What constitutes "using a power on" someone?

[boar]

A protector shaman in our game took the Scarred Healer paragon path and we're a little bit confused about how the healing feature works.

To begin with, the protector shaman spirit boon gives +Con to hitpoints restored to an ally adjacent to your spirit companion "when you use a healing power on him or her." Is this different from the Scarred Healer's feature, which states:

"When you use a primal healing power on a target adjacent to your spirit companion, the target regains additional hit points equal to your Constitution modifier."

Emphasis mine. Does this imply that the Scarred Healer gets the bonus only when the person receiving healing is in the Target: line of the power, while the spirit boon works when they get healing from a power in any way?

For example, spirit's shield lets one ally regain 5 HP as an effect, without targeting them. Would this trigger the spirit boon but not the scarred healer? Would it trigger both? Neither?

 

[Flipguarder]

You aren't targetting them, thus they are not targets, thus anything that happens to a target when X conditions are met do not happen to the person in question.

That's my opinion anyway.

 

[babinro]

Scarred Healer Protector Shaman's make my brain hurt. I have one built and ready to play as soon as my existing campaign ends.

Scar's gift triggers when using a primal healing power on a target adjacent to your companion.

Spirit Boon triggers when you use a healing power on an ally adjacent to your companion.

I'd say Spirit's Shield would not trigger Scar's Gift since it doesn't specifically say in the Effect that it is targeting an ally. It would, however, trigger Spirit Boon as that does not require a target as part of its requirements.

My ruling takes the game extremely literally though (and is influenced by rules from MTG),

I don't think it would be game breaking to allow both triggers to take effect since the Effect line in Spirit's Shield implies that one target ally is gaining hp. But that is DM's discretion. I'd allow it though.