Guild Wars 2

So far I have a very hard time finding any viable use for Heal as One. All of our heals affect both the ranger and pet, so using that as a basis is a moot point. it has a shorter recharge (by an epic 5 seconds) than troll unguent, but casts slower than any other heal and heals for far less, has no condition removal or combo/finisher capabilities to be able to even compare to healing spring…so why is this skill even here? I’ve tried it in multiple variations of builds and it underperforms every time. I’m always better off bringing one of the other two hands down. I’m hoping someone has some hidden tricks for this heal, because right now I don’t see any reason at all to even acknowledge it’s existence.

Now if it did something like this:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Heal_as_one
For 15 seconds, your animal companion steals 1…16…20 Health whenever it hits with an attack. You and your companion are both healed for 20…87…104 Health. If your companion is dead, it’s resurrected with 50% Health. Tell me that wouldn’t make one awesomejuice heal. Of course the resurrection (or in the case of this game, reviving downed state pets) part would have to be tweaked to have an internal cooldown or something so that you can’t just spam revive your pets, but it could still be viable.

Ohgod. If it had a way to get our pet back in the fight then I’d soooooo use that! I remember the old HaO. I had an entire beastmaster build centered around it and the old pet shouts. If we could have a pet build that was as effective as those GW1 pet builds, then I think a lot of people would stop with their valid complaints on the weaknesses of the pet.

I haven’t touched Heal as One since… I dunno, the first month of playing the game probably?

Its been Healing Spring on land and Troll Ungulate underwater for a long time (and I wish I could have HS underwater too, Troll is just my second best “guess I’ll have to use it since I can’t use the one I really want to” option).

Half because Heal as One isn’t good at all, like you said. Its the absolute most basic heal you can imagine, zero interesting effects or anything. Most boring and basic heal in the game, and one of the least effective.

Half because Healing Spring is too darn good and fills too many gaps in my build to run without it. Mass amounts of regeneration for my pet via Fortifying Bond, condition removal which my build often completely lacks otherwise, long-lasting water field… I need mah Healing Spring.

I probably still wouldn’t use Heal as One with the effects you suggested (the pet revival is tempting, but like I said I really need Healing Spring), but it would certainly be a heck of a lot more useful and interesting than it is now. I’d probably use it underwater where I can’t use my Spring, though.

HS is just too good to give up in any scenario but 1v1’s with low TTK.

I feel like it should be on a 15s recharge, just like the Thief and Mesmer heal. Also, have it remove a conditions. OP you say? No.

Thief heal: Evade and remove crippled/chilled/immobilize
Mesmer heal: 2 second reflect.

Those seem way more powerful.

Originally I thought that the point of the heal was mainly to help provide staying power for your pet. Then I found out our other two heals also heal the pet, so I stopped using Heal as One and have not bothered with it since. This occurred….about an hour after the game launched, I think?

If heal as one applied some kind of boon(s) to you and your pet, and ranger condi removal didn’t suck, I would use it. A small increase in the heal couldn’t hurt either.

I just wondered if there was some secret trick I was missing with this skill. I too have never used it, I didn’t even use it when I first made my ranger, ok maybe twice then I immediately went and did a few skill points and got TU. It just seems so blatantly useless. There’s other skills throughout the game on every class that are underpowered and usually not viable, but given enough tweaking you can still find ways to make them work reasonably well, and most always they at least make sense. I just don’t get this one at all. Even the lowly mesmer mantra heal outshines this because you get reasonable amount of healing-twice might add- and since it can be used twice, you can also activate things that trigger on heal twice (they have a trait to remove condi on heal which works with that mantra, as well as rune effects that trigger on heals).

I used to use it when I was running full berserker. Heal as One heals for a good amount without healing power. It also doesn’t have any heal-over-time component like the other two, which are more geared towards non-glass-cannon builds.

Holland.9351:

I used to use it when I was running full berserker. Heal as One heals for a good amount without healing power. It also doesn’t have any heal-over-time component like the other two, which are more geared towards non-glass-cannon builds.

