Just exactly what is "sustain?"

[Zdac.3947]

Forgive me for being ignorant, but I'm having trouble grasping the use of this word. There are no skills/abilities called sustain, nor is there a wiki page for it. I understand Webster's definition of the word but what does it mean in GW2?

[Teratus.2859]

Sustain is pretty much any regular incoming healing like Lifestealing, or on crit healing or gaining health from applying certain boons to yourself etc

Gw2 has several different methods of this.

 

Sustain is also usually accompanied by tanky stats or a lot of damage mitigation to give you the ability to outheal a lot of incoming damage, making you difficult to kill.

[Josiah.2967]

Sustained DPS refers to DPS dealt over an extended period of time.

Burst DPS refers to DPS dealt in a short period of time.

 

Longer fights where you can constantly attack the target tend to prefer sustain builds.

Short fights and longer fights with short attack windows tend to prefer burst builds.

 

I hope that helps!

[Virdo.1540]

Can also be called "tanky-ness" or survivability

Just about how much damage u can absorb and how good u can regenerate your health.

 

 

[Blocki.4931]

Sustain in general refers to how well characters can shake off or heal back damage without dying. It can be direct health healed or barrier and thus damage absorbed or even having access to a lot of dodges/invulnerability in combination with those.

[Infusion.7149]

The ability to survive attacks. Passive would be damage reduction , virtue of resolve/scrapper barrier generation, and traits that trigger on 50/75% health or on incoming CC , while active would include heals and skills that reduce damage in some other way such as block/evade, barrier , aegis, or Rite of the Great Dwarf.

[Zdac.3947]

Those are all good answers. I had an inkling, but needed some on to verbalize it for me. I have a much better understanding now. Thank you all very much.

[otto.5684]

> @"Zdac.3947" said:

> Forgive me for being ignorant, but I'm having trouble grasping the use of this word. There are no skills/abilities called sustain, nor is there a wiki page for it. I understand Webster's definition of the word but what does it mean in GW2?

 

It is GW2 slang for survivability. It is your ability to "sustain" damage and not get downed. It is a combination of hit points, toughness, healing power, healing skill(s), dodge roll, blocks, evades and some boons (regeneration, protection and resistance).

[Psycoprophet.8107]

Sustain means the ability to stay engaged actively in a engagement. Sustained damage is the ability to deal damage over time within a engagement through multiple effective damage dealing skills vs burst which uses a couple quick high damaging skills but doesn't have the ability to keep the significant damage going for the duration that a class with sustained damage could, but the burst is usually higher damage spike than that of a sustained damage dealer could do. Unless ur talking gw2 where sustained damage classes can match or somtimes even out burst the burst specs or vice versa lol one of many reasons there is really zero balance in this game.

[Excursion.9752]

Sustain means to me being able to take copious amounts of damage without being killed.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"otto.5684" said:

> > @"Zdac.3947" said:

> > Forgive me for being ignorant, but I'm having trouble grasping the use of this word. There are no skills/abilities called sustain, nor is there a wiki page for it. I understand Webster's definition of the word but what does it mean in GW2?

>

> It is GW2 slang for survivability. It is your ability to "sustain" damage and not get downed. It is a combination of hit points, toughness, healing power, healing skill(s), dodge roll, blocks, evades and some boons (regeneration, protection and resistance).

 

I don't think it's just GW2 slang. I've heard it used in a few different games, although with slightly different meanings depending on the game. For example in Elder Scrolls Online sustain usually refers to being able to maintain or rapidly regenerate your magicka or stamina without having to leave combat. Which is the same general idea as in this game - making sure you're able to keep fighting as long as necessary - it's just that in ESO you're more likely to run out of resources to cast your skills than to run out of health so that's the main concern.

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > @"otto.5684" said:

> > > @"Zdac.3947" said:

> > > Forgive me for being ignorant, but I'm having trouble grasping the use of this word. There are no skills/abilities called sustain, nor is there a wiki page for it. I understand Webster's definition of the word but what does it mean in GW2?

> >

> > It is GW2 slang for survivability. It is your ability to "sustain" damage and not get downed. It is a combination of hit points, toughness, healing power, healing skill(s), dodge roll, blocks, evades and some boons (regeneration, protection and resistance).

>

> I don't think it's just GW2 slang. I've heard it used in a few different games, although with slightly different meanings depending on the game. For example in Elder Scrolls Online sustain usually refers to being able to maintain or rapidly regenerate your magicka or stamina without having to leave combat. Which is the same general idea as in this game - making sure you're able to keep fighting as long as necessary - it's just that in ESO you're more likely to run out of resources to cast your skills than to run out of health so that's the main concern.

Which makes GW2 actually different in that the word" sustain" here is at least as often used for dps (as short for "sustained dps" mentioned in the second of answer-tagged posts) as is for survivability.

 

[Teratus.2859]

Glad this got so many different responses.

 

It highlights what I said about Gw2 having many different ways you can build sustain builds in this game.

 

Im not majorly experienced with all the classes, only a handful tend to be regulars for me but im pretty sure there's ways to build sustain or at least fairly sustainy builds for pretty much every class in the game.

Skills and Traits are where you'll mostly find that potential, look for something your class does very well defensively.

Necro's can get a lot of lifesteal, through minions and vampire like skills and traits.

Warriors can shout heal and gain health though might spam and crits.

Thieves can get health through critical hits, evades and spending initiative.

 

Usually if there are multiple options then taking them all can result in some pretty heavy sustain potential, can speak from experience on a Lifesteal focused Reaper Minion MAster running Soldier stats.. very.. very tanky/sustainy because there's just so much lifesteal coming in from your attacks, dagger 2 and minions and it's toughness/vitality stats + Shroud give it a massive health pool with really high armour to diminish incoming damage.

It's damage isn't totally destroyed as it would be on a pure tank either which makes it decent enough for PvE content if you want something practically unkillable and easy to play.

 

I enjoy making sustain builds myself, the above mentioned Necro MM i've been running since before there were expansions in Gw2, before it was upgraded to a Reaper lol.

Long time that build has been a personal favourite and allowed me to solo a lot of this games strongest PvE foes including legendary bounties etc.

At least once a year I'll try to pick a fight with the Grand Viscount and the Labyrinth Horror on Halloween at the same time and kill them both.. that's a lot of fun to do but high risk of others getting involved so I don't always get my solo kill but I have done it solo a few times just for fun.

 

[Jimbru.6014]

Sustain is essentially the ability to soak damage in longer fights. Heal scourges specialize in group sustain, aiding groups via barriers and various forms of healing over time -- vampirism and other benefits of the Blood tree, regen from Mark of Blood, ticking heals from Garish Pillar, and so forth, which in turn makes the main healers' jobs easier.