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Okay, I first created this spec a few weeks ago when I was messing around in PvP looking for a good healer build that wasn't 51Chloro (tip: there isn't one). It's pretty weird and unconventional - Archon in PvP tends to be a horrible idea due to the tree's lack of substance - but it actually works very well as a support class, particularly at lowish ranks. Skip the intro on my logic behind the spec if you want to see how it plays.

Ask the forums what spec to use as you level up through PvP and you'll get a ton of people tell you Chloro/something, or Dominator. Chloro hybrids for survivability, and Dominator since a lot of its skills don't rely on sky-high stats. Problem with Dominator (aside from lack of durability) is, some of your key disabling skills are considerably less devastating if used at low Spell Power - Storm Shackle and the like - and you may be using up diminishing returns slots that players with higher SP would otherwise be taking. To this end a Chloro/Chon spec works in that it doesn't clash with other player's skills so much, which can also be good for you since a low ranked Dom faced with "IMMUNE" is often dead.

The three skills this spec is based around are Blight (38 points into Chloro), Illuminate (14 points into Archon) and Degeneration (10 points into Archmage). These abilities respectively let you strip all HoTs from a target and heal debuff them 50%, add a good amount of physical damage per person attacking the target, and strip off three buffs - all non-dependent on gear level to have a potentially big impact on the battle. (Unfortunately 10 points in Archmage is only available at R2 IIRC - but before then you will not have virtually any valour gear, so my only advice is may the gods help you - the spec will still work without Degeneration, but it's very nice to have). The spec has good AOE healing capacity, decent survivability, passable DPS with Pillaging Stone spam, and good support in the form of debuff effects.

38 Chloromancer / 14 Archon / 14 Archmage

Here is the spec I recommend: 38 Chloromancer / 14 Archon / 14 Archmage

38 Chloro

Points in Chloro both give the spec it's main focus (healing) and access to one of the key skills for the spec - Blight. Points are generally typical, with Phytogenesis taken for increased team support from AOE spores over 2 points in Circle of Life, so I would not recommend moving points in this soul.

14 Archon

These 14 points are solely to unlock Illuminate, but you actually pick up some very nice skills on the way. Pillaging Stone is your best nuke for if people don't need healing, hits pretty hard, and it and Searing Vitality give you both great buffs. Consuming Flames is a good shield, Crumbling Resistance and Tempered Armor are both good to cast occasionally, and Power Drain is a great debuff. Point allocations are straightforward - Soul Fire is fairly pointless in this build but can be picked up for a slightly harder hitting SV and Leeching Flames, likewise you can drop Flowing Sand for a point in Exhilaration.

14 Archmage

The four remaining points after grabbing the key debuffs go into Archmage for the best passives the build can get. If not Rank 4, then putting two into Archon for Volcanic Bomb and two into Chloro to max out Circle of Life is your best bet, this will not affect the build much, and the points in Archon can indeed remain there even at higher rank due to the excellent buff Rock Slide affords you.

Point allocation is pretty much up to you, I feel that 15% damage is a fantastic boost for any build (especially one healing through damage), Double-Tap is invaluable for a spec which uses so many long cast abilities, and some crit chance reduction is also nice. You can grab Disastrous Consequences for more damage, or drop double-tap (and even planar attunement) for more defensive side points too - could net you stealth detection - but the passive base abilities are all excellent for this spec. An alternative to using AM is Elementalist, which offers you good personal mitigation and a second shield (particularly viable if playing when only allowed to put 5 points into AM), but the loss of Break Free, Detaunt, base damage, Degeneration and double-tap is pretty severe.

Macros and Tricks

This spec relies fairly heavily on teamwork - indeed straying from your team means there is little point to having Illuminate or Blight, as you will not be able to focus people down on your own, or heal anyone else. As such, be sure to have enemy healers marked so your team can easily identify the people you are likely to be debuffing (ask for leader if noone does this and do it yourself). If you identify a top performer on your side, you can put "cast on target's target" on and follow them around debuffing whoever they're attacking. Another excellent idea is to create a macro along the lines of: rsay Debuffing %t, focus them!

Hopefully this will get people to focus the target you are debuffing, if the above steps do not do so enough! It may help to let the WF know you have some potent debuffs before the game starts so they won't entirely ignore this as well.

Gear wise, as per usual typical warfront consumable advice applies (check Dissb's blog), use as many as you can afford really. If you can access SHoE trinket from DSM, it's pretty competitive for a slot over your valour trinket, but the animation will make you a big target as well as losing 2% mitigation. Similarly, losing 2 essences for another 2% mitigation loss is viable to use shield/HoT greaters in your source machine (good to do if you are working up the ranks and haven't bought all essences yet).

