Guild Wars 2

what is the best healing skill and why?

Med Kit.

Traited for lowest CD.
Has Fury/Swiftness/Cond. Removal
Can heal others and yourself when your heal is on CD
Not a RNG skill and is 100% reliable

^ That unless you’re deep into elixir traits.

With 0 Healing Power @ level 80; Med kit heals for 7920 in total (includes bandages), Elixir H does for 5560 (w/Regen it’s 6860), and Healing Turret for 4920 (w/Regen it’s 5960, additionally with water combo field it’s 7280)

By numbers alone, Med kit seems to self-heal the best, but in my opinion all the heal skills are good; it just depends on the situation.

I find that Med kit, as the numbers reflect, is the best self-heal. It also has some nice utility to it via the drop antidote and stimulant, which alleviates the need to sacrifice utility slots for fury/swiftness/cond removal; though granted, the utility skills do a better job. On top of that when traiting into Tools you can reduce the cool-down of Bandage-self to 16s!

Elixir H is also good in the aspect of self-heal. With high amounts of Healing Power the Regen provided by it, helps alleviate a fair amount of pressure and even if it is RNG Protection does just as good of a job, albeit being useless against condition pressure. Also, by traiting into Alchemy you can reduce it’s cool-down as well make it remove conditions, and grant might; hell, if you even wanted to, you could make it inflict damage when thrown.

Healing Turret is my personal favorite heal. Just as Elixir H is benefits from high amounts of Healing Power in regards to the passive Regen that it can grant to yourself and/or Allies. On top of that the water field that can be combo’d by itself also provides extra healing for you and your allies that also increases with higher amount of Healing Power. It also has inherent reduced cool-down when picked-up, so picking it up immediately makes it an effective self-heal without traiting.

I use Healing Turret as a supporty engineer. I don’t wanna run around laying down medkits, that’s what my supply drop is for and eventhough I am traited 20 into Elixers I do not use it because it is a bit too selfish. I do PvE and mostly dungeons so I try to buff and heal my group as much as possible.

Depend what kind of player you are, but I just can’t play without Medkit.

1- With point in tools you can get to 16 sec cooldown, while elixir H is 20 sec with trait.

2- 3 badage that heal for around 1k and have a .5 factor healing if I remember correctly.

3- You have a condition removal integrate, not the best, but still good and on a low cooldown.

4- You have a fury/swiftness dispensor.

5- Good sinergy with speedy kit, you can use the #5 stimulant for perma switchness.

6- Weak explosion with Kit Refinement, but hey free 500-700 damage is still damage.

7- You can use the kit while in Elixir S.

8 – One of the best thing : At 25% hp, if you are traited in tool, your F1 heal will recharge!

9- The best thing in my opinion, switching to this kit act as an “On Healing” effect. Meaning that rune with On Heal effect while proc when you switch to this kit. I used to run rune of the grove, each time I switched to med kit to bandage, I receive an AoE 700-800 heal each 10 seconde. That’s great. I know use the regeneration one, getting reg each 10-15 sec.

I just can’t run without medkit anymore!

If you are an Elixir Engineer, then H. If not then Med Kit.

I’ve been trying to get used to Med Kit as I level; while I see the obvious utility in it, the actual healing of it can be clunky to me. With the other heals, you press one button and move on, while with the kit you have to switch into it, drop the bandages, and pick them up.

Having said that, I’ve found turret to be my favorite while leveling. But I’m going to stick with the Kit a while yet to get some more practice at it.

Mister Mustard.7203:

I’ve been trying to get used to Med Kit as I level; while I see the obvious utility in it, the actual healing of it can be clunky to me. With the other heals, you press one button and move on, while with the kit you have to switch into it, drop the bandages, and pick them up.

Having said that, I’ve found turret to be my favorite while leveling. But I’m going to stick with the Kit a while yet to get some more practice at it.

The one big advantage to Med kit, if you know you are going to be in a fight you can drop the bandages before hand and they stick around for I think 90 seconds.

As a primarily Elixir engineer what I do is drop the bandages and stimpack then immediately switch to Elixir H because there is no cooldown to switch.

I use Healing Turret.

Med Kit is very powerful and if you go into tools the cooldown on the tool belt heal becomes pretty short. You can also use it to get perma swiftness via Speedy Kits even if you’re not using offensive kits.

