No-Proc No-CP Nightblade Healer (OUTDATED) - Nachtklinge Baue PvP - ESO

UPDATE: Proc sets will be re-enabled on Ravenwatch for update 43, hence this build will be completely obsolete beyond that update. I'll leave this build up for archival purposes, but I would not recommend running it anymore.

Nightblade has for a long time been among the most effective PVP healing classes. This is no different for the Ravenwatch campaign. The gear on this build will be largely the same as what I have on my Sorcerer build, as there is simply nothing that can match the performance of this set-up. Remember that this build is for no-proc, no-CP (Ravenwatch + no-CP Imperial City) ONLY. It is functional, though severely suboptimal for all other PVP environments.

Sorcerer is currently also the only class I would say is better for PVP healing when we consider raw healing output. Nightblade comes very close, however, and it has some perks that the Sorc does not have: the best pure healing ultimate in the game (Soul Siphon), and easy access to Major Prophecy/Savagery through slotting Shadowy Disguise. In my view, Nightblade is still a class above Templar and Warden.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are 2 things you need to know about this build. First, I optimized it for my Bosmer. Why? Because on the faction I currently play, I only have a Bosmer Nightblade, and I don't care for minmaxing my racial choices. That said, Bosmer does have offer some secondary advantages as a healer: it's lightning fast and we are able to get truly insane stamina sustain, which means we won't be needing tri-stat potions. I will discuss race a little more later. Second, the set-up is mostly suited for groups of 7 or more and assumes the presence of a Warden providing Major Resolve (which is really common in the current meta). If you don't have that luxury, you might need more Heavy armor to achieve good Major Resolve uptimes yourself.

(Smallscale set-up will be added at a later point.)

Sets:

Eternal Vigor - The most effective sustain set that works on Ravenwatch. We don't have the Red CP tree to carry our sustain, so this set is going to do that instead. Use 1 Magicka Recovery glyph on your Infused jewelry piece if you are not playing Breton. If you play Breton, you can use 3 Increase Spell Harm glyphs. If you really struggle for sustain, you can add more recovery glyphs, but if you want to learn this playstyle well, I recommend trying to improve your rotation rather than relying on crutches such as over-sustain.

Heartland Conqueror - In combination with our traits, Heartland Conqueror gives us very high healing and spell/weapon damage (the latter of which boosts our healing further, since most healing skills scale off of it.) It is also a crafted set, which allows us to go for a set-up with 5 medium, 1 light and 1 heavy. Not only does this give us access to Shuffle, which I use on my Bosmer for reasons I'll explain in a bit, but it also gives us much more useful passives (speed, spell/weapon damage, better survivability) than light armor. The end result is that this set easily outperforms the pervasive Healer's Habit under any circumstance.

Ring of Markyn Majesty - We don't have many options for mythics in Ravenwatch, so as with a lot of no-proc builds, Markyn gives the best bang for buck. You could use Torc of Tonal Constancy or Wild Hunt instead, but I do not feel like either are needed. Especially on my Bosmer, I'm already outrunning 95% of the Cyro population with my 2x Swift.

Symphony of Blades - We use the 1-piece of this monster set to get a little more extra healing done just because we can. You can also use sets like Earthgore or Troll King, which give the same effect. Or even something like Trainee if you want extra health.

For armor traits I use 1x Reinforced + 6x Divines bcause I like living on the edge. You may consider other traits like Impenetrable and/or Well-Fitted if you eat dust a lot.

Skills:

Nightblade has an amazing class healing kit, so let's examine a few of the skills. Relentless Focus is there mainly to passively boost our spell/weapon damage. You can use the bow proc if you feel so inclined. Refreshing Path is useful to slot since it gives speed, does a decent amount of healing and gives us minor recovery bonuses. The uptimes on the latter won't be great, especially compared to a Templar, but it's better than nothing. You may need to recast this often when your group is on the move and lack a speedbot. Healthy Offering is a godlike burst heal, but remember that it is single target and therefore will NOT be your main spammable. I mainly use this either when a single player in my group is getting low because he stepped on oil or is getting focused, or when I'm being focused myself. It can crit for like 17-18k so it's pretty effective in preventing death. Shadowy Cloak is there mainly just to give us Major Prophecy/Savagery on both bars. You may also use it to sneak out and place a camp when your group has taken heavy casualties, but it is not to be activated in regular healing scenarios.

Perhaps the most important class skill is Soul Siphon, the ultimate. We place it on both bars since the skill tree passively boosts our healing done, and also because we don't really need any other ultimate. Soul Siphon does a crazy amount of AOE burst healing while also providing everyone hit with the heal with Major Vitality for 4 seconds. This boosts their healing received by 16%. Ideal to use in difficult situations. Be aware that Soul Siphon does have a short cast time, so you may be stunned before it goes off. A way to remedy this is to use an Immovability Potion right before, although this does negate the Nightblade passive that grants you 20 ultimate for consuming a potion. So it's up to you to prioritize either benefit. We use the Energy Orb to provide our allies with some extra healing as well as the sustain synergy. Try to keep one up at all times during combat except when you are doing an offensive push (as the Orb's synergy might override damage synergies). If you have other people in your group running Orbs, you can also slot another skill in this slot, such as Overflowing Altar.

