Nightblade healer: viable or a pipe dream?

Ryzaerian · September 2015

My first character was a Templar. I have a long history of playing healers in MMO's, so he seemed like a natural choice. His healing was undeniably powerful.

Somewhere around VR3, I made an alt: a Khajiit NB. I quickly noticed that I enjoy him more than my Breton Templar. The original plan was to be Stamina DPS, but I found that I missed the ability to heal other players, especially in PvP. I switched him over to Magicka, replaced my Medium armor with Light, and have been having a blast since. He rocks dual wield for his DPS bar, and a Resto Staff for heals.

I really like this combination. Abilities like Funnel Health and Sap Essence add a very cool damage-to-heal style, making gameplay enjoyable. I PvP quite a bit, and love the ability to Invis my way around the IC, to pop out and DPS -or- heal when needed. This character has quickly become my new main.

In PvP, this setup is a blast. My question is, is it viable to try to heal Vet dungeons in PvE?

The obvious issue I foresee is a lack of burst heals, as compared to the Templar.

Funnel Health and RR/Mutagen provide a nice HoT layer. Healing Springs is great if people are stacked. Sap Essence and Soul Siphon provide additional AoE healing. Healing Ward is a great "oh s**t" button when someone dips. However, our "burst heal," Blessing of Restoration, seems very weak. This is what leads me to wonder if a NB healer can hold his/her own in the endgame PvE.

My question is essentially: should I attempt main healing in PvE, or accept that I will always be subpar, and instead focus on being a really fun DPS with great support offheals?

Thanks in advance.

rb2001 · September 2015

Absolutely viable.

My main is an NB healer, and I do basically anything while purposely not wearing maxed out gear pieces that I find ugly. I am always a "core healer" and never an off healer or a DPS-healer. I am told I do well.

Enjoy experimenting and tinkering with your build to find your own sweet spot, but yes, it is certainly a viable combination.

Also, if you want to burst heal as a Nightblade, look into the Soul Siphon ultimate morph that heals allies. You will need to give up an Ultimate that "benefits you", as it will not heal the caster, but it is.. potent.

Nestor · September 2015

A resto staff can make any character a healer, more so if they are magic based. There are only two NB class skills that heal others in the party, so it will mostly come from the staff.

Soulshine · September 2015

Since you are active in PvP remember there are skills from the Support line which can work well in a pinch, especially the Cleanse and War Horn. Added with NB skills and Undaunted line, you can easily heal on NB if you are skilled at applying premptive heals rather than burst heal response post damage which too many Templars rely on. Remember adding substantial dps, which NBs can certainly do in spades, makes for less heals needed. Enjoy

Ryzaerian · September 2015

rb2001 wrote: »

Absolutely viable.

My main is an NB healer, and I do basically anything while purposely not wearing maxed out gear pieces that I find ugly. I am always a "core healer" and never an off healer or a DPS-healer. I am told I do well.

Enjoy experimenting and tinkering with your build to find your own sweet spot, but yes, it is certainly a viable combination.

Also, if you want to burst heal as a Nightblade, look into the Soul Siphon ultimate morph that heals allies. You will need to give up an Ultimate that "benefits you", as it will not heal the caster, but it is.. potent.

Thanks for your input.

I have Soul Siphon slotted on my Resto bar, and use it all the time.

How do you make up for the lack of single target burst healing? Do you spam Blessing of Restoration? Or is it just a matter of throwing a Healing Ward and waiting for your other healing to catch up?

Ryzaerian · September 2015

Soulshine wrote: »

Since you are active in PvP remember there are skills from the Support line which can work well in a pinch, especially the Cleanse and War Horn. Added with NB skills and Undaunted line, you can easily heal on NB if you are skilled at applying premptive heals rather than burst heal response post damage which too many Templars rely on. Remember adding substantial dps, which NBs can certainly do in spades, makes for less heals needed. Enjoy

I'll look into those, thanks.

Shunravi · September 2015

Nestor wrote: »

A resto staff can make any character a healer, more so if they are magic based. There are only two NB class skills that heal others in the party, so it will mostly come from the staff.

Funnel health, sap essence, refreshing path, soul siphon, and the refreshing darkness synergy.

UrQuan · September 2015

From what I've heard, there are some people out there who are very effective NB healers - including ones who heal tough endgame content with a great deal of success. I've never tried it myself, though, so I don't know exactly how it works.

