DA Tactics: Spirit Healer Build
right yeah so spirit healer is a really underused build but it's super fun and I want to share the general framework for your perusal/aid/consideration
you might want to consider though that it's really not an offensive playstyle - like, one of its core spells literally prevents you from using offensive abilities, so if you can't be doing w/out your high party damage contribution and you literally cannot stand being killstolen then you might want to pass
that being said it is a really team-oriented build and it is fantastic for people interested in sharing the burdens or who like to feel a sense of bonding with their companions in battle or who are happy to take a defensive role and see the benefits in that or who are RPing and want a spirit healer
or, on a tactical note, people who want to try a harder difficulty or are trying for the no deaths achievements/attempting Dead Is Dead or are interested in doing a runthrough with focus on team tactics and strategy for a change
Team Role: obviously spirit healer is not a stand-alone build at all, you have very little damage output and your contribution is instead dedicated to a supporting (but essential!) role you are team protector and healer. you will play a big part in buffing your companions, and will be solely responsible for health upkeep and making sure nobody falls on the battlefield. you'll also be preventing and reducing damage to your allies with blocking measures. you'll be out of the firing line making sure the team doesn't get hurt. you might not be fucking shit up with fireballs but your companions will not last 30 seconds without you, esp. on the busier and more difficult fights Attributes: it's an overwhelmingly good idea to primarily focus on willpower. this is bc with all the sustained effects you are keeping up you will only have a fraction of your mana pool left for active spells, and so that fraction will need to be a lot of mana. on top of that, since you'll only have that fraction, regeneration speed is vital - you basically need to never hit empty. after that, even though you won't be using damaging abilities it's still a good idea to boost your magic attribute, partly to resist magic yourself and partly bc you can still use staff projectiles and since they'll be your only damage output they'll need to be effective so you're not just plinking at the enemy waiting for someone to need immediate help. if you want to pop points into anything else then take your pick, though I'd suggest strength bc of the fortitude benefit Ability Trees: aside from obviously the spirit healer specialisation, you'll need some combo of spirit, arcane, and creation. I'd strongly recommend creation bc of the basic healing spell and also a bit more. out of the others, whatever floats your boat. I personally picked spirit to run with the spirit theme and bc it's got some handy dandy shit; it's also easier to get equipment for if you want spirit and healing bonuses in one piece of gear. arcane has shield and barrier spells tho which are super useful and totally in line with the build. Spells (Sustained): mandatory: - HEALING AURA. this is the base of the spirit healer specialisation tree, and all other spells on this tree require it to be activated before they will work. you cannot cast any offensive spells with this in play. +100 healing regeneration rate to all party members inc. you, which makes a seriously massive difference. in combo with a couple of other things, you regen health pretty much immediately after taking damage. it also means allies require less constitution bc their health is kept up steadily. upgrade to RADIANCE (extra 5m radius) and FAITH (extra +100 healing regen rate) whenever you can. 30% of your mana. two (recommended) of the following: - HEROIC AURA [creation]. boosts both attack and defence of the team by 15% and 7.5% respectively. this is a noticeable increase. you can upgrade to VALIANT AURA for extra buffs to damage and critical chance, which are v. useful with a complementary team build. 20% of your mana. - ARCANE SHIELD [arcane]. this has the benefit of being upgradeable twice but it's only on the second upgrade that it actually effects your team members. it's a defence booster, with the ELEMENTAL SHIELD upgrade increasing resistance to all elements by 20% and the ARCANE WALL upgrade extending this to the party with some knockoff (5% defence and resistance for them). 