Elixir H is good if you’ve got into Alchemy and are focused around elixirs (HGH and 409 being very beneficial to Elixir H)

I prefer the Healing Turret though, as picking it up reduces it’s cooldown with no need for traits, it also provides regen and allows multiple water fields (When it heals it has a very short water field that it can be detonated in. It’s tool belt skills provides a Water field, which I detonate Rifle Turret in for extra healing)

I know everyone uses med kit i do too , but Med kit takes a lot of time to get that healing out or condition removal if you cannot prep the area. If you can prep then you get additional healing. The other two require less actions to use, which means you can be doing something else – DPs for example.

automated medical response recharge the med kit toolbelt skill too. a bunker build with healing power and self regulating defenses will always be able to heal 10k+ hp with med kit during the duration of elixir S.

I use healing turret because it’s easy to deploy and detonate to heal you and everyone around you. The medkit is way too clunky for me. It forces me to stop fighting in order to heal. I find that if you drop it down close to an enemy and detonate, it actually deals good damage(this is without the pushback trait which I don’t bother with). I’ve seen over 1000 damage on regular mobs, but I haven’t been able to test it out on other players yet in WvW.

kokocabana.8153:

I use healing turret because it’s easy to deploy and detonate to heal you and everyone around you. The medkit is way too clunky for me. It forces me to stop fighting in order to heal. I find that if you drop it down close to an enemy and detonate, it actually deals good damage(this is without the pushback trait which I don’t bother with). I’ve seen over 1000 damage on regular mobs, but I haven’t been able to test it out on other players yet in WvW.

Yea the detonate is a nice add-on!
But problem is after you detonated it, you do not have it any more. And if hou don’t detonate it, the turret (all turrets in generl actually, except thumper) breaks in 10 seconds…

Med kit has too much crap to deal with and any skills that drop med packs are automatically less useful than area healing skills because players actually have to run over a small, hard to see med pack to get healed.

Healing turret all the way, a deploy/detonate heals half of my 18khp:)

Ferum Flamebender.5910:

kokocabana.8153:

I use healing turret because it’s easy to deploy and detonate to heal you and everyone around you. The medkit is way too clunky for me. It forces me to stop fighting in order to heal. I find that if you drop it down close to an enemy and detonate, it actually deals good damage(this is without the pushback trait which I don’t bother with). I’ve seen over 1000 damage on regular mobs, but I haven’t been able to test it out on other players yet in WvW.

Yea the detonate is a nice add-on!
But problem is after you detonated it, you do not have it any more. And if hou don’t detonate it, the turret (all turrets in generl actually, except thumper) breaks in 10 seconds…

I don’t bother with the overcharge on the healing turret and not detonating the turret right away won’t let you summon a new one in 20 seconds. Regen is all you get for keeping it up. The water field detonate gives regen and there’s the toolbelt skill for more regen to replace it. Just treat the healing turret as any 20 second healing skill.

1) Equip MedKit.
2) Run to a point.
3) Bandages everywhere.
4) Laugh madly even if enemy tosses you around like a ragdoll, when he realises he’s out of CC and you’re in full HP its already too late.

People say its hard to drop bandages and use them? In combat you run slower so you run in a straight line and drop/pick them up right as they go down. Also have not seen med kit functioning as a “heal” with kit refinement when you switch to it mentioned. With no cd on it this allows you to activate any “use of healing skill” effect runes. I love using runes of the centaur with med kit for perma swiftness

I personally love the Healing turret, and find it harder to use the others anymore.

14 seconds of regen on drop, plus initial AoE burst heal, and the Water combo field for extra AoE Healing.

In addition, you can “cook” the turret for extra regen (over a minute’s worth fairly easily), then pick it back up when/if you need it.

The numbers aren’t that bad on single-target, but remember, it’s also AoE heals. If a second ally comes into the mix, its healing effect is much greater compared to the bandages.

Its overcharge, although slightly unreliable, can also cleanse conditions readily.

In addition, although nobody does this: use the healing turret as a close-range interrupt, push, or insurance against melee-type AoE skills if traited.

It also has a .5s cast time vs 1 second compared to the others…

Raijinn.9065:

People say its hard to drop bandages and use them? In combat you run slower so you run in a straight line and drop/pick them up right as they go down.

