Templar healer -- Just hit CP 160 and I want to start running dungeons

chiftie · December 2017

I just hit CP 160 and I have yet to run a single dungeon. I want to start healing dungeons as a templar. Before I start that, I want to make sure I have the right gear and skills so I'm not completely useless. Anyone have any tips? I have level 50 tailoring and woodworking and at least 7 traits on every item slot. I was thinking about going with the seducer/mangus build, but that only requires 2/3 traits. So perhaps there's something else I should be using.

chiftie · December 2017

Also I'm wondering if I should continue to use the "training" trait.

Motherball · December 2017

I would suggest doing the lower level dungeons first. Queing into specific dungeons rather than random wont take much longer since healers tend to be more rare either way. The normal dungeons are very forgiving and will allow you to experiment a lot. Also, Ive read its good to use Elemental Drain and Blockade of Storms from destro staff as support. Focus on magicka regen at first, and taper it off in favor of dmg, crit, or healing as needed, imo. For example, its better to have too much regen at first than not enough, but at some point the regen is too much and you are sacrificing other stats. Ive read divines on most armor with infused for legs chest and head is standard for traits.

Invoca · December 2017

My advice would be running Resto Staff on one bar and Lightning Staff on the other. Seducer/Magnus should be fine afaik, I started with that on my templar healer. I believe people rate Spell Power Cure and Worm set but they're dropped sets.

PvP skill tree has skills that are useful like the War Horn ultimate and Purify (as a templar you do have a different cleanse but in harder content I believe it's useful to have both).

As you haven't done any before I'd queue specific normals starting from the first, easiest ones and then working your way up. It helps build your confidence! Don't stress about all the skills if you start with the easy dungeons. I healed normals on my Templar healer until max level with no problems without having things like War Horn ultimate, but I also never did a DLC dungeon during that.

The following threads have good advice:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/385026/newbie-healer-looking-for-advice#latest

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/386636/tips-for-starting-a-healer#latest

chiftie · December 2017

Motherball wrote: »

I would suggest doing the lower level dungeons first. Queing into specific dungeons rather than random wont take much longer since healers tend to be more rare either way. The normal dungeons are very forgiving and will allow you to experiment a lot. Also, Ive read its good to use Elemental Drain and Blockade of Storms from destro staff as support. Focus on magicka regen at first, and taper it off in favor of dmg, crit, or healing as needed, imo. For example, its better to have too much regen at first than not enough, but at some point the regen is too much and you are sacrificing other stats. Ive read divines on most armor with infused for legs chest and head is standard for traits.

Thank you. So I should stop using the training trait at this point and switch to Divines?

chiftie · December 2017

Invoca wrote: »

My advice would be running Resto Staff on one bar and Lightning Staff on the other. Seducer/Magnus should be fine afaik, I started with that on my templar healer. I believe people rate Spell Power Cure and Worm set but they're dropped sets.

PvP skill tree has skills that are useful like the War Horn ultimate and Purify (as a templar you do have a different cleanse but in harder content I believe it's useful to have both).

As you haven't done any before I'd queue specific normals starting from the first, easiest ones and then working your way up. It helps build your confidence! Don't stress about all the skills if you start with the easy dungeons. I healed normals on my Templar healer until max level with no problems without having things like War Horn ultimate, but I also never did a DLC dungeon during that.

The following threads have good advice:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/385026/newbie-healer-looking-for-advice#latest

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/386636/tips-for-starting-a-healer#latest

Thank you!

AcadianPaladin · December 2017

I also run a templar healer. Some recommendations for you at this stage (healing normal dungeons):

- Traits: 7 divines or divines on small pieces and infused on big pieces.
- Mundus stone: Mag regen or spell power is fine.
- Work up your undaunted skill line to level 9 for the top passive and set your armor up as 5 light, 1 heavy, 1 medium. Daily undaunted delves will gradually get you there with little risk.
- Seducers is a very fine set. Pair it with a dropped set of your choice. Things to look for on your dropped set are spell damage, magicka, regen, even a shot of health is fine.
- Use blue food that boosts your magicka and health.
- Resto staff on one bar and Lightning staff on the other. Lightning is preferred for a couple reasons: 1. Blockade of Storms will help keep foes off balance for your group. 2. Destruction staff passives help all your AoE damage (like Reflective Light, Heavy lightning staff attacks, Blockade, Shards, Sweeps).
- Skills. Choose your skills and slotting to support the following tasks: Healing (HoT, area, burst), assisting your group with mag/stam management, buffs, debuffs.
- Here is the bar/skill set up that I use –
Resto bar: Extended Ritual, Mutagen (Rapid Regen is fine), Combat Prayer, Healing Springs, Breath of Life.
Destro bar: Elemental Drain, Luminous Shards, Blockade of Storms, Channeled Focus, Puncturing Sweeps.
- There are more good skills than you have slots. Other good skills include Reflective Light, Purifying Light, Radiant Glory (or Oppression), Orbs and a few others.

