Guild Wars 2

Okay so this might have already been posted/resolved, though I haven’t seen it yet here on the forums.

With our dynamic events, parties, quests and basically any sort of other encounter, I would like credit for my support role. I don’t get any loot from an event that has spawned, or my normal heart quests and hardly ever get any experience when I’m supporting teammates with (in this case, a water attuned elementalist).

Before you say it, there IS still a ‘healing’ role. Engineers will say that they have some powerful ones, and I know personally I can bring my companions up from near-death experiences to full health with combinations, fields, and boons.

This, I do not get credit for, so, perhaps GW2 does not want people to play this type of role they put into the game, though it’s an archetype I’ve been playing since eq1, so /shrug. Learn2dodge is what people say currently, but Let’s take that big gianty one out in Nageling, for example ( if you’ve fought him you already know) He’s a pain in the butt for melee characters, who if they don’t get enough damage in they won’t get a gold for the event, whereas ranged classes just cripple+hit 1/fall asleep. There’s times when your teammates won’t be able to dodge, whether because it’s not up, they need to be in there anyway, or some other reason. Why can’t they just stay there, soak it up and have a friend keep them up? I can. I can keep a guardian or warrior up at full health, why won’t you let me get credit for helping? Is that too much to ask?

TL:DR; Credit given to players for doing non-targeted healing, and reviving during events/quests/combat. If we don’t, people don’t help, players just die, and there’s no motivation for us to work together.

This is just something I was thinking about for awhile, Dynamic events are something new to mmorpgs, and when Rift implemented them in beta, we saw that the people tanking and healing would get no credit (They dealt close to no damage compared to the other classes, and it was a point system in the start) and therefore no rewards for helping the team for the event. Obviously they changed it, but It’s the same way here. /endrant

So basically this (i’m slow) : People should be credited and rewarded equally for healing/reviving as a person would be rewarded for dealing out X amount of damage. Right?
If so, that’s an amazing idea.

The primary role of every character is damage dealer. We can all participate as a tank, healer, and support… but the game was not designed with pigeon hole roles in mind. The idea is that you dabble in each of these things through the course of the fight.

You say their cooldowns may be down… why are they still in there then? It’s their job to back away when they can’t stay in the fray, not hope that someone else is going to heal them or protect them. They run out, someone else takes over. It’s a dance.

I can get credit merely being nearby an event, so it’s not like you have to do much to be considered as participating. If you never do any DPS at all or do it so late in the encounter as to appear as though you just arrived, then you won’t get ‘Gold’ credit or that skill point.

This isn’t Rift. There are no dedicated healers or tanks… the only dedicated role is damage dealer. We all can do it, we’re all expected to take our turn as tanks and heals… but not play that way exclusively. You choose to play that way, you will find that the game doesn’t reward you for doing so.

GW2 is different. It is meant to be played different. Embrace it, don’t run against the grain because you can.

I agree with pmiles here. There isn’t a “healer” anymore. Anyone can heal themselves and negate damage through abilities. There isn’t any reason that someone who wants to focus more on support shouldn’t be able to contribute damage-wise as well.

I get credit on every dynamic event even when I run around rezzing the poor melee guys who get instagibbed on champion boss fights. Heck, I gt credit even if I fired a single arrow or quite often (and I feel this may be a bug) I get credit just for being there. (Several times I have arrived late to an event, was in range just as the boss went down, and got credit)

I disagree with den and pmiles, I think the intent of the game was that every character CAN do everything, not that your supposed to or are forced to.

If someone wants to play their character in a more support type of way, which isn’t JUST healing but can also include causing negative effects to monsters or removing effects from your team mates. All of that should be awarded with XP and loot in some manor.

Currently as my elementalist, I would much rather use fire and blast away, then drop a heal on a fellow player that could use some help, or help a downed player while a battle is still going on.

I think that the game doesn’t support the concept of people keeping a specific role like “healer” or “tank” however everyone can deal damage and support others at the same time. You should discard what you know and try to grasp this style instead.

Don’t certain or even all classes get skills/traits/abilities that actually buff healing by doing damage?

I think that the xp you get from rezzing is your reward for doing it. I don’t think there will be a lot of people stopping to do it at end game like they do leveling. As for healing, I think it’s everyone for themself there. I’m not going to be a healer for anyone when they can dodge the big hits and heal themselves. That’s on them.