@rb2001 care to share some of what makes your NB healing build work? What passives help you out, what your bread and butter skills are, etc?

TheBull · September 2015

It works great. I'll be posting my build that I heal Vet WGT soon.

TheBull · September 2015

Nestor wrote: »

A resto staff can make any character a healer, more so if they are magic based. There are only two NB class skills that heal others in the party, so it will mostly come from the staff.

I by far the majority of my healing comes from NB skills.

AlnilamE · September 2015

My main is a Nightblade and she thoroughly enjoys healing.

I'm now trying a sap DPS build that gives me a ton of healing whole I DPS as well.

You will find your own style, but yes, NB healers are totally viable.

dreamfarer · September 2015

For "Burst Healing" on a Nightblade, I've found Healing Ward to be my "go to" ability. It has a small immediate heal, but the damage shield is effectively additional health that will keep your target from dying. It the shield lasts for its full duration the Heal when it pops can be enormous too (and if it doesn't last, well then the damage shield did it's job right?)

One other side effect of relying on Healing Ward is that the targets hp stays low for a moment, so any additional healing that you provide can take advantage of the "Ally under 30%" bonuses.

The last trait that makes Healing Ward so nice is that it's auto targeting. Blessing of Restoration is a decent heal, but lining up the cone can take a precious fraction of a second which can leave people dead sometimes. For AoE Healing, I prefer Healing Springs and then I go for the Combat Prayer morph to use the cone as a damage buff.

notimetocare · September 2015

TheBull wrote: »

It works great. I'll be posting my build that I heal Vet WGT soon.

Screw your soon... I want it nao... wanna see how my old build compares. How do you get around being unable to regent a tanks stamp like Templar?

Aerieth · September 2015

People seem to forget about the Siphoning Ultimate. It can be morphed into - arguably the best - burst heal in the game. It's what allowed me to heal VR16 vet dungeons successfully as VR3-4 on my alt (in full heavy armor I might add). Nightblade healer is surely a real thing. Try the ulti out, it's amazing. Be warned though, it doesn't heal yourself. Don't know if this is a bug or not. If everyone's getting low, I usually pop the ulti, quickly followed by Healing Ward to keep myself alive along with the group.

Ryzaerian · September 2015

Aerieth wrote: »

People seem to forget about the Siphoning Ultimate. It can be morphed into - arguably the best - burst heal in the game. It's what allowed me to heal VR16 vet dungeons successfully as VR3-4 on my alt (in full heavy armor I might add). Nightblade healer is surely a real thing. Try the ulti out, it's amazing. Be warned though, it doesn't heal yourself. Don't know if this is a bug or not. If everyone's getting low, I usually pop the ulti, quickly followed by Healing Ward to keep myself alive along with the group.

I had a feeling Soul Siphon was going to be kind of a big deal. xD

remraub16_ESO · September 2015

Nestor wrote: »

A resto staff can make any character a healer, more so if they are magic based. There are only two NB class skills that heal others in the party, so it will mostly come from the staff.

Four actually.
1. Refreshing Path
2. Funnel Health
3. Sap Essence
4. Soul Siphon

NB Healers work very well, but it requires the group knowing the difference from playing with a templar healer.

Unfortunately ESO is moving further and further away from having each class viable for any role, it's obvious that

Templars are the better healer
Dragon Knights the Better tank
Sorcerers the better magicka DPS
Nightblades... not sure.. the better stamina dps? (for burst at least)

Shunravi · September 2015

remraub16_ESO wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

A resto staff can make any character a healer, more so if they are magic based. There are only two NB class skills that heal others in the party, so it will mostly come from the staff.

Four actually.
1. Refreshing Path
2. Funnel Health
3. Sap Essence
4. Soul Siphon

NB Healers work very well, but it requires the group knowing the difference from playing with a templar healer.

Unfortunately ESO is moving further and further away from having each class viable for any role, it's obvious that

Templars are the better healer
Dragon Knights the Better tank
Sorcerers the better magicka DPS
Nightblades... not sure.. the better stamina dps? (for burst at least)

I'm finding tanking with nightblade to be easier/better than tanking with dragonknight. But that's just me with all bias and stuff involved...

