Guild Wars 2

Hi ppl!
(in advance sory for my terrible english)

So i returned after a half year of pause, since it seems decent content is getting added. But i have the same old trouble with the game…i cant chose a character i like. Trough now i shall be playing with a friend that playes a Thief. So i was wondering to roll something that can support well.
Last time i played ele in Caldicus Manor i was destroyed constantly, but did quite well in Ac. I see that it has many heals, and ppl say a lot of buffs…but i am not sure how it actually is….the “suppor” heals buffs seems a bit useless to me in this game.
So i am not sure. Ele seems fun, and might fit my play style, but i was wondering abaut Mesmer, that seems more viable right now considering patches (expsecialyl in pvp) , but i dont personally like that “illusion summoning” play style. Or atleast the “shatter” part of it…(totally useless if someone is up on a hill.) And not evne sure Mesmer can offer a decent healing or support, trough it has a lot better weapon selection then Ele, and seems fun to experiment with item looks. (some swords look really good)

As for last i thout abaut Guardian, that ppl say is good support, can even tank, and heavy armor looks amazing, but sadly there are SO MANY, that anytime i go out and play i see warriors and guardians, and that takes my mood away to play it.
Engineer also seems fun, and elixirs seem to be usefull for support, but then again, it is using kits mostly instead of “real” weapons, and that destroys the point of obtaining item skins…not to mention they dont realyl have to many options on it anyway, compared to other classes.

So anyone got any suggestion what is a decently viable support class right now?

AC/CM/TA are not for new players, sad to say, you need to know your class very very well, change gear/skills as you go from 1 dungeon to another.

All new players that do those 3 dungeons get it handed to them, tho I think AC/TA are easy AC being little harder and TA atlittle easier/shorter and Cm is just a bit longer and more annoying, once you learn the mobs/pull and skills you need they become easy.

With that said, a Guardian is an amazing character in any dungeon, they are great for parties and have loads of support, from Protection (-33% damage taken), Aegis (Blocks an attack), Regen and a great Elite skill to heal the whole party to 100%.

They also have party speed buffs and many many other protection spells. They work great with warriors and thieves too, not being able to deal lots of damage, the warrior/thief/ele can do the damage for you. so your friend will be happy.

IMO guardian with Knights gear for leveling and general PVE is good, if you want more hardcore pve and dungeons Knights still works just tkaes more skill, but Soldiers is amazing too, you just wont have much DPS.

Soldier = Power, Toughness, Vitality
Knights = Power, Prec, Toughness

Thy for the good feedback. I will look into it…these are actually the only dungeons i did so faar, even if i have an lv 80 thief.
…The theme and atmosphere was realyl good (old school d&d), but was kind of dissapointed in the combat. So i guess later instances might be even a lot of fun.

Well, while Engineer can provide some nice support, essentially it’s a very selfish class. With that said, if you want to build a support engi a lot is sacrificed/comprised in order to provide an “acceptable” support role in comparison to a… guardian.

Some utility skills that offer some excellent support for parties in pve are:

• Toss Elixir U, creates walls to null/reflect projectiles,
• Toss Elixir R, resses people at 25% increments every ‘tick’
• Elixir-gun for condition removal with fumigate and Super Elixir, which is a light field and lays down an impact heal and stack-able regen, weakness every auto-attack, a blast-finisher/disengage and even a stun-breaker! Holy moly!
• Healing Turret, “shares” half of your heal with your party and removes 2 conditions and creates a water-field that can be blast-finish’d with the turret itself, on every overcharge.
• Slick-shoes for versatile AoE knock-down, as well a stun-breaker/disengage.
• Elixir S, for resseing invulnerably and using the toss for stealth/stability.

And that’s not even traited. Traits are another monster, just an example is that if an engi is running mainly elixirs, they can: remove boons, apply boons, remove conditions, and do damage all with one skill, which can they be repeated on other elixirs.

Though the downsides is that some of these skills are on a rather lengthy cool-downs in comparison to say, guardian walls; which can be easily strengthen with one trait, whereas engis have to invest not only into a trait, but also a seperate trait-line to reduce the cool-down. Yes, while there are work-arounds these hurdles, Engis have to invest a lot more to achieve similar results, when compared to other classes. But on it’s own Engis can bring a lot to the table and can do it on demand, while still being able to perform other roles at the same time.

Engies are as good at support as guardians, just in different ways. I currently have a bunker/support build that lets me do a ton of healing to myself and my party, be very tanky/bunkerish, and still be able to bring a bunch of other utility. Based on the occasion, I can have utilities with:
-knockbacks galore
-extreme mobility
-boons for my party and I
-condition removal for my party and I
-several stunbreakers
-other kits if I really want

Engineer is a very varied profession, capable of performing any role. You can do full support, full bunker, full glass cannon, heavy cc, or any mix of the above. It’s a wonderful profession to have under your belt.

Depends on what you mean by “support”.

Generally I co8nsider Engineers to be the best support class ATM. Through stacking blast finishers in their water fields, they can heal for enormous amounts. By stacking blast finishers in their fire fields, they can provide a ton of might to do more damage. By stacking blast finishers in their light fields, they can provide a ton of retaliation. By stacking their blast finishers inside of their poison fields, they can cause a lot of weakness on enemies. By stacking their blast finishers inside of their smoke fields, engineers can stack up a lot of stealth for their group.

And that is just the support with combo finishers. Thanks to their off-hand shield, Elixir S, and Gear Shield they can block a long series of attacks that lets them tank. With elixirs and the elixir gun they can cleanse conditions from the team while also giving small buffs. They have a slow rez in Elixir R, they can put down reflection walls / smoke screens with Elixir U, give nigh permanent regeneration with the healing turret, they have two blind fields and plenty of other blinds. On the control side they have plenty of stuns, along with some of the best immobilization stacking via net turret + rifle, long duration chills with grenades, cripples with glue puddles, and pretty much every condition except torment.

If you have any team that wants more than pure DPS, an engineer can fulfill nearly every role that needs to be done, so long as they are smart enough to change their utilities to do it. About the only thing that Engineers are bad at is boon stripping, requiring the use of Acidic Elixirs and Landmines to do it.

Now, other professions also have some pretty good support. From the few I’ve played:

Mesmer: uses portals to bypass obstacles, AoE temp rez at a distance, tons of reflection skills, great healing when using a very particular tactic (Mantra of Pain + Restorative Mantras), plenty of stuns, Time Warp as the best offensive boon in the game, plenty of stealth, blinds and blocks to tank, and also great aggro management with clones. They can cleanse conditions and strip/steal boons really quickly, and also combines well with other boon classes if they use Signet of Inspiration.

Guardian: has plenty of heals and blocks, fire fields and light fields, as well as condition cleanses and tanking abilities, and also can grant a ton of protection and retaliation to allies, as well as great might stacking in a single weapon skill.

I can’t say much about Elementalists, but I also hear they are great for support.