Am I a bad healer? Need help improving my templar build!

Vivienne · December 2015

Some people told me that I did a good job, some V16's even told me that I am the best healer they've ever had (can't believe it myself, actually, but I don't think they were just being sarcastic) and other groups are complaining.

Some are wondering if I am out of magicka or they are asking me if I am able to heal always through whole fight. (which is impossible because I can't spam Breathe of Life ALL THE TIME, it's a waste of magicka imo. I can't heal all the time except using HoTs like Mutagen or Combat Prayer)

So is it just me, or was the whole team bad? Do I REALLY have to heal all the time through the fight and spam BoL as much as I can?
I know, none of you guys saw me healing and so you can't tell me the answer exactly. I read some builds and tried some of them but I still can't figure out what's wrong.

-

This is my current build:
(I am a Breton)
I use a resto staff (both traits are precise for critical healing) on both bars and I wear 7/7 light armor + willpower rings and amulet.

Attributes all on Magicka and I spent all my champions points into
Elfborn (the Mage: Apprentince), Magican (the Thief: Tower) and Spell Shield, Light Armor Focus, Quick Recovery (the Warrior).

I usually use the Atronach mundus and I also tried the Thief since I was experimenting a bit and I was wondering if critical healing is better than magicka regeneration.

I use Julianos and Phoenix Set. (divine, infused on big armor pieces) I know the sets are not that optimal for an healer (or even for a general magicka build lol) but I like doing some damage besides healing when I am not in a dungeon with other people. So it's pretty flexible. Swapping between Damage and Healing.
Phoenix also saved me in some really ugly moments. (I was nearly dying but thanks to the 5th set piece I was still alive.

)

/So those are my bars for healing. Outside of dungeons (doing quests, Maelstrom Arena, etc.) I have an absolutely different bar with a destro staff, but that's irrelevant now/

1. bar
- Breathe of Life
- Healing Springs
- Purifying Light
- Combat Prayer
- Mutagen
- Ulti: Remembrance

So this is my so-called "buff and 100% heal bar".

I use Combat Prayer and Mutagen before the fight to buff everyone and I always rebuff when the effect ends.

Breathe of Life is the most important heal and I use it on every bar. Even though for me, it's just the "oh-***-heal" when allies have less than 75% health, because it has a really high cost.

I use purifying light mainly on the boss fight and I stack it as often as I can. But I've rarely seen a healer using it, so I was wondering if this skill is actually useful.

2. bar:
- Breathe of Life
- Luminous Shards
- Structured Entropy or Purifying Ritual (again)
- Lingering Ritual
- Radiant Oppression
- Ulti: Solar Prison (Nova)

This is also sort of a heal bar but I can also do some damage.

I really like Radiant Oppression. It helps in the end of a boss fight when we rush the boss.

Luminous Shards is great for stunning trash mobs and it restores Stamina. (Guess I have to use it, because it's also important for tanks?)

I wasn't sure about Lingering Ritual, but it's the closest to "healing all the time". I'm able to spam it without getting out of magicka and it is a "big heal". The only downsides are the cast time and that allies have to be in my radius.
So how I said, not quite sure if Lingering Ritual is that necessary.

I think the ultis are obvious, so I don't have to explain them

So now, I'm totally clueless what I should slot now. I like Purifying Light, but I actually never see people use it. I saw in guides that people use Structured Entropy, because it increases my health, etc. and I tried it out but I didn't use the ability itself that often.

And then there's Inner Light, it gives me more magicka and stuff but I am not sure if I should use it.

Oh and I used to have Purifying Ritual on my bar. And what about Force Siphon instead of Purifying Light?
I have no clue.

-

So that was it. I have no idea if and what I am doing wrong. (or even if it's me, maybe it just because my team sucks. Not sure. I'm usually in some random groups for doing dailys and stuff.)

I would like to hear some suggestions for my build or ideas what I could improve.

Thank you guys.

(oh and btw sorry for my English, it's not my native language.)

