I've read conflicting reports about what the restoration staff does, as in its attack not abilities in its skill line.

I've read some claims that it's like any other weapon and damages foes. But I've also read one claim which says it heals (friendly) players if you 'attack' them with it.

Do we know (without being leaky) which it is?

Yes

both

Thank you.

Am pleased to hear it's both. I was only expecting it to heal but being dual purpose sounds handy.

The idea that it only did damage seemed odd. Glad that's not how it works.

The restoration staff is used to damage enemies just like other weapons. However, there is a passive that causes a nearby ally to be healed for a portion of the damage you do with power attacks using the staff. I don't remember what all of the passives were; there might be others that have similar effects.

I wish it healed people by just clicking on them that would solve all my magicka issues.

There is a passive that heals for some... its nice but not a reliable way to heal a group.

42.

I just watched a guy report on this, last night. The weapon skill line for the Restoration Staff has a morph that allows the power ( Blessing of Protection?) to have a larger AoE, damage enemies, heal allies and then stun the enemies for 8 seconds.

That is a long time to shut down an enemy.

it's a ultimate probably, but you can use stamina to break out of ANY cc, so you got that going for ya.

Really well thought out imo. There were those of us worried about going "pure healer" thinking we couldn't function alone. but the way the system works now it's brilliant. You can focus purely on healing if you want to, resto staff and all, but still progress on a solo basis.

Heavy attacks help heal nearby allies. Nice eh

The staffs "basic attack" (you have to hold it down to do any damage with it) only works on enemies. You can't point at a friendly player and "heal" them with it. The only way you can heal people in this game is with the spells that they give you. I think it could have been pretty sweet to single target heal with the staff, but ZOS has this plan that they prefer AoE heals over single-target heals.

I found the report. It's from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WO4wugSJzAM#t=3957. It is indeed an Ultimate. He says it's called Silence and Stunn. But... if all of the enemies in the area are stunned, then they are kept from casting, anyway. So, how does the silence come into play?

I used a resto staff exclusively with my nightblade mage build. Because the build is built around using nothing but magicka attacks it mattered not that the staff had no attacks of it's own. I simply used class and other skill tree abilities. Due to my level I only actually used the hot from the staff skill line but it was the passives I wanted. The basic attacks of any weapon more or less svck compared to your main abilities but most classes gain passives that add utility to them and it is that utility which gives you your main reason to use them once resource management becomes easier.

It is ALWAYS about the passives and they work amazingly well with a nightblade siphon mage build. Technically I am building toward a nightblade healer but it plays very offensive anyway. I'll heal in pve when needed but pvp healing is my main interest. I always prefer ranged combat in rvr style pvp and a nightblade mage blows crap up pretty well but also is a superior healer (due to morphs converting many powers into healing within the NB skill lines along with resto staff of course).

The drawback is that you lack aoe early on but later you have several options and tons of dots. I couldn't have been happier with how the build was shaping up but I only hit mid teens through both betas as I also tried each starter zone which wasted time.

Oh and Ultimates are AWESOME!

ugh... And here IVe been torn between playing a nightblade archer, or a templar with 2H. Both are fun as hell and very potent. But... but man! A nightblade with a resto staff? That sounds off the charts freaking wicked. Syphon abilities used with the resto staff for heals topped off with morphed assassinate to demolish enemies at 300% ranged damage just sounds sick. Dam. Guess thats 3 alts I will have right out of the gate....

I should also add that because it is a very magicka specialized build I could cast Shadow Cloak (the 2.5 second invis power) 5 times in a row even in early teens. I didn't yet get magicka recovery abilities but magicka regens quickly in full light armor once you get the passives. I imagine casting it often later on will become easier still. I trained the morph that dispels a dot due to being able to cast it often and I didn't want to be forced to attack soon after from the other morph. My stealth svcks but I can cast invis a hell of a lot.

I wanted other skills in the assassin line too despite being a caster so I took Assassin's Blade to start training. I had thought it would be something I didn't like but it turned out to be very sweet as a finisher. If an enemy is below 20 or 30% health (not sure which it is) it hits for 3x the damage. I morphed it to 15m (Because I am a ranged caster) and it obliterates low health mobs with awesome magicka to damage ratio. Something to consider even though much more melee based. Using a staff with it is actually rather amusing. You thrust it toward your enemy like a spear and pull it back as if ripping the souls of of them.

So some people saying yes and some people saying no.

I tried it right at the beginning - by pointing it at another player - but nothing happened. I took that to mean it couldn't be used that way. But I read reports online that it could but only fired if the player didn't have full health.

First thing I need to test in the next beta. I really, really, hope it can be used to heal. Because that would make it our only single heal that we can actually target.

Yeah. Morphed assassin's blade for 15 meter bad assidness is a must for a ranged nightblade. it's just so fun. You mentioned using invisibility with the resto staff as well. That is a great idea if you are healing a dungeon. it doesn't last long, but I bet it would be a fabulous way to ditch agro in a hurry while your trying to heal. I am even more intrigued now about this combination.

