Templar Group Healer - Light armor is a must?

RedFoxFour

I've started playing a Templar simply because I always enjoyed healing across any MMO.

However, someone in the game told me that using heavy armor and a 2H (which is basically how the Templars are portrayed during character creation) was absolutely wrong when playing as a group healer.

Now, every single MMO I've played in the past the cleric class always wore heavy armor and used either shield+mace, or just a large 2h hammer. Most commonly you see clerics have class abilities such as Heavy Armor and Blunt weapons. And the whole reason why I even selected Templar as my class is because I love the cleric in heavy armor concept. If I wanted to wear cloth and heal, I would have started as a Sorcerer.

I did some researching through google and various ESO websites. Sure, you can use a resto staff, but since we only have 5 hotbar slots for skills and one Ultimate, speccing into resto-staff + the templar class abilities within restoration seems like overkill and a waste of skill points. Correct me if I am wrong by all means.

My point here is, when it comes to skills and weapons you have a choice. Either use class Restoration line skills and any weapon... or use resto staff and any class skills.

But when it comes to armor, it seems (at least the feedback I got ingame) that group healers are stuck with only one choice, light armor. To me that seems kind of backwards, cause you'd think a healer would focus on survivability, ie. heavy armor and shields.

What am I looking for?

Hoping that some experienced healers in the game can shed some light on the heavy armor vs light armor issue.

Is it viable to do group healing and using heavy armor at all?

Monkeyshoeslive

Any armour is viable, but due to the passives in LA ie Spell cost reduction & magicka regeneration, it makes it a better choice.

reggielee

I healed dungeons just fine wearing 4 h, 2 l. 1m. I did this so I could solo more and also to level each type of armor so I could be ready for any changes down the road for my templar. long fights will drain your majicak and pots and then the regen and spell cost reductions come into play. light armor helps with that as well as resistances etc.

but of course that was non vet lvls. I expect at vet lvl you will need the regen majicka more due to the length of those encounters and it also depends on your buffs you get from jewelry, armor and so on. right now (non vet) its very easy to soft cap majicka, regen etc so i put on some heavy armor for longevity, health etc.

that said, i am going for more light now as majicka demands are higher and you can kill the mobs before they even get to you which makes the need for heavy small. lvl 42

i would say to level all types of armor in the early stages, then switch to mainly light armor later on. good luck and enjoy

RedFoxFour

Thanks for the feedback.

So heavy armor with +magic enchants would still be viable towards the end levels then?

I'm not so worried about vet stuff cause I'm only level 17 at the moment. But I don't want to 'waste' gold on respeccing towards Light Armor if the Heavy armor is still viable.

I did the Banished Cells (level 12-15) dungeon and I ran out of magicka quite a lot. Thats when it I was told that I shouldn't use heavy armor when group healing. That said, there was a bad tendency in the group to run out of healing range and also not really avoiding the aoe's and attacks from the boss.

I've always been a teamplayer and a dungeon crawler, so my main focus is keeping a team alive and if heavy armor gimps me as badly as people in-game claimed then I really need to look into it (hence this thread).

Monkeyshoeslive

Put respeccing out of your mind. You'll get that many skill points you could cover both light and heavy no worries.

Vikova

It is nowhere near as bad as people claimed. The benefit to Templar + Resto staff is that you have versatility in your heals. One hotbar can be pure healing, the second part healing and part DPS - and you can switch between the two on the fly. Or you can have one specifically for boss healing, another for trash healing.

As others have said, there is no reason you cannot attempt healing in heavy armor - even if you do have to switch to some (remember, it is not necessarily all or nothing) light armor later on you will have plenty of skill points to have the passives in both.

Jeremy

RedFoxFour wrote: »

I've started playing a Templar simply because I always enjoyed healing across any MMO.

However, someone in the game told me that using heavy armor and a 2H (which is basically how the Templars are portrayed during character creation) was absolutely wrong when playing as a group healer.

Now, every single MMO I've played in the past the cleric class always wore heavy armor and used either shield+mace, or just a large 2h hammer. Most commonly you see clerics have class abilities such as Heavy Armor and Blunt weapons. And the whole reason why I even selected Templar as my class is because I love the cleric in heavy armor concept. If I wanted to wear cloth and heal, I would have started as a Sorcerer.

I did some researching through google and various ESO websites. Sure, you can use a resto staff, but since we only have 5 hotbar slots for skills and one Ultimate, speccing into resto-staff + the templar class abilities within restoration seems like overkill and a waste of skill points. Correct me if I am wrong by all means.

