Dragonknight healing in PvE?

CMDR_Un1k0rn

I'm not much of a healer, but with achievement character being a DK, I was wondering what I can expect from playing healer with a DK?

How does it compare to other classes?

Kittytravel

For the most part DK Healers are regarded the weakest of all healer roles next to Nightblades currently due to not having much in their own class-kit to support and so they have to rely on outside skill lines.

With that said it is entirely possible still and you should play how you want; as long as the healer rezzes and keeps people alive through non-insta kills then I don't think anyone should complain as you are fulfilling the role.

You can fulfill a slight DPS role much like Nightblades do though as you have healing abilities that will also cause damage to a target. There is that perk to it at least; you also provide the Molten Armaments buff if there isn't another DK in the group and that's always a good buff to have.

Royaji

Passable healing output. Abysmal group support. Can they clear content? Sure. Will every group happily take a DK healer in? Definitely not.

Nevasca

Depends on the content honestly... on 4man I think they do fine. They lack aoe healing in their kit, the one they have it's too short of a radius imo.

A lot lot of healing in 4 man doesn't come from class skills anyway, it's mostly mutagen and healing orb.

In trials I've heard they fail heal checks on some fights. I think you should give it a shot regardless and have some fun!

WrathOfInnos

I’d say it’s one of the most difficult classes to heal on, but capable of any content still.

It does have some unique perks in end game groups, since it can wear Z’en’s Redress more effectively than any other healer class (with Burning Embers, Engulfing Flames, Barbed Trap, Burning, and pick any one of: Poisoned, Entropy, Scalding Rune, Flame Reach, or Soul Trap). Engulfing Flames is also a great debuff, if you can build for some Spell Damage to get the full 10%, and. Molten Weapons is also pretty useful, since it frees up DPS from needing Weapon or Spell Power potions. In Stam groups it provides Minor Brutality.

Asardes

For 4 man content, yes, for trials, no.

GeorgeBlack

While we are at it I want a necro healer build.
You know, healing with disease or having skeletons massage you.

In order to do that let's mess up some real skills so that I can heal with my necro

CMDR_Un1k0rn

Oh yeah guys, don't worry. This is purely for the healer achievements and I'm planning on running pre-made dungeons for it with my guildmates.

Don't worry, I have no intention of bringing this into public domain. For that I will, and always will, play tank.

Kesstryl

I enjoy my DK healer, but yeah they're mainly for dungeons without a DK tank. I'd never bring mine to a trial.

Hotdog_23

What Dk healers need is for Cider storm to be 12 meters with a slight increase synergy (5%) of all fire damage if within the storm. DK’s lack a good group synergy for healing within their class.

Obsidian Shard should be like a rock (or crystal) we throw on the ground that heals you or two allies after breaking. Remove the target requirement since this limit the skill usefulness. The skill needs to continue to heal 2 instead of one since no Earthen Heart passive really has any effect on Obsidian Shard.

These 2 changes alone would get DK healers in trials.

Sayaka

I think DK healing is perfectly fine and viable. I also made a healer DK build and was going to play it, though i scrapped it afterwards because of one ability.

Fragmented Shield is absolutely amazing ability providing you and your allies shields, also major mending to you. But, the shield scales with health sadly and will be weak. Dragonknight tanks are common so you will be overwriting their damage shield which will make it very weak.

But they have some interesting abilities at their arsenal.

Obsidian Shards is like Funnel Health, healing by damaging.

Igneous Weapons increase party's damage which is good.

Shattering Rocks is a very creative ability but no one really uses it. Idk why. But it makes your enemy's next attack heal their target. Which i have never seen an ability like this in the game. Very unique.

Cinder Storm is also very good. Heals allies in radius and reduces enemies movement speed. I think its a very useful ability.

Cauterize is very unique like Shattering Rocks too. It provides healing to an ally every 5 seconds and, the best part is, it scales off your maximum stat which makes this ability viable for every kind of build. Its a great support ability every DK should have in my opinion (if not went with Flames Of Oblivion morph)

In short, they have interesting and unique ways of healing, however Fragmented Shield is a big loss if the tank is DK.

Royaji

Sayaka wrote: »

I think DK healing is perfectly fine and viable.

DK "healing" is indeed fine and viable. It's just that they make very poor "healers". And even though I personally see no problem with DK being a poor healer let's try to be objective here. You have already highlighted the issue with Fragmented Shield. As for the rest...

Obsidian Shards is like Funnel Health, healing by damaging.

Obsidian Shard is exactly like Funnel Health! In a sense that both of those abilities see no use since the last rebalancing where ZOS destroyed their damage output. Not even taking into account that Obsidian Shard is still balanced as a CC ability cost-wise and is significantly more expensive than Funnel.

Igneous Weapons increase party's damage which is good.

Except every DD worth buffing already has 100% uptime on Major Brutality/Sorcery from pots. Redundancy is an all too common theme with DK healers.

Shattering Rocks is a very creative ability but no one really uses it. Idk why. But it makes your enemy's next attack heal their target. Which i have never seen an ability like this in the game. Very unique.

I'll tell you why. 99% of PvE enemies capable of dealing high damage are immune to all hard CCs. Being "unique and creative" does not mean being "good and useful".

Cinder Storm is also very good. Heals allies in radius and reduces enemies movement speed. I think its a very useful ability.

It costs twice as much as Springs. Twice. And has 40% smaller radius too. Which brings us to the second part of the problem. Snaring enemies which are already in melee range is pointless, they can hit you anyway. So this skill either heals (when you put it on your groupmates) or snares (when you put it on an enemy away from your groupmates). For 5.7k base cost. Yuck.

Cauterize is very unique like Shattering Rocks too. It provides healing to an ally every 5 seconds and, the best part is, it scales off your maximum stat which makes this ability viable for every kind of build. Its a great support ability every DK should have in my opinion (if not went with Flames Of Oblivion morph)

Cauterize is a decent healing skill. Actually a lot more valuable as an emergency heal but we will glance over that.

But here lies probably the biggest problem with your post. Being able to provide enough healing is not hard. Every class can do it. It's the utility you can bring to your group as a healer which separates different classes and elevates some of them. DK healers bring very little utility to the group. Partially because even those things they might be able to bring can be brought in by DK tanks and DDs in a much more efficient way.

So in short, DK healers are fine if the only expectation you are putting on a healer is to keep the group alive. But they are not competitive with other classes for even slightly optimized group.