Ahov's Guide to Cabicar Healing

[Ahov]

The Spec

51 Cabalist/14 Justicar/1 Sentinel offers extremely high average dps throughout an Expert or Master dungeon, while passively and directly healing the group as needed. It is recommended to run this over a primary healing spec such as Senticar or Puri/sent since experts and master modes do not require much direct healing. Also, if you are aiming for record speedclears, this would be the healing spec of choice.

Buffs and skills to have on your bar

**Active Buffs - Mien of Honor, Reparation, Dark Harbor, Righteous Mandate (applied to your tank), Howling Death (applied during down-time)

**Damaging abilities: Tyranny macro (provided below), Ravaging Darkness, Bound Fate, Shadow's Touch, Curse of Solitude, Bolt of Radiance, Light Bolt, Sign of Asias macro, and the Single-target macro (provided below)

**Healing abilities : Doctrine of Loyalty, Healing Breath

**Utility abilities: Dark passage, Reversal of Fortune, Sigil of Woe, Sigil of Secrecy, Break Free, and the Mana macro (provided below)

Macros

**Single-target Macro:

#show Obliterate
suppressmacrofailures
cast Obliterate
cast curse of discord
cast dark water
cast distorted shadows
cast shadow's touch
cast Bolt of Radiance
cast strike of judgment


**Tyranny macro:

#show tyranny
suppressmacrofailures
cast Vile Power
cast Tyranny


**Mana macro:

#show Purpose
suppressmacrofailures
cast Purpose
cast Strike of Judgment


**Sign of Asias macro:

#show sign of asias
suppressmacrofailures
cast sign of asias
cast vile power
cast tyranny

Damage Rotations

**One target: Use the Single-target macro

**Two targets: Use Tyranny whenever you have three decays, and always after two Shadow's Touch casts.

Example: Tyranny, Shadow's Touch, Shadow's Touch, Tyranny, Shadow's Touch, Shadow's Touch..

**Three Targets+: Use Tyranny whenever you have three decays, always after two Bound Fate or Shadow's Touch casts, and prioritize Bound Fate over Shadow's Touch. Feel free to throw in Curse of Solitude if you feel the mobs will be alive for the duration of the DoT.

Example: Tyranny, Bound Fate, Shadow's Touch, Tyranny, Shadow's Touch, Bound Fate, Tyranny

Obviously if a cast-time ability will not complete, you are better off with another Tyranny.

Fundamentals

To re-iterate: Cabicar is intended as a healer for Experts and Master mode dungeons. There is no other support healing or otherwise that is necessary.

As a rule of thumb, you want to maintain four convictions at all times. As good as Cabicar is at passively healing your group, passive healing isn't always the best choice. Convictions are maintained with Bolt of Radiance and Light Bolt. Usually Bolt of Radiance is plenty to maintain your convictions, but there may be times where you need them ASAP, in which case you use Light Bolt.

Your tank is healed passively through Reparation and Righteous Mandate. For boss fights or situations where your passive healing isn't enough, you may want to use Healing Breath on cooldown, particularly in a Master mode dungeon.

Remember your utility! If the tank gets out of range you may use Dark Passage to teleport forward a bit. You have access to an aoe silence for stray casters and a purge for certain boss fights and mobs in mmCR (Storm Burst!). You have a reflect (Reversal of Fortune) which is really handy because you will usually gain aggro on mobs at least once per dungeon. Save it for a very high damage skill, either Cinder Burst or Lightning Strike. Use the "mana macro" in the emergency where you've somehow been drained of your mana.

Save Sign of Asias for a situation where the mobs absolutely must die. This is usually if you've accidentally pulled an entire set before the tank even has them targeted, or if the tank has lost aggro and multiple mobs are killing party members. Sign of Asias + Tyranny unleashes a ridiculous amount of damage and healing. Ravaging Darkness can also save your life if you take a nasty crit.

Important Note!!!: you do not have any cleanse as a Cabicar, so you must heal through any mechanics that are normally cleansed (such as Rictus' Rotting Flesh or the disease from Majolic the Bloodwalker; for fights like these it is imperative you maintain four convictions at all times)

I have a few low-quality videos of me playing Cabicar on my Twitch channel; here is one of them.

As always, feel free to ask questions. My guide has covered the main points and a few obscure ones as well, but I feel there is still room to improve.

Good luck!

[bctrainers]

**Tyranny macro:

#show tyranny
suppressmacrofailures
cast Vile Power
cast Tyranny

Why is this? Maybe this works for 5 mans and 10 mans, but i see no way how this would be effective in a 20 man.

