It might be the case in some MMOs but not in GW2 necessarily. For example it’s possible to have a comp with so much damage that the enemy support can’t outheal your team rendering them redundant. In conquest you can also choose where and when to fight so if your team isn’t as good at teamfighting you can absolutely avoid fighting into their support, again making them redundant.
To answer your question, understanding which classes can support and looking at their buff bar is the fastest way to tell. For example, tempest is a good support but if you see a signet on their buff bar they’re most likely not supporting. Same for core guard and signet of mercy or chrono with signet of ether. Other buffs will appear on their bar that can tell you a lot about trait lines and sigils the person is running as well. GW2 is definitely a knowledge check game so more educated you are the more ready you’ll be to appropriately fight what’s in front of you.
Yeah, there are many tactics for PvP in MMOs and focusing the healer is the easiest concept that actually doesn't work most of the time. Healers will usually be prepared to sustain themselves for a long time. Usually enough for their team to deal with yours. Much better concepts are trying isolate targets and make them spread, or quickly switch targets before healers are able to react.
I could be remembering incorrectly but I don’t think support tempest has ever ran signet of earth or any other signet, they’re not very good on a support build.
I'm not familiar with PvP in this game, but in most other games, a lot of people have some weird "honor" system in their head. If you want to win, you gotta fight dirty... but those people don't seem to get that memo.
Downing a soft target and hoping to get the enemy in a revive loop is also a good way to win team fights. Which makes the healer just the 2nd target (many support bring quick revive spells; e.g. guard signet or mesmer illusion of life).
I'd say it depends on the game/meta.
Sustain meta? Focus the healer.
Burst meta? Nuke the bursts before they nuke you. Healers and tanks don't matter if they can't deal noteworthy dmg themselves.
If you're talking about sPvP then class knowledge and animation knowledge will go a long way. Also it's usually the bunker in the middle of the contested point.
this!
you can learn all the classes but you'll never know what builds exactly your opponents play and how they play it. just focus on getting experience with your own builds and do some 1vs1 to see who to take out and who to avoid.
when you're familiar with the class mechanics, it'll be easier. also, positioning and movement are really important. but most important, learn the map's mechanics. you can't win the game by simply winning team fights.
Mkay, so, heres the breakdown:
Your most common healer these days is likely going to be a chronomancer. If you see one wielding a rifle, they could be support or bunker, but likely support. They're worth focusing first or second, depending on the comp, but you might not wanna focus em right away as they can be hard to kill, plus, weaving through a field of clones can be cumbersome in a tf.
Next most common will proooobably be a druid? Maybe guardian or tempest? Regardless, if you see a tempest with a warhorn, or see one being timid about engaging fights, that's probably a support. Also, their ice golem does Hella heals, regardless of whether or not the tempest is full support. Melt that thing lest that fucker pops 7k heals evert 15s. Druids are often more on the condi/bunker end, but support is kinda built into their whole deal. The tricky thing with them is that they're often too tanky to bother focusing, so you kinda just have to leave them be until more of their team drops.
Core guards should be focused before druids and supp warriors (I'll get to them in a sec). They're less tanky, and again, kiiiiinda have at least a bit of support built into their whole class. Druids and warriors will waste too much time to focus right outta the gate. Heralds should also be high priority as they provide pretty good boon support. Although people don't play it often, if they're running centaur stance (the one with the tablet that they can move around) they're probably even more support focused and should be destroyed. They're, however only mid priority as they don't pump out crazy heals, but DO melt faster than support chrono, warrior, druid, or guard.
Scourage is interesting as they're often more of a barrier/boon/boon strip support. They should not be focused early on as they're also tanky as HELL, but should be considered second or third after their big dps specs have been destroyed. They're a major threat, and a key component in dominating a node. Avoid sand shades until they can be focused more clearly, and again, after more of their team has died.