WyldfireWyrm · September 2015

I main a NB healer and absolutely love it. I haven't reached Veteran ranks yet, so I can't speak for endgame viability on a personal level, but I hear great things. As for burst heals on non-Templars, the fix to Mutagen gave us a fantastic burst heal. It isn't as powerful as a Breath of Life, but still a great investment. The trick is remembering to keep it going on all your teammates and reapplying it when the emergency heal goes off.

NB HoT heals combine really well with the shield too. I personally prefer the Ward Ally morph because the heal at the end of the 6 seconds on the other morph rarely gets used because the shield usually breaks before the heal can occur. Plus my HoTs will have restored a huge chunk of health by the time the shield heal were to hit anyways.

emopyronecrosis · September 2015

It's viable, I heal on every class BUT my Templar, which is my DPS/Tank.

To be honest I have this sheer distain for most templar healers, because they Breath of Life too much, and complain about resto staff skills not being good enough for heals blah, blah... whatever.

Before I rant about how much I dispise listening to Templar Healer Elitists, yes it's viable, and the "BoP" as I call it, Blessing of Restoration has a hidden buff that makes it by far one of the best heals in the game, Minor Ward and the armor one, it helps keep people alive better than people realize, and it's a good thing to use before any heal in my opinion.

After all a healer that doesn't just increase a health bar, but also lets someone take a hit that'd normally one shot them instead tickle them a bit is better in my book, that the healer that can emergency heal over 10k health((Seriouslly the best healers usually keep people alive threw regen, not relying on Emergency Heals?)) not to mention Funnel Health stacks well with Rapid Regen, I think they have the same duration, so if you get get high spell damage, and use funnel, then rapid I think your ticks combined wind up around 3k health a second in dungons, which is amazing by the way

WyldfireWyrm · September 2015

remraub16_ESO wrote: »

Unfortunately ESO is moving further and further away from having each class viable for any role, it's obvious that

Templars are the better healer
Dragon Knights the Better tank
Sorcerers the better magicka DPS
Nightblades... not sure.. the better stamina dps? (for burst at least)

I would use the word "better" simply because any class can achieve any role very well with the right player skill.

Templars are definitely the easiest healers to play. Nightblades and Dragonknights make excellent healers as long as the group is more coordinated than the average PUG, which simply requires some communication an the desire to cooperate. Sorc even got a group healing morph in the update, but it's the only healer benefit they have, so I'd say they are hardest to heal with, IMO.

DKs are arguably the easiest tanks to play, though this role is a much tighter race for easiest than healer. All the classes can tank very well.

DPS depends entirely on how you want to play the game. For magicka, Sorc is more single target burst focused and DKs are easiest to sustain damage on multiple targets. NB and Temps fall somewhere in between. For stamina, Templars are more AOE focused and NBs are more burst focused. DK and Sorc stamina builds are on the rise, I hear.

dreamfarer · September 2015

Aerieth wrote: »

People seem to forget about the Siphoning Ultimate. It can be morphed into - arguably the best - burst heal in the game. It's what allowed me to heal VR16 vet dungeons successfully as VR3-4 on my alt (in full heavy armor I might add). Nightblade healer is surely a real thing. Try the ulti out, it's amazing. Be warned though, it doesn't heal yourself. Don't know if this is a bug or not. If everyone's getting low, I usually pop the ulti, quickly followed by Healing Ward to keep myself alive along with the group.

My question there is, what do you do for a "Burst heal" while the ulti is charging back up? Most dungeons I've been in need more than 1 burst heal every so often. Usually there are bad spots where you need to spam the hell out of some big heals.

Also, healing with the ulti relies on your teammates being on the ball enough to trigger the synergy. On a lot of PUGs that's far from a given thing, whereas something like a Templar's Breath of Life is essentially idiot-proof.

All that said, you clearly made the Ulti strategy work. Did you find you were using it every time it was up or did you only need it to cover rare heavy hits and the rest of your healing tools managed to deal with the usual damage that came in?

rb2001 · September 2015

Ryzaerian wrote: »

rb2001 wrote: »

Absolutely viable.

My main is an NB healer, and I do basically anything while purposely not wearing maxed out gear pieces that I find ugly. I am always a "core healer" and never an off healer or a DPS-healer. I am told I do well.

Enjoy experimenting and tinkering with your build to find your own sweet spot, but yes, it is certainly a viable combination.

