Tips for healers

tinythinker

Share your tips for people who want healing to be an important part of their character here. I'll start with a few suggestions.

1. Consider the kind of healer you want to be. Every class has a self heal ability, and every class can use a restoration staff. So if you want to primarily self-heal, there isn't much of an issue. If you want to be a group healer, there are different styles to consider.

For example, a nightblade can use the Funnel Health morph of the Strife ability to heal two allies while dealing damage, the Siphoning Strikes ability for a chance to get a return of extra magicka with each attack, the Sap Essence morph of Drain Power which heals nearby allies based on the number of targets hit, or the Soul Siphon morph of the Soul Shred ultimate ability to damage enemies while giving health to three allies. Nightblades also have passives increasing their total magicka and increasing the effectiveness of all their class healing abilities.

The templar has an entire class skill line which offers abilities that remove negative effects, give healing over time (i.e. HOTs), and offer large instant burst of health to allies. The Breath of Life morph of Rushed Ceremony is an example of such burst healing and affects up to three targets. The restoration staff (which any class can wield) is also important, as it also offers HOTs as well as armor and damage resistance buffs, yet lacks burst healing. A templar with a restoration staff therefore has the most diverse and powerful array of healing abilities in the game.

So why then are there so many sorcerers who play as group healer?

Because sorcerer have passive abilities that decrease the magicka cost of abilities and increase the rate of magicka regeneration. Wearing light armor has passives that do the same. Since all healing abilities take magicka, getting it back faster and spending less per ability means you can cast those abilities more often. What really makes the difference is the sorcerer ability Dark Exchange, which trades stamina for magicka and healing. If you pick a race that already has magicka bonuses and roll a sorcerer who wields a restoration staff, what you lack in things like burst healing and removing effects like disease you can make up for by spamming and stacking DOTs.

If you have two sorcerers in the group wielding restoration staffs, then they can also help buff each other's magicka while healing each other using the Healing Springs morph of Grand Healing. And each heavy attack with a restoration staff returns magicka to any caster regardless of class. This is makes the restoration staff useful even to classes and builds that are weak in total magicka available and in magicka regeneration.

A templar, on the other hand, even using light armor and a restoration staff, cannot match the magicka output of a sorcerer, which makes sense, even with a templar passive slightly reducing the cost of magicka-based, stamina-based, and ultimate abilities. However, a templar does have passives that increase the effectiveness or duration of some or all of the class's healing abilities (Mending, for example, gives a 15%/30% critical chance on healing received by allies in poor health), can resurrect fallen allies faster, and again they have a good burst healing spell and can remove negative effects.

Each major type of group healer, sorcerer and templar, has aspects that the other lacks so each has a different kind of utility in various situations. And yes, you can also help out your group as a dragonknight or a nightblade with a restoration staff as a secondary weapon as well, although a nightblade can definitely do more in that regard than a dragonknight.

2. Wear light armor and use a restoration staff no matter your race or class (see tip #1). There is some acrimony over people using light armor because of the perceived difference in the quality and effectiveness of light armor passives versus heavy armor passives (I've heard a buff or reorganization of heavy armor may be in the works, but who can say what or when?). That aside, as mentioned in tip #1 light armor passives decrease the magicka cost of abilities and increase the rate of magicka regeneration. Other light armor passives boost key offensive and defensive stats of the wearer as well, but having more magicka to cast with and needing less to cast is great for a healer.

Again, your play style should determine your build, and survivability is important, but so is not running low on magicka at a critical time in a fight. I started with and still play a dragonknight who does fine as a secondary healer wearing heavy armor with magicka bonuses, and I also play a templar who wears light armor as a primary healer. As to weapon choice, in addition to the obvious benefits of a healer using a restoration staff, it returns 10% of the users magicka per each heavy attack.

