How i would make a viable mesmer heal build (small reworks)

[dannx greed.6970]

With Mesmer being one of the only clases with out the ability to reliably heal, these would be the changes that i would make to allow mirage to be its heal spec options.
With chrono already having the ability to grant quickness or alacrity and virtuoso having great condi or power builds i feel mirage needs a little extra after all the nerfs!!  
My idea would be for a alac mirage heal build with minor changes to scepter, a few traits, and a rework to mirage mantle scepter ambush skill.
changes would go as follows:

1-  mirage trait line 

 Renewing Oasis    
Grant regeneration to allies when you gain Mirage Cloak. The duration of incoming damaging conditions is reduced while you are regenerating. (would allow consistent form of regen )

Mirage Mantle - (would only change the improved scepter ambush skill)
Ether Barrage: Extend boon on allies  (1 seconds) + (0.5 seconds per clone). (would also make it viable for alac dps builds)

2- Inspiration trait line 

Restorative Mantras    
Heals allies and grant Protection around you when you cast a Mantra. (to help with protection upkeep)

Warden's Feedback    
Focus weapon skills heal allies. Reduces recharge on focus weapon skills. (main form of healing- AA chain would heal a bit with the final hit doing a aoe heal,  #2 would be a heal on block or full channel and finally #3 would heal allies while it channels)

Healing Prism    
When healing yourself, nearby allies are also healed. Gain healing power based on a portion of your concentration. (concentration makes more sense here)

3- Chaos trait line

Chaotic Transference   
Chaos Armor grants protection to allies around you when cast. When you gain protection, also gain regeneration. (just to help with the protection upkeep)

Finally trait set up looking something like this: 
Inspiration 2-1-2 (1-1-2 sacrificing protection up keep for ranged revive via feedback)
Chaos x-2-3 (first line is flexible as we only need chaotic transference and bountiful disillusionment for stab and protection)
Mirage  2-2-1 (for regen and group alac)

Your build would revolve around summoning 3 staff clones and pumping out alacrity(15 sec)  (Chaos vortex x2 and crystal sands)

swapping into scepter and healing as needed. Off hand would depend on situation with focus for pulls, torch and pistol for extra cc and shield for tanking
scepter ambush would allow you to extend your boons long enough for your weapon swap into staff for alac combo and protection upkeep via chaos armor.
This set up would provide 5man 25might, fury, protection, regen , stab, and alacrity with flexible options. 
 Leaving your utility open for the situation as i feel you would only need crystal sands for alac upkeep and mantra of concentration for protection stability and more heals. 

In summary Mirage needs a buff and this would really help  its healing capabilities or lack there of!!
(disclaimer i don't know how numbers would really look as i have no exp in balancing )

[ShadowKatt.6740]

Are you talking about healing yourself or healing others? If it's the latter, just go chrono. Lots of healing with wells and things. If you're talking about healing yourself....you're missing the point of a mesmer. Mesmers don't heal because mesmers......don't get hit. Teleports, blurrs, distortion, blocks, and straught up untargetable invisibility. Mesmers are hard to kill because mesmers are hard to even touch. You don't need to heal if you're not hurt.

[Akihito.4361]

Like ShadowKatt said, Chorno is built to heal.

However, Virtuoso is also a valid option for heals. The key feature of Mesmers is this: You have to be clever and crafty. 

Play Virtuoso with the Inspiration traitline. You automatically get Healing Prism to heal allies every 10s whenever you heal (can even proc off lifesteal effects from food buffs). Take Illusionary Inspiration so that every time you stock a blade (when do you stop stocking blades?) you heal yourself and allies. If you take Restorative Mantras then you can spam heals with Mantra of Pain + whatever other mantras you want to use. For self healing you can also take Restorative Illusions so you heal yourself every time you use a shatter. For more self healing take Signet of the Ether as your heal skill and you will constantly heal yourself.

Thats all from a single traitline. We have plenty of healing options and it works on any spec. That being said, it is very likely the rifle we are about to get will be a healing weapon (similar to Thief's scepter), so maybe just wait until new weapons and class balance patch comes out next month.

[Kulvar.1239]

Mesmer heal by not healing until they get a healing weapon, maybe the rifle, or a rework

[Panda.1967]

The only thing that Mesmer needs to make a viable heal spec is to change the All’s Well That Ends Well trait for Chronomancer to apply a small heal with each pulse and do a larger heal when the well ends instead of just a heal when wells end.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

20 minutes ago, Panda.1967 said:

The only thing that Mesmer needs to make a viable heal spec is to change the All’s Well That Ends Well trait for Chronomancer to apply a small heal with each pulse and do a larger heal when the well ends instead of just a heal when wells end.

