Guild Wars 2

In most multiplayer games I play I like the support role, either the healer/buffer or the disabler/debuffed are playstyles that I really enjoy.

That said, if I focus only on that, trying to make my character as supportive as possible. Will people want me in their groups? Is it viable?

Im asking because in GW2 we don’t have the “Holy Trinity”, that way we don’t exactly need a healer, or a tank.

Sounds like you answered your own question.

Do you like playing Guardian? They play a role in a group. Do you know the metas? Look here for the builds:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

But it really depends on what you’re doing, just running around vs. dungeon vs. fractal, etc. Guild group? Pugs?

If you like playing a support role, I suggest rolling a Guardian. Most of the time as Guardian you can just use a meta dsp build and dish out some decent damage but there are times when the dynamics of a party, for whatever reason, may not work out and subsequently require more support. As a guardian, you can do just that. Guardians by default already have good team support skills but by tweaking your build, Guardians can really carry a struggling party through a dungeon or fractal better than any other class (imo).

Edit: also, to answer your question more directly, I don’t recommend on “just” focusing on a support role. Rather, I would suggest that a quality player is one that knows how and when to adjust their character according to the needs of the situation whether that means more support, more dps, more condition, more whatever. Committing your character to just one role only is not a good idea in general.

Well… I’m a Guardian so that is a good start. :p

A phalanx strength warrior provides an incredible amount of offensive support for the team and is welcome in dungeon groups that lack a warrior or don’t have high might stacks. Warriors are also typically easier/more forgiving to play than some of the other classes.
The only real downsides is that it’s not a good solo build and that you can only pick up the phalanx strength trait at level 80.

Like every game there is good and bad tactics.

Healing, regen, defensives stats, etc are view as bad support. They can do the job, but poorly in PvE because the game was designed this way.

Protection, Vigor, reflection, blocks, condition removal, etc on the the other end are view as good support.

Thaddeus.4891:

Like every game there is good and bad tactics.

Healing, regen, defensives stats, etc are view as bad support. They can do the job, but poorly in PvE because the game was designed this way.

Protection, Vigor, reflection, blocks, condition removal, etc on the the other end are view as good support.

Good point.

I came from a year playing ESO where we have the usual DPS/Heal/Tank thing and the traditional MMO roles. It is hard to get used to the way GW2 works. Specially in group situations.

rsiloliveira.6429:

Thaddeus.4891:

Like every game there is good and bad tactics.

Healing, regen, defensives stats, etc are view as bad support. They can do the job, but poorly in PvE because the game was designed this way.

Protection, Vigor, reflection, blocks, condition removal, etc on the the other end are view as good support.

Good point.

I came from a year playing ESO where we have the usual DPS/Heal/Tank thing and the traditional MMO roles. It is hard to get used to the way GW2 works. Specially in group situations.

Give it some time though and I think you’ll be able to find a way to make it work.

Oddly enough GW2 is the thing that finally convinced me to try playing a healer in ESO. Before I’d always thought of it as too much pressure and not enough fun but I’ve increasingly found myself falling into a support role in this game and enjoying it.

My main character is actually a ranger which may not be an obvious choice for support, but IMO one of the strengths of GW2’s mechanics (and ESO’s actually) is that a lot of mechanics are not profession specific. Everyone will have at least 1 group healing skill and a whole load of ways to apply useful boons to allies. Plus there’s tactical things you can do like getting really good at dodging and having more defensive stats so you’re more likely to be the person who stays alive and can rally downed allies.

Unless you are planning to run in a lot of Dungeon PUGs (pick up groups), what others would like you to play is mostly irrelevant Play what you want, but be aware you may be setting yourself up for some difficulties. The game is geared for ALL players to provide some support and ALL their own healing, so focusing on support means you are neglecting damage and that can lead to problems when forced to solo multiple enemies (a very common occurrence in Open World and story missions).

Just keep that in mind but do what you want (but do be prepared for some trash talk from other players if you do).

Pinnacle of the question is what do you see as support? You want to stand aside buffing, healing and keeping your team warm and fuzzy? You can, but team most likely will not apreciate it and you will have a bad time. GW2 game mechanics are much about support, but not usual for other Trinity MMOs passive support, it is about active support: do damage to kill your foe faster than he would kill you and your team, give Aegis to protect your teammates from crushing blows, set Wall of Reflection to save your teammates from devastating projectile bombardment, cleance conditions so that they dont wither away your companions health, etc, etc. All of this can be provided by clever and timely use of build and utility skills.

Just remember that you can’t go support so far that you don’t do enough damage. If you don’t do a lot of damage your chances at loot is slimmer. You will have less chance to also get chests from world bosses and dungeons. Giardian is perfect for a balance betwen the two. A good self heal and a staff does the job well for both you and the team.

I like having a few signets for the self passives and team boons when activated. I’m building towards a soldier’s build with runes of the guardian.

That should give you high enough health and toughness with lots of decent damage.
Adding to that runes that increase healing power, boon duration or whatever you are focusing on and yoir setup will be solid. Same with sigils.

It takes a while though. At lvl80 I still run around with lvl 60 armor, but crafting is fun:)

And traits of course. If your gear gives you solid primary stats you can invest more into traits that increase healing power and decrease virtue recharge. Off hand you can run a sword and either a torch or shield. I’ve heard before you should avoid the shield but it’s helpfull to jump in and shield your team, then popping it for more heal.

The torch can remove conditions with cleansing breath.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Just keep that in mind but do what you want (but do be prepared for some trash talk from other players if you do).

