Healer PVP - Help Please!

Austacker

First thing - I'm over 1000 CP - healer main and have been since release. Healer is my preferred spec in ESO. I love the role and don't want to change.
Second thing - whilst I can PvE heal like a boss, at PvP I'm terrible at it.

I just don't understand how to survive as a healer in PvP in this game, yet alone provide a valuable resource to PvP groups.

It feels like no matter what sets I use, what guides I follow who I watch online when I get into BGs I get crushed like a grape in milliseconds.

Stun - Burst - Dead.

Over and over and over and over and over and... you get the idea.

I KNOW there's a way to be a healer main in PvP and any dedicated PvP group loves their healer (more than in PvE I think!), I just don't know how to become that PvP healer that doesn't feel like they're just a free gank stat for the opposing team.

I've tried looking at past posts here on the forums and get advice, but the best I've seen so far talking about positioning and "don't get hit".

Um, yeah.... very helpful.


What I really need is help on how to learn the craft of being a healer main in this game and how not to get crushed so easily.

I see plenty of build guides out there. I see a lot of 'gameplay' videos online. But next to NONE of them actually teach you how to be a healer in PvP and how to survive first beyond 'stay hidden, pillar hump and if you get focused, mist or RAT'

I see some healers that can 1vX with ease and that's what I want to do.

I don't aim to even have a single kill on my scoreboard. I don't care about killing other players.

My only two priorities in PvP for me are

1 - Not die (at least, be VERY hard to actually kill off!)
2 - Be a valuable healing / support asset to other players

That's it. That's all I'm after.

FYI I'm a Breton Templar (no vamp).

Are any of you experienced, dedicated healer mains in PvP that could give this PvE scrub some real advice here on how I move forward and not want to throw my controller in disgust?

Are there some good PvP Healer mains I can check out online with videos guides that other healer mains could recommend?

I really want to be a healer in PvP, but right now it's so frustrating and daunting... I need help!

xkakapantsx

I have just retired a 5star, former emp exclusively healing Breton Templar from PvP. The first piece of advice I can give you, is you WILL die. Do not go into cyrodiil not expecting to die. There is only so much a healer can do, when faced with a zerg and counter seige. The best I can do is stand in a focus and alternate purge and BOL taking 4 dps at once. But if they stun me I'm hooped.

If you simply want to not die, you need a tank build, but you won't do a whole lot of diverse healing, nor will you be able to kill anyone.

I would recommend you find some PvP centered guilds, and play with them. Depending on the group, the crown may want you in a specific build, or they can give you tips from seeing you play. Also important to figure out how YOU want to play. Do you want to ball group, small scale or zerg? Do you want to focus on BG's or IC or Cyro itself? They're all different and folks tend to focus on one, as each situation has different optimizations.

Raeyleigh

I dont think there are high quality pvp healing guides around, never found one that went beyond the very basics.
I am going to just assume the environment to be smallscale healing. The main difference is that small scale can be less forgiving for you individually. In large scale you have a wider margin of error since proper groups run atleast 2 healers, you will get focused less and builds can be more liberal with their set combinations.

Always remember: staying alive > high healing > providing utilities

As a healer you should be the tankiest player on your team, since everyone with atleast a second brain cell will attempt to get rid of the healer. I recommend pumping your health to atleast 30-35k, playing with atleast 5 heavy armor pieces, atleast 1 defensive set and a sword and shield backbar. This should put you out of one shot territory.
Second up is having a high ressource sustain meaning 2-3k mag regen, i would never go lower. Its important to constantly weave resto heavy attacks for mag sustain (and major buff) AND also weave snb heavies to keep your stamina as high as possible. Dont forget that. The purpose of that sustain is that you constantly refresh several hot abilities on cooldown, that also goes for ground aoe hots aswell and always have gas in the tank to turtle in block and pump some burst heals. Being efficient in keeping hots active at all times on everyone also reduces the amount of times you need to use block and burst heals, thus benefitting your sustain a lot. A proper healer should never die before they run out of ressources.
This is also the point where your teammates come into play. If you have several strong players pounding away on you, you will eventually run out of mag/stam and die. You can delay that alot by turtling in block and kiting around los and but that outcome is inevitable and only a matter of time. You need to communicate when you get pressured a lot so that your mates can peel them off of you by killing them, cc or even just body blocking. Its also common to decide a teamfight by which healer dies from focus first, so its important to individually become as tough a nut to crack without extensivly relying on your teammates.
Positioning is also important, but not decisive. The tankier you are, the more liberal you can position. However make sure to never ever get seperated too far from your team. You cant properly heal them anymore and they might die, or you get caught out solo and focused into an early grave.
A templar specific recommendation: use the stamina restoring rune focus with all armor pieces in sturdy to sustain heavy blocking a lot better. The newly released monster helmet of zoal also helps a lot with peeling for yourself.

