Guild Wars 2

Hey all. Long time reader, first time poster here. While I’m here at work I was wondering if there is any synergy between the Might of the Protector trait and AH.

If I pop Shelter for example, and block x attacks while gaining x Might, will I receive the extra healing? In other words it seems plausible to me that it would make Shelter on par with our healing signet or better while also giving all those delicious stacks of might to chuck around. Let me know what you find out, otherwise I’ll give it a shot when I get into the game tonight. Thanks.

I’m not sure which game format you’re going to use this in, but I have tested this on Lt. Kholer in the AC dungeon. He has a spin attack that hits multiple times, and you can use shelter to completely block it and gain might stacks, which does heal you with AH.

Shelter is better when you can counter a series of hits, otherwise, it’s just a sub par heal. Signet of Resolve is better when you aren’t receiving so much burst, since you have to channel it for a bit for its huge heal. I generally use the signet for PvE, but in sPvP/tPvP, I use shelter to counter burst hits.

That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear. Thanks mate. Yeah, signet may be better in non-burst scenarios but I see more utility in Shelter as it provides multiple benefits – block, heal and might. Also, our might gained sticks for 15s! That’s practically forever given most of our skills provide less than 10s boon duration (I don’t use boon duration runes btw). This really makes me feel better about my Shout-Ah build I rock on wvw and pve.

Altruistic Healing will heal you for a base of 69 HP per boon, with no healing power. If you can get 25 stacks of might off Shelter, that equates to 1,725 health from AH (assuming you can actually get 25 stacks of might). Shelter’s base heal is 4,555 HP, so this bump from Might of the Protector would only net you at most 6,280 healing. That’s still less than Signet of Resolve, but it will make Shelter a better heal, especially if you have a good amount of healing power (700+). This is of course dependent on getting a full stack of might. Less might, the lower the heal.

For PvE, Empowering Might might be better since you can more consistently proc heals with crits than you can with a heal skill that has a 30 second cooldown. For solo healing, a triple meditation build with Monk’s Focus is superior, since 3 meditation skills can heal for a total of 5,880. For WvW, the trait Defender’s Flame is probably superior since you can apply burning to multiple enemies who attack you during a battle.

Don’t forget that if you have Selfless Daring, your dodge rolls can heal you at 100% of your healing power. So if you have 900+ healing power, this minor trait can actually give you a better heal with 2 dodge rolls than the Major Trait of Might of the Protector, freeing you up for another choice.

If you are looking for more healing or survivability, you’ll probably want a more reliable way to make this happen. Look into applying more Protection and Regeneration boons. These will help you mitigate damage better than the small heal Might of the Protector would.

That’s sound advice, Ultramatum. But my play style is face tanking my enemies point blank, then if/when I’m getting steamrolled I’ll pop Shelter last second and let me tell you, it’s literally a life saver when you’re hovering at bare minimum HP. Now don’t get me wrong. I ran with Signet since head-start release, but when kitten hits the fan it just takes too long to cast, and then I’m dead. I’ve also done the triple meditation builds (which i love) and all that jazz so I agree with your perspective as well.

See it this way too – Shelter’s timer is 30s vs Signet which is 40s so that basically means to me anyway that Shelter (with possible stacks of might supported by AH) heals nearly as much overall since I can pop it more often while in combat. I’ll have to do the math on that later lol. Hey, to each their own tho right? After 500 hours on my guardian I’m just trying to explore new possibilities.

Ok well I just did some quick mathemitizing and if we assume (w/o signet countdown reduction) that Shelter heals 4555 every 30s and Signet of Resolve heals 8155 every 40s, then Signet is therefore healing 6166 HP at the 30 second mark. With a possible 25 stacks of might plus Shelter my heal could be from 4555 to 6280 as you stated. Not to mention other healing gained by EM/AH. So yes, Signet still wins in the regard that it guarantees full 8155 heal but Shelter has some serious potential there if played with the right kind of build.

Well, keep in mind Signet of Resolve scales at 125% of your healing power, while Shelter just scales at 70%. So any amount of healing power in your build other than zero is going to significantly increase SoR’s heal number. It will always be the better heal than Shelter, even with the +10 second longer cooldown.

Not that I’m bad-mouthing Shelter. I think it’s a great heal, especially for when you are fighting other players, because it brings some much needed damage mitigation into play.

I’m not sure that the extra might it gives is worth the use of a Major Trait, though. That’s my only concern. Frankly, the Guardian has so many ways to quickly buff might, it seems like this would be a waste of a Major Trait slot. I actually think that Defender’s Flame has better synergy with Shelter since you’re actually damaging opponents while you’re blocking instead of stacking might, which relies on you to hit others for it to be effective.

With altruistic healing, your health gain is dependent on how many people are attacking you – the more attackers, the bigger the heal. One attacker hitting you 2 times during your block will at most net you about 140 extra health, so unless you’re being focused fired by numerous enemies, the healing doesn’t scale well. But with Defender’s Flame, you’re doing the same amount of damage no matter how many people are attacking you. So in that respect, Might of the Protector has too many variables concerned with it to make it a reliable Major Trait.

Just my opinion.

MotP is a actually a minor trait. Forgot to mention that. So it’s inherent in any build with at least 25pts invested into Valor.

And no worries, I don’t see it as bad-mouthing. I always appreciate constructive criticism.

Shelter is better for his playstyle. SoR will have a higher heal but shelter also mitigates damage.

When factoring everying. Shelter wins hands down. But in a scenario where you arent pressured, the higher healing would seem better. SoR is good as a buffer for condition dmg.

True, but his question was about putting 5 more points into Valor to increase Shelter’s heal. My point was that Shelter would probably benefit more from a different trait, unless he’s going a full 30 in Valor.

I actually run the 0/5/30/30/5 build lately. Traited for Purity, Retributive Armor and AH in Valor, and Superior Aria, 2hand Mastery and Pure of Voice in Honor. Although I switch out PoV for EM often but that depends on the scenario.

Again, as a basic rule of thumb I saw this theory as a means to flip Shelter from just a sup-par heal into more of a multipurpose utility. I know it certainly helps me out when I would otherwise get wiped if I had used SoR. Blocking attacks = no damage = more “effective” HP. With MotP you also gain might stacks that persist for 15s, which provides you quite a bit more burst in your counter move.

In terms of base heals per second it is:
203.75/s, or 6112.5/30 seconds for signet (base with 0 healing)
151.83/s or 4555/30 seconds for shelter (base with 0 healing)

So if you are stopping over 1557 damage with your block shelter is better, if you take less damage then signet is better. Altruistic healing gives you 70 extra hp per block, so that is 1487 difference if you block one hit, 1417 you need to stop if you block twice. So basically fights where you take a lot of damage quickly shelter is better, if you are taking less damage altruistic healing will not make up for the difference in heals.

If you have healing power the ratio changes because signet scales better with healing power but you can easily calculate how much you have to block for shelter to be better than signet.

For example: with 1000 healing power
235/s or 7050/30 seconds
175/s or 5255/30 seconds

So 1795 damage needs to be blocked – each block healing an additional 70hp if you have altruistic healing.

Personally I prefer shelter.