NB healer

AnnaUK

I have been having a hard time enjoying dps in this game, so levelled a nb healer. I am at 435 cp atm, but people are telling me to forget trying to gear it as no-one will ever let me in a trial because Templars are wanted only?

Hoping this isn't true as I really enjoy it.

I came to this after 11 years raiding in another mmo, leading and also running harder 5 man content... and fancied a change.

If I am to be forced into a set healer then I can't stick around

dtsharples

Prove them wrong

I heal on my Templar only, have done since day one.
But we do sometimes have 1 Warden Healer in trial content.
But then Wardens do have a whole healing tree, and provide some pretty impressive buffs etc.

I'm struggling to see where a Nightblade could be more useful than a Templar or Warden tbh.
None of their class skills look like they do much to help keep a group alive, or buff them.
Nightblade healers really shine in 4 Man content though, as you can passively heal whilst doing some pretty great damage.

Personally, if I was playing a NB Healer I'd stick to 4 man content.
But there's nothing to say that you couldn't succeed on your NB if you managed to find a fairly relaxed guild, who would be willing to take you along to trials.
My first suggestion would be to zone chat PUG a normal trial and see how you find it. Zone PUGs can't really be fussy on who they take so you might have a better chance of experiencing the trial.

Sparr0w

NB lack a strong burst heal like templars have. They do/can push more HPS than templars and wardens, also have better sustain & can push impressive DPS while doing so.

I don't care what class/race you are as long as you can keep the group alive, and in my experience NB healers are very good at that. Also there's the ulti gen... sweet ulti gen.

Lord_Ninka

Some people can't think past the meta and what they're used to and don't want to try anything new. I would have no problem with an NB healer, and sometimes I do trials as an NB healer and things are just fine. With a resto staff a nightblade healer has good burst heals, single and multi-target, one of them (offering, single-target) being extremely cheap, as well as good heal over time effects, both single target and multitarget. Also quite decent healer passives, and two very good ultimates for healers.

I see no need for healers to be only templars or wardens. Usually people can't even argue why the healer needs to be warden or templar, and I can't remember seeing a good argument. I think it really is just that people think they have to do it the way they're used to and the way other people say you have to do it because they're used to it too and confirm each other in that belief. Templars and wardens might have 1-3 more active healing abilities, but you can only slot 10 anyway, and what does it matter how many unslotted healing abilities you have?

Sparr0w

Looks like NB's got a burst heal now too

Healthy Offering, costs less than 1k health over 8 seconds, heals for quite a bit (burst) & gives you minor mending while your health is being drained.

dtsharples

Shards
Power of the Light
Minor Sorcery
BoL
Cleansing ritual
Mending passive
Resurrection speed + 50% ressed HP

Those seem to be the reasons end game trial guilds prefer Templars over anything else, as far as I can see.

Wardens give some nice group buffs, passively or from class skills also.

NBs on the other hand don't seem to have any passive or active skills that benefit the rest of the group - for 12 person content anyhow.

I'm not at all saying that it can't be done, see my above response
But merely suggesting why Templars are still the go-to healing class for a lot of guilds.

Sparr0w

dtsharples wrote: »

Shards
Power of the Light
Minor Sorcery
BoL
Cleansing ritual
Mending passive
Resurrection speed + 50% ressed HP

Those seem to be the reasons end game trial guilds prefer Templars over anything else, as far as I can see.

Wardens give some nice group buffs, passively or from class skills also.

NBs on the other hand don't seem to have any passive or active skills that benefit the rest of the group - for 12 person content anyhow.

I'm not at all saying that it can't be done, see my above response
But merely suggesting why Templars are still the go-to healing class for a lot of guilds.

Orbs
Minor Savagery
Healthy Offering
Purge

Ulti gen & sustain (and DPS) is a lot better. Templars have a lot more built into their kit for healing (same with DK Tanking) but other classes bring something unique to the table

AnnaUK

Sparr0w wrote: »

Looks like NB's got a burst heal now too

Healthy Offering, costs less than 1k health over 8 seconds, heals for quite a bit (burst) & gives you minor mending while your health is being drained.

