Guild Wars 2

Hi there guys,

Im kinda new to this game and found out guardians are quite nice to play with.
The fact he has healing skills makes it interesting but im wondering if grabbing healingpower+ gear and honor traits is worth it. I like supporting in fights, but im starting to think that my healing skills arent that good..

So is it worth it ? in pve and pvp ? thx

I use a guardian with full cleric’s gear (Healing Power, Power, Toughness), and it works quite well even in PvP. However, you’re not really a healbot for your party, and shouldn’t be standing back trying to heal your allies constantly. You’ll want to be pretty aggressive as with just about any other build.

I like to take Monk’s Focus with Smite Condition and Judge’s Intervention. Last util I will swap out as necessary, but usually go with Stand Your Ground. Each meditation you cast will heal for about 2k, and your dodge rolls up to 1.5k depending on your healing power stat.

Another option would be Altruistic Healing + Hammer / Mace, this works well in dungeons especially when your team needs to stack. In order to get the most out of altruistic healing though, you’ll want a decent crit rate to proc Empowering Might. It’s not necessary but I’ve never seen an AH build without it I guess.

Ok, thats hopefull! but im not gonna be a teamhealer am i ?

There’s really not much of any way you can perform effectively in most scenarios as a team healer. The best we can really do as Guardians is to alternate between staff 4 and healing via dodge rolls (preferably with permanent vigor to increase dodge frequency); perhaps with VoR traited to apply to allies as well.

Other methods of support we excel at, however: we can provide a huge variety of boons for tremendous durations, and Guardians have the best AoE condition removal access in the game (at least in my opinion).

Kharel Arhew.1437:

There’s really not much of any way you can perform effectively in most scenarios as a team healer. The best we can really do as Guardians is to alternate between staff 4 and healing via dodge rolls (preferably with permanent vigor to increase dodge frequency); perhaps with VoR traited to apply to allies as well.

Other methods of support we excel at, however: we can provide a huge variety of boons for tremendous durations, and Guardians have the best AoE condition removal access in the game (at least in my opinion).

Kharel is right. Our support doesn’t usually come in the form of party heals. We have just about the easiest access to almost every boon in the game with just shouts + virtues that can spread party wide, as well as excellent group condition cleansing (Save Yourselves, light fields, etc.) Sometimes, it’s much more important to have protection, regen, aegis, and stability than just a straight heal. These go a long way to mitigating damage in the first place.

That’s not to say heals don’t matter, after all, how are you going to keep yourself alive? High armor ratings only go so far, you need good sustain to keep supporting your team in really rough situations and that is why I tend to reserve my healing abilities for myself, as you will likely draw more aggro than almost everyone else in your party anyways. If someone else gets healed from my dodge, VoR, more power to them, but I likely needed it much more.

Arenanet intentionally designed the classes so that none of them can really be “team healers” in the conventional sense of the word. Guardians can be ridiculously good self-healers and one of the better group healers, though. I run a “support guardian” in WvW — staff and scepter/shield with full Cleric’s gear and a consecration build. My damage output is fairly useless but I get some decent group heals plus other nice group buffs (AE might, AE protection, that sort of thing). I do feel I make a pretty good difference in group fights.

So you can’t be a “healer”, but if you want to be “support with some healing”, Guardian is one of the best choices.

Yah, tho consider that if you focus too much on Healing Power your damage output will suck and may drag fights for a long time, unnecessarily, making people to commit mistakes. However, it does depend and it’s on a case by case scenario. Some heals are often good if your team is full of squishy people tho xD

You have nice traits like Battle Presence, and a cone aoe heal skill as well as alot of support boons if you like that setup, however it is not aggressive enough IMO.

Slamz.5376:

Arenanet intentionally designed the classes so that none of them can really be “team healers” in the conventional sense of the word. Guardians can be ridiculously good self-healers and one of the better group healers, though. I run a “support guardian” in WvW — staff and scepter/shield with full Cleric’s gear and a consecration build. My damage output is fairly useless but I get some decent group heals plus other nice group buffs (AE might, AE protection, that sort of thing). I do feel I make a pretty good difference in group fights.

So you can’t be a “healer”, but if you want to be “support with some healing”, Guardian is one of the best choices.

Should switch Scepter for Mace. Better healing and support with it (Block, extra heals on combo chain and on SoF, protection if the block doesn’t trigger)

Kami.7369:

Should switch Scepter for Mace. Better healing and support with it (Block, extra heals on combo chain and on SoF, protection if the block doesn’t trigger)

Yeah, I go back and forth. Kinda settled on scepter for WvW because Smite is good against people on walls and siege engines and Chains is faintly useful for getting someone killed in the act of fleeing, plus in a hot situation it gives me something to fling at enemies from a safe distance.

Shame about the orbs being probably the worst #1 attack in the game though. :-p Terrible damage. Long travel time. No special effects. Other than that it’s great!

Guardian focused on healing often results in over-healing and then not contributing to much else which is not so good. So sure, healing, but you want to raise your buff potential and/or DPS. I mostly run with mace/shield + GS and staff backup (for roaming), so favor more DPS, myself. My guard is mainly for dungeons, some metas.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

There’s really not much of any way you can perform effectively in most scenarios as a team healer. The best we can really do as Guardians is to alternate between staff 4 and healing via dodge rolls (preferably with permanent vigor to increase dodge frequency); perhaps with VoR traited to apply to allies as well.

Other methods of support we excel at, however: we can provide a huge variety of boons for tremendous durations, and Guardians have the best AoE condition removal access in the game (at least in my opinion).

Necromancer & Mesmer’s are very good at condition removal and on a much shorter cooldown.