3. You can't save everyone every time. If a group member stands in an area that is lit up red, unless they have a huge armor score and a great deal of investment in and buffs for their health attribute, they are going to be badly injured if not killed. If they keep doing it they will definitely be killed. A templar has an advantage in this situation by using a burst heal like Breath of Life, but if the healer has to keep spamming it for someone who keeps taking avoidable damage when it isn't necessary to do so, she will run low on magicka. (In some situations a melee player must stand in red but usually knows to buff health, wear heavy armor, and use lots of self-heals.) In other words, someone playing recklessly can throw off your ability to keep up your HOTs and to offer burst heals to those who really did get caught or stuck in accidental damage. Which brings us to...

4. Keep an eye on the group health meters let players who keep repeatedly dropping health really quickly know about it unless there is an obvious and unavoidable reason why that is happening. Some players think that having a healer in the group means that they can be reckless or play lazy or stupid and that a "good" healer will save them from such game play every time. This is not only false but selfish and it hurts the group as a whole (see tip #2). Politely let the player know that they seem to be losing health too quickly and too often and that they need to watch the enemy tells or use more of their own self heals if they want to run a kamikaze style of melee combat.

5. You have to keep moving and dealing damage while keeping up your HOTs, keeping an eye on the group health meters to know when a burst heal is necessary, and keep doing damage to opponents all at the same time. Simple, right? In other words, you have to keep an eye on incoming attacks by enemies (avoid those red circles and cones!) as well as the location of your group members. Casting a healing or buffing spell when those that need it most are out of the spell's range isn't a great tactic. And yes, you have to do more than heal. In this game, everyone has to deal some damage (and if you are using a restoration staff, don't forget that magicka return for heavy attacks already mentioned!).

6. Playing a healer right and well is very challenging (see tip #5) and also very rewarding. If you are doing what you need to do group members will still die sometimes (see tip #3) even if they are experienced and play their own roles well. Don't stress about it. Just keep doing your job and enjoy yourself.

OK, other tips or possibly additions or corrections to my advice? Please share!

Edited: Per suggestions and reactions, I have made the following revisions:

• included the Siphoning Strikes ability for Nightblades.
• clarified the mention of Breadth of Life as being an example of a burst heal.
• specifically mentioned the Mending passive for templars as an example of what was previously described only as "passives that increase the effectiveness or duration of some of the class's healing abilities".
• added an explanation to my second suggestion since it's value may not be apparent to newer players.
• clarified my admonition to "keep moving" with respect to positioning.

I think I will leave the rest "as is" since this original post was just meant to get the ball rolling on advice and tips for playing a healer, and there have already been some very informative responses.

Tiyamel

actually quite well written, seem to have covered main points nicely, this is not your usual MMO where healers can spam heals and keep whole party alive, tanks cannot possibly hold hate on every mob in every fight the whole time, and so on, tip 3 is quite right, I only play secondary healer in groups and sometimes its only because ive whipped my second weapon slot resto staff out that we all survived, our main healer just can't keep everyone alive in ( for example - mad adds ) situations and deaths DO happen, and even im guilty of standing in an aoe on occasion not seeing it properly, a quick heads up from healer and im moving on again.
SELF HEALS, that's a major point right there, just cos you have a healer doesn't mean you shouldn't self heal if possible as it takes a lot of pressure from your healer and gives them more resources to keep your tank alive that little longer so your dps can destroy it.
I hear a lot of people saying Templar is nowhere near as good as a Sorc for healing, that's not true, like you say quite rightly while Sorcs have better resources and management our Templar healer is much better with the actual heals itself, that and we run with at least one of us running secondary resto in case of emergency, so resources aren't quite such a problem.
Nice guide, and btw im NOT a healer, but an interesting read nonetheless, however may I suggest you maybe add lists of skills/abilities - their morphs and uses in situations? proper comparisons of each class and their uses as healers? Optimal builds, enchants and the suchlike would also give more information on those aspiring to be full time Healers.

Avidus

I will just add a couple quick tips of my own.

Efficient Positioning.
A lot of heals are selected areas, or in some cases such as blessing of protection you heal an area directly in front of you.

