EternalBrown's Comprehensive Chloromancer Guide

Note: Get ready to change your links (I'm reminding myself here too) since a reworked guide is in the making (and I can't make myself delete all this stuff I wrote in this guide). This guide will remain where it is -- the new guide will be posted here.

I won't be updating until SL hits.

(last edited 13 November 2012)

A minor update for 1.11

First update, I'll be moving the SL guide to a different site. I'll probably just change the link on Rift Forums and that will be that.

Second: Tank healing is kinda broke at the moment. I'm at a bit of a loss as to solutions aside from keeping Healing Torrent prepared for any time tanks take spike damage and then Natural Healing spam (unless there's raid damage). There have been few problems with tank health on Maelforge tonight and I was in LGV the entire fight -- most of the problems are due to the fact that tweaking how Toughness work is SRS BSNS.

Third: Specs are broken at the moment. I personally went with a 51 chloro/12 dom/3 pyro (for pushback reduction) and might just end up going back to a 8 pyro/7 dom spec (pushback reduction, cast time reduction, max mana/range and 2/5 Acumen) because it would help with Vile Spores spam going faster.

Fourth: Oh yeah, I was mostly spamming Vile Spores/Void Life and Nature's Touch on cooldown. Ruin to top off the fifth stack of the instacast Nature's Touch buff and Healing Torrent on the tanks. I macro'd Healing Torrent and Natural Healing for pure tank healing and otherwise focused on Vile Spores/Void Life/Nature's Touch/Ruin (for the hell of it). There really isn't (as expected) any specific "rotation" you should be using -- focus on pumping out the constant stream of heals and using your cooldowns wisely.

Worrying about 1.11 is not really something on my priority list, I've been prepping for some console games (alright, only one game in particular) and playing on alts.

/end minor 1.11 update


I doubt any major changes to this guide are forthcoming, in large part because major changes are unlikely until Storm Legion (expect a major rewrite at that point though). So until then, I'm likely going to stream GW2/ID raiding only (unless someone reminds me to do a PF stream). Stream is at twitch.tv/thebrown496.

I strongly urge you to use search functions to find what you need, as this is a long guide. Most of the basics are in sections 1-3. Specific tips related to T2 Raid encounters are in section 4. The nitpicking details are in section 5. If you catch something I missed or if I apparently can't spell, PM me (here; RIFT forums PM BrownsMageNerfDelivery). Thanks to lgw on Rift Forums, I now have made a handy "version" that is TL;DR -- the stuff that's in Bold Type is Serious Business (but not SRS BSNS!). Or it's a section title. SRS BSNS is in Pig Latin.

There does not appear to be anything major for PvE Chloro in 1.8. Withering Vines is now instant cast, it can put out some slightly helpful melee heals, but I still don't consider it worth the GCD.

Anything with Harbringer is probably going to be in a separate guide since it looks like I will probably need to rewrite portions of this guide.

A few notable mentions of people who have helped improve this guide: Fridge-RaideR (reminding me about Sacrifice Life: Damage change and the math on shielding greaters/trinkets), mo0trix (for additional guidance on the encounters portion), lgw (for posting a lock/chloro/pyro build, as I have not been experimenting with additional hybrids as of late and correcting my derps) and Angryweasel (him and a fellow guild member from XLII posted the chloro/archon build, which is quite good for 10 man raids and is the one hybrid chloro spec with an AoE cleanse -- it's a bit down from its heyday back in pre-1.3/1.4 days, but it still has its uses). These people are Serious Business and I'm thanking them here and where their contributions helped improve this guide.

Searchable Table of Contents

1.0.0 - Builds
1.0.1 - Pre-50 Healing Builds
1.0.2 - Level 50
1.0.3 - 15 spare points for 51 Chloro
1.0.4 - Miscellaneous comments on above builds

2.0.0 - General Advice
2.0.1 - The Basics
2.0.2 - General Raid Tips
2.0.3 - General Notes on Souls
2.0.4 - A Note on Low-Level Chloro Healing
2.0.5 - lgw's Lock/Chloro/Pyro build

3.0.0 - Macros

4.0.0 - Chloroing for specific encounters

4.1.0 - T1 Raids
4.1.1 - DH/GP
4.1.2 - GSB/RoS

4.2.0 - T2 Raids
4.2.1 - Murdantix
4.2.2 - Matron Zamira
4.2.3 - Sicaron
4.2.4 - Rune King Molinar/Prince Dolin
4.2.5 - Estrode
4.2.6 - Soulrender Zilas
4.2.7 - Vladmal Prime
4.2.8 - Grugonim
4.2.9 - Inquisitor Garau
4.2.10 - Inwar Darktide
4.2.11 - Akylios
4.2.12 - Ereandorn
4.2.13 - Beruhast
4.2.14 - General Silgen
4.2.15 - High Priest Arakhurn

4.3.0 - T3 Raids
4.3.1 - Warboss Drak
4.3.2 - Ituziel
4.3.3 - Ember Conclave
4.3.4 - Maklamos the Scryer
4.3.5 - Rusila Dreadblade
4.3.6 - Laethys
4.3.7 - Dragon Eggs
4.3.8 - Maelforge
4.3.9 - Grandmaster Atrophinius
4.3.10 - Swarmlord Khargroth
4.3.11 - Alltha the Reaper
4.3.12 - Faelord Twyl

5.0.0 - Min/Maxing Stuff
5.1.0 - Void Life vs. Vile Spores
5.2.0 - Chlorolock vs. Pyrochloro
5.3.1 - Where to put the remaining 15 points in a 51 chloro build
5.4.0 - Itemization
5.4.1 - Basics
5.4.2 - Proc itemization
5.5.0 - Using Karuul Alert

1.0.0 - Builds

1.0.1 - Pre-50 Healing Builds

Disclaimer: I just reworked these builds and added the Level 25 link. I have not tested these yet -- I may get bored enough to try leveling my bank alt mage to test. But the reasoning behind this is fairly solid: 6 pyro and the 10 percent extra damage is difficult to pass up. I may include a leveling guide later if and when I decide to put enough time into said mage alt (sending me some nice small batch bourbon or single malt scotch would help ;p).

Level 25: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zIRv.t.VdIhc.xb.-6

Level 30: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zIRv.t.VdIhcu.xx.-6

Level 35: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...dIhmA00o.xx.-6

Level 40: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...IhVA00RR.xx.-6

Level 45: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...IuqA0zRR.xx.-6

1.0.2 - Level 50

MT heals, no synergy crystal: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvRq.xx.EdIuqAIkRR.V

MT heals, no synergy crystal, alternative: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...uqAIkRR.x0z.-6

MT heals, HK Synergy Crystal: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...V.EdIuqAIkRR.V

MT heals, with AoE Silence: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...z.EdIuqAIkRR.m

MT heals, best heal output: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1z...uqAIkRR.x0M.-5

MT heals, competitive heals with no Archon Stacks: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...EdIuqAIkRR.x0z

MT heals, competitive heal output with Flicker: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1z....EdIuqAIkRR.-5

MT heals, with shield and infinite mana: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...c.EdIuqAIkRR.z

Current best raid heal output spec: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...EdI0zG00R.e.-6

Chlorolock: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z....EdIhcG00RR.-0
(note: best with at least T3 4pc Synergy Crystal)

Defilechloro: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...R.ee0I0VVxo.-6 (Use Warlock Crystal, someone else should apply Radiant Spores)

lgw's Defilechloro: http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#el8G45g/FkGwM/ir2

Pyrochloro: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0z...V0V.EdIhmu0zRk

Chloro/Archon hybrid: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1z...dIhMh00RR.t.-6

1.0.3 - 15 spare points for 51 chloros

11 Pyro/11 Dom/10 Archon: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zIsz.g0c0z.McVz.V0f

15 Lock/15 Archon/15 Pyro: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zIvz.e0c0u.xx0V.V0jc

15 Dom/10 Lock/11 Ele: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zsvq.Mcid.xx.Vt

Early on, the 4 or 5 points remaining for 51 chloro builds are probably best placed in either increased crit chance from Elementalist (if not already taken) or increased charge generation from Warlock. Otherwise, push the remaining 4-5 points into the 10-11 point tree and use 0 Archon.

