This is a zero to hero Runepriest guide (and much of it applies to Zealot too), decided to put one together to gather my thoughts as and MinMax journey plans, and since the only other guide I could find was the brilliant but partly outdated Bitterstone Handbook, last update seems to be back from when Conq was BIS and A LOT has changed since, notably it also does not include my favourite Hybrids and DPS builds which I'll cover.
It's still worth a read, as it has some goodies I won't go over, and I'm not perfect either so you can let me know of any errors or suggestions in the comments
Class Overview
Spoiler:
RP is an indispensable healer offering a lot of party focused buffs, while being fairly survivable, this means most warbands are happy with having 4/8 healers being RPs. Their strong party focus also makes them amazing for small scale, where the 6s stagger has even more value.
They are very simple to play, with the only mechanic being Rune of Breaking which allows you to instantly convert between all healing stats from gear to magic attack stats.
The mechanic can largely be ignored during combat, and enables you to use any combination of gear for both healing and DPS, this gives you an unmatched degree of freedom when gearing up.
This freedom makes RP an excellent choice for altoholics too, as you can experience all types of gameplay and do well (and see if you like it) without having to spend 10s of thousands of crests first.
So if you are looking for a new alt or just completely new and want to heal RP is a great option.
There's a couple other aspects, you might want to consider before committing long term:
(S tier = Best in game, A = Good enough for competitive (ranked/city), B = good enough for casual play (ORvR, roam, sc), C = More bad time than good, D = No good time)
Party Healing: S tier, arguably best in game.
Out-of-party/WB healing: B tier, isn't super great, while you can still proc your utility, it's usually covered by the RP in their party already.
Hybrid: B+ tier, a very flexible set of specs, allowing to easily switch between full heal and full dps or somewhere in between, with only minor sacrifices, it doesn't do too well under heavy pressure and shines when your passive healing/absorb and another healer is enough.
AoE DPS (WB): B+ tier, surprisingly strong in the right settings and gear, somewhat reliant on SM for WW and fairly squishy while being in the front line and even at best of times definitely is no slayer, but valid enough in ORvR warbands.
Single Target DPS Party: D tier, lacking both burst and avg dps with weak utility.
Solo roam: C+ Tier, not the worst but far from the best, lacking kill speed, escape tools and favourable matchups. (Zealot is worse)
They are very simple to play, with the only mechanic being Rune of Breaking which allows you to instantly convert between all healing stats from gear to magic attack stats.
The mechanic can largely be ignored during combat, and enables you to use any combination of gear for both healing and DPS, this gives you an unmatched degree of freedom when gearing up.
This freedom makes RP an excellent choice for altoholics too, as you can experience all types of gameplay and do well (and see if you like it) without having to spend 10s of thousands of crests first.
So if you are looking for a new alt or just completely new and want to heal RP is a great option.
There's a couple other aspects, you might want to consider before committing long term:
(S tier = Best in game, A = Good enough for competitive (ranked/city), B = good enough for casual play (ORvR, roam, sc), C = More bad time than good, D = No good time)
Party Healing: S tier, arguably best in game.
Out-of-party/WB healing: B tier, isn't super great, while you can still proc your utility, it's usually covered by the RP in their party already.
Hybrid: B+ tier, a very flexible set of specs, allowing to easily switch between full heal and full dps or somewhere in between, with only minor sacrifices, it doesn't do too well under heavy pressure and shines when your passive healing/absorb and another healer is enough.
AoE DPS (WB): B+ tier, surprisingly strong in the right settings and gear, somewhat reliant on SM for WW and fairly squishy while being in the front line and even at best of times definitely is no slayer, but valid enough in ORvR warbands.
Single Target DPS Party: D tier, lacking both burst and avg dps with weak utility.
Solo roam: C+ Tier, not the worst but far from the best, lacking kill speed, escape tools and favourable matchups. (Zealot is worse)
Spoiler:
Tier 1 - Rank 1-15
Just focus on healing and positioning for now. You start out with a special flash heal Grugni's Gift, it's a gg spell costing only 15 AP.
In tier 1 you'll pick up 3 of your 4 group buffs, they have two effects, a stat buff and grants an ability. The abilities are not that great, the long cooldown and low damage means even if the player remembers them, they are not that impactful.
As for the stats, I use this rule of thumb to determine:
1. Give what they ask for
2. Give resist (Oath Rune of Warding) when you are not in party with either an AM or Knight
3. Give attack stat (Oath Rune of Power) on DPS and 2H tanks, when they do not have the stat from another ability or potion already (note some classes and a lot of gear can proc abilities for their attack stat)
4. Give Initiative + Wp (Oath Rune of Iron) to healers or condition 1-3 not met or you can't be bothered with using all 4 buffs...
5. Give Instant Rez (Oath Rune of Sanctuary @ CR40) just before a healer or WB leader is about to die. Can also be used in PvE Dungeons preemptively if your team is unstable, for rezzing during boss battles. Note while the tooltip says it lasts 10 minutes, sometimes it will last 60 min, so can be put on MT and then healers (or whoever tends to die).
Gear:
Any sets, personally I did not spend any War Crests (pvp gear currency) on gear before best in slot (BIS), with a few exceptions like the CR29 Staff to test DPS with BIS during bolster spike and a Conq helm to skip Gunbad, which meant doing PQs.
Thanks to the stat conversion mechanic, the PQs sets are always a good option and worthwhile if you can find a group (note as a healer you can join pretty much any lvl, this also has a benefit of removing exp gain from mobs).
As long as you hit CR40 / RR 40, you should be fine.
