Heal VindicatorMay 2022

Heal Vindicator is a solid healer choice for more experienced players, it can provide a range of useful boons as well as strong boon extension. The build can generate 25 Might, permanent Alacrity, Regeneration, Protection and high uptime on Resistance for the party. In addition to this, you will also be able to provide a high amount of Vigor to the entire squad thanks to Invoking Harmony.

The build also has good crowd control capabilities thanks to Surge of the Mists and access to Assassin's Presence which is a solid boost to all power DPS players in the party.

The unique focus on boon extension stems from the trait Vassals of the Empire which will extend all boons in your party by 2 seconds every time you dodge. You can expect to dodge at least 4 times every 20s, which means an average of 40% boon extension for your party.

Build Fundamentals

Maintaining Alacrity

Alacrity generation is tied to spamming Natural Harmony in Legendary Centaur Stance thanks to Serene Rejuvenation synergy. Take notice that Natural Harmony has a 1s delay upon activation before the effect triggers, always wait with swapping legend after using Natural Harmony.

You’ll need to extend the boon with your dodges via Vassals of the Empire. The rotation should use 4x Natural Harmony which will leave you with 20 Energy you can use in Legendary Centaur Stance for other skills such as Energy Meld or Ventari's Will. This will generate around 16s of Alacrity which will get extended by dodging four times in the same timeframe for a total of 24s of Alacrity every 20-21s.

Boon generation via Dodge is naturally tied to your limited endurance pool, which you can refill with  Weapon Swap thanks to Superior Sigil of Energy. Try to do this off-cooldown while also making sure you get the full benefit of the 50 Endurance it can generate. Energy Meld should be used in a similar fashion near off-cooldown. In addition, always try to hit either 5 targets or allies in total to gain full benefit from Reaver's Curse

Boon Generation

You will generate 10 stacks of Might and Protection for 20 seconds every time you dodge thanks to Vassals of the Empire so these boons can be covered by your dodges alone.

If you follow the general rotation, you can start Legendary Alliance Stance in Archemorus stance, swap to Saint Viktor using Alliance Tactics, before swapping to Legendary Centaur Stance swap back to Archemorus. This will generate 3 stacks of Might every time you swap thanks to Amnesty of Shing Jea which can be helpful for the faster ramp-up of Might and potentially help you to maintain better uptime on fights with downtime.

You will also generate 8s of Regeneration every time you swap or use a skill in Saint Viktor stance which will cover this boon for your subgroup.

Resistance can be generated by using Battle Dance while in Saint Viktor’s stance. If you want high uptime on this boon, you will need to use this skill at least twice every loop. Be aware that this skill comes with an evade animation that will move you backward. This movement can be canceled by Weapon Swap. If you do this at the correct moment (you will still generate the boon).

You and your allies will gain Vigor every time a healing orb in the ground is touched. The orbs will provide Vigor to a single player which makes your Vigor generation not tied to your subgroup.

Two healing orbs are generated at the end of your Auto-attack chain via Rejuvenating Assault and every time you use Natural Harmony or other Ventari skills thanks to Generous Abundance. Using skills while in Legendary Alliance Stance will generate one orb instead.

Dodging will also create one healing orb via Healer's Gift. All in all, you will generate a lot of healing orbs which coupled with the movement of players can lead to surprisingly high uptime of Vigor for your entire squad. In most cases, without doing anything special your subgroup will have 100% uptime on Vigor.

Healing

Your healing will first of all come from your permanent uptime of Regeneration and the healing orbs you create as these will heal 5 targets in 120 range every time they are touched.

While in Legendary Centaur Stance, you will be mostly spamming Natural Harmony which is a huge heal for 5 targets. Your tablet will provide continuous small heals to allies around it via Project Tranquility. You can also move your tablet 1-2 times via Ventari's Will which will heal allies it passes through as well as re-positioning the tablet if desired.

In Legendary Alliance Stance, you will have access to heals in Saint Viktor’s stance.

Selfless Spirit is a strong pulsing heal that can be used twice per loop. You can also use Urn of Saint Viktor which will heal allies every second with a unique effect setting your incoming healing effectiveness to zero while also providing 50% damage reduction and increased movement speed. Toggling this skill is instant while Drop Urn of Saint Viktor has a long cast animation.

The boons and healing you get from Drop Urn of Saint Viktor won’t be that impactful in most cases so you can ignore using this part if you manage your energy well. Swapping to Legendary Centaur Stance will default the skill back to Urn of Saint Viktor.

Your staff skills Mender's Rebuke and Renewing Wave can also provide healing if needed. Renewing Wave is a fairly weak heal in terms of healing/energy cost so try to use it more for the condition removal it offers.

Other Utilities

You have access to instant condition removal with skills such as Tree Song and Renewing Wave. Tree Song is a stronger skill, removing up to 5 conditions and healing for every condition cleansed, so prioritize this skill if you are in that part of the rotation.

Energy Expulsion can also be used for condition removal however this is a fairly weak skill in that regard and should only be used in emergency situations.

Awakening can be used as a stun-break for your allies if needed.

Along with their usual effects, Tree Song and Scavenger Burst will provide you with extra Endurance based on the number of targets they hit and the number of conditions removed. This can be a nice bonus to your endurance generation, however, you shouldn’t spam these skills as part of your standard rotation. This will lower your overall support capabilities while potentially not providing a huge boost (if you hit a single target for example). Use your energy pool wisely.

Crowd Control

• Surge of the Mists
• Reaver's Rage
• Energy Expulsion (only use this in emergency situations or if you have used 4x Natural Harmony in Legendary Centaur Stance already)

Alternatives

Traits

If you don’t care about Vigor uptime in your squad and would like to focus more on healing, you can swap Invoking Harmony with Eluding Nullification. Your endurance generation will be lowered but the effect is very small at -1 endurance/s which won’t really impact the build.

Food

If you don’t have access to Concentration WvW Infusion, you can use Peppermint Oil instead of Bountiful Maintenance Oil to reach 100% boon duration as this is pretty important for the build.