Guild Wars 2

Even Druid is being played as a selfish brusier rn.
Ele is kill.
Bunker Guard hasn’t been around in years.

Do you know how much this hurts me?

Bunker guard duels, the pinnacle of entertainment.

As an avid Druid, I can tell you it is pretty much suicide to try and support. Defense is too low. The only thing to do is to smash the teeth out of your opponents before they can down you. It is an all out slaughter fest at the moment. We’ll see if things settle down in a bit, but right now there is not even a point in holding a point. Bodies everywhere, smash, bash, crush, break their bones!!!

I like it, though! With a bit of skill, you can crush unskilled opponents. I would say the meta is a mix of max damage builds and high damage bruiser builds.

Archon.6480:

As an avid Druid, I can tell you it is pretty much suicide to try and support. Defense is too low. The only thing to do is to smash the teeth out of your opponents before they can down you. It is an all out slaughter fest at the moment. We’ll see if things settle down in a bit, but right now there is not even a point in holding a point. Bodies everywhere, smash, bash, crush, break their bones!!!

I like it, though! With a bit of skill, you can crush unskilled opponents. I would say the meta is a mix of max damage builds and high damage bruiser builds.

As an avid ele, I share the same feeling. The best support is offense. Otherwise, the best support you can offer is condi removal. It’s all for one, and god for all.

Well it’s not as bad as you seem to think.

What has changed mostly compared to before is

• more damage in the meta
• more boon corruption from necro
• less defensive stats in the amulets, and in particular no vitality+toughness+healing power.

But that does not mean it cannot work anymore. Actually, in my experience in soloq, having at least one support character is still the best way to win fights, and since everybody almost is playing full offensive, playing the support yourself helps you win.

So here is why it still works:

• boon support is a becoming dangerous with reapers, but if there are no reapers, it works as well as before. You should make sure you don’t over focus on boons.
• condi cleanse is still quite needed, as it seems the meta will contain a even mix of power and condi
• heal support has become more difficult with the amulet change. But some classes can go around that because they have naturally high HP (necro/warrior) or high toughness (warrior, guardian) and/or they can gain the missing stats from traits (see warrior and guardian below). As a parenthesis, bunker guard used to work with clerics which still exists. Yes, they are now demolished by conditions and CC, but it’s worth mentioning that there are still defensive amulets out there.
• don’t forget that amulets with less defensive stats have more offensive stats instead. So using the new Paladin, Mender etc… means you have increased damage compare to the old soldier/celestial/cleric. So even if your survivability took a hit compared to pre-patch, your worth has increased as a damage dealer.

So here are a few support spec that work quite well (not necessarily meta, but they worked for me or for others)

• shout crusader reaper (BM, SR, Reaper): marauder-type damage with celestial-type healing on top and a few AOE condi cleanse.
• paladin chronbunker (chaos, insp, chrono): a bit of alacrity, a bit of boons, a bit of condi cleanse, a bit of healing and a lot of control and decent burst damage makes it a well rounded support
• mender shout warrior ( https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/The-New-Shout-Warrior-Build/first ) : a good use of “Rousing Resilience” to cover the missing toughness from the amulet. Good sustain, decent healing and control
• mender guardian? this one I haven’t tried, but it may work in the same way as the warrior by using toughness from traits (buffed shield trait and “retributive armor”). Or on the opposite, maybe paladin using healing power from the buffed “Invigorated Bulwark” can work. Both are worth trying. However, since the usual shout build produces a lot of boons, it will still be a difficult spec against reaper. Maybe a non-shout build will be better?

If you’re solo-queuing, being a support is often a liability because you can’t rely on your teammates to do x or y. More self-reliant specs that can complete objectives on their own better are often a tactical advantage.

I play a Reaper build based around shouts, and while it’s still rather selfish, it’s really good in a team fight to cleanse your allies of all this nasty chill flying around these days. Just pick 4-5 shouts, Mercenary or Paladin amulet, and you’re good to go. Useful in soloq, where it’s not rare to go against 2-3 reapers.

Crusader ranger with MM, BM, druid also works very well, but it’s more useful in 2v2 scenarios.

I disagree

Druid support is awesome right now imo.
Ele can still work just got to be careful.
Mesmer still works.
To an extent scrapper is even somewhat of a support.

Eurantien.4632:

To an extent scrapper is even somewhat of a support.

Very true. My Scrapper cleanses condi from everyone; provides stability, stealth, and swiftness; and is great at rezzing other players. Not to mention a little team healing here and there.

Druid support is definitely in a great place right now, whether the paladin gs version with glyphs or the mender w/ full shouts.

Druid still has amazing support potential with new ‘search and rescue’ and menders
amulet. But it is definitely harder to bunker down for any profession at the moment. You have to play smarter which I would say is a good thing.

Mender druid has amazing sustain and support but will still fall easily to spike damage.

I suppose a “real” support spec would be able to send unique supportive effects or abilities to allies like “Your attacks are unblockable for the next 3 seconds” or “Reflect incoming enemy attacks for 3 seconds” or “Press the interact key to teleport to the ally who granted you this ability”. Since you can’t cast spells by targeting allies in Gw2 so far, this can’t happen. Currently supports just spam boons and healing, which most classes can arguably do themselves already.

‘Ele is kill’ xD

Quadox.7834:

I suppose a “real” support spec would be able to send unique supportive effects or abilities to allies like “Your attacks are unblockable for the next 3 seconds” or “Reflect incoming enemy attacks for 3 seconds” or “Press the interact key to teleport to the ally who granted you this ability”. Since you can’t cast spells by targeting allies in Gw2 so far, this can’t happen. Currently supports just spam boons and healing, which most classes can arguably do themselves already.

I did work many Cleric builds.

Can’t make it work for warriors… but for guardian, druids, scrapper and mesmer… it’s great.

I go for cleanses, stomp and rez first.

Scrapper bulkward gyro is a great utility for group (the reflect dome is great!), like the reflect wall of guardian.

I will not revel my build before next season start, but you guyz can find something support that work out.

With scrapper or guardian, I am able to sustain -1 fights for a long time (ie. 2v3). The thief really like it.

To host a Cleric player, your comp need two pure dps guy that roam good for it. This was hard with the celestial meta, but now it’s great.

Dal