Is There A Healing Class?

Sorry i am new and plan to download the game tonight. If I like it I plan to buy. But I have always played the "Healer" role and wish to do so in this game as well. I was looking at the website and did not see "Healer" so I figured might as well ask.

I guess the Monk fits into the typical "Healer" role, but it is also possible to heal as a Ritualists.
Later in the game, some other classes are able as well, using their Secondary Profession.

hmm, thanks for the information. sorry about the dumb question. how many classes are there? i didnt see monk on the guildwars website

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oops just saw it....(i was on guildwars2 website) sorry about that

In the first game, "Prophecies", there are 6 professions, Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk and Necromancer. "Factions" adds the Assassin und Ritualist, while "Nightfall" adds the Paragon and Dervish.

didn't see the Edit :S

There are 10 total professions, the main two that have attribute trees dedicated to healing and protection are Monk and Ritualist, so you'll want to choose one of them.

Monk is generally seen as the main healer and is the most effective, but Ritualists are very excellent in their own right and are arguably much more diverse than Monks if you want to have more options available.

However Paragons, Dervishes, and Elementalists (and sometimes other professions) may take on healing/protection roles

I strongly disagree.

The only things ritualists have going for them are spirit spamming which is boring as hell and the fact that weapon spells cannot be removed like monk's enchantments can.

Monks are very good beginning healers as their attributes directly fall to Healing.

Ritualist's have a smaller array of abilities in their bag to pull from.

A Dervish can also provide really good team healing but is not as meta.

Necromancer/Ritualist have a good way to provide healing to the team.

The prime healing class would be monk. Though you might wanna consider starting a different profession.

A lot of starter content is now to be played alone. Though you get hero's/henchman (bots) to assist you, as the only human player in a party being the healer has some disadvantages. A monk can deal damage, but not as good as other professions.

Ritualists has the best of both sides imo. Using spirits you can be a good tank, deal lots of damage, but you can also switch to an healing role wich is on skills a bit more limited, but can heal as good as a monk can heal.

Unfortunally Ritualists can only start in factions. If your starting with the demo you can't create one.

Monk is THE healing class of GW.

yes Monks are the spiritual healer types of fiction and can also deal efficiently with undead.
You also have an secondary class that can be changed as often as you like during the game so can be more than a healer if you wish to.

This is kinda misleading since there's not really any class doing more different things in all of the high-end pve builds. SoS spirit spammers, DwG nukers, ST Shelter protectors, SoS/EoE bodyblockers.

I'm sorry - what exactly is misleading about non-removable weapon spells?

Oh and... Calling SoS build a "high-end pve build" is stretching it a bit too far. SoS is here so that our retarded cousins can play too. I thought I'd never see a build more lame and less skill oriented than IWAY but boy did SoS prove me wrong.

I love monk class in pvp.....I even have 2 "monk"s in my char name

but in pve monk... meh on you...

@Cataphract: I think you understand that the misleading part is saying spirit spamming is the only thing rits do, not the very clear fact that weapon spells are non-removable, just as you're saying. Sure one can say that placing spirits is the only thing they do but then you might as well say spellcasting is the only thing a mesmer does. =P

Also very true that SoS isn't a high-end build exclusively, but it's used in most of the elite areas team builds and are one of the jobs high-end rits do, even if it's simple.

Isn't SoS spamming the only thing ritualists do nowadays? Honestly.

When I PUG daily missions and quests with my ritu people force me to play SoS. My monk does not have that problem even though I never play HB/UA. In the mind of an average GW player Ritualist = SoS. My monk does not receive the amout of "abuse" my ritu does and I'm free to play full prot, hybrid or smiter.

Looking at local chat in starting outposts for daily missions and quests you get the feeling most people can't even go to the bathroom without a SoS ritu. One spirit to unzip them, one to wipe their ass and one to flush.

that is so gonna be my new sig. thanks Cataphract!!

But all this means is that rits have one super-overpowered build. It doesn't mean that they're one-trick pony, because quite a few other rit builds are merely overpowered. Unfortunately, when it gets down to finishing the mission and getting z-coins, most people will just refuse to party up with anyone who isn't purely min-maxed.

Monks, at one point, were in a similar situation, but they were saved with well-timed nerf to Seed of Life. If it weren't for that, it'd be perma-SoL or GTFO metagame now.

It's not overpowered, it's just handy. Summon Spirits is what makes spirits a bit harder to deal with. Previously, they were at the mercy of AoE damage but now it's oh so easy to move them out of it.

As for SoL - Monks have to be the most-nerfed profession in the game so far. I wonder has anyone done some research about nerf history, could be interesting. Anyway, it's a wonder SoL survived that long without a nerf. I still can't get over that WoH-no-lube-anal-rape update.

Monk or Ritualist then. After playing this game for 6 years I prefer playing a monk in PvP, but for PvE I much prefer a ritualist.

The monk (holy magic) is great in small groups, where every friendly character is in your party. Monk magic runs into limitations in PvE when you have a lot of friendlies outside the party (allies) and/or you face heavy enchantment stripping. Smiter's Boon is just about the most fun I can have on a PvE monk, I get to heal AND blow stuff up (PvP version is another story...)

The ritualist (spiritual magic) is supreme in an army. In higher end PvE it's common to have your party and a horde of allied creatures - summoned spirits, undead minions, summoned creatures and ranger pets. A ritualist has blanket heals that can heal the whole battlefield, and they have buffs that cannot be removed. Typically you'll be healing AND doing something else, like buffing attack characters and summoning creatures.

You can of course, play both. Check the wiki to see all the different armours and spells they have, or even better check the Screenshot Exposition here on Guru and lurk on the class forums.

To echo everyone else here:
The monk is the "Default" healing class. It is the best at hex removal, resurrecting other characters, smiting undead, and does a passable job healing damage and removing conditions. It is also commonly used to prevent damage with protection prayers; it is one of the best ways to do this in game. Its real weakness is how easy it is for a monk to run out of energy. A common way to counter-act this is to give him a Mesmer secondary, and load up on energy-stealing skills.

The Ritualist & Necromancer are also very common healing classes. The Ritualist is probably better at restoring life and removing conditions, and has a MUCH easier job preventing damage (though it may be less effective in the long run.) The necromancer can simply restore HP like nobody's business. These two both have effectively endless energy when used well.

It is reasonably common to see the Dervish used as a healer/condition remover; it can do either of these very well (but not both). It works largely through heavy use of side-effects of other abilities, and is not recommended for beginners.

Nearly any class can heal, given the way secondary professions work, but the above four will do best, and martial classes will not do particularly well, as they simply don't have enough energy.