With regard to other macros, standard mouseover/mouseoverui heals are a good move (look up a macro guide), but there are also a few others I tend to use.

#show Essence Surge
suppressmacrofailures
stopcasting
cast @self Essence Surge
cast @self Bloom
cast @self Consuming Flames
cast Flourish
cast Living Shell

Selfheal macro - every survivability skill you have in rough order of potency, to use as a panic button (I tend to remove Essence Surge to be able to use it with more discretion). Stopcasting is standard for my heals, so I can get them off quicker whilst in a Vile Spores cast.

#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
stopcasting
cast @mouseoverui Bloom
cast @mouseoverui Consuming Flames

Condensed heal macro, for other people.

#show Ruin
suppressmacrofailures
cast Ruin
cast Searing Vitality

Mobile cast macro - can add Leeching Flames in second but I prefer to save it for people I want to damage a bit more.

#show Break Free
suppressmacrofailures
cast Wild Abandon
cast Break Free

Imo a macro all PvP Chloros should use - saves break free for the nastier CC, whilst letting you use WA to escape snares first. Saves one button, huzzah!

Playstyle

The playstyle for this spec in general is typical of a Warfront Chloro - pick a location not right at the front lines, get off a few Vile Spores/Ruins/Natural Conversion whilst keeping Radiant Spores up. Spot heal with Bloom and Consuming Flames, Flourish when needed, and use Essence Surge to keep valuable team members alive. Corrosion for when you end up in the thick of it (not the best idea to aim for this) and Detaunt NOT in conjunction with Corrosion for when people focus you.

When you want to deal greater damage (ie when healing isn't necessary) you can swap to a DPS-lite rotation consisting mainly of Searing Vitality, Leeching Flames and Pillaging Stone. For max DPS you want to be using Entropic Veil.

However, what you need to weave into the typical rotations are your debuff effects. Illuminate is the bread and butter of this spec, with no CD you should be applying it as much as you can get away with to anyone who may have several people targeting them at some point in the near future. The physical damage, whilst not the greatest in PvP, still stacks up rapidly when people are being focused, to the extent that it makes it impossible to survive where otherwise a player could endure the fire. For testimonies on its power in PvP, check the Warrior forums. Be sure to rank up your Illuminate before using if you haven't already!

Blight you should pretty much always save for HoT heavy players, since other classes have passive 50% heal debuffs with no cd. Use it after applying Illuminate to HoT heavy players (the ones with huge stacks of watery looking buffs), hit your "focus X NAO" macro and watch them explode in seconds.

Degeneration is perhap best used on Riftstalker hybrid rogues, who have tons of potent buffs which reduce their damage taken, but you can also purge off things like Neddra's Essence - keep your eyes open and learn buff icons. Using it on people you really want to die after the other two debuffs is a good move, but be sure never to use it first on a HoT stacking player, as it just goes to waste when you use Blight after it.

You also have some other debuffs available to you - Power Drain, Tempered Armor, Crumbling Resistance, along with Searing Vitality and Pillaging Stone. Power Drain is the best use of your charge to support the team in general, debuffing a top DPS with this is very effective unless your team needs the extra damage and healing provided by Entropic Veil. Pillaging stone similarly works best on DPS players, but isn't something to prioritise. If you absolutely positively want someone to die, then applying SV, TA, and CR on them before using your more potent debuffs makes a lot of sense, but generally their bonuses are small and not worth using more than once/5mins to selfbuff. CR synergises well with Illuminate, but in general TA is more potent in the elemental damage friendly PvP environment.

Closing Word

Hopefully this spec offers ranking up players a support/heals spec which isn't Dominator or pure Chloro based, and actually makes use of Archon in PvP. As a R8, playing the spec doesn't feel amazing since I can impact the battle equally as a high DPS spec, only much more personally, but without all my gear the spec feels like I really am contributing a lot to the team - aside from healing the spec's debuffs can turn the tide of close or even losing battles, particularly by letting you annihilate even max rank invinci-healers with proper team focus. It is of course team dependent - if your teammates are utter herps they will ignore your targets, but with a little communication in most cases people will be willing to assist. If that fails, just follow a R8 around and help him nuke things even quicker.

For WFs where you roll, you can pretty much play what you like and do OK, higher DPS will most likely help nuke things faster; for ones where you're rolled a Chloro/Dom will ease the pain most; but for relatively even warfronts specs like this can help turn the tide and let you influence the battle a lot as a low rank, so I hope some of you will give it a try! As always feedback is much appreciated.

*Source: RIFT Forum