Heal Troubadour
A Giver's and Minstrel's Troubadour — the Mesmer support that actually heals, running three Tales on Rifle and Sword/Shield.
Raconteur makes every Tale a heal and a
Protection on top of whatever it already did, which puts the healing on your utility bar instead of burying it in trait procs. Rifle backs that up:
Friendly Fire heals allies on impact and
Singularity Shot lands
Resistance and barrier where you aim it.
Why these traits
Raconteur is the build. It turns all three Tales —
Tale of the Second Scion,
Tale of the Honorable Rogue,
Tale of the August Queen — into heals with
Protection attached, which is why the utility bar looks the way it does.
Life of the Party puts boons on everyone Lively Lute and
Crescendo touch, and
Altered Chord makes
Crescendo hit harder by letting your last-played instrument colour it, then refunds part of its recharge whenever you play an instrument that ate a note. In Chaos,
Chaotic Transference pays out when you pick up a chaos aura —
Tale of the August Queen is your source for one. The reliable cleanse is not a Chaos or Troubadour trait at all: it is
Mender's Purity, which fires a Lesser Power Cleanse every time you use a healing skill.
Gear reasoning
Giver's and Minstrel's with
Water — healing power plus boon duration, which is what the Tales and
Life of the Party both scale on.
Transference is the only piece here that raises outgoing healing (10% to other allies), so it sits on both sets.
Flock keys off the heal skill: press
Tale of the Second Scion and it heals you and nearby allies again, converting the overflow to barrier — and that same press also fires
Mender's Purity and
Metaphysical Rejuvenation. One button, four effects.
Frenzy and
Life fill the remaining slots off kills.
When not to run it
Ally
Stability here is one skill,
Mantra of Concentration, and nothing else — no trait, no weapon skill on Rifle, Sword or Shield gives it.
So if the fight is a stability war, Chronomancer brings the same mantra plus
Well of Precognition,
Time Warp and the
Quickness off
Seize the Moment. Troubadour is what you bring when the squad is dying, not when it is being pinned.