Best healer race

Ibibi

Im thinking of trying to play a healer but what is a great healer race?thank you

Kuratius

Prob High Elf.
High elf (if templar)>=Breton>=Argonian.
Some people will say Breton is better than High Elf, but that's only the case if you dont use power of the light. I think Dark Elf and Khajit can work as well, but I'm not a fan. For warden, necro, etc. the choice is less clear, largely because I haven't out much thought into it. Would probably go Breton or Argonian on a Warden, it depends. Argonian is the preferred choice imo because wardens can also make for excellent tanks.
On necro either Breton, Khajit, or Dark Elf.

Mrsinister2

Brenton is gonna be the best choice for the sustain and tankyness

Argonian is still decent and high elf works as well.

robpr

Breton till Scalebreaker. Altmer, Dunmer, Argonian next patch.

starkerealm

Still leaning towards Breton. Even post Scalebreaker.

I wouldn't rule out Khajiit, though. They're a very viable heal option, post Elsweyr. Not sure I'd rate them above High Elves, or not. High Elves and Dark Elves are both options, depending on what you're doing.

If you're wanting to do a Stamden healer, Imperial is top of the barrel, followed by Redguard and Nord. But that's a very different spec.

snarkomatic

Bretons because they have the best cheekbones, don't @ me.

starkerealm

@snarkomatic, also that.

AcadianPaladin

My healer is happy as a Bosmer - she's cute and makes for a small target.

Of course, my magsorc, magblade, magward, bowsorc, bowward, bowblade are all Bosmer. . . .

Baltharuch

If you ever plan on doing end game raiding competitive things like high scores, no deaths, speed runs etc 100% Breton. There's no contest. If you're healing for anything else either go High Elf or Argonian.

Outside of competitive you can generally pick whatever race you want when it comes to healing as you can offset whatever your weaknesses are with enchants or attributes.

msalvia

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

Kuratius wrote: »

Prob High Elf.
High elf (if templar)>=Breton>=Argonian.
Some people will say Breton is better than High Elf, but that's only the case if you dont use power of the light. I think Dark Elf and Khajit can work as well, but I'm not a fan. For warden, necro, etc. the choice is less clear, largely because I haven't out much thought into it. Would probably go Breton or Argonian on a Warden, it depends. Argonian is the preferred choice imo because wardens can also make for excellent tanks.
On necro either Breton, Khajit, or Dark Elf.

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

Iskiab

PvE - Breton
PvP - Maybe Breton or Argonian but with upcoming changes it’s not clear. Nord or Khajit could work post-patch, but playing Khajit forces you into a crit build. For stam healing orc, bosmer or Nord.

ATreeGnome

Bretons are best right now because they can send out the most orbs and easily sustain illustrious healing. When Scalebreaker hits though, sustain is going to be WAY less valuable since you can only have 1 orb and 1 healing spring out. It seems likely that this will make stronger healing more important than sustain, so I would suggest Altmer, especially if you want a templar since you can actually make use of their stamina sustain for more PotL. Dunmer will of course be only the tiniest bit behind Altmer if you want more flexibility.

snarkomatic

msalvia wrote: »

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

My guess is that sustain will not be nearly as important for healers to stack, so they will lose out on a bit of their importance as well. They won't be bad, they'll just not be as .. better? Or maybe I'm missing something else worse. Hope not, I like my cheekbones.

Iskiab

snarkomatic wrote: »

msalvia wrote: »

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

My guess is that sustain will not be nearly as important for healers to stack, so they will lose out on a bit of their importance as well. They won't be bad, they'll just not be as .. better? Or maybe I'm missing something else worse. Hope not, I like my cheekbones.

I’ve seen this said a lot, but I’m not so sure. PvE isn’t my thing, but as long as you’re casting other abilities besides spring and orb (have to get used to not pluralizing it now) sustain will always be good, and unless you’re using all sp glyphs Breton will be better.

snarkomatic

Iskiab wrote: »

snarkomatic wrote: »

msalvia wrote: »

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

My guess is that sustain will not be nearly as important for healers to stack, so they will lose out on a bit of their importance as well. They won't be bad, they'll just not be as .. better? Or maybe I'm missing something else worse. Hope not, I like my cheekbones.

