What healer should I pick?

Gulnagel · January 2021

I've been playing dps for 5 years. And I want to try healing. In my raidgroups there has always been templar and wardens, rarely any other healer.

So now I ask here, is templar or warden the only way to go if you want to play hardest endgame, or are there other choices?

If not what do you recommended to start with warden or templar?

ArchMikem · January 2021

Templar is the defacto Healer with the widest array of Healing focused class abilities. They're best for beginners. Other Classes "can" be good Healers but require people having a deep understanding of their abilities and building appropriately to compensate for what's lacking.

I've seen people say they Heal very well with Sorcs and Nightblades, but I have no experience.

Michaelkeir · January 2021

If you want to be the cream of the crop then templars and wardens are your go to for healing endgame. The buffs and heals they bring are just not up for question. You could in theory be just as good a healer on a DK or sorc for example but you’d have to put in more effort and if you don’t fully grasp what it is you are doing your raid group will suffer, especially if you pushing for hard modes or score pushing.

omnidoh · January 2021

My main is a nightblade, and I do all three roles.
DPS, Tank, and Heal.

With the right sets, resto-staff, Undaunted, Alliance War, and your chosen class skill line support abilities are all you need to be an effective healer for all situations.

Granted, Templars and Wardens are "Optimal" due to their fundamental intended design, but being an effective end-game healer with any class is viable provided one has the requisite gear and skill.

FrancisCrawford · January 2021

I've healed on all six classes, albeit in easier content than you envision.

Each class has advantages in sustain and in buffs/debuffs as well. Other than that, the only advantage to one of the other classes I've found to be really helpful is the sorcerer's omni-directional (and two-target) burst heal.

If your raid groups want templar or warden healers, why not accommodate them?

And of course, magplars and magdens are both fun and easy to level.

vgabor · January 2021

If you want to start learning healing, both templar and warden are good choices for your first healer. Up to vet dungeons they are pretty much interchangeable and equally good, difference is more about healing style, templar more stationary healer while warden slightly more flexible on movement.

If you want to go for end game trial healing, there are definite differences though, templar usually more of a buff/debuff off healer with usual gear of roaring/jorvould or zens/mk, while warden usually more of a main healer with spc/hollow as usual gear.

Edit: there are other class choices as well for healer in end game, but that depends on raid composition, sometimes they need a sorc or a necro, but 90% of the time it's templar and warden. (ie: in raid group you want a warden with healing skills for minor toughness - most of the time healer, occasionally off tank with healing orbs - and a templar for the minor sorcery - most of the time healer, occasionally dps)

IneedaDollar · January 2021

As people mentioned above Templar and Warden are very good Healer classes but I would also add Necromancer to the list since it provides very high empower uptimes for DDs in Trials and since you usually run a Warden tank there's no need for a Warden healer atm.
Sorcs are a very solid 4th place.

zvavi · January 2021

Bulbasaur
Edit: Charmader is also fun.

Carthelion · January 2021

The trouble is. Any class can heal, but Templar and Warden bring the buffs. No other class can buff and heal as easily.

Kurat · January 2021

Any class can be healer but why gimp yourself by going with anything but templar. This is the current state of the game sadly. Wanna be healer, go with templar. Wanna be tank, go with dk. Wanna be dps, go with magblade. The rest is all pushed aside and looked down on when talking about endgame raiding.

zvavi · January 2021

Kurat wrote: »

Any class can be healer but why gimp yourself by going with anything but templar. This is the current state of the game sadly. Wanna be healer, go with templar. Wanna be tank, go with dk. Wanna be dps, go with magblade. The rest is all pushed aside and looked down on when talking about endgame raiding.

This is not accurate af. Warden healers are more"wanted" than Templars. Tanks are depending on group comp, and dds are full of necros, with occasional other classes (sorcs, nightblades and dk the ones you see less are Templar and wardens).

Kurat · January 2021

zvavi wrote: »

Kurat wrote: »

Any class can be healer but why gimp yourself by going with anything but templar. This is the current state of the game sadly. Wanna be healer, go with templar. Wanna be tank, go with dk. Wanna be dps, go with magblade. The rest is all pushed aside and looked down on when talking about endgame raiding.

This is not accurate af. Warden healers are more"wanted" than Templars. Tanks are depending on group comp, and dds are full of necros, with occasional other classes (sorcs, nightblades and dk the ones you see less are Templar and wardens).

