Guild Wars 2

It was my understanding that a player healing others, rezzing others, etc while taking part in DEs will get just as much “recognition” as a player just taking part in the combat. However in several events I have dne nothing but heal others, helped them when they were knocked down, dropped AOE heals etc…. And end up with a bronze medal each time. Is this by design? A bug? I’m hoping a bug, because sometimes the DEs are such Zerg vests I can’t even tell what’s going on, but I see downed players everywhere so I’ll try and just support as much as I can.. It seems the game really needs to support people “helpin” people a bit more…

Absolutely love the game thou!

To me it seems like a design flaw. Whilst I understand that support classes are meant to spread their skills so that they are using a multitude of skills to affect the battle (i.e a mix of damage, healing and some utility), it is clear that unless you go all out DPS you are punished. Not only will you rarely get gold contribution for playing a support class in the correct way, you will also lose out on loot drops as you only get loot drops from damaging mobs.

I have experienced this too. My guardian is in the mid 40s and after I got the masters book I respec’d into virtues and healing lines to try them out. There’s been a noticeable reduction in the number of golds and drops I get when I go all out support / heal.

Seems it must be a bug. I seem to remember in BWE 1 I got plenty of xp and gold medals from healing. Hopefully it’s something that will be addressed down the line…

I also play a very supportive style and it’s very frustrating to be putting in way more effort so others can survive, then getting a bronze and no drops.

Stuff is just hard enough that the chances to do damage are few and far between with people getting downed left and right..

emikochan.8504:

I also play a very supportive style and it’s very frustrating to be putting in way more effort so others can survive, then getting a bronze and no drops.

Stuff is just hard enough that the chances to do damage are few and far between with people getting downed left and right..

Just don’t bother, it’s pointless. If Anet want us to use our support skills, they will change the system, if not, then just go all out AoE damage and clean up in every DE.

I had the same observation, healing doesn’t seem to do anything towards rewards in events. That’s very disapointing.

I play a guardian and i just always loved to play as support. As stated above, whenever i focused on healing, puttting bubles up and resing people, i recevied the bronze or sometimes the silver reward. This was happening all the way to level 80. So even if i prefer helping others, rather then doing damage, i still had to abandon my playstyle alot of times, just because i knew i wouldn’t get the gold reward.
I also noticed that when i switched weapons to do a little damage, then went back to support, that i got the gold reward. But in bigger events that didn’t help.
I think that this is a huge problem, since it ruins the whole versatility that each class can choose to play. Now it is not a choice if you want the gold reward.

Yeah, the game actually tells you something like: “You help to rezz people, you heal them? You jerk!”

I would love to see a red response on this too! I really like the guardian playstyle and would like to support and see as much credit as the aoe dps’ers. Also wouldn’t mind a more reliable ranged weapon for the guardian but that’s a whole other thread.

I submitted a bug report on this a bit ago. I frequently play with a few other people and on several occasions I have arrived at a DE far before them, throwing out a bit of DPS, a lot of support, etc. At the end of the event they all get a medal and I get nothing because my DPS is too low, but my healing and support increased the DPS of others and/or kept them alive. I really hope they fixed this because I love how support works in this game, I just wish the game supported it in the Dynamic Events.

This needs fixing +1.

This is definitely a problem. I’ve tried to fill a support role on my guardian in many events and wound up with a bronze contribution rating and next to no enemy drops.

Healing, resurrecting others and applying boons/removing conditions from players should be rewarded heavily in all circumstances. Doing otherwise teaches players to play poorly. If you heal a player or somehow aid them while they’re fighting enemies, you should get access to loot on anything they had tagged when you executed the supportive action.

I think people largely overestimate the level of “contribution” their healing does. Let’s be honest for a bit here..

a) In most DE’s, players will not take that much dmg because it is a zerg. Things die too fast for you to really get hurt all that much.

b) The aoe heal skills by themselves are not very strong, especially if you have low healing power to begin with. The ticks are so small its almost negligible.

c) The majority of aoe heals will actually come from finishers in combo fields. While it is your combo field, its not like you’re getting credit for all the finishers going off inside of it. You only get credit from your low tick heal field. The masses of aoe regens going on don’t belong to you.

d) There’s no way to know if you’re actually healing anyone or or just topping off 3 or 4 hp. For all you know, everyone you are supposedly healing has been sitting at max or near max hp the whole time.

e) There are no healers in this game. This is the number 1 rule about GW, the trinity isn’t really there. You can’t just heal and expect to get contribution, because there is no way to “main heal”. You can drop helpful combo fields, but again, you don’t get credit for other ppl’s finishers.

f) The “right” way to do it is to drop your healing combo field, use CC/conditions where necessary, and switch to dmg while that stuff is on cooldown. The priority would be Heal/condition removal>CC/conditions>burst. Alternatively it could be CC/conditions>Heal>burst.

g) You really shouldn’t get contribution for basically doing nothing. And I guarantee most of that healing is really doing nothing. Thats just how the game is designed. Heal/support only works in places like dungeons, some world bosses, and obviously WvW. In DE’s they are essentially useless, as the number of burst aoes negate any potential dmg someone could possibly get.

I agree.
As guardian I love to play support role (heal, put shields, revive allies ecc.) and quite a few times I receive bronze or silver medal because I didn’t do as much DPS as other classes.

amradio.2513:

I think people largely overestimate the level of “contribution” their healing does. Let’s be honest for a bit here..

a) In most DE’s, players will not take that much dmg because it is a zerg. Things die too fast for you to really get hurt all that much.

b) The aoe heal skills by themselves are not very strong, especially if you have low healing power to begin with. The ticks are so small its almost negligible.

c) The majority of aoe heals will actually come from finishers in combo fields. While it is your combo field, its not like you’re getting credit for all the finishers going off inside of it. You only get credit from your low tick heal field. The masses of aoe regens going on don’t belong to you.

d) There’s no way to know if you’re actually healing anyone or or just topping off 3 or 4 hp. For all you know, everyone you are supposedly healing has been sitting at max or near max hp the whole time.

e) There are no healers in this game. This is the number 1 rule about GW, the trinity isn’t really there. You can’t just heal and expect to get contribution, because there is no way to “main heal”. You can drop helpful combo fields, but again, you don’t get credit for other ppl’s finishers.

f) The “right” way to do it is to drop your healing combo field, use CC/conditions where necessary, and switch to dmg while that stuff is on cooldown. The priority would be Heal/condition removal>CC/conditions>burst. Alternatively it could be CC/conditions>Heal>burst.

g) You really shouldn’t get contribution for basically doing nothing. And I guarantee most of that healing is really doing nothing. Thats just how the game is designed. Heal/support only works in places like dungeons, some world bosses, and obviously WvW. In DE’s they are essentially useless, as the number of burst aoes negate any potential dmg someone could possibly get.

I don’t know about any other people but I don’t just stand around doing nothing in the DE’s. I am actively throwing down combos and some dps as well as curing conditions when need be, using my aoe aegis and regen etc, using healing breeze,rezzing people if I can, and applying boons and/or shouts. While I am using a support skill I’m not getting mobs tagged all the time and I think this is what’s getting a lot of us silver/bronze participation when really we were just as active as a pure dps but mixing in support spells with our damage. I think that is what the majority of us are upset about. This isn’t a thread asking for xp/rewards for doing nothing, at least not on my end it isn’t. Just want the support stuff we throw in between our damage to count as participation is all.