Nightblade Healers

Ahdora · January 2015

I've been wanting to talk with some other nightblade healers, but I haven't run across any in my guilds, so I figured I'd take to the forums.

Just want to talk shop. What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of your class in this role? What do you do to make up for the lack of BoL in fights where groupmates are generally not in areas where the healing circle can be used most efficiently? I.E. Nerien'eth, last boss in normal DSA, etc.

Let's chat.

Heals With Stick
V9 Nightblade healer, NA/EP

Lord Xanhorn · January 2015

Good luck with that.

Ahdora · January 2015

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

Good luck with that.

Meaning?

I healed every vet dungeon in the game on hardmode, save CoA, at V3-V5, with the zones set to V12. I also healed regular DSA at V9.

And the current top leaderboard slot for VDSA (66 minutes) is taken by a nightblade healer.

It's quite viable, just not very common.

Skullemainia · January 2015

Ahdora wrote: »

I've been wanting to talk with some other nightblade healers, but I haven't run across any in my guilds, so I figured I'd take to the forums.

Just want to talk shop. What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of your class in this role? What do you do to make up for the lack of BoL in fights where groupmates are generally not in areas where the healing circle can be used most efficiently? I.E. Nerien'eth, last boss in normal DSA, etc.

Let's chat.

Heals With Stick
V9 Nightblade healer, NA/EP

what skills do you use besides resto staff skills?

Ahdora · January 2015

Skullemainia wrote: »

Ahdora wrote: »

I've been wanting to talk with some other nightblade healers, but I haven't run across any in my guilds, so I figured I'd take to the forums.

Just want to talk shop. What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of your class in this role? What do you do to make up for the lack of BoL in fights where groupmates are generally not in areas where the healing circle can be used most efficiently? I.E. Nerien'eth, last boss in normal DSA, etc.

Let's chat.

Heals With Stick
V9 Nightblade healer, NA/EP

what skills do you use besides resto staff skills?

Refreshing Path, Funnel Health, Siphoning Attacks, and Veil, mostly.

Lord Xanhorn · January 2015

Ahdora wrote: »

Meaning?

Meaning, if you are in a group with good players and are coordinated in vent then healing is doable and maybe even easy with any class in the game. If you are puggin vet dungeons with no coordination and players who stand in the fire and dont know how to dodge roll...good luck with that.

Ahdora · January 2015

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

Ahdora wrote: »

Meaning?

Meaning, if you are in a group with good players and are coordinated in vent then healing is doable and maybe even easy with any class in the game. If you are puggin vet dungeons with no coordination and players who stand in the fire and dont know how to dodge roll...good luck with that.

Well... yeah.

I have healed horrible pugs. It sucked. Not really relevant, though, as that applies to any healer, no matter the class.

Kraven · January 2015

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

If you are puggin vet dungeons with no coordination and players who stand in the fire and dont know how to dodge roll...good luck with that.

This sucks for any healer lol. Doesn't matter how good you are, and is why most of the good healers don't pug at all.

DeLindsay · January 2015

The ONLY weakness NB Healers have vs Templars is BoL, period. For such fights where BoL is very useful (Ash Titan in CoA is one) you just have to expect when certain mechanics are going to hit and be ready. Healing Springs stacks with itself so you can pop 2-3 of those right before a big whammy. Also I've found that Ward Ally is superior to Healing Ward as most times the shield gets popped long before the timer expires. That means YOU get a shield as well as an ally.

Templars do not have VoB or Funnel Health and in 1.6 with the change in Staff scaling many of us NB Healers can already see us becoming much more popular. Even without stacking Spell dmg now, my FH crit heals for ~300/tick, that's a huge HoT. When I do stack Spell dmg I've seen FH heal crit for over 500 (that's almost as high as a Combat Prayer crit). Nightblade Healers can also do more DPS while Healing thanks to FH and VoB, although this is not always necessary.

As to the comment about bad pugs, that's the same argument for ALL Healers, Templars included. And I've ran with seriously bad Templar Healers in pugs before so it goes both ways. The only difference I find when Healing a bad pug is I oom more often and have to chug many more pots. I did a great pug early this morning for Vet DC Pledge where the lead seemed worried that I was a NB Healer. We only had 1 death (he got separated on the Guardian and was on the other side of the boss in Fire mode) to which he/she said it was their own fault. We also got speed run. We were not in Vent/TS nor did we hardly even speak in chat as everyone knew all fights.

