Guild Wars 2

I know it’s not great. I just wanna know how are people dealing with this new healing skill. For me, things are getting worse.

1. Pop too early: wasted, heal very low.
2. Pop too late: that 1 second cast time is enough to kill me.
3. I cast it before I get the last hit, but 5 seconds already passed, mob’s attack missed. Then I heal too little and killed by the next hit.

The name A.E.D sounded so cool, but the reality is….

too unreliable, won’t use

If you like using the Elixir R toolbelt skill in PvP and you’re actually good with it, you’ll love this skill. Unless you get stun locked you’re basically immortal.

For me, I use AED in the following way, with 20 points in Inventions:

1. Get down near 25% HP
2. Use AED before 25% mark
3. AED comes off cooldown thanks to Automated Medical Response
4. AED again when near death

So far, I…actually don’t think it’s terrible. It’s a bit awkward, but it’s a “Go ahead, hit me” heal, of course it is.

I find A.E.D. is better in builds that bring secondary methods of healing. This allows you to better control your hp and thus time the A.E.D. Ideally you will use A.E.D. to save your self, get down to 25% recharging it because it wasn’t used last time your fell down to 25%, save yourself again, then optionally use elixir R to save yourself a third time for maximum trolling. This also makes your secondary healing that much more impactful because of how much it delays killing you again and again.

AMR activates regardless of whether your heal skill is actually on cooldown or not, unfortunately.

Meaning: If you wait until almost-death to use it the first time, it won’t come off cooldown when you hit 25% HP a second time. This happens regardless of what healing skill is used, so it’s extra annoying.

I love it for WvW so far.

I have the Self-Regulating Defenses trait, and I just run through the enemies blob/zerg and AoE until it(the trait elixer s) pops, then after that runs out I use A.E.D. and continue. Most of the time I take well over 25% of my health in the next few seconds and BAM free mega-heal. If not still a decent heal and I always keep Elixer S on my bar just in case things get hairy.

I love this setup because it also lets me initiate fights with Elixer X if I want and I don’t have to worry about being forced to retreat if I get focused while transformed.

its great for my SD build. finally 4 damaging toolbelt skills at low cd!

but still need some time to get used to.

For Groupfight roaming with others the turret is way better AOE Condi cleanse AE Heal and REG

dypfryst.5132:

too unreliable, won’t use

echo that.

1s cast makes timing properly very tough
toolbelt range is far too low, and has a cast time too
long cooldown

great concept. needs tweaks.

digiowl.9620:

dypfryst.5132:

too unreliable, won’t use

echo that.

Plus 2!

Bad skill design, impractical to take over the synergistic uses of Elixir H and the sheer versatility and condition removal of Healing Turret. Tried it many times across all my builds in sPvP hated its functionality. Won’t use. :/

blutstein.2468:

its great for my SD build. finally 4 damaging toolbelt skills at low cd!

but still need some time to get used to.

Yeah this is fun but that range kills me.

how to use A.E.D
step one :unlock skill
step two: keep using med kit
step three: forget A.E.D evern exists
or optional step four: roll warrior or thief or necro or something

this heal is way too unreliable
1s cast time is too long to use the skill when needed because it is so easily interrupted
the tool belt is a joke the range alone is pathetic then it has a lengthy cast time as well making it near impossible to land and stupidly predicable for the enemy to avoid
plus 1s worth of stun is a joke as well

the only place this heal is actually good is in PvE but why use this garbage when you can heal for 3-4 times as much with the med kit while gaining swiftness and avoiding harm

off topic but does anyone know the exact number to how AED scales to healing power?

herrard.1274:

off topic but does anyone know the exact number to how AED scales to healing power?

doesnt seem to sscale much as i went full healing on traits with celestial gear

they got like 400 more hp

I have to say I love this heal skill. I happen to play zerker rifle engi in PvP, my squishiness makes it very easy for the big heal to go off. Not to mention that it comes with yet another stun, and they’re both gadgets. Basically, the perfect addition to my build.

