I have read that all classes are able to heal themselves and all of that stuff, but does that mean that all groups wont have a designated healer?

In gw1 I really liked healing for GVG and HoH with my spiker group guild, and looking at the skills on characters and stuff it seems like you could build just a pure healer/support class.

I wonder how good that would be to have 4 people go complete damage and one person go complete heal/support. it seems like that would be pretty good to not have to worry about healing yourself and having one person to heal in the pvp group.

Anyone who has done more research than me have any insight on this? Or is it all unknown at this time?

I will heal you my friend, dont worry.

Originally posted by FearTHeFro

I have read that all classes are able to heal themselves and all of that stuff, but does that mean that all groups wont have a designated healer?

 

In gw1 I really liked healing for GVG and HoH with my spiker group guild, and looking at the skills on characters and stuff it seems like you could build just a pure healer/support class.

 

I wonder how good that would be to have 4 people go complete damage and one person go complete heal/support. it seems like that would be pretty good to not have to worry about healing yourself and having one person to heal in the pvp group.

 

Anyone who has done more research than me have any insight on this? Or is it all unknown at this time?

Nope, not gonna work.  The "damage dealers", will be perma rezzing the "healer".( if they can keep themselves healed long enough)

It has been shown that the heals someone can dish out to others, even if fully specced out and using spammable skills, will not be enough to sustain anyone. Self heals will be required, and someone to go all healing they would not be very usefull if that's all they focus 

Originally posted by JesseBFox

It has been shown that the heals someone can dish out to others, even if fully specced out and using spammable skills, will not be enough to sustain anyone. Self heals will be required, and someone to go all healing they would not be very usefull if that's all they focus 

Try elemental water mage, all attacks do dmg and heal and heal more then enough. its all about team play.

You'll find that preventing damage, with stuff like projectile reflects and reducing the amount of damage taken, with boons & conditions, will be far more effective than trying to heal someone through damage. Quite frankly no matter how healing oriented you build your character, the healing throughput is incredibly insignificant that it simply won't be viable to play as a dedicated healer. The numbers don't lie.

During the beta the water attunment even spec'd for healing was doing incredibly minimal heals. There is no dedicated healer build or even a way to top anyone off besides a very very small targeted ground ability on the Guardian. You self heals are potent though.

Still Water Eles ect will be able assist in keeping you alive.. I wouldn't say there are healers but there are supporters for sure. You're "healer" will really just be supporting you in keeping you alive... which also includes debuff and damaging the enemies.. but over all you will be mostly responsible for keeping yourself alive. (Also I'm sure they will adjust the heals on water attunement to do a little more healing, though I do get the point of what they were going for.. they don't want to be a big heal.. but they also can't have be useless which is what it appeared to be in some of the vids.

Water ele was the class I was looking at the most, to me it seems like having a couple people going a little heavier support spells but still having some damage spells might be pretty nice for gvg.  I mean you can have 10 skills total so having maybe 3 water ele skills/3 spiking skills/couple decent utility support spells and everyone already gets a self heal could help the group out a lot in theory, but again i don't know for sure whether it would be useful in actual combat.

The engineer would be the most effective "healer", but as with other classes with heal abilities such as the elementalist, the #s aren't that high and rightly so.

The guardian's support tome elite however has the biggest spike heals but alas it's on a very long CD and roots you in place.

No, t here is no healer and contrary to what some of the above has said, you will not be able to rely on Engineer or Water ele to heal you. The Ele (and Guardian for that matter) have AoE heals and attacks that simultaneously heal, but they are in no way "more than enough" unless you are paying enough attention to your own heal button and ability to dodge, which is the point. If you can dodge, you don't need the heal in the first place. The amount those skills heal for is small (as is the area of effect, exception being healing rain which has a large aoe, but still doesn't heal for much and has a fairly long cool down), it's more to top off your health or to prevent you from going into downed state, but the onus is still on you to keep yourself alive.

As for Engineer, currently the turrets (including heal turret) are of limited use and the consensus is they are underpowered, however there's still some balancing being done so that could easily change. Still, I doubt Anet is going to undermine their own gameplay by suddenly making Engineer's the "healer" by upping the heal turret's output to large amounts.

If you are the healer type, you will still have a "home" but you're going to have to think outside of the box a bit. You are not going to be able to stand in the back and throw out heals, you'll get yourself and your team killed. I always play healers for example, and in GW2 I'll likely roll a Guardian alt that will allow me to raise barriers and reduce the chance of taking damage rather than focus on healing it. As a Water Elementalist, you'll find most skills that heal allies do so through an attack spell and so your priority would be to position yourself so that both enemies and allies are in the path of your spell. The few pure heals are with a Staff and, with 20 and 40 second cooldowns, they're not going to save people that aren't already playing well. I can't speak on Engineer beyond what I've heard about turrets, though I hear their elixir guns are great for healing condition stacks in pvp.

Originally posted by Eladi

Originally posted by JesseBFox

It has been shown that the heals someone can dish out to others, even if fully specced out and using spammable skills, will not be enough to sustain anyone. Self heals will be required, and someone to go all healing they would not be very usefull if that's all they focus 

Try elemental water mage, all attacks do dmg and heal and heal more then enough. its all about team play.

actually the test i read on the blog was with an elementalist. Their spam ability that heals and does damage healed a grand total of 17 health fully specced in to healing. 17. That is so small compared to hp pools it was deemed a horrible failure for being a healer

Look at it like this...

