Struggling trying to gear/get my foot in the door as a healer

[ChrisTheEnby.9046]

33 minutes ago, synk.6907 said:

Thge signet also is boosted per clones out, and it resets phantasm skills. These are useful elements to the skill, especially when you aren't healing others and are wandering around the open world.

 

Converse to what it seems you are thinking, a DPS build will mean you kill things long before you have to worry about your survivability. That said, you can outlive most anything in the open world with healer gear. I removed it from my first post, but I originally had a comment where I basically feel immortal at times running around in maps on a harrier druid, despite taking significantly longer to kill anything.

 

Ultimately, you should do what you find most fun, but there are ways to make the game easier as you work toward that healing build goal.

My problem with the signet is less that it doesn't heal others so much (though i don't know why i'd use it for that reason in fractals or dungeons or instanced content for that reason) but my bigger problem is it's less potential healing over a longer cooldown, even if it does refresh my shatters which might up my damage or ability to use the utility shatters like the soft cc, Mantra of Restoration provide more "uses" of healing (because it's a mantra) over a shorter cooldown, so it feels like to me it offers much more sustain over both ether feast (bigger upfront heal, long cooldown, high "opprotnity cost" because it's basically a shatter in all but name because it's clone count reliant) or the signet (mediocre heal attached to a shatter refresh) the mantra just feels like the clear winner for sustain and keeping you alive, the signet also feels like it has anti-synergy for chronomancers because if you use your other shatters, you can reset their cooldowns anyway if you use Continum Split at the right time before you use them i think.

I guess my problem right now is maybe it does get easier to do solo content in healing gear if i had actual level 80 healng gear, because of how hard it is to obtain level 80 healing gear, because people chage 14g a piece for Harrier's armor on my server, and i don't even know how i'm supposed to get the trinkets or good Harrier's weapons without being able to clear harder open world content.

 

Edited April 20 by ChrisTheEnby.9046

[Randulf.7614]

As I said, increasing healing power does not increase your healing by enough to make it a dedicated survivability stat. Mitigating the mechanics and combining your defences with solid dps and utility skills/traits is the way forward.

Harriers gear did not exist until long after HoT so is not required for harder open world content.

Healing as a focus is not your way forward, all healing will do is supplement your defences slightly. If you are spending time trying to heal and keep yourself alive, you are protracting the fight and opening yourself up to dying more. Harriers also gives power, but no crit increase to give power that extra damage factor.

Don’t stack healing power over vitality or toughness or even boon duration (which is a strength of Harriers). They are better survivability stats 
 

[Chyro.1462]

From the look of your current gear, it does seem you are very new. I assume it's not that long ago that you hit lv80 and don't even have enough hero points yet to fully unlock your elite specialization trait line? You're oftentimes making yourself weaker by equipping an elite spec traitline when you haven't unlocked much of it yet, as most of its power comes from the traits that aren't active yet if you don't have enough Hero Points to unlock them.

You're kinda trying to put the cart in front of the horse. Jumping straight to a instanced-group-content focused build when you've barely finished getting into the game yet. The page where you linked your build says you play for about 57 hours in the 3 weeks since starting this game. My biggest advice is - slow down. You're still very fresh and it makes sense that you struggle. A dedicated healing build isn't really meant for solo play - sure, you maybe won't die if you know how to sustain yourself endlessly but you make every encounter harder on yourself by lowering your own damage output since the enemies live longer and especially if you're starting into Heart of Thorns the enemies can have some really high dmg output where killing them quickly can help you more than trying to heal through the damage of a (for example) horde of pocket raptors focusing you down. A dedicated healer build focuses all its stats into healing + boon duration to support a group, while letting the rest of the party in instanced group content perform their best at dealing damage. This is great for a group, but makes you suffer when alone since you lack the damage. On top of that heal chrono is one of the lowest dmg output healers when in full healer gear.

I understand you want to focus on healing and think it will make the game easier to have the proper healer gear. Compared to your current gear, if you were decked out in full Harrier's - yeah it may make it a bit easier. But the effort to get there would be huge. A much bigger difference will be to finish getting your elite spec traitline unlocked, if you haven't yet.

My main recommendation would be to go about your gearing two main steps. 1st, go for easy/cheap to aquire Berserker/Assassin gear (chrono uses quite a bunch of Assassin pieces to reach crit cap). Yes, it's pure damage. You have 2 gear set templates, you can fill one with a damage set and then start gearing the 2nd set for a healer build. Mesmer / Chrono has much inbuilt survivability in the form of clones that distract the enemies, giving them multiple targets to attack rather than just you, distortion which makes you invulnerable for a short while, and stuff like Well of Precognition that gives you multiple pulses of Aegis to block attacks. Look at recommendations for open world builds, not instanced content. A open world build will make it much easier on you to explore maps, do story content and participate in events. (especially if its a boon dps build, cause dishing out boons gives very easy event contribution)

Chronomancer is very versatile, it can fill every role in instanced content if you have 1 power dps gear set and 1 healing gear set - it can be either an alac boon dps or quick boon dps simply by switching one trait (with no need for extra boon duration on the boon dps build) and can be both alac or quick heal with flipping the same trait and leaving the rest of the build untouched. With a power dps set (zerker+assassin, you can look at a guide to see the recommended crit amount to reach - it's usually calculated for reaching 100% with the addition of the fury boon + traits) you can be power dps, quick dps or alac dps all of which are also potent for open world + story content.

Once you have this, a robust build which can clear content with more ease, you'll have a better time working on getting your healer set. Progressing the story  and exploring maps, participating in events all can help with getting further into the game and getting more familiar with playing your class. You'll be able to target farm currencies on specific maps to obtain stat-selectable exotic (in Verdant Brink) armor and later also ascended trinkets (if you get access to some living world season 3 or 4 maps) with stat select that lets you choose harrier/minstrel/giver whichever you aim for. You can also get into entry level fractals where healing isn't really required - but a good place to practice it once you start getting your healer gear filled out a bit.

If you are 100% set in your way of only playing healer and going for nothing else and the thought of first getting a dps gear set repulses you, my other suggestion would be to aim for Celestial stat gear first. It's a stat combo that gives you all stats equally (and has a bigger stat total than any other stat combo gear), and it is still suited for a proper healer in a lot of cases. Plus it's a core stat, so you can select it on some stat-select pieces that don't have Harriers/Minstrels/Givers available (like the ascended boxes from Wizard's Vault or fractal rings). You can go pretty far in group content with it, even clear high end content with a decent group - though it may struggle a bit with the healing output when in a group that eats all possible avoidable damage. It's great for open world and story since it's a very robust stat combo, giving you some tankiness along with high sustain + boon uptime while also giving you some damage output. If you really don't like the idea of using a dps build / gear for open world and solo content, I'd highly recomment starting with Celestial Gear while slowly transitioning into more pure healing stats later on when you're actually reaching content where that could matter (which isn't until much later on unless you rush straight into the highest of high end content).

