Healing class

WyldfireWyrm

So I know templar is going to be the obvious go to class for healing, but lately I've seen a lot of posts and builds that highly recommend dropping some healing tools to add some DPS ones.

My first question is whether this assessment is true and all healers should add DPS skills to their rotations?

My second question is contingent on the first. If DPS is a necessary addition to a healer's role, does Templar still maintain the lead? Or is there a better class to heal with? The reason I ask is because I've always heard that magicka Templars are pretty bad at DPS.

I've started to question my choice to be a healer here lately since I began to run the level 38 dungeons on my 38 templar and am really struggling to keep everyone alive. I've toyed around with my skills and my attributes and nothing seems to make much difference. I either have to throw out several BoLs in a row to heal through some high burst damage fights, which kills my magicka, or I end up getting targeted by every mob and am quickly destroyed.

Lightninvash

the way I run my Templar is I have a pure healing bar and a pure damage bar minus one slot for a heal if I need it. I am running destro and resto staff combo. never have any issues healing in a dungeon or keeping myself alive. throw in some resto staff heals along with the Templar heals. and for healing bar make sure to have the healing ult for those oh crap moments when the boss takes down everyone's hp a lot. jus have to work with your skill combos and if you do it right you can lay down some hot heals(heal over time) then drop some damage with destro staff hit bol swap over and hit another heal and so on. also recommend blood alter for the synergy it lets people if needed a bonus heal to do it and when you morph it it will heal more for the synergy. it starts at 40% max h and morphed it heals 60% max hp. its something I always lay down in dungeons just because it has its uses.

namelessone

Get a seducer set crafted for you at your level (light armor). This will help out greatly. Then Have a Torugs pact chest (heavy armor) and weaps made at your level. You might be able to add in Magnus as a secondary set with this. This set up will increase spell damage (more healing), increase magicka pool, and increase magicka recovery. If you can find any magicka reduction jewelry your level get it instantly. This should help you out.

As for heals. Try using HoTs (Healing over time) heals such as Purifying Ritual, Rapid regneration, and healing springs. Applying combat prayer to your team boosts their defense for a short time. For the healing ulti use remembrance. Remembrance almost makes it impossible for people to die (almost) as you reduce damage for all in range and deal massive heals.

Lastly, are you sure its your fault you cannot keep up with heals? Are you sure your teammates are not standing in red circles and not trying to protect themselves? Are you sure your teammates are not playing with 0 armor gear? Are you sure your teammates and yourself have eaten food before the dungeon? Somethings to think about.

Jumper45

Ive been playing Templar healer since the beginning. At VR6 now and ive healed every vet dungeon etc. Saying that. I can honestly tell you I only have 1 heal on my bar and the other if you want to call it a heal Purifying ritual. I use warhorn as my main ulti but of course some fights require rite of passage. Now of course later you might need to add a extra heal to the mix to cover things in trials etc. But honestly Breath of life is all you need. Ive run into a few healers and they ask me what they are doing wrong and 99% of the time its clearly simple stuff they are overlooking. Things like Max magicka. Telling me they go full health so they dont die. But umm what about the fact max magicka raises your healing done so they are healing for 3500 a cast ( not including the extra 2 targets) vs my 5500-6000. Breath of life is draining all their mana. well why dont you have magicka regen up? All of this is because they arnt building their char right. You do not need to over complicate your situation by using hots etc. Templar is one of the classes who does not need to use HOTs. For example. Why would i ever use mutagen to do 10k over 20 seconds when i can do 12k with 1 Breath of life. That is 1 second vs 20. That is a wasted slot on your bar. BOL isnt the answer to everything as it has max targets. healing springs has its purpose. multi targets and all. but switch that ability out when you need it. Ive run a simple skill bar when healing. BOL,Purifying ritual, Inner Light Which gives 20% crit and more healing done. Focused rune for mana regen and survival and harness magicka for survival. Thats all you need. You need magicka regen as a templar and lower cost of spells. I can honestly tell you ive been able to SPAM BOL without running out of mana. Its all a dance of using heavy attack and magicka regen so that you can heal. I can currently cast about 40 BOLs before running out of mana without using a heavy attack. Right now im around 15k HP 22k Magicka. well enough to not die with harness magicka buff. This leave plenty of room to dps etc as people say. Nothing is stopping you from using reflective light or using radiant oppression when the mob is at 30-20% hp. Im not even going to go into the fact you can have all this dps on a 2nd bar and just switch when the time is right. Long story short. Templar is in the lead because of BOLs function and the fact you do not need to clutter an entire bar with heals to do top healing. Short of hitting multi targets 5+, If you think springs can still outdo BOL you might wanna take a look at the math again. Not to mention % increases are greater at bigger numbers/ crits then a sad 1k a second. Like i said it has its purpose but nothing currently will outdo BOL's Speed and HPS. As long as you have the ability to get the magicka back BOL will be top till its changed. Also the only reason i use Cleansing ritual is because of Focused healing NOT for its sad 2second heal ticks. You can use 2 armor sets if you wish. Seducer is a given. Try Sanctuary. +12% healing i believe for people within 10m. AKA the range on your ritual circle. Layerd most likely but 30%+ 12%. why not.

