T3-4 Archmage or Rune Priest

[ostrogoth182]

Which is the better healer in the higher tiers, I know it's usually down to how you play but if you were to say one was better at healing than the other which would it be?

[Tesq]

wp or runepriest

[Nameless]

rp no doubt, much more well around healer. AMs like shamans are fun to play but they fall apart on healing related synergy. rp/zealot got much better buffing capabilities while shaman/am got some good debuffing but since debuffs dont stack that role is quite insignificant.

btw rp is better than am at t1 and t2 also. grundi's gift > all healeing from AM although the puddle and ap drain are good they are not healing realted

[Uchoo]

Archmage has Mistress of the Marsh, Desperation, Funnel Essence, Magical Infusion, Wild Healing and a 100% uptime AP Drain. Archmage is the most resource efficient healer besides Warrior Priest in 6pc Tyrant or Doomflayer+.

Your playstyle is spamming out heals when you aren't being pressured, using your burst tools (Magical Infusion and Funnel Essence) to keep people alive in desperate situations.

When you are under pressure, you absolutely need to kite. You can't sit and tank things like a Warrior Priest can. This is your greatest disadvantage as a small amount of pressure means that you lose a lot of your healing potential. Try to HoT and run with Lambent Aura, use MoTM to slow things chasing you and use your other quick casts to heal as you get space to.

Runepriest is similar to the Archmage but is far more utlitarian as a healer, better at supporting the Warrior Priest. You still have to kite, but you have an instant cast flash heal and a slightly better option to stand and tank with your 50% shield wall. As a Runepriest, your playstyle is major group support; keep your Master Rune down, and proc Blessing of Grungi, Ancestor's Echo and Regenerative Shielding (if you run it) on everyone. You have a few tools to help deal with burst situations like Oath Rune of Sanctuary and Protection of the Ancestors. You also have a spammable cleanse if you run the tactic.

Warrior Priest is the most favored healer as you have tankiness, a strong single target with a .5s cast, a group heal with a 1s cast, a group hot about as strong as the single target hot, a group bubble, a group cleanse, 1k1 dark blessings, prayers, aoe detaunt.. the list goes on. Your playstyle as a Warrior Priest is just spam heals and aoe detaunt as needed. You can tank quite a bit of damage if done properly.

Most groups like to bring double Warrior Priest, especially in this tier as the cloth casters don't get their great tools until T4.

A little long and drawn out but I hope it answers your questions.

[ostrogoth182]

So basically a runepriest would be more important to a group than archmage

[Uchoo]

In sheer utility, yes, but the Archmage does bring the aoe slow and the burst healing tools.

The aoe slow is usually enough to sell an Archmage but having FE, MI and Desperation rounds out the healing kit to keep it competitive.

[noisestorm]

that people believe that AMs are (or never were) viable just shows that all people that played one simply suck(ed) donkey balls. wait for t3/t4 and you can start worshipping me once the full AM potential is unleashed

[Pixie126]

In Tier 3, my healing archmage really took off. Played with my husband (he was on a WP) and somehow we became a 2 person "gank group" one night in RvR. Still not sure how. But, we (he) did a lot of killing while defending BO's, so....In Tier 4, the mobility issues of the archmage really hit hard, but it's still playable....The melee train will kill you, and that marauder pull gets very annoying, but c'est la vie.

[noisestorm]

I can assure you AM is as or even tankier than RPs if handled right.

[Uchoo]

that people believe that AMs are (or never were) viable just shows that all people that played one simply suck(ed) donkey balls. wait for t3/t4 and you can start worshipping me once the full AM potential is unleashed

It's not that they aren't viable, but a Warrior Priest is just better. I played my AM to I think 87 and it works great but you are forced out of position very easily in situations where a Warrior Priest could continue to stand there and spam his/her 1s cast group heal and group hot.

The only major disadvantage of the cloth healers is that they don't have that great of tools to sustain a group while having to sustain themselves at the same time. For the Warrior Priest, it's simple.

This is an opinion but one that I've developed with a lot of playtime and experience. I'm very happy to see some of you guys as excited as you are about piloting a Runepriest/Zealot or Archmage/Shaman and I wish you the best of luck.