The most important part of being a top notch healer is being proactive and not just reactive. That extends far beyond just maintaining buffs and hots. Its hard to communicate this verbally, but you need to develop and eye for the battlefield.
As a healer you dont need to tunnel vision a lot, instead keep your eyes wandering on the screen and figure out what everyone will most likely be doing in the next 5 seconds and be proactive accordingly.
An easy example: a group of wardens all queue up subterranean assault simultanously. You can guess whats going to happen 2-3 seconds from that moment in time. Perfect timing to call that out, perhaps refresh 1 ground heal under your team in time, start blocking, maybe drink an immovable pot, throw out a barrier and get yourself ready to pound some burstheals and perhaps cleanse the dawnbreakers dots too.
By doing that before it happens rather than after it happens you greatly increase both your own and your teams chances of survival., but at the very least safe everyone a lot of ressources and time.

Always remember that the relation of a healer to their team is symbiotic. A good healer makes life easier for the team, a good team makes life easier for the healer.

Im going to copy a long comment i made on another thread here for some more general build advice:

Healers in PvP are sought after by guilds and are quite literally the MVP in coordinated group fights. A borderline must have.

What class or build is best depends on the exact environment. Healing in battlegrounds, small scale, large scale and zerg differs slightly.
It also depends on the exact group composition. For example a sorcerer healer could throw a negate, but so could any other sorcerer in the group, you dont specificly need a sorc healer in your group to do that. Thus class matters more the smaller the group gets and you have to choose what you want in the group.

As a healer you should be the hardest to kill person in the group since everybody will try to kill you.
Your general priorities should be: not dying > high healing output > providing group utility.
To be a great healer you need to do all 3 together.

Classes in short:
Templar, warden, necro and sorc are good choices because of convenient mechanics and bringing some rather unique utilities into a group.
Nightblades and dragonknight are not per se bad, but suffer from inconveniences and have no truly unique utility to specificly pick them for.
If you ask me Warden/Sorcerer are best in small scale combat, Templar/Necro are best in large scale scenarios, Nightblade/Dk are too gimmicky to be a top choice.

Races:
Argonian, Breton and High Elf in no specific order. Very build dependant.

Mundus:
Atronarch ist best by far, dont try ritual.

Food:
Sugar skulls ist best.

Generally best gear options, again in no particular order:
Mythics:
Pearls of Ehlnofey, Snow treaders

Monster helm:
Earthgore, Chokethorn, Engine guardian, Zoal, Immolator Charr

Arena weapons:
Maelstrom, Blackrose

5 piece sets:
Light armor: Transmutation, Gossamer, Meritous Service, Spell power cure, Curse eater, Hitis heart, Winters Respite, Combat physician
Heavy Armor: Seducer, Spectres Eye, Arkasis Genius, Saxheel Champion, Mark of the Pariah, Ironblood

Try to wear as many heavy pieces as possible. Medium isnt usefull, light armor makes you squishy and its best stat, penetration, is wasted on a healer.

Most usefull abilities that are not in class/restoration staff:
Vampire: Elusive mist
Support: Efficient Purge, Mystic Guard, Reviving Barrier
Psyjic: Time stop, Race against time, Meditate
Undaunted: Overflowing Altar, Energy Orb

Austacker

Thanks for posting that up.

A couple questions if I may?

1 - Do you prefer 5-5-2 or drop one set / monster to take the Mythic?
2 - Is the Undaunted passive worth going for to boost survivability? ( ie 1 light, 1 medium, rest heavy?) or should I just go all heavy?
3 - I see you prefer to use Stam enchants, why not Tri-Stat?
4 - How do you generally go for 30-35k health? 10 points in Health, rest Magika or do you do that with Enchants / Gear / food?
5 - I'm not a vamp, would RAT be a suitable alternative to mist to get out of a sticky situation?
6 - What attribute should I shoot for on my gear? All Inpen or is there a better option?
7 - With Blackwood almost here, would Gaze of Sithis be a good Mythic option for PvP Healers to boost survivability maybe?
8 - Do you have any streaming / videos of PvP play yourself I could watch and learn from?

Thanks again for your help here!