Also, if you want to burst heal as a Nightblade, look into the Soul Siphon ultimate morph that heals allies. You will need to give up an Ultimate that "benefits you", as it will not heal the caster, but it is.. potent.

Thanks for your input.

I have Soul Siphon slotted on my Resto bar, and use it all the time.

How do you make up for the lack of single target burst healing? Do you spam Blessing of Restoration? Or is it just a matter of throwing a Healing Ward and waiting for your other healing to catch up?

My style is all about preemptive healing, stacking up heals and optimizing the situation before the damage even comes.

I use Illustrious Healing over Healing Springs, because it works better to this end. You can stack it on the ground wherever you know damage is going to be going down.

Slap it right on AOE reds. Slap them everywhere you know damage is going to be, and keep doing that. With Illustrious lasting 4s instead of 3, it's actually more efficient, creates more overall healing for the same cost, and allows you to preemptively cover areas from damage for longer periods of time (less stress on me).

I use Combat Pray to give my group mates more ability to do damage, as well as protect themselves.

Whenever I have a window where I can do damage, I do damage via Strife for single-target, or a Sap Essence for AOE, which allows me to trash everyone and save our group and myself at the same time.

As an Imperial, I am somewhat of a tanky healer, and generally throw myself into the thick of it with the tank, putting heals all over the ground with high Magicka regen and then sap-AOEing everything dead with the DPSers.

Mutagen does not feel like it makes much difference to me, and so I'm not using it anymore.

I keep Structured Entropy on healing bar so that I can have a distance-based Spell Power boost, and Strife on that same bar to attack from a distance.

My style is both preemptive and hands on, get in the thick of it, and take out enemies whenever possible, knowing that every damage ability I have is also keeping the time alive.

When someone is 50%, I throw Healing Ward on them, and utilize its protection and slight burst to give me time to heal them through other means.

Soul Siphon I use in 3 situations: 1) When I know insane damage is coming and we need to last through it for 3 seconds (crazy AOE boss phases), 2) When everyone is basically dead, 3) When we are in the thick of a dangerous trash group that is winning, and I know we need just a few more seconds to make it though and then most of the trash will be dead--preemptive use here.

Otherwise, my other Ultimate is Veil of Blades, which I use more often than Soul Sipon, and to great effect, as I do insane damage and help the DPS take out groups. It also gives a huge 30% damage reduction to us, and so I'll jump into the mobs right with the tank, and drop Veil on us and kill everything.

Ryzaerian · September 2015

By the way, I'm assuming Inner Light should be up all of the time? If I understand correctly, only Blessing of Restoration/Combat Prayer don't crit. But, Funnel Health, Sap Essence, etc. all benefit?

d8rmir · September 2015

I still don't see how to replace templar's shards...

Beltan3 · September 2015

I'll throw my 2 cents.

Some days ago I was able to heal vWGT with my nightbalde.

Skills (main bar):

1. Rapid regeneration
2. Entropy / Illustrous healing / Siphoning strikes (depends on the boss we are gonna face)
3. Funnel Health
4. Healing ward
5. Inner light

So, if we are facing, let's say, last boss of Darkshade (Engine guardian) i will slot Illustrous healing for poision phase. If we are facing Plannar Inhibitor (3rd boss WGT) i will slot Siphoning strikes (because I will use healing ward a lot and I don't have the magicka regen to compensate it). In any other case i go with entropy for the health boost and the damage boost (most of the time I just spam Funnel Health).

Off bar (this bar is really flexible for me):

1. Necrotic orb
2. Sap essence
3. Harness magicka (prevents damage and restores magicka)
4. Impale
5. Inner light

Other skills that i use on my off-bar from time to time: Bone surge, Cleanse, Cripling grasp / Double take (for speed buff)

As for ultimates i use Soul Harvest (builds up ultimate and cuts enemy healing) and Ice comet (help with dps). Sometimes i run the vampire ultimate for the regen. I don't have barrier from PVP yet, but I guess it could be a nice one. I can't use Soul Siphon since i have the other morph for PVP. Anyhow i dont think it's a good idea relying on ultimates for healing... might end up badly.

So basically I just keep up rapid regeneration and entropy and then spam funnel health + light attack. If someone drops below 50% then healing ward.

I'm using 5xTwice born star, 1xMolag Kena, 2xAdrointess and 2xCyrodill's light. Ideally I want 5xSpell power cure, 2xNightflame and 3xWillpower

rb2001 · September 2015

As many of us are, I am constantly thinking about how to further refine my build / process.