Tl;dr: Make use of your 2 gear templates. Fill 1 with a gear set + build suited for open world. Main recommendation a zerker/assassin power build (much easier to get), secondary recommendation Celestial gear (can do both a heal focused build or damage focused build with that). Then use the 2nd gear set to slowly work on filling out a pure healing build for group content specifically.

Edited April 20 by Chyro.1462

[Danikat.8537]

Build guides are designed to show you the ideal - the absolute final, best-in-slot version of a build, either because they're aimed at people who are ready for that or because they assume you'll know the game and your character well enough to adjust it for your circumstances, like getting exotics with the same stat combinations instead of jumping straight from random levelling drops to ascended.

It's true a lot of build guides say not to bother with exotics, but that's because they're aimed at people who are ready for end-game activities, who will almost certainly have a set of exotics already and the means to get ascended relatively easily. If you're not at that point yet then it's absolutely worth getting exotics first, even ones which don't have the perfect stat combination for your final end-game build.

Having said that the Wizard's Vault gives you an easy way to get some ascended pieces:
1) You can buy 1 weapon and 3 armour pieces per season
2) Buy laurels and use them to get ascended trinkets. You can't get Harrier's stats, but you can get a substitute to last you until you're able to get Harrier's.

I think it's also worth bearing in mind that focusing exclusively on healing in instanced areas is funnelling yourself into a very small part of the game in a way that isn't intended. This isn't one of those MMOs where once you reach the level cap you're done with open world and the focus is on an extensive progression of instanced areas for small groups. There's a total of 7 raid wings, 14 strike missions and 22 Fractals (although those are repeated with slightly different mechanics across 100 levels, but you only really need a healer for the higher levels). There's also 8 dungeons with 3-4 paths each, but those don't need a deadicated healer.

If that's all you want to do then that's fine, but I think it's important to understand that a big part of the reason you're having trouble is you're trying to force the game to be something it's not. It's the MMO equivalent of someone trying to play an RPG like a shooter and getting annoyed they can't carry multiple versions of every weapon and swap between all of them in combat. GW2 is primarily an open-world game, it's not designed for you to hit level 80 and instantly jump into end-game instances and ignore the rest of the open-world. It is designed to let you ignore PvE and just play PvP, but if you want to play PvE you'll need to play all of it, not just the few hardest bits.

Edited April 20 by Danikat.8537

[Strider.7849]

18 hours ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

I recently hit level 80 on my first character (mesmer) and I really really wanted to be a healer. I tried to look up how to get gear but everyone recommends getting like some dps set before anything else and i'm like..... just not interested in playing DPS at all, given when i was leveling i took every piece of healing gear that i could and i avoided things like power or condition damage where i could.

 

I had barely managed to scoruge up around 13 gold in core tyria from selling materials and drops and i manage to buy..... one piece of Harrier's armor (the set reccomended ina heal chronomancer build i saw) but now i'm completely poor and can't get the rest of the set after the first armor piece, the rest of my gear is leveling gear... So i knew i needed to unlock chronomancer too so I tried to do Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire area to get hero points (a video i saw mentione core tyria will not get you the 250 hero points fast enough) but it seems with only a singie piece of Harrier's..... i just die and get my healing outpaced and die in a few hits int he jungle or the desert. i'm basically out of money now because of the silver charges from having to respawn so much, and i can't even get to half of the hero points in heart of thorns because it's locked behind glider masteries i guess... but in path of fire normal enemies kill me before i could find a single hero point challenge.

 

I just can't seem to get enough money to get my full set of healing gear to survive long enough to get chronomancer even unlocked and i don't wanna waste money on a DPS set for a temporary core class that's going to go away when i hit 250 hero points...PEople acting like i was crazy for this.... but if this game is so centered around damage then why do people even bother with healing builds if you're forced to have to get a dps set?

I just don't understand why people reacted that way about me buying harrier's gear because i want to be a healer and focus on it and treating me like i'm stupid...I just want to be able to start healing instanced content....

Work on trinkets first (amulet/earrings/backpiece) from the living world story maps like BitterFrost. The trinkets are basically free, just cost time to farm the berries. 

Use Astral currency to get the ascended armor boxes (just do dailies/weekly to get enough astral). That's 3 of them for 400 each which will half gear your armor. You can use temporary placeholders for armor by running core tyria dungeons and exchanging the tokens for magi stats. As soon as you're geared you can salvage the armor for ecto. Not only are these placeholders but you can get magi + monk runes from ascalonian dungeon and keep the monk runes for your harrier gear afterwards. You'll also be making gold and get more loot through dungeons as well. 

[Zyreva.1078]

You should have at least one lvl 80 boost - which you could use to get a complete set of lvl 80 exotic celestial gear for free (it's characterbound on aquire, but the boost can be used on chars that are already lvl 80). Celestial gear grants you enough healing power and boon duration for playing a support/healer in most content, defensive stats that will greatly increase your own suvivability (much more than that little bit of extra healing from harrier) and also offensive stats , so you can actually kill stuff on your own and aren't fully reliant on other's.

This will allow you to play through all of open world and story content and also a lot of instanced content as a "self sufficient" healer, which seems to be exactly what you are looking for. Forget about those healer guides for now, they aren't aimed at beginner players.

Edited April 20 by Zyreva.1078

[ChrisTheEnby.9046]

1 hour ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Build guides are designed to show you the ideal - the absolute final, best-in-slot version of a build, either because they're aimed at people who are ready for that or because they assume you'll know the game and your character well enough to adjust it for your circumstances, like getting exotics with the same stat combinations instead of jumping straight from random levelling drops to ascended.

It's true a lot of build guides say not to bother with exotics, but that's because they're aimed at people who are ready for end-game activities, who will almost certainly have a set of exotics already and the means to get ascended relatively easily. If you're not at that point yet then it's absolutely worth getting exotics first, even ones which don't have the perfect stat combination for your final end-game build.

Having said that the Wizard's Vault gives you an easy way to get some ascended pieces:
1) You can buy 1 weapon and 3 armour pieces per season
2) Buy laurels and use them to get ascended trinkets. You can't get Harrier's stats, but you can get a substitute to last you until you're able to get Harrier's.