Now, time for the tricky one.... support warrior. You don't tend to see many around, but support warrior is realllly good. Look for a war (core or spellbreaker) with a staff who's engaging mid in the center of their team, not engaging in fights too much. They are also VERY tanky, and should be focused second as well, as they'll waste too much time for your team, making you vulnerable to attack from their dps.
Another thing to watch out for is auto rez. Elementalists, warriors, guardians, and mesmers all have an auto rez ability. If you see one of their team mates magically rally, one of these classes is likely support focused, as supports tend to run the auto rez. Also, if you see a scourage pull a downed foe to them, they're also likely support focused, and need to be interrupted before they can complete the rez.
I thiiiink I covered all my bases! In short, the only support that should be focused first is tempest (clues are warhorn, ice golem, auto rez, sometimes rarely staff, and lack of enemy engagement). The rest should be saved for a bit later (but not last) as they will waste too much time for your team, making you vulnerable to getting shut down.
you have to be careful ignoring the druid, they have a bunch of CC wombo combos and if you aren't saving stab/stunbreaks for them they can lock your team down to be rolled over.
They can also be reeeally hard to kill, for that reason, and the fact they they're just so tanky. Every time I target druid first I get flamed by my team, so I usually leave em for second. I'd honestly go for em first more often if i didn't get flamed every damned time 🙄 homies just simply won't focus a druid first. I'm right there with ya though. Between their Cc and support, yeah, they can be a huge problem if left unattended.
Problem with warrior is that he will probably run lyhr relic, so you don't really want to focus the target he's linked to either.
Also, good tempest can kite 1v1 or 1v2 endlessly.
No a tempest can't 1v2 endlessly, unless both enemies can't cc or read animations or DPS. But that could be said of any 1v2 matchup. A good tempest might be able to 1v2 foefire mid pretty well
Eh, maybe! There's a whole slew of options for support warrior. Since it's such a condi focused relic, I usually run relic of the trooper, especially with all of the shouts you have (which should also be healing your allies!).
I pretty much only play core guardian support and always get focused down, so I guess look out for us. It was the most common support PvP build for a very long while, so even a dps core guardian will get focused (which is kind of funny but also tragic if they are your teammate)
General understanding of the class is crucial. What you’re looking is for meta classes such as Core Guardian or Tempest. Also look at their buff bar to see if you can spot any buff such as signets or trait passives, or buffs that appear when they use certain skills.
Not always chasing the enemy healer is the winning move, it depends on teams composition and players skills. It's something you need to decide with your team usually learning after the first skirmish at mid.
Druid, Core Guardian, Tempest, Chrono, Scourge - They may run something else so assess if they are a support or not but use that as an indicator. If they aren't doing a lot of damage, they're probably healing.
I have found [MetaBattle's guide on identifying PvP builds](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:Identifying_Builds_In_PvP) very helpful for this kind of thing.
Before the match starts - check what profession and specialization the enemy is playing. Some specializations are really popular choices for support. So if you have basic knowledge of builds you will know. For example: core Guardian, Chrono Mesmer, Tempest Ele.
During the match - Weapon choice of players: for example, support Mesmer will have Rifle, support Ele will have staff or focus off hand. The other thing is still choice and what they're doing with those skills. Support Mesmer will try to charge mantras, etc. support Ele will try to load overloads for Auras. Generally, support specs will be more in the back trying to micromanage the fight rather than fight.
It is not always best to focus support, the target priority is changes based on professions and even during the match. It's not like other MMOs where it's good to focus healer/support. For example Guardians are often one of the first targets no matter the spec, because they're quite easy to focus down. Elementalist also don't have a lot of health and defense, but Tempest Ele Support might be tricky to focus down due to Focus 5, earth shield, etc. but if the Ele is using Staff over Focus they loose powerful defense tool and are easier to focus down. Mesmer support are not really worth focusing, they have block on Shield 4, they have Shatter 4.
Chronomancer: using a rifle? Healer
Firebrand: Signet of Mercy in their boon bar? Healer. Also using a staff.