I think the whole credit system is screwy. My warrior will be banging on a Champion the whole fight and I end up with a bronze, but walk by an escort quest and never fight and get a gold. I tend to switch from bow to sword depending on the situation and if I use the bow with AOE I hardly ever get gold, but get a ton of loot if there are lots of mobs. When I use a sword I get less loot but get more karma because the system seems to give more credit to non AOE attacks.

Lucky.3870:

I think that the game doesn’t support the concept of people keeping a specific role like “healer” or “tank” however everyone can deal damage and support others at the same time. You should discard what you know and try to grasp this style instead.

See, I think it’s easy enough to say this and yet the fact remains that a group of players can indeed form a perfectly viable “trinity” style group. I’d even go so far as to say some situations benefit significantly from players taking on more specific roles. The game definitely supports such behavior and the OP is a perfect example of that. By dedicating their time towards ensuring other players stay on their feet throughout the course of an encounter they are absolutely providing a needed service because the odds are without their input the encounter would devolve into a series of downed state players constantly needing to be rezzed.

I think it’s a legitimate complaint/concern. In the first couple days of the game I too had issues with some of the big events in terms of receiving a bronze or silver instead of a gold. This despite being actively involved with the encounter from start to finish. I thought for a time perhaps it was due to swapping weapons and maybe my damage count was resetting upon each swap. But then I realized the real culprit. When I saw players dead or in downed state I made it a point of stopping my attacks and getting them back on their feet. There’s no question doing this helped not only those players specifically but the encounter as a whole, yet the reality is I lost precious DPS and therefor the game itself deemed my involvement to be minimal.

I never tried “healing” exclusively but that should be awarded as well of course. On the other hand since there are no healers in the game it’s kind of stupid trying to be one.

pmiles.3489:

The primary role of every character is damage dealer. We can all participate as a tank, healer, and support… but the game was not designed with pigeon hole roles in mind. The idea is that you dabble in each of these things through the course of the fight.

You say their cooldowns may be down… why are they still in there then? It’s their job to back away when they can’t stay in the fray, not hope that someone else is going to heal them or protect them. They run out, someone else takes over. It’s a dance.

I can get credit merely being nearby an event, so it’s not like you have to do much to be considered as participating. If you never do any DPS at all or do it so late in the encounter as to appear as though you just arrived, then you won’t get ‘Gold’ credit or that skill point.

This isn’t Rift. There are no dedicated healers or tanks… the only dedicated role is damage dealer. We all can do it, we’re all expected to take our turn as tanks and heals… but not play that way exclusively. You choose to play that way, you will find that the game doesn’t reward you for doing so.

GW2 is different. It is meant to be played different. Embrace it, don’t run against the grain because you can.

Absolutely this

Also i could never understand why someone would need a reward for helping others
the reward for reviving is immaterial it is you being a social being

OP, I have noticed the same thing, especially on the bigger events, like the big dragon events. I spend the whole time buffing like crazy, removing conditions, rezing, etc. Basically being a huge asset through support, only to recieve NO credit or loot from the boss.

I agree with the general theme of responses, that a dedicated support player is not IDEALLY necessary for taking out event bosses for example, but it can be useful and enjoyable all the same. Now, what I have done is alter my playstyle to adapt to this fact; I spend about the same amount of time providing support, but I make sure to keep my ranged auto attack going on the boss, so as to get credit for the event. This has worked for me well so far, and I have not had the issue of not getting credit since, that I can think of.

As for the challenge for melee to get credit…every class in this game has the option for ranged abilities. If you’re getting crushed in melee range…stay out of it. If you don’t like your ranged options, pop in with your melee, blow your cooldowns, and pop back out again. Dodge is your friend.

Even as a water elementalist or engineer or what have you, you have some abilities that cause damage. But honestly you shouldn’t be trying to play the healer/ support role all the time. You need to have balance. Once you learn how to balance out your damage, support and control abilities, you’ll find you are getting more rewards.

There’s no healer, tank, dps paradigm in this game. Why should you get rewarded for being a healer?

