Guild Wars 2

I’ve recently seen some ideas for healing skills and I’d like to see the numbers behind them before I make any major judgement calls on them but before that, I’d like to point to the ideas I think are good and the ideas I think are bad. Let’s start with the bad;

The Bad;
A mesmer signet that passively heals based on how many clones that you have spawned and recharges your phantasms actively.

In a world where the plan is to increase build diversity this skill is basically saying “Forget that! Who cares?! Let’s make everyone OP and then no one is OP right?” The reality is, only certain speccs will become OP; The Prismatic Understanding Mesmer, Phantasm Mesmer. These guys can already last quite long by just bouncing in an out of stealth. This healing skill will make them more than formidable as they are already the one specc you don’t want to encounter as a roaming player.

My thoughts on a better idea for a Mesmer skill; Passive; Heal overtime for every mantra you have active. Active; Heals and gives you a buff depending on which mantra is left active.

or If build diversity isn’t a thing;
Passive; heals every time you shatter. Active; Heals extra for every shatter skill on cooldown. At least that would give a build that doesn’t have survivability a bit more survivability.

Ranger: A spirit heal
Once again, where is the build diversity expansion in this skill idea? All I see it point to is more use of spirits, more use of minions, more use of things that clutter the screen in PvP which is something we’re supposed to be trying to avoid.

I like the skill but the form it’s taking does not push for what I think was expected of the direction for the game.

Engi;
Get a burst of healing when health reaches 1%. I’m not sure who would use this skill. It seems like it would be more prone to you getting nuked at 1% before it even activates but you are the programmers so, I can’t talk much on this front.

Ele;
Hit area. Heal yourself for each foe hit. Sounds like a good idea but I don’t think anyone will use it unless it’s instant-cast

The Good
These ones will be numbered because I feel like ranking them;

No. 3: Thief
Heal yourself after using this venom.

No 2: Guardian
Healing yourself when attacking for a short time. A really good skill for a solo guardian.

No 1: Necromancer
Siphon health off enemies that strike you and activate to heal allies attacking a particular foe.

ON THE FENCE; Warrior
A stance that heals you every time you’re attacked for a short time. It lasts for a short time so using it wisely is encouraged but with all the other stances the class has, a combination with those would see this build be quite formidable.

Well that’s just my opinion anyway.

i think the thief one blows…we already have signet of malice if you want to heal on hit. i also really like the warrior one; it will confuse people (is it block? is it the heal? probably shouldnt spam into it)

There’s a lot to be said about an instant-cast heal with aoe damage and a blast finisher into it.

Arcane Brilliance gives more support healing with staff’s water fields, swiftness out of combat with Lightning Field, 3 might stacks (and perhaps 10 seconds of fury with 30 fire investment) on fire fields, and heals the frail mh dagger users for a bit more on average due to the heal bonus per target hit, which will be achieved more easily at melee range.

Staff users have been asking for more blast finishers since evasive arcana was bug fixed, and mh dagger users have been asking for more survivability. Meanwhile, all party might-stacking builds will potentially get better with this. And of course, all instant-cast burst eles, which is a potencial problem.

I find it to be very interesting overall.

Mesmer’s passive signet scares me, but I wouldn’t mind if the passive numbers were on the lower side and the bulk of the skill was on the active effect. At least it seems to demand a specific playstyle, and creates opportunites for counterplay, the two important things that Healing Signet fails at.

