Healers should be viable in pvp

Mulgorrah · December 2020

I'm a healer and I refuse to play any other spec. I enjoy healing, and don't want to do anything else. There was as time when I could actually heal in pvp and it was powerful and enjoyable.

Now I get into BGs and I'm super ineffective, useless, and one shottable. DPS players can heal better than I can, which makes absolutely no sense. So not only can I not do damage, my heals are absolute trash.

This needs to be fixed so that people can actually play as a healer in pvp, there's literally no reason not to.

LarsS · December 2020

Join a pvp guild, I am sure you will be welcomed as healer.

wheem_ESO · December 2020

Mulgorrah wrote: »

I'm a healer and I refuse to play any other spec. I enjoy healing, and don't want to do anything else. There was as time when I could actually heal in pvp and it was powerful and enjoyable.

Now I get into BGs and I'm super ineffective, useless, and one shottable. DPS players can heal better than I can, which makes absolutely no sense. So not only can I not do damage, my heals are absolute trash.

This needs to be fixed so that people can actually play as a healer in pvp, there's literally no reason not to.

Healers can make a huge impact in BGs, so I think your particular build and/or playstyle is probably the issue. I don't say that to be mean or rude, but there are healers that are most definitely not 1-shottable by the vast majority of builds, yet still put out a very solid amount of healing.

I'm not the best person to be giving out build advice for healers, but it has always been the case that keeping yourself alive is priority #1, and that's generally going to involve wearing at least 1 defensive set and potentially things like heavy armor, a 1h/shield bar, etc...Also, there are some builds right now that can achieve silly levels of burst damage, so you'll need to be ready to either Mist Form, or block and hope that it actually takes effect when you do it, and doesn't show the animation but still let 100% of damage and CC through. The worst offending classes you need to watch out for at the moment are Stamina Sorcerer, Stamina Warden, and some Stamina Nightblades.

Mulgorrah · December 2020

Yeah I feel like I need a heavy armor pvp set, what I'm wearing just isn't cutting it.

I'm just not sure how the game is so unbalanced if CP aren't even counted. Like how can sets themselves unbalance pvp that much?

I can actually be very effective with the right group, if they peel for me and allow me to heal them. I also need some really good dps on my team though.

Anyone know good heavy sets for magplar healer?

Gilvoth · December 2020

the more healing / Tanking you can do SHOULD be the less damage you can do.
we have incredible builds that can survive and out heal 15 people attacking one person in pvp and they are able to kill most of those 15 people, and they walk away "air T-Bagging and laughing as if they are skilled. there is Zero skill in a walking PowerHouse Tank Healers. it is completely out of balance right now and needs to be fixed, and yes that includes sorcerers.

idk · December 2020

LarsS wrote: »

Join a pvp guild, I am sure you will be welcomed as healer.

This. With my small group guild, I run as a healer half the time.

Urvoth · December 2020

This is beyond inaccurate. Not only are healers viable, but they’re basically mandatory in any sort of high mmr group vs group game. A team with a healer is going to win pretty much every game vs a team of similar skill levels that doesn’t have a healer.

The problem here is not with healers, it’s with your build/playstyle. Healers are often the tanklest player on the team and are definitely not one-shottable, so if you’re getting deleted, you probably need to rethink your build.

Run a heavy armor build with earthgore and a mix of pariah, cold harbor’s favorite, winter’s respite, curse eater, gossamer, etc. Transmutation isn’t really worthwhile anymore since most players will use malacath and procs anyway.

You’re also likely going to be much better off queuing in the group queue over the solo queue since you’ll run into less cloak blades and more duos/better teammates that will stick with you.

Grimlok_S · January 2021

I'm with Urvoth, healers can hard carry teams. Especially in solo queue, and nearly mandatory in premades.

Generally build tanky, have a cc, cleanse option + snare removal, and lots of sustain.

Sinolai · January 2021

Funny, I was doing okay as a healer in BG just last week... Got many commends on my good heals after the match and even got my Chaos Guardian medal in a pug Chaos Ball.

I was using Lightspeaker+Lich+2 x Heavy Earthgore. Ice Staff backbar for AoE Minor Protection, Mangle(very handy nowadays), Blockade Shields, Brittle and Stronger Block mitigation. Also, make sure you have atleast 23K hp. 25 even better.
Remember to track your debuffs and purge often. Most people are using DoTs, status proc sets (serpent's spirit, hunter's venom, Viper's Sting, Unleashed Terror, to name a few you see in almost every match) and defiles nowadays.

