Guild Wars 2

so excited that i finally bought the game as it was sold out everywhere !!!

i’ve always played healer class in all other MMORPG so i am looking forward to play one again in guild wars.

but…which class can heal ?

thank you

All of them can heal in one way or another.

I would think an elementalist using water would have the greatest focus on actually healing people (since they have a lot of skills that do damage or heal allies) but don’t quote me on that.

all of them there is no one profeshion that is “healer” nor tank for that matter ArenaNet did away with the trifecta in GW2 so find one you like playing as and have at it

this game has for the most part removed the trinity of dps-tank-healer. every class has a heal to help them stay alive, so its mostly about everyone paying attention to whats happening and not relying on someone spamming heals on them. you can make some of the classes very supportish, putting out heals and buffs but you wont find a class that can sit there and spam heal due to cd’s and the fact that other than everyones main heal they just dont heal enough even with lots of +heal gear.

There is no formal ‘healing’ class in GW2. Instead, all classes are given a special tab on their screen for a self healing ability (some classes can have aoe type heals that heal more than themselves however). Also, water attuned elementalist do have very good support type healing moves, but that isn’t a healing class either, healing still mostly comes down to you personally looking after yourself.

Guild Wars doesn’t have a healer class. Going for Elementalist, Necromancer or Guardian is probably the closest you could get to being a healer.

You will probably be dissapointed if you are looking to “be a healer” in this game.

Everyone can do a little healing, a couple of classes get an “extra” heal or two, but none are really healers per se.

No “healer” class, sorry. The best way of dealing with damage in this game is avoid it or reduce it, which is a good thing because it shift the support role to something more interesting then sitting back and spamming heals :P Give the guardian a try if you want to focus on helping your buddies.

I think Guardians get an elite skill that turns them into a pure healer for about 30 seconds or something. Its the top 30 skill point elite however.

Ok now I’m pretty sure you are bored and opening useless threads, would you please stop trolling?

im still downloading the patch lol. i have no idea what classes are like so i asked. not trolling my friend.

Pick the class that looks most interesting. Every class has healing abilities intended to keep themselves sustained. The guardian has slightly better other healing (at melee range) than other classes.

I found playing support with the Guardian really fun. Lot’s of group heals and protections to help everyone a little bit. You’re not going to be able to keep anyone alive indefinitely but you can help people from getting worn down too much, anything else is up to themselves dodging and using their heals.

While no way “a healing class” my main is a Ranger and there are a couple group healing skills on him as well. There’s a healing spring that does AoE heals and a spirit that does heals and condition removals as well as revivals.

Phoenix.3809 Your are asking in another post what profession is the most OP because you like to faceroll people on your main and that you are not a very good player. Now you’re here asking about healers when it is widely known there is no dedicated healers in this game.

I call troll, I hope you continue because being a troll in this game or on these forums garners a perma ban.

Engys have a healing kit which replaces skills with healing skills

Engineers, Mesmers, Elementalists, and Guardians are good for healing/support roles but like mentioned above there isn’t really a specific healing roll and all healing abilities that affect other players are minor in comparison to your own heal that you get.

Guardians have the most healing id say.

The Elementalist, Necromancer, Engeneer, Thief, Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer and Ranger.

You will find the heal on default 6.

The first thing which has been mentioned several times is that there is no “holy paladin” type healer in this game.

That said you CAN play a defensive support character. I’ll try and list the options that I know of and how they play out but take everything I say with a pinch of salt as I haven’t played every class etc.

1) Guardians. Whether or not they are the best defensive support I know they can make a bloody strong one. They are probably the easiest since they specialize in buffing both themselves and those around them.

2) Elementalist. These are sort of odd. The ele works by having 4 elemental attunements which you can switch between at will. Of these the water attunement packs a lot of defensive utility from GTAOE heal to other support esque mechanics, I believe you can spec into this area in order to get them really up on it but that is not to say you can’t still bring the noise the moment you go fire/air.

3) Warrrior. I have heard of a warrior spec revolving around mass shouts that is really tanky and brings a lot of healing as well as other utility. The single truth of this game is that the warrior really can do anything if you build them right, it’s why they are probably the no1 proff atm.

4) Engineer. Don’t know the specifics but I know they CAN build defensive utility. Look to other players than me for anything more than that.

5) Mesmer. This one isn’t per say a defensive proff but there are so really cool thins you can do with the chaos tree+staff. You dont have heals but you do a crap ton of random boons that last for ages while at the same time applying some quite crippling debuffs. Weakness+protection = no damage.

6) Theif, Necro, Ranger. They might have a spec to do this but I don’t know of it and have heard nothing about such a spec.

You won’t find a ranger spec that’s too amazing at healing, but you can definitely take Healing Spring as your heal skill, and use it as a combo field to apply regen to allies. You can take Search and Rescue as a utility skill to heal downed allies. Lastly, you can take Spirit of Renewal as your elite skill to heal, remove conditions and res allies.

I suppose your pet could also act as healer too. I know some pets have heal skills, some Moas apply protection, and the Brown Bear removes conditions in an AoE.

With regards to the 3 that I missed, if someone could say whether or not you can build a defensive utility spec as them or if it’s not possible.. Could you fex build a ranger build which stacks protection and other such boons on allies making them harder to kill rather than “stopping them from dieing” if that makes sense. Much like the mesmer build I mentioned.

all of them, although my main a necromancer does some nice healing.

Malakree.5912:

5) Mesmer. This one isn’t per say a defensive proff but there are so really cool thins you can do with the chaos tree+staff. You dont have heals but you do a crap ton of random boons that last for ages while at the same time applying some quite crippling debuffs. Weakness+protection = no damage.

