Samis.1750

I seriously doubt that Anet wants to create a situation where somebody gets yelled at or squad kicked for adding one of their boons. One good thing about this game is that having another player around is a almost always a good thing. 1 dead player used to rally 5 and they changed that to 1 only rallies 1 - which was a good thing.

Tempest self healing does not benefit from all those healing multipliers. Fruit salad with mint (or the Delicious Rice Balls) only affect outgoing healing - self healing is excluded according to the wiki. Bountiful maintenance oil, Monk runes (if you use) and Aquamancer training only affects other allies - not oneself. Every healer grants regeneration pretty easily, though Tempest also benefits from soothing mists.

Mace is used on a healing Firebrand in World vs World. Minstrel mace/shield and staff are the weapons. It does fine in that game mode and support guardian is the backbone of an organized WvW group.

Cele might be strong paired with some solo WvW roamer builds, but aside from that it is a non issue. It adds more interesting builds to small group WvW play and non-meta large scale fights. It is not used is virtually all meta WvW builds. You don't balance WvW or change gear based on complaints by roamers. Also, people have made/bought the gear. It would be unfair to pull the rug out from under them.

A pure support build in WvW is Minstrel's gear. You will be tough to kill but do negligible damage. If you are using your PvE gear such as Harrier's in WvW you will get frustrated as you will get killed to easily. I'm rank 2000 and I wouldn't play the game in that gear. Toss in some cheap Soldier's/Sentinel or Dire/Apothecary to keep yourself alive. If you want to gain levels/ranks/etc, I wouldn't play a pure support build as you will get far less bags, kills and rewards. Try to find a fun build and/or group to play with. The game should be fun and not a chore.

With full healing gear it is approximately 300 per second or am I missing something?

I see a lot of comparisons with guardians. Guardian Mantra of Solace used to heal for almost 1k (with trait) and grant aegis. They changed it to 3 seconds of protection and 1s of resistance. It now heals for 200. They recently nerfed the guardian dodge roll heal from a 1.0 to .6. So instead of 2 dodges healing for 3000, they now heal for 1800. Now today they nerfed both the base heal and the modifier on absolute resolve. Both guardians and engineers were both overpowered in WvW zergs, so much so that organized guilds had a firebrand and a scrapper in every group. My view is that changes such as this are likely a good thing. But I play my firebrand in a non-meta guild group, and I'm not sure I want to play a healing firebrand any more since we just don't heal that much any more.

I agree with the OP. With the current server system, you have many players who aren't in a fight guild and like to defend/upgrade objectives for their "server". Servers added an additional level of meaning to go along with fun fights. My guess is that many of alliances will care even less about objectives or the score, both of which add extra meaning to the WvW experience. Many people on a given server know players/commanders who are not in their guild - and who they will no longer be able to fight alongside. This expansion will also make it harder for newer players to get into WvW.

SoS ktrains whole maps during certain non-peak hours due to their massive population advantage (West Coast and Asia). I logged on once when I couldn't sleep and wandered into our garrison after they took it. I noticed they had 4 shield generators at inner garri which I found remarkable given that their opponents likely struggle to drop 4 siege in total when taking it back. Essentially , if that SoS off hours group remains together, they guarantee at least 2nd place in a matchup. Off hours should possibly count for less in my opinion. While adjusting the score for kills, etc., helps make prime time more important it may not be sufficient.

I have played a celestial Firebrand (axe/shield + scepter/focus) and that has worked alright but I want to check out other classes. I looked at ranger builds but one would have to play a druid and Soulbeast with dolyak stance seems so tough to pass on for wvw roaming. (I did briefly try a shortbow/staff druid build with trailblazer/apothecary awhile back for taking camps and unorganized small scale skirmishing) Ventari rev apparently works but lack of stun breaks concerns me. Elementalist would be of interest too many but I am an older player who clicks the majority of my skills aside from weapon swap, dodge roll and heal - so that class is not probably for me. All hints, tips and builds are welcome!

For PvP, your gear and level doesn't matter. You can be a level 1 and be on equal footing. While it is true that if you play a class in PvE and WvW you will be more familiar with the skills, PvP is quite different than the other 2 game modes. Both of you might start with one class but find another one is more enjoyable. You might also like a class in PvP, but prefer another class or build in a different game mode. Do you plan on joining a guild to do fractals, raids/strikes, or World vs World? Do you want to join guild to do 2 PvE and WvW with others? WvW commanders usually run open tag (you can join squad and join their Discord) though large fight builds and often completely different than a small scale build. If your son is young kid, you might want to stay out of some guilds WvW Discord (and PvE to a lesser extent) due to occasional profanity and adult conversation/humor. I am asking more questions than giving answers, but in the end it depends upon which game modes you will be playing and you likely won't know that until some time in the future. I would stay away from thief since if you are duoing in wvw, a stealth partner isn't that great. Most other classes would be fine.

Marauder is good gear for a necromancer in WvW large fights and can work in smaller fights. If you are running a condi build in WvW, Trailblazer works well.

WvW Guilds are fragile. For many guild, if the tag retires, the guild dissolves. Therefore, these Alliances will be fragile, and unlike the present system, one doesn't get to know the tags /guilds on your server. I think the Alliances will weaken the WvW community. Today, both one's guild and server created a sense of community. In the future it will be one's guild and Alliance, but Alliances can break up after a bad match or if the a guild leader retires. One will also never get to know and fight with a pug/small guild commander on a regular basis.

1. Minstrel armor might delay your rewards if you don't put out some damage on enemies (players or the npcs in camps/towers). Roaming alone on Minstrel is pointless unless you are with others as you put out no damage. Even if you don't have a mount, you can get a speed boost from their mount if you run alongside those in the group that have unlocked a WvW trait. 2. Go visit the bartender in your guild hall to get a 10% WvW reward track boost. Consume an exp booster if you have 1 in your bank. 3. Try to do most of your dailies, though taking a keep might not be feasible and getting the 2 WvW experience bars filled for a different WvW daily is also very tough. 4. Honestly, I'd run more of a roamer build so you can run around and take camps, sentries, etc. and then joint up with groups if it looks like they are going for a larger objective. 5. if you join a squad on the map, join their Discord. It is usually (but not always) shown when you click the squad massage bar. 6. Take your time and try to have fun. I'm an older players who clicks most of my skills and I do alright. Feel free to message me in-game if you need some more help, though it seems that you are doing alright now.

For some people the community is the guild, but for others it is the server. One problem with basing the community on guilds is that guild leaders come and go. The turnover of guild leaders is pretty high due to burnout, RL issues, other games/interests, boredom,etc.. So eventually, one will be left with a really weak community. It will likely be harder for new players to get involved in WvW since it will be tough to get to know guild leaders since the new player will be joined with different players every matchup. In the past one could say, "Bob, Bill and Betty are on my server, Bob is very skilled but not much fun, Bill is not that skilled but fun, while Betty has decent skill and is pretty fun - I think I will join Betty's guild." It will be tougher to get to observe the commanders and guilds, especially for the newbie. Aside from Blackgate, WvW matchup balance is not too bad these days. It will also be tough to make any type of balancing fair when off hours players/guilds may be more valuable then primetime players.