Healing in TESO, a plea, and a discussion.

UnexpectedSalad

Hey, would like to hear anyones thoughts, experiences, or advice on taking on the role of a healer in group situations.

So far I've found it INCREDIBLY enjoyable (in comparison to other MMOs) as a sorcerer healer. ( level 28 )

Healing is pretty straightforward, watch health bars, cast spells when needed. But the thing I've found so far, which has meant the group surviving or not, is this.

How close the other three players are to eachother.

I'm obviously using a restoration staff as a sorcerer. And pretty much all the spells are AOE based. If two members of my group are attacking one mob in a certain area, and the other is kinda out of range of them, I'm required to cast one of my healing spells twice to keep the entire group healed. Once on the two people, the other on the lone wolf. (Does not apply to every scenario, but more, than less).

So, if any of you guys are running a dungeon, just stick together, attack the same mob, obviously you might need to spread out to avoid an AOE attack, concentrate on adds while the tank holds the boss, but group up together after either of those things are finished with. Makes it easier for you to get healed, and saves your healer mana.

This is just entirely based on my experiences so far, and seems to be a pretty important factor in keeping a group alive. Stay together.

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO

I would say that it's normal for any MMO, although in ESO positional awareness is more important than anywhere else. Also it really depends on the experience of the people you're grouping with. People who are experienced in running group content will stay close to each other in most situations. Having a means of communication, like TS or something else, is extremely helpful if you feel that everyone is spread out too much.

Also, if it bothers you a lot I'd suggest letting people know at the start of the dungeon that you'd feel more comfortable and healing will be better if they don't wander off. Most people wouldn't want to *** off the healer

UnexpectedSalad

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO wrote: »

I would say that it's normal for any MMO, although in ESO positional awareness is more important than anywhere else.

Oh yeah, of course it's normal. As you've just said, it's a bit more crucial in this particular game, a small point I failed to mention.

And yeah I do make the effort to say "Hey guys, if you three stick together I'll have an easier time healing you, not a huge deal, but any effort is appreciated"

Some people don't seem to do it, but yeah, I guess at higher levels people are going to know this sort of thing. Everyones going over that learning curve I suppose.

Cheers for the input!

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO

That's good I have the same build and level and have to agree with all you said. Healing in ESO is nothing boring like it was in WoW. Here with little mana pool you really need to think if you can cast certain spell for certain situation.

I like that.

UnexpectedSalad

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO wrote: »

That's good I have the same build and level and have to agree with all you said. Healing in ESO is nothing boring like it was in WoW. Here with little mana pool you really need to think if you can cast certain spell for certain situation.

I like that.

Yeah man, you've got four people in your group, including yourself.

In WoW... well, lots more people in a raid.

You do really need to think as you say, and understand what your spells do, let the HOT (Healing of time spells) do their work, keep an eye on your Magicka, use spells that are appropriate for the situation. If you have some sort of general idea of how much damage the bosses or mobs do in a certain dungeon or area it makes managing heals even easier.

Cool fun.

Cheers for the input.

Audigy

Every DPS should stand behind the boss in a 20 yard range. By doing so a Boss cant block the attacks and any AOE will go into the direction of the tank who can easily dodge it.

Problem is, not many players have MMO experience and always attack mobs from the front and tanks turn mobs towards the DPS quite often as well

Honn

If someone is low on HP, its up to them to get into range of the healer.
The healer must concentrate on the tanking player & any who are in range of him.
No point everyone dying because the healer is running after some idiot DPS to keep him alive. Simple rule...if someone is going to be stupid, then just let stupid die.

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO

Honn wrote: »

Simple rule...if someone is going to be stupid, then just let stupid die.

Yep, standard rule of grouping in MMOs - if tank dies blame the healer, if a healer dies blame the tank, if dps dies it's their own fault

Altheina

To OP, good advice and I must say that it's entirely not the healer's fault if one of the dps decided to be a rambo and got killed as a result. There's a reason for the limited range/area of healing-for balance purpose.

Selstad

Healing in this game is different than what I'm used to, though, I have to say I like it. I'm at VR4 right now and I don't have problems healing, as long as people also help out as a group effort and mitigate some of the damage. Though, there is a lot of WoW mentality left in this game - i.e stand still and press buttons - so healing a PuG on VR is out of the question.