Thraben

To 5) RAT is no replacement for Mist Form in the situations you describe.

BUT: Since you mainly play Battlegrounds, you have a lot of free skill slots which you can dedicate to defensive skills. Shield Ulti would be one exemple.

It is also important to strike first: when people see you jabbing, they will automatically assume you are a MagPlar, and not a healer. Don't try to appear like a passive healer.

Raeyleigh

Austacker wrote: »

Thanks for posting that up.

A couple questions if I may?

1 - Do you prefer 5-5-2 or drop one set / monster to take the Mythic?
2 - Is the Undaunted passive worth going for to boost survivability? ( ie 1 light, 1 medium, rest heavy?) or should I just go all heavy?
3 - I see you prefer to use Stam enchants, why not Tri-Stat?
4 - How do you generally go for 30-35k health? 10 points in Health, rest Magika or do you do that with Enchants / Gear / food?
5 - I'm not a vamp, would RAT be a suitable alternative to mist to get out of a sticky situation?
6 - What attribute should I shoot for on my gear? All Inpen or is there a better option?
7 - With Blackwood almost here, would Gaze of Sithis be a good Mythic option for PvP Healers to boost survivability maybe?
8 - Do you have any streaming / videos of PvP play yourself I could watch and learn from?

Thanks again for your help here!

1 - I prefer 5p frontbar, another 5p on the backbar, monster set, 1 trainee + Snow Treaders/Pearls of Ehlnofey.
2 - Hard to say. 1p light armor on the waist isnt bad, its equal in magic resist to heavy armor and helps mitigate some heavy armor penalties. I wouldnt use 1p medium except for snow treaders tho.
3 - You misunderstood me, i meant the restoring focus morph of rune focus (Templar armor buff)
4 - All tristat enchants and triune jewelry, sugar skulls buff food and some gear. If need be change some character points from mag to health, it doesnt hurt your heals much.
5 - Imo Snow Treaders > RAT > Mist. You could also use channeled acceleration with snow treaders. Mist isnt good vs slow/root spam but it can get you out alive of some situations Snow treaders or RAT could not.
6 - Impen on small pieces and reinforced on big heavy pieces always works. A lot of sturdy can go a long way for block sustain and if you run RAT then well fitted is also great. Suit your playstyle.
7 - NO. Block mitigation is too precious for a healer. I can only see nb healers get mileage out of that mythic.
8 - No. Although i love competitive pvp, i play for fun only and never bothered. Theres enough content creators as is. I already mentioned theres a lack of actually good guides, but there is one and only one that i can recommend:
Type "Fengrush healer" into youtube. There should be a recent video from a bg tournament and some 2 year old videos with gameplay and commentary as well. Its all drawn out and not condensed at all, and the builds are outdated or make me raise an eyebrow. BUT the gameplay is top notch and the commentary great. If youre gonna learn from watching something it is going to be that.

Austacker

Perfect. Thanks again Raeyleigh for your help!

I took a look at the Guardplar, Templar Healer PvP Build by Fengrush on Alcast - looks out of date now?

1. Desert Rose
2. Impregnable Armor
3. Bloodspawn Monster set

Definitely looks out of date and pre-mythic. Doesn't look like he's updated it either which is a shame.

One thing I do find when looking at builds is there doesn't seem too much common consensus on what's 'the' best meta build each patch.

Don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing really?

But his videos definitely look the goods, I am watching them as we speak. Like most streamers though, he tends to gloss over why he's doing specific things which makes it harder to understand the why of how he's playing.

But this is a good starting point, so my thanks for sure.

I'm thinking Snow Treaders would be a good mythic to run with and opt for 2 five piece sets?

Maybe 5 piece Transmutation & 5 piece Mark of the Pariah in Heavy?

Thoughts?

My biggest focus is on survivability first, heals second and utility last. I just worry about sustain with that sort of build, even if I take Atrinoch?

I honestly don't know. As you can see, I'm a serious PvP noob here and need all the help I can get!


Btw, I'm always looking for more advice from other players in the know. If anyone else can offer any more feedback / advice it's ALL appreciated!

Vizirith

Austacker wrote: »

Perfect. Thanks again Raeyleigh for your help!

I took a look at the Guardplar, Templar Healer PvP Build by Fengrush on Alcast - looks out of date now?

1. Desert Rose
2. Impregnable Armor
3. Bloodspawn Monster set

Definitely looks out of date and pre-mythic. Doesn't look like he's updated it either which is a shame.