Try not to think in "traditional" MMORPG conventions.  Instead of thinking "I'm going to heal," try thinking, "I'm going to support my team."

Because you will definitely be able to spec your character to be very support oriented in GW2.  Instead of just playing a "whack a mole" healer, you will be buffing, rezzing, healing (a bit), throwing down AoE buffs like spirits, putting up shields and walls, knocking enemies back, etc...

I almost think it will be like "support" in MOBA games.  In LoL for example, you can't just be a "healer" and heal your team MMORPG style.  But you CAN be a support character and save your team members at critical times.

Originally posted by FearTHeFro

I have read that all classes are able to heal themselves and all of that stuff, but does that mean that all groups wont have a designated healer?

 

In gw1 I really liked healing for GVG and HoH with my spiker group guild, and looking at the skills on characters and stuff it seems like you could build just a pure healer/support class.

 

I wonder how good that would be to have 4 people go complete damage and one person go complete heal/support. it seems like that would be pretty good to not have to worry about healing yourself and having one person to heal in the pvp group.

 

Anyone who has done more research than me have any insight on this? Or is it all unknown at this time?

NO!

As you have probably read, ArenaNet is getting rid of roles in groups.  There is no distinction between tank, dps, or healer.  Everyone tanks, heals, and dps.  I believe it has been said that thread is determined by the closest person, so whoever has aggro, needs to be aware of his thread and incoming damage, so that he/she can roll/evade out of proximity thus transferring aggro to the next closest person.

With that said, there are classes that have a few more heals, buffs, etc that represent healing.  The elementalist can fire out water spells that also heal allies around the target.

Please make a note, that it has been said (I think by ArenaNet themselves), that the fights require everyone to be DPSing the target, rolling in and out of tank, watching for bad environmental effects, etc.  A group that has a healer only will be gimped in this game.

As a followup, you probably would like the Elementalist or Gaurdian the best.  Elementalist can throw out some heals Im sure, but the guardian has a lot of group support abilities.  A big bubble he can throw around his group, buffs, debuffs, provide an Aegis shield(magic shield that attachs to someone)...I think...to his allies.  All while, continuing his main role as a DPS.

From what we've seen, even a Water attuned Elementalist with max +Compassion traits and gear, the various 'heals' they have are little more than a cushion. Even the skill Healing Rain skill only heals a few hundred health per tick for about 10 seconds. Like all the heals in the game its enough to cushion those who are in the aoe for a second or two while their heal comes off cooldown. Each class's personal heal is significantly more affective.

So no, you won't really be able to play a healer. You can focus on boosting Compassion to get the most potent heals but they just won't be enough, even if you spam them. A few seconds of gaining 120 health per tick isn't much when you have 20k health.

It's much better frankly to try for a support build. Sure, get that +300 compassion boost from 30/30 water traits, but focus also on inflicting conditions or throwing up barriers. Using the Ele Example, Arcane Sheild + Powerful Aura Trait combined with a healing skill is a very effective way to keep your allies safe for a few seconds and give them a bit of regeneration to keep them alive until their heal comes off cooldown (10 seconds or so).

So with GW2, don't try and design a healer, it just won't be satisfying. Instead try and create a support character. For Eles thats Water & Arcane traits that grant boons to group mates, Scepter/Focus weapons, good utilities like the weapon summons, arcane shield (with the Powerful Aura trait), Glyph of Renewal, perhaps the Fiery Greatsword elite.

There are tuns of options on a wide variety of classes. You might not want to limit yourself there. Say you went with a class with weapon switching. You could try and set up a Support character with one set and Control with the other. There are tuns of options to explore, but no way to be a strait up healer.

Originally posted by FearTHeFro

I have read that all classes are able to heal themselves and all of that stuff, but does that mean that all groups wont have a designated healer?

short answer - no

worth reading this article about healing and other roles

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/

no there is no healer, there will be classes that have some heals but it seems like the game will rely on you avoiding damage than healing the damage.

so the first time someone says "HEAL ME" you tell them "Dodge more".

Originally posted by FearTHeFro

Water ele was the class I was looking at the most, to me it seems like having a couple people going a little heavier support spells but still having some damage spells might be pretty nice for gvg.  I mean you can have 10 skills total so having maybe 3 water ele skills/3 spiking skills/couple decent utility support spells and everyone already gets a self heal could help the group out a lot in theory, but again i don't know for sure whether it would be useful in actual combat.

Elementalists have a different set up that most other classes. I think they are similar to engineers. There is no "weapon swapping" in combat, so you are locked in to the 5 talents of whatever weapon/weapons you have equipped. HOWEVER, you have 4 different elemental attunements that do not share cooldowns. I believe the engineer kits work the same way. So, if you were in water attunement with a staff, you could throw out healing fountain then healing rain (if I saw these correctly) then swap to fire for dps or earth for defensive buffs etc. However, these skills are not designed to be sufficient to keep people alive, and will require that every party member use their self-heals and dodge mechanics to avoid damage. This game seems to require that every player essentially not suck, be able to keep themselves more or less alive, and the stacking effects of buffs/debuffs/aoe heals across the party is what matters.