Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure where else to put this, as there isn’t really a place to make posts for general game/skills balance in regards to stats across all professions, so I thought I’d put this here…

Healing Power is 100% worthless. Conceptually it’s a great stat, but in the current implementation, with the way abilities and effects scale with the stat, it doesn’t actually do anything that makes it worth grabbing over other stats, such as Toughness, Vitality, or even Boon Duration.

As an example, I’ll use my Elementalist, which I popped into the Mists for this. With absolutely no +healing from traits or gear, I’m going to show numbers for skills that heal, and then compare those numbers to when you have +300 Healing from traits.
The only reason I’m using Elementalist is because they have so many different heals. Feel free to include another profession’s values if you feel the need to see how it fares for others. This is not a discussion about Elementalists, but about Healing Power as a stat.

Mind you that all of these values are for a level 80 character. With +644 Vitality on this Elementalist from the amulet, I still have 17,245 HP, just to show how small these heals really are (and that isn’t much HP at all, relatively). (note that taking it off drops me down to just over 10k – Vitality scales really well!)

Glyph of Elemental Harmony

• Base healing is – 4,894
• +300 from traits – 5,119
• Total gain – 225
  4.59% increase

Signet of Restoration

• Base healing is – 3,275 (202 per cast)
• +300 from traits – 3,425 (232 per cast)
• Total gain – 150 (30 per cast)
  4.58% increase

Ether Renewal (4 pulses over the duration)

• Base healing is – 418 per pulse (1672 total)
• +300 from traits – 448 per pulse (1792 total)
• Total gain – 30 per pulse (120 total)
  7.17% increase (smaller heal scales better, go figure?)

Water Blast (auto attack skill)

• Base healing is – 370
• +300 from traits – 400
• Total gain – 30 (for an auto attack, expected?)
  8.1% increase

Healing Rains (specifically each application of 4 seconds of Regen)

• Base healing is – 2,080
• +300 from traits – 2,680
• Total gain – 600 (Hey wait a minute…)
  28.8% increase

Geyser (heals per second, 2 second duration)

• Base healing is – 808 (1616 total)
• +300 from traits – 883 (1766 total)
• Total gain – 80 (160 total – odd duck)
  9.9% increase

Cleansing Wave

• Base healing is – 1,302
• +300 from traits – 1,602
• Total gain – 300 (Starting to note something here)
  23.04% increase

Cone of Cold (Applies 4 hits of both damage and healing)

• Base healing is – 740 (2960 total)
• +300 from traits – 836 (3344 total)
• Total gain – 96 (384 total – hey, more than 1:1 ratio at least?)
  12.97% increase

Water Trident

• Base healing is – 1,448
• +300 from traits – 1,748
• Total gain – 300 (another 1:1 ratio!)
  20.7% increase

I think that’s most of the Elementalist heals. Maybe I left out some details, but I think I’ve made my point. Not only do skills scale terribly with healing, relative to how Vitality and Toughness scale…
But it specifically scales in such a way as to benefit supportive healing more than self-healing, even though self-heals in general are significantly smaller and less impactful than a self-heal.

What incentive do I have to get this stat over others? I see none. Even when I want to support my team, I feel like I could contribute more to the team with different stat allocations (especially focused at keeping myself alive).

I have no idea how well Toughness scales, as we don’t get to see numbers for it, but with Vitality… my Elementalist has 13,805 HP with +300 from traits, and 10,805 without.
I gain 10 HP for every 1 point of Vitality (27.7% increase). When I add +Healing, my self-heal of choice (the Glyph) only gains 0.75 healing for every 1 point of Healing. Sure, I get to heal HP with that button, and it can be used more than once per battle… but only if I survive long enough to use it more than once.

To be more of a tangible comparison, you should add in the percentage increases along with the total gain.

Like your first example, an increase of less than 5%

Apathy.6430:

To be more of a tangible comparison, you should add in the percentage increases along with the total gain.

