[Cleric] Bastion of Health vs. Cure Serious Wounds

[Mengu]

I don't even know what Healer's Sashes are, but you sure make them sound useful.

They are this crazy item that lets your party use their healing surges as a pool, rather than individually. So the rogue is running low on healing surges, but the warlock has plenty? No problem, the warlock puts the healing surge in the sash, and the rogue pulls it out with a bonus d6. It's one of the items I rather dislike from the AV.

 

[James McMurray]

Not only that, but the sash's wearer lets the target use the surge as an immediate reaction to them taking damage, so you can charge it up during your short rest and empt it during the fight.

Emptying it is an encounter power, but that doesn't go very far towards mitigating how beefy the sash is.

 

[Cadfan]

The range 10 is really useful to me, up until your Healing Word range becomes 10. So I'd probably take it, then switch it out.

 

[Nail]

Divine Vigor.

I would only consider that in a party that mostly consists of dwarves.

We have 7 PCs in our party, so anything that says "all allies" gets an automatic win.

I will say that even in my group of 4 dwarves, they still didn't take Divine Vigor. But at least it wasn't dismissed out of hand like it has been for every other party.

Huh. I can't see why any cleric - regardless of party size or composition, would take Divine Vigor.

Not only is it only a Daily, but it's range is limited (only 5) and it only regains your second wind. (If it gave you a second "second wind" if you hadn't used it, that might be better.) Most of the time, the action spent using your second wind is an action you should have spent killing bad guys, as the next turn the bad guys knock down all the hps you just gained. Net effect = a 1 round "delay of game".

You want the cleric healing people, not making the ally spend his own actions!

It's a lousy power.

 

[Mengu]

Huh. I can't see why any cleric - regardless of party size or composition, would take Divine Vigor.

It's not a great power (Bastion of Health and Cure Serious Wounds are certainly better most of the time), but if I was the only cleric in a 7-8 man party, I'd consider it because even the cleric can't keep up with the healing requirements there, especially when the party is hit by enemy controllers.

Also if the party had three or so dwarves like a dwarf fighter, a dwarf paladin, and a dwarf two weapon ranger, then it wouldn't be a bad option to have. Not only are they using second wind as a minor action twice during that one big encounter, but both times they also get +2 to all defenses. Combine it with something like Shield of Faith, and you are significantly increasing their resilience.

It will also team up nicely with Improved Second Wind, Dwarven Durability, Battleforged Armor, and the like.

Holy Lantern is the power that really makes me scratch my head at 6th level.

 

[James McMurray]

I believe that's why people mentioned dwarves, whose cost to use Second Wind is minimal. I still don't know that I'd ever choose it, but it could be useful if you've got a lot of dwarves in the party, who can use it to heal and gain defenses as a minor instead of standard.

 

[Victim]

If you have more trouble with running out of per encounter healing than you have with running out of surges, then take Bastion. If you're good on healing within a fight, but have someone running out of healing surges before the rest of the group is ready to rest, then take CSW.

It seems more of a playstyle/group composition issue than a clear cut matter. When in doubt, though, I'd go with Bastion. As a minor action, ranged encounter power, it's going to be easier to use when needed, I think.

 

[Thanee]

Well, both has happened in the past. Since CSW is also useful in fights, even if less so (action/range/daily; but heals more at least), it currently seems to be the better choice to me, so I guess when it comes to that I will choose it over BoH (can still revert the choice during a later level-up, if it turns out that way).

Bye
Thanee

 

[brehobit]

Doesn't Bastion of Health provoke? For a STR cleric, that's a big deal. If not, then Bastion of Health is a pretty clear winner unless you have a character who is regularly running out of healing surges.

But if it does provoke, a STR cleric might find CSW to be the better pick.

 

[Stalker0]

I think it boils down to how many encounters you have per day in general. For my group, unless the daily provides a benefit throughout the encounter, I go with encounter utilities over dailies any day of the week. I'll often get 4 uses out of the encounter vs the 1 daily.

For groups that do fewer, CSW is a lot better. However, I think both powers are useful, I wish more powers in 4e were like this, too many levels have automatic winners for powers imo.