Hello all, I’m going to be as short and direct as possible in this post.

Purpose: To create a “use” for Healers in group content.

The heart of the issue falls to the overall troubles with supportive roles and a META that has come to call them “Selfish vs Non-Selfish Builds.” To set this matter straight, there is no such creature as a selfish Tank or Healer. Their roles eliminate the possibility of selfishness in that their whole purpose is to ensure the survival of the other team members. While ESO at one time stated that they wanted an inclusive culture that didn’t end up as another WOW, in that DPS is king, their simplistic strategy in Leaderboards for end-game content states otherwise. Instead of groups being Dynamically Ranked and scored based on individual roles for an overall cumulative group score (Closer to how Battlegrounds are scored and ranked-though hopefully an even better system), instead it is simply a time modifier. The better the time, the better the score, the higher the rank. Thus, DPS has become KING, and all support roles are to function with minimal specs into their actual roles and instead focus on buoying the overall DPS of the group, (Example: Alkosh a Medium Armor damage dealing set worn by Heavy Armor Tanks, no matter what max stat their focus is, used to improve group penetration). As such, if a Healer cannot bring more to the group than survivability they are not as desired because the other roles can burn faster with more DPS thus taking less damage and off-healing enough to stay alive.

As nothing in ESO stands on its own, to make Healers more appealing in content, this will also touch on other aspects of balancing. I have devised a 4-step process that I feel will remedy this issue in a sustainable and appealing manner.


STEP #1: Healers need more than just heals to be required in group content.

Healers are a support role, and as such should bring things to the group that the group’s members cannot feasibly get on their own without running DPS or Tanking LOSS sets to make up the difference. That is, they should offer, damage modifiers, minor and major buffs/de-buffs, on top of their strong heals. Also, these should “synergize” with not only the group BUT with the MAIN other support role of a group, the TANK.

We manage the main contribution a Healer can provide with a 2 Part “balance” change.

Part A: A skill line swap and change.



So, now that we know what we are working with, how do we make a Healer more effective while synergizing with a TANK and the DD’s?

Answer: make both the tank and DD’s STRONGER in their roles with a simple change you can ONLY get through a healer.



As Shields are taking hit no matter what, (Accepting Critical Damage and Glyph Damage in PVP), and a second unknown proposed change to get back an instant cast time (Proposed Possible 40% of Health maximum strength in both PVE and PVP plus Battle Spirit in PVP) Magicka users will be in dire need of some defensive options to help keep them alive. As pointed out that Weakness to Elements hasn’t any truly viable in-game use, it opens an opportune window of adding a defensive skill to the stave line. As one of the largest problems Magicka users face is mobility and given they are mostly stronger at range-with notable class exceptions- the Elemental Burst Skill allows Magicka users a way to either escape or put distance between themselves and their attackers when fighting in a more than 1 on 1 environment. By making the Major Breach an additive instead of focus of the skill it allows users in solo content and PVP to still have access to this penetration, while also using an active DPS skill as do most Stamina skills that give Major Fracture.
In PVE it becomes a decent skill in group mobs giving magicka users a way to make the mobs more vulnerable to their attacks when the tank cannot feasibly penetrate all adds or enemies in play while also helping to control the battle and cause damage. In most cases Elemental Escape will be stronger in PVP while Elemental Explosion will be stronger in PVE and specific PVP builds.

In effect we pull the single target penetration from the Destructive line and give it to the Healer. However, instead of making it a Minor/Major Buff which cannot synergize with the Tank skills and Damage Dealing skills, we instead give it the same value that is given through Alkosh. This synergizes with a Tank in that now the Tank is free to use an actual Heavy armor or Tanking set to improve their survivability. As was mentioned in a previous Class Rep meeting, it would be beneficial if the Tank could actually build like a tank and thus fulfilling the purpose of their role requirement. It also moves the Healer into a more KEY position in group make-up in order for the group to achieve maximum DPS against their foes. Also, with the 1st morph being the clear choice for PVE it allows the healer to benefit BOTH Magicka AND Stamina group sustain, instead of only helping half the group. It thus even further helps DPS in their goal.
IN PVP the skill remains single target and the penetration boost only helpful while the targeted player is still alive, or the timer runs out. Morph 2 is clearly better suited for PVP play in that the battles per player in general last for shorter time making the 4 second timer of Defile and Maim another helpful tool to your group.

Of Course, with these changes come PART B.


Part B: Making Alkosh work for Stamina builds as a Medium Armor Stamina Set.

Now that the penetration this set gives is in the hands of the Healer, this set needs to be adjusted to still work in gameplay and a desirable option, but for Stamina Damage Dealers and NOT Tanks. As the set currently gives Weapon Damage and Weapon Critical in its first 3 traits, it is aimed as a Damage Dealing and not a sustain set.