Like your first example, an increase of less than 5%

Worth noting. The numbers feel even smaller when you look at it that way.

+300 isn’t a terribly large amount of +healing to be sure, but you think it would be more improvement than 5%, when I can gain a much larger ratio of health by grabbing Vitality.

Here is the Mesmer scaling with healing power: (These test are conducted with MAX HEALING POWER, including trait line)

Ether feast +300 healing power: 5,860 initial heal, 670 per illusion heal. Total healing 7870.
Ether Feast + Max healing power: 6948 initial heal, 779 bonus. 1088 total healing gained (109 per illusions)

Mirror +300 healing power: 4095
Mirror +Max healing power: 4748. 653 healing gained

MoR +300 healing power: 2740 per charge.
MoR + Max healing power: 3175 per charge. 435 total healing gained

Restorative Mantra +300 healing power: 2660
Restorative Mantra +Max healing power: 2788. 128 total healing gained (lol wtf)

Restorative illusions +300 healing power: 1124
Restorative illusions +Max healing power: 1342. 218 total healing gained (again wtf)

Max healing power includes clerics trinket and gem, +300 from trait line and +165 from runes.

Currently healing power is garbage and is wasted. I can get more survivability via vitality and toughness.

There is no dedicated healer class. It has been discussed in many threads so far. Even if you only want to heal yourself, the combat system isn’t designed for you to always be able to heal your way out of trouble. Working as intended.

This has nothing to do with the idea of a “dedicated” healer class – it has everything to do with this stat currently being worthless, as the playstyle it is meant to support… isn’t supported by it nearly as well as other stats.

I am not asking to make this a good heal in regards to how well it supports – on the contrary, I’m asking to make it good at DEFENSIVE SELF HEALING. It currently scales better for group healing than for self-healing.

NOT working as intended.

-There is no dedicated healer class. It has been discussed in many threads so far. Even if you only want to heal yourself, the combat system isn’t designed for you to always be able to heal your way out of trouble. Working as intended.-

Um you do know that is not what the arguement is about. It is about healing power as a stat. Since there is no dedicated healing like you said then why have the stat? You don’t know how it works.

It is suppose to be a survival stat next to toughness and vitality, sure it can scale low for group support heals that is fine, however wasting 2k+ points in one stat to increase the healing of one skill by 500-1000? That is just pointless.

Anyone did the maths for toughness? Is it as good as stacking vitality? It already doesn’t affect resistance to condition damage right?

aivedoir.3471:

Anyone did the maths for toughness? Is it as good as stacking vitality? It already doesn’t affect resistance to condition damage right?

Toughness reduces burst damage and damage in general (except conditions) and vitality increases hp to survive damage (including conditions).

They both fill a niche. I don’t have math but they support different situations.

zexion.5842:

aivedoir.3471:

Anyone did the maths for toughness? Is it as good as stacking vitality? It already doesn’t affect resistance to condition damage right?

Toughness reduces burst damage and damage in general (except conditions) and vitality increases hp to survive damage (including conditions).

They both fill a niche. I don’t have math but they support different situations.

Different situations, sure, but the same goal as Vitality and (in theory) Compassion: staying alive longer.

I’d seriously love to find out the numbers for Toughness myself, but I haven’t found a way to check.

jpnole.2476:

There is no dedicated healer class. It has been discussed in many threads so far. Even if you only want to heal yourself, the combat system isn’t designed for you to always be able to heal your way out of trouble. Working as intended.

This thread wasn`t about dedicated healing. It was about the insane amount of + healing power you would need to make it worth slotting. I have a healing power set on my guardian and for as much healing power as I have the healing bonus from the set wasn`t worth the effort to get. Adding 90 healing power only increased tick heals by like 5 points per tick and strike heal by like 10 points. Not sure how much the aoe was increased since i haven`t used my staff yet but I doubt it will be an impressive gain.

