Guild Wars 2

Just wondered how many people prefer healway and how many people prefer the valor/honor (AH) approach, and why.

AH scales extremely well in group scenarios and zerg situations, but tapers off a bit when solo.

Healway is consistent in it’s gameplay and performs the same in both solo and grouped, that is to say it performs better than AH solo but just as good in a group. Additionally, you will heal your allies with healway, AH will not.

AH will allow you to go more offensive, do more damage, but ignores healing power, so if you are giving regeneration to allies it is pretty much worthless. Typically AH is run with hammer because of overlapping symbol, which plays into the offensive/defense set up by keeping protection on.

Healway will have higher healing power, making it heal allies way better and relies on dodges/blinds/blocks and is more active in it’s gameplay than auto attacking with hammer. But it will do a lot less damage….but it is more mobile because of the leap and teleports on greatsword/sword.

We could keep going this way, but they are two different builds, one is passive offensive (while keeping survival in mind) and the other is active defensive (while not being too shabby at damage).

I’m under the impression that AH is used primarily for front-lining and offensive-based Guardians in group situations where they can reliably count on short-duration boon spam on allies to sustain themselves during spikes. By its nature, Healway doesn’t have as much room for traiting/gearing offensively, but its contribution group sustain is a lot more consistent and powerful. It also transitions more easily into solo and 4-or-fewer-person roaming because it doesn’t rely on allies being in range for sustainability.

AH contributes in its own way besides just having more damage potential in that you’re granting short-duration Might on crit to allies and you can trait for causing Vulernability on Blind with blind-on-VoJ, usually running Staff and either GS or Hammer. VoJ spam AH/EM builds are pretty popular lately, from what I’ve seen.

Could pretty much write a book about the applications and pros and cons of each, but I’ll save it for when I’ve got more experience with AH. For now I’ll just make a presumption that AH is more suited for front-line/offensive play (not that Healway isn’t capable, it just has less damage while providing more group sustain) and HW is more for, well… support, whether it be front-line or back-line support.

I’ve run them both extensively. My ascii graphic failed.

on a spectrum from pure support to pure DPS Healway is decidedly on the support side while AH is slightly over the line toward a pure DPS build.

One thing I have noticed is that is a 2-3 person situation Healway is an amazing game changer. Give me a Thief a Healway Guardian and an Engineer and you can kill everyone without ever dropping combat.

An important thing to keep in mind is 30% boon duration if you take virtues.
Right now I run an [x, x, x, 30, 30] guardian with cleric gear and I’ve got to say from all the configurations I’ve tried (including AH), it’s the best tanking one.
Shout based, each shout clears 2 conditions plus I get access to AoE stability (virtue of courage and stand your ground) and 3 extra conditions cleared with absolute resolution. Boon duration makes it so all regenerations are longer, which scales a lot with healing power, not to mention almost permanent swiftness.
And except for “Save yourselves!” and #6 heal, everything else works on 3 allies, making the whole party tank like I can. Just by having me there. Borderline OP.
The setback? Little damage. That’s why I run with CC weapons. All the damage comes from permanent AoE retaliation.
And it does tank well. I’ve run kilometers in WvW whilst being chased by 6 without dying.

On the other hand there’s AH with the third route in the tree.
No condition cleansing compared to condition invulnerability (which is excellent taking in mind you’re using toughness to resist instead of vitality). Not such an amazing support to team, it’s selfish because you heal yourself with applied boons. Boon duration is much less, which affects regeneration and mobility.
Of course you get +critical damage, and it’s better for an hybrid/offensive build instead of the healway. But to be honest, I strongly believe that tree is over-rated.

How exactly do you define “healway.” You can go 30 honor and 30 virtues without going full up on healing gear. The virtues line offers just as much if not far more dps than valor depending on the situation.

fishergrip.4082:

How exactly do you define “healway.” You can go 30 honor and 30 virtues without going full up on healing gear. The virtues line offers just as much if not far more dps than valor depending on the situation.

“healway” as in the Healway build…. Here’s a link to help you better understand: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/WvW-The-Healway-Guardian/first

And the Virtues line is not at all a dps line. Sure it may offer a little bit of dps help, but it’s not what you’re making it out to be. You’re also forgetting Honor along with Valor in that comparison and the two lines are more dps beneficial together than Virtues.