1.0.4 - Miscellaneous comments on above builds:

30/30/6 Chloro/Lock/Pyro exploits a known bug that is being kept in game until Kervik finds a fix for Improved Mage Armor and Fire Armor that doesn't gimp mage DPS. To get the full benefit of this build, you should not move. This applies to any build with 6+ Pyro. Also, you will take more damage, but this is easily countered by endurance bonus from Raised in Nature and Searing Vitality HP.

When in doubt, use 51 Chloro/15 Pyro/0 Archon for pretty much everything except cleanse duty on Silgen (and possibly Ituziel if you are having DPS issues). You get a little more damage/healing from 8 Archon/7 Pyro, but Flicker is awesome (extra Break Free on 20 second CD and additional movement).

My pyrochloro build above is just a template to start -- tweak yours as needed. This means if you need more DPS, drop a few points from chloro and put them into pyro, though it's basically a 3x/3x type build, with 36/30, 35/31, etc. all having uses. I picked one that's had excellent utility for me (though I personally have started using a 34 chloro/32 pyro for healing expert dungeons, but that's also partially a gear issue and partially a "if I heal this as 51 chloro, I might fall asleep or go on autofollow and alt-tab out to check my mail, message a friend, etc. and tab back in to heal every once in a while).

I personally use 51 chloro/15 pyro/0 archon for most encounters. I have 51 chloro/15 dom/0 archon for any time Arresting Presence might be useful (as well as for a purge, interrupt and reflect) and a 34 chloro/32 pyro/0 archon for cleanse duty on Silgen, healing expert dungeons and soloing. Unless otherwise stated, assume I refer to 51 chloro/15 pyro for the encounter guides.

I added the Defilechloro spec because it's still a decent build even with changes to the Warlock crystal and it is RIDICULOUSLY survivable while providing better DPS.

Use hybrid builds (chlorolock/pyrochloro) for more DPS when raid healing. Due to issues with Vile Spores (explained in section 5.0.1), you can do just as much healing with a well-played 51 point build. Hybrid builds are primarily related to eking more DPS while throwing out heals.


The chloro/archon hybrid is great for 10 mans (very few people use an archon in 10 mans) and will provide beastly Vile Spores hits with Power in Numbers (4 percent extra damage and 4 percent extra healing per archon aura = 16 percent extra damage and heals (I'll have to test the actual scaling, but that will be ridiculous). Hat tip to Angryweasel on Rift Forums -- this build was definitely more powerful before the patch that introduced LBV.


2.0.0 - General Advice

2.0.1 - The Basics

• The obvious: use Lifegiving Veil for raid heals, Lifebound Veil for MT heals. If you have it, Void Life away for MT heals. Optional macros for other builds below.
• If the tank is pretty sturdy or you are confident and capable of it, you can heal experts (and a lot of T1 raids) with LGV, though it can be a bit dicey. If you have any concerns your SP isn't high enough to do so for the content, don't try it without some backup.
• Pre-50, you'll actually want to use LGV for tank heals until about level 46. And even then, due to the lack of Void Life until you hit 50, LGV will be competitive and offer solid raid heals. See section 2.0.4 for the math.
• Without HK 4pc, use Opportunity for Nature's Touch.
• I've included builds that use Opportunity. Do NOT rely on Opportunity! As it is a proc, it isn't always there when you need it and can be there when you don't.
• Generally, in 51 point builds, Void Life will be your main ability cast at least 80 percent of the time. But if you want to maximize what damage you can do, mix in Ruin, Vile Spores and Nature's Fury (Nature's Touch off CD if you have 4 piece HK). Use Void Life to fill time between Vile Spores casts to get maximum heals out of the VS cast if raid healing (from the first tick of the dot).
• Use Nature's Fury when there are at least 3 targets, preferably 4 -- this ensures you won't hurt your healing output with the AoE.
• Use Corrosion at your own risk. It's nice passive splash heals and extra damage, but it can also lead to getting cleaved a lot. I personally only use it in lower-level content to eke out a little more DPS. Don't forget that it's also a charge dump, so it's harder to maintain maximum uptime with Entropic Veil.

2.0.2 - General Raid Tips

• Useful tip: if you are raid healing in a 51 point build, SYNTH THE TANK and then switch to LGV. You can use Empathic Bond to regen mana if need be as long as someone has Synth on them. Time it well though, as it's on a 3 minute cooldown.
• Keep Radiant Spores up, especially if you have the synergy crystal bonus.
• Learn to manage your GCDs -- don't ever get caught by the GCD when you know big heals are required. This means run a timer, know when major nukes are coming out and have the GCD up to start the big heals. Part of this includes knowing what's on the GCD and what is not.
• This also means...DO NOT SPAM KEYS! Yell in voice comms as you please, but play calmly and don't spam. Spamming can lead to getting screwed by not having the GCD up to get the big heals off when needed.
• Use your charge! As you get more spell power, Entropic Veil should be your charge dump. Wild Growth's heals are only good for certain encounters where you cannot otherwise heal via DPS and veils (the LoS component of High Priest in RotP, for instance). Otherwise, Wild Growth is mostly a raid buff for DPS, ideally timed with Flaring Power.
• Ideally, you want to toggle Entropic Veil on just before your GCD is about to come back up to maximize charge used.
• If possible, learn how to maximize charge use by toggling Entropic Veil on for Void Life and toggling it off during the channel. On a shard without significant GCD lag, this becomes a nice boost in effectiveness, though like defilemancer, you will have to adjust for animation lag if you aren't doing it correctly.
• Caveat: if you know you need big heals for some parts of a fight, save your charge. Having the extra 20 percent damage and the extra heals is huge. In MT heals, save it for predictable damage spikes like Sicaron's Moldering Decay or Inquisitor Garau's Obliteration Beam when no cooldowns are up. That 20 percent scales extremely well with healing output.
• Learn to Veil swap. As mentioned above, synth the tank and then apply whatever Veil is necessary. But if you know a tank swap is upcoming, be prepared to synth a new tank or switch to Lifegiving Veil for additional raid heals.
• A note on swapping Synthesis to a new tank with cast on target of target active: since this is likely to apply to a boss fight, it may be easier to target the tank that needs Synthesis and cast through the tank's target. I have occasionally cast Synthesis on the wrong tank by relying on the enemy target, particularly if they "swap" targets to use a certain ability.
  
• CARRY HEROIC HEALING PHILTERS (AND, IF POSSIBLE, HEROIC PHILTERS OF RESTORATION)! These items provide INVALUABLE heals on the move without requiring a target to damage and can be the difference between a wipe on a progression attempt and a kill (everyone should carry a few, but healers should DEFINITELY have a stack).
• If you use Heroic Healing Philters and Heroic Philters of Restoration, use the Philters of Restoration first. Using the HHP first triggers the cooldown on the HPR; using the HPR first will NOT trigger the cooldown on HHP (weird, yes, but it's how it is).
  

2.0.3 – General Notes on Souls

• Last point on charge: Void Life currently does not benefit from the increased charge generation skill in the Warlock tree. This is a known bug, whether it will be fixed soon remains to be seen.
• If you have space for a zero point soul, use Archon. You can't argue with 40 free SP and 450 free HP.
• If you have Archon in your build, MAINTAIN YOUR STACKS! Duel someone else before a pull if you need to build them and quick heals are needed.
• If you plan on being on call for healing duty during raids, keep at least two builds: a 51 point build and a 3x/3x chlorolock or pyrochloro. If you have to have at least one, keep a 51 point build (still does good raid heals and can do MT heals), though ideally you want at least 51 and a 3x/3x. The hybrid is mostly for DPS checks.