FrancisCrawford · December 2017

Some thoughts:

Depending on how much you do or don't play, keeping training on your armor might make a lot of sense. You still have a lot of experience to gain before you're max CP. That's less of a good idea on your weapons.
Rapid Regeneration/Mutagen is a rock-solid standard. It's cheap and efficient. Later on when you get Spell Power Cure gear, that will be another strong reason to use it. So just get in the habit and stay there.
It's common to go lightning/resto. That's what I do with my healers in all five classes.
Absolutely have 1 or 2 efficient burst heals or "heals", where Breath of Life is a burst heal and Healing Ward is a burst "heal". That said, your goal is to use them only rarely.
Healing Ward, Combat Prayer and Extended Ritual are all strong in larger groups and/or more advanced dungeons than you'll be healing at first. Use them or not as you see fit for that particular run. Try them all at times to gain experience with them.
It's standard for healers to run Elemental Blockade (lightning/storms). That's efficient damage in any group, whether or not the bit about the Exploiter champion point star kicks in. Run it.
Luminous Shards is the other must-run. Casting it back to back with Blockade makes all kinds of sense. Try to have it land in the general vicinity of the tank, when your group actually has one.
It's standard for healers to run Elemental Drain. You can use it on mobs other than bosses if you choose. Run it.
Repentance is no longer an elite skill, but it can be useful and fun, and has an OK passive benefit. Don't be ashamed to use it.
Try to use Channeled Focus. It's great when you can stay in the circle. Gain experience with it.
Reflective Light, "Jesus Beam", Puncturing Sweeps and Purifying Light all have merit. Alternate them as you see fit.
Aggressive Warhorn is a must-run for large groups. It's not as obviously right in dungeons. The Dawn's Wrath, Destro staff and Resto staff ultimates are all worth considering, and in fact are what I usually run in some combination.

I generally run Blockade, Shards, Reflective Light, one of Purifying Light/Sweeps, Elemental Drain and Elemental Rage on my lightning bar. Purifying Light is a fit for groups with good tanking and DPS; Sweeps is for more chaotic or dubious groups.

FrancisCrawford · December 2017

Also:

Advice about 5-1-1 and Undaunted Mettle is somewhat premature. It will take you a while to get there.
Vaults of Madness is an easier dungeon than you might expect. Farming Worm Cult is not hard when you are ready to do that.
We have multiple threads here with tips about White-Gold Tower, for when you're ready to farm Spell Power Cure.

Dakmor_Kavu · January 2018

Those 2 sets should be just fine for starting out. As others have said, the Worm and SPC sets are definitely ones to look to get, but in the meantime you'll be just fine without them as theyre dungeon drop sets. Some people run the 5-1-1 (light/heavy/medium) for the undaunted bonus. Personally I prefer all 7 light, as healers tend to use dungeon sets, which you cant get in medium/heavy (and the passive benefits of light to magika are to me more beneficial).

Start with the easier normal dungeons and work up, keeping in mind your priorities:

1. Heal - get the heals over time going, and keep an eye out for damage you can anticipate (known mechanics or big easily identified attacks your allies are going to be hit by). This will be especially important later on when using SPC set for the overheal set effect
2. Buff - work on keeping up the important buffs on the group (things like combat prayer). In the beginning just get comfortable figuring out how often you can work them in, and then as you get more comfortable work on improving their uptime.
3. Support (resources/others) - practice tossing out shards for your tank, or even for your DPS if your groups tank is doing fine. Also be aware you may need to use things like purge to clear off certain negative effects (purge is less used in dungeons, but always good practice or at least thinking about)
4. DPS - aside from laying down your wall of elements, this is your last priority, once the first 3 things have been met.