You may however prefer to do more pvp and the early sets between Lvl 1 and 40 (up to Conq), are not too expensive, especially if you buy the gloves and boots from AH (also note that belt, cloak and rings are not part of wards).
Tier 2 - Rank 16-30 - 0-0-11
First, at CR16 you should do the Sewers for the Keeper's set, it's strong and can last you a very long time, at least 10 lvls. And will give you a nice bump towards CR20 where you get group heal and first Master Rune shortly after.
Next, let's go over the spec, and the various abilities you'll be picking up.
Direct heals (all your heals except your two HoTs: Rune of Regeneration and Rune of Serenity) are important to Runepriests since they trigger all of your most powerful tactics.
The Master Rune of Adamant (MRoA) really carries RP at all tiers, since it counts as a direct heal and a single instant cast gives up to 11x6 heal ticks over 30 seconds.
For better or worse.. It is so good that you'll want to use it 99% of the time, the only exception to this is when there's another RP in your party already using it, in which case you can use Master Rune of Fury (MROF).
Because you can use these four tactics with MRoA for great effect:
Restorative Burst - RB (CR29): Gives you 40 Action Points per proc, and is often the difference between constantly being out of AP and having more than enough.
Ancestor's Echo - AE (CR27): 11 points into the right tree, this tactic is extremely strong, providing absorb shield to your party and anyone you focus heal. Grab it as early as possible!
Blessing of Grungni - BoG (CR31): Arguably the biggest reason to bring RPs, gives a massive 25% heal bonus to party and focus target.
Ancestor's Blessing - AB (CR23): 7 points in left tree, this ability gives 50 AP to those you heal (except yourself) and means you can reduce your party's need for using their own AP gear/tactic. This tactic with MROA essentially does what MROF does, making MROF pretty redundant.
Because of MRoA all these will proc a lot, often allowing for 100% uptime, even passively.
Topping MRoA up with group heals is what makes RP stand out with very strong sustained healing.
As well as making all your single target direct heals much more potent
Will go into healing in more detail in the dedicated section below.
TIER 4 - CR36 - Proc Priest - 5-0-11
Here you'll get a full glimpse at the RP powerhouse with all four tactics, in scenarios (SC) you'll be able to top heal and protection charts, while keeping your AP starved party at full speed.
So if you did not realise from above already, you'll now get a first hand experience of why you need to use MRoA 99% of the time.
Gear
You'll also be able to equip full Ruin, genesis and a variety of strong jewellery from AH or ToK. You can use the AP/s Fleshrenders from AH or The Winds set from ToK.
AH will also have some decent staffs with 8 AP/sec as a good gold option, if you don't want to use War Crests.
Talisman: wounds + 1 Initiative
Morales
By now you'll have access to all morales, so let's cover them now:
M1: Use Divine Favor.
M2: Focused Mind for personal survival and long range heal boost.
Or Syphoning Rampage for close combat instant recovery.
Mountain Spirit would not recommend, it appears to be bugged at the moment, it's not stacking with abilities (armor potions, resist buffs, etc). So you are looking at 660 armor and 200-300 resist for 10 seconds.
So the value you'd get from it will be far too low compared to the other options.
M3: Use Divine Protection.
If you want to dip your toes in hybrid/dps CR36-39 is a great time for that in SC, as in T4 it will be a while before you'll have the required damage and survivability needed (pre-BIS/BIS). See details in the dedicated section.
Just focus on healing and positioning for now. You start out with a special flash heal Grugni's Gift, it's a gg spell costing only 15 AP.
In tier 1 you'll pick up 3 of your 4 group buffs, they have two effects, a stat buff and grants an ability. The abilities are not that great, the long cooldown and low damage means even if the player remembers them, they are not that impactful.
As for the stats, I use this rule of thumb to determine:
1. Give what they ask for
2. Give resist (Oath Rune of Warding) when you are not in party with either an AM or Knight
3. Give attack stat (Oath Rune of Power) on DPS and 2H tanks, when they do not have the stat from another ability or potion already (note some classes and a lot of gear can proc abilities for their attack stat)
4. Give Initiative + Wp (Oath Rune of Iron) to healers or condition 1-3 not met or you can't be bothered with using all 4 buffs...
5. Give Instant Rez (Oath Rune of Sanctuary @ CR40) just before a healer or WB leader is about to die. Can also be used in PvE Dungeons preemptively if your team is unstable, for rezzing during boss battles. Note while the tooltip says it lasts 10 minutes, sometimes it will last 60 min, so can be put on MT and then healers (or whoever tends to die).
Gear:
Any sets, personally I did not spend any War Crests (pvp gear currency) on gear before best in slot (BIS), with a few exceptions like the CR29 Staff to test DPS with BIS during bolster spike and a Conq helm to skip Gunbad, which meant doing PQs.
Thanks to the stat conversion mechanic, the PQs sets are always a good option and worthwhile if you can find a group (note as a healer you can join pretty much any lvl, this also has a benefit of removing exp gain from mobs).
As long as you hit CR40 / RR 40, you should be fine.
You may however prefer to do more pvp and the early sets between Lvl 1 and 40 (up to Conq), are not too expensive, especially if you buy the gloves and boots from AH (also note that belt, cloak and rings are not part of wards).
Tier 2 - Rank 16-30 - 0-0-11
First, at CR16 you should do the Sewers for the Keeper's set, it's strong and can last you a very long time, at least 10 lvls. And will give you a nice bump towards CR20 where you get group heal and first Master Rune shortly after.
Next, let's go over the spec, and the various abilities you'll be picking up.
Direct heals (all your heals except your two HoTs: Rune of Regeneration and Rune of Serenity) are important to Runepriests since they trigger all of your most powerful tactics.