I think a water spirit is the more natural fit for a cool new ranger’s heal, but I’m worried about pet’s zoo too. In my opinion, there should exist more traits that reward picking a singly utility type, and less traits that reward bringing as many skills of the same utility type as possible. Something more like “Your next Signet does X – Y cooldown” and less “All your Signets do Z”. So that we see less incentives for “bring as many spirits or minions as possible”, and more incentives for “bring at least one spirit for this” or “one minion for that”.

panzerpanduh.9680:

i think the thief one blows…we already have signet of malice if you want to heal on hit. i also really like the warrior one; it will confuse people (is it block? is it the heal? probably shouldnt spam into it)

Depends how you look at it, Anet have been pushing for Aura share teef. If it has a decent heal and cd. it could be a really strong team support. specially with Leeching Venoms

google.3709:

panzerpanduh.9680:

i think the thief one blows…we already have signet of malice if you want to heal on hit. i also really like the warrior one; it will confuse people (is it block? is it the heal? probably shouldnt spam into it)

Depends how you look at it, Anet have been pushing for Aura share teef. If it has a decent heal and cd. it could be a really strong team support. specially with Leeching Venoms

The only thing it has going for it is a team wide burst heal, other than that it would be suicide to run that on a Thief over Withdraw.

Incurafy.6329:

google.3709:

panzerpanduh.9680:

i think the thief one blows…we already have signet of malice if you want to heal on hit. i also really like the warrior one; it will confuse people (is it block? is it the heal? probably shouldnt spam into it)

Depends how you look at it, Anet have been pushing for Aura share teef. If it has a decent heal and cd. it could be a really strong team support. specially with Leeching Venoms

The only thing it has going for it is a team wide burst heal, other than that it would be suicide to run that on a Thief over Withdraw.

The key here is PvE. PvE Thief Support Builds(if they exist, and they may start to exist after this) will definitely see a boost. Group support is definitely seeing another boost with some of these skills.

The Thief one is probably not worth using in any form of PvP because Venoms are just extremely unreliable (can be dodged, blocked, invul, etc), and you simply can’t afford to take gambles with your healing skill in competitive play.

Especially considering that Thief also has one of the most reliable Healing skills in the game (Withdraw, with its instant activation time and evade frames).

Dirame.8521:

The key here is PvE. PvE Thief Support Builds(if they exist, and they may start to exist after this) will definitely see a boost. Group support is definitely seeing another boost with some of these skills.

Any support other than damage support is redundant in PvE for well-coordinated groups of players that have no trouble sustaining themselves.

So someone linked the Mesmer’s signet in LA chat, and I’m scared.

Active heal was 3.5k

1 illusion was 300
2 illusions was 600
3 illusions was 800

……

I got a screen for lulz.

Wow.

All this complaint about HS and what does ANet do about it?
Add an even more ridiculous version to another class.

If these are the actual numbers, there goes the last glimmer of hope I had for balance in this game…

how do you get chat links for the new heals o.O

ronpierce.2760:

how do you get chat links for the new heals o.O

Reddit datamined, on another post i linked to the heals and it has the chat codes there.

I found it. I don’t think its safe to link it on these forums. When I made the initial New Heals post with the datamined info of the time I got infracted and a point added to my account. >_>:

Necros are mighty unhappy about their signet heal. I tend to agree.

I think the difference comes from necro specific siphons being insanely weak, so if this one is weak too it’ll never outshine consume conditions. But siphons from other sources are strong, so we shall see.

Roe.3679:

Necros are mighty unhappy about their signet heal. I tend to agree.

I think the difference comes from necro specific siphons being insanely weak, so if this one is weak too it’ll never outshine consume conditions. But siphons from other sources are strong, so we shall see.

They need to have this signet deal about 60% of the damage it does currently but heal for about 50% more or something. Its a heal. x.X Plus there’s no coming back from damage with it unless they let us heal in Death shroud now…

I actually really like your Shatter Heal for mesmer idea.

Harbinger.8637:

So someone linked the Mesmer’s signet in LA chat, and I’m scared.

Active heal was 3.5k

1 illusion was 300
2 illusions was 600
3 illusions was 800

……

I got a screen for lulz.

There is no way that’s every second.

