9Dragons Online

Well I thought I'd give out some of my beliefs for a good healer character here on 9Dragon. Best healer character I have is an SM10 Strategy Beggar on Nirvana. He's definately not in the "high level players range" and I'll admit, I've got a lot to learn in almost all areas of the game.I hope any guidelines I give will be either supported or umm...debated(I don't want to say refuted, hurts my ego =P ) by experienced players reading this guide. It's pretty long, I try to make this guide usable even by first time players of 9Dragons.

Weapon
The default weapon for a healer is the secondary weapon of their clan. This means:
Heavenly Demon, Wutang, Shaolin, Beggars : Gloves
Brotherhood of Thieves: Axes
Sacred Flower: Dagger

There's a bit of discussion of which weapon a healer should use. Here's what the best of my knowledge presents:
1)Gloves damage stops rising at the same rate per level as other weapons at some point. Some users choose to switch to their primary weapon at this point to keep up the high damage.
2)Most Primary Weapons(Swords, Sabers, Wheels, Staffs, etc...) will do more maximum damage than Secondary Weapons, with the exception of Axes
3)Axes have the highest damage in the game but the least weapon balance, which means more external wounds
4)Gloves have the highest weapon balance, meaning very few external wounds.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge about daggers for you SF players. I believe that a healer is best off using their secondary weapon for the sake of the smashes you learn. I do not know if Daggers damage ever evens out like Glove does, but I know Axe doesn't. I think only glove users should consider switching at some point. They may want to use the primary weapon for grinding at higher levels.

Note: I used to grind with my active, and only one smash, throwing in the charged smash every now and then as well. Now, I grind by alternating my two best smashes while still throwing the charged in every now and then. It's been much better and I don't think I need to switch from using gloves any more. I'm quite happy now. Maybe you guys want to try this.

Stats
First off, the game's ingame info is kinda weird. Wisdom and Essence the most important stats for a healer? Uh.....if you build your healer like that, all he'll be able to do is run around buffing and healing, with absolutely zero combat ability getting one-shotted by mobs. If that's what you want, to be totally under the protection of other players, okay you're kind of weird....or you have EXTREMELY good leveling friends....

I reccomend building your healer with Strength and Dex mostly. Wisdom I don't like to do much with at all. Constitution and Essence, and thus HP and VE are what I like to call conveniences only.

Strength - This should be your highest stat by far. You want to boost this one up. It lets you hit your enemies hard, and raises your defence as well. By building strength you let yourself grind mobs efficently and effectively. Based on the fact that Constitution is your penalty stay (2 points to raise by 1), you want the high defence so your HP doesn't drop like your love life does each day(just kidding!!). You'll hear other players saying you want to max this at 250 base by the time you hit mid or late SM levels.

Dexterity - Second most important stat for me. Here's where I'll go into a little PvP. To be effective at Melee PvP, you need plenty of Dex. You can add as many points as you want into dex, but in the end, we're still a bit short of the tools other classes get. So, you might as well focus on adding strength so that you can at least grind quickly Basic point, I would not try to boost PvP capability on a healer until at least Strength is maxed out. If you're going to follow my example, what you want to do is pretty much leave Dex at the weapon minimum requirement.

 

Use the info to stay on top of your Dex requirements. Know what the coming levels of weaponry will require, and be sure you're prepared. Please note the slight jump going from FD to SM. They aren't too accurate at the higher levels of weaponry, but for new healers, its reliable. By RL or FD, you shouldn't even be coming back here for advice on how to play healer. You can go to Hefei or ask Band Members for weapon requirement info. For BoT Axe users, your lower weapon balance will give you more external wounds than say a glove user. Some add about 10-15 dex above the weapon req to make this more manageable, but hey, you've got an External Wounds Heal. Your call.

Wisdom - Uhh, not sure what to say. I don't think Wisdom's really important, our two nukes &#!@ anyway. I left mine at 12 for relic usage. If you don't know what relics are, use the search button. Don't put much in here.....=P....and I really mean that.

Another school of thought is a WIS CK Healer in PvP. From what I hear, they're damn hard to take down. But, the best CK Healer I have heard of, name of Kyrain, but have not had the pleasure of meeting before, did a restat at FC. Don't be adding WIS points until you've reached a point where you think "Ahhh forget grinding fast for now, I'm a good level, I want to get into some PvP. Here, you'll want to buy a restat maybe, and try adding Wis. I dunno what to do for this CK Healer build, you'll have to find more out yourself (search button =P)

Essence - High VE is a nice thing to have, but you should NOT compromise your damage and combat ability for it. That's why its just an extra convenience to have high VE. I have about 12 Ess, and I've felt comfortable with that amount ever since I made it that way at RL12.

Constitution - Penalty Stat, bad idea to ineffeciently use points by sticking them here. You can use relics and HP Clothing to give yourself more HP too. Also, your heals(coupled with high defense from high Strength ahem ahem) should keep you with sufficent HP. Mines at 15, relic usage.

Skills to Use
Your buffs are very important naturally, they make you godly and make lower level players bow down in worship of you. Do your best to level your buffs for defense and the 5 stats and keep them always capped. Combatwise, use your charge skill. It can do some killer damage at high chengs. You won't get your instant cast heal until quite a ways after becoming a healer, but you want that at cheng 10 ASAP. Lastly, level your External Wounds Heal and the HP/VE Heal. Those are really nice things to have at high levels. People have trouble taking down high bosses without a healer who has a decent EW heal.

For combat, I now fight pretty much with just my smashes. I turn my strongest active on, but alternate between the three 2 second smashes that I have. I rarely let my active get a chance to hit out, and this seems to make grinding go by a bit faster, especially when I land lots of crits in a row. This is just my way of fighting, leveling all 3 smashes. Totally up to you if you want to follow me.

Yeah I pretty much just said level everything didn't I? It's hard being a healer I know =P Leveling skills is a major pain. Use the Double Exp Events and Manuals if you can afford them.
 

What to Level
You have a bit of freedom in what to grind. Unlike nukers, you don't need to try and find slow moving mobs or avoid CK mobs. I never had a problem in choice of what to grind, just go with common sense. Don't spend too much time on mobs that have a ton of HP, a ton of defense, or give a stun. This way, you can keep grinding fast and go through each mob as quickly as possible. cborg recently made an excellent leveling guide.