Just throwing more heals at the Chrono won't make it able to compete with the other healing classes in the game.

The raw healing numbers aren't really what people seek out in healers in this game. 

 

Healers are expected to provide boons like Protection, Regeneration, Resistance/Resolution, and DPS ones like Might and Fury.

But a Heal Chrono just can't provide any of these in significant amounts.

[Mevelios.4809]

On 10/10/2023 at 8:22 PM, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

[...] The raw healing numbers aren't really what people seek out in healers in this game.

Healers are expected to provide boons [...].

But a Heal Chrono just can't provide any of these in significant amounts.

All's well that ends well could have a better modifier to bring it on the same level as healers, honestly (to compare it with the revenant I've played the most when healing, All's well has a 0.8 modifier with a very low base amount, Renewing wave has a lower 0.65 modifier on a much higher base amount while Natural harmony stands at 2.75 without empowerment).

I'd wish as well (close to @Panda.1967's suggestion) that each pulse provides a healing rather than the final one exclusively. I wouldn't even mind the removal of the final larger heal; simply the current value to be spread over each pulse, rather than waiting 3 seconds for something to occur - a LOT can happen meanwhile, without even mentioning stepping out of the well before it ends (guess that's where begins the "natural selection")!

 

Still, these apply to a single elite spec, which feels wrong to me because it'd lock immediately into a single way to play a healer mesmer. Revising All's well modifier could be avoided as there already are worthwhile means in the inspiration spec thanks to mantras, summoning or shattering illusions, enabling different styles to play depending player's preference:

-Restorative mantras could be expanded by also providing a smaller heal when using one of its charges. A revision in the initial cast would be needed however IMO (more than two seconds, come now, the game is playing much faster than at release - and here mantras could be the main healing tool). Initial mantra casts could possibly provide buffs: pain/power spike already does the magic with might & vulnerability (keeping the latter as-is so it doesn't step on possible power damage dealer uses, no sarcasm please!); resolve/power cleanse could offer a lengthy regen on resolve's cast only; concentration/power break could remain mostly as-is, except power break providing protection instead of more stability stacks; distraction/power lock could provide fury only on the initial distraction cast; finally recovery/power return (remember, the mantra out of healing skills?) could only offer vigor on recovery's initial cast.

-Restorative illusions would work best with mirage/virtuoso, both capable of generating a larger number of illusions than chrono (though this is biased on my gameplay style) to compensate the chrono All's well. Obviously, here it should affect an area around the mesmer instead of the current self-heal, with smaller numbers than the current values (possibly removing the condition cleanse from it, otherwise it could make the mantra of resolve/power cleanse meaningless and there's already Mender's purity, which would easily trigger especially on recovery mantra/power return). This works on the shattering side, pretty similar to the next one:

-Illusionary inspiration is the same but on the summoning side, which is fine as-is. This would also work better for the virtuoso for obvious reasons, whereas the mirage would compete with Deceptive evasion or Self-deception linked to jaunt's stacks & illusionary ambush. Here, the focus is extra healing; I wouldn't mind the redundancy since for the sake of extra buffing, taking Blurred inscriptions instead and the signet of inspiration could make a fine combination, without mentioning the new aegis offered around (1s distortion from Blurred inscriptions > Inspiring distortion).

-Healing prism could obviously remain as-is, but what's lacking so far is a real outbound healing bonus (20% being common across healers). The whole effect could be replaced altogether by a new requirement to generate a 10 sec long buff providing +20% healing to others (randomly: clearing a condition on self/allies? Hitting the dodge roll?) on a 10 sec cooldown. Then again the power-to-healing conversion ain't half bad, and if there's an imitation of the harrier stats set (power/concentration/healing, power being the major stat) making healing instead the major stat (and what with the possibilities new weapons could open up), it could be a shame to lose it.

 

Speaking of weapons, the staff works well in buffing. The bouncing orbs already offer might & fury, and you see me coming with the mirage's chaos vortex for alacrity; all I'd wish for the sake of a heal/support mesmer would be a passive making orbs bounce exclusively on allies (why not a very low modifier heal while we're at it, so clones could assist and further amplify the dilemma "to shatter or not to shatter, that is the question?"). Obviously we're lacking a true healing weapon to round up my ideas above, but for the sake of buffing there's already a fine tool through our staff! It has an ample summoning ability thanks to the phantasmal warlocks, and despite the profile of a healer only capable of affecting close surroundings (most effects currently have a 300 radius around the mesmer) the phase retreat can be put to active use as a leap finisher (little use, I admit) or emergency escape while retaining the extra clone you may need. The chaos armor (including the ease of access through mesmer ethereal fiels into a leap finisher) can be put to use by triggering it intentionally before hitting the signet of inspiration; and finally the chaos storm can dish out a large quantity of aegis & resolution, even moreso should you take the chaos spec (1-3-1 method of madness/chaotic potency/chaotic interruption, that's a spamfest of staff skills). Regardless, there's still no definite healing weapon which would really complete the healer set, but if the ideas do catch attention - who knows? A bit of optimism won't hurt, as long as it's not blind belief.