My point here is, when it comes to skills and weapons you have a choice. Either use class Restoration line skills and any weapon... or use resto staff and any class skills.

But when it comes to armor, it seems (at least the feedback I got ingame) that group healers are stuck with only one choice, light armor. To me that seems kind of backwards, cause you'd think a healer would focus on survivability, ie. heavy armor and shields.

What am I looking for?

Hoping that some experienced healers in the game can shed some light on the heavy armor vs light armor issue.

Is it viable to do group healing and using heavy armor at all?

I haven't reached veteran ranks yet. But I have healed several dungeons with my Templar and I wear Heavy Armor. I also use a restoration staff. So far it's worked well and I like it.

I would be very skeptical of anything you read online. Especially in terms of strategy relating to a game that offers such a broad variety of play. I would experiment with things yourself. That will be your best guide.

RedFoxFour

Thanks again for quick responses.

Seems what I need to focus on then is;
1) Increase magicka total and regen (enchants etc)
2) Make sure people in my group don't stand in fires...
3) Look into speccing towards Light armor in the long run

Would resto staff be necessary if I focus my skill points into the Restoration class skills?

Jimm_ay

Reso gets some team powers that are essential to team healing that marry well with the healing powers of a templar. The oh crap dmg shield to the lowest health player saves lives move times than i can count as well as blessing of protection. I find a combo of both sets make you a great situational healer with your ultimate being the get out of death free card

Comaetilico

Jeremy wrote: »

RedFoxFour wrote: »

I've started playing a Templar simply because I always enjoyed healing across any MMO.

However, someone in the game told me that using heavy armor and a 2H (which is basically how the Templars are portrayed during character creation) was absolutely wrong when playing as a group healer.

Now, every single MMO I've played in the past the cleric class always wore heavy armor and used either shield+mace, or just a large 2h hammer. Most commonly you see clerics have class abilities such as Heavy Armor and Blunt weapons. And the whole reason why I even selected Templar as my class is because I love the cleric in heavy armor concept. If I wanted to wear cloth and heal, I would have started as a Sorcerer.

I did some researching through google and various ESO websites. Sure, you can use a resto staff, but since we only have 5 hotbar slots for skills and one Ultimate, speccing into resto-staff + the templar class abilities within restoration seems like overkill and a waste of skill points. Correct me if I am wrong by all means.

My point here is, when it comes to skills and weapons you have a choice. Either use class Restoration line skills and any weapon... or use resto staff and any class skills.

But when it comes to armor, it seems (at least the feedback I got ingame) that group healers are stuck with only one choice, light armor. To me that seems kind of backwards, cause you'd think a healer would focus on survivability, ie. heavy armor and shields.

What am I looking for?

Hoping that some experienced healers in the game can shed some light on the heavy armor vs light armor issue.

Is it viable to do group healing and using heavy armor at all?

I haven't reached veteran ranks yet. But I have healed several dungeons with my Templar and I wear Heavy Armor. I also use a restoration staff. So far it's worked well and I like it.

I would be very skeptical of anything you read online. Especially in terms of strategy relating to a game that offers such a broad variety of play. I would experiment with things yourself. That will be your best guide.

i think the bold part say most of it... I cleared almost all preveteran dungeon as an healer doing 30% healing and 70% dps... that is what pre veteran is...

after vr1 things changes a lot... you bettere consider all the experience you made up to that level as a tutorial... you know those where it is almost impossible to die... you use them to learn basic mechanincs (block... avoid red circle... and so on...)

Darrett

Your main source of magicka regen comes from heavy attacks on the restoration staff; you don't need to wear light armor. It helps, but you can do just fine without it with the right rotations.

someuser

As a Templar healer spec'ed into restro staff:

1) light armor with passive skills max'ed
2) use armor glyphs on your armor for magika regen bonuses and pts
3)use armor glyphs on rings for armor bonuses

For pre-vet have one bar set up for healing and another with a single instant heal, the rest AOE dps.

Between my bleeds and AOEs I can out DPS most dps'ers AND heal.

MichaelD

I'm VR7 at the moment and have healed almost all dungeons except the max one or trials.

Heavy armor is viable but you really need to invest in the best magicka regen echants. You must have over 100m/regen. Also spell resistance is quite valuable against some bosses that randomly spell cast you and you need to survive that without spending too many heals.