I use that

FakeFox

The meta is very much Templar focused, that is correct. However what most people seem to not get is that the meta is centred around progress raiding. So as long as you don't want to go for leader boards you don't need a absolute meta build. Your build should never the less be functional of course. I would not bring my NB healer to scoreruns, but I've played basically everything else with it and it works fine. In fact I think NB is actually one of the stronger healers this patch.
So honestly don't worry about the meta too much, especially if you are just getting started.

AnnaUK

Thanks for the replies

Well healed my first Vet dungeon, and was very happy with the experience. It was my first one ever as I haven't been brave enough until now. I had some deaths, down to me not knowing mechanics.. but I picked them up quite quickly.

I have resto staff main bar, and lightning staff on 2nd.

I am needing to get a few items/skills and level up a few passive like undaunted and assault, but when the group went low I had no issues with healing people up quite quickly, plus can do a little dps as well.

I hope that once I get more healer orientated sets it will be even better, (Julianos and Spinners atm lol).. got the Chokethorn set on my first day, so happy until I get a better set. I only leveled this character last week.

My skills atm are:

Resto bar:

Funnel Health
Sap essence
Mutagen
Healing Ward
Healing Springs
Consuming Darkness

Lightning Destro bar:

Refreshing Path
Blockade of Storms
Healthy offering (I swap this to Crippling Grasp when solo)
Siphoning Attacks
Harness Magicka
Soul Shred (for emergencies)

I'm sure this isn't optimal and whatnot but I am missing some stuff atm.

I don't think I will bother with trials.. I'm more than happy with vets tbh.

ii_freeq_ii

It looks like a decent setup to me. When you unlock the orbs skill in undaunted though, make sure to use those cause helping the group with resources is important. Also, Banished Cells 1 is pretty easy and drops Sanctuary set which is good for healing. I know ppl like the atromach mundus for recovery but I think the thief is great cuz crit heals are OP.

Far as trials go, Templar is the best for sure but as long as theres one Templar the other healer should be fine as NB. Like one reply said you wont be on leaderboard runs but with a competent and relaxed guild there shouldnt be a problem.

Ive done vet dungeons on my NB where my only heal was springs and we were fine. The additional dmg is nice. Actually, now that im thinking about it my NB might be good for vDSA.

FakeFox

You should really get Combatprayer and Elemental Drain on your bars. Maybe you want to drop either Healthy Offering or Healing Ward should you need the space, the skill full fill pretty much the same role. I personally only run Offering.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

@AnnaUK you don't need both healing Ward and healthy offering, they both do the same thing, a "burst" heal but healthy offering is better, it gives you 8% more healing. The only thing that healing Ward does is that it is a 360° "heal", though you really ought to have your team in front of you, simply cause of combat prayer.

You don't need mutegen and funnel health, they are both hots and funnel does great damage at the same time.


Personally if I ran a NB healer, my bars would look something like this-

Inner light- healthy offering- funnel health- healing Springs- combat prayer- ulti soul siphon


Lightning staff back bar
Eledrain- refreshing path- sap essance- orbs lightning wall, ulti warhorn

With this set up, you get 3 siphoning skills for an extra 9% healing on the front bar plus 8% from healthy offerings minor mending when you use it
That is huge.

Then you have the back bar with path and sap with a lightning staff, you get 8% more damage with those when you are on that bar, you ought you be able to heal with just those two skills while DPS like crazy with lightning wall, path and sap.

When doing a boss, I have a rotation, on both my healers, a temp and warden, something similar would be good for a NB, something like this-

Debuff boss with eledrain, then path, lightning wall, orbs, swap, combat prayer, springs, funnel till your back bar dots expire, using eledrain/orbs every other rotation because the cool down is 20 seconds on all synergys and eledrain last for 24 seconds, using healthy offering if someone get too low or just hit them with another combat prayer.