The Master Rune of Adamant (MRoA) really carries RP at all tiers, since it counts as a direct heal and a single instant cast gives up to 11x6 heal ticks over 30 seconds.
For better or worse.. It is so good that you'll want to use it 99% of the time, the only exception to this is when there's another RP in your party already using it, in which case you can use Master Rune of Fury (MROF).
Because you can use these four tactics with MRoA for great effect:
Restorative Burst - RB (CR29): Gives you 40 Action Points per proc, and is often the difference between constantly being out of AP and having more than enough.
Ancestor's Echo - AE (CR27): 11 points into the right tree, this tactic is extremely strong, providing absorb shield to your party and anyone you focus heal. Grab it as early as possible!
Blessing of Grungni - BoG (CR31): Arguably the biggest reason to bring RPs, gives a massive 25% heal bonus to party and focus target.
Ancestor's Blessing - AB (CR23): 7 points in left tree, this ability gives 50 AP to those you heal (except yourself) and means you can reduce your party's need for using their own AP gear/tactic. This tactic with MROA essentially does what MROF does, making MROF pretty redundant.
Because of MRoA all these will proc a lot, often allowing for 100% uptime, even passively.
Topping MRoA up with group heals is what makes RP stand out with very strong sustained healing.
As well as making all your single target direct heals much more potent
Will go into healing in more detail in the dedicated section below.
TIER 4 - CR36 - Proc Priest - 5-0-11
Here you'll get a full glimpse at the RP powerhouse with all four tactics, in scenarios (SC) you'll be able to top heal and protection charts, while keeping your AP starved party at full speed.
So if you did not realise from above already, you'll now get a first hand experience of why you need to use MRoA 99% of the time.
Gear
You'll also be able to equip full Ruin, genesis and a variety of strong jewellery from AH or ToK. You can use the AP/s Fleshrenders from AH or The Winds set from ToK.
AH will also have some decent staffs with 8 AP/sec as a good gold option, if you don't want to use War Crests.
Talisman: wounds + 1 Initiative
Morales
By now you'll have access to all morales, so let's cover them now:
M1: Use Divine Favor.
M2: Focused Mind for personal survival and long range heal boost.
Or Syphoning Rampage for close combat instant recovery.
Mountain Spirit would not recommend, it appears to be bugged at the moment, it's not stacking with abilities (armor potions, resist buffs, etc). So you are looking at 660 armor and 200-300 resist for 10 seconds.
So the value you'd get from it will be far too low compared to the other options.
M3: Use Divine Protection.
If you want to dip your toes in hybrid/dps CR36-39 is a great time for that in SC, as in T4 it will be a while before you'll have the required damage and survivability needed (pre-BIS/BIS). See details in the dedicated section.
Spoiler:
As you hit CR40, a lot of options open up to you, particularly its recommended to get the PvE sets as these give you both good gear and the wards needed for BIS gear, and unlike other classes where these are somewhat subpar or niche and don't mix too well, RP can mix all sets and take the best from each.
So focus your early T4 efforts on clearing at least the 3 main dungeons GB, CT and BS. Beastlord (BL) and Hunter's Vale (HV) gives very decent gear too, but does not give wards, full set of HV with rest from BL will be your best PvE only option until BIS.
Notable Gear:
Beastlord (BL): pocket (activate for AP regen), cloak (with wounds talis for 500hp), ring (for 3p armor bonus)
Vale-Walker (VW) from HV: while the gear itself doesn't stand out much, it's decent, the main attraction are the good set bonuses.
Redeye from Gunbad (GB): Only really cloak and body stands out as useful + the 2p bonus, you do get the free ward. If you are low on gold, running GB is a great way to save up by selling the 2H purple staff. You are also almost guaranteed to get boots and gloves from a single run + a good chance for 1 or more of shoulder/helm/body, so at least 1 run is recommended.
Sentinel from CT: the special talisman ring and a couple of pieces mixes well with all gear and lasts until you are ready to spend 10k War Crests on a Vic/Tri ring. The influence weapons there are decent too, but are held back in both healing and soloing by all having a DoT proc, which will cancel the stagger. Missing heal crit also isn't great. I'd argue however that they are probably BIS for DD/hybrid that doesn't go full glass cannon.
Bloodlord: this gear is normally a DPS, but suffers from having the first 3 bonuses being of little use offensively and the last 2 being of questionable value (so 2/7), RP can however use this to our advantage, stacking both wounds and Initiative (1st & 2nd bonus) very high.
The staff does eventually overtake a staff like Willpower from CT once you hit int soft cap from other gear in terms of pure dmg.
Good gear setups:
1. 4p Sent + 3p Bloodlord + 3 beastlord: max wounds / high init
2. 6-7p Vale-Walker + 4-2p Beastlord/Bloodlord/Sentinel: healing focus, with decent def stats.
For staff, any of the C&T staffs with wounds (preferably Rod of Silver or Oathbreaker), if you know your endgame staff (Fortress or Reverence) already, you can get they pre-req version
Standard Pure Healer - Tier 4 - R50 - 13-0-11
This build picks up a new 13 point ability; Rune of Binding, a 6 second stagger with a long range and only 20 sec cd, great for both defensive and offensive actions.
If you have played only pure heal, this is the first time our mechanic (stat convert) comes into play in combat, by converting from willpower to int we gain about 15-20% disrupt strikethrough against other healers (and about 3% on low wp targets).
Since the conversion is instant and does not take up a GCD, you can activate it before casting stagger and/or silence, then deactivate after.
