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[Column] Guild Wars 2: Heals Please
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Heart of Thorns announcement answered some questions we had about the future of Guild Wars 2, but it also created a whole lot of new ones, for example, these new specializations make one wonder, will we see new build choices allowing players to play as healers?
Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: Heals Please.
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GW2 doesn't need a straight up healing path, but it could use some more support roles, and support roles need to be made important through gameplay. The biggest issue on the PvE side of things is that going all out dps has been a fine way of getting through the tougher parts of content. Playing via conditions has been problematic in PvE because of conditions caps. Bunkers and Sustain isn't exactly needed either. However on the PvP side of things, people play better defined roles can make teams very effective.
ANet needs to "PvP-ize" the PvE side of things more (ANet has been doing that with the most recent patches). Fix conditions in groups, allow for bunkers and sustain folks to serve a purpose, and add reasons for support to exist. There are builds where there is passive healing via skills usage, and making those types of roles more needed is a good way for people to find a way to play "healers" without having to only directly heal folks. Additionally, it would be nice to see control become more important as well.
If you're holding your breath for a straight up healer, well you're going to turn blue in the face. However, through better mechanics a passive support healer could be something that's useful outside of pvp or specific fights.
The defiance ability of champ/legendary monsters is having a change so that might make CC more viable.
I think Arenanet will diversify roles by adding more mechanics to monsters.
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Same here. I think that if anything GW2 has shown me how much I actually prefer dedicated roles; Tank/Heals/DPS/(de)buff.
I understand people's desire for this kind of gameplay, they want to feel needed, they want to feel special.
the problem is it would break the game more than it would fix anything. It is that simple.
Imagine if a trinity based game implemented a class that was action based and was removed from the core trinity gameplay ? it would break the game right ! So STOP asking for SHIT that will beak the game !!!
I for one say this about this topic:
- go play a game where the healer role is enforced, there are a million and one out there, pick one.
- stop asking for BS, and learn to play the game properly, there are roles, you just want to be a special snowflake.
and by snowflake I mean this scenario, everyone has to wait on you because oh he's the healer we better not argue with him or make him angry or threaten to kick him because if he leaves we cannot continue playing !
[mod edit]
Well there really is nothing wrong with the healing what is wrong is no one understands it. See healing is not like most games where a healer heals you to max and keeps you there instead its more of a damage reducer then anything else. Its there to help mitigate how much dmg you take over all instead of keep you at full health. If you ever run with a cleric geared or anyone with healing gear on you would see how it works. Its quite amazing how much better things go when you have some support in your group over all dps.
I myself run a guardian that runs cleric gear and in dungeons most of the time you hardly see anyones health drop much because I keep health up and protections to and going in open world on world event bosses I do the same theres alot more to the healing then most see because most beleave it serves no good at all if everyones running zerker gear they kill things to fast but one mistake and wipe almost instantly I know I have seen it more times then I care to count thats why I quit doing zerker and started understanding the game mechanics more. Now I see other options in how to play other then max dps and it works with all builds you just have to see how the mechanics work and build on it.
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"Still, it’s enough that it allows you to prevent your party from wiping to get through those tough encounters."
No, that is not what healing is about. More so when you mention the GW1 Monk class which was way further from this shallow healing concept you have. I always pick the original classes in MMOs or at least those that propose a newer gameplay concept of the class [insert name here], and more often than not, this is the case of buffer/healer class. Same as with the mentioned GW1 monk, he had skills (prayers) that were meant for buffing (increasing team member's stats) or raise shields to absorb damage.
No matter how you call it, no matter if it's the always common "warrior" its about the depth of the gameplay that's being implemented in the class'es development that makes the difference. Having more systems, options and possibilities is what makes a healer good or any class for that matter.
So angry!!!
LOL My precious game.
Oh GW2 super fans...please never change.
Seriously though, I think introducing a pure healing or tank class/spec at this stage of the game wouldn't be good for the game. I don't care for how GW2 has dealt with healing and tanking as I've never had a problem with the trinity. I recognized a long time ago this game wasn't for me and haven't looked back since. If people playing now enjoy it as is then it would be a mistake to change. I don't want them to experience their own NGE like I did with swg.
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A pure healer roll would mean spamming heals over and over again. Gw2 would never go that route.
Also there already are healer classes in the game.
Who of you wasn't stuck at Mai Trin with noobs before?
That's the part where you swap to cleric elementalist with staff and keep on changing your alignment to water to clear 2 conditions from yourself and the others.
Their original vision went out the window in the first couple of months after launch.
The reason they gave for not including healers was to avoid dependence on a specific class type to get through content. As they put it, who wants to wait an hour trying to find a healer so the group can start a dungeon run. That's all nice and dandy on paper, but there is still group preference for gear type and class build, making their original intent well intentioned but worthless.
Will they add specializations so you can heal on a more consistent, functional level with the new xpac? I'd say there is a good chance for that. I'm interested in seeing how it develops.
