Guild Wars 2

We all know aegis is able to block only 1 attack. This could be an auto attack or an attack that could save your kitten. With guardians, they have traits that supplement this but are not taken advantage of mainly because aegis is not something you can effectively build around nor is it quickly accessible.

My suggestion is to make aegis not absorb just a single blow anymore but when it’s active on the guardian or allies that it would be looked at as an absorption shield that requires x amount of damage to break. The catch is that it doesn’t stop condition effects from being applied but it does eat damage caused by conditions. CC effects would also go through but the attacks that cause the CC would be mitigated.

i.e. A warrior attacks the guardian with Earthshaker. Earthshaker does 3000 damage and causes 3 seconds of stun. The guardian’s aegis absorbs the 2000 of the 3000 damage and breaks but is still inflicted with the 3 second stun. To me this offers a more consistent amount of protection besides the warrior auto attacks for 950 damage, pops current aegis, then crushes your spine with a Backbreaker which knocks you down and does 3k damage. This will effectively reduce burst damage to a guardian for a short duration of time on a longer cooldown. Also, any abilities that proc such as Cloak and Dagger will still proc their effects but backstab will still go through but hit slightly lesser due to the damage absorption. A little give and take there.

The question you may be asking is, why do Guardians need even more ways to absorb damage? When I thought of this, to me, is was more for the group appeal in giving out this absorption shield but since the guardian has fallen down the totem pole in regards to effective regen capabilities and their low base health it seemed proper to give something to low base health classes a way to survive initial burst. Currently, warrior has great passive regen, good options to damage absorption if spec’d/traited stances, good condition cleanses shouts/wh(using soldier runes sadly), while still packing 50% or more offensive gear. Other light armored classes may have access to aegis but again it’s not worth it to them.

How do you balance something like this? Couple different ideas...
1. After aegis has been activated it will fall off after 5 seconds or if the damage cap is reached. Requires Aegis to take 1 damage to start timer (not affected by fall damage).
2. Procs when guardian receives a crit on a 30 second internal cooldown as long as VoC is not on cooldown.
3. The absorption amount is based off your total toughness. This will help with balancing full berserker guardians running around with protection, blocks, regen, and aegis.
4. The absorption amount is based off your total healing power allowing support/healing guardians do what they do best.
5. Aegis gives a flat amount, not based off anything nor is it affected by boon duration.
6. Shorter durations absorbing more damage or longer durations absorbing less. I prefer the shorter duration absorbing more.

---------------------------------------
Aegis - Absorb incoming damage for the next 5 seconds once at least 1 damage is received. Stacks only reset the duration and damage cap.

For Guardians, this is what VoC would look like:

Grants aegis every thirty seconds.
Activate: Grant aegis to yourself and four nearby allies.

Aegis: 10 s
Radius: 1,200
Cooldown: 60 seconds

------------------------------------------

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text. If you think this is a good idea please +1 it to get Anet’s attention. If you have something you wish to collaborate on with this idea, please post or give me a constructive reason why you disagree.

TL:DR - Change aegis to an absorption effect that absorbs x amount of damage in y seconds.

Following changes I would make include:

Traits that grant aegis:
Guardian - Protective Reviver (you and the ally you revive). Change protection to swiftness. It would be 10 seconds of regen, aegis, and swiftness.
Guardian - Pure of Voice (when removing burning). Makes sense still, no longer is fire burning your flesh but now you have a warming sensation absorbing damage.
Guardian - Valorous Defense (when your health reaches 50%). Adjust down to 25% health.
Warrior - Quick Breathing (when removing burning).
Engineer - Armor Mods (upon being critically hit). From a scientific/engineering standpoint, there was a cause and a reaction which caused aegis.
Mesmer - Prismatic Understanding (gain randomly when you are cloaked).

Traits that benefit from aegis:
Guardian - Unscathed Contender (increased damage). Finally, might be worth getting depending how long you can absorb damage and return it.
Guardian - Pure of Heart (heals upon removal). Depending on the heal amount, it might need an internal cooldown on the heal proc.
Guardian - Shattered Aegis (causes burning to enemies upon removal). Makes sense seeing Pure of Voice converts burning to aegis.
Guardian - Wrathful Spirit (grants retaliation upon removal). Honestly, wouldn’t mind this being removed. Guardian’s have access to enough retaliation as it is.

Aegis is fine. No need for buff.

runeblade.7514:

Aegis is fine. No need for buff.

You must have missed this, " If you have something you wish to collaborate on with this idea, please post or give me a constructive reason why you disagree."

You must have missed this, “Aegis is fine.”

It is balanced and has no need for buff.

Sorry but this raises some flags with me. How is this not Protection 2.0 with condi support? Also it sounds rather op’d giving guardians the ability to double layer it with protection.

Dual.8953:

Sorry but this raises some flags with me. How is this not Protection 2.0 with condi support? Also it sounds rather op’d giving guardians the ability to double layer it with protection.

See Rune, it’s possible to actually give constructive feedback on this.

Thanks for asking Dual. I do see your point. It was mainly there to assist with initial burst incoming as aegis is rather a worthless boon. VoC is a terrible virtue with an extremely long cooldown and refresh time to be worth a random hit from auto attack or a stray arrow. Not to mention the traits that could go along with it. I see your point in being Protection 2.0. Protection boon would need to come in second on the priority list when the user is attacked. You could double layer these but the time aegis is up, protection is actually worthless. The point of aegis is to soften the blow of a heavy burst attack. Aegis isn’t going to have a huge cap, maybe 2-3k if that, but it will reduce the damage of one heavy hit or multiple small ones. We were kicking ideas around in the guardian forums on how to make aegis worth something on the battlefield and another option was to proc either regen or protection after it is hit. This idea came from this post where we were trying to figure out to improve virtues, a weak class mechanic. The reason why I included condition damage being absorbed was because condition meta is rampant and a problem. Players can stack 1 primary stat to be extremely power. Yes there is condition removal and condition reduction food but on the flip side there are abilities, traits, toughness, and protection that all affect physical damage. Why is condition damage so special?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Time-to-buff-Virtue-of-Resolve/page/4#post3089402

This is only an idea/suggestion if it seems viable on paper and in practice.

Dual.8953:

Sorry but this raises some flags with me. How is this not Protection 2.0 with condi support? Also it sounds rather op’d giving guardians the ability to double layer it with protection.

Protection reduces enemies dps by 33%.

Aegis reduces enemies dps by 100% in the first attack.

See the difference?