Finding two healers when the enemy team is under pressure and casting stagger on one followed by silence on another is a strong combo that can sometimes break them.
Against healers is normally the only time I bother with the mechanic since they stack willpower, and as a low RPM no-gamer-mouse loser it's not worth it in most other cases.
The stagger is also very strong defensively, allowing you to stop anyone chasing you and using detaunt on others in case there's more.
Or simply stunning stragglers to secure the kill
Also note that the immunity is only 20 secs, even if the stagger lasts the full 6 secs.
R60 lets you pick up the AP pump tactic.
R70 grants you the last flexible point, there's not really any option that stands out here. if you often party with other RPs get MRoF. If you like to spam GG/flash heal Runic Blasting (+15% gg heal crit), other than that maybe Battle Rune.
Standard Heal R70 13-0-11
Your standard heal spec offers all the tools needed for pure healing. Stagger, Heal Master Rune with AP pump, Absorb and heal bonus tactics.
Finally, let's look at some endgame gear options:
BIS Heal Throughput: 6 triumphant (tri), 3 sov, either fortress or Reverence staff (~22k WC)
The free AP + cast speed bonus makes it unparalleled for spamming group heals, and it stacks with fortress staff proc.
The 3p sov can be replaced with either Warlord (WL), Invader or VW, if you don't plan on going to R78.
It does require 10k WC for the ring, which you may not have appetite for, in which case try below..
Budget near-BIS Healing Alternatives:
There are many viable sets and gear combinations in this category, while some may be better stat-wise or have great procs they all have trade-offs and perform close enough that you won't notice much difference.
So here I'll mention a few and why, so you can consider what you want for your playstyle.
Most setups revolve around getting at least 5p sov for the heal crit chance, then filling the rest with another set, aiming for 2xWounds bonus.
And surprisingly, there's very few differences between sov main (main means main spec, e.g. snb for tanks) and sov off (off spec, e.g. 2H tanks), but for RP it boils down to:
Sov Main
Has +8% reduced armor penetration on sov main, 6p bonus gives +2 points to left tree and 7p gives AP procs.
Sov off
Has +6% more disrupt strikethrough, +2AP/Sec, 6p bonus gives +2 points to right tree and 7p increases crit chance on target
So which to pick?
Well sov main offers a bit more survivability (and is the obvious choice if you want to stack armor) and option for AP sustain if you go 7p. +2 to left tree opens a full package solo build.
Sov Off is a bit more offensive, that being said the disrupt strikethrough does help secure your stagger lands so has defensive value too.
The +2 AP/Sec will usually be soft capped down to 1AP/sec. But if you want to go DPS or hybrid the +2 points in the right tree will open up more specs.
Personally a fan of sov off, because I'm deep into dd/hybrids and I want the +2 specs.. but if all you want to do is heal, sov main is the way to go.
The usual filler set for Sov is Sentinel, going 4p (ring, helm, gloves, belt), makes for a very strong and cheap setup, costing just over 7k (+ 2k on staff), and has a low transition cost to Triumphant (only 2 "wasted" items).
Another option is to go full Triumphant first (except 2 items) with 2-3p Vale-walker then replace VW with sov. This gets you into very strong gear at R68 and lets you skip the BS dungeon for Invader ward. If you know you just want to heal or don't think you'll make it to +R78, this is a great option.
I don't recommend getting either Warlord or Invader, they are deadends and not ideal for RP, so simply not worth it even with their discounts.
So that about covers your journey as a healer from start to finish, you should now have a good idea of how to play and why, and have a couple of builds to work towards.
So focus your early T4 efforts on clearing at least the 3 main dungeons GB, CT and BS. Beastlord (BL) and Hunter's Vale (HV) gives very decent gear too, but does not give wards, full set of HV with rest from BL will be your best PvE only option until BIS.
Notable Gear:
Beastlord (BL): pocket (activate for AP regen), cloak (with wounds talis for 500hp), ring (for 3p armor bonus)
Vale-Walker (VW) from HV: while the gear itself doesn't stand out much, it's decent, the main attraction are the good set bonuses.
Redeye from Gunbad (GB): Only really cloak and body stands out as useful + the 2p bonus, you do get the free ward. If you are low on gold, running GB is a great way to save up by selling the 2H purple staff. You are also almost guaranteed to get boots and gloves from a single run + a good chance for 1 or more of shoulder/helm/body, so at least 1 run is recommended.
Sentinel from CT: the special talisman ring and a couple of pieces mixes well with all gear and lasts until you are ready to spend 10k War Crests on a Vic/Tri ring. The influence weapons there are decent too, but are held back in both healing and soloing by all having a DoT proc, which will cancel the stagger. Missing heal crit also isn't great. I'd argue however that they are probably BIS for DD/hybrid that doesn't go full glass cannon.
Bloodlord: this gear is normally a DPS, but suffers from having the first 3 bonuses being of little use offensively and the last 2 being of questionable value (so 2/7), RP can however use this to our advantage, stacking both wounds and Initiative (1st & 2nd bonus) very high.
The staff does eventually overtake a staff like Willpower from CT once you hit int soft cap from other gear in terms of pure dmg.
Good gear setups:
1. 4p Sent + 3p Bloodlord + 3 beastlord: max wounds / high init
2. 6-7p Vale-Walker + 4-2p Beastlord/Bloodlord/Sentinel: healing focus, with decent def stats.
For staff, any of the C&T staffs with wounds (preferably Rod of Silver or Oathbreaker), if you know your endgame staff (Fortress or Reverence) already, you can get they pre-req version
Standard Pure Healer - Tier 4 - R50 - 13-0-11
This build picks up a new 13 point ability; Rune of Binding, a 6 second stagger with a long range and only 20 sec cd, great for both defensive and offensive actions.