I know it's not possible to have a one build do everything, but my goal in a nutshell is to have one build that handles most situations well, without needing to swap abilities.

That means my build has to be able to do the following without swapping out abilities:

Regular PVE, dealing damage to advance quests and what not (no problem here, a butterknife would slice through the regular content)
PVE group dungeons (keep everyone alive, but also need to be able to deal damage when I see there isn't enough of it happening)
Stealth / survival (I need to be able to slip away and avoid conflicts I can't handle, especially important in IC)
PVP (I am not terribly into PVP in ESO, but I need to be able to hold up and not go down easy)
Healing in PVP
Solo/duo group dungeons (I find this to be a very interesting and fun test of one's build)

Because of this, I focus on core abilities that give me a good spread, each doing some major role. If it isn't, it isn't going on my bars.

I give up basically everything to be a healer. All of my champion points go to Blessed instead of Thurmaturge, etc.

I would like to have a finisher/execute, but I don't think I can make real estate for it.

Every bonus I have basically goes toward healing better, percentages here and there. I kind of have to do this because an Imperial with Stamina bonus but no Magicka bonus is kind of hard pressed to build up the Magicka count and work with Magicka, but it is who the character is.

I care more about the RP of it than the matching race-gameplay. She's an Imperial, and she's accommodating and wants to be a healer, so that's that.

I'm rambling, but my point here is that you have to decide what degree you want to give to healing vs. other things.

notimetocare · September 2015

d8rmir wrote: »

I still don't see how to replace templar's shards...

Tanking on my NB I rarely need shards, my DK needs it only when I play like I'm on my NB.

Aerieth · September 2015

dreamfarer wrote: »

Aerieth wrote: »

People seem to forget about the Siphoning Ultimate. It can be morphed into - arguably the best - burst heal in the game. It's what allowed me to heal VR16 vet dungeons successfully as VR3-4 on my alt (in full heavy armor I might add). Nightblade healer is surely a real thing. Try the ulti out, it's amazing. Be warned though, it doesn't heal yourself. Don't know if this is a bug or not. If everyone's getting low, I usually pop the ulti, quickly followed by Healing Ward to keep myself alive along with the group.

My question there is, what do you do for a "Burst heal" while the ulti is charging back up? Most dungeons I've been in need more than 1 burst heal every so often. Usually there are bad spots where you need to spam the hell out of some big heals.

Also, healing with the ulti relies on your teammates being on the ball enough to trigger the synergy. On a lot of PUGs that's far from a given thing, whereas something like a Templar's Breath of Life is essentially idiot-proof.

All that said, you clearly made the Ulti strategy work. Did you find you were using it every time it was up or did you only need it to cover rare heavy hits and the rest of your healing tools managed to deal with the usual damage that came in?

Sorry for the slow response! I've been incredibly busy for the past week.

Firstly, I'm not talking of the synergy, but the actual healing morph of the ultimate (I believe it's called "Soul Siphon"). The range on it is 15 yards which is much bigger than you'd expect. Only in rare cases are people further than 30 yards from each others, so being in the middle of everyone and popping it does hit everyone pretty much every time.

I don't spam it, so to speak. I save it for situations where everyone's getting dangerously low and I need to deal with it somehow, or for situations where I know there's going to be a lot more damage incoming for the group. These are usually known boss mechanics that require high amounts of healing. I usually run with Refreshing Path, Funnel Health, Healing Ward, Mutagen, Healing Springs and Soul Siphon on my main bar. Emphasis of the build is to stack up crit chance, cost reduction and run a 3-stat drink for cheap but highly efficient constant healing.

Templar healer being thought as the "best healer in the game", is usually played as a reactive healer. This means that when people get hit, you hit a button to heal them back up. My build revolves more around efficient constant Healing over Time (HoT for short) effects in combination with Healing Ward and Soul Siphon to respond to big hits taken. This means that there are healing effects ticking away on your group members at all times, so instead of me spamming my buttons when someone actually takes damage, some of - if not all - the damage is healed right away by the active effects already on the players, thus pushing people's health bars higher, faster than you could react as a reactive healer. Healing Ward handles single players getting hit hard and Soul Siphon for when there's constant damage to the whole group that I can't out heal using my other abilities.