I guess in a way I could see that, but the overall utility of the other two, for me anyway, far outshine HaO, especially when you can double up TU and SotW to get massive regen that is comparable to most hard heals or constantly cleanse conditions for the duration of healing spring. That goes a long way for survival versus a slow, long recharge heal (imo anyway, apparently you found a niche for it, and that’s good, that’s the kind of info I’m looking for about this skill).

Nope. It’s pointless. Needs a little something something, the other two ranger heals are really really good. But don’t make it overpowered.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Holland.9351:

I used to use it when I was running full berserker. Heal as One heals for a good amount without healing power. It also doesn’t have any heal-over-time component like the other two, which are more geared towards non-glass-cannon builds.

I guess in a way I could see that, but the overall utility of the other two, for me anyway, far outshine HaO, especially when you can double up TU and SotW to get massive regen that is comparable to most hard heals or constantly cleanse conditions for the duration of healing spring. That goes a long way for survival versus a slow, long recharge heal (imo anyway, apparently you found a niche for it, and that’s good, that’s the kind of info I’m looking for about this skill).

Yeah, I was using berserker with longbow in WvW and PvE, so usually I would be out of harms way, but if I got hit I would die nearly instantly. So Heal as One would heal me up the quickest. It’s basically our on-demand heal that heals for the biggest amount. Healing spring has an on-demand component, but it doesn’t heal for as much and is mostly about the regeneration, condition removal, water field, and traited vigor.

Heal as One reviving the pet sounds like a good idea, but I would rather see it on Signet of Renewal. Considering Signet of Renewal needs a living pet.

As for buffing Heal as One, I think giving it 5s of protection would be nice. Maybe 3s of invulnerability. Maybe convert 1 condition into a random boon.

Math!!!!!

Heal as One : 6,520 (1.0) 20s (no special effects.) (1.25s activation)

Withdraw : 4,344 (0.6) 15s (also 3/4s evade, and cures immobilized, cripple, and chill, control conditions)(instant)

Mirror : 3,915 (0.33) 15s (also 2 second reflect)(1.25s activation)

so,….at 1900 healing power, which I run on my ranger because I almost always use Cleric or Magi Gear….
Formula for healing is :: (healing amount) + (coefficient x Healing power)

Heal as One : 8420
Withdraw : 5484
Mirror : Forty Five Hundred Fifty Two (I couldn’t use number because of Anet’s censors, seriously, wtf?)

Every second…..(across recharge time + activation time)(numbers are rounded to remove decimals)
Heal as One : 396
Withdraw : 365
Mirror : 280

Those two healing skills do not really compare to Heal as One. Withdraw comes close because of the 3/4 second evade and condition removal, but you need to remember that the thief has a lower maximum health than the Ranger, so thats why the thief’s heal is that high….

…..But I do agree that Heal as One is a little lacking compared to other Ranger healing skills, if only slightly…..

(Other Ranger Skills with 1900 healing power and no additonal signets or buffs, across their recharge times and activation times)
Troll Unguent : 10,840 total. Across 6 seconds, its 417 per second.

Healing Spring : 6,820 (+ 18 seconds of health regen equalling an additional 6615 healing (13,425 total), plus condition removal). Across 30.5 seconds, it is 440 per second.

Signet of the Wild : 176 per second.

• Take from that what you will…

(one final note is that Heal as one does not actually heal for 8420 health, its more like 8600 in the game itself, and Signet of the Wild actually heals for 183-4 per second at 1900 healing power. I suspect that the other two healing skills are also a little higher as well.)

I appreciate the numbers, and I will agree that the Mesmer heal is probably the worst of the three, however I don’t really play Mesmer so I don’t know.

