Easiest healer class?

[Cookiemonster.6327]

I really enjoy a class that have access to healing if needed.
What class would you suggest is the easiest one to play?

I have a ranger but im not 100% sure about the druid. And I really cant stand the sound of a sonar when using ability nr 1.
I love the ranger overall tho.
Any other suggestion?

Oh, im doing mostly open world content and no raids/dungeons. Might try Pvp, not sure.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Muffin.5208

[Dadnir.5038]

All core professions have some amount of healing in them. As for whether it's the easiest to play or not, objectively that depend on the player. The true issue is often what you need to give up for the ability to heal, what amount of heal your group will need and what you offer beside healing.

The most popular PvE healers are:

1- Firebrand: Objectively not the most impressive number wise but he got aegis and stab.

2- Mechanist: The mech do the job and there is alacrity.

3- Scourge: Retain decent amount of condi damage output on top of it's barrier output and ability to revive down allies. Usefull in fractals for it's boon conversion.

4- Tempest: One of the best healer number wise, lose a good chunk of healing if he want to provide alacrity.

5- Druid: Heal and offer alacrity.

6- Renegade: Not sure if it's still used but it offer decent amount of healing and alacrity.

 

[Zyreva.1078]

Mech is probably the easiest, but since we are talking about open world, nothing will be really hard.

If you like ranger - just stick with it, druid is fine. Regarding the sound of staff 1 - just don't use it, it doesn't do much anyway.

Generally i'd not recommend going full heal for open world (and even most instanced content), it's not neccessary and you are overly reliant on other players. Use cele  gear and axe + wh or torch as second weapon set and only swap to staff (for it's 2-5 skills, no reason to spam 1) when needed. Cele druid has still more than enough healing for pretty much any content, but can also provide some dmg and hold it's own when neccessary.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

People die when they are killed!  - Shirou Emiya.
"Death is only the beginning" - Imhotep
"Necromancer is the answer" - ZeftheWicked.

Seriously though - grab yourself a necro, he's imho the best open world "healer". Couple of good reasons why:

1.  By default is a great (if not the best) profession for open world content. Durable, lotsa AoE, good damage.
2. Healing is easy to use and easy to integrade into your build without flushing your damage or solo agency down the toilet.
3. Best resser - in open world this trumps healing. In big events there are lotsa deaths you just can't prevent. But you can mass pull downed allies outta red circles of death and start ressing them, while preventing them from bleeding out due to downstate. No other healer even comes close to this level of agency when downed allies need rescue.
4. Tons of builds. Each e-spec affects his ability to heal allies in it's own unique ways. Also due to unholy levels of ressing potential necro may opt to ignore healing power stat and "heal" via ressing. If not, his party healing skills while weak baseline, do scale well with the stat. There's a lot of choices and paths that can be taken here.

 

[Cookiemonster.6327]

11 hours ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

People die when they are killed!  - Shirou Emiya.
"Death is only the beginning" - Imhotep
"Necromancer is the answer" - ZeftheWicked.

Seriously though - grab yourself a necro, he's imho the best open world "healer". Couple of good reasons why:

I would love to try a necro, but I just cant stand all those pets in all kinds of shapes running around.
I dont mind just the one pet, like my ranger has. But necro has abit to many and I just feel they get in my way.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

13 minutes ago, Muffin.5208 said:

I would love to try a necro, but I just cant stand all those pets in all kinds of shapes running around.
I dont mind just the one pet, like my ranger has. But necro has abit to many and I just feel they get in my way.

Welp then get busy making your new necro then! Since minions are totally optional.
They're not his profession mechanic, unlike the ranger and if you want you can have 0 minions running around (which is what I do most of the time).

[Cookiemonster.6327]

4 minutes ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

Welp then get busy making your new necro then! Since minions are totally optional.
They're not his profession mechanic, unlike the ranger and if you want you can have 0 minions running around (which is what I do most of the time).

Oh i see 😺, nice to hear that. I always see necros running around with with those pets in starter areas so I thought they were a must 👍
Thankyou!

