Is there a support healer build for mesmer?

[marmaladebacon.2064]

I enjoy the mesmer(Chrono, Mirage, not so much Virt) playstyle but I was wondering if there was a recommended support healer build for mesmer for endgame pve eg raids, t4 fractals and strikes? Looking around snowcrows and metabattle i can't find any. Since i mostly play pug i don't think groups would understand if it's off-meta.
Also i'm not able to find a build that utilizes the Inspiration traitline effectively, is it just not viable at all?

[RisenHowl.2419]

Nope, needs buffs

[Exciton.8942]

The only decent option is heal mirage 

 

[excelsior.2168]

Yeah, what Exciton.8942 posted is the current best mesmer heal/support build. I did run this in raids not too long ago and it did pretty well.

I have tried a chrono heal build but it's janky. Overall, mesmer and its e-specs need a reliable way to put out protection consistently. I think only the chrono shield has protection and mesmer gives itself protection through a traitline. 

But again, the mirage build posted is pretty good. I ran Marshall's and Seraph's instead of Harrier's to get more out of the staff condis and still worked out well 🙂

[RisenHowl.2419]

All they need to do is make restorative mantras trigger the heal on mantra cast and on charging, then it'll be in a good spot. What mesmer really lacks is access to aoe regen and immediate aoe healing. It has no skills you can cast that heal in a targeted area on demand, they're mostly locked behind a 2-3s delay.

[smul.1928]

Show me a mesmer weapon that has group heals, blocks, decent regen, or protection on it.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

23 hours ago, smul.1928 said:

Show me a mesmer weapon that has group heals, blocks, decent regen, or protection on it.

Scepter + Shield, when taking the inspiration line.  

[smul.1928]

Yes, but a couple of blocks and protection don't make a full healer.  Mesmer doesn't have a proper ally healing weapon like a lot of the other specs do.  Inspiration does have some heal via traits, and I do like the mantra preparation heal.  However, it's not on the ammo, even if at a lesser amount.  I also find Healing Prism and Illusionary Inspiration to be underwhelming.  I would love to be a primary mesmer healer some day.

[draxynnic.3719]

In short: Not really. There are some traits that are obviously intended to push towards a healer role, but they don't really come together into a build that serves as a solid healer. You could probably get away with something like the mantra alacheal mesmer posted above in cases where the incoming damage is relatively light, but most professions have healer builds that will do better when the proverbial chips are down, and in many cases those builds also have the potential to bring more utility to the table since they're not entirely relying on utility slots for healing. If you're mostly relying on PUGs and aren't the commander yourself (tagging up has its privileges), I probably wouldn't advise rocking up with a mesmer and declaring that you can fill a healing role without switching character.

Edited April 29, 2023 by draxynnic.3719

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

11 hours ago, smul.1928 said:

Yes, but a couple of blocks and protection don't make a full healer.  Mesmer doesn't have a proper ally healing weapon like a lot of the other specs do.  Inspiration does have some heal via traits, and I do like the mantra preparation heal.  However, it's not on the ammo, even if at a lesser amount.  I also find Healing Prism and Illusionary Inspiration to be underwhelming.  I would love to be a primary mesmer healer some day.

Mesmer heals when it summons illusions, and sceptor auto summons illusions, thus making it an effective healing weapon for the Mesmer that's about as effective as any other healing weapon (like Revenant staff). There's no healing weapon in the game that does major healing, only minor.. burst healing is always in your utilities.

 

Staff is often used as the alternate weapon for the Aegis field spam and some extra Might uptime on allies.

 

Chrono works as HealAlac since you only need a few wells for full uptime combined with the shield. The combination of mantras and wells has some of the best boon output in the game (including easy Stabiilty spam).  I think players vastly underestimate Mesmer healing. Those who say it doesn't work likely don't know how to play it effectively, just like Warrior's (now destroyed) healing build.

Edited April 29, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[draxynnic.3719]

The problems I see are:

1) You get decent 'baseline' healing, but your crisis option is... rapid-firing through your mantras and hoping you have time to refresh before you need them again. You just don't have the crisis options other heal builds have, like fast resses, downed prevention, damage reduction, big chunks of barrier, a special mode with supercharged healing like celestial avatar or tome of resolve, and so on. Chrono is a bit better in this respect, but not really at the level of the others.

2) Any utility you bring that isn't a mantra or well is cutting down on your healing and exacerbates problem 1. DPS alacmirage, on the other hand, can easily trade out one or two signets at a relatively small DPS loss.

3) While probably a subset of the above, even the video posted above acknowledges that you're missing boons that a healer would normally be expected to provide and should be paired with a firebrand or herald to cover that (I think scrapper might also work, but I'm not as sure). Which raises the question of...why not just have the firebrand or herald do the healing? There may be situations where the herald or firebrand isn't able or willing to step up to that plate, and alacrity healmes is certainly better than no healer at all, but healbrand and healherald are generally stronger options.

 

I'm sure you can make it work, but from the context given by the OP, I don't think 'you can make it work if the team is willing to work around you' is what they're looking for.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

The problems I see are:

1) You get decent 'baseline' healing, but your crisis option is... rapid-firing through your mantras and hoping you have time to refresh before you need them again. You just don't have the crisis options other heal builds have, like fast resses, downed prevention, damage reduction, big chunks of barrier, a special mode with supercharged healing like celestial avatar or tome of resolve, and so on. Chrono is a bit better in this respect, but not really at the level of the others.