I was talking about serious raiders, organized groups, score pushers etc.
Ofcourse you can troll pugs or casual groups with dk healer or templar tank and still clear content if you got the skill and the rest of the group is good enough but you are still gimping yourself and your group.

zvavi · January 2021

Kurat wrote: »

zvavi wrote: »

Kurat wrote: »

Any class can be healer but why gimp yourself by going with anything but templar. This is the current state of the game sadly. Wanna be healer, go with templar. Wanna be tank, go with dk. Wanna be dps, go with magblade. The rest is all pushed aside and looked down on when talking about endgame raiding.

This is not accurate af. Warden healers are more"wanted" than Templars. Tanks are depending on group comp, and dds are full of necros, with occasional other classes (sorcs, nightblades and dk the ones you see less are Templar and wardens).

I was talking about serious raiders, organized groups, score pushers etc.
Ofcourse you can troll pugs or casual groups with dk healer or templar tank and still clear content if you got the skill and the rest of the group is good enough but you are still gimping yourself and your group.

https://www.esologs.com/zone/statistics/8/#class=Healers

https://www.esologs.com/zone/statistics/5/#class=Healers

https://www.esologs.com/zone/statistics/7/#class=Healers

Kurat · January 2021

zvavi wrote: »

Kurat wrote: »

zvavi wrote: »

Kurat wrote: »

Any class can be healer but why gimp yourself by going with anything but templar. This is the current state of the game sadly. Wanna be healer, go with templar. Wanna be tank, go with dk. Wanna be dps, go with magblade. The rest is all pushed aside and looked down on when talking about endgame raiding.

This is not accurate af. Warden healers are more"wanted" than Templars. Tanks are depending on group comp, and dds are full of necros, with occasional other classes (sorcs, nightblades and dk the ones you see less are Templar and wardens).

I was talking about serious raiders, organized groups, score pushers etc.
Ofcourse you can troll pugs or casual groups with dk healer or templar tank and still clear content if you got the skill and the rest of the group is good enough but you are still gimping yourself and your group.

https://www.esologs.com/zone/statistics/8/#class=Healers

https://www.esologs.com/zone/statistics/5/#class=Healers

https://www.esologs.com/zone/statistics/7/#class=Healers

Statistics is all great and all, but these are expected, top players in the world. I doubt that OP is their league or he wouldn't ask advice here. You can go with dk nord if you want but be ready to receive hate and insults if group keeps wiping even if it's not your fault. Esp in pug groups, they always tend to blame someone else other than themselves only because you dont have meta build.
Go templar and enjoy healing.

zvavi · January 2021

Kurat wrote: »

Statistics is all great and all, but these are expected, top players in the world. I doubt that OP is their league or he wouldn't ask advice here. You can go with dk nord if you want but be ready to receive hate and insults if group keeps wiping even if it's not your fault. Esp in pug groups, they always tend to blame someone else other than themselves only because you dont have meta build.
Go templar and enjoy healing.

Step 1: say that anything but Templars is gimping yourself.

Get answered that nope.

Step 2: say that top groups and score pushers are Templars or go home.

Gets proof that nope.

Step 3: say that top groups will run whatever and that in pugs it is Templar or go home.

In the next week I will be pugging dlc dungeons on my dk healer. Wait for results.

Kurat · January 2021

OP is new to healing and you reccomend dk?

You also got some elitist attitude btw.

zvavi · January 2021

Kurat wrote: »

OP is new to healing and you reccomend dk?

You also got some elitist attitude btw.

Nope, I recommended warden. Was just saying that choosing other classes than Templar (and warden for that matter) is viable.
For the experiment I chose the class you made fun the most of (tbh thanks god it was dk cause I am too lazy to respec my nb).

And about my attitude, apologies if it felt elitist to you.

Dark_Lord_Kuro · January 2021

Well if its your first healer i would recommend templar as its one of the best and one of the easier at the same time but warden are in the same league
I got 3 (templar, nightblade and sorc) and nightblade is my favorite out of the 3 so i mainly use that one

Vanos444 · January 2021

Templars are the Gods of Healing...

aetherial_heavenn · January 2021

I have 3.

5 star PVP healer templar, who started as vet PvE healer when templar healers were goddesses and went to PvP in Cyrodil and never came out.

vDLC trials Warden. (I have not got hardmode Sunspire or HoF or even some vet DLC pluses on her due to my incompetence, not the class. Wardens have a wonderful class healing and support toolkit. Minor toughness is the main item but there are others.)

A sorcerer healer who did all the usual vet stuff but no trials and is now my easy trials, DPS warm body, fill in. Sorc healing is fine but very resto staff based. I enjoy dpsing on her a lot more.

