Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I just got kicked from a dungeon, which was almost completed I might add, for using the Hounds of Balthazar elite skill on my guardian. I found this pretty funny, but as far as I can see there is no reason this would cause a problem, I only use it at bosses and they are always dead before we move on so they don’t cause a problem with aggro. I use it because it’s a fun skill, but clearly playing a video game isn’t about having fun /sarcasm/. Can you guys suggest a reason as to why it’s such an awful skill that it’s worth kicking someone from a dungeon, and maybe an elite skill that wouldn’t get me kicked?

Renewed Focus.

Are you sure it was your elite skill that caused it? You don’t perchance use Staff as a DPS weapon, or use cleric’s/pvt gear and 0/0/30/30/10 AH build, do you?

As for the why: Renewed Focus gives you an extra potential group aegis/group condition cleanse/aoe blind.

DigitalKirin.9714:

Renewed Focus.

Are you sure it was your elite skill that caused it? You don’t perchance use Staff as a DPS weapon, or use cleric’s/pvt gear and 0/0/30/30/10 AH build, do you?

Ahaha :P I run full zerkers GS, Hammer, Sceptre/Focus for ranged and hybrid tank/dmg traits (can’t remember what exactly). But one of them asked, “who’s dogs were they” after we killed one of the bosses, and as soon as I said “mine” they kicked me.

Renewed Focus is what I thought I probably should use, but for fun I use HoB. Is it really that bad, I rarely die anyway so don’t see the need for RF most of the time?

I agree that certain battles can be over so quickly RF isn’t even needed.

Therefore, I don’t think using HoB is such a big deal unless it screws up the stacking.

Anyway, in such a case, consider perhaps using ToW 3 & 4 instead of HoB. But maybe the difference will be minimal if the team DPS is so high.

/shrug depends on the party temperament. I wouldn’t kick someone for using it, but then again, I wasn’t in the group.

Utility-wise, which is probably what they were concerned with, you should ask yourself, what do Hounds REALLY do to help the party? If you’re looking to use them for a bit of fun, I’d suggest finding a more casual group to use them in. Sometimes that isn’t just the comments, but also the “vibe” or feeling you get from running with them. Either way, I’d take this as a lesson that maybe cost you a gold or two. Pretty cheap compared to what some people pay.

I think those people were more inbetweeners than elitists. If you’re truly an elitist, why PUG in the first place? Or if you’re an elitist looking to PUG, what is it that you don’t already know about the state and probabilities of a PUG gameplay?

I once PUGed in SE p1 and just realised something was amiss when the golem part took longer than expected (I thought they were focusing on the adds; turns out not only that, but one Mes decided to use GS for the whole time and the Guardian uses the Sceptre).

Since we didn’t wipe at Nokk, I decided to stay but persuaded my party to stack at the other side when I told them that we won’t have enough DPS with two people ranging (kinda gave up on telling range-ers to melee).

I just thought this would be faster than to look for another PUG whose quality could be as suspect.

PUGers that play properly kinda spoil you a little bit lol. Ideally, you kinda try to make the best out of a situation. I would rather take the initiative to ask if someone is new and teach them the fight when you realise something is a bit funny than kicking them straight away.

Honestly, though. Unless it’s a wipe or they fail to follow instructions, it’s sort of a bit much for PUG unless the lfg states it more clearly. It’s more annoying when you write exp 80s and you get first timers who clearly didn’t care about the lfg desc.

Jacob.2746:

DigitalKirin.9714:

Renewed Focus.

Are you sure it was your elite skill that caused it? You don’t perchance use Staff as a DPS weapon, or use cleric’s/pvt gear and 0/0/30/30/10 AH build, do you?

Ahaha :P I run full zerkers GS, Hammer, Sceptre/Focus for ranged and hybrid tank/dmg traits (can’t remember what exactly). But one of them asked, “who’s dogs were they” after we killed one of the bosses, and as soon as I said “mine” they kicked me.

