Guild Wars 2

So I just forked out the 25 points for this ability to test it out. I notice it is 5 sec duration now, I thought it used to be 4. But anyways, here is what I found using it with Carrion gear.

The basic heal is incredibly small. But that’s ok, it’s not supposed to be big right?

Then I noticed how crazy it is to get the timing just right.

Then I noticed, after several attempts, that the heal when you do finally get everything right and the planets align, is still incredibly small. Pretty much a basic heal.

Can’t help but feel I’m risking alot here when I could just as simply drink an Elixir H on a much shorter cooldown with no gimmicks.

And on final test, it doesn’t save you from fall damage. Ugh.

On final note, the toolbar ability blows. Maybe make it an AoE stun? Or dish out a nice chunk of damage along with the stun?

Who designed this waste of time and resources? O.o

I am curious though, is the heal epically better or something with Healing Power gear? Has anyone tried that?

With full Cleric gear, I’ve been able to get it to the upper end of 14K. That’s the highest I’ve gotten it, though.

The concept of a death-defying massive heal is enticing. But it requires excellent timing, an imbalanced risk v reward from potential interrupt, and has a long cooldown making it useable about once per encounter. Why wait till my hp is at 2000 before popping my heal when I can pop HT at 12000 hp and then again in 20s without having to wait for near-death in the first place, all the while using my regen toolbelt skill as well? Oh yea, and AED doesn’t clear conditions…

Bottom line: AED sounds awesome until you use it and realize all of our other options are better.

In order for this skill to be worth while it needs to be an instant cast, and be able to be cast while stunned/disabled. The next patch will half the cast time and I think buff the heal (or how it scales with Hpower)

Even with a .25 sec cast it’s still junk because you have to use it while your getting focused and your more than likely stub locked for the kill so… Maybe it has it’s usefulness in pve to counteract intsakill mechanics?

no condition cleanse – heavily affected by poison – long cd – NEVER!

no idea what the devs were thinking … seriously

Have it cleanse 1 condition or even just poison if that’s “too OP” and either reduce the cast time to instant or make it a stun break.

To be fair all of the new healing skills pretty much suck in comparison to what was there, each class has its “best” healing skill and the others are relativity dumb. The only acception that i can think of is guardian, and maybe thief. Honestly even is A.E.D was fixed i would still use HT or Med Kit

Yup probably the worst new heal. Nobody uses it other than when they first get it to test it out. Plenty of threads have been made with suggestions to change it. All the other heals are just way better choices.

well its not the worst heal skill. the new guardian one is trash outside of pve as well. they need to increase the high end heal to 90% total health or something or else its just not worth taking the risk

I wish Liadri was still around, I feel that might be one of the really niche instances where this heal would actually be pretty nifty to have.

Seras.5702:

Have it cleanse 1 condition or even just poison if that’s “too OP” and either reduce the cast time to instant or make it a stun break.

This is a great idea, innovative and unique this would justify its lengthy cool down and utility, This is the direction I would personally like to see this heal skill go.

+1

Shaogin.2679:

I am curious though, is the heal epically better or something with Healing Power gear? Has anyone tried that?

pure cleric+ sigil of life user here and i promise you its healing power scaling is catastrophic with 1500+ healing power it doesnt get even 500 hp added
stick to the healing turret you get almost as much hp healed+ regen and condi removal

I have three accounts lol.3859:

no condition cleanse – heavily affected by poison – long cd – NEVER!

no idea what the devs were thinking … seriously

^this sums A.E.D’s Uselessness

lemme remind you the current game meta is condition spam as well

I’ve used A.E.D. less than I’ve used turrets.

If that’s not saying something, I don’t know what is.

CD on Healing turret is very nice, you can use it so many times, and it gives AoE regen/ condi removal. Personally im always on med kit.

The new heal skill does come with an interesting toolbar stunner. But when you actually use it youll notice its really crap. 1 sec casting time for 1 sec stun? jus L o L.
It might give out a static discharge at an aimed tatget, but the range is also L o L so yeah.. most useless heal skill and not wurth the risks/trouble.

