Life Staff Single Target Healing PvE Build for New World

This build is one of the most difficult healing builds to play in New World and has a high skill cap. By using Light's Embrace, Divine Embrace, and Sacred Ground, you can effectively burst heal your allies in combination with targeted keybinds to be a very potent dedicated group healer. This build can be played in a variety of content, but it is difficult to heal allies outside of your group if you are not used to healing in this way. When played correctly, it is very defensive and provides unmatched support to your team. It is best suited for players who are familiar with expeditions and can predict burst damage windows.

This burst healing build is focused on 5-player groups. It is best paired with Refreshing due to lower cooldown abilities. It offers more healing output potential through taking all points into Divine Embrace to contribute to partial AoE output, or for large burst windows. Light's Embrace can be used to instantly follow up for significant burst healing, or to top off allies and give them stamina back and haste. In general, this build emphasizes using light attacks at all times and timing cooldowns to combat burst damage on each group member.

• Divine Embrace — Targets party members and acts as a traditionally casted 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.
• Light's Embrace — Casted heal that will have lower baseline healing than Divine Embrace, but has great utility through Accelerating Light's Embrace and its stamina return. This should be used to top off the health bars of allies, when the target is not below 50% health, or Divine is on cooldown.

In general, this buff is easier to maintain in PvE combat, but the healing increase is never truly needed. In the time it takes to land 3 heavy attacks on enemies to properly stack the buff, you can most definitely get 4-5 light attacks off. These light attacks will trigger Revitalize for cooldown reduction if they hit an enemy, and additionally they will offer a large amount of healing as you shoot through allies with Blissful Touch (See FAQ for more information).

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

Void Gauntlet offers healing over time and burst healing through Orb of Decay, as well as, high amounts of AoE damage plus stacks of rend. This version uses Petrifying Scream to give you the opportunity to lock down packs of enemies for easier burst dps and defensiveness. You can also use Oblivion in melee range to weaken enemies, increase stamina regen, and provide a damage bonus to party members.

This version offers more healing output by taking advantage of cooldown reduction with Glimpse of the Void and Essence Rupture to give more overall passive healing power. Essence Rupture is essentially a leeching effect and at the end of its duration will detonate for a burst heal that is similar to detonating Orb of Decay. If the target is already affected by a Rupture and you place a fresh on on the target, the healing detonation will automatically pop and then reapply the leech component.

200 Constitution will be your baseline for all types of healing in both PvP and PvE. It gives you enough defensiveness while still maintaining great healing output. The additional points from higher gearscore sets can go into Focus for increased healing, or Constitution for more survivability.

Slot	Perks	Gem	Weight	Attribute	Source
Life Staff	Blessed Refreshing Divine Embrace Refreshing Move	Cut Pristine Diamond	-	Focus	*Dynasty or Crafted/BoE
Void Gauntlet	Blessed Keen Speed** Keen	Cut Pristine Diamond	-	Focus	Crafted/BoE
Helmet	Fortifying Sacred Ground**** Elemental Aversion Refreshing	Cut Pristine Opal	Light	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE or TH***
Gloves	Elemental Aversion Refreshing Shirking Fortification	Cut Pristine Opal	Light	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE or TH***
Chest	Elemental Aversion Refreshing Shirking Fortification	Cut Pristine Opal	Medium/Light***	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE or TH***
Pants	Elemental Aversion Shirking Energy Refreshing	Cut Pristine Opal	Light	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE or TH***
Boots	Elemental Aversion Refreshing Accelerating Light's Embrace****	Cut Pristine Opal	Medium/Light***	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Amulet	Health Stamina Recovery Mutation Specific Protection Perk*****	Cut Pristine Opal	-	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Ring	Sacred Hearty Refreshing	Cut Pristine Opal	-	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE
Earring	Refreshing Toast Healthy Toast Refreshing	Cut Pristine Onyx	-	Focus or Constitution	Crafted/BoE

*: Glowing Lifecrystal Staff is a best in slot drop from any version of Mutated Dynasty Shipyard or it can be crafted with Materia.

**: Having a Void Gauntlet with this perk setup can be flexed into PvP content as well. While Keen Speed is not the most beneficial PvE perk it does have a little value. If you are not concerned with flexing this, then opt for some type of damage perk.

***: Tempest's Heart Expedition on any difficulty can drop Sagacious Hat, Sagacious Gloves, Sagacious Shirt, and Sagacious Shoes, 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 Orb of Protection 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 pants, 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.

*****: Using a full opal set up makes gearing standardized and eliminates the need for Ward gear. You can simply add on a relevant Protection Perk (ie: Frozen Protection) for that respective week of mutators.

Overall with PVE gearing, this is the ideal loadout of perks for a best in slot healing build. Healing is one of the easiest roles to gear for in high level mutators, but more difficult to play at times. If you simply use almost all sagacious pieces, stack elemental aversion, completely fill your gear with opals, and slot your neck for protection. You should have a high amount of defensiveness with a 200 Constitution setup.

While Ward perks can offer a high level of damage reduction, these are simply not needed in the healer roll as long as you are able to dodge. If you are concerned about survivability, feel free to replace any perk for respective Ward perks for whatever expedition you are in. This will result in more PvE sets being needed instead of one general set.

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

Minor 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.

• Cunning Heartrune of Stoneform

Cunning Heartrune of Stoneform is the best defensive pick as it not only gives a 10% Fortify, but also a 10% damage absorption bonus that stacks an additional 10% per hit received (+30% max).

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 Sacred Ground to increase the target's healing received through Anointed.
• Light attack if no healing is needed. Top off health bars using Blissful Touch and get cooldown reduction through Revitalize to maintain Sacred Ground.
• Prioritize using Light's Embrace if a targeted is above 50% health and needs a signifcant heal to top them off.
• Cast Divine Embrace to burst heal any party member who continues to lose health. Use this first if they are below 50% to make use of Refreshing Divine Embrace.
• 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!