Looking to be a better healer

Twilanthe · May 2020

I thought while the server is down and I still need to download the update, I can use this opportunity to seek help on my healer build.

I got a lot of great advice on gear set up and stuff on this other thread I made, but I was hoping to get into some of the skills and champion point questions.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/528121/which-set-should-i-use-necro-healer/p1

So here is my current set up.
I've got Spell Power Cure and Hollowfang sets.
I have the Symphony of Blades shoulders and will be soon trying to get the helm.

For my champion points I currently still have the 300CP build from this Alcast healer build
https://alcasthq.com/eso-necromancer-healer-build-pve/
But I have about 360CP so I've put the extra points in some of the DPS options from the 300CP build of the magicka damage dealer build.

For my skills my front bar is a resto staff.
Combat Prayer, Radiating Regen, Resistant Flesh, Braided Tether, Spirit Mender - ultimate "Renewing Animation"

My back bar is lightning staff.
Elemental Blockade, Unnerving Boneyard, Elemental Drain, Mystic Orb, Summoner Armor - ultimate "Glacial Colossus"

For my rotation:
I start with Combat prayer and try to keep that down as much as possible.
Then Elemental Blockade and Unnerving Boneyard. Get my spirit mender up.

I use combat prayer a lot, and Radiating Regen when I see people dipping down, and Resistant Flesh when people have lost a lot of health and I need to get them up quicker.

I try to keep Combat prayer down, keep elemental blockade and unnerving boneyard down, keep spirit mender up, keep elemental drain on boss, keep summoner armor up

When I can I use mystic orb and braided tether. I try to weave in light attacks but to be honest I am finding this a struggle.

So, here are the issues I am having with this.

1. I am finding it hard to keep all this stuff up. I am struggling to tell when stuff goes down. So stuff often slips. Boneyard and Elemental blockade are the easiest to keep up because I can see them really well. But I'll not notice my spirit mender is gone, or that Elemental Drain fell off. I am really struggling to keep track of all these things. The build seems to be entirely keeping 7 skills active as much as possible. Am I doing this right? Is there an easier way? Should I get rid of some of these?

2. I don't think I am doing much to contribute to DPS. I feel like Combat Prayer, Elemental Drain, and Mystic Orb are the important ones because those improve my ally's DPS. And boosting their DPS is likely more DPS then I am able to do myself. So my own DPS (Boneyard, Elemental Blockade, and light/heavy attacks) take a back seat to the other three and of course to healing. Am I doing enough? Are there things I need to do to boost my DPS better? I also try to keep Elemental Blockade down more than Boneyard because of the off balance.

3. For heavy attacks I mostly just do those when I need to regain magicka. But I struggle to weave in the light attacks. Is there any advice or good videos on doing this effectively? Admittedly I probably don't do this near enough, or near as well as I should.

4. How often should I be needing to use a lot of healing? How much of the time should my combat prayer and spirit mender and passives be working to keep them topped up and good, versus how much time I need to be focused on healing with radiating regen and/or resistant flesh?

5. And just in general, is there things you would change/fix/remove/add?

Thanks so much for all of your help. I am really enjoying healing, and I really want to do it well.

FakeFox · May 2020

Twilanthe wrote: »

1. I am finding it hard to keep all this stuff up. I am struggling to tell when stuff goes down. So stuff often slips. Boneyard and Elemental blockade are the easiest to keep up because I can see them really well. But I'll not notice my spirit mender is gone, or that Elemental Drain fell off. I am really struggling to keep track of all these things. The build seems to be entirely keeping 7 skills active as much as possible. Am I doing this right? Is there an easier way? Should I get rid of some of these?

Firstly you should either track the duration of all your skills or have a static rotation. There are a variety of different addons to do that, but I would recommend Bandits or Action Duration Reminder. Secondly if you want to get rid of anything, take out unneeded HoTs or Burstheals, as everything else is at least somewhat important. I would personally take out Braided Tether and replace it with Necrotic Potency, as Ultigen is one of Necromancers biggest strengths and corpse based healing is pretty unreliable. I would also replace Summoner Armor with Agony Totem, but that would still be something you need to keep up.

Twilanthe wrote: »

2. I don't think I am doing much to contribute to DPS. I feel like Combat Prayer, Elemental Drain, and Mystic Orb are the important ones because those improve my ally's DPS. And boosting their DPS is likely more DPS then I am able to do myself. So my own DPS (Boneyard, Elemental Blockade, and light/heavy attacks) take a back seat to the other three and of course to healing. Am I doing enough? Are there things I need to do to boost my DPS better? I also try to keep Elemental Blockade down more than Boneyard because of the off balance.

You should be fine. There is no point in going for more DPS your self if you can not keep up what you already have. In my opinion doing significant amount of DPS in dungeons as a healer should ultimately be your goal, but that really comes after you are sufficient at everything else, as the biggest DPS increase is getting rid of all your safety nets, by running minimal sustain and no skills that don't have a support or damage function as well. And for obvious reasons that's not something you want to do if you might need them.

Twilanthe wrote: »

3. For heavy attacks I mostly just do those when I need to regain magicka. But I struggle to weave in the light attacks. Is there any advice or good videos on doing this effectively? Admittedly I probably don't do this near enough, or near as well as I should.

There are tons of videos out there, but not that I could link one right now. But what I would give you as an advise is think of it as using a light attack right before every skill, not after. First you practice how fast you can use a skill after a light attack, which is basically instant. After that you want to leave a gap after each skill and the next light attack and try to get every light attack through doing so. If you have that down, gradually make your rotation faster and always check if your light attacks hit. If they don't, do it a bit slower again, until you have the correct speed, because if you press skills too early you queue them up overwriting your light attacks.

Twilanthe wrote: »

4. How often should I be needing to use a lot of healing? How much of the time should my combat prayer and spirit mender and passives be working to keep them topped up and good, versus how much time I need to be focused on healing with radiating regen and/or resistant flesh?

That's really hard to answer, as it depends more on your group then yourself. But when keeping your HOT's down you should be fine most of the time. Meaning that your passive healing output simply outheals any consistent incoming damage and bigger hits get healed up in 3-4 seconds, so you don't need react right away. The rest you should then be able to heal up with combatprayer. However you should see Radiating Regen as a HOT that you want to always keep up and not as a burst heal.