2.0.4 - A Note on Low-Level Chloro Healing
This is to clarify why LGV is more effective until about level 45. There's a TL;DR at the end of this section for those who fear numbers.

As is, with 3/3 into Empowered Veil

LGV converts 110 percent of Life damage dealt into heals.
LBV converts 30 percent of Life damage dealt into heals.
Synthesis converts an additional 30 percent of Life damage dealt into heals for the Synthesis target.
With 3/3 into Natural Fusion, you have a "60 percent increase to the amount of bonus healing from Synthesis + LBV.

This Natural Fusion, however, is misleading, as it is actually providing 60 percent extra heals of the 60 percent heals the Synthesis target receives while LBV is active. So the actual healing benefit from this is 60 * 1.6 = 96 percent of Life damage dealt into heals for the Synthesis target. This, of course, is less than the 110 percent of Life damage converted to heals from LGV.

I am considering the bonus heal from Synthesis + Nature's Touch to be irrelevant for a few reasons:

• Nature's Touch has an awful 2.5 second cast time.
• Nature's Touch has a 6 second cooldown.
• If the tank is going to need the 100 percent extra heals from Nature's Touch + Synthesis/LBV, they will probably die by the time you get the cast off and it actually hits.

Push comes to shove, Synth the tank beforehand, switch to LGV, and then macro LBV + Nature's Touch to try to save tanks (since LBV is off-GCD.

At this point, Living Infusion comes into play -- 32 points into Chloro, adds .5 percent to LGV heals and 1.5 percent to LBV heals for each point spent in the tree over 31. This, unlike Natural Fusion, is added directly to the percentage healed.

So at level 45 (13 point bonus), LGV gets a 6.5 point bonus (116.5 percent of Life Damage converted to heals) and LBV on the Synthesis target gains an 18 point bonus (18 + 96 = 115.5).

The actual break-even is at level 46 (14 point bonus):
110 + (.5 * 14) = 117
96 + (1.5*14) = 117

What tips LBV at 50 is Void Life (no CD, channel with no travel time and bonus heal on Synthesis target).

TL;DR - use LGV until level 45 for heals. Because math works.

2.0.5 - lgw's Lock/Chloro/Pyro build

I must confess I haven't been pushing the testing envelope on hybrid builds for chloro for some time, but fortunately other Rift mages have. lgw's build is linked above (the one Magelo link)

Here is his post on the build and a basic discussion of the rotation to use.

I would encourage anyone interested in seeing a bit of the theorycraft of magery in Rift to read the forum post connected to the latter link ("pyro/chloro for ituziel?") as there's a fair amount of decent discussion going on (and the usual clever one-liners such discussions entail).



3.0.0 - Macros and "Rotations"

WHY ARE YOU USING MACROS?!

I'm kidding. But you should try to avoid macros that stack several abilities with each other because it helps manage Opportunity procs, lets you optimize when you refresh Radiant Spores or save your instant cast Nature's Touch for when you need it.

That said...

For level 30 and level 40 builds, the main spam macro is the chlorolock macro listed below. Learn to manage Nature's Touch, Ruin and Radiant Spores separately. If you put these in a macro, know that you are contributing to the the growing menace of alcohol in the vicinity of my desk.

For 51 Chloro:

#show Void Life
cast Void Life

This is a clever way of saying don't macro stuff for 51 chloro.

Assuming you have 4 piece HK, you generally want to Void Life if you are MT healing. Ruin for movement. Nature's Touch when you need a big heal (that you can anticipate) -- travel time can come into play, and a clever mage will use this to his or her advantage. Never hesitate early on to use Bloom or Essence Surge -- on progression, it's better to use the cooldown when it's not needed than to not use it and wipe. Withering Vine is probably the lowest priority to cast on movement (managing Ruin/NT to cast on the move is a better option). I usually use WV as an instant-cast filler when cleansing Silgen or something.

For the most part, like clerics, mages have a very boring job 80 percent of the time on MT heals - Void Life, Void Life, Void Life. Timing the travel on other abilities (when possible) and using your cooldown instant heals is the mark of a good, practiced chloro. Being able to adapt to handling raid damage is another key: you can switch Veils every 10 seconds, so if the tank you are healing is stable and not likely to take spikes for several seconds, switch to LGV and spot heal with instants. This takes time to get used to and will add two buttons to press (keep them out of the way though so you don't accidentally Veil swap), but these things can keep people alive long enough to kill the boss.

If you are using 51 chloro to raid heal: Radiant Spores > Void Life > Vile Spores > VL > VS > etc (one further note: this is in IDEAL circumstances -- you may find you need to use Vile Spores more for additional DPS during some phases and Void Life during others for more consistent heals). Use Nature's Touch in anticipation of spikes and refresh Radiant Spores when needed. Ruin for movement or other spikes, Flourish for quick raid burst heals. I would note that on some fights, this is not practical simply due to the constant flow of raid heals. Get a feel for the encounter before you start pushing to max heals. I'd also note that maximizing charge use by properly toggling EV on for VL and off may be better for raid heals regardless though.

When raid healing with a hybrid, you ideally want to alternate VS > something > VS. That said, when shit hits the fan, don't be afraid to just go all out with Vile Spores (there are some times where optimal heals are just not gonna cut it to keep people alive).

For the chlorolock build:

#show Vile Spores
suppressmacrofailures
cast Vile Spores
cast Withering Vine

You can insert "cast Ruin" above Vile Spores, but you ideally want to keep this out of the macro for when you need an instant cast. You can spam this macro, though technically highest HPS will come by alternating Vile Spores with another ability to allow the first tick of the DoT.

For pyrochloro, I don't have Wildfire so I'm not even worried about spreading Flame Bolts for Combust, so I use:

#show Flame Bolt
suppressmacrofailures
cast Flame Bolt
cast Vile Spores
cast Countdown
cast Withering Vine

The "#show Flame Bolt" part gives you a clever way of seeing when the cooldown on Flame Bolt is up and thus ready to be refreshed. I threw in Countdown and Withering Vine for movement at the end, but ideally you want to stand still as much as possible if using pyrochloro. And like chlorolock, you ideally want to have another cast in between Vile Spores to maximize HPS. Ideally, you want to take Flame Bolt out of the macro, but since I never really use this build since I'm on tank heals most fights, I don't bother.

Not all macros are useless, however. YOU WANT MOUSEOVER CLEANSE AND INSTANT HEAL MACROS.

Cleanse Macro (abbreviated, from RiftStrats):

#show Nature's Cleansing
suppressmacrofailures
cast @group01 Nature's Cleansing
cast @group02 Nature's Cleansing
cast @group03 Nature's Cleansing
cast @group04 Nature's Cleansing
cast @group05 Nature's Cleansing

Of course, if you need to autocleanse for 10 or 20-man raids, just add the necessary lines. I removed the mouseover lines because they can cause odd macro lag -- the UI can randomly pick up on people who need cleanses and thus get stuck trying to cleanse someone who cannot be cleansed.

The same rationale applies to Bloom and Essence Surge:

#show Bloom
cast @mouseoverui Bloom

(replace with Essence Surge for the emergency instant heal on mouseover).

Generally, use Bloom first and save Essence Surge for when a tank drops dangerously low (aka below 25-30 percent). On some encounters, I prefer using focus macros:

#show Bloom
cast @focus Bloom

I use this for Laethys, particularly if I have to heal the add tank in P1 (since target-of-target will cast on Laethys tank or possibly the target of one of Laethys' other abilities).