Kraven · January 2015

My main NB is stam build dps/tank but I do have a low level alt that is a healing magicka build NB. I chose it because I've been healed through all the vet content except CoA by a NB and I'm getting bored of my sorc healer which has also healed every bit of vet content except CoA and DSA but then it's just hit V11.

The NB has a surprising amount of synergy with a resto staff IMO and I have yet to run across any content that it didn't benefit to have more bonus dps.

Lord Xanhorn · January 2015

I feel like Im a great templar healer and I have to use BOL all the time in PUGs. Its simply all I can do to keep a wipe from happening as it seems that pugs stand in the fire non stop. I often think to myself this would be impossible without BOL.

DeLindsay · January 2015

Lord Xanhorn wrote: »

I feel like Im a great templar healer and I have to use BOL all the time in PUGs. Its simply all I can do to keep a wipe from happening as it seems that pugs stand in the fire non stop. I often think to myself this would be impossible without BOL.

Shield + Combat Prayer then spam a few Healing Springs is usually all that's needed for non-Templars to get players up fast when they stand in stupid too long. Luckily NB's have VoB which reduces all damage taken by allys by 30% if they stand in it. And Funnel Health is a great HoT to have active with RR/Mutagen if they are a NB Healer. There are times though that it's just not enough and BoL would likely have saved someone from death. However, in those situations, often times it can be attributed to players who aren't paying attention to fight mechanics, like being hit in the face with a heavy attack/frontal cone without blocking or dodge-rolling.

I think EVERYONE should play a Tank, Healer and DPS in end game content at least a little bit so they truly see how the other side operates in ESO. This would solve many problems with pugs. I do all 3 Roles as a NB so I appreciate that a Healer doesn't want me standing in stupid when I'm DPS, or how a Tank doesn't want me to start DPS'ing the Boss before he/she runs in to Taunt, etc. There are a ton of players that will only ever DPS or Heal or Tank as that is the Role they are happy with, but it leaves them gimped as far as truly understanding fight mechanics because they haven't seen it from a different perspective.

Ahdora · January 2015

@DeLindsay Excellent points all around!

omfgitsbatman · January 2015

Hey! I am in at least one guild with you. I did see your response on my forum post showing my build.
To answer your main questions:
What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of your class in this role?
-Strengths: It is easy to put out a very considerable amount of dps while healing as a nightblade especially in "Easier" content such as pledges. Magika management is pretty easy with potions or siphoning attacks if you really need. Ultimate generation is huge with NB healers. Take advantage of this and drop Veil of blades all of the time
-Weaknesses: Obviously NB's don't have Breath of Life for the emergency group heal. Make up for it. Keep Funnel health and Mutagen running on your group all of the time. When someone takes a ton of damage quickly, hit healing ward. When the whole group takes a lot of damage, it is better to have them close enough that healing springs will hit all of them. As a NB, you have to work a little harder than a faceroll templar healer, but it's more fun honestly.

What do you do to make up for the lack of BoL in fights where groupmates are generally not in areas where the healing circle can be used most efficiently? I.E. Nerien'eth, last boss in normal DSA, etc.
Pretty much do what I said above, keep funnel health and mutagen rolling on your party the whole time. If someone needs the big heal, put healing ward on them (This works well for Nerien'eth)
For fights like the last boss in DSA, you are going to want to keep people close together. For that fire mechanic, if everyone stacks up in a way that people aren't actually inside of 2 circles, but just barely out of the 2nd one you should easily be able to spam healing springs and hit everyone. I also have spammed healing ward through this mechanic while funnel health and mutagen were running when my group got spread out.

Feel free to message me in game and I'll answer anything else I can.

Ahdora · January 2015

I finally ran normal DSA again last night (V10 now) and determined that we all can be in the range of healing springs at the same time during the fire phase. Went much more smoothly!

I ran a different bar setup as well, with mutagen, refreshing path, and the resto staff siphon heal (brainfart at the moment and I'm on my iPad) on my second bar. I start with that, pop the ones that I only need to recast on a timer, and switch to first bar with my "every time I need them" abilities, switching back to recast when they wear off.

During the Trials last night I did put mutagen back on primary bar with healing springs, though, just for ease, since it was my first time through Hel-Ra and my second through AA.

I love being a NB healer. So much fun!

ashlee17 · January 2015

Love this thread! Can't wait to try some healing ideas on my own nightblade! It has opened my eyes to the possiblilites.