61 Sentinel: Cleric Expert Dungeon Tank Healing

General, Guides
This guide is valid for Rift 2.8 and is written for characters at Level 60.

Introduction

With the changes that were made to the souls starting with Rift 1.11, healing has changed quite a bit for Storm Legion Experts at Level 60. Gone are the days of being able to run through experts as a Senticar, Cabicar or Inquisicar. We’re back to our roots: full healing souls! The damage output in experts is quite high and requires vigilant tank healing as well as some spot party healing.

Soul Tree

There are a few variations of 61 Sentinel builds that you can utilize to pick up different abilities. I’ll be listing a few of the builds you can utilize. My personal preference is 61 Sentinel, 10 Purifier, 5 Oracle.

61 Sentinel Builds

Dream Soul Variant: 61 Sentinel, 10 Purifier, 5 Oracle
F2P Variant: 61 Sentinel, 10 Purifier, 5 Inquisitor
Warden Variant: 61 Sentinel, 12 Warden, 3 Purifier

Buffs

* These buffs can be overrode by Bard/Oracle buffs
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Abilities

The following are abilities that you will want to place on your ability bar for single-target healing, party healing, cooldowns, and utility.

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Tank Healing

Healing Invocation
This is the main ability you will use to heal your tank with. The benefit of this is not only keeping your tank at or near 100% health as much as you can but also maintaining your DPS contribution (albeit mediocre) via Wrathful Exuberance and Sign of Wrath.
Crucial Invocation
Has a lower cast time and a larger heal but at a higher cost of mana. You’ll want to use this in situations where you don’t need a cooldown but just need to top up at a quicker pace than HI. You can also couple this with Touch the Light and/or Tidal Surge (Warden Variant) for an instant cast with a reduction of mana cost.
Why no mention of Sublte Invocation? The appeal for this ability is largely due to it’s lower-cast time however the heal output is very low in comparison to Healing Invocation. I only recommend this ability when you’re a lower level (35 and below) as you do not yet have access to some of the more powerful cooldowns and passives like Swift Plea.
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Spot Healing

Healing Breath
Can be used to spot heal the tank and/or party. When healing a party member (non-tank) this will also proc Enraptured Breath which will heal 2 additional party members for 60% (3/3). Your single-target heals also have the chance to proc Word of Life which reduces the mana cost as well as lower the GCD to 0.
Healing Flare
A quick instant cast heal that you can use if Healing Breath is on cooldown and you just need to spot heal a party member. This will also proc your buffs for Faith Rewarded, Healer’s Blessing, and Marked By The Light!
Symbol of the Torch
Can be used in lieu of Healing Flare as the absorption component will also proc your buffs for Faith Rewarded and Healer’s Blessing. This also gives you a bit more time to recover if you group is taking a considerable amount of damage as the shield will give your target effective HP.
Fullness of Life
This is your huge “Oh shit, the tank is going to die!” heal. It will instantly heal for 100% of your max HP
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AOE Healing

Healing Breath
Yes, I am mentioning this again! When healing a party member (non-tank) this will also proc Enraptured Breath which will heal 2 additional party members for 60% (3/3). This can be an extremely effective “AOE” heal if the party members are within range!
Divine Call
This is an instant cast heal that will up to 5 party/raid members. Useful if Touch the Lightis on CD and you want to top up your group quickly.
Warden Variant: Healing Cataract
You can utilize this ability with Touch the Light to instantly top your group up if you take spike damage. It can be very helpful when you’re group is under 50% HP as it will proc Faith Rewarded.
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Cooldowns

Nyol’s Hope
This cooldown can be used in conjunction with Healer’s Haste while spamming Crucial Invocation as this will boost the healing output by 50% for the next 5 healing spells. Recommended if your tank is taking sustained spiky damage.
Healer’s Haste
This cooldown ability cane be used in conjunction with Nyol’s Hope while spamming Crucial Invocation as this reduces the cast time of your next 5 healing spells by 30%. Recommended if your tank is taking sustained spiky damage.
Vigilance
This can be utilized as a preventative cooldown if you know your tank is going to take a lot of damage from a certain ability and you want to have 40% of it soaked up for 10 seconds. If you have an undergeared tank that you’re healing but you have to move around for a mechanic, you can always toss this out on him to ensure that once you’re in a safe location, you can continue to heal him or if you know you need to stop healing to cleanse something or top up your party–do not be afraid to utilize your cooldowns!
Healer’s Covenant
This can be utilized as a preventative cooldown if you know your tank is going to take a lot of damage from a certain ability and you want to have 40% of it soaked up for 10 seconds. If you have an undergeared tank that you’re healing but you have to move around for a mechanic, you can always toss this out on him to ensure that once you’re in a safe location, you can continue to heal him or if you know you need to stop healing to cleanse something or top up your party–do not be afraid to utilize your cooldowns!
Renewed Altruism
If all of your major abilities are on cooldown, you’ll want to use this to reset them. It will reset all of your Sentinel-based abilities excluding your battle rez.
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Macros

This spec does not require any actual macros in order heal with it. However, there are macros that you can utilize to make use @mouseoverui functionality that is available to be a little more reactive with your healing. This allows you to mouse over a unit frame in your party/raid frames to cast an ability on that person. Very useful for spot healing, damage reduction cooldowns, and battle rezzes.

You do not need to utilize any/all of these macros, but I have included the ones that I utilize whenever I play 61 Sentinel in PVE and PVP. 

#show Healing Breath
cast @mouseoverui Healing Breath
#show Healing Flare
cast @mouseoverui Healing Flare
#show Crucial Invocation
suppressmacrofailures
cast Touch the Light
cast Crucial Invocation
#show Healer's Covenant
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Healer's Covenant
#show Healer's Covenant
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Vigilance
#show Life's Return
cast @mouseover Life's Return
#show Symbol of the Torch
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Symbol of the Torch
cast @group01 Symbol of the Torch
cast @group02 Symbol of the Torch
cast @group03 Symbol of the Torch
cast @group04 Symbol of the Torch
cast @group05 Symbol of the Torch
#show Cleansing Prayer
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Cleansing Prayer
cast @group01 Cleansing Prayer
cast @group02 Cleansing Prayer
cast @group03 Cleansing Prayer
cast @group04 Cleansing Prayer
cast @group05 Cleansing Prayer
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Miscellaneous Tips

I included a spam macro for Symbol of the Torch as a way to toss out some quick shields before a pull or if you have some downtime during a boss encounter where you don’t need to heal. Preventative damage is very helpful in dungeons and can allow recuperate and get your party’s health stabilized.

Best thing to happen to Clerics: An insanely awesome low GCD cleanses! The spam macro I included does not require you to target or mouseover any individual. It will go through each individual that needs to be cleansed, thus the “spam” portion of it. Not only that but each cleanse will heal your target as well as proc Faith Rewarded and Healer’s Blessing!