Guild Wars 2

It’s obvious everyone is getting the signet, other heals are barely worth it.
Healing Breeze doesn’t heal others enough to be worth the 3 sec cast time nor the 40s CD, takes away too much self-healing and isn’t an effective way to heal anyways.
Shelter healing is too weak, 2s block is not enough to make up for the health loss.

I doubt anyone actually uses anything outside the signet.

Warriors had their heals toned to be on par with each other, will our heals be balanced too?

So far, Shelter has been fine for me, though it’s true I haven’t been pvping yet on my guardian. I wouldn’t mind if it get more heal though. :>

2s of block is decent, if well used. You don’t use Shelter just to heal yourself..

I concur. Some viable alternatives would spruce up this aspect of the game. Having said this, since we do have one solid heal, there’s no urgency for the implementation of said alternatives.

Shelter is a constant 2 second block, which, in itself very valuable, at least in WvW.

Do you know how many attacks you can block in 2 seconds? Most other blocks on the Guardian only last for a number of hits, usually 3 or less. It is also mobile.

A buffed heal would probably make it OP.

I use Shelter and Signet of Resolve roughly equally. Since I play a pretty tanky spec (I built myself for dungeon running with friends), getting the weaker heal more often is great for me, especially if I can time it right to block a big nasty attack at the same time.

Though having the passive from Signet of Resolve is always nice, and I sometimes switch to it in condition heavy fights.

Shelter is amazing for when you’re getting focuses fired. I can’t count how many times the block has saved me.

Thank Anet for creating the Shelter heal.
and we shall say Ramen. (can i get a Ramen over here!)
but i think its really controversial.
it depends on your play style, i see afew Gaurdians who stand and defend from the back and use healing breeze. Which is a good way because that way a Gaurdian at the front is using shielding in front lune while a Gaurdian protect from the back.

I see how people who solo more rather to get negetive boons off of them as soon as possible because it ruins their celebration. I can relate, but i find myself surviving more with Shelter.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the healing nerf on Shelter went too far. A 2s block can mean everything or nothing, and although it is very useful against multiple enemies or rapid attacks, it’s next to useless against slow, high damage enemies. It will probably block 1 attack, which is something aegis / dodge / mace / knockback / blind will achieve. If all that fails, there’s the invul elite which also recharges virtues. I see no reason to take this over Signet of Resolve. Should I even mention how weak it is against condition spam?

If it were 1 second block and higher heal, it would be fine. As it is now, no thanks.

Guardians generally suffer from lack of diversity in builds. Right now there’s no reason to ever go outside of at least 15 radiance and 10 zeal for the OP recharge on Virtue of Justice and blind that goes with it and +10% damage against burning enemies (which is all the time, unless they’re dead).

I use the signet in solo/pve content, but prefer healing breeze for staff/support play in WvW. The block one would actually be my default heal if I wasn’t more concerned with conditions (and I’m not quick enough to think of switching it out on a fight per fight basis – which a better player than me would do).

So I actually think it’s fine. They all have uses.

I actually have only been using the signet for the sole purpose of the 10s condition removal, hoping it works with the “Purity” socketed trait, which I don’t know if it’s true as they may share a CD (anyone confirm/deny this?). Otherwise, once I get back into dungeons, I can find myself with the block/heal on more often, as 2 seconds of infinite aegis…wait, let me see if anyone can answer this:

-Shelter: Blocks attack while healing.
NOW: There are many traits and such that say burn when blocking (Defender’s Flame), gain might when blocking (Might of the Protector). Then there are also those that say “when aegis is removed”. Do these apply when blocking with shelter, or is that different (for both cases)? I didn’t even notice if that applies…if so, that makes Shelter MUCH more useful as a whole.

Daboris.6730:

I actually have only been using the signet for the sole purpose of the 10s condition removal, hoping it works with the “Purity” socketed trait, which I don’t know if it’s true as they may share a CD (anyone confirm/deny this?). Otherwise, once I get back into dungeons, I can find myself with the block/heal on more often, as 2 seconds of infinite aegis…wait, let me see if anyone can answer this:

-Shelter: Blocks attack while healing.
NOW: There are many traits and such that say burn when blocking (Defender’s Flame), gain might when blocking (Might of the Protector). Then there are also those that say “when aegis is removed”. Do these apply when blocking with shelter, or is that different (for both cases)? I didn’t even notice if that applies…if so, that makes Shelter MUCH more useful as a whole.

