Deciding which heal pool for a sword/shield scrap

[normalperson]

 

It's hard for me to live without a heal, but /Shield is still pretty fun, so I knew when I began I would need to take a pool to get a heal power. 

 

So I'm choosing between two options. 

 

1 - Medicine Pool.              Plan is that later on I will take Ghost Widow Patron and get Shadow Meld which will give me temporary very high defense, to save me from getting interrupted.          

 

2 - Presence Pool.              If I go this route then instead of Ghost Widow, I'll take the Ice Ancillary because the Jack Frost has high defense, and I want to stack that with Grant Cover and see how that plays out. 

 

Right now I am not considering Willpower Pool because I am already using that on a Shield/Fire tank and I want to have a variety of builds.    Otherwise I am pretty sure that would be the best choice. 

 

A distant third choice is not to take any pool heals at all, but later on go with Mako as my patron to get Hibernate.            But it is a pretty distant third. 

[Maelwys]

3 - Ignore clicky heals and instead stack +MaxHP and +Regeneration and Healing Procs.

Stick the Panacea; Numina and Regenerative Tissue Procs in either Health and/or True Grit, a Power Transfer Proc in Stamina; and an Impervious Skin Proc in True Grit. Then ED-cap Health and True Grit for Healing aspect, put an Unbreakable Guard and a Preventive Medicine unique somewhere; and finally make sure to pick up your passive +MaxHP accolades. If you feel the need, you could even slot a few Entropic Chaos Procs in ranged attacks (and/or another few Power Transfer procs via the Energy or Mu Mastery Pools) but IMO that's overkill since you can achieve an average of >30 HP/Sec pretty trivially without it.

Building for passive healing in this fashion almost always gives a better return than trying to juggle Aid Self when under fire (and if you *do* decide to take Aid self, be sure to stick 2x Lv50+5 Interrupt Reduction IOs in it to let you at least attempt to heal through DoTs...)

Once you start getting your Incarnates you're really not going to miss a pool power clickyheal. Rebirth Destiny will give you a regular self-heal plus a constant regeneration boost (just pick up a copy of Ageless Radial too for those occasions when you need more Defence Debuff Resistance!). Melee Core Hybrid is also an option for soloing tricky AVs... and some of the Radial Lores have very decent buffs plus an allied heal (e.g. Carnies and Talons).

[Nemu]

If you take the medicine pool you can get aid other and work on your heal badge. Also field medic adds a tiny endurance recovery buff to aid self.

[tidge]

[Due Regard]

4 hours ago, Maelwys said:

3 - Ignore clicky heals and instead stack +MaxHP and +Regeneration and Healing Procs.

Regenerative Tissue Procs in either Health and/or True Grit, and an Impervious Skin Proc in True Grit.

Those two uniques are odd, as they're useful, but you get a similar benefit from 3 slotting Numi's...

[Zect]

Medicine generally, because it has higher availability. Unleash is too slow (when you need HP you tend to need it now) and has too much downtime: it is still only available once every 2 mins at +400% rech.

 

Aid self is actually more hps than healing flames if you spam it (17.0% heal every 24.5s, vs 21.7% heal every 40.9s - unenhanced numbers). But the catch is it's interruptible, so it's harder to kite while healing like melee toons do when forced onto the defensive and you have to beware of dots; and it's a very long animation, so using it will tank your dps.

 

5 hours ago, normalperson said:

later on I will take Ghost Widow Patron and get Shadow Meld which will give me temporary very high defense, to save me from getting interrupted.          

 

All good shield builds are softcapped without shadowmeld anyway, so you are unlikely to be interrupted. Shadowmeld mainly has value as an additional buffer against high tohit enemies or heavy incoming -def debuff.