Renewed Focus is what I thought I probably should use, but for fun I use HoB. Is it really that bad, I rarely die anyway so don’t see the need for RF most of the time?

Racial elites are generally bad except maybe Bear Form, now you gotta ask yourself, does choosing a bad skill over a good one make you bad?

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

Whenever I see an improper skill is used, I’ll think that person is trying to troll me. I have short temper with pugs. If I was in the group, I wouldn’t kick anyone but rather forfeit that instance.

You peoples are way to strict for nothing… Idk if its because you guys are on europe or something but on NA we dont kick people just for using hound of baltazar or a non meta build. Again if you join a team that says ‘’meta only’’ its prety obvious in the title that you aint supose to use anything but the meta, as such dont bother joining those people and just pug it with random people, especialy if its a dungeon because your prety much not saving any time joining those team anyway.

Quickest way to get a dungeon done? Post lfm ’’dungeon’’ in the lfg take the 4 first randomer you find and do it simple as that, dungeons by default are so easy it doesnt take an asura Genius to complete (forgive the pun my fellow asura) within half the time it wouldve take that full zerker team to even get assembled in the first place. Builds dont define one skills its the actual ability to play it right and get things done that do and if you think running HoB is what your confortable with there is no reason why you shouldnt be able to.

If the fight will be over before Renewed Focus is worth it and you don’t need extra condy removal then you should consider trying Tome of Wrath. Zealot’s Fervor (4 skill) is like a “mini timewarp” so 5 second of quickness on your party, pop it then drop the book.

That said it’s not really a kickable offence if it wasn’t a “meta builds only” group. I’ve used them in the past at Old Tom to stand behind but they don’t work as well as Asura elite golems.

You did nothing wrong Jacob. The hound is a bad skill, but if it wasn’t a full zerker speed run, its doesn’t change anything.

Sounds like they were just dongs. As long as the run was still going smoothly, who cares if you want to have a bit of fun?

kyubi.3620:

You peoples are way to strict for nothing… Idk if its because you guys are on europe or something but on NA we dont kick people just for using hound of baltazar or a non meta build. Again if you join a team that says ‘’meta only’’ its prety obvious in the title that you aint supose to use anything but the meta, as such dont bother joining those people and just pug it with random people, especialy if its a dungeon because your prety much not saving any time joining those team anyway.

Quickest way to get a dungeon done? Post lfm ’’dungeon’’ in the lfg take the 4 first randomer you find and do it simple as that, dungeons by default are so easy it doesnt take an asura Genius to complete (forgive the pun my fellow asura) within half the time it wouldve take that full zerker team to even get assembled in the first place. Builds dont define one skills its the actual ability to play it right and get things done that do and if you think running HoB is what your confortable with there is no reason why you shouldnt be able to.

kitten stop speaking for NA like you know everyone here, and stop generalizing EU as all meta running kittens. Half the people posting in this thread calling Hounds stupid are from NA.

Anyway, OP, I would lol if I saw Hounds and roll my eyes, especially since guardians have a really nice real option for an elite. Super over the top to kick for it, but if it was an advertised speed run, it’s a bit rude to use silly things when the expectation is high performance.

Performance required in party is variable. Most people definition of performance is not behing a jerk or constantly agroing everything to the party dismay or at least thats the case for most pug you will encounter. If you are in a premade however or a meta team you are expected to do your very best. Ive been using ’’stupid’’ elite sometimes and while this isnt 100% party friendly people in pug dont actualy care what build you are using long as you dont fail at using it. Ive never been kicked from a party for not behing meta :/ or for running pets or anything else talked about on this forum god knows ive even ran bearbow once to try it out, as a general rule long as you join random pugs with no specific you shouldnt have this problem.

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

I run in a fairly elitist dungeon group and sometimes our guardian WILL use dogs. Renewed focus doesn’t do damage. Things that don’t do damage are bad in really fast speed runs. So screw those guys!

If you ask me dogs deal more damage than renewed focus and subsequent virtues. Keep hounding ’em

RemiRome.8495:

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

With absolute resolution traited the f2 is very useful in condition heavy encounters.

