Does Stamina Build Rally Heal Better Than Magicka Build Strife?

Vaerth · April 2015

I currently run 5 Heavy / 1 Light / 1 Medium on my Nightblade for the Swallow Soul and Sap Essence heal (plus armor and spell resist) and it works pretty well but lowers my DPS a little. My question here is if the 2H skill Rally heals better than Swallow Soul? I am considering a Stamina build 5 Medium / 1 Light / 1 Heavy but it would lack any heals.

I currently use 2H weapons (on both bars) and like using both bars with a 2H weapon. I do not really want to use a bow, but a Nightblade with no bow has no ranged unless Magicka focused (Strife and Crippling Grasp). As a Stamina Nightblade would I have any ranged skills without a bow?

jluceyub17_ESO · April 2015

My NB's Rally crits for about 1K heal per tick, and since I'm stam DPS my crit rate is ~73% so it pretty much always crits. Plus I get the weapon power boost from rally. Not sure how much you're getting from Swallow Soul heals but if its comparable to that I'd consider switching to Rally since Rally provides the bonuses of Strife and Sap into 1 skill freeing up space for another skill, (I'd recomend Brawler because the Damage shield is great when you're relying on self heals).

You won't have any ranged attacks as a pure-stam 2H NB, unless you count the Spectral Bow attack or Caltrops if you're PvP skill line is leveled up.

Samadhi · April 2015

Funnel Health on my Magicka build can have better heals than Rally on my Stamina build.
It can also have worse heals.

The catch with Funnel Health is it heals for a % of damage done, so if the opponent is smart enough to block it will dramatically reduce the heal.
In contrast, a crit with Funnel Health means a big bonus to all the HoT ticks.

Rally also has the advantage of being able to provide a degree of burst healing -- a Magicka build has to use an additional skill for that purpose.

The only ranged Stamina skill a dual 2hander setup has available is probably Silver Bolts, which is largely mediocre.