I admit, the fact Guild Wars 2 has no healers is the primary reason I haven't bought the game and don't think I'm going to.
Like OP, I am a healer at heart. To me, DPS is much easier, much more common and not nearly as satisfying. In WoW, a healer blowing his cooldowns at the right time and utilizing his utility is capable of disrupting an entire assist train. It's a wonderful feeling to see 40 people taking slow, but steady damage, blow 2 3 minute cooldowns, and watch every one of those bars going back up. Or seeing one person drop in a hurry, hit the instant heal cooldowns, and see him pop right back up. Then, slamming an ability that knocks 5 enemies back, saving him.
In tactical games, I love the struggle of knowing that direct healing is a filler... when I can't CC or dispel.
To me, this gameplay fascinates me. The fact that GW2 innovated away to basically make PvP essentially all DPS really makes me wonder how deep and interesting the PvP can really be.
I admit, the fact Guild Wars 2 has no healers is the primary reason I haven't bought the game and don't think I'm going to.
Like OP, I am a healer at heart. To me, DPS is much easier, much more common and not nearly as satisfying. In WoW, a healer blowing his cooldowns at the right time and utilizing his utility is capable of disrupting an entire assist train. It's a wonderful feeling to see 40 people taking slow, but steady damage, blow 2 3 minute cooldowns, and watch every one of those bars going back up. Or seeing one person drop in a hurry, hit the instant heal cooldowns, and see him pop right back up. Then, slamming an ability that knocks 5 enemies back, saving him.
In tactical games, I love the struggle of knowing that direct healing is a filler... when I can't CC or dispel.
To me, this gameplay fascinates me. The fact that GW2 innovated away to basically make PvP essentially all DPS really makes me wonder how deep and interesting the PvP can really be.
If you think combat and PvP is "all DPS" you really don't know much about the game.
Clearing Conditions and granting Boons is key to high-level PvP as is "Proactive Healing" (preventing damage from ever occuring) with Blinds, Confusions, Stuns, Knockdowns, Knockbacks, and Barriers.
No, in this game you can't watch 40 people's green bars go up and down at your whim, but there are 2-4 minute cooldown Revives (Battle Rezzes) that are in fact AoE and can save an entire group from a wipe or completely change the course of a PvP battle.
GameBreaker.tv already has a show dedicated to High-Level PvP in GW2 (BuildCast) so believe me there is a lot more to combat and PvP in this game than "essentially all DPS." The game still might not be for you, but that doesn't mean that Healing, Support, and Control aren't critical components of gameplay.
I admit, the fact Guild Wars 2 has no healers is the primary reason I haven't bought the game and don't think I'm going to.
Like OP, I am a healer at heart. To me, DPS is much easier, much more common and not nearly as satisfying. In WoW, a healer blowing his cooldowns at the right time and utilizing his utility is capable of disrupting an entire assist train. It's a wonderful feeling to see 40 people taking slow, but steady damage, blow 2 3 minute cooldowns, and watch every one of those bars going back up. Or seeing one person drop in a hurry, hit the instant heal cooldowns, and see him pop right back up. Then, slamming an ability that knocks 5 enemies back, saving him.
In tactical games, I love the struggle of knowing that direct healing is a filler... when I can't CC or dispel.
To me, this gameplay fascinates me. The fact that GW2 innovated away to basically make PvP essentially all DPS really makes me wonder how deep and interesting the PvP can really be.
If you think combat and PvP is "all DPS" you really don't know much about the game.
Clearing Conditions and granting Boons is key to high-level PvP as is "Proactive Healing" (preventing damage from ever occuring) with Blinds, Confusions, Stuns, Knockdowns, Knockbacks, and Barriers.
No, in this game you can't watch 40 people's green bars go up and down at your whim, but there are 2-4 minute cooldown Revives (Battle Rezzes) that are in fact AoE and can save an entire group from a wipe or completely change the course of a PvP battle.
GameBreaker.tv already has a show dedicated to High-Level PvP in GW2 (BuildCast) so believe me there is a lot more to combat and PvP in this game than "essentially all DPS." The game still might not be for you, but that doesn't mean that Healing, Support, and Control aren't critical components of gameplay.
Well, as I said, I haven't bought the game - so no, I'm not really a scholar on it. I just know what I read. But, what I've learned basically measures up to what you've been talking about.