^ That’s what I’m thinking. If its every 3 seconds, that’ll be handleable, if it’s every second… this game is going to burn in righteous fire, then be doused with salty tears that will drown us in our sorrows. :O

Mesmers were always pretty decent at surviving imo. But their lack of regeneration was always my bane, especially since their active heals were rather weak imo. However, if what I see is true, its going to be a very powerful heal for most builds.

I like every single one of these heals a lot, actually. What is your problem with the engineer one? The impression I got was that it is a delayed heal, but if you have it activated when you would have gone down, it gives you a large heal.

But it does depend on the number values for each one, I just like the concepts.

Lol @ Signet of Ether’s passive numbers. Of course, maybe they won’t tick every second, or maybe they haven’t been finalized by the time they were added to the game’s file. But if the worst is to happen, and phantasm mesmers end up getting an even more overpowered version of healing signet, I don’t think any remaining serious competitive player is going to forgive anet’s balancing team. Besides, phantasm mesmers are already getting buffed (nerfs reverted) in the patch. I hope they don’t become the next Dhuumfire Necros/ HS Warriors.

Gaiyeerishima Cat.1082:

I like every single one of these heals a lot, actually. What is your problem with the engineer one? The impression I got was that it is a delayed heal, but if you have it activated when you would have gone down, it gives you a large heal.

Well my problem with it is the same problem I have with the traited Elixir S. Sometimes it just doesn’t activate and you end up dieing before it does. But like I said, it really remains to be seen how good each of these skills are.

Oh my reality, if that skill fact is accurate and it turns out to be every second then I’m going to uninstall. That’s just insane, especially after we’ve been repeatedly asking them to remove the passive crap in this game, not add more, lol.

Incurafy.6329:

Oh my reality, if that skill fact is accurate and it turns out to be every second then I’m going to uninstall. That’s just insane, especially after we’ve been repeatedly asking them to remove the passive crap in this game, not add more, lol.

Yeah the Mesmer one sounds… Bad. You will never kill a PU Mesmer 1v1 after this goes live, probably even if it IS only every 3 seconds… It just won’t happen.

The healing spirit, I feel is a bit… weak to be honest. 600 hp every 10 seconds is very small. I’m shocked there’s not regen attached to it. The on use heal, same thing, its okay but I doubt it’ll be as good as healing spring due to the water field.

I think it would be better if it was not directly encouraging phantasm builds, Phants are strong enough as they are even if they are left wanting in team fights. I think it would be better to balance it based on clones for example:

0 Clones 300
1 Clones 600
2 Clones 800

Giving a general regen for all mesmers even without summons, and then forcing attack vs defense decisions on Phant in the same way that Shatter has to make. (obvs since after a shatter is made your not proc-ing any heals)

PU will still be just as strong 1v1 but they aren’t even realistic in competitive play, they just lose the point and are an annoyance.

I say this based on how I think the skill is fine if ONLY for shatter builds.

There is not enough healing there to make a difference beyond the current ether feast
(although technically not on paper) a warrior getting off his stun chain, or a thief getting off a back stab combo will still be just as potent. However there is enough sustain to even the balance between the over abundance of tanky condi builds.

After all that being said I think this game should have more side grades in traits instead of direct upgrades. Draw backs create build diversity and balance much more than this kind of power creep.

Can you please put the thief heal into the “bad” column? It’s good in that it doesn’t break the game (unlike warr’s Healing Signet), but at the same time, almost nobody uses venoms, they’re so bad.

EDIT: I do agree with all of the things mentioned about how bad the new heals labeled “bad” are, though.

Arganthium.5638:

Can you please put the thief heal into the “bad” column? It’s good in that it doesn’t break the game (unlike warr’s Healing Signet), but at the same time, almost nobody uses venoms, they’re so bad.

EDIT: I do agree with all of the things mentioned about how bad the new heals labeled “bad” are, though.

The ones I labelled good are based on the “build opening” potential. In a PvE group or even PvP, venom share with that skill would be a pretty good way to keep a teammate up.