Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone. First the question here should be considered with regards to WvW and SPvP.

I have heard some mixed opinions on the Healing Stat, some have said that your healing power is minimal at best and thus the stat is a waste while others have said Healing is the most unappreciated stat in the game. Personally I have a leniency towards taking support roles so naturally I’m considering putting 30 points in Water to maximize my healing output.

However given what I heard; I’m curious to whether putting points in Water a waste when compared to the bonuses from the other trees.

My second gripe with water is that a lot of the perks, personally speaking, seem a tad bit boring and somewhat lackluster compared to the perks from other trees.

If anyone has any insight they would like to offer, what are your thoughts on Healing as a Stat comparative to the bonuses of other trees, is it comparatively underpowered as some say or just under appreciated? And secondly what do you consider the most worthwhile stat(s)/tree(s) for an Elementalist to invest in.

What I’ve found is that the Healing Power stat is only good on players with High Toughness and a low health pool. Which is why I can PvP with my 12,800hp Elementalist and still be hard to kill. This means you will end up taking less damage overall, yet you can heal more of the damage. The High Healing & Toughness stat build also means that you can take the Signet Self-Heal and keep yourself alive in dire situations, without even actively using that Self-Heal.

To put things into perspective, these are the heals that I can produce on my Scepter/Dagger Elementalist for the group. It has about 600+ Healing Power and 20pts in Water, 10 in Arcana…

Switching to Water Attunement – 1,600hp
Regeneration – 1,600hp (over 6 secs)
Soothing Mist – 1000hp (over 9 secs)
Water Trident – 2,000hp
Cleansing Wave – 1,800hp

You can possible get more out of the Staff, but I prefer my playstyle.

Also what I’ve found is that you only really need 15pts in Water and 10pts in Arcana, to be a good support with the Elementalist. Sure you can put more if you like, but those 25pts are what give you the AOE burst heal, 2 AOE HoTs, and AOE buffs on switching attunements. You should only go deeper into those trees if there is Major Trait in there that you truly want and not for the stat bonuses (which can easily be supplemented with gear). However I just don’t think it’s worth going 30pts in Water.

So go 10 in Earth & Arcana, 15 in Water and put the rest of your points wherever you want. I put 10 more in Arcana and 25 in Air.

Healing power is a great stat but only to some extent. I don’t know the math but after a bit of healing power it is best to go for other things because the gain isn’t worth the cost. That being said, if you are thinking of trait lines then definitely go down the arcana trait line for more support builds. Then probably earth for some more defense.

I’m level 74 and I’m really looking forward to level 80 so I can try an aura support build that I’ve been looking into.

I hope that helps =)

15 into water is what you want. Beyond that is not worth it. The heal on switch to water is the best thing you get from speccing into water. Beyond that the returns are not worth it and the points would be better spent in arcane or earth.

Yukishiro.8792:

15 into water is what you want. Beyond that is not worth it. The heal on switch to water is the best thing you get from speccing into water. Beyond that the returns are not worth it and the points would be better spent in arcane or earth.

I prefer 150 vitality over 150 toughness myself. I’ve used 30 earth builds before and I was still cut down on the spot by warriors, the damage reduction from toughness seems to be lower than the extra survivability gained from more health.

Also as a support build the XI trait (cond removal when applying regen) is pretty good in PvP. Especially compared with the traits you’d get in Earth (if you have at least 10 pts in there which you should really have for armor of earth anyway) I’d say water is a lot better.

I’d personally use a 0/10/10/20/30 build over a 0/0/25/15/30 build if you don’t want to max water. The extra speed from Air can be useful moving around the field and you can take a second major trait in water.

Some of the traits in water sound awesome. I’m gonna preface this by saying that I play d/d and that’s what’s on my mind when I see these things, but serously…
Aquamancer’s Alacrity: 20% cd reduction on water abilities = more heals more often (and more aoe chills!)
Shard of Ice: signets and arcane skills cause vulnerability. Huge in a group setting
Soothing Disruption: cantrips grant regen and vigor. BIG survivability boost if you use cantrips
Piercing shards is a 20% damage buff all the time in water attunement because your 1 ability inflicts vulnerability twice
Stop Drop and Roll: more condition cleanses = better
Icy Mist: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How is this NOT the coolest water trait EVER?
Cantrip mastery: More earth armor, more triple cleanse+burn, more teleporting…20% cd reduction!
Cleansing Water: see Stop Drop and Roll
Powerful Aura: Auras on allies…that is awesome in group fights. Not only will they be chilled or stunned if they hit YOU, but they’ll be chilled or stunned if they hit ANYBODY.

