Playing a support in fractals

Hello everyone

Since the release of PoF I've been getting a little bit more into fractals which is something I've never really been interested in.

The two main builds I've enjoyed so far are condi soul beast and yes, support firebrand.

Now I understand most players in this game have a typical DPS player mentality where you need to squeeze every drop of damage from your class or you're wasting a group spot, but that simply isn't how I like to play.

My support guardian is currently my favorite character for fractals (t3 I've yet to get to t4) I run a build that focuses on sharing protection/aegis and condi cleanse with a bit of healing thrown in there. I simply feel amazing when playing it. Constant protection on myself and players who stay near me, very tanky and also very useful with condi cleanse since no one likes to cleanse themselves.

At the end of every run I always ask my group to be honest with me and tell me if they think I was useful for the run and I've yet to receive negative remarks.

What do you guys think about running builds like these in fractals? I understand it would suck if 3 people in the same group did this as you'd have 0 damage, but it's usually just me supporting and healing while everyone else focuses 100% on damage as most players tend to do.

I usually run Fractals with 3 RL friends and we have started doing t4 fractals. I play an auramancer tempest and my friends absolutely love having a support with them. While I don't push out much DPS I can make sure that their health is topped and the condis on them cleansed so they can focus more on doing their job.

It is probably still more optimal to do it with 5 offensive specced players but it requires everyone to know what they are doing and know the fractals well. Having a support gives you and your team more room for error so can in the long run save you time as it can prevent wipes.

@Starmiz.3298 said:I usually run Fractals with 3 RL friends and we have started doing t4 fractals. I play an auramancer tempest and my friends absolutely love having a support with them. While I don't push out much DPS I can make sure that their health is topped and the condis on them cleansed so they can focus more on doing their job.

It is probably still more optimal to do it with 5 offensive specced players but it requires everyone to know what they are doing and know the fractals well. Having a support gives you and your team more room for error so can in the long run save you time as it can prevent wipes.

I agree with that. I feel like my support is a lot more impactful than my damage. I always pug runs and with 5 damage players everyone is always dying all the time

At least in pugs, having a dedicated support is usually nice. When you do that job as a firebrand, try to focus on quickness and not just the defensive stuff.

@CptAurellian.9537 said:At least in pugs, having a dedicated support is usually nice. When you do that job as a firebrand, try to focus on quickness and not just the defensive stuff.

agreed quickness is a good boon to have for your team

rarely pug, so am use to always having 3 supports in my frac group. 1 ps, 1 druid and 1 chrono. DPS firebrand do bring alot of suppport (aegis, quickness and AotJ) and can easy bring more with WoR or something similar. This however have not given me a reason to change gear/traits from the DPS build.

@Hokeypokey.2135 said:Hello everyone

Since the release of PoF I've been getting a little bit more into fractals which is something I've never really been interested in.

The two main builds I've enjoyed so far are condi soul beast and yes, support firebrand.

Now I understand most players in this game have a typical DPS player mentality where you need to squeeze every drop of damage from your class or you're wasting a group spot, but that simply isn't how I like to play.

My support guardian is currently my favorite character for fractals (t3 I've yet to get to t4) I run a build that focuses on sharing protection/aegis and condi cleanse with a bit of healing thrown in there. I simply feel amazing when playing it. Constant protection on myself and players who stay near me, very tanky and also very useful with condi cleanse since no one likes to cleanse themselves.

At the end of every run I always ask my group to be honest with me and tell me if they think I was useful for the run and I've yet to receive negative remarks.

What do you guys think about running builds like these in fractals? I understand it would suck if 3 people in the same group did this as you'd have 0 damage, but it's usually just me supporting and healing while everyone else focuses 100% on damage as most players tend to do.

The support builds are druid and chronomancer.

Yet to see anything as good as the combination between chronomancer and druid which turns any Fractals in a joke if people know what they are doing. I even go for minstrel druid most of the time for the overload of damage buffs, defensive boons and healing.Not that all of that is even needed with a competent chronomancer beside you but it allows people to be lazy like at Mai Trin when nobody bothers to dodge anything anymore including dropping the Flux Bomb instability.

You do not always have this luxury of course. Go for support if you feel it is needed. Go for group efficiency over personal survivability and you will be fine. Firebrand, auramancer or whatever it is you prefer. Most of us are aware that you can run the entire thing fine while everyone is on their damage build but why punish yourself especially with pugs when you always have to assume the worst will happen.

support is nice since they bring a lot of good stuff to the table. i'd like to see condi/power druid more too, and not full druid/full support class to babysit people which is not needed unless the pugs are really bad.overall support in fracs vary from groups to groups, some need it more than the others. it's just what you comfy running and/or help others in the process, do et o/i want to gear my support boonshare chrono for fracs but it hurts my wallet to do so. lol.

