Healing as a Dragon Knight

Solomon_Cato

So I have been class jumping quite a bit, experimenting with different ideas, weapons, spells, and finding differences between classes. We all know what the Templar can do as a healer, and Sorcerers along with Nightblades have become rather renowned as healers as well.

What I have not seen much of is healing as a Dragon Knight, so I thought I might delve into the idea of it a bit. (BTW, I am not saying there are NO Dragon Knight healers, so if you are a Dragon Knight healer, please feel free to share your thoughts or bash my thread based on your experiences).

Initially looking at the skill lines, particularly the Earthen Heart line, I felt the Dragon Knight could excel very well in two things, buffing and absorbing. Here is a skill setup that I would put together for general dungeon play:

Skill Bar 1: Healing Springs/Mutagen/Healing Ward/Igneous Shield/Spell Symmetry
---Ultimate: Magma Shell

Skill Bar 2: Siphon Spirit/Burning Talons/Eruption/Combat Prayer/Molten Armaments
---Ultimate: Magma Shell

Bar 1 would be your main healing bar, offering 3 sources of absorption through Healing Ward, Igneous Shield, and Magma Shell (I am unaware if the absorbs will stack, I would highly doubt they do, but none the less it should be easy enough to keep the effect up on party members). Spell Symmetry allows us to manage our magicka, along with a small bit of help from Healing Springs.

Bar 2 serves as a utility bar, offering some CC through Burning Talons and Eruption for large packs of mobs, while also adding some boss utility with Siphon Spirit, and obviously you will want to keep Molten Armaments up (With it's decent up time I only put it on one bar, weapon swapping does not bother me). Combat Prayer was kind of a filler, but truly I treat it as a buff spell only and not relying on it for it's heal.

For a skill calculator look here is a link, enjoy!:
http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mzzzvvk9cW0mii8heam8heaj8heqM8Gsdx8A4fp8Gsb48hesI8uvZT8Gsbt8heRJ8GRFH8Gsb48L7JcdoQr6MdoQC6MdoQF6MdoQJ6MdoQK8e7Hraqk6Laqq6LaqS6Mi4bD6Mi4bU6Mi4bX6Mi4b16Mi4b48v7HLanQ6ranS6LanU6LanW6LanX6Mhy3D6Mhx0n6Mhx0y6Mhx0l6Mhx0B8E7DmzmW6rzmY6Lzm16LzVS6LzVW6MuciH6MuciS6Muci46Muchq8l7mmzoC6rzkA8B7JrzRf6Lzsa6Lzsq6Lzsb6rzsw6MGkXa6MGkXf6MGkXG6MGkXN8O7RrdeC6rdeF8zc7pcgePB6zgeXm6cgeXA6cgeYc8zf7zzNbo8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX

cubansyrusb16_ESO

Why are you not using inner light morph from mage light for the spell crit to amp up your healing ?

Solomon_Cato

Inner Light increases the critical chance of Mutagen only, both the HoT and the instant heal (have tested this my self). So for me I think it is a little farfetched to use one skill slot to increase the critical chance of one spell.

Kyotee0071

@Solomon_Cato Great topic. You don't see a lot of DK healers running around but I can share a pretty interesting link for ya. It peaked my interest, and I plan to make this one of my dk's roles in the future to mix up the game play.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/earthen-shielding-healer-dk/

Some theorycrating in the above link, as well as some nice youtube vids of a dk healer in both PVE dungeons, and PVP.

Good luck!

Dubah

Solomon_Cato wrote: »

Inner Light increases the critical chance of Mutagen only, both the HoT and the instant heal (have tested this my self). So for me I think it is a little farfetched to use one skill slot to increase the critical chance of one spell.

Just so you know those crits are broken as well as most templar skills and the fix for it is coming soon, all of the healing spells in templar line and in the resto staff line are supposed to crit, so for now you are safe to not use magelight but soon you will want it, those crits are nice and really add up to some nice healing

Also I figured I would add in, i do play a templar heal and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, any class can heal, i put my 2 templar skills i use away for a few VR runs and used only resto staff heals and did just as good as my templar heals, realistically its easy, i actually use mostly resto staff heals to begin with but i took a burst heal and the ground AE out of templar for some oh crap situations which resto staff filled in the same way, good theory build i like it and i would like to see it tested in some VR dungeons

Tankqull

Dubah wrote: »

Also I figured I would add in, i do play a templar heal and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, any class can heal, i put my 2 templar skills i use away for a few VR runs and used only resto staff heals and did just as good as my templar heals, realistically its easy, i actually use mostly resto staff heals to begin with but i took a burst heal and the ground AE out of templar for some oh crap situations which resto staff filled in the same way, good theory build i like it and i would like to see it tested in some VR dungeons

in a small circled dungeon i do agree - but in pvp where fights tend to be much more chaotic nothing beats a templer in terms of healing.

Solomon_Cato

@Dubah: I agree, I am still working on my main, which is a Sorc healer, and it truly is great. Surge works wonders and I can honestly heal with just Illustrious Healing (I know this is off topic to DK, just wanted to share my thoughts on it). If they do fix heal crits here in this next patch that would be amazing, crits with Power Surge on should be insane.

@tankqullb16_ESO: Agree with you on that one, just based off of the mechanics of Templar heals, can easily hit more targets.

