Guild Wars 2

To be informative and suggestive, I did some tests to see how long you would last at level 80 with 0 healing and 20,000 health when taking x damage per second using each of the 3 warrior healing skills.

Since healing surge healed different amounts, I averaged the 3 amounts to get a base heal of 7050 which I used during the tests.

I predict healing signet would be the best long term healing skill since it relies on regeneration rather than bursts of healing. I also think it uses the “less health now, more health later” theory since it is not possible to manipulate when you get your health. Finally, the fact that it has no secondary effect makes me think it should be the best skill in terms of healing. Since healing surge has the best base heal, I predict it will be the best short term heal.

The results:

LONG TERM:
When taking 220 damage per second, you would die in 1015 seconds with healing signet if you relied on the passive healing and waited till 1 health to use the active (the most efficient method). You could survive indefinitely with the other two, using them on recharge.

MEDIUM/LONG TERM:
When taking 650 damage per second, you could survive for 47.9 seconds using mending. You could survive for 49.5 seconds using healing signet. You could survive for 52.5 seconds using healing surge.

MEDIUM/SHORT TERM:
When taking 1500 damage per second, you could survive for 17 seconds using mending. You could survive for 17.6 seconds using healing signet. You could survive for 18 seconds using healing surge.

SHORT TERM:
When taking 3000 damage per second, you could survive 7.8 seconds using healing signet. You could survive 8.5 seconds using mending. You could survive 9 seconds using healing surge.

These results are really surprising. Healing surge appears to be far underrated as a healing skill. It makes me think it is the best of both worlds since it gives the largest burst of healing aaaaaaaand gives the most healing over a long period of time. In all honesty, I think healing signet needs a buff. Despite being the only heal with no secondary effects, it came in last 2/4 times and never came in first.

HEALING SIGNET FlAW IN PVE
To you PvEers, healing signet is really strong low-levels which makes it seem stupidly weak at high levels. For example, in a level 21 area, healing signet heals 67 per pulse. Average maximum health of a warrior in this area is about 2100. This means healing signet heals about 3.2% of your maximum health per second. At level 80 when you have about 20000 health, healing signet heals for 200 health per second, which is only 1% of your maximum health. So from a low level to a high level, healing signet’s regeration is reduced by over 1/3.