The last thing this game needs is another healer-dps-tank setup.....they made EQ and WoW for that.
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The problem with dedicated heals in guildwars 2 so far has been the lack of power even when heavily stacked on healing. It was a game design the devs chose. Basically it made self heals the most powerful. The secondary heals were aoe based mostly and didn't pack much of a punch or were unsustainable.
I believe there is a soft cap on heals since they don't get much better when stacked towards heals on gear. So how would these specializations get around this? Short answer.....they wouldn't.
This new system being introduced is more like being able to dabble in other class traits without having to re-roll. It also gives something to use your points on in a continued progression similar to other MMO's which will keep people interested in the game longer ( a good thing).
I really wish GW2 PVE was Control, Support, Damage like was stated in the manifesto. Damage reigns king though, and there is not much need for the other two aspects of GW2 'trinity'.
I would not be opposed to having Support become healing, similiar to GW1. I loved having healers and playing them, and I also loved 'tanking' via body blocking, crippling, and interrupts.
I really do not see GW2 changing anything though, as much as it would make it more fun.
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Its still much better then the healer/tank shit. Some as**** prefer "super zerk gear check bull kitten", but many dont care. And honestly the later can beat anything, just a little bit slower then the zerk super pro wannabies
I honestly thought that the dependant on the monk was GWs weakest feqature (well, beside jumping).
You could possibly add a little more healing than the ele have but not too much, it would mess up the group dynamics at least for me. I rather not have a class I must find for every dungeon and fractal thanks.
If they add the monk they should focus far more on martial arts aspects than the GW1 monks and give it about same heals as the ele can give.
I think big role in the "Damage king meta" is playing the unified buff/debuff mechanics. They simplified the conditions and boons so much that they crippled many viable builds. Condition builds are not as good because of that. Instead of having all the different Hexes that GW1 had, now we have only few conditions that stack to 25 and thats it. Same with the boons. Not many viable support builds, because the whole buff/HoT system is way to simple.
And all that in the name of balance, they say. This is one of the things that I really dislike in gw2 and prefer the original diversity of skills.
1. They already don't know what to do with healing power as a stat. It is way under budget as a stat and has been since the start. They wont change that.
2. They don't like making big changes that require lots of coding. I remember when they asked for input to help rangers, and then halfway through the 40... Page thread said "but a solution that requires the least amount of work." That is their type of solution, and they have no desire to address healing.
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Well, they do, but only if it's their idea. If, on the other hand, the community hates said idea/change after it's been patched in..that is what they hate changing. I think it's more ego on their part, as they seem to be a fairly arrogant and immensely obstinate team.
People can have a pure healing build, but it's not useful in any situation, same with a tank/support build. For dungeons, it's pure dps builds for efficiency. For PvP, it's different, but it's still the same concept, in that you don't want to spec into a full "bunker" that uses toughness, healing, and vitality with certain skills and traits. Instead, you'll want to balance utility skills and traits with dps and mobility in mind, and gear with some power and toughness.
People say you don't need to be a pure dps build in dungeons, but just take WoW for example, would you really want to bring along a shadow priest for healing, or a ret pally for a tank? Of course not. It's the same with GW2 dungeons. You don't want to bring a pure healer, otherwise you're not contributing to the efficiency of the run.
GW2's role system is for self-sustaining oneself. If you're going to take damage, then dodge, using a vigor regen trait or skill if needed (until you can dodge effectively without needing it). If you need to heal, use combo water fields.
Let's use WoW as an example again. Imagine if your druid could use all 3 specs (tank, dps, healer) into one role, and you can switch out skills, glyphs, and talents from all 3 druid specs. That is basically what GW2 has done.
It's actually really well done, but the A.I. in GW2's dungeons are so bad, it gives the non-trinity gameplay a bad name, because people remember how bad it is. Anet didn't focus on threat mechanics, which makes the A.I. so bad. There's also the condition caps of 25, which nullifies any condition build sadly.
There's just so much broken with GW2's non-trinity system though, that a pure build into support/tank, or healer, is effectively gimping your character, since dodge and heal skills are enough for avoidance and healing, and you don't have to sacrifice your damage traits and skills for them. This is why people prefer DPS Beserker gear, because it gets things done faster.
I wouldn't like this. There's already soooo many games with the trinity tank and spank thing going. Why would GW2 want to adopt that system when there are a lot of people who do like the current one.
..because it's a poorly designed system. If all you have to do is spec for that to faceroll content, then that in itself clearly illustrates (one of) GW2's shortcomings. IMHO, their dungeons are one of the worst, and laziest, designs I've seen in years. Normally, in whatever game I play, I spend quite a bit of time dungeon crawling. Love it. Not in GW2 though.
So, a healer role would work if the game design itself were improved. But, it's not, and I don't see any ground-breaking improvements, well, ever, so a pure healer role in GW2 simply isn't needed. That said, a healer spec line for the xpac would be used by players as it is still useful.