Guild Wars 2

Pretty evident by the title…

What’s the ideal healing gear for druid. I’m a bit perplexed. I’ve got a full set of Viper’s for when I run a more condition than healing spec, but what should I choose for a pure healing spec?

Magi? Cleric? Zealot for the additional power that it offers? Or is there some other stat I’m forgetting?

Optimal for healing would be to stack as much healing power as you possibly could I guess, if maximum healing is what you’re after.

Any combination of Magi/Cleric’s gear that has less toughness than your tank if you just want to be a dedicated staff camping healer.

there is [+% healing to others] from things like;

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Monk

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Delicious_Rice_Ball

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Benevolence

I bring these up because they will affect your healing quite profoundly compared to MOAR HEALING POWER!

Adding onto Justine’s post
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Transference

To directly answer your question, Magi’s/Clerics is the best gear in the game for pure healing, but I’d argue that it’s very wasteful.

Overall I agree with Justine, percentage modifiers are far more important than stacking healing power.

For the sake of argument we can compare Zealot’s with Magi’s with normal % modifiers in place:

Monk runes = 10%
Transference sigil = 10%
Rice balls = 10%
Natural Mender = 20%

Zealots = 439 Power, 315 Precision, 315 Healing power + 175 Healing power from runes.
Magis = 315 Vitality, 315 Precision, 439 Healing power + 175 Healing power from runes.

Under these conditions, one pulse of your main healing skill (Rejuvenating tides) will heal allies for:

Zealots = (810 + (0.35 * 490)) * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 = 1568 HP
Magis = (810 + (0.35 * 614)) * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 = 1637 HP

A difference of only ~4%

So the question is, are you willing to give up 439 power for such a minor increase in healing? The vitality is also a factor to consider as it can be useful while learning the bosses.

Please correct me if my math is wrong! It’s a topic I’m really interested in discussing.

AnariiUK.7409:

To directly answer your question, Magi’s/Clerics is the best gear in the game for pure healing, but I’d argue that it’s very wasteful.

Overall I agree with Justine, percentage modifiers are far more important than stacking healing power.

For the sake of argument we can compare Zealot’s with Magi’s with normal % modifiers in place:

Monk runes = 10%
Transference sigil = 10%
Rice balls = 10%
Natural Mender = 20%

Zealots = 439 Power, 315 Precision, 315 Healing power + 175 Healing power from runes.
Magis = 315 Vitality, 315 Precision, 439 Healing power + 175 Healing power from runes.

Under these conditions, one pulse of your main healing skill (Rejuvenating tides) will heal allies for:

Zealots = (810 + (0.35 * 490)) * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 = 1568 HP
Magis = (810 + (0.35 * 614)) * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 = 1637 HP

A difference of only ~4%

So the question is, are you willing to give up 439 power for such a minor increase in healing? The vitality is also a factor to consider as it can be useful while learning the bosses.

Please correct me if my math is wrong! It’s a topic I’m really interested in discussing.

I too have been told that Magi/Cleric is the proper “pure healing” stats, partly because of the increase to vitality and toughness (can’t heal if you’re downed) while still having some power and precision. However, you make a good point that with Zealot you can get more power without losing that much healing. The question is does that hold for other healing skills, since the multiplier varies from skill to skill? I’ve heard that the healing from staff and CA are less dependent on the HP stat than other heals are, so it may be consistent, I don’t know.

bearshaman.3421:

AnariiUK.7409:

-snip-

I too have been told that Magi/Cleric is the proper “pure healing” stats, partly because of the increase to vitality and toughness (can’t heal if you’re downed) while still having some power and precision. However, you make a good point that with Zealot you can get more power without losing that much healing. The question is does that hold for other healing skills, since the multiplier varies from skill to skill? I’ve heard that the healing from staff and CA are less dependent on the HP stat than other heals are, so it may be consistent, I don’t know.

The same math applied to the other main healing skills (Ancestral grace and Lunar impact) yields 6% and 4.6% increase in their respective healing between Zealot’s / Magi’s armour. So the exact improvement does vary.