My Proposal is simple:

Continue to give it a group penetration buff BUT ONLY for Physical Penetration, raising Stamina DD to the same penetration’s threshold of Magicka players. Also, further reinforce it as a Damage set the keeps the user in the group form taking a significant DPS LOSS while having the set equipped.

In order to do this:

2-4th piece traits remain as is.

5th piece Trait Becomes:
When you activate a synergy, you send a shockwave from your position that deals 1720 Physical Damage and an additional 12040 Physical Damage over 10 seconds. Reduces the Physical Resistance of any enemy hit by 4884 and gives you 430 Weapon Damage and 657 Weapon Critical for 10 seconds.

This is an idea and the actual values may need adjustment based on whatever set equations ZOS runs sets through before releasing them; however, as it no longer works as a Tank set, it still has definite added group value in the hands of a Stamina DPS player!



STEP #2: Class and Line Heals VS the Restoration Stave, Alliance War and Guild Lines

This is short and sweet.

Basically, I’m going to use THE MOST HATED WORD in balancing…NERF.

NERF all NON-Restoration Stave, Non-Alliance War and Non-Guild line Heals by 20%.

As the CP points rise, Damage Dealers will eventually, (A long way off) start having the ability to invest in healing focused CP Tree lines making their individual heals even stronger than they already are. This helps keep that at bay, in that they would only be able to get their heals mainly back to current levels when investing 56 CP points in lines like Blessed. Yes, they will still have room to buff a little more (Up to 25%) but that is with HEAVY investment in CP points which won’t ever be realistic.

While in the current state of the game it will make Healers with their staves, and specific class line heals more desired as the current self-heals will have a noticeable lower effectiveness.

ALSO: Buff Restoration Stave Heals by 20%.

This will further make a widened gap between a Healer and their non-healer counterparts. As having a healer on your team will undoubtedly grant the team the highest survival chance.

Skills like Combat Prayer should be a group heal that rivals Skill line counterparts but at a better cost while also granting the buff of Minor Beserk which the class heals do not provide. Instead of its current state of being mainly a buff with only a moderate burst heal attached. Which leads us to the next Step.



STEP #3: Make Restoration Stave Heals more appealing.

Once you get a Restoration Stave into the hands of a Magicka user you are already 50% on your way to having a dedicated healer. The other 50% are the sets in play, the skills slotted, and the CP investment.

Wait that’s only 50%?

Yes, because a large spell-damage and max magicka pool strengthens healing as it does in Damage. However, equipping the Resto Stave is the key toolkit piece that causes a DPS loss and a Healing gain. A Damage dealer cannot be as effective with a resto on their backbar as one that has 2 Destruction Staves. Just as a Healer with ONLY a Resto stave is not as effective as a Healer that combines it with Healing class morphs, guild line healing skills and sets that boost the supportive role of a healer. But both rely on that Magicka and Spell Damage.

Thus, making the Resto Stave Shine will make it more appealing to have at least 1 person in the group carrying it versus everyone relying on class heal skills. While Step 1 makes a resto stave KEY in group content with added penetration and sustain that synergizes with all other Roles and alleviates build constraints of Tanks, Step #2 makes a wider birth between Resto staves and class skills, this step places the FINISHING Touches on the Healer build.





By making these changes paired with previous proposed changes Healers now have access to Minor Courage, Penetration, Major and Minor Maim, Minor Defile, more diversified and stronger skill options and finally greater heals. This improves its main role function and well as greatly increases its group buff/de-buff functionality and makes them required staples in game content.



STEP #4: Game Mechanics and Shield vs Heal debate

The final stage deals with how game content is created. One of the greatest arguments against healers is that 1-shot mechanics make them moot, as healers have no power in keeping their team alive. As such simply learning the mechanics of the content makes a healer moot.

While on a certain level this is accurate, it is also not. True one-shot do or die mechanics are unfortunately needed to make gates in the team movement. If one-shots did not exist, players would simply be able to set up shop in a single spot and DPS down the bosses as they do on dummies in parses. The one-shot break this, forcing the group to move, rearrange, and work together. It also creates DPS loss and slows the dungeon progression.

With that acknowledged, the problem arises in non-true one-shot mechanics and the lack of damage over-time utilized in content design. What I mean are devastating blows that can hit for 12-16k of Damage, not enough to kill an appropriately built character, giving the healer the job of saving them before the next hit, small or not, finishes the job The game needs more of these as they would put a resource strain on DPS that would have to utilize high costing heals to recover on their own and cause a drop in rotation and overall DPS output.

Damage over-time is hardly used at all in most PVE content. While it is a staple of player side DPS, the game relies on direct damage and one-shot mechanics to get the job done. WHEN damage overtime is utilized, the DOT is normally so extreme that it becomes almost a 1-shot with the team only able to handle 1 to at most maybe 2 ticks of the damage before they wipe. Instead of the game allowing Healers Heals over time to be truly required in fighting constant DOT and Area Affect DOT, they make a mechanic such as the Tank plugging where the DOT is coming from, or interrupting the boss, or as in Bloodroot Forge utilizing a Blood Rain mechanic.

