ESO Sorcerer Healer overview (PVE)

Tasear

We have come a long way no? Remember when we the joke at the tavern with the undaunted? Is there there room for improvement... sure, but I am happy atm, so lets just discuss where sorcerer healing style currently stands.

Difficulty level : Hard

Purpose: Tactical Healing, in general this style we be supporting management of resources of allies and controlling mobs. Sorcerers make excellent mobile physician on the field and are hard to kill if they stay in one spot as they are or have their shield up . They will leave there enemies stunned or at a crawl as they make their rounds in killing allies or supporting the field with magicka and there heals. In an ideal word the enemies don't ever make to your allies

Benefits (class base):
Your burst heal can do ranged dps using the shock damage passive
Your burst heal heals it self and 2 allies.
Crowd Control - Encase (slow enemies), negate ( hot heal, stun mobs or silence prayers,negate some spells from enemies and removes debuffs), summoning ult morph stuns, bolt escape (stuns)
3% spell critical to allies for 20 secs - Dark Exchage and using the passive
10% regain in magicka - Empowered Ward
10 sec shield that covers pets too
You can use your summon(s) as bait while you revive allies.
Don't need a restoration staff to heal.
Resource management and ability to constantly heal.
8% health increase by using a summon (about 1k more in health)
25% damage increase to one ally who synergy that summoning ult and magick regain when it dies
Three bars - giving the potential to off heal
Speed - in larger dungeons you can speed off and catch up a allies to get into heal radius or kill them the mobs
Clanefer -This summon gives the potential to healing tank with both summons that heal you will never die if you don't run out of magick
Class built in taunt: The summons taunt enemies

Cons (Class base):
Your burst heal (twilight) can die.
Burst heal is based off max magicka
You got to support 5 instead of four lives
Have to use ult to cleanse negative effects or effect or take a non class with mutagen (need resto staff or purge during battle
You can't support stamina regain without circle of protection, or master restoration staff. (can
You going need to use a restoration staff during some boss fights... cause you pet will die.
Over healing to keep pet alive (trade off for resource management) and less time to potential dps
Doesn't really work well until you have level up most of the class skills.
Needs lots of hand coordination
Summon ult is very very weak and overlaps with negate with it's stun effect
The summons taunt enemies
Summon takes 2 slots

Shinny moments: I see this style with more ability to take 3 dps into veteran and public dungeons. Also does better with magick based users and sorc tanks. Also let us not forget this makes for some layed back but very weak dps soloing.

It won't be interesting if it was easy. by class design (excluding the restoration staff) , this style calls for you to keep alive another entity (twilight matriarch) that lacks some intelligence compare to some of the entities in the groups. The AI has been adjusted so for the most part I don't see it sitting in the middle of fire anymore or stationary damage , but even as a bosmer (does it share my Resistance?) it does fast unbelievably fast to poison or in general damage over time effects, but to be fair it can actually also be buffed too with exception of rapid regen or mutgen. So for the most part if you treat it as another life then things go mostly smooth with some exceptions

There's a few places where it just seems near impossible to keep it alive. The Final Boss in ICP... why doesn't follow me into the portal? It's going to take another 1.5 secs to re- summon again after coming out (prays nobody died yet). That boss on the island surrounded by poison in either wgt or icp ... it won't make to the island even with buffs and shield, because it moves slow. Veteran cradle of shadows on the final boss it become a deadric shish kabob. Even with it's flaws though as of now it does well in most cases, and lets forget can do some amount of shock damage taking benefits from Sorcerer passives for it.

Suggested improvements - let deadric prey be a targeting system? Better yet... since the trade off of it being able to die is dps I wish for it take priority of the portals during the pinon boss in WGT. Also if nothing else can it fly faster of the river of poison?


F.A.Q

How do you keep pets alive?
Over healing or crowd controlling the mobs and buffing it with items like, combat prayer, barrier, vigor

What buffs don't work on pets?
Restoration lines hot... which makes sense since you only get to use it on 2 people at once
Healing ward... I know at one point it did... but I pretty sure it doesn't often get priority anymore.

