Healing tips for dungeons?

Danarchist · April 2014

Just curious if I am missing something. Three maned fungal groto last night with a couple buddies and we made it through fine, but I kept wondering what a sorc is supposed to do about spike damage? Seems like the majority of resto staff healing is HoT and doesn't do much for big spikes. Any suggestions on how you deal with this? Had a sword and board DK tanking that has tanked with me in many other MMO's and missed maybe one block per boss fight.

setup:
First 3 staff skills morphed and first two passives
Everything else into mana recovery skills (high elf) and CC. All gear crafted and at lvl 12, blue resto staff.

Teroh · April 2014

you three maned a 4 man dungeon?... how about having people have 1 heal on their bars to assist in healing when stuff hits the fan.

jaytrill11ub17_ESO · April 2014

Well you have to keep in mind this game is not designed for your mates to run in and willy nilly face eating damage expecting you to keep them alive. They have to block interrupt USE POTIONS etc. Your job is to be a sustainer in moments that they miss a interrupt or accidentally stand in red to long, not stand in the back tossing our love hugs. Also in beta I was a DK resto staff healer. I had the aoe HoT and the Ability that heals the people in front of you while buffing there armor. The rest were dps abilities I did just fine with this setup. I made sure my mates knew I was not there to carry them but to help. I was dpsing along side them until the oh "expletive" moment.

toloth9 · April 2014

I have also been healing a sorcerer. I have healed all the dungeons up to level 25 so far. At first it was very hard, but once I figured a few things out it got easier.

1. If your not healing, make sure your attacking with your healing staff. This gets you mana back and you need to keep your mana up, don't let it drop down.
2. Keep your HoT on everyone and keep everyone topped up. This way you have time to react to spike damage.
3. Get the shield skill on healing staff as early as possible. Its is a very mana inefficient skill, but can save people.
4. Make sure your tank knows he has to block, dodge and take a more defensive stance if he drops low on health. Tanks need to understand they can't just stand and take the damage like it other MMO's, make sure your tank does this.
5. Make sure your party understands that your strongest heal at this level is AoE and if someone is far away from everyone else the likely wont get much healing.
6. Let your group know you get mana back by attacking, many people don't realize it and they can get angry when they see you attacking (to get some mana to heal with)while they are dying.
7. If someone takes half their health or more in damage in a very short period (a second or two), it is likely their fault as they didn't move out of something, block or dodge when they should have.
8. Make sure you either have a lot of AoE damage or a lot of CC.

Thats all I got, good luck.

P.S. Mana pots..have lots.

Edit: Fighters Guild circle of protection, Undaunted blood fountain and CCing yourself are also good ways to support, keep them in mind.

Lazarus_Long · April 2014

I tend to over a bit with my sorcerer just to make sure that when the spikes come (and they will) that the HoT is already active. That makes my biggest problem magicka management but Alchemy, Provisioning, and the right gear see me through.

Edit: There is a an R Staff passive (I can't remember the name) that increases healing when the target is below 20% health. That can be a huge bonus especially with potions of spell crit.

moonfell · April 2014

Every thing that @toloth9 said. Very well put my friend.

nerevarine1138 · April 2014

The main issue may be your groupmates. Any unavoidable spike damage on a boss gives you ample time to follow up with healing.

If your groupmates aren't blocking, dodging and occasionally healing themselves (if applicable), they're not doing their jobs.

toloth9 · April 2014

It's also worth mentioning that reduction in mana cost items are amazing for healing, it REALLY increases your ability to heal spike damage as your mana bar goes a lot farther.

Also keep in mind that later on sorcerers get a stamina to mana tap you can use when you get low and don't think you'll need to dodge/block.

Danarchist · April 2014

Thanks for the suggestions guys

The blocking was fine, and we completed the dungeon with only a couple wipes. I am just trying to get a feel for healing in this game and was wondering how to deal with specific situations.
Spike damage was the only thing that really seemed difficult, I may have over-invested in my mana conservation and regen talents at this point so I only had to 'pot' a couple of times. Mostly it was just when damage was beating HoT ticks that concerned me for the future. I also took essence drain for staff but was not sure how much healing I was actually getting. My toolbar mod was showing 'Essence Drain 2' so I was not sure if that was the level of spell or I was actually only getting healed for 2 hp from it.