Guild Wars 2

Hey there, the title says it all:

Will healing Mesmers be viable in the HoT endgame? And are there any guides or build for them?

Thx

Nothing with Healing is viable in this game I’m afraid

Healing Power is in dire need of an overhaul and besides that the event system in this game still only counts DPS. So while yes you can heal a group it doesn’t help you that you end up with a bronze for the event while the DPS folks get gold with the additional exp and currency rewards.

Healing still remains more a WvW thing as prior a healing guard may be the point of a zerging wiping or taking down an enemy zerg so WvW still works for healing.

Oh, I thought they just reworked the 3 roles a bit and enforced the “holy trinity” at least for the raids. That’s why I asked.

In any case, healing mesmer is far from good. Our only outgoing hearings are:

• mantras with inspiration traits: 2900 in clerics when you finish loading a mantra
• well of eternity: about 5000 in clerics when the well expires
• ridiculously low amount from healing prism on 10s iCD

While you may think the values of the two first ones are not bad, they actually have one drawback in common: they are not instant! With a guardian, a Ventari revenant, a druid, an elementalist (not sure about the other classes), if your team is in need for healing, you just pop your heal and they are better (near)-instantly. With a mesmer, you have to wait 2.75s cast time with the mantras or 3s with the wells… By that time, they could be dead.

I have been asking this for a while, but I would really love restorative illusions to be AOE. This way, we would get some instant AOE heal. That would make much more sense in “inspiration”, a line focused on support…

Mhm that’s really bad. I love the Mesmer gameplay but I would like to be an acceptable healer outside PvP…

Silverkey.2078:

In any case, healing mesmer is far from good. Our only outgoing hearings are:

• mantras with inspiration traits: 2900 in clerics when you finish loading a mantra
• well of eternity: about 5000 in clerics when the well expires
• ridiculously low amount from healing prism on 10s iCD

One thing needing added is our ability to provide AoE perma-regen. Obviously not direct healing but geared properly, this can be significant. Also worthy to note that no one seems to like the trait due to clunky behavior with executing other skills.

On the whole though, agreed mesmer shouldn’t be focused too much on healing. It’s a by-product of the other utility we provide.

I think we can build to be a very supportive profession, it’s just not in raw healing numbers.

iDefender, stuns/dazes, interrupts, reflections, and on-demand blind are great ways to prevent damage to the team. Our new Blur well is phenomenal in that regard as well.

Quickness, Alacrity, Vigor, and Regeneration are all solid contributions to supporting our team.

I think the Inspiration line could be tweaked though. Persisting images is too selfish, Inspiring Distortion rarely happens (we don’t distort very often), and Healing Prism was nerfed soooo much. I wouldn’t mind at least one group oriented trait in the center column as well…

You can build around Distortion share, though, and Alacrity share.

On that note, we really need the Healing Prism fixed. Couldn’t they put, I don’t know, a 2s CD on it instead?

Actually we DO have perma regen, one of the easiest applications in fact. It’s only viable with organised, educated groups though, as Illusionary Inspiration stacks it around your phantasms.

Distortionshare is insanely good in some circumstances, especially with traited signets. Projectile reflect trivialises some fights, but is highly encounter-specific.

Mantra heals have pretty good base output for supplementing zerker builds, but just like II regen you need to stand right next to your allies, so good luck with that in any situation where you actually need the heals.

Mantra having good base heal is also one of the greatest downfall as well tbh, because it scales terrible with healing power. So is most mesmer traited/skill heals etc. Making healing power reward not exactly match the opportunity costs in others.

The only ones worth invest healing power in is well of eternity and regen. So Illusionary inspiration is a must, but that trait is a mix bag of problem itself. Overall I’m not sure if healing power is worth the investment with extra 1.5k heal on 30s CD and a gradual regen only works on stacking…

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Mantra having good base heal is also one of the greatest downfall as well tbh, because it scales terrible with healing power. So is most mesmer traited/skill heals etc. Making healing power reward not exactly match the opportunity costs in others.

The only ones worth invest healing power in is well of eternity and regen. So Illusionary inspiration is a must, but that trait is a mix bag of problem itself. Overall I’m not sure if healing power is worth the investment with extra 1.5k heal on 30s CD and a gradual regen only works on stacking…

That is exactly my analysis of the problem. I really wish the healing power scaling was fixed on all skills of all professions. Also, I would really love AOE restorative illusions (yes I insist :p ), with better scaling of course.

Healing Power sucks, period. Actually the entire gear loadout is terrible and designed around a standard trinity MMO. What GW2 would need is uncapped boon/condi/CC duration as main gear stats, including full glass “support” sets like boon+precision+healing or CC+condi duration+precision. Maybe utility/elite cdr as a rune bonus or something.

The new stat combos rectified this a bit, but all I managed to look up had defensive stats on them, which is absolutely worthless since mix-and-match exists.

I’ve played support Mesmer since pretty much release.

Mesmer is a decent support and healer if done right. Like a healer in any other game you look for who is most hurt and stick near them as you spam your mantras, especially Pain since the CD is pretty much nil. You don’t have the instant heal, but the constant heals help. Illusionary Inspiration giving your phantasms infinite Regen spamming is really nice too.

Staff is your best friend here, not only are you putting down a buff/debuff field but it tells your knowledgable allies that this is where you’ll be standing doing mantra spam heals. Mantra of Recovery is obviously the best heal in this build(you can even use while stunned or knocked around cause it’s an instant), though Well of Eternity can mark the healing ground for people seeking health like Chaos Storm.

Now there are a lot of other good options for your build. You can go strict Mantra, with Concentration to give Stability and Resolve to strip conditions. You can use Null Field/Feedback to Mark healing and stripping/reflecting safe zones. Signet of Inspirations to double up boons and share. Phantasmal Disenchanter is often overlooked but can be pretty effective and share that Regen without running around too much too. Illusion of Life is iffy especially if your with pugs. Veil, Decoy and Mass Invis can be good panic buttons or help you res in peace. Well of Precog can rescue an ally that didn’t escape a blow. Well of Recall is nice for slowing DPS and getting people’s heal skills back.

Inspiration is your number one trait tree obviously. Chaos is probably best for helping you stay alive to heal people. Chrono gives you access to the nice Shield and Chronophantasma, Split, Alicity and the nice movement speed buff mesmers were dying to have(literally). Otherwise, Domination is a possibility if you want to assist with interruptions and huge stacks of Vulnerability using Mantra of Distraction(Also great for Defiant Enemies). Oddly enough, I strongly suggest avoiding Dueling and the seemingly obvious Mantra trait. This slows down your healing rotation and really only helps on Mantra of Recovery and other then Evasive Mirror it’s just a pure DPS tree.

I’m still testing the new stuff, if your allies are a little less dependable you might try Mental Defense instead of Illusionary Inspiration and run Scepter/Shield(Sword if you don’t use Chronomancer) for the blocks giving you a Phantasmal Defender every 20 seconds(you have Celerity). During beta it didn’t seem to work with Chronophantasma but maybe they fixed that.

Pretty much any Mesmer Elite is good in it’s own ways, though obviously Signet of Humility won’t work on most bosses.

Sigil of Benevolence or Life(if your having trouble keeping yourself alive), Sigil of Water or Luck(If your boon sharing). Cleric’s Equipment(cause our damage conditions kinda suck). Rune of Mercy to get people off the floor, Monk/Water if boon sharing, Flock for hilarious birds.

Hope that helps, good luck!