-

EDIT: I'm suprised at how quickly you guys answered me. I read every reply and posting your builds/telling me which skills to keep or drop/etc really helped me!
Thank you so much, I'll take your adivce. ^__^

I replaced Healing Springs with Purifying Ritual and instead of Lingering Ritual I use Repentance.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I'm Breton vampire.
I don't know if being a vampire is actually bad when you're a healer, but it gives me more magicka regeneration and I like using some abilities when soloing. So I guess I'll stay being a vampire.
And yeah I use absorb magicka enchantments on my restos.

Today I did Vet Crypt of Hearts (V16) with a pug group and we rushed it - easy and fast - no one died and it was great. One person of my group told me that I'm a great healer and asked me if I was up to join them next time again.

Or another thing:
It was my first time doing Vet White-Gold-Tower (V16) and I did it with a random group. 2 of them can't speak English and for the other guy it was also his first time. Anyways, we somehow managed it really quick. Ok, well, we died 1-2 times but that was it and I guess we did a pretty good job for a pug group. (+ a guy and me without any experience.

)

After that I joined another Vet White-Gold-Tower group with headset and stuff and we all speak the same language. But we already failed at the first boss and guess what, they somehow started blaming the healer.

I guess it really depends on the team. Well, sometimes it's a miracle.

Kelces · December 2015

I suggest, you use Rune Focus. I view it as the central pillar being a templar-healer. You probably have all the passives in "Restoring Light" activated, so you shouldn't miss this.

It really helps a lot - either if you have the feeling, you need some more magicka-regeneration (Channeled Focus), or more healing-output (Restoring Focus).

Further I recommend, you enchant your staff with magicka-absorption, if you didn't yet. That's a really nice boost for the already available magicka regeneration from heavy attacks with the healing staff. I never run out of it, as long as there is a target.

Fruitmass · December 2015

Vivienne wrote: »

Some are wondering if I am out of magicka or they are asking me if I am able to heal always through whole fight. (which is impossible because I can't spam Breathe of Life ALL THE TIME, it's a waste of magicka imo. I can't heal all the time except using HoTs like Mutagen or Combat Prayer)

This is one of the biggest misconceptions people seem to have about Templar healers. Your job is not just spamming BoL as much as possible. Actually if your group is good you really don't need to use it much if at all. If spamming BoL is the only thing keeping your group alive then they need to take a good look at what they're doing.

Vivienne wrote: »

1. bar
- Breathe of Life
- Healing Springs
- Purifying Light
- Combat Prayer
- Mutagen
- Ulti: Remembrance

2. bar:
- Breathe of Life
- Luminous Shards
- Structured Entropy or Purifying Ritual (again)
- Lingering Ritual
- Radiant Oppression
- Ulti: Solar Prison (Nova)

Not much reason to keep the same skill on both bars unless it's a sustained skill so you might want to take BoL off of the second bar and free up a skill slot.

You can also drop healing springs for Purifying ritual. It doesn't heal for quite as much with each tick but it costs less, lasts longer and boosts the effectiveness of your Restoring Light skills. It also covers a wider area.

I personally don't use structure Entropy so can't comment on that but I do use Purifying Light. Good to keep up on boss fights as it's a nice little damage boost, the heal is nice for any melee users in the group. Plus with the Illuminate passive your party members get a boost to spell damage when you cast it.

I would also consider dropping Radiant Oppression. As the healer there are going to be times were you've got to make quick reactions and channeled skills kind of muck up your ability to do that.

Same with Lingering Ritual, that two second cast time is just funky.

You'll also want to take some skills to help restore party members magica and stamina. Luminous Shards and Repentance are good for restoring stamina. For magica you've got Siphon Spirit (Resto staves. Not exactly idea because of cast time), Mystic Orb (Undaunted. It's a synergy so it's wasted if someone doesn't trigger it) or Elemental Drain (Destro Staves)

Inner Light isn't a bad skill to have as the crit increase is nice and the extra magica and regen from the Magica Controller passive is nice. The draw back though is that it takes up space on both bars which means that's one less skill you can take. It' not really a make or break if you choose to take it or not so that's up to you.