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

No problem. Here's a long instruction on how 2 heal others with your necro:

In your early necrotic unlife you don't. Just focus on doing your own thing and getting levels since necro is a profession that has a LOT of his power locked behind traits, and you need levels for those.

The last rule applies  to healing others as well. Majority of your healing will come from Blood Magic traitline, which conviniently offers a lot of sustain and utility for solo builds as well. But for party animals it holds traits that offer reviving, healing and ofc the main reason you're here - Transfusion grandmaster that does both when you cast your shroud skill #4. It's equipping that one that lets you pull downed allies and ress them, while give a decent heal to those still standing.

Once you're 80 you can start training elite specs. The most potent choice for a healer here is the Scourge.
Now you get access to party barriers as well, with a bit of boon share.
The big thing here is how this e-spec interacts with transfusion. First of all shroud #4 skill has way shorter cooldown than on core necro which is big (15s on scourge, 25 on core). The real kicker however is how it changes transfusion. Instead of a bursty heal it turns it into over time regen - 1 tick per second. Healing wise the end result is the same, but each tick can pull a downed ally.
Making scourge's party nigh immortal, as there's a huge uptime on pulling downed allies to you vs once in a while opportunity when it comes to core or reaper.

And then there's the Harbinger. He is squishy, has no barriers, but does have even shorter cooldown on his shroud 4 skill (so on transfusion by extension) - 10s! Additionally he can perma share quickness to parties (highly valued) and pop some short lasting but useful boons via his elixirs (if you trait for them to share their effects with nearby allies).

As for what gear to use - high vitality (big life force pool) and some healing are always good. As is ability to still do damage on your own. Here are some recommendations:

1. Plaguedoctor - Vitality + Condition damage major stats, Healing Power + Concentration minor.
This is your hybrid gear set. You will do respectable damage, while having some healing power and good boon durations. Big yes for a scourge, due to very high vitality and condi damage. Healing Harb will love it too since he needs all the vitality he can get to survive and the concentration is great for boonsharing.
But it's bit hard to get (originally found in Domain of Kourna which is living world season 4 map, so you need relevant story journal chapter unlocked).

2. Apothecary - one of the core game stat sets that fits a healer condi necro. Massive healing power stat, reasonable condition damage and toughness. You'll do less damage than plaguedoctor variant and your life force pool will be smaller, but you'll be nigh immortal with that healing power and toughness.

3. Shaman - with vitality being major stat, followed by condition damage and healing power this is your super cheap value purchase for your scourge or core condi healing necro that can't get to the good stuff yet.

4. Crusader - this is a tank/offhealer set for reaper. Unlike others above this is a power damage set that provides bit of healing power in there. Due to reaper's insane ability to get free crit you can get away with this 0 precision gear set. Reaper is no healing spec per se, but his version of transfusion has the highest burst healing of all, and flows well with being a damage dealer that revives and heals allies in a pinch as a side job. You can pick this set up in Heart of Thorns maps.

5. Trailblazer. 0 healing power, 0 concentration. This is the condi tank build gear focused on doing big condi damage. Good for the "I don't care about healing cause i'll just ress them" scenario. Since ressing is not affected by healing power this can be one way to support allies, while focusing on your self survival and doing good condi damage.

6. Ritualist - this is the "I don't care about healing, but I do care about boonshare" gear. This is pretty much plaguedoctor where healing power is discarded in favor or more condition damage (due to expertise replacing healing power). Harbingers absolutely love this set as do scourges that are damage focused but don't want to risk wearing glass cannon gear.
You'll need to put some effort in if you want it as it's available only in newest expansion (End of Dragons).

[Guybrush.4762]

Of all the healer I play at a decent level, heal herald is probably the one I would consider the easier. Specifically I see quite a lot of new people insisting on playing hfb because they have heard it is great (which to be fair is true !) and some of them are struggling to maintain good boon with it. In comparison it is super easy to maintain boon with heal herald and it is quite tanky as a bonus so you have more margin of error.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is that different people find different things difficult. For example, Heal tempest is probably not the easiest healer to play but i feel it has a more defined simili-rotation than most healer and therefor could feel smoother to play for some and harder for others.