Vile power when it hits more enemies (it is bugged at last check, the 3 meter boost doesn't appear to work (edit) with vile power.) will return more mana.

Putting Vile Power into a spam rotation with Tyranny doesn't seem effective. Vile Power and Tyranny should be stand alone, as Vile Power is quite useful for a quick AOE mana return hit. Would make no sense using Vile Power when it's not on CD with a full mana bar.

[Ahov]

Why is this? Maybe this works for 5 mans and 10 mans, but i see no way how this would be effective in a 20 man.

Vile power when it hits more enemies (it is bugged at last check, the 3 meter boost doesn't appear to work (edit) with vile power.) will return more mana.

Putting Vile Power into a spam rotation with Tyranny doesn't seem effective. Vile Power and Tyranny should be stand alone, as Vile Power is quite useful for a quick AOE mana return hit. Would make no sense using Vile Power when it's not on CD with a full mana bar.

There are two points to be made here: I am not recommending Cabicar for any 20-man, and Vile Power is macroed in for simplicity. I have seen no reason to keep it separated since mana is never an issue.

[Ahov]

Updated the guide to mention there is no cleanse and those mechanics just need to be healed through.

[Bowler Hat]

I prefer to keep Distorted Shadows out of my ST macro, mainly because it's a channel and easy to acccidentally interrupt and also because it's a questionable DPS boost. I instead weave in a 3 decay Tyranny after the Obliterate, either way ST DPS in this spec is very low and it makes little difference.

#show Obliterate
suppressmacrofailures
cast Obliterate
cast Curse of Discord
cast Dark Water
cast Shadow's Touch
cast Bolt of Radiance

I use an AOE filler macro whilst waiting for 3 decays. The majority of Cabicar DPS and therefore HPS comes from 3 decay Tyranny, however you still don't want to interrupt a cast with Tyranny. I use Curse of Solitude on cooldown as it buys me an extra half second between Tyrannys and another opportunity to reposition;

#show Shadow's Touch
suppressmacrofailures
cast Curse of Solitude
cast Bound Fate
cast Shadow's Touch
cast Bolt of Radiance

I also make use of a conviction builder macro and a Purpose mana regen macro;

#show Strike of Judgment
suppressmacrofailures
cast Strike of Judgment
cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Light Bolt

#show Purpose
suppressmacrofailures
cast Purpose
cast Strike of Judgment

Good Cabicars work with the tank to position mobs nicely so I like to have Provoke on my bars and use Maelstrom to help bunch mobs up to be cleaved. The spec works best when the tank likes to pull multiple packs at a time. If you can teach your tank that more mobs equals more tank healing the synergy can be awesome.

You rarely miss the cleanse, but beware, you need to proactively build convictions ahead of time when you need to heal with only a single target to hit.

You'll top all the meters and have a blast doing it. You can also grind very effectively in this spec, just throw on an endurance seal, your shielding sigil and the Alsbeth shielding trinket. You can then just spam single decay Tyranny and start body pulling; Vile power on 6+ mobs and the Purpose macro on the last mob should keep your blue bar healthy.

edit: Forgot to mention the Justicar crystal for grinding

Nice guide Ahov.

[Ahov]

Snip

Distorted Shadows is indeed a ST dps increase. Granted, if you're not paying attention you can interrupt the cast, but it's still a ST dps increase.

I have a few concerns with your AoE macro:

1. Bound Fate is only a dps increase (and therefore HPS increase) with 3+ mobs
2. Curse of Solitude is certainly a skill to keep in mind while moving, but it's pointless to use on a mob that's about to die. It should instead be manually applied as seen fit.

Thank you for the feedback

[Bowler Hat]

Distorted Shadows is indeed a ST dps increase. Granted, if you're not paying attention you can interrupt the cast, but it's still a ST dps increase.

Perhaps, but it's not dramatic and hardly build breaking

You can still manually weave in the channel, and I occasionally do. It just doesn't suit my playstyle to have the channel in the macro.

I have a few concerns with your AoE macro:

1. Bound Fate is only a dps increase (and therefore HPS increase) with 3+ mobs
2. Curse of Solitude is certainly a skill to keep in mind while moving, but it's pointless to use on a mob that's about to die. It should instead be manually applied as seen fit.

I think you are quibbling over nothing much. If there are only two targets to DPS then the tank should be getting more. The majority of your time will be spent DPSing large packs, or pew-pewing a single target. It's rare you will spend any meaningful time on only two mobs. Either way these abilities are fillers until we can unleash our next 3 decay Tyranny, which is the real DPS/HPS of the subclass.