A mouseover macro also works for battle rez macros:

#show Soul Tether
cast @mouseoverui Soul Tether
yell Battle Rez on %t

Bear in mind that if you do not actually have the person selected, your yell will not be correct, but the rez will go out on the proper person. Be wary and still call brez out in vent if in raid.

The last macro you might want to consider is for Wild Growth. As stated above, in raids, this is less of a healing cooldown as it is a raid DPS boost cooldown that is superior to Coda of Jeopardy and Illuminate (but only lasts 12 seconds and has a one minute cooldown). Sooooooo...

#show Wild Growth
suppressmacrofailures
cast Wild Growth
raid Wild Growth Up! (Clever message here)

Change raid to yell or rw if you have assist. Whatever lets people know that Wild Growth is up.

BONUS MACRO!

Stream of Reclamation is, for the most part, a worthless spell. However, if you are quick about it, you can actually use it to quickly get 37 charge before the tanks aggro.

#show Stream of Reclamation
suppressmacrofailures
cast Stream of Reclamation
stopcasting

Target something then spam the macro as fast as you can and you should get 37 charge. Situationally useful, so I included it. Using this in chlorolock should net you more charge as only Void Life does not benefit from the increased charge generation from Warlock.

4.0.0 - Chloroing for specific encounters


4.1.0 - T1 Raids

4.1.1 - DH/GP

-With enough gear, almost all of DH can be healed by a 51 chloro and a bard (mostly for the second and fourth bosses). It might be a bit annoying if you always get seacapped on the last boss, but "with enough gear" that should be trivial.

-If you are really confident and your tank isn't wearing paper, you could probably solo heal most of GP with a little help on Uruluuk (bard or -icar). That said, I personally like a 51 point build. When you have to jump/run, just cast Withering Vine or something.

-If you have enough gear, make sure Radiant Spores is up on Iskhaal (3rd boss, DH) and you can spam Void Life instead of running in the whirlpool thing.

-Natural Conversion works on Guurloth's emoted nuke on the tank (though this assumes they will live the initial hit) and can help quickly top the tank off.


4.1.2 - GSB/RoS

-The content with a decent group is easy enough, I recommend using a 51 chloro/15 pyro build.

-Pyrochloro may be useful in RoS simply for Plutonus. Having that one second GCD cleanse is nice, you do more DPS and you can Flicker out to grab crystals if needed. That said, you can honestly solo heal Plutonus with 51 chloro/15 pyro (and most people end up pulling him out of the hexagon).

-If you are having issues on Herald Gaurath with Breath of the Void, you may want to reflect the first tick (or find a better tank )


4.2.0 - T2 Raids

4.2.1 - Murdantix

-Wild Growth timed to line up with Flaring Power (at least for the first Flaring Power if DPS is low).

-Keep Radiant Spores up.


4.2.2 - Matron Zamira

-With the changes to mitigation, this fight is now a joke to heal, but it can still get hairy.

-I'm used to running two tanks with a chloro on each tank.

-Radiant Spores can help keep melee alive when stacks start to get high (but not when stacks are high enough to one-shot melee DPS).

-Really don't need Natural Splendor on add phases. Wild Growth is better for DPS boost.

-If the tank is REALLY undergeared, coordinate which chloro will cast Natural Conversion for Revolting Ichor.


4.2.3 - Sicaron

-GCD management is essential for this fight. If you want to make those DoL heals unnecessary, you need ACT timers or a raid warning add-on so you can manage your GCDs.

-Radiant Spores should be up 100 percent of this fight. Semicolon (you can get away with a second of no RS here and there, though you should try to avoid it).

-If it would otherwise fall off during the channel, recast RS about 3-5 seconds before Moldering Decay is about to go out.

-If you can, get a quick Ruin cast in either a second before or just as Moldering Decay is winding up. That extra heal from the first tick is a nice boost. This is a big if.

-Manage your charge efficiently. You want as much uptime with Entropic Veil, particularly during Moldering Decay (even if it means saving a little bit of charge for Moldering). You also want Wild Growth up off-cooldown since it is a DPS boost.

-Try to save your instant cast Nature's Touch for movement or topping the tank off after Moldering Decay. Don't hesitate to use Bloom and Essence Surge either.


4.2.4 - Rune King Molinar/Prince Dollin

-If on MT heals, consider using 51 with at least 6 dominator. This gives you a backup interrupt and a reflect, so if the Prince Tank doesn't use a chloro build, you can handle these two duties.

-Use timers of some sort. ACT, Wires, etc. Timers let you know when you need to anticipate extra heals.

-After 40 percent, Wild Growth on Runic Feedback for heals if people aren't stopping quickly enough. If they are, save it for if the raid needs to quickly burn down an Incorporeal Revenent (i.e., Runic Feedback prevents DPS for the first few seconds it is up).

-If you are running multiple chloros, coordinate when Wild Growth is going up.

-Save Flourish. The -icars will beat you to heals on Cursed Blows with DoL, so don't cast it immediately -- save it if the raid dips dangerously low.


4.2.5 - Estrode

-Stay spread out. Natural Splendor can hurt.

-This is an okay fight to put some zany soul in if you use a 51 chloro/15 pyro. Just change your zero point soul to something else if you are working on Career Criminal. I cannot, however, give any tips on how to get Estrode to steal chloro as I keep managing to avoid getting my souls stolen....


4.2.6 - Soulrender Zilas

-Don't usually run a chloro on this, but you can probably solo heal with a good bard and an -icar for backup.

-Wild Growth for runaway Magi and for the final burn phase.

-Radiant Spores is not as important for this fight due to target switching and the general lack of raid heals (assuming Dark Volley is getting interrupted)


4.2.7 - Vladmal Prime

-Usually I'm MT heals on Vlad tank.

-Radiant Spores. Void Life > Vile Spores > Rinse and Repeat. Wild Growth on cooldown.

-Try not to fall asleep.


4.2.8 - Grugonim

-Chloros are "bad" for this fight? Slander!

-Again, you need at least 2pc HK or 4pc T3 Synergy for this. Radiant Spores FTW.

-Wild Growth is mostly a DPS booster for this fight, so save it for the first Flaring Power and the last Flaring Power. You have time to cast it during the first tower phase and have the cooldown be up, but it's probably not necessary. If you intend to cast it during the second tower phase, DO IT RIGHT AWAY!! This should allow you to get another cast off for the last Flaring Power while keeping some heals out.

-You can also use Wild Growth to help with knockbacks, but I usually just cast Flourish and wait for the icars to go crazy with DoL (a spell I would kill to have as chloro...)

-We haven't had a chloro MT heal this, but it is quite doable. If you do, the chloro needs to switch to LGV during tower phases (and don't forget to synth whichever tank has the boss!).

-SAVE INSTANT CASTS FOR WHEN YOU HAVE TO MOVE OUT OF DECAY OR BILE! If you are in 51, keep spamming Void Life and then either fire off an instant cast Nature's Touch as you move out of the mechanic or use Ruin or refresh Radiant Spores if you need to. You are valuable for your heals and Wild Growth DPS cooldown during burn phases. Stay alive -- you'll do more heals that way!

-During the tower phases:

• As noted, if you are gonna cast it, try to cast Wild Growth early so it's back up for the burn phase (second tower phase only)
• Again, don't forget to switch Veils (if needed)!
• While it's technically better to cast Vile Spores for raid heals, Void Life is more steady healing, and I find it better for dealing with the second tower phase. Like Wild Growth, if you cast Vile Spores, do it once: at the start of the second tower phase.
• More importantly, Vile Spores has travel time, delaying those heals. Void Life it up!
• Never use your instant casts on the same tower. Put Radiant Spores up on one tower, cast an instant Nature's Touch on the next, cast Ruin on the next, Radiant and Void Life on the next.

