I Tried Heal SPECTER - Thoughts
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Experienced Heal Specter here. The person who told you Shroud 5 is group Stability is CORRECT! Look at the Shadestep trait, it says "The beneficial effects of your Shadow Shroud skills now affect allies in an area around your tethered ally", with "Additional Allies Affected: 3" underneath that description. So that's you, your tethered target, plus 3 additional allies, 5 targets. This applies to not only the Alac from that trait, but also all the beneficial effects of Shroud skills, which include Might from Shroud 1, cleanse from Shroud 2, barrier from Shroud 3, Stability from Shroud 5 and heal from all 5 Shroud skills. That way you have a source of group Stability in and out of Shroud. Additionally I'd use Relic of the Centaur instead of Relic of Karakosa. That way my skill 6 is an additional source of group Stability on demand.
Doing Stealth Scepter attack as a part of your rotation just for Regen is idiotic for the reasons you spoke of and I would like to talk to the manager of the person who wrote the rotation of the build on SnowCrows. Yes, the SnowCrows build is so bad it turned me into a Karen. The way I actually provide regen to my group is by spamming 3 while targetting an ally, which also give group Vigor on top of group Regen AND it provides more healing (Scepter 3's ally target description, Shadow Savior trait & Traversing Dusk trait) AND I gain Shadow Force faster by spamming 3 (Traversing Dusk trait, which doesn't trigger if you just burn initiative with Scepter 2). I almost always target allies while out of shroud because 1. I constantly give barrier to my group, 2. My damage as a healer is irrelevant even though I still deal damage through the Dark Sentry trait, 3. Even my CC-on-demand skill (Shadowfall) doesn't require targeting enemies, 4. There is a clear mental separation between Shroud state and off-Shroud state, I target enemies when in shroud and target allies when off-Shroud. Shroud skills automatically target enemies btw because they can't target allies so I don't even have to press Tab on entering Shroud, I just continue the rotation. Experienced Heal Specters would keybind the "Set Personal Target" and "Take Personal Target" keys.
Instead of Blinding Powder, the skill I'd slot into that Utility slot is Shadow Refuge, and this is actually the panic-revive-on-demand, not part of the normal rotation. Shadow Refuge stealths 5 allies which break enemy targeting of them, which also heals them and turns on my Scepter stealth attack. It doesn't say this on the skill description, but Scepter stealth attack is actually a 900-range revive skill when targeting an ally (Scepter stealth also has an ally AOE but I still can't confirm if downed allies within the AOE of this attack is also revived by this attack). Also not on the skill description: Scepter 3 (both with dagger and pistol) is also an ally-revive skill.
Heal Specter is a build that still needs some reworks, but for the people used to playing it, it's not as bad as you experienced it by playing the frankly ill-thought-out SnowCrows build.
Bonus: There is a Heal Specter build that sacrifices everything for a crazy amount of burst heal. Recall that you heal on shadowstep thanks to Shadow Savior trait & Traversing Dusk trait. This burst heal build involves spamming Sword 2 over and over until you burn your initiatives > enter Shroud > F1 > stay for a few seconds > exit Shroud > repeat Sword 2.
Very well written! 😊
For someone who is trying to find a main class, this helps.
Thanks for that. ❤
Nice one, i consider myself somewhat experienced healspecter but still learnt smth new. Thank you!
I personally bounce between blinding powder and shadow refuge since one is that stab Muk talks about and the second is massive heal + skip sometimes. At least i personally think stab is AoE, can't confirm it though.
I'm surprised none of you mentions that once you eat crazy damage by mistake or as part of the mechanics while you're in the shroud, the shroud goes away and alacrity says goodbye. I don't recall many healers whose major boon generation is tied to their HP, help me out here.
1 condition cleanse per second once 15 seconds at a tiny static circle on the ground is a joke of a cleanse, moreover you basically spam that ability on cooldown since it gives a bit of heal + boon + shroud generation. In short, Specter doesn't have cleanse unless you trade it for alac in grandmaster traitline. When people say "a support with cleanse" they expect you to cleanse at least like 3 conditions on them on demand with one button, not just randomly cleanse some random cripple.
Also i wonder why none of you mentions that like 75% of boons specter provides come from one frigging skill - well of bounty. Makes it pretty important to time and land properly!
@@vidaliver1447 Harbinger's quickness is also tied to its Shroud state.
Agreed with everything. plus it makes it easier if you set personal target too jsut in case you target an enemy.
yea its weird how after all these years it still doesnt say it rezes allies on shadow refuge
Heal Specter to me is the poster child for "just because it works good doesn't mean it feels good"
Agreed. Specter used to be way more fun when you could give a lot of barrier and healing leaving shroud, but since they nerfed it to the ground, I've barely touched it. It was one of my favorite elite specs, too. Sucks.
it absolutely doesn't work good either you are missing a lot of very crucial boons while being 10x more hard
You described gameplay as ele hahahah
All the above comments speaking on how Specter heal might work, but feels horrible hit the nail on the head. Another thing I'd add is yet again Anet only removed interesting things to make it more vanilla. Such as it used to have a pair of traits that essentially would let you get a single man rez off every 5 seconds with 1200 range. Fantastic for utility support and raid instances or any instance where you had a buddy doing a far mechanic ya know.
