Need advice on FB support build for Fractals

Hi

I'm just getting back into Fractals, haven't played them in almost a year. I plan on doing casual daily T4s and recs, maybe CMs, but I'm not totally set on that yet. I'm not out for time records or any of the glitchy tryhard bs that made me quit. I don't have a static group to run fractals with, so I'll be PuG'ing this. Power DH or Hammerguard are still the meta as it seems but I would really love to play support FB for a change, DH and Fractal Hammer get old, they got old before I quit Fractals, and I'd like to play something different now. I played lots of Guard, DH and FB and know my way around the Fractals quite good, so that shouldn't be an issue.Would it be possible to kind of, sort of, maybe partially replace Druid and Chrono for PuGs with the right setup of Healing Power and Concentration stats? Looking for a Build that can carry four random DPS players. If I'd tweak it, would it be easier to tweak it towards power or condition DMG and wich stats should I run? I'd assume condi because of the burning and the F1 burst. Are there some obscure stat combinations that could make this work?

Thanks a lot in advance. :)

These are the builds I found so far.

• Metabattle
• Build from somewhere else, replacing some traits and Minstrels with Harrier and Magi stats

You'll give enough healing, you should focus on boon duration.Play full harrier. Normally with harrier, Oil, and the fractal concentration bonus you'll be at 100% duration. Enventually a boon duration food (cause I play with runes of altruism). If you need some tankiness to feel safer, go for some minstrel accessories.Signet of courage is useless. Take "Feel my Wrath" or, for some bosses or DH in your team the stab elite mantra..Staff too. Use axe for CC/pull, or scepter for mights.Signet of mercy is default/ok, but you can replace it with merciful interventation, the stab shout, the WoR etc.

Engage with #4 shield, mace #2, all charges of Mantra of potence and "Feel my Wrath", when aegis is desabled on your mates, mace#3 or mantra of solace (eventually every 8s to proc quickness, but more often if needed) spam mace #2 or scepter #2; dodge roll sometimes (when full bar for example) to heal. Recharge Mantra of potence when ready, and spam charges again.F2 if burst healing needed (if that the case, or you're really bad, or they are) F3 if anti-proj needed, or resistance, or more protection duration.GG your team is alive with reasonable quickness duration and others boons for the fight.

But most important thing : Tell your mates you're support/healer and not DPS. This is not a fame build nor the equivalent of chronoboon/druid powerbuff and you shouldn't impose your build if there is already a chrono/druid or they want the old habits; but yes, it works great for fractals with 4 DPS.

If you want to make some DMG, I suggest you Seraph set, FB 3-3-3and virtue x-x-1 and radiance, but no more quickness and "just enough" healing.
Or still harrier but radiance spec 2-3-3, I think it's the best.

Thanks a lot. Any thoughts on Marshal stats? Isn't the concentration value on Seraph and Minstrel stats the same so the boon duration should stay roughly the same? I'll try out a few things today. But please keep suggesting/discussing stuff. :)

@"Zhaid Zhem.6508" is correct.

Just a few things : NEVER run signet of courage. It's only there for roleplay and in the "real world" it's super duper bad. It's only use is healing desmina when you low man river (w5) because it instantly heals her for 50k.

NEVER run signet of mercy UNLESS you already run merciful intervention (MI) outside of PvP. In PvP, MI is significantly nerfed and running signet as alternative is OK. In PVE, running signet over MI just tells everyone you didnt optimize your build. (MI can instantly res if you do it as they go down; AoE res, NO cast time, far lower cooldown, burst heal, mobility, ...)

Don't run staff except on soul river; it's garbage. If you really know what you're doing; it'sp ossible to play around it but for newer FB players they just end up on staff not doing anything. Playing optimally you almost never use staff; and in raids staff is just useless too. Depending on the boss I use sword (mobility), hammer (push, immob, heavy CC) or GS (pulling adds / mobility).If you need might desperately; get more boon duration and scepter.

