GW2 - A noob's guide to : Heal Alacrity Mechanist (ham)

[@itsmexadine]

Hello. This build haven't been affected by the release of SotO. The runes are still "rune of the monk", the gear is still in "harrier". The Relic of choice is usually "Relic of the Monk" (up to +10% heal) but I personnaly use "Relic of Dwayna" (+20% regen heal). Monk is for better burst heal and Dwayna is doing fine since most of your heal will come from regen anyway. It's up to you, both work just fine. Mace 1 no longer apply barrier but it's still way better to spam it than medkit 1.

[@Sylarzx]

Really thorough guide and clearly explained, thanks a for all the practical examples too! Well done

[@stephenbenecke7652]

Top tier production! I'd watch this for every prof/build. Thank you!

[@itsmexadine]

thank you. I don't think i'll do every builds as I don't feel "confortable" on some. But I do plan on doing quite a lot. I'm almost done with my first strike guide too. Feel free to stick around.

[@quicksword75]

Amazing guide everything was easy to follow and learn how the skills work! Just picked up mech because I want to do more than DPS, this was super helpful thank you!

[@itsmexadine]

thank you. Making an engi is a very good idea. It can do everything, power dps, condi dps, alac dps, alac heal, quick dps, quick heal (a bit underperforming at the moment but totally viable). I've made a guide for Power alac dps already if you wanna check it out (shameless self promotion), and my next build video will be about quickness scrapper.

[@fafniricingdeath]

Wow nice guide, even without commentary its super helpful

[@retvolki]

I have over 1,000h on engi but I had no clue you could cancel acid bomb leap with wep swap AA stuff, ty so much for this detailed video!

[@multimotivation1]

Best guide i ever seen. 👏

[@BrandoF2P]

Amazing guide video! very engaging with only text for explanation.

[@itsmexadine]

Thank you for watching. i really appreciate :)

[@j.keeley]

Nice guide, great production!

[@CZsanker]

Best guide style ever!

[@itsmexadine]

Thank you.

[@tankmom1]

The HAM Channel. Amazing

[@itsmexadine]

I'm a necro main so I won't stay strictly on HAM (though I play HAM a lot). I started with HAM because a couple of guildmembers had issues with it. And I often come accross "underperforming" HAM in strikes/fractals so I figure might as well make a guide about it. I posted several HAM videos to illustrate the guide. I will post some more when I believe it shows something interesting for HAM players. I posted a Power Alac DPS mechanist (PAM) build already (self promotion: go watch it). And the next one will be Quickness Scrapper. That way I will cover all 3 major roles an Engineer can provide. Once I'm done with Qscrap I will most likely go for some Necro builds. I'll also post guides for pve content (OLC strike should be done by the end of the week).

[@tankmom1]

I have to say that this guide of yours was the best I've ever seen on KZbin. Your guildmates are lucky to have you in their group. I'm going to promote your channel to some friends. xoxo

[@itsmexadine]

@@tankmom1 don't hesitate to do so. I trully appreciate :)

[@dennisk7193]

nice guide. I always prefer elite kit for extra heal, extra light & water field. I use very ofen all my finishers with water/light fields ( Maze2 with light for dmg reduction or water for selfheal ; explo finisher for aoe condi clean or water aoe heal ). With Maze2 and Elixir-Gun4 for more movement. Don't forget, your elixirs in your kits gain might too

[@itsmexadine]

I just never liked the mortar kit. Probably because i'm a filthy clicker. To be honest HAM is already overkill in most situation without it. The condi cleansing is so over the top with simply the elixir kit and your traits and if for some reason you need more you still have medkit 5/3 or shield 4/ medkit 3.

[@TheWarDong]

super underrated video! the bois want me to supp but i want to have fun so i've been looking for a quality engi buid that can supp.

[@Coiney100]

Great guide. Been playing ham for awhile and always save my shield skills for cc. How much of an effort are the shield skills for prot uptime ?