Less class roles, people being told to only play dps = people getting bored easy and leaving the game. I personally like to dps, get bored, switch to healer, get bored, switch back again, maybe tank for a bit.

Less options = less fun in any game. GW2 is an awesome game but the combat/classes feels a bit one dimensional. no gear, no class roles, makes it a big dps/pew pew mosh pit.

I understand wanting to change the old mmo system, but you need to repalce it WITH something, not just scrap it and leave a gaping hole.

I REALLY think healing XP rewards should be implemented into the system . I run a Guardian minor DPS support/heal build myslef to run with my guildies and WvWvW. IMO if there are skills that help the HP of allies and expecialy for example the Tomb Of Courage skill 5 – “Fully heal up to five nearby allies”. why whould you get no cradit for saving allies HP in a the Holy smokes moments o reven just to sustain there HP. Yes, there is no absolute Healer class in the game but there are HP support calsses that are effective for group survival.

Scrag.8765:

Less class roles, people being told to only play dps = people getting bored easy and leaving the game. I personally like to dps, get bored, switch to healer, get bored, switch back again, maybe tank for a bit.

Less options = less fun in any game. GW2 is an awesome game but the combat/classes feels a bit one dimensional. no gear, no class roles, makes it a big dps/pew pew mosh pit.

I understand wanting to change the old mmo system, but you need to repalce it WITH something, not just scrap it and leave a gaping hole.

I could not disagree more with this statement. I find that in GW2, you need to learn what your class can do moreso than in any other game. You need to be able to use the skill you need, sometimes within a very small window of time. In a normal open-world situation, you may be able to get away with one dimentional thinking like that, but in a dungeon or wvw, you’re going to have to think and play on you’re toes. It is most definitely NOT a dps/pew pew mosh pit, to say the least. Any people you see doing stuff like that has not yet learned how to play their class properly, or at least not to its full, complete potential. I have never played a game where I need to be so constantly engaged, always ready to roll or dodge or toss a boon or clear a condition. To say there are less options here is saying you need to become MUCH more familiar with your class and GW2 combat in general.

Shy Of Day.7259:

I REALLY think healing XP rewards should be implemented into the system . I run a Guardian minor DPS support/heal build myslef to run with my guildies and WvWvW. IMO if there are skills that help the HP of allies and expecialy for example the Tomb Of Courage skill 5 – “Fully heal up to five nearby allies”. why whould you get no cradit for saving allies HP in a the Holy smokes moments o reven just to sustain there HP. Yes, there is no absolute Healer class in the game but there are HP support calsses that are effective for group survival.

In open world events, I would stay away from the tome, and using skills to heal 5 allies. Leave those 5 allies to heal themselves, or get downed and raised up if they don’t know any better. Alternatively, use your staff and buff the DPS of EVERYONE in proximity, toss out a decent heal at the end. Toss out some stability, some protection and regen, all while keeping your auto attack going. Try it out, and I know you will see better results.

If you see someone get downed during an even DO NOT help them because the time you spent on getting them up might be the difference between silver or gold rewards!

That’s what I learned so far from playing

I was going to say what I see has already been said. You can DPS and drop AOE/heal/whatever at the same time. I know a lot of people want to zone out, target a single tank, and spam a single heal button for 4 hours on raid night, but GW2 isn’t made for that kind of gameplay.

Nutcracker.7615:

If you see someone get downed during an even DO NOT help them because the time you spent on getting them up might be the difference between silver or gold rewards!

That’s what I learned so far from playing

Haha, I’ll be sure to leave you on the floor if I see you ; )

Just kidding, but I see the time spent helping a DOWNED player insignificant, especially considering there’s usually others attempting to raise as well, plus its the nice/smart thing to do. Now, attempting to reise a permanently downed player is another thing entirely…this I do not recommend.

This is a game, we play this for fun, to get away from the real world for a bit and relax.

There should absolute be no reason anyone should say how someone should pla their toon. If the OP likes healing and support he should get credit for playing that way.

You cannot just say “Oh A net is trying to discourage healer roles and let everyone do anything” that’s fine if they want everyone to do everything, but some people just enjoy healing/support or taking a few hits (tank style play) to save others. Those peoria should be able to get credit for their actions as their playstyle is just as good and helpful as the ele spamming fireballs.