[Zealot] zealot and absorb shields

[Deadpoet]

Zealot has 2 different tactics and one ritual that give absorb. Why is it a bad idea to spec all 3 absorb bubbles, apart form the fact that you use 2 tactic slots and spend a mastery point that maybe should be spent otherwise? or isn't it such a bad idea? Do all 3 absorbs stack? I wouldn't be playing in a group so maybe I could deviate a bit form the standard zealot spec.

The thing is I've always wanted to play a zealot because I love the looks of the class, and I had this idea of making a roaming zealot (not a dps zealot) that would go solo into the lakes to try and thwart gankers like dps AMs and WHs and help people who are travelling alone to a keep take or levelling at rat spot. Most likely I will end up needing help myself and dying quickly to WHs I dread the double heal debuff particularly. AFAIK I can't cleanse WH's debuffs. That's why I thought of stacking absorb, as my heals would be nullified, while absorb isn't affected by heal debuff unless I am mistaken.

[magicthighs]

Moved to appropriate subforum

[Deadpoet]

Oops sorry, I keep forgetting about subforums

[Fulkan]

Zealot has 2 different tactics and one ritual that give absorb. Why is it a bad idea to spec all 3 absorb bubbles, apart form the fact that you use 2 tactic slots and spend a mastery point that maybe should be spent otherwise? or isn't it such a bad idea? Do all 3 absorbs stack? I wouldn't be playing in a group so maybe I could deviate a bit form the standard zealot spec.

The thing is I've always wanted to play a zealot because I love the looks of the class, and I had this idea of making a roaming zealot (not a dps zealot) that would go solo into the lakes to try and thwart gankers like dps AMs and WHs and help people who are travelling alone to a keep take or levelling at rat spot. Most likely I will end up needing help myself and dying quickly to WHs I dread the double heal debuff particularly. AFAIK I can't cleanse WH's debuffs. That's why I thought of stacking absorb, as my heals would be nullified, while absorb isn't affected by heal debuff unless I am mistaken.

You still need to cast heals to have the shields actually proc. On paper, it makes a lot of sense what you're saying - in reality, not so much.

You can't cleanse many of the debuffs you're talking about. This is the main issue for the Zealot. Having three different shield is great but not so much if the DPS AM has you AP drained right after they use three different DoTs on you. By the time you're cleansing that AP drain, you're already out of AP and no shields have procced. At this point, you're falling over and dying without being able to do anything.

Add a WL in there and a SW and you're just free game for anyone who knows how to play their class right.



I'd say that roaming Zealot's can't really exist in this game right now. You'd have to be a little more offensive and actually do damage to nullify the heal debuffs and the crazy AM DoTs. This way your damage numbers heal you while you're kiting, shielding and so on. Unfortunately, T3 isn't the time or place to be doing this on a Zealot.

I don't wanna tell you to re-roll an AM or a DPS Shammy but right now, Zealots are best in groups, providing the heals and the heal buffs for a team that will in return, protect the Zealot.

[Deadpoet]

Thanks a lot for the detailed response. I have a much clearer view now. I think I will abandon this idea for now. It's a shame that zealots aren't allowed to have a more significant part to play outside a group, and it feels a little unfair, taking into account that they seem to be far worse soloers than the other cloth healers on both realms while arguably not so drastically superior when it comes to healing. Even Runepriests seem to be far better equipped to roam.

[Sulorie]

A DPS AM can do absolutely nothing against a well specced zealot.

[Deadpoet]

The fact that zealot can cleanse hex and spam it with a tactic was one of the reasons I thought it would be viable solo, as many of the solo gankers around are dps AMs. But AP drain must be hard to counter, unless one has a lot of AP regen in gear and the AP tactic.

One good thing about my idea is that out of the three absorbs, only one relies heavily on AP. The other two are a tactic with 25% chance of absorb on being hit and a ritual, also % on being hit. They don't require you to cast heals to proc them.

WLs deal curse on their debuffs I think, so that would also be cleansable. But the initial burst if your detaunt is on cd might be a big issue I guess.

SWs with ailment heal debuff I see no way around them, at least in theory.

[Sulorie]

You need no premade to play as zealot but forget about running around solo to gank people.

[Fulkan]

The fact that zealot can cleanse hex and spam it with a tactic was one of the reasons I thought it would be viable solo, as many of the solo gankers around are dps AMs. But AP drain must be hard to counter, unless one has a lot of AP regen in gear and the AP tactic.

One good thing about my idea is that out of the three absorbs, only one relies heavily on AP. The other two are a tactic with 25% chance of absorb on being hit and a ritual, also % on being hit. They don't require you to cast heals to proc them.

WLs deal curse on their debuffs I think, so that would also be cleansable. But the initial burst if your detaunt is on cd might be a big issue I guess.

SWs with ailment heal debuff I see no way around them, at least in theory.

You're absolutely right about the cleanse spam. The only issue right now is that we can't really get it. T4 for sure but in T3, not so much. I really can't wait to run it for my groups as well. MDPS have a much easier time when you're cleansing x3 the debuffs per cast, lol.

Honestly, if you can get the gear and understand the timing between using Harbinger of Doom to heal and DPS, with proper use of Transference, you'd have fun solo ganking. Again, we're really talking about T4 since you kinda need the levels to get all the abilities to compete. With AP pots and proper play, you would give any DPS AM a hard time. You do have to play like a boss against them since they're such a AP drain.

As someone said before, you don't really need a group. You can most definitely solo heals (I wouldn't really DPS in SCs right now) in scenarios and RVR. It just really help to have a reliable group of peeps to back you up.

I'm going to start working on a DPS set for my Zealot soon. I'm almost maxed out on gear so I'll keep you posted on what works for me and what doesn't.

[Deadpoet]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough before. My idea is not to roam in order to gank people, but to PREVENT people from being ganked. Hence my survivalist approach with the triple detaunt. Hoewever I don't dismiss the dps way entirely for the future, so I really appreciate Fulkan's promise of input. But my primary concern is to be durable enough to help people without being ganked myself. My help would be to provide the heals they lack against 1v1 monsters.