I've notice that this tends to be a trend with the unpopular healer/supports is that they have to put in so much more effort for the same or less results of the more popular healers/supports and its also almost always caused by ill conceived reworks/build choices as well.
There's a keybind that let you go back and forth between ennemy and closest random ally. It helps a lot for this build, even if sometimes, you need to target someone in particular to save them.
But yes, this build is clunky as hell. And unlike warrior, it's not like they can remove ally targeting on a whim, since it was designeds from the ground up with it in mind.
I doubt they care enough to change it. Thief being clunky is basically an identity thing at this point. Just look how many years of Deadeye specific issues never got solved.
Two words: Ally Targeting.
It's a pass.
Also, while we're on Specter, god I hate that Anet changed their Alac from Wells to Shroud. I GET IT ANET, YOU WANT PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY USE SHROUD INSTEAD OF IT BEING A POP>POP FOR BIG BARRIER. But in exchange, we now suffer from old Reaper issue of our core Alac rotation potentially being cucked because you get knocked out of Shroud, like Reaper DPS plummeting when their Shroud goes bye bye due to a stray AoE.
Stealthing some of your allies can also have "fun" consequences on some raid bosses who (or their adds) will switch targets if you stealth. Many groups don't react well to some random chaos.
Thief exists for random chaos
That's my problem as well- it doesn't matter how viable Specter is as a healer, I just cannot get into healing on it because of how clunky it can feel and how disruptive it can be for the party you're supposed to be supporting. Thief has been my favourite class since day one, and I've been a thief main since then, so I'm hoping they take the feedback from (most of) the people I've heard echo the same things and tweak it.
The idea of this class always seems so cool, but ArenaNet's execution of this spec is just..........boring af.
I agree completely. Someone who controls shadows sounds amazing and perfect for thief, but it ended up being horrible
Targeting allies is the worst thing. Alacrity cdps specter is good, because alacrity just happens and you just do your thing with rotation.
Its a good thing that anet tried to do something different, but they should go all out, like Muk said, either target only allies or only enemies. Only allies option would be interesting and different from other classes, but i doubt they will do new UI mechanic for one build. Maybe if it would automatically target ally with lowest health, but again i doubt they would do that.
Wells are also very easy to cancel which gets on my nerve.
I mean druid, specter, ele(Water staff 1), and now rev all have ally targetting.
These would justify making a new UI for it and before the change even warrior staff had ally targeting which would have been 5 classes.
I say this just about every time I hear about ally targeting in GW2... Games that let you customize the interface make it viable. Nobody heals and wow with the default interface. How they even have interface customizations that let you just hover over a large icons on the screen and press the button without having to click. They were also games like Vanguard: Saga of Heros where in the game was based around Left clicking enemy targets and right clicking friendly targets. GW2 does none of that.
FF 14 also has a lot of things that can be set according to your needs, including interface elements, meanwhile in GW 2 Middle Ages
The fact that this is the only class which needs another person in the trainingroom to train and show this healbuild tells already enough.....
Balance devs = 🤡
Druid also changes a bit depending on how many others you have with you. But as nowadays it's balanced around not healing very much it doesn't matter as much.
Ally targeting is parody of a mechanic, can't believe they still didn't rework it.
It feels fine when I'm playing a normal alac or dps specter and I see someone low so I target them and pew a few healing bolts at them until they can get back to the actual healer. Playing heal specter however, constantly switching between ally targeting and enemy targeting, feels awful to play.
I'd be happier if ally targeting applied all of its effects regardless of whether the target is friend or foe, making it entirely a matter of convenience and not mechanical difference. That's how staff on a ranger works and it feels very comfortable to use.
@@Jmvars yea for any other specter you never even have to think about ally targeting if you don't want to. So its a fine mechanic cus you can just ignore it lmao
Given how the Rev Scepter has Ally targeting - Ally Targeting seems like the path they are going to explore in the future.
@@chester1882 Probably, this company lost any remarks of common sense anyway.
Targeting allies in this game is wonky because it goes against how the game was a designed.
*sad thief main noises*
I've been playing heal specter since before the alacrity change from wells to shroud and this is my favorite healer despite how neglected and clunky it can be. I'll mention some issues I think it has ontop of some of what you mentioned. One of those issues I wish they'd fix about it is the scepter skills. They are the only boon sources in the game that have a reduced BD on everyone around your target. Meaning the prot you give your target from scepter 2 has a reduced duration by 50% on allies around that target which is honestly awful. I get that this was done to emphasize on the "protect the king" thing they went for but it's quite bad when it affects boons as well. Also on some fights you can get knocked out of shroud incredibly easily. I wish they'd give the 33% damage reduction while in shroud back, but this time give it to the shadestep trait. A source of Aegis would also be nice to make it a bit more viable for tanking on something like Deimos CM.
Also, if you want to provide regen using scepter/pistol 3 on an ally and you utilize your call target keybinds well, it can still be a problem if that ally is dealing with a mechanic say on Matthias where they have to go touch the pool. So it's tough to have 1 specific person who you can always count on being stacked to be your go to boons for scepter. You can shadowstep to your target and move easily as a result of that. If only you can somehow target yourself.
