Guild Wars 2

Medium Armor for Charr? Try the SE suit. It actually looks really good on a Charr. Gunmetal / Heritage coloring for that nice Iron Legion-esque look.

Don’t know where the “ranger is not meant to support directly at all” comes from. Rangers can be strong group support characters. Spirits, once you learn how to keep them out of AOE attacks, are quite effective at group support. Furthermore, Healing Spring is by far one of the best heal #6 abilities around. Long term water field? Blast finishers are awesome here. Yes, please. Remember also, your pets F2 abilities can be quite useful indeed for your group. Beyond that, some of their direct attacks trigger with your field. Get a Reef Drake and watch the blast finishers go in your Healing Spring combo field. Quite nice. Try a Moa Bird and the F2 to spread protection to the group in an aoe. If you don’t have another source of protection, this is nice as well. There are others, but you get the point.

Necromancer is a strong support class, as support is more than just direct healing. For the necromancer, boon manipulation is one of their most powerful abilities. Not just the fact that the Well of Blood is a strong healing aoe, but the fact that as a Light field it offers both condition removal and retaliation for your group based on their combo finisher. Add to that the wells for condition-> boons and you’ve got a lot of potency there for support.

Engineer is so flexible it can support in numerous ways. If you’re looking as to which one to run, OP, I would just suggest keeping leveling each one and swap as you want when you get to 80. I have multiple support characters so that I can swap based on what I want to play but also what we need for our particular team composition. No harm in having multiple support characters.

One class that hasn’t been mentioned but offers strong support potential is the Engineer. Lots of support and healing potential there. Engineers are a bit more work out of the box than, for example, the Guardian. However, once you get setup, they are a good support class. My current Engineer support character that I am experimenting with (at 80) can produce a significant amount of team support while still stacking conditions on targets. I tend to be the only one in the group bringing conditions, so that helps. Ive tried Turretmaster/Pistol&Shield, Flamethrower Tank/Elixir Gun, but have heard from other Engineers that they have had great success with an Elixir-focused build using Grenades/Elixirs for its superior AOE output and conditions (read vuln stacking) to match the thrown elixir benefits. Engineer can be built in so many ways that it doesn’t require a lot of make its support useful to a team.

I will also echo the same comments others have made about Guardian and Elementalist, but want to say that most classes can be built for support roles, just that some are more effective than others for the job. Guardian, Elementalist, and Engineer all can heal and offer team support straight out of the gate. Warriors can do it by traiting for healing by shout or banner (but if you trait for heals on your warrior you’ll give up something else to do it since it requires 30 points in Tactics (if I remember right) to make it work). Necromancers are strong supporters through boon manipulation and can offer some respectable healing output as well. To get the most from Necromancer healing though, as with warriors, you need to heavily trait for it. Minions/Well Spec has worked for me in the past on my Necro as a support character.

Hope that helps, if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a mail in-game or a whisper and I will answer what I can.

Had a shield bug that appears to have been noted in January but did not cause me any issues until approximately one week ago. Now, any shield that I equip has the same clipping issue. When slung across his back, it looks fine. When he wears it, though, it looks like a personal flotation device slicing through his entire arm.

Race: Charr (Male)
Class: Engineer
Level 80

Equipment Worn:
Vigil Mask of the Undead
Furnace Reward Pauldrons of the Undead
Furnace Reward Breastplate of the Undead
Inquest Gauntlets of the Undead
Vigil Leggings of the Undead
Vigil Boots of the Undead
Cleric’s Pistol of Air
Cleric’s Shield of Energy

Purchased the pistol and shield on the Trading Post, the others were acquired from their respective vendors.

