Healing weapons beyond the staff

Lala · March 2020

I'm new around here, and I'm catching up on the ESO experience as far as future deveopments. Is there any mention of expanding healing to use weapons besides the Restoration Staff? Surely one of those hundreds of magical tomes could be used as a conduit for improving restoration magic. It would be nice of healers reflected a fraction of the diversity available to other roles.

I came to this game with every intention of finding a modern MMORPG that has a place for the support role. I have come to terms with being required to DPS in all overworld situations and most groups. I have come to accept that I was misled about my capability as a healer who didn't start out as a Templar or a Warden. Being informed that there was no dedicated healing class caused me to assume that the most magic themed character would fit the role the best. Me being a sorcerer with 1 class heal is a bitter pill that I've already swallowed. Doing legwork for the Psijics very slightly expanded my options. The lack of diversity in healing, however, is insufferable. Regardless of class, were all running virtual identical action bars. The only thing that could be "alternate" about making an "alt" healer would have to happen in an "alternate" "game". Otherwise it's the same experience.

Just to clarify, I don't even expect an alternate healing weapon to be purely "healing", but even one that offered buffs, debuffs, and abilities that keep the group alive in the place of the staff of restoration. I won't even offer my fantasies of having 1 handed, PvP oriented, stamina, or hybrid stam/mag based possibilities.

idk · March 2020

There is only one "healing" weapon and I doubt more will be added to the game. I do not think it is really needed as the weapon is not the only source of heals.

Also, healers use more than a restoration staff. A destruction staff is often on their back bar and there are skills outside of both of those weapons such as class heals and skills to aid the group such as orbs and more.

All classes can heal though it seems you have figured out that the more class heals the more options there are and the stronger the class can be in challenging content. Sorry, you are not pleased with your sorc healer. I suggest you roll a Templar and you will find all classes are equally magicka themed.

newtinmpls · March 2020

As far as healing and heal-type buffs outside of Class Lines go....

Resto Staff (as you know)
Fighters guild Circle of protection (third skill down) is something you could use - possibly bop in and plunk down on the tank if nothing else.
Undaunted Blood Altar - they keep tweaking it - seems like currently Overflowing Alter seems to be the better morph
Undaunted Necrotic Orbs - this has been nerfed, so that you can only have "one up at a time"; but it's still a good choice for a non-templar to allow team members to regain stamina.
Alliance War Skills - War Horn (morph may depend on if you PvP or not)
Alliance War Skills - Vigor - especially Echoing vigor

As far as purchased skills/DLC
Psijic Mend Wounds - I don't know much about this one, so if you have access to it, check it out.

,

dazee · March 2020

I would like to see a hybrid magicka weapon which is half healing half dps.

maybe instead of a staff some sort of floaty magic crystal ball focus.

YandereGirlfriend · March 2020

Final Fantasy XII had an awesome "Mace" line of buff/debuff weapons that were really cool (maybe FFXIV has them as well?) and geared toward Magicka support/healer characters.

They scaled off of your Magicka attribute and applied a mace-specific buff or debuff on-hit which meant that sometimes you attacked enemies and sometimes you "attacked" your allies to buff them.

Obviously, we already have maces accounted for in ESO but if they ever did a spell-and-sword weapon style something like that could be worked in?

dazee · March 2020

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

Final Fantasy XII had an awesome "Mace" line of buff/debuff weapons that were really cool (maybe FFXIV has them as well?) and geared toward Magicka support/healer characters.

They scaled off of your Magicka attribute and applied a mace-specific buff or debuff on-hit which meant that sometimes you attacked enemies and sometimes you "attacked" your allies to buff them.

Obviously, we already have maces accounted for in ESO but if they ever did a spell-and-sword weapon style something like that could be worked in?

FFXIV does not have any mace weapons, your weapon determines your current job, and none of them yet are maces.

You can get a Dark Knight greatsword which looks just like some kind of club or metal bat though.

Which debuffs you have access to in that game are entirely dependent on your current job, not as fun as ESO for character concepts for sure, but a hell a lot easier to actually balance.

ESO faces an issue where if its not free builds, its not Elder Scrolls, but free builds are very difficult to balance well.

AcadianPaladin · March 2020

While I don’t dispute the desire to have lots of healing options, the non-class healing options have been expanded over the last year or so as detailed above.

I run a Templar healer and Sorc dps and I would be comfortable tweaking my sorc into an effective healer.

My Templar devotes one skill slot to a pure class healing skill (Extended Ritual). If I were to run my sorc as a healer, she would devote three slots to pure class healing (Matriarch x2 slots and Power Surge). Though it takes two slots, I find the Matriarch superior as a simple (on both bars and no aiming) big burst heal to anything my Templar has.

Sorc has the advantage of mobility where Templar is more tethered to her buffs on the ground. Templar has an edge in terms of having a purge built into Extended Ritual and being able to combine resource help with damage via shards.

I guess my point is that, while I feel my Templar makes a slightly more effective healer the differences are not great and more a matter of playstyle. My Templar does envy the sorc’s Matriarch, mobility and inherent advantage with shock damage (for Blockade of Storms).

Lala · March 2020

Thank you all for constructive inputs. It's encouraging to know that healing has been expanded beyond what was originally available.