One thing I do find when looking at builds is there doesn't seem too much common consensus on what's 'the' best meta build each patch.

Don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing really?

But his videos definitely look the goods, I am watching them as we speak. Like most streamers though, he tends to gloss over why he's doing specific things which makes it harder to understand the why of how he's playing.

But this is a good starting point, so my thanks for sure.

I'm thinking Snow Treaders would be a good mythic to run with and opt for 2 five piece sets?

Maybe 5 piece Transmutation & 5 piece Mark of the Pariah in Heavy?

Thoughts?

My biggest focus is on survivability first, heals second and utility last. I just worry about sustain with that sort of build, even if I take Atrinoch?

I honestly don't know. As you can see, I'm a serious PvP noob here and need all the help I can get!


Btw, I'm always looking for more advice from other players in the know. If anyone else can offer any more feedback / advice it's ALL appreciated!

Yeah desert rose isn't that good in reality as it does on paper. Plus you need to double bar it, same with impreg. I wouldn't go that build at all.

I personally like my high elf magplar running FB stuhn's and BB SPC, 2x earthgore, 1x mala and 1x trainee. Not really a pure healer but decent in small scale. I wouldn't recommend being a pure healer in any sort of pug environment. If people split up in a bg you'd be screwed.

Austacker

Vizirith wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend being a pure healer in any sort of pug environment. If people split up in a bg you'd be screwed.

Can I ask why?

I mean, I know most PUG groups won't be on comms so you can't call out if you're being focused - that why?

I mean I guess so, but I've seen healers who can 1vX and survive. I mean, not kill anything, but be almost unkillable in itself.

That's the angle I'm honestly shooting for here. There's some brilliant, unkillable PvP builds out there and I'm just wondering are they all tank builds, or do we have healer builds in that mix?

If so... what?

Daffen

So im a main healer (templar) for an organized group in PC EU and i play healer alot in smallscale groups and raid groups (ballgroup). The difference in builds from a smallscale build and a raid build is that a smallscale build needs to have tankiness while in a raid group you dont need it to survive. I have not played alot of healer in smallscale group recently but i have an idea of what will work.

So as mentioned earlier, you need tankiness and be the tankiest player in the group. Therefore i would use pariah as defensive set to push my resistances towards 30k. I see alot of 5pc heavy, personally i believe 3 light, 3 heavy 1 medium is best since it cancels out the armor penalty of taking extra damage from both and reduces your skill cost and gives more mag recovery.

As for the second set, @Raeyleigh basically mentioned every good healer set in the game. I wouldnt use winter's respite or hiti's after the stat scaling. I reccomend one of these 4 sets combined as they are best for the group with pariah; gossamer, transmutation, spc, curse eater.

Heres a build i theorycrafted a couple days ago to get ready incase i will be smallscale healing this patch.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=354315

Explanation of skills
-Honor the dead, single target burst heal and gives magicka back

-Living dark, self healing skill use when targetted and also gives group minor sorcery

-Hasty prayer, most underrated healing skill can crit upto 10k or ive seen 12k for everyone in your group. I usually spam this skill after placing healing springs in a push.

-Repentance, gives you tons of stam back and heals allies and gives recoveries

Rest of the skills are self explanatory, try to place healing springs infront of the group when moving somewhere and where you see the fight will take place and use orbs on teammates.

A couple patches ago i used eternal vigor with bewitched sugar sulls, but this patch i feel like you need a defensive set so to keep the mag/stam recovery up i swapped for orzorga and use pariah. Pots i use are alliance spell power pots to save up skill slots for more healing abilities and major prophecy on both bars.

I dont have any gameplay of myself playing but i know of a good video my friend who recorded a montage of our group in PvP with his POV in raid setups (hes magplar healer as well) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYEf7nXYTaA

Try to position yourself in the middle of the group or maybe infront, pay attention to how he is keeping hots up and spamming hasty prayer when the group is taking alot of damage (common when we push or get pushed).

Last note, healing randoms in cyrodiil is boring and hard because they are spread out everywhere and you cant heal them properly, join a guild to try playing smallscale or raid groups. And ask me if you didnt understand something or wants to ask me some questions.

Crown

Slightly out of date (I’ll update it over the weekend), though most of the info is still good:

https://darkelves.com/raid-healing/

VaranisArano

Austacker wrote: »

Vizirith wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend being a pure healer in any sort of pug environment. If people split up in a bg you'd be screwed.

Can I ask why?

I mean, I know most PUG groups won't be on comms so you can't call out if you're being focused - that why?

