Guild Wars 2

Hi there,
There is something I havent figured out yet. Are allies friendly players in general including yourself or are Allies only extra players excluding yourself?.

On the Guardian Traits there are several like “If you X to a Alli Y happens”

Altrustic Healing for example. The trait says “If you apply a Boon to Allies you get healed”
So to get the healing do you need another player? Or does it count for yourself as well when you get a boon from yourself?

Strength in Numbers “Allies gain Toughness Bonus” Do you get the toughness too or only your allies? Warriors have similar Traits.

Writ of the merciful “Symbols heal allies” Again does this count for your character as well?

Yes to all, if it says Allies you get the boon as well.

But the Wiki says:

Special Cases

An effect that emerges from the player may not consider the player be an ally of the effect unless the effect clearly states “allies and yourself”.

Are you certain that the player gets the benefits too?

Well I have Altruistic Healing and Writ of the Merciless in my build (Crithammer variant) and I get the heals from the symbol, I get the might from Empowering Might and the heal from the might as well.

In the case of Empowering Might it clearly says ‘allies’ but you get the Might stacks as well. While this doesn’t make the case for all other abilities that state ‘allies’ but not ‘and yourself’ it’s a less clear-cut case as Writ of the Merciful seeing as the latter is a persistent AOE you can walk into to get the effect.

So to get this straight:
Everything I stated above applies for the player too even if no other Ally is in sight?

If that is true it offers some nice synergies. Thank you guys

Generally speaking, the player is counted as an ally. I do believe there are some exceptions.