Screenshots:

Thief: Coming Soon

Mesmer: Coming Soon

Ranger: Coming Soon

Necromancer: Coming Soon

Warrior: Coming Soon

Guardian: Coming Soon

Elementalist: Coming Soon

Healing/Support-centric Builds

Engineer: Coming Soon

Healing Ability Compendium
(Coming Soon)

General Coefficient and Healing Information

In general, some abilities offer standard equations for how their healing is calculated and how much your healing power contributes to the effectiveness of the ability or boon it applies. The main healing boon that relies on a standard coefficient is Regeneration.
Regeneration (Boon) uses the following general equation for applying its healing (at lv 80):
Regen (Boon) Healing / Second = 130 + (0.125 x Healing Power)

So, if you have 1000 healing power, and apply a Regen boon to your allies, each second of the duration, you will heal for 130+ (0.125 × 1000). This results in 130 + 125 = 255 healing per second. In this case, you can see that your healing power produced an extra 125 healing per second, nearly doubling the effectiveness of the boons HoT. Healing Power always scales linearly, so if you had 2000 healing power in this case, you would have 130 + 250 = 380 healing per second.

When we look at other abilities that heal, in every case, they heal for a base amount + some amount based on a percentage of your healing power. What varies the potency of any heal is the coefficient. In this case, the coefficient for the Regen Boon is 12.5% or 0.125 of your healing power applying to the healing that the boon produces every second. If you had zero healing power, your healing would heal for only their base amount. In the case of a Regen boon, with no healing power, you still heal for 130 per second, the base at level 80. This is important to keep in mind as some abilities make use of healing power, some do not. Others benefit greatly from stacking healing power, while other heals make poor use of the stat.

Another healing note is that not all HoTs apply the Regeneration boon, and if two people stack Regen boons it does not increase the overall amount of healing per second, just how long the boon lasts. The higher healing power Regen boon is applied first, and then the lower applied second, for the total duration of the boon. If that seems confusing, just remember that if two people both stack the same boon for healing, they just last longer, it doesn’t make the healing produced stronger. However, you can stack different kinds of healing over time, such as the Guardian’s Virtue of Resolve. When traited, Virtue of Resolve provides a PBAOE (it radiates from the Guardian’s location) HoT, producing an effect called Rejuvenation, not Regeneration. These two abilities stack. Elementalists have a similar effect that they can radiate while in Water Attunement as well. In the case of the Guardian, this Rejuvenation has its own equation (at level 80):
84 + (0.06 x Healing Power) (untraited)
84 + (0.06 x Healing Power) + ((84 + (0.06 x Healing Power )) x .25) (traited)

One thing to note here is that this ability gains half the benefit of your healing power compared to the Regen boon. Instead of 12.5% of your healing power applying, Virtue of Resolve applies 6% of your healing power to its heal. Again, with 1000 healing power, that means that an untraited Virtue of Resolve at level 80 will heal for 84 + 60, or 144 healing per second. A traited Virtue of Resolve at 1000 healing power is 180 healing per second. At 2000 healing power, untraited, VoR would produce 204 per second, compared to 255 per second when traited.

When taken together, if you had both running at the same time, you would be effectively healing for (assuming 1000 healing power and no trait to buff Virtue of Resolve’s healing potency) ~400 healing per second. That is pretty respectable. If you traited your VoR and stacked more healing power, that value goes up accordingly. The main thing to remember with our heals is that every ability, generally, uses a different amount of our healing power (by percentage) to enhance its healing potency and that for some classes, builds, and even some abilities the amount of healing power really needed varies. Healing power is important, but it is not THE only stat we need to focus on. In every case, Rejuvenation will be less effective for healing than your Regen boon, but the power of Rejuvenation HoTs is that they –stack- with the Regen boon. We should look for every opportunity to stack those heals that we can stack to enhance our healing potency and throughput while allowing us to continue doing either damage or other supportive activity.

