I am trying to use the Raven for healing. I thought once summoned, I just rehit the button to get the heal. Nothing happens. Later I notice I get some red plusses so I am thinking I am being healed by something.
So do I just have to be near the raven and it happens whenever? How does it actually work?
It’s not a skill you control. The raven decides when it wants to heal you and that doesn’t seem to happen very often. Most people don’t even bother using the skill as far as I know.
Thank you so much @medea_fleecestealer. I thought it would be a good healing mechanic for a low level. Will respect once I get more levels and try something else.
I think Raven uses the different skills it have in a rotation. So if you choose Mend Flesh Raven will have some chance to use it.
If you focus on pets you can put 1 point in it. For non pet builds is bad idea, since you’ll lack pet bonuses and your Raven will die often, especially on higher levels. Better use Blood of Dreeg.
Thank you Nery, will do that.
For it to trigger, afaik, you need to be in combat, near the Raven and it should not be in the middle of casting another skill, or under the effects of CC like Stun, Freeze etc.
It works if you think of it as a bonus healing rather than count on it to survive. It also has a CD, so there is also that. Pet skills usually have like 3 sec CD if I am correct.
Definitely not worth it on a non pet build and even on Pet builds, only put more than 1 point in it if you desperately need an additional source of healing.
I use the Raven with only Mend Flesh maxed out on my support/healer deceiver. For an extra source of healing on top of 5 activated heal skills (2x Touch of Purity, Apothecary’s Touch, Blood of Dreeg and Word of Renewal). Most non-pet builds will not really be able to utilize Raven from what I know, however in a healer build it’s a valuable source of extra healing which comes in handy if you’re using all your activated heals to protect your squad.
It’s not a cure-all, but it’s there doing its thing when it does, which is helpful at filling in the rare health dips between the Healing rotation. I personally love the Raven and it’s my favorite pet, specifically for this ability.
It has some weird behaviors. A few months ago, I ran some tests with the Raven in the Fields of Strife area (with the minefield) because it seemed like it was bugged or not working properly to me. What I came up with is this:
What I concluded is despite a few quirky behaviors, it’s actually a decent source of supplemental healing (especially while leveling) if you can work around it and maintain global threat.
The Hellhound generates a lot of threat but like every other, non-invincible melee pet, it can die instantly in a lot of areas. You can resummon your Hellhound of course but it won’t have threat on anything, so the Raven either dies immediately following the Hellhound’s death or it stops healing in favor of attacking. While leveling, it’s probably a non-issue as long as you’ve invested enough into the Hellhound to offset whatever threat Mend Flesh generates.
It also seemed to far more reliably use it in combat when I was playing on my Sentinel than it did on my Cabalist, which is why I believe it’s tied to the threat system somehow. The Oathkeeper is capable of pumping out absurd levels of threat, and the Raven seemed to have no issue using Mend Flesh constantly as long as I was spamming Aegis of Menhir and Judgment.
It is kind of counter-intuitive, watching it throw heals at you whenever your health is lower than 90% on a much sturdier Sentinel build, as opposed to when you badly need healing the most because you’re about to die on a comparatively frail Cabalist build, but at least it no longer seemed as inconsistent to me once I realized that. That all said, I feel like it’s actually a pretty decent skill if you’re playing either a high-threat tank build or a healing-focused support build.
Did you notice if it uses Mend flesh more when set to defensive mode? I have always wondered that but never really been able to know for sure.
That’s true, actually I think in defensive mode Raven is prevent from using any other skills, except for Mend Flesh.
If you play pets though, aggressive stance is recommended.
Right, but if all @Davor wants to use the Raven for is healing, and he builds around it, using Raven in defensive mode with only the Mend Flesh ability and no investment in Lightning Strike, then it should function as an extra Healing ability, though not wholly able to be relied upon singularly for survival.
Honestly in my experience as well, the Raven doesnt die TOO much (unless you’re doing crucible and SR on high levels). I hardly have to resummon it with only 1 point invested in it.
Yes is an idea. I have tried that but it only works somewhat in normal difficulty. In elite Raven is more vulnerable. And also Mend Flesh have CD and small range, so it will not be more useful then Bat devotion, Blood of Dreeg or Giant’s Blood.
For thematic purposes yes. My first ever Occultist build was with bird, because was on cover on GD and Occultist’s profile picture 
Yeah thematically the Raven is cool as hell. I mean in real life ravens and crows are cool as hell anyway, so if I can have one as a pet in video games I always go for it.
Highly doubtful on these because I have never seen any of that behaviour.
It still uses lightning strike in defensive mode.
The difference might be that since the pet stays close to you it might prioritize casting Mend Flesh over other skills whenever it gets the chance while in aggressive, it prioritizes offensive like Lightning Strike.
That said, personally I tested it some time ago and couldn’t notice any real increase in Mend Flesh’s usage over time with defensive mode over aggressive. So it could also be RNG in the end.
EDIT: Did a quick test right after posting this. Same thing, no difference in frequency of Mend Flesh regardless of pet stance.
Thanks all for the replies. Learned a few things, and some still confuse me. CD would be cool down correct? I am not up to date with short forms terminologies.
As for putting pets in a defensive stance, how is that done? I didn’t know we could do that.
CD would be cooldown, yes.
You can click on their Portraits on top left and choose the stance. For pets that don’t have portraits, you can’t change the stance.
The reason I went to the Fields of Strife is because I wanted to see if it worked outside of combat. I noticed it would occasionally heal me multiple times in row after deliberately running over some mines. There weren’t any enemies around.
I didn’t actually even think to test the pet stances. I know the Raven was in defensive mode and the Hellhound in aggressive for my tests because that’s how I always have it.
I can try testing that later too.
The mines count as enemies 
That’s possible. I always kind of assumed because the pet portraits go red when running over them. I know you can also indirectly attack and debuff them but I wasn’t 100% sure because pets otherwise ignore them.
I guess I’m not really sure what the distinction is between pets and summons. The summons (especially) seem to have some quirky behavior. The necromancer’s skeletal mages seem to fireball anything that looks at them wrong, and the ghosts from Bonescavenger’s Deathgrips are well beyond ridiculous. Those things will run like four rooms ahead of you to punch stuff in the face. They always make me laugh. I love those things.