For many progression fights, having a Cleric Purifier in the raid group is extremely helpful due to the Purifier’s ability to shield players and thus absorb a great deal of damage. There are a few variants of this healing spec out there, but this is one version that effectively gives you everything you need to throw up as many raid shields as possible while giving you plenty of options for high HPS (healing-per-second) and raid utility.
Here’s the build– the 54 Purifier / 21 Sentinel / 1 Inquisitor spec. This spec complements Chloromancer HPS with raw shielding and focusing ability. When there are periods of burst damage on a few but preferably one player, Purifier is often the ideal role. The spec also brings Empowering Light, an AoE cleanse, and Sterilize, a complete single-target cleanse.
Note: This guide is based off a guide originally found on the official RIFT forums and written by Ahov.
The Spec:
Role: Raid Healer/Shielder
Level Ranges: 60
Content Use: Raids, Endgame Group Content
Since this is a pure healing spec, it’s not very efficient for any type of soloing or leveling, but it does have a few DPS options if you find yourself stuck in the spec. The spec can be used in leveling dungeons and 5-man Experts, but you may find that it’s lacking a bit when it comes to slow, bursty heals for your tank. This largely depends on your group and gear level, of course. If you find yourself having trouble healing a group of newly-60s, you may wish to try a Sentinel spec that’s a little more versatile.
Buffs:
Self-buff with Caregiver’s Blessing and Sign of Faith. Apply Eruption on the tank you predict will receive the most shielding. Apply Latent Blaze on tanks pre-pull. If you’re in a 5-man setting you can apply Wisdom of the Ages and Heroic Resolve to yourself.
Macros:
Latent Blaze:
#show latent blaze
suppressmacrofailures
cast flashover
cast latent blaze
Gathering of Flames:
#show gathering of flames
suppressmacrofailures
cast flashover
cast gathering of flames
Instant Ward:
#show touch the light
suppressmacrofailures
cast touch the light
cast Ward of scorching
Run speed:
#show Urgency
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self Urgency
Healing Breath:
#show Healing Breath
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Healing Breath
Healing Flare:
#show Healing Flare
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui healing flare
Symbol of the Sun:
#show Symbol of the Sun
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Symbol of the sun
cast @group01 symbol of the sun
cast @group02 symbol of the sun
cast @group03 symbol of the sun
cast @group04 symbol of the sun
cast @group05 symbol of the sun
cast @group06 symbol of the sun
cast @group07 symbol of the sun
cast @group08 symbol of the sun
cast @group09 symbol of the sun
cast @group10 symbol of the sun
cast @group11 symbol of the sun
cast @group12 symbol of the sun
cast @group13 symbol of the sun
cast @group14 symbol of the sun
cast @group15 symbol of the sun
cast @group16 symbol of the sun
cast @group17 symbol of the sun
cast @group18 symbol of the sun
cast @group19 symbol of the sun
cast @group20 symbol of the sun
Single target dispel:
#show Cleansing Prayer
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Cleansing Prayer
Note: To your preference you may use even more mouseoverui’s with abilities such as Sterilize/Ward of Fire. You can combine some abilities such as Healing Breath and Healing Flare; however there is lag associated with combining these two, so it’s generally not recommended. You may also prefer to manually select your target every time.
Other important abilities:
Purifier: Flash of the Phoenix, Spiritual Conflagration, Rite of the Forge, Ward of Fire, Fire Wall, Sterilize, Soul Brand and Ward of Scorching.
Sentinel: Empowering Light, Healer’s Covenant and Banish.
Inquisitor: Vex
Choosing Which Heals and When:
There are many effective ways to play this spec depending on the encounter, but these can primarily be broken into preemptive and reactive shielding. Preemptive shielding is useful when you can predict the heavy damage; this is usually limited to tanks. Reactive shielding allows for Flare-up, a powerful talent which essentially doubles your throughput when you need it most. Both styles are prevalent regardless of the encounter if you are playing correctly.