So if you stand between your Melee and ranged, only half the group is getting heals.
In PvP for example, if we are taking a resource when the initial group charges in for the flag, I will run with them, providing heals as they get to the flag.
Once we reach the flag, I will spin around and face my group.
This way anybody else in the group who is coming in will receive my heal and I do not have to worry about repositioning myself or having to waste mana on healing a small group of players.

Maximizing self survival.
If you die, everybody else dies, its simple.

Always, always keep something on your skill bars that will ensure that you do not die early. Usually the winner of a fight is dictated by which teams healers die first. I personally keep Bound armor on my bar, combined with Blessing of protecting, at all times I am armor and Spell resistance soft capped.
Allowing me to focus on players who focus on maximum output.
You can use sets like 'Of the warlock' which will mean your mana pool will last you much longer.
Or Deaths wind, in case those pesky NBs get up in your space and do some damage.

I could probably add more, but its too early in the morning.

mizc33cub18_ESO

You forgot to mention that Nightblades have the "siphon strike" ability.
When I use it on my nightblade healer, in combination with a resto staff that gives magica on each hit. Its almost impossible to run out of magica.

Ghnami

Personally, I love healing. I never really did it until I decided I wanted to make an anti-dk char and decided templar could probably do a pretty good job. Then I did some group dungeons and was the only one with the capability to heal. It was so much fun. I use single target burst heals and then grand healing and healing ritual for heals. I find that healing ritual is really powerful as a heal, with a low mana cost. As long as you can stay alive for the cast time, its the most powerful heal in the game (short of an ult). I like immovable and eclipse for defense in pvp, and pvm I'll take biting jabs and solar flare when mobs are quick kills. Grand healing is super powerful with resto staff since you can cast, heavy attack, cast, etc. infinitely.

I also think mending should be touched on in your templar section. Having a crit chance on your heals is INSANE. I often will let my allies drop below 50% health just to use 1 spell to heal them to 100% instead of healing them to 90% from 60%.

Sunrock

First of all best group healer in the game is Templar. Way? Because they are the only class that have burst healing. Sorc healing is only good between lv 1-50 but sucks after VR 5. In fact if you only rely on HOTs in PvP or 4 man VR ++ content you're ***. Also if you use restoration staff you regain mana with every heavy attack you do so the sorcs better mana regen does not mean anything in reality as you can get back about 2000 magica in 4-5 heavy attacks (at VR 12). So use waited trait stones on your restoration staff. (Attack speed). At purple quality you will gain 10% attack speed.

And no healing is not very challenging at least not compared to other MMORPGs and compare to tanking in ESO healing is easier.

williamburr2001b14_ESO

tinythinker wrote: »

A templar, on the other hand, even using light armor and a restoration staff, cannot match the magicka output of a sorcerer, which makes sense, even with a templar passive slightly reducing the cost of magicka-based, stamina-based, and ultimate abilities.

2. Wear light armor and use a restoration staff no matter your race or class (see tip #1).

Are. You. Kidding. Me?

First the Unkillable DK build...now this? Light Armor and Resto staff? Sorcs having better magicka management thus better sustainable heals than the supposed dedicated healing class?

This is linked right off THE LAUNCHER?

At this point I think there's a saboteur in the company. Obviously somebody on the inside is reading the forums, finding the most-oft mentioned balance complaints, and then erecting giant neon signs with arrows pointing to the things players hate most.

HOW MUCH ARE THEY PAYING YOU FOR THE GOBSTOPPER, SLUGWORTH?

LadyMarie

Thank you for this guide. I am always eager to learn ways to be a better healer. I have always played a healer in all the games I have played (SWG, LOTRO, GW2, KOTOR) this style is not my favorite. I have always been a strong "target my ally that needs the heal and bam! give them as much healing as I need to" type of healer. I am a Templar in light armor and a restorations staff. Since we can't specifically target our ally in ESO it makes guessing who is going to get my heal difficult. I can spam the restoration staff heal that directly heals 2 people while standing right next to them and facing them yet that heal randomly goes to 2 other people(that don't need healed) and my ally in dire straights goes down. I am still learning the names of the skills but I am definitely going to check out these recommended ones and make sure I'm using them too.