20% of your mana. - DEATH SYPHON [spirit]. remember how I said mana regen is important? this ups your regen by 5% for each corpse on the field, which means you get better as the battle goes on and therefore in the most clustered and outnumbered fights. the DEATH VORTEX upgrade increases this regen by another 5% and adds a health regen of 5% per corpse as well. it also looks cool as fuck. 20% of your mana. I took heroic aura and death syphon bc I felt they were more team-focused therefore useful but the arcane shield's elemental resistance is sure to come in handy. Spells (Activated): any 6 of the following (recommended) (also reminder that sustained spells do not need to be in your spell wheel and therefore do not need to take up space!) [creation] - HEAL. health regen of 40% instantly to ally of your choice. this is so fucking handy when someone's on the brink of death, especially if you have a team tank who takes a shitload of damage. upgrade to GREATER HEAL for double this effect. - GLYPH OF PARALYSIS. just about any non-boss who crosses this is immobile for 4s, which given rank should be plenty of time to either take out or put a dent in their health. it can take two enemies at a time. GLYPH OF BINDING increases the effect to 6s and lets you glyph an enemy multiple times, with a penalty (only 2s duration afterwards). - GLYPH OF REPULSION. requires the above. this repels enemies for 10s with a physical force of 6x. you can place it between an enemy and an ally that they're attacking in order to prevent them getting there. upgrading to GLYPH OF DEFIANCE doubles the force. - HASTE. this increases attack speed for the party by 50% for 10s. this is useful in a tight spot where party members are being clustered and you need to break enemy ranks quickly, especially if your healing spells are still in cooldown. think of it as a last resort, or an offensive push. GREAT HASTE doubles the duration to 20s, bc sometimes regular haste just doesn't cut it if the enemies are strong enough. [arcane] - BARRIER. either you or an ally gets +50% damage resistance for 6s. this way you can choose the party member who's being most dogpiled and make sure they endure the onslaught. I'd advise definitely upgrading if you get this, bc ARCANE FORTRESS gives another +50% and you will most likely need a big boost in an oh-shit-aveline-has-all-of-the-aggro situation. [spirit] - DISPEL MAGIC. interrupts all enemy spells, removes any magical debuffs against your team and disables any sustained effects any enemy is using within 5m. basically it's wonderful, especially bc the primary little shits are bound to be enemy spellcasters due to their ability to hit you from a light year away when you're supposed to be in a safe spot. would deffo recommend you and/or someone else being equipped to nullify enemy mages since they can often bypass armor and are higher ranked and also annoying as fuck. TRANSMUTATION actually damages any enemy in range who is using a sustained ability, as well as healing any ally from whom a negative effect was removed, which is probably the best spellcaster counter in the game whilst tying in with healing. though damage-dealing, it can still be used with healing aura bc it is not primarily offensive. [spirit healing specialisation] - GROUP HEAL. if you're going for this build and don't use this I'm judging you bc it's basically what the entire spirit healer thing is all about - it instantly regens health for all allies inc. you at the same time, 25% all around. UNITY restores 15% more. like I can't even explain how much this has helped me, whenever you are in a tight fix and everyone needs health not just one person there is a solution that isn't just desperately switching chars to give health potions! also look at the name, that's fucking teamwork buddy, gOD I love team tactics a lot - REVIVAL. this brings back all fallen comrades with some health and mana/stamina. RENEWAL brings them back with more of each, and REFUSAL lowers the cooldown time for those chaotic fights where people just keep dropping. I was/am going for the a no-deaths act so I didn't pick this, but if you're not then this will be cool as balls. so many times I've been the last one standing and just ran around shitting my pants. and look at the icon, how adorable obviously, get the passive abilities for your chosen trees if you have the ability points to spare. you're free to choose some offensive ones if you want but bear in mind you'll have to temporarily switch healing aura off for it. don't rely on them as a source of damage e.g. spirit bolt which is fairly weak and to be used often, but instead maybe keep a big one for emergencies. for my build I chose heal, glyph of paralysis, glyph of repulsion, dispel magic, group heal and walking bomb, for the occasional tight spot when a shot of widespread damage-dealing was more important than healing aura for a few seconds. Team-Building - General: imo the best team type to have with the spirit healer build is at least a half ranged-based team with a single melee tank. you are obviously welcome to mix-and-match especially if you just want your faves but having an all close-combat team is going to be hell when they're all running in at the same time and you have to keep track of who's in the biggest shit and everyone's taking damage at similar rates and you cannot help them all simultaneously. if you have one team member really in the thick of it and the others visibly better off then you can delegate who is in the most