Lastly, by no means is the alac generation bad on heal spec (prot isn't the best because of the 50% reduction), it could definitely be better. The reason they nerfed it was it made dps alac specter incredibly powerful and you didn't have to run boon duration at all, but in nerfing it, it hurt heal spec a bit. They could give the Traversing Dusk trait boon duration, that is a trait only the healers really take.
Just thought I'd share some thoughts on what I think would make it stand its ground better and be more comparable with the other high end heal specs & tanks we have.
Ally targeting in GW2 in general is pretty clunky because the combat was not designed for it. I think they added it to try to appeal to other MMO players.
It could work if every ability of a healer was ally-targeting. The problem is the target switching, not targeting allies.
@@Alphenis That is what I meant. It's early in the morning here so I'm still waking up lol
About Shroud 5 stability.
When using Shadestep trait (which you do as heal/alac Spectre) your beneficial shroud skill effects now will affect allies in an area around your tethered ally. That means Stability from Shroud5 does affect not only you but all alles in your subgroup. Also you don't need to use Shroud5 to upkeep alacrity, you can use it as a stability source whenever its needed.
I play power specter on occasion and it is challenging but fun, but no, I would never try to do heal specter. I think the ally targeting is only really good for resurrection skills for downed but not dead allies.
I could be in a desert 1 mile away from water and 100 miles away from Mukluk I Tried Heal UNTAMED - Thoughts and you already know which one I'm picking.
What?
Ally targeting has been divising the community from the beta of Spectre as far as I remember.
But look, on Beta state, spectre was OP or at least very strong despite the ally targeting thing.
Unpopular opinion here, be warned :
I think it can show Anet some clear route of tweaking the abilities of the class without taking away its unique points.
Yes, ally targeting is hard and clunky but if Anet make it more rewarding, it can also be a way to improve it and it will probably be useful.
Then we could say that ally targeting would still be hard and clunky but you get amazing rewards for mastering it.
I personally am tired of seeing all of the supports becoming just living AoE with everything in it and boom it's done. Peaple want all the supports to be that, it seems and it just feels like all supports are too similar and I find it boring honestly and it looks like a community issue rather than a design issue althought it started with that (hello firebrand).
Might be the only one though, so it's okay I guess.
Challenges should be there but should also be rewarded in gameplay I'd say?
I personally wish they won't remove ally targeting mechanic but instead make it more rewarding to master. There is many ways Anet can think of to do it I'm sure of that. Again, in beta state, Spectre heal was waaay stronger, to the point that they nerfed it (way too much).
Also the shroud mechanic is aconcept of self sacrifice to support that I personally enjoy a lot compared to other supports and that just isn't there in other classes or at least not as much as far as my understanding goes, but it should be probably be modified maybe to allow players to play it more reactively. (in Beta, you didn't have to wait in shroud at all for example to give barrier)
Been using Revenant Scepter for the past couple weeks in healing builds, and I really hate how clunky the skill 3 is with requiring you to swap from enemy target to ally constantly.
I can't imagine playing a spec where the entire build revolves around friendly targetting, no matter how strong it is.
Specter healing should be AoE (the origin is yourself, like a totem) while you attack, self-target is more acceptable than just try to pick any of the squad
Please keep complaining about extra large skill tooltips until anet makes them scale to screen and gives us the ability to turn them off. Thank you. Signed, a firebrand. 🥴
Fun fact. WvW is the worst place to go to convert your heroics because ANet goofed with the vendor. It's better to go the the sPvP lobby and convert heroics there instead as you can convert between all 3 currencies instead of just 2.
4:26
Heh, welcome to thief. Ok, this is a problem that many professions have, but thief is one of the worst. It needs to show the full auto-attack chain, stealth attack AND the ally target mechanic. Just regular dagger/dagger's auto-attack tooltip goes off the screen if you hover over it; this is that but with a different effect if you target your allies as well.
As for helping to make this build feel less clunky, I personally found some success while using sword/pistol as my second weapon set. The reason why this works is because of the Shadow Savior trait which allows you to heal like a madman whenever you spam Sword 2. BUT, you have only small amount of protection uptime and can only get about 18 stacks of might, so you need someone else to cover your inadequacies. You have better healing though, and no need to target allies/stealth them.
(Your shroud should be all you need for quick pockets procs)
To make a long story short since other experienced people have already commented on this build, but just having a sword on the second weapon set can give you massive burst heal and shroud generation by spamming 2 next to the boss
Hi Muk,
I really really enjoy this series - i would call myself a support main which plays many different supports regularly (i am playing since release and found this playstyle the most enjoyable. I mainly play HFB on all sort of content - raids, CMs (raids or strikes), fractal CMs…)
First of all i fully agree that spectre because of the wonky allied targeting is harder to play than most other supports.
Nonetheless i have tried heal specter for quite a while and i may help to clear a bit of the confusion surrounding that class and especially help others seeking advice.
First of all i do not agree with the current build/playstyle which is advocated on Snowcrows.
Blinding powder is on the build not only for its ambush but especially because of karakosa. I agree that this is hindering your group- therefore i do not take it.
