everyone has their opinions about a friar here, mine is they were made to fight over heal.

my 50 friar spec is

44 staff
46 enhance (i didnt get the last haste, not necessary imo, but i also use the 4.2 speed staff, not 5.5)
15 parry
8 rejuv

high enhance spec is important for leveling as it gives you your buffs which are, in my opinion, more important than a high staff spec, so i spec full enhance and rest staff.

in pve friars are great for replacing a cleric, so in a group you have friar/cleric instead of cleric/cleric, because you can do base buffs on everyone and then be a dps and, if needed, a backup healer. the heat resist buff is also nice in some high level raids as most mobs do heat aoes or dds (but if the pala isnt lazy he will twist that resist and rule that out, BUT youre still there for buffs, heals, and rezzing if needed, and of course dps)

in pvp many will say friars are totally useless, which has some truth. friars are sort of like a shaman in a mid group, but instead of being able to disease and dot etc friars are there for support only really. they dont have a high dps out put, they dont have a high heal out put (unless you specced heal ), and unlike a shaman they dont get strong spec buffs. but what the friar does have is dps, heals, and base buffs, which could be very useful in a group if they learn to accept it.

typically alb groups are something like cleric, cleric, sorc, pala, merc/reaver/, merc/reaver/arms, merc/reaver/caba/minst, and theurg.

they are that way because everyone want a HUGE dps output on the assist train to drop targets fast, but unlike mid or hib albion is left then with only 2 healers (assuming mids would have healer, healer, shaman. and hibs would have druid, druid, bard.) the friar would be the missing piece but that means groups would have to give up one of their precious dps spots. most are not keen on that idea. fine, but then they also have to realize that alb is a realm that you have to kite in to win and more defensive classes would be better suited in groups since compared to a blademaster, or berzerker/savage mercenary dps out put is a bit lower

blademasters get triplewield ability, berzerkers get berzerker ability, savages get quadhit and savagery buffs, and mercenaries....well the get dirty tricks, which is entirely useless on an assist train. another issue that comes along is that mercenaries highest dps out put comes from dual wielding...ok fine right? we liek DPSSSSS!!!! but then you have to realize that leaves them mostly defenseless.

blademasters and berzerkers both get evade III, and savages get evade IV, making it so when they are dual wielding they will still evade a decent amount on top of parrying. mercenaries...well they get evade I.

forgive me, i am getting somewhat of topic but i play both and see the ups and downs of both in a group.

if we go back to being a realm made for kiting we see this is true because really none of the classes in albion are made for hard push fights (except at key moments this can still be used very effectively) because none of them have the kind of utility to be able to keep pushing and throwing new things at the enemy, but rather its full of classes that have only 1 or 2 uses in a group, instead of 4 or so like some enemy realms have, ALL but the friar

and finally, friars are an excellent solo class (until you get stunned and dont have purge up ) because of the self buffs they get, but thats beginning to be rendered useless as everyone uses pots now which eliminates any upper hand the friar would have had, but nonetheless they can hold their own in a fight with just about any class out there.

people just have to learn to accept the fact that a friar is, as they say, a jack of all trades, master of none.

cheers mates! dont ridicule me too much for this post

thats the way it is.. wont change ever, noone wants wiz or friar in grp so, more 4 friar, 4 wiz grps please