As for the heal necro it is an incredible third healer (aka the safety net healer) for those times when you really need to carry your team. I don't think however it is a good pick as a main healer because it lacks the valuable boon that usually come with it.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Guybrush.4762

[Swagger.1459]

On 12/31/2022 at 2:55 AM, Muffin.5208 said:

I really enjoy a class that have access to healing if needed.
What class would you suggest is the easiest one to play?

I have a ranger but im not 100% sure about the druid. And I really cant stand the sound of a sonar when using ability nr 1.
I love the ranger overall tho.
Any other suggestion?

Oh, im doing mostly open world content and no raids/dungeons. Might try Pvp, not sure.

 

As someone who primarily played healing and support roles in mmos... I have a feeling you may be unsatisfied with the healer role options here, especially in open world where it's not even needed (unless you find standing in the middle of a team cluster spamming buttons satisfying). I would personally suggest learning to love selfish builds that are damage based, but that's just me. However, if you still choose to play some healer, play Elementalist Tempest (with Water Traitline active), make a hybrid damage/healing gear build if you just want open world, and spam your skills away! You don't even have to think much, just stand close to players and press whatever buttons pop up. 

 

Or... You can unlock United Legions Waystation - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W) and become one of the top best, and one of the top most useful, healers in GW2 open world with Rocket Jump\Parachute - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)

 

TL;DR- Make a damage build (direct damage or condi damage or hybrid direct and condi) and unlock United Legions Waystation to get a Medizooka. No, I'm not kidding. 

 

GL!

[Bunny.9834]

Unpopular Opinion: 

Ventari Vindicator. 

Run Ventari and Viktor Alliance. Spam dodge and natural harmony. 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAEZllQmMK6kNRpsKClFSqsBqknsUV8H-zRJYqR1fZkZqWdV57BJU6t0+mFA-e

Edited January 2, 2023 by Bunny.9834

[Nash.2681]

On 12/31/2022 at 8:55 AM, Muffin.5208 said:

[...]

Oh, im doing mostly open world content and no raids/dungeons. Might try Pvp, not sure.

Good news, as long as it's about open world it doesn't matter and you're free to try out whatever suits you best. Some possible choices were already mentioned.

However, if you ever change your mind and want to set foot in instanced content, some other factors come into play. First you'll never be just a healer, but also the source for quickness or alacrity for your subgroup. Second- playing healer usually is not tied to a strict rotation but demands for more reactive gameplay. Encounter knowledge is key and anticipation of mistakes is what makes good healers stand out.

[ZolracAtrox.2908]

In open world you can play all classes without any problem. 

But due to the fact that probly open world would turn into dungeons, then fractals and then raids: Firebrand.

I know that mech has the easier rotation; but remember that a support depends in their allies performance.

He has decent healing; lots of tools depending of the encounter; blocks, passive healing, blocks, stab source, resistance, condi cleanse, stun break, etc.

 

You can carry your team at fractals/dungeons so hard, even if u team is a little bad.

For example: Arkk CM.

Your team doesn't evade the red eye? stab/stun break.

Your team doesn't use the nova skill in order to evade orbs? F3 => Bubble shield

Your team eats all AoE conditions? F2 => 2 or 5; or F3 =>4, or Staff 2 on a light shield.

Turning a difficulty game into a piece of cake. Recommended 100%. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by ZolracAtrox.2908

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

The best healer both numbers-wise and ease to play with is Scourge, because like Machinist they stack barrier on top of their heals, cleanses and revives but they do so in much higher numbers. A group with a Healscourge takes almost no damage and in the event someone goes down they will just be up again in 5sec or less.

 

The downside is it doesn't have any boons to give besides Might, so most groups don't want it.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Mariyuuna.6508