NB lack a strong burst heal like templars have. They do/can push more HPS than templars and wardens, also have better sustain & can push impressive DPS while doing so.

I don't care what class/race you are as long as you can keep the group alive, and in my experience NB healers are very good at that. Also there's the ulti gen... sweet ulti gen.

Looks like NB's got a burst heal now too

Healthy Offering, costs less than 1k health over 8 seconds, heals for quite a bit (burst) & gives you minor mending while your health is being drained.

dtsharples wrote: »

Shards
Power of the Light
Minor Sorcery
BoL
Cleansing ritual
Mending passive
Resurrection speed + 50% ressed HP

Those seem to be the reasons end game trial guilds prefer Templars over anything else, as far as I can see.

Wardens give some nice group buffs, passively or from class skills also.

NBs on the other hand don't seem to have any passive or active skills that benefit the rest of the group - for 12 person content anyhow.

I'm not at all saying that it can't be done, see my above response
But merely suggesting why Templars are still the go-to healing class for a lot of guilds.

Orbs
Minor Savagery
Healthy Offering
Purge

Ulti gen & sustain (and DPS) is a lot better. Templars have a lot more built into their kit for healing (same with DK Tanking) but other classes bring something unique to the table

The meta is very much Templar focused, that is correct. However what most people seem to not get is that the meta is centred around progress raiding. So as long as you don't want to go for leader boards you don't need a absolute meta build. Your build should never the less be functional of course. I would not bring my NB healer to scoreruns, but I've played basically everything else with it and it works fine. In fact I think NB is actually one of the stronger healers this patch.
So honestly don't worry about the meta too much, especially if you are just getting started.

It looks like a decent setup to me. When you unlock the orbs skill in undaunted though, make sure to use those cause helping the group with resources is important. Also, Banished Cells 1 is pretty easy and drops Sanctuary set which is good for healing. I know ppl like the atromach mundus for recovery but I think the thief is great cuz crit heals are OP.

Far as trials go, Templar is the best for sure but as long as theres one Templar the other healer should be fine as NB. Like one reply said you wont be on leaderboard runs but with a competent and relaxed guild there shouldnt be a problem.

Ive done vet dungeons on my NB where my only heal was springs and we were fine. The additional dmg is nice. Actually, now that im thinking about it my NB might be good for vDSA.

AnnaUK wrote: »

Thanks for the replies

Well healed my first Vet dungeon, and was very happy with the experience. It was my first one ever as I haven't been brave enough until now. I had some deaths, down to me not knowing mechanics.. but I picked them up quite quickly.

I have resto staff main bar, and lightning staff on 2nd.

I am needing to get a few items/skills and level up a few passive like undaunted and assault, but when the group went low I had no issues with healing people up quite quickly, plus can do a little dps as well.

I hope that once I get more healer orientated sets it will be even better, (Julianos and Spinners atm lol).. got the Chokethorn set on my first day, so happy until I get a better set. I only leveled this character last week.

My skills atm are:

Resto bar:

Funnel Health
Sap essence
Mutagen
Healing Ward
Healing Springs
Consuming Darkness

Lightning Destro bar:

Refreshing Path
Blockade of Storms
Healthy offering (I swap this to Crippling Grasp when solo)
Siphoning Attacks
Harness Magicka
Soul Shred (for emergencies)

I'm sure this isn't optimal and whatnot but I am missing some stuff atm.

I don't think I will bother with trials.. I'm more than happy with vets tbh.

Looks like I was late, good job! as lightspeed says, consider slotting combat prayer, it’s a good heal and provides a dmg buff. As another option, if you’re happy with healing ward and if you feel you can manage sustain well enough, can slot out siphoning strikes

I always enjoy my NB healer in 4 mans. Refreshing path can usually be positioned to hit everyone and funnel health has 100% uptime on everyone as long as you use it 3 times every 10s. That is usually enough healing, but for the few places it’s needed I can add mutagen or healing ward.

The problem with trials is that the NB heal skills don’t scale very well to 12 people. It would take 11 casts of Funnel Health every 10s to keep it on everyone (impossible). Refreshing path is too narrow to effectively use during many anti-stack mechanics (Zhajassa’s curses, Foundation Stone Atro’s rock throwing, etc.) where Healing Springs and Templar’s ritual work fine.

Sap essence is great in 4 mans since you can run into the middle of a trash pack and hit everything while healing everyone nearby. It is terrible in trials though, since the healer should be behind the group casting Combat Prayer and out of range of most enemies for Sap Essence.

Offering is a good replacement for Templar’s breath of life, but if you start using it too often you will get yourself killed. Again this skill works better in a group of 4 than a group of 12.

I will say that Nightblades have some of the best healing ultimates: Soul Siphon and Veil. However 9/10 fights in trials you will be expected to be in a Warhorn rotation.

You will also find that nightblades have the best sustain of any class, as long as they are light attack weaving with Siphoning Attcks. In theory healers could light attack in most fights, it is difficult to achieve when you are having to aim at other players for things like combat prayer or healing springs and they are not near the boss.

All that being said, nightblades can absolutely heal any vet trial. They will just be relying mostly on skills that are available to all classes. It is viable for clears, but it would be hard to argue in favor of a Nightblade healer for any type of competitive score attempt.

dtsharples wrote: »

Shards
Power of the Light
Minor Sorcery
BoL
Cleansing ritual
Mending passive
Resurrection speed + 50% ressed HP

Those seem to be the reasons end game trial guilds prefer Templars over anything else, as far as I can see.

Wardens give some nice group buffs, passively or from class skills also.

NBs on the other hand don't seem to have any passive or active skills that benefit the rest of the group - for 12 person content anyhow.