If you want to do super low damage, go Healway.

fishergrip.4082:

How exactly do you define “healway.” You can go 30 honor and 30 virtues without going full up on healing gear. The virtues line offers just as much if not far more dps than valor depending on the situation.

Hardly. 30% crit dmg vs…..nothing. Certainly nothing beyond 15.

You should try permeating wrath sometime.

fishergrip.4082:

You should try permeating wrath sometime.

I didn’t know that the measure for good damage was packs of trash, and that burn damage was remotely significant for guardians who wear no +condition gear.

I tend to run in groups that range from 15-40, so I prefer AH builds. Healaway works, but it can’t really take the spike damage that a AH build can.

I ran AH for a long time thinking it was the end all be all spec, but Healway has worked much better for me.

Longer boons means better support for a group, and I have no more trouble surviving in a Zerg with Healway than I do with AH. The best part for me was seeing my performance stay consistent when running in a Zerg, small group, or solo.

I can out-heal most damage, block/blind against spikes, and take nearly any enemy down with attrition. 2v1? No problem with Healway!

I’ve run the VoJ spam blind vunerability AH build a PoV variation and now my own variation of healway (which allows me 22,000 HP 35% crit chance and 40 crit damage at around 2600 power M/S) and I have to say I prefer Healway in WvW in every situation. Healway is somewhat slow in PVE but as long as you don’t run in speed dungeon groups it transitions seamlessly into PVE. One thing I do admit is that Healway was way outside my comfort zone and I really do miss big splooshy red numbers over 2500 (my crits are around 1500 AA) but it is a really fun build. the ability to hang around and turn the tide in a battle is pretty addictive and I found the hardcore frontline DPS type builds really squishy in solo/ roaming encounters.

That said I still did try to work in as much burst as I could into healway…
Oh and my thanks to the originator of the helway build. You sir/madame are the cat’s pjs.

I hope the cat is hypo-allergenic.

:P

“Healway” – 1-10 grp size fighting equal numbers.

Valor/Honor Zerg vs Zerg – “Healway” cannot keep up on the front line.

So… Healways Trumps AH for roaming, imo.

Healway = solo or small group tank
AH = zerg DPS

They seem to fill completely different roles. How about something in between: the boonway:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARSlYgqCHFyvDfIFSmiVCBtKEQYPwI4rjuKkQA-jUDBoeBCbBB3BjyAgIAK5rIasVXRr8KItBhVXDT5iIq2aeIaG0pWKgIWGB-w

This has the same functionality as healway, just trading dps with healing. You can run with whatever weapon. However, if you run with staff, you can loose “retreat” and keep “Hold the line” and “stand your ground”, that gives you high protection up time with 2 low cool-down shouts for conditional removal.

Amins.3710:

“Healway” – 1-10 grp size fighting equal numbers.

Valor/Honor Zerg vs Zerg – “Healway” cannot keep up on the front line.

So… Healways Trumps AH for roaming, imo.

Mind if I ask what you have been running lately? I know you have been trying out a few new builds but I’ve not seen you on our server lately so figured I’d ask. Then again, this week facing SoS has been a bust with their night crew and size

Yaki.9563:

fishergrip.4082:

You should try permeating wrath sometime.

I didn’t know that the measure for good damage was packs of trash, and that burn damage was remotely significant for guardians who wear no +condition gear.

Burning is actually quite a significant source of damage with no condition gear. It has high base damage and with a few stacks of might you tick at around 400. It’s never going to be 50% of your dps, but it can be 20%+ just from equipping permeating wrath in fights with multiple enemies around you. It is good for taking camps solo, punishing rezers, fighting clustered enemies, fighting enemies with clones/minions, pets etc. and as you said burning trash mobs for getting 25 stacks of bloodlust in no time. Obviously, it is a bit hit or miss since a lot of the time you only have one target in range, but when it hits it is quite noticeable.

Also, the last 15 points in virtues give you +damage per boon (averages around 5% damage) and +15% boon duration (build dependent, for mine about +4% damage.) +9ish% damage >> +15% crit damage.

The only interesting dps ability in valor past 15 points is might on block. Like permeating wrath it is a bit hit or miss and requires shelter and a focus to make good use of it. For the type of fighting I do—taking camps solo, small group fights, occasional zerg fights, killing trash to get 25 stacks quickly, PW gives substantially more dps than anything in valor and I don’t have to take and burn shelter in the hopes of gaining a bit of extra dps. If you just run dungeons and zerg all day long you probably wouldn’t benefit from it as much.

