Guild Wars 2

Howdy folks,

I’m kind of wondering about the support capabilities of the classes. My main is an engineer and I’ve been having a lot of fun there since I’ve returned to the game, but in this last stage of the living story I used the Crowned Pavilion arena and events to get some levels on my elementalist. I was only in my 30s so I didn’t have many traits and focused on doing some support stuff and was fairly impressed with what I was actually able to pull off, and I had a lot more fun doing it that I thought I would.

So I guess what I’m asking is what classes offer the better support options? And how do they stack up when they’re all leveled up and rounded out?

Since I already have my engineer leveled up I’m trying to look into that. Elixir gun looks like it’ll have its uses in this department with condition removal, but its 5 skill doesn’t seem have much impact.

With Elementalist I only got a glimpse and I was upscaled pretty significantly, but was impressed with what I saw, especially being able to detonate my own fields with ease. Little concerned about the damage side of the class though. (run HGH on my engi)

I also have a mid-level guardian, but there are so bloody many of them running around (probably with good reason though) and I always seem to get a little bored after getting a few levels and wander off to something else. Fond of the hammer though.

So can anyone give some info on these classes or any others to consider if I want to be particularly helpful to groups?

Guardian = great boon generation. Shouts are a pretty easy way to support a small team, you can trait so that their symbols (created by weapons) heal allies, virtues can give significant benefits to yourself and allies (more with traits)… all with very good self-support so that you’ll always survive where others would struggle.

Engineer = elixir gun as you’ve seen can do a lot. Don’t sleep on it’s 5 skill; that pulse heal restores a tremendous amount of health if you can stay in it for a bit. Standard elixirs as well have their charms (and with cleaning formula 409 they can remove a condition). Healing turret generates a water field which is supremely useful if you or your teammates can detonate it. Flame turret generates a smoke field which can be nice in combos as well.

You can’t talk about support classes in this game really because each class is capable of being traited to lean towards solo or group play.

Having said that, Guardian and staff Ele are the two main classes in WvW because they complement each other nicely. Throw in a few Necros and a Mesmer and you’ve got a nice little team.

Honestly, any class can do support. It’s down to what kind of support you wanna be. What kind of support do you want to be?

Engineer’s can possibly “burst heal” the most out of any class by themselves, due to several water fields (healing turret + toolbelt kit) and blast finishers (a ton of them). The other 2 classes with water fields (ranger and staff ele) have much longer lasting fields, but with greater cooldowns and have much lower access to blast finishers.

On top of that engies can remove conditions and grant boons (with limits) with elixir tosses.

Guardians are generally considered the quintessential support class, since they’re the most “obvious” one – most of their builds will come with some form of party healing and/or party-wide boon generating and condition removal, not to mention their virtues’ actives, which are naturally AoE. A full cleric support-speced build can give a lot of constant party wide passive healing, extra active healing and condition removal.

Necromancers can make a well build, with some moderate party healing, AoE protection, and condition removal/conversion on top of pretty good AoE damage.

Rangers have a water field and spirit builds can provide several party wide benefits, including instant revival.

Elementalists, as you’ve experienced, have staff, which is almost exclusively designed for artillery and support, including the strongest water field in the game.

Warriors can do support shout builds or banner builds (which also include an instant-rez option), both benefiting team mates.

Mesmers can do a lot of boon generation and sharing, on top of their party wide stealth, quickness and even portals and blinks, which can help a lot even in PvE.

Out of all, Thieves are probably the worst supporters on their own. Their party-sharing venoms are lackluster, and all they really bring to the table is the long lasting AoE stealth, which mesmers and engies (smoke fields with blast finishers) can also do (although at a greater cost). However, give any shortbow Thief some combo fields to play with (such as a buddy staff ele) and they become the best healers/might stackers/etc in the game, due to their ability to really spam blast finishers.

All in all, it’s less about “who can support” and more about what type of support you personally wanna do.

Thief being the worst support is a load of rubbish.

They have AoE Stealth which heals, and the stealth is far longer than any of the stealth that Mesmers or Engineers can provide. Comparing them is pretty stupid. They can also almost permanently blind mobs, as well as reflect projectiles. Having thieves is one of the only ways to complete very high level Fractals for this reason.

The Baws.5164:

Thief being the worst support is a load of rubbish.

No, it isn’t.

The Baws.5164:

They have AoE Stealth which heals,

Not that much. At most, if someone sits on the entire Shadow’s Refuge that’s 5.3k over 4 seconds, which is a pretty mediocre heal for a 60 seconds cooldown. It’s not terrible, but it’s not fantastic either.

The Baws.5164:

and the stealth is far longer than any of the stealth that Mesmers or Engineers can provide.

It is longer, I said so. It is one of their advantages. That said, most of the “skipping” you can do with a Thief can be done with either of the others, just not as easily.

The Baws.5164:

They can also almost permanently blind mobs,

Trash mobs, which aren’t the issue, even in high level fractals. Champions ignore 90% of blinds.

The Baws.5164:

as well as reflect projectiles.

So can Guardians and Mesmers, with a higher uptime I believe.

Don’t get me wrong, they work as support, but they’re hardly the most… impressive when it comes to support builds. They’re generally better as DPS characters that also bring some innate support.

I would have to agree that Thief is the least supportive character, but only because their support is nearly all damage mitigation rather than direct support (healing / condition removal, etc.). The Theif’s support is AWESOME when combined with some of the more direct support classes (Ele, Guardian, Eng) and should NOT be dismissed as undesired, however.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I’m probably going to stick with my engi since it’s already nice and leveled up. Little frustrating whit the randomness of some of the elixir effects when thrown, but at least every gets some might and loses a condition due to the traits I have. That’s something right ? Also tried a the trait that makes thrown elixirs strip a boon, which has helped on enemies that use retaliation.

The ele is proving to be a little problematic as I near lvl 60, little too squishy and can’t really seem to squeeze enough damage to keep pace. So I’ll probably back burn that for now as entertaining as it was during the last living story stage’s events.

Though this has made me look more into necro now. Played a bit with it in the mists and it actually seems pretty okay. Think I’ve been turned off from the class all this time by the aesthetic and combat noises but I can maybe see it working out. I’m particularly curious about using death shroud for support, like the traits that heal allies when using Life Transfer or leaving death shroud.

Though looking at the support options now I’m seriously considering forcing myself to level my guardian and hope I don’t burn out on it, since they seem to have some nifty tools for outright preventing damage rather than mitigating it, and a proactive approach could be a lot of fun.

I did actually try a thief. Got into the 70s before I deleted it to reuse the name for my engi. The support build I wanted to try was poison share but the more I looked into it the more I felt like it wasn’t the way I wanted to go because of the long 45-second cooldowns on every poison =/. Though the new torment poison looks like it might be fun. I’ll probably restart one of these but I’m not sure how much effort I’ll put into the support angle.

ProxyDamage.9826:

The Baws.5164:

and the stealth is far longer than any of the stealth that Mesmers or Engineers can provide.

It is longer, I said so. It is one of their advantages. That said, most of the “skipping” you can do with a Thief can be done with either of the others, just not as easily.

The Baws.5164:

as well as reflect projectiles.

So can Guardians and Mesmers, with a higher uptime I believe.

Skipping with a Thief requires a patient group. Most people do not wish to sit inside of your Shadow’s Refuge for the full duration (nor do they understand that premature leaving will cancel their stealth).

When I skip mobs, I am able to run with 17 seconds of Stealth on my Mesmer. After which, I am able to Portal my allies to me to avoid the hassle of leaving someone behind (because I leave them all behind) because they died..