Symbol of the Sun: Your primary shielding ability, so important that it deserves an entire essay regarding its usage. It will spread to players nearest your target and apply the Burnout debuff, preventing another Symbol of the Sun until the duration has been reached or you get a Clear the Coals proc by using other single-target heals/shield on them. There are situations on any given encounter where you may want to spam the provided macro to apply this shield on as many players as possible. There are also situations where you want to be very conservative with the application. A recurring theme with a majority of Clerics seems to be shield-spamming for 95% of an encounter due to it being easier. The issue is that shield-spamming introduces several obstacles which may seriously inhibit your ability to prevent a player from dying.
The first obstacle is Burnout. When you apply Symbol of the Sun you are restricting that player along with other players via Emblem of Ashes from being eligible for another Symbol of the Sun. This debuff lasts fourteen seconds under normal circumstances. Many fights contain aura damage or otherwise light-to-moderate consistent raid damage which will eat up your shields before any major raid damage or extra damage such as standing in fire. Burnout is something very important to consider before you spam Symbol of the Sun.
The second obstacle is lacking Flare-up. This talent is so ridiculously strong if you play Purifier correctly. Essentially your Symbol of the Sun becomes twice as effective, but this relies upon you reacting to damage instead of spamming shields. For Flare-up to succeed, your Symbol of the Sun must be applied within three seconds prior to being consumed. For a person eating a couple of ticks of a ground AoE, flare-up might save them. For heavy focused damage such as Mindsear on Salvarola, flare-up is crucial toward success. Without it, you will spend extra GCDs to ensure that player survives. Another example is Hard Mode Gelidra. Basically any time multiple players are frozen due to them failing mechanics, they are right next to each other. This usually means you can use one GCD and your Symbol of the Sun will shield anyone frozen via Emblem of Ashes, and then proceed with a Flare-up proc for double the shielding.
There are exceptions, of course. There are times on many encounters where you will spam shields. Even on Salvarola, which many Clerics agree is the toughest fight to play Purifier, you will spam shields during Soul Incineration, as there as no requirement to keep the Burnout debuff off players during this. Mindsear does not occur here, so you are safe to shield everyone before they might run through a wisp. The Hard Mode Progenitor encounter is an example where it’s acceptable to spam Symbol of the Sun for the entire duration. This is because the damage isn’t very predictable; players with the Soul Rupture debuff can damage/kill players without it. It’s better to have some amount of shielding across the raid than try to rely on reactive shielding here.
Here are some example Purifier strategies for specific Storm Legion T1 encounters:
Normal Gelidra: Shield spam is often a good idea due to the damage being less predictable. Certain mechanics can combo or even 1-shot undergeared players. The only predictable focus damage is when birds select a target and attack them.
Zaviel + HM Zaviel: Shield-spamming during the conducer phase, arc weld targets and the sub-50% phase is a good idea, but otherwise you should focus on healing the tank and DPSing.
Twins: Shield-spamming isn’t a good idea here. There is a lot of light, consistent incoming damage which will eat your shields up. Reserve your shields for tanks and anyone who suddenly dips due to standing in Electric Field. You’re much more likely to save someone from Electric Field if you react to the damage instead of spamming shields.
Crucia: For the Orbital Strike phase, spamming shields for maximum throughput is a smart idea, but for the final phase your shields will be eaten up by her aura damage. At that point, react to players standing in lasers instead. Their chances of survival drastically increase with flare-up and higher effective shielding.
Prog/HM Prog: Shield-spamming is effective. The damage is too random and often you cannot react to it because it will result in immediate death.
Kain/HM Kain: Shield-spamming is effective on both encounters for different reasons. On the normal Kain encounter you will have constant raid damage due to everyone stacking with Foul Blood. Max throughput is inherently via shield-spamming. On the HM Kain encounter, shield-spamming is effective because when players are picked for Foul Blood they will immediately pulse AoE damage; obviously 2-3 people pulsing the extra damage at once can combo for some nasty results. Shield spam helps resolve this issue when you are learning the fight.
Matriarch: Reactive shielding is optimal because you will have a limited number of players receiving predictable focus damage via Necrotic Spores and Torment.
Goloch: Purifier in general isn’t very helpful on this fight except for smoothing out tank damage. Whether you shield spam or not is highly irrelevant.