That’s kinda my point. It just feels clunky to me to have to run in a line for a few seconds to heal myself; it’s like the longest cast time heal in the game. I would like it more if it were 1 big bandage, with two other utility / boon drops.

wow.

It’s nearly 3 seconds to activate all the portions of the heal for the medkit.
.5 each, 1 second for toolbelt, and .25s for the kit swap.

On the plus side, it’s nice to split up and can be activated individually without fear of interrupts

Aristio.2784:

Med Kit.

Traited for lowest CD.
Has Fury/Swiftness/Cond. Removal
Can heal others and yourself when your heal is on CD
Not a RNG skill and is 100% reliable

Healing Turret

1/2 cast instead of 1s+
20s CD, 14s CD if you pick it up, med kit has 14s only with 30 in tools
You can cleanse conditions with cleansing burst in AOE
You get long regeneration
You can combo it with itself for Area Healing for 1,2k+ depending on healing power
You can detonate it with other fields for stealth, swiftness, might etc
it has very high base heal
it has aoe regen toolbelt skill that is also combo field wate you can blast for aoe healing

Tbh Healing Turret is the best untraited healing skill engineer has and one of the best in the entire game.

kokocabana.8153:

Ferum Flamebender.5910:

kokocabana.8153:

I use healing turret because it’s easy to deploy and detonate to heal you and everyone around you. The medkit is way too clunky for me. It forces me to stop fighting in order to heal. I find that if you drop it down close to an enemy and detonate, it actually deals good damage(this is without the pushback trait which I don’t bother with). I’ve seen over 1000 damage on regular mobs, but I haven’t been able to test it out on other players yet in WvW.

Yea the detonate is a nice add-on!
But problem is after you detonated it, you do not have it any more. And if hou don’t detonate it, the turret (all turrets in generl actually, except thumper) breaks in 10 seconds…

I don’t bother with the overcharge on the healing turret and not detonating the turret right away won’t let you summon a new one in 20 seconds. Regen is all you get for keeping it up. The water field detonate gives regen and there’s the toolbelt skill for more regen to replace it. Just treat the healing turret as any 20 second healing skill.

Regen comes from using turret as it places regen, aoe healing gives direct healing on blasting it

You have to use medkit and learn to use it to see the potential.

You don’t use bandage when under fire.

You ether CC the enemy, kite them or use map object to LoS and heal with bandage.

With perma switchness, just cast any AoE slow, run behind a wall and drop bandage + self heal for a big amount of hp. You are now good to go.

Kardiamond.6952:

You have to use medkit and learn to use it to see the potential.

You don’t use bandage when under fire.

You ether CC the enemy, kite them or use map object to LoS and heal with bandage.

With perma switchness, just cast any AoE slow, run behind a wall and drop bandage + self heal for a big amount of hp. You are now good to go.

Who si that directed at? OP or me? Because quite honestly I’ve been using Med Kit before most people most likely:)

For some builds MK is best for some HT is best, elixir sucks compared to both with every build with maybe 1 exception^^

It was a general statement for people thinking bandage aren’t viable.

They aren’t viable if you stand in front of a warrior and use them.

They are viable when you kit/LoS people.

It wasn’t aimed at you. :P

the gist with the med kit is, you use it when you wont be attaked, like out of sight or during elixir S duration. as I have already mentioned with self regulating defenses & automated medical response/inertial converter with elixir S as toolbelt skill allows you to heal back atleast twice without interruption if timed properly

Kardiamond.6952:

It was a general statement for people thinking bandage aren’t viable.

They aren’t viable if you stand in front of a warrior and use them.

They are viable when you kit/LoS people.

It wasn’t aimed at you. :P

I.e. they are good if the other guy doesn’t know how to play.

You’re unlikely to be using line of sight against a great sword warrior he should be trying to stay on top of you. The issue comes down to time and actions you need 3 seconds and 4 actions to get 3 k healing which is OK if you’re not doing something or running away but you can’t be dropping a glue puddle or anything else during that time.

I wouldn’t say the kit is bad it’s good, but glossing over the downside doesn’t make sense.

Kardiamond.6952:

It was a general statement for people thinking bandage aren’t viable.

They aren’t viable if you stand in front of a warrior and use them.