I do have a magbalde DPS that uses both funnel health and refreshing path and a lot of the times I am doing 40%+ of the groups healing with just those skills.

gnarlyvandal

AnnaUK wrote: »

I have been having a hard time enjoying dps in this game, so levelled a nb healer. I am at 435 cp atm, but people are telling me to forget trying to gear it as no-one will ever let me in a trial because Templars are wanted only?

Hoping this isn't true as I really enjoy it.

I came to this after 11 years raiding in another mmo, leading and also running harder 5 man content... and fancied a change.

If I am to be forced into a set healer then I can't stick around

I use a Nightblade healer in vet dungeons and normal trials, haven’t tried vet trials yet. It’s great if you can get teammates to stack

What I’ve gathered below:

Funnel health and refreshing morph are great, offering heals and contributing to dps. Malevolent offering in the siphoning tree is a great burst heal, as well as combat prayer from Resto staff skill line. Overflowing alter is pretty good for lifesteal and team mates can click on it for a burst heal; I like to use this over force siphon as it will also work against groups of mobs. If you’re still having trouble, slot rapid regen as well.

So yeah more hots but the burst heals do exist.

I’m using olorime, worm cult and troll king, which is pretty meta right now. Troll king is a good synergy for nightblade healer for the extra Health Regen on targets lower than 50% health in combination with all the hots and lifesteal.

A lot of buffs are provided to the group with this build as well, with minor berserk from combat prayer, extra weap and spell dmg from olorime, skills cost less with worm cult, off balance with a lightning destro backbar (with wall of elements slotted), lifesteal on your and your teammates attack’s. And obviously an enemy debuff either from destro skill line or Nightblades own one.

Sorry for the essay, but I do like nb healer xD

gnarlyvandal

AnnaUK wrote: »

Thanks for the replies

Well healed my first Vet dungeon, and was very happy with the experience. It was my first one ever as I haven't been brave enough until now. I had some deaths, down to me not knowing mechanics.. but I picked them up quite quickly.

I have resto staff main bar, and lightning staff on 2nd.

I am needing to get a few items/skills and level up a few passive like undaunted and assault, but when the group went low I had no issues with healing people up quite quickly, plus can do a little dps as well.

I hope that once I get more healer orientated sets it will be even better, (Julianos and Spinners atm lol).. got the Chokethorn set on my first day, so happy until I get a better set. I only leveled this character last week.

My skills atm are:

Resto bar:

Funnel Health
Sap essence
Mutagen
Healing Ward
Healing Springs
Consuming Darkness

Lightning Destro bar:

Refreshing Path
Blockade of Storms
Healthy offering (I swap this to Crippling Grasp when solo)
Siphoning Attacks
Harness Magicka
Soul Shred (for emergencies)

I'm sure this isn't optimal and whatnot but I am missing some stuff atm.

I don't think I will bother with trials.. I'm more than happy with vets tbh.

Looks like I was late, good job! as lightspeed says, consider slotting combat prayer, it’s a good heal and provides a dmg buff. As another option, if you’re happy with healing ward and if you feel you can manage sustain well enough, can slot out siphoning strikes

danielclarkb16_ESO

I’m in the same situation as you mate, had a DPS StamNB and was struggling to push out decent DPS and I too respec’d as a healer. I do think there is a bit of a misconsception that NB’s don’t make great healers, and to be honest, I can understand the logic because there are better classes for it. It’s just down to you to prove people wrong as others have said. As yet I haven’t had any negative feedback so far.

I use Kregnac’s and Sanctuary set’s which seem to work quite well together.

I followed this Alcast build, might give you a few pointers in the right direction.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-nightblade-healer-build-pve/

WrathOfInnos

I always enjoy my NB healer in 4 mans. Refreshing path can usually be positioned to hit everyone and funnel health has 100% uptime on everyone as long as you use it 3 times every 10s. That is usually enough healing, but for the few places it’s needed I can add mutagen or healing ward.