Dubah

tankqullb16_ESO wrote: »

Dubah wrote: »

Also I figured I would add in, i do play a templar heal and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, any class can heal, i put my 2 templar skills i use away for a few VR runs and used only resto staff heals and did just as good as my templar heals, realistically its easy, i actually use mostly resto staff heals to begin with but i took a burst heal and the ground AE out of templar for some oh crap situations which resto staff filled in the same way, good theory build i like it and i would like to see it tested in some VR dungeons

in a small circled dungeon i do agree - but in pvp where fights tend to be much more chaotic nothing beats a templer in terms of healing.

I don't like to spill alot of beans, but im sure if you have even been interested then you've probably seen some streams, but let me give it to you this way... When trials come out, the resto staff is going to shine, but also templar heals are going to shine the same way, i believe, now don't quote me on this cause we had a couple of subpar healers and not a whole lot of dps, that templar heals are going to be required for main tank unless he can last forever, some of them bosses hit really hard and it will take twice the magicka for a resto staff to heal than a templar. BUT for some fights templar heals are just gonna be a magicka waste and for some fights the resto heals are gonna be a magicka waste.

@tankqullb16_ESO‌ i don't PvP. I tried it but there is too many bugs and lag and the stupid vamps that don't really know how to play so all they do is spam 1 skill.... It's just not appealing to me. So thanks for adding in the pvp side!

Also i wanted to add, that there may be a way to incorporate nothing but resto staff heals, i never tried and hope there really is, but burst healing from temp's is amazing and like i said i had subpar dps and subpar support healers so i really don't get a whole lot of time to test specs, can't wait for craglorn and see all the new healing stuff i can play with!

kargen27

I'm just kind of winging it as I go. Only have one character so far and he is a Wood Elf DK. Level 31 right now. I didn't look at guides or anything and decided I would just try and play around any mistakes I made and adjust as I go. I have noticed people near my same level seem to have a lot easier time thumping the evil doers than I do.

When I am out and about on my own I have a restore staff for my main weapon (kill frogs rats and rabbits for fish bait with daggers) and use Extended Chains, Silver Shards 3, Stonefist 4, Dragonblood 4 and something else that I want to increase or have immediate need for such as filling soul gems.

In dungeons I switch over to Illustrious Healing, Regeneration 3, Blessing of Protection 4, Silver Shard 3 and Overflowing Alter. Sometimes I switch one of the healing skills out and use stonefist.

I have magic 16 health 6 and stamina 7.

Don't know if it is a decent build or not but has been fun so far. In the few dungeons I have done I seem to do okay as a healer so long as the group takes care not to get hit by the big thumps. If a couple get hit really hard I have a tough time catching back up.

Not sure what I will have to come up with in PvP. So far I haven't had a one on one chance yet to see how fast I die. I tend to stumble across a whole herd of the enemy when I am trying to get my butt from one place to another.

Oh and for now I am mixing my armor. Mostly heavy right now because I am wearing a 3 piece set, but usually I am kinda close on having an even number of each of the three types.

I am wondering if I should use my daggers more just to get some abilities built up there, but am thinking with this character I will mostly stick with the restore staff.

I tend to sneak a lot and run like hell when discovered by more than two or three out in the wide open solo world but hey we can't all be the hero! I killed myself accidently doing a backwards somersault off a tower staircase with no enemies at all around so I have no illusions of grandeur.

Monkeyshoeslive

How are you guys finding DK healing now? I'm starting to feel I should give it a go

Elara_Northwind

I currently have 2 characters that have tried out healing with. My Templar is a healer as her main role, and my Sorcerer has dabbled (quite successfully, but she ultimately made a better dps) I currently have a low level (around 25-ish) magic based DK, with which I am planning to try out some healing. I think that DK's have many skills that they could implement to succeed in being quite a decent healer, and mine has so many champion points that she can currently one shot enemies her own level quite successfully and so I hope that she will be able to heal as successfully as she kills!! She is yet to try this out in a dungeon scenario I will see how this plays out I guess!

Bloubobbejaan

I play as a DK Healer. Very affective!

Bloubobbejaan

Sadie Joan.It works well in a dungeon,as the templar doesnt need to worry about you as much.Can focus more on other players etc.I love it

Armann

Bloubobbejaan wrote: »

I play as a DK Healer. Very affective!

Me too, Igneous Shield is key, and it's getting better next update with the Obsidian Shard change. I've seen some claim DK is the preferred healer if you are running with an experienced group, but Templar is still the safest choice since they are alot easier to heal with.

paulsimonps

I would use the Assault and Support Ultimates instead of the Magma Armor, the synergy for that is to unreliable, you have to be very close to use it and in a pinch Barrier will work better since they don't have to active a synergy for it and you don't have to be close to em.

Bloubobbejaan

Armann wrote: »

Bloubobbejaan wrote: »

I play as a DK Healer. Very affective!

Me too, Igneous Shield is key, and it's getting better next update with the Obsidian Shard change. I've seen some claim DK is the preferred healer if you are running with an experienced group, but Templar is still the safest choice since they are alot easier to heal with.

On the money my friend

paulsimonps

Armann wrote: »

Bloubobbejaan wrote: »

I play as a DK Healer. Very affective!

Me too, Igneous Shield is key, and it's getting better next update with the Obsidian Shard change. I've seen some claim DK is the preferred healer if you are running with an experienced group, but Templar is still the safest choice since they are alot easier to heal with.

Though for trials as it is now Templars are preferred since they have the Nova. I mean the dps's can also use Nova and Veil of Blades to help with the mitigation but it will lower their dps if they can't use their dmg ulties.