Does Elemental Bastion healing overflow to squad?

[Kyon.9735]

Topic. Anybody know if the healing overflows to squad if your party member (who will get the aura based on priority) is at full health?

[Markus.6415]

I haven't tested that, but I'm really, really sure that the one that gets the Aura also gets the Heal.

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

Boon/heal prioritize allies based on the listed order.

In your case it’ll only overflow if some of your party members are outside of your radius while your squadmates are nearer to you. And I’m pretty sure healing doesn’t prioritize allies with low HP over full HP, so your party members still get the effect even if they’re at full HP.

[Shaman.2034]

1 hour ago, ZephidelGRS.9520 said:

And I’m pretty sure healing doesn’t prioritize allies with low HP over full HP, so your party members still get the effect even if they’re at full HP.

Sources of direct AoE healing don't consider players that are at full HP. That is, if you cast the elementalist staff skill Geyser, which is an AoE that provides direct healing, and your subgroup is at full HP, Geyser will begin to heal players outside of your subgroup. "Wash the Pain Away!" also works like this, as do the staff and sword autoattacks, and so on.

This does not apply to healing from boons and buffs (Regeneration, Soothing Mist) because the system for distributing buffs always prioritizes your subgroup even if they would gain no further benefits. Since auras are just buffs, they can only be applied to your subgroup (unless part of your subgroup is out of range), so Elemental Bastion healing cannot leave your subgroup in the same way that direct AoE healing can.

[Kyon.9735]

39 minutes ago, Shaman.2034 said:

This does not apply to healing from boons and buffs (Regeneration, Soothing Mist) because the system for distributing buffs always prioritizes your subgroup even if they would gain no further benefits. Since auras are just buffs, they can only be applied to your subgroup (unless part of your subgroup is out of range), so Elemental Bastion healing cannot leave your subgroup in the same way that direct AoE healing can.

This is what I thought as well, glad to finally see some kind of confirmation.

 

So if this is the case then that makes Elemental Bastion Tempest one of the worst squad healers out there simply because its aura heals doesn't overflow to the squad. Especially because all of the game's content promote stacking together which means your aura will always prioritize your own subgroup even at full HP thus, no overflow healing will come from Elemental Bastion. 

[Shaman.2034]

You usually want to provide Alacrity anyway to justify yourself being a dedicated healer, and getting the self-Alacrity in turn makes you a more effective healer by lowering your healing source cooldowns. I can't imagine any context at least in PvE where you would want to take a healer that provides neither Quickness nor Alacrity

When I play a healer in open world PvE, I normally leave the squad after joining their map, so that my buffs affect everyone near me with only the range as the priority. With a large excess of Regeneration uptime as a side effect of building for Alacrity uptime, it's very easy to distribute 100% Regeneration uptime across a dozen players or more. If I did use Elemental Bastion, I would certainly always leave the squad. You can simulate this in raids and strikes, or in any squad, by having your own subgroup. Then, you need to constantly reposition yourself so that your aura-granting AoEs hit different players. There is no easy automatic solution to get the heals to overflow, this is the best we can do

[Kyon.9735]

2 hours ago, Shaman.2034 said:

You usually want to provide Alacrity anyway to justify yourself being a dedicated healer, and getting the self-Alacrity in turn makes you a more effective healer by lowering your healing source cooldowns. I can't imagine any context at least in PvE where you would want to take a healer that provides neither Quickness nor Alacrity

When I play a healer in open world PvE, I normally leave the squad after joining their map, so that my buffs affect everyone near me with only the range as the priority. With a large excess of Regeneration uptime as a side effect of building for Alacrity uptime, it's very easy to distribute 100% Regeneration uptime across a dozen players or more. If I did use Elemental Bastion, I would certainly always leave the squad. You can simulate this in raids and strikes, or in any squad, by having your own subgroup. Then, you need to constantly reposition yourself so that your aura-granting AoEs hit different players. There is no easy automatic solution to get the heals to overflow, this is the best we can do

True, I guess my statement was more on WvW wherein Elemental Bastion is the main healing mechanic after the recent patch.

Ele is still the worst healer of all meta healer classes in terms of healing numbers because of how Elemental Bastion is tied to auras. I don't think there's any other class that has its main healing mechanic doesn't overflow to squad.