4.2.9 - Inquisitor Garau

-Radiant Spores. At the very least, maintain it when melee is on the boss and try not to refresh in the middle of an Essence Siphon cast (the bubble). Don't bother casting it on the Arcane Porters.

-Wild Growth if you please, preferably timed with first Flaring Power and on cooldown after that (unless you need to wait for the next Flaring Power cast to sync with).

-When Garau cast Blood Tide, it will probably still be travelling to ranged raid members during one of your casts. Thus, use this to your advantage and queue up a Flourish just before Blood Tide hits and you can beat the DoL heals.

-That said, you may just want to save Flourish for when the melee is low from Essence Siphon and Blood Tide is coming up.

-Don't be afraid to use Bloom and Essence Surge on the 4th Obliteration Beam that requires big heals. Just use it early on or when the tank is almost to Inquisitor, as you don't want to waste a GCD and lose heals that you'd get from a Void Life channel.

-If you are having trouble with Obliteration Beam, save charge for that part of the encounter.

-Further, if you want to have a little extra help on Obliteration Beam, put Natural Conversion on Garau before he casts it. A nice extra heal (h/t to mo0trix on Rift Forums for the reminder about this).


4.2.10 - Inwar Darktide

-You can get away with 36/30 on melee side, but the caster side should be in 51 chloro.

-I prefer 51 chloros on both sides because of the lack of pushback on Void Life. During Dark Tide, make sure Radiant Spores is up and save your charge for Entropic Veil!

-Wild Growth is more of a DPS increase on this fight.

-Let the icars handle Dark Tide unless the raid really dips low (I'd say if people are dropping to about 40 percent even with heals, though this should honestly not happen).

-A chlorolock on melee may be a better choice simply due to the ease by which you can regenerate mana if you get hit by a pincher.

-The 51 chloro on the ranged side may want to use one of the specs above with dominator. Having an extra interrupt is nice.


4.2.11 - Akylios

-Mathematically, having three hybrid chloros is the same as having one MT chloro (on a single target), so this means three chlorolocks = MT healing output on all 3 tanks.

-I personally use 51 chloro/15 pyro. If you fail on Orb of Suffocation or Mind Decay, I don't think you're Flickering it right.

-I chose 51 chloro because then I can spot heal a tank if I have to. There's very little need for the increased damage of a hybrid spec, particularly given the nerfs.

-If running multiple chloros:

• During the first phase, cast Wild Growth once the adds spawn and are picked up, after the first wave when Flaring Power is out, and once the second wave is out.
• Second phase: rotate Wild Growth as needed, but you ideally want both up going into phase 3.
• Third phase: One Wild Growth per Lasher once the tank has established aggro. This ideally allows the archon to save Flaring Power for Akylios emerging.
• Fourth phase: Wild Growth on cooldown. When Jornaru goes low, if there are multiple chlorolocks, save one Wild Growth to cast IMMEDIATELY when Jornaru goes down.

-If you are the only chloro, use Wild Growth with Flaring Power and then off CD. Save it if you are transitioning when WG is off CD.

-If you get Orb of Suffocation, try to time Wild Growth (if it is up) to finish just before the orb hits. Because we CAN heal while silenced (again, h/t to mo0trix on Rift Forums and a kick in the pants to me, as I do this and didn't want to give away secr...er, forgot. Kidding, I legitimately forgot to add this in here).

-Try not to forget to cast Nature's Fury, but try not to cast it during damage spikes (lower healing output).

-Again, try to save instant casts for when you predictably have to move (e.g., during Tidal Waves, running out of the way of Breath of Madness, transitions, etc.)

-This is one of the few fights where maintaining Radiant Spores is important, but not necessarily a top priority. Manage your charge, know when you need to use Wild Growth off cooldown and keep the heals going -- then refresh Radiant Spores. It's harder to maintain across the raid as there are so many targets across a wide area.

-Don't die.


4.2.12 - Ereandorn

-Either 51 chloro or 36/30 works.

-I tend to just save Wild Growth for the big towers (rebuilding the world in flame emote), but use it as you see fit in a way that benefits the raid.


4.2.13 - Beruhast

-Try to save Ruin for predictable damage spikes or movement.

-I have my 51 chloro/15 dom for a backup interrupt if needed.

-Wild Growth for the DPS boost. Once early on, then off cooldown (unless you are having trouble burning the add down fast enough, in which case you can save it for then).

-Alternatively, you can try using the chloro/archon hybrid to heal this. I'd recommend using an endurance seal to be safe, but as long as you start casting your AoE cleanse when Leaping Flame goes out and have Ruin/Flourish ready, it should be doable. A possible alternative if there aren't any clerics available (for whatever reason).


4.2.14 - General Silgen

-I personally use at least 32 points into chloromancer for Living Energy so the bard can cast Anthem of Competence if I'm on cleanse duty.

-You only need 25 points into pyro. You definitely want flicker, pushback reduction, decreased stun duration. You must have 5/5 spark. I go 5/5 Improved GoP for no extra damage taken, but it's not necessary.

-Try to keep Radiant Spores up, but it is not essential. Your priority is cleansing if in pyro/chloro. Spam the macro and only run it from group01 to group10.

-There is a cadence to when he throws out bombs. He usually gets one out real quick, then throws out two more afterwards. You have time to get about 2 other casts in between his debuffs.

-I try to use the following macro for throwing some DPS on the boss:

#show Flame Bolt
suppressmacrofailures
cast Flame Bolt
cast Ruin
cast Countdown
cast Withering Vine

-If you are confident and have the timing of debuffs down, hit it 3 times after 3 cleanses have gone out. Otherwise, hit it twice.

-Wild Growth just at the end of his Incinerate cast for extra heals and DPS boost (basically once you are in the bubble). Don't forget to refresh spores as well, as he throws bombs out almost immediately after he finishes Incinerate.

-Don't forget your instant heals.

-If not on cleanse duty, use 36/30 if you need more DPS while doing AoE heals. If not, a 51 point build is fine (and as usual, I recommend 15 Pyro because Flicker is like a Rift Mage's meth-crack).


4.2.15 - High Priest Arakhurn

-A hybrid build works best when learning.

-Cast Wild Growth once you see the emote for Fire Nova if heals are an issue. It should be up for every single LoS.

-Use Entropic Veil, but be sure to leave a little reserve charge to start Wild Growth on LoS. You can use Devouring Shadows to generate additional charge, but you need some reserve charge before LoSing to ensure Wild Growth lasts the full duration.

-Try not to cast Flourish too early. Have someone toss a healing philter instead if you are worried about the raid dropping low, particularly on the first LoS in the second phase.

-Don't be afraid to grab the crystal! You still do damage and you will hit like a truck (like everyone else does)! I actually think that if you time the add kill and pick up the crystal right as Fire Nova is about to go up, you could heal through the damage in 51 chloro (but I'm not willing to try).


4.3.0 - T3 Raids

A word of advice: you will be tested in this raid instance. Hammerknell honestly spoiled a lot of healers, and Infernal Dawn will be a rude awakening if you are not prepared. I admit that ID surprised me with the difficulty of healing some encounters while learning the fights.

4.3.1 - Warboss Drak

-I'd run 51 chloro/15 dom for no cooldown on Transmogrify unless you have people running pyro/dom for instant sheep

-Make the following macro and focus one of the bomber goblins:
#show Transmogrify
cast @focus Transmogrify

-Hit that macro every time the squirrel is about to fall off. Just be sure not to hit the first miniboss if Molten Rejuvenation is up and stay spread out when Drak goes active.

-If on raid heals, be ready to synth a tank if they start spiking for whatever reason.


4.3.2 - Ituziel

-Be prepared to run as many as three chloros for the healing and damage checks for this fight, and be prepared to have them run a pyro/chloro spec (only one person needs to spec into Phytogenesis and use the Chloro crystal though). I believe I've seen kills with as few as one 51 chloro and as many as three 51 chloros, so be prepared.