My particulare Skill choices are

Bar 1 - Heals (Resto Staff)
Mutagen
Combat Prayer
Purifying Ritual
Repentance
Breath of Life
Remembrance

Bar 2 - Support (Destro Staff)
Luminous Shards
Reflective Light
Purifying Light
Mystic Orb
Elemental Drain
Solar Prison

Depending on the situation and party make up a few skills might get swapped out here and there but this is more or less it.

Overall, I don't think there's anything terribly wrong with your build. A few things I would change but your definitely on the right track so if someone gives you grief don't let it get you down. Just remember the two golden rules of dealing with pick up groups.

First, sometimes people like to blame the healer when things go wrong. Doesn't matter if the tank is a cloth wearing, bow wielder with no taunts and the dps were running around like headless chickens, they'll still find a way to pin it on you

.

Second, it's very much hit or miss. Some times you get a good group and everything goes smoothly. Some times you get a capable group but your stuck baby sitting prima donnas. Some times you get bad group composition but they're good people so it's still pretty fun and sometimes you get group that you can't get the hell away from fast enough.

Aleraon · December 2015

This is the build I've been using for a while and I've used it in every trials, normal and veteran dungeon, DSA without difficulty and kept people alive. Hope it helps

Razum-dah's Khajiit Templar Healer
Current Gear Selection

Head: V12 Cowl of the Warlock - infused - max magicka
Shoulders: V15 Epaulets of Kagrenac's hope - divines - max magicka
Chest: V15 Robe of Kagrenac's hope - infused - max health
Hands: V12 Gloves of the warlock - infused - max magicka
Waist: V15 Sash of Kagrenac's hope - divines max magicka
Legs: V15 Breeches of Kagrenac's hope - infused - max health
Feet: V15 Sabatons of Kagrenac's hope - divines - max magicka

Jewellery
Neck: V12 Focus of the warlock - magicka recovery
ring1: V14 Ring of Cyrodiil's light - magicka recovery
ring2: V14 Band of Cyrodiil's light - magicka recovery

Weapon 1: V16 Restoration staff - precise - absorb magicka enchant
Weapon 2: V16 Restoration staff - precise - absorb magicka enchant
Weapon 3: V14 Destruction staff - Nirnhoned - flame damage enchant

Character stats
Level V16
Champion points 507
Magicka - 56 points - 27074 Max magicka : Magicka Recovery : 1777
Health - 8 points - 15651 Max health : Health Recovery : 417
Stamina - 0 points - 9772 Max stamina : Stamina Recovery : 594

Stats with Purple V15 food giving 4462 health, 4105 magicka and stamina
(Longfin pasty with melon sauce

Magicka - 56 points - 31713 Max magicka : Magicka Recovery : 1777
Health - 8 points - 20336 Max health : Health Recovery : 417
Stamina - 0 points - 14042 Max stamina : Stamina Recovery : 594

Spell Damage : 2143 / Weapon Damage : 1415
Spell crit (with inner light) 49% / Weapon crit : 37%

Mundus stone : Currently The Apprentice for spell power

Champion Points:
The Apprentice
Blessed - 78 points - increases effectiveness of any healing you cast by 20.1%
Elf born - 53 points - increases damage and healing dealt by spell criticals by 16%

The Atronach
Staff expert - 10 points - increases damage of light and heavy attacks with staves by 5%

The Ritual
Thaumaturge - 30 points - increase damage with poison, desease and magic damage by 10.8%

The Steed
Spell shield 20 points - increase spell resistance by 8.1%
Block expertise - 10 points - reduce cost of blocking by 5%

The Lady
Light armour focus - 25 increase physical resistance while wearing 5 light armour by 6%
Hardy - 31 reduce poison, disease & magic damage dealt to you by 11%
Elemental defender - 31 reduce flame, frost & shock damage dealt to you by 11%
Thick skinned - 28 reduce the damage you take from dot effects by 10%

The Lord
Nourishing - 3 points increase effectiveness of healing potions by 2.2%
Quick recovery - 19 points increase the effectiveness of healing received by 5.9%

