HI all,
Just sharing my take on a variant of the "Kailadan's Stratobard" build that can be found in the class guide forums on the official Rift site. The link to the original thread is here. All of the credit for this build should go to Kailadan and those that participated in that thread, as the have come up with an effective build.
My tweaked build is found here, and is based on some of the later posts in that thread. I removed the points from street performer and stage presence and placed them in deafening music for a small dps boost. Ultimately this is a 36/40 tactitian/bard spec. It includes all of the great bard buffs and mob debuffs, while providing the superior healing for 10-man groups that tactician is capable of.
Healing comes from 4 sources:
Curative Remote functions a great deal like a chloromancer's radiant spores, healing for set amount each time a raid member hits the mob that has the remote on it.
Curative Core is a "focus" or "totem" that is placed on the ground and heals anyone within its rather large radius for a set amount of health per second.
Restorative Engine + Empyrean Bolt is the primary source of healing and heals everyone in the raid each time that Empyrean Bolt is used.
Curative Blast is a healing finisher found in the tactician line that heals for a good amount of health on up to 10 people.
Note: Do not use cadence or the bard finishers as they are limited to 5 players.
I use only one macro as follows:
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#show curative remote
suppressmacrofailures
cast curative remote
cast curative core
cast battle remote
cast empyrean bolt
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Typically before a fight I check to be sure my bard buffs are up. As the tank pulls I hit each of my motifs (3 total). I then begin using the builder macro until I have reached 5 combo points and hit my first debuff (typically coda of distress), use the builder for 5 more points and use curative blast, builder to 5 and the next debuff, etc.
builder x5>debuff>builder x5>heal>builder x5>debuff>builder x5>heal...rinse/repeat.
Usually I can build to 5 and heal, build to 5 and hit the debuff and still have about 5-6 seconds left on the motifs so that they refresh properly. If they go down, be sure to take a moment and recast them, as they greatly help the raid.
I had the opportunity to use this build in the SL 10-man against Jultharin and it managed to put out some very respectable HPS numbers, surprising myself and a few others. I don't have parses, so will refrain from throwing out numbers but this is a really potent raid healing spec.
I hope that helps anyone that might be interested in a spec like this. Just keep in mind that this build is not designed for lots of dps, soloing, etc. It is primarily to turn out big heal numbers in a raid environment and still provide bard utility/support as well.
Thanks!
Jevik.
» Edited on: 2013-01-13 22:01:50