-Ideally, you have enough spells to cast to alternate between Vile Spores casts (if running Pyrochloro), though towards the end, it mostly becomes about spamming Vile Spores for heals.

-Rotate Wild Growths. If you have something like Wire's OCD, enable it for Wild Growth only. Also, use macros to /yell or /rw that you are using Wild Growth.

-When you are not using Wild Growth, use your charge! Every bit of damage helps.

-If you kite slowly around the center pool, be prepared to use an instant cast before moving.

-If you stack ranged in the corner, be prepared to have someone coordinate with bard to toggle Living Energy if people are having issues dodging waves.

-Also, if you stack in the corner, save some instant casts for movement in case someone gets hit.

-Be prepared to do veil switches. I've done this with 3 LGV chloros on raid heals (one pyrochloro) and 2 LBV/LGV chloros (one per tank, swapping veils when your tank isn't tanking).

-If you are tank healing, learn to time a Nature's Touch with the Word of Incineration cast. With travel time, if you fire NT off at about 75-80 percent of the cast bar, it will hit in time to top off the tank.


4.3.3 - Ember Conclave

-Not really anything mechanically intensive here as far as heals go, depends on your kill order.

-If you kill Witchlord second, stack on melee, your heal aggro will pull the mind controlled person into passive cleave range (let other people spread for Ember Rain).

-Caveat: if doing Ereetu last, the above comment, naturally, does not apply. Stay near the Ereetu tank and keep healing.

-51 chloro is advantageous for dealing with Feedback if you kill Packmaster second - simply cast Void Life through Infernal Feedback (each channel counts as one "ability," though it will heal for 3 ticks, which is advantageous). Add to that the fact that you have a TON of health means you likely will not die with Feedback + another mechanic.

-I've actually been one of the MT healers on Emberlord tank as of late (we usually do "hard mode" kills). Stay near the tank for crystal placement early on. Later in the fight, position yourself as necessary to keep heals on the tank -- you still need to be cognizant of crystal placement in relation to the rest of the raid, so I'm usually off a good ways away to keep heals up.

-Having tested a hybrid on Conclave, I would advise against it. I ended up having to cancel casts due to movement from A) crystal dropping at my feet or B) P3 Hard Mode fire trails. You could use a lock/chloro/pyro hybrid for Opportunity, but I detest that proc (always procs when you don't need it) and it's not as consistent as a 51 chloro.


4.3.4 - Maklamos the Scryer

-In his current form, the only people taking any significant damage are the tanks, and a chloro is well-suited to heal.

-Maintaining Radiant Spores is definitely not important on this fight. The people taking damage are the tanks, and the boss and adds can hit them like a truck.

-In his current "debugged" state, 51 chloro/15 dom spec works fine. This spec can also get interrupts with Arresting Presence (I've never actually done it this way, I think I just used 28 dom out of paranoia or I used AP without Empowered Presence before bugs were fixed).

-If necessary, one 51 chloro can swap Synthesis on the tank for the entire fight.

-Hard mode requires some pretty intense heals on the tank. Do not worry about Radiant Spores (not enough raid damage to warrant it) and focus on A) toggling EV for VL spam and B) keeping an eye out for having a laser (I have a KaruulAlert to tell me which way to run, and the second I see my color, I book it).


4.3.5 - Rusila Dreadblade

-Seriously, don't die. Don't run up the middle steps next to the boss (learned that the hard way) and don't get hit by any of the other stuff on the ship.

-After the adds are down in the first phase, there is very little to hit to heal, so be prepared to spot with Bloom/Natural Healing.

-Until Rusila is up, there's very little reason to worry about Radiant Spores.

-When Rusila's active, use charge all the time. There's a reason those stacks she's gaining serve as the soft enrage.

-Simply because of the lack of targets in phase 1, I advise using 51 chloro so you have Natural Healing.

-Depending on your DPS/healing needs, I'd further advise against hybrid builds simply due to the consistency of heals through Dread Shot with Void Life + Entropic Veil toggling.


4.3.6 - Laethys

-This encounter will test you. Tanks will probably fluctuate quite a bit, even when things get stabilized.

-51 chloro/15 dom is the spec for progression. Period. Once draining is stabilized, you can use a different build -- I think 9 Dom/6 Pyro would be fairly strong, though you'll probably want an endurance seal and max earth resist with the increased damage taken from Glyphs of Power.

-You will likely be part of a cooldown rotation on the Laethys tank in phase 1. Natural Conversion, preferably just as the Breath attack is going out, will be your cooldown. Make a macro to notify other chloros that the cooldown was used.

-Always target off Laethys so you can put Natural Conversion up properly.

-Some guilds have chloros stand out, others have them stack with the raid in phase 1. I've always stacked and rarely have had problems keeping the tank alive. Once you get the general rhythm of when Golden Breath is going out, it becomes easier to know how far out of Molten Gold you have to move before healing and then moving again to get out of the ground effect after it expands.

-Depending on which tank you are responsible for, Natural Splendor is good for heals when the add tank brings them in to DPS down. You only get one shot, so be sure your tank is in no danger of dying, someone else puts up Wild Growth and that you have enough charge for a full cast (or close to it -- about 75-85 charge should allow a full channel).

-In phases two and three, DRAIN OFF COOLDOWN. Keep Radiant Spores up and try to keep an instant-cast Nature's Touch on reserve for extra heals, but you need to prioritize finding space to get as much of a Mana Wrench channel off as possible. This isn't as necessary once you get used to the encounter, but when learning the fight, more drains = a solid safety net against wiping a solid attempt because drains didn't keep going.

-One chloro may be needed to swap Synthesis on the tanks or maintain Synthesis on their tank in phase two -- this depends on your raid composition.

-You may not have the time to drain if you are tank healing in phase two. The only time you really have to drain is on the piles.

-Running anything with 6 pyro for extra heals is hardly fatal, though you have no excuse for dying to avoidable mechanics (Flicker trivialization FTW).


4.3.7 - Dragon Eggs/Maelforge Teaser

-There is a tank swap when Maelforge is active, I honestly think a chloro could handle the swaps with a puri and keep the tank alive. (If you watch our kill, we actually had two chloros, one for each tank, but we were overhealing this like crazy).

-Don't stand in stuff at the start, there's red stuff and green stuff on the ground and waves to dodge.

-Get out of the habit of jumping while idling around, the remainder of the raid instance seems to emphasize a jump buff, which takes some getting used to.

-After Maelforge hits 50 percent, it's pretty much all raid damage until the eggs die, so LGV.

-Hard mode is going for the achievement. Synth swap + Radiant + WG + EV toggling = Sicaron solo healing numbers. I never want to do this achievement again.

-I'm only really including this in the guide because you get loot at the end.


4.3.8 - Maelforge

-In phase one, you really don't have time to cast Nature's Touch or Ruin for reactive spike heals. This fight is the genesis of my crusade for SOMETHING to improve chloro ability travel time. You can try to anticipate based on travel time to get additional heals when Torrent goes out, but Void Life is pretty much it early on.

-That said, if you are really clever and have the Magma Torrent travel time down, you can fire a Ruin/Nature's Touch/Vile Spores to hit just when it hits the raid (this is what I spend an inordinate amount of time doing during that fight).

-Don't bother with Wild Growth for additional DPS in phase one -- it's nice supplemental heals, but it won't actually affect Maelforge due to odd range issues (clarification: the boss's "center" is actually 60 or so meters away from the safe spots, but his hitbox extends down so tanks can hit the boss -- Wild Growth uses distance from "center" to determine if the boss is affected by the debuff).

-Depending on raid composition, be prepared to either synth swap or toggle between LBV/LGV throughout the fight.

-When your tank isn't active in later phases, try to push out more heals by VS > VL > VS rotation.