Avidus

Sunrock wrote: »

First of all best group healer in the game is Templar. Way? Because they are the only class that have burst healing. Sorc healing is only good between lv 1-50 but sucks after VR 5.

I gotta say I disagree with you. Templars without a doubt have good healing, but the best? not really. To me they are nothing special.
As a sorc healer I am capable of healing in damage intense situations and my survivability is through the roof.
I very rarely go oom, so my heals are constant.
And I can keep people alive easily.

So I really do fail to see how a healer suddenly becomes useless after a certain level?
I can tell you now, I have PvP'd against the the best of the best on NA and been able to survive, and overcome particularly challenging situations.

The effectiveness of my heals shows due to be focused first by enemy players.
And the only way we lose these encounters is when they succeed in killing me, or by separating our group forcing my heals to be less efficient.

Rev Rielle

With Mending and Focused Healing, Templars can bestow some truly massive heals. It's very satisfying to have an ally's health immediately go from 25% to full, with one heal. They may not have the best magicka management abilities, but this ability more than makes up for it I believe.

I think point three (3) is quite important:
Whilst it's nice as a healer to make sure everyone stays standing all the time, sometimes you just have to let an ally fall once or twice, and then afterwards let them know that continually standing in that 'ring of fire', or what have you, is extremely detrimental to the whole group. One must be careful doing this though; for the less allies in battle standing, the more chance the enemy is going to start hitting you. And that generally bodes ill if you're lightly armoured/protected.

I disagree with one aspect of point five (5):
You don't have to keep moving in combat, not all the time. If you position your character well, a lot of the time you can have them stay stationary. Needlessly moving only further complicates thing, and adds to the cognitive load of both yourself and your group. Of course there are times when your character has to move, and move a lot. The key is knowing when to and when not to. What healing skills you use and don't use also effects this. For example, various Templar skills like Ritual of Rebirth and Purifying Ritual have relatively small ranges, so you'll likely have to move your character closer to allies whilst/before you're casting those spells if you're the more stand-back-and-hit-with-a-staff-from-range sort of healer.

Finally, it's also worthwhile just being sure that your group members know about any common spells/effects they can interact (synergise) with, so they use them most effectively. Again, using the Templar; Purifying Ritual is a great example of this. Just a few tips to the group on exactly what the skill does with/without synergising, can help. A lot of players don't really seem to know the finer points, or realise that in some situations using a synergy just because it's available actually hinders, not helps.

pinstripesc

Thanks for this post, fine points to pass on to a healer friend of mine.

Sunrock

Avidus wrote: »

Sunrock wrote: »

First of all best group healer in the game is Templar. Way? Because they are the only class that have burst healing. Sorc healing is only good between lv 1-50 but sucks after VR 5.

I gotta say I disagree with you. Templars without a doubt have good healing, but the best? not really. To me they are nothing special.
As a sorc healer I am capable of healing in damage intense situations and my survivability is through the roof.
I very rarely go oom, so my heals are constant.
And I can keep people alive easily.

So I really do fail to see how a healer suddenly becomes useless after a certain level?
I can tell you now, I have PvP'd against the the best of the best on NA and been able to survive, and overcome particularly challenging situations.

The effectiveness of my heals shows due to be focused first by enemy players.
And the only way we lose these encounters is when they succeed in killing me, or by separating our group forcing my heals to be less efficient.

First of all no class can go OOM if they use a restoration staff.

But when your tank have about 3k HP and the trash mobs do over 1k damage each on heavy attacks you need to be able to instant heal at least 1k HP. And the only class that can instant heal 1k HP is the Templar. The damage VR 10 trash mobs do is insanely high.

Aslo in PvP VR 12 players can do 1000-1400 HP hits with ultimates and critting some abilities.

Brawn

Rev Rielle wrote: »

With Mending and Focused Healing, Templars can bestow some truly massive heals.

Focused Healing has an amazing tooltip doesn't it? It's super, super easy to keep healing ritual (or its morphs) up 100% of the time during a fight, and it has a huge radius!