Banewrath.5107:

jpnole.2476:

There is no dedicated healer class. It has been discussed in many threads so far. Even if you only want to heal yourself, the combat system isn’t designed for you to always be able to heal your way out of trouble. Working as intended.

This thread wasn`t about dedicated healing. It was about the insane amount of + healing power you would need to make it worth slotting. I have a healing power set on my guardian and for as much healing power as I have the healing bonus from the set wasn`t worth the effort to get. Adding 90 healing power only increased tick heals by like 5 points per tick and strike heal by like 10 points. Not sure how much the aoe was increased since i haven`t used my staff yet but I doubt it will be an impressive gain.

The insane amount of +healing needed still doesn’t make it viable.

Any warrior knows by how much is banner healing improved with full healing gear (permanent party-wide regen)?

This game is all over the place in terms of balance…. No tanks or healers but there is a healing stat… Then you go into a dungeon and it’s crazy… or you do an elite event with a boss and die in 2 – hits and pray there are players around…. What were you thinking?

Care to make sense? Dungeons are a group effort… however that’s irrelevant to the point.

The healing stat doesn’t mean there’s dedicated healers. Remember that your 6th slot heals yourself, and it’s your most reliable way to heal yourself (both in terms of frequency and power).

Unfortunately, the scaling balance of the healing stat doesn’t match that design goal, for some reason.

It’s also worth noting that just because there’s not dedicated healers, doesn’t mean there’s nobody that heals. This is tangential to the point of this thread, however.

zexion.5842:

Banewrath.5107:

jpnole.2476:

There is no dedicated healer class. It has been discussed in many threads so far. Even if you only want to heal yourself, the combat system isn’t designed for you to always be able to heal your way out of trouble. Working as intended.

This thread wasn`t about dedicated healing. It was about the insane amount of + healing power you would need to make it worth slotting. I have a healing power set on my guardian and for as much healing power as I have the healing bonus from the set wasn`t worth the effort to get. Adding 90 healing power only increased tick heals by like 5 points per tick and strike heal by like 10 points. Not sure how much the aoe was increased since i haven`t used my staff yet but I doubt it will be an impressive gain.

The insane amount of +healing needed still doesn’t make it viable.

Oh it`s worth it for a group play. you will just sacrifice one thing for that but it will benefit everyone. I took the trait that lets my dodges heal nearby allies. Just doing 2 quick dodges adds over 1400 hp back to them. Was around 650 per roll before I upgraded. Every bit helps and counts. I just expected at lvl 80 you pass the point and start getting more returns for amount invested. But it feels like it just flatlines no matter how much you add, the improvment needs to be looked into.

I feel like the scaling of the “group” healing is fine, as it’s fully intended that they’re small. Especially when you think about all 5 people in the group using group heals – it adds up.

The scaling of the self-healing is off, though, and I’d fully expected +Healing to be an alternative defensive stat to either Toughness or Vitality, for those who enjoy such a playstyle. And so far, it’s not.

Which sucks, because as I stack more Vitality, my self-heal becomes less and less effective, and I feel like I HAVE to get +Healing in order to make my 6-slot worth pushing…
Except the scaling is downright terrible, and that doesn’t improve the situation by very much at all.

In fact, I’m starting to wonder why heals don’t heal for a percentage of the target’s maximum HP, with that percentage scaling based on your +Healing, rather than flat numerical values.

this is a problem.
Traits for + healing is pretty pointless.

If healing power stays as is they should just scrap it, roll what it currently does into vitality/toughness and add something else in its place… Because currently healing power is useless for anything other then increasing Rez speed, everything else is just meh at best…

What other stat could they possibly put in it’s place though?

The weird thing is, in one of their dev blogs, they obviously see Compassion as a “support” stat and a “defensive” stat both. Even though it clearly does both terribly.