I'm not at all saying that it can't be done, see my above response
But merely suggesting why Templars are still the go-to healing class for a lot of guilds.

Maybe this is what the Vanus set is all about? The Major mending being increased?

You can complete any content with a magnb healer. I have a guildie that raids regularly with his magnb healer. I also have a healer of each class, and while my favorite healer atm is my magwarden, I went through a couple months phase where I did vet hm trials & pvp raids on my magnb healer. For the pve content we ended up on the leaderboards, it was pretty high esp for the crag trials so idk what other people are saying you can't get high scores with a nb healer. When I did pvp ball group raids on my magnb healer we used an add-on to track how much damage & heals people were outputting and it consistently over a couple of weeks showed I was keeping up with or outhealing the templars in raids. So yeah, in terms of pure healing output, you're potentially doing so much heals over time, I'd say it's possible to complete any content.

That being said, I haven't used my magnb healer yet on vHOF or vCR. I think on vHOF you will have a bit more trouble (there's a couple of times like 4th boss and last boss where you'd ideally drop a nova for damage mitigation) but if the other healer is a templar or there's a templar dps to do that you'll be fine. I haven't tried it in vHOF but NB also has its own damage mitigation ult - Bolstering Darkness. It doesn't last as long as nova and it not big enough aoe to protect the whole 12 man group but it's something I guess. Your Soul siphon ult is also strong, it heals for more than Templar's practiced incantation ult or warden tree does and it's especially good in fights where healing is debuffed (ex. cloudrest execute phase or in pvp) since it gives major vitality on top of the burst heal + heal over time.

NB's in class burst heal is healthy offering, especially now that it's been buffed it's really good. I found that it ticks harder than breath of life or warden shrooms and you can nullify the health cost to you by shielding up or healing yourself with other abilities. If you spam it like breath of life can be spammed, you will die to your own offering ability lol. Your other burst heals are healing ward, combat prayer from resto staff skill line and soul siphon. You also have other in class heals like refreshing path, funnel health, sap essence. Nightblade healers do place their multiple heals over time and end up still doing damage especially in dungeons and non-trial content. The problem that I had with it in trials was that the only synergy I was giving out was orbs or altar, so I noticed there's less group utility there since I was just doing pure heals & a bit of damage. In contrast, a templar would give shards for stam & mag return + purify / cleanse synergy on top of orbs, a warden has harvest and extra buffs that give mag & stam recovery + increased base health + increased spell & physical resistances).

NightAngel690 wrote: »

A buddy of mine runs Nb healer in pve content...I was actually thinking on making one so I can do vDSA but I ended up just making a nightblade tank. Lol. I would eventually like to make a nb healer though...I look forward to seeing how you progress so that I could possibly get some advice

Loving it so far, another healer in our guild a Templar says he uses loads of pots for Magicka.. I have awesome sustain on my nb.

Love the run speed for when people in a trial need to get out of trouble fast, and being able to dps and heal is what makes it for me.

AnnaUK wrote: »

shaielzafine wrote: »

You can complete any content with a magnb healer. I have a guildie that raids regularly with his magnb healer. I also have a healer of each class, and while my favorite healer atm is my magwarden, I went through a couple months phase where I did vet hm trials & pvp raids on my magnb healer. For the pve content we ended up on the leaderboards, it was pretty high esp for the crag trials so idk what other people are saying you can't get high scores with a nb healer. When I did pvp ball group raids on my magnb healer we used an add-on to track how much damage & heals people were outputting and it consistently over a couple of weeks showed I was keeping up with or outhealing the templars in raids. So yeah, in terms of pure healing output, you're potentially doing so much heals over time, I'd say it's possible to complete any content.

I was told that you can get away with running dps sets as healer nb? Is this true?

Sure, it all depends on your playstyle and what content you are doing. You can do a combination of dps with support sets if you want to. I'd recommend Spell Power Cure (SPC) with Infallible Aether set based on what you're trying to do. Look at the gear and see if you'd like it. If you don't have that you can do Julianos with SPC. You can drop support sets altogether and go pure dps sets (ex. mother's sorrow with siroria on your magnb) if you really want, but then you would be a dps doing off heals, your role is not a healer since you aren't wearing anything that buffs / supports the group. If you are curious how much damage you can do while wearing support sets vs dps sets you can always parse on a target dummy and see for yourself, and adjust what combination of sets you want to wear based on that.

Honestly with the CP power creep, people don't need that much heals in pve overland content or dungeons, and it'll be faster if you are 3 dpsing 4 man content. In pvp most people have an offensive (dps) & defensive (self heals bar) as well. But in trials, you'd probably want to run 2 support sets rather than dps sets. In that scenario you'd already have 8 dps who should be working on that role so you can focus on healing and giving them as much buffs as possible to raise the group's dps and improve their survivability. You'll want to coordinate with the other healer on what sets to wear so you complement each other. I would keep olorime or spc on unless the other healer already has olorime. The major courage buff from these 2 sets increases Weapon and Spell Damage by 258 for 30 seconds - this helps increase everyone's damage and this buffs your heals too. If the other healer already have olorime on, then you don't need to wear either so you can wear other sets.

Alcast has a magicka nightblade build with more details on healer gear, skills, cp allocation, etc - https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-nightblade-healer-build-pve/

SilverWF wrote: »

NB healers are sucks
They can't be good even in some dungeons, not talking about trials.

Never tried to make one (what a crazy idea!), but seen a lot of them - pathetic show they only can provide.

Don't have an good NB healer myself but understand they are very good in dungeons.
I feel sorcerer make an better dungeon healer than templar, better burst heal and far higher dps while healing.
As other say, healing is just part of your job, now in n-trials you only heal and doing it on sorcerer felt clunky.
Same with vet dlc, at least with an pretty weak tank.