Leveling tanks and healers

OrbitStorm

As a relatively new player, I'm trying to sort out my desired race and class combos to have a variety to play with as I progress. At the moment, I've been main'ing a Bosmer Nightblade and have a High Elf Sorcerer plus a Redguard Dragonknight as two additional choices. All three of these characters are DPS. Stamina, Magicka, Stamina, respectively.

Being that I don't want to play exclusively solo, I'm curious as to what the process is for tanks and healers: are the builds meant to be started from the outset or is it recommended to go with a DPS build and then switch to the desired role at a certain level? How difficult would it be to level a Templar healer, for example?

Thanks!

bebynnag

it is possible to level a characters by grinding, questing, PvPing etc as a tank or healer, but many people find it faster & less frustrating to just spec as a DD

as im sure you know be once they reach level 50 they are automatically levelled to your highest CP rank (although CP can assigned from the off)

the example you give of a templar is an interesting one though as for end game trial you will probably find yourself running a lightning staff,
so while leveling put a destro on your front bar and you will have more than enough damage to level however you want

edt 4 PS
slot a resto skill on your front bar even though you wont b able to use the skill you will still gain XP in the restoration skill line while leveling

OrbitStorm

puffytheslayer wrote: »

it is possible to level a characters by grinding, questing, PvPing etc as a tank or healer, but many people find it faster & less frustrating to just spec as a DD

If the recommended path to take is to level as DPS, then who is doing the tanking/healing in mid-level dungeons? I don't ask that to sound rude, I'm genuinely confused as I've yet to do any group dungeons, just solo delves.

bebynnag

OrbitStorm wrote: »

puffytheslayer wrote: »

it is possible to level a characters by grinding, questing, PvPing etc as a tank or healer, but many people find it faster & less frustrating to just spec as a DD

If the recommended path to take is to level as DPS, then who is doing the tanking/healing in mid-level dungeons? I don't ask that to sound rude, I'm genuinely confused as I've yet to do any group dungeons, just solo delves.

we are not grouped according to our level so they could be anything from level 10 to max CP, although quite often there is no healer or tank and is just 4 DDs (2 of whom qued as a healer and tank) because its group finder and thats what happens

as i said it is possible to level a character as a tank or a healer for any solo questing or solo play you will need to deal damage in order to progress through the quest,

i mentioned using a destro staff when leveling your templar hearler to increase your damage

additionally

if you plan to make a tank you can use a similar technique using sword and shield & destro (both should be leveled for tanking because ice staves are a tanking tool) the main weapon/skill coice will vary depending on what class/type of tank you choose to play

when i am leveling a tank or healer, i tent to run 1 DD bar and one support bar (once i hit level 15) it is not an ideal situation but it does give me the ability to level & play with the skills (still not sure how best to pve tank on a warden - lol)

of course if you have guildies/friends you quest with then you can go full tank or healer with your alt & only play that character when your friends are available - but this does require patience

bebynnag

oh and you didnt sound rude at all so no need to apologise

Brrrofski

When I level tanks I use 5 medium, 2 heavy. Use a 2h.

I just keep a one hand and shield skill on my bar at all times.

Last one I got to 50 had heavy armor at 45 and 1h&shield at 48. So next few dungeons levelled then up fully

Horowonnoe

OrbitStorm wrote: »

As a relatively new player, I'm trying to sort out my desired race and class combos to have a variety to play with as I progress. At the moment, I've been main'ing a Bosmer Nightblade and have a High Elf Sorcerer plus a Redguard Dragonknight as two additional choices. All three of these characters are DPS. Stamina, Magicka, Stamina, respectively.

Being that I don't want to play exclusively solo, I'm curious as to what the process is for tanks and healers: are the builds meant to be started from the outset or is it recommended to go with a DPS build and then switch to the desired role at a certain level? How difficult would it be to level a Templar healer, for example?

Thanks!

I at the moment am leveling my new tank by only doing random normal dungeons. Once i reached lvl 10 that is all i've been doing. I am now lvl 40 in like 3 days.

raj72616a

put all points into stamina and grind quest and solo delve as dps with dual wield and bow.
put on a shield and queue as tank for random normal.