-There is (almost) always adequate time to throw out an AoE heal if needed when Magma Torrent goes out.

-Flicker is your friend towards the end. Getting the Hellfires and Fiery Eruptions out of the raid QUICKLY is of utmost importance, and Flicker can help you adjust for confusion in picking a direction to run. That said, if Flicker is on cooldown, speed pots are your friend.

-If you use similar raid composition (two chloros, one per tank), be sure to switch Veils during swaps. Consider having the raid healer (whoever's tank is not on the boss) cover Radiant Spores so the other chloro can focus on keeping the tank alive.


4.3.9 - Grandmaster Atrophinius

-A simple, straightforward fight. Very little going on.

-No tank heals are necessary, so use a hybrid if you need a little more DPS.

-Pick a spot and stay there. Only make small adjustments if he starts jumping between odd targets.


4.3.10 - Swarmlord Khargroth

-I was on tank heals for this, it can get pretty tough with multiple stacks on the tank, so be prepared.

-I used Wild Growth off cooldown. You may want to save it for ST DPS on boss or during add phases, whichever's giving you more trouble.

-Radiant Spores really only matters later in the fight when he starts doing the pulsing AoE ability.


4.3.11 - Alltha the Reaper

-I was on tank heals and healed the active tank, swapping to the tank that was taunts the boss. The healing is pretty intense.

-Flicker is extremely useful for ensuring you can efficiently move past poison clouds or whirlwinds without taking damage and saving you time otherwise spent running around.

-Be cognizant of who gets the poison cloud debuff -- they may need a spot heal when running out of the poison.

-Don't be afraid to Flourish. If you are geared to get to this point, the tanks will drop low, but they won't die -- other raid members are more likely to with the shield that absorbs heals and the AoE damage.


4.3.12 - Faelord Twyl

-Phases 1 and 4, I used LGV, phases 2 and 3 I used LBV.

-Tank heals can be intense, particularly in phase 3. Be prepared for big heals.

-If you plan on saving Wild Growth for the third phase, use it on the second troll. The timer appears to have been fixed, but this is likely the point you want to use WG so one person can keep whittling down the adds so the tank doesn't get wrecked in P4.

-In phase 4, if a plant spawns on you, FLICKER out and then do something immediately to heal yourself. The plants do physical damage and will eat you alive even if you Flicker out, so you'll immediately need to heal yourself.


5.0.0 - Min/Maxing Stuff

5.1.0- Void Life v. Vile Spores

This debate has become a bit of an issue, part of which is due to the Archon buff Burning Purpose (with the other part being travel time). I would argue from testing that 51 chloro (and thus Void Life) "win," and using Vile Spores in a hybrid build is mostly for additional DPS and comparable heals. I favor 51 chloro because to get "comparable" heals, you need to focus a bit more on a rotation, which may not be best in a progression environment. Also, getting hung up on rotating abilities with Vile Spores may cause some to prioritize rotation over ensuring heals remain steady.

In short, the best raid heal spell is Vile Spores, IF it heals both for initial damage and the first tick of the dot. Void Life does comparable heals, but for the GCD use, Vile Spores is the best.

However, with Ignition alone (and more so if using pyrochloro for cast speed), you will clip the first tick of the dot about 50 percent of the time if spamming Vile Spores (tested on the dummies standing at 20ish meters). You will clip all of your Vile Spores casts if you have Burning Purpose as well. Moreover, Vile Spores has travel time, which adds into the inconsistency of healing - on some fights, heals are delayed due to this (at sufficient range, travel time becomes EXTREMELY noticeable). Void Life does not suffer from this problem. The ideal solution would be to reduce the DoT duration to 4 seconds (making Vile Spores tick once per second) and to increase the speed of Chloro abilities by at least 40 percent (pending testing, but right now, everything but Void Life suffers a bit from travel time).

That said, I would say the central issue when determining whether your main ability cast should be Vile Spores or Void Life is DPS. If you are having DPS issues, hybrid with Vile Spores. If you are lacking in the consistency of healing output, 51 chloro. I personally use 51 chloro variants in raid unless there is something that necessitates me using a hybrid build (i.e., 1 second GCD cleanses for Silgen).

If you manage your charge properly, Void Life hits hard (I'm usually getting 1.1k crit ticks with bard buffs, Clinging Spirits and Entropic Veil up), which, accounting for travel time and clipping, will be close to Vile Spores (though nothing like alternating SLD and EV with a chlorolock of some sort).


5.2.0 - Chlorolock versus pyrochloro

5.2.1 - Benefits of chlorolock

• Mana is not an issue due to Sacrifice Life: Mana.
• Chlorolock has more stable damage boosters from abilities: passive 10 percent plus another passive 10 percent from keeping an armor up.
• Can actually get more healing out of this build with the Sacrifice Life Damage changes (either SLD will be up or you'll have enough charge to use Entropic Veil on the cooldown).
• Opportunity. Yes, it's a proc, but it can be extremely useful.
• More survivability with 10 percent extra health
• More charge generation. Only Void Life is bugged, everything else benefits. This means more uptime with Entropic Veil.

5.2.2 - Benefits of pyrochloro:

• Flicker. This can be enormously helpful as a Break Free and for saving your ass if you screw up a mechanic.
• Slightly more damage boosters from passives/abilities, though this depends on keeping Flame Bolt up (not difficult).
• No spell pushback. As Vile Spores is your main spam, this means smooth casting even with raid damage going out, though it (with Ignition) also clips the first tick of the dot (and reduces heals). You can work around this though by alternating ability casts.
• Burning Fury. At crit cap, this really works out to somewhere in the range of a 3-8 percent crit buff, which is still better than nothing.
• One second GCD. Machine gun cleanse! This has little bearing on spells with cast times -- it only significantly helps with your instant casts.
• Better damage potential. Move 3 points out of decreased stun duration into improved combust or fireball crit chance and use the pyro crystal and you look like a cleric in expert dungeons. Aside from not having Vex/Contempt.
• Much better soloing capability (related to above). Put the chloro crystal on, use shielding greaters/trinket and have at it. Until they fix Devouring Shadows, Fire Storm is a good way to go (though SC is still better damage-wise for AoE farming).

-To get the best of both worlds, you can go to the 28/30/8 chloro/lock/pyro build. Use Fire Armor and stay as still as possible. You only have Bloom for ST heals, but this spec is presently one of the best possible hybrid AoE heal build.

-As Fridge-RaideR noted in his comment below, a chloro/lock variant will theoretically provide the best AoE heals due to the full uptime on 20 percent damage booster (Entropic Veil or Sacrifice Life Damage). I agree that this will provide outstanding heals, but I note that I still have reservations given travel time and clipping the first tick of Vile Spores. I will try to test this at some point on a fight where travel time can come into play.

-I personally use pyrochloro because of the one second GCD (for rapid fire cleansing), quicker soloing (not as good as SC/chloro, but much better than Devouring Shadows with chlorolock) and Flicker (having a CC break on 20 second CD and way to evade red circles is a huge survivability boost). (Apparently I can't catch when I make an edit and sound like an idiot by saying "I'm personally use..." )

-However, Sacrifice Life Damage now allows for an almost constant 20 percent extra damage, giving it an edge (if you cycle between SLD and EV) in terms of damage/healing output. Now if only Kervik would buff Devouring Shadows.... (thanks to Fridge-RaideR for reminding me to update to reflect SLD change). Again, I prefer pyrochloro. I cannot emphasize how much Flicker contributes to why I have pyro in so many builds, including builds that I cannot go 25 points in for the 1 second GCD).

5.3.0 - Where to put the remaining 15 points in a 51 chloro build

• 10 Dominator: Full cleanse, Mana Drain, interrupt/knockback with Thunder Blast, channeled purge (in 1.7).
• 11 Dominator: Same as above, AoE silence (Arresting Presence).
  