We also added the new Healing attribute to take some of the pressure away from toughness being the most important defensive attribute and to create an additional option for players who wanted to emphasize a support role.

I think the stated goal in that dev blog… hasn’t been met.

I don’t see any comparisons with the traits along with gear which has heal power on it as well. Is there anyone looking into that?

Speaking of which, how the heck do I find my base heal of a skill or my overall heal power for that matter?

utildai.5319:

I don’t see any comparisons with the traits along with gear which has heal power on it as well. Is there anyone looking into that?

Speaking of which, how the heck do I find my base heal of a skill or my overall heal power for that matter?

You find out the “base” heal with no points into +healing.

You check your heal power by hovering over your Vitality in the Hero panel.

I think the coefficients are way too all over the place. I’m at work, so I don’t have exact numbers, but I know the increases on my Ranger’s Healing Spring were huge compared to its base, especially on the Regeneration effect. I think I was able to double it’s effectiveness.

I kind of feel like there’s a big problem with the scaling of most of the stats. For instance, I feel like Toughness does next to nothing, but Vitality is amazing. At least in PvP, I’ve found that building a character for toughness seems to still result in a character who feels like they are made of tissue paper, while I can go for heavy Vit and offensive stats and be able to take more punishment.

Edit: I kind of wish they would give Healing Power a dual purpose, and instead make it a stat that boosts heals and increases Boon duration. That way it’s like the “support” stat. Might make it more useful, since it would also increase offensive buff uptime.

thenewzero.7246:

Edit: I kind of wish they would give Healing Power a dual purpose, and instead make it a stat that boosts heals and increases Boon duration. That way it’s like the “support” stat. Might make it more useful, since it would also increase offensive buff uptime.

That would be sexy, and would make it much more appealing.

More appealing, yes, but what we need is more defensive stats, not less. Toughness, Vitality, and Compassion should all be viable methods for building defensively.

Unfortunately, while this isn’t exactly the topic of the thread, very few people actually value Toughness.

DrakeWurrum.6049:

More appealing, yes, but what we need is more defensive stats, not less. Toughness, Vitality, and Compassion should all be viable methods for building defensively.

Unfortunately, while this isn’t exactly the topic of the thread, very few people actually value Toughness.

If +heal also extended my protection and regeneration boons, I’d consider that a defensive boost. Would probably have complaints from classes that don’t rely on boons as much, though.

I played with a toughness heavy set for awhile at lower levels. It did not seem to serve me as well as higher vitality, even though I have a ton of condition removal (which in theory should make toughness more appealing, as I already have counters to condition damage).

Maybe healing power could just be renamed Compassion (like it originally was) and make it boost the effectiveness of boons as well? IE with 2k compassion your vigor gives 75% increased endurance instead of 50, or port reduces damage by 50% instead of 33% (those are examples not the exacts of what it -should- do) so then it’d truly be a support and defensive stat allowing you to heal better through skills and mitigate damage better through boons!!

What do you guys think?

PS: I don’t think boon DURATION should be fused with healing power.

Hey man, crap on healing power all you want, but boon duration is awesome. I wish there were more ways to get it.

Vargs.6234:

Hey man, crap on healing power all you want, but boon duration is awesome. I wish there were more ways to get it.

You know cooks make food that combines magic find while under a boon + boon duration, right?

Maybe another stat combination, too; I’ve hit 400 but have quite a bit of discovery left to do.

Banewrath.5107:

Oh it`s worth it for a group play. you will just sacrifice one thing for that but it will benefit everyone. I took the trait that lets my dodges heal nearby allies. Just doing 2 quick dodges adds over 1400 hp back to them. Was around 650 per roll before I upgraded. Every bit helps and counts.

You went from 650 to 700 healed per roll … maybe if you’re in a zerg that’s worth it, but when there are only 4 other people every little bit of healing counts as an opportunity lost for taking something good :p

To add to this
The scaling of regeneration throughout the game is 100% inconsistent. Early game(below level 20) regeneration is extremely useful and heals a very pleasant amount. However at level 80 it heals for about 50% of what it did at lower levels.

