Best Healer

[EXIA12126]

Common refrain is that Lissa or Elise are top tier (for healers) but I was wondering if anyone has additional input as to others who are good/better or analysis generally? Personally, I think that if you're running a team with characters that need buffs (Nino or Tharja) Serra might actually be better, as she has Speed Balm plus Hone Attack. This would allow her to serve as a poor man's Eirika as well as heal. 

[Falcom]

I do think they are actually good healers but Azama can be quite a nice healer for training weaker units. He's guaranteed 10 damage on an enemy without actually killing them.

[Rezzy]

As an actual Healer, Wrys.  His spell can take you from 1 HP to full, and he's got a Special that heals your whole team.

[KadenTheKitsune]

Elise and Lissa are top tier for healers, but I use Serra.

She has pretty good HP and ATK and she has a nice Special.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

The real best healer is no healer

 

But for this purpose iirc the one considered the best is the one with Gravity and maybe the -6 Speed ones. And the most useful healing staff is probably Physic

[Ryuke]

13 minutes ago, JSND said:

The real best healer is no healer

 

But for this purpose iirc the one considered the best is the one with Gravity and maybe the -6 Speed ones. And the most useful healing staff is probably Physic

This...

I hate to say this... I always thought Serra was amazing. Recover (15hp) and 3 cooldown. But every healer has its own pro/cons. Though ... I am having no luck with Clarine.

[EXIA12126]

38 minutes ago, JSND said:

The real best healer is no healer

 

But for this purpose iirc the one considered the best is the one with Gravity and maybe the -6 Speed ones. And the most useful healing staff is probably Physic

Yea realize that at higher levels in the current meta healers aren't that useful. However, if the balance shifts from the current kill-everything-in-two-turns dynamic, that might change. 

 

[Sire]

It depends on what you want to use the healer for.

If you want to use the healer for actual healing, then a healer with Recover (Serra, Elise) or Rehabilitate (Lissa, Wyrs) is wanted. I personally prefer Rehabilitate since it can heal a wounded unit back up to full. // If you are using the healer for combat debuffs (Fear, Slow), you are likely better off finding a combat unit with a Seal skill instead. // If you are using the healer for buffing your team (Hone ATT, SPD Balms), it is likely better finding combat units that synergies together with buffs.

Long story short, the meta currently seems to revolve around "kill the enemy first before they kill you" while fielding a Dancer instead of "outlast the enemy through toughness and heals." Defensive builds are viable, but do not seem that popular around here.
* * * * *
Now, with the Skill Inherit system on the horizon, I personally would say Clarine would be the best healer due to her total stats (162, the highest of current healers) and being mounted. All one needs to do then is outfit her with the desired skills.

If all of these skills are valid, then I personally would run...

Character: Clarine
Weapon: Fear (Increases Survivability)
Special: ATT Balm (Allows for Burst Damage)
Assist: Rehabilitate (Excellent healing potential for wounded units)
Passive A: Fury (+12 Total Stats, Increases Arena Rating)
Passive B: Live to Serve (Heals Self, Offsets Fury Self Damage)
Passive C: Hone DEF (Increases Survivability)

[eclipse]

Heals the most damage, irregardless of whether or not it's actually needed - Wrys, due to Heavenly Light.
Heals the most damage, full stop - Someone with Martyr (I think)
Actually does useful things on top of healing - Sakura (Fear reduces damage, Fortify Defense/Still-Water Balm is +4 Def/Res, essentially mitigating 10 damage)

[Rezzy]

4 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Heals the most damage, irregardless of whether or not it's actually needed - Wrys, due to Heavenly Light.
Heals the most damage, full stop - Someone with Martyr (I think)
Actually does useful things on top of healing - Sakura (Fear reduces damage, Fortify Defense/Still-Water Balm is +4 Def/Res, essentially mitigating 10 damage)

Is there anyone who can use Martyr effectively?  I think Clarine has it, but a stiff breeze will kill her, so I've never really found opportunity to use it.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I wouldn't say Clarine is fragile; she's difficult to double and 25 def is reasonably sturdy for a mage (adjust downward by 2 points for 4* version most likely, since there's little reason to promote a healer to 5* and I don't think natural 5* Clarine exists). You can very often set up Martyr for her on turn 1 by baiting a mage or archer. The problem is that you're also getting whoever hit her closer to their own special attack (if they have one) and doing little damage back (though -6 atk has its uses).

[Avestus]

For me rehabilitate is the only worthy healing skill, so it's Wrys and Lissa both being top healers. I'd probably say Wrys is better since affecting enemy's speed is good as well as extra heaing for the whole party.  Lissa's atk buff is not so cool since too many units have it anyway. 

If the arena scoring ever changes, allowing for taking lower-ranking teams and still getting strong opponents, I think it's  the two of them who will shine. With the ridiculous damage everyone does in most cases their heal recovers the whole hp bar and that's exactly what matters.

Currently though my best "healer" is Julia, since she actually has a nice rating and can do damage, which makes her viable for high-scoring arena runs.