It’s also worth adding that Magi’s would very slightly increase your regen ticks from ~305 to 330, a difference that might become substantial over time.

The survivability aspect of Magi’s is definitely a positive thing, but once you’re used to the encounters it becomes very difficult to die on any kind of healing druid since your heals will nearly always prioritise to yourself in any of the main raid comps (4-4-2 or 7-2-1) due to the subgroup prioritisation.

But perhaps we’re overthinking it, in reality they are both fantastic sets to have for their healing capabilities.

439 power doesn’t do much if you are just staff and CA camping. If you plan on throwing in some auto attacks with Sword/Longbow or whatever then you can make some use of mixing Zealot/Berserker gear. Though IMO, if you’re going to use Zealot gear you might as well just use Berserker gear. I tend to favor playing at one end of the extreme or the other.

PvP or WvW?
If WvW, run minstrel. You will be unkillable, provide perma regen and swiftness to your party, and your pet can be specced to do tons of damage while you support and tank.

I consider myself an experienced magi/cleric druid in raids. Pugged very much and I really like it. Also some guild runs

Most other dps professions have scholar runes which means you, as a druid, have to keep them at +90% health. This keeps me in CA or focussed on healing a lot. So not much time left for actually swapping to something else then staff to try and deal damage (with the exception of one or two raidbosses who don’t require as much healing, I got zerker for that). I think keeping my party at above 90% for their scholar runes to have effect is more important then that bit of personal damage you want to squeeze out.
The only other profession you’re hurting here is a chrono, but what’s to say about the chrono’s personal dps? I don’t think it’s the most important job of the chrono to pump out personal dps, would those few hundred toughness hurt?

Also, magi druids are usually magi/cleric druids, with some or all cleric trinkets. This gives them more survivability but less personal damage. More survivability means that you can more easily keep your party at full health, or at least make them worry the least about healing themselves or taking damage.

I have to say I do not have a zealots armor set (yet). I’m in doubt for months now and still following discussions when I see them whether that personal dps increase is actually better then keeping your party topped off, which I’m not sure you can do when in zealot’s because you tend to be more focussed on personal dps?

It seems in the end it all comes down whether you are in a (very) experienced group or not, to keep the full potential of your partymembers at above 90% health and also pump out personal dps, or you’re in a group where you can only do the first.

Bast Bow.2958:

I have to say I do not have a zealots armor set (yet). I’m in doubt for months now and still following discussions when I see them whether that personal dps increase is actually better then keeping your party topped off, which I’m not sure you can do when in zealot’s because you tend to be more focussed on personal dps?

I can answer that. It does vary a little bit based on what exact mix of gear you are using and what your playstyle is. If you are staff camping then the extra DPS of Zealot over Magi/Cleric is entirely negligible, it’s within the range of 400-500 DPS. If you are mixing in Sword/Axe auto attacks with 100% Zealot gear, then your DPS is still going to be fairly garbage and not worth it. Maybe you’ll squeeze out an extra 1-3k DPS? If you are doing Zealot Armor + Staff + everything else zerker then you start to see a little bit more respectable damage, but it’s obviously not as good as a DPS Druid.

Now regardless of what mix you pick, you still want to be able to generate astral force “quickly” on your non-staff weapon set. This is most commonly achieved by bringing a water sigil and 3-4 glyphs, though there are other ways if you don’t want to bring a glyph heavy build. The bottom line is, if you prioritize personal DPS with a zealot/magi/cleric mix then you are doing it wrong, at least go berserker/viper if you’re going to do that.

The core concept is that as long as you are generating sufficient astral force within these 10s windows of you leaving CA, then any DPS you do during it is “free” and since you are healing anyways you are still maintaining people’s scholar buffs. Though you won’t do that as well as a staff auramancer or dedicated healer druid.

Even as a DPS druid in Zerker/Viper gear, you’re still there to spread GotL and occasionally burst heal. Personal DPS is just a bonus and Zerker/Viper druids do a decent amount. No where near Tempest or DD level though.

