Guild Wars 2

I like this game alot…I really do!
But its slowely starting to feel…well ….empty inside. I so miss the feeling that i am making a diffrence. Perhaps Im to much of a “healer-type-player”.
The way it is in this game I cant tell if im helping or not. As a healer I can atleast see healthbars going up. Here you can hardly SEE the darn healthbar unless you hover over ppls heads.
Even if I like this game, perhaps it just isnt for me. I miss being the healer that saves ppl. Ive never been a good dps’er. My strong thing in all games has been standing in the back heavily supporting my team. I dont need higscore dps.
I dont like that I miss this so much…I want to play this game.
I have looked at several classes to try and find somthing as close to “healer” as I can.

Any suggestions ?

agreed.

we need something like statistics after a dungeon, or ranking/title in wvwvw amd spvp.

just something to be proud of and show off!
(or not if your no good

as it is now, i never know whos the “real heroes” in my parties.

Well, I just love when there’s a guardian around as they heal, gives aegis and reflection walls! Best support.

Warning: LONG RESPONSE incoming. Propbably a boring (skippable) read for most people. OP, I think it will answer your question.

I think GW2 has done a good job at making survival everyne’s own priority and minimzied the trinity without eleminating the need to work together.

However, players can still have a significant role through trait and rune choices in the game more than they realize.

The vast majority of individuals expeirment with a very few set of runes and sigils, as these tend to maximize dps. That’s fine that DPS is their priority – just know that with rune and sigil choices you can do a lot of life-saving in your party if you’re ok losing some DPS.

For example, using the rune of Dwayna puts regeneration on your party every time you heal yourself. A water attunement elementalist can have this effect also cure conditions on everyone through a trait that benefits from the rune effect.

My point is, to step outside the box and be a support/tanking/utility character in this game, it is very possible – you just have to learn to synergize trait choices with runes and sigils.

All this being said, I find that, in one way, their de-emphasis of the trinity has the negative side effect of concealing support players even more. Players like you and I, with a “healer” mindset or a mindset of supporting others do so at the cost of DPS – which is fine; But support in this game is often an invisible or unnoticed act, which make people really unaware that you’re helping them most of the time.

For example, in the scenario I gave above (water attune elementalist using Dwayna runes), I can keep the party topped off and free of conditions, yet there is no way my teamates know when I am helping them or not. In my guild this is fine because they know my role and they appreciate me; however, when I pug, I have sometimes been perceived as a lower dps/sucky player and been told so.

Another example is that I’ve been told by guildies “man I like partyin with you, we seem to die less.” When I explained to them that I am keeping regen on them 100% of the time and protection boon on them 80% of the time, they were completely unaware I was granting these things. I don’t need an award or anything for doing my support job. I simply wish there were signs that I was helping them (example., beside the green floating text above your head that says the value you’re healed for, perhaps it could include the name of the person who gave that heal.)

To get the feeling you desire, you’re going to have to find a smaller group of people (guild, friends, etc.) that you play with on a regular basis and who know what your role is. When doing dynamic events and pvp with strangers, you can cast every boon on the game on all the random folks around you but they have no obvious way of knowing you’re the one doing it; they won’t be likely to protect you so that you can heal them andthey won’t stand by you for being a good healer. This is because they usually don’t even know you’re doing anything.

it’s not their fault either; they just have no visual indication in most cases who is helping them.

In sum, the biggest part of the trinity loss isn’t that we lose the role of being support; Support in GW2 has a significant impact on the outcome of battles… but there is simply no visual event on the screen that lets people know you are helping them most of the time.

Edited for spelling.

Shlamorel.8714: Thankyou for your reply. Well said

Shlamorel.8714:

Warning: LONG RESPONSE incoming. Propbably a boring (skippable) read for most people. OP, I think it will answer your question.

I think GW2 has done a good job at making survival everyne’s own priority and minimzied the trinity without eleminating the need to work together.

However, players can still have a significant role through trait and rune choices in the game more than they realize.