The Tower
Magician - 90 points - reduce the magicka cost of spells by 15%

The Lover
Arcanist - 75 points - increase magicka regen by 20.4%

The Shadow
Tumbling - 1 point reduce stamina cost of dodge roll / break free by 1%
Elusive - 1 point reduce duration of all snare/fear/disorient effects by 1%

Skill Bars
Bar 1 - Heals
Slot 1: Healing Springs
Slot 2: Rapid Regen
Slot 3: Combat Prayer
Slot 4: Breath of Life
Slot 5: Inner Light
Ultimate: Shooting Star

Slot 3 is a flex spot and i sometimes have Extended Ritual or Luminous Shards there dependant on the dungeon and whether the tank needs them. I try to keep rapid regen ticking all the time and in tight corridor type areas use combat prayer as it buffs the teams dps as well as their physical and spell resistance - plus in those areas its guaranteed people will be directly in front of me. You can use combat prayer in more open spaced areas but it all depends on how spread the team is on whether its going to be worth it. Shooting star i tend to use as Solar prison is difficult to reliably land on a targets since they changed it and is more suited to being used on less mobile bosses when the group is stacked for damage and mitigation.

Bar 2 - Dps bar - Destro staff
Slot 1: Puncturing sweep - for when things get in your face / force pulse
Slot 2: Reflective light / elemental drain
Slot 3: Radiant oppression
Slot 4: Purifying light / Solar Barrage / Breath of life
Slot 5: Inner Light
Ultimate: Shooting Star / dawnbreaker of smiting

Slot 4 is my flex spot here. If purifying light is on my bar i try to keep it up on the boss to help the dps. Note that this is the only time i switch to my dps bar while healing as i am not there as dps. In certain circumstances where it may be called for if a stray enemy is beating down on me i will switch bars to deal with it but try to stay focused on healing as much as possible until either the enemy is dead or the dps can help me.

thesongoftimeb14_ESO · December 2015

I love playing the Templar healer and do the dungeons daily with pug groups. Once in awhile your praised, and every once in awhile your dropped. I personally chose to us Twice Born Star, Willpower, and either Torags, or Monster helm and shoulder, based on whether I am healing or doing solo. 1500 mag regen is perfect for me, and I rarely ever run out. The few times I have during a rough boss fight was from me being in a panic or just doing something stupid.

My bar is Harness, which I would suggest you replace healing springs for. Combat, Bol, Repentance, Inner light, and Remembrance. If I am doing a silver dungeon I replace Remembrance with shooting star. Should never need Remembrance in a silver run, cept maybe for the couple hardest ones. My second bar is Rune Focus, Luminous Shards, Bol, Radiant Oppression, Inner Light, and Shooting Star. Bol on both bars keeps me stupid ass from wiping while on a bar without it.

With the TBS giving me two mundus options, I use whatever I need to make sure I have the max mag, mag regen, and spell power. If I have 1500 mag regen, then I buff the other 2. I use blue food for mag and health. Like Kelces says, I have my staffs enchanted with Magic Absorption and when I am not casting a spell, I am either light or heavy attacking with my staff.

As I run into the battle I hit my Rune Focus, swap, stop, and step back into the circle I just created. I hit my Harness, I hit Combat hopefully hitting all 3, but as I am almost always in pug groups, that gets a little tough. I then hit Bol and start a heavy attack with my staff. The reason I hit my Bol so quickly is just my style, and I am a spammer. So now while keeping my Harness, and Combat prayer up as much as possible, I am heavy attacking and when I see anyone's health dip, I am hitting Bol. If my group is getting rocked, I am a light attack, Bol, light attack, Bol. If they are not, I am using heavy attack for DPS and getting more magicka back.

If I get enough ultimate and there is no present danger, I use shooting star, or whatever your choice is for a little DPS. I know that if I burn the Shooting Star Ultimate when everyone is at full health, I will most likely recover enough Ultimate in time should I need to use my Remembrance for an oh crap moment. Also note that during the battles with adds, I am using Repentance often, and not just after a battle. Its free to use and keeps most people happy. If someone complains that they need shard help, I then put my Shards on front bar, and put Repentance on back bar. Usually after the first couple battles, someone will say "hey, where are my Shards?" That is when I change to accommodate the tank. And of course Radiant comes in handy if you know your done healing and the boss is coming down.