A lot of guilds tend to skip out on Zealots since they’re bringing 2 druids anyways and 2 DPS druids is usually enough healing when combined with other offheals from the group. If they need more healing they just make one druid put on more healing gear (Magi or Zealots) until they have enough. I prefer to run 1 magi druid and 1 zerker druid myself in raid comps as it’s just “safer” but not everyone wants to run the safe route and that’s fine if you want to min/max your raid DPS.

This is coming from someone who has a set of Magi, Zerker, Zealot and a Viper gear. I mainly use the first 2 nowdays, though I did find a niche use for Zealots in progressing through the new raid wing as more DPS just makes KC and Xera easier, but even then I don’t think it was particularly needed or helped out that much.

Great thread. Thank you for posting some of this information. I’m heavy healing, but had no idea about the boost to percentage was better than base healing. Used Runes of Water and Sigils of Life. Switched to Monks and Transference.

My God . . . what a difference!

Again, awesome information here.

TurtleDragon.3108:

I can answer that. It does vary a little bit based on what exact mix of gear you are using and what your playstyle is. If you are staff camping then the extra DPS of Zealot over Magi/Cleric is entirely negligible, it’s within the range of 400-500 DPS. If you are mixing in Sword/Axe auto attacks with 100% Zealot gear, then your DPS is still going to be fairly garbage and not worth it. Maybe you’ll squeeze out an extra 1-3k DPS? If you are doing Zealot Armor + Staff + everything else zerker then you start to see a little bit more respectable damage, but it’s obviously not as good as a DPS Druid.

Now regardless of what mix you pick, you still want to be able to generate astral force “quickly” on your non-staff weapon set. This is most commonly achieved by bringing a water sigil and 3-4 glyphs, though there are other ways if you don’t want to bring a glyph heavy build. The bottom line is, if you prioritize personal DPS with a zealot/magi/cleric mix then you are doing it wrong, at least go berserker/viper if you’re going to do that.

The core concept is that as long as you are generating sufficient astral force within these 10s windows of you leaving CA, then any DPS you do during it is “free” and since you are healing anyways you are still maintaining people’s scholar buffs. Though you won’t do that as well as a staff auramancer or dedicated healer druid.

Even as a DPS druid in Zerker/Viper gear, you’re still there to spread GotL and occasionally burst heal. Personal DPS is just a bonus and Zerker/Viper druids do a decent amount. No where near Tempest or DD level though.

A lot of guilds tend to skip out on Zealots since they’re bringing 2 druids anyways and 2 DPS druids is usually enough healing when combined with other offheals from the group. If they need more healing they just make one druid put on more healing gear (Magi or Zealots) until they have enough. I prefer to run 1 magi druid and 1 zerker druid myself in raid comps as it’s just “safer” but not everyone wants to run the safe route and that’s fine if you want to min/max your raid DPS.

This is coming from someone who has a set of Magi, Zerker, Zealot and a Viper gear. I mainly use the first 2 nowdays, though I did find a niche use for Zealots in progressing through the new raid wing as more DPS just makes KC and Xera easier, but even then I don’t think it was particularly needed or helped out that much.

Interesting! Thanks.

About the 10 sec window and the free dps, not sure if I understand what you’re saying: do you mean you focus on personal dmg outside CA? Because I do not. I’m focussed on healing both inside and outside CA, outside usually on staff, to maintain squad at 90% health(10% dmg x 9 ppl rather important imo).

Yes if you’re wearing berserker/zealot gear. You’ll have enough healing from 2 druids spamming 4 glyphs (or your other druid being a magi/zealot), your tempest and DH’s heals. There’s no real point in camping staff if you have full astral force with 3-6s left on CD + everyone is above 90%. Might as well fit in some damage while waiting for your CA to be back up.

Also, you won’t always have 9 other scholar buffs. Druids use monk or scholar, Chrono’s use chronomancer runes (or leadership), Reapers use Berserker or Thorns and some Warriors still haven’t swapped off their Strength Runes.