When doing these 4 things, 2 things will make your life much easier:

1. anticipate anticipate anticipate - keep heals over time going to mitigate damage you know the team will take. Toss a shard early to your tank if you know there is a long series of blocking coming up for him/her. Drop your healing circles where you anticipate folks moving to (so they dont dodge and immediately roll out of it). Thinking of what is coming will enable you to have the heals ready, and enable you to work on keeping buffs up as much as possibel.
2. Positioning Positioning Positioning - This is HANDS DOWN the #1 thing a healer needs to consider. Where is the boss facing? Where is my tank and where may he move to? Am I close enough to provide him shards/hit my allies with buffs/heals? Am I too close to any cleaves that may happen? Do I have teammates behind me who may not get heals/buffs? Figuring out where to stand to avoid damage, and see all your team to provide heals/support will be the most beneficial thing you can do as a healer. In doing this, do NOT be afraid to speak up and tell your group members where to go! Have a bow user standing 1000 yards away? Tell him to get his ass closer and that you will keep him healed/buffed so he survives AND can do more damage. Have a tank kiting everything around rather than holding it in place? Let him know this means you cant target him with shards as well, and have to keep re-setting your healing circles. Healers are absolutely the glue that keeps a good group organized and positioned well. While the tank worries about the boss, you worry about the boss, the tank, the DPS, and yourself. Dont think you have to be silent and worry about it all on your own. Your team is there to help you, as much as you are there to help them.

By keeping in mind your positioning, anticipating how a fight will go, and knowing your priorities during a fight, you will be able to succeed no matter what setup or variations of skills you ultimately decide to run. Best of luck, and welcome to the world of healers!

TheNightflame · January 2018

One of the things that this game's culture has moved towards is the idea that you shouldn't learn as you play, but learn, and then once you know everything and have everything figured out, start playing. This is sorta true (you should know what your role entails (keeping people alive, buffing, helping with resources) but you should also be able to just jump in, knowing only that, and figure out the best way to do t as you go. I've got monster helms from a bunch of different cp levels (including a cp20 valkyn scoria helm from a long looooong time (a few years) ago) that I got while I was learning to heal and figuring things out. You by no means have to fully gear yourself before you start doing vet dungeons as a healer, you don't even have to be cp 160. One of the skills I loved using when I first started out and was figuring things out was purifying light. It trivialized trash packs and fights like the grobbull one. Just slot what feels best for you to heal and support the group, and when you're starting to feel to cushioned with your setup/you're getting better at your role, re a lot some things, add more buffs, add lightning wall, etc. There's a lot of this "get 1337 or get out" mentality, but especially for the healing role, there is so much grey space to be perfectly fine as a learner. With dps, anything 15k+ is fine for nearly all vet dungeons, but more often than not there will be either light attack spammers or 30k+ people who are capable of soloing the dungeon (or 30k+ people who will die a lot and blame you for it). The game isn't that black and white though, it's totally cool to learn for yourself. Don't jump straight into the end game optimal healer builds, do what feels best for you, and adjust as you get better. I recommend practicing on vet darkshade 2, vet wayrest 2, and vet coa 2 (I learned pre 1T so learned on the "2" vet dungeons, and found those to force you to adapt to the most types of scenarios). Get to it and you'll get it. No need to wait for gear or max CP

edit: Dakmor's tips will also help things start out a ton more smoothly^^^

Kraynic · January 2018

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is that Elemental Drain can be a totally wasted spot on your destro bar. Elemental Drain applies Major Breach (lowers the target's spell resistance by 5280) and Minor Magickasteal (everyone attacking that target gains 300 magicka per second).

Major Breach is a debuff that you do want on a boss, so I'm not at all saying this is a horrible skill. However, any tank that is worth calling one will be using pierce armor (morph of the very first 1h&shield skill which is the taunt). A warden tank has a class skill that applies this in an AoE. A staff tank should be applying this debuff. Basically, if you have a "tank" that isn't debuffing the boss, then you need Elemental Drain. If you do have real tank, then you might think about using something else.

Radiant Aura (morph of Restoring Aura) will apply minor magickasteal to every enemy within 28 meters of you for 15 seconds. It also increases your health, magicka, and stamina regen by 10% when slotted. That allows you to keep the magickasteal up for the casters in your group, increases your regen, while your tank takes care of breach.

The thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to make a set build for healing. If someone in the group is supplying the same thing you are, then one of you really ought to change out an ability, because you can't apply multiple stacks of the same buff/debuff. They only overwrite each other. Change up things as it will benefit the changing group composition around you. Just something to keep in mind as you go forth healing.