Prepare to master the art of healing in The Elder Scrolls Online as we rank the top healing classes from best to worst. In this detailed guide, we’ll explore each class’s unique traits, best skills, and top passive abilities, focusing on factors such as ease of play, strong healing capabilities, and the ability to provide valuable group utility like buffs and resource sustain.
How To Heal in ESO
In ESO, healing goes beyond simply the ability to heal allies. Healers do play a crucial role in ensuring the group’s survival by providing consistent heals, but also provide resource sustain and beneficial buffs and debuffs. Meaning they also contribute to the group’s overall performance by significantly impacting the duration and difficulty of encounters: shorter fights due to higher damage translate to less mechanics, less deaths and smoother gameplay for everyone involved.
While this guide aims to guarantee you a spot in optimized groups because some classes perform better than others, remember that all classes can heal in all dungeons and all trials. The only difference is that it might require more player-skill or make runs longer because of the absence of certain buffs and debuffs, for example.
However, don’t let this healer class tier list dissuade you from choosing your preferred class. Especially, as a new player, you really can’t go wrong! In addition to this, in ESO, gear set choices often play a more pivotal role than class or race selection. Plus, certain classes come on top for certain encounters or certain strategies, so don’t forget to optimize with the rest of your group in mind.
Ready to keep everyone alive?
ESO Best Healer Class Explained
The best Healer classes in ESO are:
- Warden
- Arcanist
- Templar
- Nightblade
- Necromancer
- Sorcerer
- Dragonknight
1. Warden
Warden healers are widely regarded as the top class for healing in ESO, particularly in endgame group content. They are also relatively easy to play, making them an accessible choice for beginners looking to excel in the healing role. One of the standout features of Warden healers is their access to an extensive array of healing abilities and buffs, which can significantly boost your group’s performance and survivability.
In addition to their strong healing capabilities, the Warden class has decent ultimate generation, allowing them to effectively utilize sets like Pillager’s Profit to provide a valuable buff to the group. The Warden’s toolkit is designed around maintaining a multitude of heals-over-time (HOTs) to ensure that everyone’s health bars remain consistently topped off throughout encounters.
Warden’s healing kit includes strong skills and passives like Enchanted Growth, providing group sustain buffs and procs Major Mending when healing low-health allies. Expansive Frost Cloak grants raid-wide Major Resolve to boost ally physical and spell resistance for increased tankiness, while Fetcher Infection offers a Minor Vulnerability debuff and aids in ultimate generation through the Savage Beast passive.
Deep Fissure provides reliable AOE Major and Minor Breach debuffs, and the AOE healing ability Healing Seed which delivers a unique healing synergy. The Maturation passive grants Minor Toughness, boosting maximum health by 10%, synergizing well with Altar for sustained benefits through Minor Lifesteal. Additionally, the powerful healing ultimate called Healing Thicket is a very cheap tool for saving groups in dungeon emergencies.
The Warden healer’s synergy with ice damage further enhances group support capabilities, especially when using an ice staff to effortlessly maintain Minor Brittle, providing additional damage benefits to the group.
2. Arcanist
The Arcanist, a relatively recent addition to the game, boasts decent healing spells and is commonly seen in top-scoring runs of endgame content. While it may not excel at out-healing damage like the Warden or Templar, it shines in shielding and providing buffs to the group.
The Arcanist has a well-rounded toolkit and excellent sustain passives, ensuring you don’t run out of gas. The Circumvented Fate passive increases survivability of the group in AOE situations with Minor Evasion. While the healing ability called Curative Surge offers powerful healing and sustain to allies, its aiming requirement limits its use in actual content; it adds a fun new way to heal.
The Arcanist really excels in utility and group buffs with skills Tidal Chakram contributes shielding and healing, while Reconstructive Domain grants a HOT, sustain buff and Minor Courage to allies, enabling Tanks to replace the Claw of Yolnahkriin set and consider alternative sets.