Once again this macro suits my playstyle in PVE and PVP. I like to limit unnecessary complexity where I can, mainly because of limited macro slots and my habit of keybinding like for like abilities across all my toons. This means my old and tired brain doesn't have to spend cycles recollecting nuances of every build and I can instead just rely on finger memory to instinctively hit the right button at the right time.

Whilst I applaud min/maxing, I also admire ease of use. This spec is hardly a raid spec - a raid trash spec at best - and squeezing out every last drop of DPS/HPS with a bit of added complexity doesn't mean much at the end of the day; particulalry when the majority of that HPS is going straight to overheals

Thank you for the feedback

It makes the world go around

[Merridwyn]

So, I'm walking home from the school run this morning, and I'm thinking "I really should roll out a Cabicar today". I get home, log in, and voila! Ahov's guide to Cabicar healing.

You, sir, are a flippin' star.

[Solisto]

Ok, this spec is sooooooooooo much fun in heroics. Lack of a cleanse kinda sucks, but that only matters in a select few fights.

[Frahnz]

Thanks for the guide(s). It was a pleasure running into you tonight while I was learning to tank. Your Cab pumped out some great numbers and made my inexperienced pulling look good. Looks like I have another build to learn. For anyone new to healing these are the guides to read if you raid. I learned the senticar on my own before I read any guides and Ahov's is dead on. The Purifier is so simple but chain casting RF without using a rune would not have occured to me. I can't wait to work on the Cabicar now.

[glanomol]

I've been using this for a while now and it is very effective. There are some fights you'll need to switch to an actual healing spec but this works for 90% of fights. Its works well for trash in every instance. There are some pulls in HK I've gotten 9kdps with 3-4k hps.
I highly recommend using the justicar crystal for loads more tank healing.

The vile power macro is good too. its exactly the same as the one i use. VP doesnt return enough to save it for when you absolutly have to have it and there is no difference in damge in using it over tyranny. Not having to watch my mana or worry about the cooldown is my preference anyway.

[Ahov]

I've been using this for a while now and it is very effective. There are some fights you'll need to switch to an actual healing spec but this works for 90% of fights. Its works well for trash in every instance. There are some pulls in HK I've gotten 9kdps with 3-4k hps.
I highly recommend using the justicar crystal for loads more tank healing.

The vile power macro is good too. its exactly the same as the one i use. VP doesnt return enough to save it for when you absolutly have to have it and there is no difference in damge in using it over tyranny. Not having to watch my mana or worry about the cooldown is my preference anyway.

The only fight I'd switch to Senticar for nowadays would be Rodiafel

[Soulsurfing]

Ahov,

How would this build compare to 51/11/4?

Also, is there a cabicar build you'd recommend for a 20 man? I typically like to run cabicar on trash between bosses to speed it up, then on bosses I may run another, more appropriate build depending what the raid needs.

[Ahov]

Ahov,

How would this build compare to 51/11/4?

Also, is there a cabicar build you'd recommend for a 20 man? I typically like to run cabicar on trash between bosses to speed it up, then on bosses I may run another, more appropriate build depending what the raid needs.

The small amount of SP you gain with 51/11/4 is not worth losing Righteous Mandate. With RM, a single 3-point Tyranny can deliver extraordinary healing, topping most tanks off from any amount of health.

While I wouldn't recommend cabicar as an optimal spec in HK/ID, if you do choose to run one, make it 51/14/1.

[usman]

Great guide to a spec i've been playing since 1.4

I've played it in various forms over the months from a spec tweaked for pvp, to one tweaked for PA grinding to the one mentioned above for dungeons/raid trash packs and it works fanstically for all of these purposes.

Personally I use a different set of macro's though -

I include VP with my SoA macro -

#show Sign of Asia's
Suppressmacrofailures
cast sign of asia's
cast vile power
cast tyranny

This lets me always get a nice mana boost when a large of pack of mobs worthy of SoA is available to hit, and also lets me use it in the same way you would use the macro in the guide. Whilst I also keep a seperate key for tyranny, for general spam use on smaller groups of mobs.

I also keep distorted shadows seperate from my ST macro as it would just interupt itself as I use a G15 and press and hold my keys to spam them, but this is just my playstyle.

I have never found that i need to use purpose in this spec, between tonics and vile power mana is a non-issue and to move into melee and go ST for mana would defeat the object of the spec.