Your boon duration is too low, go full harrier / minstrel or get concentration sigils.

Thanks a lot :)Allright, think I can change a few things from the default build. Will update later. I like staff and used to play it because of the AoE damage that still procs stuff and because you could shoot through walls(which you still can but since the lootstick-nerf staff just isn't worth it :( ). Empower and LoW are still neat skills but I agree that it's a subpar weapon. Think I'll settle for either scepter as go to variant and switch weapons according to the situation.Are the seraph stats worth it if I add runes/sigils that improve boon duration? Signet of Mercy instead of Mantra of Lore? Or is it just that bad that you rather leave the spot for something situational like WoR or Bow of Truth?

@"lokh.2695" said:Thanks a lot :)Allright, think I can change a few things from the default build. Will update later. I like staff and used to play it because of the AoE damage that still procs stuff and because you could shoot through walls(which you still can but since the lootstick-nerf staff just isn't worth it :( ). Empower and LoW are still neat skills but I agree that it's a subpar weapon. Think I'll settle for either scepter as go to variant and switch weapons according to the situation.Are the seraph stats worth it if I add runes/sigils that improve boon duration? Signet of Mercy instead of Mantra of Lore? Or is it just that bad that you rather leave the spot for something situational like WoR or Bow of Truth?

Or is it just that bad that you rather leave the spot for something situational like WoR or Bow of Truth?

All of those options are generally pretty bad. Wall of reflection is nice when you need it, but F3 3 is also a reflect. I use that for BU at matthias without any issues, for example.Bow of truth is blehr. Better go harrier / minstrel with virtues + honor. Adding bow of truth is a very, very small increase to your overall healing so I don't find it worthwhile. I very rarely have situations where i can save players because i have bow of truth; but not without.

In raids my go-to utilities are bane signet, merficul internvention (MI) and the cleanse / quickness mantra.Bane signet is often needed as you replace druids / chronos which have high breakbar damage; and breaking bars is important. Depends on the boss of course.MI is plain better than the res signet. Just use the active; try it around abit. If you see someone who will go down, try to instantly use it and they will be ressed. It has great range, AoE, good heal and can also be used as mobility (replacement for "range" heals). If you struggle on a boss with players going down; ALWAYS run MI. I've done matthias runs where i res 30+ players and the ONLY reason you're capable of ressing so much is because you get an essentially free res every 45 seconds, if they die together then you can res all of them at once.If you struggle with condi, condi mantra. If you struggle with quickness, quickness mantra, etc. In general I adapt my fb in terms of utilities and offhand weapon frequently to better suit the group and the boss.

Don't bother with seraph. Try to mix harrier and magi to 66% boon duration. You can then aim for more harrier, more magi or concentration sigils later to optimize. Full harrier also works; I usually go full harrier in raids. It's 12k hp tho. Seraph is heavily reduced healing in favor of condi damage. You give quickness almost no healing & boons outside that.

Too bad seraphs has to be a 4stat set. I guess the same reasoning goes for plaguedoctor and marshal stats.I made some changes to the build. Changed the utilities: opted for the elite mantra because of the group stunbreak and stability. Not totally set on the bane signet, probably the slot to place situational skills in or the possibility to run both mantras(quickness and cleanse). If cc is needed I'll just grab a hammer I guess.I haven't changed much about the traits so far. How important is Pure of Heart? If I switched it to Honorable Staff I'd get to 68% Boon Duration minmaxing harrier/magi gear. Any advice on traits? Been thinking about replacing Virtues with Valor 2-1(2)-3. I'd do it for Tenecious Defense, but I haven't had time to gather experience with the trait.

F3 is not particulary effective if not traited with virtue x-x-3 and FB x-3-x. It gives you some more protection, the bubble is fun if you don't run the WoR , but otherwise you don't really need resistance (f2 already cleanse condition + F2#5 + f2#2), you have better stab application skills, you already have plenty of aegis.I don't think Valor for f3 CD, is valuable contrary to Virtues.And valor is a bit more selfish in its traits.