Condition management is something that's already a lynchpin in most games with even a basic PvP element. But to eliminate healers all together... so much strategy just seems to go out the window. What about target prioritization? The strategy of this game seems to be: "CC one at random, blow up the other", since there's no lynchpins of the group that you want to focus on, as PvP is essentially every man for himself.
I've seen that every class can essentially be tanky, or be supporty, or controlly depending on the build. To me, that seems to bring homogenization to a whole new level.
I'm not trying to naysay, as these are all things I've heard, but nor does any of this really make me wanna rush out and grab the game.
The problem is that they didn't replace the healer with anything to make for it. If this game had a healer class, it'd be no different from other MMOs. All they did was remove the healer. Giving everyone a self heal isn't good enough. We already have self heals in MMOs with healer classes.
They need to either make the self heals better. Get rid of the stupid energy bar and let us dodge when needed like other games, or have weapons that each class can use to become a healer.
Who the heck wanted to get rid of healers in the first place as if it were a revolutionary change. If you're going to just remove them, create something else to make up for it.
The problem is that they didn't replace the healer with anything to make for it. If this game had a healer class, it'd be no different from other MMOs. All they did was remove the healer. Giving everyone a self heal isn't good enough. We already have self heals in MMOs with healer classes.
They need to either make the self heals better. Get rid of the stupid energy bar and let us dodge when needed like other games, or have weapons that each class can use to become a healer.
Who the heck wanted to get rid of healers in the first place as if it were a revolutionary change. If you're going to just remove them, create something else to make up for it.
To be honest I think people will eventually look back at GW2, and think how much better it would have been if they had kept the trinity intact, without diluting it. Right now without it in its pure form, combat feels generic and bland.
Well, as I said, I haven't bought the game - so no, I'm not really a scholar on it. I just know what I read. But, what I've learned basically measures up to what you've been talking about.
Condition management is something that's already a lynchpin in most games with even a basic PvP element. But to eliminate healers all together... so much strategy just seems to go out the window. What about target prioritization? The strategy of this game seems to be: "CC one at random, blow up the other", since there's no lynchpins of the group that you want to focus on, as PvP is essentially every man for himself.
I've seen that every class can essentially be tanky, or be supporty, or controlly depending on the build. To me, that seems to bring homogenization to a whole new level.
I'm not trying to naysay, as these are all things I've heard, but nor does any of this really make me wanna rush out and grab the game.
They didn't eliminate Healing though. They just "spread the love around" so to speak. Everybody has a really solid Self Heal which means you can't focus/burn a team's only healer in sPvP and basically end the match. Good players will be supporting both themselves and their team with Cleanses and Regen in addition to (weaker) AoE healing.
Finally if you are interested in high-level competitive PvP I'd check out http://www.gamebreaker.tv/video-game-shows/guild-wars-video/buildcast/ as they cover both individual and team concepts and strats, including an in-depth analysis of a build style with gameplay critique every episode.
It still might not be the game for you. It does do things differently, but trust me there is a lot of depth and strategy to PvP in this game. It is far from a "DPS burstfest" in how it plays out.
dont get me wrong i like the game. i like the settings, animatinos, stories, classes, etc. i like many things but i feel a great empty space where i always have my healer in every mmos.
i like healing. not playing "whack a mole" with HP bars but actually keeping my team mates alive and saving them from sure death. it gives me more pleasure then getting the final blow on an enemy. call me a healer at heart but in every mmo i've had at least one healer.
the more i play GW2 the more i find myself wishin i could just friken heal my mates....ffs just let me heal!!
i dunno, maybe i just havent found the calss for me yet in this game (i've only tried Guardian, engeneer, thief so far). i like the Guardian because you can shield your mates from damage but the healing is very very limited.
meh...i hope if find it. i feel so usless when i can't heal. anyone got any suggestion for a good support calss? maybe i should try control...
I understand you. I never really got why people were bashing the Trinity. It gave me focus, a task, a role, something to create order, a purpose. While the classes in GW2 are interesting and cool to play, it's more a mass of soloists each jack of all trades working beside each other. An alternative, but definitely not the new future. I liked to have real healers watching my back, and I miss having them around.
Healer-man, you are missed!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
Make Sylvary elementalist and focus on water. Replace healing slot skill with sylvari racial skill and use staff with water:
-Normal attacks heal allies close to the target.
-You have instant AoE healing skill from your staff.
