Heal/Damage -- Solo/Group Flexibility

I'll apologize ahead of time if I'm asking for advice that's already been given. I've been reading these boards for at least a week, trying to gather as much information as possible before jumping into GW.

I've looked at pretty much every ready-made build listed within this site, and checked out a lot of the ideas submitted by people in the forums.

With that said, I have still been unable to learn the specifics that I'm looking for. As with every MMO I've ever played, I'll inevitably be drawn to the most flexible build I can create. The flexibility I'm looking for pertains to the ability to serve as a primary healer when it's called for, but swap out some skills and dish out some damage when my healing isn't required. Also, I'm looking for ideas that will make me versatile enough to be self-sufficient when it's time to solo, and still have what I need to fill my role in a group.

Obviously, if I want to ever serve as a primary healer, Monk will most likely need to be my primary class. The part I'm having trouble with is choosing a secondary class that will give me the sort of flexibility that I'm looking for.

Any advice you guys can throw my way would be very much appreciated.

Once you decide on what role you want to play you can pick a class and such - it also depends on what you want to do - in PvP the current accepted standard is to specialise (not saying that this is right, just the current way of thinking) and thus you don't want flexibility in your build, you want to do a job and do it well. A healer is a healer in PvP, not a healer/fire mage - now, you can try other techniques in PvP, but you'd need to do some neat work to get around that restriction. Since you can carry different skills though and alter your attributes as you would like provided you earn the refund points you could in theory play the same character two completely different ways in PvE and PvP.

So: Decide what you really want to do, then pick a secondary that helps that - all characters can solo to some extent anyway by mixing their skills around. As an example, not a suggestion - take a Monk/Elementalist with Healing, Divine Favour and Water as the three attributes. You can run this guy as a pure healer taking all healing skills, shifting your attributes around; you can run him as a defensive healer with a Ward and/or an armour from Water and 6 healing skills, or you can choose to take 4 monk heals/4 elementalist damage spells (Water trident etc...) skills along, and deal some damage while doing some healing. All possible with one character and very little fuss.

You might want to try E/Mo or R/Mo. R/Mo allows you to heal and deal ranged damage with a bow (also you'll have a pet if you want) and you still have 3 pips of energy regen. An E/Mo will have 4 pips and massive energy reserves.

Thanks a ton for the replies.

To clarify one thing, though - I'm not looking for versatility within a single mission or PvP encounter. When I'm with a group, I'll always find out what they need from me and set myself up to focus on meeting that need.

When I speak of diversity, I mean the ability to switch from one role to another between encounters. If I'm soloing, I need the ability to keep myself alive and deal enough damage to make solo play viable. This will require one sort of focus.

If I'm with a group, and they need a primary healer, then I need to be capable of setting up my skills in such a way that I do my job effectively. This is another, completely different focus on skills.

You get the point. I'm looking for a class combo that will allow me to shift my focus as needed by either myself or my group. I know that going into a mission with too much diversity in skills, and not enough focus, will just make me weak across the board.

So basically, I'm looking for the best class combo for someone who wants to be there for a group in need of a healer, while still being able to switch up skills and distribute the pain while soloing or joining a group that already has a primary healer.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lazzeryth

Wow, I forgot completely about the henchmen. Thanks a ton for reminding me about that.

I'm considering an Ele/Mo build. I won't be the best primary healer in the game, but I'll have a mana pool that makes up for my lessened efficiency, and gives me some pretty nasty damage options for when I want to solo or just play nuker for a group.

Thanks again for the replies. A game that's done such a great job of balancing classes is a double-edged sword. It opens up a TON of possibilities and leaves the choices squarely on your style. The downside, however, is that it opens up a TON of possibilities.

Decisions decisions.........