Guild Wars 2

I am new to Guild Wars 2, but I am not a new MMO player. Over my years of playing MMOs, I know that Healer roles with damage and Crowd Control are my favorites, so I have leveled a Mesmer to 80 and now I feel that I am ready to try Dungeons and WvW for the gear.

My problem, though, is that I have no idea of what is expected of me. I cannot figure out how to add more healing beyond Superior Sigil of Water, my Phantasm’s Regeneration Boon (and passing it on with a Signet), and Healing Mantras. Is that really enough for this game? Do any other Healing Mesmers out there have any advice for a new healing Mesmer player?

I think Engi, Ele and Guardian are the best “healers”. We have a few traits for AoE healing but nothing will be as strong currently as the 3 mentioned. Crowd control will be your best bet if its either Healing or CC as a Mesmer.

@TIFour: As a fan of support/control in MMOs, I know exactly where you’re coming from. I went through the same process and asked the same questions of Mesmer.

• HEALING / BOONS
  - Elementalists and Guardian have a much easier time providing AoE burst heals to a party without changing too much from their usual setups. Mesmer tend to have to be a bit more specialized to run a strong support build. Engineer make very good healers due to the huge amount BLAST finishers they can spend in a Water field.

The thing about Mesmer healing, though, is that we don’t have to blow many weapon skills (instead we spend traits and take 2 utilities) to achieve our healing.

- We are easily able to constantly, reliably apply 3k burst heals via Mantras (MoPain + MoRecovery + MoPain = 8k burst heal in under 10 secs ) but having a good Regeneration ontop of that is what really makes the heals noticeable; Superior Runes of Dwayna recommended.

- Without runes, the best way to spread regen is to have atleast two ranged phantasms (iWarlock. If you’re going support, you should be using the Staff anyways) stacked close to eachother so you can get both pulses of Regeneration from them (with 50% boon duration, you should have quite a bit of Regen in around 6-8 seconds) before spreading it with Signet of Inspiration.

- Mesmer healers are at their best in WvW where you can sit back and spam with less need to rely on other skills. They do good in PvE as long as you mix a healthy amount of Crowd Control and boons in along with some slight damage contribution. In PvP.. its rarely explored because of a very demanding meta.

-If you really wanna overload your heals, take Mantra of Recovery, Pain, AND Resolve and with the right rotations you can be healing allies nonstop (but you’d be doing little else.)

- Grab some Chocolate Omnomberry Creams (20% boon duration)

- Prismatic Understanding and atleast 2 stealths can give you huge amounts of Protection. If you learn to grant allies Protection combined with Regen, Vigor (Inspiration III), and Swiftness, they’ll love you long time. The heals would just be a glorious cherry on top.

-Shattered Conditions (Inspiration XI) rocks with Vigorous Revelation (Inspiration III), Shattered Concentration (Domination VIII .. I think) and especially Deceptive Evasion (Dueling X)

- Do not desperately try to save lives by spamming heals. Our heals/regen are meant for the time in between allies have spent their own heals. Protection, Vigor, and Swiftness keep them alive in the mean time.

• CONTROL

-If you’re going support, you have to get familiar with our control mechanics. Every weapon (except scepter) has some sort of CC with it. All non-damaging conditions are a form of control. Sword/focus – Staff is a very good weapon set up because it offers 6 of the 9 boons in the game to you and allies while giving AoE CC in the form of Focus 4 (and 5 if traited) and Stakitten .

- Drop Chaos Storm on allies moreso than enemies, allies with lower HP are higher priority.

- The interrupt trait Bountiful Interruption can give you huge rewards. In general, it becomes more potent the more enemies you have to face.

- Domination 15 is great for PvP and bosses. You can easily nail 25 stacks of Vulnerability (and thus 25% more damage to the enemy) with some practice on using Diversion(F3) and Chaos Storm.

Hope that helps. There’s more information on playing support (including a section on general Mesmer-style support rules) in the Chaos Maestro guide or in this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/SUPPORT-Mesmer-Spotlight

Thank you for your informative posts. I have already found a build that speaks to me, but I was unsure whether it would be well received in a party if I advertised myself as a Healer (because I use Regeneration Boons and Healing Mantras). But now I can see that that simply would not be so. From what I understand, Healers are viewed in this game as Buffers as well and the build I have chosen focuses more on Conditions while offering Healing (think Apothecary gear).

Thank you for your time.

Personally i wouldnt be advertising myself as a “healer” i rarely see groups asking for specific classes or roles. Normally just people – The dungeons arent hard enough to require it most of the time.

Yep yup. Armageddon pretty much summed it up . You can’t call yourself a “Healer” no matter what class you play. You can say you’re a “Support Mes”

Mesmer support is known for its Buffs (including Timewarp), Control (Especially reflects), Portals and to a lesser extent in heals. In most MMOs I’ve played, healer classes do all of this anyways except with more focus on the heals. Its the same mentality as well, focusing on allies rather than enemies.