Question on triggering Healing Spring

[Lord Warfin.1209]

I've started playing around with Druid and am having a little trouble getting Healing Spring to work reliably with spirits.  Here is what I have found:

 

1. If the 'trap' is set and a target already inside the trigger circle goes below 100% health, the trap does not trigger.  It just lets them die.

2. If the skill is cast when a target within the trigger radius is already below 100% (or has damaging conditions presumably) and is still below 100% after instant healing from Cultivated Synergy etc. then it triggers.  This seems to be about the most reliable way to do it.

3. If the 'trap' is set and a spirit below 100% health is teleported into the trigger circle from outside, sometimes it triggers and sometimes it doesn't.  It seems that it might be more likely to work the further the teleport distance but I'm not entirely sure.  The last time I tried from just outside the trigger circle it worked and I've seen it fail from further.  It does not trigger if they are teleported around inside the circle, which is consistent with #1.

 

Is there some factor I'm missing, like a health threshold other than 100% that would make this make sense or is it just buggy?

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Probably buggy. 

Healing Spring is only meant to trigger it if it is walked over, however spirits can't walk (anymore).  Healing Spring - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)

The target also has to be less than 100%, which will explain point 1, because a spirit inside the trap won't trigger it if it goes lower than 100 as it didn't cross threshold.  

Point 2 you'd have to isolate, but guessing it may be something else triggering the trap, especially if its within trigger radius.  Then cultivated synergy should kick in and heal the spirit.

Point 3 is probably a bug playing on the spirit physically crossing the threshold of the trap.  

 

[Lord Warfin.1209]

I think it is buggy.  My guess is the order things happen isn't guaranteed so sometimes cultivated synergy happens first and may heal things completely before the trap check and sometimes the trap triggers first even though they will be completely healed with cultivated synergy.  Likewise sometimes teleporting a spirit at less than 100% health into the trap triggers it and sometimes the check happens at the wrong time and it doesn't.  In most content where there are multiple targets actually in need of healing and moving around there are probably enough triggers that it's not a problem, or there is so much going on it's hard to notice there is a problem. Testing with a single spirit doesn't simulate actual use, but it makes it easier to see the bugs.

[KeyOrion.9506]

No it's not buggy.  In the old days, healing spring would pulse heal you when it activated, and only if you stayed in the circle, but at the same time gave a small debuff/dmg to any opponant when an enemy had crossed the circle.  This was considered too OP for Ranger, and was changed/nerfed.  It then became a healing field, but only activated when you crossed the line, however the amount of time it stayed on the field of battle was increased.  However for PvP or WvW, this wasn't very helpful, since it no longer did anything to the enemy, and it also required that you moved outside range of the circle then move back in it, and fighting in a tight area was not always in the ranger's best interest.  I used to run Healing Spring a lot in WvW, but I no longer use it.  The healing was limited to a small unmovable field, and battle tended to progress over a wider area, making the skill supremely worthless in PvP and WvW formats.  What would be wonderful is if the field followed you.  Much like how i have Damage follow me, every time i fight an elementalist that puts a burning field on me, with a big fiery rock hovering over my head to smash down, which also follows me.  Not to fair when damage fields can follow you, but a pulsing healing field can't.

[Lord Warfin.1209]

On 2/11/2023 at 12:10 AM, KeyOrion.9506 said:

No it's not buggy.  In the old days, healing spring would pulse heal you when it activated, and only if you stayed in the circle, but at the same time gave a small debuff/dmg to any opponant when an enemy had crossed the circle.  ...

It is buggy in that it doesn't trigger consistently on spirits .  I don't know how it used to work and have only been testing how it actually works now.  I agree that it's not very useful in any situation where mobility is essential and the intended targets won't be in the same place long enough for the pulses to add up regen.  Keeping sprits alive is something it is useful for, so not triggering on them reliably can make a difference.  In high mobility situations you probably won't be running spirits either, although they are slightly more viable due to their longer range effects and ability to teleport.