OMG ….AED is really so op……at least for a bomber man…having a blast. I tried it at first and hated AED then I made a build around it… 10,0,30,0,30 clerics gear.. rifle,bombs,mines,rocket boots, and supplies….no asended gear yet. Its nice for WVW and PVE. I have heals through bombs, supply crate and AED. Heals for AED are 14452 and 5102. AED is a gadget so trait for 20% reduction in CD….so CD drops to 32 secs which makes it better. In inventions the minor skill “automated medical response” means the healing skill recharges at 25% health..this makes AED work…. With intial health you have 44000ish health available excluding other heals. Now lets face it, if you are healing it because you are dying…..so just before I hit 25% health I pop AED…timer starts….If I hit 25% heath AED is ready to go again. If my opponent kills me…..I am pretty much back to full health, if they don’t I am up 5102 and with AED usually ready to go again. I find myself wanting people to kill me lol. When people see you are close to death they close in for the kill/HEAL which works nice with bombs….See the zerg…. run in and bomb away….AED triggers….. rocket boot out….. do it again. 2-10 in a zerg will persue a almost dead engy.. breaking it apart …and you as a bomberman dropping bombs as you run away…..I am having fun with it..YMMV

Heh, Those are quite a few hoops to jump through just to make A.E.D function moderately. A shame sPvP will never see this heal within its misty walls.

I think I’ll just stick with my universally viable and zero trait/gear reliant Healing Turret.

i’d complain if we didn’t have one of the greatest healing skills in the game with healing turret and if sp scrolls weren’t so easy to get. i’ve got like 400 in the bank.

Rosten.5238:

OMG ….AED is really so op……at least for a bomber man…having a blast. I tried it at first and hated AED then I made a build around it… 10,0,30,0,30 clerics gear.. rifle,bombs,mines,rocket boots, and supplies….no asended gear yet. Its nice for WVW and PVE. I have heals through bombs, supply crate and AED. Heals for AED are 14452 and 5102. AED is a gadget so trait for 20% reduction in CD….so CD drops to 32 secs which makes it better. In inventions the minor skill “automated medical response” means the healing skill recharges at 25% health..this makes AED work…. With intial health you have 44000ish health available excluding other heals. Now lets face it, if you are healing it because you are dying…..so just before I hit 25% health I pop AED…timer starts….If I hit 25% heath AED is ready to go again. If my opponent kills me…..I am pretty much back to full health, if they don’t I am up 5102 and with AED usually ready to go again. I find myself wanting people to kill me lol. When people see you are close to death they close in for the kill/HEAL which works nice with bombs….See the zerg…. run in and bomb away….AED triggers….. rocket boot out….. do it again. 2-10 in a zerg will persue a almost dead engy.. breaking it apart …and you as a bomberman dropping bombs as you run away…..I am having fun with it..YMMV

Let me know when you learn to use paragraphs and I may read that….

On topic, however, I’m in agreement with the OP. AED seems to be a waste of points at the moment. I haven’t encountered a single situation where AED would have been a better choice (especially when you compare it to healing turret, which is by far one of our best skills).

Total waste of both our time testing this P.o.S. and the dev time (design, test, ui, code, QA etc) that could have been spent on something useful. Also a waste of 25 skill points (if you don’t have loads of skills points spare).

The problem is not the heal amount but the fact that it does nothing against conditions where

• Elixir H can be traited with Cleaning Formula 409
• Healing Turret naturally removes condis
• Medkit removes condis with skill 4

Due to that you cannot fit it in a build without being kittened by any kind of conditions.

I will chime in here one more time. (one sentence paragraphs)
Go to the bottom for TLDR….
AED can work and there can be a nice synergy.
With healing gear and healing bombs the heals in AED are enough, either basic or epic.
Timing is not an issue, you trigger it and forget, you are covered for the next 5 sec.
I rarely have to use supply crate for aditional healing.
The tool bar trait is ok, its a simple interupt that deal some damage with a traited endurance boost.
I have completed daily interupter in my first fight of the day with it.
I was concerns about conditions, but with up to four conditions, health is stable (Bombs) and AED supplies a spike heal.
It keeps my support build up in a group but also allows it to solo 1vsX with lots of loot bags.
It works well in Dungeons.
In WvW I have often been invited into private dueling parties by the other side.
That never happened before.

TLDR: I believe with AED its traits that make the skill work.
If your build is not going to include those traits, then yes other healing skills are probably better then AED. It needs traiting in gadgets, automated medical response and healing gear. Think of it as a high maintenace girl/boy friend.

I believe it’s a good idea, but badly executed. ANet tried make a cool skill, but didn’t consider how it would actually work in a normal situation in-game.