Level 15 Hide in Shadows
Initial Heal: 345
Regeneration: 130
Regeneration %27

Level 80 Hide In Shadows
Initial Heal: 5734
Regeneration: 767
Regeneration %12

I do find this extremely annoying as I like my skills being consistent throughout the game and not becoming more useless as I progress through the game in comparison to other skills.

But yes the healing stat is relatively useless I almost tripled my healing power and the amount of healing that my heal did, increased by about 10%, In comparison to the affects of precision or vitality

Pinkys Brain.7480:

Banewrath.5107:

Oh it`s worth it for a group play. you will just sacrifice one thing for that but it will benefit everyone. I took the trait that lets my dodges heal nearby allies. Just doing 2 quick dodges adds over 1400 hp back to them. Was around 650 per roll before I upgraded. Every bit helps and counts.

You went from 650 to 700 healed per roll … maybe if you’re in a zerg that’s worth it, but when there are only 4 other people every little bit of healing counts as an opportunity lost for taking something good :p

Normally I would agree with you if this was a traditional statbased game. But since success is determined by relexes and evasion, The sacrifice isn`t all that much. So every extra little bit that heals that can help a teamate from getting the downed state is worth it for me.

Here are some healing difference with the staff abilities. Sorry I couldn’t get the amount of healing Arcane Wave does (water field and blast finisher). My server had +4% healing from WvW at the time.

…..458 Healing Power
Soothing Mist 107
Healing Ripple 1830
Water Blast 433
Geyser 960 x2
Healing Rain 194 ticks (regen boon)
Elemental Attunement 194 ticks (regen boon)
Glyph of Elemental Harmony 5448
Healing Seed (Initial Heal) 7257
Glyph of Elementals (Ice Elemental) 6833

…..1178 Healing Power
Soothing Mist 145
Healing Ripple 2579
Water Blast 508
Geyser 1147 x2
Healing Rain 288 ticks (regen boon)
Elemental Attunement 288 ticks (regen boon)
Glyph of Elemental Harmony 6009
Healing Seed (Initial Heal) 8006
Glyph of Elementals (Ice Elemental) 6833

…..Differences +720 Healing Power….. #% (healing power ratio)
Soothing Mist +38….. ~5.07%
Healing Ripple +749….. 100%
Water Blast +75….. ~10.02%
Geyser +187 x2….. ~24.97%
Healing Rain +94 ticks (regen boon)….. ~12.55%
Elemental Attunement +94 ticks (regen boon)….. ~12.55%
Glyph of Elemental Harmony +556….. ~74.25
Healing Seed (Initial Heal) +749….. 100%
Glyph of Elementals (Ice Elemental) 0….. 0%

Vargs.6234:

Hey man, crap on healing power all you want, but boon duration is awesome. I wish there were more ways to get it.

Yeah, fair enough, boon duration is really good.

That being said… that only emphasizes how terrible Healing Power is. If you want to build your character for a supportive role, Healing power is the weaker choice. If you want to build your character for a defensive role, Healing power is the weaker choice.

If you want to be both defensive and supportive, you still don’t want to get Healing Power, because you can easily get Vitality, Boon Duration, and say… Expertise.

Banewrath.5107:

Pinkys Brain.7480:

Banewrath.5107:

Oh it`s worth it for a group play. you will just sacrifice one thing for that but it will benefit everyone. I took the trait that lets my dodges heal nearby allies. Just doing 2 quick dodges adds over 1400 hp back to them. Was around 650 per roll before I upgraded. Every bit helps and counts.

You went from 650 to 700 healed per roll … maybe if you’re in a zerg that’s worth it, but when there are only 4 other people every little bit of healing counts as an opportunity lost for taking something good :p

Normally I would agree with you if this was a traditional statbased game. But since success is determined by relexes and evasion, The sacrifice isn`t all that much. So every extra little bit that heals that can help a teamate from getting the downed state is worth it for me.

