I Tried Heal Quick FIREBRAND- Thoughts 

03:09 Only Asuras pool-dance on staffs. Other races have predetermined concept of dignity.

as someone who has played hfb alot in raids and fractal cms: don't think too hard, just press all the buttons and your squad will be happy

"You can use F3 to do your taxes" That one had me rolling. 🤣

Healbrand main here, just a few things I wanted to point out: First off it's only the slutty little asura who pole dance, don't lump the rest of us in that ha. The elite mantra is the group stun break, I always save the last charge for emergencies (it also means you cover a whole group in w2 for sloth) The APM is intense, occasional feel like I'm playing piano, especially if you have to cover other mechanics, I've defo been too focused on rotation/cover that something's else has gone wrong or I've biffed a mechanic. The class isn't good at when people start going down, it is good at stopping people going down in the first place, but that depends on what they are built for, doesn't matter if I can heal them for 300% their health if they take a hit that does a 110% first, your right about mercy rune and I personally don't think it's ever worth taking. It's a sturdy build both in harrier and it's damn near unkillable in minstral, it is my favourite class in instances and I have dragged many pugs through content they may not have been able to do otherwise. A downside I'm surprised you didn't say was the weird range on a lot of core abilities, although it has a good suite of boons, some of the way they are applied can be an issue if group positioning is off (given the small aoe/cone fields) I'm seeing a lot more groups want heralds over FB for that reason

the tooltip bursting through the door 😂😂😂

If you f1 542 and staff 2 immediately it provides 25 might stacks immediately since they changed f1 2 into a blast finisher

As a guardian, I can say I 100% agree with the cape. Didn’t pay attention the rest of the video. Cape is life.

how 2 boneskinner on hfb: Elite Signet for pulsing heal and huge activation heal. Bow of Truth for extra heals. Advance for Aegis because people never dodge the charge. Sanctuary for yet more heal and projectile block. This gets me through 90% of healscourgeless pugs. "Can't heal stupid" still applies but the more stupid that dies, the more useful people you can heal.

Totally not Anet's favourite child.

HFB Main here... a note on Bone Skinner! While the HFB has pretty damn good healing output, it's actually mostly passive and to make that encounter easier I do the following: When he raises his right arm and the puddles appear under the group, you should place a Bow of Truth to your left - i.e. where you and your group are GOING to be. Do this as soon as he raises his right arm as there is a few seconds delay from casting to actual healing. You can also have Staff 4 ready to go for extra healing, and you'd be surprised at the range of it. With that done, you'll bea healing your group for 10-15k or more and should be fine.

Only correction for what you said Muk. Edna Mode's advice carries over no matter what. "NO CAPES!!"

The passive healing from this build is actually insane, even in Boneskinner I almost never go into tome 2.

The trick to doing boneskinner on a firebrand is using your reflect/projectile destruction. You heal a lot less than something like druid so you gotta focus on mitigating the damage coming in.

For high heal burst i recommend tome 2 skill 4 (strong heal pulsing and a water field) then staff 2 to blast the water field, very useful on bonskinner, also advance and other blocks (shield 4, tome 3 open passive or skill 5 if passive on cd) to block boneskinner jump and charge atack

This is a class for those like me who were DPS mains but switched to support. Need to keep hitting buttons at a furious pace!

That's right people, only asura pole dance, because all asura emotes and animations are OP! This is part of why I asura is Best Race! 😁

Apparently the biggest mistake I make as a guardian is not wearing a cape. I'll get right on that.