The problem with trials is that the NB heal skills don’t scale very well to 12 people. It would take 11 casts of Funnel Health every 10s to keep it on everyone (impossible). Refreshing path is too narrow to effectively use during many anti-stack mechanics (Zhajassa’s curses, Foundation Stone Atro’s rock throwing, etc.) where Healing Springs and Templar’s ritual work fine.

Sap essence is great in 4 mans since you can run into the middle of a trash pack and hit everything while healing everyone nearby. It is terrible in trials though, since the healer should be behind the group casting Combat Prayer and out of range of most enemies for Sap Essence.

Offering is a good replacement for Templar’s breath of life, but if you start using it too often you will get yourself killed. Again this skill works better in a group of 4 than a group of 12.

I will say that Nightblades have some of the best healing ultimates: Soul Siphon and Veil. However 9/10 fights in trials you will be expected to be in a Warhorn rotation.

You will also find that nightblades have the best sustain of any class, as long as they are light attack weaving with Siphoning Attcks. In theory healers could light attack in most fights, it is difficult to achieve when you are having to aim at other players for things like combat prayer or healing springs and they are not near the boss.

All that being said, nightblades can absolutely heal any vet trial. They will just be relying mostly on skills that are available to all classes. It is viable for clears, but it would be hard to argue in favor of a Nightblade healer for any type of competitive score attempt.

AnnaUK

A small update; found a lovely guild who let me go into some trials with them. I now have combat prayer, but only have Julianos and Spinners with Chokethorn monster set, so need to get to work asap on gearing. I was wondering if Sanctuary and Jorvuld's Guidance could work together?

I ran 3 normal trials tonight, Asylum Sanctorium, Sanctum Ophidia & Aetherian Archive. I had a great time and learned a lot.. the clockwork city themed one was by far the hardest.

AnnaUK

dtsharples wrote: »

Shards
Power of the Light
Minor Sorcery
BoL
Cleansing ritual
Mending passive
Resurrection speed + 50% ressed HP

Those seem to be the reasons end game trial guilds prefer Templars over anything else, as far as I can see.

Wardens give some nice group buffs, passively or from class skills also.

NBs on the other hand don't seem to have any passive or active skills that benefit the rest of the group - for 12 person content anyhow.

I'm not at all saying that it can't be done, see my above response
But merely suggesting why Templars are still the go-to healing class for a lot of guilds.

Maybe this is what the Vanus set is all about? The Major mending being increased?

NightAngel690

A buddy of mine runs Nb healer in pve content...I was actually thinking on making one so I can do vDSA but I ended up just making a nightblade tank. Lol. I would eventually like to make a nb healer though...I look forward to seeing how you progress so that I could possibly get some advice

shaielzafine

You can complete any content with a magnb healer. I have a guildie that raids regularly with his magnb healer. I also have a healer of each class, and while my favorite healer atm is my magwarden, I went through a couple months phase where I did vet hm trials & pvp raids on my magnb healer. For the pve content we ended up on the leaderboards, it was pretty high esp for the crag trials so idk what other people are saying you can't get high scores with a nb healer. When I did pvp ball group raids on my magnb healer we used an add-on to track how much damage & heals people were outputting and it consistently over a couple of weeks showed I was keeping up with or outhealing the templars in raids. So yeah, in terms of pure healing output, you're potentially doing so much heals over time, I'd say it's possible to complete any content.

That being said, I haven't used my magnb healer yet on vHOF or vCR. I think on vHOF you will have a bit more trouble (there's a couple of times like 4th boss and last boss where you'd ideally drop a nova for damage mitigation) but if the other healer is a templar or there's a templar dps to do that you'll be fine. I haven't tried it in vHOF but NB also has its own damage mitigation ult - Bolstering Darkness. It doesn't last as long as nova and it not big enough aoe to protect the whole 12 man group but it's something I guess. Your Soul siphon ult is also strong, it heals for more than Templar's practiced incantation ult or warden tree does and it's especially good in fights where healing is debuffed (ex. cloudrest execute phase or in pvp) since it gives major vitality on top of the burst heal + heal over time.