I appreciate support from T3 on. Haven't touched it almost a year though.

Having one or two players going full support in fractals is usually a good idea. I tend to lean toward builds that are good all-around and adjusting based on the group, as that is what works on most fractals. Shattered Observatory CM is much less forgiving, so you typically want to play a more well-planned cohesive composition there with supports such as an auramancer tempest healer and a chronomancer.

If it works for you and your group that's awesome. Current meta values speed mostly but there are also other goals for teams such as reliability, experimentation or a mix of these values. That's why it's difficult to say anything objective about a build like that because it may work for you. If someone took that build to my party I'd think it's a pretty pointless build but I wouldn't be too fussed about it and just get through with the fractals.

Simply not true that people think that support classes are a wasted spot. Support guardian might be. But not support classes in general.

Druid and Chronomancer bring alot the group. Not only do they provide a massive amount of heal (druid), but they also bring a ton of utility (chrono) while not pulling the group down too much because of their dps increasing buffs/boons. Druids and Chronomancers are wanted in any high tier fractals.

If you want to play support for the sake of playing support, switch to druid or chrono. But dont complain if people in higher tier fractals dont want a support class that's just doing worse overall.

It may take a while for people to adapt to the new specs in particular, but I have always had a better experience pugging with any flavor of support build in high fractals than all dps. It is possible to overdo it, say if you have 2 supports and your dps players aren't as skilled, and make things harder than they need to be, but as long as the group overall is relatively skilled I'll always prefer a support in the group.

That said, I haven't run into crazy things like a shout warrior, but Firebrand certainly had a strong toolkit.

You can play a support speck without sacrificing all your dmg. For example: one can run support traits and utilities, and still wear a dps gear.

@Hokeypokey.2135 said:Hello everyone

Since the release of PoF I've been getting a little bit more into fractals which is something I've never really been interested in.

The two main builds I've enjoyed so far are condi soul beast and yes, support firebrand.

Now I understand most players in this game have a typical DPS player mentality where you need to squeeze every drop of damage from your class or you're wasting a group spot, but that simply isn't how I like to play.

My support guardian is currently my favorite character for fractals (t3 I've yet to get to t4) I run a build that focuses on sharing protection/aegis and condi cleanse with a bit of healing thrown in there. I simply feel amazing when playing it. Constant protection on myself and players who stay near me, very tanky and also very useful with condi cleanse since no one likes to cleanse themselves.

At the end of every run I always ask my group to be honest with me and tell me if they think I was useful for the run and I've yet to receive negative remarks.

What do you guys think about running builds like these in fractals? I understand it would suck if 3 people in the same group did this as you'd have 0 damage, but it's usually just me supporting and healing while everyone else focuses 100% on damage as most players tend to do.

First and foremost, it is always useful to have a support in the party. Coming from a long-time dps main. Good support means you don't need to worry as much about incoming damage or even fight mechanics. Which in turn means you can focus on dps-ing and be much more efficient at it.

However, be prepared to meet a more strict support meta once you hit T4, especially if you want to do the challenge motes on 99 and 100. Every party wants to have a druid, a PS warrior and a chronomancer as supports, because they are simply the best support you can get. You get full coverage of the important offensive boons, you get healing and cleanses, you get lots of CC and QoL like distorts or blocks. Support guardian usually isn't needed in a party like this.

That being said, the current dps Firebrand build offers a lot of extra support which is quite useful and we often run it in raids with my group. Your heal mantra (which is an awful heal) shares Aegis with 5 players and is part of your dps rotation. Two other skills (tome 5 and a mantra) share Quickness, again as a part of your rotation. While in theory this quickness shouldn't be needed, a lot of chronos won't provide perfect uptime so a Firebrand is quite useful for patching that up. Your elite mantra shares Stability at the cost of a minimal dps loss.

So if you want to play guardian and support your teammates in T4, try it out. It's really fun, spectacular build, it has excellent damage output and it is very useful support. You won't be able to single-handedly support the team, though. If you want that, and you don't care about playing the top-tier with meta parties, you may want to try the auramancer Tempest build. It's ridiculously good at keeping the party alive.

All I play for Fractals is Druid, OP. It's hella fun and you can basically turn every set of 4 puggies into a champion dream team of first time clearers. Support is definitely welcome in Fractals (specially heavy supports like Chrono and Druid) and you should definitely give it a go.

