Healbreaker

February 2023

Healbreaker is a variation of support warrior that combines instantcast healing from Vigorous Shouts with the utility of the Spellbreaker profession. Healbreaker is overshadowed by Heal Tempest and Support Guardian in the current meta, but it provides unique advantages and buffs that can make it situationally useful.

Healing and Cleanse

Your main source of healing comes from Vigorous Shouts , which is an instant heal on each shout use. Healbreaker has access to four shouts – "For Great Justice!" , "On My Mark!" , and "Shake It Off!" are all instant cast, while "To the Limit!" has a cast time.

Most of your value is going to come from using shouts for their AOE support to keep your team healthy over longer teamfights, but you can also take advantage of your shouts being instant cast to quickly re-sustain allies by combining skills like Call of Valor , "Shake It Off!" , "On My Mark!" , and "For Great Justice!" at the same time for a burst of healing and cleanse.

Similar to support guardian, healbreaker’s personal sustain scales with the number of allies nearby since you’ll continually be healing from Mending Might for each ally you give Might to with Mending Might and "For Great Justice!" . Since the buff, Charge now grants allies Quickness in addition to the extra damage and cleanse. Try to use this either to help cleave a down or when your team is focusing a target. Quickness share is especially powerful for classes like Willbender that lack access on their own.

Utility/CC

Unlike other supports, healbreaker has excellent offensive CC and utility options. Because you don’t have to channel your healing like Tempest overloads or Guardian heals, healbreaker can take advantage of its weapon skills and profession mechanics to pump out cc and boonrip.

Since this build runs Slow Counter , you’re going to be applying several debilitating conditions every time you use Full Counter .

In your Hammer set, you have 4 forms of hard cc: daze, stun, knockdown, and knockback. A common way to sequence your ccs is Staggering Blow Earthshaker Fierce Blow  Backbreaker . Executing this combo properly should keep someone locked down for at least 5 seconds, depending on if you land the Weakness. All of these ccs are also removing boons thanks to Dispelling Force.

Remember that Full Counter resets your Earthshaker and Flurry. Hitting a foe with a burst chains them to you with Magebane Tether , which pulls them back if they get too far from you. You can use this either to keep someone in a teamfight so they can be focused, or actively run away from them for the cc, either to pull them into your team or start a cc chain.

Healbreaker has a few good mobility skills. The most important one is Savage Leap but Earthshaker can also be used to cover a good amount of distance, especially with the Full Counter reset.

For a more defensive version of the build, see the Dagger/Shield Variation.

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Battle Standard is distinct from other revive utilities due to its flexibility and dual purpose. Instead of only reviving downed allies, it also finishes downed enemies within the radius. Battle Standard can be used to shift a teamfight in either way, and can even be precast to revive you if you’re going to go down.

Remember that the stomp and revive radii for the banner are different, the outer radius is the revive and the inner radius is the stomp.

Battle Standard has become a more competitive choice since the nerfs to other revive utilities and the buff that gave it Quickness share. Try to use Charge for the Quickness  before you start casting Battle Standard; it has a two-second cast time and is easily interrupted by a Thief or Mesmer .