Laerion · January 2021

LarsS wrote: »

Join a pvp guild, I am sure you will be welcomed as healer.

Any recommended pvp guilds to join?

Grimlok_S · January 2021

I hear the Undaunted are always looking for fresh meat! Er, Recruits..

wheem_ESO · January 2021

So I started playing around a little with a healer setup I more or less just threw together for Magicka Necromancer. I'm using 5 heavy Pariah on the body, with Chokethorn medium helm (the only one I had) + heavy shoulders, VMA Resto Staff, and Winter's Respite Jewelry + 1h/shield. There were a few random queues where I went over 1m scoreboard healing, despite my Intensive Mender not counting on the scoreboard, and me being relatively bad at actually playing the setup; I was fat-fingering my keys all over the place, and messing up with which skill was on which bar. There was one occasion where I spammed my Totem 4 times in a row instead of the heal I thought I was casting, and ended up getting wrecked for it (especially since spamming the Totem like that prevents it from even stunning).

I might still need to make some adjustments to jewelry enchants and traits, as well as maybe swap a few skills around and get enough skill points so that I can actually pick up some passives in the 1h/shield tree. Still, survivability seemed decent with Stage 3 Vampirism and LOS usage, but it's not like I was trying to survive in sweaty premade matches either. The main issue for the build so far seems to be not having enough burst healing - my Resistant Flesh numbers seem fairly weak.

Again, I'm not the best person to get healing advice from, but I think wearing a defensive set and heavy armor is mostly mandatory for any healer going up against decent opposition.

Grimlok_S · January 2021

wheem_ESO wrote: »

So I started playing around a little with a healer setup I more or less just threw together for Magicka Necromancer. I'm using 5 heavy Pariah on the body, with Chokethorn medium helm (the only one I had) + heavy shoulders, VMA Resto Staff, and Winter's Respite Jewelry + 1h/shield. There were a few random queues where I went over 1m scoreboard healing, despite my Intensive Mender not counting on the scoreboard, and me being relatively bad at actually playing the setup; I was fat-fingering my keys all over the place, and messing up with which skill was on which bar. There was one occasion where I spammed my Totem 4 times in a row instead of the heal I thought I was casting, and ended up getting wrecked for it (especially since spamming the Totem like that prevents it from even stunning).

I might still need to make some adjustments to jewelry enchants and traits, as well as maybe swap a few skills around and get enough skill points so that I can actually pick up some passives in the 1h/shield tree. Still, survivability seemed decent with Stage 3 Vampirism and LOS usage, but it's not like I was trying to survive in sweaty premade matches either. The main issue for the build so far seems to be not having enough burst healing - my Resistant Flesh numbers seem fairly weak.

Again, I'm not the best person to get healing advice from, but I think wearing a defensive set and heavy armor is mostly mandatory for any healer going up against decent opposition.

Agree, if you roll into pvp in 5 light/divines like it's a trial, you're gonna have a bad time.

Nick_Balza · January 2021

I have a healer, who performs not bad in PvP. Was saving hopeless runs with casual players below 160CP. (Defining myself as a casual player too)
Like people said here - it all depends on build.
First thing: Healer in PvP can't use same stuff and skills, which are used in PvE.
Second: Tactics. It's not enough to just spam regen around. Stay behind your team, keep an eye on battlefield. Provide CC, where it is needed. Buff your team. Help them with objectives. Do objectives by yourself when it is needed (healers are very good with land grabs and chaosball).
Third: Focus on your durability. Brass/Pariah can help you A LOT . While everyone see that you are healer, you always become №1 target.

If you have Brass/Pariah, nothing prevents you from using 5L/2H sets. Prismatic/Magicka enchantments, infused jewelry for regaining resources + Troll King/Lord Warden + one healer set (I am using Hiti, but there are pretty much of things you can choose from).
Add there suitable skills (not always they have to be healing. Crushing Shock, for instance, is an awesome tool for many cases).

But nothing prevents you from doing experiments on builds and combinations :> Good luck!

