Guild Wars 2

Would a universal block/guard mechanic improve the combat in any meaningful way? I want to say that it would. There are other action combat games that implement both a dodge and guard mechanic (tied either to a resource or freely available) like Monster Hunter, Phantasy Star Portable 2, and Ninja Gaiden. If Guild Wars 2 were to have a universal guard option for all classes, perhaps players using melee weapons could stay in the fray and up their dps if the situation warrants it instead of changing their position when it’s not needed.

A universal guard might also allow the devs to vary enemy skill sets to include skills that explicitly warrant getting outta the way and some that simply require a well timed guard.

Perhaps it’s just me missing the just guard mechanic from Phantasy Star Portable 2 when they added shields, but I think that in those games that have both guard and dodge that are semi-freely available you are usually forced to consider which to use and it’s that level of engagement on top of proper combat knowledge that makes fighting fun for me. I think that the universal dodge in GW2 is a big step in the right direction, but some part of me wonders why they didn’t borrow more from traditional action games.

Sadly I think the addition of this second universal mechanic would dramatically alter skill balance to such an extent that the dev team would probably need to devote significant resources to implementing it. Nonetheless, I was wondering if anyone else was having similar thoughts? I couldn’t find a similar topic when I used the search feature.

I don’t have a problem with a block mechanic.
It could be implemented as an alternative to dodge to give the players more freedom and options. They can both drain from your stamina so that would be fine I guess.
In some situation dodging and blocking can both be a solution, while in AOE-style problems blocking isn’t going to be very useful (i.e. blocking doesn’t make sense when you’re standing in the fire). Still it gives you options and options are good.
Possibly dodge can be a full damage evasion while block can simple reduce the damage (by some percentage) as you’d probably be able to block a lot longer than you could dodge.

But at present I still feel as if something is wrong with the dodge mechanic (can’t really but my finger on it other than to say it feels rather broken). I’d rather like them to fix that first though (if there’s a problem and it’s not all in my head).