Adam.4103:

RemiRome.8495:

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

With absolute resolution traited the f2 is very useful in condition heavy encounters.

I know. Shame somalia didn’t give examples of actual uses for them instead of the crap he did mention.

The Hounds of Balthazar aren’t bad DPS and Guardians don’t have much alternative options when Renewed Focus isn’t needed. So I think there’re must have been another reason for kicking you, either they’re grievers, wanted to give your spot away or it was ‘the last drop’ assuming you pulled more things they didn’t like. It’s a kittenty reason eitherway to kick a pug and I’d say try to forget it and move on.

RemiRome.8495:

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

You underestimate how many crutches some pugs need. Have you wiped on the trash pre Icewolf CoE?

Because pugs can, and will, and do. Blind rotations are the only thing keeping them from getting knocked and eaten alive when the DPS is that bad — and it can easily be that bad when the majority mentality is “why should I wear zerk it doesn’t make that big of a difference”, and honestly, just more of the same old unimaginable tripe, on and on.

I pug almost exclusively, while (somewhat contradictory to that) being a proponent of optimal building play, so I have plenty of my own experiences to back up justification for otherwise negligible contributions like 2k heal (or the cleanse), or a SINGLE extra blind before the trash starts dominoing to start spamming Justice.

Don’t even get me started on something like Rumblus… if I could pay cash money, ACTUAL DOLLARS, for instant cooldowns, I would spend the entire fight spamming F2, F3.

They are that bad and in no context could I ever justify even “having fun” with Hounds.

In fact, reminiscing upon how many groups I’ve had actually disband at Arah P2 spider run since the WP “fix,” I’d be especially disheartened to see a couple Hounds Of Balthazar fighting alongside the party at Belka, knowing full well how useful two blinds, two cleanses and heals, and two blocks would be to escort the pugs that need all the help they can get through that segment. (And of course, you could just solo Abom, but half of them will practically froth at the mouth that they don’t get the opportunity to rebalance the economy with their repair bill than wait a few minutes and take the next waypoint. Trust.)

RemiRome.8495:

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

Are you serious? An extra blind allow a fiery rush or an 100 Blades to be completed without a dodge, lose of dps or simply getting hits, with is nice when you want your Rune of Scholar to trigger.

The F2 heal is free. You don’t sacrifice DPS for it, you simply use it again to keep your party at 90% to trigger the rune of scholar.

Why kitten about 2 free skill? I don’t get it.

I think hes more getting at the fact that blind is useless on bosses and on trash mobs its going to be refreshing every kill anyway. You dont need renewed to spam blinds. The only reason for it is to recharge condi cleanse and/or aegis.

And hounds are op. I certainly wouldnt kick some1 for using them.

OldSomalia.6180:

RemiRome.8495:

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

You underestimate how many crutches some pugs need. Have you wiped on the trash pre Icewolf CoE?

Because pugs can, and will, and do. Blind rotations are the only thing keeping them from getting knocked and eaten alive when the DPS is that bad — and it can easily be that bad when the majority mentality is “why should I wear zerk it doesn’t make that big of a difference”, and honestly, just more of the same old unimaginable tripe, on and on.

I pug almost exclusively, while (somewhat contradictory to that) being a proponent of optimal building play, so I have plenty of my own experiences to back up justification for otherwise negligible contributions like 2k heal (or the cleanse), or a SINGLE extra blind before the trash starts dominoing to start spamming Justice.

Don’t even get me started on something like Rumblus… if I could pay cash money, ACTUAL DOLLARS, for instant cooldowns, I would spend the entire fight spamming F2, F3.

They are that bad and in no context could I ever justify even “having fun” with Hounds.

In fact, reminiscing upon how many groups I’ve had actually disband at Arah P2 spider run since the WP “fix,” I’d be especially disheartened to see a couple Hounds Of Balthazar fighting alongside the party at Belka, knowing full well how useful two blinds, two cleanses and heals, and two blocks would be to escort the pugs that need all the help they can get through that segment. (And of course, you could just solo Abom, but half of them will practically froth at the mouth that they don’t get the opportunity to rebalance the economy with their repair bill than wait a few minutes and take the next waypoint. Trust.)