-You have huge AoE regeneration skill from your staff.
-You have AoE regeneration from your racial skill.
Then max your water trait, take some support traits only and get support utility skills.
That was a very interesting post. Thanks!
I admit, the fact Guild Wars 2 has no healers is the primary reason I haven't bought the game and don't think I'm going to.
Like OP, I am a healer at heart. To me, DPS is much easier, much more common and not nearly as satisfying. In WoW, a healer blowing his cooldowns at the right time and utilizing his utility is capable of disrupting an entire assist train. It's a wonderful feeling to see 40 people taking slow, but steady damage, blow 2 3 minute cooldowns, and watch every one of those bars going back up. Or seeing one person drop in a hurry, hit the instant heal cooldowns, and see him pop right back up. Then, slamming an ability that knocks 5 enemies back, saving him.
In tactical games, I love the struggle of knowing that direct healing is a filler... when I can't CC or dispel.
To me, this gameplay fascinates me. The fact that GW2 innovated away to basically make PvP essentially all DPS really makes me wonder how deep and interesting the PvP can really be.
If you think combat and PvP is "all DPS" you really don't know much about the game.
Clearing Conditions and granting Boons is key to high-level PvP as is "Proactive Healing" (preventing damage from ever occuring) with Blinds, Confusions, Stuns, Knockdowns, Knockbacks, and Barriers.
No, in this game you can't watch 40 people's green bars go up and down at your whim, but there are 2-4 minute cooldown Revives (Battle Rezzes) that are in fact AoE and can save an entire group from a wipe or completely change the course of a PvP battle.
GameBreaker.tv already has a show dedicated to High-Level PvP in GW2 (BuildCast) so believe me there is a lot more to combat and PvP in this game than "essentially all DPS." The game still might not be for you, but that doesn't mean that Healing, Support, and Control aren't critical components of gameplay.
Well, as I said, I haven't bought the game - so no, I'm not really a scholar on it. I just know what I read. But, what I've learned basically measures up to what you've been talking about.
Condition management is something that's already a lynchpin in most games with even a basic PvP element. But to eliminate healers all together... so much strategy just seems to go out the window. What about target prioritization? The strategy of this game seems to be: "CC one at random, blow up the other", since there's no lynchpins of the group that you want to focus on, as PvP is essentially every man for himself.
I've seen that every class can essentially be tanky, or be supporty, or controlly depending on the build. To me, that seems to bring homogenization to a whole new level.
I'm not trying to naysay, as these are all things I've heard, but nor does any of this really make me wanna rush out and grab the game.
The problem is that they didn't replace the healer with anything to make for it. If this game had a healer class, it'd be no different from other MMOs. All they did was remove the healer. Giving everyone a self heal isn't good enough. We already have self heals in MMOs with healer classes.
They need to either make the self heals better. Get rid of the stupid energy bar and let us dodge when needed like other games, or have weapons that each class can use to become a healer.
Who the heck wanted to get rid of healers in the first place as if it were a revolutionary change. If you're going to just remove them, create something else to make up for it.
To be honest I think people will eventually look back at GW2, and think how much better it would have been if they had kept the trinity intact, without diluting it. Right now without it in its pure form, combat feels generic and bland.
They didn't eliminate Healing though. They just "spread the love around" so to speak. Everybody has a really solid Self Heal which means you can't focus/burn a team's only healer in sPvP and basically end the match. Good players will be supporting both themselves and their team with Cleanses and Regen in addition to (weaker) AoE healing.
Teamwork is also very important in this game. If you are interested http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/363449/PSA-Combos-Use-Them.html is an excellent post covering the power of Combo Fields in play.
Finally if you are interested in high-level competitive PvP I'd check out http://www.gamebreaker.tv/video-game-shows/guild-wars-video/buildcast/ as they cover both individual and team concepts and strats, including an in-depth analysis of a build style with gameplay critique every episode.
It still might not be the game for you. It does do things differently, but trust me there is a lot of depth and strategy to PvP in this game. It is far from a "DPS burstfest" in how it plays out.
I understand you. I never really got why people were bashing the Trinity. It gave me focus, a task, a role, something to create order, a purpose. While the classes in GW2 are interesting and cool to play, it's more a mass of soloists each jack of all trades working beside each other. An alternative, but definitely not the new future. I liked to have real healers watching my back, and I miss having them around.
Healer-man, you are missed!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert