

But seriously, covenants are useless now. Just run the CoC for snare. ICD wouldn't be that bad, except you can't proc them on AOE's, and one target can't get hit with more than one cov unless you have 2 dok's and still, it wil only get hit with each cov, 1 time per GCD regardless of how many people are hitting it.

freshour wrote:Transfer Essence is just a filler like I stated. Obviously in those "Clench" moments - you just spam essence lash, and then 2 aoe heals, essence lash 2 aoe heals and hit shield if it is off cooldown.

But it is an extra 400-500 ish AOE heals. It builds mechanic for those moderate heal moments. not to mention I believe transfer essence is actually faster than the GCD. So it isn't that bad of a move. I promise other than the 1200 willpower max heal crit spec I did for purely backline healing.. this spec will poop out more heals than any other spec in the game for DoK.

Lets face it, DoK's can't heal as well as any other healer in the game. We have the least and I mean LEAST amount of healing per second. We have essentially no burst heal at all. Our strength is in durability. If you are silenced... you can still TE and that tactic is actually REALLY nice for a bit more umph. I do love fueled actions as well but bloodthirst is super lackluster. On my melee DoK bloodthirst was a 5%-7% increase in total damage. that was with and w/out potent cov's proccing it literally as fast as possible. The ICD made that tactic pretty much useless since one target can only get 1 proc on it per GCD.. 99% sure 1 target, if hit by 5 people only gets 1 proc of that on it. FOR SURE you can only proc it once, on one target with AOE - further making any covenant tactic essentially useless. I tried to fight for them to be changed, but they are still gauged as "too strong"

Swear I am the only one that tests anything rather than "It feels better" /s /s /s

But seriously, covenants are useless now. Just run the CoC for snare. ICD wouldn't be that bad, except you can't proc them on AOE's, and one target can't get hit with more than one cov unless you have 2 dok's and still, it wil only get hit with each cov, 1 time per GCD regardless of how many people are hitting it.

Just to be clear, anything I argue is from a organized warband point of view, where a DoK can actually perform really well if you know how to play it. Obviously in a pug warband you have to work way harder and don't necessarily have the luxury of being able to spec for group utility. But in a organized warband it doesn't really matter how often or how good Bloodthirst is, it is still better than investing mastery points to make TE usable, and is a must. You should also spec restored motivations over Khaine's bounty.

As for lacking in burst heal, you have completely taken Khaine's refreshment out of the equation, and even though a lot of people think it sucks or smth, it's a great skill. Sure, you can try only using your group heal in clutch situations, but it's just not gonna cut it. Even in huge fights with bomb vs bomb wbs you still have to actually use your singletarget heals and KR to keep people up. Trying to TE is gonna result in soooo many wasted GCDs as the only targets you will be able to hit are mpds and tanks, and avoidance WILL **** you up. Khaines refreshement not only heals at least as hard as TE, but it won't be parried or blocked and helps your out of party healing a lot. Now of course, if your group is only taking fluff TE might be viable to use in some cases, but speccing for it just won't give good results compared to a more "normal" spec in the hands of a good DoK. As for being silenced, RD is usually specced for, and depending on playstyle you probably won't be hit by aoe cc aimed at your backline anyways.

But hell, all in all people should play the way they feel works, but in any kind of organized play a build like this will just gimp you and your group.

You argue from a wb vs wb point of view. Others here might spec for different situations.

lefze wrote:

Penril wrote:Any updates to this experiment? I was just considering trying something very similar

(http://www.ror.builders/career/disciple ... ,4979,5002)

because, honestly, I tried the usual cookie-cutter backline heal spec and it felt terrible. Constantly running out of Essence was the main issue.

Slot Fueled actions and use Essence lash on cd. What makes DoK feel competitive at all for me is positioning in a way that I get hit by abilities now and then to restore essence but can still back away from morales.

As for the build itself, you would gimp your group by running Empowered transfer over Bloodthirst. And honsestly, if you are good enough to play the class properly and take advantage of Fueled actions the whole playstyle suggested here becomes nothing more than a hazzle. If you party is in real danger the heals from TE won't keep em up in warband play, and if you have the time to use it your party don't actually need the miniscule heal it provides.

Edit: Actually clicked your build to check, good on you for using Fueled actions already. Just one thing to point out is that Terrifying aura won't work with a chalice, are you actually playing dual wield and melee-healing?

Correct. The idea is to face tank with AoE detaunt, regaining Essence when hit (Fueled Actions), and healing with skills from the left tree. Think cookie-cutter backline heal Dok.

You are not meant to heal with TE/Empowered Transfer. But it can be better than Lash sometimes. Say you got punted and only have one target in range. You can spam TE on that target until you have enough essence to continue casting as usual.

I haven't tried this yet I admit; it is only theorycrafting. I only posted because OP's playstyle seemed very similar, so I wanted to hear you guys out and see if it is viable or not. Also, I am talking about SCs and not RvR.