Sorcerer Healer Viability / Choices

ForestGuard · December 2014

Heey. I play Epherus, a V9 Sorcerer Healer having a really tough time with Veteran Dungeons. Ignore the first two sets, I made those for myself to reference when swapping skills.

-I use TWO Restoration Staves.
-My first bar is the "main" one, with more direct and instant heals / shields.
-My second bar is the extension of my healing spells. I swap to it, hit my HoT once or twice, MAYBE drop the debuff on an enemy with lots of health, then hit my +weapon damage buff and start healing... I -try- to use my charged attacks, but people go down too quickly, and I end up spamming AoEs and my barriers... so my magicka goes down faster than it should... and when things get bad, I don't have the magicka I need, OR the time to use my magicka/health battery...
-I use some V1 gear for the 5 piece Sanctuary set. (Group Members within 10m receive +12% from heals.)

The major changes I'm looking into right now are:

Mundus Stones:
Ritual (+Healing)
Thief (+Crit)
Warrior (+Power)
Shadow (+Crit DMG)
INSTEAD OF... Mage (+Magicka)
Weapons: Glyphs of Rage instead of Glyphs of Absorb Magicka
Jewelry: ?Glyphs of Increase Physical Harm or Magical Harm?
Armor: Maybe one more Magicka glyph instead of Health.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas that aren't "reroll templar", let me know.
I might also like an addon for healing if there are any.

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ThatHappyCat · December 2014

Would be nice to know what morphs you're using for your Resto staff skills.

I'd drop Force Siphon either way, it's not really helpful. I don't like Bone Shield primarily because PUGs don't tend to use synergies and it doesn't provide a significant benefit for its user. Rune Prison/Cage's cast time is too long and most mobs you want to use it on are immune anyway, so I'd drop that too.

ForestGuard · December 2014

Ahh good points, thanks. Any suggestions to take their place?

Mainly I'm thinking Bolt Escape instead of Rune Cage. Seems like it would be more useful in general.

Magdalina · December 2014

Haha, that's a very cute picture up there:)

I'm vet 14 sorc healer/dps. By now everyone knows templar heals are way better, templars have OP Breath of life, etc, so let's skip this part. As a sorc I can still heal all vet dungeons except COA and I have healed DSA(non vet).

If your party members die so fast you have no time for heavy attacks, well, that's probably party's fault;) A lot of fights are very healing intensive now, but if just the tank tanks and dps don't stand in red, it becomes a LOT easier. Resto staff heavy attack restores a LOT of magicka now, it's wonderful. I spam it. My magicka rarely goes under 50% so if everything suddenly goes "OH S***", I tend to have enough magicka to pull people out(granted, doesn't always help if said people just decide to stand in that pretty red circle or ignore boss mechanic).

I'm lazy so I usually swap resto/destro. Healing bar being Illustrious Springs(you didn't mention the morphs you have, but if you don't have this one, get it, does wonders for magicka sustain; Springs is your eternal spamheal), Rapid regeneration(>Mutagen because 300 burst heal isn't going to cut it any more), Healing Ward(moar heals), Combat Prayer(buffs!) and Inner Light. Destro is my dps setup which I'm too lazy to change, plus sometimes I off dps if I can/have to. Crit surge also goes on that bar, I don't usually use it for heals unless healing checks like Gargoyle in Spindle, last boss in Fungal etc. I'm surprised there's no Inner light on your second bar, it means you have to recast it every time you swap, which takes time(I know I'd also always forget it lol). I don't use Siphon, imo it's not good enough to justify giving it a whole slot.

You didn't mention sets you're using except Sanctuary? I'm not sure what pieces Sanctuary has, but if you can get Eyes of Mara, it's 12% resto skill cost reduction, awesome for us non templars. If you're having bad magicka issues, enchant jewelry with "reduce magicka skill cost". My necklace is enchanted with that, rings with +weapon damage because magicka return of resto heavy attack is just soooooo OP right now.

Watch what skills you use. Healing ward is expensive and definitely not spamable, it's just an "oh s***" button for when a party member drops particularly low. Healing springs is supercheap even if you can't cover all party members with it. Regeneration is pretty much free to spam, too.

My current Mundus is Thief because I tend to spend more time dps-ing than healing these days. If you're pure heals though, Ritual sounds nice.

Weapons, I always go with absorb magicka, can't have too much of it. But that's probably not so important.

Health/magicka, you didn't list how much you have. Bigger magicka pool will slightly increase your heals(and won't really help with sustain tbh), but you need to pass a certain health treshold to survive in vet dungeons - and healer should never be first to die. At vet 14 that's something around 2.5k health atm. Magicka, just have it softcapped(with food), then see what you need more.