WyldfireWyrm

So here are my current stats:
Level 39 Khajiit Templar
Health: 10 points
272 recovery
8585 total
Magicka: 28 points
855 recovery
12059 total
Stamina: 0 points
452 recovery
6396 total
(stats are without any food, which is usually a max magicka boosting type, which is about 3000 at the moment)

680 spell damage
20% spell crit (40% with Inner Light on)
4614 spell resistance

Bar 1: resto staff
- Inner Light
- Repentance
- Purifying Ritual
- Breath of Life
- Reflective Light
- Remembrance

Bar 2: resto staff
- Breath of Life
- Degeneration
- Spear Shards
- Inner Light
- Radiant Destruction
- Solar Prison

Bar 2 is rarely used except to cast Degeneration for the spell damage boost. My spear shards spell is used sometimes, but I often find it just gains me way more aggro that I can handle (even after allowing my teammates to do damage for a full 5-8 seconds while only healing) and no one ever seems to be able to peel any of the mobs off me. I'll use Radiant Destruction if everyone is good on health and a mob or boss is low on health. I'll be swapping out my Bar 2 Breath of Life for Force Siphon once I get it unlocked (only 7 more levels). I feel like that will allow me to focus on DPS a little more since everyone will be able to essentially heal themselves.

I've had a bit more luck with this build than in the past, but I still feel super squishy during some boss fights. I am in the process of crafting a Magnus set (its the only set I can currently get to with ease) for the bonuses and I'll look into getting Seducer and Torugs Pact as soon as I can. I'll be adding health enchants to most of my gear to help me boost my health pool a bit.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

WyldfireWyrm

I'm also thinking of taking a little bit of a break from PVE to do some PVP and gain some abilities in the Alliance Wars skill lines. I've heard Barrier is a great Ultimate (I've heard it's better than Remembrance).

Jumper45

You should snag rune buff. Maxed out for me it adds quite a bit of armor and spell resistance to help with being squishy. If u morph it it will give you 100 Magick every 0.5 seconds standing on it. Toss repenance. Don't need it on your main bar.put it on 2nd. I'd use shards or aura. Both is not really needed. You'll also want to aim for around 1200 Magick regen. I use food to get 1400 and from armor sets. Warlock set and seducer will be your best bet if you have Magick issues. It comes with Magick regen on the sets. With harness Magick you don't need a ton of hp. It's something you need to think about rather then dumping in your hp too much. You will rarely get meleed. Only spell dmg from aoes and mechanics. The buff lasts almost 30 seconds and becomes a fire and forget. Till you get hit by a aoe. Not to mention it gives you Magick back when you do get hit. Thus making the spell almost magicka free. You might not need it now but you'll want to level it up now.

Magdalina

You don't *have* to dps. It depends on the group really. If people are new or not very good players then your trying to dps might get them killed while you actively healing would've saved them. However, the way things are now, content is easy enough that with most groups there's no need for you to be healing all the time and it makes sense to add some dps to the mix there. Try things out, see what works best for you;) Destro staff is probably a good off weapon. Templar shards/spears(I keep forgetting the morphs' names) are a GREAT skill, both for dps and helping the tank. Try to figure out a setup that's comfortable for you and group(s) you run with.
I know there're some great NB healers, probably same can go for DKs and sorcs(though poor sorcs really have nothing going for healing now) but yes templar is still the healer. Templar is the only class that can grab any weapon and still have healing abilities available. Templars have shards(or is it spears?) which are so damn awesome. Also jesus beam.

You just have to be careful to balance dps while healing in regards to the fight and group - remember that at some point you dpsing instead of healing can get your teammates killed, either because you won't heal in time or because you'll OOM dpsing and won't have any left to actually heal when needed. That makes it somewhat interesting IMO though. Have fun;)

WyldfireWyrm

I will grab Annulment and add it into my rotation somehow.

I use Repentance for the passive resource regeneration as well as the free heal, but I definitely feel it's very situational. The passive regeneration doesn't seem to make a ton of difference, but every little bit helps. Shards is great for my stamina DPSers and the tank, plus it will be a DPS bonus once I morph it to Blazing Spears.

I don't have Rune Focus yet, but it's definitely on my list of must haves. I think that I will drop Repentance once I get Rune Focus because it will solve my magicka regeneration issue a bit.

I'll ditch the Magnus set once I can gain access to any of the Torugs Pact, Warlock, Healer, or Seducer sets.

Jumper45

Just remember you have to juggle magicka regen and max magicka. Those 2 are most important. Hp taking a back burner. With harness magicka the more magicka the more powerful it will be thus adding further to your hp without having to go into hp. And it will work for about 90% of situations. My level it's about 8500. Plus 15k hp. And a ton of spell resistance.99% of the time I get hit by a aoe. Mortars from guardian vet boss for example. It just removes the shield and my hp never takes dmg. Jus recast and go about my day as my fellow grp members almost get face planted by them.no cool down so you can spam it. I'd also like to mention siphon. Morphed quick siphon. I didn't fully level it but heals for 300 health a hit for me now. This can be pretty powerful in its own right. Cast on multi mobs and when grp members aoe they get healed a bit. It's more effective then mutagen in my opinion. But it does require people to hit the mobs. The new dlc patch will add focused healing to BOL extra targets which is very nice. And backlash will leave a hot on targets near the mobs vs standing in a small circle so that might be added to the bar as it also does dps. 10k max for me right now. But is cool bc it's a dps and heal in one just doesn't function for cap right now till its changed.