[Heal Support Specter Feedback & Suggestions]

6 hours ago, Vidit.7108 said:

Unless you are using the ally party boxes to select an ally any number of things might be clicked when you click an ally, such as minions/pets, and in some cases if the ally is too close to a large hit box enemy the enemy will always be clicked.

But that's just one of the most basic issues you will come across playing heal specter for hours.

Shadow Sap, Twilight Combo, and Measured shot all have a risk of not actually hitting your ally because they are projectiles, whenever an ally moves away from you in certain arenas the skill goes into the ground. Because the ally/and enemy effects are split (something everyone else that has ally targeting doesn't have to deal with, IE Druid/Ele) any enemy that body blocks your shots will take damage and there will be no healing. Also because of target promotion (if you have this enabled) you will untarget an ally if something takes damage. 

But that's not all. After using measured shot the channel on Endless night can be broken by, your ally moving too much to your side or behind you, you the player turning away too much or by accident facing away from your ally, and an enemy getting hit which actually isn't as bad as in the other cases. Even when ally movement is predictable the weapon skill usage can still be situational because you might need to do other things while allies are still, like boons, building shroud, cc, or be in your shroud alacrity loop.

Your auto attack is actually the best allied barrier skill you have because it's actually a LOT of barrier after the reduction and it is sent out to allies fast so even missing with it is no big deal compared to losing initiative if a skill fails. 

This is all also assuming your ally target is close by enough to all of your other allies so that they are getting the barrier/heals. They SHOULD be but if I had 1 copper for every "should" that doesn't happen when i go healing I'd be one of the richest players in the game. You're at the mercy of ally positioning for those weapon skills, though that isn't entirely different from other healers it's just a somewhat different skill application experiencing the same problem. You still have to build a niche player skill that isn't really transferable to other healers whenever you use ally targeting, which is a roadblock to a lot of people adopting this. Right now I would be really worried about no healing power dps builds turning up in videos/streams because arena net likes to use pro-players as reasons to nerf something literally no one else can do.

So true.. can confirm that happened a lot to me with measured shot when I was picking this up. Overall easily punishable. But yeah fingers crossed this gets the love it deserves and not get nerfed to the ground as a result of 3 or 4 people making a no healing one look good.

[Heal Support Specter Feedback & Suggestions]

11 minutes ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

if anything, heal spectre is in a worse spot than ever regarding boons.

 

arenanet keeps increasing the boon duration on the skills, meanwhile spectre has access to no concentration whatsoever with their only concenrtration bonus from acrobatics being removed in this last patch. this means its not possible to max boon duration even on full harrier's (or the tanky equivalent, giver's) and you need around half diviner's on monk runes outside of fractals.

 

this is fair since they have an extremely high passive heal scaling (+70%), but it still feels bad.

 

this may not seem like a big deal but all healers have to perform mechanics, its been a standard part of the game since heart of thorns raids were introduced and has spread into much more content since then, so the support class shouldn't be designed to only provide 100% of a boon on a very rough edge, which is the case with spectre's current average of 60-70% boon duration and most of their boons.

This. This is exactly my point ;_; the BD scaling is awful, by doing one thing you're essentially dropping a few other things. The build is essentially fighting itself while things like HAM synergize so well. I'm not asking for another HAM, just something that can do all the things a support healer can do if played well. I wish there was a trait in Specter that really sacrificed dps essentially for more BD, something to jump the BD up to 100% with Minstrel's, Monk runes, concentration sigil, and maybe heal food ontop, or at least get somewhere close up there. I have a feeling the way BD is right now is as a result of the dps alac variant being hard hitting.

Oh and the boon reduction on those around the target really doesn't help. That should just not exist. All supports just give straight up 5 man boons.

[Heal Support Specter Feedback & Suggestions]

5 hours ago, kash.9213 said:

Is ally targeting really that wacky in pve? I hope Anet doesn't go hard and flatten Specter with so many complaints about it. 

