Make My Zealot Good

[Abbodon]

Sheep, Dega, Zummie anyone i missed post some info here, tell me how you set your toon up, Fabiuss is nearing 40 and with Abbo nearing RR 80 he will soon be my primary focus until invader so tell me how to make him valuble in the lake and pve.

[Lucid]

Making him valuable in either the lake or pve is primarily done just by being there. No healer = no chance.
That being said, I find armor talis invaluable for dega. Putting 5 or so in your rvr set can double your armor, which immensely helps against the melee dmg. The high disrupt chance, innate to the class, is all i rely on against casters. Willpower talis for pve (maybe wounds, depending on your renown spec). I'm definitely a fan of a round build for the lakes... a bit of tough, a bit of armor, a bit of will/wounds.

I actually suggest a toughness build for renown... liniments and talis can boost your other stats to the point of diminishing returns.

Mastery Builds:
Dark rites or Alchemy both have their benefits... love the Alchemy tree for a number of reasons (aethyric shock, AP ritual), but dark rites, coupled with the AP tactic, is a great build to keep your AP up and get amazing group heals. Kind of depends on how you like to heal.

The rest in Witchcraft.

[Abbodon]

ok good to know, right now im full single target heals i just couldnt see any way around that until i hit 40 and can start rocking some gear with some good bonuses. Fabiuss is currently 37 with plenty of reset rank so the next time things are idle for abbo im gonna see how close i can get him.

[Nilgoow]

Crit is also really good to stack, as you have two excellent tactics which proc on critical heals. Blessing of chaos is a +25% incoming heal bonus (afaik it affects heals other than your own) and Restorative Burst gives you 40 ap over 3s. It's relatively easy to get a decent amount of crit even at lower levels/gear. The altdorf gem, skinflayer of the bloodmoon, the shoulder talisman, and the 5% anni set bonus aren't difficult to get. You can also farm the pq's in dragonwake for the +3% Heal Crit Ruin shoulders.

I have will/wounds/tough mixed for talismans, but don't neglect your abilities for defense. Aethyric Shock is unique to Zealot/RP and one of your best defensive abilities. You can kite multiple targets and still get heals with a combination of Embrace the Warp (-50% damage)/Chaotic Blur (Detaunt)/Breath of Tzeentch (Knockback). Aethyric Shock is also great for stopping kiters long enough to get swallowed by the zerg.

As far as spec goes, witchcraft really doesn't have anything worth speccing for. The shield is good, but it doesn't scale well with the points invested and the other skills are garbage. A mix of either full Alch or DR will give you access to both rituals and either strong group or single target heals. My tactics are usually Divine Favor for a free fast heal, Focused Mind, Divine Protection, and the Alch M4.

[Lucid]

Nil - I agree with practically everything you've said.

Your last line was referring to morales, not tactics though, right?

The reason i like witchcraft is for the HOT's too - stack those first then go for big heals, helps in keeping your MT up imo. But only as a secondary mastery... Alch or DR should take priority. I rarely mix rituals, so never really saw a need in getting two different ones.

Stacking crit (along with that tactic) is definitely a key for keeping your AP up. DR group heals eats up AP like mad, but that duo (crit/tactic) is absolutely amazing for keeping AP - since you can crit on a heal which doesn't "heal" anyone, if that makes sense. You still get the AP kickback, but no one actually got healed... as long as someone was "crit healed".

[Abbodon]

wow this is a lot of good info to process, i'll be taking these tips in one at a time as soon as i hit 40.

[Kerarandyn]

Well it really depends on how you want to play. We won't out-group heal a shammy or a dok. We're really meant to keep a single target alive. I'll conserve the AP by tossing hots first, followed by larger heals.

Right now, I'm heal specced in alchemy up to Aethric Shock and the Rest in Dark Rites. I went ahead and took both Ritual of Innovation and Ritual of Lunacy. I'll use the latter if I'm in a group with another zealot, since they'll use the former.

When the first order melee gets close to me I'll do one of two things:
1. If no destro are nearby to rescue me, I'll toss aethyric shock on him and move about 100 feet away (while tossing hots on my party). A 9sec stagger is a looooong time and shock has a 10 sec cooldown, so I must have some distance from the guy in case he comes at me again. In which case, I'll shock him again and repeat. I'm sure I made many a melee cry in that ironclad sc, with those nice long hallways.
2. If there are destro nearby to rescue or the guy resisted the shock, then kite and use Embrace the Warp (-50% damage)/Chaotic Blur (Detaunt)/Breath of Tzeentch (Knockback). No point in tossing shock cause the rescuing destro will just break it the minute he attacks.

[Kerarandyn]

But more entertaining is the rr60 dps spec. That's 11 Witchcraft with Storm of Ravens and Transferance, 13 Alchemy with Chaotic Force (+15% crit with Scorge, Tzeentch Cry, and Flash of Chaos) and Ritual of Innovation. Just as the casters do, stack your gear with int, magic power, and magic crit. I'll also use the ORvR Influence Dagger and Focus with the 5% chance to slow my target. Tactics I'll run with that are: Transference, Chaotic Force, Divine Fury? (whichever one makes you damage 25% more and heal 20% less), and either Waves of Chaos or Warped Flesh.

You can kill people, but you have to kite like a healer while shooting. It's more of a prolonged, 1v1 gank spec. In oRvR, I'm like a vulture looking for weakened order to pick off. First I toss my ritual on the ground - ideally at a choke point. Waves of Chaos will make it pulse red. This attracts the curious order and the pulsing 150 damage every 3 sec for 30 sec often knocks them off their horse when they foolishly step on it. Toss your harbinger on them - lasts for 60 sec and gradually reduces their corporeal resistance over time. And with transference and nice int talis, you hit them for around 700 corporeal damage every 5 sec for 60 sec and it heals you, the defensive target. Kite away from them while they're taking damage - ideally circling around the pulsing ritual if possible. Toss warp reality (another dot) and start shooting him with scourge and tzeentch cry. 1 in 10 chance of slowing him every time you hit with those Influence weaps. Kite and shoot until transference bleeds him to death, or he runs back into the wc to die. Now it's a hex so healers will cure it if you toss it on them, but they're usually not so accomodating for their fellow order. BW? Harbringer, silence, shoot.