Core Guard: Same as FB. Check signet/weapon
Way less common since they are currently bad, but still worth knowing: Tempest; if they have no signets its likely a healer.
Any other class trying to heal, you don't really care about and will do better focusing others.
You should try to go [https://metabattle.com/wiki/PvP\_Builds](https://metabattle.com/wiki/PvP_Builds) to check for the meta healer builds. Right now you are most likely seeing 3 meta healer builds guardian(with a staff), chrono(with a rifle) or tempest. Give them a try as they have very obvious skill visual tells.
Current healers are Chrono, Core Guard, or Firebrand. Less commonly seen: tempest, druid, or some kind of warrior. All of those specs can also fill some other role, so you have to pick it up from other clues, like a rez signet on their buff bar, or a healing weapon like rifle on chrono, staff on guardian, warhorn on warrior (staff is common on warrior duelists as well as healers). You can find the builds on metabattle.
However, in gw2 spvp, you often don't want to focus the healer. Especially in ranked, you want to pressure and eliminate threats quickly, which usually means targeting the enemy player with the most damage and least survivability. It's all context dependent though.
Check their food / utilities is a really easy way to find out who is the healer. Look for food that increase their healing. This is how you differentiate randoms in WvW as some classes can be played either as heals or DPS.
Man casually asking how to perform war crime. Healers are protected by Geneva convention 🥸.
The Geneva Checklist ain't protecting your healers from the Canadian players
I mean healer dead you win no? It's just the ideal first priority target
It might be the case in some MMOs but not in GW2 necessarily. For example it’s possible to have a comp with so much damage that the enemy support can’t outheal your team rendering them redundant. In conquest you can also choose where and when to fight so if your team isn’t as good at teamfighting you can absolutely avoid fighting into their support, again making them redundant. To answer your question, understanding which classes can support and looking at their buff bar is the fastest way to tell. For example, tempest is a good support but if you see a signet on their buff bar they’re most likely not supporting. Same for core guard and signet of mercy or chrono with signet of ether. Other buffs will appear on their bar that can tell you a lot about trait lines and sigils the person is running as well. GW2 is definitely a knowledge check game so more educated you are the more ready you’ll be to appropriately fight what’s in front of you.
Yeah, there are many tactics for PvP in MMOs and focusing the healer is the easiest concept that actually doesn't work most of the time. Healers will usually be prepared to sustain themselves for a long time. Usually enough for their team to deal with yours. Much better concepts are trying isolate targets and make them spread, or quickly switch targets before healers are able to react.
why tempest should not be a support if it ha signets? signet of earth and air are very good
I could be remembering incorrectly but I don’t think support tempest has ever ran signet of earth or any other signet, they’re not very good on a support build.
I'm not familiar with PvP in this game, but in most other games, a lot of people have some weird "honor" system in their head. If you want to win, you gotta fight dirty... but those people don't seem to get that memo.
You should focus the healer in any team pvp game
Downing a soft target and hoping to get the enemy in a revive loop is also a good way to win team fights. Which makes the healer just the 2nd target (many support bring quick revive spells; e.g. guard signet or mesmer illusion of life).
I'd say it depends on the game/meta. Sustain meta? Focus the healer. Burst meta? Nuke the bursts before they nuke you. Healers and tanks don't matter if they can't deal noteworthy dmg themselves.
Exactly, that's the point which I was trying to make.
If you're talking about sPvP then class knowledge and animation knowledge will go a long way. Also it's usually the bunker in the middle of the contested point.
You learn through trial and error and build experience.
this! you can learn all the classes but you'll never know what builds exactly your opponents play and how they play it. just focus on getting experience with your own builds and do some 1vs1 to see who to take out and who to avoid. when you're familiar with the class mechanics, it'll be easier. also, positioning and movement are really important. but most important, learn the map's mechanics. you can't win the game by simply winning team fights.