You dont need the ambush heal - you have a lot of other heal sources & karakosa is not worth the trouble; relic of the monk is fine
Rest of the build can stay as it is on snowcrows - except the utility skills. I will get back to those later.
What we are doing now is focusing on what is necessary to do the job - not what is possible in general. Similar to scepter on heal herald. Except scepter does not hurt your team - it just complicates things for you ^^
First of all the traits are pretty much set in stone - i would opt for sleigh of hand instead of quick pocket because the reduced f1 cooldown gives better boon uptime and more shadow force. But this one is optional.
Rest can stay as it is (scepter and pistol; make sure to have near 100% boon duration as all the other healers)
Additionally the most important point - you need to change a few settings (helps with allied targeting - also with rev scepter)
You need to do a binding for set and take personal target and also check your settings for general target (crtl t & t as standard if i remember correctly)
I have set personal target to shift + t, set general target to crtl + t, take personal target shift + e & take general target crtl + e
Then how to play it - you put the personal taget (and f1 on that ally too beforehand!!) on a teammate in your subgroup that does not do mechanics and mostly stacks pretty well. I mostly take my quick dps for that. Around that ally the boons are given out.
Before we get into the in fight playstyle a few pointers…stability is on shroud 5 - it pulses always around your targeted shrouded ally - just with lower duration - even the stability. Additionally when you are in shroud its not necessary to press more than 1 or 2.
The rotation for enough alac uptime is 2 when you enter and 2 before you leave and between lots of 1 (autoattack). The 1 has the same effects as the 3-5. So no reason to waste the 3 (is for mobility) and the 5 which is a cc and most important a stabi)
Spectre has NO aegis so thats a minus right now (only healer without it).
So for the playstyle and the utility skills….
Once realised how to be played the build is not so bad (fair point coming from an HFB but pls allow me to explain 😊 )
You start the fight by selecting your enemy (e targ in short), use well of bounty for boons (your shadow force will always be at max when you enter instanced combat). The you go into shroud (f2) and you start with 2, F1 for boons and supplement shadow force spam 1 until you can press 2 again and approx 2 more 1 until your counter of consume shadow is at 5. the press f2 for leaving shroud and giving your allies a massive heal and barrier.
Then take personal target ( p targ in short) and press 3 (short channel) and another 3. that gives 20 seconds of regen and a bit of vigor and lots of barrier, and then 2 times the 2 for protection on your subgroup plus barrier. Supplement with 1 autoattack on p targ until well of bounty is off cooldown again.
Then press e targ again and go back into shroud f2 and repeat.
Thats all thats necessary as rotation to keep your group with all the boons and healed up.
Your heal skill is for healing if necessary outside of shroud. Well of gloom is really good
For your elite skill take either basilisk venom for massive cc. For general gameplay where giga cc is not necessary shadowfall is more than enough (good cc while being a nice heal - because its a well).
Your utility skills are pretty much open - i would strongly advise against anything that gives stealth. Except your want to stealth for real (mobs on harvest temple f.e.)
I prefer either…
Well of silence for condi cleanse, cc and mobility (plus a bit of heals)
Signet of agility for condi cleanse and full endurance refill on your whole team (massive on sloth with his shake f.e.)
Shadow step for massive mobility (beware double tab will reset your position so dont misclick it or the field of death you fled from will have your sorry a** ^^)
Caltrops if i need to slow ads (like on gorseval on the split phase)
Shadow portal for mobility (its one way so beware that you need to go where you would like to port your group first and then go to them!)
Seal area for projectile block and a smaller cc
Pitfall for stronger cc
Shadow refuge is a revive skill (25% in total). Additionally its not bad if the people that are reviving are not targeted by mobs. There stealth is useful for once ^^
What hurts the build is that if your targeted ally is killed or needs to switch to mechanic handling you should think about taking another teammate as your personal target. Dont forget to f1 him too or the game will pick a random allied target to shroud. Which could be one in the other subgroup. So beware of that. F1 cooldown is halfed if an ally is targeted.
All in all i enjoy playing heal specter. If you know how its really not that bad and what you learn here can help with heal scepter rev.
Could they improve the UI for allied tageting? Hell yeah!
Is it more challenging and demanding than other healers - yes!
Does it have a higher skill ceiling especially if you switch personal target regularly to optimise survival of your team? - definitely!
Is it something for new supporters? - nope!
What needs to he changed: it requires aegis and better UI support
Except that its a breeze of fresh air for seasoned supports that want to try something new 😊
There is a lot to go through here and I'll try and make a point of coming back to your comment when it's not so late for me.
One thing though - the basis behind Blinding Powder is how stacked it is for the low cooldown. Shadowsquall and Karakosa are the added benefit, but it's mainly recommended because Protection uptime is something we struggle with as heal Specters. Blinding Powder helps alleviate this because on cooldown it can account for 50% of a subgroup's Protection uptime. Throw in Barrier, Karakosa proc, access to Shadowsquall for healing, Regeneration and downstate control and it's too good to pass up on (sadly). Thieves disrupting other Thieves is pretty normal. We're just taking that to another level since Arenanet is really, really keen for us to make use of Panaku's Ambition!
