No dedicated healers in GW2. Thoughts?

[Deleted]

I love the aspect of no dedicated healers. I played a healer myself for two years, and while I liked being able to carry pretty much any PuG when something went wrong, I found that the part of being a healer I loved the most was the challenge of keeping everyone alive (and in general being supportive), not the actual healing mechanics itself. A good group where everyone knew what they were doing actually made my job so terribly boring it wasn't funny, and I was delighted when people told me they were a new tank or were slightly under-geared. I switched to tanking and dpsing for a little while when I was bored of healing, and found I liked tanking too because I liked being able to 'protect' the group and deal some damage once in a while.

From the sound of GW2, it seems like I'll be able to do all those things at the same time (well, a little bit of all those things, for the most part) which is pretty fantastic. I like being the jack of all trades and juggling aggro, buffs/debuffs and health bars. At least if someone dies I won't feel like it's entirely my fault anymore. I can be the all-star I want to be without the weight of 'it's your fault if he dies' looming over my head.

What a great post!

I know exactly what you mean...my mains have always generally been healers - with little roguey or frost magey breaks when it got boring. It got to the point in warcraft that I stopped wearing my best gear, just to spice things up.

It wasn't the health bars...it was the support - this is why I enjoy the support roles in rift. I also enjoyed playing a disc priest in warcraft PvP - so that I could blast people, whilst doing a bit of healing via that...and also throwing shields around as needed. It wasn't as effective or refined...but it was the closest thing I could get to what gave me the buzz.

[Deleted]

I'm kinda glad dedicated healers are gone but I'm also some what saddened. I guess its just I'm going to have to adapt when playing GW2. The reason I'm saddened is because healers in PvP create a huge rethink in your teams approach. I know this is based of old info and straight out coordinated burst on a player an be dealt by you, yourself avoiding it or reducing the damage in take via skills or by a team mate throwing you a healing support skill. However in GW1 PvP, especially in GvG creating a situation to kill an enemy team member required quite a bit of thought due to the power healers had, especially those bastard infuse monks

Generally healers tend to sit in one state or another in games, overpowered or underpowered and never really balanced. This is going to make WvWvW especially more fun and competitive due to large battles not being decided on who has the most healers whether its because they can just overheal all your teams damage or they just don't have the damage output themselves because they comprise mostly of healers.

Although saying all that, I'm sure a whole new host of tactics will emerge on how to blow people up and prevent them countering your damage output. Also i hope that infuse dies in a fire never to return, the amount of times I felt like stabbing someone when you get an enemy to 1-100hp for their infuse monk to boost him back up isnt funny =(

Off-Topic: Does anyone know if body blocking is still in GW2, it makes sense to have it in small fights like GvG and random arenas, but things like WvWvW make me doubt its still in as calculating all that collision detection would be a mofo

[Durzlla]

I think it's one of the greatest things ever!!

[Queen of Hamsters]

So says everyone who has yet to play the game. It's just like every other new big hyped game that comes out.

or or


My guess is it will appeal to a very limited number of people and everyone is STILL going to cry that everyone else is OP and they are underpowered.

Will I try it? Eventually. People who claim this is gods gift need to seriously shut up already though.

If you don't like it, give your opinion and be polite about it. There is no reason to be rude to others who happen to be very excited about it. -Edge

It may be considered a "God's gift" level for others, you grump.

[Kakokun]

Off-Topic: Does anyone know if body blocking is still in GW2, it makes sense to have it in small fights like GvG and random arenas, but things like WvWvW make me doubt its still in as calculating all that collision detection would be a mofo

I hope it stays in. If it is then it'll probably only be in affect during combat I bet.

[frogger237]

The only thing I think sounds bad about is it sounds like there maybe "required" profession combos unless each profession brings support for multiple different types. For example the elementalist can freeze enemies in place, give an armor buff, and buff range dmg. Lets say all the other professions in the group are range and provide support to each other as well(not sure if range buffs from diff proffs would stack) but then would you really want to add a melee when it will just lower your groups dps output overall?

[Fencers]

The only thing I think sounds bad about is it sounds like there maybe "required" profession combos unless each profession brings support for multiple different types. For example the elementalist can freeze enemies in place, give an armor buff, and buff range dmg. Lets say all the other professions in the group are range and provide support to each other as well(not sure if range buffs from diff proffs would stack) but then would you really want to add a melee when it will just lower your groups dps output overall?

any group composition is viable. and all professions bring useful support options. for example, several rangers can toss out support heals as AOE healing or regenerative heals.

also survival isn't totally tied to just being healed. you are supposed to move, dodge, swap to weapons sets, CC and use combos.

a guardian might throw down a wall of force as a warrior swaps to 2h hammer to KB 2 baddies. An Ele cast water funnels that heal and damage as ranger places a heal on guardian and the warrior slaps on a sword&board.

you all bring more to the table than 1 or 2 heals. its about working together and smartly.

