OVERVIEW:
The purpose of this build is adapting my
1.6 NB healer into a build viable for all content in the upcoming
Imperial City DLC. This is in
no way a min/max build for max dps, healing, or leaderboard runs. That being said, this build will still achieve above average dps (10K sustained) and healing to function as either a primary dps of healer for 4-man dungeons and small group pvp. The build also shines in raid groups as a third healer that can swap between dps and healing as needed.
RACE:Argonian is my preferred race. The 6% health, 9% incoming heals, and 8% stat regen on pots fits really nice with the overall purpose of this build.
Bretons, Altmer, and Dunmer also make excellent NB healers due to their magicka based passives.
Vampire is also chosen as it synergies well with both NB and magicka based builds. The stealth speed buff and resource regen is welcomed as a NB healer, and the skills mist form and clouded swarm synergies well with this build!
ATTRIBUTES, MUNDUS, STATS:
For
PVE, you want to focus on around 35K magicka, 20K health, 10K stamina, with 2K spell damage and 50% spell crit with blue food and mage light. Use different combinations of enchants, mundus stones, and attribute points to meet these numbers.
For
PVP, I recommend purple food with stats around 30K magicka, 25K health, and 12K stamina, with 2K spell damage and 40% crit. You may wish to drop mage light for cloak and fear in pvp. This will give you a viable CC and escape, and also give you access to the shadow barrier passive for more resistance.
Useful mundus include:
-
Mage - more magicka (best all around)
-
Apprentice - spell damage (more dps focused)
-
Ritual - added healing (more healer focused)
-
Atronach - Magicka Regen (for better sustain)
GEAR:
This gear set-up is 7/7 light armor. This makes this build very glass cannon in terms of resistance, but this disadvantage is negated by certain skills.
Meritorious Service Set - Nice set for a magicka build that turns purge into an awesome support skill. This will also help make up for some of the resistance lost by not having any heavy or medium armor pieces.
Healer's Habit - Great magicka based set that provides 3 pieces of jewelry. This set will also boost the heals of our dps skills, allowing us to maintain decent heals while fully focused on dps. Start with reduced spell cost enchants on jewelry and swap with spell damage as you get better with resource management.
Master Resto Staff - Extra magicka plus gives stamina when casting springs. Your tanks will thank you!
Master Daggers - The extra weapon damage also applies to your spell damage. This means your funnel health and sap essence will hit like a truck! Duel Torug's Pact swords may slightly be better as long as you don't light attack. If you plan to weave light attacks, use the master daggers for the added weapon damage and crit!
CHAMPION POINTS:Apprentice (Mage) 10 in Blessed (+healing), 10 in Spell Erosion (+ spell pen), 10 in Elfborn (+crit dmg) - unlocks 12% spell crit passive with 30 points
Apprentice (Ritual) All extra in Thaumaturge to boost magicka effectiveness - unlocks 12% weapon crit with 30 points (for duel wield light attacks)
Thief (Tower) - half in Magician (reduced spell cost)
Thief (Lover) - half in Arcanist (+ magicka regen)
Warrior (Steed) - 10 in Block Expertise (reduce block cost)
Warrior (Lord) - 10 in Quick Recovery (+ incoming heals) - synergies with argonian passive
Warrior (Lady) - All extra in Elemental Defender (reduce elemental damage) - offset fire damage for being a vampire
SKILLS:BAR 1: Offensive Healing - Sharpened (or Infused) Master Daggers
1.
Funnel Health - Primary single target dps spam. It is very cheap and can crit for over 10K with this build. Another thing that makes funnel spamming a valid heal is that it refreshes the heal every cast, meaning you can bypass the 2 second cooldown. On critical hits, heals can range anywhere from 3-5K with this build (1-2K with 2.1 PVP debuffs). We also get 8% magicka for having any siphoning skill on our bar.
2.
Sap Essence - Gives us both major sorcery and major brutality. This means our duel wield light attacks will hit just as hard as staff light attacks, making light attack weaving nice with this build. This skill is also getting a damage boost in 2.1, putting it on par with impulse and making it a viable AOE damage skill. The healing sustained from spamming this skill on multiple mobs is almost on par with healing springs ticks making it a viable off-heal for trash fights.
3.
Impale - Mainly here to provide all the dps boosts from the assassin skill line passives (10% stealth and crit damage, 3% crit). Aside from that, it is an awesome range execute that will crit for 20K and returns magicka on kill!
4.
Efficiency Purge - Combining the support and vampire regen passives, give this build an extra 20% magicka regen for having a support and vampire skill on your bar. Aside from being our main dot (and mark) removal skill, purge will also activate the resistance buff from the meritorious service set.
5.
Inner Light - 10% spell crit + about 7% magicka and some extra regen with passives. I run tri-pots, so this comes in handy!
Ult.
Clouded Swarm - Gets the 10% stealth spell damage buff making it hit quite hard. Also makes you invisible for 5 seconds so can be used as an escape skill if needed.
Bar 2: Defensive Healing - Defending Master Resto Staff
1.
Healing Springs - Our primary group and tank heal. Its cheap and stacks on itself for nice burst heals and synergies with master staff to provide group with extra stamina for blocking. Illustrious healing works well to if you want to stack it with a Sap spam!
2.
Mutagen - Our main HoT to stack with funnel health. Rapid regen is good, but I prefer the safety net of mutagen's burst since I swap between dps and healing a lot.
3.
Healing Ward - "Oh ***" button for when someone gets in trouble. Replace with
Combat Prayer for more coordinated groups. Ward really shines when paired with mist form as an escape tool when being focused.
4.
Elusive Mist - Mobility + 75% reduced incoming damage. Best way to make up for our lack of mitigation when we get focused. Is canceled with block when needed!
5.
Inner Light - Same as above. Replace with cloak and fear when running in PVP pug groups!
Ult.
Reviving Barrier - Awesome group damage shield that works with meritorious service bonus giving you 30 sec of damage shield with healing, and 15 seconds of increased resistances.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This build is focused toward small group play. While it can function solo or in raid groups, more viable set-ups are recommended. For PVP, this is one magicka NB build that
does not center around the use of
cloak + double take. While this is a very successful escape tool, I find it to have little use in coordinated group fighting in IC as detect pots and radiant mage light render it useless. Cloak also benefits more of a glass cannon gank build, while this is more of a
sustained dps/healing build that uses attrition to win 1vX battles.