…why not join a dungeon guild then? Death and Taxes is recruiting right now.

Also, why would you need to disband an Arah p2 group at spider skip? All you do is make sure you don’t host the instance, solo abomination (I have literally never had a group stuck on the skip complain that I have done this), kill/solo Lupicus, switch (if not already) to a reflect class for Alphard and then wait for someone to get to Brie (or log to a thief and escort them).

HoB isn’t a great elite. RF is what you want on the bar most of the time and in some areas Tome of Wrath. Still, those guys were a bit out of line. I don’t know what they advertised for but if they had a problem with you, they should have kicked you from the start. If they didn’t ask you your bar, they should have just sucked it up. Very poor form to kick someone farther into the run if you need to find a PuG.

If they were actually serious about their times, they wouldn’t have played with PuGs.

I use hounds at lupi!
Come at me brah

Anyone should have the right to play how they want. If the party description doesnt say ‘’meta only’’ your prety much free to run anything long as its in accordance with the description and no one should have a say into forcing you to play how they want you to play out of the boundary of the party description. By not writing zerker only or meta only you selfdom accept and asume you arent 100% sure to get a meta player or even a glass cannon in the first place as well as its many possible consequance.

Still a little acomodation is never a bad idea when in a bad situation. If some player subjest i use a specific utility for a fight so to make life easyer for everyone i dont mind switching one or two spells out temporarily then revert to my normal specialisation after the thing is done. Your free to decline but its never a bad idea to lend a ear and listen because sometime other players can have a very good idea and a ‘’please can you do this for us’’ is always a sunshine.

it could have been they used you to get through, so that they could invite one of their guildies or friends- its not uncommon or unheard of.

IrisTheCasual.3742:

Whenever I see an improper skill is used, I’ll think that person is trying to troll me.

That doesn’t sound at all paranoid or unreasonable.

hendo.1940:

OldSomalia.6180:

RemiRome.8495:

OldSomalia.6180:

“Why would I want to give my party an extra blind, F2 heal, or Aegis when I could PLAY WITH MY DOGS?” That’s how I see it.

That said, I wouldn’t kick or really even care, but I would think it was stupid if I saw it.

extra blind – lol
f2 heal – really?
aegis – sure

1 out of 3 ain’t bad.

You underestimate how many crutches some pugs need. Have you wiped on the trash pre Icewolf CoE?

Because pugs can, and will, and do. Blind rotations are the only thing keeping them from getting knocked and eaten alive when the DPS is that bad — and it can easily be that bad when the majority mentality is “why should I wear zerk it doesn’t make that big of a difference”, and honestly, just more of the same old unimaginable tripe, on and on.

I pug almost exclusively, while (somewhat contradictory to that) being a proponent of optimal building play, so I have plenty of my own experiences to back up justification for otherwise negligible contributions like 2k heal (or the cleanse), or a SINGLE extra blind before the trash starts dominoing to start spamming Justice.

Don’t even get me started on something like Rumblus… if I could pay cash money, ACTUAL DOLLARS, for instant cooldowns, I would spend the entire fight spamming F2, F3.

They are that bad and in no context could I ever justify even “having fun” with Hounds.

In fact, reminiscing upon how many groups I’ve had actually disband at Arah P2 spider run since the WP “fix,” I’d be especially disheartened to see a couple Hounds Of Balthazar fighting alongside the party at Belka, knowing full well how useful two blinds, two cleanses and heals, and two blocks would be to escort the pugs that need all the help they can get through that segment. (And of course, you could just solo Abom, but half of them will practically froth at the mouth that they don’t get the opportunity to rebalance the economy with their repair bill than wait a few minutes and take the next waypoint. Trust.)

…why not join a dungeon guild then? Death and Taxes is recruiting right now.