It's not necessary if you don't like it though - the Snow Crows build page makes this clear and theres a lot of discussion around alternatives you could use in the gameplay guide!
As you mention, we need to focus on what is needed to do the job and part of that is Protection uptime. Blinding Powder contributes so much towards that at the moment. If Anet was to rework Scepter skills so they they didn't have a reduced efficacy on non-targeted allies that would help massively but Heal Specter isn't a popular cause sadly.
@@lucinellialyndra4938 you are very much right - it can be used to upkeep protection easier.
And yeah we have quite a lot of synergies with stealth.
Its just a trade-off & in my personal opinion despite the benefits not worth it right now. At least not in all fights.
But thats not the main point 😊
I wanted to remark that there ARE alternatives that make it possible to adjust the playstyle without hampering the role we need to fill as defensive supports.
I can keep up protection (as long as arc dps is not letting me down 😊 ) normally over 90% in most fight. Just have to ally target 2 maybe once or twice more per rotation.
Truth be told I am happy with that result because the main downside is that i have to heal more & we can definitely do that without much if a trouble.
Karakosa also gets many procs anyway by using shroud 2 as a blast finisher so it is useful without blinding powder too.
What IS an interesting alternative is when blinding powder is used specifically for allied targeting and ambush attack for massive burst heal if someone is in a pinch.
Then its not used as part of the rotation but reactionary when its needed, so it does disturb the group less. Unfortunately interrupting autoattacks is not hurting thiefs alone. Quite some classes are hurt by that like rev in shiro or c virtu in general.
I just found it a bit sad that heal specter (while by no means perfect and still harder to play than most supports!!) is stated to be unplayable by most of the community while its really not that hard for a seasoned support 😊
@@Cross_111 it depends on the fight to be honest. On some of the more difficult fights like KO CM and OLC CM, where Protection really helps, using ally Shadow Sap alone for Protection isn't really sufficient due to the low radius and reduction on non-targeted allies. If there is movement, or the need to reposition frequently, then uptime tends to take a hit.
While annoying, the stopping of auto attacks isn't as negative as hitting a Deadeye with stealth as it shouldn't disrupt the rotation logic and, in practice, people will almost certainly immediately reveal due to queued skills and abilities that are in action.
That said, I'm glad that it's being pointed out more regularly that Heal Specter has so many caveats (and it absolutely does). Hopefully Anet listens and makes some sorely needed changes.
@@lucinellialyndra4938 fully agreed!
Nonetheless on harder fights with lots of movement even other supports like HAM f.e. Have trouble with protection
(They generally do if they dont burn their f2 constantly ^^)
So i would propose that is should be used with care and depending on the situation (and not blindly pressed 😊 )
@@Cross_111 That's a bit of an issue as to why Heal Mechanist doesn't currently see much play outside of fights like HT CM where, similar to Specter, the ability to apply Alacrity at range from the group is advantageous and Protection tends to be covered by Heralds in the more meta comps.
Being able to upkeep Protection is really essential for a healer and, sadly, we need to work with the toolkit we've been given. Arenanet has pushed us very much towards Blinding Powder by just stacking it with so many benefits and making it a bandaid fix for our Protection uptime.
Hopefully Anet eventually listens to feedback with regards to ally targeting, boon reduction on non-targeted allies, using Stealth in a supportive manner, and makes some changes. It's only been running feedback since EoD beta now 😌
i use sword main hand and heal with button 2 shadowstep and wells..feels much better than trying to heal with the scepter mh. i really like it :) especially open world content
They should just rework the support scepter skills because the ally target system is not fun to use. targets miniatures and pets, and is a pain to make work, when you can just play a different support class that does all that on a simple button press.
ANet, stop asking us to swap targets between allies and enemies. Choose one and stick your guns 😅
"How does this work? Like pulling teeth basically" XD
1:41 'now, how does this thing work? *like pulling teeth* is the short answer.' that pleasant? nuff said...
I love the Specter... But I agree I won't be a heal support with it.
I'll be DPS or BoonDPS.
But it was nice doing DPS with or without Boons knowing I can just target an ally in a pinch if they need a bit of heal or barrier.
It was one of the nicer classes I've used to run world bosses.
Just be a selfish DPS but if someone needs heals you can do some emergency heals
Specter just feels bad to play, needs a real good rework.
They really need to rework the UI for power skills.
Hey mukluk, I'm loving these healer vids your doing lately.
I've just been wondering, are you gonna try the new unleashed healer for ranger now that mace/warhorn can be used?
Yep. Already did it, it is being edited and will be out soon.
This game is terrible at ally targeting. It doesn't have targeting customization. They need the Thief siphon to be an AoE.
There should be a settings option you checkmark if you want to disable autoattack on stealth or not
I am used to targeting allies from WvW, but I would never speifically target player on demand. Only viable option is personal target on ally (comm usually), called target on boss and just switch back and forth. But I would never play specter, I hate something that has forced mobility.
I've lowkey been waiting on this video cause I tried specter when it was first introduced and I wanted to love it but god bless I just couldn't... ugh, right royal pain in the arse.
Specter was unironically more fun before its rework. Before the wells use to give alacrity. Infact, it use to give just enough alacrity, that when combined with a trait that use to give thieves free concentration, that you actually needed NO concentration gear to maintain 100% uptime on alac.
