Post 2:
For our Skill 6, which passes our healing to allies, Receive the Light heals allies 12,403 hp every 30 seconds, Wash the Pain Away’s heals 9246 hp every 25 seconds, and Druid’s Glyph of Rejuvenation heals 6862 hp every 20 seconds, but it applies a GoTL stack. Poor Druid yet again comes out behind, and Guardian comes out first for the crutch-burst heal.
Thus’ far, it seems the only healing capability in which Guardian is behind Tempest is the autoattack, and traited soothing mists.
Next, it becomes a bit harder to compare the data, since the rest of Guardian and Tempest capabilities differ vastly, especially how they trait themselves. A guardian can have a million different builds thanks to Honor.
If we use Honorable Staff for a Staff build, we gain extra boon duration and reduced CDs on staff, which allow us to heal 3827 hp every 6 seconds using Detonate Orb of Light, and Empower heals about 4144.8 hp in a 600 radius with blanket might. (With Full Minstrel Gear, Alacrity, and Firebrand, it is possible to solo-maintain 25 stacks of might on a group, allowing Firebrand to fill in for a chronotank, a PS, and a healer, all at once!) Note that Orb of Light is significantly stronger in PvE, since it scales sharply with the additional Healing Power of Ascended Gear and Rice Balls.
Pure of Heart heals 2092 hp every time aegis ends on someone. This essentially turns Mace #3, Shield #4, and a whole bunch of our traits, into massive heals. Retreat becomes a heal. (It also plays into Firebrand, significantly!)
Signet of Courage is a free 2348 hp heal every 10 seconds.
Selfess Daring heals allies 2361 hp with EVERY dodge!
Traited Sanctuary is the single strongest CC in the game, which heals allies 9143 hp and blocks projectiles as a bonus.
Merciful Intervention heals allies 6071 hp on a 40s cd, but it’s useful for escorting on Matthias due to its 1,200 range.
Anyway, as the data establishes, Guardian is more than capable at healing, with many options. What we lacked were buffs, which is where the Firebrand comes in.
With Liberator’s Vow and Mantra of Solace, we grant additional Aegis + Quickness to allies every 12 seconds. Mantra of Potence also applies more Quickness and Might. Keep in mind, Liberator’s Vow apples Aegis, so it procs Pure of Heart for more 2k hp heals.
With Virtue of Justice, using Ashes of Just allows us to boost ally damage without having to invest in a DPS aspect ourselves, similar to Sun Spirit. This capability is further enhanced with the Grandmaster trait Quickfire.
The real star of the show is the grandmaster trait Loremaster, which finally allows us to use our tomes without losing the passive. This isn’t too important for Tome of Justice, but is super important for Tome of Resolve and Tome of Courage.
Thanks for the grandmaster trait, we can actually use Tome of Healing while maintaining the passive 328hp we heal on allies. What’s important to keep in mind is that Tome of Healing isn’t meant to be a direct source of healing like Celestial Avatar is. Stuff like the Healing Auto is merely a bonus on top of everything else. Epilogue: Eternal Oasis improves the effectiveness of every other heal we are using, allowing things like our dodge to heal 3140 hp, and our Virtue of Resolve passive to heal 436 hp. This is something always available, lasts 8 seconds, and it’s only on a 32 second cooldown, further reduced by alacrity. However, the true beauty of Tome of Resolve is its condition removal. Thanks to Virtues, merely activating it removes 3 conditions from allies. However, once in the tome, activating Radiant Recovery will cure allies of even more conditions, on a very tiny cooldown. This will have practical uses on Slothasor and Matthias, where condition removal is necessary. Even without Virtues, the fact this is ALWAYS on our skillbar means we always have access to a condition cleanse on allies, no matter the utility skills.
Then we get Tome of Courage which, yes, it has an insane cooldown. However, we ALWAYS have access to it! Despite its high cooldown, it can be used effectively on fights like Slothasor, where we can quickly proc Epilogue: Broken Lines and Stalwart Stand in order to protect allies from the Shake attack before it even happens. We also always have access to Valiant Bulwark, which means we will be able to cover as an emergency reflect on Matthias.
As for other goodies the Firebrand brings, we also get Imbued Haste, which increases our Healing Power by a free +250, making the numbers I mentioned before even higher! In my testng during the beta, Detonate Orb of Light was able to exceed 6k on heals!
Also, need I remind you, all these calculations assume a single stack of Invigorated Bulwark. We will likely have many more stacks in raids
As you can see, Firebrand, and Guardian as a whole, isn’t exactly lacking anything in the healing department. It has yet to be seen if we exceed the Tempest, but we definitely heal much more than a Druid.
So why not just use Tempest for pure healing? Why not just use Druid for buffs? Simple: Boons. With the addition of Firebrand, we exceed the Quickness sharing capabilities of Chronomancer, we gain more consistent methods of applying Aegis to allies, and tons of stability. As mentioned before, it may be possible one day that we can tank, heal, apply 25 might, and perma-quickness, all at the same time.
It has yet to be seen how Firebrand performs in practice, but I hope to make it more apparent to you, and perhaps the forums as a whole, that a Guardian has potential to become a viable healer with Firebrand.
\ drive?
