Which heal for magblade pvp/pve should I use?

Nyseto

I see builds with either resolving vigor, rapid regeneration, or healthy offering. Which heal is best?

Also, why not shrewd offering over healthy offering? The minor mending is on subsequent heals only, so wouldn’t shrewd be better if I’m only healing once?

Thecompton73

Vigor and rapid regen are both HOT's. Both are useful, vigor is the more common choice because it offers the resistance buff while rapid regen only heals for more per tick when you're at low health. It's also more reliable because the heal can't go to anyone else. Many run both.
However as a Magblade you want your primary HOT to be refreshing path, it's a loaded skill with major expedition, minor intellect and minor endurance as well as the heal. Plus every second you're in it you refresh the expedition buff and trigger the extra damage passive from concealed weapon so all your damage hits 10% harder.
Shrewd vs Healthy offering is the burst heal. A emergency button for when you don't have time to let the HOT's refill your bar. Otherwise you want those HOTs going with high uptime to keep you constantly topped off. And so you want to choose Healthy to get the most out of those HOTs since you'll have them up alot.

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding.

MidniteOwl1913

So is this heal for soloing? Because in group content you should have a healer. Honestly for my magblade when soloing I just use Ember it is usually enough heals and I get an extra damage slot.

Just an idea.

fred4

For PvE, the short answer is none. If you are in a group, it's the healer's job to heal you. If you are solo or prefer not to exclusively rely on a healer, your heals should basically be Swallow Soul, Sap Essence, possibly Pale Order. Swallow Soul is a HOT. Some harder PvE content can be soloed by mixing Swallow Soul and Sap Essence at all times, even if your target type demands only one or the other for doing damage. Swallow Soul being a HOT keeps running and stacks with Sap Essence. As a PvPer at heart, but playing in PvE, I tend to also have Shrewd Offering in my builds, but strictly as an emergency heal. Some people prefer Harness Magicka over Shrewd / Healthy Offering. Shielding sets, notably Hexos Ward and Iceheart, both sets that also include damage via crit %, are further options.

In PvP, the short answer is you should use all of the above. The only issue is bar space. Resolving Vigor competes with Regeneration as a HOT. I would say Vigor is better, at least in solo play. You get the resistances. You get to activate part of Wretched Vitality, if you're using that. It can't accidentally go to another player. You're not forced into resto staff. Stamina sustain is something you have to account for, but since it's not a burst heal that you might spam, it's generally OK. If you're not using Swallow Soul, then having a dedicated HOT skill, like Resolving Vigor, in your build is practically a must. I'm not sure how good of a heal Refreshing Path is, as I don't use it. Enemy players can see it. While it's hard to find the player who left that on the ground, it always struck me as a daft skill for a cloaking nightblade. It's more for tanky brawler nightblades that use Dark Cloak. I could be wrong.

HOTs are proactive skills while burst heals are reactive / emergency skills. You generally need both in PvP. There's not much difference between Healthy and Shrewd Offering. I would say that, if you're generally stacking heals and are dodge rolling damage, Healthy Offering should be better. I, however, use Shrewd Offering as I run a 1H+Shield back bar. My build is extremely fast, basically at or near the speed cap at all times. I do not use Shadow Image. Some people prefer a resto back bar historically or nowadays perhaps a bow. I, however, find there are occasions where your only choice is to block. You're caught out, you have no time to cast Race Against Time, you have no easy line of sight to dodge roll to, perhaps you have a Meteor incoming or you have the detection orb on you. In those cases I tend to block spam Shrewd Offering. I choose that morph for the lower cost and the lower stacking penalty.

You have to pay attention to every little thing in a PvP build. My tankiest setup includes 1H+Shield, Swallow Soul, Siphoning Attacks, Magic Damage / Restore Health Enchant, Shrewd Offering, Resolving Vigor, Reviving Barrier, Mara's Balm and Rallying Cry. That's my low damage / bring Tel Var home setup. Light armor, but feels tanky indeed. You can strike a different balance, but in any case it's worth being conscious of all your healing factors and how they add up. Swallow Soul may seem like a small heal in PvP, but all that small fry does add up. I find the long-lasting DOTs in the current game can take a toll you want to offset. Same goes for Siphoning Attacks and the other factors. It's harder to make them work, as some of the heals only proc while landing light attacks, but what else is new for nightblade. They certainly help in 1v1 situations whereas, if you're being focused and forced into defense, you're going to lean on Vigor, Shrewd Offering and Mara.

fred4

Just to add, if blocking while being focused by multiple players is in your behavioral repertoire as it is in mine, you really do need a 1H+Shield or ice staff back bar in PvP. The additional mitigation is good, but more than anything you need the block cost to come down. With prismatic enchants your build will have around 15K stamina in CP. That's not a lot. Spamming a heal while blocking for a few seconds eats up your stamina in no time without 1H+Shield. You still need to be able to break free and/or dodge roll once you see your opportunity to get moving again. That said, I've always found this to be tankier than relying purely on healing and resistances, in other words tankier than using a resto staff in years past. Different people run different builds and have different takes on this, though.