If you have played only pure heal, this is the first time our mechanic (stat convert) comes into play in combat, by converting from willpower to int we gain about 15-20% disrupt strikethrough against other healers (and about 3% on low wp targets).
Since the conversion is instant and does not take up a GCD, you can activate it before casting stagger and/or silence, then deactivate after.
Finding two healers when the enemy team is under pressure and casting stagger on one followed by silence on another is a strong combo that can sometimes break them.
Against healers is normally the only time I bother with the mechanic since they stack willpower, and as a low RPM no-gamer-mouse loser it's not worth it in most other cases.
The stagger is also very strong defensively, allowing you to stop anyone chasing you and using detaunt on others in case there's more.
Or simply stunning stragglers to secure the kill
Also note that the immunity is only 20 secs, even if the stagger lasts the full 6 secs.
R60 lets you pick up the AP pump tactic.
R70 grants you the last flexible point, there's not really any option that stands out here. if you often party with other RPs get MRoF. If you like to spam GG/flash heal Runic Blasting (+15% gg heal crit), other than that maybe Battle Rune.
Standard Heal R70 13-0-11
Your standard heal spec offers all the tools needed for pure healing. Stagger, Heal Master Rune with AP pump, Absorb and heal bonus tactics.
Finally, let's look at some endgame gear options:
BIS Heal Throughput: 6 triumphant (tri), 3 sov, either fortress or Reverence staff (~22k WC)
The free AP + cast speed bonus makes it unparalleled for spamming group heals, and it stacks with fortress staff proc.
The 3p sov can be replaced with either Warlord (WL), Invader or VW, if you don't plan on going to R78.
It does require 10k WC for the ring, which you may not have appetite for, in which case try below..
Budget near-BIS Healing Alternatives:
There are many viable sets and gear combinations in this category, while some may be better stat-wise or have great procs they all have trade-offs and perform close enough that you won't notice much difference.
So here I'll mention a few and why, so you can consider what you want for your playstyle.
Most setups revolve around getting at least 5p sov for the heal crit chance, then filling the rest with another set, aiming for 2xWounds bonus.
And surprisingly, there's very few differences between sov main (main means main spec, e.g. snb for tanks) and sov off (off spec, e.g. 2H tanks), but for RP it boils down to:
Sov Main
Has +8% reduced armor penetration on sov main, 6p bonus gives +2 points to left tree and 7p gives AP procs.
Sov off
Has +6% more disrupt strikethrough, +2AP/Sec, 6p bonus gives +2 points to right tree and 7p increases crit chance on target
So which to pick?
Well sov main offers a bit more survivability (and is the obvious choice if you want to stack armor) and option for AP sustain if you go 7p. +2 to left tree opens a full package solo build.
Sov Off is a bit more offensive, that being said the disrupt strikethrough does help secure your stagger lands so has defensive value too.
The +2 AP/Sec will usually be soft capped down to 1AP/sec. But if you want to go DPS or hybrid the +2 points in the right tree will open up more specs.
Personally a fan of sov off, because I'm deep into dd/hybrids and I want the +2 specs.. but if all you want to do is heal, sov main is the way to go.
The usual filler set for Sov is Sentinel, going 4p (ring, helm, gloves, belt), makes for a very strong and cheap setup, costing just over 7k (+ 2k on staff), and has a low transition cost to Triumphant (only 2 "wasted" items).
Another option is to go full Triumphant first (except 2 items) with 2-3p Vale-walker then replace VW with sov. This gets you into very strong gear at R68 and lets you skip the BS dungeon for Invader ward. If you know you just want to heal or don't think you'll make it to +R78, this is a great option.
I don't recommend getting either Warlord or Invader, they are deadends and not ideal for RP, so simply not worth it even with their discounts.
So that about covers your journey as a healer from start to finish, you should now have a good idea of how to play and why, and have a couple of builds to work towards.
Spoiler:
Hybrid play on RP is quite different from AM; you do not have an amazing dedicated "lifesteal" spell like Energy of Vaul, the two lifesteals you do have, are high in different trees and still way subpar compared to AM's mirrored base abilities.
What you do have is better AoE DPS with +50% lifesteal tactic and MRoA+AE+BoG for massive passive value, as well as a your class mechanic allowing you to switch between DPS or healing.
CR36 - Battlepriest - 0-0-15
This build simply picks up everything (except the useless mass rez) in the right tree, and covers a lot of the benefits from the above spec.
And by picking up the offensive skills, allows you to easily switch depending on what the situation asks for (e.g. your SC already has 5 healers, you can focus on DPS).
Let's go over the abilities we'll use:
Battle Rune - BR (9 point): a highly efficient ability with a single cast every 30s lasting 15s, it will do 30-50% of your damage and can be cast on tanks from a safe distance. It gives you a steady trickle of lifesteal with Efficient Runecarving.
Rune of Cleaving - RoC (CR18): The butter to the BRead, with EB it becomes a very wide and long AoE DoT, and with CR also adds 1k armor debuff that stacks with other morale and ability armor debuffs, adding a decent dmg buff to a physical heavy WB.
Extended Battle - EB (3 points): adds significant area to BR and RoC. It's a large part of what makes RP dps in RvR WBs. The extra area to RoC makes it about 4x larger than the Zealot equivalent, which gives massive advantage to dmg and safety.
Concussive Rune - CR (7 points): Adds up to 990 armor debuff to RoC, this is about 5-10% increase to physical dmg. This means for each physical dps in your WB, you can do less damage and still be worth your slot.