Yet toughness and vitality add a SIGNIFICANT buffer for how much you can take before dying… I’m sorry, but your logic is flawed beyond all belief, you’re saying that because you’re supposed to evade attacks that you’re not supposed to be able to have any buffer? With your logic we might as well trash Vit and toughness because they let people not avoid as often….

Anet kept a ‘healing’ class out for a reason (who knows what the reason is really, trying to be different I guess, but in the end I think it’s going to fail, but that’s another discussion) so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Healing Power is nearly worthless.

The game is DPS -> Get ‘Downed’(lmfao horrible system)/Die -> Rez/Run Back. That is how Anet designed the game, that is how they want it played. That type of gameplay is what they wrapped the stats around. There will never be a viable healing set-up. The game is about numbers and damage, not healing and ‘take down’ (knowing when to switch targets/focus) strategies. GW2 is the perfect zerg mentality game which will mainly appeal to people who just want to kill things and not have to worry about combat strategy.

Stop talking about GW2 not having a dedicated healer class. By that logic, GW2 shouldn’t have a dedicated damage dealer/glass cannon either, yet 30 Trait points put into Critical Damage already give you 30% extra Crit damage. For glass cannons that have like 65% Crit chance and 2k Power, it’s not even funny how much 30%+ Crit Damage does— and that’s from Trait points alone.

Hellaciouss.1354:

Anet kept a ‘healing’ class out for a reason (who knows what the reason is really, trying to be different I guess, but in the end I think it’s going to fail, but that’s another discussion) so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Healing Power is nearly worthless.

The game is DPS -> Get ‘Downed’(lmfao horrible system)/Die -> Rez/Run Back. That is how Anet designed the game, that is how they want it played. That type of gameplay is what they wrapped the stats around. There will never be a viable healing set-up. The game is about numbers and damage, not healing and ‘take down’ (knowing when to switch targets/focus) strategies. GW2 is the perfect zerg mentality game which will mainly appeal to people who just want to kill things and not have to worry about combat strategy.

1) that’s not how the game is designed, the game is designed where your allies are to pick you up, i’m sorry you have a bad group and can’t do more then that.

2) We know they don’t have dedicated healers we’re not asking for them

3) If they didn’t want anyone to have stronger healing then another person then they wouldn’t even having healing power as a stat to begin with.

Still not sure people are actually paying attention to the content of the thread.

For that matter, still not sure people understand how this game is designed.

DrakeWurrum.6049:

Still not sure people are actually paying attention to the content of the thread.

But drake!! There’s no dedicated healers in GW2 so therefore healing power shouldn’t be very strong!! HERPADERPADER!!

Narane.3825:

Stop talking about GW2 not having a dedicated healer class. By that logic, GW2 shouldn’t have a dedicated damage dealer/glass cannon either, yet 30 Trait points put into Critical Damage already give you 30% extra Crit damage. For glass cannons that have like 65% Crit chance and 2k Power, it’s not even funny how much 30%+ Crit Damage does— and that’s from Trait points alone.

Wrong. ANet designed the game to be about combat, not healing. The healing is GW2 is pathetic, at least in PvP. Anything on your bars that is specifically for healing other then your healing slot is a complete waste. You’re not helping your team. The Game is about downing people as fast as possible and then the surviving team rezzes their downed and pushes forward. Healing is pointless. If you’re looking for a game where healing matters move on, cause GW2 is all about the zerg and just ‘rezzing’.

Healing Power should not affect boons to fit the theme(it’s healing power, not healing AND boon power). Instead, the scaling ratios on healing skills should be buffed.

Or, another good alternative would be to increase incoming healing.

For example, 100 healing power would equate to an increase of 10% healing a player receives from all sources, including self-heals.