However, you made the point that the thief heal is only so good because they have a lower base health, true. But on a sword/dagger build where most people use Withdraw, their health is sitting around 17.5-18k, due to traits. If you compare that to a glass cannon ranger (similar damage) Rangers are sitting at around 18k health. (These are spvp numbers you can probably get higher elsewhere)

There’s probably not that much a difference and if ANET ever looked at it they’d probably throw out some excuse like “It also heals your pet, so there’s that.”

I don’t think Ive used that heal since I unlocked my first alternative heal skill. It could use some improvements (along with utilities etc…)

More Math calculations that I’ll put here since this thread does cover healing. Make sure you read my previous post as well….

first off, I forgot about the blast Finisher you can use with Healing Spring, which at 1900 healing power (what Im normally at), it can heal for an additional 1700 health, which makes it equal a total of 496 health per second. Then it also removes one condition every pulse(3 seconds).

If the bonus heal from Rune of Water or Rune of the Flock worked, at 1900 healing power, the bonus heal would be an extra 1640 healing (690 + 0.5 + healing power). If you add that in (again, if anet ever fixes it)…

Heal as One : 10,060, or 473 per second
Troll Unguent : 12,480 total, or 480 per second
Healing Spring : 16,765 total, or 550 per second (plus condition removal)

Or, you can add in the Bonus Health Regen that superior rune of Dwayna gives (which I think does work), which is an additional 6 seconds total (with effects from rune #2 and rune #6). Again at 1900 healing power, that is 367.5 hp per second, or 2205 total.

Heal as One : 10,625 total, or 500 per second
Troll Unguent : 13,045 total, or 502 per second
Healing Spring : 17,330 total, or 568 per second (plus conditon removal)

When the on heal bonuses start to stack up, Heal as One does start to seem like just as good a heal as Troll Unguent, and might even be better in a few cases that I didn’t show an example of, but if you don’t use those, then it doesn’t count for anything. Don’t use Heal as One unless you like the healing spike, because on a side by side comparison with the other Ranger healing skills,….well, it sucks.

These Numbers will be useless for a vast majority of you anyways unless you use Cleric, Magi, or Apothecary gear, and these numbers can be very easily cut down without healing power, but with that I don’t think anyone can dispute it. Healing Spring is far and away the most efficient heal the Ranger has.

Please believe me when I say that all Mesmers would kill to have a heal like Healing Spring.

The best heal the Mesmer has is ether fest and that is a true comparison to HaO. And Ether Fest does not rid the Mesmer of any condition, UNLESS, the Mesmer traits for remove condition on heal. Which then only removes just one condition upon healing.

The only time I used it was in dredge fractal at mining suit boss, so if I messed up the agony dodge, I could survive; other two heals were not as efficient there. And that is about the only time I found it handy.

TBH even just removing the cast time on it would be a great start.

It might not heal as much as TU or HS (assuming you take all the regen or blast/leap finish it), but it does provide the biggest heal it on big wack.

Could potentially be a good panic heal if it healed instantly.. but as it is its like the thieves hides in the shadows.. its just one big signpost saying “interupt me now and you’ve won”.

On the other hand, Mantra of Healing works great with the Remove Condition on heal trait. Add in heal on matra cast and that’s a 3 part health recovery skill.

If I recall…. Gw1’s Heal as One actually started off pretty bad.

It didn’t actually get better until some of us on the Wiki were persistent enough to get Linsey’s attention on the issues of Pet balance in Gw1. I think if credit goes to Anyone, on that small victory, it was Auron who was bacially already “Gw1 Famous”. I wonder whatever happened to him? They should have hired him to fix this game

….Now days that’s impossible. #1, Linsey’s not even in the balancing oversight area anymore, #2, she’s obviously in charge of something much more demmanding that MOST people seem a lot more obsessed with and seem to think is the most important entire purpose of the whole game: Ascended’s and Legendary gear which ironically enough, runs completely counter to the existence of our Pet mechanics simply b/c they do not benefit in any way from us having better Gear or “swappable stat Legendaries”…

So yeah…. This isn’t Gw1 so we’re pretty much hopeless here on this issue

Good points ilr.