Guild Wars 2

I’ve been trying to understand how much a point of healing power affects actual healing.

My primitive testing suggests that a point of healing power is roughly one point of healing per heal used. My current build is 3x use mantra for healing (plus the restorative mantra trait for another heal on the recharge).

Many thanks for anyone who can point me at something that helps here!

Sorry – right after I posted this, I thought of a place I hadn’t looked in the wiki.

So it seems that mantra heals only gain 0.4 points of healing from each point of healing power. And restorative mantras only gains 0.2 points per point of healing power (and seems to be fixed at 2600 + 0.2 x healing power).

So healing power seems not very useful – at least for mantra healing builds…

Can any heals crit? Or are they always base?

When considering Healing Power in a build, especially one that uses Mantra heals, its important to keep in mind how powerful your regeneration will restore you too.

It generally takes a hefty amount (usually around 1100 or higher) to see decent returns, but when you combine Mantra heals with Regeneration, then you’ll really start to notice how much life you’re restoring. Throw on runes of dwayna with your mantra heals, and you’re a healing/regenerating beast.

Take a look at the first, second, and fourth post in this thread, https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Chaos-Maestro-Boon-Support-Tank/first#post1472714 and hopefully that’ll help shed some light on how effective your heals could be.

Fay’s Panacea Mantra build and Pyroathiest’s Support Phantasm’s build also capitolise on this.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/INSPIRATION-Mesmer-Spotlight/first#post1499790

I dumped 10 pts from power & precision line and 5 from the shatter line and put 25 into inspiration. As a berserker gs mesmer my dmg took a slight hit but being able to spam mantra of pain for an easy 2600 heal every 5 sec makes me a team player without even touching healing power gear. Dont gimp your dmg trying to be the team savior with a 6 regen from dwayna set forcing you to grab gear with healing power to justify it.

Thx much. I’m doing GS/Staff with 25 in inspiration. I kept 30 in domination for this build – seems to work nice. I use centaur runes for swiftness to everyone.

It just seems like the payoff for points in healing power is not that great. Even factoring in the regeneration gain. It seems like the 250 points I have in Inspriation gets me: 100 points more healing per mantra cast. 50 points more healing per mantra recharge. And about 3 more points per second regeneration.

I was trying to decide if I should invest more in healing power – but it doesn’t seem worth it for my playing style.

Healing Power, huh? For comparison lets go with 2100 Healing Power vs. 0 Healing Power.

Mantra of Recovery:
3460 vs. 2620 per use.
+1680 for normal 2x, or 2520 for 3x uses.
32% change.
(With Harmonious Mantras, you are essentially getting 4x Power Return equivalent healing in comparison to 0 Healing Power.)

Restorative Mantras
3020 vs. 2600 per activation
16% change.
(Meh, not much there).

Ether Feast:
7660 + 850 per Illusion vs. 5560 + 640 per Illusion.
10210 vs. 7480 at most HP recovery.
36.5% change.
(Huge amount of potential healing at once is always nice.)

Regeneration
393 vs. 130 per second.
202% increase!
BIG change right there.
10 sec Regen from Metaphysical Rejuvenation? 3930 HP vs. 1300 HP.
3 sec Regen from Phantasmal Healing? 1179 HP vs. 390 HP.

If you invest in Healing Power as a Mesmer, its all about Regeneration. Nothing else really benefits from it to the same degree. Though being able to heal ~13400 per cycle of Mantra of Recovery + Restorative Mantras and Harmonious Mantras roughly every 16s is nice.

Off the top of my head:

Ether feast main heal scales 1:1 with hp. The additional heals scale at .1 hp.

Regeneration scales at .125 hp per second. Since regeneration ticks continually, this is effectively the same as scaling at 2.5 hp for one large heal every 20 seconds.

The other heals I can’t remember unfortunately.