Axelwarrior.9084:

I believe it’s a good idea, but badly executed. ANet tried make a cool skill, but didn’t consider how it would actually work in a normal situation in-game.

I second this. The idea really is pretty cool – a device that, activated, gives you a contingent resurrection. In theory, it could mean having three health bars.

…unfortunately, it just…well, it doesn’t cleanse conditions, so you’re relying on the spike to outheal them – and they may well have done you in once, and then do it again, especially if Poison is in the mix. Combined with a cast time that leaves you quite open to just getting decked in the face or CCed so long you can’t even try to activate it.

Combine that with “It looks like it would be amazing with this one trait’s effects, but the trait triggers irrespective of whether it does anything, in a stunning flourish for brilliant design,” and it just…well, the only thing it really has that would make it a great healing skill is that interaction that doesn’t work.

If it worked with it…well, I honestly don’t think the lacking of condition cleanse would be a problem. Three health bars within any given 90 second period, after all, would just render condition moot, even with Poison. Mind, it might also require nerfing the spike-heal, just…because that would be an insane amount of survivability (my Engineer heals for about 14k, with 17k HP; if he could activate it and gain the spike-heal twice, he’d effectively have 45k HP, as an example).

yea many people do forget its sync with the inventions healing skill refresh trait the fact you can use this for the single largest heal in the game then use it a second time within no time at all gives you the most powerful burst heal of any profession as it does heal you for an extra 28k health that can happen in the space of 5 seconds even

I would much rather them rework this heal skill to actually be an innovative clutch heal right before death. Right now, regardless of how many traits you dump into it it’s still a bad heal skill. I’m completely sold on the concept it just does not function as intended particularly in tPvP.

Stalima.5490:

yea many people do forget its sync with the inventions healing skill refresh trait the fact you can use this for the single largest heal in the game then use it a second time within no time at all gives you the most powerful burst heal of any profession as it does heal you for an extra 28k health that can happen in the space of 5 seconds even

1. requires you to go into inventions, the worst tree. the 15 point inventions trait isn’t even that good. and it’s only once every 90 seconds. if i was crazy enough to use AED, i still wouldn’t go into that lackluster tree for that lackluster trait.
2. also requires you to go deep into tools and give up something amazing like power wrench for gadget cooldown reduction.
3. getting rid of your best source of condition removal on a class that has limited condition removal already.

yeah it’s bad.

ellesee.8297:

Stalima.5490:

yea many people do forget its sync with the inventions healing skill refresh trait the fact you can use this for the single largest heal in the game then use it a second time within no time at all gives you the most powerful burst heal of any profession as it does heal you for an extra 28k health that can happen in the space of 5 seconds even

1. requires you to go into inventions, the worst tree. the 15 point inventions trait isn’t even that good. and it’s only once every 90 seconds. if i was crazy enough to use AED, i still wouldn’t go into that lackluster tree for that lackluster trait.
2. also requires you to go deep into tools and give up something amazing like power wrench for gadget cooldown reduction.
3. getting rid of your best source of condition removal on a class that has limited condition removal already.

yeah it’s bad.

On top of all that, the trait doesn’t even work right – it only triggers if the skill is on cooldown the first time you reach <25% HP within any given 90-second period, so if you, for some reason possibly relating to the skill works best when you use it just before death, don’t have it on cooldown…

…well, it doesn’t come off it as a result of the trait until the trait’s 90-second internal cooldown is completed, even if the heal brings you back above 25% HP and then you get damaged back below it.

See, this is what happens when you corner engineers into easy-mode condi bunker builds.
They forget how to play.
I love this heal, it’s the perfect addition to my PvP build: gadget Zerker.
Once you get the timing down, instant near-full heal. And, being a squishy Zerker, it’s always going to go off.
That’s not to mention the addition of another stun. What you have to keep in mind about it is there’s a slight cast time to it, so you activate it as you’re closing in on your opponent. Then drop the burst.
A.E.D. is great for clutch gameplay that, given a skilled player, will always be in your favor.
Don’t change it!

Phoenix.5047:

See, this is what happens when you corner engineers into easy-mode condi bunker builds.
They forget how to play.
I love this heal, it’s the perfect addition to my PvP build: gadget Zerker.
Once you get the timing down, instant near-full heal. And, being a squishy Zerker, it’s always going to go off.
That’s not to mention the addition of another stun. What you have to keep in mind about it is there’s a slight cast time to it, so you activate it as you’re closing in on your opponent. Then drop the burst.
A.E.D. is great for clutch gameplay that, given a skilled player, will always be in your favor.
Don’t change it!

