Need some advice with DragonKnight Healer

dominic.iraceb14_ESO · January 2017

I'm a CP 490 and i have a great build that combines both DPS (Bow) and then i switch to Healer.. I've referenced "Delta Gaming" for many of his hints regarding which armor, skill points and sets to wear.. Since I've maxed out all my Skills (clothing, guilds, weapons..etc) for my character.. i have access to all skill unlocks that are offered to the DragonKnight Class.

With that said... I get a lot of harassment from players when we typically fight bosses that have a lot of adds that are all over the place.. I've noticed that my Team members run in every direction and it's hard to focus my healing abilities on them as i normally want to stay by the Tank and the majority of my healing has radius limits.

Typically, when it's 1 boss and i can focus healing and protection around the Tank (in front of boss) and the DPS (usually behind the boss), there are no issues.. and everybody loves me!! But last night when we were trying to destroy the Lord Warden.. it was a disaster as nobody was staying together and it became a free for all with everybody scattering around, then complaining that the healer sucks

souravami · January 2017

Just one advice.
Roll a Templar.

paulsimonps · January 2017

Well one of the things you can do is to get as many heal over times as you can. Make sure to keep Mutagen/Rapid Regen up at all times, and to keep using Igneous shield to give yourself Major Mending. Force Siphon would be a great ability to use there to give people HP back when they hit him, with Update 13 that skill is gonna be even more powerful. Other than that its about trying to throw heals over to the people that need them most and to stand your ground. People will complain about heals when they themselves are actually the problem, and sometimes you are well within your right to tell them off if they are being a D about it.

You can also try using the Barrier Ultimate in that fight, from the Support Skill line, that and to maybe Guard one of the DPS's. You are at a huge disadvantage in that fight being a healer that is not a templar but you can still do it as long as your DPS's don't run around like headless chickens. Its also adviced even with a templar to use Shields and or Vigor as DPS on that fight cause of the beam he does.

dominic.iraceb14_ESO · January 2017

Another thing (that my Team noticed) is that after we defeated the "Lava Queen".. my team stood in those lava pools and slowly let their health decline... as i stood there and tried to heal them, my healing beam was going to other Charaters that weren't losing any health!! WTF!

Even when i using my healing shield .. it kept casting around me instead of who need it.. Also, i think the total health plays a part too.... my heals kept going to a lower level character who only had a total of 18,000 HP, vs. a wounded player who had already lost 40% of his HP, but his total was still over 18k.. this screws me up too since those players say i never heal them!

kessik221 · January 2017

Healing ward and mutagen. Just keep dropping healing springs. If they dont wanna stand in em thats their problems

OrphanHelgen · January 2017

The dps you will do with a bow as a healer, are not even noticable. Using a combat prayer on a DD instead, gives more dps then your bow skills. One reason for this is the fact your healer scales from max magicka, spell dmg and spell crit and well as champion points into the magicka area. Leaving your bow completely useless, even for a normal non tryhard dungeon.
Go double resto or resto/destro. Please.

SolarCat02 · January 2017

Highly recommend switching the Bow for a Fire staff. This also lets you use Elemental Drain (restores magicka for magicka dps) and in the right situations, Pulsar (debuff for non-boss mobs).

Regeneration is bugged at the moment but will be fixed next patch (hopefully), and I highly recommend it.

Healing Ward is very important for a non-Templar healer, since we don't have Breath of Life and the like.

Healing Springs, usually I keep it under the tank, although if the adds are all bunched up and the tank is solid I will cast it under the adds for the melee dps to enjoy.

Learn to watch where the team is standing, and keep tabs on who is outside your range (easily seen by faded health bars in the group list). The more you understand where everyone is, the easier it is to heal them. This is the hardest part, and it's something learned. More organized groups are much easier.

AverageJo3Gam3r · January 2017

Drop the bow which scales with stamina. Healing scales with magicka. You cannot do both and be effective at end game. With that said, your dps needs to not run all over the place. The tank should chains adds into one spot for the dps to aoe down.

