What options for an healing/support play style this game has to offer?

[carsomyr.9841]

Greetings,

 

i'm new to the game. I played a lot of mmo's in the past mostly Everquest 2. I took a long break from playing mmo's but i want to get into one again. So a lot of people reommended me this game for beeing super casual friendly and play time respecting. My absolute favourite role/play style is beeing a healer. I have decent fun in the open world by beeing able to bring good dps. I've now reached level 75 on my guardian (i choosed guardian because the class text implied to me they are the support/healer guys over here, also i love cleric type classes) and played all dungeons aviable and while they where fun i really miss the healer feeling. I know there is no trinity here like in other games. So while i have a lot of fun doing things like this great undead dragon on the swamp map and personal story i feel not really satisfied by just doing dps.

So do i have any options for an healer/support style of game play i can use in ervery game mode? Or is healing over here just not needed and i maybe should considering to look for a game with a trinity system of roles?

Edited May 26, 2022 by carsomyr.9841

[Friday.7864]

Heal firebrand is such a good support/heal class it's sometimes called the wheelchair class. You can provide stability, condi cleanse, quickness and a lot of heals.
It's great overall and is especially helpful in dungeons/fractals/strikes with people who lack experience - makes a huge difference.
Heal firebrand is also a must have for squads in WvW.

If you like support so much make your guardian into a quickness support DPS.
Run that all the time and when you need to heal just swap to full heal support.

But in general most classes can have some kind of support role. I try to have a support build on every class so I can switch to it if necessary, saves you a lot of trouble at times.


 

[Jukhy.2431]

I know what you mean since I used to play healer almost exclusively in WoW. (Chain heal ftw!)

Healers are needed in certain content: namely wvw, fractals, strikes and raids. The primary role of healer is keeping buffs they can provide up (eg. might, quickness, alacrity etc) and the secondary role is to heal. In raids usually there's a primary healer and secondary one(s). Ranger, guardian, elementalist, necromancer and in wvw the engineer are commonly used. Thief's new specter elite spec is also very viable choice.

I have heal specs on many classes since I like to swap when it's needed, even in open world group events it can be very handy.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

8 hours ago, carsomyr.9841 said:

Greetings,

 

i'm new to the game. I played a lot of mmo's in the past mostly Everquest 2. I took a long break from playing mmo's but i want to get into one again. So a lot of people reommended me this game for beeing super casual friendly and play time respecting. My absolute favourite role/play style is beeing a healer. I have decent fun in the open world by beeing able to bring good dps. I've now reached level 75 on my guardian (i choosed guardian because the class text implied to me they are the support/healer guys over here, also i love cleric type classes) and played all dungeons aviable and while they where fun i really miss the healer feeling. I know there is no trinity here like in other games. So while i have a lot of fun doing things like this great undead dragon on the swamp map and personal story i feel not really satisfied by just doing dps.

So do i have any options for an healer/support style of game play i can use in ervery game mode? Or is healing over here just not needed and i maybe should considering to look for a game with a trinity system of roles?

Every class has a healer build in this game, but some are more effective than others. The Core classes aren't too good at many roles, you really need the subclasses (Elite specs) to perform well, except maybe in PvP.

 

Guardian (with Firebrand) is the most catch-all support class in the game, capable of building for full support (Minstrel's gear- Toughness, Vitality, Healing Power, Concentration), or glassy support (Harrier's gear-Power, Healing Power, Concentration) and bringing strong heals, cleanses, and boons to the fight. There's also some hybrid builds that do both damage and support, like condi FB.

 

Ranger (with Druid) is the more traditional healer, and may feel more familar overall.

 

Thief is the game's only single-target healer, although they provide good group support as well. If you're looking for true dedicated healing like you're used to in other games, you'll want Thief-Spectre. But this comes with extra UI management, which the other classes manage to avoid by being AoE-based.

 

I think the most shocking thing to you is that PvE is built as DPS game and almost everyone will build like glass, even the supports. If you're looking to play a tanky support you need to play either open-world (meta events, bosses, etc.), or the competitive game modes, as you'll be kicked from most instanced content unless you build the party yourself. Many guilds run "play how you want" in their instanced content, (this is known as a static).

Edited May 26, 2022 by Hannelore.8153

[Rogue.8235]

Tempest (elementalist) is an option with it's aura sharing, healing, and boon support.

Herald(revenant) can be specc'd to provide support.

I'm not sure about the viability of these professions in high-end PvE content, but they're effective overall.  The tempest and herald can also be built for damage so you can play both on the same character as needed.

 

 

[ASP.8093]

Firebrand (one of the Guardian elite specializations) feels amazing if you love healer/support play, imo.

In addition to just topping up people's health, you're also giving them massively important combat buffs (both offensive and defensive — Might, Quickness, Protection, Stability, a bit of Aegis) and you're super well-equipped to deal with encounter mechanics. Does the boss knock people down a lot? Bring some Stability for the whole party so they can resist if if they mess up their dodges! Are there nasty projectiles involved? You can use your class abilities or one of your utility skills to block or reflect them all. Are there a bunch of enemies running around everywhere? Pull them together so your friends can cleave them down faster. The basic Healbrand ("heal" + "firebrand") gameplay isn't super difficult, but you have so many tools at your disposal that there's a lot to "grow into" it.