It can't. A player having lower health doesn't make the restoration staff target them. (Well, not for healing - you can certainly zap someone with it in PvP.) I tested this myself. The staff's attacks do damage. That's why it's a weapon skill. If you want to heal people with it, pick up the relevant passives so that your attacks cause splash healing.

Yes as a healer (you must use resto-staff to be a main healer due to it's passives) Shadow Cloak would be useful. I never truly tested well in group but solo it doesn't actually wipe aggro but puts it on hold. Mobs will run away from you but will turn back and attack once visible. I am unsure if this actually lowers your aggro rating but at least a tank could build more aggro during that time or others can simply help you.

Back to the staff though, it is indeed about the passives of each weapon that you should focus on. I first used a destruction staff because I thought, "Hey! I want to DPS more than heal!" but quickly realized the attacks and passives had zero synergy with my build. I did not need the attacks or any attacks from a weapon. I needed working passives!

I am pretty positive that the "left mouse button default attack ability" for the resto staff does not heal single targets. I swapped to a resto staff very often on my templar while I healed dungeons, and never once did I notice it heal an ally. Even while using this ability to single target a mob through all the group members. If it healed, then I'm sure at some point I would have noticed it arcing over to a group member. But if you are looking for a single target resto staff ability, then look here http://eldersouls.com/elder-scrolls-online/skills at REGENERATION. It is a single target HoT that you can morph into a fast single target heal.

Cheers but I know all the abilities. Spent lots of time with the skill calculator (http://skillcalc.massyx.de/).

One big criticism during the last beta weekend I was in was the lack of control healers have over targetting. Abilities pick their target automatically. Not only does that seem a bit dumbed down and out of sync with the rest of the game but people were reporting it doing dysfunctional things like hitting nearby wounded NPCs instead of team-mates.

After reading on other forums that the staff could heal wounded players you pointed it at (or damage enemies if there were no wounded players) I thought that sounded like what I was expecting in the first place. And that would give us the kind of control we should have. But seems they were wrong.

Disappointed again.

You do have control over your healing abilities, just not perfect control over all of them.

The healing circle is a zone that goes where you place it. If people aren't getting healed, it's because you placed it poorly or the other players aren't making use of it. The directional heal is, unsurprisingly, going to affect whomever is in that direction. The main one that you don't have control over early on is the regenerative spell, which affects a couple of nearby allies. You can influence who it targets with positioning though - amazingly enough, you might have to move around a bit to get the most out of something! (That's true of damage and control powers as well, so it isn't a healer-hate thing.)

I was enjoying not having to target others. It does make trying to keep one particular person alive but after playing I now see the game differently. It isn't meant to be like a Wow style game. When a player gets low on health they MUST turtle and allow heals to catch up! They can also use their own self-heal or protection abilities. It becomes a team effort!

But I want to point out a major issue that Wow-style games have with healing: It is too damn powerful! It ruins pvp and it turn healers into nothing more than health bar watchers. ESO offers it's healers the ability to load their skill bar with many other spells than just heals (they can dps amazingly well in an instant). Because it is resourced based and not cooldown/gcd based you only actually need very few real heals because nearly every spell is build around utility as well. You use the right spell at the right time because you cannot chain powers or you run out of resources. Utility/side affect is the most important reason to use a power.

Another incredibly important function of the lack of single target healing is attrition. Because players can block and have plenty of utility themselves it would be too powerful to simply chain heal one player. Everyone will do what they do in Wow-style games; they target a tank and make them invincible. Healing is important in ESO but the onus is on each player to keep themselves alive! No more blaming the healer. Block when required or die! The healer will be yelling at you!

lol when the players are paying that little attention, the healer most likely WONT be yelling at them. He / she will be too busy trying to keep them alive, and from experience of one boss fight, will be spending the next 5 minutes all on their own finishing off the boss they failed at. Shame the solo thing doesn't work on most of them.. at least not with my build

Wow. Straight for the "you're an idiot". Well I am on the internet. I shouldn't be surprised.

No I'm not an idiot, you rude individual, and incapable of placing a targeting circle on the ground in a useful place.

These are the issues with lack of targetting:

1) This is an FPS'ish game. Weapon attacks and abilities, other than single-target healing, hit where you aim them. Apparently the developers think healers are too stupid to be allowed the same degree of control.
2) Deciding who gets healed at any particular point in time is not trivial. You have to take into account everyone's health, positioning, mob positioning etc.
3) Between all the aoes and the lack of targetting, ESO's looks like one of the most mindless, dumbed down implementation of healing in any game I've seen.

I'll grant the PvP seems very fast-paced and with allies spread about willy nilly it might be a challenge to spot amongst the crowd, aim and then fire a heal. But maybe that's how it should be.


Just to be clear, I'm not a fan of WOW or WOW-style games.

But this is the first MMO I've encountered where healing is this mindless - mostly aoe and the single-target ones auto-target. Seriously, it's like they designed the healers to be played by non-healers who don't really want to pay much attention to it. Non-healers might appreciate that but for people who want to play healers it's a bit svcky.