Healer
A healer is a character who focuses on restoring health after a character has taken damage. Additionally, healers also have the role to restore the team members' status to normal after being affected by afflictions such as conditions and hexes.
Healing (reactive health loss compensation) is to be differentiated from protecting (proactive health loss prevention).
Overview[edit]
Professions[edit]
All classes have access to self-healing abilities, but two of them in particular have a number of skills dedicated to healing and typically can play as dedicated healers:
Monks: Mainly via Healing Prayers
Ritualists: Via Restoration Magic
Select other professions are also able to function as healers, see the list at the end of the page for some examples.
Techniques[edit]
Healing typically comes as single target spot-healing or party wide healing.
| Single-target spot healing | Multi-target party healing |
|---|---|
Hexes and Conditions[edit]
Just as a healer is expected to deal with incoming damage, they also need to be capable of removing hexes and/or conditions.
Martial professions, such as Warriors or Paragons, are significantly hindered by blind and weakness, while caster professions are highly vulnerable to daze, so all of them will expect their healer to remove those conditions as soon as possible.
While there are only 10 conditions, there are many more hexes with unique effects that are rather specific in terms of how they impact an opponent. Empathy on any martial profession is very dangerous, while Backfire will be dangerous to caster classes.
In such situations it is up to the healer to prioritize which conditions or hexes get removed and which do not.
| Condition removal | Hex removal |
|---|---|
Resurrection[edit]
The profession bringing resurrection skills differ depending on the content being played.
- PvP
As a healer must constantly be scanning and reacting to changing conditions on the battlefield, they would endanger themselves and their allies if they spent valuable seconds using a resurrection skill. Resurrection skills, such as Resurrection Signet, are almost always delegated to damage classes. For skills which have quicker casting times, they can have heavy drawbacks, such as health sacrifice in the case of Flesh of My Flesh.
Some PvP modes have automatic resurrection available, such as Fort Aspenwood and the Jade Quarry, which negates the need for a resurrection skill.
- PvE
Opinions differ between players as to whether healers should be the one to carry a resurrection skill in PvE.
If the healer brings a resurrection skill, and a party member dies, the healer must make a choice between either: (A) quickly resurrect mid-combat and hope nobody else dies whilst casting, or (B) ignore the dead player, support the rest of the party to clear up the enemies, and wait until the fight is over to resurrect the fallen.
If in doubt, confirm with your party who is bringing resurrection skills. Nothing is more annoying than finding half your team is dead and you are unable to revive them.
| Resurrection skills |
|---|
- * Technically an item, but a good alternative if unwilling to give up the skill slot.
Alternative to active healing[edit]
Most fights come down to a contest between a team's ability to deal damage and their opponents' ability to heal or prevent it. In addition, sometimes it's more efficient to protect key targets, rather than simply heal them. Allies can also help mitigate damage against themselves with techniques such as kiting and the use of defensive stances, and help to heal themselves via self heal skills.
Monks vs. Ritualists[edit]
Monks and Ritualists are generally interchangeable as healers.
A Monk's Divine Favor grants a flat, consistent bonus heal that, when combined with the varying Healing Prayers spells, provides very good efficiency per unit of energy spent. Ritualists require party members to stay within the vicinity of a Spirit in order to heal up, but generally have cheaper healing skills. Unlike Monks, Ritualist spirits can additionally help with decoying and/or absorbing enemy attacks alongside your other combat units.
In cases where a hybrid healer is needed (one with also protection skills) as the sole backliner, Monks are generally preferred, as Ritualists are not as flexible for a team of low health/low armor professions as Monks are. Protection Prayers skills' effects cannot be matched by Weapon Spell alternatives.
List of staple healing skills[edit]
As mentioned above briefly, there are other professions with useful healing skills.
Paragon
Signet of Synergy (also heals self conditionally)
Ballad of Restoration
Song of Restoration- Note: The following Paragon skills require aspects of team building to be effective.
Aria of Restoration
Chorus of Restoration
Finale of Restoration
See also[edit]
| Team roles (edit) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | General team roles | Specific team roles | Hero team roles | |
| Damage | Spiker • Nuker | Bomber • Dagger spammer • Touch ranger • Starburster • Trapper | — | |
| Pressure | Lineback | Barrager • Beast master • Cripshot Ranger • Pressure Ranger | — | |
| Support | Healer • Protection | Battery • Bonder • Flag runner • Hybrid monk • Imbagon • Infuser • Orders | — | |
| Control | Shutdown • Tank | Minion master • Perma • Spirit spammer | Mesmer Midline | |
| Utility | Caller • Toolbox | Gimmick | — | |