Overall, it sounds like all three roles in your group were making it hard on each other.

Seraphayel · January 2017

souravami wrote: »

Just one advice.
Roll a Templar.

No good advice. You don't need a Templar healer, the other classes can handle it as well.

What skills are you using? Healing Ward is an amazing tool for DK healers and Obsidian Shard is a great ST heal. As the others said, keep one HoT active, throw some Shards when you need high ST healing or cast some Wards when you need massive heals.

SickDuck · January 2017

Lord Warden is one of the worst boss fights in the game and definitely not easy job for a healer on veteran mode. Don't need to feel bad about it.

There are lot of good advices above. I would add that the resto staff ulti can be very helpful. It is a decent ranged burst HoT with some bonus to damage. It is very cheap and can be used frequently. Since you are a DK it can help with your resource management too.

Bow doesn't seem right, should go staves all the way - as suggested. Alternatively you can try 1h+s for an extra set bonus and great survivability. Could run an heal/tank for most instances with 3 dds.

Zakor · January 2017

I want to cite myself from another thread (DK-Heal main here):

Zakor wrote: »

Advice from DK-Heal
Use Healing-Springs as main-heal. I for myself run a complete Resto-Skill-Bar. Works great. As Ult I like to use Meteor or Warhorn.

Your "Oh ***" ability is the healing ward. Make good use of it.

On your backbar you have 2 choices: 1) would be dual wield for additional mdmg, 2) would be destro staff (esp. for wgt for example). Must have on backbar is igneous shield since it boosts your healings. I really love the chocking talons also since they take tons of damage of the group in groupfights. Be sure to use igneous weapons to buff your and your allies damage.

Whoever tells you to use magma shell: ignore them. It's absolutly not worth it. Instead play a bit PvP and slot barrier. The shield is around 200% stronger!

Do NOT run obsidian shard unless you REALLY know what you do, since: the heal is damn unreliable and has travel time --> actually a pretty bad skill. Cauterize on the other hand is a great tool you click every 20 secs. I have that one on my backbar also.

Since you want to support your group you want to have necrotic orb on your bar and slot a set that restores stamina to your group like sentinel of rkugamz.

Don't let anyone talk you into a dd/tank role/playstyle. You are a healer and should play like one.You really don't have to deal damage at all.

As DKs have a problem with range you most likely will fight close to the enemies. Think about sloting heavy armor for that. It works great actually as long as you combine it correctly (something like 3heavy/4light for example). It will also boost your sustain in trash fights!

Try to use ults when your ressources are low AND the group needs them. That for, try to use ignous shield/weapons every 6 seconds to maxime the effect of your mountains blessing passive.

As Dk sustain is low and depends on ults you may want to be a vamp to get improved regen. As dunmer that should be no problem.

Example build like I play it:
Seducer 5 piece (heavy torso, heavy legs, light hands, boots and belt)

2 piece sentinel of rkugamz(head heavy, shoulder light)

jewels of SPC

dual wield SPC

normal resto (still waiting for master resto for more stam recovery).

(sidenote: As you see I only have SPC on backbar. That's no problem since mutagen can proc it and you can do things like weapon swap midst combat prayer to gain the bonus. Maybe needs a bit practice)

Mainbar (Resto):
Mutagen, Illustrious healing, Combat prayer, healing ward, Siphon spirit; Warhorn/Meteor

Backbar1(Dual Wield):
Igneous Shield, Necrotic Orb, Chocking Talons (Trashfights)/Bone Surge(Bone SHield Morph for Bossfights), Cauterize, Igneous Weapons; Barrier

Backbar2(Destro)
Igneous Shield, Necrotic Orb, Crushing Shock, Cauterize, Igneous Weapons; Barrier

If in any doubt feel free to PM me with further questions. I heal Vet-Content with this build without any problems.