With Firebrand, you can also try hybrid support/dps builds using Celestial gear, where you'll have less healing output but you still provide excellent buffs. That may be a desirable approach for open-world events or if you're just doing exploration/story with 1-2 friends (where helping them with DPS a bit might be preferable to standing there just doing buffs+healing).

 

The one catch is that Firebrand is not super popular in SPvP due to some game-mode-specific nerfs (people tend to use Core Guardian support instead — because of how GW2's build system works, it's very easy to play both specs with one character).

Firebrand is one of the backbone support classes in both instanced PvE and World vs. World, though.

[trunks.5249]

On 5/26/2022 at 1:20 AM, carsomyr.9841 said:

Greetings,

 

i'm new to the game. I played a lot of mmo's in the past mostly Everquest 2. I took a long break from playing mmo's but i want to get into one again. So a lot of people reommended me this game for beeing super casual friendly and play time respecting. My absolute favourite role/play style is beeing a healer. I have decent fun in the open world by beeing able to bring good dps. I've now reached level 75 on my guardian (i choosed guardian because the class text implied to me they are the support/healer guys over here, also i love cleric type classes) and played all dungeons aviable and while they where fun i really miss the healer feeling. I know there is no trinity here like in other games. So while i have a lot of fun doing things like this great undead dragon on the swamp map and personal story i feel not really satisfied by just doing dps.

So do i have any options for an healer/support style of game play i can use in ervery game mode? Or is healing over here just not needed and i maybe should considering to look for a game with a trinity system of roles?

you have 3 main options guardian,ele or druid

[Goettel.4389]

For me it's Tempest >  Druid > Firebrand.

Reverse that if you're not a filthy casual, like me.

[ens.9854]

To add to others, it depends on what content you want to heal. Vacuum scourge is the undisputed champ of carrying players in open world (and not awful in other places..). You can teleport downed players to you, stop their bleedout, and revive them super quick at high HP. You also provide some barrier and a bit of heal over time (not much).

 

Several profs have massive health per second output if that's what you want - druid, mechanist/scrapper, tempest, firebrand... maaaybe rev one day. Engineers feel most like healer to me with their medkit and elixir gun (and less so mortar), then tempest - druid feels like  might/regen bot with a few large heals and firebrand heals are very passive (regen, regen*, symbols).

 

[Strider.7849]

On 5/25/2022 at 11:20 PM, carsomyr.9841 said:

Greetings,

 

i'm new to the game. I played a lot of mmo's in the past mostly Everquest 2. I took a long break from playing mmo's but i want to get into one again. So a lot of people reommended me this game for beeing super casual friendly and play time respecting. My absolute favourite role/play style is beeing a healer. I have decent fun in the open world by beeing able to bring good dps. I've now reached level 75 on my guardian (i choosed guardian because the class text implied to me they are the support/healer guys over here, also i love cleric type classes) and played all dungeons aviable and while they where fun i really miss the healer feeling. I know there is no trinity here like in other games. So while i have a lot of fun doing things like this great undead dragon on the swamp map and personal story i feel not really satisfied by just doing dps.

So do i have any options for an healer/support style of game play i can use in ervery game mode? Or is healing over here just not needed and i maybe should considering to look for a game with a trinity system of roles?

Guardian is a great choice, you can't really go wrong with that right now, it has meta builds for every environment in the game - it can run as heal/support, condi/support, tank, power DPS.. now even has great mobility with willbender. It's just not a straight healer as you would see it in other games. You can definitely heal, but it excels at reducing and negating damage through blocks/reflects/damage reduction boons like protection/resolution. Having played all healers, I would liken guardian to more of a sustained healer rather than constant burst heals you see in other games.

 

Healing is definitely needed in this game for endgame PvE content (raids/strikes/fractals) and PvP environments like WvW.. but not so much in old/simple content or open world outside of some meta events like dragons end.

 

Every class can heal or has healing builds, they just all approach it differently and with varying degrees of effectiveness; I don't have time to explain each but you can use sites like metabattle or snowcrows to see what the builds are and how they function and then look up associated videos. I will mention some of the most common specs for healing on each class to check out:

 

Warrior: spellbreaker (healbreaker)

Ranger:  Druid

Guardian: core support (sPvP) or firebrand (healbrand)

Engineer: scrapper (healscrapper) and Mechanist (healmech)

Necro: healscourge

Elementalist: tempest (there are a couple variants of this, one based around heavy raw healing using staff - very similar to other MMO styles of heals, the other a mix of support put in with dagger/warhorn)

Thief: specter (condi support specter - operates similar to healscourge in a way).

Revenant: Herald (ventari tablet) and a more recent build I haven't tried yet with Vindicator.

Mesmer: chronomancer (support Chrono - can mix in some healing but primarily focused on support).