2) Any utility you bring that isn't a mantra or well is cutting down on your healing and exacerbates problem 1. DPS alacmirage, on the other hand, can easily trade out one or two signets at a relatively small DPS loss.

3) While probably a subset of the above, even the video posted above acknowledges that you're missing boons that a healer would normally be expected to provide and should be paired with a firebrand or herald to cover that (I think scrapper might also work, but I'm not as sure). Which raises the question of...why not just have the firebrand or herald do the healing? There may be situations where the herald or firebrand isn't able or willing to step up to that plate, and alacrity healmes is certainly better than no healer at all, but healbrand and healherald are generally stronger options.

 

I'm sure you can make it work, but from the context given by the OP, I don't think 'you can make it work if the team is willing to work around you' is what they're looking for.

I'm not sure I agree with the last line. In my experience, skilled teams rarely need a healer anyway, and I've even seen groups that run healerless in both Fractal and strike CMs.

 

The sentence would probably be better as "if a low-skilled team is willing to work around you", because the presence of any healer provides more than enough healing and boons for any skilled group , no matter what you're playing, as they're fairly self-sufficient already and only need the stuff that isn't easily self-provided like Alacrity/Quickness, some Might, Fury and Stability, all of which any healer can bring.

 

The reason Firebrand and Machinist have always been so strong is for their carry value (just like with HealScourge), but as your group is more skilled that value decreases exponentially, and it goes from being a hard carry to simply being a bandage for the occasional mistake, if any happen at all.

 

In my opinion players have become way too obsessed with "effective supports". Its this far into the game and you still see LF HB all the time despite all the nerfs, as its purely a comfort zone at this point..

 

Making everything into Firebrand was the absolutely last thing we should've tried to do with any class.

[draxynnic.3719]

Yes, with more skilled groups, you get to the point where you not only stop needing crisis measures, but you can throw out optimisation altogether and run meme setups as a flex.

Nobody's going to expect random PUGs to be on that level, though. Even in the experienced LFG. You might be the best player in the game, but if half your squad are first-timers that joined the experienced LFG anyway, you're going to have a bad time if you don't have healers that can keep them alive regardless.

At the bottom line, there's a reason healmes isn't on the sites, and it's not just a healbrand or even healbrand/healmech dominance thing any more. Rev, druid, and ele all have suitable healing builds.

[katte nici.9483]

Skilled teams don't need a healer anyway to Mesmer's bad healing builds are fine.

 

You heard it here.

[Micah.3789]

As an alacheal mirage main and an avid buildcrafter, let me shed some light on the mesmer healing situation:

1. Mantra healing has become significantly more reliable since the recent patch, though it requires more cast time to maintain. Mantra of Pain has no CD at all aside from the 1 sec in between using charges, making it a 4-5k+ heal roughly every 3-4sec. Mantra of Recovery was also improved to include a significant group heal on cast amounting to 7-9k healing total every 10-12sec. These are the only 2 mantras you need for healing, but Concentration for stability and Resolve for cleanse can be situationally useful too.

2. Illusionary Inspiration performs VERY well if combined with Deceptive Evasion. You heal 750-900 every time you make an illusion. A staff/staff alac mirage will produce ~5 clones every 20 sec through dodging (mirage cloak) alone. Phantasmal warlock produces 4 on a 12 sec CD. They add up to a lot of reliable sustained healing.

 

3. SO MUCH UTILITY. First of all, you're basically immortal which is nice as you can focus more on other people's health. It has a few good sources of aegis: Chaos Storm, Mantra of Concentration, and Distortion. You have 1-2 free utility slots, and on one of the best classes for useful utility skills (feedback, portal, cc, etc). Not to mention, the mobility is very impressive with jaunt, phase retreat, and mirage cloak.

4. It doesn't provide protection or regeneration. These are very nice boons for a healer to have, even if they aren't completely necessary for sustain. You'll have to work harder to keep people alive, but it is perfectly doable. Watch out for damage builds that rely on these boons for traits and other synergies as they may be expecting them (like condi mesmer gets bonuses for regen)

 

5. It can do very good damage even while healing. I run celestial stats with monk runes and still bench around 10k. For real combat example in more extreme situation: when I heal pug boneskinner, I usually do around 6.5-8k hps while doing 7-8k dps too. 
 

6. The healing and boon style is VERY active and high maintenance. This is not one of those LI heal builds that just stands around auto attacking and presses a button (or few) every 20 sec to keep up quick/alac. The rotation is mostly the same as an alacmirage dps, but skips some of the extra damage steps and weaves mantras and illusion skills in between mirage cloaks. You're basically always casting, and it can be very punishing if you fumble. And with the most recent patch changes, alac is so unreliable that I wouldn't run this in any content you can't guarantee permanent 3 clone uptime.

TL;DR: Mirage healer can be very fun and rewarding in the right hands. The actual healing is quite good, higher than some meta healers even. It brings unique utility, damage, and survivability, but it also lacks some boons that many have come to expect. 

[Megastorm.6219]

Here is my Virtuoso setup for WvW roaming and zerging.  This is a full celestial build with group support such as two mantra uses of cleansing, healing, and stability for five sub-squad or party members. I love it, they hate it. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAYt3llysYKsK2IeqTqxKA-z1IY1o+/QyUV1rQsmJiF/Eh4vF2M2AA-w

Edited May 10, 2023 by Megastorm.6219