You are wearing Julianos and Phoenix for flexibility between solo and healing, but even you acknowledge that it's not optimal for a healer. I think its fine if you can find a way to get your regen up over 1500 while wearing them. I personally don't understand all the numbers and math in the game, but the ability to spam Bol, heavy attack, throw out a little buff and regen love all on one bar, makes my healing pretty easy. A little tougher when your talking VCOH or the IC dungeons, but outside of that, just remember its a group effort. Today I did Selen's Web for the silver. It took about 15 minutes give or take and my armor repair after was like 35g. Later I joined a group to do the Gold, but they wanted to do silver first. So I did it again with this new group. About 45 minutes into it, and not being able to get the group past the boss with the lions which is so simple, I had to apologize and told them I had enough. I even explained what needed to be done. After 3 or 4 tries on that boss, and still finding 1 or 2 of them running off over the bridge with a couple lions chasing them. I just had to smh and be done with it.

Ultimately, I am a great healer when the group has awesome DPS and knows the mechanics. My healing sucks when they have very low DPS and no mechanic knowledge. Sometimes I can still get us through, but if not, everyone is going to blame someone, and more often than not, its going to be you, the healer. Just ignore and move on.

I suggest Harness. With the mag you get back, its almost free, especially if your going 7 light. Since I spam Bol a lot, I don't need to worry about how much it crits for. If someone is getting hit hard, spamming my Bol 4 or 5 times within 10 seconds, I find it very easy to recover my mag quickly by stepping back while doing heavy attack, and or hitting my Focus. Also, the one and only time I put on Healing Springs in a dungeon run for someone who was bitching about my healing, it took my less than a minute to take it back off my bar. Its for pvp if you ask me, and you only need Bol on your front bar if you have the rest of my setup. Outside of that, always be on the move and only stand still when you need to stay on your Focus.

Whitebrad25 · December 2015

In group play, a large part of success is based on group composition, obviously.

I have good stats as a Breton Templar healer and I understand how the abilities compliment each other well. I too have been told to be the "best healer" people have run with, in both PVP and PVE. That being said, it is subjective. In an objective approach, you already mentioned that your gear isn't optimal for a healer...but it is for how you like to play. That's really all that matters. Worse case scenario, those who you easily complete content with, try to friend and group up with more often for more successful runs...

Even with my stats, I have played content that I could not beat with my group (PVE daily dungeons)...

For PVP, the phoenix set is really bad...it just means everyone jumps on the guy that is coming back to life and he quickly dies...so I assume you do a lot of PVE.

I haven't been able to read the suggestions or comments between your initial post and the replies so I will mainly address the initial post.

Firstly, by the way you address your concerns, it seems you do a lot of undaunted daily dungeons with pick up groups...If this is the case, we have a lot in common. I prefer PUGs since I play at odd hours and I feel it sharpens my skills (I will have to adjust my bars to compensate or compliment my group based on their skill/abilities). In turn, I feel this makes me a better healer. The Con is that you'll get the occasional DPS that touts his sustain but has 1200 weapon damage....

As far as bars go, I use my set up a bit different than most may....I run with 5pc Shroud of the Lich and I use that resto staff as a buff bar when my magic is less than 33% for the boost in regen. I also have a full 5pc bonus of Julianos with my swords. I have willpower arcane jewelry. I also use the atronach mundus stone for recovery since my jewelry is all enchanted for spell damage.

My other bar has dual swords with precise trait for more damage/healing.
I also adjust my bar for DPS and for support. This is my support set up.