A necro healer who did a bunch of vet dungeons and then rested for a year. She's my new support role in Cyrodil PvP because she brings the buffs, the debuffs, the heals and the CC or even some DPS...whatever is required. She is a lot of fun to learn to PvP on: particularly as soloing as a healer and still being useful, is no longer an option in Cyrodil. I wouldn't want to do vet trials on her however because healing on a necro is a bit tricky for me still. Perfectly doable in all content I am sure, but a lot harder than templar or warden to do well. Also, what she brings to PvE as a healer can be got elsewhere from the others.

So see what you like. Class changes bounce BiS around a bit. Magplars and Magdens are easy to level and a lot of fun open world so you could try both.

linuxlady · January 2021

ArchMikem wrote: »

Templar is the defacto Healer with the widest array of Healing focused class abilities. They're best for beginners. Other Classes "can" be good Healers but require people having a deep understanding of their abilities and building appropriately to compensate for what's lacking.

I've seen people say they Heal very well with Sorcs and Nightblades, but I have no experience.

Sorcs are excellent healers but you need a two pet build really

linuxlady · January 2021

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

Well if its your first healer i would recommend templar as its one of the best and one of the easier at the same time but warden are in the same league
I got 3 (templar, nightblade and sorc) and nightblade is my favorite out of the 3 so i mainly use that one

Nightblades make wonderful healers

Sinolai · January 2021

Templar and Warden are the most common. Necro comes 3rd and Sorc 4th. If you know how to heal you can get in with any of those classes. Nightblade and DK are not really used in end game and might be hard to get into a group.

kargen27 · January 2021

Another good thing about Templar healers is how survivable they are. You can put your CP into best place for healing and still be able to solo most the overland bosses by just changing gear and a few skills. If you run with PuGs while leveling a Templar healer can easily do DPS and still heal. Later you can switch the DPS out for buffs.
Templars are really versatile without having to switch a lot of things out.

OlumoGarbag · January 2021

If you want to play a PVP healer as well as PVE warden would be the best choice espacially for battlegrounds.

YstradClud · January 2021

I have been playing a DPS templar and thinking about switching to healer because they just seem better healers then DPS atm. I orginally started as a tank but they never seem to be good tanks

exeeter702 · January 2021

I have been healing on nb for 5 1/2 years. Vet trials, vet dungeons, all forms of pvp.

majulook · January 2021

IIRCC Templar Healers have more Healing skills than other classes.

exeeter702 · January 2021

majulook wrote: »

IIRCC Templar Healers have more Healing skills than other classes.

This is a non starter point.

In terms of throughput / hps, all 6 of the healers are actually on par with one another. The unique templar healing skills found in the restoring light skill line are anaglous to restoration staff skills and there is little overlap. Every healer engages with the resto staff in some form or another to acheive necessary healing throughput. There is nothing inherent to templars restoring light skill line that nets them greater healing values that are not achieved by the other healers.

Templar and warden are sighted as the wisest healing choices because of their streamlined approach and ease of use as well as particular utility, however the later is not as unique to those two as many try to claim, and in reality it's more an issue with other roles that warden and templar may occupy in a group that might not have the bar space ie....

Non healing wardens can give their class buff, minor toughness via their class access crit buff.

Non healing templars can give minor armor debuff

More examples like these are found everywhere.

Shards vs orbs has very real pros and cons, and in certain fights even templar healers opt for orbs.

Minor intellect, is a buff that both sorc and warden share.

A large part of this is playerbase perception and comfort zone. The logs posted above demonstrate that score run wise, it is absolutely mathematically possible for all 6 healers to perform. And no, it is not so deeply complex that only the top 1 percent can make "non meta" healers work, that is such a ridiculous statement. The best players get the best scores because they have a keen understanding of mechanics and group play. Most of the healers play nearly identical, it really isnt that insane. Its moreso a matter of group composition and what trial group has access to in terms of their dps classes and tanks etc etc.

Raideen · January 2021

I love my Warden healer. I don't think I could heal on anything else.

I mostly use class abilities, so the class fantasy is there. Breton and Blue Betty are a match made in heaven. I love the AOE heals, the ultimate is up all the time and its my favorite spell in the game. I just love the trees.

FrancisCrawford · January 2021

linuxlady wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Templar is the defacto Healer with the widest array of Healing focused class abilities. They're best for beginners. Other Classes "can" be good Healers but require people having a deep understanding of their abilities and building appropriately to compensate for what's lacking.

I've seen people say they Heal very well with Sorcs and Nightblades, but I have no experience.

Sorcs are excellent healers but you need a two pet build really

Huh?

Technically I PUG dungeons on sorcerers with a two-pet build, as the Twilight Matriarch is the whole reason to use sorcerers to heal, and I tend to use a damage ultimate (on sorcerers the Atronach) rather than Warhorn or a defense/healing one.

But unless that's what you meant, could you please explain your version?