Guild Wars 2

I have been out of touch with this game for a good 1.5 years.

I have been looking to get back into it recently, and around the time I quit there was a lot of talk about healing ele builds focusing around water magic with a staff and possibly.. Dwayna runes? Or water runes? I can’t remember…

It was something I never got to try before I left but I just wondered if it was still popular and/or at all viable.

I know there is no trinity in this game and everyone is supposed to look after themselves etc. but Supportive healing builds have always appealed to me in every game I have played… and though my ele may perhaps never be a gw1 monk I am still interested in finding out what I can.

I’d like opinions for both pve and pvp

Thank you x

I would recommend dropping that ideology. I completely understand where you are coming from. As someone that played the game for a while, quit pretty much because of this kind of thing just not working for me, and has returned and fallen in love with it, let me give a piece of friendly advice. Try and learn to embrace the homogenized calamity that is the combat of GW2. It’s weird, but it’s really fun once it clicks.

From what I have found, focusing on healing in any way shape or form is hugely undercutting the potential of the class. I mean what the poster above me said may be true, but that basically comes down to “In this one niche of the game you might be able to work it.” Do you really want to limit yourself to that one niche?

In PvE no pls don’t care to ask.

In PvP celestial is probably the most healing you want to go int

In WvW zerg, it’s different. If you are in an organized group then no way, but if you are in a pug zerg healing guardian or elementalist can be fun and useful.

Try Zealot gears. It can be a bit pricey but you can deal damage while providing some Healing. Superior rune of the Monk is the best for healing output, as well as Aquatic Benevolence trait. Your healing comes from passive Healing Ripple and Soothing Mist by swapping in and out of Water Attunement as frequently as possible. You also have two burst Heal from your Water field whenever necessary. Whenever you’re in water attunement, you should use your conjured weapons to deal damage. Here is the build that I come up with: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISLDWABWPAdEGQAwI/ESCLxwBgCwBo0cA-TVCBABat/AEm+YVZgEKBB4BAgqOAVV/ZVleBcBAIDQ+WA-w

Yeah,

Healers in GW2 will mostly be shunned for party play in most situations. Since each character has multiple means (usually) of healing themselves, no one relies on others for healing & few desire it, due to present meta.

It’s nice to have the staff ele’s or the Necro’s or the hunter’s water zones, but building a character specifically around healing support… You’ll be booted out of content right quick.

While you don’t have to go berserker, you have to have a build capable of dishing out some damage besides being able to offer utility.

My fianceé ONLY played healers in other MMO’s. It was a really hard time to explain that in GW2 the healing is not the same as in other games. She felt confused and sort of… disappointed. But now she accepted: healing in GW2 comes from skills and not from sheer numbers on your character sheet. The only niche healing power is good: pvp bunker and wvw roam-small scale.

In wvw I tried a healer guardian… it was fun to keep the guys alive at a tower gate while 2-3 AC’s were firing at us… really… But there was no point of the whole build

Healing power isn’t exactly necessary in PvE. People by this stage knows that reducing damage (dodging/protection) is more important than recovery and you’ll have less chance to use those stats.

WvW on the other hand you can support full zerker member and win some ridiculous outnumbered fights, provided that you and the zerker member knows what you’re doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgGyZMLK_Y

I gotta admit though, healway guard probably does better job at group cleansing conditions, protection, stability etc. Ele has slightly better burst heals when traited but reducing damage>healing. Hence the importance of protection/stability. Ele’s aura can be invaluable but the protection uptime isn’t too long.

I do wonder the possibility of this build though. Any brave roaming group want to try this out in WvW?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcMacW4wzBd0ANAC5h1iNal4CBWA-T1hIAByeCAA4BAgkyvt0DAnSQDV/5j9HIFgXDtA-w

The general consensus about taking Healing on an Elementalist is that it’s largely not needed that in order to effectively stack large amounts of +Healing you give up too many other stats for little benefit. Even then it’s generally only considered at all when in the context of WvW.

Personally I have tried both a Healing Guardian and a Healing Elementalist for WvW purposes and ultimately found I preferred the Healing Elementalist of the two. Mostly this is due to the range factor and the extra built in ranged CC (which in today’s nerfed Stability era is even stronger) was a nice kick. I will also say that a full Nomad’s Elementalist on 00266 is probably the most annoying kitten thing I’ve ever had the displeasure of trying to kill in WvW as well.

Thank you everyone for your answers, you have all been really really helpful. I will think on this and try find a build suited to my playstyle without focussing on healing too much.

I think the healer hate in gw2 is mostly due to people not understanding what a healer should/can do. This is mainly relevant to healers themselves.

PVE
I’ll talk about guardian players since that’s what I’ve come across in dungeons as the class used for healing.

I am personally okay with someone playing healer buid in full zerker party if the person is at least somewhat useful. That’s where the problems start. Stuff like speccing for max healing and completely ignoring other skills the class can use to actually prevent the party from taking dmg. What is the point of speccing for shout heals and then the party dies cos there was no reflect or stability when needed (stab is often used to heal, not for the stability itself). The usual healer guard has staff and mace/shield cos max heal potential. No gs 5 pull when need, light field everywhere and often mobs are pushed away from dps with shield skill – super to reset defiance on bosses befor ice bow 5 reaches them. Is it really surprising that I think that whoever takes a healer guard to PVE, just wants to troll others?

I think majority of players would be fine with a healer in party if the healer players would provide support and healing, without the annoying stuff.

One more thing to add, GW2 has some really messed up agro mechanics and often the squishiest party member gets all the agro instead of the tank/healer. With some bosses, high vitality makes you virtually invisible to the boss as long as there is a squishy in the party. Specced to take some hits to help your zerker buddes? More likely you are hurting them by doing this.

WvW
Healer specs are far more useful here than in pve, but the rest of the party needs to be competent playing dps builds and needs to be able to cooperate with the healer to utilise his build to max.

You can argue that dps in wvw is that’s needed to win but put 400HP/s regen on 4 zerkers, add occassional burst heal here and there and you got unkillable party. I’d go with healing ele rather than guard in wvw.