The vast majority of individuals expeirment with a very few set of runes and sigils, as these tend to maximize dps. That’s fine that DPS is their priority – just know that with rune and sigil choices you can do a lot of life-saving in your party if you’re ok losing some DPS.

For example, using the rune of Dwayna puts regeneration on your party every time you heal yourself. A water attunement elementalist can have this effect also cure conditions on everyone through a trait that benefits from the rune effect.

My point is, to step outside the box and be a support/tanking/utility character in this game, it is very possible – you just have to learn to synergize trait choices with runes and sigils.

All this being said, I find that, in one way, their de-emphasis of the trinity has the negative side effect of concealing support players even more. Players like you and I, with a “healer” mindset or a mindset of supporting others do so at the cost of DPS – which is fine; But support in this game is often an invisible or unnoticed act, which make people really unaware that you’re helping them most of the time.

For example, in the scenario I gave above (water attune elementalist using Dwayna runes), I can keep the party topped off and free of conditions, yet there is no way my teamates know when I am helping them or not. In my guild this is fine because they know my role and they appreciate me; however, when I pug, I have sometimes been perceived as a lower dps/sucky player and been told so.

Another example is that I’ve been told by guildies “man I like partyin with you, we seem to die less.” When I explained to them that I am keeping regen on them 100% of the time, protection boon on them 80% of the time, they were completely unaware I was granting these things. I don’t need an award or anything for doing my support job, I just wish there were signs taht I was helping them (example., beside the green floating text thatsays the value you’re healed for, perhaps it could include the name of the person who gave that boon).

To get the feeling you desire, you’re going to have to find a smaller group of people (guild, friends, etc.) that you play with on a regular basis and who know what your role is. When doing dynamic events and pvp with strangers, you can cast every boon on the game on all the random folks around you but they have no obvious way of knowing you’re the one doing it; they won’t be likely to protect you so that you can heal them and they won’t stand by you for being a good healer because they usually don’t even know you’re doing anything.

It’s not their fault either; they just have no visual indication in most cases who is helping them.

In sum, the biggest part of the trinity loss isn’t that we lose the role of being support; Support in GW2 has a significant impact on the outcome of battles… but there is simply no visual event on the screen that lets people know you are helping them most of the time.

Read this, and I agree.
I play a power and healing elementalist (not really bothering with any the other traits) it’s kind of annoying how you can want to save other players, but can’t do so without yelling “Everyone stand in that white circle!”

There really ought to be a subtle way of letting players know when they are being healed and supported. I would like to know who is supporting me and I want other players to know I am helping them. This might help in building player relationships.

I am in the same way, I don’t know if that sense of “been there, done that” is working well in this game, all players like to be unquite and powerfull and to awesome things, but this game balance us all for don’t let that happen, we are all equal, nothing special then. :P

I too spec’d my first toon, an ele, to be heavy on healing because that’s my favorite thing to do.

Unless they’ve changed it, though, what sucks is that you don’t get rewarded at all for it. When I was trying to play support/healer, I ended up with more silver and bronze hearts than gold.

DEs should reward you for your activity, not your damage.

Half Tooth.1867:

There really ought to be a subtle way of letting players know when they are being healed and supported. I would like to know who is supporting me and I want other players to know I am helping them. This might help in building player relationships.

I agree, and you actually put into words what I would have to like to have been able to say more shortly: I dont ask Arena Net to go back on their game design; just make the support that we do more noticeable.

In other words I don’t need them to make players more reliant on my heals and buffs… I just need them to know when I am actually helping them so they can know.

Meret.5943:

I too spec’d my first toon, an ele, to be heavy on healing because that’s my favorite thing to do.

Unless they’ve changed it, though, what sucks is that you don’t get rewarded at all for it. When I was trying to play support/healer, I ended up with more silver and bronze hearts than gold.

DEs should reward you for your activity, not your damage.

That’s one thing that hasn’t changed – the hearts from events are often determined by damage done.

I’m actually ok with that part, because I understood coming into the game that I wouldn’t be devoted to support/healing 100% of the time like other games. So I’m ok with having to dish our a moderate amount of damage.