Instead the only damage a healer is normally there for, is the damage brought by Adds and Mobs. And even then, this damage is normally still direct damage but just in a high enough and rapid enough succession that HOT’s are more effective at battling the damage than insta-healing it.

So, I hypothesize, that if more Non-One-Shot mechanics but devastating blows were utilized and TRUE damage overtime (Vet content numbers of 3k-6k damage per second over 6-10 second periods, Non-Vet 1k-3k damage over the same 6-10 sec period) were added to content that healer’s HOT could handle and actually heal through, would make Healers be in more of a demand. I am not saying 1-shots should be removed, they have their place and as already stated serve multiple purposes, but that the damage should be more dynamic, and one-shots interwoven with the other forms in a better way to create damage that, yes, requires a healer.

The Shield vs Heal debate goes into basic game mechanics as well.

Light Armor in PVE without shields is almost unbearable as the Armor just cannot withstand damage in any tangible way. I will admit, shields that can withstand twice a character’s health are overpowered and ill conceived. However, some form of instant cast life saving shields must be allowed for Light Armor gameplay. Healers do need to be required more and shield’s do keep this from happening in PVE at least. However, making Light Armor characters completely healer reliant is taking the game too far in the opposite direction.

While the now defunct cast time to shields was the wrong choice and an attempt to blanket fix multiple issues, (PVP shield stacking and PVE invulnerability), I must admit that the Live state of shields in PVE is overpowered, however the 50% nerf to shields in PVP make them ONLY viable if stacking. A single shield “melts like butter on a hot plate” in PVP combat as is, even in a 1v1 situation against a competent player, and they have no use in any 1vX situations. (Dueling does not count, as shields are at their PVE strength and thus do seem formidable)

In response to this, I feel a shield should be balanced in such a way that a 50% shield reduction would not be needed in a PVP environment. That is, a single shield in PVP or PVE should max out at somewhere around the 12k-16k max strength. The proposed 40% Max Health limit would nerf shields to a lower point than this. In PVE, if a Magicka character builds up to 20k max health into their build (A hard thing to do considering there aren’t any Magicka Races that buff Health in their racial passives as Stamina races can) their shield would be maxed out at 8k. While this % can be moved to 50% or 60% max health giving 10-12k or even higher 80% getting to my 16k maximum, there is still the issue that Hardened Ward, Dampen Magicka, and the CP Bastion Skill tree become moot. Why choose these morphs or invest in Bastion when you’re capped at a maximum? You also have the issue if High Health builds, i.e. Tanks becoming even more invincible and tank like, with massive sized shields compared to all their counterparts. And lastly the issue of Stamina players being able to theoretically create shields, such as Boneshield, stronger than their Magicka counterparts.

How do you remedy this?

1) My first proposal it to make shields a flat defense rate that doesn’t scale off anything. As such, choose a number that is deemed strong enough. I vote 11,000. Thus, the only way to improve this value is to A) choose the morph that improves shields strength which in both cases nerfs your sustain. Invest in Bastion to improve the strength of the shields. AS such:
11000 base shield.
11000x1.20 (56 in CP Bastion 20%) =13,200
11000x1.23 (Hardened)=13,530
11000x1.43(Hardened+56 in CP Bastion) =15,730
11000x1.50 (5 pieces Light Armor x6%=30%+56 in CP Bastion 20%) = 16,500

2) My second proposal is reduce the base value of all shields by 45% and let them scale as they do now.

As I stated the Battle Spirit Passive would now omit shields, and they would function at full strength in PVP, but now that strength, no matter which way you slice it, is greatly diminished.

But you say UGH!!! Fine so you’ve managed to nerf shields and make healers needed and keep them functional in PVP. BUT!!! BUT!!!! What about stackers. Stackers will still be massively overdefended in both PVE and PVP.

This comes down to semantics. The difference between Wards and Shields. Wards should be stackable, shields should not.

All sets that offer shields (Such as Iceheart) should be changed to Wards. The Psijic passive, a ward, Steadfast Ward and Morphs, Barrier and Siege Shield Wards. That is ALL SETS, GUILD and Alliances War Skill Lines, and Restoration Stave Skill lines all become Wards.

All other skills including ALL CLASS SKILLS, ARMOR SKILLS, stay as shields.

The point of this is to Heighten Healers and the Support skills they will slot. Thus, a healer or a support character can add damage mitigation to their team mates, but a player can only buff themselves with a single shield unless they decide to BUILD their character with Support Skill Lines or specific sets to gain more defense. This meets the criteria ZOS is trying to achieve in forcing Magicka toons to build for more defense or utilize a healer to survive and no longer can be a lone wolf Damage Dealing tank.


Okay, done now. Whew, longer than I thought. Thought to be fair the charts take a lot of space!


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