Arcanist healers can enhance group damage by slotting Fulminating Rune for a potent burst synergy that multiple DPS can activate. Additionally, Rune of the Colorless Pool provides long and reliable Minor Brittle and Minor Vulnerability, significantly boosting group damage. Lastly, the Aranist has access to powerful healing ultimates and ultimate morphs like Glyphic of the Tides, which offers a strong group buff with Major Protection, a HOT, and extra damage stats.
3. Templar
The Templar class is a master of PVP and PVE healing in The Elder Scrolls Online. While its utility may diminish if there’s already a Templar DPS in the group, a Templar Healer is, without a doubt, best-in-slot if this isn’t the case. This is primarily due to the synergies it offers and its strong healing capabilities.
Many top-scoring groups opt for Templar Healers not only for their healing prowess but also to allow for more Arcanist DPS in the group. This strategic choice significantly enhances group damage and performance, particularly in AOE scenarios —which is the case of most new DLC encounters.
The Templar stands out as the most beginner-friendly healing class. Its exceptional survivability and strong heals allows you to effortlessly keep everyone over-healed, making it a highly recommended starter class that remains very effective in endgame content. Notably, the healing skill called Breath of Life offers an incredibly potent burst heal that doesn’t require targeting. Additionally, the Master Ritualist passive enables faster player resurrection compared to any other class, proving invaluable during challenging fights or when first starting out.
Templars create zones of safety with the very large Extended Ritual and a mix of Weapon and Guild skills, while the Sacred Ground passive grants Minor Mending to Templars for standing in their own AOE heals.
The Illuminate passive offers Minor Sorcery to increase ally spell damage, and while its utility may overlap with a Dragonknight’s presence in the group, the buff remains crucial in groups lacking a Dragonknight, making Templar Healers particularly valuable in dungeons, where groups are smaller.
Additionally, Radiant Aura provides a long group buff to sustain, and Hasty Prayer proves useful for gaining movement speed during specific mechanics, such as against the final boss in Rockgrove.
Lastly, Extended Ritual and Luminous Shards (or Blazing Spear for more damage) offer crucial synergies that other players can activate, essential for enabling the Roar of Alkosh set to reach its full potential. These abilities also play a significant role in resource sustain and purging negative effects, particularly beneficial for Tanks.
4. Nightblade
The Nightblade Healer is a solid choice. Although it’s slightly more challenging to master, the class has good sustain via Siphoning Attacks and can serve as an effective kite healer for encounters where one player needs to stay away from the group, such as when facing Oaxiltso in Rockgrove.
The Nightblade class is focused heavily on burst healing, particularly with Healthy Offering. Funnel Health is also valuable, ensuring dungeon groups remain fully healed. Nightblades also provide the Minor Savagery critical chance buff, but it may overlap with the presence of a Sorcerer DPS. On the other hand, skills like Mass Hysteria and Power Extraction can be very helpful to reduce incoming damage, bolstering the group’s survivability.
The Nightblade Healer also benefits from Refreshing Path, offering healing and a sustain buff to the group, along with a significant movement speed boost. This skill proves especially valuable in encounters demanding frequent movement, such as the final boss fight against Taleria in Dreadsail Reef.
The Soul Siphon ultimate can be very strong, granting Major Vitality to the group for increased healing received. Additionally, the class boasts excellent ultimate generation via the Catalyst and Transfer passives, and can use Pearls of Ehlnofey better than any other class, allowing for frequent ultimate usage. This synergizes extremely well with the Pillager’s Profit set, a must-have in optimized groups.
5. Necromancer
The Necromancer can serve as a competent healer with all of its utility, and its synergy with the Elemental Catalyst set makes it the best choice for significantly boosting group damage. It’s just not as common in content due to the frequent presence of Necromancer Tanks or Support DPS in organized groups. Additionally, mastering the class can be challenging, as you must consistently cast Blighted Blastbones to create corpses and effectively manage them to fully exploit your class skills.