General skills include the usual: Echoing Vigor and Radiating Regeneration, which you should keep up at all times; Healing Springs for static AOE healing and a magicka sustain boost; Blessing of Restoration as your main burst heal/spammable. Simple stuff.

Less straightforward is my choice of using Shuffle, which you would be right to frown upon. This is because Nightblades have their own Major Evasion/snare removal source, which is Phantasmal Escape. On paper, Phantasmal Escape is a better skill since it is a magicka skill that will grant us a roll dodge at reduced or even no cost once in a while. Sounds ideal for healers. However, since I'm a Bosmer, I find that my magicka pool is under a lot more prolonged pressure than my stamina pool, and since Phantasmal Escape isn't a very cheap skill and I don't really need that free roll dodge, I stuck with Shuffle. Shuffle also has the advantage that, with our set-up, the snare immunity will last a second longer (5 seconds vs. 4). If you're a Breton, use Phantasmal Escape. Otherwise, just try and see which one of your attribute pools is able to take more of a beating, and choose the skill based on that.

Consumables

Buff food: Orzorga's Red Frothgar gives us amazing magicka recovery and boosts our health a lot. We don't need the extra stamina recovery of Jewels/Bear Haunch because we are based.

Consumables: Your potion use will depend a lot on whether or not your group has a Dragonknight in it to give you Major Brutality/Sorcery. If not, or if they have dodgy uptimes, use Alliance Spell Power potions as your basis. Use Tri-Stat Potions when your stamina pool is taken too much pressure as the Major Endurance it grants should pull you through. In more GvG-type situations or before big pushes, use Immovability Potions (with magicka + health) to make sure you can set your skills off in those vital moments.

Mundus

The Ritual is the only mundus you should consider as a group healer.

Curses

We play as a mortal. The extra tankiness of Vampirism 3 is not needed and will only hurt our sustain. With this build you are likely to be the last one alive in 9 out of 10 groups so there is no point in coating yourself in 7 Heavy holding block on your S&B bar while your Vigor ticks crit for sub 1k.

Other stuff

As with any group healer build, good positioning is key to your survival. Use your DDs as your buffer as you cast heals into them and do not stand in the middle of an enemy damage point (or even in your own group's damage point for that matter, as that is the most likely spot for a counter-attack.) If possible, use logs to track how much damage you take compared to your DDs. If you are at or near the top of the ‘Damage Taken’ tab, take a critical look at your positioning: you need to be near or at the bottom relative to your DD group members.

Be sure to light attack inbetween any cast on your backbar for optimal sustain and berserker glyph uptime. If all of your skills are ticking and you are not under direct pressure, use a heavy Resto attack to get back magicka and proc Major Mending.

Mind that you can run the exact same gear on any other class and be as effective a healer as that class permits you to be. However, you might need to adjust some traits and other things based on what the class does/doesn't offer.

General questions a lot of healers seem to have:

Is Vampirism always needed on PVP healers? No. In Ravenwatch you will die most often because you ran out of resources. Vampirism 3 hurts your sustain, so only use it in smallscales where you just can't ignore that damage mitigation.

Why run 5 medium? Because it gives us the best healing numbers, most useful Armor passives + access to Shuffle. I've both played against more traditional set-ups and experimented with them myself, and none of those builds can keep up with this one on just about every level.

Why dual wield? A dual wield sword frontbar gives us bigger ticks on any heals that are activated on that bar, which includes our most important skill: Echoing Vigor. You can play this build with 2 Restoration Staves, but it would simply not be as good.

Don't I need more mitigation? I heard that healers get focused a lot. Healers who say they get focused are 90% of the time just trying to explain away the fact that their positioning was off or they made some other kind of mistake. Before you add more mitigation, record your own gameplay so you can see later if there was anything you could've done to prevent death with your current set-up. Nearly all groups on Ravenwatch will focus on the biggest stack of enemy players instead of a singling out the healer.

What about magicka cost reduction sets? Especially since hybridization, sets like Seducer and Eyes of Mara are not optimal because they fail to cover a  pretty significant amount of your skills. Eternal Vigor is all you need for sustain on Ravenwatch.

On a Nightblade, shouldn't I invest more into crit healing? No, crit healing looks good on paper but builds that focus on it just do not work out in practice. I don't know the exact maths behind it, but I've tried and seen others try to make this approach work, and it just falls short tremendously when compared to a pure healing set-up.

Is Gossamer a bad set for proc healing? Yes, without a doubt.

As always, if you have any questions about this build, feel free to message me through Youtube or in-game. My name is degonyte in both places.