They are viable when you kit/LoS people.

It wasn’t aimed at you. :P

Ah ok. Just asked because it was pretty general so I wasn’t sure.

Med Kit is not bad skill at all.

It is one of the best skills due to how insane it is with runes and sigils working on using heal skill. You need to swa in to med kit to get full effect without wasting your heal and that IMO is the best part of skill.

In PvE 6/6 altruism is one of the best support runes with med kit for engie in entire game

I rarely use healing turret, as in almost never. They synergy in builds between elixir H/med kit up their respective trees is too strong to pass up.

Killyox.3950:

20s CD, 14s CD if you pick it up, med kit has 14s only with 30 in tools

I’d like to clarify this – Bandage Self is 15 seconds, and Healing Turret is 14 seconds. I know 20 * 0.7 = 14, but, look at Anet, not me, as to why it doesn’t work right. I still prefer medkit, but that’s because the fury/swiftness puts it a good bit ahead imho. It’s one of two sources of fury for the engineer (please don’t count elixir B and toss elixir B as two), and it’s just one part of many for the engineer. I also prefer medkit in sPvP if I’m running points in tools – after a tough fight on a point, it’s a great idea to just start making one spot loaded with antidotes and medpacks for you to remember if a tough fight breaks out on that point. However, with an HGH / 409 / Elixir CDR setup, I’d probably consider the healing elixir over either. But, as Killy stated, with no traits, it’s pretty hard to beat smart usage of the medturret – making it explode is also a decent stunbreaker if you choose to leave it up (camp beside it, OH NOES BULL RUSH HUNDRED BL-boom, get wrecked!).

Merkenary.9860:

Kardiamond.6952:

It was a general statement for people thinking bandage aren’t viable.

They aren’t viable if you stand in front of a warrior and use them.

They are viable when you kit/LoS people.

It wasn’t aimed at you. :P

I.e. they are good if the other guy doesn’t know how to play.

You’re unlikely to be using line of sight against a great sword warrior he should be trying to stay on top of you. The issue comes down to time and actions you need 3 seconds and 4 actions to get 3 k healing which is OK if you’re not doing something or running away but you can’t be dropping a glue puddle or anything else during that time.

I wouldn’t say the kit is bad it’s good, but glossing over the downside doesn’t make sense.

Well with the amount of CC/chill/slow I can put out, good luck to your great sword warrior to stay on me. If they stay on me, I failed this fight.

I use it a lot, engineer have a lot of way to create space and use it.

We might not be using the same build or the same play style, but for my style it’s really useful, and I wouldn’t trade it for healing turret.

Three sources of Fury.

Goggles do something here.

Kamahl.3621:

I’d like to clarify this – Bandage Self is 15 seconds, and Healing Turret is 14 seconds. I know 20 * 0.7 = 14, but, look at Anet, not me, as to why it doesn’t work right. I still prefer medkit, but that’s because the fury/swiftness puts it a good bit ahead imho. It’s one of two sources of fury for the engineer (please don’t count elixir B and toss elixir B as two), and it’s just one part of many for the engineer. I also prefer medkit in sPvP if I’m running points in tools – after a tough fight on a point, it’s a great idea to just start making one spot loaded with antidotes and medpacks for you to remember if a tough fight breaks out on that point. However, with an HGH / 409 / Elixir CDR setup, I’d probably consider the healing elixir over either. But, as Killy stated, with no traits, it’s pretty hard to beat smart usage of the medturret – making it explode is also a decent stunbreaker if you choose to leave it up (camp beside it, OH NOES BULL RUSH HUNDRED BL-boom, get wrecked!).

Daigle.8497:

Three sources of Fury.

Goggles do something here.

Hahah, sorry. I forgot that skill existed after I dropped it in the static discharge build for Rawket Bewts (faster, more damaging toolbelt, wonky-but-works-stunbreak). Gadgets need a serious overhaul, I liked the suggestion of ‘Passive buffs like signets’.

houndmd.4360:

1) Equip MedKit.
2) Run to a point.
3) Bandages everywhere.
4) Laugh madly even if enemy tosses you around like a ragdoll, when he realises he’s out of CC and you’re in full HP its already too late.

you forgot: 5) Proceed to prybar them in the face.

Medit kit + bombs + pillar (or other los obstacle) = win