trouble and who is next etc and then when it is safe to apply general buffs/take off healing aura for a sec. I can also tell you right now that bosses with wide attack range and strong armor are going to be virtually impossible on anything above casual difficulty with a melee focus. the ancient rock wraith in the deep roads is probably the best example. also, again you can swap your team around, you don't have to rigidly do anything, but you might find it helpful to at least have a primary team and equip them best and sort out their tactics. if you do this, I would suggest working out a system of cover - who covers who, who is covered by who at all times, if possible splitting up into primary and secondary covers. it should end up something like: hawke --> primary: tank; secondary: all tank --> primary: hawke, ranger 1; secondary: all ranger 1 --> primary: tank; secondary: hawke ranger 2 --> primary: ranger 2; secondary: tank this can be arranged by going into tactics and choosing conditions such as 'hawke: surrounded by 2 or more enemies', 'tank character: health <50%' etc this can take a while to figure out, you might want to write it down on paper first. Team-Building - Specific: right so you've got your own build sorted, and since you've gone for a plainly supportive build you're probably going to want to think about team tactics for that. disclaimer: you don't have to stick to these! they're just tips, it's your game and your preferences, but there are chars that are really not good for this build. 0/10 would not recommend: - ISABELA. she's my favourite char but a horrible one for a team with only three damage-dealers. she is lightning-fast but can only focus on one enemy at any time and takes a ridic amount of damage. you will either need to expend a lot of time and spells on her that someone else making more impact is going to need, or else go against her attribute conventions and invest in a ton of constitution and cunning. - ANDERS. he is basically redundant now that you're taking the healer role. I know some people focus him on his vengeance specialisation and primal/elemental more instead, but again this involves going against conventions bc he already has ability points in creation and iirc arcane, and avoiding healing will miss half of his specialisation tree. most recommended: - MERRILL. I legit cannot stress enough how great merrill was for this build. she basically acts as the other side of the mage coin - whilst the spirit healer uses mana to buff and heal allies, merrill uses it to debuff enemies via the entropy tree, which is basically the more sinister twin of the spirit tree anyway. going down the blood mage route with her is also an awesome spirit healer foil; with a large health pool and a lot of health regen gear/auras she's effective as hell (though be aware she cannot be healed with spells or potions when her blood magic is active, so prevent as much damage as you can from befalling her). the team debilitator. - FENRIS & AVELINE. both make fantastic tanks and play the part of aggro-attractor perfectly. fenris has the advantage of natural magic-defense, which is a good thing to aim or, you'll want about 2 people on the field (inc. you) who can nullify enemy magic, on the other hand, aveline's guardian tree makes her awesome for absorbing damage and shielding party members (hence the tree name). any others are fair game. if anyone wants to see my team build, it's here. Equipment: hawke's equip will be based primarily around the 'healing by' trait, which increases the healing effectiveness given by hawke to other party members and also to hawke. secondary things to look for are mana regen, health regen, magic resist and 'healing to'. for my hawke, I ended up with the equipment of: circlet of the dreamer, vir atish'an, cumberland circle robes w/ a valiant rune, enchanter's spatterdashes, the demon's eye and orsino's signet rings, a rhinestone-studded symbol of andraste, andruil's braid, and the chanter's staff (with the staff of violation as backup). for the tank, focus on 'healing to' and stamina regen, with secondary in damage. from there, designate who will help you nullify enemy magic and make sure they get magic resists. you will also want to finalise the builds of the two range (or one range/melee depending on what you went for) chars, e.g a crit build, in which case you'd focus on crit chance, crit damage. focus everyone to some degree on 'healing to'. this removes the need to expend points in constitution by substituting regeneration and buffs, with the exception of merrill if playing a blood mage build. - this is about as much help as can be given on this front! have fun with the build and switch things up to make it your own. it's a really lovely route to take it and for me gave me a true sense of team spirit - if one team member goes down, the whole build is disrupted. there's incentive to keep everyone alive and healthy, and the non-offensive role has a time to shine.