Nightblade
With their signature burst-and-stealth playstyle, Nightblades are ESO’s go-to assassins. Unfortunally, Nightblade healers couldn’t be further away from their rogue- and bloodmagic like class description. But they still offer a great arsenal for us healers in the form of one of the best, consistent, Ultimate generation. Their unique class-specific buff Minor Savagery is often wanted from DD’s and additional, group-wide Major Expedition, Minor Savagery, Minor Endurance and Minor Intellect, along with AoE Minor Vulnerability and Major Cowardice on opponents make them desired healers. In PvP they can shine with their unique stealth mechanic, offering great reposition and disengage capabilities.
🟥 Assassination 🟥
Soul Harvest [Ultimate]: While this Ultimate wont ever be actively used, it will be your main ability to proc the Hemorrhage passive while it’s slotted on your frontbar. Additionally, if you are lucky, you can gain 10 Ultimate if you get the killing blow on an enemy.
▫️ Lotus Fan: Teleports you to the targeted enemy, applying a DoT and Minor Vulnerability to your enemy and five extra targets close by. This is great for well-stacked trash pulls, less so for boss fights since Minor Vulnerability can be covered by Wardens, Arcanists and Necromancers and the reposition from the teleport can be inconvenient. The DoT element of this skill counts as a Zen DoT as well. Note that post-U35, the DoT is 20s, but the Minor Vuln is only 10s!
▫️ Piercing Mark: Applies ST Major Breach and allows their detection for some time after they go into stealth. In PvE encounters, Elemental Susceptibility (or previously, Ele Drain) is usually a better alternative for ST Breach thanks to the damage debuffs associated with those status effects. In PvP encounters though this allows for excellent counterplay and stickiness against enemy Nightblades. Note that this skill only allows you to see the stealthed enemy, not your teammates.
▫️ Relentless Focus: One of a Nightblade-DD’s key skills, this was changed to buff Weapon and Spell Damage instead of critical healing. This makes it a far more attractive option for us healers though it remains a second priority besides group buffs. The proc can be used whenever there’s a free moment for some extra ST damage or just ignored as you keep the Weapon/Spell Damage from each stack when the skill-effect or combat ends (in PvP you will loose all stacks when exiting combat!). Use it whenever you have a free slot on either bar for some extra healing power or when you need it to make use out of your Hemorrhage passive.
Executioner [Passive]: A sustain passives which returns 1000 Stamina and Magicka back if an enemy dies within 2 seconds of taking any damage from you. In practice, this means having your Elemental Blockade down in a trash pull or during a boss fight with lots of trash will return a lot of resources when they die. Be aware of this and balance out your recovery if running Pearls or MK!
Hemorrhage [Passive]: Grants your group members Minor Savagery for 20 seconds whenever you deal Critical Damage while you have an Assassination ability slotted . It shouldn’t be difficult to get a critical hit every 20s, even with a healer’s typical Critical Chance, just make sure to weave and to have your Elemental Blockade down. The Soul Harvest Ultimate is usually slotted on your frontbar, but skills like Lotus Fan or Relentless Focus can also be an option.
🟥 Shadow 🟥
Bolstering Darkness [Ultimate]: Provides group members within a 5 meter radius with Major Protection and a synergy giving them +70% movement speed, a powerful 4 second HoT and invisibility while snaring enemies. Though this has no tactical use in PvE (besides being fun!), in PvP and especially in small/organized groups this is an extremely potent engagement or repositioning tool. You’re literally turning your team into a tanky ninja legion!
▫️ Surprise Attack: A ST spammable. Applies the Sundered status effect to the target, applying Minor Breach for 4 seconds. This is a class spammable, not a healer skill, and is only included here for completeness. Tanks often apply Minor Breach through Pierce Armor, else the abundance of physical damage in the modern Meta covers this.
▫️ Refreshing Path: A strong AoE HoT which also gives any allies Major Expedition, Minor Endurance and Minor Intellect while in the area and for 4 seconds after leaving it. This makes the upkeep of sustain buffs in static fights a breeze compared to Wardens Enchanted Growth. This is also an excellent skill to speed up the group up while running between trash pulls and helps the group quickly change position within a fight. The area covered is around the same as Unstable Wall of Elements.
Make sure the group know you’re using this, just so nobody misjudges their speed and accidentally runs off something. Yes, that’s a thing
▫️ Refreshing Shadows [Passive]: Another sustain passive, this increases recovery of all three resources by 15%!
🟥 Siphoning 🟥
Soul Siphon [Ultimate]: Another powerful class Ultimate with several effects. This first burst-heals everyone in a 28 meter radius and then puts an additional 4 second HoT on them. Second, both of effects are further buffed by all allies in range receiving Major Vitality for 4 seconds. Third, one ally can also activate its synergy to deal damage and heal for the damage done. Soul Siphon is another skill that you won’t really see in PvE, except maybe to activate the Magicka Flood passive (see below). This is an amazing heal ult for PvP encounters though, with its range making it especially suitable to open world fights.