What's your character resources look like?
510+ cp
34.4k magicka
17.7 health -> going down to 16.6 after acquiring one tamerial sets
15.3k stamina -> . I can dodge... jump and run away like a true bosmer I am nimble and can use some stamia skils along the way
1760 spell damage
~1.98 without empowered or alliance war support buff

What your base burst heal look like?
10.3k without critical per two allies and pet so 31k?
16k critical per each of three targets

note: .... overkill for more situations and 1/3 is to keep the pet from not dying, but I make best friend with randoms groups and bad players while I have very little dps. tThis with a stamina race without using mage light or any mage passives or bound aegis. Only using 2% increase in resources from

How do you give stamina support?
Sometimes I don't... but there's a few options like master restoration staff and circle of protection and more the new monster coming with one tamerial

How do you give magick support?
Arcane well cp passive, spihon spirt, empowered ward, mystic orbs... so many options

What gear to you recommended?
The one that makes you happy, but by design of the style you are over healing so set items like spell power cure are something to consider

What is all the support you give?
Damage reduction, 8% more damage, stamina regain 10% - stationary , magicka regain 10% - moblie , 2% healing based on damage( should get rid of this and use for nightblade healer), 400 spell power (future), 400 weapon power reduction from eniemis in aoe healing areas (future), 400 stamina in using healing springs up to 6 allies, chance of stamina regain to allies with monster helm (future) cleanse 2 negative effects, stun enemies, slow enemies, remove negative effects an area, tiny bit of dps from me and my summon, damage shield based on health ... (if they syngery it) 30 more damage to critical, 10 % resource regain for 30 secs, speed support - rapid manuevers, magicka and health return based on damage of target, magicka return from kills, mystic orb (retired skill)

Clearly there's some rotation going on and overlap from a single skill along with 4 sets bonuses mixed in there (can all be use at the same time with a staff mind you), but in general the Sorcerer healer is competitive interesting and riddle with problems like ever other class.



Content completed:

Dragon star arena - have the allies come back to your rest spot to regain resources.

Undaunted Dungeons - it's easier to take 3 dps for all normal dungeons and some veteran dungeon... cause your a bit tanky yourself.

Final note - for a class focused on moblity it ends up be stationary in a lot of events.

Disclaimer:I have been doing this style since late December of 2015, but I won't pretend I know everything about this healing style nor am that great of a gamer, but surely this will give some people more insight compared to the very outdated and somewhat not creative guides. Then again maybe it wouldn't be as fun if I couldn't get an instance queue so feel free to ignore this.

flizomica

I dunno, I've always though sorc healers were really weak. Their burst heal takes up 2 slots as you mentioned, they cant heal and do damage at the same time (like NB's/temps), no access to major mending, and overall less utility. Plus they have no innate synergies with healing. Not saying you can't run one, but you really should have a master resto if you want to heal anything difficult (dlc dungeons, trials, dsa) as not to gimp your group.

Autolycus

chloethefoxxub17_ESO wrote: »

I dunno, I've always though sorc healers were really weak. Their burst heal takes up 2 slots as you mentioned, they cant heal and do damage at the same time (like NB's/temps), no access to major mending, and overall less utility. Plus they have no innate synergies with healing. Not saying you can't run one, but you really should have a master resto if you want to heal anything difficult (dlc dungeons, trials, dsa) as not to gimp your group.

You are strongly undervaluing a Sorc's capabilities as a healer with this post. ZOS's revisions to the healing capabilities of each class, plus their revisions to the Resto Staff skill line (of which some things still need to be addressed, but that's a different topic) in the TG update effectively put all classes on the same level when it comes to healing. Most builds will utilize the same gear, because healing isn't about how strong your burst spammable heal is anymore; it's about how many buffs you can provide to your group. Active healing is simply the busy work of the role nowadays - else we are support. I personally know Sorc healers that regularly attend vMoL. The way you describe them implies that they should never even consider such a thing, when in fact they make for excellent support characters in a trial setting.

One thing I can agree with is that a Master's Resto staff is a very strong consideration for BiS, as far as healing weapons go. It's also highly debatable, and other options are still viable. All classes have access to Major Mending through heavy attacks with a resto staff, if not from class abilities. Sorcs also have a great deal of utility that many players seem to forget. For example, vMoL against Zhaj'hassa - don't have a magicka DK for talons? No problem; if you have a Sorc, use Encase. They in fact can heal and deal damage simultaneously, thanks to resto staff abilities, Matriarch, and Negate. A dps sorc likely won't make room on their bar for Dark Exchange, but a healer sorc is virtually guaranteed to never have resource issues. In some builds (like those that utilize Infallible Aether and vMA lightning staves), the potential to do trial-worthy dps and heal simultaneously is both feasible and competitive.

lolo_01b16_ESO

I personally tried sorc healing after they added it in tg patch, but gave up quite quickly as I felt that every other class can do it better. My main issue was that pets constantly died to boss mechanics (e.g. "explosion" at MoL first boss, Manti pop ups and stomps, ...). Did they change anything about that, maybe made it so that one shot mechanics can't target pets? Or do the sorcs you know just constantly recast their pets or spend half of the fight moving their pets to save locations @Autolycus ?