I mean I guess so, but I've seen healers who can 1vX and survive. I mean, not kill anything, but be almost unkillable in itself.

That's the angle I'm honestly shooting for here. There's some brilliant, unkillable PvP builds out there and I'm just wondering are they all tank builds, or do we have healer builds in that mix?

If so... what?

Being really, truly unkillable takes learning your PVP reflexes, how to move and mitigate damage, and how to manage your resources for dodging, breaking free, healing, defense, and attacking on top of being comfortable with your gear and skills.

If the sets and guides aren't working no matter what you try, then - I speak from my own personal experience here - it's time to practice. My own attempt was the Blazeplar, which all the forums and YouTube videos assured me was an unkillable god who could 1vX so well that ZOS themselves nerfed the skill Blazing Shield into oblivion. I slapped that build on, rolled out into Cyrodiil...and sucked royally. What I lacked was the experience to really make that build work.

So when you're done getting great advice from the BG healers in this thread, I really recommend that you prepare for a long learning curve. It will take a lot of practice for you to become truly comfortable with how to heal in PVP Battlegrounds to the point that you become that annoying hard to kill healer that the other team whines about on the forums.


Finally, if you PUG Battlegrounds, I don't recommend going pure healer. Why not?
- you can't control your teammates. What are you going to do when someone decides to play an objective mode like it's a Deathmatch, and now your team is shorthanded?
- what happens in a Deathmatch when your teammates suck? Healing them and yourself isn't going to cut it.
- what do you do when its you vs an enemy at an objective? Heal yourself and hope one of your teammates swoops in and is able to kill the other guy?

Now, BG PUG teams may have improved since the last time I took my pure healer in back after Morrowind launched, but the above is why I no longer bring a pure healer. In my experience, pure healers work well in premade teams who all know how to cooperate to get the objectives done. In PUGs, it's a lot better to be able to fight effectively as well as heal.

Vizirith

Austacker wrote: »

Vizirith wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend being a pure healer in any sort of pug environment. If people split up in a bg you'd be screwed.

Can I ask why?

I mean, I know most PUG groups won't be on comms so you can't call out if you're being focused - that why?

I mean I guess so, but I've seen healers who can 1vX and survive. I mean, not kill anything, but be almost unkillable in itself.

That's the angle I'm honestly shooting for here. There's some brilliant, unkillable PvP builds out there and I'm just wondering are they all tank builds, or do we have healer builds in that mix?

If so... what?

Well because any decent players will focus a pure healer immediately, it's less obvious if you look like a more generic magplar. Also because it depends heavily on your teammates. If they aren't good, healing will be much less useful and even if YOU are good, your contribution is solely reliant on them.

Not dying yourself doesn't mean anything in and of itself, it just makes it possible to heal other people. If the group you are in doesn't peel (attack/cc the players attacking you) it can be rough. If pugs spread out it makes aoe heals much less effective. Like my magplar off-healer doesn't use any aoe heals, it's mostly HoTD with rapid regen coupled with healing orbs.

Austacker

Thank you everyone for your help here, I really appreciate it!

The PvP IQ of the playerbase really shines here with a lot of the explanations definitely making sense.

@Daffen thanks for that build, I generally favor the defensive sets and Transmutation / Pariah are two of my favourites (so I already have them).

Interesting to see the blend of Heavy and light, but I totally understand why you went that way.

I think I'll run with that build for a while and see how I go with it.

Again THANK YOU to everyone here who's replied so far. I've read everyone's feedback / advice and will certainly take it on board!!!

Reaper_00

Just to add, if you're 1vX as a healer the most important thing is to keep as many HOTs running on you as you can (also keep Living Dark up if you have space for it on your bar).

Also to add to the earlier comments about vampire being useful, hypnosis is also a great vamp skill to have when you are faced with a 1vX gank. It's a 360 degree un-blockable stun that will give you time to re-apply HOTs and buffs or reposition yourself. It also comes in handy in small group fights to aid your teammates. One of my favourite things to do is to mist form into the middle of the skirmish, hit hypnosis, drop a ritual and then mist form out to safety.

Thraben

I've spoken to 3 of our MagPlars, and they all agree on basically 3 hints:

1) become a Vamp
2) get your resistances to 30k +
3) practice killing stuff by inhabiting some of the ressource towers in enemy territory.

After some months, you will be able to defend against most attacks easily, even when playing in a full group healer setup.