▫️ Funnel Health: A HoT that targets three allies similar to Radiating Regeneration. Cast it on an enemy and the healing will scale based on the initial damage done. Though this skill is comparable to Radiating Regeneration in terms of healing done, it forces you to have an enemy nearby that you can attack and also does not proc Pearls of Ehlnofey. It does work well for a “Blood Mage” kind of build for a more roleplay oriented setup!
▫️ Healthy Offering: A ST burst heal that grants you Minor Mending, handy for mechanics such as vSS Tombs or other situations specifically requiring a ST burst. Due to its on-demand Minor Mending compartment it synergizes well with the Siphoning passive Transfer, giving you 2 Ultimate on cast and also being able to proc Pearls of Ehlnofey for an additional 3 Ultimate on cast. Additionally, it’s a great skill to slot for the Magicka Flood passive, increasing you max Magicka on your active bar. During gameplay you can cast this skill every few seconds to steadily generate extra Ultimate. Just keep in mind that this is not an AoE heal!
▫️ Debilitate: A ST DoT that applies Minor Magickasteal through Overcharged, though this shouldn’t be necessary since abundant group magic damage tends to proc the Overcharged status effect already. This counts as a Zen dot and can be used to activate the Transfer passive (see below).
▫️ Siphoning Attacks: A sustain skill which can be slotted on any bar and passively heals and returns Magicka and Stamina on dealing any kind of damage, once per second. On activation it provides you with an extra burst of both Magicka and Stamina for the cost of your own Health. While this is not a support skill, it can provide you with some extra sustain and can be slotted on your frontbar to activate the Magicka Flood passive.
▫️ Power Extraction: A close-range AoE ability that applies Minor Cowardice to enemies, reducing their Weapon and Spell Damage. Additionally, you gain Major Brutality, Major Sorcery and Minor Courage. Even though these buffs are usually covered else way it’s still useful for dungeons or PvP. Be aware that this skill costs Stamina!
Catalyst [Passive]: Gives you 20 Ultimate upon drinking a potion. With the cooldown of potions being 45 seconds this averages out to ~25 Ultimate per minute. Additionally, with the use of three gold infused Potion Speed glyphs you can get the cooldown down to 21 seconds, getting your Ultimate recovery up to 57 Ultimate per minute, one of the highest passive Ultimate recoveries across all classes! Just stay aware of the additional drain on your potion stock. Stay hydrated and drink potions on cooldown, people!
Magicka Flood [Passive]: This increases your maximum Magicka pool by 8% if you have a Siphoning ability slotted, so try to have one ability from this skill tree on your frontbar. Healthy Offering is best suited for this but Siphoning Attacks for self-sustain or Power Extractor for its Minor Cowardice are also good choices.
Soul Siphoner [Passive]: You do +3% Healing for each slotted Siphoning skill. Since healing skills are already quite powerful, this isn’t usually something you will have to pay too much attention to but a great thing to get passively due to having to slot a Siphon ability for the other passives.
Transfer [Passive]: Gives 2 Ultimate every time you cast a Siphoning ability, with a cooldown of 4 seconds. With this and Catalyst you’re going to generate Ultimate quickly! Any skill in this tree will work, though Healthy Offering is a convenient option. Another option would be Power Extraction for some AoE Minor Cowardice.
NB is a bit of a complicated one to fit into one picture because of multiple passives to account for and multiple choices. Covered only basics as always. Whole idea is always to have one Siphoning and Assassination skill on frontbar, but which ones depends solely on your and groups need. As for backbar, having a Siphoning/Assassination skill is nice but not mandatory due to rather negligible time spent on backbar.
TLDR:
- Healing Springs vs Illustrious Healing: With recent testing we learned that Healing Springs does not smart target on each single tick, but Illustrious Healing does. With this knowledge Illustrious Healing should always be the preferred morph. Read through <#1248427339008839784> for more information.
- If your partner has group buffs overlapping with you, talk it out to split the work, for example:
- Overflowing Altar only needs to be cast from one support. Either coordinate who casts it or keep it on your bars just in case.
- Minor Intellect/Endurance list of convenience: Arcanist > Templar > Nightblade > Sorc > Warden
- Minor Vulnerability list of convenience: Necro > Scribing: Ulfsild’s Contingency (Growing Impact signature) > Arcanist > Warden > Nightblade
Changelog:
- Echoing Vigor added to staple skills.
- Siphoning Attacks replaced with Healthy Offering as it procs both the Transfer passive and the mythic Pearls of Elhnofey.
- Changed Illustrious Healing to preferred morph.