Very good questions. I have definitely seen two conditions drop passively at the same time when under pressure due to the trait + signet, so I know that works.

As for the second, I’m not sure. I would assume that ‘while blocking’ applies to the heal, but that isn’t ‘aegis’ you get so any ‘removal of aegis’ shouldn’t. Though the game might treat any blocking as aegis, I don’t really know.

It applies to both aegis and shelter. It’s crap damage and duration though, not worth the trait point. Even if I do specialize in burning I avoid it, a ~1s low damage burn isn’t worth the trait point.

Yeah, it’d be nice if Shelter was made more generally useful. Especially since I can get nearly twice the healing from SoR and the cooldown difference is 2 seconds while traited.

Overall is PVP I’ve simply been using the signet due to it having the largest heal and also the fact that it removes conditions every 10 seconds. Condition removal is a must have for PVP imo.

I use Healing Seed, but I realize not everyone is a sylvari.

Red Falcon.8257:

Warriors had their heals toned to be on par with each other, will our heals be balanced too?

In what universe? Warrior healing signet heals for 3620, mending heals for 5860 and healing surge heals between 6180 and 8740, depending on adrenaline level.

Shelter is a viable alternative due to the block. You can chain it like Aegis, Shelter, Shield 5, Blow Shield, Resolve virtue, renewed focus, Aegis, Resolve again and you have a pretty large time window where you are regenerating and healing without being touched. Signet of Resolve is better for those builds where you aren’t going all out defensive or need to pop a large heal in a smaller fight.

One of the reasons you don’t see Healing Breeze used more often is that it’s a channel and if it gets interrupted, it’s still counted as using the cooldown, even though you only get a fraction of the heal off. It’s not very good in melee, which is where a lot of guardians end up.

Other than that, the three guardian heals are pretty close in terms of power level. Up until the weeks before release, there was no reason to use anything but Signet of Resolve (had the shortest cooldown and same amount healed). Now there’s at least reasons to consider the other two.

Shelter is amazing in PvP and WvWvW. In fact, that’s the only place where I use it. But yeah, I feel that there is no reason to ever use Healing Breeze and my racial heal (Healing Seed as Sylvari) is terrible so Signet of Resolve it is.

I use Shelter mainly. Signet of Resolve is good as well.
I dislike Healing Breeze because it’s a cone-skill, which doesn’t suit a melee playstyle.

The problem with the heals ( like most guardian skills and traits) is that they are made so they are fine in sPvP. That is a controlled enviroment with 5-8 players.
Normal PvE, WvW or Dungones are no where near that scale of dmg that are used for reference there. So the guardian is a but kitten as he can’t get much stronger becaus he is already really strong in sPvP but meh in PvE in the end A-net can’t keep the balancing of both atm.

Red Falcon.8257:

It’s obvious everyone is getting the signet, other heals are barely worth it.
Healing Breeze doesn’t heal others enough to be worth the 3 sec cast time nor the 40s CD, takes away too much self-healing and isn’t an effective way to heal anyways.
Shelter healing is too weak, 2s block is not enough to make up for the health loss.

I doubt anyone actually uses anything outside the signet.

Warriors had their heals toned to be on par with each other, will our heals be balanced too?

I’m very skeptical about this sort of theorizing, because it’s dismissive of tactical nuance. We have this weird habit in MMOs of discussing abilities in terms of black and white, viable or inviable. If you’re going to dismiss Healing Breeze and Shelter right off the bat, I think you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

One thing to remember is that you can—and should—change your utilities/heals/elites as necessary. You have three heals. Each of them is useful in different situations. If you’re using nothing but Signet of Resolve—ever—then you’re leaving options on the table.

As many have pointed out already, Shelter has potentially far superior mitigation to Signet of Resolve, depending on how much damage you block. Two seconds of block is potentially very high mitigation. Sure, you aren’t likely to mitigate much in general leveling, but what about dungeons? What about sPVP and WvWvW? You will get much more mileage out of Shelter provided you mitigate high incoming damage.