I’ve seen this said a lot, but I’m not so sure. PvE isn’t my thing, but as long as you’re casting other abilities besides spring and orb (have to get used to not pluralizing it now) sustain will always be good.

I was already running a lot less sustain than the meta so I probably won't change much myself. Maybe change one more glyph out to SP instead. With more long lasting HoTs, SP will be even jucier than it is now I think. We will see how it plays (I'm console so I have to wait for live) in action.

I usually tell people to find their personal comfort zone in sustain vs. numbers; the bigger your heals, the less you need to cast, after all. I've never been personally comfortable neglecting sustain entirely, though I know some folks who are, and do quite well with those builds.

Mrsinister2

msalvia wrote: »

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

Kuratius wrote: »

Prob High Elf.
High elf (if templar)>=Breton>=Argonian.
Some people will say Breton is better than High Elf, but that's only the case if you dont use power of the light. I think Dark Elf and Khajit can work as well, but I'm not a fan. For warden, necro, etc. the choice is less clear, largely because I haven't out much thought into it. Would probably go Breton or Argonian on a Warden, it depends. Argonian is the preferred choice imo because wardens can also make for excellent tanks.
On necro either Breton, Khajit, or Dark Elf.

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

Brenton mag cost reduction won't be as good next patch for some reason. Something with the way its calculated changed so there sustain won't be as good but still very good.

Iskiab

Yea true, one issue I see with dropping sustain too much is mutagen/RR is so powerful and the cost went up. I’m planning on using it a lot and will need to sustain it.

Varana

Iskiab wrote: »

snarkomatic wrote: »

msalvia wrote: »

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

My guess is that sustain will not be nearly as important for healers to stack, so they will lose out on a bit of their importance as well. They won't be bad, they'll just not be as .. better? Or maybe I'm missing something else worse. Hope not, I like my cheekbones.

I’ve seen this said a lot, but I’m not so sure. PvE isn’t my thing, but as long as you’re casting other abilities besides spring and orb (have to get used to not pluralizing it now) sustain will always be good, and unless you’re using all sp glyphs Breton will be better.

Mutagen/RR will also be nerfed, in that it only affects one target (and has a shorter duration).
You could probably argue that this means it will cost much more to keep it up constantly; I'm not sure whether running Regen will be worth it, though. Certainly not in trials.

The effect of the changes may be that layering Springs where they're needed will be replaced by spamming Combat Prayer and BoL all over the place, so sustain may remain important. Generally speaking, though, Altmer get a bonus on Spell Damage, and that may be worth more for the fewer HoTs that healers will be applying.

Aznarb

Ibibi wrote: »

Im thinking of trying to play a healer but what is a great healer race?thank you

- Breton for big magicka sustain
- Argonian for bonus heal and bigger resource return from pot
- Khajiit for crit dmg (if your healer have 50%+ crit rate), medium sustain bonus for each 3 pool

Dumner and High Elves can be an option even if less good at it, you should take care to build for sustain.


Also, even if race give some little bonus, you can just pick the one you like the most.
I know a Magicka templar heal who is redguard so.. ^^

FrancisCrawford

Breton cost reduction will be a little less valuable than before, because the "additive" calculation that gave increasing returns to cost reduction is being replaced by multiplicative. But that's a small difference.

Power of the Light over Purifying Light is, I think, a trials-only and of course also templar-only kind of thing. For any other magicka healing, the Altmer sustain passive is defense-only (plus sprinting, I guess).

If you never, ever come close to dying, then Breton spell resistance is worthless, and the Altmer stamina sustain passive is dubious as well. But is there a player in the whole game who meets that criterion?