FWIW, since you mentioned Marshal, this is what I'm playing around with now for open world solo and events, using a mix of Marshal & Celestial. I just traited FB the other day, so still getting used to it, but this seems to be good at leveraging alot of burning without sacrificing support healing or power damage. Of course, its jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, so it has its weaknesses:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRApe7dn0ABNDhVBBeBDEEhl4BzaD8CeUVBgtU9a/lOT7pA-jxiAQBRwEU0OBAzY/hKoEkpHEA0o0zp6HEryAsq+DAeCALwMApACcBA-e

This is what I suggest if you want to support.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAne3fnsADdBjNDBGBDEEhF+BbPj+RPpZNhMUHCLAMDKCA-jxRXABFr8rU9DbrE0uTCAA7Ps7TAoW1fIFgf7qA-e

All you need to perma quickness with ease is 50% boon duration. You wont be able to heal stupid but itll give a decent amount of sustain and tankiness due to protection and all the aegis you bring. Ofc if you do get paired with a druid or chrono, you can just as easilly switch out honor for radiance. Feel free to switch to mace/shield+ staff if you need more healing.

Giving up most of your damage is the worst way to go as a support rev/ support firebrand in pve imo.

You found the wrong Metabattle build, the one you linked is for WvW, here's the one for fractals/raids.

If you want to do fractals I'd recommend this build if you're replacing a Chrono , and this build if you're replacing a Druid, also if you go for 1 Firebrand Support + 4 DPS composition, which is probably the best in fractals if you want to play this build, then take the Chrono variant, swap to the Druid one if you struggle.

Here are few changes you need to make according to the situation:

• If your group moves a lot take Force of Will over Writ of Persistence.
• If healing is an issue take Virtue instead of Radiance, then go for 2/2/2, you'll lose offensive buffs, but you'll have better healing.
• The utility third slot can be filled with what you need, you need more healing use Merciful Intervention or Bow of Truth, you need more quickness with the replacement for Chrono, take Stand Your Ground, need reflect take Wall of Reflection, need more CC use the Hammer of Wisdom, and need more condition cleanse take Mantra of Lore.
• You can replace Renewed Focus with Signet of Courage or with Mantra of Liberation against CCs heavy encounters.

Thanks a lot for the advice given. I've been playing around with some different stats lately and got used to a few new skills that I haven't been using much in the past. I've been using mostly Marshal's stats right now and it seems ok when it comes to dmg while still offering potent heals. Boon uptime is probably abysmal tho. I'll try what happens when I up the boon duration a bit.

@"lokh.2695" said:Too bad seraphs has to be a 4stat set. I guess the same reasoning goes for plaguedoctor and marshal stats.I made some changes to the build. Changed the utilities: opted for the elite mantra because of the group stunbreak and stability. Not totally set on the bane signet, probably the slot to place situational skills in or the possibility to run both mantras(quickness and cleanse). If cc is needed I'll just grab a hammer I guess.I haven't changed much about the traits so far. How important is Pure of Heart? If I switched it to Honorable Staff I'd get to 68% Boon Duration minmaxing harrier/magi gear. Any advice on traits? Been thinking about replacing Virtues with Valor 2-1(2)-3. I'd do it for Tenecious Defense, but I haven't had time to gather experience with the trait.

Pure of heart is important. Honorable staff isn't, and staff in general is pretty bad. Honestly your main job is to apply aegis to block the hardest hitting attacks at proper times and heal through that. If you're ever going to remove honorable staff, it's to run empowering might (i.e. with scepter) to mightcap your group without staff. Have I mentioned staff in PvE is usually bad?

Valor has nothing particularly useful for PvE, none of the traits you selected look interesting. F3 tome is nice utility on various raidbosses and fractals, but it's not like you need CD reduction on it. You definitely don't want to waste a full traitline to sit in F3 in PvE all day.