Furthermore, the trait "Consume Shadows" use to be instant, so that the second you left shroud, it instantly healed/barriered everyone. And back then the Specter Shroud use to be over 120% of your total health. So you could actually full heal your entire party from near death with a simple press of a button. But they nerfed the total amount of Shroud you have, so that heal is now VERY weak, since it scales with your health. And it has a 5 second timer, which is not what you want when you need a big on demand heal. Shame cause it felt like a alternate way to play Specter:
Dagger/pistol 3 spam for consistent healing.
Use wells for keeping up boons.
Eat shroud if your team needed BIG heals.
Honestly, just revert it please...
NGL the 2 main issues Mukluk has are the 2 issues that ALL thief mains complain about, A: ALLY TARGETTING IS BAD and B: the tooltips are impossible to read, even with the smallest UI setting. The 2nd issue may be caused because of the additional information since the skills are split between Enemy Target-Ally Target, only further makes the split-targetting thing even worse...
🎉😂 .. I figured I'd come back. See how things are going. How is my heal alacrity spectre😂
the only way i can deal with this spec is when i play with someone who's new and try this game contents in a duo scenario, or duo roam in wvw..
i mean, it's perfect for that, but not for anything else honestly.
The rotation is definitely a little unusual, but I just reinstalled after seeing this video and it's actually not that bad.... to the point I would rather play heal/support specter over deadeye, which even though it has boring gameplay, i loved seeing the big damage numbers run up. Till now, I'd rather play specter and heal. I'm using scepter/pistol & dagger(x2)
I really wanted to like the heal Specter - in another game the design would be great but the GW2 UI *sucks* for this kind of gameplay! 😞 You could move this spec as-is into e.g. World of Warcraft, and mouseover macros would allow it to be awesome.
I would love to see an updated heal scourge vid.
Healspecter is so clunky, I can only recommend running it as a celestial healer in a subgroup that has a strong prot source (quickherald or dpscatalyst are kinda the only ones I know of) with dagger/pistol and Scepter on swap. Spamming d/p 3 with a deadly arts build can do pretty funny amounts of damage *and* stacks up shadow force super fast so that you always pop the maximum Consume Shadows. It stacks up very well against the pure heal build in terms of healing, while only really losing out on prot and some regen uptime. And it does 15kdps and is way more fun to play because you don't need to worry about ally targeting except for spot healing by weapon swapping and spamming scepter 3 and autos
Well, I would at least argue that switching between ally and enemy is much more convenient to switch then having to go in and out of Celestial Avatar to activate specific Glyph effects, especially since they made most of the targeted benefits AOE to the ally that you target.
That said, I'd say this class is pretty much gonna feel bad until they fixed ally targetting to prioritize your sub squad or party.
So, I have mained thief for 3+ years, but switched to Guardian and later mechanist,bl because I enjoy support build alot.
Just 5 weeks ago i started to go back to thief and was like: hell yeah! I can be both.
Well, you can, but I won't be. Spectre is amazing, but for Spectre it's just not fun and so darn tidious to play I just stopped playing thief :(
as long as the group is stacked, you can target one ally and heal everyone around it. This btw is the best way to give yourself some fast healing, when everything else is on cooldown. I like it on Qadim 2 pretty much. Always tether yourself to a specified ally and use the "mark personal target" hotkey.
I'd like specter a hell of a lot more if, like you suggested, I only had to do one or the other in terms of targeting.
This isn't the kind of game where in the middle of a fight I enjoy having to make sure I click on my ally appropriately then back to the boss/ads
You hit the nail on the head. I've played thief for years and I refuse to touch heal specter again. Nothing that you want is on demand and it's clunky and not fun to play. No one wants to see it in endgame instances PvE either. CM fracs would see me and instaboot and I don't blame them. Why take heal specter over an overloaded heal Chrono?
I mean heal specter doesn't seem like it's suppose to be used as a main heal. It's suppose to be a support for a couple of main classes in pvp content and wvw I think. It's like a small time healer.
Or I should say that is what the devs intended I think
ruining thief for the sake of pvp again..
The thing is... why play heal alac when you can top dps charts while providing 100% alac and the dps rotation is not hard.... but i guess its an option..
Imo, Heal specter plays better than heal herald due to the energy menagement and rotating legends. also heal spectre in snowcrows plays with plague doctor to maximise damage. (in which in theory its the best dps out of all healers in the game. you can go harriers and youll basically dish out monstrous amount heals and barrier comfortably.
ally targeting IS made easier, especially if you have personal target, it just requires a bit of play to get used to it but its very fun.
Spectre suffers like heal scourge of having little to no stability.
Other than that, its one of the best healers out there pve wise.
Set Personal target on an ally and set group target on the boss.
then press a button to take personal target and take group target. (it makes heal spectre so much easier). also Try to take personal target on commander, since allies will go to him anyway. - Some tips to play heal spectre :) (also i dont take blinding poweder as group stealth sucks) for stealth, you can always take dagger offhand and use cloak and dagger(skill5)
copium
To compare Specter and scourge when it comes to stability isnt so true though. Specter gives much better stability especially in shroud where you instantly get 3 stacks every 15 seconds (less than 15 secs with alacrity) + well of bounty, should you not be in shroud. I will say, the only thing missing with Specter is aegis. Its literally the only healer in the game not being able to provide one…
@@willitnoodle comparable as both are barrier based alac heals that lacks stability. Granted specter has some stability but considering hfb and heal chrono, they basically fart stab constantly.
