Why is Healing Breeze so popular? I think it sucks.

I see Healing Breeze in most (at least many) monk builds and I really wonder why it is so popular. From an energy efficiency standpoint it sucks. Correct me if I'm wrong or if I misunderstood the concept of Healing Breeze.

If you got 12 attribute points on Healing Prayers and 12 on Divine Favour then Healing Breeze gives you 10 seconds of +8 healing per second. That's 80 points of healing, plus 38 points bonus from Divine Favor gives you 118 points overall at the cost of 10 energy that's an energy efficiency of 12 healing points per energy.

Compare that with you standard vanilla healing spell Orison of Healing: With 12 Healing Prayers and Divine Favour each you get 60 points of healing, plus 38 points bonus from Divine Favor gives you 98 points overall. That's a bit less than Healing Breeze, but Orison also costs only half as much as Healing Breeze. At a cost of 5 energy that's an energy efficiency of 20 healing points per energy, almost 70% more than Healing Breeze. And it is instantly, no enchantment that can be stripped or shattered.

The differences in casting and recharge time are negligible.

I think even if you use modifiers that extend enchantments or benefit from enchantments Healing Breeze is still a bad choice. There are other healing enchantments that are more effective energy-wise.

Even if you're a monk secondary and don't get the Divine Favor Bonus Orison of Healing is still superior: 60/5 = 12 healing per energy, compared to 80/10 = 8 healing per energy for Healing Breeze.


What is it that I missed about Heeling Breeze? Why is it so popular?

1) perfect answer to damage over time such as posion, bleeding, conjure phantasm, etc.
having an orison stops dot for a sec, but not all the way

2) you can use it pre battle as a buffer for damage.

that's about it i think....

Except that one pip of health regeneration gives you 2 health per second, so at 12 healing prayers and standard setup, that's 160+38 = 198 health for one Healing Breeze cast. Enchantment lengthening (+20% staff wrapping, Blessed Aura) improves the efficiency even further. Compared to Orison of Healing, Orison is a reactive spell: you notice someone has low health, so you cast it, but you must wait until their health has dipped to a point where your heal won't heal too much in order to be most efficient with your healing. Healing Breeze will last for 10+ seconds, so can be used to heal up damage while it's still being inflicted, and in the meanwhile you can focus on someone else.

That said, there's times when Orison is definitely useful (like you said, enchantment strippers make Breeze a frustrating thing), but you don't need to worry about the Healing Breeze energy/healing ratio, it's quite decent and as an enchantment can actually improve the efficiency of other spells (for instance Dwayna's Kiss). But mostly, you got the healing effect of pip-based regen wrong, and I think most of your doubts will disappear the moment you read that.

8 pips of regain is not 8 hp a second, it's 2 hp per pip. So that's 16 hp a second. (unless i'm wrong, of course.) So that's 160 hp over 10 seconds. And yes, it can be used to counter bleeding, poison, ect, though I guess you could use Purge Conditions, but then they'd just bleed / poison you again afterwards.

Okay, that explains my error. This gives Healing Breeze an energy efficiency of 20, which is quite exactly the same as Orison of Healing.

It depends on the situation, really.

When you have to counter Damage Over Time attacks (i.e. poison, mesmer HP degen etc.) Healing Breeze is perfect.

When you have to counter massive DPS in short time (and you are not a protection based monk), you have to use fast casting "patch" heals like Orison, Dwayna's Kiss, Word of Healing to keep group members alive.

Just my 2 coppers.

How about Vigorous Spirit? A warrior attacks about once every 2 seconds in a heavy fight. Within 30 seconds that's 15x11 = 165 points of healing. Add 38 divine favor bonus and you got 203. That's more than Healing Breeze, but at half the energy cost. Even if you're caster and cast only once every 3-4 seconds you'll still get a better output than Healing Breeze, energy wise.

The only downside I can see is that Vigorous Spirit heals pretty slow. It takes 3 times as long to get the same amount of healing. But if you're after fast healing then you might as well use Orison, cos that is instant.


Or how about Healing Seed? When you're surrounded by several foes you can easily be attacked once every 1-2 seconds. Over 18 seconds that's 12 x 25 = 300 healing. Add 38 divine favor and you got 338 at the cost of 15 energy, that's an energy efficiency of 22.5. Not too shabby. And this is not even taking into account that Healing Seed has an area effect for nearby allies. If more than 1 ally benefits from the Seed the energy efficiency increases dramatically. Plus ... the more damage you take, the more you are healed, so it is self-adjustant.

On the down-side it has a pretty long recharge time and doesn't work against DOT like poison or bleeding. And you can't cast it on yourself, so it is no option for all the solo W/Mo farmers out there. But for a party healer monk this spell is a good alternative to Healing Breeze.

Its good if your target is standing still (like PvE) but in PvP when your Warriors target is most likely on the move, it ain't so hot.

Again Depends on your Target getting hit with extreme repeativness, good for casting on the Priest or a Monk getting pounded on, but situational and expensive.

most of the time breeze is used to heal myself. sometimes an orison or reversal of fortune alone doesnt quite cut it when I'm getting pounded.