Good luck!;)

ForestGuard · December 2014

Magdalina wrote: »

Haha, that's a very cute picture up there:)

Thank you! :]

Magdalina wrote: »

I'm surprised there's no Inner light on your second bar, it means you have to recast it every time you swap, which takes time(I know I'd also always forget it lol). I don't use Siphon, imo it's not good enough to justify giving it a whole slot.

Very good point! If it was on both bars it would stay on, wouldn't it? :O That would be amazing.

Magdalina wrote: »

Watch what skills you use. Healing ward is expensive and definitely not spamable, it's just an "oh s***" button for when a party member drops particularly low.

Great advice. I'll try to use it less often / proactively.

Magdalina wrote: »

Good luck!;)

Thank you! Was a really insightful post. Lots to think about.

Tonturri · December 2014

I use

1st bar - Bolt Escape(Ball of Lightning), Dark Exchange(Morph to decrease stam uses), Lightning Splash thingy, Crit Surge, Magelight

Going to replace lightning splash thing with Siphon once I morph it to regen magicka

2nd - Healing Springs, Mutagen(going to be changed to Rapid >.>), Battle Prayer, Healing Ward, Magelight

Basically a healing bar, and then a utility bar. I spend most of my time on bar 2.

Also, if you -do- turn off magelight and then back on at some point, might of the guild effects your heals.

Edit - oh, ultimates. Don't ever run double negate. Soul...thingyamabob from the tree that has soul trap isn't the best for a healer, either. Atronach - fire and forgot as opposed to channel - is better, imo. It hits stuff while you heal

Magdalina · December 2014

Well you caaaaan run double Negate, it might even come in handy in certain situations. I usually have Charged Atronach on one of the bars though(depending on situation - if I know the team doesn't need my Negate in this instance, Atro goes on main bar), it's not the best damage ulti by far but it's the only one we get so why not. The faster they die, the better. Optionally change it to Barrier/Dawnbreaker/stuff sometimes.

Oh, also, potions. Really, with resto magicka return you shouldn't need that many unless team is being ridiculously uncareful, but if you do need more magicka - spam potions, not when you're low but as soon as your magicka goes down any noticeable amount, and then again as soon as cooldown ends. I usually slot the standard vet 5 magicka pots that drop in very dungeons I use them for, never run out:P Have some fancy ones, too, but these are only for special fights because herb farming is killing me.

eliisra · December 2014

Tonturri wrote: »

Also, if you -do- turn off magelight and then back on at some point, might of the guild effects your heals.

Might of the Guild passive doesn't affect Restoration Staff heals. It boosts spell power when casting attack/offensive skills. So neither heals nor weapon power based abilities, will get the buff.

Flawless Dawnbreaker equipped doesn't boost resto heals either

(if someone didn't know).

Healing on a sorc you need high weapon power, decent crit rating and a lot of spamming really. Power Surge is a better option than Crit Surge, for sustain. Getting 1-2 weapon power enchant on jewellery, is also very helpful.

I use Barrier or Stormy as second ulti, depending on trash or boss. Bit sad they nerfed the taunt from the Atronach, that was such a useful support ability.

But yeah, healing on a templar is 10 times easier.

Hypertionb14_ESO · December 2014

as a warning, you will never be asked to be a healer unless your group is comprised entirely of close friends or close guildmates.

other than that your good.

replace rune cage with Inner light tho, you should not have it on only one bar as you have to recast it.

as for actually healing in fights, be premptive with your grand healing morph of choice. if you see a boss getting ready to launch something that can really hurt, stack it a few times on tank or so.

healing ward is almost pointless for healing the tank, only use it if a DPS or you get hit by a power attack. If you use it on the tank, it will be gone in seconds as damage shields dont take in account blocking or Armor/spellresist.

also while some will advise against it, you can still use Spell Sym as a healer, you can use it several times and then cast Healing Ward right after, by the time the ward wears off for the heal the debuff that prevents self healing will be gone.

some dungeons will be much harder than others, I dont advise sorc healing Vet Banished Cells for example, as the final boss hits too hard and ignores block combined with the spread out nature of the fight will make it really hard to heal without breath of life.

all this said, Sorc healers are actually very trials viable, as long as you have at least one Templar in the group you can rely on other classes for stack heals.

In Hel Ra for example, as long as bottom is semi stacked and the tank is good, a sorc with just Grand healing and the occasional Combat Prayer is more than enough.

again tho... unless your group is willing to try, and know that you will RARELY get that chance if they are, you will not be healing as a sorc.

Tonturri · December 2014

Might of the Guild passive doesn't affect Restoration Staff heals. It boosts spell power when casting attack/offensive skills. So neither heals nor weapon power based abilities, will get the buff.

I could've sworn I saw it go up while I was in Fungal Grotto and running Volcanic rune. Just tested and looks like I saw incorrectly, whoops. However, my addon -does- show that the Might of the Guild buff is consumed o.o