Healers: Are you worried about what's coming with the next class changes?

Recent · April 19

Hi forum friends,
I want to be clear that i'm not trying to be negative about class changes as I have done my upmost efforts to evolve with all the changes thus far. I am genuinely worried about the change to how healing will work across the board. I play all classes and heal on all except the dk.
I have adapted to healing as a subclass healer on all my characters and worry that if dk is a true example of what's coming then i feel i will struggle. It is not a good template for healers in general.

I may be missing something here and that's why i made this post. Feel free to share your thoughts on this. Do i have reason to worry?
Im actually enjoying healing with subclass even more than i have in the past with my pure classes.

I appreciate your input on this thank you kindly

Recent · April 20

Woa not one answer

Soarora · April 20

No, I’m not worried. I really hate warden healer and that was my only healer when I was a healer main. I’m hopeful that maybe it’ll feel less boring to play with the rework. My only concern is that I’m hoping nightblade keeps funnel health. Dealing damage to heal has been an enjoyable playstyle for me.

OsUfi · April 20

Soarora wrote: »

No, I’m not worried. I really hate warden healer and that was my only healer when I was a healer main. I’m hopeful that maybe it’ll feel less boring to play with the rework. My only concern is that I’m hoping nightblade keeps funnel health. Dealing damage to heal has been an enjoyable playstyle for me.

I agree. Was a Warden healer for years, before going necro healer, and now I'm a nightblade healer, and I like that they all play very differently.

ankeor · April 20

No, why would be worried? DK was a terrible healer with no up side and now finally it has some utility.
As for subclassing I think it is the worst thing that happened to this game and I am happy that they are finally moving away from it. I don't enjoy making a soup out of skill lines which has no business being put together.
I have 7 healer myself, 1 for each class. Ever since subclassing 4 of them became redundant and used for storage place.

Silaf · April 20

I really dislike subclassing so the new changes are inevitable and needed in my point of view.
Healers and thanks subclassing is ok more or less but dps subclassing is extremly boring and lead to class identity death. It need a rework (removal if possible).

The new game director had really good ideas and direction so far so i'm optimist.

Make class passives and the class reworks strong so we can shelf the subclassing fatecarver permabuild if we want.

LunaFlora · April 20

why would i be worried?

Renato90085 · April 20

not for me
because the sup role never have any choose,
at normal content,healer run any build or class is not important
and at real hard content you never had any choice
it why u46 before,healer 99% is warden/nightblade/templar
and when we enter U46 subclass patch,healer still 99% is Green Balance/Siphoning/Restoring Light
the subclass will still better pureclass, because they enough flexible
have more choose like dk subclass or pure necro healer is a good change

KalevaLaine · April 20

Why should I be worried?

I play every class as a heal so we will see...

SolarRune · April 20

Unlike others here I have really really enjoyed the build variety that subclassing has brought. Been so much fun healing and so much more interesting coming up with group comps as a leader.

Personally I don't think subclassing brought the problems to healers that it did for DDs, healing has never recovered in terms of hps from u35, looking back at logs even with subclassing healing is still below the u34 levels. I'm not looking forward to the class expectations and limited build variety returning with the way the class refresh and the class passives seem to be heading.

I think the same is true for our heavy armored support bretheren, subclassing made tanking much more accessible, something often complained about, but again I fear it will once again become very formulaic as to what you bring and how you play as opposed to the build variety you can get at the moment.

CalamityCat · April 20

I have no worries about healing in ESO, except when there are changes to sets that cause us issues. I have almost all the classes trained in ESO. They heal differently but that's the fun. It's learning how to get the results with different classes. Any class is capable of healing without subclassing, unless you venture into the higher end vet trial groups who might ask for something specific.

I don't think a healer should need to subclass to be effective and I certainly haven't. I have a pure templar healer who is an absolute delight to play. My warden is on hiatus until the refresh, but she did many hours healing in PvP and PvE as a pure build. Absolutely effective and I'd never subclass her.

SolarRune · April 20

I agree Calamity, and you have demonstrated very well why subclassing isn't the issue for healers that it is for DDs, as long as you can heal and provide the relevant buffs/debuffs it shouldn't matter if you are pureclass or subclasses. And that's very much where I feel healers already are at at the moment.
My fear is that if buffs/debuffs end up being hidden in class masterys that have no clear alternative way to provide you will end up creating the sort of imbalance we currently see in DDs, but skewed towards a particular pureclass, that is as much an issue imo as things being skewed towards subclass (that I don't feel healers are, it's more a choice for healers than a must have).

mitchtheelder · April 20

not for a single moment....