@MLieBennet: Your analysis, while in-depth, is unfortunately almost entirely useless. You base your analysis off of % total change. However, this % includes the base healing values of the skills, which means that % change is not representative of how healing power actuall affects the skills. If you want your analysis to have value, simply subtract the number for 0 healing power from all values to isolate the change from healing power.

As a very rough rule of thumb, Healing skills benefit from Healing Power by having its value added directly to the amount healed. Non-Healing skills that heal generally get only a percentage of Healing Power added to its amount healed. Regeneration, as pointed out, benefits the most from Healing Power, thus for any profession you should only invest in Healing Power if you are able to maintain Regeneration.

Overall though, I still find it a relatively useless stat considering other stats scale better and generally affect more things.

Embolism.8106:

As a very rough rule of thumb, Healing skills benefit from Healing Power by having its value added directly to the amount healed. Non-Healing skills that heal generally get only a percentage of Healing Power added to its amount healed. Regeneration, as pointed out, benefits the most from Healing Power, thus for any profession you should only invest in Healing Power if you are able to maintain Regeneration.

Overall though, I still find it a relatively useless stat considering other stats scale better and generally affect more things.

Unless your build has a focus on survivability or team utility, I wouldn’t recommend going for healing power, you are right about that. However, especially on a mesmer where 100% uptime on regeneration is trivial to get, stacking some healing power can create AMAZING sustainability in a lot of builds.

if im using mantra of pain on recharge ~ every 5sec for 2600 hp(~10k hp/20sec) and my team is still dieing then i need to find smarter friends. Mostly i dont spam it but thats not to say there are times that i dont to keep one person or multiple people from dieing. Its there for the situational. There is no place in game where its acceptable for a party member to go full blown gw1 motigon and drag down dps meerly because you had the occasion noob group who couldnt handle dodgerolling once every 10-20 seconds.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@MLieBennet: Your analysis, while in-depth, is unfortunately almost entirely useless. You base your analysis off of % total change. However, this % includes the base healing values of the skills, which means that % change is not representative of how healing power actuall affects the skills. If you want your analysis to have value, simply subtract the number for 0 healing power from all values to isolate the change from healing power.

Actually no, it’s the other way around.
The base value is the critical part. If a skill gains only, say, 16% healing from such a high amount of extra Compassion, then that is an important thing to know as the player making a loadout: Compassion is wasted on this skill, it’s nearly as strong on it’s own.

OTOH, Regeneration benefits substantially from adding Compassion. So if you can viably generate and spread Regeneration, lots of +Compassion is a powerful stat selection for you.

A build that’s pushing healing power is generally a different playstyle than one specced for damage or tanking. You’re sacrificing something for the healing, and it usually isn’t worth it if that +healing power is only to support yourself; take toughness for that.

At the same time, a build specced purely around healing others is still not as useful as a direct damage or tanking build, if you’re going support then there simply has to be more to your gameplay than just regen and burst heals, for any class..

Chaos Archangel.5071:

A build that’s pushing healing power is generally a different playstyle than one specced for damage or tanking. You’re sacrificing something for the healing, and it usually isn’t worth it if that +healing power is only to support yourself; take toughness for that.

At the same time, a build specced purely around healing others is still not as useful as a direct damage or tanking build, if you’re going support then there simply has to be more to your gameplay than just regen and burst heals, for any class..

The thing is that focusing on Healing Power has little to do with not contributing in any other area. Pro “DPS is best” usually argue that Healing Power gimps your whole group, but that player is actually still doing damage-some stats are just being focused elsewhere, and that’s OK.

In short, whether it is full Power, full Healing Power, or any other stat ombination therein, every player should be feel free to play whichever way he/she wants without their playstyle being scorned with an elitist “thou shalt focus on the stats I prefer” mentality.

I don’t currently use any Healing Power on my Mesmer, but have zero (valid) reason to tell players they are gimping themselves or their groups by doing otherwise.