I wear light armor and healing staff because of the increased magick power 10% and the 5% more heal.

Woolenthreads

I can see people haven't really paid enough attention to the armour skills. To get the best effect out of light armour skills you need at least 5 pieces. I'm just playing a mage (Battle Mage) and I used to use all light armour but I died a lot without any real additional benefit from the additional 2 pieces IMO. I switched to Medium on Torso and legs for a bit but it's a PITA to keep up the leather. Now I use Heavy on the Torso and Feet (Sabatons look slightly better than shoes ) and Light for the rest. There's nothing stopping you from doing something similar,

Natjur

Or you can keep 7 light but put armor enchantment on a ring and still be at the armor soft cap.

traigusb14_ESO2

It is pretty much a matter of what gear you want your stats connected to.

You can base stats and regen can be shifted from armor to mundus jewlery, enchants and food /drink.

I've healed Vet V5 dungeons as VR2 temp with axe and shield.

Be warned though, many players get pretty snotty about healers not being a resto temp in light.

In the end, groups working together and using complementary skills will always do better than pick-ups (switching up skills from boss to boss can make or break groups).

Pick-ups tend to try and muscle through with their own personal favorite builds and usually expect the healer to pick up all the slack.

One of my favorite morphs is "Absorb magic" off of 1H and shield You block and gain health when blocking spells + some bonuses to block% and reductions to block cost. Great for casty jerks who heal aggro on you. A friend of mine keeps the reflect because he likes the DPS aspect of it.

I also have a VR1 resto/storm sorc. (light armor). Plays very differently. Squishier, but he can root and run if he gets heal aggro... also has enough stam to block for a bit.

You may have to go back and revisit your morphs. The ones that seem to be all around better may not work best with your style, and Skill A morph 1 and Skill B morph 2 from completely different lines can be a massive 1-2 punch of goodness. together both on your build (where you can be sure to always have it), or in your group (if you play with the same people a lot).

Evilbeauty

Alot has already been explained, so all I will add is the best reason I can see use for resto staff for a temp healer is because doing heavy attacks gives back a nice amount of mana which comes very handy in long fights.

Rissq

I've done both as a Breton Templar in Vetran Rank.

Obviously in PvE it will behoove you to heal in light armor. You get extra regeneration that, in a pinch, light armor will be the reason you've kept your group alive. It's much easier to heal in light armor, and it's much more efficient. I at first wanted to heal with heavy armor, but the stat boost from light armor makes it more fun to wear light armor in PvE.

There have been some fights where I've healed in heavy armor, or in public dungeons I've healed in heavy armor just fine. I run out of mana faster, but unless I'm facing something super hard I can heal in heavy armor just fine. If you're a good healer you can heal in heavy armor for most bosses. I just wouldn't recommend it for everything in PvE.

Heavy Armor does great in PvPthough, especially with skills like Healing Spring that regen mana based on the number of people you healed.

Ashlynne

The only viable armor choice for a healer (not just a support role, but FULL healing) is Light. If you look at the skill tree for all the armors and the passives, you will see why. Yes, it's limited. No, I don't know why they did it that way, but we're stuck with it.

Vorkk8383

You don't have much of a choice for your magika regen and such. You can do like 5/2 heavy, etc but you need to go light atm. If not, you're not gonna be able to heal. Mana is already tough and without the forced light armor, you're SCREWED.

dbennett707cub18_ESO

This is more an issue with templar's resource management skill being nerfed at the end of beta than an issue with light armor, templars have poor resource management, which will probably be addressed after the finish fixing all the other broken *** in this game.

Hypertionb14_ESO

you dont get any additional survivablilty when using heavy armor or Sheild and sword if you are healing vs holding a healing staff and wearing light armor.

you can still block a vast majority of any damage you might take with Light and Staff to the point you dont really need to heal yourself and you gain the massive spellcasting buffs that let you do your job of healing MUCH better.

Mortuum

OP as you are low level, best choice is to level up both types of armor you might be using. From start i was playing 5h2l, got both maxed before hitting lvl50. Then you can choose which kind of armor suits your playstyle best. Just wearing 2 pieces of light(helm and belt, for cosmetic reasons in my case) was enough as said, to max it quite fast.
Also heavy armor is perfectly fine for templar healer. Im VR4 and healed all dungeons(till this level of course) and a lot in PVP as well, still same 5h2l set up.
There are ways to get your magicka back without using full light, if you dont like it. Jewelery sets(Warlock Set 2 rings and neck giving you 600+magicka/min and all 3 pieces enchanted with magicka regen), investing more in magicka then in health or stamina, mentioned resto staff heavy attacks, high level potions which are really powerful(1k+ magicka in 14 sec with 30 sec cooldown) etc etc.
Play as you like and dont listen to others trying to force you into something they see as ''best''. Experiment with build and armor until you find your build. Only really good advice is to level more then 1 kind of armor, or even all 3. So later on it is easier to decide what to use(you dont have to spend points on passive skills, just wear it when handing in quests).