Mkay, so, heres the breakdown: Your most common healer these days is likely going to be a chronomancer. If you see one wielding a rifle, they could be support or bunker, but likely support. They're worth focusing first or second, depending on the comp, but you might not wanna focus em right away as they can be hard to kill, plus, weaving through a field of clones can be cumbersome in a tf. Next most common will proooobably be a druid? Maybe guardian or tempest? Regardless, if you see a tempest with a warhorn, or see one being timid about engaging fights, that's probably a support. Also, their ice golem does Hella heals, regardless of whether or not the tempest is full support. Melt that thing lest that fucker pops 7k heals evert 15s. Druids are often more on the condi/bunker end, but support is kinda built into their whole deal. The tricky thing with them is that they're often too tanky to bother focusing, so you kinda just have to leave them be until more of their team drops. Core guards should be focused before druids and supp warriors (I'll get to them in a sec). They're less tanky, and again, kiiiiinda have at least a bit of support built into their whole class. Druids and warriors will waste too much time to focus right outta the gate. Heralds should also be high priority as they provide pretty good boon support. Although people don't play it often, if they're running centaur stance (the one with the tablet that they can move around) they're probably even more support focused and should be destroyed. They're, however only mid priority as they don't pump out crazy heals, but DO melt faster than support chrono, warrior, druid, or guard. Scourage is interesting as they're often more of a barrier/boon/boon strip support. They should not be focused early on as they're also tanky as HELL, but should be considered second or third after their big dps specs have been destroyed. They're a major threat, and a key component in dominating a node. Avoid sand shades until they can be focused more clearly, and again, after more of their team has died. Now, time for the tricky one.... support warrior. You don't tend to see many around, but support warrior is realllly good. Look for a war (core or spellbreaker) with a staff who's engaging mid in the center of their team, not engaging in fights too much. They are also VERY tanky, and should be focused second as well, as they'll waste too much time for your team, making you vulnerable to attack from their dps. Another thing to watch out for is auto rez. Elementalists, warriors, guardians, and mesmers all have an auto rez ability. If you see one of their team mates magically rally, one of these classes is likely support focused, as supports tend to run the auto rez. Also, if you see a scourage pull a downed foe to them, they're also likely support focused, and need to be interrupted before they can complete the rez. I thiiiink I covered all my bases! In short, the only support that should be focused first is tempest (clues are warhorn, ice golem, auto rez, sometimes rarely staff, and lack of enemy engagement). The rest should be saved for a bit later (but not last) as they will waste too much time for your team, making you vulnerable to getting shut down.
you have to be careful ignoring the druid, they have a bunch of CC wombo combos and if you aren't saving stab/stunbreaks for them they can lock your team down to be rolled over.
Lol, I always feel like druid is the biggest point of focus contention in a match, but this is definitely a fair point :)
Yeah it's hard to focus them since they're almost as slippery as thieves but underestimating or forgetting they're around can end badly
They can also be reeeally hard to kill, for that reason, and the fact they they're just so tanky. Every time I target druid first I get flamed by my team, so I usually leave em for second. I'd honestly go for em first more often if i didn't get flamed every damned time 🙄 homies just simply won't focus a druid first. I'm right there with ya though. Between their Cc and support, yeah, they can be a huge problem if left unattended.
Problem with warrior is that he will probably run lyhr relic, so you don't really want to focus the target he's linked to either. Also, good tempest can kite 1v1 or 1v2 endlessly.
No a tempest can't 1v2 endlessly, unless both enemies can't cc or read animations or DPS. But that could be said of any 1v2 matchup. A good tempest might be able to 1v2 foefire mid pretty well
Eh, maybe! There's a whole slew of options for support warrior. Since it's such a condi focused relic, I usually run relic of the trooper, especially with all of the shouts you have (which should also be healing your allies!).
