Best weapon switch for healers and why.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

I'm a big fan of healing and would like some opinions on heal builds. I'm most interested in the weapon switch. I use healing staff + bow. I use the bow becuz it's has range and crowd control. I find it less useless being melee on the switch. What weapons do you use and why?

razgondkb16_ESO

Since armor doesn't switch along with weapons, it would probably always be a good idea to swap between weapons that uses the same power, i.e. stamina or magic.

DrearyYew

I would reccomend destruction staff, that way you can avoid doing crap damage and weakening your healing by putting points into stamina.

This is how I plan to play my Healer Dragonknight: All character points into Health, heavy armor, all armor with magicka bonus, destruction flame staff with restoration staff. This will mostly be for AvA, but should do great in dungeons, but I can't really comment on veteran level dungeons until I get there.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Yeah bows or destro staff were the ones I thought would work best with healers. I picked bow over staff just cuz it looks cooler. I tried sword and shield but melee attacks as healer just grabs too much aggro.

lupusrex

I also use the bow. Even with no points in stamina, I can swap to snare or knock a few mobs away from me before switching back.

SirPuppingtonVonHat

If you're in a group and don't need to worry too much about offense, use a two handed weapon as your secondary for Momentum. Momentum increases your weapon damage over time, which means that all of your restoration staff heals will go up as well. Mo' healing, mo' bettah.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Says momentum only increases weapon damage. I don't think it'll buff heals would've been a great idea had it work tho

Shaun98ca2

Restro Staff's Heavy attack Heals on final hit. Now wether momentum persists through a weapon swap and lasts long enough to be useful is a different story.

But I actually am a Templar that uses 2h Sword & Restro Staff Wear all Heavy Armor. My stat points are placed into Stamina and my gear is all stated for Magicka except Chest piece that's for Health.

This seem to work out EXTREMELY well for me. My Heavy Attack for Restro Staff seems quite strong and my Healing output seem more than enough to hold a group.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Well since the momentum will only work on you. Youde have to get the final hit off the staff. Which is unlikly since damage for healers is the weakest. And 15% heal off a final hit is only 1 heal. It's free.. But I think having 2 crowd control moves from bow wih range can go a long way. Especially for pvp

Aureli

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO wrote: »

Well since the momentum will only work on you. Youde have to get the final hit off the staff. Which is unlikly since damage for healers is the weakest. And 15% heal off a final hit is only 1 heal. It's free.. But I think having 2 crowd control moves from bow wih range can go a long way. Especially for pvp

It doesn't mean the final hit on a mob, it means the final hit of the heavy attack. It's easier to see this on channeled staffs, lightning and resto, but at the end of a heavy attack a bolt shoots out rather than the beam. That is the final hit.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Interesting. Thanks for that info. I'm most likely gonna stick to the bow but sounds like the 2h sword can work also. Thanks guys

sirjohndeluxeb16_ESO

nice idea, sirpupping. i thought about a build like that after i read your comment. but then a guildmember of mine checked if the effect of momentum disappears after a weapon swap or not - and it sadly does the visual effect as well as the buffed stats in the character overview.

unfortunately this doesn't work.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

sirjohndeluxeb16_ESO wrote: »

nice idea, sirpupping. i thought about a build like that after i read your comment. but then a guildmember of mine checked if the effect of momentum disappears after a weapon swap or not - and it sadly does the visual effect as well as the buffed stats in the character overview.

unfortunately this doesn't work.

Thanks for that info. Should b helpful. Here's a link from someone else that has his templar builds. I think some of them might have healing swaps. http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/65704/templar-guide-from-the-priest-to-the-paladin/p1

poodlemasterb16_ESO

My Red Witch has found that Blood Alter, from the Undaunted guild, will survive weapon swap. I drop it from my healer build, a part time thing, and switch to damage, my thing, and it stays right there healing the area. Very sweet.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Yeah that's not a bad move at all . Prolly one of the most useful guild skills for healers. Definetly one to think about. My build will focus on healing and only healing. Only Time i feel safe doing damage is on one to two targets at a time. 8 healing skills + 2 crowd control moves is what going for. No damage skills involved in my build and that's mostly becuz heAlers do *** damage and I like leftover stam for rolls and run. Rolls is op

Rissq

I'm building my character with the intention of being able to both heal and tank so...

My off hand is a sword and shield. It works out great, especially when I get aggro.

Quash

I have been rolling as Resto staff, light armor for quite some time. Only offensive ability is Biting Jabs. It works out pretty good in PVP, but if I get caught I obviously get kinda hosed. Having a nightblade buddy to "slip Away" or a DK friend to take one for the team helps.