Necromancers have excellent healing skills in their kit. Braided Tether provides a free HOT while passively buffing other skills. Blood Sacrifice stands out as a potent multi-target burst heal, while Enduring Undeath combines an AOE heal with a HOT attached. Finally, Intensive Mender can be useful for generating more corpses.
The class also brings the Grave Robber synergy, which is key for users of the Roar of Alkosh set.
Finally, Necromancer has some of the game’s best ultimate generation, thanks to abilities like the Corpse Consumption passive and Necrotic Potency. This enables them to cast 2 of the most powerful ultimates more frequently. Renewing Animation can resurrect up to 3 group members, which can be a game-changer in challenging situations. While their primary ultimate, Glacial Colossus, stands out due to the powerful Major Vulnerability debuff. Because of these capabilities, it’s highly recommended to always have at least one Necromancer in every group composition.
6. Sorcerer
The Sorcerer Healer is a viable, mobile choice but requires more experience. It’s often overshadowed by Sorcerer damage dealers who already provide Sorcerer’s primary group-utility: Minor Prophecy through the Exploitation passive and Major Berserk via the Summon Charged Atronach ultimate.
Compared to Templars or Wardens, Sorcerers lack an extensive healing and support toolkit. Regenerative Ward grants sustain to the group but not the shield, which is a drawback. The Summon Twilight Matriarch serves as the class’s burst heal with an impressive tooltip, but it comes with limitations. Since it’s a pet, it can be killed, and some players simply prefer not to use pets. Additionally, double-barring the skill reduces bar space, and the target-cap makes it most effective in 4-man dungeons and arenas.
On the other hand, Sorcerer Healers have good sustain. Plus, Update 41: Scions of Ithelia has brought Vibrant Shroud to the class, a very potent AOE burst heal that also grants Minor Vitality to allies and Major Maim to enemies. Daedric Refuge is another noteworthy addition, providing group shields. Power Surge can also provide some nice extra AOE healing. And the class can provide the Conduit synergy which is nice to add some extra damage too.
Finally, the Power Stone passive ensures cheap ultimates for more frequent casting and Absorption fields, while niche can be useful for its HOT and negating capabilities.
7. Dragonknight
There is no sugar-coating it, the Dragonknight Healer doesn’t receive much praise: there isn’t much in its kit to be considered an optimal choice for dedicated healing in optimized endgame groups. While the class is highly survivable, its skills tend to be selfish, with Coagulating Blood being the best burst heal in the game but only affecting the caster, for example.
The Dragonknight class offers a range of utility skills that can benefit the group. Cinder Storm is a potent and cost-effective skill but it may lose efficiency in dynamic, mobile encounters like those found in newer DLC content. Cauterize, while strong, is limited to healing only one target every 5 seconds.
The class does however provide utility through abilities like Burning Talons and its associated synergy. And the Stagger and Engulfing Flames debuffs can greatly improve group damage output. Finally, Dragonknights grant Major Brutality, Major Sorcery and Minor Brutality to the entire group through Igneous Weapons and the Mountain’s Blessing passive, enabling group members to utilize different potions for diverse benefits and combat scenarios.
Despite being the best Tank and one of the top DPS choices, Dragonknights aren’t commonly used as Healers due to their reliance on Weapon and Guild skills for efficient healing. However, don’t get discouraged from playing the class and role you want: there have been successful Trifecta clears of the latest trial, Sanity’s Edge, with Dragonknight Healers, highlighting the importance of player skill.
The Final Word
As you create your perfect Healer Build, there are just a few final things to remember. First, make sure to maximize your Restoration Staff Skill Line for access to even more useful support skills and powerful heals, including Healing Springs and Combat Prayer, as well as the Destruction Staff skill line for access to Elemental Drain. Also, don’t neglect your DPS capabilities as you level as some extra damage will be helpful for times when healing isn’t necessary and your goal is to maximize group DPS. Finally remember to have fun! The healer role in ESO is one of the most engaging and dynamic ways to play the game, so don’t worry about what other classes can do and instead focus on the unique skills and buffs your class can offer.