Well, no. You’re fooling yourself. Use healing Turret in your high-stakes squishy build and ‘it will always be in your favor’ much more, and your allies will be much better off. That’s the inherent problem.

GLHF getting A.E.D’s 1s cast off when you get focused. Even if it goes down to .75s as proposed, it still lacks any kind of mitigation. People will easily go through your healed HP even if you succeed!

At .75 it won’t be so bad, but compared to all of our other options it still won’t quite add up. I think it needs to do something else in addition to what it brings. I understand the need to balance around that big heal… but with the huge cooldown and the odds of actually hitting that big number it shouldn’t be weighted that heavily.

All of our other heals can remove (a) condition(s). I think AED should be a stun break so it brings something unique and more useful. Of course this means it would have to be instant, which I think fits the theme of the skill more anyways. Bring down the top end heal by ~1000 or so if this is a big deal, though comparing to some of the other heals out there coughcoughHealingSignetcough… I still see those as being more powerful even if AED got these buffs.

^ This change would be pretty interesting. And would actually make sense considering the function of a Defibrillator and how if it functioned automatically it’s not impractical to have it break stuns instantly.

This would be my preferred change to this skill, because having a stun break on your heal is powerful but offers no true safe heal and is impossible to keep your health pool topped off with this skill as well as lacking any form of condition removal. The alternative change could even be an instant “rally” if downed while buffed with A. E. D. This would be a complete condition purge and if the animation/effect of this skill being in affect was more telegraphed I feel it would be justifiable, this is however just my opinion from a avid Engineer PvP player.

I was hoping the “fatal damage” would result in all conditions falling off.

A.E.D should replace downed state #3, and current #3 should replace current #2.

How about the change that if you’re not downed before the A.E.D fires you get the minor head and lose two conditions.?

If you’re brought to downed then you don’t lose the conditions but get the big heal.

What does A.E.D. stand for?

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a patient, and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electrical therapy which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm.

Activated Equals Death

Until they make it better that is

Haha that’s the actual translation, yes. I was useing Engineer Jargon. you’ll get a hang of it in time.

i saw a real one in a museum :o

The main problem I have with the A.E.D. is that typically you want to use it when you’re taking heavy damage, but when you do proc the full heal, you usually just keep taking damage from whatever was hitting you.

I’d really like it if the A.E.D. let you fall into downed state, then rezzed you immediately. This would provide some breathing room in the ~1s immunity buff and condition clear, and it would also proc the “Always Prepared” trait for some great synergy. There could also be a cool rezzing animation for it, hey.

I figure that’s all it really needs.

Also, please let us cast the toolbelt skill without a target. I don’t know why this is even a thing.

IMO AED works best with a Glass Cannon Build. Cleansing conditions and all that is kinda irrelevant when youre job is to get the kill as fast as possible. In my build no other heal would work. Because I get damaged pretty badly. When timed right(80% of the time) i get 12k of my 19k health and i get more time to finish the job which is usually almost done anyway. Thats my experience with it.
Also Tool belt works wonders in the glass rifle build I run when i get in their face.

BlinkTwice.7932:

IMO AED works best with a Glass Cannon Build. Cleansing conditions and all that is kinda irrelevant when youre job is to get the kill as fast as possible. In my build no other heal would work. Because I get damaged pretty badly. When timed right(80% of the time) i get 12k of my 19k health and i get more time to finish the job which is usually almost done anyway. Thats my experience with it.
Also Tool belt works wonders in the glass rifle build I run when i get in their face.

See, that’s what I tought too, but I tried it out and thought it was much worse than running the med kit.

However, I was using an SD burst build, so the full investment in tools allowed me to have the 15s bandage self, and I didn’t feel the static shock toolbelt skill from the A.E.D. was worth it… perhaps if it were an AoE stun or worked at range it might be ok, but not at the cost of the med kit stimulant and 15s bandage self. being able to use the bandage self more frequently allows me to stay topped off, which helps make use of runes of the scholar.

Maybe if it wasn’t an SD-based glass build it might work out better.

I should last full duration (could be shorter duration than now) and simply prevent you from going below 1 HP for the duration. If 1 HP was reached, then it should heal the big amount at the end of duration.