 

4 hours ago, Maelwys said:

Building for passive healing in this fashion almost always gives a better return

 

The reality is more nuanced. A power transfer proc is about +3.35 hps (doesn't scale with maxhp). Panacea on scrappers is slightly weaker at +3.29 hps (ditto). Every 100% of regeneration is about +9.17 hps.* Aid self slotted for heal at 95% ED without field medic is about +21.0 hps. It takes a significant investment to match or beat aid self, especially considering panaceas and numinas are default on most builds. My shield scraps that don't build for passive hps still get 20 hps. The real advantages of the hps procs and regen over aid self are that they do not cost animation time (= no dps loss), are passive (= less human error) and do not cost power slots (= more investment in epics, +def all powers).

 

Even when you do match/beat aid self in terms of hps, this is a pure mathematical analysis that only works out if incoming damage is consistent and even. In real combat conditions against challenging foes (the situation where heals actually matter), incoming damage is spiky and unpredictable. If you are soloing a +3 AV and it lands 2 big hits in short succession that chop off 70% of the green bar, you do not necessarily have the leeway to hang out and wait for procs or regen to kick in. That might mean risking a death resulting in encounter reset. Analysis of risk must consider not only the likelihood of adverse events, but also when those adverse events are likely to happen**. Taking aid self means paying extra for the insurance that you will have hps when you need it most and when its value is highest.

 

* this does scale with maxhp. I have assumed 2200hp, which is at the high end of what accoladed shield scraps will achieve without owts or other buffs active. The AT cap is 2409.

 

** this is the reason why junk bonds are almost never worth it in your portfolio despite the higher yield, because they tend to be correlated with stocks and crash at the same time stocks do. Why buy bonds that don't do the job bonds are supposed to do, which is reduce volatility and diversify risk? Just buy stocks if you want yield and don't mislead yourself about the amount of risk you're taking.

 

5 hours ago, Maelwys said:

just pick up a copy of Ageless Radial too for those occasions when you need more Defence Debuff Resistance!

 

Scrapper shield only has ~70% DDR with 2x AD, so many shield builds are pigeonholed into ageless radial (the other bonuses are generally a good deal for them too). You can keep a rebirth around for when you're not fighting -def critters though.

 

2 hours ago, tidge said:

 

Generally agreed, but who knows? Some people still put stock in being able to do things no insps no temps style, even though I gave it up as suboptimal long ago.

[Maelwys]

7 hours ago, Zect said:

It takes a significant investment to match or beat aid self, especially considering panaceas and numinas are default on most builds. My shield scraps that don't build for passive hps still get 20 hps. The real advantages of the hps procs and regen over aid self are that they do not cost animation time (= no dps loss), are passive (= less human error) and do not cost power slots (= more investment in epics, +def all powers).

 

Even when you do match/beat aid self in terms of hps, this is a pure mathematical analysis that only works out if incoming damage is consistent and even. In real combat conditions against challenging foes (the situation where heals actually matter), incoming damage is spiky and unpredictable.

I think it's safe to say that a Panacea proc is often going to end up in the default slot in "Health" (and in Stamina it's typically either an EndMod or a Performance Shifter proc) but after that it gets much fuzzier. A large proportion of builds will prioritise recovery over regeneration - so any surplus slots typically get spent on a Miracle in Health and a 2nd slot in Stamina before thinking about a Numina or Power Transfer proc(s)... let alone Regenerative Tissue and Impervious Skin and ED-capping Healing Aspect in Health (ideally by using a few more Numinas for the +Regen and +MaxHP set bonuses as pointed out by @Due Regard).

My earlier point was that building for passive healing in this fashion almost always gives a better return than trying to juggle Aid Self when under fire. As you've pointed out, one major disadvantage of relying on Aid Self is down to DPS loss because of the long animation time... however another is that regardless of how error prone your human fingers are it can be almost impossible to reliably activate Aid Self whenever you're under the effect of a debuff or DoT (since a lot of DoTs tick every 1 second or less you really need substantial Interrupt Reduction slotted in it) and it's completely impossible to activate it whilst moving/kiting. 
As a result; if I was to choose to take Aid Self then not only would doing so cost me a power pool pick and two power selections; it'd also likely require 4 additional Enhancement slots (e.g. 3x Numinas and 2x Lv50+5 Interrupt Reduction IOs) ... which could instead be used for additional +MaxHP, +Regen and Healing procs elsewhere in the build.
Therefore IMO it really boils down to a comparison between "a mediocre on-demand heal that requires coming to a complete stop and then doing nothing for ~4.5 seconds whilst crossing your fingers that a DoT tick or unlucky hit doesn't cancel it midway though" and "extra passive always-on health regeneration that always applies; without negatively impacting your regular movement and power activations".
 

I completely accept the point about spike damage - occasionally you're going to take a couple of big unlucky hits and get into "danger territory". But with sufficient +MaxHP that has a relatively low likelihood of occurring and the Preventive Maintenance unique and keeping a couple of emergency big Green Insps in the tank can help to mitigate the impact of it if/when it happens (my stock market holdings got blown on a house purchase a few years ago and have yet to be built up again; but I still do a lot of Risk Analysis for my RL day job!). My own experience suggests that getting into major healthbar trouble is an infrequent enough occurrence to not bother worrying too much about it... and /Shield also has a decent amount of Resistance plus its T9 to fall back on.
I have heard some argue that Panacea and Power Transfer Healing Procs aren't very reliable, but they're a lot less streaky than Performance Shifter (which many folk swear by) and multiple Power Transfer Procs have been a thing for years now if you want to push that far (I have a few toons with 4-5 of them).
 

7 hours ago, Zect said:

Scrapper shield only has ~70% DDR with 2x AD, so many shield builds are pigeonholed into ageless radial (the other bonuses are generally a good deal for them too). You can keep a rebirth around for when you're not fighting -def critters though.

I'm all for ensuring you're not prone to Cascading Defence Failure on any content where it matters. But I think someone who is seriously considering taking Aid Self will be better served by defaulting to Rebirth and using that 70% native DDR plus the odd Purple Insp when they come up against Defence-debuffing critters. The fact that Shield also has substantial resistance and OwtS to fall back on in the unlikely event of encountering substantial or autohit -Def debuffage just cements this notion even further in my head.

On an ITF or Hardmode stuff? Yeah; go Ageless; no contest. However Insps and allied buffs/heals in those situations are going to be plentiful and DPS-checks are more common... so that'd be even less of an argument to take Aid Self.

About the only "pool power" clickyheals I'd countenance myself taking these days would be Hoarfrost/Energize/etc from the squishy AT epic + patron pools.
 

Edited March 3 by Maelwys

[tidge]

Here is my general impression on self-heals for ATs with 'armor' sets (melee, Sentinels):

 

#1 By the time you need a self-heal, it is probably too late to make a difference.

 

If a player thinks they are going to need self-healing, there are two pieces that absolutely should be added to the build first. The Preventive Medicine %Absorb and the Reactive Defenses %Scaling Damage Resistance. Those uniques will kick in once a character starts taking damage, and will generally buy a player more time to consider the next step.

 

#2 There is an opportunity cost for pursuing a self-heal just to have a self-heal.

 

The best "power pool self-heals" IMO are those in power pools that include powers that will be both useful and likely to be used. My clear favorite is Force of Will: it has a solid travel power (that requires no extra slots) and a nice debuff (that also requires no extra slots). The single-target ranged attack is IMO meh, but the AoE cone is also excellent. Experimentation isn't bad, but I don't like the travel power. Presence probably offers the most useful of the 'self heals', as it doubles as a damage boost and self-rez, but the choices to unlock it are mediocre (at best). I have used the Medicine pool, but pretty much only for very limited periods of time (e.g. low-level Masterminds running xN content) or as a mule for the %Absorb piece. It's quite a miserable choice otherwise IMO.

 

As for Epics? We're somewhat at the mercy of the ATs. The ATs with access to Rise of the Phoenix have it best IMO. It's not a self-heal, but for as often as I've seen self-heals choke/not prevent defeat it may as well be one.

[Uun]

The only heal I've got on my BS/Shield is Rebirth Destiny and I don't use it much. I don't have any of the +regen uniques slotted, although I am at the HP cap when OWTS is active.