It’s been a compromise I’ve been learning to adjust to since I like other parts of GW2 so much I figure this is an area I can work on bending a little.

The real eye-opener to me in GW2 is that if you’re playing well, you’re never doing one thing.

Healer tank dps is all at once, even in the same ability. My guardian swings a weapon, doing damage — on crit, nearby allies gain might, giving boons heals me. So in 1 swing I do all the functions of tank/heal/support/dps.

If you want to be a healer, you’re just as limited as the glass-cannon types who think of themselves as dps. That’s fine by yourself, cuz let’s face it – GW2 is the easiest solo mmo ever. But in a group, you need to do all the roles, all the time.

I do feel less heroic than, say, in Rift. But I think that’s more the design of GW2, that we’re supposed to be soldiers, no one important, all just part of the squad. (hence we’re not even the starring role of our story-line)

What little i can add to the great resposes is keep your eyes open. Rez anything down and look for the downed player icon on the map as well.
i have been thanked many a time due to a timely save because of keeping watch

If you hold down control when you use a skill it broadcasts it into chat. People may not see it everytime, and you don’t want to spam, but you can call attention a little that way. If you do so before a fight and point it out “for regen”, people worth supporting should understand your role better.

Support specced players are just not noticed for what they do.

Also people complaining that you have low dps are just best ignored (not by the ingame function, just in general), since there is no way of telling who does what damage or heals at all. You cant pinpoint a person in this game since there is no dps meter, which is good.

@mulch.2586: Healer centered just aswell as glasscannon specs work well in groups too, even if they cant do everything. I run with 4 classcannons + a tanky person in PvE quite often, it works great. People just need to know their specs, thats all.

mulch.2586:

in a group, you need to do all the roles, all the time.

Yes… I think we all realize this. It doesn’t change the fact that it sucks that when for one tough battle, you decide to throw some heals and reses around, and you’re screwed over.

Muffin.5208:

I like this game alot…I really do!
But its slowely starting to feel…well ….empty inside. I so miss the feeling that i am making a diffrence. Perhaps Im to much of a “healer-type-player”.
The way it is in this game I cant tell if im helping or not. As a healer I can atleast see healthbars going up. Here you can hardly SEE the darn healthbar unless you hover over ppls heads.
Even if I like this game, perhaps it just isnt for me. I miss being the healer that saves ppl. Ive never been a good dps’er. My strong thing in all games has been standing in the back heavily supporting my team. I dont need higscore dps.
I dont like that I miss this so much…I want to play this game.
I have looked at several classes to try and find somthing as close to “healer” as I can.

Any suggestions ?

Ya could try a Guardian…they both protect players and heal/buff them periodically. Also Elementalists can heal; it’s just not a target heal. A friend of mine who was a dedicated healer in GW1 just started, and he is playing an Elementalist. He drops heals all of the time and we definately notice (it helps that we have a thief who can run through those healing springs and spead the heals around).

I played healers in other games too, in here I play a warrior that removes conditions and stuns from my party has healing banners or shout heals depending on my mood all while crowd controlling mobs with my mace or hammer and doing pretty good damage and tanking too.

For you though an Ele sounds about right, I think instead of picking 1 of the trinity like in other games, you should be all of the trinity here.

IF everyone Did some damage, had survivability and group utility it would be nice.

Maybe it’s because I have a group of friends sitting right next to me playing when I play, but I feel like I always make a difference in some way or another. I play a ranger, and there will be plenty of times when one of my friends asks for help because he’s downed so I’ll use my spirit of nature, or people like the short term effect of battle roar. My pets help to by using a poison ring and other things. In term they help me as well. In a way I always feel like I’m making a difference whether it’s a small or a slightly major part that I’m playing, and that’s just with my ranger.

Its one of the reasons why the battle system in groups seems so poor. Group unity is NOTHING compared to how other MMOs do it. Call it the trinity. Call it UI design. Call it whatever you want, but when I played WOW for example, I knew when I was supporting others and when they supported me. In GW, you just don’t get the same sort of feedback. Blizzard simply understands this so much more than ANET ever has.

