bittermidget

I was thinking about making either a Mystic or a Defiler and I had a couple questions for all thos defilers out there.

What is the general purpose of the defiler in a group? Assuming you have a plate healer in the group. (ie Debuff, Backup Heals)

What is the general purpose of the defiler in a raid?

How are they in PvP?

If you could do it all over again, would you have made a mystic over your defiler?

How are they soloing? Do they do any signifigant damage?

Thanks

~ Bittermidget

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headbusta

I'll let a real defiler answer the rest of this if they take the time, but i had to LOL at this.

Choadley

It seems that he has this Defiling thing totally understood!

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Talyth

de·file : \di-ˈfī(-ə)l, dē-\

Function:
transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
de·filed; de·fil·ing
Etymology:
Middle English, alteration (influenced by filen to defile, from Old English fȳlan) of defoilen to trample, defile, from Anglo-French defoiller, defuler, to trample, from de- + fuller, foller to trample, literally, to full — more at full
Date:
14th century
: to make unclean or impure: as a: to corrupt the purity or perfection of : debase <the countryside defiled by billboards> b: to violate the chastity of : deflower c: to make physically unclean especially with something unpleasant or contaminating <boots defiled with blood> d: to violate the sanctity of : desecrate <defile a sanctuary> e: sully , dishonor

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Savne

Koinoo

I'm always surprised when people automatically consider "plate healers" to be the main healers. If you have a shaman that knows their class (mystic or defiler), they will be the main healer in a group. That will always be true (unless the shaman in question sucks or the other healer is significantly better geared), due to the way wards are applied (wards > reactives > regens).

To answer the questions more directly (this is all my personal opinoin, keep in mind):

What is the general purpose of a defiler in a group? Primarily heal with debuffs sprinkled in. Defilers will always (unless they are lazy or just plain suck) be the main healer in a group situation.

What is the general purpose of a defiler in a raid? We're commonly the shaman put into the main tank group to provide the foundation heals (i.e. read: main healer) for the raid's main tank, so that's really where we shine.

How are defilers in PVP? I'm not an authority on defiler PVP, but from all reports we are bad at it unless we're wearing the tier 2 shard armor. Wards take a long time to cast (i.e. easy to interrupt) and we are close to the bottom (if not the bottom of) the DPS food chain.

If you could do it all over again, would you have made a mystic over your defiler? Nope. I love playing defiler, and wouldn't betray regardless of the state of the class. I feel both classes have their own unique roles, and hope that they remain this way.

How are they soloing? Do they do any signifigant damage? Defilers are notoriously slow soloers. That being said, taking the right AA lines and gearing for damage can speed this up a bit. At low levels, before you really get any AA's, soloing is painful. If you're an 80th level defiler, the tier 2 shard armor is immensely powerful when it comes to helping us solo for example. I keep a "solo spec" in my AA mirror which leans more heaviliy towards DPS. In the grand scheme of things (i.e. when compared to equally geared, equally skilled non-defilers), defilers are very low on DPS.

Grue

Let's consider a group with a defiler and another healer in it in, for easier group content. Defiler will out-heal the hell out of everything and other healer will be bored. Which is why solo healing is the way to go.

In raids it's the same situation, if it's easier stuff you will always be the one the least bored, because the wards absorb damage, making the templar nervous and whiney because they have nothing to heal ^^.

As for harder stuff, you will be healing your ass off alongside the templar working together and keeping the MT group alive for fun and profit, so the question who is the main or better healer won’t really matter unless one of you sucks.

It's an interesting class, healing wise, quite challenging and has very nice potential. Now, I never played a mystic, but I heard they heal slightly worse, but buff DPS more. This last bit is hearsay, however, so don’t take it for granted.

Soloing really sucks until you get the 6 set legendary TSO bonus, which gives you the damage shield on your wards (ofc by then you probably won’t be needing to solo anymore). This makes it quite easy to solo stuff, even some easy heroics, although the latter is not worth practicing for any length of time due to it being horrendously boring.


This was all from the PVE perspective, brought to you by your local grue.

arieste

Nothing. Pretty much anything that can be one-grouped, can be one-grouped with EITHER a plate healer OR a defiler. Having the second one is redundant. So to directly answer your question, the purpose of having a defiler in a group when you have a plate healer is to be able to get rid of the plate healer and have them play their dps/utility alt.

For raids, the reasons have been stated.

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Koinoo

Not that it's relevant to this discussion (not much I say is!), but the 6-set bonus was moved to a 3-set bonus recently.

Nykkon

Honestly, a defiler is the best healer for any kind of group, the only situation that can make healing as a defiler living hell is in PvP, and even a good defiler with a decent shaman can make healing in pvp supremely simple. Truely if you have a good tank, with a decent defiler and shaman, your pvp group should shine among many of those whom you wish to destroy. I personally love playing the defiler and couldn't imagine trying to play a mystic, although mystics can do far more dmg, they suck in comparison of healing and debuffing. To answer all of your questions, defilers are the best healer class, but as a punishment they suck dps wise, if you enjoy grouping and owning people heal wise, then play a defiler, otherwise try something else.
~Nykkon