Healing Magblade - here's what I've got, any suggestions?

Jorotarr

I'm not quite at CP160 yet on this first character of mine, but I've recently started running dungeons and have decided to go from a pure dps build to a healer build for my nightblade. When I hit CP160, I am going for the Spell Power Cure armor set and will additionally work towards getting a master resto staff. Here's what I've got for skills:

Weapon Set One
Destruction Staff

[1] Structured Entropy [2] Funnel Health [3] Destructive Clench [4] Refreshing Path [5] Sap Essence [Ultimate] Elemental Rage

Weapon Set Two
Restoration Staff

[1] Mutagen [2] Siphon Spirit [3] Healing Springs [4] Combat Prayer [5] Steadfast Ward [Ultimate] Soul Siphon

I was thinking this build, especially with added support the spell power cure set and master resto staff will add, would be a good healing build but also with the ability to do some dps. I have three single target dps spells on my first bar, with Structured Entropy granting me major sorcery. I have two healing aoe spells for support and an aoe ultimate. My second bar is all restoration abilities for healing and a nightblade siphoning ultimate for a healing ultimate. I don't have a "rotation" or anything set yet, as I haven't used this in a group setting.

Thoughts on this build? Thanks for helping a new-ish player out!

RavenSworn

Haven't had the wonderful chance to heal with a mage blade but as far as I know:

- your main healing output comes from funnel health. This is the bread and butter for mage blade.
- healing springs is one of the most cost efficient heals but it needs the other players to stack to have it at its maximum potential.
- I am not too sure about mutagen, it's random, with the burst output not too reliable. I feel that as a mage blade, you need constant hots, just like how a druid heals in wow.
- shields works best imo, but I suggest healing ward rather than steadfast.
- structured entropy doesn't stack with SAP essence as far as I can tell yes? Both have major sorcery. Have you given thought for innerlight? Critical hots are not to be laughed at imo.

Hopefully this helps!
-RavenSworn

SienneYviete

Just some of the things I picked up while healing on a magblade completely different style of healing to templar strong hots combined with targeted potent cleave heals with strong dps to boot, ward is absolutely not required just use your combat prayer or springs if needed, I would drop entropy as sap will give you your sorcery buff and use energy orbs the hps from these is absolutely crazy high plus your mag dps will love you for it, as with your ultimate get aggressive warhorn, you can't beat it and the ultimate generation on a magblade is amazing allowing you to keep high uptimes on the best support ultimate in the game. I would also suggest removing destructive clench and replacing it with wall of elements and use a lightning staff (charged if possible) to keep a good uptime on minor vulnerability for your dps. Chucking inner light on your bars will also give you your spell crit buff allowing you to use trash magicka pots but have all your needed buffs + extra mag and regen for the slot. Siphon spirit isn't needed just put elemental drain on your destro staff bar (magicka steal and major breach) moar dps.

Nightblades make fantastic healers and can do alot of dps at the same time, really good for 4 man content where shards and aura are not required, while they can be used in trials I find their main drawback now is lack of synergies and the skill ceiling for vet trial healing on a magblade is fairly high but they're really fun to play.

VaxtinTheWolf

Personally, I use a double restoration staff. This works for me, I'm there to heal, so that's my focus. My passive DPS from refreshing path and Funnel health spam generally provides around 8.5k DPS on it's own in a single Target situation.

Nightblade Healer

If the boss is single target, I drop Sap Essence for Degeneration. on the off-bar, Mystic orb is my filler/situational slot. If the boss is single target, I will use Siphon Spirit instead. if the group is majority stamina I will use Healing ward over either of those two. If the group is majority nightblades, I will drop combat prayer and use the magic morph of Grim focus for myself, and sometimes I will use crippling grasp instead of healing springs if it's not needed.

My choice of ultimate is Soul Harvest on front bar, always. The back bar usually has Barrier, I also use Aggressive War horn Veil of Blades, Light's Champion or Ice Comet(I never wanted to pay gold to change this morph). Personally, I only do Vetern 4-Man dungeons, and rarely to I ever have a chance to make use of Soul Siphon. Either the group isn't close enough(Stacked) or I don't actually feel pressured enough to benefit from using it.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/3925586/#Comment_3925586

dmanlongb14_ESO

Agree with quite a few comments, but I will repeat what I think is right and wrong

Healing Nightblade brings very little unique utility outside of the utility that is available to all classes.