In F3 spell 4 you can get a use of the resistance. In F1 for might generation the best way to do it is use spell 5,4 swap to staff and blast it with staff 2. F1 5 give's ashes of justice which apply to allies as well and condi dps players will be greatfull for the bit of dps boost. Try using that combo off cd and you'll never have problems with might generation. Easy 25 might stacks. Also a great mantra is mantra of lore which removes conditions and give's regen. I personaly use the 3 mantras in my build and the 4th utility slot is either bow of truth or stand your ground. In case I need more stab I swap feel my wrath with mantra of liberation. Without feel my wrath the quickness uptime is still 100%. Opening each tome off cd give's you 3 sec of quickness anyway. If bubble needed I use F3 3 because the downtime with alacrity is just 3 seconds and this way I have a free utility slot for more healing or stab or some other shenanigans if needed. Don't forget shield 5 is also a bubble. And one more way of condi cleanse except mantra of lore is staff 3 and blast it with staff 2 (that's 3 condis cleansed compared to 1 charge of mantra of lore which is 2 condis cleansed). Also one more thing about healing. The most powerfull heal on a hfb is in F2. You start with spell 5 (33% healing increase) and use spell 1 after this and swap to staff and use staff 2. Bow of truth is an emergency heal if all other healing skills are on cd. About the relic I personaly preffer relic of the monk. Doesn't have cd and boosts your healing power. Relic of the flock have a 10 sec cd for a small ammount of barrier.

rotation should be firefield + staff blast, staff 4, mantra of quickness and might and mantra of regen or stab rince repeat, use your axe and shield as dps between rotations and then f2 in case of trouble

I've probably spent few hundred hours on HFB by now (that's my go to for raids, strikes and fractals after all - I even have two separate guardians for cheaper min maxing). I still don't remember all tome skills - there's no need to. Outside of Tome 2 (emergency burst healing and cleanse), Tome 3 is the only one worth looking at (skills 3, 4, 5 specifically). Tome 1 is almost a waste of pages in most situations. Otherwise you SHOULD swap utilities and elite depending on encounter but feel free to find your most comfortable default setup as well). Versatility is one of the reasons HFB was the king of support for so long (then came similarly versatile HAM and nowadays we have plenty of versatile supports for both boon types). Axe (skill 2) for Fury and CC (Pull), Mace for extra healing and block. As usual, other weapons can see some use but those are niche situations (crap like GS 5 for mass pulling trash mobs in fractals for example). I'd say this is quite easy build to learn but there's plenty to learn if you decide to make proper use of the role (easy always on hand access to Resistance is underrated when expecting immobilize or blind spam).

okay, a few things to know about FB so 1 is Stalwart Speed (FB Trait 2/2) gives Quickness on when you used a skill that provides Aegis or Stability, so i strongly suggest to use Stand Your Ground (Stability), or Advance(Aegis), you also have shield 4 that give Aegis along with mace 3 that gives Aegis, really i wouldn't go into Justice for the might just leave it to the staff, and hope others have the can give the rest of the might, which if they arn't, i question your skills. Axe is best because of the 3 being a pull so CC. Feel My Wrath, is also a Quickness source, and tends to be a main for CQB, but as your taking Stalward Speed, as long as your giving Aegis or Stability you should be fine. That being said HQB or CQB, against Boneskinner is a bit clench because of movement, and it's inability to grab ppl from being down.

Fb also has alot of strong heal bursts with merciful Intervention (4k instant) and receive the light (alot more but over 1 1/2 sec) and the skills that are allready used like the tome of Resolution. So it is possible to counter at least a little bad positioning :)

the thumbnail KILLED me

This is the only class I change the auto cast skill. Set it to feel my wrath and it makes things much easier. Separate niche note: purging flames for silent surf CM

The only thing i would add is that staff 5 is a personnel reflect and also wall of reflection is also a projectile reflect. Other than that this is a pretty accurate representation of HB. Ive been playing it about 2 years now. Love it!

How dare you, none of my three guardians wear a cape!

Healbrand has a ton of projectile hate for boneskinner runs to stop the wisps from doing damage - F3-3 Shield 5 Sanctuary You could bring wall of reflection too. This should be able to maintain projectile hate for the majority of the fight, wait a bit until wisps start spawning to begin using these abilities.

My guild is obsessed with fb. We run 30 or 40 squad daily and there always 1 fb per 3 or 4 people. Almost mandatory but I’ve never played fb but I want to study and learn. Once I get some basic tips I’ll dive in. I usually play pve for a bit then work my way to wvw

yes, the cape is the most important part of the build!