Autolycus

lolo_01b16_ESO wrote: »

I personally tried sorc healing after they added it in tg patch, but gave up quite quickly as I felt that every other class can do it better. My main issue was that pets constantly died to boss mechanics (e.g. "explosion" at MoL first boss, Manti pop ups and stomps, ...). Did they change anything about that, maybe made it so that one shot mechanics can't target pets? Or do the sorcs you know just constantly recast their pets or spend half of the fight moving their pets to save locations @Autolycus ?

The sorcs I know provide the same buffs to their pets as they do to the trial group. For optimal use, I believe a Matriarch should be in the middle of the fray, or very close, which means they are close enough for buffs. Even the smallest buffs, like that of Combat Prayer, helps your pets to survive. Another example is Igneous Shield, run by DK tanks almost universally as a means to convert magicka into stamina for blocking, will very frequently go to a Matriarch too. Sure, it's not a huge shield, but coupled with the variety of other buffs running, the collective effect is one of note. In a trials setting, of course assuming a group who has made a point to run as many buffs as possible, keeping pets alive isn't as big of a constraint as many seem to think. There will always be potential for pets to die and it will undoubtedly happen, but the concept of spending half or more of the fight re-casting or moving pets is an exaggeration, at least imho.

Sorcs I know that heal veteran trials don't depend exclusively on their Matriarch to heal either. Burst healing is not the core function of any healer in ESO. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are people who will disagree with me out there, but nobody I know personally who completes vet trials regularly wants to see their healer spamming BoL/Matriach/Funnel/Cauterize for the whole fight. If it dies, you have other options, and as I mentioned earlier, it's not as difficult to keep them alive as people imply. For Manti specifically, a well-timed Ward will keep your Matriarch alive. If your max magicka is high enough (which it should be since Matriarch scales off magicka), one shield should be enough for the initial impact + DoT. If not, a second one isn't too much to manage.

Totalitarian

I won't debate that a Sorcerer can heal effectively, because they can. But when it comes to 4 man content, a Sorcerer has few ways to provide good DPS. It's simply built into their kit; they lack spammables, so they have to rely solely on their DOTs, which, while strong, just have to tick away while the Sorc Healer heavy attacks for DPS because all of this HOTs are already up/the team is doing fine.

That being said, one of the things that sounds really attractive to a Sorc Healer is Overload. You can start a boss fight, buff up your allies with Regeneration and Combat Prayer, drop your DOTs, then swap to Overload, use Surge, then spam Overload and heal with Twilight Matriarch, until you have enough ultimate to use Negate/War Horn. Then you can swap bars and use your ultimate. With a good group, the boss will just die by then.

It's just that Sorcerers are generally poorly optimized for being the traditional healer that you want for 4 man content.

For trials, the biggest issues that a Sorc Healer would come across is a lack of Spear Shards, for DPS and stamina return, and Repentance if both healers are not Templars. At that point, it'd be your job as a Sorc Healer to go overdrive and keep up more healing than the Templar Healer so they can heavy attack so they have more Magicka to use Shards.

Tasear wrote: »

Content completed: Dragon star arena

And is this Normal DSA, or vDSA? Because there's a big difference. If it's normal DSA, I'd encourage you to run vDSA because it'll make you a better player (although your tank might get some serious Stamina problems if you don't have Master Resto Staff).

CreepyPahuska

Totalitarian wrote: »

(although your tank might get some serious Stamina problems if you don't have Master Resto Staff).

I don't want to sound rude, but this is the tank's problem. In 4men content, even vDSA, every tank should be able to manage his ressources on his own. In my opinion, a tank who can't survive without stamina support from his healer is simply a bad tank, and must improve his build/playstyle.

(I'm talking from experience of course. I did vDSA at CP160 as a sorcerer tank with a non-templar healer who didn't own a master resto staff. We also had a stam DPS in the group.)

Tasear

Veteran dragon star

Tasear

Point 1. it's hard to keep alive until you max the six line so I going to this agree it's somewhat hard.

Point 2. I was doing an overview, but somehow I mislead you... no one in their right mind would simply use burst heal in there,but it does help. Not only for obvious point of healing the lost sheep, but giving 1 k in health. On that note really could of organizated all non class support skills uses.. but I suppose that will be for another time.