Where the Magblade shines is DPS and you get great healing as product of that DPS. If the boss is dead then healing isnt needed.

Bar 1.

1. Drop Structure Entrophy. You already are getting the spell power buff from SAP.
2. You need warhorn as one of your ultimates unless someone else is running it - then Metor is probably best for the Ultimate regen, magic increase - but it should be on bar 2 and soul siphon on bar 1
3. Dont bother with destructive clench - I wouldnt run a Desto staff anyway.
4. I would add Inner light to this bar and swap Siphon Spirit to the bar as well - more on that in a minute.
5. You must have an assassin ability for the hermorage buff. I put my ability on bar 1.

Run two sword dual wield on this bar for the 5% passive damage increase.

Bar
4. I would go healing ward instead of Steadfast. The heal is pretty decent.
5. You can probably drop Healing Springs in dungeons. Healing Springs has a range of 12 meters and so does Sap essence. You already have super powerful hots that are enough to bring everyone up. Soul Siphon will be up all the time( if you need burst) due to its low cost, and Sap Essence will fill in if there are a lot of adds. This frees up a spot.
6. Mystic Orb - this will bring much need regen for party and a synergy that is missing.


Healing Nightblades have unique passives that increase healing base on the amount of siphon abilities on bar. if you swap bars the passive does too. I try to put my siphon ultimate, funnel and sap on a single bar for 9% passive healing increase to all abilities - Templars only get increase to a single tree.


Things you do need
ulitity
Regen for the group
Buffs for the group
lots of damage

Things you dont need
fracture, Spell resistance, Maim

All these are brought by the tank.

Here is what I would run:



1. Funnel
2. Refreshing path
3. Sap
4. Impale
5. Inner light
6. Soul Siphon

1. Healing Ward
2. Siphon Spirit
3. Combat Prayer
4. Mutagen
5. Mytic Orb
6. Agressive War Horn


So, why do I have only one Inner Light and my siphon skills on my top bar and not my bottom bar?

You are a hot healer. You goals should be to work off one bar.

Cast Mutagen, cast Siphon and then toggle to your main bar which will boost your hots from the bottom bar. You can try this yourself. Most off the time, your funnel, and refreshing path, and sap should be more than enough. Sap back down when your mutagen expires and recast it, along with combat prayer, orbs, siphon. Think of it as weaving in and out of bar 2.

Autolycus

These recommendations are for a fully-dedicated healer setup. There is little single-target dps involved in this setup, but will ultimately put you in a solid place to begin doing normal and veteran trials (once you have enough CP and the right gear).

I recommend trading Siphon Spirit for Ele Drain instead, as the cast time on Siphon makes it a lot less efficient for the same buff. Since you have a destro on one bar already, it's easy to accommodate. You can replace Entropy with Ele Drain, and then replace Siphon with Mystic Orb for sustain and for the synergy. Note that Sap Essence gives you Major Sorcery and will heal even if it hits no targets. I have some advice regarding this and can go into more detail if you'd like, but I'll leave it until you ask for it.

If you want to boost your group's dps (assuming their CP accommodates it), trade your inferno staff for a lightning staff, and then replace Destructive Clench with Lightning Blockade to set everything off-balance. This will also enable you to help clean up trash pulls more efficiently with your group, as a simple Path > Blockade > Heavy Lightning attacks will do some serious work without sacrificing any of your healing utility or potency, while simultaneously improving your sustain. I hinted at this above, but this is still a really strong AoE setup if you choose not to use Sap.

I would trade Elemental Rage for Aggressive Horn and use it as your primary ultimate. Also, though I personally love Soul Siphon, it's not providing any real utility besides the synergy option (which is decent and you would be right to use it in some cases), and you (generally) can do better by slotting Shooting Star here instead. This will boost your sustain and your healing potency, as well as bolster your AoE arsenal and can be used to empower your heals. It's important to note here that, while you should use Aggressive Horn primarily, it should stay on your back bar (rather than your primary/healing bar) because it doesn't do anything for your passively, unlike Shooting Star, whose passive benefits are spectacular.

