Guild Wars 2

So, has anyone been able to make a decent support/healing centric build?

I know there’s a cookie cutter well spec floating around there, but I’m curious to see what other people have tried.

For example, I tried using the Major Trait Deathly Invigoration and mix it with the Soul Reaping grand master trait to weave in and out of Death Shroud for some local AoE healing.

It works in practice, except that it heals for a tiny bit above a single well of blood pulse, and it has a range of nothing.

Aside from that, I focused on the Vampiric Rituals trait, which essentially healed in the 20’s when pulsing. It also does not siphon health for minions. I don’t think it siphons health unless you are actually in the well yourself. Might suffer the same problem as Ritual of Protection where it doesn’t actually cast the protection unless you yourself are in it.

I also looked at the minor trait Death Into Life But 15 points for what essentially amounts to +70 healing is…yeah.

What other builds are out there? I’d love to find that general necro suggestion thread too…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQNBmQDbESLUvZTajfPBIp45rne094bDpo3dB

Major trait points:

20% faster staff recharge and increased mark size.

In Death Shroud, Life Transfer will heal in a decent AoE and heal again every time you leave it.

5% of your power is now healing power.

Signet’s recharge 20% faster.

Wells have 20% faster recharge.

Gear:

Full Cleric’s armour (gives Power, Toughness and Healing Power). Runes of Dwayna(Healing bonus, extra regens for the group, 20% longer regens). Sigils of Water (30% chance for a small heal for the group on use).

Method:

Use your staff mainly. The 2 button has a recharge that should be healing for 1.7k+ on a 4.75 second CD with an increased radius. Enemies have to trigger it, but everyone inside gets the regen.

Use Well of Blood. If someone stays inside it for the entire duration they will get 7k+ healing. If you stand in it after using it that’s a total of over 13k healed for yourself. Anyone can also use projectile finishers to remove conditions through it’s Light field.

Use Death Shroud. Hop in and out every ten seconds for a 750+ large AoE heal unless you need to stay out of it for other specials, or stay in it longer for survival. Make good use of the Fear to support the group, it has a 20 sec CD. Use Life Transfer off CD, unless you group is fully healed – with the heal on it, it will net you and anyone in a 600 range (as far as an axe can reach) a total of roughly 2.6k health.

That’s your basic healing, but there is no true full healer in this game. You need to rely on your other abilites.

Condition removal is a big deal. As said before, you can combo with your Well of Blood to remove conditions, however there are other ways.

Any friendlies in your Putrid Mark will be cleansed of all their debuffs and whichever enemy triggered it will suffer from them all – enjoy the increased size. Secondly you have Plague Signet, which will draw all conditions away from your allies and onto you, but then allow you to target an enemy and transfer all the conditions onto him after that. So that’s two AoE Condition cures, and two Condition transfers.

If you choose to use an offhand dagger in your second set there’s a third condition transfer from yourself to enemies, but it will not cure your group – although it is a multiple target blind. You can also swap out a skill for Well of Power, which removes a condition and turns it into a boon every one second for five seconds.

Next you have your ways to make the group take less damage before they suffer health loss or condition. Namely, blinds. Your Well of Darkness blinds anyone in it every second for five seconds. That’s basically five seconds of group invulnerability from any enemy in melee range, or any ranged foes you drop it on.

Secondly you have Plague on your elite, which is effectively a twenty second long moving blind circle that restricts you from using any skills. You will get three abilities, but the second has a one second blind on it in the AoE radius around you. That one second blind has a one second cooldown. Enjoy.

On your Utility slots you should also have Signet of Undeath. Other than generating Life Force for you all fight, it can AoE rez people from the Downed state. This is effectively a free rez for people that it may be too risky to get to in time. It’s also quick, quicker to cast than an enemy can cast a Finisher in PvP even. If a friendly goes down, you can safely and almost instantly get him back up. If a group goes down close to each other from an AoE, you get them all up. Needless to say, very appreciated and very useful.

Your final skills I haven’t mentioned will be on your secondary weapons. Whilst your staff is your main weapon to spam those regen circles on the 2 key, you should make use of everything. Personally I tend to use the Dagger/Warhorn, but that may be more of a PvP choice .

It’s really up to you what you use here. The warhorn has an CoE daze and a self Swiftness buff. Offhand dagger has condition removal from yourself and it sends them to an enemy as said above, whilst also Blinding them. Offhand focus can strip buffs, snare and make enemies vulnerable.

Main hand dagger as said has the root, as well as a small self heal (around 2k) and melee ranged 1 attacks. The axe has acceptable damage considering your spec at a range of 600, although I believe all it’s attacks count as melee and thus get through some projectile reflects/blocks/absorbs – it also has a decent self Retaliation buff. Scepter has ranged damage that primarily comes from bleeds as well as an AoE snare.

Enjoy pure support/tankromaner.

Hmm,

Right now, plague signet is bugged so it doesn’t actually pull the conditions from party members to you, it just copies them over. I like Signet of Undeath, but it has such a long cooldown. Maybe it comes down to group composition, but when pugging, folks constantly bob in and out of the downed state, I always found Ritual of Life to be much more beneficial for that. I’m mainly thinking PvE here. Maybe once I get better +healing gear bobbing in and out of death shroud will net a better AoE heal, but right now it’s hitting just a tad above a single well of blood puse for me =x. Thanks for the tips though, much appreciated.