Ultimately, I found my issue is one that is more deeply ingrained in the game than something that would be fixed with adding a healing weapon. The problem is a lack of class identity and diversity in all aspects of class abilities. When my sorceror is healing, I feel like a staff of restoration. I can see that there is a noticeable representation of forum users raising this concern elsewhere so there is relief in knowing I'm not alone for recognizing this.

Healing is healing, is healing... is healing (repeat for each of the classes). I definitely won't be making another healing alt. There are other things that have led to my personal dissatsifaction with healing in ESO. (players having low HP overall, health being restored seconds after combat, low cost of dieing). Hopefully I'll be better off playing a damage dealer or tank even though those roles aren't typically my forte.

As far as possible solutions - Something as novel as making some of the Staff of Restoration abilities morph or behave uniquely dependant on class would go a long way. Fear of making the game unbalanced shouldn't be so great when it comes to something as simple as healing. Among healers in RPGs, competitiveness between the classes is more amendable compared to damage dealers. It's expected that different healers have different specialties (removing debuffs, being mana efficient, highest burst heals, strongest shields, dps capabilities). At the very least, giving our resto staff heals different animations, aoe shapes, colors, or visual effects would be a welcome temporary improvement as far as diversity. The laziest solution - making a restoration staff heal proc a free/reduced cost class ability, is still an improvement. A small amount of class flavor would go a long ways.

Major_Lag · March 2020

Lala wrote: »

There are other things that have led to my personal dissatsifaction with healing in ESO. (players having low HP overall, health being restored seconds after combat, low cost of dieing).

The biggest problem with healing in ESO PvE is a different one, very deeply ingrained in how the combat system works - it's that for the vast majority of non-endgame content a healer is not needed (or even wanted), because off-heals from damage dealers are more than good enough to keep the group alive.

Another big problem is the prevalence of oneshot mechanics in the harder content, no amount of healing will help with those. Lazy content design, but whatever.

The only times a "dedicated" healer is actually needed is in vet trials and the harder vet dungeons (mostly the DLC ones). In all other content, you are much better off just playing a damage dealer who also off-heals.
That's why 3DD+tank runs are quite the norm in all of the "easier" content, because a healer would be just mostly dead weight.

In PvP group activities it's another story altogether, a good healer/support player is worth their weight in gold.

paganslyer · March 2020

You touch on a very important issue
there is a problem with lack of skills options especially in pvp but its right also in pve.
in MMO RPG games its should be more options to get unique play style, again: Especially in pvp!!!
almost every 1 run with the same skills...

almost every 1 use Rally for major Brutality
almost every 1 use Shuffle for Major Evasion
almost every stamuser use Dizzying Swing for spammable attack
almost every maguser use Entropy for major sorcery or spelldmg pots (actually since they kill Structured Entropy mages have not much options for major sorcery... )
the bottom line is we suffer from big lack of skills options....

newtinmpls · March 2020

Lala wrote: »

Me being a sorcerer with 1 class heal is a bitter pill that I've already swallowed.

Well I too have had to re-adjust my thinking in terms of how magicka characters have panned out. I never expected such an "electro" focus to the "Sorc" class, and it took me years (not kidding) to wrap my brain around mackicka dragonknight as a "fire mage".

With respect to soc healing....hmmm...there is really only one class ability that heals anyone other than the sorc in question, and that's the Twilight Matriarch. It's an awesome heal, but it's only one.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a number of other skills that can be used; and I would say that at this point we all know that an effective sorc healer is NOT going to depend only on class skils, because that doesn't work. So I would encourage you to explore and see what is out there.

Resto Staff (as you know) - and DON'T forget to consider the resto healing ultimate if you are running a non-Templar healer
Take the time to look at ALL the skills. Healing Springs is a nice area lay-down, mutagen can effect many folks, and combat prayer heals AND buffs DPS. Heck if you are running with a group of highly effective DPS' you might want to throw on Force Siphon and make them earn their heals (what can I say, I run with some very sarcastic healers).

Fighters guild Circle of protection (third skill down) is something you could use - possibly bop in and plunk down on the tank if nothing else - short duration though (only 8 seconds)

Undaunted Blood Altar - they keep tweaking it - seems like currently Overflowing Alter seems to be the better morph, but as it costs health, it's kind of a risk.
Undaunted Bone shield/Bone surge morph - it takes the ally near you using the synergy to get a damage shield and increase their healing - for allies with poor situational awareness this may take time to recognize and learn to use
Undaunted Necrotic Orbs - this has been nerfed, so that you can only have "one up at a time"; but it's still a good choice for a non-templar to allow team members to regain stamina, as now more than one ally can "use" the same orb as it travels along

Alliance War Skills - War Horn (morph may depend on if you PvP or not)
Alliance War Skills - Vigor - especially Echoing vigor - this has some good potential for stamina types who want to be able to heal allies

As far as purchased skills/DLC
Psijic Mend Wounds - I don't know much about this one, so if you have access to it, check it out.

Wolfchild07 · March 2020

As far as alternate healing goes, yes, it's a warden, but there's a warden stamina bow healing style of game play if you think you would like to try that. I haven't specialised in it so I don't know how good it is, or what it is viable/unviable for.