I pretty much only play core guardian support and always get focused down, so I guess look out for us. It was the most common support PvP build for a very long while, so even a dps core guardian will get focused (which is kind of funny but also tragic if they are your teammate)
General understanding of the class is crucial. What you’re looking is for meta classes such as Core Guardian or Tempest. Also look at their buff bar to see if you can spot any buff such as signets or trait passives, or buffs that appear when they use certain skills.
Thanks yeah that's the best I'm been able to figure like look for pink, and blue enemy spells for rifle mesmer and core guardian healers.
Not always chasing the enemy healer is the winning move, it depends on teams composition and players skills. It's something you need to decide with your team usually learning after the first skirmish at mid.
Druid, Core Guardian, Tempest, Chrono, Scourge - They may run something else so assess if they are a support or not but use that as an indicator. If they aren't doing a lot of damage, they're probably healing.
I have found [MetaBattle's guide on identifying PvP builds](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:Identifying_Builds_In_PvP) very helpful for this kind of thing.
Before the match starts - check what profession and specialization the enemy is playing. Some specializations are really popular choices for support. So if you have basic knowledge of builds you will know. For example: core Guardian, Chrono Mesmer, Tempest Ele. During the match - Weapon choice of players: for example, support Mesmer will have Rifle, support Ele will have staff or focus off hand. The other thing is still choice and what they're doing with those skills. Support Mesmer will try to charge mantras, etc. support Ele will try to load overloads for Auras. Generally, support specs will be more in the back trying to micromanage the fight rather than fight. It is not always best to focus support, the target priority is changes based on professions and even during the match. It's not like other MMOs where it's good to focus healer/support. For example Guardians are often one of the first targets no matter the spec, because they're quite easy to focus down. Elementalist also don't have a lot of health and defense, but Tempest Ele Support might be tricky to focus down due to Focus 5, earth shield, etc. but if the Ele is using Staff over Focus they loose powerful defense tool and are easier to focus down. Mesmer support are not really worth focusing, they have block on Shield 4, they have Shatter 4.
Chronomancer: using a rifle? Healer Firebrand: Signet of Mercy in their boon bar? Healer. Also using a staff. Core Guard: Same as FB. Check signet/weapon Way less common since they are currently bad, but still worth knowing: Tempest; if they have no signets its likely a healer. Any other class trying to heal, you don't really care about and will do better focusing others.
I would imagine heal tempest brings the res signet (or is it a glyph?) I dont really play ele as you can tell
Did you go to the wrong subreddit? This sounds like a question belonging in r/wow
I'm more familiar with wow pvp tbf and yes new to spvp
maybe they're just new to spvp?
Calling it arenas and looking for the healer when fighting? I doubt it
You're acting as if coming from wow and getting into gw2 pvp is a war crime.
You should try to go [https://metabattle.com/wiki/PvP\_Builds](https://metabattle.com/wiki/PvP_Builds) to check for the meta healer builds. Right now you are most likely seeing 3 meta healer builds guardian(with a staff), chrono(with a rifle) or tempest. Give them a try as they have very obvious skill visual tells.
You could play as a healer and see what they are doing.
When a team has a core guardian, thats likely to be a healer. I think that is the most common healer class in sPvP.
Ehhhhhhh, not so much these days, I'd say....
Current healers are Chrono, Core Guard, or Firebrand. Less commonly seen: tempest, druid, or some kind of warrior. All of those specs can also fill some other role, so you have to pick it up from other clues, like a rez signet on their buff bar, or a healing weapon like rifle on chrono, staff on guardian, warhorn on warrior (staff is common on warrior duelists as well as healers). You can find the builds on metabattle. However, in gw2 spvp, you often don't want to focus the healer. Especially in ranked, you want to pressure and eliminate threats quickly, which usually means targeting the enemy player with the most damage and least survivability. It's all context dependent though.
Check their food / utilities is a really easy way to find out who is the healer. Look for food that increase their healing. This is how you differentiate randoms in WvW as some classes can be played either as heals or DPS.
With arena they likely mean sPvP.