NotaDaedraWorshipper · April 20

What exactly is the worry here? Healers will still be a needed role for a lot of content, and I've no idea how it relates to DKs because they can still be healers as before.

My only worry is all the visual and audible make-overs the classes will get, because if they are all going to be like DK and 2 Handed, I will have no class to play, no matter the role.

BXR_Lonestar · April 20

I'm a healer main, and have all variations of healers, and I'm not worried. To be fair, something DOES need to change with the way healing works in order to completely decouple healer stats from DPS stats. So I would welcome changes to healing that would make it so that the only way to have good heals is if you are a dedicated healer. This would solve so many problems with the combat in this game and in PVP, where people complain about the tank meta, which is due, at least in part, to DPS stats contributing towards the strength of your heals.

CatalinaWineMixer2 · April 20

Yes. The game has not been fun since they wrecked all of our characters with Subclass. I am a Warden main (or was until they ruined it, stripped it from the leaderboards and forced us to use whatever awful combination of 3 classes that gets cherry picked to outdue everything else in the game). Absolutely the ugliest, most un fun 'characters/classes' I've ever seen. They are NOT a class. Subclassing needs to be removed.

Having been forced to wait over a year to have my main character returned to me is an insult. If it is not in the top tier healing as it was before, you're going to see a lot more people leaving this game. If there is a disparity between it and whatever the new blender build is, you're going to see Guilds leaving. Half of my Guilds fell to Subclass and 3/4 of my friends quit outright.

Diluted mixed classes should not in any way outperform the original character classes offered and promoted when we purchased the game. They sold them to us! After that, we spent even more years putting thousands of dollars into the game.

Everyone who purchased this game to play their characters has been cheated out of them over Subclassing. Its especially bad for the Necro players. Why wait years to give us something we already had when they can remove Subclassing tomorrow.

The Warden is a support class and it needs to be designed around THAT. Not designed solely around more Dps. Its a mess because now, they have to assume every change they do will be cherry picked. And they will. The fact that they've kicked the can down the road with its rework is worrisome.

Malyore · April 20

Wait what is new in U50 that is impacting healing? Are we talking about PvE here? I know some people were upset about the major courage thing...

Jammy420 · April 20

I do not see the issue. Healing will still be fine.

Sincerely, a Necro Healer.

Treeshka · April 20

Not much to be honest. You can still heal in any class. The problem is that current proposed additions to pure classes, will probably pigeonhole healing classes to Warden and Templar as they have group wide buffs in their class masteries.

However if your group still wants to play a safe tactic you can still use subclassed healer that is focused on shielding allies with barrier and other means.

In any case if Warden comes out like this, one healer will be pure Warden. On the other hand, only Dragonknight is reworked. We are not sure how they will keep the Maturation Passive in the new Warden. I guess we need to wait.

Aydh · April 20

None, not a concern.

DK class refresh proves someone is watching out for healers. If the warden refresh is close to as good as the DK, warden will be in great shape. The largest risk to subclassing is a reshuffle on green balance passives moving maturation to some other tree. As of u50 afaik pure Warden is the only class capable of sourcing group wide minor and major heroism (minor via Gardner of Seasons).

Been healing on a subclassed arcanist (arc/warden/nb) since subclassing came out, it has been great. If the class reworks totally bork her, I'll go back to my nb or a dk. Nb is close to being good with class passives, they just need to tune them up a bit. Warden might be really good after the rework. As of u49 prefer healing on my arcanist, dk, or nb vs my warden.

If you have not tried a pure class dk healer, suggest you give it a shot. It is quite fun, albeit a little flashy.

frogthroat · April 20

I've been doing a lot of healing. Manly on templar and the two previous meta classes: warden and NB. In pvp I've been also healing with necro and sorc. Both are pretty good pvp healers. With subclassing I could finally get back to some templar healing and even some arca. DK is the only one I have not used for healing.

Except now. Man, the new DK is a great healer. Love it. I am excited of what healing potential the new class refreshes bring.

annathepiper · April 20

Hi, new to the forums but not ESO (I've been playing since 2022), but chiming in on this since I am in fact a healer main.