Healing Breeze isn’t monolithic. It isn’t our party heal, in the way Flash of Light was in World of Warcraft. In order to get the most out of Healing Breeze, you need to be able to aim the cone. Healing Breeze sacrifices some personal healing for superior group support. No, the group healing component of Healing Breeze isn’t high on its own, but cumulatively, as part of a build that emphasizes group support through healing. We’ll never be “healers” and Healing Breeze won’t bring us any closer to that ideal, but it does have a role in Honor/Virtues setups that emphasize group mitigation.

Signet of Resolve is a wonderful skill and universally useful. It isn’t mandatory. Signet of Resolve is probably better for general use, but Shelter and Healing Breeze are much better for their specific situations. Because you have access to all three skills, and a potentially infinite number of skill points to spend, you should buy all three, and equip Signet, Shelter or Healing Breeze as necessary.

Besides, why would you want three separate Healing skills, all of which are “on par” with one another’s numbers? That’s three totally redundant healing skills none of which are tactically interesting.

I have to agree with Eveningstar, but not just on the level of variables in the needs for either of the 3 Healing spells. Honestly, your build doesn’t have to change much to pull out one of the different heals. I’m speaking now from a WvW based standpoint, there are 3 situations where I, personally, use all three healing spells. When attacking a keep/tower I use Healing Breeze to help the people on the ground, when moving about through the field in WvW I use Shelter in open battles, and when defending a keep/tower I use Signet of Resolve to move about the ramparts through the oncoming AoE and when I drop down to make some noise. ;] They have their place regardless of your build.

Signet of Resolve’s CD can be reduced to 32 seconds, compared to Shelter’s 30 seconds. – almost no difference.

I only use it because I have no condition removal outside of it in my build.

sPvP: Smite Condition (12s cooldown) + Shelter = Better than just a Signet ;D

If you blocked it, you healed it. <— Mental Conditioning. Do it.

The biggest problem with healing breeze is the cone targeting mechanic. Cone targeting is completely ridiculous for any type of healing ability. Change it so that it hits the nearest X allies, just like our healing virtue, and it would be much more popular (or at least more viable). Cone healing is not viable in games that discourage motion – it certainly won’t be viable in a game like GW2 that encourages motion.

There’s that ‘viable’ word again. Healing breeze is plenty viable in WvW and when you’re in a support role (specifically staff). I’m constantly running behind or next to people and able to aim the ability JUST fine.

The problem people have with the ability isn’t because the ability is bad.

Shimond.2478

There’s that ‘viable’ word again. Healing breeze is plenty viable in WvW and when you’re in a support role (specifically staff). I’m constantly running behind or next to people and able to aim the ability JUST fine.

The problem people have with the ability isn’t because the ability is bad.

How often do you find that the “heal others” component of HBreeze actually swings the tide of an engagement, though? When I run it, I find that the green numbers over the heads of the good guys are just so small that they make literally no difference taken over the duration of the CD. I am not heavily specced in +Healing, but neither do I completely ignore it.

I’ve used HBreeze, and I don’t hate it, but I think the supplemental heal could be a bit better or the CD slightly (5 secs?) shorter.

WillAD.9670:

sPvP: Smite Condition (12s cooldown) + Shelter = Better than just a Signet ;D

If you blocked it, you healed it. <— Mental Conditioning. Do it.

In order for this to work, it means that you’ve blocked more than 4000 points of damage within 2 seconds. If you’re taking that much damage in 2 seconds, you have other issues.

Nightwind Of Dwayna.3250:

How often do you find that the “heal others” component of HBreeze actually swings the tide of an engagement, though? When I run it, I find that the green numbers over the heads of the good guys are just so small that they make literally no difference taken over the duration of the CD. I am not heavily specced in +Healing, but neither do I completely ignore it.

I’ve used HBreeze, and I don’t hate it, but I think the supplemental heal could be a bit better or the CD slightly (5 secs?) shorter.

I run full cleric so I have a tremendous amount of healing, along with 30 points in the healing line. It’s very noticeable and keeps people from death, easily – which in pvp is the difference between winning and losing.