[@itsmexadine]

thank you. It's nice to know it "helped" someone other than my guildmates. For this setting (gear/sigil - no food) with just "shield 4/5" you can keep up 60% of prot uptime is you use them off CD. Honnestly, prot isn't exactly the priority but is always a cool bonus for a support. You can add some more with "f2" and it goes up around 80% (not sure i'd have to check it) though I prefer to keep it as a "oh shit" button for when the fight goes south or my sub need urgent stab/breakstun. If you have a Qherald with you between the 2 of you you'll get 100% with 0 efforts. In Fractal I almost exclusively use my shield for utility and cc and rarely for prot. There are a lot of situation where the utility of the shield outweight prot (like maitrin you can block/reflect every horrik cannons). Also in frac CC are too important and most players don't bring any.

[@itsmexadine]

So I did the tests: 1) without food Shield 4/5 off CD = 60% prot Shield 4/5 + f2 = 97% (pretty sure 100% is doable with a bit more effort on timing) I wouldn't recommend committed yourself to 100% prot as I find f2 to be way to usefull to just use on CD. 2) with food (+70 concentration) Shield 4/5 off CD = 68% prot. Might be a bit higher but that was consistent in my testing. 3) with food (+70 concentration) and enhancement (potent master maintenance oils) Shield 4/5 off CD = 75% prot The food is the usual ascended food, there are non ascended with same effect. The enhancement is not the "recommended one" (Bountiful Maintenance Oil) because I generally don't feel the need to more heal and the extra concentration is to me more valuable.

[@dollarbr]

excellent video

[@itsmexadine]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[@kyro265]

you are the fastest clicker ive ever seen in any mmo lol

[@itsmexadine]

most of it it just me keeping myself busy. Like spamming the AA when it is by default not needed.

[@kaiquetadeu5579]

Trinkets Minstrel's is a good option to more survivor build?

[@itsmexadine]

Short answer: yes you can swap in some minstrel gear but I wouldn't really advise to do so. Longer answer: You shouldn't have any issues with survival using this build. You already have a lot of ways to mitigate damage (protection, barrier, regen, aegis, vigor, projectiles block, projectils reflect). And minstrel won't give you a lot more survival. But if you do feel a bit too squishy yes you can put on some Minstrel gear. It'll have 1 "big" issue and 1"small". The "big" one is you will likely inherit some boss aggro (some raid bosses aggro are based on highest toughness) so make sure your tank have higher toughness than you (unless you are the tank which you can totally do as HAM). The "small" one is you'll lose DPS. Might sound silly for a support but in GW2 dps is king and the faster the fight the easier it is.

[@dennisbaauw]

Ive been looking to get back into gw2 after having played the basic game like 10 years ago, I was wondering if this build is also okay enough to do open world story mode. Cause I dont like having to swap around setups all that much.

[@itsmexadine]

welcome back to gw2. This build might not be the best suited for story mode but it should do the job nonetheless. For open world you shouldn't have any issue. If you don't like to swap gear and want more than 1 build, this set up is likely the best for you since you can use exactly the same for Quickness Scrapper. gear = same as pam rune = same traits = same except instead of mechanist take scrapper 1-3-2 skills = heal gyro / grenade kit / shredder gyro / blast gyro / sneak gyro weapon = hammer (berserker) If you're looking for an easy gear / good for everything build on engineer I strongly suggest a pure dps mechanist. I planned to do a guide on it later one but the quick overview Power Dps mechanist: gear = berserker (everything) rune = scholar traits = explosives 3-1-3 / firearms 3-3-2 / mechanist 1-3-1 skills = same as this build weapon = rifle.

[@williamboman5256]

Thanks! Why 2 magi accessories?

[@itsmexadine]

It's just enough to get you above 50% crit chance under "fury". But you can ignore it if it's an issue it won't make a big difference.

