Because you need to be actively defending yourself in PVP. It's not like a boss mechanic where you only need to not stand in stupid and just heal through everything.

As someone who stands back and heals PUGs, you have to prepared when the enemy spots you and decides to take out that pesky healer. When that happens, you need a plan for defense that's not "spam heals." You have to be able to maneuver and reposition on the battlefield.

As someone who also heals an organized raid, being able to stand up close and reposition in the heat of the battle is 100% the best help you can be to your groupmates. A dead healer heals nobody and 1H and Shield helps me be not dead.


That's not to say that you can't do a resto/destro healer in the right group, but the extra defense of 1H and Shield is extremely useful in PVP, especially when healers are a prime target.

Yeah, healers without a bit of tankiness to them become very easy targets. I know in my PVP guild our group lead calls out the healers when he sees them and we focus them down quickly. Still loved that one time I was hunting a Nightblade and a tanky healer used Symbiosis's heavy "attack" on me, and it was the most hilarious things I had seen in Cyrodiil. The Nightblade couldn't even really kill me and 50% of the healing the healer gave me went to himself so the Nightblade couldn't kill him either

This is hardly limited to healers or Templars. Every non-stamina class is pretty much forced into a s+b off hand for PvP. Stamina classes can get away with alternatives, but even they use S+B most of the time. Stamina is the all important resource for PvP and it gives stamina classes a very large advantage over magicka because breaking free, dodge rolling, and blocking are infinitely more powerful defensive tools than shields. Anything you can do to reduce the cost of the few defensive options available to you is important. Thus S+B for every non stamina class and why PvP is such a joke in this ESO.

hexentb16_ESO wrote: »

And to any pvp'ers reading this...ALWAYS slot a CC.

A PVPer without a CC isn't trying to win a fight that's for sure.

I play in battlegrounds only as magnecro doublestaff Lightning/Resto. With Skeletal Arcanist, Intensive mender and Hungry scythe. In lightarmor I had hard times not to get killed. Because I wanted to do some kills too, not just heal everyone.

But if you want to stay alive easily, while doing lots of damage, try to go heavy armor, Medusa from Arx Corinium, for example. Or Bahrara from goldcost with Spinner or treasure hunter. You will se change. I never tested healer with 1H+Shield, but eventualy when oponent gets to you, it can be game changer for you.

the templars have several healing skills, and therefore, do not necessarily need a restoration staff except for resource recovery on heavy attacks; but you can gear, CP, and food buff your recovery to be functional without heavy attacks.

A sword and shield is not needed for PVP healing. A resto staff or frost staff with the defending trait is only 82 armor points less than a shield and a sword with defending trait unless you have reinforced on the shield. Plus there are other options for getting your armor up.

- Protection trait on your jewelry
- The Lady mundus stone which gives armor
- 5 heavy and 2 light
- Defensive sets

You need to put together a whole build to survive, heal, and do damage. Don't expect just throwing on a shield is going to suddenly make you tanky. And, yes you need to be able to do damage and CC.

Don't be one of those healers that only heals. If you get isolated, and yes you will get isolated, then you have to stand around getting beat on until someone comes and saves you. Or, if you end up in a two on two the other two are doing double the damage while you are hoping that the person with you can kill both of them. You need to be able to kill people. And, you will have a lot more fun if you can kill people.

As a templar you can do good damage and heals. Toppling charge is a great CC and an easy way to reposition on the battlefield. Undo is a great way to reposition on the battlefield. Radiant destruction is a great execute that you can queue up while someone is doing their burst. Get use to weaving in damage, CC, and heals together. It will make you much more effective in PVP.

There's other ways to do it, but you need a defensive strategy.