If you've played WoW, think of a Druid healer. I've got some burst heals to work with, but most important parts are the constant HoTs that make my job as a healer much easier, not having to react to every bit of damage taken, with a cast, but rather keeping my effects on the group at all times and complementing those with on demand heals such as Healing Springs, Healing Ward and in most severe cases, Soul Siphon.

code65536 · September 2015

I play all three roles on my magicka NB (carry two different armor sets: one for tanking, one for healing or dps).

I've healed a lot of content, and I really enjoy healing as a NB because the bulk of my healing comes as a side effect of my DPS. But I've noticed a lot more discrimination against NB healers post-update because I don't have Repentance/Shards. I've gotten the "oh, sorry, we need Shards" response a number of times. (I do have a Master's Resto, but I lose a lot of spell power, but the stamina return from it isn't much and isn't enough to make a huge difference for a stamina-starved tank unless all I do is spam Springs on him, in which case, I might as well just be a sorc healer.)

But in groups where the tank is fine without the stamina support, I can heal them just fine. As someone said earlier, the key is HoT stacking--keeping everyone constantly topped off with Mutagen and my spam of Funnel Health, and then using Ward Ally (which I prefer over Healing Ward, since as a healer, I rarely hang back and am usually up at the front taking as much aggro and damage as the other DPSes) to handle burst situations: bubble someone to give my HoTs a chance to work (I also pump Mutagen a few times, since it does have that extra bonus heal to low-health allies).

And speaking of tanks without stamina support, I completely disagree with the statement that DKs are the best-suited for tanking. I would say that, after the IC update, magicka NB tanks are the best (I may be biased, of course

). I'm fine without a Templar to throw me stamina. Of course, I would love to have the Templar stamina support since it does make resource management easier and means that I can go through most battles without touching my potions, but with Siphoning Attacks (despite its nerf), I'm in a better position with manage stamina than a DK. And as a magicka NB saptank, I do a lot of DPS--more so than most tanks--with my spam of Funnel Health and Sap Essence while tanking. As a healer, I always sigh relief if I see that our tank is a NB (which, unfortunately, is a rare sight) because I know the tank is pretty self-sufficient in terms of both healing and stamina.

Truewavesound · September 2015

More than viable - better than Templar in some ways. The mistake people make is trying to play it like a Templar healer.

Healing Ward is your burst heal.

13igTyme · September 2015

code65536 wrote: »

I play all three roles on my magicka NB (carry two different armor sets: one for tanking, one for healing or dps).

I've healed a lot of content, and I really enjoy healing as a NB because the bulk of my healing comes as a side effect of my DPS. But I've noticed a lot more discrimination against NB healers post-update because I don't have Repentance/Shards. I've gotten the "oh, sorry, we need Shards" response a number of times. (I do have a Master's Resto, but I lose a lot of spell power, but the stamina return from it isn't much and isn't enough to make a huge difference for a stamina-starved tank unless all I do is spam Springs on him, in which case, I might as well just be a sorc healer.)

But in groups where the tank is fine without the stamina support, I can heal them just fine. As someone said earlier, the key is HoT stacking--keeping everyone constantly topped off with Mutagen and my spam of Funnel Health, and then using Ward Ally (which I prefer over Healing Ward, since as a healer, I rarely hang back and am usually up at the front taking as much aggro and damage as the other DPSes) to handle burst situations: bubble someone to give my HoTs a chance to work (I also pump Mutagen a few times, since it does have that extra bonus heal to low-health allies).

And speaking of tanks without stamina support, I completely disagree with the statement that DKs are the best-suited for tanking. I would say that, after the IC update, magicka NB tanks are the best (I may be biased, of course ). I'm fine without a Templar to throw me stamina. Of course, I would love to have the Templar stamina support since it does make resource management easier and means that I can go through most battles without touching my potions, but with Siphoning Attacks (despite its nerf), I'm in a better position with manage stamina than a DK. And as a magicka NB saptank, I do a lot of DPS--more so than most tanks--with my spam of Funnel Health and Sap Essence while tanking. As a healer, I always sigh relief if I see that our tank is a NB (which, unfortunately, is a rare sight) because I know the tank is pretty self-sufficient in terms of both healing and stamina.

For tanking wouldn't the other morph be better than Funnel Health?

Also I agree with your overall post.