I think it's also worth bearing in mind that focusing exclusively on healing in instanced areas is funnelling yourself into a very small part of the game in a way that isn't intended. This isn't one of those MMOs where once you reach the level cap you're done with open world and the focus is on an extensive progression of instanced areas for small groups. There's a total of 7 raid wings, 14 strike missions and 22 Fractals (although those are repeated with slightly different mechanics across 100 levels, but you only really need a healer for the higher levels). There's also 8 dungeons with 3-4 paths each, but those don't need a deadicated healer.

If that's all you want to do then that's fine, but I think it's important to understand that a big part of the reason you're having trouble is you're trying to force the game to be something it's not. It's the MMO equivalent of someone trying to play an RPG like a shooter and getting annoyed they can't carry multiple versions of every weapon and swap between all of them in combat. GW2 is primarily an open-world game, it's not designed for you to hit level 80 and instantly jump into end-game instances and ignore the rest of the open-world. It is designed to let you ignore PvE and just play PvP, but if you want to play PvE you'll need to play all of it, not just the few hardest bits.

The problem is when it comes to MMOs, dungeons and raids and stuff like that is typically my favorite content. The open world is just something i have to stomach to prepare for instanced content/raiding. But GW2 seems to make everything so hard on people who want a healer build, the good healer gear is super inaccesable/expensive, and this forcing people in Power DPS gear early on....when i have no desire to play a DPS class, because i hate the toxicity in MMOs that surrounds damage meter culture, be it the damage meter mods in WoW or people who put all of a player's worth into whether they got a good color or a bad color on fflogs in ff14, ff14 was particularly bad about it because even healers in that game get subjected to it because healers are expected to deal like 15 percent of a raid's overall dps to meet that game's tight damage checks.

That's actually what really attracted me to Guild Wars 2 actually, that healing gear didn't have damage stats on it! They could just heal and buff and not be subjected to damage meter culture the way healers in ff14 do, because all healing gear also increses damage in ff14. It seems from what i've watched of people doing fractals and raids, as long as healers keep boons rolling and keep the group alive, they're mostly fine? 

But, it seems from what people are saying here...this game is centered around damage in a way i didn't consider, with this whole "you have to have a DPS set first because of the open world forcing you to deal damage to farm the stuff you need and that anyone in healing gear or not in dps gear is not going to cut it in the open world content you need to farm to be ready for instanced content in the first place."

Edited April 20 by ChrisTheEnby.9046

[Chyro.1462]

2 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

The problem is when it comes to MMOs, dungeons and raids and stuff like that is typically my favorite content. The open world is just something i have to stomach to prepare for instanced content/raiding. But GW2 seems to make everything so hard on people who want a healer build, the good healer gear is super inaccesable/expensive, and this forcing people in Power DPS gear early on....when i have no desire to play a DPS class, because i hate the toxicity in MMOs that surrounds damage meter culture, be it the damage meter mods in WoW or people who put all of a player's worth into whether they good a good color or a bad color on fflogs in ff14, ff14 was particularly bad about it because even healers in that game get subjected to it because healers are expected to deal like 15 percent of a raid's overall dps to meet that game's tight damage checks.

That's actually what really attracted me to Guild Wars 2 actually, that healing gear didn't have damage stats on it! They could just heal and buff and not be subjected to damage meter culture the way healers in ff14 do, because all healing gear also increses damage in ffxiv. It seems from what i've watched of people doing fractals and raids, as long as healers keep boons rolling and keep the group alive, they're mostly fine? 

But, it seems from what people are saying here...this game is centered around damage in a way i didn't consider, with this whole "you have to have a DPS set first because of the open world forcing you to deal damage to farm the stuff you need and that anyone in healing gear or not in dps gear is not going to cut it in the open world content you need to farm to be ready for instanced content in the first place...

You won't find people looking at dps meters in open world, no need to feel pressure over that if you have a dps build just for open world content. The main thing people are saying that there's a big distinction between open world and solo play, compared to instanced group content. The game initially wasn't designed with dedicated healers in mind - with every class having its own heal skill. It changed eventually, but instanced content is still really the only place where having a dedicated healer along truly matters. Thus the general recommendations to get dps gear set first, as that will make your open world and story content a lot easier to get through - dealing little to no damage on your own will make this content you already find unpleasant even more unpleasant by prolonging every combat. You can run dungeons or low tier fractals, both very easy instanced content - with fractals slowly ramping up as you go up in tiers (but also requiring ascended + agony resist infusions once you go higher). There's also a lot of easier strike missions, which are 10-man content like raids but with a single encounter each (while raids consist of multiple with more important mechanics compared to strikes).

But as a new player, you won't be able to contribute to groups a lot until you got a decent set of gear (exotics are enough, but having the right stats is important) - and the way to get your initial gear is through open world and perhaps the entry level instanced content.

[Zyreva.1078]

31 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

The problem is when it comes to MMOs, dungeons and raids and stuff like that is typically my favorite content. The open world is just something i have to stomach to prepare for instanced content/raiding. But GW2 seems to make everything so hard on people who want a healer build, the good healer gear is super inaccesable/expensive, and this forcing people in Power DPS gear early on....

Technically you can use a lvl 80 boost (that comes for "free" with expansions) and hop into instancd content right away. Not recommendable for new players tho, because it doesn't teach you anything about the game, and also because you'd still have to unlock elite specs for a somewhat decent build which requires either some open world or WvW. But either way, you aren't forced into "power dps gear" or grinding a lot of open world pve, but some sort of dmg is recommended, in oder to not be completely reliant on others. In the end, gear is not what's holding you back ...

Your problem is that you have seen a guide, that portrays a certain stat type as "THE" healer gear and now you think that's exactly what you have to get in oder to play a proper healer, when in reality what's the optimal gear for a support depends a lot on the content, class/build and even the players themself and there is no optimal healer gear for every situation. In fact, harrier's gear is one of the more niche and situational healer sets and neither optimal nor required for much of the content, including instanced stuff, and expecially for unexperienced players.

31 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

That's actually what really attracted me to Guild Wars 2 actually, that healing gear didn't have damage stats on it! They could just heal and buff and not be subjected to damage meter culture the way healers in ff14 do, because all healing gear also increses damage in ffxiv. It seems from what i've watched of people doing fractals and raids, as long as healers keep boons rolling and keep the group alive, they're mostly fine?

Harrier gear has offensive stats on it, just saying ...There is gear that doesn't and it is used sometimes for support.

Whether a healer is expected to deal dmg mostly depends on the grp. Most casual grps - which is the vast majority - will be totally ok with a healer dealing zero dmg (and also don't care what gear you use as long it gets's the job done). More "tryhard"/speedrunning grps might expect some dmg from their healer (or don't even run a dedicated one) but again, heavily depends on the content.