Vevvev

People have given some solid advice but I'll give another. If you know someone in your group is unhealable I'd recommend slotting the Undaunted Blood Fountain or Energy Orb. Reason for it is it gives your allies an emergency heal synergy that goes through the Ring of the Pale Order, Blood for Blood, and Blood Frenzy. I know recent balance patches have made such tools undesirable, but there are still a few who manage to pull them off.

gariondavey

Yeah, vamp, mistform or stage 3 undeath, pariah body, earthgore, crafty or spell power cure jewels + weapons. Can run meditate for resource regen. Tri stats, impen, keep in your rune + extended ritual, stack heals over time. Resto staff + snb or ice staff. Positioning is very important. Should have around 30k hp

Austacker

Thanks again for the extra feedback guys, it's definitely appreciated and solid advice.

One thing I realise is that there's multiple gear options you can take for this role & everyone who does PvP Healing as their main spec has a different view on the best gear setup.

Whilst the mechanics of managing PvP encounters seems to be pretty common / consistent (ie position, pillar hump / cover, apply hots etc) the actual build and gear seems to be less of a common consensus and I think that's something that tends to confuse me a lot when trying to 'get into' the role.

In PvE, there's a handful of gearsets and builds which are considered 'best in slot' regardless of whether you do Dungeon / Overland or Raid builds. You can basically set up a healer build that can cover all consistently - and well, with a very minor handful of changes between the different scenarios.

But in PvP, it's wildly different between the role you play and the environment you heal in. A build / gear setup for Battlegrounds can differ wildly to Imp City / Cyrodiil which tends to be frustrating.

Plus, my PvE healer build calls for a 64 Mag setup, but for PvP you really need to aim for a bit more Health investment which makes having a "PvE' healer slap on a different gear set so much more of a slog.

I'm going to have a crack with the build mentioned here earlier and see how I go

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=354315

Before I invest the gold, can anyone see any issues with this build?

Are the needed stats here capped right? Do I need to change anything?

I know the abilities used are always going to be subjective to your own playstyle, but I'd like to at least start with a 'proper' baseline gear build first and develop the skills from there.

Thanks again everyone for your help, I really appreciate it!

gariondavey

spells look good, gear looks pretty good. i'd go maelstrom resto staff back bar with spell power cure instead of transmutation (can just run spell power cure on 1h + shield bar)
can go vampire with mistform instead of race against time (vamp + stage 3 + mistform + pariah is very very tanky)
could probably drop the cost reduction glyph for magicka recovery ( you already have high magicka recovery with % modifiers, so stacking more of that i believe would be more effective than the cost reduction)
i'd probably go all tri-stat glyphs on all armor pieces. probably a stam enchant for the shield.
i'm assuming alliance spell power draft for major sorcery + major prophecy
move hasty prayer or honor the dead onto your resto staff bar so it can benefit from the 9% healing + major mending if you do a heavy attack
i'd recommend other morph of resto staff, or rememberance (gets more targets + makes you immune to cc, same cost as resto staff ult)

great job though good luck with it

exeeter702

Austacker wrote: »

Thanks again for the extra feedback guys, it's definitely appreciated and solid advice.

One thing I realise is that there's multiple gear options you can take for this role & everyone who does PvP Healing as their main spec has a different view on the best gear setup.

Whilst the mechanics of managing PvP encounters seems to be pretty common / consistent (ie position, pillar hump / cover, apply hots etc) the actual build and gear seems to be less of a common consensus and I think that's something that tends to confuse me a lot when trying to 'get into' the role.

In PvE, there's a handful of gearsets and builds which are considered 'best in slot' regardless of whether you do Dungeon / Overland or Raid builds. You can basically set up a healer build that can cover all consistently - and well, with a very minor handful of changes between the different scenarios.

But in PvP, it's wildly different between the role you play and the environment you heal in. A build / gear setup for Battlegrounds can differ wildly to Imp City / Cyrodiil which tends to be frustrating.

Plus, my PvE healer build calls for a 64 Mag setup, but for PvP you really need to aim for a bit more Health investment which makes having a "PvE' healer slap on a different gear set so much more of a slog.

I'm going to have a crack with the build mentioned here earlier and see how I go

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=354315

Before I invest the gold, can anyone see any issues with this build?

Are the needed stats here capped right? Do I need to change anything?

I know the abilities used are always going to be subjective to your own playstyle, but I'd like to at least start with a 'proper' baseline gear build first and develop the skills from there.

Thanks again everyone for your help, I really appreciate it!

