In The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO), understanding your skill rotation is one of the most important keys to success—especially for healers. Whether you're supporting your team in Veteran dungeons, Trials, or PvP, having a solid healing rotation can mean the difference between a flawless run and a team wipe. In this guide, we'll break down five essential tips to master your ESO healing rotation from popular ESO content creator Doc.

1. Pre-Buff and Open Strong

Before combat even begins, you should already be supporting your team. As a healer, many of your skills—like HoTs (heals over time) and buffs—can be pre-cast to give your group an advantage in the first few seconds of battle.

Key Pre-Buff Skills:

    Radiant Aura (Templar) – Applies Minor Intellect and Endurance.
    Radiating Regeneration or Echoing Vigor – Sticky heals over time.
    Expansive Frost Cloak (Warden) – Applies group-wide defensive buffs.

Pre-buffing ensures your team is already receiving critical healing and buffs before the pull, which is often one of the most dangerous parts of any fight.

2. Prioritize Skill Up Times

Buff and HoT durations vary, so managing uptime is essential for a seamless rotation. Skills like Budding Seeds (Warden) need frequent reapplication, while others like Extended Ritual (Templar) have longer durations and can be refreshed less often.

Pro Tip: Use the Action Duration Reminder add-on to track your skills' timers and maintain near-perfect uptime. Practicing your skill duration management—even outside of combat—will drastically improve your rotation under pressure.

3. Anticipate Heal Checks

Healing in ESO is dynamic, and one of the biggest rotation disruptors are heal checks—mechanics that force you to top off your team within a time limit. Failing these can result in massive damage or party wipes.

Common Heal Checks:

    Baneful Mark
    Frost Tomb

Anticipating these mechanics allows you to prep healing skills in advance. When you know they're coming, adjust your rotation early to meet the burst healing demand without panicking or spamming skills inefficiently.

4. Know Your Passive Cooldowns

Skills like Energy Orb and Luminous Shards offer resource synergies, but many players don’t realize they have cooldowns (e.g., 30 seconds per player). While these skills are still useful outside of synergy procs, understanding their timing can help you prioritize which abilities to cast and when.

Also, remember passives like Essence Drain (from heavy attacks with a Resto Staff) grant Major Mending—a huge healing boost when timed correctly.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Heavy Attacks

Heavy attacks have a bad reputation in healing rotations, but when used properly, they’re incredibly useful:

    Generate resources (Magicka, Stamina).
    Activate passive effects like Major Mending.
    Fill downtime when all buffs are active.

Especially if you’re running sets like Roaring Opportunist, heavy attacks may even be required. Just don’t overdo it—heavy attacks should complement your rotation, not replace it.

Your class, gear, build, and the encounter mechanics will all shape your ideal healing rotation. Practice makes perfect, and mastering your healing rotation takes time. Keep experimenting, pay attention to your team's needs, and always stay flexible.

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