[Mif]

I hope it stays in. If it is then it'll probably only be in affect during combat I bet.

Correct. A dev post recently said that's more than likely what they'll do.

[Fencers]

Also it is worth mentioning that while no class has a HEALER header, players that enjoy bolstering and supporting allies can still fill such a role.

Just using the prototypical guardian;


http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/...switch=33ec205

That's a lot of support. But a Guard can still toss on a shield or play more offensively without <--2.5/4.0--> cast time to swap spec. Just comparatively speaking, you aren't a Paladin going from Holy to Ret. You are Holy, Ret and Prot as needed on the fly.

[Kouki]

So if im right, i remember reading that GW 2 will not have any dedicated healers. Instead all classes will be given self heals. How much do you think this will effect PvP? I cant see the self heals doing much much less surviving spikes or focused pressure.

So what do you think about it?

Its going to rock, who wants to stare at ui frames instead of the game?

[MrSerious]

Sounds like a fantastic idea to me! Whack-a-healthbar is dull - I'd rather be looking at my whole environment and using whatever skills seem best at the time...

It really feels like skill will be rewarded...and also - that groups will be much more cohesive.

exactly! I gave up on healing in wow and tried all 4 healers because it was about clicking on the coloured squares. BORING. Friends used to tell me when wow first came out healers normally faced a wall so they weren't put off with what was going on and could just click the coloured squares. EVEN MORE BORING!!

[Salindris]

This puts a ton more responsibility on each player's shoulders. No more excuses about how I didn't keep them alive while they stood in the AoE...

[Eorayn]

I predict massive QQ from the noobs and whiners who can't get themselves to dodge a freakin attack, about this.

[Deleted]

It'll be a shame if that's the case...it will certainly be a litmus test for the conscientious and the not-so-conscientious-(but have lots to say about how everybody else plays).

There's no more being asked than a typical FPS would.

Another great thing, that just occurred, about the lack of trinity - no more prima donna's. I don't just mean the tanks or healers...but also those who shirk responsibility and then blames others.

If you don't have all of the tools you need for your own survival, then it's very easy to curse somebody else...if you do though, that's a different story. There'll always be avenues of blame, of course - "I ran in to 1000 dragons and you didn't have my back, you suck"...but overall the opportunity to blame will be less. When blame does appear - it'll seem all the more mad...because the situations that cause it would have to be pretty eccentric (running by yourself in to 1000 dragons and trying to justify that as a reasonable action).

Hmmmm, I think I just got an idea for a thread...

[asharia]

good thing imo

in that, the number of healers on either side wont determine the outcome

[Deleted]

When I first heard that GW2 will not have any healing classes I wasn't all that excited. I have been playing a healer in WoW for over 6 years now and I still enjoy it a lot. Even though healers are not healers in every game. Played a couple of other MMOs and didn't like most of the healing mechanics at all.

After watching A LOT of videos on youtube about GW2 I feel very comfortable with not having healers in GW2. You still have a choice to play more supportive just like Fencers stated a fiew posts above mine. And just like a lot of people said in this thread, there will be no more "it's the healers fault, he didn't do his job" flames. Got to love it!

Fencers: How did you post that link as a pic? I tried [ img ] page.address [ /img ] but it didn't work and the BB-Code button on that page doesn't seem to work either. Would make a nice signature, that's why I ask.

[Mif]

Like this:
[url=google.com][img]google.com/google.jpg[/img][/url]

[nikkiboyss]

Nice post. I liked this

[Deleted]

Don't think I ever received a direct heal in a PUG BG/WF group in any MMO. Just saying.

Basically you're saying you never actually played more than one or maybe two BGs? I've done BGs and whatever other name alternative the bad MMOs use for a long time, and the amount of BGs without any healer is much below 10%.

GW2's self heals seem fun though, I approve of anything that boosts the usage of personal skill.

[Worgoblin]

No spells requiring the targetting of a friendly target, to me that is the future of MMO's. Even though admittedly, I have at times enjoyed playing whack-a-mole with WoW raid frames.

My main focus in GW2 is going to be WvWvW. It's pretty much all I care about. And not needing to be grouped with a healer to survive in PvP is a big turn on for me.