Pretty sure if you combo the button that does your taxes with one other button I forget, then it gives you a complimentary headpat from an ArenaNet dev for playing their main class.

hfb is awesome, i main it took me a while until i learn everything. but right now i feel like my party is immortal when i am the healer, also i forgot to mention running full minstrel just because you dont need nothing else, running around with 2.2k toughness ,24k hp and close to 100% boon uptime, face tanking every fucking boss in game like a champ, no problems for you

my favorite thing about GW2 after playing 4 months, is that you don't use one spell that I do (short of the books, obviously). I'm willing to bet your build is better but its interesting because mine does well too

Guard Mace is such a noob Trap. Yes, at first glance it looks like the perfect fit for a Healbrand. But if you really take a look at it, its a horrible weapon. Auto attack chain: Its has healing on the third skill. Sounds great, but when are you ever going to finish a full auto attack chain? You always have something better to do. Especially on a button heavy class like Firebrand. The only time you actually get to finish the chain is on fights your healing doesnt even matter in the first place. Mace 2: GIGA long cast time for a boon you dont need any more of. Regen. Only a 2 second duration with 100% Boon Duration and people have to stand in it. Which in mobile fights, the fights where healing actually matters, that is not gonna happen much. Even the dmg is questionable for the giga long casttime. I have no idea how this skill is still in the game like this. Azure Sun is 12s Regen on a 8s CD. Mantra of Lore is 10s Regen on 10s CD. Mace 3: Group Aegis is GREAT! WE LOVE IT! So why is this skill so bad? It gives Aegis >A F T E R< you blocked an attack. While you blocked the attack of the big scary raidboss, your allies got punched in the face and THEN get Aegis. GENIUS design. Seriously. Just play Axe. Fixed you Fury problem. Has an amazing CC skill. Its better on all fronts.

Very flexible, Firebrand, use it in fractals alot, only time I use f1 is to give group burning or pull. Hammer Firebrand is ez mode, just auto attack. Druid is alot more comflex

i'm still hoping warrior eventually get's something similar to stand your ground. Though i'm pretty sure the'd add it to shield. We get like 1 stab that doesnt' last long on a high CD skill with a long cast time. Maybe they'll adjust shield or warhorn traits sometime in the future.

Well yesterday played qhealFB first time in strikes. Did ofc boneskinner as well, it is a but messy but it worked fine. Was happy we killed him first try cause I was a bit afraid here as well 😅 So for strikes or raids I feel like rezz down state people you can not reach is a down here and maybe selfheal. Otherwise I like heal FB so far, loads of utility ❤ Handling tomes for the right situation can be tough tbh 😅

I wish I could change my hfb's race to asura now. Just for the poeldance

I've been trying to master FB for Wvw, but is a big struggle for me, so for now untill I fully gear up, I'll be just using core guardian, more straightforward and I do actually survive longer in blob fights, while with FB I go down faster

7:00 I think you've been mistakenly saying a lot of classes abilities are AoE stun breaks. Correct me if I'm wrong but stand your ground isn't, and noticed you say some were in previous "I tried" series. There are a few in the game, vindicator stun break comes to mind, but there aren't many. Edit: I just watched 30 seconds ahead and take it all back

Yeah, I've never had luck with Signet of Mercy. I prefer to use Merciful Intervention for fast pickups. But that would port you into the death goo so use with caution. lol

I love HFB in pvp ) have button for every situation. Ive played it for around 500-600hrs in pvp & wvw and its deffo one of the more complex character designs.

Have you considered doing a video on Heal Alac Willbender? I actually enjoyed that much more than Heal Quick Firebrand myself.

I was considering going heal firebrand for my first character, but I don't want carpal tunnel lol

Then there's Karakosa Hammer Willmender, you go from a billion buttons to just a few

what he said near the end kinda explains why most people say guardian isnt that good of a class, its because they dont know how to truly play it so it feels weak, and to me that makes sense because whenever people here "broken" they just use it without understanding it. Aside from that I can see why guardian is overpowered when it comes to options, and that frustrates me because mesmer heal is in a good spot and its going to get nerfed, while guardian still gets away with all this. anyways good video

Firebrand shines in Fractals but for Raids I think it is way behind druid. Scourge Heal in my opinion is the way to deal with pugs.