Sadly, focused healing is 100% broken and you get no benefit whatsoever from spec'ing it. So, about those truly massive heals...

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/106741/bug-patch-1-1-3-templar-focused-healing-passiv/p1

I'm not trying to dump on templar healers; I've played one since beta and I really love the play style, but our direct heals come with high magicka costs and a serious lack of magicka regen class skills, and they really don't heal for nearly as much as they "should" (based upon our broken +30% passive).

Riny01

Thank you for this

Abrielle

I actually prefer my sorcerer healer to my templar. But as mentioned, the templar instant heals can be quite costly, and needing to wait until people have actually taken damage to make them worthwhile makes for a more reactive rather than preventative style. Much more hectic that way. With strategic use of the resto staff abilities, the combination of damage prevention and cost-efficient healing often seems to work out better overall. I generally end up using that style even with my templar.

Right now my Healing Ward (4th resto staff power, morphed with the heal at the end) can do more than 800 points of healing on someone at lower health. It's great for those "oh crap" moments where a templar might reach for their instant heals instead. And combined with the other options and some tactical use of the armor buff, etc., it seems to work out just fine for me, even with the VR content (unless the group is taking on something vastly higher than it should be, but in that situation a templar isn't going to have a great time of it either).

Nothing against templar healers at all, but I definitely think the other classes have very comparable strengths to offer.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO

I also think mending should be touched on in your templar section. Having a crit chance on your heals is INSANE. I often will let my allies drop below 50% health just to use 1 spell to heal them to 100% instead of healing them to 90% from 60%.[/quote]

yes! I understand that mages magica regen is better but, templars are just so good at pure healing. I have up to 30% crit chance for allies under 30% health as well as having + 30% healing for people inside my huge lingering ritual aoe, which is h o t with synergy to instantly heal and remove effects. my standing spell crit is 41%. armor gives +20% spell and channel heal/damage.
so, my breath of life does roughly 500 to one and 250 to two others base; cast ritual first and thats+50% from armor and standing in aoe so 750-325 325. if they are under 30% i have 70 % crit chance. so on a crit I have done 2000+ instant heal to team with two spells. dont forget that staffs are weapons not spells, so templars get way more utility from inner light than staff weilders.

williamburr2001b14_ESO

Sunrock wrote: »

First of all no class can go OOM if they use a restoration staff.

But when your tank have about 3k HP and the trash mobs do over 1k damage each on heavy attacks you need to be able to instant heal at least 1k HP. And the only class that can instant heal 1k HP is the Templar. The damage VR 10 trash mobs do is insanely high.

Aslo in PvP VR 12 players can do 1000-1400 HP hits with ultimates and critting some abilities.

First of all yes, yes they can. Templar big heals use up around 30% of their mana. Those are called "emergency heals," and should not have to be used most of the time. Healing in this game is sustained healing, otherwise someone is doing something bad.

Second...are you getting hit by trash mobs? Do you not run with cc? Do your group members not avoid giant red circles and rectangles? You're not supposed to eat those things with your face, you're supposed to avoid them. That's what all the PVE content was about--training you to avoid childishly simple, blatantly obvious strikes. We all mess up sometimes, and that's what emergency heals are for.

Yikes. Yeah if you and your friends are just sitting there getting whacked in the schnoz because none of you learned anything level 1-VR12, I can see why you think big heals are what's needed. If there was real raid content you'd know already that costly, emergency heals are not good, they are a last ditch save.

This is why people are trying, pretty patiently I think, to explain to you that big heals and crit heals (which rely on RNG, not something you can rely on) are not the best heals.

Avidus

williamburr2001b14_ESO wrote: »

snip

Well said!

Why should I have to heal somebody who takes an abundance of damage due to not using stamina efficiently? or having a borderline handicapped build.
I use Blessing of Protection as my main heal purely because of the Armour and Spell resistance it gives.
It means that the tank I am healing, suddenly takes less damage. Which means that 1k damage turns into something significantly less.
I use Mutagen as my emergency heal, and it works 100% of the time.