Inner Light is too good to pass up (max magicka + empower) and should probably be on both bars. If you can't bring yourself to drop a skill on each bar for it, it should at least be on your healing bar. Finally, Healing Ward is a much better option for pve healing.

TL;DR: In summary, here are my recommendations:

Weapon Set One
Destruction Staff (Lightning)
[1] Structured Entropy Ele Drain
[2] Funnel Health Mystic Orb / Energy Orb
[3] Destructive Clench Lightning Blockade
[4] Refreshing Path
[5] Sap Essence (this is a flex spot, and we could put a number of other things here, depending on the encounter)
[Ultimate] Elemental Rage Aggressive Horn

Weapon Set Two
Restoration Staff
[1] Mutagen Inner Light
[2] Siphon Spirit Funnel Health
[3] Healing Springs
[4] Combat Prayer
[5] Steadfast Ward Healing Ward
[Ultimate] Soul Siphon Shooting Star

You're definitely on the right track going for SPC. You have several solid endgame options to pair with it, such as Mending, Worm Cult, IA, and Sanctuary. Might as well start hoarding all of them, because down the line you're going to have to work together with your raid lead and your other trials healer to figure out which sets you're both going to wear, so having all them is going to save you a headache. Don't stress about that much for now; focus on SPC, then go for Worm Cult (both of these are from dungeons), then Mending (normal AA).

I'm more than happy to help you with CP allocations, traits, glyphs, etc. if you want. For now, I'm going to leave all of that out, so as not to make this longer than it needs to be, and since you're still working towards cp160. But keep it in mind if you want the help for later, and feel free to shoot me a message or tag me for questions.

Jorotarr

Okay, updated list:

Weapon Set One
Lightning Staff

[1] Funnel Health or Lightning Blockade [2] Refreshing Path [3] Sap Essence [4] Elemental Drain or Piercing Mark [5] Inner Light [Ultimate] Soul Siphon

Weapon Set Two
Restoration Staff

[1] Mutagen or Inner Light [2] Healing Springs [3] Combat Prayer [4] Healing Ward or Siphon Spirit [5] Energy Orb [Ultimate] Shooting Star

I like the 9% healing bonus unique to the class by having 3 siphoning abilities on bar 1, but sacrifice some AoE damage with Funnel Health vs Lightning Blockade. But if I have a lightning staff equipped my heavy attacks will do some AoE damage. But I do wonder if Elemental Drain is better than Piercing Mark because the piercing mark reduces both physical and spell resistance while also giving me the hemorrhage passive with a 5% crit increase. I put Soul Siphon on there because when I searched for Aggressive Horn I saw that, while it is a nice ability, it is acquired through PvP and that's not really my thing. Will not having it hurt me that bad? And let's say I do get it, should I replace Shooting Star with Aggressive Horn so I can still receive my 9% healing bonus with having Soul Siphon slotted?

The second bar makes a lot of sense, I'm just unsure if having Inner Light on both bars is worth sacrificing Mutagen. I've received mixed comments on Healing Ward, so I am still unsure if I should slot it or Siphon Spirit. Additionally, I am unable to get Energy Orb yet, but after a few more dungeon runs and I achieve Undaunted 5 I will slot it in my second bar. I also can't get Shooting Star yet as my Mages Guild is only 7 and I need 10. What could I put there in the meantime?

I also take it that a Magblade Healer isn't viable for trials? Just normal and vet 4-man dungeons? What would my role be in a trial, then (I've not done one yet)?

It was mentioned to get the Spell Power Cure armor set, but that I should also get the Worm Cult set and the Mending Set (what is normal AA)? Can only one person per trial wear a set of armor, is this why I should focus on getting three different sets? And if so, is there a way to easily swap out an entire armor set or do I have to unequip and re-equip each piece separately?

I'm also down for CP allocation advice.

Everyone's advice and input has been extremely helpful - thank you all so much!

VaxtinTheWolf

@Joromarr I got your message, it's an addon called "Superstar - Character Builder".

If I really wanted a setup like this, check the spoiler for how I'd place my skills. You'll have to swap weapons a lot to keep reapplying Combat Prayer every 8 seconds, but as a Healer you don't follow a rotation. Just apply buffs or debuffs as needed.