I'm a sorcerer and I only have 3 restoration spells that I use. The other 2 slots are used for Surge (morphed to Critical surge due to my DPS build) and Dark Exchange. Surge increases my weapon damage by 50, which in terms also increases my healing throughput. Dark Exchange is for magica regeneration. Combined with the absorb magica glyph on my staff as well as potions, I'm rather confident that I have the magica needed to sustain healing.

So far, my experience in PuGing VR dungeons is dismal and typical WoW. People stand still, they die, they blame the healer. I don't care too much about that so I'm sticking to guild runs from now. I guess that if it continues this way, TESO will end up with the same problem that WoW has; lack of tanks and healers. It's quite simple you DPSing people out there; it's a group effort, if you die, your DPS is useless up to that point. It's not about winning the race, but finishing the fight. So please, watch your healers, where they stand, and help them out if necessary. Have at least 1 defensive cool down on your bar to help out. Even when I DPS I'm using Critical Surge so I can heal myself a bit. It's all about teamwork, so lets not turn this into yet another WoW experience.

Audigy

pavelcherepanskyrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Honn wrote: »

Simple rule...if someone is going to be stupid, then just let stupid die.

Yep, standard rule of grouping in MMOs - if tank dies blame the healer, if a healer dies blame the tank, if dps dies it's their own fault

Hehe at wow the DPS with the lowest recount stat was always guilty after a wipe, even if he intercepted and didn't take any damage

I also remember how often Tanks pulled a whole room while the healer said MB... and afterwards the Healer was a noob and should be kicked.

Always great memories of that game ^^ best however was one guy who entered the wrong instance portal, pulled the first mob pack and wondered why he didn't get a heal of me and why the DPS were afk.

Kevaliji

Being a Nighblade healer what i find hardest about group healing is keeping the group together. Bosses AoE will usually get that one guy to stray off and make it even harder for me to heal him. Another thing that really gets me are tanks that think they are invincible and rely on their healer to heal through ridiculous amounts of damage. I never run into these problems when running dungeons with guild mates because they always get the "I cant heal stupid" saying i love to say oh so much.

Yshaar

Audigy wrote: »

Every DPS should stand behind the boss in a 20 yard range. By doing so a Boss cant block the attacks and any AOE will go into the direction of the tank who can easily dodge it.

Problem is, not many players have MMO experience and always attack mobs from the front and tanks turn mobs towards the DPS quite often as well

@Audigy‌

Welcome. This is a new game. Forget your old rules and tell people how to play, even though you don't know it either.

You can block in your back. Test it.

Lazarus_Long

When my sorcerer heals for a dungeon I always tell the party "If you have to run away, run toward me." I also tell them "If you really want to die, no healer in the game will keep you alive. If you want to live, equip a self heal before we start."

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO

There are raids of 12 people also. What I meant for WoW comparision was mechanics of healing. I play resto druid for few years - you get healbot and only watch that... In ESO you need to place your heals correctly. You need to be aware of what is going on around. Especialy in PvP which has huge amount of players...

WoW symptoms are seen here also. I like to explore the dungeon and loot chests and heavy sacks. Majority of random groups just rush blindly. They do not see that you are behind looting chest and then they wipe (facepalm). I wish so that people slow down.

spawn10459

Auto target heals suck in PVE but is good in PVP. overall i stopped healing because of this awful system.

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO

What do you mean by auto target heals? You mean those spells that affects nearest ally? At least those I don't like much as well, sometimes It heals someone else than I wanted.

Hilgara

If your tank has stacked health 0:49:0 and your dps have stacked magicka or stamina the AOE heals can be a problem because the heal goes to the person with the lowest health. Your tank could be down to his last 25% but if that HP is higher than the dps HP he wont get the heal. It should be based off HP percentage not a flat HP figure.

Selstad

I'm a healer and I have 49 in health, simply because I have so much base magica from gear/enchants/passives as well as regen that having any points in magica is simply a waste. Having a health pool is far more valuable as it allows me to survive longer without getting 1 hitted by everything.

Turial

Like Sorcerer Aoe's there is a certain range to spells and I like that, we don't just see some healer sitting in a corner spamming 1, 2, 3. That being said in a dungeon group spatial awareness applies to all team members, if you are not within range of your healer then you need to move fast. As a healer myself, if someone runs off to aggro a different group as we battle another then I let that person die, they eventually learn to stick with the group, I am not gonna chase after one guy and end up endangering the rest of the group because of one person.

nerevarine1138

Kevaliji wrote: »

Being a Nighblade healer what i find hardest about group healing is keeping the group together. Bosses AoE will usually get that one guy to stray off and make it even harder for me to heal him. Another thing that really gets me are tanks that think they are invincible and rely on their healer to heal through ridiculous amounts of damage. I never run into these problems when running dungeons with guild mates because they always get the "I cant heal stupid" saying i love to say oh so much.