This isn’t entirely true, Mesmer’s CAN directly heal allies. If you put 20 points in the Inspiration trait line you can pick the ‘Heal allies when you cast a mantra’ then when you finished channelling the cast for a mantra lets say ‘Mantra of Pain’ for example you will heal allies for a fair amount (If they are near enough to you). So you can heal your party every 10/15 or so seconds using that method, I use it in dungeons

Yeah I know of that but I’m just not sure how viable a mantra build is. In order to get the best use of it you need to go 30 into the power tree which kinda kittens you elsewhere. Compared to say the ele who gets a heal on their number 3 staff in water attunement your much stronger as a boon/debuff bot that as a heal orientated character.

That’s not to say you CAN’T pick up some healing but generally it would be more the kind of thing you would run as defensive utility in an offensive build. Feedback+null field+phantasmal disenchanter/defender would as a general rule all be stronger in a defensive build.

Oh I’m not belittling your opinion here btw, mesmer is the proff I play so I just went into build discussion mode :P

EDIT: BTW anet, I love the fact it replaces swear words with “kittens” makes me laugh every time.

EDIT2: Second thought the daze mantra would fit quite nicely into a defensive orientated build, It’s just a shame the charge time is sokittenlong since it really cripples any potential mantra use.

manwhat.1745:

You won’t find a ranger spec that’s too amazing at healing, but you can definitely take Healing Spring as your heal skill, and use it as a combo field to apply regen to allies. You can take Search and Rescue as a utility skill to heal downed allies. Lastly, you can take Spirit of Renewal as your elite skill to heal, remove conditions and res allies.

I suppose your pet could also act as healer too. I know some pets have heal skills, some Moas apply protection, and the Brown Bear removes conditions in an AoE.

Use +healing weapons, switch between Fern Hound (Regen buff) and a Blue Moa (Regen health and Protection), take healing spring for AOE regen, and maybe some of the spirits for support. In theory, anyways. Oh, and Spirit of Nature Elite skill.

I think being able to heal your party members every 10 or so seconds has been incredibly useful. You also don’t need full traits for that to be effective. I only have 20 points in Inspiration to get the ‘Heal allies when you cast a mantra’ trait and then 30 in domination with ‘Mantras being able to be cast 3 times’ which allows you to use Mantra of pain three times as almost instant casts which do decent damage and then each time you channel the mantra you also heal all your nearby party members. You essentially to damage while healing.

This is the only mantra I use so I wouldn’t call it a mantra build. I use a greatsword and scepter/focus, I also bring a staff with me so I can easily swap the greatsword for the staff when required.

(I’m lvl 60 something at the moment, Don’t really keep track of levels either way it’s worked great for me many times in exDungeons. Not tried it in PvP)

Edit: I forgot to mention it also heals yourself so it’s almost like a second heal while you’re doing damage. The only downside is the cast time which is about 5 seconds but not that hard to fit in and definitely saved my own life and my party members many times.

Wait, is it when you channel the mantra or when you trigger it?

Personally I’m running 10/15/0/25/20 for a phantasm stack build, also nice with the regen from phantasms. Dunno….just never really liked the idea of mantras, that 3-4second original cast time feels like an age in combat. Also your build isn’t really a defensive build, as I said its offensive with defensive utility which isn’t what the OP was after.

Malakree.5912:

Wait, is it when you channel the mantra or when you trigger it?

Personally I’m running 10/15/0/25/20 for a phantasm stack build, also nice with the regen from phantasms. Dunno….just never really liked the idea of mantras, that 3-4second original cast time feels like an age in combat. Also your build isn’t really a defensive build, as I said its offensive with defensive utility which isn’t what the OP was after.

When you finish casting the mantra it heals yourself and your party members al though I have noticed the range of it isn’t huge but you can run while casting it so you can quickly get near to someone who needs healing to top them up.

With the trait of being able to use the mantra three times before having to cast it again those 5 seconds are realistically divided between 3 uses and so it’s not really as long as it feels. I did notice some other mantras have cooldowns. I initially tried the healing one but hated it especially as the heals felt small in comparison to the wait for the CD and the time it took to channel it. The damage one you can keep spamming as it has no CD as such.

Edit: Also about it being an offensive build yes it is but it’s also a defensive build because when I use the staff in fights I can use the Chaos Storm, Confusion with the scepter, Slows/Knock’backs’ with Temporal curtain. Then I tend to use blink but that’s my personal preference, When required I swap that around.

Then I use mantra of pain which heals and then depending on fight I use feedback/null field/signet of compassion/poison (I’m asura) and for elite skills either Time Warp or the Moa at the moment (Moafiying bosses ftw) so I very much play a control/supportive/heal/remove conditions roll and being offensive.

Edit 2: Also I forgot that the 20 inspiration makes it so phantasms give retaliation/regeneration. In domination I make it so clones cripple foes when they are killed and shattering illusions cause vulnerability.

Who said you can’t do awesome damage while being supportive The remaining points I’ll be putting in Illusions.. Most likely.

I’m a ranger and I have abilities that can help heal the group. For example, I have the Healing Spring ability. During a group battle against a boss, I frequently run up to within feet of the boss, activate Healing Spring, and then back off again for my normal ranged attack. The Healing Spring will give healing to my pet and any other melee class players within the aura radius for 15 seconds.

I haven’t played all the other classes, but I often see that other players have activated some type of healing or regeneration aura skill, or setup a healing turret, etc.

Finally, any player can resurrect any other player. It’s common for a player to die in a group battle, and be rezzed relatively quickly.

Skolvikings.5132:

Finally, any player can resurrect any other player. It’s common for a player to die in a group battle, and be rezzed relatively quickly.

Error, to many resurectors. lol

You also have to keep in mind that you may need to max out a trait line in order to see the full benefits of healing for your class.