Staff bar:
-Channeled focus
-Repentance
-Inner light
-Luminous shards (this ability is the first to get flexed out...I can return a lot more stamina efficiently with Repentance and usually just ask if my group wants/needs it....if not, I will likely use Purifying light or mutagen, or any number of swaps).
-Breath of life

Swords:
-Purifying ritual (Usually gets swapped with puncturing sweeps if my group has good self-sustain)
-Radiant oppression
-Inner light (can get replaced the ever fabulously glitchy toppling charge for PVP)
- Structured entropy (Taken off bar if I run with spell potions but to save costs, I use this for most PVE content).
- Breath of life (I double bar this ability since my set up requires a lot of bar swapping and that is the time when most damage occurs to my group because of it).

As for ultimates, I tend to use different ones for certain content...I want barrier but don't have it yet since I am really trying to focus on grinding my alts....but usually use meteor on my sword bar and practiced incantation on the staff bar...I will remove practiced incantation once I have barrier.

My stats can be easily adjusted by mundus stone changes, jewelry changes, and simple fixes. I have:

or

driosketch · December 2015

When I heal I have 5 piece Desert Rose and 5 piece Healer's Habit using the jewelry slots. Everything has magicka enchants, and I have just enough attributes in health to get to 20k with blue food and every thing else in magic. Desert returns magicka on damage equivalent or better than what Seducer saves on cost. On paper at least, course it does proc even on DoT ticks. Non conventional, I know, but I like to try different things.

Bar 1 with precise Restoration staff with magicka return enchant.

Healing ward
Breath of life
Combat prayer
Purifying ritual
Healing springs

Remembrance

I'm pretty much on bar 1 most of the run. I'll drop purifying on the tank then drop back, replacing as needed. I'll keep combat prayer up on everyone and use healing springs to top everyone off. I'll cast breath only when multiple drop a good chunk, or one goes really low. In which case I will pop healing ward on them first.

Second bar isn't really all that important, in fact it could use some tweaking myself. Right now I just use a spare restro staff with defending trait and a shield enchant. Channeled focus, which I'll only cast during boss fights. Breath of Life, because in an emergency I don't want to be fumbling with the weapon swap. Repetance. Efficient purge, which is probably getting swapped for Blazing spear. And finally Siphon spirt, which is again only for boss fights. Rembrance, just so I don't flub the wrong ult, but I'm considering replacing this with Reviving barrier.

I've never had a complaint, and I've only failed to complete a dungeon because someone left the group. Seriously, I've healed a Craglorn dugeon as a VR3 in 5 piece Seducer heavy armor with a group of randoms. These were players who were willing to tough it out. If you are getting good comments from some groups and complaints from others, I'm willing to bet the fault lies with the complainers and not with you.

Whitebrad25 · December 2015

I also sub out purifying ritual for more mobile fights (Valkyn Skoria or Nerienth) for skills like Harness Magicka...

I really don't have an set of skills I always have...most of my bars can be flexed and moved to accommodate my group...as a healer, flexibility is a good thing.

I also didn't catch your race.

puffy99 · December 2015

On Normal dungeons you could probably have a drink in one hand and your iPhone in the other and push BoL with your toe and no one should die unless they are noobs, underleveled.

I did Fungal Grotto VET last night with a PuG and we had 3 V16 tank types, I am V5 Temp. And oh my god it was a totally different experience. Between them being one shotted just as I press BoL or me trying to stay out of the way of the mobs it was tough.

My usual mode is to drop rune focus and go to town on the boss or mobs, heal as needed and obviously that wasn't working.

I have noticed when there is not enough DPS in your group or the tank can't mitigate enough boss damage you will have a seriously hard time and since in Normal mode I am probably one of the top DPS with dual swords, it makes the group dynamic and my job a lot harder when in Vet dungeons. I can see now why dedicated healing setups with Kags is optimal just to get the rez time down which often is the difference between a wipe and win.

Your playstyle also has to altered since what you are use to doing on Normal is not usually going to work on Vet.

ryanborror · December 2015

To get magic back and help with resources you should use channeled focus all the time. Siphon spirit and hearings springs both give magic back although you don't really need them. Something I did before I went dual wield was using impulse from destro line to finish off large groups. It's quick and with destro maxed it gives back more magic than it costs if you kill mobs with it.