Overview
The Esper is fortunate in that there are a couple of extra skills you can utilize alongside this Limited Action Set that you can happily swap in and out depending on the situation. Not all of the Espers healing skills are great and you can, for the most part, simply get away with using Soothe and Reverie to heal for large numbers. Admittedly there are plenty of moments when you’ll need to use more than those two skills (such as Bolster to pad out your Psi Points) or Catharsis to cleanse your allies but it’s a relatively simple playstyle because of the power of Soothe and Reverie. As usual I’ll discuss variable builds last, but for the most part this build should set you up nicely for Dungeons, Adventures and PvP and only requires a couple of skill changes for Raids.
Fully Interactive Esper Healing Build
Skills
Bolster
Bolster is pretty lackluster as a heal but it works well as a Psi Point generator. It’s a heal over time, can be cast off the global cooldown, it’s instant and generally in a PvE and PvP environment keeps your health and Psi Points topped up. It doesn’t heal for lots but it does take the edge off a little.
Reverie
Your 5 Psi Point finisher, Reverie restores huge amounts of health to yourself and up to 9 party members. When combined with Soothe and Bolster, it’s incredibly easy to throw out big heals in a short window of time.
Phantasmal Armor
This skill divides many opinions but I actually find it incredibly useful. Admittedly its cooldown is long but, the absorb is fantastic and with it providing an interrupt armor it makes it incredibly useful for laying on a tank or yourself when under pressure. Fortunately it’s one of the skills you can swap depending on the situation.
Soothe
Your bread and butter heal which is capable of building Psi Points quickly and repeatedly but it also restores health to you and your 4 most injured allies. You can use Soothe while moving (amazing!) and when tiered up its charge time is reduced. It’s just an awesome skill.
Catharsis
A lot of players currently neglect cleanse skills but in dungeons or PvP they’re incredibly important as they remove lots of nasty debuffs from you and your team while healing for a small amount.
Incapacitate
Similarly to Phantasmal Armor, Incapacitate is a skill you can swap in and out depending on the circumstance. In a PvP environment it’s brilliant because it disarms players while in PvE it prevents enemies from using their abilities.
Fade Out
Fade Out is your escape skill. It allows you to leap backwards removing all crowd control while pacifying 5 foes. Anyone pacified is unable to damage you for 4 seconds. Make sure you save this for when you absolutely have to use it.
Projected Spirit
Capable of critically hitting for huge amounts of health, Projected Spirit is the reverse of Fade Out and allows you to leap forward. Not only is the animation amazing but it heals anyone you pass through. It’s a brilliant skill for escaping and staying alive simultaneously.
Tiers
It’s actually a little tricky to spend your Tier points wisely with this build because after you’ve maxed out Soothe and Reverie the values gained on other skills are minimal at best. The best alternatives are to remove all points from Phantasmal Armor and Projected Spirit and take Incapacitate to Tier 8 (it provides a blind) or take Bolster to Tier 8 to obtain 3 charges. Neither option is perfect but not particularly harmful either.
AMPs
As is the case with such focused builds, it’s all about maximizing your healing capabilities and as a result, you’ll be spending all your points across Hybrid A/S, Support and Utility. In this build I haven’t gone for any of the AMP skills (Mirage or Fixation) but there is the chance to drop points from Build Up (Support) and buy Fixation instead. Fixation is a useful skill because when tiered up it reduces your cooldowns significantly when activated. Lastly, Mental Overflow (see below under Utility) is well worth taking because when paired with the BINGO AMP you sometimes receive too many Psi Points. This way you can utilize them.
Hybrid A/S
Critical Hit III – Increases Critical Hit Chance by 6% (total)
Critical Hit Severity III – Increases Critical Hit Severity by 12% (total)
No Pain No – Taking damage has a 10% chance to generate a Psi Point.
Tactician – Dashing grants an Empower and Bastion. Empower: Magic Damage increased by 4% and Bastion: Outgoing heals increased by 4%
BINGO: Landing a critical hit with a Builder has a 20% chance to generate 2 Psi Points.
Support
Focus Recovery III – Increases Focus Recovery rate by 0.3 (total)
Support Power III – Increases Support Power by 7% of your current maximum.
Focus Cost III – Reduces the Focus cost of spells by 6% (total)
Build Up – Healing an ally with a Builder (Soothe in this case) grants 1 stack of Build Up. At 3 stacks you restore an additional 36% health.
Inspiration – Landing a basic heal grants healed allies a Defense, increasing Magic Resistance by 8.5%
Hard to Hit – Your heals have a 15% chance to grant Defense, increasing Deflect chance by 8% for 10s.
Utility
Cooldowns III – Increases cooldown reduction by 15% (total)
Dash Regen III – Increases Dash regeneration by 21% (total)
Inspirational Charge – Landing a finisher grants Swiftness (increases movement speed by 12% for 3s)
Mental Overflow – When you would gain a Psi Point while at full Psi Points, an orb spawns near your location and lasts for 5s)
Rotation
When it comes to healing, there really is no rotation. It’s all about gauging the situation and using the most appropriate heal. What I will say is the following:
Always utilise Soothe as your base heal and Psi Point generator and try to always charge it to charge 2 or 3 as a minimum.
If you’re fast approaching 5 Psi Points, be sure to use Reverie at an opportune moment instead of Soothe.
If you do end up going over 5 Psi Points before you can use Reverie just pick up the Psi Points that have gathered on the floor thanks to the Mental Overflow AMP.
Try to save Phantasmal Armor for the main tank or when you grab aggro and are under heavy pressure: it will save your life.
If your Phantasmal Armor is on cooldown utilize Fade Out to pacify those attacking you.
If need to quickly reach an ally or need to escape a telegraph that might kill you, use Projected Spirit but ensure you aim at your allies at the same time otherwise it will only heal you.
Lastly, continually use Bolster on yourself or the main tank to keep up your Psi Points as this reduces the pressure of having to utilize Soothe constantly to generate Psi Points.
Variables
Where Variables are concerned with this build and as mentioned above, I’d simply swap out a couple of skills depending on the situation. The easiest skills to remove, without having a huge impact on your potency, are Phantasmal Armor and Incapacitate. If you’re raiding, simply remove one of these skills for Mind over Body (an excellent heal for looking after tanks) and place your Tier points from Projected Spirit and Phantasmal Armor into Mind over Body. This way, the single target heal not only heals for much more but will create a Bastion at your position that allows you to heal for an additional 15%. Lastly, it’s often worth taking Mental Boon as an alternative Psi Point finisher. Mental Boon heals you and 4 hurt allies but also increases Dash regeneration by 42% when used at 5 Psi Points. It’s a great skill for telegraph heavy situations.