Also, why would you need to disband an Arah p2 group at spider skip? All you do is make sure you don’t host the instance, solo abomination (I have literally never had a group stuck on the skip complain that I have done this), kill/solo Lupicus, switch (if not already) to a reflect class for Alphard and then wait for someone to get to Brie (or log to a thief and escort them).

Why would I disband? I don’t disband, but I’m serious in saying I’ve had numerous experiences wherein all it took was for a single person to get frustrated in their inability to do the spider trash run to leave, demoralizing/compounding that same mentality in the other three incompetents, and before you know it, one more drops, then another, then other, and I’m posting the ad again.

I’ve seen plenty of disbands at Tar when I was hiring pugs just to do the boss kill because they can’t do the Ooze → Tar trash run, and even in one instance, the group fully disintegrated because I wasn’t looking for a fifth (who would?). A potential “employee” on that run somehow deduced from my refusal to post for a 5th, “Oh, you’re a scammer,” and left the party, and then one more, and then one more, and then one more…

As for a dungeon guild, I was in LOD for the 5 years leading up to it’s current implosion, and I still barely ran any content with them in this game… I honestly just don’t care. I could give you any reason in the world but two things that it really boils down to are that, as much as I will ever complain about pugs being pugs, I actually like pugging in silence and on whatever class I feel like playing, more than I like being tethered to using a VoIP and re-rolling around the rest of the party comp, even if pugs will occasionally build and act in the most stupid of ways.

I would agree that HoB probably isn’t the best elite skill but to be kicked for that.. after killing a boss is a bit harsh. Did it say speed run or something like that? Also if you are almost done, that’s just a crappy thing to do unless the person is intentionally trolling.. which maybe the party thought you were doing that, maybe?

Anyways, there are people who would abuse the system to be an * about it. Chalk it up to part of pugging. I didn’t think you would be bad for that.. I mean if you were contributing the whole time which from the sound of it.. you were.

I don’t like putting speed or zerk on my description. A guild mate put it up before I got a chance to asking for zerkers. We were doing pretty good damage, I mean I didn’t see any problem with it but one zerker commented on that one person wasn’t zerker and wasn’t doing enough damage. I have no idea what he was talking about since we were killing everything so quickly and then he comments on my guild mate being an engi. Mind you, this guild mate’s ap is around 1300 and he’s doing very well in them. Engi just happens to be his first toon. I so wanted to roll my eyes.. I think you will find the extreme people who take this way too seriously and can’t lighten up.

It’s always possible they were fed up with you at that point and HoB was just the last drop. Underperforming guardians can be the most frustrating thing in this game. Leaving shaite like staff auto attacking aside, running a dungeon run with a guardian and not getting a single WoR when it’s needed, missing aegis timing horrendously. Dying to conditions while the guard is happily sitting on his VoR cooldown watching his HP tick up little by little ect. can turn a saint into a demon. Trust me on this.

It’s easier for people to forgive a bad thief, or a bad ele, maybe even a bad warrior, but for god’s sake, no matter what you do, never EVER do badly as a guardian or ranger. People will eat you alive.

Silferas.3841:

It’s always possible they were fed up with you at that point and HoB was just the last drop. Underperforming guardians can be the most frustrating thing in this game. Leaving shaite like staff auto attacking aside, running a dungeon run with a guardian and not getting a single WoR when it’s needed, missing aegis timing horrendously. Dying to conditions while the guard is happily sitting on his VoR cooldown watching his HP tick up little by little ect. can turn a saint into a demon. Trust me on this.

It’s easier for people to forgive a bad thief, or a bad ele, maybe even a bad warrior, but for god’s sake, no matter what you do, never EVER do badly as a guardian or ranger. People will eat you alive.

That’s true.. a bad guardian is terrible. but he said in his previous post

“Ahaha :P I run full zerkers GS, Hammer, Sceptre/Focus for ranged and hybrid tank/dmg traits (can’t remember what exactly).”