I'd say you are over compensating on healing throughput. There is zero lethal on those bars, orbs springs and prayer together is unecessary. In large scale cyrodil shenanigans which you barely have to actualy pvp, springs occupies the GCD space of regen. That setup looks like it's intended for overhearing in a ball group. Truthfully speaking, regardless of playstyle, I feel you have too many healing abilities present.


In small scale, where you will have to pvp and outplay other aware players, those bars look GCD starved. And you dont have a reliable hard stun to peel or create space for your self. If you cant challenge an aggressor's stamina pool reliably, you wont live long.

1.Springs or regen depending on large or small scale. Not both.

2. Move rat to back bar and drop prayer or orbs, depending on group and pvp environment.

3.put a stun and jabs on your front bar. You need some form of damage support unless you are just going to zerg surf.

I very much agree with the item choices. Trans and pariah have been staples of mine for years. You have a non meaningful amount of health recovery on top of its nerf via battle spirit, so you might consider stage 3 vamp. Undeath works very well with pariah.

Thraben

Austacker wrote: »

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=354315

Before I invest the gold, can anyone see any issues with this build?

Are the needed stats here capped right? Do I need to change anything?

Transmutation is an okay choice for solo and battleground, but more or less useless in Cyro groups, as most hard bomb damage goes along with the Mechanical Acuity set. In General, having Pariah as part jewelry is a cost efficient idea, as you wlll probably switch different support set on and off a lot. Curse- Eater might be the best choice for LfG healing,




Your skills, though... I can now see why your own survival is a problem.


Healing:

1) You don't use Wall of Frost. Not only is having a Frost staff extremely useful for you survivability, Wall of Frost reduces the amount of healing you have to do by up to 80% in open field combat situations.

2) No Blood Altar

3) "Wrong" Morph of Mystic Orbs. You will see the healing morph a lot in outdated builds and even some ball groups, but an optimised group needs the damage morph. And, sadly, you cannot use both morphs in a group.

4) One could argue that the Alliance skill purge is vastly better than Extended Ritual. Even BETTER would it be if you use Curse- Eater and let your Hasty Prayer group heal and purge with one click.

5) You coud go even further an replace BoL as well with the other morph of Hasty Prayer in order to save bar space.

6) Repentence is more of a nice-to-have.


Self defense:

You need a more aggressive approach. If you run like that, it shouts out to world: "Help me, I am a helpless healer"

7) Equip Puncturing Sweep. And jab the hell out of that little Stamblade that is bothering you.

8) Replace Nova with Crescent Sweep unless the raid leader specifically ask you to equip Nova

Austacker

Thanks again everyone, the help here is really encouraging me to get back into PvP!

One thing I DON'T see anyone talking about here in gear sets is Mythics.

Are there honestly no mythic options available for Healers in PvP that people would recommend?

I know in PvE myself I don't even bother with Mythics as giving up a monster set for one just doesn't feel like it's really worth the effort / trade off (except for personal preference)

Does the same apply in PvP for healers then?

gariondavey

A healer friend of mine uses pearls of elfoney with low regen + meditate for resource management as a stage 3 to 4 vamp, and she likes it

darvaria

Austacker wrote: »

Thanks again everyone, the help here is really encouraging me to get back into PvP!

One thing I DON'T see anyone talking about here in gear sets is Mythics.

Are there honestly no mythic options available for Healers in PvP that people would recommend?

I know in PvE myself I don't even bother with Mythics as giving up a monster set for one just doesn't feel like it's really worth the effort / trade off (except for personal preference)

Does the same apply in PvP for healers then?

You can use a mythic item and keep monster set. Example: Front Bar Trans/Back Bar Winter's Respite. (weapons in each set) I do this with Olo and Winter's for some PVE. Not sure if any mythic is that good atm. Snowtreaders has been discussed as Ring of the Wild Hunt. (you better be faster than most of the zerg chasing you)

And right now, isn't the time to get back into PVP. Unless you want to be fodder for all the bombers. A lot of people are taking a break from PVP until things change. You got it right "Stun - Burst - Dead".

You can't outheal the damage when you get hit for 20K, 18K, 16K, 12K. It's pointless.

Austacker

Thanks for that response @darvaria

You are right, the bombers are out in force atm, specially in IC and Cyro. BGs aren't an issue for them however and that's where I'm spending more time lately learning the craft.

I'm fiddling around with different configurations and working out what's best for me. This build that was linked above works well enough, but still feels a little flimsy at times.

