Guild Wars 2

So I just hit 80 yesterday, and I’ve been using Greatsword/Bow, which I’ve found to be fun in the world and pvp but no so much in instances. I’ve been thinking going more support to run stuff with friends but I’m not exactly sure how to build.

I’ve been thinking all week I’d probably end up stacking healing/vitality/toughness and going Axe/Shield and Sword/Warhorn and be total support. I browsed around the forums here and guildwars2guru at various builds and noticed people taking Vigorous Shouts with a normal power or condition build. So now I’m unsure what to do..

Is VS still good without +healing? If I don’t go pure tanky/support, would it be better to stack condition over power if I main Sword/Warhorn? I’d test this all myself, but I only have enough cash to buy one set of armor and I don’t want to screw it up.

Hi Zek,

If it’s any consolation, I’m currently running GS/Longbow in all instances with Power+Precision+Toughness gear on a 20/20/0/30/0 build (using VS and Lung Capacity (20% reduced cd on shouts)).

Eventually I’ll have 6 Runes of the Soldier so each shout removes one condition. I run with “For Great Justice”, “On My Mark”, and “Shake It Off”. Thats 4 conditions that can be removed, or, if rotated correctly, the ability to constantly remove one condition.

IMO the GS+Longbow provide amazing aoe dps, as well as a combo field, blast, projectile, and whirl. It gives you the versatility of being able to range and melee as needed. Don’t underestimate the power of having a ranged weapon at your disposal (even if Longbow doesn’t have as much single-target dps, the combo field that can be created with your burst skill can keep your foes burning forever, not to mention when paired with the combo blast from skill 3, you provide your entire team with Might).

As for the healing with VS – I’m healing for about 1100-1200. When you pair this up with condition removal, I find it to be quite a strong combination.

So yea…I’m absolutely loving this build.

(also, if you want to test out +healing on VS, you can always go to the Heart of the Mists, throw on some pvp gear, and shout your lungs out.)

Cheers!

Short answer: Yes. VS is a great talent and well worth the 30 points.

Longer answer: +healing adds 80% to these heals. Typically, most level 80’s will heal for around 1200ish per shout. Adding in +healing will probably push that up to 1800 or so. If you want to go a more supportive route, you can look for Shaman gear to get +power/condition/healing. But, being able to heal your group for around 1200ish three times every 20 seconds is pretty significant, so if you’re afraid you’ll hurt your DPS, you don’t necessarily need +healing gear.

And yes, if you’re going to focus on condition damage, you should pick up +condition over +power, although +power will still help with all your regular hits, so I wouldn’t necessarily avoid it. Plus, you’ll want some combination of toughness/vitality for dungeons.

Thanks for the responses, I don’t think I’m gonna go for +healing then.. seems like a waste to sacrifice a stat for only 600 more healing when health pools are around 20k. I’m not sure quite yet what I’m going to do but I know for sure I want to do something with a warhorn

With full cleric exotics healing per shout is more in the 2100 range. Significant, but the tradeoff is having the 4% base crit rate and to me it’s unnecessary to have that much healing in most cases. Besides, healing is just one of potentially 4 aspects to shouts.

That’s why I’ve started hybridizing my gear and switching my accessories to Knight pieces. I’d probably redo my armor as well but that’s a bit more expensive and the bulk of your stats come from jewelry anyway.

I run heavy healing and heal for 2400 each shout. I also run heavy defense and focus on rallying. It works out well.

If you are going shout support I suggest taking longbow as one of your weapon slots.

Ranged is always useful but the blast finisher on it is fantastic.

Using your fire field and blast finisher and For Great Justice gives you about 9-12 stacks of AoE might alone, which does wonders to increase your teams DPS. Possible to get 22 stacks of AoE might for like a second or two for the pure novelty of it.

Also if you want to focus on pure healing it is better to drop On my Mark and take Banner of Tactics with Inspiring Banners trait instead. The AoE heal and regen out heals it. You end up losing a condition remover but you gain more healing, a blast finisher, AoE 10% boon duration and 90 compassion, and a handy AoE swiftness with like 90% up time to get around quickly. (Regular banner tooltips are bugged, they last for 90 seconds not 45, and with the trait that gives them 3 seconds of downtime.)

I too don`t know which set I will use (Knight/Cleric/Soldier(pwr/tough/vit). I did calculations ( I hope I did that properly). Knight set have only 1-2% better damage then Soldier and Cleric have 15-20% worse damage . And Knight have worst survi of the 3, but doesn`t stand out much of them)

About healing. Lvl 80 healing for 1192 per shout and for 1472 with 300 healing (from traits, I thinking about 10/0/30/30/0 build or 20/0/20/30/0). So in Knight/Soldier set I will heal for 4416 HP per 20-25 secs. In full Cleric set (armor/wep/trinks) I will have 955 Healing and I will heal for 6708 HP per 20-25 secs. This is over 50% better healing (but still don`t much).

And my qustions. 15-20% damage vs 50% healing. I want make hammer support, so damage is probably in 2nd or 3rd place what I need here. But again, 6708 HP every 20secs don`t looks good too (I need opinion of experienced players, because I may be wrong).

And 2nd question. I thinking about switching Shake It Off with Precision Banner @ bosses. CC don`t work on them, so I will give permafury to allies. Then 15-20% damage is worthless because I probably won`t deal damage (or a little from banner) but 50% healing is more helpful too, because I will use only 2 shouts then. Ofc I need opinion again, because I may be wrong.

Please answer on my questions, beacuse I don`t know what to buy now.

And sorry for my English.

eh, i’ve been running with THIS BUILD

my gear is Vigil honor with the regular Pow/Vit/Tough stats. i have mostly rares, an exotic chest and legs from karma vendors in Orr. everything as far as armor/weapons is pow/vit/tough, my trinkets are all cleric, masterwork.

my shouts heal for a decent amount, enough to support the party usually. i have signet of healing as i feel it’s the best heal to go along with my defense, i never have to use anything besides shouts to heal. i like the shouts more than banners, since they’re more spiky heals and remove conditions. absolutely DO NOT trade shake it off for anything, ever. it removes two conditions with this build, heals, has a low cooldown AND will get the party off theirkitten right away when hit by knockbacks, knockdowns, etc.

my traits are 10/0/30/30/0. i generally run with shield master, missile deflection, leg specialist, defy pain and of course the shout traits. in the power line i take berserker’s power since i only pop the burst skill for CC purpose when there’s a large group of mobs. for pvp i use restorative strength, shrug it off and turtle’s defense.

the minor traits are all good. you got extra armor, faster revives, more power the more toughness you stack, +400 toughness when reviving, etc.

EDIT: to the poster above, don’t even go full healing. stack some toughness and power. if you’re the only support in the party where such a thing matters(dungeon/sPvP) it’s a fail anyways. with people at least watching their ownkitten as far as positioning, healing or just cleansing this build will be a great suppliment. you’re not meant to be a monk.

Thanks! This will be very helpful for me. I think I will use this build. Looks like with exo 80 trinkets I will heal for ~1850 HP. I`m still not sure this 370 HP per shout will worth it (with Emerald Trinks I will have a little more power and 3k HP more) but on the other hand I think I will have enough tank and this 3k won`t help me much.