Rune of Might - RoM (CR7): Your filler AoE ability, gets powered up by WW but is held by its close range and low dmg.
Rune of Skewering (15 points): instant 2400 dmg AoE, especially potent in mid tier SC where players often have 5k or less total HP. But also great for sieges.
Oath Rune of Warding: the granted AoE DoT ability actually does decent damage when you find yourself surrounded, so decent to use when others are on cooldown.
Efficient Runecarving (11 points in middle tree): one of your few dps boost modifiers, thanks to the 10% anti-disrupt and the 50% lifesteal synergises well with BR.
Make sure to always have MRoA and BR running and casting a few HoTs or group heals in between offensive CDs.
A typical engagement starts by following tanks to the front, then once close use RoC followed by BR, while repositioning cast MRoA, HoTs and RoM.
Building further on the above hybrid mid game build, once completing the right tree, start going up left for either MRoF or AB, until you can switch to one of the below.
Gear
For mid game, both sent and bloodlord are great sets.
Sent features a 5p proc that reduces CDs by 1 sec, which is very strong for your AoE spells.
Bloodlord (Bld) has a nice 4p bonus proc called Boost II, providing Critical Hit a generic crit modifier that improves all crit chances (heal and DPS), making it extra potent for hybrids.
While you can't run 5p sent + 4p Bld, you could run 3p Bld and use cloak + ring for LotD set
From RR65-68, you can start picking up Victorious, BIS for Hybrid and DPS consist of either 3 Vict + 6 Sov Off or 4 Vict + 5 Sov Off. For Vic pieces, obviously Ring, and then belt, body, gloves or helm.
Hybrid R70 0-11-11
Or this late game option, picking up Rune of Fate instead of Master Rune of Speed.
Truest Hybrid R80+2 0-13-11
Or this which can be used with both 6p Sov Main or Off:
Stagger APump Hybrid R80+2 - 13-0-11
Last point in either Rune of Fortune or Concussive Runes.
Tactics
These specs offers a good amount of flexibility, and share 3 standard tactic setups, allowing you to fully adapt to most situations:
1. Offensive Hybrid: ER,EB,CR/AE,DF
2. Mixed/Armor Debuffer: EB, CR/RB, AE, BoG
3. Standard heal
Renown
The mechanic does not convert renown stats, so you have 3 options:
Spec All defensive (FS, disrupt, parry, wounds, Initiative)
Spec heal crit, if you are using BoG or RB for AP, getting 9-14% heal crit + 10% baseline (+6% from 4p BLD), that gives you 19-30% even when in attack mode.
It also makes your switch to pure healing much better.
Spec Offensive, int to soft cap and magic crit after
What you do have is better AoE DPS with +50% lifesteal tactic and MRoA+AE+BoG for massive passive value, as well as a your class mechanic allowing you to switch between DPS or healing.
CR36 - Battlepriest - 0-0-15
This build simply picks up everything (except the useless mass rez) in the right tree, and covers a lot of the benefits from the above spec.
And by picking up the offensive skills, allows you to easily switch depending on what the situation asks for (e.g. your SC already has 5 healers, you can focus on DPS).
Let's go over the abilities we'll use:
Battle Rune - BR (9 point): a highly efficient ability with a single cast every 30s lasting 15s, it will do 30-50% of your damage and can be cast on tanks from a safe distance. It gives you a steady trickle of lifesteal with Efficient Runecarving.
Rune of Cleaving - RoC (CR18): The butter to the BRead, with EB it becomes a very wide and long AoE DoT, and with CR also adds 1k armor debuff that stacks with other morale and ability armor debuffs, adding a decent dmg buff to a physical heavy WB.
Extended Battle - EB (3 points): adds significant area to BR and RoC. It's a large part of what makes RP dps in RvR WBs. The extra area to RoC makes it about 4x larger than the Zealot equivalent, which gives massive advantage to dmg and safety.
Concussive Rune - CR (7 points): Adds up to 990 armor debuff to RoC, this is about 5-10% increase to physical dmg. This means for each physical dps in your WB, you can do less damage and still be worth your slot.
Rune of Might - RoM (CR7): Your filler AoE ability, gets powered up by WW but is held by its close range and low dmg.
Rune of Skewering (15 points): instant 2400 dmg AoE, especially potent in mid tier SC where players often have 5k or less total HP. But also great for sieges.
Oath Rune of Warding: the granted AoE DoT ability actually does decent damage when you find yourself surrounded, so decent to use when others are on cooldown.
Efficient Runecarving (11 points in middle tree): one of your few dps boost modifiers, thanks to the 10% anti-disrupt and the 50% lifesteal synergises well with BR.
Make sure to always have MRoA and BR running and casting a few HoTs or group heals in between offensive CDs.
A typical engagement starts by following tanks to the front, then once close use RoC followed by BR, while repositioning cast MRoA, HoTs and RoM.
Building further on the above hybrid mid game build, once completing the right tree, start going up left for either MRoF or AB, until you can switch to one of the below.
Gear
For mid game, both sent and bloodlord are great sets.
Sent features a 5p proc that reduces CDs by 1 sec, which is very strong for your AoE spells.
Bloodlord (Bld) has a nice 4p bonus proc called Boost II, providing Critical Hit a generic crit modifier that improves all crit chances (heal and DPS), making it extra potent for hybrids.
While you can't run 5p sent + 4p Bld, you could run 3p Bld and use cloak + ring for LotD set
From RR65-68, you can start picking up Victorious, BIS for Hybrid and DPS consist of either 3 Vict + 6 Sov Off or 4 Vict + 5 Sov Off. For Vic pieces, obviously Ring, and then belt, body, gloves or helm.