31 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

But, it seems from what people are saying here...this game is centered around damage in a way i didn't consider, with this whole "you have to have a DPS set first because of the open world forcing you to deal damage to farm the stuff you need and that anyone in healing gear or not in dps gear is not going to cut it in the open world content you need to farm to be ready for instanced content in the first place...

Is there a single game out there that is not "centered around damage" in some way? I mean, you can't heal stuff to death and killing mobs is a central focus of games like this, so i don't know what made you think you could get away without dealing any dmg. That's only ever going to work in you bring some friends ...

Edited April 20 by Zyreva.1078

[Randulf.7614]

43 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

The problem is when it comes to MMOs, dungeons and raids and stuff like that is typically my favorite content. The open world is just something i have to stomach to prepare for instanced content/raiding. But GW2 seems to make everything so hard on people who want a healer build, the good healer gear is super inaccesable/expensive, and this forcing people in Power DPS gear early on....when i have no desire to play a DPS class, because i hate the toxicity in MMOs that surrounds damage meter culture, be it the damage meter mods in WoW or people who put all of a player's worth into whether they got a good color or a bad color on fflogs in ff14, ff14 was particularly bad about it because even healers in that game get subjected to it because healers are expected to deal like 15 percent of a raid's overall dps to meet that game's tight damage checks.

That's actually what really attracted me to Guild Wars 2 actually, that healing gear didn't have damage stats on it! They could just heal and buff and not be subjected to damage meter culture the way healers in ff14 do, because all healing gear also increses damage in ff14. It seems from what i've watched of people doing fractals and raids, as long as healers keep boons rolling and keep the group alive, they're mostly fine? 

But, it seems from what people are saying here...this game is centered around damage in a way i didn't consider, with this whole "you have to have a DPS set first because of the open world forcing you to deal damage to farm the stuff you need and that anyone in healing gear or not in dps gear is not going to cut it in the open world content you need to farm to be ready for instanced content in the first place."

GW2 was designed not to have healers or healing gear. If it’s attracted you in the opposite way, that’s quite strange, because it’s very much anti to how GW2 set out its stall vs other mmos. 

The game has changed slightly to require certain elites to heal in conjunction with their support in the high end content, but it’s very much the exception. GW2 does things differently and it’s going back to taking away the mentality that healing is otherwise a role. Support roles have a big place in group content, but solo you need to be more well rounded. GW2 wants you to adapt your play to the situation. Dps is key, but defences are so much more than healing which is a smaller factor. Dodging and boons, vitality and toughness - they are your primary defences for open world. You can then bolster those with healing abilities.
 

You are approaching the game from a mindset other games have given you, not from how GW2 is designed. Forget the other games. Forget the videos and build crafters. Play against the game in front of you.

[Hsanrb.1570]

1 hour ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

The problem is when it comes to MMOs, dungeons and raids and stuff like that is typically my favorite content. The open world is just something i have to stomach to prepare for instanced content/raiding.

I think what this entire thread has come down to is you have preconceived notions about how Guild Wars 2 plays based on other experiences, whether they be other MMO's like WoW/FFXIV/Ever Quest/New World or even traditional RPG's like D&D/Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy/Shin Megami Tensei. What we are trying to tell you is you need to leave those preconceived notions at the door and play Guild Wars 2 for what Guild Wars 2 is. You can find what you are looking for in Guild Wars 2, but that does NOT mean Guild Wars 2 has a focus on those aspects of the game. I'll link a video (you only need to watch like 5-7m) that is trying to simplify what everyone has been trying to tell you, even going so far as to say "I had to replay an entire part of an expansion BECAUSE I didn't grasp what was going on because I compared it to other MMO's." You can skip the Starfield AD insert, but I think it helps clarify everything you have read to this point.
 

 

[ChrisTheEnby.9046]

4 hours ago, Chyro.1462 said:

From the look of your current gear, it does seem you are very new. I assume it's not that long ago that you hit lv80 and don't even have enough hero points yet to fully unlock your elite specialization trait line? You're oftentimes making yourself weaker by equipping an elite spec traitline when you haven't unlocked much of it yet, as most of its power comes from the traits that aren't active yet if you don't have enough Hero Points to unlock them.

You're kinda trying to put the cart in front of the horse. Jumping straight to a instanced-group-content focused build when you've barely finished getting into the game yet. The page where you linked your build says you play for about 57 hours in the 3 weeks since starting this game. My biggest advice is - slow down. You're still very fresh and it makes sense that you struggle. A dedicated healing build isn't really meant for solo play - sure, you maybe won't die if you know how to sustain yourself endlessly but you make every encounter harder on yourself by lowering your own damage output since the enemies live longer and especially if you're starting into Heart of Thorns the enemies can have some really high dmg output where killing them quickly can help you more than trying to heal through the damage of a (for example) horde of pocket raptors focusing you down. A dedicated healer build focuses all its stats into healing + boon duration to support a group, while letting the rest of the party in instanced group content perform their best at dealing damage. This is great for a group, but makes you suffer when alone since you lack the damage. On top of that heal chrono is one of the lowest dmg output healers when in full healer gear.

I understand you want to focus on healing and think it will make the game easier to have the proper healer gear. Compared to your current gear, if you were decked out in full Harrier's - yeah it may make it a bit easier. But the effort to get there would be huge. A much bigger difference will be to finish getting your elite spec traitline unlocked, if you haven't yet.

My main recommendation would be to go about your gearing two main steps. 1st, go for easy/cheap to aquire Berserker/Assassin gear (chrono uses quite a bunch of Assassin pieces to reach crit cap). Yes, it's pure damage. You have 2 gear set templates, you can fill one with a damage set and then start gearing the 2nd set for a healer build. Mesmer / Chrono has much inbuilt survivability in the form of clones that distract the enemies, giving them multiple targets to attack rather than just you, distortion which makes you invulnerable for a short while, and stuff like Well of Precognition that gives you multiple pulses of Aegis to block attacks. Look at recommendations for open world builds, not instanced content. A open world build will make it much easier on you to explore maps, do story content and participate in events. (especially if its a boon dps build, cause dishing out boons gives very easy event contribution)

Chronomancer is very versatile, it can fill every role in instanced content if you have 1 power dps gear set and 1 healing gear set - it can be either an alac boon dps or quick boon dps simply by switching one trait (with no need for extra boon duration on the boon dps build) and can be both alac or quick heal with flipping the same trait and leaving the rest of the build untouched. With a power dps set (zerker+assassin, you can look at a guide to see the recommended crit amount to reach - it's usually calculated for reaching 100% with the addition of the fury boon + traits) you can be power dps, quick dps or alac dps all of which are also potent for open world + story content.