I remember healing a dungeon in beta, and things had been going great until the final boss. The tank kept getting hit with massive damage, and it wasn't from any avoidable preset attacks that I could see. So after two wipes, I kept one eye on the tank while I was healing everyone else. They weren't blocking.

I'm actually really happy with healing in this game, though. Especially when I compare it to games like WoW, where the healer is basically expected to keep everyone alive, regardless of whatever idiotic move they're pulling at the time.

pinkempyreal

As a DPS sorcerer I tend to stay far back from mobs, so I'd be out of range for any healer's AoE as it applies to those up in the thick of battle. Having said that, I make my health my responsibility and not the healer in my group. Sometimes I need their aid, but I never expect it if I'm running around out of their line of sight. I try to avoid being hit so if I run out of health whilst the other group members are alive I have done something wrong.
Anyway, thanks for the post as it gives me good insight on healers tactics as I have never played one myself.

audabon2013

healing is good in ESO.

im a Templar-restostaff. my main healing bar is:

Breath of life (burst heal)
rapid regen (fast HoT)
Inner light (extra crit)
ward ally (oh-snap bubble)
purifying ritual (aoe hot+purge)

this bar is my main healing set. I have my dps set on my other bar that I drop SiphonSpirit onto when in dungeons so we get health+mana back from the boss.

I do NOT find the auto targeted heals to be a problem. low healthbars on ANY groupmate is why I cast it. i have not seen issues with tank vs dps targeting. low health is low health. the only issue is when it targets a nearby npc instead of groupmates; now that's a waste.

At VR1 for BC, grotto, spindle I have found no problems healing.

as stated above, you cant always save players that refuse to pay attention to fight mechanics. no matter how hard you try. however, if you group with anything but the brainless ones you will be just fine.

hybrid heals are good as well, but passing up on Templar (rushed ceremony+morphs) leaves limited choices for huge, eye-popping crit heals (especially with Mending passive). also Templar has the only, and insanely strong, Ultimate that is a heal. mutagen morph and blessing of resto are not as good and the bubble is better as emergency damage sponge than for a heal replacement.

in beta I used both Templar-resto and nb/siphon-resto. I have never had magicka issues as a Breton with magicka+infused gear and 49 points into health so I don't see the need to go sorc-resto. I wear 5pc light and 2pc heavy to maintain relevant soft caps.

tldr: healing is fun, works fine, feels rewarding, and if you use class abilities to dps you can leave resto staffs on both bars and mow thru VR mobs with ease since you will be completely magicka based.

superfluke

Right now there are two types of healers. Templars and everyone else. If you are a resto staff healer, I think things will get better as everyone learns more about this game, how to mitigate (yeh dual wielding NBs you have to learn to block at times too), how to get the most from any self heals, and how to position the group and move in a cluster.

Resipsa131

I'm sort of in the same boat as you OP level 27 Sorcerer healer; what do you run on your healing bar? I run heal, regen, ward, Dark Exchange, and and open space that mostly inner light sits on.

I've mostly found that its almost better in PUGs to run with a healer and three DPS because they will b ounce aggro all over the place.

Thunder

Public service announcements in the forums aren't effective. Think about it, you are trying to tell millions of players who play millions of different characters millions of different ways in billions of different grouping dynamics that when they explore a dungeon with you they should stick together.

This would obviously be more effective if you just told this to the people you are grouping with. "Hey guys, I'm a sorc trying to heal with just a resto staff here, I have mana problems and if you guys try to stick together it'll make things easier on me."

I really don't want to get too bogged down in why your plea does not apply to everyone, probably even most, but sticking together is certainly not a requirement when I'm on my templar. Additionally, the HoT from the resto staff is one of the cheapest, yet most powerful heals in the game, and it certainly does not require clumping.

audabon2013

as sorc you will need to cover burst damage. this means you have to overheal with hots and use dark exchange+morphs to cover your increased mana usage.

you need exchange on a bar, but it can be on swap.

if you like to run a magelight morph for crit, that's cool, many of us healers/casters do. 20% crit morph is fantastic.

that leaves 4 resto staff heals on the main bar, and if you like you can also drop siphon onto your alternate bar just to flip/cast/flipback. thereby you gain all the heals you could have. enjoy

LadyInTheWater

Hopefully the post @UnexpectedSalad‌ made catches on, and people start to talk about it more in-game. Healing is so dynamic here, and the DPS needs to get used to it.

