Ranged Support/Healer Options

[Argan.2596]

Trying to get my wife into the game. Traditionally, we play holy-trinity based games (Tank, Healer and DPS -- sometimes support). In these games, she goes exclusively as a ranged healer. I realize there will be no equivalent class/profession in this game. What I'm looking for is what would be a best fit. I think she'd be happy with a ranged profession that has healing and boons/buffs. As long as it's helping the group and has some healing, I think she'll like it after some adjustment.

At first we'll be doing open world. I think she'd be interested in Raiding and group PvP if she gets into it. She'd never PvP solo (not her style).

I honestly don't know much about the game myself, just what I have ready online (must be true, right?). I did level a profession to 80 (Ranger) over a year ago, but I left for another game shortly after getting to 80. Based on what I remember from before and some of the recent builds I have looked at, I was thinking Ranger (Druid). Guardian (Firebrand) also sounds interesting, but it looks like it has some melee in some of the variations. Although she's fine with melee in small groups, she really prefers ranged.

Any additional information would be very helpful. It's hard to try a class out when the main part she is interested in is tied up in Elite specializations that require level 80 to try out. Thank you.

[Seera.5916]

You can test out the elites in PvP.

The elites are fully unlocked in PvP so you could test things out and so could your wife before committing to leveling up a character and getting them the hero points needed to unlock the elite spec she's wanting.

[Thorstienn.1642]

If she wants to be ranged healer, I'd say best option is staff Ele (tempest specifically). Its isn't the META, but it is very strong at healing, just not a boon machine. You could always supplement here with a chrono for example to bring boons, or just not worry too much as boons are pretty easy to get anyway nowadays, and as "new" players you dont need to jump straight in to the leet mentality.

[Bewt.9258]

Try Ventari Revenant, control the tablet from afar and give healing and alacrity with it. Can be used in raids, fractals, wvw, you can use different stat combinations, but make sure you have Healing Power and Boon Duration. There you go.

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

Scourge healer/support is very robust and useful. Look on Youtube for "gw2 scourge support" or "gw2 scourge healer". Lots of build variants - Just for an example (at 1:25):

[Uden Reavstone.3426]

Ranged support huh. Let's see. Guardian's support weapons are staff(which is ranged) and mace(melee), rev's got the staff(melee), rangers as druids has staff(ranged), necros as scourges kinda got staff(ranged) though it's more of a condi weapon and most of their support comes from slot skills, shades, and traits; engis which don't have support weapons, but have support slot skills and traits; and finally, the ele. Any weapon on the ele can be used to tank, support, cc, inflict condis, and deal direct damage without changing your build. I have several nice ranged ele builds that are both tanky and supportive at the same time. And before someone says that eles are "too squishy to tank," I have once used one of these builds to fight a dps warrior to a 30 minute 1-on-1 standstill. I was too tanky for him to kill me, and I couldn't deal enough damage to overpower his healing skill. If you want to see one of these builds, let me know.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

The typical support/healing specs are: Firebrand, Renegade, Druid, Chrono, Scourge, Tempest, Scrapper.

• Firebrand needs to be in melee range for most of their support skills
• Renegade (or herald) could work as a mostly ranged healer with ventari tablet & hammer
• Druid can usually stay at range with staff, and their spirits/warhorn/Celestial Avatar have decent range
• Chrono typically needs to be stay melee since its often the tank as well
• I havent looked at scourge in a while so im not up to date with its support builds, but from what i remember most of its support abilities are medium range
• Tempest needs to be mid-melee range for shouts and overloads
• Scrapper needs to be melee for gyros and healing

Gw2 is not like more traditional mmos, combat is very active and mobile and playing in melee range is often unavoidable. The ideal option would be to try and get her used to playing in melee range, so she isnt so limited when picking a class.Also if you are looking to raid and pvp later on, you will likely be forced into playing the meta unless you play very casually. However you can level and gear up alts very quickly, so I wouldnt worry about that now.

[BlkDragon.1952]

There are a couple of ranged class that comes to mind - The Elementalist does healing really well with the Water skills to heal is what comes to mind.

[Strider.7849]

@Argan.2596 said:Trying to get my wife into the game. Traditionally, we play holy-trinity based games (Tank, Healer and DPS -- sometimes support). In these games, she goes exclusively as a ranged healer. I realize there will be no equivalent class/profession in this game. What I'm looking for is what would be a best fit. I think she'd be happy with a ranged profession that has healing and boons/buffs. As long as it's helping the group and has some healing, I think she'll like it after some adjustment.

At first we'll be doing open world. I think she'd be interested in Raiding and group PvP if she gets into it. She'd never PvP solo (not her style).

I honestly don't know much about the game myself, just what I have ready online (must be true, right?). I did level a profession to 80 (Ranger) over a year ago, but I left for another game shortly after getting to 80. Based on what I remember from before and some of the recent builds I have looked at, I was thinking Ranger (Druid). Guardian (Firebrand) also sounds interesting, but it looks like it has some melee in some of the variations. Although she's fine with melee in small groups, she really prefers ranged.

Any additional information would be very helpful. It's hard to try a class out when the main part she is interested in is tied up in Elite specializations that require level 80 to try out. Thank you.

Druid is a ranged healer. I would say though that in terms of healing, Druid can be one of the hardest healers to learn to play effectively. Inbetween managing your pet, keeping these silly spirits from bleeding out, and managing when to spend your resources for celestial avatar, you also have to consider that you are quite squishy yourself, also have to keep the party topped off on might and more. I enjoy it the most, and there was quite a significant gap between a good druid and an average one (at least pre-nerfs).

Although firebrand is in the meta for all environments at the moment and it can heal, it is not the most effective healer (if looking solely at healing). It's best at providing aoe boons such as stability, quickness, aegis, might; while also bringing amazing utility through other blocks, reflects, grouping mobs, etc. It also brings more damage while doing all that than the other healers. It however isn't a ranged healer, more focused around aoe heals near the user.

My suggestions to consider are revenant, druid, elementalist.