I use Healing Seed a lot in PvE and I have to say I love it, especially with henchmen, because those are very predictable. Warriors Little Thom and Stefan always attack the same target and stand close by eachother, so I check which one of the two is under attack and cast Healing Seed on him. Then both of them get healed. And the more they are being pounded the more healing. Because at low level (< 20) few foes do more than 25 damage per attack they get healed more than the damage, which makes them near invulnerable for 18 seconds. Unlike Healing Hands Healing Seed isn't limited to physical damage. It works for all kind of damage, except DOT.

Or I use Healing Seed on one of the casters (E, Me, N, R), mostly Alesia, who is mob target #1. The casters are usually standing in a cluster, so you also have a good chance of healing 2 or even 3 people. On top of that I always try to move myself near the target ally that I put the Seed in, so I get healed myself for maximum benefit.

Granted, with humans it is more difficult, because humans tend to be more scattered over larger area, running around like chicken, so it is difficult to get the benefit of the area effect.

Even more so in PvP.

healing seed can only be applied to other party members and not to your self

Did I say something else?

Or was that just a remark?

Spectral agony triggers Healing Seed also. Which makes Mursaat lot easier.

I use HB to top someone off, while focusing on someone else who is getting pounded by several baddies. (+ HS on tanks + vigorous spirit on other healer + dwaynas/orison/WoH, depending on the amount of punishment dealt)

that looks fine on the paper, but only there ...
maybe it works for pve, but when you face a group in pvp who isnt total stupid, thinks turn worse.

vigorous spirit makes only sense on warriors (rangers have to slow attack rate). i dont want to have one of my short measured slots filled with a wa-heal only spell. and 15 attacks in 30 sec is quite unrealistic. not only that it is seldom that a warrior is beeing attacked while you as a monk still alive. in a heavy fight a warrior will be stomp down by an earthquake, bashing skills from another warrior, interrupted etc or has to run after an enemy who is fleeing or wont hit his target when the target is using dodging spells etc pp

so this will only work on stupid targets, who will stand still like slaughter cattle.


then healing seed. if this enchantment will be removed, it hurts much more like a removed breeze because of the very expensive cots of 15 ene. furthermore healing seed needs 18 sec to deploy its full effect. nearly as double as much like breeze. that means much more risk of disenchantment before full effect has reached.
ie: you cast one of those two spells. it gets detected after 4 seconds. another 3 seconds will pass until enemy has targetted you and spelled his disenchantment. so both worked for 7 seconds. no need to say which skill is more effective then ...
another bad think of healing seed is the need of being hit. a monk is already busy enough with normal healing, positioning and watching health bars of his allies. so if you cast healnig seed on an ally who only got hit often by AE or sth like some chain lighnings, you have wasted very quick 15 ene. an thats a very high risk for 2.5 more points of energy effectiveness (which you only get in BEST case).

I use healing Breezes to cancel out negative effects like poison/bleed/etc, I have learned that if you just get rid of the neg effect, the caster just puts it back, making you cancel it again, Healing Breeze makes it so that you are not de-gening anymore, and in the end costs less power and lets you fight more.

I'm a Healing Monk, but I don't use Healing Breeze lately, I mean, why should I? I'd rather wait untill someone is low on life and cast Word of Healing or Heal Other on him. Healing Breeze only heals 10×9×2=180 Health over 10 seconds, which isn't really much for an non-direct Healing Skill. My Word of Healing and Heal Other skills heal for 190 Health, which is more, and is are direct Healing Skills. Also, Healing Breeze costs 10 Energy, Word of Healing only costs 5 and Heal Other costs 10, so when it comes to Energy, Healing Breeze isn't better either.

But I'm not that sure anyway if so many experienced Healing Monks are carrying Healing Breeze, I think they don't actually...

I used to think that too, but you might as well take some Hex etc. negation skills with you, which is way better off course

Tetris, this was a remark by this poster, and a good point. Some of the better heals you mention, cannot be used on yourself, only on an "ally." Healing breeze is good since you can self heal with it, while heal other, vigirous spirit, etc... while very good, aren't able to be self casted.

I like using healing breeze because it's cast and forget. Skills that require timing keep my eyes and attention more divided. Still, cut me some slack, as I'm only lvl 15 and as better skills come along, this may well change!

All good points but in a bind healing breeze can give you a 10 second breather so you can focus on other healing targets thats what I find priceless about breeze. Being able to fire and forget for 10 seconds and get the other members of your party healed is a big help. I usually fire and forget breez on the tank and then focus on getting the poor caster that doesnt know how to shake aggro out of the mess they are in.

Healing breeze is an excellent damage sponge, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. On my monk the bottom two skills are Healing Breeze and Ressurect, Healing Breeze gives me tons of time to stand ressing someone.

I use Healing Breeze in conjunction with Orison Of Healing for pure healing though, not unlocked any better heals yet.