This would not only fit in with the theme, but help keep healing power as a viable defensive/support stat.

Pikafan.3792:

Healing Power should not affect boons to fit the theme(it’s healing power, not healing AND boon power). Instead, the scaling ratios on healing skills should be buffed.

Or, another good alternative would be to increase incoming healing.

For example, 100 healing power would equate to an increase of 10% healing a player receives from all sources, including self-heals.

This would not only fit in with the theme, but help keep healing power as a viable defensive/support stat.

ANet is trying there best to keep healing from being a good stat for a REASON. They don’t WANT people to be able to survive. This is what GW2 is, it’s not going to change. Why do you think the ‘down’ system is one of the major parts of the game? Is it horrible game design? Yah, but that is how the game was designed. People asking for more healing aren’t going to get it, so stop!

@Hellaciouss, I’m sorry but how stupid are you? If they wanted people to die Vitality and Toughness wouldn’t be nearly as effective as they are! Your argument is just awful, you seem to be under the illusion that Anets goal is to just have everyone die and to make healing worthless because you’re supposed to just die. That’s not what they’re trying to do AT ALL… Jesus have you played the game?

Quoted from an earlier post:

We also added the new Healing attribute to take some of the pressure away from toughness being the most important defensive attribute and to create an additional option for players who wanted to emphasize a support role.

I can’t believe they actually said that.

There was a thread in Players Helping Players (before the subforums were created) where players, including myself, were comparing vitality and toughness. I myself have experience switching characters from one extreme to the other: tons of toughness to none and vice-versa. There was also some guy that spec’d into toughness and went to test it in that thread.

In the end, we found that toughness actually did very little to reduce your damage taken (especially since condition damage ignores it) and that vitality was pretty much better in every way. Vitality is really the only way to go if you want to survive longer.

So since healing is also worthless, I guess that’ll make finding the best builds easy: focus on one that uses power, precision, and vitality. Coincidentally, I think almost every character I have is already running that kind of build. Meh.

Hellacious, if Healing Power is such a worthless stat, then why have it at all? Think this through a bit more clearly. Yes, there are no dedicated healers, but that does NOT mean that healing itself should be fully worthless. Otherwise, what is the point of our 6th skill slot? Or what about abilities like Geyser and Healing Rain? Or traits like Restorative Mantras or Restorative Shouts? Healing is part of this game, it’s just not designed to work like it does in other MMOs. That does not mean it should be weak.

StarlightGamer.9560:

Quoted from an earlier post:

We also added the new Healing attribute to take some of the pressure away from toughness being the most important defensive attribute and to create an additional option for players who wanted to emphasize a support role.

I can’t believe they actually said that.

There was a thread in Players Helping Players (before the subforums were created) where players, including myself, were comparing vitality and toughness. I myself have experience switching characters from one extreme to the other: tons of toughness to none and vice-versa. There was also some guy that spec’d into toughness and went to test it in that thread.

In the end, we found that toughness actually did very little to reduce your damage taken (especially since condition damage ignores it) and that vitality was pretty much better in every way. Vitality is really the only way to go if you want to survive longer.

So since healing is also worthless, I guess that’ll make finding the best builds easy: focus on one that uses power, precision, and vitality. Coincidentally, I think almost every character I have is already running that kind of build. Meh.

Hrm, that’s extremely disappointing. They’re going to have to tweak Toughness as well as Healing, it seems. I’m hoping they do tweak the scaling of stats so that there’s more viable options besides just making us better damage sponges.
Otherwise, what’s the point in having these other stats? It seems like they are over-compensating in their attempts to prevent tanking and healing, and thus removing possibly viable methods of building a character.

Actually from what i’ve checked toughness seemed to be SIGNIFICANTLY better against damage but did nothing against conditions (rightfully so), however should i go up against anything that didn’t really use conditions i just kinda shrugged off anything and everything they do…