I love the healing system we have here. I won't bother comparing it to any specific MMO, but I'm pretty happy that the days of "Stand N Nuke" are over. The Elder Scrolls Online system forces DPS players to have a lot more personal accountability.

Lalai

I like it when people generally stay together as well.. and if they aren't I'll usually speak up. The bigger problem with my pug groups has trended towards tanks trying to grab aggro on everything, or not interrupting/blocking. In these cases I do my best to nicely explain why I prefer they only grab big mobs, and how important blocking/interrupting is. Generally they'll listen and runs go pretty smooth. Not into Veteran stuff yet though.

Custos91

Have experianced the same thing as the OP, I am a templar healer, and so I am forced to carry stupid people through dungeons, hmm, because I can I think, thats why...
We templars are most likely the reason people don't get that stack at the healer, if you have aggro, go to the tank thing... because we throw pots on cd, something most DDs don't even know it is possible, people who normally die stay alive...
I mean, who would wipe just to teach them?
The other problem ist:
In my experience you gruop will/have to scatter in Vet dungeons... they usually have at least no magicka only build any longer and perhaps know what a CD is, but there are groups out there, that will drink your mana in seconds... rank 1 in the fail of the fail lists are vamps without fire ress and BC vet... the are vapourized all 30 seconds xD you can have better runs with 2 healers xDDDDDD

UnexpectedSalad

Resipsa131 wrote: »

I'm sort of in the same boat as you OP level 27 Sorcerer healer; what do you run on your healing bar?

Cool bro, I run
1. Illustrious healing
2. Rapid regen
3. Blessing of Restoration
4. Healing ward
5. Unstable Clanfear

1 & 3 are my "main" heals, 2 is used when a couple party members drop low, I cast 2 and throw 3 to boost them back up in HP.

4 is used for when a party member drops very low in health, or when I know the tank is keeping constant aggro.

5. It's just another target for mobs to attack instead of party members, and so far, it makes a difference.

pinkempyreal wrote: »

As a DPS sorcerer I tend to stay far back from mobs, so I'd be out of range for any healer's AoE as it applies to those up in the thick of battle. Having said that, I make my health my responsibility and not the healer in my group. Sometimes I need their aid, but I never expect it if I'm running around out of their line of sight..

And that is perfectly fine and understandable, you stay away from the thick of it because 1. Your attacks are range based, 2. Because you're probably wearing light armour. All good. Regardless, it makes it harder to heal if you don't make the effort to come closer now and then for a heal (obviously you yourself do this as your post suggests).

Thunder wrote: »

Public service announcements in the forums aren't effective. Think about it, you are trying to tell millions of players who play millions of different characters millions of different ways in billions of different grouping dynamics that when they explore a dungeon with you they should stick together.

This would obviously be more effective if you just told this to the people you are grouping with. "Hey guys, I'm a sorc trying to heal with just a resto staff here, I have mana problems and if you guys try to stick together it'll make things easier on me."

I really don't want to get too bogged down in why your plea does not apply to everyone, probably even most, but sticking together is certainly not a requirement when I'm on my templar. Additionally, the HoT from the resto staff is one of the cheapest, yet most powerful heals in the game, and it certainly does not require clumping.

Lol I'm not trying to tell millions of people how to play a game, maybe "plea" was a word not best suited for the thread posted.

It was just a small suggestion revolving around how the mechanics regarding how healing works in TESO in my experience. Staying close together makes it easier.

It is certainly not a requirement. It doesn't generally mean a complete disaster if people don't. It just makes the healers job more difficult than it could be. The resto staff spells do not "require" clumping, but it makes it easier. And reduces the risk of the healer needing to throw another spell or two on someone who isn't close to the other two party members, which in turn, reduces magicka use, and may reduce the chance of someone dieing, or the group wiping on a boss.

Regarding making a statement before the group begins their task/dungeon. I do that every time, mana isn't the issue in the slightest (being a sorcerer) I just mention that it will very likely make the dungeon run much smoother and enjoyable.

Cheers for the great input