[@MoGaiinz]

Nice guide, it’s wild to me that you skill click tho lol, you probably won’t be able to get away with that on a dps build. I’ve never played a healer in gw2, is it good to just over heal when in doubt? Like how do you know when it’s a good time to start healing, what if you start healing when the party is already too low health? What’s good tips on knowing when to heal and which heal bars should u keep looking at? Thanks

[@itsmexadine]

it does work even on DPS. I mainly play harb/reaper and though reaper is pretty chill, harb require to have a good rythm. I even play condi holo from time to time and clicking isn't an issue. Healing in GW2 is the same as healing in any other game (gonna be a long explanation): TLDR: support comes first then heal (no damage taken = no need heal) / don't wait for your team to be under 50% / do not rez. 1) you're a SUPPORT and sometime a healer! If your team don't lose HP you won't have to heal. focusing solely on heal is the biggest mistake every starting healer does. With every healers on GW2 (and most game) you have a lot of things in your kit that prevent damage. For HAM you have a decent amount of "barrier" that can negate a good chunk of damage. You have "protection" which reduce by 33% all damage. You shield 4 can reflect a lot of attacks prevent damage and dealing some in return. Shield 5 can block a lot of attack. Your f2 gives "aegis" which is one of the strongest boon in the game as it will completely stop 1 hit. You give perma "vigor" that gives to your team faster dodge. And on top of this you have perma "regeneration" that cover most of the trash damage. So just with a good management of your supporting skill and "regeneration" your team will be full HP most of the time. Some examples of support that make the difference on fractals: maitrin - you can block/reflect Horrik's 2 fire shots (shield 4/5/ barrier sigil) / observatory - you can shield 4 Arkk bouncing orb (99CM) and Artsariiv small orbs / volcanic - barrier sigil everytime the boss phases so you block every lava elemental shots. Some examples of support in strikes: Boneskinner - barrier sigil when he jumps out so the barrier abosb the shock when it jumps back in / voice & claw shield 4 and barrier sigil can block the arrows / fraenir - shield 4/5 & barrier sigil blocks the ground AoEs that nobody dodge and often down several players. Some examples of support in raids: vg - "protection" will help a lot with the damage from the seekers / sloth - f2 at the end of CC and elixirgun 3 after the "shake" / deimos CM - shield 5 blocks "mind crush" for yourself and f2 blocks it for your sub. 2) don't heal too late. What it means is don't wait for your team to be under 50% HP. A lot of healers wait for another player to be low HP to start healing and that's a big mistake. If your team is low HP it means you didn't read the fight and you will likely be overwhelm soon after. You want to keep your team as full HP as possible. This will be done mostly by keeping "regeneration" up all the time (mace 2 mostly). And every time 1 or 2 players in your sub/party lose around 15-20% HP don't hesitate to use "medkit 4" and even "medkit 2" if you have any doubt. The good thing about HAM is all your skills have a rather large AoE (and short CDs) so just by staying in the middle of your party you will heal everyone. No need need to focus 1 player specifically. Keep an eye on that 1 pug that always run out of the stack and use medkit 1/2 on him as you can "snipe" it form afar. 3) do not rez. It's not your job to rez. Focus on keeping everyone up. It sounds counter-intuitive but usually in a fight eveyrthing goes fine until all turns to chaos. If 1 player get downed you can be pretty sure it won't be the last. In those moments you have to focus on healing as much as you can and someone else can take care of the rez. Welp... was longer than I expected. I think I answered your questions. feel free to ask if it wasn't the case.

[@MoGaiinz]

@@itsmexadine Wow that was a great explanation and helped me a lot, thank you!

[@boshabadoo]

This was very helpful. Where would you recommend starting as someone who has never played a heal build before? I don’t want to just jump into strikes and not carry my weight while learning.

[@itsmexadine]

Good news for you HAM is the best heal for new players. (druid and tempest, run the same role but are way trickier to play, FB is most player favorite but it is quick heal instead of alac heal) You can jump in on strikes without much trouble if you go for the "IBS easy 3" (shiverpeaks,fraenir, kodans). Because most parties will bring 2 healers and these 3 strikes don't require more than 1 healer. If you want to get use to this build in open world I suggest playing it in EoD metas. Kaineng will be the easiest one, then Echovald, then Seitung. I nreally enjoy playing heal builds on Seitung because a lot of players will be downed and take damage so you can "see" your heal. Drakkar in Bjora Marches is pretty nice too. You can take it to dungeons too (heal isn't needed usually but it can be nice in Arah with a "not experienced" party) And you can also take it to Fractals. T3 rather than T4 while you're still adjusting yourself to the build. ps: in 5 players content try to get a quickness provider it'll make your job way smoother (you'll always get one in strikes/raid). Don't worry too much HAM has an amazing effort/value ratio.