• 15 Dominator: Just add improved Mana Drain and Improved Charged Shield.
• 4-5 Elementalist: 4-5 percent extra crit chance
• 10 Elemenatlist: 5 percent increased crit chance and 10 percent damage mitigation
• 11 Elementalist: Same as above, shield cooldown for self
• 4-5 Warlock: Increased charge generation (does not affect Void Life though)
• 10 Warlock: Increased charge generation, Opportunity, infinite mana with Sacrifice Life: Mana.
• 15 Warlock: Same as above, but 10 percent extra health for increased survivability, Fear and a snare (WIther).
• 10 Archon: Shield for any target on cooldown, increased stats from stacks, infinite mana (Exhilaration), armor buff from your debuff cast.
• 15 Archon: Same as above with an improved shield, even more infinite mana and an additional debuff that will buff your resistances, DPS increase for party/raid (Illuminate)
  
• 15 Pyro: Flicker, zero pushback on spells from damage, decreased stun duration, slightly increased casting speed, self-buff for intelligence (overwritten by bard), 5 percent more damage (at the cost of taking 5 percent more damage).
• 11 Pyro: This just gets you Flicker if you feel the need to get more crit from Ele or more charge from Warlock
• 9 Dom/6 Pyro: Extra Int, reduced cast time/pushback reduction (kind of worthless), 10 percent more damage (at the cost of taking 5 percent more damage). You have less utility than a deeper Dominator build and no Flicker ( ). A high-risk, high-reward build.
  
• 8 Archon/7 Pyro: Improved Pillaging Stone, 10 percent more damage from GoP, armor buff. High-risk, high-reward again, but you have Searing Vitality to somewhat counteract the increased damage taken (450 more HP). This spec is king, 60 extra SP from Improved PS will beat 8 percent intelligence until you get to 1500 intelligence before Natural Awareness (from 9 Dom/6 Pyro). You will not get this even with full ID relics. But again, no Flicker...

Other options are possible, but these are the ones that actually are worth anything. Mix and match as you please, though I recommend the builds I listed above.

I've spent a bit of time on the dummies and with only whatever self buffs I had in the build and my Darkling Skull, Uncorrupted Ancient Life Wand and Lifebound Relic unequipped (and using identical gear otherwise), the highest Void Life ticks were (high to low):

9 Archon/6 Pyro > 15 Pyro/0 Archon > 9 Dom/6 Pyro > 15 Archon > 11 Dom/4 Ele

Thus, you essentially can get the best healing output at the cost of 5 percent extra damage taken and a bit less mobility (you really need to stand still for Ruin casts and instant-cast Nature's Touches. In exchange, you get a second Break Free (for most things) on a 20 second cooldown, slightly faster casts, stun reduction and a stacking crit bonus (albeit with diminishing returns as you get more crit). And as long as you are standing still, you need to use your mana regeneration abilities less, which is good (as you are limited to Empathic Bond, Living Shell and mana pots).

The damage taken is essentially negated by the extra health gained from Raised in Nature and Searing Vitality, so it's well worth it.


5.4.0 - Itemization

5.4.1 - Basics

-Get the Uncorrupted Ancient Life Wand from Expert Iron Tombs. It's pretty much 45 free spell power for most raid boss fights unless you end up having to stop DPS (like on kite phases for Grugonim). And even with situations like Grugonim, you do so many heals that getting 3 stacks again is cake. Sadly, with the proc, this wand STILL has more SP than the relic ID wand. (Note: this may not remain the case when accounting for the Conquest perk scaling -- if I get the relic wand, I'll do some quick checks.)

-I personally use Lifebound Relic for MT heals and Token of Warding for raid heals. The latter is in large part due to several other healers running it when needed in raid and the effectiveness of multiple healers running full shielding greaters/trinket in buffering the raid against damage (see below for the math).

-With the scaling from Conquest perks, it's worth it to grind for the PvP trinket. The scaling puts it on par with Lifebound Relic, and the extra endurance is a HUGE benefit in ID.

-Use spell power runes. I've tested this and you get more spell power from those runes over the intelligence runes, even with Natural Awareness.

-While int runes are not as good, items that have significantly more int than other items and only are a few points behind in spell power are better because of the Natural Awareness buff (this is compounded if you run Dom for extra int).

-Caveat to higher int items: check the math before you do a switch. If you use 10 dominator, then multiply intelligence by 1.35 and then divide by two, add to half the wisdom gained and then add spell power on the item to get total spell power. If you are using 9 dom/6 pyro, then the intelligence coefficient is 1.33 (if you want to be precise). If you do not have Dominator, then the intelligence coefficient is 1.25 (assuming you have 5/5 in Natural Awareness). Fish Carver gives 10 more spell power from stats, but is 10 spell power behind to begin with, so the two items are equivalent spell power-wise.


5.4.2 - Proc Itemization

-As a general note: shield/bubble proc items have an internal cooldown of 5 seconds. From what I've seen on dummy tests, I believe Abyssal Mark of Power also has a 5 second internal cooldown.

-Shielding proc tests: you do slightly less heals in terms of HPS. To be honest, if you want to run shields, EVERYONE on raid heals must subscribe to this philosophy. If your bard and hybrid -icars are running full shields, you should as well.

-The mathematical justification behind this:

-Icewall Rune: it's okay. I wouldn't say it's better than an SP rune -- the proc is nowhere near as consistent (due to the mechanics of Veil heals) as FDOT or HT.

-Having tested these procs in a raid setting, having multiple healers run shielding greaters is a definite buffer on raid damage, but everyone has to do it. The uptime on the procs was sufficiently high that everyone effectively had a nice 1.2k or so buffer on for the bulk of the raid.

-I have tested use of Abyssal Mark of Power. It will stack to 5 and is pretty easy to keep there, but I prefer Lifebound Relic - having 88 SP virtually guaranteed at nearly 100 percent uptime is a surer bet than the AMoP proc. If you get any sustained disconnect on damage, you will likely have issues keeping the proc up (and losing the proc = having to build stacks again, which is an annoying 25 seconds minimum down the drain).


5.5.0 - Using Karuul Alert

-If you use it, I recommend using Karuul Alert for two things as Chloro: Radiant Spores and Wild Growth cooldown.

-For Radiant Spores, it is a buff on the target with a duration of 16 seconds. Use the combat only option. I have it set up to give me a 5 second countdown to when the ability falls off. I changed it to not be for self-cast only, so it lets me see if the buff is up, period.

-For Wild Growth, it is an ability you cast (use the appropriate check box). I use a different add-on to monitor my cooldown though.

-Alternatively, something like Wire's OCD still works, though I'm unsure if it will remain supported. Hopefully the expansion news will draw someone back to maintain it (though push comes to shove, I might just sit down and write an add-on or two to make my Rift experience nice and aerodynamic).

-If you are using at least 10 Warlock, you may also want to use an alert for Opportunity. The buff duration is 5 seconds on self. Put it somewhere noticeable so you can see when it is up.

-If you are using Opportunity optimally (for Nature's Touch), you may also want to set up an alert similar to the Wild Growth one. Have it countdown to when the ability is off cooldown so you don't spam Nature's Touch and wonder why it isn't casting instantly with Opportunity (which is time wasted that could be used for a Void Life channel).

-You may also want an alert set up to remind you when you have 75 or so charge so you actually use it. I switched to Archimedes to put a charge meter where my eye naturally falls to manage it, but KaruulAlert works too. Just set up an alert to pop up when you have more than x amount of charge. I've actually switched to using Archimedes to put a charge bar in a nice convenient location where my eyes tend to fall naturally that's near my raid frames, but that's personal preference.

-Other than that, I mostly have custom alerts for specific fights to let me know if a debuff is up on my target or on myself.


As always, a work in progress.