It's not just protecting the king. It's also weaponizing, like hopping in a vehicle in a battlfield game, bonus if the ally also has a Dragon Banner or is built to wreck an area. 

Sometimes Right Click in Action cam is easier for me and picks through a zerg faster but can't over think it. Targeting above and a little to either side or near the footprint highlight feels kind of reliable. Your eye and your peripheral gets used to feeling out the mouseover character highlight. 

I get it can be weird but let there be a class that isn't other classes. It's nice having options even per a skill depending on target.

I personally enjoy this aspect of it. While like others mentioned it can become a fight against the UI, but if you get that quick measured shot fast on an ally who is low by targeting them through the squad UI, it feels incredibly satisfying like an adaptable healer. The amount of barrier you'll put on them is also no joke but it's specific to that 1 target. It can still definitely be improved somehow, especially with how the tethering works in shroud. but the way prot and stab are right now it's not great. Also Boon Duration scales weirdly on it even if you go full plaguedoctor's/minstrel's. It ends up still being very low. Just wish overall it was more well rounded for PvE when it comes to providing the essential boons a heal support tends to provide.

[Heal Support Specter Feedback & Suggestions]

11 hours ago, Vidit.7108 said:

So here is the short version of my review of heal alac specter after a little bit of testing.

You want to stay in shroud the healing in there is pretty good/okay it kind be kind of situational. The alacrity does go out to 5 people they just worded it weirdly. Right now you have so much alacrity the serious drawbacks in group content might not surface if you go full plague doctor, harrier, or minstrel. For the next three weeks my recommendation is actually shaman you don't need boon duration to be very high. The only other boons that move out from the tether are some might from haunt shot and stability. Thrill of the crime I think is centered on you and so is well of bounty where your fury, regen, stability, vigor and some of your might are all located. Consume shadows is kind of a trap especially if you don't have a plan for building shroud up quickly.

The weapon skills are difficult to use and prone to failure because of ally targeting. Shroud is enemy target healing so it's actually functioning like a normal healer. This also means that once you leave shroud you have to target an ally to make effective use of scepter weapon skill healing. So you're in combat with the UI which is not a good thing and makes playing HAS more difficult than it needs to be. The upcoming shadow sap changes won't really make it anymore reliable for protection upkeep because it will still be 2 seconds duration for the other allies. As it stands you don't need a lot of healing power or boon duration to be very effective at your job which is kind of a good thing but giving yourself more of those isn't going to make you better at healing (because scaling is still bad) or even really boon upkeep (except might and regen where it will make a big difference). 

It's playable now, someone who is very good at it will perform as expected for most healers despite the lack of protection. It's not a good healer though, i wouldn't recommend it to just anyone but if you want to spend hundreds of hours learning to do what most other healers take for granted then it is doable. I've set up and played all the healers and it is one of the most difficult to play effectively.

The well of bounty is reliable for boons, the shroud overall is reliable for healing. Yeah I took it to the new fractal at t4 and quite a few raids. It becomes incredibly decent if paired with a quick herald dps, but this is really limiting. I don't have issues with the healing aspect or barrier aspect of it. It's really mainly the protection. Nowadays it's kind of expected of healers to be the protection providers. if the protection and stability from scepter and shroud were just normal 5 man and well scaled with boon duration, I think this healer would be up there. The playstyle on it is really fun and like you said, Consume Shadows vs Second Opinion are two very different ways of healing, one can allow you to camp shroud for heals if need be, while Consume Shadows requires quick shadow force build up but can be more of a faster playstyle but also punishing if you don't do it right. Honestly my issue with the whole ordeal for now is simply protection, boon dissipation, and how boon duration scales on it versus other supports. I just wish it was simpler like the rest in how the 5 man boons worked.