Point 3. I said DSA cause it was either. On the note veteran there weren't any issues till the last bosses for first run cause we didn't know what we are doing. I believe any issues arise not based on class, but simply teamwork. It's not like other MMOs got to understand how to work together. Making healing like tanking a leadership job. I just cover the rear.

psychotic13

lolo_01b16_ESO wrote: »

I personally tried sorc healing after they added it in tg patch, but gave up quite quickly as I felt that every other class can do it better. My main issue was that pets constantly died to boss mechanics (e.g. "explosion" at MoL first boss, Manti pop ups and stomps, ...). Did they change anything about that, maybe made it so that one shot mechanics can't target pets? Or do the sorcs you know just constantly recast their pets or spend half of the fight moving their pets to save locations @Autolycus ?

I thought they made it so pets couldn't get one shotted, and the maximum damage they could take in a single shot was up to a maximum of a certain percentage of their max health, I can't remember the limit though.

Autolycus

psychotic13 wrote: »

lolo_01b16_ESO wrote: »

I personally tried sorc healing after they added it in tg patch, but gave up quite quickly as I felt that every other class can do it better. My main issue was that pets constantly died to boss mechanics (e.g. "explosion" at MoL first boss, Manti pop ups and stomps, ...). Did they change anything about that, maybe made it so that one shot mechanics can't target pets? Or do the sorcs you know just constantly recast their pets or spend half of the fight moving their pets to save locations @Autolycus ?

I thought they made it so pets couldn't get one shotted, and the maximum damage they could take in a single shot was up to a maximum of a certain percentage of their max health, I can't remember the limit though.

I believe this is correct, but don't remember off-hand what that % is.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

Autolycus wrote: »

psychotic13 wrote: »

lolo_01b16_ESO wrote: »

I personally tried sorc healing after they added it in tg patch, but gave up quite quickly as I felt that every other class can do it better. My main issue was that pets constantly died to boss mechanics (e.g. "explosion" at MoL first boss, Manti pop ups and stomps, ...). Did they change anything about that, maybe made it so that one shot mechanics can't target pets? Or do the sorcs you know just constantly recast their pets or spend half of the fight moving their pets to save locations @Autolycus ?

I thought they made it so pets couldn't get one shotted, and the maximum damage they could take in a single shot was up to a maximum of a certain percentage of their max health, I can't remember the limit though.

I believe this is correct, but don't remember off-hand what that % is.

Pretty sure it is 45%.

nraner81

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

Totalitarian wrote: »

(although your tank might get some serious Stamina problems if you don't have Master Resto Staff).

I don't want to sound rude, but this is the tank's problem. In 4men content, even vDSA, every tank should be able to manage his ressources on his own. In my opinion, a tank who can't survive without stamina support from his healer is simply a bad tank, and must improve his build/playstyle.

(I'm talking from experience of course. I did vDSA at CP160 as a sorcerer tank with a non-templar healer who didn't own a master resto staff. We also had a stam DPS in the group.)

sounds like my buddy and his healer.
he told me the other day "why would I want to run worm? Its not best for me. Is the dps healing me if I need it?"
I dropped it there as he is my buddy..... but yea.....
VDSA is no joke nowadays while reg dsa is a joke and can be solod.
VDSA as a healer or my tank I would want as optimal as possible.

Totalitarian

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

as a sorcerer tank

Do you run Lightning Form on your Sorc Tank? Do you/ a group member apply Elemental Drain on adds/bosses? Because that'd be a ton of free magicka

CreepyPahuska

nraner81 wrote: »

VDSA as a healer or my tank I would want as optimal as possible.

That's my point. An "optimal" tank don't need to rely on his healer for stamina management, just like a healer isn't "optimal" if he provides something nobody needs. Now of course if you're wearing something like a 5 SPC/5 Worm or 5 Aether, you only have a slot for a weapon, so it's best to put a master weapon, but the stamina returned from it won't be needed.
What matters isn't how optimal your are as a tank or as a healer, it is how well your build can "syngergize" with the rest of your group to make the group itself optimal. In our case for example, our healer was a nightblade. At some points she totally "stopped" healing me to be able to burst the first wave of bosses with the 2 DDs, or Hiath himself when he went below 50%, allowing us to skip the second wave of bosses. That's what I call an optimal group setup. The healing job isn't only about group ressource management. There are plenty of ways to help your group and be "optimal".