Hesperax79 · January 2021

When I heal in PvP I use a Templae "purger" Heavy Seducer for survive and resources + Symphony of Blade for group sustain + Curse Eater for eating debuff. My main role is to remove the debuffs from the team. This is maybe a bit outdated setup (I do not used since Greymoor) but as you can see this is clearly different from PvE healing set. In our team we had 2 healer. My buddies role is providing HP.

WabanakiWarrior · February 2021

Urvoth wrote: »

This is beyond inaccurate. Not only are healers viable, but they’re basically mandatory in any sort of high mmr group vs group game. A team with a healer is going to win pretty much every game vs a team of similar skill levels that doesn’t have a healer.

The problem here is not with healers, it’s with your build/playstyle. Healers are often the tanklest player on the team and are definitely not one-shottable, so if you’re getting deleted, you probably need to rethink your build.

Run a heavy armor build with earthgore and a mix of pariah, cold harbor’s favorite, winter’s respite, curse eater, gossamer, etc. Transmutation isn’t really worthwhile anymore since most players will use malacath and procs anyway.

You’re also likely going to be much better off queuing in the group queue over the solo queue since you’ll run into less cloak blades and more duos/better teammates that will stick with you.

Yep, this! Pair a purely defensive set with a healing set. The healer should be the tankiest guy on the team. Use a sword and board on one bar, resto on the other. An effective healer should expect to be focused by everyone on the map. As a dd, my first goal in any encounter is to identify any healers and take them out first. If I blow all my resources attempting to kill you, I'm wide open to attack from your dd's.
This only works if you're an effective healer though. If you are just a tank, I'd just ignore you and kill all your friends.

divnyi · February 2021

I know this is a bit late for the response, but I have gameplay and build description of 33k+ armor healer.

https://youtu.be/B4VjIQ_fgq4

It's very tough to kill. If your group is premade of 30k+ guys, your whole group is very tough to kill, with you being number 1 priority and the weakest spot (since you heal others and they have %HP heals, but nobody heals you in return). Fights between well organized groups can go for minutes without any deaths.

KurtAngle2 · February 2021

divnyi wrote: »

I know this is a bit late for the response, but I have gameplay and build description of 33k+ armor healer.

https://youtu.be/B4VjIQ_fgq4

It's very tough to kill. If your group is premade of 30k+ guys, your whole group is very tough to kill, with you being number 1 priority and the weakest spot (since you heal others and they have %HP heals, but nobody heals you in return). Fights between well organized groups can go for minutes without any deaths.

Build is very nice indeed but Necro is the worst class for this: if you were to go Max HP Healden you could have 7-8k 12m "Heal" spammable that heal both you and an ally within 12 meters, +15% Magicka/Stam regen for the team, +10% Max HP, AoE Root/Slow that also deals damage off Max HP and much more.

TheCaptainJosh · March 2021

KurtAngle2 wrote: »

divnyi wrote: »

I know this is a bit late for the response, but I have gameplay and build description of 33k+ armor healer.

https://youtu.be/B4VjIQ_fgq4

It's very tough to kill. If your group is premade of 30k+ guys, your whole group is very tough to kill, with you being number 1 priority and the weakest spot (since you heal others and they have %HP heals, but nobody heals you in return). Fights between well organized groups can go for minutes without any deaths.

Build is very nice indeed but Necro is the worst class for this: if you were to go Max HP Healden you could have 7-8k 12m "Heal" spammable that heal both you and an ally within 12 meters, +15% Magicka/Stam regen for the team, +10% Max HP, AoE Root/Slow that also deals damage off Max HP and much more.

I disagree, warden might be better but necro is still very good. It has good damage mitigation (if you choose deaden pain or spirit guardian) and great healing (renewing undeath is aoe burst heal, purge, AND hot, and this is just one skill).

I played against a very good necro healer in bgs yesterday and the match was decided between one or two kills. My point is I think divnyi's build is A1 steak sauce, as there are much worse specs for healers in bgs (looking at you nightblade)

Waffennacht · March 2021

I love having a healer in a BG

I prefer off healers if im gonna use one

Dedicated healers are soooooooooo useful though

gariondavey · March 2021

Fought against a 55k warden healer in a bg yesterday. 4 people couldn't kill them. They also had the highest medal score in the game from landing a ton of crit heals. My team won still, we just had to try to burst the wardens teammates and focus the other team.