Wolf.5816:

Bad skill design, impractical to take over the synergistic uses of Elixir H and the sheer versatility and condition removal of Healing Turret. Tried it many times across all my builds in sPvP hated its functionality. Won’t use. :/

Yeah but general damage intake in sPvP is comparatively low. AED excels when subjected to high unmanageable burst. So it’s not really optimal.

In WvW I find it to be very useful so far. Timing is easy, “just use it”. And it’s heal is large enough to cost the enemy too much time to recover.

I believe it’s good for lethal jumps.

If by “Lethal Jumps,” you mean “Die from falling damage,” it doesn’t work on that. Tried it.

Now if by lethal jumps you mean jump shotting into a zerg and using AED to prolong your life before the inevitable death….yea it’s good for that.

SpiderPepper.3219:

I love it for WvW so far.

I have the Self-Regulating Defenses trait, and I just run through the enemies blob/zerg and AoE until it(the trait elixer s) pops, then after that runs out I use A.E.D. and continue. Most of the time I take well over 25% of my health in the next few seconds and BAM free mega-heal. If not still a decent heal and I always keep Elixer S on my bar just in case things get hairy.

I love this setup because it also lets me initiate fights with Elixer X if I want and I don’t have to worry about being forced to retreat if I get focused while transformed.

^this
for wvw i’m loving it. will save you in hairy situations and keep people from running in 1v1 battles since they think you’re almost dead. Its a gamble if they have stun, but otherwise its an awesome heal. Personally idk bout pve, since you have to save it for either when your about to take very heavy damage or suicide with it. Personally id be willing to try the suicide, so far its worked pretty well lol. In wvw if your about 50~hp just use it, and jump into the mob or aoe damage fields, or if your in a 1v1 fight, pop the elixir R and walk right in close to them and just spam, they typically try to burst you and it backfires lol. toughness build do really well with it since your hp pool Is relatively low, my 25% mark is 4khp, ill pop the heal before that and get to use it again right after. Just be aware it doesn’t cure conditions, if your using elixir R, using the light field from elixir gun and the increased attack speed help a bit as a replacement if your not going to grab the Elixir C.

Just wanted to add that, having used it since its release, AED is not the easiest to use in PvE. The problem is that damage isn’t constant and when it does come is meant to be dodged rather than tanked, since spikes can kill you immediately. So I’ll see my life drain slowly trying to “stand in the fire” and just unload on my target. Then I get hit with something big, drop down to 10%hp and pop AED in hopes of getting hit again to drop me to 0. But no…no damage, small heal, and then whoomp, dead.

Bottom line is that because of the cast time for AED you have to be very proactive, anticipating lethal damage and potential interruption. Works great in PvP and WvW. Not so much in PvE unless you’re on a dungeon boss and can’t dodge the telegraphed & slow lethal attack.

Tken.1986:

I just wanna know how are people dealing with this new healing skill.

I don’t deal with this new healing skill.

Let’s review?

Just as an opening observation, you can only use A.E.D one way. If you want to have comparable healing to taking other heals, when you use A.E.D, you need to have your health reduced to zero, and you need that 12k ‘defy death’ heal. If you use it without the possibility of ‘defying death’, then the game is telling you that you’re bad and should use any other heal. A 4.5k heal on a 40s cooldown without any secondary effect (evades, water fields, condition removal, etc), easily takes the ‘worst heal in the game’ award. So, use A.E.D properly.

Weak Synergy with existing traits & abilities. This is how it disagrees with a lot of good Engi mechanics:

• Automated Medical Response (Inventions 15pt). This trait works with all the other heal fine – you’re going to use your healing skills as early as possible without wasting the healing to get maximum healing over time. Naturally, when you hit 25% and your heal refreshes, it’s like ‘oh, sweet, this trait is awesome’. With A.E.D, you hit 25% and the trait is rendered useless because the ability isn’t even on recharge until sub-15% typically. It’s true you can track the internal 90s cooldown of this trait, and know when your heal is about to refresh – enabling you to use A.E.D at high HP without ‘defying death’. But really.. I don’t have time for that crap.