Totalitarian wrote: »

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

as a sorcerer tank

Do you run Lightning Form on your Sorc Tank? Do you/ a group member apply Elemental Drain on adds/bosses? Because that'd be a ton of free magicka

I do run it, for the Major Resolve/Ward buff and the running speed. About the elemental drain, my healer applies it if we have magicka DDs in the group. It adds comfort for sure, but I can live without since I have 1988 magicka recovery (soon to be 2100+ if I trade my Spectre's eye for a Kagrenac). When I think I'm going to have magicka issues (it happens in the SOTH dungeons because of the ressource drains from the last bosses), I simply equip a Restoration staff in my off bar to weave heavy attacks.

greylox

Was running the necropotence set and the healer set on mine but got rid of the healer and put on arcane willpower and maw (cause more pets!!!). I tend to mainly use illustrious healing, combat prayer and ward ally ...the twilight is purely for oh *** moments and can crit for over 23k heals atm. When I get undaunted mettle, magicka will be over 50k.

Shattering prison is the only damage\cc I use other than overload and heavy \light attacks.

Love it.

KingYogi415

You lost me at "don't need resto staff to heal"

This is only true when your group is so good you don't even need a healer.

Such a joke: a non-resto non-temp "healer"

That being said sure any class can spam combat prayer and healing springs effectivicly. But you would be hard pressed to find a vet trials group who wouldn't laugh any non-templars out of the group.

Tasear

No I think you overlooked the point or I didn't focus it enough. First off this is an overview for sorcerer healers so unless your troll want to promote the Templar healer ego even more then leave. You aren't being helpful. The idea behind this thread at last maybe poorly written one is to start filling in the game on information. Where can you actual find information sorcerer Healer that not outdated are saying there as just healing springs bot?

So let me clear up this point that you trying to misdirect, you don't need to use the restro staff to heal. Is that effective method ... maybe not, but it's possible. Are be going to die... likely, but it's still possible and I mention this because it's overview.

In regards to trials, you mention not using healing springs. I am going to say that is foolish. First off it's the most effective heal in the game no matter what the class. Second off I have seen templar healer decide not to use in trial and that is just sloppy work that they are pushing off to another healer. To illustrate the point, I fell slightly behind in a trial and got whammy in the face of troll and died. What happened next.. not long after everyone died. Why did that happen?

Simply put it was a poor decision, there are obvious situations where you should be ganging up on the boss and receiving sustain from the healer close up. It's going to take a lot of resources to keep that up and springs is cost effective for the situation and easiest way to direct the team in facing a boss. In the situation above the healer wasn't using even using restro staff and thought his class line heals could handle 11 ( I died) the constant drain. The idea behind having to healers in a trial is not necessary that we always need two is if one of us dies the who group doesn't die with us. The other healer should be able to handle for at least a min or two the supporting of everyone else in a trial.


*Note I am not try to start something like bash Templar healers I want this to be only a learning environment for sorcerer healers. So I ask you provide suggestion or sound reasoning behind your point unless you here to struct your ego, lazyness, foolishness, but is there already threads for that ?

DocFrost72

Just made myself a sorc healer last night. A lot of good to say about them, a built in ward that covers your pet means you're doing dps even while turtled, great class mobility with boundless (not to mention further tankiness), your heals are powerful, ulti cost is way down, you have a 12 second aoe stun that also heals allies and dispels negative effects, the list goes on.

Two BIG issues I had last night. Nbd if your twilight dies, sure. What IS an issue is that if you summon your twilight and try to use the burst heal immediately, your damn creature already summoned is dispelled and you get stuck in the recast animation.

All in all, definately my new favorite class to heal on. Once I get that new automaton head and shoulder, stam management is taken care of of I ever find a need to even wear it.

Tasear

So I have been playing around with this and this is my best answer

First issue, it's very frustrating, but I think it's part of the spell weaving we all know about. The twilight is suppose to be able to casted back into existence in 1.5 secs which is odd number. Nevertheless you can use an heal on 1 sec (that other .5 secs if the birthing process) , but if you try to do it on . 9 secs you de-cast the summon. Is that a bug ... maybe.

Before I go on how I resolved this issue above let me tell you what I do in that sec the stupid bird died on me. I was a little dramatic, but you know it's not die as often as it use too. But when I does happen I would use healing ward (single person falling to fast) or healing springs (we might all die in that 1.5 secs). Though these days I find it more useful to put combat pray as the backup. It's not only gives protection and healing... it makes dps work harder for you.

Now on to the issue of twilight dying. It's only my gut, but I am pretty sure it's sharing some of my defense. I found by giving myself 1000 points increase for light amour cp thingy the pet dies less compared to reducing physical and elemental damage. I have 80 or so points in bastion cause empowered ward seemed like the better choice for healers. It's got the unappreciated 10% regain in magick and the 10 sec shield that nobody else got outside of an ult. My closing thought is sometimes that twlight outlives some of my dps pugs and I just wish I could give it a treat.