Hybrid R70 0-11-11
Or this late game option, picking up Rune of Fate instead of Master Rune of Speed.
Truest Hybrid R80+2 0-13-11
Or this which can be used with both 6p Sov Main or Off:
Stagger APump Hybrid R80+2 - 13-0-11
Last point in either Rune of Fortune or Concussive Runes.
Tactics
These specs offers a good amount of flexibility, and share 3 standard tactic setups, allowing you to fully adapt to most situations:
1. Offensive Hybrid: ER,EB,CR/AE,DF
2. Mixed/Armor Debuffer: EB, CR/RB, AE, BoG
3. Standard heal
Renown
The mechanic does not convert renown stats, so you have 3 options:
Spec All defensive (FS, disrupt, parry, wounds, Initiative)
Spec heal crit, if you are using BoG or RB for AP, getting 9-14% heal crit + 10% baseline (+6% from 4p BLD), that gives you 19-30% even when in attack mode.
It also makes your switch to pure healing much better.
Spec Offensive, int to soft cap and magic crit after
Spoiler:
See the Hybrid section for ability details.
Pure WB AOE DPS M4 bomb R80+2 0-11-15
This build goes all in on maximising our AoE potential, putting 4-6 extra points into the right tree (each point being worth roughly 36 magic power or 3% crit) and getting the M4 2400 AoE nuke.
R70 0-13-9 DPS
This build is for dps focused play and picks up the long DoT and ST "nuke" channel instead of hybrid elements, mostly suited for small scale/SC where the ST dps boost makes you more dangerous.
One point is left for with Concussive Runes or Immolating Grasp.
Pure WB AOE DPS M4 bomb R80+2 0-11-15
This build goes all in on maximising our AoE potential, putting 4-6 extra points into the right tree (each point being worth roughly 36 magic power or 3% crit) and getting the M4 2400 AoE nuke.
R70 0-13-9 DPS
This build is for dps focused play and picks up the long DoT and ST "nuke" channel instead of hybrid elements, mostly suited for small scale/SC where the ST dps boost makes you more dangerous.
One point is left for with Concussive Runes or Immolating Grasp.
Spoiler:
RP relies on kiting and slowly whittling down your opponents, for this you have a decent set of tools, and a couple that makes you much more potent than Zealots, but still puts you far behind AM, SHM and other common solo classes.
First, Rune of Fate is big, having access to a high efficient lifetap, adds both much need dps and heal, something Zealot is lacking, but despite being 13 points, it has a longer cooldown and no extra disrupt compared to AM/SHM.
Immolating Grasp gives you both a long range slow and AP drain, again beating Zealots, AM and Shm versions, and in this case makes it one of the strongest 15s DoTs.
Sundering Motion makes your knockback strong too, again missing on Zealot.
Then you have the stagger to reset when the others fail, but note you need to cast when you have no DoTs running.
Grimnir's Shield is a rare "detaunt" that reduces your damage taken, does not break even if attacking, and eliminates cast setbacks, making it very strong for example with Rune of Fortune.
Solo R70 9-13-0
Since we don't have the stagger, you should use a pilfer staff like Willpower, and 4p Vic with 5p sov or 3p sov + 3p VW.
Solo RP R80+2 13-13-0
For this, I've left 1 Mastery point, I'd put it in Rune of Burning or Master Rune of Fury, but you have other good options; Rune of Fortune, Runic Blasting,
Since we do have the stagger, you'll want any endgame staff outside of CT, I'd go with either fortress or Reverence.
Gear: 6p sov main + 3p sent/vic/tri
First, Rune of Fate is big, having access to a high efficient lifetap, adds both much need dps and heal, something Zealot is lacking, but despite being 13 points, it has a longer cooldown and no extra disrupt compared to AM/SHM.
Immolating Grasp gives you both a long range slow and AP drain, again beating Zealots, AM and Shm versions, and in this case makes it one of the strongest 15s DoTs.
Sundering Motion makes your knockback strong too, again missing on Zealot.
Then you have the stagger to reset when the others fail, but note you need to cast when you have no DoTs running.
Grimnir's Shield is a rare "detaunt" that reduces your damage taken, does not break even if attacking, and eliminates cast setbacks, making it very strong for example with Rune of Fortune.
Solo R70 9-13-0
Since we don't have the stagger, you should use a pilfer staff like Willpower, and 4p Vic with 5p sov or 3p sov + 3p VW.
Solo RP R80+2 13-13-0
For this, I've left 1 Mastery point, I'd put it in Rune of Burning or Master Rune of Fury, but you have other good options; Rune of Fortune, Runic Blasting,
Since we do have the stagger, you'll want any endgame staff outside of CT, I'd go with either fortress or Reverence.
Gear: 6p sov main + 3p sent/vic/tri
Spoiler:
*These numbers are based on a 13-0-11 spec, geared with 6p Triumphant + 3p sov + 2 genesis and Apostle's Runestaff of Reverence (43% heal crit, 891 will/heal power)
**Direct heals get 25% of AE per hit and 25% from BoG
so, what are the takeaways from this?
Well there's multiple ways of looking for value when healing, HPS on single target or multiple, total heal per cast, heal per AP
Master Rune of Adamant (MRoA): winning several value categories Heal per AP and Heal per Cast Time by 3.5x second place (BoV), as well as ST and Max Target Heal per Cast, makes the value of MRoA pretty undeniable. It also beats out both other HoTs in HPS in the ST Heal in 3 and 5 sec category, thanks to having a tick at 0s and 3s rather than just 3s. Meaning if MRoA is not up, you need to get it up asap.
