Guild Wars 2

New question: What class is most sought after?

Hey guys!

I’m looking to start playing GW2, and I’ve always been a support/healer. So I figured I’d get the opinion of the community…

If I wanted to play a support class (but not pure healing), what would I roll?

Assuming I wanted to heal, I’d roll a guardian, right?

Thanks for any info..

Edit: And actually, just as a bonus question since I’m here… if I wanted to play a DPS class, which one is the rarest? I almost never DPS, but if I make an alt or something, it would be nice to know.

If there’s anything else you think a brand new player should know… I’m listening

I really love my Healing Ele…yeah, it’s healing, but I still do good damage and don’t go down very often, unless I leroy jenkins, and even then I can get myself out of trouble about 50% of the time…. And, I don’t only do healing – I speed buff, power/might buff, def buff…and do a lot of healing without actually using healing skills xD

I’d say try both Guardian, and a staff Elementalist. Guardians have great boon output, while staff elementalists can consistently put out green numbers while also providing a wide variety of useful ground fields for other players to utilize.

well necromancer is a viable support build
healing ele is stronger than the necro on damage and heals very nicely
guardian heals less but is a strong class
A lot of classes are capable of healing really.

RebelYell.7132:

I’d say try both Guardian, and a staff Elementalist. Guardians have great boon output, while staff elementalists can consistently put out green numbers while also providing a wide variety of useful ground fields for other players to utilize.

This.

Guardian is easier to play than an Ele, though.

Thanks for all the tips guys! Awesome.

Between Guardian and staff Elementalist – are they both accepted? (Will I get a group with both? WvW/PvE/Bosses?)

Can a healing Ele solo heal? (if that even exists in this game, I don’t know anything about GW2) Or is a healing elementalist a support that requires someone else to also heal?

I’m leaning towards elementalist at the moment…

Good choice. They’re both very much accepted (although you shouldn’t worry about this. Find a good guild that doesn’t discriminate, and you’ll double your pleasure)

Both Ele and Guardian can solo most of the PVE content. I’m not sure what you mean by “solo heal”, though. Can an Ele heal himself enough to survive tough fights. Yes, and DPS at the same time! Can he dish out enough healing to keep his entire team in the game. No. GW2 has no “holy trinity” concept – each class is self-sustainable, and has their own heals.

Dual-dagger Ele is one of the most powerful, survivable, and fun classes to play – all rolled into one. The skill cap is a bit high, and you will die a lot initially, though. Once you hit level 50-ish, and learn to rotate your alignments, you’ll be well on your way, though.

Good luck!

ps: I still suggest Guardian as a better “starter class” until you learn the dodge/swap mechanic well in this game.

Killermandude.4382:

Thanks for all the tips guys! Awesome.

Between Guardian and staff Elementalist – are they both accepted? (Will I get a group with both? WvW/PvE/Bosses?)

Can a healing Ele solo heal? (if that even exists in this game, I don’t know anything about GW2) Or is a healing elementalist a support that requires someone else to also heal?

I’m leaning towards elementalist at the moment…

There are no targeted heals in the game, except for your self-heal. Elementalist’s notable healing comes from the “Water” attunement of their staff, which can create two separate AoE effects which heal players, a geyser, and a rain. In addition, these fields can create “combos”. A “blast” finisher in a water field does a burst heal on nearby players, projectiles will cleanse conditions off those standing in the field, and a “whirl” will send bolts of cleansing water flying everywhere.

Part of the gimmick of Elementalists as well is that, if healing is not needed, you can switch to other roles. Air will allow you to increase the mobility of yourself allies, Earth will give you crowd control and debuffing, and Fire will give you juicy AoE damage and buffing abilities. If you’re constantly swapping, you’ll almost always have a powerful ability off cooldown.

Self-healing, if you’re into that, is also a big part of the Guardian’s wheelhouse. Their mace self-heals on the third hit of the attack chain, and has a short cooldown ability for creating regeneration fields. At level 60, you can also make the hammer into a powerful self-healing tool, by proccing heals off the symbols and boons that it spams.

You could use a Shout Warrior for 3 7K heals, 2 on 20 sec CD 1 on 24.

PearlGore.7419:

You could use a Shout Warrior for 3 7K heals, 2 on 20 sec CD 1 on 24.

Three 7K heals? I play a shout warrior… that number is not possible. Even total 7K heal is not possible with all three shouts combined.

I’m not trying to challenge you here, but I’m just confounded. Care to show your build/screenshots/footage?

Keep in mind you have to be heavily traited to heal with shouts. The OP can be boon spamming with a Guardian or laying down fields with an Elementalist out of character creation.

One class that hasn’t been mentioned but offers strong support potential is the Engineer. Lots of support and healing potential there. Engineers are a bit more work out of the box than, for example, the Guardian. However, once you get setup, they are a good support class. My current Engineer support character that I am experimenting with (at 80) can produce a significant amount of team support while still stacking conditions on targets. I tend to be the only one in the group bringing conditions, so that helps. Ive tried Turretmaster/Pistol&Shield, Flamethrower Tank/Elixir Gun, but have heard from other Engineers that they have had great success with an Elixir-focused build using Grenades/Elixirs for its superior AOE output and conditions (read vuln stacking) to match the thrown elixir benefits. Engineer can be built in so many ways that it doesn’t require a lot of make its support useful to a team.

I will also echo the same comments others have made about Guardian and Elementalist, but want to say that most classes can be built for support roles, just that some are more effective than others for the job. Guardian, Elementalist, and Engineer all can heal and offer team support straight out of the gate. Warriors can do it by traiting for healing by shout or banner (but if you trait for heals on your warrior you’ll give up something else to do it since it requires 30 points in Tactics (if I remember right) to make it work). Necromancers are strong supporters through boon manipulation and can offer some respectable healing output as well. To get the most from Necromancer healing though, as with warriors, you need to heavily trait for it. Minions/Well Spec has worked for me in the past on my Necro as a support character.

Hope that helps, if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a mail in-game or a whisper and I will answer what I can.