How do you play Heal-Firebrand?

Hey guys,I started a while ago Raids and daily CM runs with my Dragonhunter. As I enjoy the class itself very much I want to move on and learn other builds. Currently I dont have a support-role to play with which leads to longer waiting-time when I want to group up. Because of all these reasons I wanted to take a look at Firebrand as a healer. I've never played Firebrand so I'm really new to this class.I read a few forum posts and tried to find up-to-date guides but didn't find as much as I want.Besides the gameplay and rotation and all that stuff I need advices for the build itself: traits, utilities, weapons and so on. As I want to play Heal-FB in Raids too but not as a tank I'm staying with full Harrier's gear.First of all: which weapons should I use? I saw a few builds with Axe/Shield Mace/Shield or Axe/Shield Staff or Mace/Shield Staff. Is this situational or did something change recently and some pages didn't update?Next: trait-lines, virtues or radiance? Why and when?Last but not least: how does my "rotation" works?

Thanks for the help :)

Heals are mostly from regens, aegis(blocks and procs a heal after) and weapon skills. Traits and builds are pretty much similar especially for meta builds. Most sites sharing their builds (discretize.eu, metabattle, snowcrows etc) will provide overview and answers to why and how.

Axe - Mainly used to provide Fury and a small cc with pull.Mace - To provide regen and aegis. Spam AA for 3rd hit to heal.Shield - To provide Aegis and a projectile block dome that also heals.Staff - For burst healing and might boons.

F2 - Pressing 5,4, and spam 1 for MASSIVE healing for emergency or when needed(filler while waiting for cds)F3 - To provide Aegis, protection and stability(should be used frequently). Together with reflect and resistance when needed.

Okay so there are 4 variants of healbrand I like to use: 2 for raids and 2 for fractals. All builds are variation of virtues and radiance traitlines.

So first let's look at virtues builds.

Raid

Axe/Shield + Staff

Honor 1-2-2Virtues 2-2-2Firebrand 2-1-3

Mantra of Solace, Mantra of Potence, Mantra of Lore, (*****) and "Feel My Wrath"

Fractal

Mace/Shield + Staff/Axe

Honor 1-2-2Virtues 2-2-2Firebrand 2-2-3

Mantra of Solace, Mantra of Potence, (*****), "Hold The Line" and Mantra of Liberation

***** - situational slot for specific encounters. Bow of Truth (Raid Default) for large aoe pulsing heals, "Stand your ground" for on demand stability and retaliation, Wall of Reflection (take Master of Consecrations in Virtues when using this) for reflects and Merciful Intervention (Fractal Default) for mobility/burst heal.

As all virtues build you will provide passive healing through your f2's passive. Other major sources of healing will come from autoattacking if you're using mace, all your symbols, aegis that you apply on your group, your heal mantra (also provides aegis) and dodging into your group. Staff 2 Holy Strike also provides a good amount of burst healing.

The major difference between these two builds is the boon application. The raid build is the one you can find on snowcrows right now. It gives perma quickness fury and regen. Paired with Bow of truth and lower mantra recharge it provides better periodic healing and more consistant application of offensive boons like might and fury. The fractal build provides stab and retaliation on demand with good uptime along with protection and all the same boons depending on the weapon set you use. Stab and protection are important because fractal mobs hit harder and they have a lot of cc. Also you don't have to take mace but I recommend you do because if you're not using the raid build with bow of truth and lower mantra recharge you provide less periodic healing which you can make up for with mace autos.

Radiance

Everything is the same except you ditch Virtues for Radiance and take Bane Signet in place of *****.

Raid/Fractal

Virtues -> Radiance 2-1-2

Radiance is an offensive traitline whereby taking it will result in less healing because you won't be sharing your f2 passive healing anymore, but more dps for your allies through Perfect Inscriptions. Perfect Inscriptions will share your signet passive effects with your allies for 10 seconds upon useand if you pair this with Bane Signet and Lesser Signet of Wrath from Wrath of Justice you'll be providing a major boost to your party's dps. Bane signet is also a strong cc ability so you can heavily damage breakbars with it which is pretty handy.

So when do you take Radiance over Virtues? Maybe depending on the encounter you might want to pick one over the other but at the end of the day it's entirely up to you. Regardless of your build you will still have access to your crazy tome abilities and they can provide the same utility that you would otherwise waste a skill slot on albiet with a higher cooldown.

Finally there isn't a fixed rotation for this build. Use Mantras off cooldown but ALWAYS leave 1 charge unless whatever you are fighting is almost dead. Use symbols off cooldown. Dodge into allies or use staff 2 for small burst heals. Use f2 tome skills for emergency heals but always use the 5th tome skill before you use any other skill for increased healing effectiveness. F3 for emergency stability, resistance and reflects. F1 for pulls and some extra cc.

Hope this helped :)

In F2 you hit 5 before you heal anyone, 2 for condition cleanse, and 1 for everything else.

F1 is your damage, again use 5 first to give burning buff to allies, 3 for an AoE pull, 2 for weakness, and 1 for damage

On F3, 5 turns anyone into an annoying target for 6s with stability, protection, aegis, reflection and bonus toughness. 4 if you need resistance against condi burst, and don't want to switch to F2 just yet. 3 is your reflect, 2 is taunt/aegis, 1 to spam stability for your peoples.

If you take the healing Mantra for your healing ability, be aware that it does not heal anyone else -- only gives them aegis, and also quickness depending on your traits

Take a look at this https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Firebrand_-_Support_Firebrand and this build http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAneWnsADNCj1CBuCBkCjlEC7qAEAOA7B0DaDFrBkBSBA-jFyHQB57IAAP1fC3+DA4RA8QlgAU5nDPBAgTfw6AEg5Wul7cDM35O35O352Ak7cn7cn7cn7cn7cLFwXr0A-w I frikking love Support Guardian, I play as a heal condi into Boons guardian and can stand next to the T4 chaos boss without dying :3