The patch, when/if it comes, is supposedly going to give cf a minor nerf- but it's also supposedly going to give Seg's like 2 or 3 more AoE attacks. (Also according to someone who plays Dekaron, the high level whips help alot with the new AoE's)
idk, i'm making my seg for a later build and counting on the patch, I intend to never need my skill/stat resets, so if I ever do, they're there and I don't have to pay for them.
The level 12 whip builds get alot of life, but have lower damage. You'll also be downing mana pots like a drunk in a wine cellar, i'm lvl 77 now with about 1.1k mana and I go through quite a few already.

Also keep in mind that Magic Damage effects your heals and curse attacks, so with the lvl 12 build none of your skills will be quite as effective. You will have a LOT more life though, and defense.
I've got about 5.3k life right now at 77, while another seg I saw at 82 had over 9k with the lvl 12 whip build.
It's all preference really... this game has pretty customizable characters as far as stats and skills go, I even read on the 2moons forum about a guy making a pure spr seg (with highest whip) for mass dmg. That's something I intend to mess with one day, the glass cannon.

-EDIT-
I'm also a healing/blood seg, with 9 points in curse mastery for the extra 5% dmg. Though i'm contemplating getting Paralyze one of these days.. It'd come in handy for those little annoying punks that like to attack a few times then run away, then attack a few times and run away, repeating over and over.
This post was edited by Wickedry on Feb 28 2008 09:38am