16 replies to this topic

[lacunario]

Hello everyone!

I've been lurking around this forum since GW2 start but i never posted anything.
After reading various Engi spec i never found a pure "Heal" spec.
I know this game is not like other mmos with "fixed" roles or anything, but i believe that if you spec and gear towards healing, then that thing is what you'll do better.
That being said i tried to make an healing spec focused on (ofc) the elixir gun.
This spec is focused around PVE Dungeons (but maybe can be viable in other situations aswell?).
What i thought about was an engineer standing ranged but not too far from the group, using elixir gun as main weapon, healing allies and debuffing enemies.

This is the build : http://en.gw2skills....dJ6y2lrLZXjGmbA

Firearms traits are chosen to increase range and for faster cooldowns.
Inventions traits are chosen for the general healing bonuses.
Alchemy traits are chosen to improve elixirs (more regarding throwing them rather then using them on the helaer himself). Vitality and Concentration points are good aswell.

As for gear, i thought about using full Cleric set with cleric's jewel with Superior Runes of the Water. Regular weapons will be pistol and shield, mainly to have 2 weapon runes instead of one, being able to get the 30% chance to heal allies and the stacking healing bonus after kill.
I'm not so sure about this last one because i suppose those kills needs to be done with the gun, so maybe 2x 30% chance to heal might be better if there is no "shared cooldown" or something similar.

What are you thoughts about this spec and role aswell?
I know you aren't supposed to focus on one aspetc only, but i believe in dungeons a "full" healer (and a ranged one in this case!) can be very handy, letting the other 4 players focusing on pure dmg.

I'm open to every criticism, please do!
Thanks!

[Phineas Poe]

Well a few things really strike me:

No Cleansing Formula?
No Elixir-Infused Bombs?
You go 30 points into Inventions, but you use the Med Kit over Healing Turret? Why?



Personally, I never was very concerned with the idea of going "Healer" because:

1.  I frankly believe that most classes in this game can take care of themselves. I'm willing to assist them through removing conditions with Super Elixir and Fumigate, but that requires no special stat building on my part and allows me the flexibility to use damage-dealing kits on my bar too, like the Grenade Kit or Flamethrower. And with my choice of gadget or elixir.

2.  In Fractals it eventually gets to the point where everyone is just trying to dish out the most damage possible. No one is going "Healer" spec because you pretty much get one-hit by everything unless you dodge. Toss Elixir R ends up being our real moment to shine, reviving allies mid-combat. Again, no +Healing stat allocation required.

3.  Our group-heal abilities are usually regenerative, not direct heals. These skills don't scale very well with Cleric's and may not be the best use of your stat allocation.


My criticism aside, I think this is a really interesting idea and worth trying out. I'd like to know what your success rate is using this in dungeons. It's not my kind of thing, but I'm never one to dissuade others from trying new things.

Edited by Phineas_Poe, 07 February 2013 - 10:25 PM.

[FoxBat]

As mentioned, you aren't a "healer" without elixir infused bombs. You're practically wasting the power/toughness of cleric set by hanging out in back with weak condition weapons. If you really want to play "healer" (questionable), check out several of the bomb threads. And healing turret now uses your healing power instead of the turrets, so yes you definitely want that when in healing spec.

[armoured bearshark]

Get cleansing formula 409 and kit refinement,  makes you drop one of those heal field thingies at your feet when you equip the elixir gun.

[Coren]

I would also like to point out that there's not much point in getting longer duration of elixirs since both elixirs you use don't really need to be lengthened.

elixir infused bombs are great for healing along with healing turret, plus I'd probably go with condition removal on elixir toss and take elixir c, healing turret, bomb kit and maybe elixir s for added defense, but then again I'm a huge fan of elixir.s:)

Whether you take elixir gun or infused bombs is.a choice, but if you do go bombs, I suggest you take elixir.s with you.

[TGIFrisbie]

My question is, for the overall game, is any "Healing" build worth having?  Healing power is one of the weakest stats to invest in, most groups do not need any sort of dedicated Healer since they don't bring much to a group.  Healing type support is usually only necessary to fill gaps between your other team members self-heal CDs.

Killing something faster trumps bringing heals that, compared to any other MMO, is weak crap.  Having to invest in weak crap to make it slightly less weak is still...crap.

Overall I just fill rolling some maxed out heal build is extremely lackluster and isn't as useful as we would all like to have in our MMO.

[ZCKS]

Phineas_Poe, on 07 February 2013 - 10:23 PM, said:

No Elixir-Infused Bombs?

I completely agree on everything else, but I've been meaning to ask.

How well do the elixer infused bombs actually scale ? I say this because between kit refinement, regin & elixer gun I tend to have allot olf healing potential already.

Also at the OP, I won't criticize your spec much as unless your doing high level fractals it don't matter much, but I will say this.

