Life Staff Targeted Group Healing Build for New World

The Targeted Group Healing Build is the main PvE Life Staff setup for pushing Mutated Expeditions and engaging in other types of PvE content. It allows you to have a great balance of healing over time abilities and burst healing potential. It focuses on finding the balance between defensiveness and survivability while also being able to maintain ally health bars. When PvE healing, there is no need to trade survivability for maximum healing output. Due to the nature of PvE content, allies will generally remain in one location with minimal movement so it is easy to take advantage of Blissful Touch healing. In addition, you will generally have a constant target that you can hit to provide significant amounts of cooldown reduction through Revitalize and Refreshing Move

This is the preferred group healing build for Season One. It can be used to provide a mix of AoE and targetted healing.

• Divine Embrace — Targets party members and acts as a traditionally-cast burst heal. It also has AoE opportunity through Shared Struggle and Rebound
• Sacred Ground — Targets a player and casts a zone at their feet. This creates a healing circle for a quick burst heal and residual healing over time. It also amplifies the healing received of any player in the zone through Anointed.
• Beacon — Projectile that is aimed and will stick to the first player or surface it touches. This can be used on the ground when large damage is occurring, but it is best placed on front-line melee players so that the healing area continues to move to the action.

• Orb of Protection — Projectile that is aimed at friendly players and provides a small burst of healing with long healing over time effects and a 10% fortify to reduce damage taken. Aim this on the most concentrated "clumps" of players to provide a long-duration heal over time to large groups. The more players with the heal will increase the amount of times you will receive Mending Protection.

In all PvE settings it is best to use the additional healing, damage, and utility of the Void Gauntlet.

In PvE you want to play with the lowest amount of Constitution as possible to maximize damage.

Slot	Perks	Gem	Weight	Attribute	Source
Life Staff	Blessed Keen Beacon Refreshing	Cut Pristine Diamond	-	Focus	*Mutated Starstone or Crafted/BoE
Void Gauntlet	Bane or Blessed Keen Petrifying Scream or Vicious	Cut Pristine Diamond	-	Focus	Crafted/BoE
Helmet	Fortifying Sacred Ground**** Elemental Aversion Refreshing	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	Light	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE or TH***
Gloves	Ward Protection Perk Refreshing Any Viable Third Perk	Cut Pristine Opal	Light	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Chest	Ward Protection Perk Refreshing Any Viable Third Perk	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	Medium/Light***	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Pants	Ward Protection Perk Shirking Energy Refreshing	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	Light	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE or TH***
Boots	Ward Protection Perk Refreshing Any Viable Third Perk	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	Medium/Light***	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Amulet	Health Divine Mutation Specific Protection Perk*****	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	-	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Ring	Sacred Hearty Refreshing	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	-	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Earring	Refreshing Toast Healthy Toast Refreshing	Elemental Damage Reduction Gem (Mutator Specific)	-	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE

*: Staff of the Befouled Temple is a best in slot drop from any version of Mutated Starstone Barrows or it can be crafted with Materia.

**: Depending on how you chose to play, your Void Gauntlet can be used as an additional source of healing, otherwise you should chose perks that will increase your damage.

***: Tempest's Heart Expedition on any difficulty can drop Sagacious Hat, Sagacious Gloves, Sagacious Shirt, and Sagacious Pants, which are all essentially Best in Slot PvE drops and have healing perks on them. This makes gearing a little awkward. The shoes are not used because Light's Embrace is not in this build. If you use the chest piece it is a light armor weight which means you can fit one medium piece into the build for more defensiveness. Since you are not using the shoes, you can either go with a light BiS pair that is BoE or find one that is medium armor weight to up your resistances slightly. By grinding Tempest you can get yourself ready for all mutators as a healer.

****: Ability perks can go anywhere that you are able to fit them. These slots are just a suggestion.

*****: Mutators rotate elemental types, it is best to use gems that specifically reduce that elemental type, like Cut Pristine Ruby.

For more specific information on optimizing your gems and consumables, please refer to our dedicated Gems and Consumables guide.

Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform is the most defensive and useful option a healer has. It allows you to freely break out of crowd control effects, become immune to stagger, and obtain defensive buffs.

If you wish to deal more damage you can use Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines or Brutal Heartrune of Detonate.

Your Heartrune will be used similarly in PvP and PvE scenarios. As such, please refer to the Heartrune section of our Life Staff guide for tips on how it can be used most effectively.

The theoretical healing rotation for this build is as follows:

• Dodge to receive Bend Light
• Cast Orb of Protection to obtain the Mending Protection buff, fortify, and apply healing over time. Or use Beacon.
• Cast Sacred Ground to increase the target's healing received through Anointed.
• Cast Divine Embrace to burst heal any party member who continues to lose significant health.
• Light attack as a filler ability when cooldowns are not up, or not needed, this provides healing through Blissful Touch.
• Repeat

When using the Life Staff in PvP and PvE there are many similar nuances to a healer's mechanics and gameplay decisions. To learn more about how you can improve your gameplay, use certain secondary weapons, or additional information on specific abilities, please refer to the gameplay section of the Life Staff guide.

For more information on the most frequently asked Life Staff questions please refer to the FAQ section of the Life Staff guide for answers on PvP and PvE topics!