Guild Wars 2

Like just about everyone on these forums I was kitten ed off we were getting a stupid spirit for our heal skill, i mean kitten we’ve got enough of them right? Well being me, i bought it anyway to test it out in the fields of battle (sPvP), and to my surprise it’s a REALLY strong heal…

For starters, the proc is great, synergizes really well with my vampiric sigils which just gives me that much more healing while being offensive, i’m not even using traits in NM and the heal is good enough for me to turn the tides (sorry i couldn’t resist) of the battle in a few scenarios.

Secondly, everytime you use, or summon, the spirit it gives you any on heal proc, that means if you were to be using, say vampiric runes… or vigorous renewal (oh look at that…) you will be able to get them essentially back to back by activating it for the heal on its own.

Thirdly, it’s BETTER for us if the spirit bites the dust (i mean maybe not if you’re a spirit build, but with my build i pray they kill my spirit), and most people don’t notice that, or they’re afraid of its passive (for good reason). This gives us a scape goat and a heal all in the same little package! Pop the heal, get the kitten away from the spirit, if it’s still alive when heal is off CD pop heal run back into the radius, dance back away from it.

Fourthly, for all you spirit users out there, it’s great because it heals the other spirits (and itself) with the active heal, which is good when you’re solo.

Don’t get me wrong, there are ABSOLUTELY flaws with it, but i’d say if you want RAW HEALING it’s better than healing spring hands down, probably wont be beating TU for our selfish heal, but that’s probably the point…

This is just what i’ve noticed from it, anyone else notice anything else?

PS: I have ONLY used this heal in PvP so far, so don’t come in here complaining about how some of this stuff is worthless in PvE or blah blah blah, MY point of view is from PvP, feel free to share your PvE view just don’t kitten at me for being “wrong” or w/e nonsense you guys always direct at me with that kitten…

I don’t think anybody ever said the heal amount was bad – the concerns for PvP/wvw I have, and the reason I’ll never run it, is the loss of our only reliable condition cleanse.

Healing Spring removes conditions on pulse and offers a water field to blast into. I prefer unguent for sPvP but I could see the upside of using either of these skills. Where PvE is concerned I still think nothing beats Healing Spring.

I had the opposite reaction, I thought this skill was trash. Any sort of condi-pressure is going to murder you.

Having the spirit focused and killed prematurely puts you on a long pain-train without a way to heal.

There also is no water field. People can easily kill a water spirit ranger just by aoe nuking it or focusing it down. I have seen good necromancers using flesh golem charge on the spirit to knock it away then loading me with conditions while the spirit dies a mile away from where I was stranding.

When the planets align it can be decent, but like many ranger skills (sword I’m looking at you), it takes so much effort to make effective. Unlike signet of ether or AED.

Passive play is the newprostyle.

mooty.4560:

Where PvE is concerned I still think nothing beats Healing Spring.

Honestly the water field on HS isn’t that crucial, it’s the fact of range being mostly useless outside a few fractals, so you have to melee, if you melee the spirit must be too for the active to heal you, and if the spirit is in melee, it dies instantly, meaning now you want the grandmaster trait just to make the heal worthwhile … so you bring another heal and trait something useful instead.

The intersection of spirit mechanics are ok/don’t need condition cleansing/don’t need melee is very small in the current meta.

Does the spirit’s active heal affect your pet as well as you (talking about the automatic heal, not the AoE)? That’s what I’d most be concerned with, as a Beastmastery Ranger. I’d test it myself, but I spent most of my skill points on lodestone conversions to make some extra money so I can’t unlock it yet because they insist on giving it a ridiculous cost.

The lack of condition cleanse on demand is the bad part. Putting on emphatic bond and runes of melandru still won’t save you from condi bursts.

I really hope the next skill they add have something to do with active condi removal, stability, and/or group support that can’t be killed like spirits.

That’ll be utilities next … I’m betting we get:

a signet that makes the pet stop moving
a spirit that has a 35% chance for one attack every 10 seconds to apply one stack of vulnerability.
a trap that applies a 1/4 second daze

Now the vegetable family is complete! I thought I’d never see another class that would have as many pets running around as the (Minion) Necromancer.

Taverius.8645:

Honestly the water field on HS isn’t that crucial, it’s the fact of range being mostly useless outside a few fractals, so you have to melee

I don’t think it’s crucial, it’s just the best all around PvE heal option for rangers.

Well, Druz is right.

One of the best things is all the on heal procs. I especially enjoy my runes of altruism stacking might on me and x2 might on my pets. Between this ability, the horn, mighty swap, and the stacks from stalker you and your pet can do good damage while being very bunker focused. No other heal can stack might so fast.

I just wish I could “plant” spirits when I didn’t want them to run with me then unplant them when I do (with unbound of course).

so 70% chance of proc…and i get healed for maybe 2k in 20 sec ???is there a cd ?like 10 sec or someting!!!! and futher away dies so easy

There are 3 effects.

1) Passive 35/70% on hit heal for 810 (untraited) to about 925 (high heal)
2) A ranger and pet heal on 25 sec ICD
3) A group heal on 25 sec ICD. You and your pet can count as 2 of the 5 allies.

It also heals your spirits.

Electro.4173:

Does the spirit’s active heal affect your pet as well as you (talking about the automatic heal, not the AoE)? That’s what I’d most be concerned with, as a Beastmastery Ranger. I’d test it myself, but I spent most of my skill points on lodestone conversions to make some extra money so I can’t unlock it yet because they insist on giving it a ridiculous cost.

Yes it does, i’ve heard rumors that it doesn’t, but i can 100% confirm that it heals you AND your pet.

Also, i’ve found out that if you START to activate the heal on the spirit (not the summoning of the spirit) and get interrupted you will still proc any “On heal” effects after ~.5s

The automatic heal even states it heals your pet and absolutely it does.

In zergs, it is a hoot to run in THEN cast the spirit AS YOU RUN IN. Blast the big heal. Wait for it. . . pet dies and you just did 2 rather big heals.

Now it gets fun. The pet only is on cool down for 20 seconds after it bites the dust.

All this afternoon, I was trying to keep the spirit alive. Works even better when you kill it

On yeah, with runes of altruism, that also stacks might on your zerg crew very nicely. Lots of “on heal” procs for the group. Remember, the runes DO have an ICD of 10 seconds so you generally only get 6 stacks of might at a time.

On, and if you ever wondered about group almost permanent endurance at 100% without natural vigor being 50%? Learn how to kill the spirit I tell you. Never fear all you faint hearted! You just need a water spirit and vigorous renewal.

In addition, to heal and might bombing your zerg taking pressure, you can endurance bomb them too. Of course, if you get in combat and the pet does not die, then it isn’t nearly as fast (but still faster than healing spring). There is no internal cool down for vigorous renewal (I guess they figure you can only use a heal skill once every 20 secs).

The passive is less than 100 hp/s and the active provides no condi removal and water field. I’ll stick with healing spring.