Guild Wars 2

They way I see it most people are going DPS in PvE, this occurs so that they can get the most loot possible. I have been looking on the forums at support builds that sound like a lot of fun but I do not want to roll them because it will lower my chances of loot and getting credit for DEs. If I am using all my skills helping others succeed and don’t get credit why would I waste my time? I think that outside of pvp and maybe dungeons support will die off leaving only damage and conditional damage for PvE. That sucks.

To answer the original question: no, there is entirely no incentive to go support in DEs, insofar as that you can not gain any loot/contribution by healing or buffing and will have to resort to damage for that. Furthermore, people are usually not specced for support in general pve because to spec anything but dps does nothing but slow you down on the way to 80.

That being said, my 80 warrior whom I use for dungeons currently usually remains in his support/banner spec for DEs nowadays, so I’ll always put my banner down of course, and I suppose there might be others who do the same. And if you are in one of the rare events that are not the overfarmed orr areas, helping people to succeed at the event quickly does actually help you as well, provided you manage to tag the mobs inbetween anyway.

Right now, the only reason to go support is personal playstyle choice, or if you do a lot of dungeons. Anything else is pointless from a rewards point of view.

What they should add to the medal you get from Dynamic Events is amount of healing done within a radius around the enemies, and perhaps amount of damage taken since a tanking build will be able to take more of the damage without dying. Add those 2 numbers along with how much damage you did.

As for determining loot drops off enemies, I think that is fine right now, since you basically just have to do 5-10% damage. If there is a zerg, then you are screwed out of loot anyway.

“support” for 90% of the time and drop an aoe bomb once it a while.

what else do you want? be a u.n. blue helmet?

gosh.

For events, support just isn’t needed.

For dungeons, support is built in to any decent DPS spec. If you aren’t dropping combo fields or using finishers in other people’s fields, you are weakening yourself AND the entire party. The idea of standing in the backline throwing heals and buffs doesn’t really work here; it just means you aren’t using your full potential and weakening the team.

This is the usual sensationalist thread.
There are a lot of people who go support, but this game is simply not meant to be played as a “support only” character (has been stated several times), you need to both DPS, survive and support.

DPS is support in many ways: combo fields, killing things that will otherwise kill the team, control, etc.

Just don’t expect to see “full support X class LFG” frequently, as that is an inefficient way of playing GW2.

I wonder about that sometimes as well. I will also point out that the thought that if you are standing in the back all you are doing is tossing out buffs and heals doesn’t apply to a game where 7 of the 8 professions are quite effective at range. I think that if AOE heals carried a double-edged sword effect of damaging enemies within radius it could have the ability to give drops and exp to those who enjoy support as well as be a deterrent to some of the zerg mentality. I would think if it were a choosable skill in the trait tree at a reduction in healing % in exchange for damage to foes, it could open up some build options nicely. A guardian might even be able to make up for his almost non-existant range abilities.

tbh i don’t know what role i’m playing in dungeons. maybe its control. im an engineer built as a tank (hah!) so i would usually rush in start spamming bombs and run like a headless chicken because putting so much toughness on medium armor is not a good tank.

but occassionally, i would be partied in a group with a dedicated support guy who will occassionally, heal me/us for just about 2k of health (which is like half compared to my self heal, and i’m guessing that’s his heal spell as well) or removing conditions on me or applying conditions on mobs like weakness (this condi is sooooo underrated) that’ll help me “control” the flow of the fight.

but one thing is that you shouldn’t be a pure support build, and you should always always incorporate some dmg in your skill roster. if you’re scared about loosing looting rights, put on a heavy aoe-dmg/support build (as im sure almost all class will have access to an aoe or two) and use it to tag mobs so you can loot them later on once they’re dead.

imo, control and support are two things that should always be done alongside damage, and vice versa where damage should never just be damage but will have a fraction of support/control into them. this way, you never really rely on other chars so much as you rely on yourself.

I do not run a full support build but I would like to see an increase in incentive to do so. Currently there is only an incentive in dungeons to ensure your party doesn’t wipe. There is no reason to go Support in PvE or WvW. I am not asking to make support a completely viable build where you can ignore doing damage but I would like to see a reason to run it outside of dungeons.

Rhyse.8176:

For events, support just isn’t needed.

For dungeons, support is built in to any decent DPS spec. If you aren’t dropping combo fields or using finishers in other people’s fields, you are weakening yourself AND the entire party. The idea of standing in the backline throwing heals and buffs doesn’t really work here; it just means you aren’t using your full potential and weakening the team.

It’s not a matter of filling a “DPS” or a “Support” role. The game requires that everyone contributes with some amount of DPS to be successful. There’s nothing that will change that, nor should there be.

The problem comes from the fact that if a character is focused towards support, meaning they have a lot of healing and supporting traits, many of their combat skills have secondary support effects instead of damage boosting, and they are possibly specced heavily into a Healing line. What happens there is that they are taking a DPS hit automatically due to their build, and that missing DPS is often getting added to their companions’ contribution total. However, the benefit that they are bringing to their team is being totally ignored by monitoring mechanics, making it harder for them to qualify for the drops and rewards they’ve actually earned.

Or what about those helpful fools that see someone get downed, rush immediately over to get them back on their feet quickly, before returning to combat? They’ve had to forgo their own DPS contribution, in order to get someone else back in the fight without delay. Instead of spending the next 30 seconds (IF they can avoid getting outright defeated) throwing stones from the downed state, that player is on their feet and back into full combat. In that case, the overall DPS for the group is going to be higher because someone stopped pew-pewing, in order to res. If they do that once too often, they may end up with a silver contribution instead of gold, with a commensurate reduction in their gold and karma reward. And all they did was make sure their group was being more effective and outputting more damage.

Yes, it’s nice to say that it’s a team game and if the team wins, everyone wins, but in practice, this doesn’t work that well. Everyone is working towards something. New gear, gold for the gem shop, cultural armor, whatever. For support focused characters, their road will be much longer than straight up DPSers because what they contribute isn’t being counted. They can be as useful as everyone else and work just as hard to succeed, but their reward is less than their companions. That’s why the system isn’t working.

seems like this thread has been forgotten and i would realy like to have an A-net statement to the problem..
I play full support Guardian.
If im correct there should be Dmg, Controll , support and all of them should get around the same rewards.

I play permanent with a tank controll Guardian and a full dmg Worrier.
At the time the Worrier had 1000 WvW Badges
the tank controll Guardian had 700
and i as support 300.

If i Dmg an enemy for 200 i get loot but if i heal an ally for 5000, Schield them or put a lot of Boons on them i dont get anything.
So while dmg and controll still get a lot of loot the suppoter are forced to do little dmg instant of helping your team mates.

A-net please give us Assists and the Reward for them. Of course not for over heals etc.