I admit, it's hard. Everyone focuses the healer, every time and if you get stunned, you're basically toast. The burst out there atm (even when I'm full health) is just off the charts.

BUT you also learn how to avoid damage more, pillar hump, block LOS etc and I admit, I'm getting better at it - slowly.

Once you get stun locked and smeared enough times, you kinda get to a point where you just shrug the shoulders and respawn and go again.

Like I said, I'm still toying with builds.

Main baseline stats I'm focused on is -

• 30k Spell and Physical Resistance
• 30k Health Minimum
• 15k Stamina Minimum
• Rest in Magica

And then I just work from there on the skills and abilities.

But I had to admit, it's HARD! I can survive 1v1 okay now for the most part, but as soon as it's 1vX, I'm one stun away from being bursted down pretty easily.

That's on me though to better work LOS and use cover properly.

I guess being a healer in PvP (especially if you don't do damage other than jabs for small defence) is really one for the masochists among us, but slowly.... and surely.... I'm developing a taste for the role.

I'm getting my dailies done.

When I'm the only healer present, my teams are winning more often than not.

My biggest issue now is that my teams generally are full of selfish DPS players with the IQ of a cupcake that go lone wolf more often than not rather than focus on the aim of the BG or bother protecting their pocket healer.

But when I DO find those teams that work well with me... it's magic.

darvaria

Might think about spell wall (shield wall morph from S&B).

I pvped on templar healer for years. Recently rolled a necro healer.

oterWitz

I've also found this thread helpful and packed with info as a PvEer flirting with PvP during MYM. I'm interested to hear about your experiences so far with necro healer @darvaria , and how the info for a necro might differ from all the templar build wisdom above. And thanks again for sharing your knowledge everyone

darvaria

One factor is that ppl focus templars more. Using the healing ulti on a templar is a billboard to get tab targeted. This ulti really needs to be instant cast. The rez ulti on necro is way more useful in group play. Or the 60k transform ulti.

BOL, imo, is better than the flash heal of Necro's.

Biggest advantage iof necro healer is probably that spirit mender. That accounts for a lot of Necro healing.

Necro has 2 cc's.

Sweeps (to me) is better than scythe.

I rolled this necro to lvl 50 quick. Spent over $200 (real money) on crowns to get everything. Can't really say it's that much better in pvp healing ... but probably some. I know I don't get targeted as much and have much lower Alliance war rank. But since rune focus now moves with you, shields are the same.

I would say sustain in better on templar but with Malestrom resto, I don't have an issue on necro.

How much better? I'm not best pvper, but I don't see that much of a difference, except getting tab targeted on a templar. If they had Alliance war rank tokens and class tokens, I would try a Warden healer.

Austacker

Reporting back and have to sadly admit that even with all the advice and guides, I'm still having a fair amount of trouble performing the role at the moment.

Burst in this meta is just stupidly high. It doesn't matter what I pop, I just cannot outlast the avalanche of incoming damage and I just get out resourced in the end. I know it's a 'me' problem more than anything as other dedicated PvP Healers are almost damn unkillable, where I tend to last 20 seconds at best in combat. I need to just 'git gud' and that takes a lot of time, patience and practice.

I find solo queue for Battlegrounds so hit and miss, it's a complete roll of the dice if you're going to have any fun or not. More often than not, I'll bang my head against a wall and give up. So many Solo queue PvPers in this game have tunnel vision it's really frustrating.

Maybe I need to join a dedicated PvP guild? Maybe...

FENG RUSH put up a GREAT guide today on his Battleground setup (he prefers the small scale PvP) and I'm trying so hard to learn from him as he really knows what he's doing but so far, it's not working for me at all, but he's showing me that it CAN be done - it just takes a long time and a lot of practice to get there.

I tend to enjoy healing large scale PvP more though, especially during this event. It's easier to NOT get focused in big battle and Cyrodiil has a lot more to do than just straight up kill stuff to make it interesting.

I'm still hanging in there, but I have to say the learning phase of this role is a LOT harder than PvE healing and can be a lot more frustrating.

I really do get it why there's so few dedicated PvP healers in this game. There's almost no incentive at all to do the role.

But I keep trying... cursing... throwing up hands... yelling at my solo queue team mates... get focused and crushed... scream.... queue again.

#PvPHealerLyfe

Thraben

Indeed join a PvP guild then.

You would definitely no longer feel as one of the "few" lonely PvP healers. Medium Scale PvP guilds have huge amounts of players who would qualifiy as "healers", up to 80% of the members. Even Bombblades typically queue as healers in PvE.