[@sandyroysantos3476]

Any alternatives to superior rune of the monk?

[@itsmexadine]

There are some alternatives. But the monk is by far the best healing rune in the game. With the dungeon currency rework it has become very easy to farm enough token to buy 6 of those now. You can go for "superior rune of water" or 'superior rune of rebirth" if you really can't put your hands on "superior rune of the monk".

[@lacroix2879]

Not trying to discriminate, but a genuine question: what are some reasons one would pick HAM over HB?

[@itsmexadine]

This is a good question: 1) value / effort ratio HFB is indeed the absolute best healer in the game, HFB has a rather high skill floor and a high skill ceiling. The very design of FB makes it OP in every situation. The only issue with it is most player can't even remotely play it. Sure they can offer some heal but most of them don't bring half of the value they should. The strengh of HFB is it's capacity to negate everything if you equip the proper skill and use it well. Most players will stick to the "meta" build and never adapt anything. Most pug don't know how to use f3-3, or advance, or stand your ground or how to condi cleans with light combo. For this, the HAM has a low skill floor with a moderate/high-ish skill ceiling. It bring most of its value even when the players don't understand what they're doing and a good HAM will cover for most issue almost as efficiently as a HFB. So yeah first reason is more value with less effort. 2) team comp At the moment you'll often get a better DPS output with a Qdps than a Adps (no Qdps herald isn't broken to the infinite!). Lets be honest it's WAY better to have an average HAM/Qherald combo than average HFB/Adps combo. A bit sad because some Adps like scourge and specter deserve a bit more love and Qherald is just too OP and Qharb is very easy to play (Qscrap need some love too but that's another topic). 3) gameplay there are some people (and I'm one of them) that genuinely dislike playing guardian and enjoy playing engineer. I never enjoyed the guardian, I have one and do play it when needed (frac CM pugs... looking at you) but I'd rather not. So here it is. I may have missed some other reasons but i'm confident these 3 are the main ones and the first one (value/effort) is the dominant one. Hope I correctly understood the question.

[@lacroix2879]

@@itsmexadine Thanks for the clear and detailed insight! I really don't have any follow-ups after reading all that.

[@kagemaru2498]

Can i use celestial gears instead?

[@itsmexadine]

You can but I wouldn't advise too. For most content celestial will provide enough healing and an overall decent performance. For some content the biggest issue will be your "toughness". Many raid bosses have a tank selection based on "thoughness" and most builds have only 1k "toughness" so you might find yourself the de facto tank. And it can be an issue for your party designated tank to boost its "toughness" higher than yours. If you ask because you find it hard to get the "proper" gear I advise you to stat swap any ascended piece that you drop and slowly get toward the "proper" gear. If you ask because you have a celestial set and too lazy to get a 2nd set then just stay on celestial and it should do the trick most of the time.

[@benmartin2061]

Using this to make my first HAM, I think it is great, if possible a link to the build would make it perfect for me being lazy ;p, thank you!

[@itsmexadine]

Thank you. Not making a build code was on purpose. There are too many people looking for "meta" builds and never looking at what make them "meta" wich lead to extremely poor performances. It's what usually happens when people have acces to build code. So instead I went for a very detailed presentation so people can understand what they're doing but no build code. In the end it's more of a personnal choice from me but if I have more request for build codes i'll consider adding it in the futur.

[@benmartin2061]

@It's me Xadine thanks, totally understand, I watch the whole thing and then use the build but see what you mean, thanks again ;)

[@VanillaIceX3]

Id like to know why your making the game harder by clicking your action bar

[@itsmexadine]

Because I'm 34yo, i've spent my childhood playing on console and when my familly had enough money to buy a PC mouse/keyboard was a weird thing for me. Even more since I'm left handed and I absolutely can't use the mouse with my right hand so I'm stuck on "average" mice and I reverse almost every IG control to fit my "needs". And it has the extra bonus of pissing people off. :)

[@Bramandin]

I cannot explain how much I dislike Anet devs. This speck is so low quality and trashy. So uninspired.