I stopped playing Specter because it took three times the effort to do things every other support could do.
I think anet needs to do a ground up rework.
Good work! Great info too. ty
I played the heal alac specter for maybe 3 months i like it but i felt like i am suffering and sometimes the heals is not enough to save the ppl maybe i didnt play it in accurate way but i prefer druid or tempest more
So as far as I go with targeting allies, you can set a stored target that you can constantly swap to between the boss and them at the press of a button so generally I try to just focus on one person with my ambush
was the thumbnail done with help of awesome stream chat people?
cause it looks like it...
As a healbrand player, you guys have tool tips small enough to read in game?!
that thumbnail is gold 😂
would love to see a tier list and a video from you on how you would streamline/fix each heal spec to make it more user friendly
also try and meme heal mirage you can keep up alac just need to ambush on staff with 3 clones
Come on Muk, there’s been a Legendary Starter Kit for Quip for 2 seasons now :p
I used it for a giveaway I didn't need it at the time 😆
So far you are right, Druid looks a lot easier so far.
Hi! I'm one of the main people behind the Snow Crows build and I've got too much time spent on Heal Specter in all instanced PvE content.
If you've got any questions about this absolutely cursed healer, I'm happy to answer them!
Remember, every question draws attention to just how bad ally targeting is so we can hope that, one day, Arenanet makes some proper changes ❤
Ive loved heal specter since beta and thanks to your contribution in snowcrows, ive been playing heal specter in almost every pve content.
I will admit, its kinda the most rare healer to see in the game, probably because not everyone could tolerate the ally targeting factor. But ive gotten used to it (thanks to keybinds) and it became the most action packed healer in the game 😂 Thought id share my review with you as a fellow heal specter main ♥️
@@willitnoodle thank you! I'm not playing GW2 at the moment and have moved over to FFXIV. Maybe I'll be back with more heal specter changes in the future but I'm so glad you've found the SC page helpful and you are enjoying the high apm healing ways! Keep representing! 🥰
I remember the struggle that was this stream. I remember it like it was yesterday, I was leading a platoon into hill 43 looking for charle but never found them... Oh wait that's my old vietnam days.
I came here just so you would know that I acknowledged how awesome the thumbnail for this video was. That is all.
Yeah... Practically everything Thief gets is angled for PvP and "Surprise! I'm here doing a job!" so in PvE and group content it's almost always super hard to make it work with them.
That's is why I Just love my ranger. All roles, in all specs, are Just fun to use.
I swear they added an option to collapse tooltips and let you hit some keybind to “show next” in the chain….. I thought this with the firebrand video too but forgot to go look it up.
BOO! I heal you!
8:15 😂😂😂, loving the spontaneous rant moments
I'm pretty sure you can cover all boons without Well of Bounty. It's great for some fights due to it's mobility and range, but having to swap targets constatnly and forced blink from sceptre/pistol 3 and iniciative management make it a nightmare to play.
Thats true actually. all the boons that well of bounty provides, you will still get it from siphon, shroud skill 1 and 5 as well as scepter/pistol 3. So its an optional skill to maintain uptime, but definitely not a must-have. If the fight doesnt call for the need of stability and instead, more condi cleanse (for example, Desmina) id drop bounty well for the condi cleanse signet.
PS: In Desmina, its actually forbidden to bring stability anyway because she can corrupt that boon into fear 😂
Didn't Anet added a special action to target an ally or an enemy? i think it was in options and it was added specifically for healer specter
Yes! There are a couple of these. Some are good and recommended, others are to be avoided.
I really suggest that for anyone wanting to try out Heal Specter you set up "Set Personal Target" and "Take Personal Target" hot keys. Before a fight you are going to want to put your personal target on someone that will mainly be with the stack. When you drop out of Shadow Shroud, or want to target an ally, press the take personal target hot key. It makes things a lot easier.
In a pinch, you can use Nearest Ally. This works via camera direction and proximity, it can pick up Phantasms (thanks PvE) but is okay if you really need to. Just use it carefully or spam it to get a useful target (it also gives prominent friendly NPCs equal priority to allies as it is based on an inverted tab target).
Avoid use "Next Ally" and "Preciously Ally". These are false friends and will help you target things such as corpses, doors, mistlock singularities, clones, mini pets, bundles and all sorts.
Guild Wars 2 just isnt made for targeting allies. Adding to that, GW2 is already quite the "hectic" game and putting these targeting skills (and i mean ally targeting skills from all classes) on top, makes the gaming/having-fun-experience way worse. Coming from work and nearly breaking my fingers isnt my cup of coffee...
I just wish they would accept that it doesn't work and re-work it away from ally targeting. Its so clunky in a game where everyone has AOE HEALING
I've always said the scepter attacks should chain from the boss to nearby allies like QTP's pylons. Leave ally targeting for situations when there's nothing to hit, but otherwise the specter should spend 100% of their time wailing on the boss.