Blessing of Vadiya (BoV): obviously wins Max target HPS, and does pretty well on both Heal Per AP and ST categories, meaning unless you need max ST heal if more than one is damaged, casting BoV is the right choice.
Rune of Serenity: despite it's 9sec CD implying high value, it doesn't really deliver even at best of times, held back by low scaling and unreliability (in # of target hit, random hits and short duration) making it the worst in most categories, only making a decent placing on Heal per Cast Time and Heal Per AP and would beat BoV if all targets have BoG. Only Zealot has a tactic buff for it but it's bugged atm.. meaning only cast if you can guarantee and 6 jumps and no one is damaged much, for example after 15s HoT on key targets just before engagement, it's decent early game when the base value is high, AP is hard to come by and you may be missing several other options.
Grugni's Gift (GG): You may have been told to just use GG for ST healing and ignore RoM and Resto, but this appears to be old wisdom for the most part. GG received nerfs to its major benefits, first is global cooldown was increased from 1.1s to 1.5s, a roughly 33% nerf compared to any other spell with +1.5s cast time, additionally the release of several cast speed procs (6p Tri, Vanq and fortress/subjugator staffs) reducing cast times further. Third "nerf" is to Heal per AP value, with AP pools increased by 50 and AP regen from gear now constantly running, leaving room to be more inefficient. It does still hold the crown in ST Heal In 3s, thanks to it being instant cast so it gets 3 casts where all others get 1-2. It does still benefit from higher cast rates, meaning higher likelihood of procing tactics, and with +15% heal crit GG can sit on 60% crit, which if your main purpose is to proc BoG on focussed target so all others healers in your WB can get 25% heal bonus, it's still the best, but outside that it does fall off.
Rune of Restoration (Resto): winner in two categories, ST HPS and ST Heal in 5s by a decent margin too, this was not true even 2 years ago where GG was best. Add cast time reducers for a further 25% HPS boost (2s -> 1.5s) puts it solidly in the ST HPS lead.
Rune of Regeneration (Regen): good value and buffer but low HPS, so mainly used before engaging and when noone is badly hurt. Mid tier it greatly benefits from Regenerative Shielding where most don't use armor potion. Its high Heal per Cast Time also makes it great in solo heal scs, where dps is lower and people are out of party.
Rune of Mending (RoM): fairly expensive at 45 AP, but does heal 66% more than GG on a single cast, so if you have the AP to spare, using this once at most every 5s (for the HoT part to expire), is a good option when trying to save someone.
Rune of Shielding (RoSh): Absorbs offer two main counters, one is against crits and the other is against heal debuffs (i.e. critting with 100% crit dmg on a 1000 dmg, will absorb 550 the rest 450×200% = 900 dmg, you will then heal for 112/235/450 depending on heal debuffs. Same scenario with AM's shield, leaves you with 1k absorb left instead of taking 350-800 dmg). it's a shield, better than nothing but only 25% of AM's version leaves it a little wanting, especially since you can generate absorbs with direct heals.
Rune of Cleansing: not listed above as it neither scales with WP or MR, while it does offer protection particularly against Sorc timestamps or a couple of heal debuffs, it lacks many of the goodies AM and WP gets, group cleanse, absorb, wp scaling on the heal tactic (AM here gets a very strong HoT + absorb + group cleanse if they go full cleanse spec, part of what makes AM best ST healer). Also not that many Sorcs are dangerous enough to warrant a cleanse over just group healing, so to me this falls a bit in the same category as RoSh, it's a decent tool and you should use it, but often you or other healers will have better options.
To summarise what we learnt, let's do a sorted list where we pick abilities in order of which we want if we could only have that number of spells (e.g. 1=1 spell, 2 = 1+2 spells):
1. BoV, king of HPS (with speed procs even beats GG on ST HPS) and 2nd on value, only no out of party healing.
2. MRoA, on a more traditional list this would be 1. for its versatility and unmatched value.
3. GG
4. Rune of Regeneration
5. Rune of Restoration, all morales come above this.
6. Rune of Serenity, most earn this spot for it's early game power/gap filler, late game could easily drop down the list.
7. Rune of Cleansing, others might put this higher (spots 5-9 are close and niche), if you do a lot of solo or ranked, but standard SC and ORvR it has limited value.
8. Rune of Shielding
9. Rune of Mending, while not necessarily the worst heal, it fills the small gap between GG and Rune of Restoration, but has some trade-offs so on this list it becomes redundant.
As for willpower vs heal crit, you should always go heal crit.
This is simply down to BoG's uptime increasing with heal crit and BoG having unmatched value:
Example: you and 3 other healers each heal the same target for 1000 with BoG this 4k becomes 5k (+25%), already great, but consider that you only healed for 1k but generated 2k (1000+4x250) means BoG gave you +100%.
To increase healing by 100% with endgame gear, you need roughly +3000 willpower.
Let's say 1% heal crit (hc) = 1% BoG uptime (in practice it's probably closer to 1% heal crit = 3% BoG uptime), that puts 1% heal crit = 30 heal power and that's just for BoG, heal crit by it self gives another 14-22 healpower from 1% heal crit, so now we are looking at 1% heal crit to up to 50 healpower.
Now that's a bit of an ideal situation, in reality, most parties will likely have a RP, meaning it *should* already have BoG and any one in parties without will be as likely to get BoG from another RP so that value is split. Lastly most targets probably won't get as many as 4 healers on them.
In the end, in practice the avg value of HC for BoG could go as low as 5-20 wp to 1% hc, but that still leaves hc as the clear choice.