While Guild Wars 2 features a definitive end to the classic class trinity setup, dungeon design and so forth still necessitates the need for people to play as support-style characters. Given the prevalence of defiance on many champion level boss mobs, this makes control as a means of support less useful than pure, direct healing. This healing could be either burst healing (as in you are healed for X amount all at once) or HoT healing (or heals over time, such as the regeneration boon or other non-boon forms of regen/rejuvenation). Another form of support healing lies in boon manipulation. Three paradigms exist with respect to boon manipulation: removing conditions, converting conditions to boons (or boons to conditions on enemies), or applying boons directly to your allies. We are NOT healbots and that play style is just not supported in GW2. You will have to do more than hit one or two buttons to be an effective healer. This compendium is devoted to helping you do just that, and achieve success in an active support role.

This compendium is meant to be a compilation of healing-centric builds among all classes. There is a belief that healer-focused builds harm their party success but I disagree. If your allies are able to focus more on their damage output and less on either healing or boon manipulation, so much the better. As a healer in GW2, you are not going to be standing there staring at green bars. If you do that, you and your allies will certainly die. No, a healer in GW2 is a task that requires a highly active individual, able to focus on not only tending their allies, but applying numerous conditions to the enemy (such as vulnerability), stripping enemy boons, or curing ally conditions.

Personal damage is not the only prime concern in any dungeon; it is the success of the group as a whole that matters. If those of us who enjoy playing as support characters can contribute in a meaningful way while keeping our teammates alive, then we have done our job. Sure, a team with no healer/support members might be able to stack multiple classes and rely on certain mechanics to burst their way through bosses with ease. That is not what this compendium is for. It is not for discussion of the usefulness of healing specs vs. glass cannon specs. It is not a place to flame or bash healer-focused players, and it is not a place to argue on the quality of one classes’ healing or support abilities compare to others. There is no “one best healer or support” class, build, or setup in the game. What this compendium is for is to showcase different builds in progress for healing, what works, what doesn’t (based on experience), and how different abilities can be used. Saying X heal is good and Y heal is not does not help us as a community. X might be better in one situation and Y might be better in another. That is what we need to focus on. Also, within the compendium will be a list of all abilities that provide healing, coefficients (for healing power) on them, radius of the ability, and cool down, among other data. Nearly all of this is available on the wiki, but it is not all in one central location.

The Supporter/Healer Compendium is meant to help with that. Have a spec to submit with info on the spec? Go ahead and post away and I will include them in the main compendium. If you find that your experiences with any ability differ from the available wiki information, test it and then post about it. This is meant to be a resource for all of us, if we all contribute it will help those interested in trying out a healer/supporter role in determining the option that best fits their play style or give them the tools to create one all of their own.

See something incorrect in this compendium? Please contact me and let me know what is incorrect and I will see that it is changed! I will be editing the posts below and have links to them in this post as they are filled.

mulch.2586:

LadyAfeawen.7409:

There’s detail, yes, but refer back to my “everything’s sunny here at GW2.” Nowhere in that message do they address the problems.

There’s a whole paragraph on it:
“Having said that, we’re also aware that there were certain aspects of the event that could have worked better than they did, and thanks to your excellent feedback we’ll be working toward strengthening this type of content moving forward. At ArenaNet, we always try to push the boundaries of how we build online worlds, and we thank you for your patience and collaboration as we pioneer into unknown territories. We’ve seen people saying that they really liked the principle of using events to unveil new content, but we need to tighten up the methods by which they are deployed. We take these comments to heart, as it is our goal to always deliver content of the highest quality.”

That’s as direct as you can get from someone who uses phrases like “tighten up the methods by which they are deployed.”

That paragraph is about as generic as one can get. Try this instead:

“We’re really excited how all of you have happily responded to this bombing. Now, we could have handled some of the operation better, and we’ll take your feedback into account on future bombing raids. Please be patient as we try to reduce the number of casualties until the war is completed, but know that we strive to do the best job bombing targets as possible. We know that many of you truly like our current bombing raid actions and we will work to improve our targeting methodology moving forward.”

In essence, it is a lot of text that says, basically, nothing. Thanks for telling us we could have deployed the broken content better, and we’ll work on it in the future, but please be patient and continue buying from us while we do so. As a professional writer, that paragraph tells me nothing. Try again.

scabies.3246:

What problems ?