One of the worst things about ally targeting with this class, is that half your boon application is reliant upon the position of your targeted allies position, which you have no control over. Alacrity is the worst offender, because you have to wait for Siphon to come off cooldown before you can change your tether targets. Did your tether target decided to run a million miles away to do a mechanic? Siphon on cooldown? Sorry, no alacrity for the group.
Heal Specter has barely been touched since it came out of beta (heck it was barely touched even IN beta except for a major nerf), and people have been telling anet about all of these problems since day 1, only for it to fall on deaf ears. Hopefully enough people see this video that word finally reaches anet and they realize it doesn't play well and isn't fun., but I kind of doubt it. Most people seem to have given up on heal specter ever getting fixed.
Btw this build needs to take a sword mainhand in the second weapon set, because you can spam sword skill 2 for shadow steps. This build produces the biggest green numbers in a burst you have seen in a long time with the Shadow Saviour trait.
They keep trying to make ally targeting a thing and it's so bad.
It's awful. Take every opportunity to remind Anet of this ❤
@@lucinellialyndra4938 Yeah, it's a good idea in theory but in practice, the way the game plays does not work with it.
The eternal life of the thief player (I'm not even gonna talk about WvW because Anet royally fucked thieves over at every given chance there; this is just PvE):
1) Anet releases a cool concept for your class.
2) It's busted ON FUCKING GOLEM BECAUSE DUH. It's just good or decent in practice.
3) Gets nerfed because of the ludicrous numbers on golem.
4) You have to adapt to the most awkward rotation in existence because the nerfs turned the new gimmick into an annoyance that gets in the way of your rota.
5) Watch how Guardian and Mesmer have been doing literally the same job as you (with better results) with negative effort for years.
6) Get called names when you complain about this stuff.
7) Change your main that you have been playing for ages because Anet constantly neglects it.
8) Have fun (no).
Tip for people who want to get Central Tyrian Hero Points in WvW: if you use Blish HUD, get the Inquest Toolkit (?) module. Don't 100% remember the name right now. It uas an autoclicker that you can set to keep clicking at a certain point in an interval of your choosing. Invaluable for using the Candy Corn Gobbler as well.
"I had to click button so many times" - *cough* Blish HUD autoclicker *cough*
Knowing a rotation doesn't mean much if you don't know what you're doing or more importantly why you're doing something. That build is terrible and clunky, made even worse because using consume shadows hasn't been useful to specter since 2021 and as a whole in 2022 when it stopped healing downed allies, always take second opinion in general or shallow grave for condi clear added insult is taking it with shadestep and trying to provide alac. If you want to play heal barrier+ alac specter the only requirements now are hide in shadows for barrier+ on demand stealth attack on allies, 2 shadow saps and a measure shot/endless night + steal on enemies in any order for perma prot, might, fury, vigor, swiftness, regen and barrier, all utility slots are flex slots. Well of bounty and blinding powder are on demand skills for stab, might, healing, prot, stealth, barrier and a stun break. That being said, wells haven't been part of any specter rotation since alac was stripped from them last year. Using scepter dagger in the off hand is also viable cause you can just take shadow rejuvenation and stealth spam with d5 after shadow saps and shroud to limit the forced movement. There's also specific ally targeting, ally cycling and out right ally and ui clicking for skill clickers . I don't play support but even on condi and condi alac spec you can solo heal most content doing the exact same thing. It's all in the weapons
I feel like specter is a VERY clunky kit that is forced to HEAL through shadow stepping. The amount of time it takes for the well animations to cast is so slow. The barrier output it has when using scepter+Pistol #3 is pretty fat tho so I try not to talk too poorly of the kit. This specialization def needs a rework.
I've been saying this for years but I get bullied into the dirt for it. Thieves do the same thing as everyone else but they are NOT allowed to do it easily. Nothing about playing thief is user friendly except pistol 3 spam world clear builds. I'll die on this hill.
Honestly, specter at launch was the most fun I've had with a support class in a long while. But I feel they've had such weird changes that ruin the experience for me.
Like specifically the revive on steal trait was the thing which made the specter the best to play, its removal made the class so much worse feeling to play.
It boggles the mind that they looked at the jank that is the target juggling specters need to do and went like: oh yeah, this is great, let's copy it to more classes. Warrior escaped by some miracle, but alas, poor revenant.
I wouldn't mind if they made a spec that "only" targets allies, which you can somewhat do with Specter although efficiency drops significantly.
But the current "support" Specter is for those solely dedicated to Thief and fools -which may be one and the same.
Can confirm we are one and the same ❤
Dont forget if you fudge a mechanic and just jumped in shroud, it burns the shroud and you lose uptime on boons and alac. They need to move the alac to siphon
i still think put the boons and heal on the specter venom and rework the wells. you already providing passivly your specter venom on your teammates just change it with a trait so it doesnt effect the dps/boondps specter. the teammate targeting is uniqe i like it but to its bad in guild wars 2 and anet removed it already from the warrior pls change dat on specter too
Something tells me that Anet devs also haven't played Specter since beta.
tetter not great mechanic