It could be how in other MMOs, certain buffs are reserved for certain classes, so you know what you’re going to get because X class is in your party. And they were far more apparent when the buffs hit you. In GW2 everyone has almost everything, and then there are stacks of it, instead of it simply being on or off. The boost isn’t significant enough. Sometimes, you barely notice. Sometimes you do.

How classes support one another is just badly designed, no matter how you slice it, unless GW is all you know. Then you might think its great. Then again, ignorance is no excuse=)

Josher.9612:

Its one of the reasons why the battle system in groups seems so poor. Group unity is NOTHING compared to how other MMOs do it. Call it the trinity. Call it UI design. Call it whatever you want, but when I played WOW for example, I knew when I was supporting others and when they supported me. In GW, you just don’t get the same sort of feedback. Blizzard simply understands this so much more than ANET ever has.

It could be how in other MMOs, certain buffs are reserved for certain classes, so you know what you’re going to get because X class is in your party. And they were far more apparent when the buffs hit you. In GW2 everyone has almost everything, and then there are stacks of it, instead of it simply being on or off. The boost isn’t significant enough. Sometimes, you barely notice. Sometimes you do.

How classes support one another is just badly designed, no matter how you slice it, unless GW is all you know. Then you might think its great. Then again, ignorance is no excuse=)

There are plenty of games out there that play that way. This is the one that doesn’t. I think its refereshing to “not” have to depend on anyone for heals. Everyone being able to mind their own heals first and foremeost…“and” share if they can is enormously liberating.

I played healers also in a couple of those other games. This sysyem is better, imo.

Raf.1078:

Josher.9612:

Its one of the reasons why the battle system in groups seems so poor. Group unity is NOTHING compared to how other MMOs do it. Call it the trinity. Call it UI design. Call it whatever you want, but when I played WOW for example, I knew when I was supporting others and when they supported me. In GW, you just don’t get the same sort of feedback. Blizzard simply understands this so much more than ANET ever has.

It could be how in other MMOs, certain buffs are reserved for certain classes, so you know what you’re going to get because X class is in your party. And they were far more apparent when the buffs hit you. In GW2 everyone has almost everything, and then there are stacks of it, instead of it simply being on or off. The boost isn’t significant enough. Sometimes, you barely notice. Sometimes you do.

How classes support one another is just badly designed, no matter how you slice it, unless GW is all you know. Then you might think its great. Then again, ignorance is no excuse=)

There are plenty of games out there that play that way. This is the one that doesn’t. I think its refereshing to “not” have to depend on anyone for heals. Everyone being able to mind their own heals first and foremeost…“and” share if they can is enormously liberating.

I played healers also in a couple of those other games. This sysyem is better, imo.

In theory, taking care of yourself is nice….when soloing. In a group, there is no group unity compared to other MMOs. Soling is more fun here. Grouping is mostly terrible, since the whole point of a group should be how well you mesh with others. But there is no meshing. There are no real roles. There is no true way to control agro, shed it, shift it, heal others enough that it matters, control the battle. All you can do is react to the circles and heal yourself when you need it and avoid the 1 shot kills, but I can’t really help anyone in a meaningful way besides a rez.

Josher.9612:

Raf.1078:

Josher.9612:

Its one of the reasons why the battle system in groups seems so poor. Group unity is NOTHING compared to how other MMOs do it. Call it the trinity. Call it UI design. Call it whatever you want, but when I played WOW for example, I knew when I was supporting others and when they supported me. In GW, you just don’t get the same sort of feedback. Blizzard simply understands this so much more than ANET ever has.

It could be how in other MMOs, certain buffs are reserved for certain classes, so you know what you’re going to get because X class is in your party. And they were far more apparent when the buffs hit you. In GW2 everyone has almost everything, and then there are stacks of it, instead of it simply being on or off. The boost isn’t significant enough. Sometimes, you barely notice. Sometimes you do.