DeHei

Pls play the levelphase only as DD... i leveled my first char as tank too... its much harder to do this. Only as DD you are benefited here in game from everything for solo content. A bigger stamina/magickapool is damage and healing and on this way you get survivalbility

Rianai

You don't need high dmg for questing/leveling, so just slot some dmg skills and an offensive weapon on one bar and you should do fine. If neccessary you can change some skills for group content ofc. Especially healers aren't any harder to level than dps builds (probably even easier, because of the better healing), since you should use a destro staff anyways and have all attribute points in magicka, which increases both healing and dmg.

AcadianPaladin

Tanks and healers are different for leveling.

The things that make a great tank (health and mitigation) ultimately mean extremely poor dps. So the tanks that I know level with and always maintain sort of a dps setup and a tank setup. Note: the only tanks I know are DK so things may be diff for other classes.

The things that make a great healer (magicka and regen) happily power not only strong heals but strong dps as well. And healing makes for superb defense. My templar healer leveled as such and never had any problem leveling/questing. Even today she can solo most world bosses.

Narvuntien

My tank quests extreeeeemely slowly so I don't play him much.

I have to go and taunt aggro a whole bunch of mobs and slowly AoE all of them down.

Now that I am level 50 I just go into group finder for my 10 sec pleadges queue which is such a relief compared to trying to do dungeons on my DPSs.

bebynnag

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Tanks and healers are different for leveling.

The things that make a great tank (health and mitigation) ultimately mean extremely poor dps. So the tanks that I know level with and always maintain sort of a dps setup and a tank setup. Note: the only tanks I know are DK so things may be diff for other classes.

The things that make a great healer (magicka and regen) happily power not only strong heals but strong dps as well. And healing makes for superb defense. My templar healer leveled as such and never had any problem leveling/questing. Even today she can solo most world bosses.

not all tanks are max health tanks, max stam tanks are a very common sight (even for vet end game content - alcast/powerfull assault) & max magic tanks are becoming more and more common accross all classes (i havent tried it outside on normal dungeons cause i feel dirty tanking with an ice staff even on a warden)

Nestor

For me, when leveling, I divorce the character from the intended role. I roll a DPS for all leveling characters no matter what I intend to do with them later. It is extremely difficult to level a healer or tank solo. Especially if your trying collect enough skill points along the way to make the character useful. I respec them once leveled into the role.

BTW, you need 100 to 120 skill points to make a useful, single weapon, group role, character.

Now, the key to this is slot every skill in the One Hand Shield, Class and Weapon on your bar as your going about your leveling and skill point gathering. Once the skill reaches morph stage, then slot another one. Avoids paying to respec morphs later and gets the most skills leveled*. You can level Resto staff by just slotting a skill or two on your DPS bar.

Then, once you have 120 or more skill points, then you can create the role you want. Respec Morphs and Attributes, and re allocate champ points if that applies.

Sure it does not help you too much to learn your role, but in some ways you can do that too along the way. For a healer swap between Resto and Destro staff. But, neat trick, have at least one healer skill on your destro bar, and a destro skill on your healer bar. For a Tank, use one bar for DPS, one bar with Sword and Board for those times you want to try and tank. This way if other players are around you can practice, your alone, you can kill mobs and do quests.

eso_nya

If u want to go for one role only, good startpoint for tank would be 5 7th legion + 5 nmg w/ s&b + 2h, will be slightly slower than a real dd-spec, but shouldnt be that bad tho.
For a slightly bit more efford, get 3 jewels, hand and belt of 7th and spriggans, combine w/ 5 torugs and 5 hundings,
s&b of torugs, gs and bow of hundings.

Alternative, when going with magicka, torugs and dragon w/ s&b + stormstick and is a very nice combo. If u r on your own swap warhorn for shootingstar.

25k to 30k hp r enough to tank normal dungeons, verteran dungeons and normal trials. Esp. when pugging with grpfinder its extremely helpful to be able to pull 15k dps as a tank.

If u attempt to tank vet trials, u shouldnt be "leveling up" stage anymore.

idk

puffytheslayer wrote: »

it is possible to level a characters by grinding, questing, PvPing etc as a tank or healer, but many people find it faster & less frustrating to just spec as a DD

This is very true. Killing stuff is very slow when built as a tank. I find myself useless if I have to have a partner for grinding and if questing it just takes to long to kill stuff.

Also, depending on how serious of a tank you are interested in being, it is good to have a dps build to use.

doslekis

For my templar healer I slotted elemental rage on my destro bar(which you should have anyway) along with jabs and shards, and just killed mobs. Never specd for dd, just killed them slowly. Get a friend or go to publix dungeons or someplace with mobs and more players.