Once you have this, a robust build which can clear content with more ease, you'll have a better time working on getting your healer set. Progressing the story  and exploring maps, participating in events all can help with getting further into the game and getting more familiar with playing your class. You'll be able to target farm currencies on specific maps to obtain stat-selectable exotic (in Verdant Brink) armor and later also ascended trinkets (if you get access to some living world season 3 or 4 maps) with stat select that lets you choose harrier/minstrel/giver whichever you aim for. You can also get into entry level fractals where healing isn't really required - but a good place to practice it once you start getting your healer gear filled out a bit.

If you are 100% set in your way of only playing healer and going for nothing else and the thought of first getting a dps gear set repulses you, my other suggestion would be to aim for Celestial stat gear first. It's a stat combo that gives you all stats equally (and has a bigger stat total than any other stat combo gear), and it is still suited for a proper healer in a lot of cases. Plus it's a core stat, so you can select it on some stat-select pieces that don't have Harriers/Minstrels/Givers available (like the ascended boxes from Wizard's Vault or fractal rings). You can go pretty far in group content with it, even clear high end content with a decent group - though it may struggle a bit with the healing output when in a group that eats all possible avoidable damage. It's great for open world and story since it's a very robust stat combo, giving you some tankiness along with high sustain + boon uptime while also giving you some damage output. If you really don't like the idea of using a dps build / gear for open world and solo content, I'd highly recomment starting with Celestial Gear while slowly transitioning into more pure healing stats later on when you're actually reaching content where that could matter (which isn't until much later on unless you rush straight into the highest of high end content).

Tl;dr: Make use of your 2 gear templates. Fill 1 with a gear set + build suited for open world. Main recommendation a zerker/assassin power build (much easier to get), secondary recommendation Celestial gear (can do both a heal focused build or damage focused build with that). Then use the 2nd gear set to slowly work on filling out a pure healing build for group content specifically.

IT jsut feels like buying the dps gear or the healer gear that none of the healing builds/guides use in order to run damage and healing stats at the same time at the cost of boon duration, would just be a waste of gold and farming time that'd get in the way of getting the healing guear that actually in the healing builds, and that gold and farming time would, esentially, go to waste. because the DPS gear might not actually help me, especially because it may make my survivability go *down* and the other healing gear might be a problem because i won't have the boon durationt he guides/builds reccomend...It might be a waste of gold and time spent farming it if it doesn't actually help or in fact makes things worse....especially since the power mesmer builds recommend skills that are out of my comfort zone, like not using mantra of restoration in the healing slot, or using stuff like mantra of pain over the cc/break bar skills, etc.

 

I'm scared im doing things wrong if i go against the build guides, especially if i use suboptimal prefixes like Celestials seemingly no builds use...

 

I just am scared of trying to follow advice and end up doing worse than i am right now....

Edited April 20 by ChrisTheEnby.9046

[Chyro.1462]

1 minute ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

IT jsut feels like buying the dps gear or the healer gear that none of the healing builds/guides use in order to run damage and healing stats at the same time at the cost of boon duration, would just be a waste of gold and farming time that'd get in the way of getting the healing guear that actually in the healing builds, and that gold and farming time would, esentially, go to waste. because the DPS gear might not actually help me, especially because it may make my survivability go *down* and the other healing gear might be a problem because i won't have the boon durationt he guides/builds reccomend...It might be a waste of gold and time spent farming it if it doesn't actually help or in fact makes things worse....especially since the power mesmer builds recommend skills that are out of my comfort zone, like not using mantra of restoration in the healing slot, or using stuff like manta of pain over the cc/break bar skills, etc.

 

I'm scared im doing things wrong if i go against the build guides, especially if i use suboptimal prefixes like Celestials seemingly no builds use...

 

I just am scared of trying to follow advice and end up doing worse than i am right now....

 

If it helps alleviate those fears a bit, I'm a heal main that plays a lot of heal chrono (and previously a ton of heal tempest). I've cleared 5/7 of the available raid wings as healer, doing t4 fractals and since recently fractal CMs (challenge modes) too regularly, all the strike missions and maybe half of them on CM. Healers in particular often run more boon duration than is strictly necessary, and more healing power than is necessary for like 90% of the content. It helps to have more boonduration than necessary in encounters with spread mechanics as it gives you a bit of a buffer, but aside from these it's no problem to not be at 100% boon duration in stats (and cele gear does give you boon duration too). I'd have to check on my chrono, but tempest easily reaches 100% boon duration even with full celestial and I've been doing t4 fractals easily with cele gear. If you intend to run high fractals, you'll want to get ascended eventually anyhow (for agony infusions) and can get the optimal stats then if you desire - can also mix celestial well with other more optimized gear pieces as you upgrade them bit by bit from exotic to ascended. For now I really just recommend getting a gear set you can comfortably play with, as dedicated healer stats make you largely ineffective in any non-group based content.

Getting gear and a build to do open world with will make it a lot easier on you to get to the point of having a pure healer gearset. Getting exotics is not a huge hurdle once you know a bit where to get them from, and having multiple sets of exotics is easily possible once you play a while. You're kinda creating a roadblock for yourself by trying to go straight for dedicated healing in group content. Gearing looks like a huge hurdle right now cause you're pressuring yourself into reaching the content you desire as fast as possible. Take it one step at a time.

[Hsanrb.1570]

13 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

IT jsut feels like buying the dps gear or the healer gear that none of the healing builds/guides use in order to run damage and healing stats at the same time at the cost of boon duration, would just be a waste of gold and farming time that'd get in the way of getting the healing guear that actually in the healing builds, and that gold and farming time would, esentially, go to waste. because the DPS gear might not actually help me, especially because it may make my survivability go *down* and the other healing gear might be a problem because i won't have the boon durationt he guides/builds reccomend...It might be a waste of gold and time spent farming it if it doesn't actually help or in fact makes things worse....especially since the power mesmer builds recommend skills that are out of my comfort zone, like not using mantra of restoration in the healing slot, or using stuff like mantra of pain over the cc/break bar skills, etc.

 

I'm scared im doing things wrong if i go against the build guides, especially if i use suboptimal prefixes like Celestials seemingly no builds use...

 

I just am scared of trying to follow advice and end up doing worse than i am right now....