• Automated Response (Alchemy 30pt). This trait has the opposite effect that you want when you are sub 25%. When you’re sub 25%, and want to ‘defy death’ using A.E.D, the last thing you want is to have a never-die trait kick in, pretty much hindering your goal of getting the full A.E.D heal. People typically run very glassy builds, or use A.E.D for enemy zerg denial – traits like Automated Response combined with passive healing makes it extremely difficult to get the ‘defy death’ A.E.D heal, and therefore have bad synergy.

• Speedy Gadgets (Tools, 10pt). This trait brings A.E.D down to a 32s cooldown, which is cool. The biggest question is how can one justify taking this over Speedy Kits, Static Discharge, Power Wrench, or other essential traits? Not super attractive. It’s not that A.E.D is bad because of this, but since it’s a Gadget, it’s subject to all the lackluster gadget traits (or lack thereof).

• Condition removal. Equipping A.E.D pretty much removes all the viable ways Engineer has to remove conditions. 1) Healing Turret, and 2) Cleaning Formula 409. The only other significant condition removal you can get while running A.E.D is from Elixir C. Even if you manage to make this work in your build, you’re pretty much at the ‘shatter mesmer’ level of condition removal outside those long CD Elixir C uses. In PvP, as an Engineer with relatively low evade/invuln/stealth uptime, that’s like asking to be burned for 30s straight.

• Static Shock (A.E.D Toolbelt ability). It hits decently, that’s good. 3/4s cast and 1/2s aftercast equals 1.25s of self CC for 1s of enemy CC. That part isn’t so good. You only have .5 seconds to actually do something with this stun. I can see this being fun in a Static Discharge build, but one has to be extremely quick. Meh, overall. Useless outside of a Rifle SD build if you don’t even have enough time to cast a skill after using it due to the big aftercast.

• Opportunity Costs. Healing Turret is pretty much the best sustained healing, the best condition removal, hardest to interrupt, the best group utility, that requires no traits. Might Stacks decently well with Enhanced Performance too. Med Kit is great sustain with deep tools builds, and the best at might stacking. Elixir H is the best in Elixir Builds. I think these are the real reasons why A.E.D seems so disapponting – Engineer has really well integrated and awesome healing skills – and A.E.D is like 3 steps back.

Don’t think there’s much to say after that. Chaith pretty much nailed it imo.

/thread

Yeah, but what does it stand for? I’ve never seen a tooltip not explain the initials.

There needs to be an initial heal then a later heal. even if the later heal is nerfed heavily, its just too unreliable right now. maybe initial heal of 2.5k, 2.5k if over 1% and 6k if under 1%.

I just think it needs to be instant cast, or it needs to last a really long time.

I think they need to make the Toolbelt skill hit more than one target.

AED is perfect for the new traumanova fractal. You can easily walk through the death zone with super-speed, rocket jump and AED.

Phathomz.5970:

Yeah, but what does it stand for? I’ve never seen a tooltip not explain the initials.

A utomated. E lixir. D espenser.

There’s also “Automated External Defibrillator.”

coglin.1867:

Phathomz.5970:

Yeah, but what does it stand for? I’ve never seen a tooltip not explain the initials.

A utomated. E lixir. D espenser.

Trollol. AED stands for automated external defibrillator.

I use it underwater (PvE) since there isn’t really a better skill :o

It’s ok, but it really lacks proper trait support. I think all the new heals are in concept interesting (they all focus on active combat during or for the healing skill), but AED in particular has the ability to really save you.

Problem is, it should really be instant cast in that case. It already has kitten “cast”, in a sense. Make it instant, and make it able to be use while CCed. If more is needed, make it a stun breaker.

So, the A.E.D Heal is better with Vitality than Toughness?

Forestnator.6298:

coglin.1867:

Phathomz.5970:

Yeah, but what does it stand for? I’ve never seen a tooltip not explain the initials.

A utomated. E lixir. D espenser.

Trollol. AED stands for automated external defibrillator.

Yeah, you would think since I update the wiki monthly I would know that, right?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/AED

The only reasonable place I can see it being useful is in static discharge ubilds because if you get focused you’re not getting around to the second heal turret anyway. Other than that, lmao no