Yeah, people tend to become so doctrined in what is better and correct. I myself don’t like to look at guides because it makes a person miss so many aspects of the game that are ther to explore.

A berserker meta guardian is more supportive than any ptv AH “support”.

oxtred.7658:

A berserker meta guardian is more supportive than any ptv AH “support”.

It’s not like AH or PTV provide any amount of support at all.

rsiloliveira.6429:

Thaddeus.4891:

Like every game there is good and bad tactics.

Healing, regen, defensives stats, etc are view as bad support. They can do the job, but poorly in PvE because the game was designed this way.

Protection, Vigor, reflection, blocks, condition removal, etc on the the other end are view as good support.

Good point.

I came from a year playing ESO where we have the usual DPS/Heal/Tank thing and the traditional MMO roles. It is hard to get used to the way GW2 works. Specially in group situations.

Like has been said you don’t really have the same types or roles.

To break it down a bit:
Stealther: Thief of course, Engi as a backup, and Mesmer can come through in a pinch. Stealth allows you to skip past some particularly nasty guys without getting agro.

Reflector: Mesmer and Guardian are top dogs here, but you also have tools on Ranger, Engineer, Thief, Elementalist, and even Warrior to a degree (generally not used for it as it’s very limited and takes great coordination to use it). Reflect is something that reflects projectiles but also often used as a shorter term for projectile defense, so some tools don’t reflect but simply absorb, like Swirling Winds from Ele. Some attacks you may want a reflect more for the damage addition, some doesn’t really matter a huge amount, and even some prefer an absorb, but in general you just want someone who can defend the team from the projectiles.

Might: Ele/War are top dogs here, Phalanx Strength warrior is great, Ele blasting fire fields is amazing as well (comes with added bonus of fury if they’re traited correctly) Engineer can also do quite a bit, Guard can contribute as well (though doing so greatly hinders their own output making it likely not worth it in many cases). Some professions like say Necro can provide it quite well for themselves but not the party, good info to know but doesn’t really help int he supportive idea. Rangers can contribute a bit as well. Mesmers, not as much but you can do some stuff to boost the team’s boons. Might is very important as it’s a huge increase to your damage, to go along with it I’d mention Fury which typically comes from Ele/War and maybe Ranger or Engineers in sub optimal builds (another situation where it’s not “worth it”).

Vulnerability: Engineer/Ele/War are your general top guys here, Engineer with grenades, Ele with Glyph of Storms, and Warrior with Axe/Mace combo. Ranger is also very good, necro isn’t terrible but these both are limited and seriously lack sustained levels of it. Lots of professions have “on crit” activation of it which can contribute a bit, and all together you can reach high levels of it, but having a warrior/ele/engi is what you want to maximize it’s use. To go along with this theme you also have Chill/Immobilize/Cripple debuffs which can be huge helps in certain situations and are spraed throughout professions such that the only one worth highlighting is Engineer’s dominance in the field of Immobilize and maybe Ele’s strength in chilling.

Profession based Mechanics: Main things to mention here is Warrior banner, Ranger frostspotter, and Guard’s Aegis. These tools are limited or mostly limited to those professions and can be a great help to support the group.

Interrupts/defiance: CC is important, Thief/Mesmer are the top for defiance but we’re going to see a change to that system with the expansion, so that is likely to change. Managing defiance is important so that you are able to interrupt crucial attacks, or just utilize long lasting CCs to lock down enemies for a time (Deep Freeze on Ice Bow for example)

Blind: Works amazingly well on all trash mobs, Thief/Engi/Ele/Guard being the best at it. negates the next attack of an Enemy.

These are the general roles (might have missed something) that you form a PVE group around. Multiple professions can fill any slot, but there’s always a “best”. Of course in addition there is damage, and Ele’s reign supreme there, Thief is great as well on a single target and most other professions are around the same behind those two with mesmer’s completely impractical mechanics making them fall to last place by a fair margin. This all leads to the meta group of EleX2, Thief, War, <Insert last profession here> Where the last profession could be a third Ele if you don’t need defenses or don’t want to /arn’t going to utilize Portals from Mesmer. Mesmer/Guard are typically the last slot if you want defensive tools or are really going to use the portal tricks available.

Hope that helps a bit. If you want Support youp icked right with Guardian. It doesn’t mean you can’t do damage though as others have pointed out, it just means you need to learn to use the tools available to you that can actively defend you and your party.

This is a non-trinity game. For PvE: Support is about increasing damage or preventing damage. Healing damage is far less effective than preventing it. Very few support skills are tied to defensive stats, so it’s very possible (in many cases optimal) to have a moderately high damage build that still manages to provide a lot of damage prevention.

The standard (4/5/0/0/5) meta build for guardian is pretty much a support build that buffs and debuffs and provides additional defensive utilities as you stated. However, you’re also expected to be in the middle of the fight, hitting things and doing a lot of damage.

By making yourself more supportive than that, you’re giving up a huge portion of your damage for a minimal gain in more utility.

Altair.8402:

The standard (4/5/0/0/5) meta build for guardian is pretty much a support build that buffs and debuffs and provides additional defensive utilities as you stated. However, you’re also expected to be in the middle of the fight, hitting things and doing a lot of damage.

By making yourself more supportive than that, you’re giving up a huge portion of your damage for a minimal gain in more utility.

If you’re using PS war you can go with a hammer build do about the same damage with 35042 with much of the same utility and protection which can be amazing if you screw up and get hit. Just a note as a viable alternative.