Guild Wars 2

I’m struggling playing my Guardian in open world events. I have no idea who needs a protective shield, condition removed, or heal without any sort of raid frame. I find myself randomly throwing out support abilities in the vicinity of nearby allies, but don’t know if I’ve actually helped anyone, or if I’ve helped the person who needs it the most. I’m quickly becoming disillusioned with the whole support concept in this game, so I’m hoping someone can actually tell me I’m doing it wrong and explain to me why and how. I don’t see any visual cues that are helpful, so asking for raid frames is the first thing that comes to mind.

P.S. I’m thinking of an open world grouping system similar to what’s in Rift.

Is there an option to switch on player health bars so that you see them permanently above their heads? I think this would be easier way to follow people’s status, and you could then direct your healing by just clicking people on the screen or directing your AoE there.

P.S. Raid frames are evil. That squares thing that healers use in That Other Game is an abomination unto skilled play and must be banished from your thoughts. Just focus your mind on nice shiny guardian bubbles until the feeling goes away.

Watch hp above their heads. Every condition has a unique graphic on the character.

Quintal – wouldn’t those options only be available if he were partied with those people? What bout during world events when he is doing something with non-party members?

I can see where they are trying to avoid the “whack-a-mole” feeling with raid frames. If there was the ability to show health and condition frames above allies (non-grouped) then perhaps that would work. I’d be concerned about screen clutter with this feature, however. Especially in the heat of battle, with all the spell effects, I can see that these “on person” frames would be hard to see clearly.

Your abilities can only target up to 5 people anyway, so don’t expect to be having a profound impact on the state of the zerg.

I find it best to pop my support skills on people that saw the red circles during boss fights a little too late, or those fighting at your favourite dragons feet and are taking damage.

The game is fairly visual with where damage is being dealt in the PvE world, so raid frames shouldn’t be too necessary. If nothing else, I’m sure those you do support, even when they don’t need it, won’t complain.