LTC_Eddy

Built my Breton Templar (at Level 49 now) in pre release days and I love it, but I am thinking I should respec my abilities as I had no clue going in which skill lines to persue, even though I planned to be healer backup to my partner. This is my first MMO and really the first game I have really gotten into. Played a bit of fable III and loved the steam game "Dear Esther" so I am more into eyecandy than smooth game play anyhow. This has been a great thread to read, but would love advice on what are the best skills to buy and morph to be effective as a healer in group play. Joined an awesome guild with great folks to play with and want to pull my weight.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO

you should be able to do anything you want pre vet, the content is very easy. in the post vet content your choices matter. you can do anything you want but if your going to dedicated heal and you always run out of magica and cant heal, then you suck at your job. going 7 light or 5 light two heavy goes a long way towards managing your magica. you can still go mace shield with 7 light if u use blazing shield, for a ( heavy armor playstyle); but again heavy hits with resto staff give 10% magica return and if your at full health you do 10% more damage with everything... inculding ults.

its good to have resto staff leveled because different types of content require different strategies and healing with expensive burst heals 100% of the time is not the most effective.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO

Woolenthreads wrote: »

I can see people haven't really paid enough attention to the armour skills. To get the best effect out of light armour skills you need at least 5 pieces. I'm just playing a mage (Battle Mage) and I used to use all light armour but I died a lot without any real additional benefit from the additional 2 pieces IMO. I switched to Medium on Torso and legs for a bit but it's a PITA to keep up the leather. Now I use Heavy on the Torso and Feet (Sabatons look slightly better than shoes ) and Light for the rest. There's nothing stopping you from doing something similar,

no benefit from the additional 2. what world do you live in. you get 12% extra spell penetration and also 6% reduced spell cost for those two, not to mention the other bonuses. thats 30 less magaca per cast for my more expensive spell on my bar. adds up fast.

drogon1

The primary benefit to wearing full light on a healing templar is that heals cost a whopping 21% less. That's 21% more heals your can throw out. None of the other armor types comes close. Wear light if you intend on healing challenging content.

Jimm_ay

It's not bad..it's just why use heavy and add magicka glyphs when you can use light..and add magicka glyps? The warlock set (jewels, hood and dress) and seducer set (5 piece) nets you a lot of magicka flowing, tack on some magicka or HP glyphs - throwing the thief and mages light and you are a critin, magkica overflowing healing mo fo...Use the reso staff in combo with your temp heals and keep the team alive!

bertenburnyb16_ESO

templars have poor magica management, light armor helps alot
best setup depends on situations, but its mostly a combination of class heal skills and Rstaff heal skills, so your cleric wont fly in ESO, wel he may fly but not very high, heavy armor with a 2H or 1H+S with only class heal skills will be seriously gimping yourself and you wont be very effective.
HA and 2H or 1H+S is more tank setup (although you can prob tank as good/better in light armor)

guybrushtb16_ESO

Everything else being equal, by going heavy over light you lose:

• 21% cost reduction for spells
• 28% regeneration bonus
• 10% spell crit

while you gain:

• nothing.

Obviously, you can pull through despite gimping yourself if your group overpowers the content anyway, but if they ever struggle at anything, you will be the first to be blamed for it.

Tarascon

Full heavy armour is a mistake for the reasons other people gave.
However you can usefully mix types (e.g. 2 heavy, 5 light) for more survivability.
If you wear a heavy cuirass and greaves, you get the appearance of a cleric in heavy armour. It's also the most mechanical benefit (head/torso/legs give more armour points than the other slots).

Up to you if 15% spell cost reduction is enough. The extra armour does make a difference. You can go with other mixes than 5/2 if you don't mind forgoing the "full set" passive from your main armour type.

Use restoration staff in one hand. Your other weapon can be something else as you like. When you have enough restoring light skills learned you can try healing with only class skills - it doesn't work at low levels because of the high magicka costs.