How classes support one another is just badly designed, no matter how you slice it, unless GW is all you know. Then you might think its great. Then again, ignorance is no excuse=)

There are plenty of games out there that play that way. This is the one that doesn’t. I think its refereshing to “not” have to depend on anyone for heals. Everyone being able to mind their own heals first and foremeost…“and” share if they can is enormously liberating.

I played healers also in a couple of those other games. This sysyem is better, imo.

In theory, taking care of yourself is nice….when soloing. In a group, there is no group unity compared to other MMOs. Soling is more fun here. Grouping is mostly terrible, since the whole point of a group should be how well you mesh with others. But there is no meshing. There are no real roles. There is no true way to control agro, shed it, shift it, heal others enough that it matters, control the battle. All you can do is react to the circles and heal yourself when you need it and avoid the 1 shot kills, but I can’t really help anyone in a meaningful way besides a rez.

but if you role-limit classes, then if you need certain roles, and some roles are perceived as more fun then others, then you have the “looking for healers” problem.

Shlamorel.8714:

Warning: LONG RESPONSE incoming. Propbably a boring (skippable) read for most people. OP, I think it will answer your question.

I think GW2 has done a good job at making survival everyne’s own priority and minimzied the trinity without eleminating the need to work together.

However, players can still have a significant role through trait and rune choices in the game more than they realize.

The vast majority of individuals expeirment with a very few set of runes and sigils, as these tend to maximize dps. That’s fine that DPS is their priority – just know that with rune and sigil choices you can do a lot of life-saving in your party if you’re ok losing some DPS.

For example, using the rune of Dwayna puts regeneration on your party every time you heal yourself. A water attunement elementalist can have this effect also cure conditions on everyone through a trait that benefits from the rune effect.

My point is, to step outside the box and be a support/tanking/utility character in this game, it is very possible – you just have to learn to synergize trait choices with runes and sigils.

All this being said, I find that, in one way, their de-emphasis of the trinity has the negative side effect of concealing support players even more. Players like you and I, with a “healer” mindset or a mindset of supporting others do so at the cost of DPS – which is fine; But support in this game is often an invisible or unnoticed act, which make people really unaware that you’re helping them most of the time.

For example, in the scenario I gave above (water attune elementalist using Dwayna runes), I can keep the party topped off and free of conditions, yet there is no way my teamates know when I am helping them or not. In my guild this is fine because they know my role and they appreciate me; however, when I pug, I have sometimes been perceived as a lower dps/sucky player and been told so.

Another example is that I’ve been told by guildies “man I like partyin with you, we seem to die less.” When I explained to them that I am keeping regen on them 100% of the time and protection boon on them 80% of the time, they were completely unaware I was granting these things. I don’t need an award or anything for doing my support job. I simply wish there were signs that I was helping them (example., beside the green floating text above your head that says the value you’re healed for, perhaps it could include the name of the person who gave that heal.)

To get the feeling you desire, you’re going to have to find a smaller group of people (guild, friends, etc.) that you play with on a regular basis and who know what your role is. When doing dynamic events and pvp with strangers, you can cast every boon on the game on all the random folks around you but they have no obvious way of knowing you’re the one doing it; they won’t be likely to protect you so that you can heal them andthey won’t stand by you for being a good healer. This is because they usually don’t even know you’re doing anything.

it’s not their fault either; they just have no visual indication in most cases who is helping them.

In sum, the biggest part of the trinity loss isn’t that we lose the role of being support; Support in GW2 has a significant impact on the outcome of battles… but there is simply no visual event on the screen that lets people know you are helping them most of the time.

Edited for spelling.

Absolutely agree, the game I came from was so hard on healers. But one thing they did do well was make it important to have them and to get credit for the heals with the name of the healer next to the number healed.

Also, I’d like to point out as a healer engineer that while most classes don’t really reveal they are helping my class definitely does. I can put two AOE healing fields down similtanously and my regen fields are always very loud and visual. Can’t miss em. Also, the condition curing effect of my healing turret is very explosive, so while other classes are subtle about it engineers are very in your face.