I was considering it before, but now I kinda really want to try a water based d/d build.

You don’t do it for the +toughness. You do it for the armor of earth at 50% and the aoe cripple. It doesn’t seem like the 3 second pbaoe cripple is a huge deal but I find it actually makes a big difference in my survivability.

But yes if you already have 15 points in earth there isn’t much point going beyond that for a survivability build either.

I guess I can see 20 points in water possibly but I definitely wouldn’t do more than that.

Thanks for all the responses, you were all a huge help. I’ve solidly decided that I’m going 15 in Water and at least 20 in Arcana with 10 in Air for the speed boost. I’m currently trying to decide how I’ll spend the rest of those points but my question was more than answered so thank you all.

Achilles.3128:

Thanks for all the responses, you were all a huge help. I’ve solidly decided that I’m going 15 in Water and at least 20 in Arcana with 10 in Air for the speed boost. I’m currently trying to decide how I’ll spend the rest of those points but my question was more than answered so thank you all.

At least 10 in Earth. Like Yukishiro said that Armor of Earth trait is a must have.

Freakiie.8940:

At least 10 in Earth. Like Yukishiro said that Armor of Earth trait is a must have.

Well since 3 people have recommended it so far I guess that’s pretty much mandatory. And I’ll put the remaining 15 in Air and Arcana which means the final build is; 20 Air 10 Earth 15 Water 25 Arcana.

You could also consider water 20 for the vulnerability with arcane/signet skills. Or even the %dmg against vulnerable targets if you can get it from other sources. And also arcane 30 is nice for free combo finishers.

You get a speed boost with 5 points in water, not sure you need to go past that.

Yukishiro.8792:

You don’t do it for the +toughness. You do it for the armor of earth at 50% and the aoe cripple. It doesn’t seem like the 3 second pbaoe cripple is a huge deal but I find it actually makes a big difference in my survivability.

But yes if you already have 15 points in earth there isn’t much point going beyond that for a survivability build either.

I guess I can see 20 points in water possibly but I definitely wouldn’t do more than that.

I have to disagree. The grand master earth trait, written in stone, combined with healing signet is one of the greatest things you can do for a survivability build. Especially if you have a lot of healing power. It makes your signet passives still work while the signet is on cd. If you’re using healing signet, you normally have to be careful about the right time to use it because you lose your heal on cast for the duration of the recharge. With that trait, though, you can spam it whenever your health drops enough and you’ll always have the heal on cast. It helps my survivability a ton.

The passive healing on healing signet is pathetic except in D/D and so is the active healing. I use the glyph for healing. It heals for more overall and gives you a useful boon.

Just an update; I took Pinker’s advice and tried a 5 Air 30 Earth 15 Water 20 Arcana Build. I’m not sure if it was the extra toughness from investing all the way into earth or the passive from the signet but the survivability was inspiring. Typically my first response when I’m pitted against a Mesmer is took make an opportunity then run for the hills.

The first mesmer I got pitted against in Capricorn I would have won through attrition (the fight went on for a while) if his backup didn’t arrive. The second I won through a reverse of the first scenario.

If any of you haven’t yet I really do suggest you try that build out.

The perks I used were; Armor of Earth, Signet Cooldown reduction and Written in Stone from Earth, Water Cooldown reduction from Water and finally Boons on Attunement and Blast Radius from Arcana.

I disagree with stopping at 15 in water. if you spend an extra 5 and get 20 you can have both cleansing wave and vital striking. Getting 10% more dps for 5 points is fairly nice.

Edit: especially in wvw where you’re often on a wall at full hp

Quintal.6594:

I disagree with stopping at 15 in water. if you spend an extra 5 and get 20 you can have both cleansing wave and vital striking. Getting 10% more dps for 5 points is fairly nice.