Destruction Staff(Lightning):
- Blockade(Storm)
- Funnel Health
- Sap Essence \ Entrophy Morph
- Elemental Drain
- Inner Light
- [Soul Harvest]

Restoration Staff:
- Illustrious Healing \ Necrotic Orb Morph
- Regeneration Morph
- Refreshing Path
- Combat Prayer
- Healing Ward \ Necrotic Orb Morph
- [Ultimate of choice for the situation]

Piercing mark is redundant as a healer Nightblade in groups. The tank should be using Pierce Armour, that's your debuff right there. Elemental drain also reduces spell resistance, but the reason it's being used is for the passive magicka recovery through doing damage each second. If you are using Elemental Drain, you don't also have to be using Siphon Spirit. It has a cast time a lot of people hate as it leaves you doing nothing, and makes it slow to apply to multiple enemies.

You don't -need- Inner light on both bars, Just the one you will be spending most of your time on, or the one that has Funnel Health on it. The more damage you do with it, the more healing you can get out of it. You don't have a siphoning skill on your back bar, so you are missing 8% magicka bonus there. I mean, this is why I have my abilities setup how I do. I want passives active, and a Balanced healing setup, though my backbar is still considered a buff bar and I don't stay on it long.

I also wanted the critical damage buff from my assassin passives active at all times, that's why I have Soul Harvest on my front bar, and Impale on my backbar. You never actually use Soul Harvest. It's for the ultimate generation if you happen to kill something while on your Damage bar. I can't make myself change my setup as for what I desire, everything fits where it is.

dmanlongb14_ESO

@VaxtinTheWolf

I like your post above, but I have a few follow up questions.

1. You said up the page that you use double resto staffs? So what is the build you just linked?

2. Have you thought about using double sword for the passive 5% boost? Double Sword also provides you with an extra set item allowing you to run 5/5/2

3.almost 100% of the unique utility that Nightblade healer brings is DPS. How much dps seperation is there between a geared Nightblade healer and a geared Templar Healer?

VaxtinTheWolf

dmanlongb14_ESO wrote: »

@VaxtinTheWolf

I like your post above, but I have a few follow up questions.

1. You said up the page that you use double resto staffs? So what is the build you just linked?

2. Have you thought about using double sword for the passive 5% boost? Double Sword also provides you with an extra set item allowing you to run 5/5/2

3.almost 100% of the unique utility that Nightblade healer brings is DPS. How much dps seperation is there between a geared Nightblade healer and a geared Templar Healer?

@dmanlongb14_ESO

- The link goes to what I currently use on my own Healer. What I posted above was just imagingin a setup, thought up out of my head.

- I'm not into that kind of style. Maybe good for Templar or Sorcerer burst healing, or larger tooltip numbers but that's not my focus. I use Siphoning attacks for constant sustain, and weave ranged light attacks often, and keeping the ultimate proc running. Maybe it's fine on a back-bar for a true DPS Nightblade in an AOE situation, at least I believe that's how they use it in their setups? Still, I prefer the more balanced setup I'm using, Basically I want the Restoration Staff passives active at all times along with the nightblade ones for healing, and bonus critical damage/healing. My mindset is Healing First, and small sustained DPS second, so that's what I prepare myself to do.

- I don't consider myself geared, and I've never played a Templar healer either, so I cannot really comment on that. I'm just a veteran pledge dungeon delver. All the vocal majority seem to look at is trial setups and if you don't use this or that setup with this specific class you are invisible to them. "Like a if you aren't -this- for -that- then delete your character" kind of people.

TheStealthDude

I've been running double resto, 5pc Worm, 5pc Juliano's (until I get the remaining SPC pieces I need), and 1pc Molag Kena.

Bar1:
Combat Prayer, Funnel Health, Sap Essence, Impale, Inner Light, Soul Harvest

Bar2:
Siphoning Attacks, Mutagen, Refreshing Path, Healing Ward, Healing Springs, Soul Siphon (will trade for Warhorn when acquired).

I'm sure I could optimize this a bit better, as I am still learning the intricacies of NB healing. I was definitely thinking of switching to either destro staff or dual wield front bar.