Relax, You haven't done anything wrong and there is nothing you have done that isn't fixable (There are enough hero points for every elite specialization, and there are enough ways to earn new gear to fix any errors you THINK you have done.) What you need to do is take a step back and think how the pieces of the class fit together. Instead of following a build... read the tooltips of the skills and abilities and figure out how they work together. Then take 5m and figure out "Can what these skills offer me work when I'm doing content on my own as part of the story, or doing open world content while I get from what I have to where I want to go. IF the answer is NO... then put the healer build aside and start a second build slot (you get 2 by default) and be willing to use a second set of skills on your own and when you get to an open world meta or in a small group that can utilize that healing build to possibly switch to that if it helps.

DO NOT SELL, OR SALAVAGE ANY MORE GEAR. 99% of the time suboptimal still works and as long as you can buff people who do DPS, or provide enough CC to help with the open world metas than you probably can get away with lower DPS numbers than you expect. You do need to get to 80 on all your slots, and while Exotic is preferred... you might not always be able to fill every slot with exotic immediately. The real problem is if you need to do story, or the meta isn't active so you are doing hero points you need to cover that gap. I would advise just taking whatever gear you currently have, go to the Lions Arch Aerodrome, go to the Training area on your own and just look for things that work. "Can I provide CC if an enemy has a defiance bar?" "Am I comfortable with the weapons I currently use that I can engage/disengage or avoid abilities enemies might throw towards me?" You might find that changing 1 or 2 skills or that a particular weapon class might not fit your style. Don't worry about the DPS numbers of the training bot in the Aerodrome, just look for skill interactions and learn what options you DO have. IF you walk away with a boon party build  and a separate "I'm playing on my own" build then you are making progress.

Personal experience, every single build I read for my ranger suggests a long bow, but I just hate playing it... so I tried Short Bow and while it might not be better, it fit the way I play better so I haven't gone back. I was nervous about how much CC I needed so I used an elite skill... and as I played more I learned I had other tools in my kit that provided CC that I changed my elite skill and got the benefits of both. Play something you enjoy that fits the challenge presented in front of you, not play something you looked up but isn't fun at all. Be willing to look at something and go "I was suggested to have X, Y and Z, but I don't like Y... can I find something else?" The answer is always yes.

TLDR: Instead of trying to change your gear, try changing the skills with the gear you currently have. You may find two different builds based on the content you are approaching and by spending all this time focusing on the actual gear... you aren't fixing the real question about how to start progressing to that gear as a stepping stone. Be willing to play suboptimal and make conscious build/skill changes that ease the burden of acquiring the components of the build you are trying to get to. Don't focus on the small details, work on the bigger picture and you will get there and be amazing. Go one step at a time, don't try to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

[Randulf.7614]

1 hour ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

IT jsut feels like buying the dps gear or the healer gear that none of the healing builds/guides use in order to run damage and healing stats at the same time at the cost of boon duration, would just be a waste of gold and farming time that'd get in the way of getting the healing guear that actually in the healing builds, and that gold and farming time would, esentially, go to waste. because the DPS gear might not actually help me, especially because it may make my survivability go *down* and the other healing gear might be a problem because i won't have the boon durationt he guides/builds reccomend...It might be a waste of gold and time spent farming it if it doesn't actually help or in fact makes things worse....especially since the power mesmer builds recommend skills that are out of my comfort zone, like not using mantra of restoration in the healing slot, or using stuff like mantra of pain over the cc/break bar skills, etc.

 

I'm scared im doing things wrong if i go against the build guides, especially if i use suboptimal prefixes like Celestials seemingly no builds use...

 

I just am scared of trying to follow advice and end up doing worse than i am right now....

Do not listen to the build guides. This is part of the problem. Many of these just want your views and clicks or are giving highly situational advice, whilst not using these builds in open world where they are useless (many people use multiple builds which GW2 encourages)

You cannot and will not get things wrong if you experiment and just mess around with different options. I'm not saying useful advice isn't contained in these guides, but most players get on fine without them. So will you. Getting hung up on the build videos, the stats and a full healing mindset is something to break free from.

At the end of the day, we've all repeated the same advice, but you seem unwilling to take on board our feedback, but listen to these engagement farming videos as something that is gospel. Listen to us - we are on here to help and advise people and many of us have been here since day one

[Zyreva.1078]

1 hour ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

I'm scared im doing things wrong if i go against the build guides, especially if i use suboptimal prefixes like Celestials seemingly no builds use...

1. Like i said, you should be able to get cele gear for free.

2. Cele is much better than many people give it credit and most likely the optimal "support" gear for more content and players than any other stat. People that make these guides often assume very specific content, grp compositions and experience levels and forgot that those assumptions don't apply to the majority of players. Harrier is great if you have experienced players and want to focus on speedrunning raids. That's pretty much it. Cele is a lot more flexible and safe, while still providing more than enough raw support for 99% of this games content. There is not much you can do wrong with cele gear, especially when considering that you can get it for free. In raids you might have to make sure, toughness/tanking isn't an issue, which can be avoided with some communication, everywhere else players won't even notice nor care about the difference between cele and harrier.

I have healed through pug strikes and t4 fractals on cele druid and nobody ever questioned my build/gear choice.

Edited April 20 by Zyreva.1078

[Danikat.8537]

It's almost impossible to mess things up in this game. The worst mistake you could make in this situation is to buy/craft the wrong thing, and then it just means you need to do it again. (Or salvage something you need, which again just means you need another one.)

If I was you I'd get a cheap set of exotics which are 'good enough' and use them while you work on what you actually want to use. I assume you've done similar in other MMOs where you can't skip straight to best-in-slot end-game gear and need to work your way up to it. The difference here is it can just mean buying it.

1) Open the Trading Post to the buy tab and select 'armor'.
2) Click the cog icon next to the search bar
3) Click on the first 'attributes' box and select Healing Power (leave the other two blank)
4) Change 'rarity' to exotic
5) Change the minimum level to 80
6) Sort the results by price and buy the cheapest item for each slot

That's likely to be Zho's armour and a full set will cost you about 2g 20s (less if you place buy orders and wait). You can do the same with trinkets and weapons. For a back item you'll need to remove the exotic requirement as there are no tradable exotic back items, but you could get a rare or masterwork one. If you go for a masterwork back item then in total it will probably cost about 4g, depending on which weapons you get.

No it won't be the last set of equipment you'll ever need for that character, but it doesn't need to be, it's their first set, and it will be enough to get by until you're able to get the final end-game set, which is what you've been aiming for so far.

Edited April 20 by Danikat.8537

[ChrisTheEnby.9046]

i tried to look at more gear with healing power and concentration using the filters, and Celestial gear is at BEST 2 gold less expensive than Harrier's. it's still pretty inaccessable for me even if  wanted to go the Celestial route.... they still run 11-12g a piece, and i'm completely poor from all my deaths in expansion areas. and this is just for armor.