Shlamorel.8714:

Warning: LONG RESPONSE incoming. Propbably a boring (skippable) read for most people. OP, I think it will answer your question.

I think GW2 has done a good job at making survival everyne’s own priority and minimzied the trinity without eleminating the need to work together.

However, players can still have a significant role through trait and rune choices in the game more than they realize.

The vast majority of individuals expeirment with a very few set of runes and sigils, as these tend to maximize dps. That’s fine that DPS is their priority – just know that with rune and sigil choices you can do a lot of life-saving in your party if you’re ok losing some DPS.

For example, using the rune of Dwayna puts regeneration on your party every time you heal yourself. A water attunement elementalist can have this effect also cure conditions on everyone through a trait that benefits from the rune effect.

My point is, to step outside the box and be a support/tanking/utility character in this game, it is very possible – you just have to learn to synergize trait choices with runes and sigils.

All this being said, I find that, in one way, their de-emphasis of the trinity has the negative side effect of concealing support players even more. Players like you and I, with a “healer” mindset or a mindset of supporting others do so at the cost of DPS – which is fine; But support in this game is often an invisible or unnoticed act, which make people really unaware that you’re helping them most of the time.

For example, in the scenario I gave above (water attune elementalist using Dwayna runes), I can keep the party topped off and free of conditions, yet there is no way my teamates know when I am helping them or not. In my guild this is fine because they know my role and they appreciate me; however, when I pug, I have sometimes been perceived as a lower dps/sucky player and been told so.

Another example is that I’ve been told by guildies “man I like partyin with you, we seem to die less.” When I explained to them that I am keeping regen on them 100% of the time and protection boon on them 80% of the time, they were completely unaware I was granting these things. I don’t need an award or anything for doing my support job. I simply wish there were signs that I was helping them (example., beside the green floating text above your head that says the value you’re healed for, perhaps it could include the name of the person who gave that heal.)

To get the feeling you desire, you’re going to have to find a smaller group of people (guild, friends, etc.) that you play with on a regular basis and who know what your role is. When doing dynamic events and pvp with strangers, you can cast every boon on the game on all the random folks around you but they have no obvious way of knowing you’re the one doing it; they won’t be likely to protect you so that you can heal them andthey won’t stand by you for being a good healer. This is because they usually don’t even know you’re doing anything.

it’s not their fault either; they just have no visual indication in most cases who is helping them.

In sum, the biggest part of the trinity loss isn’t that we lose the role of being support; Support in GW2 has a significant impact on the outcome of battles… but there is simply no visual event on the screen that lets people know you are helping them most of the time.

Edited for spelling.

If they’re not watching their buffs and or, debuffs then they’re not focused enough on what’s going on aside from their “deepz”

don’t party with those players unless you have to. Bads will be bad

Not like heals mean much in the game in the first place. This because Anet has been very heavy handed in having us use mobility (not simply speed, but dodges and circle strafing) to stay alive.

This, along side the trinity dismantling, means that even a fully pumped compassion/healing power build can’t really stay alive using his heals.

This because strong healing would lead to strong bunkering in sPVP and that would make for static and boring fights for both players and future viewers.

In essence the whole game is tuned around fast, intense point fights in sPVP, with the rest being there simply to keep people entertained until Anet can get their esport dream come true.

End result is that anything that grants vigor will be more helpful for staying alive than anything able to heal.

About two hours ago I did a group event in Fireheart Rise with a friend and two strangers. I was on a mesmer. At one point, there were 3 vets facing us. I dropped Time Warp on all of us, and when its duration expired we faced no vets. No one but my friend commented, but I know it made a difference.

Another time on an Ele in a group event, I noticed the players I was with were taking lots of damage. I switched to water, dodge rolled, then hit Cleansing Wave, backed up and used Cone of Cold. Four area heals in 4-5 seconds. Those whose health bars I could see went up, on the others, I could see lots of green numbers. We beat the event.

I judge my contribution by the results. Sometimes that’s all you’ve got.

Well Time Warp is nuts thanks to being one of two sources of AOE quickness (other being Guardian Tome of Wrath).