Edit: especially in wvw where you’re often on a wall at full hp

And I’m going to have to disagree in return as that bonus can be picked up from from just about any attunement tree including ones with a much higher damage output than Water. The damage output on Water Attunement is absurdly low, 10% damage on an already menial figure could be considered borderline useless comparative to the mobility, survivability or even damage output you can get through investing those 5 points in other trees.

Achilles.3128:

Quintal.6594:

I disagree with stopping at 15 in water. if you spend an extra 5 and get 20 you can have both cleansing wave and vital striking. Getting 10% more dps for 5 points is fairly nice.

Edit: especially in wvw where you’re often on a wall at full hp

And I’m going to have to disagree in return as that bonus can be picked up from from just about any attunement tree including ones with a much higher damage output than Water. The damage output on Water Attunement is absurdly low, 10% damage on an already menial figure could be considered borderline useless comparative to the mobility, survivability or even damage out put you can get through investing in other trees.

It sounds like you do not understand vital striking. This is 10% for all attunements(when you have 90%+ hp), and stacks with the other 10% traits.

I don’t know what game you play but on JQ when I’m sitting on a wall it’s pretty rare to be sitting at 90%+ hp for any length of time. Maybe your server gets pitted against people who don’t use siege weaposn or take so long to target you that you can sit there dropping spells on them and not get targeted but my experience has been it doesn’t happen much.

I mean I guess you could put on earth reflect shield and sit there for 5 seconds or so. I hadn’t really thought about that much. It seems awfully situational though to justify the extra 5 points. But I will grant in that specific situation it might be worthwhile.

Quintal.6594:

Achilles.3128:

Quintal.6594:

I disagree with stopping at 15 in water. if you spend an extra 5 and get 20 you can have both cleansing wave and vital striking. Getting 10% more dps for 5 points is fairly nice.

Edit: especially in wvw where you’re often on a wall at full hp

And I’m going to have to disagree in return as that bonus can be picked up from from just about any attunement tree including ones with a much higher damage output than Water. The damage output on Water Attunement is absurdly low, 10% damage on an already menial figure could be considered borderline useless comparative to the mobility, survivability or even damage out put you can get through investing in other trees.

It sounds like you do not understand vital striking. This is 10% for all attunements(when you have 90%+ hp), and stacks with the other 10% traits.

Oh, that’s my mistake. I confused the traits you were referring to. But even so Yukishiro covered my take on that trait. In both SPvP and WvW the amount of time you spend at 90% from my personal experience really isn’t more than a few seconds once you’re against any from of opposition. Again that could just be our server though, I’m on Jade Quarry as well.

Edit: Thinking about it the trait could be worthwhile on a high mobility concentrated build where you focus on staying on the borderlines of the fray. There are a ton of of speed bonuses you can pick up through Air and an extra 15% you can pick up if you’re a dagger user in Arcana. It’s an interesting twist on a healing build, I’m actually going to try to make a build around this concept later.

Frankly I think Healing Power is a stupid stat that should just be rolled into Power, and I bet that this will happen eventually.

There are a lot of times I’m at 90%+ when defending (no, they don’t use siege, I assume this is mostly due to the 1 day rotations currently). But this also makes your initiation and burst hit harder.

However, I mostly PvE, so that does skew my perspective a lot. In PvE this traits health requirement can be ignored. (30 fire, 30 air, 10 water gives the hardest hitting fireball/lavafont sustain)

Yeah on JQ when you are on a wall you are pretty much getting constantly blown up by siege. I can’t remember the last time I got to sit on a wall freecasting for more than 3-5 seconds without getting plinked by someone or something.

Yukishiro.8792:

Yeah on JQ when you are on a wall you are pretty much getting constantly blown up by siege. I can’t remember the last time I got to sit on a wall freecasting for more than 3-5 seconds without getting plinked by someone or something.

Very different then. I mostly see people just autoattack gates <.<

Tried it out, it really didn’t work too well for me. Again perhaps someone with more experience with an Elementalist should review it but from my experience, possibly it is good for PvE, but in PvP there’s virtually no uptime on it.

Man I would love fighting a bunch of scrubs auto attacking the door. I can’t imagine a better setup for soloing a whole zerg.