ESO is about being as efficient as possible.

Personally I am a PvP focused person, and my build is revolves around that.
I have 2 main goals in PvP.
My Primary goal is to be the personal healer for my guild leader. He has a reputation, and as such gets focused very, very hard by elite level players. (As a result of this they know to smack the healer up some, so its a pressure intense situation).
My secondary goal, you guessed it, keep the rest of my group alive. But as I work together with other healers and our builds are designed to complement each other, this job is relatively easy.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO

my big heals more like 20% mana! what are you in all heavy armor. yes its expensive but there is a lot of utility, the group can be completely divided and i can usually heal all 4 to full health from any health by casting it twice. not the main plan but great if you end up divided from dodges, red zones etc.

also my templar channel heal with my specs does 750 heal to all twelve people stacked on me with a 42% chance to crit and additionl 30% for low health. again its great utility option, especially when other two healers are stacking springs anyway and i can be giving group 750-1k every couple seconds( not counting the spring and purify i stack between) when we are stacked. yes stacked springs does that too, but i give them health all at once. the thing is, we know its good to focus on healing staff abilities but us templars can do more things in more situations.

Kulrig

A couple things I'd like to add, since they weren't very obvious thanks to a lack of explanation in-game and no numbers to go by without addons;

1) Resto Staff heal scaling is dependent on two things; one is max magicka, and the other is weapon damage including temporary buffs such as Molten Weapons or Surge.

I tested this using an addon called Combat Cloud, which shows damage and healing numbers, with various equipment and lack thereof. The difference between using a level 1 staff and a level 50 staff ended up being about a 33% reduction healing from Combat Prayer at R1, likewise when I took my magicka boosting armor off the numbers took a huge hit.

2) Essence Drain is worthless in pre-veteran content, not sure about the V ranks since I've yet to get very far in them yet. To give an idea of how awful it is, at R1 with a 96 damage staff Essence Drain only heals for about 25 (ticks for 80 damage, 30% of 80 is apparently 25). However, it is very helpful for the final boss of the Harborage quest line thanks to the way that quest works.

Also of special note to Sorcs, NO, Essence Drain does not proc from damage dealt by Overload heavy attacks (which is entirely lame).



And now a question; where is it stated in-game that Resto staff attacks restore magicka? I know that Siphon Spirit has an effect that allows people to gain magicka from attacks, but the way people talk about it sometimes makes it seem like it's a baked in effect of resto staves in general and not tied to an ability.

scriber

Kulrig wrote: »

And now a question; where is it stated in-game that Resto staff attacks restore magicka? I know that Siphon Spirit has an effect that allows people to gain magicka from attacks, but the way people talk about it sometimes makes it seem like it's a baked in effect of resto staves in general and not tied to an ability.

I believe I've seen it in the cycling loading tips.

Kayira

Sunrock wrote: »

First of all best group healer in the game is Templar. Way? Because they are the only class that have burst healing. Sorc healing is only good between lv 1-50 but sucks after VR 5. In fact if you only rely on HOTs in PvP or 4 man VR ++ content you're ***. Also if you use restoration staff you regain mana with every heavy attack you do so the sorcs better mana regen does not mean anything in reality as you can get back about 2000 magica in 4-5 heavy attacks (at VR 12). So use waited trait stones on your restoration staff. (Attack speed). At purple quality you will gain 10% attack speed.

And no healing is not very challenging at least not compared to other MMORPGs and compare to tanking in ESO healing is easier.

Ok, please tell me the passive on resto that restores magicka every heavy attack. I sadly have to let you know it does simply not exist. Heavy attacks restore health to group members and blocking restores a bit of magicka. The only way you gain magicka through heavy attacks on a resto staff is when you have a magicka absorb glyph on your staff, and that does not give you 2000 magicka in 4-5 heavy attacks.