Regulos: People seem to enjoy Purifier on this fight. The main reason seems to be bringing undergeared players with very low health pools, around 21k. The issue is getting 1-shot by Crash of Souls when Regulos is buffed via his eyes. Most purifiers spam shields here, but you don’t want burnout on your lowest-HP members. Therefore, you should directly shield those with the lowest HP before each Crash. Shield-spamming could result in you being unable to save those members who are your sole purpose for running Purifier in the first place.
Other Ability Explanations:
Ward of Fire – Primary casted heal. Use this to smooth out moderate tank damage when more powerful cooldowns are not necessary. Its slow cast time makes it a poor choice for reactive healing.
Ward of Scorching – A mana-intensive casted heal. If other cooldowns are unavailable and you absolutely need to keep the target alive (whether it’s a tank or not), you will spam this. Let’s say you’ve reached 56% Salvarola and all other mitigation cooldowns are unavailable. Ward of Scorching is your last resort, but can be critical in saving the attempt and pushing to the 50% phase.
Gathering of Flames – Preemptive 10-target shield + heal. Combine with Flashover to provide your most reliable raid cooldown. Gathering of Flames is a great ability to use before Matriarch’s Consume Essence, Regulos’ Crash of Souls (eyes active), Zaviel’s Ion Destruction, Crucia’s Orbital Strike, or any heavy raid damage.
Spiritual Conflagration – Excellent single-target cooldown. This is good on a dipping tank who has the Burnout debuff. However, on a fight such as Salvarola, it can be rotated with other abilities to single-handedly keep a player up through Mindsear.
Healer’s Covenant – 40% mitigation cooldown, can easily be worked into a cooldown rotation with your Defiler and tanks for heavy damage phases such as Crucia’s Lightning Breath, Regulos’ Reaving Oblivion, or the Salvarola add phase from 75%-50%.
Rite of the Forge – A heavy load of shielding over 15s. It’s preferable over Spiritual Conflagration in most scenarios due to the longer-term shielding, but not preferable when you need a cooldown with more burst. Note: Rite of the Forge does not stack with Spiritual Conflagration.
Latent Blaze - A very powerful heal which procs when the target drops below 30% health. Apply this on tanks before a pull, but also maintain it in combat. If it’s on all tanks, you can also apply it to yourself or another priority target (perhaps a particular player likes to stand in fire more than others). The macro listed earlier for Ward of Scorching includes Touch the Light. You can tap that once and then your Latent Blaze macro to save some time during combat.
Sterilize – Removes all dispellable debuffs on the target. Quite useful on Gelidra during the add phase. The small birds apply Photovoltaic Spasms on a tank, which will deal massive damage if the debuff reaches a high stack count.
Empowering Light – Standard AoE cleanse, quite good with the one-second GCD via Merciful Appeal.
Healing Breath – Your first priority for spot-healing when a player already has Burnout.
Healing Flare – Your second priority for spot-healing when a player already has Burnout. Spammable, therefore mobile.
Fire Wall – Your top DPS priority for both single target and AoE. There are plenty of occasions where the tank damage is light and you don’t need to spam shields, so by all means contribute with some DPS.
Vex/Banish – Your other DPS priorities. Apply as you see fit.
Soul Brand – Just got done with some emergency Ward of Scorchings? Mana tonic on cooldown? Use this ability, but try not to make it a habit.
Tips:
Purifier’s crit rate isn’t too impressive, though it has its moments with Latent Blaze/Gathering of Flames. You’ll generally want to gear for Spell Power items, but don’t overly concern yourself with min-maxing here. The throughput difference between a DPS Crit Power set and your ideal Spell Power set will be negligible. Either way, make sure you’re not sacrificing too much Endurance.
Notes and Sources:
This guide is based off a guide originally found on the official RIFT forums and written by Ahov. We’ll do our best to provide updates here, but if you need quicker guide updates and/or answers to specific questions, make sure to check out the original source thread! Also, feel free to drop us a line in the comments section if you notice something needs to be updated and/or something that’s incorrect.
Special thanks to Ahov.
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