[Heal Support Specter Feedback & Suggestions]

4 hours ago, Nomad.4301 said:

It's interesting to note that in WvW/PvP the ally support only suffers a 25% effectiveness drop-off instead of the 50% in PvE, one of the few times where the competitive version is actually better. I think One of the biggest problems I had was the boons/healing from shroud applying around your "shrouded ally" instead of around you, which means if that player runs out of stack and you don't notice and swap your siphon, then you stop doing much of anything for your group.

Wow.. I genuinely did not expect that. Yeah the 50% thing is painful. Especially given that all other supports always just do 5 allies.

[June 27 Balance Follow-Ups]

Please make the scepter and shroud boons from Specter 5 man equally and the same duration for the entire sub if possible. I understand the heals and barrier from scepter and shroud being higher on the allied target and lower on those around the target, this alone retains the identity of hyper focusing 1 individual more than others, but the boons should really be simple and 5 man. Simplicity is best. I've gone more in depth on Heal Specter feedback here.

[Heal Support Specter Feedback & Suggestions]

This post is purely focused on the PvE healer support variant of this elite specialization, not the DPS Alacrity one. This is assuming you're using Minstrel's or Plaguedoctor's, or in some cases Giver's (Swapping anything out instead of Plaguedoctor's or Minstrel's impacts the barriers significantly because of the lack of vitality, this is mainly taking into consideration running one of those 2 gear types), with runes such as Monk and transference/concentration sigils. This encompasses pre-patch and post patch issues, the recent follow up post, what improved, and what requires further improvement.

Pre-patch (27th of June), one of the main things going full healer support specter struggled with is boon duration and the lack of certain boons that other strong heal supports grant readily. The main boon it struggled to provide is protection . It also struggled to maintain might for 5 people depending on your boon duration. Besides that, albeit a niche, it has fun and engaging ways of healing such as shadowsteps and using sword 2 to give fast burst heals as well as condition cleanses. Sword can be finnicky for a support due to the back and forth teleporting and stacking in general. Alacrity was not hard to maintain 100% but you did sacrifice a lot of potential utilities because of wells being required.

Post-patch, some of these problems were addressed. Simply making all the scepter skills give  5 target boons/effects enabled a whole new way of giving these. However, the main issue is the "dissipation" of said boon from the main target to those around. While I understand that specter support is meant to maintain a "protect the king" kind of playstyle and that is a part of its identity, this should only apply to the healing and barriers from scepter and shroud skills, not boons as well. Boons on every support are nowadays simple 5 man boons and it's that simplicity that makes them viable at meeting the simple bare minimum of meeting the required boons from a heal support. Even after the change from 2.5 seconds to 4 seconds of protection, this would mean allies around the target would still struggle with the boons you provide from shroud and scepter.

In summary, specter is really cool and despite the healer variant struggling with things such as tanking as a result of losing shroud from damage and a lack of a block, the single target high focus support to an ally, enables it to borderline make anyone tank even someone on a DPS if the specter hyper focuses them with barriers and heals from scepter/pistol 3, and if your subgroup stack well, ideally they should share in those boons from the scepter and shroud, as well as the lesser heals and barriers from those 2, enabling a whole new way of testing fun comps. But for all this to be possible, the boons it applies from scepter and shroud should be the same for the entire 5 man subgroup/party in boon duration, but maintain a higher single target focus in terms of heals and barrier from scepter and shroud.

- Simple suggestion: Please make the boons a specter applies from their specter & shroud simply 5 man equally, covering the entire subgroup they're in, but keep things like barriers and heals from scepter such as Measured Shot dissipating or granting a lesser version to those around the target.

Edit: Forgot to mention how nice it is to free up some wells for utilities, but wells are also good for shadowstep heals and generating shadow force.

[GEMSTORE REQUESTS: New Items; Items offered again - [Merged]]

Return of "Mask of the Wanderer" skin would be appreciated.

[GEMSTORE REQUESTS: New Items; Items offered again - [Merged]]

Possible return of reading glasses and the other glasses would be appreciated.