I'm not worried about coming changes at the moment. I don't necessarily mind subclassing, and I do in fact have a subclassed healing build on my main, a Templar. But I only break out that build if my guild's running a vet trial and if I explicitly need to be less squishy. Most of the time though I've been fine with non-subclassed builds in the trials my guild runs.

MaleAmazon · April 20

PTS patch notes on class mastery:

This system is HIGHLY iterative and will likely see significant changes over time, as its primary goal is to lessen the gap between subclassing and “pure” or “mono-classing.”

As we continue work on the class refresh, the contents of these skill lines will be adjusted as necessary both functionally and numerically.

So at least the intention is there. I can´t see why you could not play a healer however you like. I´ve played a sorcerer tank back when that was just... not done. And it worked just fine including in tougher vet DLC dungeons - even with PUGs. Do people really want to go back to the days of 'tank that is not a DK = instakick'?

Personally, I play much more laid back these days (been playing on and off since launch with sometimes year-long breaks). And I love subclassing as well as so many other changes like scaling from maxstat instead of either max magicka/stamina. So many more fun builds have opened up. I now main a Nightblade with Arcanist + DK subclasses, with bow frontbar and restoration staff backbar. Certainly not optimal for DPS nor healing, but I can do both decently, as well as roleplay my character as the DD/healer elf hybrid fighter she is (short written backstory and all). Just have to change setup (another QoL upgrade with the Armory) if I go into vet dungeons / trials again. BGs for quick PvP is perfectly doable and switching from attack mode to a healer and back in the middle of a match, while cloaking AND fatecarving... chef´s kiss...

And I mean... if you are going for leaderboards and tough achievements... there will ALWAYS be a meta. And some groups are tryhards (not that anything is necessarily wrong with that) where you need 99+ % of max theoretical DPS or use a specific setup. Find another group if you are not accepted by these people. I´ve seen the game go from "you have to put all points in health" (back when IIRC health gave you twice as much stats as magicka/stamina) to "never put any points in health", from "NBs are unkillable" to "NBs are useless", and so on... pureclass will be meta, then a patch comes and they overcompensate and now everyone must be a beamplar with a revamped warden self-heal subclass... and then back again.

And for what it´s worth... my advice as an older gamer (44... Jesus

) who has been around is that if you play for achievements or competition in ESO, unless you do it for the money (which you aren´t) - if you´re not having fun, quit. Or just switch out for a while. These games are designed around keeping you hooked even when you are not enjoying them (housing limited time only FOMO, grinding, a crap ton of meaningless rewards including for 'logging in'

, etc). I´ve been there. It´s fun for a while and I loved getting Emperor as a solo player, but in the end - life´s too short to spend hours playing a game and not enjoying it.

GL HF all!

Recent · April 20

SolarRune wrote: »

Unlike others here I have really really enjoyed the build variety that subclassing has brought. Been so much fun healing and so much more interesting coming up with group comps as a leader.

Personally I don't think subclassing brought the problems to healers that it did for DDs, healing has never recovered in terms of hps from u35, looking back at logs even with subclassing healing is still below the u34 levels. I'm not looking forward to the class expectations and limited build variety returning with the way the class refresh and the class passives seem to be heading.

I think the same is true for our heavy armored support bretheren, subclassing made tanking much more accessible, something often complained about, but again I fear it will once again become very formulaic as to what you bring and how you play as opposed to the build variety you can get at the moment.

Thank you so much your comment resonates with my thoughts exactly.

Recent · April 20

annathepiper wrote: »

Hi, new to the forums but not ESO (I've been playing since 2022), but chiming in on this since I am in fact a healer main.

I'm not worried about coming changes at the moment. I don't necessarily mind subclassing, and I do in fact have a subclassed healing build on my main, a Templar. But I only break out that build if my guild's running a vet trial and if I explicitly need to be less squishy. Most of the time though I've been fine with non-subclassed builds in the trials my guild runs.

Thank you for chiming in i appreciate all replies since we arexall so differsnt in how we play/view the game.

Destai · April 20

The only thing that worries me is Werewolves getting Major Courage. IMO, that should be reserved for support roles, healers especially. It wouldn't catastrophic, but I worry if that becomes a trend.

I've enjoyed the impact of subclassing on healing overall. I've loved combining Warden and Templar as healers. One of my favorite combinations by far. That being said, I'm also excited for how pure classes will grow now. DK's are finally great healers, loving the playstyle. While I'm generally not confident in combat balance changes, I am confident in the class reworks overall.