[Extrasolar]

Of all the healers I've used (and I've got Lissa, Maria, Clarine, Sakura, Azama, Wrys... I'm honestly drowning in healers), I've enjoyed/gotten the most use out of Clarine and Azama. Clarine's got the mobility advantage on all of the other healers, Swift Winds Balm is always good, since speed rules the day here a lot of the time as usual, and doubling the enemy is a free ticket to being able to kill them in one round (and Brave Weapons are just so good for that reason).

Azama just for his high defenses (he can off-tank should the need arise), Pain as free 10 damage when healer damage is sliced in half anyway, and also Solid-Earth balm to make your units tanker on the defense is always good.

[Kirie]

I trained my 4* Lissa up to 40 and she's my main healer for when I do healing, which is pretty rarely honestly. She's the best of the bunch that I have, in my opinion, and does her job well with a lot of utility. I often use her when training single new units (along with Olivia), and occasionally in some of the harder PvE levels, but never in PvP.

[Sire]

18 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

Is there anyone who can use Martyr effectively?  I think Clarine has it, but a stiff breeze will kill her, so I've never really found opportunity to use it.

Two people have Martyr, Clarine and Azama. Within the spoiler is a max stats chart using the average stats.

Spoiler

Name	HP	ATT	SPD	DEF	RES	Total
Azama	43	31	26	29	29	158
Clarine	35	37	33	25	32	162

Lissa	39	36	25	28	30	158
Sakura	36	38	30	24	30	158

Wrys	42	34	23	25	33	157

Lach...	39	42	25	22	30	158
Maria	36	37	34	19	32	158

Serra	33	37	31	21	33	155
Elise	30	38	32	19	32	151

 

If you can remedy Azama's speed problem, he will be the best candidate for Martyr due to his high health and decent DEF & RES. The next best up is Lissa, but she also has SPD issues. On par with Lissa is Sakura, exchanging some DEF and HP for precious SPD.

If you plan on using healers to tank magic attacks to trigger Martyr, then the selection is a bit more open. However, I would recommend either Sakura or Maria due to their HP, SPD, and RES.

Personally though, I just prefer using Rehabilitate at endgame. While using healers as bait and "off-tanks" to proc Martyr can be interesting, I prefer using combat units that can retaliate and defeat opponents and patch up their wounds afterwards.

[Skala_Bundet]

Mhhmmm, healers, my favorite .

I'll root for team Azama, since he's really underrated in my eyes. He's a great unit for softening in the training tower. 30 def in a healer (at 4*) let's you really tank a few hits as a healer, and let's you actually take advantage of Matyr. I guess I must have a speed Azama with 28 spd (Must be the res or hp which is low), so doubling is only a issue with real fast characters. When I had used Azama in the arena, those fixed 10 dmg from pain are really useful against those opponents you would barely not kill with another unit.

[M.T. Cicero]

 

I usually play with a healer (it's just my preferred fighting style) and Lissa with Rehabilitate seems the most effective for me. I also think that her DEF/RES are not bad for a healer and her skill is useful too.

Having said that, my favourite healer in the game is Serra. She heals quite a lot and her Swift Winds can help you double the enemies. I also like to attack with her.

 

On a side note. It's a shame, that Priscilla is not in the game. She was one of my favourite units in FE7.

[Rafiel's Aria]

I like having a healer around, especially one with rehabilitate. If your character can survive with 1HP, your healer can fix him/her all the way up. That's what makes Lissa great...plus she gives all your characters a little attack bonus which can be very useful for different strategies. My Lissa can also take hits pretty well, but renewal helps with damage as well. I recently started leveling up Wrys who, despite being low-tier, is just as effective of a healer healer as Lissa. Instead of an attack buff, he heals your entire party, and I've found that incredibly useful in a pinch.

[Eselred]

20 hours ago, KadenTheKitsune said:

Elise and Lissa are top tier for healers, but I use Serra.

She has pretty good HP and ATK and she has a nice Special.

This.  Serra is quite useful with Recover and boosting ATK.  Healers are only really useful when training units though.  In the Arena it's zerg rush the opposing team before they do the same to you, so dancers are better there.

[Vaximillian]

12 hours ago, M.T. Cicero said:

On a side note. It's a shame, that Priscilla is not in the game. She was one of my favourite units in FE7.

You're in luck then!

[nekonase]

I used Elise and Lisse for healing.

I like Elise because she can double up as an offense with her high atk(45) and reasonable spd(29) as long as the enemy isn't an archer. She also has 3 movement which helps with positioning. Due to her high res(32), I often use her to lure enemy mage since my other units has lower res. Once skill inheritance is in, I will give her either hone/fortify cavalry to synergise with other cavalries. 

As for Lisse, I like her rehabilitate skill. She's also quite tanky for a healer. However, my only issue is that her atk is very low. She can't do anything but to heal.

[Silith13]

I'm using Azama the most. He's only level 33 but the exp he gains is so pittifull. It takes more then 20 times as long to get him to 40 then other units it feels like.

[M.T. Cicero]

9 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

You're in luck then!

WOW! All that luck the last few days (Must be my Karma) Gotta save some orbs now.

I'm really hoping they give her good atk and spd, not that I won't use her either way.

Edited March 13, 2017 by M.T. Cicero