Slamz.5376:

Kami.7369:

Should switch Scepter for Mace. Better healing and support with it (Block, extra heals on combo chain and on SoF, protection if the block doesn’t trigger)

Yeah, I go back and forth. Kinda settled on scepter for WvW because Smite is good against people on walls and siege engines and Chains is faintly useful for getting someone killed in the act of fleeing, plus in a hot situation it gives me something to fling at enemies from a safe distance.

Shame about the orbs being probably the worst #1 attack in the game though. :-p Terrible damage. Long travel time. No special effects. Other than that it’s great!

Orb dmg, if you gear for DPS is amazing. Don’t be fooled.

Daywolf.2630:

Guardian focused on healing often results in over-healing and then not contributing to much else which is not so good. So sure, healing, but you want to raise your buff potential and/or DPS. I mostly run with mace/shield + GS and staff backup (for roaming), so favor more DPS, myself. My guard is mainly for dungeons, some metas.

In PvP the healway guards don’t really help much either imo… sure you won’t die… but you’re not going to kill much of anything with that set up either.

Amins.3710:

Slamz.5376:

Kami.7369:

Should switch Scepter for Mace. Better healing and support with it (Block, extra heals on combo chain and on SoF, protection if the block doesn’t trigger)

Yeah, I go back and forth. Kinda settled on scepter for WvW because Smite is good against people on walls and siege engines and Chains is faintly useful for getting someone killed in the act of fleeing, plus in a hot situation it gives me something to fling at enemies from a safe distance.

Shame about the orbs being probably the worst #1 attack in the game though. :-p Terrible damage. Long travel time. No special effects. Other than that it’s great!

Orb dmg, if you gear for DPS is amazing. Don’t be fooled.

In PvE it’s good, PvP it moves too slow to hit anything that’s moving at any sort decent range That’s somewhat by design though… long ago the range was extended to help guards hit siege at longer ranges in WvW… and not other players.

Aberrant.6749:

Daywolf.2630:

Guardian focused on healing often results in over-healing and then not contributing to much else which is not so good. So sure, healing, but you want to raise your buff potential and/or DPS. I mostly run with mace/shield + GS and staff backup (for roaming), so favor more DPS, myself. My guard is mainly for dungeons, some metas.

In PvP the healway guards don’t really help much either imo… sure you won’t die… but you’re not going to kill much of anything with that set up either.

Amins.3710:

Slamz.5376:

Kami.7369:

Should switch Scepter for Mace. Better healing and support with it (Block, extra heals on combo chain and on SoF, protection if the block doesn’t trigger)

Yeah, I go back and forth. Kinda settled on scepter for WvW because Smite is good against people on walls and siege engines and Chains is faintly useful for getting someone killed in the act of fleeing, plus in a hot situation it gives me something to fling at enemies from a safe distance.

Shame about the orbs being probably the worst #1 attack in the game though. :-p Terrible damage. Long travel time. No special effects. Other than that it’s great!

Orb dmg, if you gear for DPS is amazing. Don’t be fooled.

In PvE it’s good, PvP it moves too slow to hit anything that’s moving at any sort decent range That’s somewhat by design though… long ago the range was extended to help guards hit siege at longer ranges in WvW… and not other players.

[Poison]Deals damage every second; heal potency decreased by 33%; stacks duration.

Keep the healing guardian poisoned when he tryes to heal, stress him a bit, have fun and he cant pop up is health bubble up.

Conditioners apply recharge much faster than Condition removers its just a matter of time.

No big deal, thats why i dont like how the healing power on guardian works.

I found that finding the right balance of stats on my Guardian is really the best way to go.

I’ll use 2.7-2.8k attack, 3.2k armor w/GS – 3.43k armor with shield 24%-30% crit chance, 9k-1.1k healing power. Many people overlook the honor trait. Yes it has altruistic healing, which is an extremely powerful survival tool. But focusing on healing is a complete waste of that 30% crit dmg. when I want to lay down a spike I’ll hit “Save Yourselves” and have a nearly 50% crit chance, doing a fair amount of damage. With the trait Empowering Might you can actually lay down a fairly nasty spike. I tried out a couple Fractals rings – Cavalier – and wow those crit numbers XD. Sure, my healing power gives me less survivability, but it is still completely manageable.

Also, Protection is extremely vital to the survivability of a guardian. I try to keep it pretty much constantly up, either via hammer symbols or shouts. Longer and bigger symbols helps quite a bit. Try rocking Signet of Judgment (therefore gaining -43% dmg), whip out your shield and you’ll be a beastmode tank.

Kami.7369:

Slamz.5376:

Arenanet intentionally designed the classes so that none of them can really be “team healers” in the conventional sense of the word. Guardians can be ridiculously good self-healers and one of the better group healers, though. I run a “support guardian” in WvW — staff and scepter/shield with full Cleric’s gear and a consecration build. My damage output is fairly useless but I get some decent group heals plus other nice group buffs (AE might, AE protection, that sort of thing). I do feel I make a pretty good difference in group fights.

So you can’t be a “healer”, but if you want to be “support with some healing”, Guardian is one of the best choices.

Should switch Scepter for Mace. Better healing and support with it (Block, extra heals on combo chain and on SoF, protection if the block doesn’t trigger)

Mace, mace, mace. That parry on the 3rd skill will save your butt many times. I absolutely hate scepter and will never evar use one other than vs. Lupicus, that tree boss from TA, or lvl 224 Fractals

Edit: I forgot to add Captain Ashym from the Searing Fractal when he busts out the fiery greatsword

Mace 3 parry is buggy and fails occasionally, so be careful with that.