"Support" is the new "Heal"

[[-Spiritus-]]

I think the title ""Heal" is the old "Support"" would be better :P

haha! nice.

[Arkenaw]

Yeah, I know this. I read the interviews and the website. It's just that I don't like the gameplay of hitting things. I prefer to work in the background, enabling people to do their thing, without actually getting my hands dirty. It's not that I just want to fill green bars, it's that I want to focus only on support with no or only minimal damage from my part.

To each his own. Personally I don't understand this, while I always play healers, I think the model they are going with here is a step in the right direction.

[Borzo]

Yeah, I know this. I read the interviews and the website. It's just that I don't like the gameplay of hitting things. I prefer to work in the background, enabling people to do their thing, without actually getting my hands dirty. It's not that I just want to fill green bars, it's that I want to focus only on support with no or only minimal damage from my part.

But in order to use your support skills, you'll have to get into the battle to lay down your CCs and buffs. You'll need environmental awareness of the mobs around, where they are standing, where your team is standing, etc... you'll have to pay significantly more attention to the world around you than in say, a WOW 5-man as a healer.

[Skyve]

I love what they did with Guardians. Basically it's a support character, but one that still excels at doing stuff solo. You're not gimped without a group, instead your abilities simply start to get more "depth" in a group, since your whole gameplay will be much mor strategic.

[Verazh]

I tried playing a priest as a healer in wotlk, as my 5th alt or summit. It had its fun parts in dungeons, was boring in raids, and was actually fun and excieting in pvp.
I think many "healers" feel

[Valeron]

If you have played a protection monk in GW then I think the Guardian will feel familiar. I view support as basically anything you can do to affect the encounter that doesn't necessarily involve damage.

[Szemere]

I like the idea, totally digging these kinds of setups. If the entire game will be skillbased, with almost every ability being dodgeable, I can see awesome things happening for the support class, instead of it becoming a differently-named-healer.

[Icovellauna]

Personally, I'm excited. The thought that, take an elementalist for instance, could equip certain weapons and provide efficient healing in Water, then switch and deal out efficient damage in Fire, switching to air and earth as needed for Control/Support accordingly. I haven't researched many of the other classes, but I do know some "professions" will still exceed at support over others.


I'm interested to see how it all pans out, that is for certain.

[Ynna]

But in order to use your support skills, you'll have to get into the battle to lay down your CCs and buffs. You'll need environmental awareness of the mobs around, where they are standing, where your team is standing, etc... you'll have to pay significantly more attention to the world around you than in say, a WOW 5-man as a healer.

I actually look forward to paying (more) attention to the in-game world in combat. I just don't like that I have to dish out damage while doing so. It's probably just a personal quirk, but I like to put my full focus on support, be it putting down wards, giving buffs, CC'ing targets... Actually dealing damage isn't something I truly enjoy.
Despite this (weird) personal preference I still look forward to playing a Guardian, and I'll probably play it well.

[Nibi]

i play healers pretty much exclusively (save from UO which is just like this they had no tank/healer/dps) from DAoC onwards but i also played DAoC support (bard/minstrel/sorc/skald/paladin) Support rolls always clicked with me better more than anything


pretty excited to try Guardian (and Mesmer if it ever gets really announced)

[Anthoren]

Really though when we consider roles such as support we also have to realize that the game is designed on changing roles actively all the time, now obviously if a person desires to use only weapon sets/stances/forms to just support that is their choice but the question of whether or not that is optimal is what concerns. In my mind I would probably on my Guardian have both a major dps and a support set but I can also change my glyph(the stances change whose name I forgot) so I can lower my dps to also give a small constant heal around me while things get sketchy. This game seems so fluid that situational awareness seems to be key in just about everything. So personally I enjoy support but I will likely jump between different roles as it seems fit to help the group, which is one of the reason I am highly interested in this game.

[Roose]

It is definitely more appealing to me than WoW healing. Staring at health bars is/was not fun at all for me.

[Hraklea]

Supporting is, by far, more fun than just healing. I like the idea of "that guy killed the boss because I helped" better than "that guy killed the boss because I facerolled my healing skills".

Don't get me wrong, I know that mana management is tough sometimes, but it stills a repetitive job after all. Healing is limited... I like to buff my teammates, debuff their enemies, move around, you know... I like to play.

[Borfl]

I liked playing support healing, especially in PvP where it's FAR more prominent in WoW.

In PvE it's just heal, heal, heal, but in WoW, especially playing a priest in WotLK, you could play aggressively with damage and utility AND heal your team mates. I really enjoyed that play style a lot and it's the only reason I bothered making a priest healer, other than that I find healing extremely boring.

[Deleted]

I am mainly looking forward to being able to adapt to the situations, even when playing my trusted warrior. If our group needs more support i can put a warhorn in my offhand and bellow out some battle shouts while swinging my sword. If we dont need that much support, i can use a mace for control, or another sword for more damage

[Wyrmrider]

<- Resto Druid / Resto Shaman / Bard says YES PLEASE to GW2's support/healing design.

[Iselde]

Support is far more attractive than simply "healing". Healing implies some sort of bar-watching, whereas support sounds more involved. Had this model of healing been more prevalent in WoW, perhaps I wouldn't have been so put off by healing.

[MalazanFan]

Yeah I think using the word roles is just reintroducing the trinity through the backdoor, everyone should be doing everything - there are no roles.

I really dread that GW2 will be full of people that insist on only doing DPS or Support, then it will just be the same shit all over again.

While I agree that there aren't any set roles for the professions, I do think that a player could choose to favor a support or dps "role" if they wanted to. I would imagine that a sword & board / mace & warhorn warrior would have more support available on the fly than a greatsword / hammer. Or maybe it's not a choice between favoring support or dps but instead choosing the kind of support you wish to bring to the group (offensive / defenseive, for example).

I really can't wait to run through the explorable dungeons in guild wars and try out the profession / weapon combinations!

Sorry for the overuse of backslashes ;D

[Alatian]

Janna is funner than Soraka in LoL.

Prot monks are funner than Healing Monks in GW1.

Disc is funner than Holy in WoW.

I'm seeing a trend here.

[Kotix]

This is all levels of awesome and the way mmo's should be. It promotes people actually learning every aspect of their class and using all the skills available. People can't tunnel, or you die. In GW1, necro wells were amazing support, and healing ele's were pretty annoying, but those aspects added versatility to the game as well as many unknowns.

As a lock in WOW and a resto druid, healing is boring, easy and repetitive. But the functionality of the lock is more transposed over to GW, just not very well, with a range of support spells.

Seeing information like this makes me want GW2 to come out tommorow so i can quit life and play.