I “tried” Healway but it wasn’t for me. By trying it, I mean that I couldn’t afford/get the awesome gear in the guide, so I used the closest cheapo alternatives. Yeah the heals were big but I felt like I was paper and had to keep spamming them to stay alive. I am sure it was just something I was doing wrong, though. I’ve been using/coming back to AH pretty much throughout my 10-month Guardian career, but recently have been checking out a variation of Boonway and so far I really love it.

Crapgame.6519:

Amins.3710:

“Healway” – 1-10 grp size fighting equal numbers.

Valor/Honor Zerg vs Zerg – “Healway” cannot keep up on the front line.

So… Healways Trumps AH for roaming, imo.

Mind if I ask what you have been running lately? I know you have been trying out a few new builds but I’ve not seen you on our server lately so figured I’d ask. Then again, this week facing SoS has been a bust with their night crew and size

I run a variation of Healway when out roaming… the condi meta is just nuts right now. (sometimes 10/0/0/30/30 or standard 0/0/10/30/30 but running burns on all of it))

For our zerg bust’n nights i’m in the same gear on all the vids – w/ a 0/0/30/30/10.

Then I run something different for our GvG’s, but not disclosing that. =[ Top Secret stuff right dere.

fishergrip.4082:

Yaki.9563:

fishergrip.4082:

You should try permeating wrath sometime.

I didn’t know that the measure for good damage was packs of trash, and that burn damage was remotely significant for guardians who wear no +condition gear.

Burning is actually quite a significant source of damage with no condition gear. It has high base damage and with a few stacks of might you tick at around 400. It’s never going to be 50% of your dps, but it can be 20%+ just from equipping permeating wrath in fights with multiple enemies around you. It is good for taking camps solo, punishing rezers, fighting clustered enemies, fighting enemies with clones/minions, pets etc. and as you said burning trash mobs for getting 25 stacks of bloodlust in no time. Obviously, it is a bit hit or miss since a lot of the time you only have one target in range, but when it hits it is quite noticeable.

Also, the last 15 points in virtues give you +damage per boon (averages around 5% damage) and +15% boon duration (build dependent, for mine about +4% damage.) +9ish% damage >> +15% crit damage.

The only interesting dps ability in valor past 15 points is might on block. Like permeating wrath it is a bit hit or miss and requires shelter and a focus to make good use of it. For the type of fighting I do—taking camps solo, small group fights, occasional zerg fights, killing trash to get 25 stacks quickly, PW gives substantially more dps than anything in valor and I don’t have to take and burn shelter in the hopes of gaining a bit of extra dps. If you just run dungeons and zerg all day long you probably wouldn’t benefit from it as much.

…. you’re also forgetting that 30 Valor gives a total of 30% crit damage and that’s pretty significant, especially when you throw in other AOE attacks such as GS#2 and its ALWAYS there not just for 1 out of every 5 attacks (4 if you use Supreme Justice).

Power of the Virtuous depends on having boons up. You don’t always have a full rakc of boons up, so NO, the 9% occasional extra dps is NOT > 30% always on crit damage.

I’m running on a 0-10-10-30-20 focused on Pure of Voice and empowering might.

I’m still very undecided about runes:
1) Soldier Runes: + vitality and extra help with conditions
2) following the boonway: monk/water/ traveller to get the extra boon duration which I tend to enjoy quite a bit

My other dilemma…stats…I’m trying, bear in my crappy gear, to build a balanced build.:
Health – 16k to 17k enough?
Armour – enough around 2400?
Crit Chance – 60 enough?
Crit dmg – 62enough?

Any suggestion or comment will be highly appreciated!!!!!!!!

Rhaegar.5120:

I’m running on a 0-10-10-30-20 focused on Pure of Voice and empowering might.

I’m still very undecided about runes:
1) Soldier Runes: + vitality and extra help with conditions
2) following the boonway: monk/water/ traveller to get the extra boon duration which I tend to enjoy quite a bit

My other dilemma…stats…I’m trying, bear in my crappy gear, to build a balanced build.:
Health – 16k to 17k enough?
Armour – enough around 2400?
Crit Chance – 60 enough?
Crit dmg – 62enough?

Any suggestion or comment will be highly appreciated!!!!!!!!

Derailing ftl.