So he seems to know what he’s doing.. and isn’t one of those cleric, AH staff camping guard. Regardless a kick of beginning of dungeon would be justifiable.. but almost at the end. I would have suffered through it. His use of HoB didn’t justify a kick imo.. if that is all he did to get the kick.

Some people just have this odd mentality that they have to kick if they see even the slightest non-meta thing appear off of your skill bar. I’ll assume that you’re telling the truth and didn’t do anything to knowingly aggravate the party, in which case you just got unlucky and ended up in a party of tryhard farmers.

question, was the people who kicked/in the run comprised of mostly guild members?

xallever.1874:

I think those people were more inbetweeners than elitists. If you’re truly an elitist, why PUG in the first place? Or if you’re an elitist looking to PUG, what is it that you don’t already know about the state and probabilities of a PUG gameplay?

I once PUGed in SE p1 and just realised something was amiss when the golem part took longer than expected (I thought they were focusing on the adds; turns out not only that, but one Mes decided to use GS for the whole time and the Guardian uses the Sceptre).

Since we didn’t wipe at Nokk, I decided to stay but persuaded my party to stack at the other side when I told them that we won’t have enough DPS with two people ranging (kinda gave up on telling range-ers to melee).

I just thought this would be faster than to look for another PUG whose quality could be as suspect.

PUGers that play properly kinda spoil you a little bit lol. Ideally, you kinda try to make the best out of a situation. I would rather take the initiative to ask if someone is new and teach them the fight when you realise something is a bit funny than kicking them straight away.

Honestly, though. Unless it’s a wipe or they fail to follow instructions, it’s sort of a bit much for PUG unless the lfg states it more clearly. It’s more annoying when you write exp 80s and you get first timers who clearly didn’t care about the lfg desc.

What I find the most obnoxious is when those who wrote the LFG themselves are noobs or non-80s. Some people think their friend can bring whatever trash to the dungeon while the rest of team can be perfect. It’s something I don’t accept. If your friend wants to bring that, you make a LFG which allow other people to do the same, or force your friend to match your description.
But honestly. A guardian..alright, it’s not the end of the world to use such skill, as mentioned, RF is so often useless for fights go fast and easy that it doesn’t really add too much to the team. (Too much, but it’s always good to have that extra aegis-cond remover) I get more annoyed when I see mesmers around using Mistfire wolf instead of Time Wrap…and there are…more than you think..
As for the team being right or not to kick you, it depends on what they asked for. If they claimed experience…meant as experience in playing your profession, not just know the path, then they had the right to. (I don’t want to be mean, but as mentioned even ToW is better than HoB.)
All I can suggest you is: to have fun, either you make your own lfg and ask for relaxed/fun people (Add a/:)/=)/^^) or just keep it for when doing some event in PvE, where no one can harm you

They were just kittens. No other way to put it. Yes, hounds of balthazar is a bad skill. Not a reason for kicking though. Renewed focus isn’t that great either. Tome of wrath is far better but no one uses that because it’s harder to do so. Conditions aren’t that prevalent and other classes like mesmer can contribute to condi removal. The extra aegis is nice but 5s of party-wide quickness(besides other stuff) is nicer.

Elitism. People follow the meta so blindly, they even enforce it on everyone when it doesn’t really matter.
If it was some organized, record-breaking speedrun you were going for, it would be perfectly logical that your team would require you to use the most effective Elite. However, I really doubt that using HoB was that tragic in your situation. And furthermore, kicking you immediately is absolutely unacceptable. They could have just asked you to change it, if they just really wanted you to use something else to feed their moronic sense of elitism.

Axelwarrior.9084:

Elitism. People follow the meta so blindly, they even enforce it on everyone when it doesn’t really matter.
If it was some organized, record-breaking speedrun you were going for, it would be perfectly logical that your team would require you to use the most effective Elite. However, I really doubt that using HoB was that tragic in your situation. And furthermore, kicking you immediately is absolutely unacceptable. They could have just asked you to change it, if they just really wanted you to use something else to feed their moronic sense of elitism.