These forums have been alive with numerous threads regarding not just bugs but other issues stemming from the shift (apparently) from statements regarding no need for gear grinds or stat creep in GW2. This is entirely separate from bugs or overstatements toward planned fixes for classes (namely rangers and engineers) that were “promised” in this patch that really didn’t manifest themselves. You can now swap kits on your engineer in mid-air, for example, were not bugs that were reported as game-breaking by players. Yet, this recieved a line item fix.

The reference to “everything is sunny here at GW2” is accurate. Whiteside clearly gives the impression that everything is rosy and all players (in general) are joined in harmonious elation at how great the patch was and that there is really nothing wrong at all. All evidence to the contrary by sheer response on the forums.

Those are the problems that I felt the OP referred to that have yet to be addressed.

yertle.5837:

Because having 50 people auto attack down your gate (who needs rams when you have 50 people) while outmanned is boring for everyone involved.

Zerg fights themselves are just a battle of who abuses rendering/stacking/portals more, or a 30min ARAM where people spam 1200 range abilities and nothing interesting happens – unless one side has more numbers, in which case they win by default, no skill required.

edit: also stupidly low fps for anyone that doesn’t have a $5000 setup, due to GW2’s poor cpu optimizations.

This.

Wyktin – 80 Necro [MATE]
Maguuma

I agree with the OP entirely. However, I’d like to see the damage on siege weapons ratcheted up by 2x or 3×. You shouldnt be able to facesmash down a keep door, and if you try, you should die to the boiling oil. Rams should provide you some protection against oil, but should need multiple operators. No one-man wrecking balls.

Also, if a keep or tower is heavily defended, then you SHOULD have an incentive to hit walls, etc. I know that this does happen sometimes now, but really, with constant mass zerging, its just not worth it. I dont simply mean zergs of players facesmashing the doors, but also siege golem hordes using portals etc. One easy fix there: Disable the use of the portal while in a siege suit. Problem solved. Now you’ll see em coming. Also, I do like the idea about siege golems being anti-siege suits as well. They cost so much they really should do double duty. Smash doors? Yes. Smash walls? Yes. Kill siege weapons? Yes. Players? Certainly if they get up close and personal with a golem. Nail the golem with a ballista and have it take serious punishment? Oh most definitely.

There is no reason that teams cannot communicate with one another either on voice or text, and that includes scouting reports. This will encourage better coordination within teams and those who don’t work together will suffer until they do. Furthermore, it also enhances the power of small teams to turn a fight by making precision strikes against the enemy. You’d need to have eyes watching enemy movement as soon as you saw an objective had been turned to enemy control. It’s not a step backward, its an encouragement of teamwork.

Wyktin – 80 Necro [MATE]
Maguuma

“stoop to this level”? By offering to help an underpopulated server to fight against a server that vastly outnumbers them? I don’t see the problem, to be honest. You saw this sort of thing quite a bit in DAoC, from time to time, so it’s not “stooping” from where I sit, but friendly cooperation to achieve mutual goals.

I can particularly remember a few instances of Midgard guilds helping Albion when it (Albion) was being absolutely overwhelmed by Hibernia for weeks on end. In the end, it energized Albion to get back into the fight and brought good fights not just against Hibernia, but eventually, to Midgard as well once the temporary alliance was ended.

Since ET is getting absolutely destroyed this week, with what appears to be a Ebay v Mag match anyway, any guilds on ET that want to ally with a few of us on Maguuma against Ebay, feel free to contact me in-game. Be glad to stand together and help purge Ebay from your borderlands and against them together.

Maguuma: Standin’ up for the little guy.

(If nothing else, Materia [MATE] is always accepting transfers TO Maguuma, and you’re welcome to come on over and join us in the fight!)