I imagine supports are going to be even more in demand as Fractal team improves their capacity for pushing us with challenge motes and T4 mechanics (and they are improving a lot).

I've been having good success with support Chronomancer in T4 Fractals lately. It's a good option to help carry others, too.

why is nobody speaking about support tempest? I saw beutiful green numbers when they are in the team. Are they not useful? are they just pvp? what is their problem?

@lagrimabendita.8763 said:why is nobody speaking about support tempest? I saw beutiful green numbers when they are in the team. Are they not useful? are they just pvp? what is their problem?

Tempest is the best healer hands down there can be, specially in Fractals because Druid relies too much on team positioning. The problem however does not lie in tempest but rather in how the game forces you to take classes for their unique buffs.

Whereas Tempest is an awesome healer, a team that can look for itself up to a certain point will 150% prefer a Druid due to Grace of the Land (% dmg increase), Spotter (precision so that more assassin trinkets can get swapped by zerker/Viper), and Spirits (flat 10% damage every few hits AND permanent prot/burning every few hits). The damage buffs Druid provides is that much amazing to pass on. But if you want to breeze through a challenge mote for example, and don't care about speed running, by all means you should take a healing Tempest.

@maxwelgm.4315 said:

@lagrimabendita.8763 said:why is nobody speaking about support tempest? I saw beutiful green numbers when they are in the team. Are they not useful? are they just pvp? what is their problem?

To be fair, the extra precision from Spotter isn't really needed in fractals, because of the OP fractal potions. As a dps class you'll be capped on crit chance anyway. GotL alone won't give that much, especially on bosses that move around you probably will average 1-2 stacks which will end up in about 5% damage increase. I'd say the reason people prefer druids is mostly because they are used to having one.

@Feanor.2358 said:

@maxwelgm.4315 said:

@lagrimabendita.8763 said:why is nobody speaking about support tempest? I saw beutiful green numbers when they are in the team. Are they not useful? are they just pvp? what is their problem?

I do agree with that, specially with the point of bosses moving around so much in Fractals; the mobility really takes down our damage gains from Druid. This case I think would be one of the moments where a DPS meter would actually help in proving people right then and there they should be taking a Tempest for survival instead.

@maxwelgm.4315 said:I do agree with that, specially with the point of bosses moving around so much in Fractals; the mobility really takes down our damage gains from Druid. This case I think would be one of the moments where a DPS meter would actually help in proving people right then and there they should be taking a Tempest for survival instead.

Most experienced groups run with a condi druid though. Frost spirit and sun spirit boost dps quite a lot and heal is not really needed most of the time.

I think the main mental gap people need to cross is the twin facts that

1. No matter how much healing you can push out, if you or your party members eat every single major attack, you will still wipe; and
2. Even as support, you should still be contributing damage, especially during burn phases.

I've been to one too many Fractal groups that has somebody camping Water Attunement or Ventari for the entire fight, even when the party was healthy. Dragging out fights also increases the mental fatigue of players, most especially when you're doing a full daily run, and therefore lead to more mistakes, more damage taken, and more chances of failure. In other words, standing in some far corner in your Magi set waiting to push out heals like you have been doing in other MMOs is actually endangering the whole party.

I would argue that the role of "support" is not a binary concept in Guild Wars 2. Even in a healing-focused build, you should still be considering your contribution to the group DPS. It need not be a direct contribution, but also considering the use of auxiliary boons (and Vulnerability stacking). Helping speed up a fight, more than keeping a group semi-healthy longer, keeps the group's momentum high from one encounter to the next, and therefore allow you to also "support" group morale.

@Ojimaru.8970 said:I think the main mental gap people need to cross is the twin facts that

1. No matter how much healing you can push out, if you or your party members eat every single major attack, you will still wipe; and
2. Even as support, you should still be contributing damage, especially during burn phases.

I've been to one too many Fractal groups that has somebody camping Water Attunement or Ventari for the entire fight, even when the party was healthy. Dragging out fights also increases the mental fatigue of players, most especially when you're doing a full daily run, and therefore lead to more mistakes, more damage taken, and more chances of failure.

Come on. The dps of a magi healer is essentially zero. I would camp water if I was a staff healer, too. Not only I will have faster access to heals should they be needed, I would also counter chip damage, keep the party topped and Scholar bonuses up. This will by far surpass any personal dps I might have been contributing. Same applies for any pure healer. If you're playing a condi druid - of course, dps. But on a magi/minstrel, better focus on healing.