 

If i wanted to improve my trinkets (some of them are very out of date because leveling content doesn't like handing these out that often) ringsd alone for these stats runs between 9 to 17g, amulets run 8-18g, accesories are 8-18g....

And that's not even getting into weapons, Celestial weapons seem to range from 13-17ish g granted the weapons closer to Harrier's stats are much more expensive running closer to 20-50g or higher....

I dn't know if I'm ever going to be able to afford stuff...

Edited April 20 by ChrisTheEnby.9046

[Sobx.1758]

14 hours ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

If anything, the DPS will make my survivability go down and make the learning curve harder because i'm allowed less mistakes because i have basically no sustain whatsoever.

3 hours ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

IT jsut feels like buying the dps gear or the healer gear that none of the healing builds/guides use in order to run damage and healing stats at the same time at the cost of boon duration, would just be a waste of gold and farming time that'd get in the way of getting the healing guear that actually in the healing builds, and that gold and farming time would, esentially, go to waste.

You need something to clear content, especially as a new player. Getting gear to be able to play the game without relying on getting carried by others isn't "gold and farming time going to waste".
Try learning the game without that "I played x mmo, so I know what I'm doing here too!" attitude. If you want to support others, you should understand what's happening anyways. I'd say that attempting to stack defenses/healing power to outheal anything that the game throws at you won't really make you a better player. Also, probably slot something different than a 0 trait chrono as the 3rd spec.

 

1 hour ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

i tried to look at more gear with healing power and concentration using the filters, and Celestial gear is at BEST 2 gold less expensive than Harrier's. it's still pretty inaccessable for me even if  wanted to go the Celestial route.... they still run 11-12g a piece, and i'm completely poor from all my deaths in expansion areas. and this is just for armor.

 

If i wanted to improve my trinkets (some of them are very out of date because leveling content doesn't like handing these out that often) ringsd alone for these stats runs between 9 to 17g, amulets run 8-18g, accesories are 8-18g....

And that's not even getting into weapons, Celestial weapons seem to range from 13-17ish g granted the weapons closer to Harrier's stats are much more expensive running closer to 20-50g or higher....

I dn't know if I'm ever going to be able to afford stuff...

Is wizard's vault not available for you for some reason? Press shift+h. Do the dailies/weeklies/festival specials (probably set dailies/weeklies to pve, judging by your posts in this thread), buy out mystic coins and limited (cheaper, for 6aa) gold option. Sell mystic coins on trading post (I'd go for undercutting the "sell" option rather than insta-selling them to the buy bidders). You'll have solid amount of gold to start you off. Pretty sure WV also offers celestial ascended gear btw, 3 armor pieces (pick the correct weight for the class and take armor+pants+headgear) and 1 weapon, so maybe buy those first, before going all in for the gold.

Edited April 20 by Sobx.1758

[Randulf.7614]

48 minutes ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

i tried to look at more gear with healing power and concentration using the filters, and Celestial gear is at BEST 2 gold less expensive than Harrier's. it's still pretty inaccessable for me even if  wanted to go the Celestial route.... they still run 11-12g a piece, and i'm completely poor from all my deaths in expansion areas. and this is just for armor.

 

If i wanted to improve my trinkets (some of them are very out of date because leveling content doesn't like handing these out that often) ringsd alone for these stats runs between 9 to 17g, amulets run 8-18g, accesories are 8-18g....

And that's not even getting into weapons, Celestial weapons seem to range from 13-17ish g granted the weapons closer to Harrier's stats are much more expensive running closer to 20-50g or higher....

I dn't know if I'm ever going to be able to afford stuff...

You don't need it all now though. Your survivability in HoT will be dictated by your traits, your skills and your mix for DPS alongside vitality and maybe toughness. Once you've got comfortable, you can experiment with other stat sets. You are getting directed into just getting Harrier or Celestial and whilst celestial is great, it's something to aim for, not something to get right away (unless you got it from the 80 boost selection). There are a wide variety of stat combos and you don't even need to be in a full set of one stat. Do you think we had access to all this stuff when HoT launched? No, but we managed just fine

I know you do not wish to listen to us, but there's not really much more to say. You seem to object to any advice against healing being king, but take it from those of us who have been here since day one and tried healing power in open world - it's not. 

As for gold - it's never been this easy to get gold. Plus you can craft your won gear. Just unlearn this idea you need it all now and you will be fine. 

[Solene.3067]

I would not buy exotic trinkets from the trading post. Ascended trinkets can be bought with laurels. You can get laurels from the Wizard's Vault. Up to 150 laurels can be purchased every quarter and 10 are earned by completing 6 weekly objectives.

Laurel merchants are located in every major city. Amulet cost 30 laurels, rings 35 laurels. In my opinion this is the best option for a new player to get the first ascended trinkets.

Later you can get more trinkets from fractals and Living World Season 3 and 4.

 

 

[RoseofGilead.8907]

2 hours ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

i tried to look at more gear with healing power and concentration using the filters, and Celestial gear is at BEST 2 gold less expensive than Harrier's. it's still pretty inaccessable for me even if  wanted to go the Celestial route.... they still run 11-12g a piece, and i'm completely poor from all my deaths in expansion areas. and this is just for armor.

 

If i wanted to improve my trinkets (some of them are very out of date because leveling content doesn't like handing these out that often) ringsd alone for these stats runs between 9 to 17g, amulets run 8-18g, accesories are 8-18g....

And that's not even getting into weapons, Celestial weapons seem to range from 13-17ish g granted the weapons closer to Harrier's stats are much more expensive running closer to 20-50g or higher....

I dn't know if I'm ever going to be able to afford stuff...

It would help if you'd actually take the advice you've been given. People have told you ways to earn gold, how to get other currencies to buy ascended trinkets/rings/necklaces, how to get gear on the cheap by using your level 80 boost (assuming you got one with your HoT/PoF purchase). 

[ChrisTheEnby.9046]

1 hour ago, Solene.3067 said:

I would not buy exotic trinkets from the trading post. Ascended trinkets can be bought with laurels. You can get laurels from the Wizard's Vault. Up to 150 laurels can be purchased every quarter and 10 are earned by completing 6 weekly objectives.

Laurel merchants are located in every major city. Amulet cost 30 laurels, rings 35 laurels. In my opinion this is the best option for a new player to get the first ascended trinkets.

Later you can get more trinkets from fractals and Living World Season 3 and 4.

