Is the Restoration staff as a solo player viable?

Sozzy

Hi guys, I was just looking at the restoration staff skills and by the looks of it, it only looks useful if you play in groups? Isn't the only self heal Force Siphon? Yet I see people go on about Healing Ward all the time as being OP despite it saying it only heals allies rather than yourself?

So if I don't play in groups much should I use the Restoration staff, and if not what is the best second weapon alt for a Sorcerer?

Rosveen

Usually when a skill description says "ally", it also applies to you. This makes resto staff an excellent secondary weapon, especially for classes with few inherent heals and/or shields. Shield stacking sorcs are particularly popular in PvP, though ZOS seems to be trying to do something to combat it... Not sure if in the right direction, but we'll see.

kadar

The tooltips can be a bit confusing, but like Rosveen said, those ablilities that heal x number of allies also heal you.
Resto staves work really well for a Sorc because of your already large magicka pool. This prevents you from having to invest resources into stamina to make another weapon type viable. So basically your heals get stronger at the same time as your offensive capabilities. Not to mention being useful in groups.

You can also get various addons that will tell you exactly when, who, and for how much you are healing. I'd recommend FTC for its "Floating Combat Text" feature, if you like numbers on your screen. Cloud 9 also has good floating combat text. Or you could get a combat log that tracks damage and healing like CLS if you don't like the clutter of numbers floating around lol.

Sozzy

@The_Outsider unfortunately I'm on PS4 so no add on for me

kadar

Ah!

This is why after console release everyone needs to add their platform to their signature so people can have some context for some of these topics, haha. Like stuff doesn't make sense to PC players and is totally non-applicable to consol-ers...

Anyway...Yeah Resto is legit for healing yourself as well as allies. Hope your Q got answered.

Sozzy

Yes, thank you.

k2blader

Rosveen wrote: »

Usually when a skill description says "ally", it also applies to you. This makes resto staff an excellent secondary weapon, especially for classes with few inherent heals and/or shields. Shield stacking sorcs are particularly popular in PvP, though ZOS seems to be trying to do something to combat it... Not sure if in the right direction, but we'll see.

The reason "shield stacking sorcs" are popular is because it's the only way we don't end up a smear on the ground.

How is it you don't understand this? You really think sorcs could survive long otherwise?

Ezareth

Healing Ward alone ensures that Resto Staff is a viable option for most solo players. If you're a magicka player it's almost necessary.