NB's in class burst heal is healthy offering, especially now that it's been buffed it's really good. I found that it ticks harder than breath of life or warden shrooms and you can nullify the health cost to you by shielding up or healing yourself with other abilities. If you spam it like breath of life can be spammed, you will die to your own offering ability lol. Your other burst heals are healing ward, combat prayer from resto staff skill line and soul siphon. You also have other in class heals like refreshing path, funnel health, sap essence. Nightblade healers do place their multiple heals over time and end up still doing damage especially in dungeons and non-trial content. The problem that I had with it in trials was that the only synergy I was giving out was orbs or altar, so I noticed there's less group utility there since I was just doing pure heals & a bit of damage. In contrast, a templar would give shards for stam & mag return + purify / cleanse synergy on top of orbs, a warden has harvest and extra buffs that give mag & stam recovery + increased base health + increased spell & physical resistances).

AnnaUK

shaielzafine wrote: »

You can complete any content with a magnb healer. I have a guildie that raids regularly with his magnb healer. I also have a healer of each class, and while my favorite healer atm is my magwarden, I went through a couple months phase where I did vet hm trials & pvp raids on my magnb healer. For the pve content we ended up on the leaderboards, it was pretty high esp for the crag trials so idk what other people are saying you can't get high scores with a nb healer. When I did pvp ball group raids on my magnb healer we used an add-on to track how much damage & heals people were outputting and it consistently over a couple of weeks showed I was keeping up with or outhealing the templars in raids. So yeah, in terms of pure healing output, you're potentially doing so much heals over time, I'd say it's possible to complete any content.

I was told that you can get away with running dps sets as healer nb? Is this true?

AnnaUK

NightAngel690 wrote: »

A buddy of mine runs Nb healer in pve content...I was actually thinking on making one so I can do vDSA but I ended up just making a nightblade tank. Lol. I would eventually like to make a nb healer though...I look forward to seeing how you progress so that I could possibly get some advice

Loving it so far, another healer in our guild a Templar says he uses loads of pots for Magicka.. I have awesome sustain on my nb.

Love the run speed for when people in a trial need to get out of trouble fast, and being able to dps and heal is what makes it for me.

SilverWF

NB healers are sucks
They can't be good even in some dungeons, not talking about trials.

Never tried to make one (what a crazy idea!), but seen a lot of them - pathetic show they only can provide.

shaielzafine

AnnaUK wrote: »

shaielzafine wrote: »

You can complete any content with a magnb healer. I have a guildie that raids regularly with his magnb healer. I also have a healer of each class, and while my favorite healer atm is my magwarden, I went through a couple months phase where I did vet hm trials & pvp raids on my magnb healer. For the pve content we ended up on the leaderboards, it was pretty high esp for the crag trials so idk what other people are saying you can't get high scores with a nb healer. When I did pvp ball group raids on my magnb healer we used an add-on to track how much damage & heals people were outputting and it consistently over a couple of weeks showed I was keeping up with or outhealing the templars in raids. So yeah, in terms of pure healing output, you're potentially doing so much heals over time, I'd say it's possible to complete any content.

I was told that you can get away with running dps sets as healer nb? Is this true?

Sure, it all depends on your playstyle and what content you are doing. You can do a combination of dps with support sets if you want to. I'd recommend Spell Power Cure (SPC) with Infallible Aether set based on what you're trying to do. Look at the gear and see if you'd like it. If you don't have that you can do Julianos with SPC. You can drop support sets altogether and go pure dps sets (ex. mother's sorrow with siroria on your magnb) if you really want, but then you would be a dps doing off heals, your role is not a healer since you aren't wearing anything that buffs / supports the group. If you are curious how much damage you can do while wearing support sets vs dps sets you can always parse on a target dummy and see for yourself, and adjust what combination of sets you want to wear based on that.