You shouldn't fill out the amulet slot in that builder tool unless your using to to make a spvp build, & you should never fill out more then one gem slot because it uses the spvp gems not ones like you fould find in pve.

[FoxBat]

ZCKS, on 08 February 2013 - 09:04 AM, said:

How well do the elixer infused bombs actually scale ? I say this because between kit refinement, regin & elixer gun I tend to have allot olf healing potential already.

Both bombs and elixir gun are around 50% improvement when comparing 0 HP gear vs full HP gear. The bombs heal a bit more than the field pulse of super elixir. (of course you can stack them)

Like we've been saying, playing full time healer is "questionable." But if you're gonna make the huge sacrifice to get healing power, IMO you should go all the way, otherwise better off just ignoring it. And if you think that's overkill healing, run the elixir bomb build *without* HP and you should have great damage.

Edited by FoxBat, 08 February 2013 - 11:58 AM.

[lacunario]

Thanks everyone for your imputs
I understand your point of views, and considering i just got back to the game 5 days ago after a long long break i still have to remember this is not the usual mmo with fixed roles!
Not sure i'll test out this build, might be a complete waste of money and time
Will prolly move on to a flamethrower build for dungeons, even tho i read is not it's best place where to shine..

[Coren]

lacunario, on 08 February 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

Thanks everyone for your imputs
I understand your point of views, and considering i just got back to the game 5 days ago after a long long break i still have to remember this is not the usual mmo with fixed roles!
Not sure i'll test out this build, might be a complete waste of money and time
Will prolly move on to a flamethrower build for dungeons, even tho i read is not it's best place where to shine..

Best way to shine is play what you want to play, but.efficiently:)

[Phineas Poe]

lacunario, on 08 February 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

Will prolly move on to a flamethrower build for dungeons, even tho i read is not it's best place where to shine..

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Judge things on your own merits and your experience. I'm sure the FT/EG build doesn't work for everybody, but it works for me. Aside from rare clipping issues, the Flamethrower is just a more durable kit I prefer to have over the Grenade Kit.

And it's less strain on my keyboard.

And it's more fun.

[ZCKS]

lacunario, on 08 February 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

Will prolly move on to a flamethrower build for dungeons, even tho i read is not it's best place where to shine..

As was said above don't believe what you have heard. The flamethrower is great.

[Coren]

ZCKS, on 08 February 2013 - 04:22 PM, said:

As was said above don't believe what you have heard. The flamethrower is great.

It is, but, like grenadeer, you need those 30 trait points in either.explosives or firearms for either juggernaut or... Extra grenade and range, however the trait is called.

Basically flamethrower is a good tradeoff between damage and survival, grenades is great damage dealer but.sacrifices a bit of survivability for CC.

[ZCKS]

Coren, on 08 February 2013 - 04:27 PM, said:

It is, but, like grenadeer, you need those 30 trait points in either.explosives or firearms for either juggernaut or... Extra grenade and range, however the trait is called.

Basically flamethrower is a good tradeoff between damage and survival, grenades is great damage dealer but.sacrifices a bit of survivability for CC.

True, but flamethrower really shines when using a crit based build.

For instance I use http://gw2skills.net...BJCyGkLIZQDMmZA with food that adds + crit & steal health on crit.

I can keep up massive amounts of might on myself, do good damage & have a ton of survivability.

[lacunario]

Phineas_Poe, on 08 February 2013 - 03:47 PM, said:

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Judge things on your own merits and your experience. I'm sure the FT/EG build doesn't work for everybody, but it works for me. Aside from rare clipping issues, the Flamethrower is just a more durable kit I prefer to have over the Grenade Kit.

And it's less strain on my keyboard.

And it's more fun.

Yep i never believe something just because it's said amongst the majority, but considering i've missed a lot of patch notes from basically october til now, i thought FT might have been nerfed, changed or anything else.
I myself like it a lot in istance/group situations, and i've found a video on youtube of a FT with zerk gear delivering pretty solid dmg in CoF.
At the moment i'm going for world completion therefore i got a rifle-crit build which is perfect for 1v1 or 1v3 (which is the most common situation for me while doing Hearts or running for a vista/poi).
After that i'm going to spec FT and run dungeons 24/7

P.S. quoting Phineas' message, but replying to everyone !

Edited by lacunario, 08 February 2013 - 08:41 PM.

[coglin]

I wouldn't even remotely come close to suggesting a majority said anything. Anet has posted that less then 8% of opened accounts have even signed into the official forums, so most of the QQers there are very literally the vocal minority. And I have yet to see another forums with more various player post.

[Phineas Poe]

I am actually curious how the traffic numbers on the official forums stack up to Guru (or vice versa).

I'd like to think that users that frequent this sub-folder are more open-minded to the Flamethrower and the Engineer in general, but it's hard to tell.