Can’t let standards slide. If we tolerate the knights players too much, what happens then? We let the valks in? Before long we have fear spam minion master necros and cleric guardians running around with their staffs healing and supporting the bearbow trap ranger. No thief stealth skips because that’s an exploit.

Oh wait, I already get that garbage in my normal pug runs…

I have no problems with people just wanting to play the game with others who know that the pants go over the legs and not on the head.

I had a 5 Necro run through TA the other day. Soooo many minions. Soooo much meatshielding. It was hilarious. XD “Who needs Guardians when we have 5 Flesh Golems?”

I can’t remember the last time I ever used an elite skill on my Guardian. I just spam skill 1,2,4 and 5 of greatsword while activating the first virtue whenever it is up for the burning and use shouts, reflect and the other virtues to help the team when needed. I find this is more effective than using the elites which take up skill slots. In fact I was thinking of buying the Deluxe upgrade option from the Gem store just so I could use the Wolf summon elite for extra dps on my guardian.

@Sundar: do you never run high level fractals? If yes then you are doing it wrong. In fractals (especially mossman, archdiviner ect.) you should be aegis tanking the strong bosses, keeping them on you for as long as possible while your team is dealing damage (since there is no aggro mechanic it’s not really tanking, but having full ascended armor really helps for some reason). And your elite serves just that reason. An invul in place of an aegis that is on cooldown and aegis/VoR refresh for condi cleansing (another important aspect of it). Guardians shouldn’t use those skills just for themselves.

Sundar.1735:

I can’t remember the last time I ever used an elite skill on my Guardian. I just spam skill 1,2,4 and 5 of greatsword while activating the first virtue whenever it is up for the burning and use shouts, reflect and the other virtues to help the team when needed. I find this is more effective than using the elites which take up skill slots. In fact I was thinking of buying the Deluxe upgrade option from the Gem store just so I could use the Wolf summon elite for extra dps on my guardian.

You should try following Nemesis’ guide, it might suit you well

Sundar.1735:

I find this is more effective than using the elites which take up skill slots.

If I may ask, what do you use for skill #0 instead of an elite skill? O.o

I’m about 95% sure he’s joking.

Sundar.1735:

I can’t remember the last time I ever used an elite skill on my Guardian. I just spam skill 1,2,4 and 5 of greatsword while activating the first virtue whenever it is up for the burning and use shouts, reflect and the other virtues to help the team when needed. I find this is more effective than using the elites which take up skill slots. In fact I was thinking of buying the Deluxe upgrade option from the Gem store just so I could use the Wolf summon elite for extra dps on my guardian.

Quoted for satire.

Jacob.2746:

DigitalKirin.9714:

Renewed Focus.

Are you sure it was your elite skill that caused it? You don’t perchance use Staff as a DPS weapon, or use cleric’s/pvt gear and 0/0/30/30/10 AH build, do you?

Ahaha :P I run full zerkers GS, Hammer, Sceptre/Focus for ranged and hybrid tank/dmg traits (can’t remember what exactly). But one of them asked, “who’s dogs were they” after we killed one of the bosses, and as soon as I said “mine” they kicked me.
Renewed Focus is what I thought I probably should use, but for fun I use HoB. Is it really that bad, I rarely die anyway so don’t see the need for RF most of the time?

" group aegis/group condition cleanse/aoe blind" – thats what she said. Using group support utilities is not about you not dieing.

a lot of ppl can call me “elitist”. if someone use hounds, ill ask him “why?” and if he answer “coz it’s fun” it will be enough for me to judge. if everything seems ok and there is no real reason to use them except fun, so why not? if this not harm our next fights, here you go and play how you want.

On elitism with runs, is it okay to forgive a guard that staffs in combat if he drops fire fields first?

Advent Leader.1083:

On elitism with runs, is it okay to forgive a guard that staffs in combat if he drops fire fields first?

Doubtful. The group will maintain higher DPS if there’s a little precoordination and people can blast your fire field and you just stick to a higher DPS weapon than staff.