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
Professions
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, with some Protection Prayers and Divine Favor skills also healing.
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
Healing typically comes as single target spot-healing or party wide healing.
| Single-target spot healing | Multi-target party healing |
|---|---|
Hexes and Conditions
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
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
Resurrection skills can be brought on any party member in PvE, and are most often brought on midline casters or backliners. In a pick up group, players may expect their healers to carry resurrection skills.
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
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
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
Monk
- File:Dwayna's Kiss.jpg Dwayna's Kiss
- File:Gift of Health.jpg Gift of Health
- File:Healing Burst.jpg Healing Burst
- File:Heal Party.jpg Heal Party
- File:Infuse Health.jpg Infuse Health
- File:Patient Spirit.jpg Patient Spirit
- File:Seed of Life.jpg Seed of Life
- File:Signet of Rejuvenation.jpg Signet of Rejuvenation
- File:Word of Healing.jpg Word of Healing
- File:Heaven's Delight.jpg Heaven's Delight
Ritualist
- File:Mend Body and Soul.jpg Mend Body and Soul
- File:Protective Was Kaolai.jpg Protective Was Kaolai
- File:Soothing Memories.jpg Soothing Memories
- File:Spirit Light Weapon.jpg Spirit Light Weapon
- File:Spirit Light.jpg Spirit Light
- File:Spirit Transfer.jpg Spirit Transfer
- File:Wielder's Boon.jpg Wielder's Boon
- File:Life.jpg Life
- File:Feast of Souls.jpg Feast of Souls
As mentioned above briefly, there are other professions with useful healing skills.
Paragon
- File:Signet of Synergy.jpg Signet of Synergy (also heals self conditionally)
- File:Ballad of Restoration.jpg Ballad of Restoration
- File:Song of Restoration.jpg Song of Restoration
- Note: The following Paragon skills require aspects of team building to be effective.
- File:Aria of Restoration.jpg Aria of Restoration
- File:Chorus of Restoration.jpg Chorus of Restoration
- File:Finale of Restoration.jpg Finale of Restoration
See also
| 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 | — | |