Anyway, these would permit distinct styles for all elite specs instead of being centered around a single one; the chrono would remain pretty much as-is, primarily centered around offering quickness/alacrity; the mirage would be a mix between healing & buffs, having access to alacrity; the virtuoso would be largely aimed at healing, with a trump card in the form of blade renewal (aegis from distorsion, the quick blade summoning working strongly with Illusionary inspiration). Plenty of possibilities from a revision of mantras & the inspiration spec!

[Daeth.8912]

I think linking healing to mantras was the biggest reason heal Mesmer never took off.  Glamours would have made more sense from a functional point of view to tie heals too. Wells also make sense, but it's a shame that's elite spec locked. 

[Uete.3805]

I think a Chrono rework could do the trick. I would change the placement of some of the traits too:

• Adept:
  • Delayed reactions gets fused into Danger Time, which becomes an Adept trait (may need a nerf)
  • Time catches up: Keep as is or provide super-speed to the user as well.
  • New trait: "Time heals all wounds" your Shatter skills remove 1 condition from nearby allies (maybe 1 per clone shattered in pve) and provide might per clone shattered.
• Master:
  • Improved alacrity: Moved to top line
  • Illusionary reversion: Keep as is
  • All's Well that ends Well: As proposed in this thread make wells heal on every pulse and grant protection with last pulse.
• Grandmaster:
  • Chronophantasma: Moved to top line
  • Seized the Moment: Keep as is
  • Stretched time: Moved to bottom line

[Roadkizzle.2157]

9 hours ago, Daeth.8912 said:

I think linking healing to mantras was the biggest reason heal Mesmer never took off.  Glamours would have made more sense from a functional point of view to tie heals too. Wells also make sense, but it's a shame that's elite spec locked. 

Mantras are by far the worst skill type in the game. They are why I've never bothered to build a Heal build based on them.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

My 2 cents playing a niche and silly cleanse/boon Mirage in wvw with dual staff.

Inspiration works fine and glamours giving resi and SS is fun. Also works with Feedback adept trait.

But I need to slot 2 mantras for proper support. The heal mantra not healing allies baseline is a major no. And the trait needs to heal a mediocre amount on cast and large amounts on use of the skills. That alone would greatly improve burst healing since it lacks constant heals.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

Looking at the balance preview I'm looking forward to trying out a Heal Chrono with Axe and Shield.

[Joncal.9623]

7 hours ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

Looking at the balance preview I'm looking forward to trying out a Heal Chrono with Axe and Shield.

Yes please! Theorycrafters, and what not, work your magic!

Edited October 28, 2023 by Joncal.9623

[Grand Marshal.4098]

With the patch notes in mind and my recent success with my cleanse mirage build in WvW, I wonder if anyone can help me improve the build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAYZlZwqYfMN2Je0TuPdA-DWRYehALcMqov8OjMlCpqC84ngQEm9wrpEXaAA-w

I am conflicted between staff colldown reduction traits and chaos aura, but frankly chaos aura will actually make staff worth using more, so I suppose it's a decent trade-off. 

I was also big on the new relic of water since it will cleanse better than most other relics and with heal mantra it's just easier to proc the cleansing and the regenaration. 

However the issue here is: why not augment regen with dwayna relic? I suppose some tests will be in order and obviously dwayna relic will improve healing ability, since flat heals are not really the build's strength to necessitate Monk relic. At the same time Leadership rune provides the necessary boon duration increases to leave room for relic tinkering, since Alacrity/Fury/Regen will be the build's main focus via Chaos aura. Might consider Relic of Radiance if it ever comes out..

 

Any tips? I don't think it will replace a secondary support in wvw but it is a fun build to play and certainly can hold it's own already. 

P.S. I have thought of medic's feedback since it is a strong skill and has synergy with the trait, but healing mantras just make more sense given how you run 2 of them anyway (I prefer the cleanse one over stability for this build's role). 

P.S 2 I liked the extra aegis on mimic (which will be more needed now since Null field got a cd increase) but aoe prot will def be better as I see it rn.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Grand Marshal.4098
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