A little calculation:
At vet 9 it give me 17 magicka each attack, doubt it goes up to 500 each heavy attack at vet 12 but lets say 20 magicka each attack. If you are talking about siphon spirit that only gains you 1% magicka each attack ticks for 20s so can give you a maximum of 20-30% of magicka, considering that I am capped and have roughly 2300 magicka, 30% only accounts to 690 magicka in 20s, saying 30 attacks using glyph of absorb magicka that gives us maybe another 600 magicka in 20 seconds. So overall you get 1290 magicka in 20s.

So getting 2000 magicka in 4-5 attacks is simply impossible using heavy attack at VR 12.

Lastly:
No one said that templars or sorcerers are the better healer, it was merely said that both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Furthermore after vet 5 sorcerer healing does not suck. No one undermined templars here, so don't go around attack sorcerer healing because you feel like your class has been displayed as worse than sorcerer.
Also healing is quite hard if you have a random group. It is the only profession were you have real responsibility.

@scriber‌
No, it doesn't restore magicka without the right glyph it merely heals your allies.

Nidwin

It does restore Magicka, heavy attacks, and it has nothing to do with glyphs.

That's also how we, Templars, are able to fight Bosses and Elites solo, by managing our magicka through skill dps and restore magicka with heavy attacks.

Lonesniper

Kayira wrote: »

Ok, please tell me the passive on resto that restores magicka every heavy attack. I sadly have to let you know it does simply not exist. Heavy attacks restore health to group members and blocking restores a bit of magicka. The only way you gain magicka through heavy attacks on a resto staff is when you have a magicka absorb glyph on your staff, and that does not give you 2000 magicka in 4-5 heavy attacks.

Did you even use resto staff once?
Of course it does, and it's not even a passive, it's a weapon mechanic. Such as "bow is ranged" and "shield blocks more", you can say "resto staff returns magica". There is no tooltip for that, that's something you see immediately once you equip a resto staff.

driosketch

If you're a Templar, and plan to heal through dungeons, I recommend the Repentance morph for Restoring Aura. It's free instant party heals as long as you have a fresh body. And in a dungeon you always have a fresh pile of bodies.

ESOSecret

I agree with pretty much most of this article.

Having a VR2 Templar with FULL Heal spec (both bars), VR1 NB with Resto and 1 Bar, and a Mid 30's Sorc I have a pretty good opinion based on playing. Even my level 15 DK uses a Resto.

I am in agreement that all classes with Resto can heal at all levels, some better than others.

However I will say this.
My Templar in full heal spec and geared mode will out heal any other class equally geared and same level. She is a Bretton which gives great magicka passives. When in this mode she has 101 magicka regen and 2k magika. I pretty much never run out of mana especially with my resto's having absorb magicka. But yes, I have specifically geared this toon for healing in this way. Still working on getting my spell crit up though.

The major disagreement I have is that is was said Templars lack burst heals.. BS. Though my insta-heal costs high magicka I can burst more healing around at any time and drop a resto insta to the Tank any myself and be golden.

Templar ability to heal is the superior flexibility. A simple rotation combining Resto Staff and Restoring Light abilities makes magicka management a cinch.

And lastly I don't think I seen this by anyone here.
Healing is not just about the healers abilities, it is also about the other players. They have to stay in range of heals, not matter what class is healing. A smart group makes healing easier. Smart groups have their own healing passives as well.

Kayira

I am using resto staff all the time and I have not noted a significant magicka return from heavy attack.
If it does it does not enough to return enough magicka to be seen on my magicka bar. My point is it does not give you 2000 magicka back in 4 heavy attacks or I would have a full magicka bar constantly. I am not going to argue if it restores magicka, it might but definitely not as much as it was said above. I always have a magicka restore glyph on anyway so I assumed the magicka coming back is from there.

Cinna

Kayira wrote: »

I am using resto staff all the time and I have not noted a significant magicka return from heavy attack.
If it does it does not enough to return enough magicka to be seen on my magicka bar. My point is it does not give you 2000 magicka back in 4 heavy attacks or I would have a full magicka bar constantly. I am not going to argue if it restores magicka, it might but definitely not as much as it was said above. I always have a magicka restore glyph on anyway so I assumed the magicka coming back is from there.