Last thing to add is that it's not YOUR fault when the group is spread all over the boss area and you can't heal anymore. It's a problem with your group and communication. The problem is that people act like there is one temp healer with BoL spam and he/she will save them whatever they do. That is wrong, period. You can't counter heal playing bad. And you don't HAVE TO counter heal playing bad.

Keep your head up. If you need more advice feel free to PM me.

Seraphayel · January 2017

Good read but I don't agree with 5. Obsidian Shard is a great ST healing ability that only needs a bit of understanding to fully make use out of it. The travel speed is a problem but will be solved in 2.7 as far as I know. The biggest issue with the skill is it's Magicka cost. It's a great tool for healing the tank or melees and it really heals a lot.

Zakor · January 2017

@Seraphayel
There are more problems with OS than travel speed:

High cost. Costs are higher than combat prayer.
relatively low heal for those high costs. On my build it's around 10% more than combat prayer on ONE target instead of 6.
Unreliable. It's not sure it heals the target you want it to heal.
And still, even with 100% faster travel, it has travel time.

So let's recap:
An expensive single target heal that has travel time and heals only around 10% more than the cheaper group heal which also buffs defense and (if combat prayer) damage. Actually it's even more effective to use healing springs over OS. The moments you want to heal MUCH damage like REALLY much damage you should use healing ward anyway.

I hope you see my point saying it's pretty bad.

imapogostick · January 2017

Healing ward will help when you need to save someone and aren't sure exactly where they are. You can get major mending from a HA retro staff if you don't want to use igneous shield. Or possibly using cauterize could help although I don't believe I've used it. But yeah that's partly your groups fault not sticking in the healing springs. They should have realised you weren't a templar.

Seraphayel · January 2017

@Zakor

I agree with you on most points. I can't judge about high level or end game content yet with my DK but in lower level dungeons I'm using Obsidian Shard pretty frequently as a high ST heal and it does a really good job. I'm no fan of Combat Prayer due to its positioning requirements.

Obsidian Shard heals as much as Healing Springs but does so instantly. Maybe in higher levels it won't be as good as it is in lower levels but the skill is not that bad. And I don't think that it's unreliable. After using it in the last 3, 4 dungeon runs I always had the feeling the heal is targetting the ally with the lowest health as long as it's in range of the mob you casted that spell on (15m, 20m? I don't know what's the exact range).

Zakor · January 2017

@Seraphayel

The point is that you want to have the damage buff from combat prayer in high level and end game content. You shouldn't have position issue with it if you are the last one in the group (in stationary fights). In mobile fights I often just use it for 1 or 2 group members (the dds).

Seraphayel wrote: »

And I don't think that it's unreliable. After using it in the last 3, 4 dungeon runs I always had the feeling the heal is targetting the ally with the lowest health as long as it's in range of the mob you casted that spell on (15m, 20m? I don't know what's the exact range).

That point already is a problem. Another problem occurs when somebody else near the mob drops low while the projectile is midflight. It may heal the wrong person. I'm not saying the heal is useless but there are far better alternatives out there (judging from a cost-benefit point of view). I can cast ~3 healing springs or 1 OS with the same costs. Thats just wrong.

Stannum · January 2017

Ok here's my DK-heal build

Sets 5spc+4trinimac+2infernal guardian (med and heavy). I use trini and med-heavy monster as i have no full spc in jewellry, so better varinat is 5spc (3 on jewelry)+ 4seduser (with heavy torso)+ 2infernal guardian, on of (leag/boot/shoulder/head) part should be med (for undaunted bonus). All large parts - infused, all small - divines. I used argonian for health bonus (with undaunted buff and blue food i have almost 20k health and ~40Magika) as it boosts igni shield.
Mundus - thief.

Bars: resto (main heal) ilustrious healing - mag light - ingni shield - energy orb (or combat prayer) - healing ward (mostly only for emergency) -- horn or shooting star.
destro (dps and buffs) elemental drain - mag light - elemental blockade - engulfing flames - molten armament -- fire rage

Game tactic is being close with main group keeping DoTs, shields and HoTs all the time. This build combines effective healing and good DpS.