I have 2k hours in GW. 1,8k playing Guardian, wearing the cape entire time, i can confirm.

If you have the time, you should play some of them for a little longer after the series is over to get a better understanding, and maybe go back to review afterwards^^

I am curious that there wasn't mentioned that guardian has that strange AoE shape that you do not heal everything around you but you have weird ass cone shape AoE in front of you so you kinda have to think where you stand for your skills.

Does this mean there is no Heal Alac Willbender showcase/first impressions :(?

FB main here stand your ground is not a stun break for full group just you but yeah FB has a lot of amazing utilities but small boon radius your elite mantra is a group stun break though

…I just unlocked a cape on my f2p alt guardian through a random wardrobe unlock and I can’t deny it was probably fastest I’ve ever equipped something

Lmao I recently took the cape off my guard and it just doesn't seem right 😂😂😂 And just FYI, that poledance thing is an asura thing, neither my Sylvari nor my Norn do that move but I kinda wish they did tbh...

Guardian main here, I use the cutie angle wings :P

Stand your ground is not a 5 man stun break, only for you. Matra elite is aoe stunbreak

who told him about the capes

The best part of SYG is how its a 600 radius. So long as your teammate isn't out in space you'll land SYG on them.

Male human and male norns staff 4 is pooping animation and if a ranger drops a muddy terrain under them a brownstorm starts brewing 😂

just as I was *starting* to learn heal firebrand they changed how the tomes work and I've never been able to click with it since... gave up on it.

“Pole dancing” 💀

Can someone tell me if HfB has a lesser amount of reactive healing compared to heal chrono (and heal tempest)? I do T4 fracs regularly with pugs as healer, but with HfB I often end up in situations where everyone is taking damage and I just feel like my healing can't keep up and they're going downstate. I pretty much never had this same experience with healtemp or heal chrono where it always feels like a few button presses are topping up the party again even in dire situations.

I find heal alac willbender so much more fun to play.

Yep I really hate it when the info went off screen how am I suppose to know what did what :P Have to go to wiki page and read what it does, which really annoying cause I only have 1 monitor. Wait isn't stand your ground only break stun on self not whole party or does that change? I think only group stun break option for fb is the elite mantra. (Edit: NVM you mention that later :P)

I... I do wear capes on my Guardian v_v

Capes are cool.

Did you post the build?

Time to keep yourself alive with blue halitosis.

Providing boons in this game is fundamentally broken. Slapping them on abilities on whatever class. None of the support classes use their abilities as intended any more. They just spam them for boons. They need to stop the way they design it and make them all passive and go back to making the class and weapon abilities fun instead.

cape is non negotible

All Guard specs are kinda busted. Guard skills are SOOOOOO overloaded and do so damn much, and FB has a absolute dick ton of em. You have an answer to like, everything in FBs kit.

I feel like FB's healing just isn't that great. Every fb I see on boneskinner seems to struggle keeping everyone alive

Not running a regen mantra on firebrand is a disgrace

First I don't actually care, I just post first when I can to take the satisfaction away from those that do.

In my mind, Firebrand is the healer for good groups that want just all the insane tools. But it's not the pug carry class for sure.

Few points : SYG is not group stun break its only self stunbreak You can use f1 no 2 as a blast to blast water or fire fields for heal/might F3 no 4 can be used as stun break You can run axe and then take the cleanse mantra to up keep both regen and fury 100% (axe 3 is cc too) u can enter and exit f1 just to get free 3 stacks of might (the trait has icd ofc) At start u can do staff 4, 2 quickness mantra, exit enter f1 tome = 25 might

I enjoy Healbrand, except the cone-shaped boon application of Quickness. It's spammy to press, easy to miss allies due to positioning (sometimes you gotta chase 'em down), and it almost requires the player to install ArcDPS/Boon Table to ensure the subgroup's boon uptime. You think you're providing Quick (or 25xMight) because you're hammering your buttons! But sometimes, you aren't. The final mantra charges feel awkward - the few seconds of waiting around feels yuck. Compared to Herald, it's much more work to maintain Boon uptime, plus their Boon radius is larger. If Herald is driving a car in automatic, Healbrand is like driving with stick shift. Turns out Fractal HBs are pretty good at using stick shift.

