Support/Control: How do you feel?

[Ynna]

I've been playing a Guardian during the beta and using him mostly to support. As you might know, "Support" is what Arenanet has stated should attract the type of player that usually plays a healer.
And it's rather fun. While you're supporting you're also doing damage, or knocking people back and that's great.
Problem is, I have no idea whether what I'm doing matters or not.
It's hard to see who would need your attention (not as much a problem in very big groups) and at the end of an encounter, you have no idea if you're support has made a meaningful impact. There's little to no feedback on that stuff, unlike with people who focus on Damage, who see bigger numbers and enemies dying faster.

My question to you, players who chose to focus on Support and Control: "Do you feel the same?"
And, more importantly, if you do, how would you improve this?

[Cyclone Jack]

As an Ele, I can somewhat agree with you. While I do a good bit of damage, it's hard to tell if the support abilities really make that much of a difference. I think the big thing right now is known when you use certain abilities, like blinds and knockdowns (and knockdowns are huge boons). I will say that the heals in water, at least with scepter/dagger, are negligible. I use them when they are up, but I'm not going out of my way to see who needs a heal beforehand. I just use them like I would any other attack.

Still, I'm having a whole lot of fun cycling through attunements and trying to see what I might need next and hope I didn't change too fast.

[Fencers]

The bigger the group, the less consequential support is. Damage and HP are the prime stats. Nothing actually provide better support than the ability to eat through the mob's massive HP pools.

[Deleted]

I'd say when it comes to the Guardians heals... they are next to worthless. Support in the way of knockbacks, shields, buffs such as retaliation etc however, make obvious impact.

As long as you don't believe that your heals will save the day, you will do well as support. Just don't forget that there is no such thing as 100% support, so don't forget to whack enemies as well.

[Mif]

I love laying down fire walls for people to shoot through when I have the flamethrower out

[Loaf Lord]

I'm finding support waaaay more helpful in pvp than it is in pve unfortunately. I didn't play support personally, but the people who were were saving my ass a lot.

[mafao]

With a guardian, I really had a feelign that what I did to support others actually mattered, both in PvP and PvE. The aoe heal from the mace is actually not that bad if the damage income is moderate; in contrast, i foudn the orb's healign to be really useless (mayeb its different with appropriate traits). An aegis triggered at the right moment is a lifesaver, although it depends on teh skill of other players. The damage reduction from the shield is a great thing. That barrier skill from the staff is really poweful in PvE. Two other guys and me just killed a group boss and I think that without my support, it would end differntly. Both kept dying, because they apparently didn't know how to use dodge :/

So far, playing guardian was a blast!

[Deleted]

I've been playing a Guardian during the beta and using him mostly to support. As you might know, "Support" is what Arenanet has stated should attract the type of player that usually plays a healer.
And it's rather fun. While you're supporting you're also doing damage, or knocking people back and that's great.
Problem is, I have no idea whether what I'm doing matters or not.
It's hard to see who would need your attention (not as much a problem in very big groups) and at the end of an encounter, you have no idea if you're support has made a meaningful impact. There's little to no feedback on that stuff, unlike with people who focus on Damage, who see bigger numbers and enemies dying faster.

My question to you, players who chose to focus on Support and Control: "Do you feel the same?"
And, more importantly, if you do, how would you improve this?

I found myself running around playing very supporting as Guardian on the Svanir Shaman boss Event, I ressed people, I healed, I buffed etc. But did very little damage. I only got Bronze medal for my effort.
So I agree with you, it's hard to tell what impact support does.

[Ynna]

I'd say when it comes to the Guardians heals... they are next to worthless. Support in the way of knockbacks, shields, buffs such as retaliation etc however, make obvious impact.

As long as you don't believe that your heals will save the day, you will do well as support. Just don't forget that there is no such thing as 100% support, so don't forget to whack enemies as well.

Since most support abilities come with damage (or most damage abilities come with support, depending on how you look at it), so I still do a fair bit of damage.

As for heals saving the day, I never expected they would, but they're still an important part of support, since you can also absorb or prevent so much. Especially with a trait-line dedicated to improving healing, it should feel more meaningful.

I'm finding support waaaay more helpful in pvp than it is in pve unfortunately. I didn't play support personally, but the people who were were saving my ass a lot.

So it is noticeable when people are playing support well? Because when you play support, there's really no feedback to show you're doing good.

[Repefe]

It's too early for number crunching at this point I think. But the more I play water ele the more I like it Combination of cc, heals and damage <3

The bigger the group, the less consequential support is. Damage and HP are the prime stats. Nothing actually provide better support than the ability to eat through the mob's massive HP pools.

I am not so sure. The bigger the group the bigger impact the aoe heals/shields have.

[Deleted]

i liked the aegis and the passiv healing aura from the guardian. also the reflection shield and the sanctuary skill. nice life savers.

what i didn´t liked where the weapon skills with the staff and the scepter and focus combo.
staff skills felt useless exept of the wall (hard to place as a ranged) and the condition sucker.
the aoe dmg skill felt too short, the orb is hard to aim and maybe too slow (or to fast if you want to heal with it), the symbol is just a short leap. it also doesnt fell like dispell conditions make a real difference.

the scepter where quite weak. the 3 second snare was usefull.
focus skills have a loooong cooldown and the healing aspect of the first skill is too random (jumping skill with just 3 hits and the first target has to be an enemy) while the shild is nice when you get focused.

maybe its just the lack of exp. from everyone (some people run out of my bubble and stuff like that...)

the elementalist gave me a more "your helping" feeling.

the healing rain is by far the strongest healing spell (big aoe, very strong reg buff), together with the other water heal spell a life saver. the freezing field helped much too.
you could also debuff the enemys with the big falling ice shard and your 1 skill was a nice heal for people around your target (like the healing aura from the guardian)

you could also swap to other elements to root enemys, slow them, reflect ranged attacks (all earth attacks), support your allies with combo fields (fire and wind especially), doing a aoe stun and blind or pushing enemys away (all wind attacks).

so i don´t know... maybe a dmg guardian with melee weapons is a greater supporter then one with a staff because of many passiv abilitys and his dmg or i was doing something awfull wrong. while the ele felt very good as a supporter.