In a group PVE setting, it's pretty fun and not too stressful at all to keep the group up. A big Magika return from Grand Healing, Hots, and some emergency heals like Honor the Dead are pretty much in constant rotation. When I am grouped and dont need to be DPSing I just throw in cleansing ritual instead of Biting Jabs.

I am hoping a veteran player will speak up if making the side of the bars (stamina) Werewolf and stamina skills would be worth it. That poison debuff and Fighters Guild scare me away.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Hehe yeah that's what I did initially. I think it's okay for low level pve. Not sure about pve end game. Doesn't work well with pvp. And seemed like I was grabbing aggro too much on it which isn't good. Then I realized I was using puncture too often which gets you in some trouble off mobs.You don't ever want aggro as healers. But it can maybe work. I wouldn't rule that out either. I can see that build being a main tank with heal off spec tho. But not a so good as tanking off spec for healers.

SirPuppingtonVonHat

sirjohndeluxeb16_ESO wrote: »

nice idea, sirpupping. i thought about a build like that after i read your comment. but then a guildmember of mine checked if the effect of momentum disappears after a weapon swap or not - and it sadly does the visual effect as well as the buffed stats in the character overview.

unfortunately this doesn't work.

Really? I know for a fact that it used to stay on weapon swap, and that a lot of archers would use it for a nice boost to their sneak-attack damage. I want to see for myself whether or not this doesn't work anymore; an easy way to do so for anyone else interested would be to use Momentum, switch weapon bars, and then go into the character screen and watch your weapon damage score.

For anyone that had some confusion regarding the suggestion: restoration staff abilities are scaled off of magicka and weapon damage, so increasing your weapon damage will improve your heals. This is why so many sorcerer healers use powerful surge, and momentum would give the same benefit.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

I didn't kno healing came from weapon damage. Interesting topic for the momentum buff swap. I'd be surprised if the momentum swap does not work. It should right? Can anyone verify this?

Talmet

They changed the way weapon swaps work towards the end of beta.

i.e. toggle abilities have to be on both bars or you lose the effect when you switch weapons.

SirPuppingtonVonHat

Ah, but Momentum isn't a toggle ability, it has a timer. So it should persist on swap.

Adam.hongkhamub17_ESO

Anyone else know if the momentum skill will still work on switch? Please let us know if possible. It'll be really helpful.

Bittercold

I'd like to know about momentum too. Toggle should be the only buffs that don't work on swap. If it doesn't I wonder if it's a bug or has become weapon specific.

Maybe someone can test if it stays with both weapons as two hand but only on one bar?

If it still goes away like that then it may just be bugged.

ThatHappyCat

I use Resto staff on both swaps (PvP and PvE, although in PvE I pretty much stick to one bar). The rationale is magicka restore is too good to ignore for a caster DPS, and as a Templar I can't do weapon DPS well as we lack weapon damage boosting skills.

dagnome

As a templar i love jumping into the fray with my sword and shield and, only if, need be remove myself and heal with a staff. A few reasons why i do this, templars have insane healing capability (if built and managed correctly) over your run of the mill rest staff healer. For example cleansing ritual (a big HoT which also removes negative status effects) can be used in conjunction with passives to give any healing spell a 30% boost, that's awesome. It all comes down to playstyle, race, class and how you want to play the game.

Enjoy.

pecheckler

As a templar you can make anything work. I tank with a sword+shield and resto staff, and use resto staff + bow or resto staff + 2H quite frequenty. 1magic/1/health/2stamina stat distribution with capped magicka regen enchants/accessories.

sirjohndeluxeb16_ESO

don't understand everybody asking for a proof that momentum doesn't survive weopon swap. weapon abilities require the specific weapon to work, in this case a two handed weapon like a greatsword or an axe. if you swap to a resto staff it should be clear that a two handed ability would not boost it.

Kungfu

As a Templar, I currently go sword and board for the passives but I'll be switching to destro staff eventually, most likely. A good healer should be capping magicka & magicka regen first. So, as long as you're using magicka based attacks, it doesn't matter what weap you go for.

I use the Templar's class skills for this reason.

Any stam based attacks are gonna be weak compared to a real DPS'er

gorob4ik

But isn't it good to have some stamina skills when you run out of magica and need 5-7 seconds to regenerate?

SirPuppingtonVonHat

It looks like they've patched the momentum-persists-on-swap, so it no longer buffs a different weapon type. Oh well, sorry for giving you guys bad/outdated information. >.<