As default resto staff DOES give 10% of your max magica back per finished heavy attack. This is why its heavy attack damage is lower than other weapons. The magica return does not require any passive nor an enchant. The game does not tell you this (they are not very good at telling us facts, are they), but it is fairly easily observable.

eliisra

Kayira wrote: »

No one said that templars or sorcerers are the better healer, it was merely said that both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Furthermore after vet 5 sorcerer healing does not suck. No one undermined templars here, so don't go around attack sorcerer healing because you feel like your class has been displayed as worse than sorcerer.
Also healing is quite hard if you have a random group. It is the only profession were you have real responsibility.

Templar is still far better at healing, objectively speaking. Doesn't mean they fill the heal spot better in every group, of course.

For casual PvE you might prefer a hybrid dps'er with a resto staff, just because heavy heals aren't needed. In that situation a templar might draw the shorter straw. It's more effective with an Atronach and Healing Spring spamming sorc, that can help more with dps.

But in terms of raw healing, there isn't any competition between the classes. Templar is superior. No other class have access to the Restoring Light skill three. My VR2 templar is a far better PvP healer than my VR12 fully geared sorc, for example.

You cant keep up focused players with only resto staff abilities, doesn't matter how strong your HoT's are or how frequently you can cast them. There is no oh-*** buttons to use, for a sorc healer.

The resto Ward is a terrible spot heal. It's not taking player mitigation into account and breaks in 1 freaking light attack. It cant crit. That's actually a huge deal, since most casters run around with 50-60% spell crit.

theHollow

Great article, and great responses. I have full up healing templar, and an off heal templar, and enjoy them both. As the arguments above for Templar is best and others for Sorcs are best, show that the game is set up well. Kinda like Ford and Chevy argument. Hopefully it stays that way, with each class bringing something different.

Cinna

Very nice tips @tinythinker. Also, I liked very much the tip of @Avidus about Positioning - that is very very important. On top of what has been said I would like to add how it's not all about heals per se. Different classes and specs can provide slightly different methods of keeping party members healthy. Utility is a part of the healer role and the different tools you have in your disposal are what make different classes play different. All classes can be great healers, but the different utilities make different styles, and due to some class spells you might want to choose different morph on the resto staff than another class does. Healing is not only hps. Here are some examples of preventative tools...

@tinythinker wrote:

1. Consider the kind of healer you want to be.

"The less they hurt us, the less I need to heal."
Single target cc/interrupts: knockdowns/knockbacks, charges, disorient spells... (The healer can also lock down a nasty stray archer instead of healing through the damage they cause.)

Aoe cc: roots from Talons (dk) and Encase (sorc), stun from Gravity Crush synergy (temp), silence from Negate Magic (sorc), also Volcanic rune (mages)...

Aoe damage reduction: Dark talons (dk), Nova (temp), Corrosive armor (dk), Consuming Darkness (nb)...

Aoe miss chance: Blinding Flashes (temp), Ash Cloud (dk).

Aoe armor/resist rating boost: Blessing of protection (resto), Circle of Protection (fighters).

Concussion: Any shock damage has a chance to proc status effect Concussion i.e. 10% damage reduction. Storm calling spells, Lightning staff as a swap, shock enchant.

"The more/faster we do damage, the less I need to heal."
Aoe damage boost: Igneous weapons (dk), Combat Prayer (resto).

"The more resources my group members have available, the better they can mitigate or do damage and thus, the less I need to heal."
Resource returns to allies: Luminous shards (templar), Repentance/Radiant Aura (templar), Siphon Spirit (resto).

(Disclaimers: above listed spells are examples, I did not try to mention all possible variations and the lists are skewed towards templar and dk as I have played them more. Also, many of the above tools can be useless if someone in your group uses it already - therefore communication may be required.^^)

And lastly, I got to second @ESOSecret‌ for:

Healing is not just about the healers abilities, it is also about the other players. They have to stay in range of heals, not matter what class is healing.