PHOREWORD TO HEALERS HAVEN
Healers, menders, medics or equivalents are commonplace in many different types of games. In ESO though, being a healer isn’t quite the same as anywhere else.
In most games, healing is an active job. Teammates take damage from enemies or the environment, and a healer’s minute-to-minute job is to mitigate or reverse that damage and prevent allies’ health from reaching 0. In ESO though, keeping your teammates alive is something which you’ll spend less time actively thinking about as you explore and learn to play.
This is largely because of heal-scaling in this game - common healing skills are ridiculously powerful compared to other games and players’ health pools, so most of the healing done by your skills goes straight into what we call ‘overheal’ - this is when your heals hit somebody who’s already at 100% health.
In practice, this means that having your basic heal-over-time skills down in PvE scenarios does a bulk of the heavy healing. Times when you actively have to burst-heal your allies are only when somebody makes a mistake and takes avoidable damage, or when there are ambient damage mechanics made specifically for healers to outheal. PvP scenarios are more intense on the healer side of things. PvP zones feature a 50% reduction to heal-scaling, so full-time healers are the backbone of any group, and are often focussed on as priority targets.
Mind you, all this doesn’t mean the healing part of a healer’s job is effortless. It still requires good preparation and the right casts at the right times, and that in turn requires experience and practice, just like anything else.
Once you learn the fundamentals of playing ESO though, these become second nature. At intermediate and higher levels of play, more of your time and energy will be spent on how you can optimally support your teammates as they play their roles. This consists of three main segments, all of equal importance but of increasing levels of difficulty:
1️⃣ Providing Allies with Resources 2️⃣ Buffing Allies 3️⃣ Debuffing Enemies
🦾 Synergies & Providing Resources 🦾
I like to call healers in ESO ‘raid-parents’. As raid-parents, it’s our job to make sure our DD and tank children have everything they need to do their job as best as they possibly can.
In the first instance, this means that we make sure they have the means of doing so. A DD with an empty primary resource bar is at best losing potential offensive time, and at worst lacks the means to react or defend themselves if they need to, as a result of which they may die.
The cornerstone of group-play in ESO combat system are Synergies. When cast, there are certain skills which in addition to their primary effect offer a synergy to allies in range. These allies can then press the synergy button to activate a secondary effect. Each synergy has a 20s cooldown per target per synergy, regardless of primary-skill caster.
Importantly, there’s a tertiary effect as well. The Undaunted Command passive in the Undaunted skilltree is a must-have for any build meant for group play, because it restores a given % of your Health, Mag and Stam each time you activate a synergy. This means that any synergy, regardless of its secondary effect, is a tool with which we can provide resources. N.b.: There are times you may not want the secondary effect of a synergy though, so keep this in mind when selecting synergies to bar!
An important synergy for a healer to have (though DDs will also be able to provide them), are Orb Synergies. This term collectively refers to a) the Combustion synergy from Necrotic Orb & morphs in the Undaunted skilltree, and b) the Blessed/Holy Shards synergy from Spear Shards & morphs in Templar’s Aedric Spear skilltree. These restore a gargantuan amount of primary resource, with 3960 reg/20s that’s an equivalent of upto 792 regen!
Note that, uniquely, Shards and Combustion share a synergy cooldown!. Spears vanish on use by one person, one orb provides a synergy for each ally in the area.
Providing resources isn’t something which requires as much of a healer’s attention as it used to, due to countless changes in sustain and how resources work between U20-U30. Regardless, knowing and understanding how synergies work is still a key part of playing any support role in ESO.
🦾 Stacks & Buffing Allies 🦾
The first task we have as healers and raid-parents beyond healing is to make sure our DDs (and occasionally, tanks) are getting the most out of their actions. We do this by applying several modifying effects with our skills and sets, and making sure to maintain as high an uptime as possible on these effects.
A full list of these effects can be found at https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Buffs. A more focussed list of healer-relevant effects and their common sources can be found in definitions.
Of the buffs that require a skill to apply, these are usually applied to allies in the area right in front of us. This is where the concept of a ‘Stack’ comes from; a pile of DDs in a tight, unified formation which makes them easy to heal and buff in as few repeat casts as possible. Tanks are usually busy positioning enemies ideally, so they’re not usually near the stack and more dependent on themselves for buffs.
🦿 Debuffing Enemies 🦿
The other half of making sure that our teammates are getting the most out of their actions is by debuffing opponents. In practice, this works similarly to buffing allies, except that instead of targeting allies you’re targeting enemies with skills and actions. The same concept thus applies; you want to try and maintain as high an uptime as possible.
Separate modifiers exist for debuffs, and these can also be found at https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Buffs. A more focussed list of healer-relevant effects and their typical sources can be found in definitions.
Although these effects are enemy-targeted, you’re still going to be healing, buffing and providing resources to allies, so the stack should still remain intact. In addition though, you need to be able to target/aim for and stick to an enemy. Weaving, and spending some time as a DD in content, are extremely helpful ways of practising this.
💜 Healers Haven 💜
Healers Haven exists as a reference point for players of all levels, whether you’re veterans or just starting out, or even if you play a different role and just want to know a bit more about the healing side of things. Some of these guides are made for newer players and spend more time on the fundamentals of the game, others are made for more experienced players as they learn the intricacies of content.
In all cases, we try to make sure we explain the context of our guides fully, so as to make them largely self-contained. Regardless, we don’t cover everything, so don’t be afraid to ask questions if you have them, that’s the whole point of this place! The only kinds of questions that are stupid are the one’s which you don’t ask!
🔁 Rotations 🔁
For those who may be new to MMOs, having a rotation is the concept of maximising the time skills are active for by rotating through skills. We can distinguish between static and dynamic rotations. A static rotation is one where you activate the same sequence of skills over and over again, while a dynamic rotation involves juggling timers and reactivating skills as they run out in flexible orders, based on a priority list,
In ESO, any rotation which healers can be said to have is dynamic. We reactivate our over-time effects as they run out, and use the gaps in between for burst heals, mechanics, recasting shorter buffs, or doing some damage. Spending some time as a DD in content is excellent practice for effectively managing skill uptime as a healer.
Priority lists change based on situation, content and experience level. As a general rule of thumb though, priorities look a little bit like this (1 is the most important):
1️⃣ Mechanics & Necessary Bursts : These may not be regular like skill timers, but when they come around they need to be addressed immediately. Lower uptime or damage isn’t as bad as failing a mechanic or group members dying.
2️⃣ HoTs : As mentioned above, over-time heals do most of the healing, so we want to ensure we refresh them on cooldown and have them perpetually active.
3️⃣ Buffs & Debuffs : With healing taken care of and no emergencies, we can focus our time and energy on supporting group performance by maximising uptime on our designated buffs & debuffs.
4️⃣ Filler Bursts : Especially when in unpredictable or unfamiliar situations, pre-emptively casting burst heals can prevent accidental damage stacking or burst. This is especially true in PvP. Beware though, this can be resource intense.
5️⃣ Damage : With all healing and buffs covered, and without emergencies or heavy incoming damage, time can be spent adding a little damage to the group output. However, this should not take over your time completely.
Less important priorities shouldn’t delay more important ones - this is something to consider and evaluate each GCD. With practice and time, this can quickly all become intuitive and automatic.