How much magicka do you spend per minute? 1500? 2000? The Breton cost reduction will now be a straight 7% of that. (Or rather (7/.93)%, which is close to 7 1/2%, if you're using a Breton's stats.) If you feel like you have a lot of excess magicka, maybe that's not very valuable. If you're squeezing out all the sustain you can, then that's a very meaningful figure. So what would it take in regen to match that amount? 200 or more, I imagine, although note the boosts you get to base regen from various modifiers such as CP. If you needed that regen from jewelry enchants or a Mundus Stone, what would you give up in spell power? Uh, that number is not too far from the Altmer racial spell power bonus.

tl;dr -- the difference between Bretons & Altmers probably isn't big enough to worry about too much.

FrancisCrawford

Aznarb wrote: »

Ibibi wrote: »

Im thinking of trying to play a healer but what is a great healer race?thank you

- Breton for big magicka sustain
- Argonian for bonus heal and bigger resource return from pot
- Khajiit for crit dmg (if your healer have 50%+ crit rate), medium sustain bonus for each 3 pool

Dumner and High Elves can be an option even if less good at it, you should take care to build for sustain.


Also, even if race give some little bonus, you can just pick the one you like the most.
I know a Magicka templar heal who is redguard so.. ^^

I leveled a future-tank Imperial DK via magicka healing and general overland magicka play. It went fine.

morrowjen

My Argonian and Dark Elf healers are great. My Argonian is still probably my favorite healer.

priforce

Argonian hands-down for non-templars classes that aren't battle medic builds. Most versatile if you are keeping your support role, so you can bounce between healer and tank. The potion boon with a tri-stat is great for burst healing, roll-dodging, and solo healing a trial.

D0PAMINE

starkerealm wrote: »

Still leaning towards Breton. Even post Scalebreaker.

I wouldn't rule out Khajiit, though. They're a very viable heal option, post Elsweyr. Not sure I'd rate them above High Elves, or not. High Elves and Dark Elves are both options, depending on what you're doing.

If you're wanting to do a Stamden healer, Imperial is top of the barrel, followed by Redguard and Nord. But that's a very different spec.

What changed for Breton? I scoped the notes and couldn't find anything.

angelncelestine

Currently Breton. After Scalbreaker release Orc stam necro with vigor ;-)

JobooAGS

Unless there are some drastic surprise changes or for whatever ungodly reason stam takes over healing, Breton is your race of choice.

buttaface

There is no "best race" for healing, don't let the conventional wisdom crowd fool you into believing there is.

snarkomatic

buttaface wrote: »

There is no "best race" for healing, don't let the conventional wisdom crowd fool you into believing there is.

I mean, depending on your build of choice, there are definitely races that will compliment those builds better for whatever reason. You can do anything you want without using those races, but that doesn't mean they aren't objectively better suited to one thing or another.

D0PAMINE

buttaface wrote: »

There is no "best race" for healing, don't let the conventional wisdom crowd fool you into believing there is.

You can heal on any race, some are better than others because the passives support efficiency

Royaji

Orc. Ideally necromancer of course. And put on that Echoing Vigor and Ring of Preservation.

starkerealm

Mrsinister2 wrote: »

msalvia wrote: »

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

Kuratius wrote: »

Prob High Elf.
High elf (if templar)>=Breton>=Argonian.
Some people will say Breton is better than High Elf, but that's only the case if you dont use power of the light. I think Dark Elf and Khajit can work as well, but I'm not a fan. For warden, necro, etc. the choice is less clear, largely because I haven't out much thought into it. Would probably go Breton or Argonian on a Warden, it depends. Argonian is the preferred choice imo because wardens can also make for excellent tanks.
On necro either Breton, Khajit, or Dark Elf.

What exactly is changing with scalebreaker that makes breton worse than high elf? Cuz as far as I can tell Breton wins, by a mile...

Brenton mag cost reduction won't be as good next patch for some reason. Something with the way its calculated changed so there sustain won't be as good but still very good.

While the first part is true, cost reductions will be applied multiplicatively, instead of additively, it won't really matter that much. We're talking about their effective cost reduction changing by less than a percent in most cases.

Similarly, healers will be slightly less dependent on sustain, but sustain is still going to be a vital skill.

So, yeah, I can see an argument saying another race should be more appealing post Scalebreaker, but I don't buy it. Again, the only one that competes post-SB that isn't reflected in this thread is Khajiit, because they have a crit severity modifier for their heals.