 

 

Yeah, this is what the video i posted said, but someone else said this irt exotic trinkets:

 

19 hours ago, RavensSorrow.6128 said:

See this is the kind of thing I was worried about. You are following a guide telling you not to buy exotic trinkets when you have level 60 common trinkets! That's a crazy idea to keep level 60 stuff instead of getting a lvl 80 upgrade because you are waiting for ascended. Trust me the gold you spend on getting a set of gear, even if not perfectly statted for your healer roll will do you wonders. A +1 power backpiece, a level 30 common ring. To be clear this is by no means your fault. The game doesn't reward items well enough. I'm telling you a celestial or givers set will clean you up real good. You'll feel the power difference. Especially with runes (that's a lot of stats missing!). While I wouldn't worry about the aqua breather everything not exotic could use a clean up. It'll greatly improve your overall performance in every area of the game. 

Trust me when I say we have all been there. Just out of core, fresh 80, spattering of rainbow gear and we walk into heart of thorns and splat! Heart of thorns came out years after core and thus had a difficulty spike to accommodate highly skilled players. This was reduced but it still is a world of difference from core to here.

Edit: I am frustrated that the game put you (and me back in the day) in this spot. It's an awful feeling being so under geared and poor while having guides tell you Ascended is easy. It's true but it doesn't FEEL true. And I'm sorry the game put you through that. While there is the TP or an easy set to get in WvW of exotics, the core story should give you a set as well. If not exotic, rare at least. Throwing newbies into HoT with lvl 60 gear is one of this games biggest flaws.

I know people are getting frusted about me not "listening" (or rather immediately applying all advice at once) but it can be a little difficult sifting through all of the differeing viewpoints about what I should do, you know?

[ChrisTheEnby.9046]

2 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

You need something to clear content, especially as a new player. Getting gear to be able to play the game without relying on getting carried by others isn't "gold and farming time going to waste".
Try learning the game without that "I played x mmo, so I know what I'm doing here too!" attitude. If you want to support others, you should understand what's happening anyways. I'd say that attempting to stack defenses/healing power to outheal anything that the game throws at you won't really make you a better player. Also, probably slot something different than a 0 trait chrono as the 3rd spec.

 

Is wizard's vault not available for you for some reason? Press shift+h. Do the dailies/weeklies/festival specials (probably set dailies/weeklies to pve, judging by your posts in this thread), buy out mystic coins and limited (cheaper, for 6aa) gold option. Sell mystic coins on trading post (I'd go for undercutting the "sell" option rather than insta-selling them to the buy bidders). You'll have solid amount of gold to start you off. Pretty sure WV also offers celestial ascended gear btw, 3 armor pieces (pick the correct weight for the class and take armor+pants+headgear) and 1 weapon, so maybe buy those first, before going all in for the gold.

Reguarding Wizard's Vault, i figured i could not actually handle farming Acclaim yet since one of the dailies wants me to do things in Expansion areas (kill Champion mobs, find a Vista in Heart of Maguuma, meaning Verdant Brink..... etc.) for the same reason i can't get the hero points....

Edited April 20 by ChrisTheEnby.9046

[Chyro.1462]

1 hour ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

Reguarding Wizard's Vault, i figured i could not actually handle farming Acclaim yet since one of the dailies wants me to do things in Expansion areas (kill Champion mobs, find a Vista in Heart of Maguuma, meaning Verdant Brink..... etc.) for the same reason i can't get the hero points....

4 hours ago, ChrisTheEnby.9046 said:

i tried to look at more gear with healing power and concentration using the filters, and Celestial gear is at BEST 2 gold less expensive than Harrier's. it's still pretty inaccessable for me even if  wanted to go the Celestial route.... they still run 11-12g a piece, and i'm completely poor from all my deaths in expansion areas. and this is just for armor.

 

If i wanted to improve my trinkets (some of them are very out of date because leveling content doesn't like handing these out that often) ringsd alone for these stats runs between 9 to 17g, amulets run 8-18g, accesories are 8-18g....

And that's not even getting into weapons, Celestial weapons seem to range from 13-17ish g granted the weapons closer to Harrier's stats are much more expensive running closer to 20-50g or higher....

I dn't know if I'm ever going to be able to afford stuff...

Think we have to clear up some stuff. First off, do you own any of the expansions or plan to buy one? They come with a lv80 boost that gives you a full set of celestial exotic armor + weapons (though can't chose which weapons) + trinkets. It would be an option if you're in a rush to get decent gear to start with. That would be a simple suggestion that is easily and instantly doable, though if you don't want to waste the lv80 boost just for getting the full gear set that's understanable too if you wanna save it for another char. You're maybe not even sure yet which class you want to main if this is the first you're playing.

Nobody expects you to buy celestial or harrier or any of the expensive stat combo exotics off the trading post. A new player can't afford 10g+ per gear piece. However if you went for berserker / assassins gear (to have a solid dps set to clear solo and open world content with) you're looking at under 1g per piece (with the exception of trinkets - but you can fill those slots with lv80 greens or yellows at first to save money), much more affordable. Once you have a initial set of gear to do content with, you can use that to do stuff like entry level fractals, dungeons (outdated but still decent for getting some gold - monk runes which are used in most heal builds are also bought only with dungeon currency) or farming open world maps. It's possible to farm stat-select (which can be harrier, celestial or anything really) exotic armor from the very first heart of thorns map, Verdant Brink. There are also very cheap stat select exotics (under 1g) of any gear type you can buy from an npc in Lion's Arch (behind the big fractal gate) which also require WvW currency to buy - but it's a currency you also get from every 500-achievement point chest. So as you keep playing, you get some of that automatically and can buy some pieces from there to fill in missing gear slots.

The wizard's vault is doable for anyone. If you see some dailies or weeklies that you can't do, just skip them and do the ones you can do instead. Coming from FF14 you may be used to everything being locked by the story and that you have to do it in the proper order. While you may choose to do the story in the right order, it's fully possible to jump to the start of any expansion and gain entry into those maps - for some without even needing to do the story, just going to the map transition is enough to enter Verdant Brink for example (first HoT map). You'll also get 10 hero points per hero challenge on any expansion map (HoT, PoF or EoD) which helps a lot with fully unlocking your elite spec.

I've sent you a mail ingame to the char that you shared your build on - feel free to add me and whisper me ingame when you see me online, I don't mind helping you out with getting started if you're a bit lost and need direction or help with anything. Can also help you get into entry level instanced content once we get your gear sorted out a little and figure out what builds you're comfortable with. Just an offer, don't have to take it ^^ (I mainly play on EU but have an account on NA - mail and friendlist + chat work across both server regions)