Ma look! I’m on RU-vid! (I was in the strike group)

your might suffering bcs you not using potence mantra on cd, blasting all 3 at once give you 18 might (and 20 sec of quickness) every 20 sec (without alac) + staff 4 is another 9 for 20 sec = perma 25 without using single tome. mantra of liberation have 3 aoe stunbreaks in row. syg stunbreaks only you, dunno why anet never fixed these tooltips. and for all new hfb players recommendation : read all your traits, weapon skills, utility skills,tome skills and dont be afraid to swap utility which fits your playstyle or is more beneficial to your group. meta build is well rounded but you can find some skills more useful in some cases.

I really love Firebrand, both in term of gameplay, lore and aesthetic. The spec is just so packed with utilities that it feels so good when you can react to almost all situation with ease. Plus, with the recent buff to Merciful Intervention (increase AoE size, reduce cooldown) and the upcoming addition of superspeed, ANet has finally adressed the biggest weakness of Firebrand: poor mobility 🥳.

Day 2 of asking mukluk for heal untamed every day until he posts it

Yep....the most difficult but most rewarding healer to play... My main and i love him 😊 If anyone has questions...feel free 😉

I haven't played gw2 in a year plus but when I did I used healbrand for group content and I had to make an AHK to use both mantras on one key press because I was getting RSI, so I agree on the high apm. I played when each book had its own pages though so maybe a bit more spammy. Also I preferred the axe over mace, probably because you could spam #1 on heal book (since there was no point in saving pages)

Enjoying this flavor of vids and would think it'd be cool (albeit exhausting) if you went into non-support/heal builds...but seeing the amount of builds that entails for pve alone, I don't blame you if you keep the scope of this to just the support/heal builds.

I personally believe scourge is better and easier for strikes and fractals. Crazy barriers for cms , condi cleanse every time you provide barriers, revive signet, 27k+ health.. alac scourge is just crazy good imo

And fun went out the window 😂, just curious, why are you doing all classes as healer?, is the game that messed up now that every class can be a healer now 😂

I like this series of explaining support healers. Now if only i didn't have so much competition lately in game while playing them.

hallowed ground also provides a fire field which is a might generation

I main guardian, and I wear the ram plush backpack.

anyone have info on the arrowcart soulbeast build

wow Healbrand can do my taxes for me too?

Me: *Is gravely injured* Book-wielding Asura that can use blue fire: "You know this joke is getting old, right?" Me: "Haha you're right" *Is ded cous low healing xd*

6,669 views. Nice

since you mentioned Boneskinner, once you get a better grasp on healbrand, it can HARD-CARRY that fight

One single important point that I want to point out: every since they changed mantras back to the old style, it's way better to use all charges of your quick mantra and recharge it when you can. The last charge gives very long duration quickness and a LOT of might. This also allows you to upkeep boons when people run out. The other last mantra charges are also very strong, but not as useful

Tome 1 -> 3 and Tome 3 -> 2 are CCs... you can even play Hammer or Greatsword Heal Firebrand (which I do on fights that don't require intense healing)... the build flexibility is insane :)

That extremely flexible and powerful toolset is why it is the defacto fractal healer. Unfortunately that is also why fractals tend to be very elitist. Your healer cannot make up for your mistakes (no good res tool) so don't make mistakes and everything will go smoothly. The only other class I have played that can match this toolset and also has a good res tool is actually heal scrapper, a highly underused class when it is perfect for fractals.

usually I run merciful intervention and revive trait instead of mercy signet for boneskinner for revives. MI+double tap shield 5+ start reviving gets them up quick if you do it fast. ofc this all means you lose a trait and utility slots so just depend on the 2nd healer for revives but if you have to then you have to...

I smell Mukluk trying out Heal Specter next. Early advice: Bring another player with you. Heal Specter is a very selfless healer and need an ally target.

Oh, look, my main class. Picked it day 2 (day 1 i was dying on a thief). Still my favorite, never weared a cape in my life 🤣