@castillle.5248 water runes and food on a heal / condi build is questionable still. You won't get 100% quickness uptime on groups. Better to go for firebrand or leadership runes for boon duration, or baltazar runes for condi, or something that's somehow effective. Rest this build is better htan half the options that have been thrown around.

@"Alchimist.4738" said:You found the wrong Metabattle build, the one you linked is for WvW, here's the one for fractals/raids.

If you want to do fractals I'd recommend this build if you're replacing a Chrono , and this build if you're replacing a Druid, also if you go for 1 Firebrand Support + 4 DPS composition, which is probably the best in fractals if you want to play this build, then take the Chrono variant, swap to the Druid one if you struggle.

Here are few changes you need to make according to the situation:

• If your group moves a lot take Force of Will over Writ of Persistence.
• If healing is an issue take Virtue instead of Radiance, then go for 2/2/2, you'll lose offensive buffs, but you'll have better healing.
• The utility third slot can be filled with what you need, you need more healing use Merciful Intervention or Bow of Truth, you need more quickness with the replacement for Chrono, take Stand Your Ground, need reflect take Wall of Reflection, need more CC use the Hammer of Wisdom, and need more condition cleanse take Mantra of Lore.
• You can replace Renewed Focus with Signet of Courage or with Mantra of Liberation against CCs heavy encounters.

UsingThere are no situations where bow of truth is better than MI in PvE.

Your heal build replaced effective aegis spam with a mediocre group heal on 30s CD. No idea why.Your build runs staff and staff trait, yet can't give quickness, 25 might, fury, ... and gives up massive healing to try make up for some of these flaws. Running staff with honorable staff is just bad optimization.Your heal build uses renewed focus (???). If you need more heals and you want to reset your F2 tome thre are better options, like virtues.

Even if you replace a druid, for the love of god run something more similar to the chrono build.

@castillle.5248 water runes and food on a heal / condi build is questionable still. You won't get 100% quickness uptime on groups. Better to go for firebrand or leadership runes for boon duration, or baltazar runes for condi, or something that's somehow effective. Rest this build is better htan half the options that have been thrown around.The water runes are mostly for additional healing but its really not that much of a requirement. Also, you can get 100% uptime on groups with Firebrand at 50% boon duration.

(for ~57% boon duration) In 48 seconds, you have 9 seconds of downtime of quickness if you only rely on potent haste, stalwart speed, and liberators vow. The shout and 2nd cast of potent haste will give you an initial 4 second buffer and 1 sec quickness buffer everytime you cast the shout. If that 1 second is too small of a window, you can just take improved shout which will give you about ~18 seconds of extra quickness time every ~36 secs.

If you were to remove water runes you need to either get improved shouts, give enough buffer time of quickness through doublebuffing at mistlock, have someone give you alacrity, or figure out a way to get to 57% boon duration for the increase to reflect on potent haste, stalwart speed, and liberators vow and make the whole thing easier.

@castillle.5248 said:

@castillle.5248 water runes and food on a heal / condi build is questionable still. You won't get 100% quickness uptime on groups. Better to go for firebrand or leadership runes for boon duration, or baltazar runes for condi, or something that's somehow effective. Rest this build is better htan half the options that have been thrown around.The water runes are mostly for additional healing but its really not that much of a requirement. Also, you can get 100% uptime on groups with Firebrand at 50% boon duration.

Unless your boss isn't moving i.e. sabetha I wish you the very best of luck. I love liberators vow, but using your F3 tome, passive proc from F3 tome, ... will all prevent you from having 100% quickness uptime in realistic scenarios.

If you were to remove water runes you need to either get improved shouts, give enough buffer time of quickness through doublebuffing at mistlock, have someone give you alacrity, or figure out a way to get to 57% boon duration for the increase to reflect on potent haste, stalwart speed, and liberators vow and make the whole thing easier.

Firebrand runes and leadership runes are both better for this purpose. So water runes really are just for the healing, which I think will be underwhelming mostly but I understand why you'd want it. Also pretty sure smoldering is better than malice.