Thx for all the help here. I probably should have asked my question with something like “I have a build a lot like Pyroatheists PVE Phantasm Support build that does good dps through phantasms but gives regeneration, lots of heals and swiftness to the group for support. I’m currently at only 250 healing power, and I’m wondering whether an incremental 100 or so points makes a substantial difference.” That would have been a better way to ask my question.

For me, the answer is no. An incremental 100 points in healing power is only going to give me an extra 40 points per mantra charge use, give the group an extra 20 points on the restorative mantra use, and an extra 12.5 points per second on regeneration (which comes from my phantasms – which are less durable in my version of this build).

So I think I would rather get an extra 100 points in precision to give a greater crit chance – it feels more impactful for the way I play. But I understand the healing power calculations a lot better now and how you can build around it – thx!

Star Ace.5207:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

A build that’s pushing healing power is generally a different playstyle than one specced for damage or tanking. You’re sacrificing something for the healing, and it usually isn’t worth it if that +healing power is only to support yourself; take toughness for that.

At the same time, a build specced purely around healing others is still not as useful as a direct damage or tanking build, if you’re going support then there simply has to be more to your gameplay than just regen and burst heals, for any class..

The thing is that focusing on Healing Power has little to do with not contributing in any other area. Pro “DPS is best” usually argue that Healing Power gimps your whole group, but that player is actually still doing damage-some stats are just being focused elsewhere, and that’s OK.

In short, whether it is full Power, full Healing Power, or any other stat ombination therein, every player should be feel free to play whichever way he/she wants without their playstyle being scorned with an elitist “thou shalt focus on the stats I prefer” mentality.

I don’t currently use any Healing Power on my Mesmer, but have zero (valid) reason to tell players they are gimping themselves or their groups by doing otherwise.

I completely agree, I wish more people were more free-minded rather than thinking “Guardians should tank. Necros do condotions ect..” but I also speak from experience that any support can do much more than simply heal. To place yourself in a “I have high healing power I have to dish out heals all the time” mentality narrows your perspective and potentially blinds you to all the additional ways you can save lives. At the same time, if someone is enjoying themselves running around healing others, then they shouldnt feel compelled to alter their playstyle based on someone elses outside-looking-in perspective.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

At the same time, a build specced purely around healing others is still not as useful as a direct damage or tanking build, if you’re going support then there simply has to be more to your gameplay than just regen and burst heals, for any class..

This is why I think we have too little ready access to healing support.
Plus, Restorative Mantras and Regen Fields are in the same trait line. Fittingly the one which gives +Compassion, but it’s still a bit iffy. No baseline healing utility, either.

What would be if, for example, Mimic was a targetted spell, used on anyone, which copies spells as the target uses them. You can press it again during it’s 5-10s duration to cast the currently copied ability (say it only copies Healing / Utility skills?), to use that specific ability.
So I could in theory use it on a Ranger in our party, have her put up a Healing Spring, then put a second one up myself.

Carighan.6758:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

At the same time, a build specced purely around healing others is still not as useful as a direct damage or tanking build, if you’re going support then there simply has to be more to your gameplay than just regen and burst heals, for any class..

This is why I think we have too little ready access to healing support.
Plus, Restorative Mantras and Regen Fields are in the same trait line. Fittingly the one which gives +Compassion, but it’s still a bit iffy. No baseline healing utility, either.

What would be if, for example, Mimic was a targetted spell, used on anyone, which copies spells as the target uses them. You can press it again during it’s 5-10s duration to cast the currently copied ability (say it only copies Healing / Utility skills?), to use that specific ability.
So I could in theory use it on a Ranger in our party, have her put up a Healing Spring, then put a second one up myself.

I had a similar idea about making Mimic fire an interrupting projectile, and if a skill is interrupted Mimic becomes that skill. The problem with copying healing skills is that… well, that’s overpowered, because healing skills are balanced on every profession having one and one only; they are not balanced against other skills.