Sorry, you lost me when you mentioned Spirits as viable for rangers for anything other than a laugh and Mesmer heals. Mesmer “support” is selfish support. Their heals selfish, their boon support is selfish, and their utilities (for the most part) are selfish. They are one of the worst options for group support. Sure, they have Chaos Storm on the staff, but that is by far one of the worst options for group aoe support available.

You CAN make many classes feel “supporty” but it just doesnt work in practice. Sure, I can make a Venom based thief, but they arent going to provide anywhere NEAR the support of an Elementalist, Necromancer, or Guardian. Sure, I can slap down Healing Spring on a Ranger, but with their Spirits being totally kitten, you’d be better off with boon support from the Guardian compared to the “one aoe and their hosed” spirits. Let’s not forget to even get them mobile requires 30 points in Nature Magic.

Not everyone who wants to play the true healer wants to be a support character. WoW was not the beginning, or origins, of healer/support characters. If I wanted to play a debuffer, in prior games, I could do that, but would still be primarily a healer. What changed was how I did my healing. The trade-off was damage output. Right now, nearly every fight in GW2 is a DPS race. Who can nuke the hardest, the fastest. Oh, you’re specced for “support”? Ha, noob. Enjoy your bronze.

Therein lies the problem. It’s folly to claim every class can be made to a full support character and then assume they are on some equal playing field. They aren’t. Some classes are designed to support better than others. It’s just a fact.

Maguuma isnt bad. Rarely a WvW queue, and people are generally friendly in map chat and dungeons. Moved here from Dragonbrand a while back and it has been a good move.

I’m with you on the desire for some sort of dedicated healer-type class. I have always played a healer role, and it is what I really prefer. Since you’ve made it to 80, I know part of this will be stuff you already know but I thought I would throw it out there anyway.

As you know, the “healer” is sort of split into different classes, but no one class can really say they are a true healer in the sense you and I are both wanting. From what I have seen though, and experienced, some classes do it a bit better than others. Sure, the guardian is kind when it comes to boons and can do some kitten fine healing, but they really need to be up close to do most of it and if you want to stand back and heal that doesnt always cut it. I am assuming you want a role that is different than smash and kinda heal of the guardian.

Engineer is ok as healing goes. Elixir infused bombs were worthless when I tested them with around 1300 healing power, and the elixir gun, while nice, seemed pretty tame compared to other forms of healing. Same with the healing turret.

For raw unadulterated healing power, I still like the elementalist. Specced for it, you can put out some serious healing and condition removal. You’re trading mad damage from fire for conditions and vuln stacking but the control, healing, and condition removal are worth it, imho. You’re wafer thin, but that’s nothing new. No class can stand up and get facesmashed and not fold pretty quickly, so “wafer thin” is more of a technicality anyway. You wont be stacking mad boons like the guardian but you will have some good boon spreading anyway with 10 pts into Arcane coupled with element swapping.

Then, there is the necro. If you havent tried it, I would recommend it. Necros are tough nuts to crack with their high hp pools and secondary life force hp pool. While leveling, use minions. Bone minions make good bombs, so dont hesitate to summon them, let them get in the fight, and detonate them. The sheer amount of conditions you can apply is staggering (bleed/cripple/poison/immob/vuln/chill/blind can be easily applied with scepter/focus and minions). With condition → boon swapping and plague signet/epidemic you can spread the stacks around. If you like the axe (for vuln stacking) its not hard to get a 25 stack of vuln in a matter of a couple seconds. Can help if you dont have a vuln stacker in the group or you want to boost minion or your own non-condition damage.

Necromancer isnt king of healing, but you can put out some respectable heals in your own right. Its not as potent as the elementalist, but then again, elementalist doesnt condition swap like the necro does either. Its a trade off really.

So, if I had to make a suggestion, I would offer either the elementalist or the necromancer. They don’t play the same, so don’t expect one to mirror the other at all. Totally different styles of play. Hope that helps, feel free to ask any questions you might have.