Honestly with the CP power creep, people don't need that much heals in pve overland content or dungeons, and it'll be faster if you are 3 dpsing 4 man content. In pvp most people have an offensive (dps) & defensive (self heals bar) as well. But in trials, you'd probably want to run 2 support sets rather than dps sets. In that scenario you'd already have 8 dps who should be working on that role so you can focus on healing and giving them as much buffs as possible to raise the group's dps and improve their survivability. You'll want to coordinate with the other healer on what sets to wear so you complement each other. I would keep olorime or spc on unless the other healer already has olorime. The major courage buff from these 2 sets increases Weapon and Spell Damage by 258 for 30 seconds - this helps increase everyone's damage and this buffs your heals too. If the other healer already have olorime on, then you don't need to wear either so you can wear other sets.

Alcast has a magicka nightblade build with more details on healer gear, skills, cp allocation, etc - https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-nightblade-healer-build-pve/

zaria

AnnaUK wrote: »

A small update; found a lovely guild who let me go into some trials with them. I now have combat prayer, but only have Julianos and Spinners with Chokethorn monster set, so need to get to work asap on gearing. I was wondering if Sanctuary and Jorvuld's Guidance could work together?

I ran 3 normal trials tonight, Asylum Sanctorium, Sanctum Ophidia & Aetherian Archive. I had a great time and learned a lot.. the clockwork city themed one was by far the hardest.

You want SPC or the healing set from cloudrest as you main set, love Jorvuld's Guidance in dungeons as your buffs and heals last longer so I can do more dps, in trials however you are only healing so worm, sanctuary or mending would be better as second set.

The craglorn trials are easiest, the clockwork city trial tend to be an mess with pugs, a lot because they only drop weapons and once you have them you don't need to do it more.

zaria

SilverWF wrote: »

NB healers are sucks
They can't be good even in some dungeons, not talking about trials.

Never tried to make one (what a crazy idea!), but seen a lot of them - pathetic show they only can provide.

Don't have an good NB healer myself but understand they are very good in dungeons.
I feel sorcerer make an better dungeon healer than templar, better burst heal and far higher dps while healing.
As other say, healing is just part of your job, now in n-trials you only heal and doing it on sorcerer felt clunky.
Same with vet dlc, at least with an pretty weak tank.

db0ssman

I've been playing a NB healer for a very long time. I think it was 3 years ago that I started on ps4 and then 2 years ago I switched to PC. I feel your pain a little bit with the anti-NB sentiment some people have. Once in a while, I run into someone that thinks you can't beat a dungeon without a Templar healer, but that usually means they are kind of trash. I haven't tried vet trails on the NB, mostly because it's not really set up very well for large groups taking massive damage. Sap essence is too expensive for the heal unless you are just surrounded by enemies and refreshing path is too skinny to be reliable for healing a group of people running around in circles. NB is great in small groups and is more than enough for NM trials, though.

I run my bars a little differently than your setup, though. Between mutagen, refreshing path, and funnel health, healing ward isn't that useful. You no longer need it as an emergency heal since they changed how healthy offering works. I'd recommend changing that out for bone surge (bone shield morph). If you play a lot of pugs like me, you might want to change the healing ward morph to ward ally because people are dumb and don't always proc synergies. Plus with healthy offering, veil of blades, and bone surge, you can heal/protect the group using more than just mp.

Also, siphoning strikes was made virtually useless when they nerfed how it works. When that happened, I switched to balance. Balance isn't that useful during combat itself unless you know a fight well and now you can cast it without dying or so that the lost healing won't matter, but it is great for firebombing groups of mobs. Once your tank pulls 10 together use refreshing path, veil of blades, and start spamming sap essence. Nothing like having the healer do 150K+ damage in a fight. Then when the fight is over, use balance on the way to the next group. If chokethorn is proc'd, you can use it for free 4 times even over the healing penalty.

Without knowing your exact build, it's hard to make generalizations, but i've never had problems staying alive as a NB without needing to cast a shield on myself. Cause with a good rotation you should be healing for 8k+ (each person) with just hots and virtually everything you do will proc chokethorn. I'd suggest switching out harness magicka for something like purge. Especially in vet dungeons, if a dot is bad enough to get them below 30% despite your hots, you probably need something you can reliably use to remove the negative status effects.