I use a rather unorthodox healing build. You can read about it at http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...251#post214251. Basically, it's an E/Mo whose skillset is:

Infuse Health
Ether Renewal {E}
Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze
Vigorous Spirit
Aura of Restoration
Armor of Earth
Vengeance

I use Healing Breeze because:

1) it can be self-cast, and I need all the self-healing I can get when using Infuse
2) it is an enchantment, so it feeds Ether Renewal
3) it is fast cast and fast cooldown, so it can be used effectively when under Ether Renewal
4) This build has nearly unlimited energy, so I can take advantage of the fast cast and fast cooldown to keep it up on much of the party
5) it is an enchantment, so it'll "shield" my other enchantments.
6) with Armor of Earth, damage over time scares me more than anything else since it bypasses my insane armor rating. Thus, healing over time is what I need.

Vigorous spirit isn't target other ally.

Vigorous spirit works amazing well for warrior monks in PvE, I find that it works better than mending for me. Along with a stance, I just keep gaining hp. However, blind counters it completely though. I don't get why all warrior monks like mending, there are other options. When I need to tank hard, I equip Vigorous Spirit, Live Vicariously, a defensive stance like Bonetti's, and Flurry (make's hp go up like crazy).

Ahhhh, thanks for the clarification!

Breeze is a great PvE heal. With a good enchanting part it'll heal for around 250 over its lifetime, making it very time and energy efficient. It's also self-cast, which is a big plus. Orison is nice spot heal, but it eats up a lot of time. You use it but it's just there as an all purpose tool when nothing else will work.

Seed is insane. Don't bother comparing it to something like Breeze or Orison - compare it to Shield of Regeneration and other elites. It compares favorably to most of 'em.

Peace,
-CxE

The first ally that -starts- taking damage, gets healng breeze [basically keeping his HP topped up over time] . Then i can temporarily focus my attention on someone else with Orison. Same applies if it's me being targeted. Running + Healing Breeze is pretty useful [so is resurrect+breeze as someone mentioned].

In fact i've used Infuse Health [200+ instant heal an ally, not sure what it is at rank 12, but i suspect it'll come close to 300-400?], and then Healing Breeze (and Trolls Unguent) while i make a run for it to good effect a few times :P

I got Healing Seed the other night. My fave new spell!

It's main use is for 100 hits of 20 dmg, not 1 hit of 100 dmg. V's Charr it just kicks butt! I can keep anyone alive with unlimited charr hitting them for an unlimited time. Then, I cast Balthazar's Aura on them, spweee!

Gladly.

You ARE wrong. It's 10 seconds of healing at +16 points per second. That's 160 health, which is more than Heal Other. I see I wasn't the first to make that point though.

Most noticeably, I think, Healing Breeze is a FaF type spell (fire and forget). I cast it on a warrior, and for 10 seconds, I don't have to worry about him (unless he's REALLY being mauled), giving me time to focus on others. I love healing breeze, personally.

Creston

Simply because if someone is targetting but has not yet lost much health, you can use healing breeze on him for anticipation for later attacks. Also, it is one of the few healing spells that you can use on yourself which is essential.

One thing I noticed the other day: Mend Condition is actually a more effective healing spell than Orison of Healing. You remove a negative condition and on top of that heal for 70 points. That's more healing than OoH, at the same cost of 5 energy.

The only problem I can see about it is that Mend Condition files under the Protection Prayers attribute, which most healers don't put as many points in as under Healing Prayers. And you can't use it on yourself.

And that balances it out again. Mend Ailment is very nice as well, can be cast on self, but requires at least a little condition stacking to start coughing up heals, so it's not really about which skill is better, but about which situation you're expecting. If you know someone else is going to take the pain, something like Word of Healing, Dwayna's Kiss, Heal Other etc. naturally have a higher healing efficiency than Orison of Healing.

This aspect of healing just further underlines why it's rather important to attack them first, in PvP or PvE situation: it's almost always easier for a monk to heal someone else than it is to heal him/herself.

You can run Divine Boon, then its Remove Cond + Self Included + Heal + More Heal if multiple Conditions. Works better that Mend Condition if there is a lot of condition stacking going on.

I think the bottom line is that all spells are situational and are meant to be coupled with other spells to work exponentially better.

Its really all about saving the monk!

When shit hits the monk fan (me or teammate) its nice to have an 'oh shit' chain to cast.

-Healing Breeze + Shield of Regen is a nice Stop Gap (can be self cast).

-Life Bond + Life Barrier + Life Attunement the main healing Monk (risky due to rend and shatter enchants, Blessed Sig helps wit NRG recovery) .

-Aegis + Guardian + Spell Breaker (covers all the bases).

-Divine Boon + all 5 energy Protect Spells is sick (Zealots Fire works nicely in here too).

-Covert Hexes + Spell Breaker (when that hexer is hell bent on stacking you up)

As a protect monk its almost essential (for UW/Fissure type PvE) to learn how to simultaneously run 7 enchants + be able to Aegis and RoF/Condition Removal/Protective Spirit.

Blessed Sig + Mantra of Inscriptions FTW.