Could PvE Heal-Alac Specter be viable after changes?

[Serperior.6541]

I am not even asking for it to be popular or meta I want to be able to bring it to a group and don't feel like a hinderance, Lets look at what an ideal healer should have in pve

- Offensive boons

- Some amount of defensive boons

- Strong Heals (also counting barriers aswell)

these are in my opinion what every healer should have as base, and a healer that can't provide any one of these can't be viable in pve.

 

Then lets look at utilities, these are not necesserily a requirement but having one of these can make a healer a lot more usefull:

 

- On demand Aegis/Stability

- Condition Cleanse

- Strong CC

- Reflects and Bubbles

- Insta/Fast revives

- Group mob pulls

- Decent amount of dps (for healer standarts)

- Unique buffs

 

And which one of these do you think Heal Specter Can/Will provide?

 

 

[kash.9213]

I think of Specter as an offensive driver or interception when a group has to peel in or out of something. If it's intended to be a group healer then it's kind of off the mark. I feel like the healing and offense is great for supplementing the other roles in the group and getting to a point in the composition fast that's struggling or is about to be overrun. It kind of hurts having Alacrity on the Wells because you're expected to use them off cooldown but they're much better as a response or to get ahead of a team move. I think there's enough Healing around Barrier to get through waves or phases in most stuff or drives in WvW, and there's damage upkeep by weaponizing allies through those stretches, but again, expectations don't sync up well with the Specter mechanics. 

I'm mostly fine with it although the healing could be more considering the budget and effort that goes into Barrier and Rot Wallow Venom for maybe one drive. Plus, I'd still take a reflect/bubble on something without having to take another Utility slot from a Well.

[Infusion.7149]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: there is no functional benefit for running full healing power when most of the skills have pitiful 0.1 or 0.2 coefficient scaling. Your best option is to run ritualist gear to have more vitality to make the barrier from consume shadows larger.

If Arenanet wants to make heal specter a thing they would need to increase heal scaling on the shadowstep wells at the very least. The best places for a single target healer are where there is actually a designated tank (i.e. on W5 SH or W7 QtP).

I posted exactly what needs to be done within the context of specter previously, I will try to find the exact post.

Regarding your specific points:

- Stability : see Well of Bounty, Mind Shock. The main problem is Well of Bounty is used to maintain alacrity

- Aegis : the addition of aegis to so many classes has not been beneficial to the game overall and short of Deimos CM it is not widely requested (in comparison to stability), I would have liked to see more vigor sharing for specter besides Bountiful Theft and Well of Bounty
** Keep in mind the aegis provided to classes other than guardian is typically 3-5s , there is simply no comparison to Advance with a 20s minimum duration, 2 ammo, and 30s base ammo cooldown to the point that it was even used on core support guardian in PVP

- Condition Cleanse: this could be added as it is thematic, but it already exists in shadow shroud ; Hungering Darkness is typically not used but could very well be used if the heal coefficients were less poor across the spec

- Strong CC: the specter elite well and Basilisk Venom already fulfill this function as well as offhand pistol

- Reflects and Bubbles : reflect would be nice, bubble or missile destruction probably would not be beneficial as the places specters are strongest require reflect (Matthias comes to mind) or could benefit from reflect

- Insta/Fast revives : already exists with Shadestep

- Group mob pulls : See Shadowfall elite well ; you lose Magnetic Bomb in certain scenarios due to no longer having steal so it is indeed lacking here

- Decent amount of dps (for healer standards) : is that not what ritualist gear specter is currently?

- Unique buffs unlikely to happen with the removal of banner and spirit buffs

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Infusion.7149

[madmagus.6147]

Alac Specter sucks at the moment because the alac is tied to wells, requiring a double tap to activate.  Very annoying.  Worst of all, you can't use the wells when needed, as they must be immediately applied to barely keep alac up.  Who even cares what the wells put out as far as boons when you can't save them for a proper situation?   No leeway.  Any spec, to include Scrapper or ala/heal tempest as well, that requires you to spam utilities to barely keep a boon up is horrible design and very unfun to play and not at all interactive with the content.

[Infusion.7149]

On 2/7/2023 at 12:04 AM, madmagus.6147 said:

Alac Specter sucks at the moment because the alac is tied to wells, requiring a double tap to activate.  Very annoying.  Worst of all, you can't use the wells when needed, as they must be immediately applied to barely keep alac up.  Who even cares what the wells put out as far as boons when you can't save them for a proper situation?   No leeway.  Any spec, to include Scrapper or ala/heal tempest as well, that requires you to spam utilities to barely keep a boon up is horrible design and very unfun to play and not at all interactive with the content.

Tempest is getting a QoL fix this coming patch unless they (Arenanet) change their mind. Your utilities on tempest are not locked to a skill type however.

The specs spamming skills that do not just do damage are:
* quick herald (facets) -- the only one that is problematic is the elite since it launches
* quick scrapper (wells) --- the main issue is the use of medic gyro & blast gyro but since blast gyro outputs might I guess Arenanet doesn't see it as a problem ; function gyro can be left out of your rotation
* Untamed (spirit actives) --- it is "abusing" Fervent Force to get alac
* quick warrior (banners) --- it depends on the build but if you are using banner of tactics your stability is wasted ; banner of strength dazes so that CC is wasted
* alac chrono (wells) --- this is problematic since your entire utility set is locked into wells ;  luckily quickness StM chrono doesnt play like this
 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Infusion.7149

[Vidit.7108]

Arenanet hasn't really articulated a reason why they think no one is using heal Specter in PvE. There have been posts and topics on this by the players since beta 3 when Specter was first playable. So there are a mountain of ideas that could be used to make heal Specter viable.

Core Thief has access to most of the things you mentioned, the problem for heal specter is that it is very limited in utilities it can take because alacrity was tied to casting wells. There are severe limits to any support Specter based on the amount of boon duration. Making the healing coefficients for the shadow step heals would make it more immediately useful but it doesn't change how poorly it plays relative to the other healers in the game. Lack of heal skills in general across thief have tied group healing to shadow stepping or blasting a smoke field which is less reliable, or consume shadows which requires the build bring vitality. The gameplay doesn't make the playstyle easy and it's not very rewarding or helpful.

The single target heal concept is now being done much better on other classes while Arenanet seems to still expect that players will magically develop the skill to do it effectively and make up for the lack of support in the UI. The alacrity healer space is highly competitive at the moment with 4 viable builds and 2 builds players have decided are more the top tier. Even modest improvements (like one well can now cleanse this patch) don't make up for Specter's lack of diversity and sketchy skill usage. 

[Nasberada.7340]

with the changes to shadow sap and well of silence, the most effective use would be to play ritualist alac specter and bring well of silence only if you expect a high condi pressure and shadow sap is a easy way to trade dps if your group need help with might. if your group is set up correctly these won't matter at all and you can just play as aggressive as possible.

[Infusion.7149]

Vidit, the main reason is UI.
No way to lock your ally target, no way to auto target lowest HP,  etc.