Nightwind Of Dwayna.3250:

How often do you find that the “heal others” component of HBreeze actually swings the tide of an engagement, though? When I run it, I find that the green numbers over the heads of the good guys are just so small that they make literally no difference taken over the duration of the CD. I am not heavily specced in +Healing, but neither do I completely ignore it.

I’ve used HBreeze, and I don’t hate it, but I think the supplemental heal could be a bit better or the CD slightly (5 secs?) shorter.

So, you are now whining about weak healing when you are not spec’d in +Healing Power … what are you expecting? The same reason your Healing Breeze isn’t healing other people very much, is the same reason that your heal only heals 1/5 of your HP bar … You need +Healing Power to have improved healing abilities.

Is this not common sense? I can almost 100% heal myself with my healing stat being so high from my Cleric gear.

I don’t use the signet at all. I use shelter for my melee set, and healing breeze for my ranged support set. I don’t mind giving up some healing for utility, I can deal with it.

Signet with Purity is prettykittengood in PvP. 2 conditions removed every 10 seconds.

With a +healing set, it heals for about 80% of your HP.

Y u mad its vydia.6324:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the healing nerf on Shelter went too far. A 2s block can mean everything or nothing, and although it is very useful against multiple enemies or rapid attacks, it’s next to useless against slow, high damage enemies. It will probably block 1 attack, which is something aegis / dodge / mace / knockback / blind will achieve. If all that fails, there’s the invul elite which also recharges virtues. I see no reason to take this over Signet of Resolve. Should I even mention how weak it is against condition spam?

The fix to this is simple.

“Shelter grants extra healing based on how many attacks are blocked. The higher the number of blocked attacks, the lower the extra healing granted by this skill.”

Then you put some sort of internal tracker that marks how many blocks you get during that 2 second cast time, and grants the extra healing accordingly. This gives a larger heal in situations where the block ends up being useless, while maintaining the same utility against large groups and fast-attacking enemies.

But I don’t think the developers are actually reading this, so my suggestion is kinda pointless lol.

A 2s block is hardly preventing damage equal to the extra heal from signet of resolve unless you’re being hit by a boss or 10 mobs.

It’s clear that Shelter and Breeze are quite useless now, you guys aren’t level 80 I fear.

Red Falcon.8257:

A 2s block is hardly preventing damage equal to the extra heal from signet of resolve unless you’re being hit by a boss or 10 mobs.

It’s clear that Shelter and Breeze are quite useless now, you guys aren’t level 80 I fear.

Situational abilities are situational (I’d like to see how you heal your team with Signet of Resolve, for example). Disagreeing with you does not make one not level 80, I fear.

Yeah I’ve only been using the signet myself. Our other heals needs something to make them more attractive.

- I’d suggest making that block heal last longer and heal over time, longer cd.
- Remove signet cooldown reduction trait and replace it with something that supports a specific weapon type (we need some Mace love, or perhaps Staff)
- Our ally heal should work differently entirely, it should create a healing symbol around the Guardian (quite large) that follows the Guardian around and heals any1 caught in it during the healing cast time. Also the CD should be longer.

Rarely use the signet. Shelter is just too good now that they’ve made it the fastest recharging heal we have. Sure the signet heals for more but Shelter’s block and shorter CD have saved me more than once in WvW.

I agree with the original poster.
/agree.

The blocks can stop a helluva lot more damage in the right situations. Plus you can even pop it just to stop a huge attack, like things that knock you down or something like a thief initiating their burst chain.
Theres more than just damage it mitigates, timed right it stops cc skills, is hard to be interrupted doing it, etc etc

The real problem is healing breeze, that one needs a buff

Healing breezing is healing you during those 3 sec cast and you can cast your 789 skills while at it.

So you can hit it and do something else.

The only reason I take signet over is because it’s 20% CD decrease.

I personally use shelter as my prime goto heal for pve. Key to it is to use it around 70-80% inplace of an aegis skill’s to block big hits while boosting you back to near max hp. If built right can basically use it whenever it comes off cd and never drop below 60% hp.

Reihert.1509:

Healing breezing is healing you during those 3 sec cast and you can cast your 789 skills while at it.

So you can hit it and do something else.

The only reason I take signet over is because it’s 20% CD decrease.

not sure what you mean. When you use healing breeze, you can move but you cant cast any other skills other than shouts, but thats because theyre shouts to begin with