Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure why the bow was selected as the new weapon for guardian and its probably too late to rethink it at this point but I’m going to toss my 2 cents into the ring anyhow.

I would have loved to see polearms introduced instead. Pikes or polearms are a frontline weapon for heavy plate fighters.

It would have afforded the guardian a little greater reach which would have been a gentle tweak to their under-par speed against other classes.

An option to vault with the polearm would have been a very cool distance closer.

Historically sashes were often tied to the attacking end of polearms for misdirection, distraction, and blocking the enemies view.

Polearms when gripped in a horizontal position could also be used to halt the advance of several enemy, or could be used as a push back in this manner.

And then there is the option of a great sweep, or lunge that is difficult to block but easier to dodge.

All of those could be very useful specials for a class that has clearly been established as a protector.

If giving the guardian a better range attack is the real objective then a few simple tweaks to the scepter’s could achieve that, and probably with less effort.

shrugs I’m trying to keep an open mind but I think this option is more inline with what the Guardian is suppose to be about. /tipshat

There will be no new weapon “Types” in the expansion.

And giving new ways to play the professions so going deeper into defence aint what they are going for

I’m fine with the bow; I’m not fine with it being a ranger wannabe bow.

They needed a pure long range option.

Scepter is the only 1200 range option, but pairing it with any offhand but focus, forces you into mid range combat.

The longbow will allow the Guardian to stay at 1200 range.

Eh. Everyone has an opinion and they are certainly entitled to it. Like I stated above I’m just tossing my 2 cents in, but to answer a few of the post here-

No new weapon types- Which translates to passing off old animations and mechanics as new content for an upcoming expansion. A funny thing I’d like to point out is a mace and scepter are essentially the same thing (club) except the scepter is generally used as a ceremonial prop for monarchs. Yes this is a game and not RL, but its just one of those things that struck me as odd.

Deeper into defense- I mainly listed some of the more defensive aspects of polearms, but make no mistake it was a very lethal weapon that could breach shield walls and stop a cavalry charge.

Wannabe ranger- Except it will have serious heals and full plate defense.

Pure long range option- As I said the scepter could have fulfilled that role with a minor tweak to range and speed.

Again this would have been my “personal preference”, and I get that others may not agree and I’m ok with that. So thank you all for the replies

In my opinion longbow is the best option by far. We really needed a range weapon that could do some dps without super slow projectiles. I do wish the 2 skill though didn’t root you.

I’m pumped for the long bow guardian. I hate the fact that I can’t target things from distance and even the stupid scepptor a lot of times takes so long to hit that they dodge it easy. something faster and long range is just what guardian needs. Pumped. I don’t need some other mid range weapon, no thanks we have lots of those.

Kamara.4187:

Eh. Everyone has an opinion and they are certainly entitled to it. Like I stated above I’m just tossing my 2 cents in, but to answer a few of the post here-

No new weapon types- Which translates to passing off old animations and mechanics as new content for an upcoming expansion. A funny thing I’d like to point out is a mace and scepter are essentially the same thing (club) except the scepter is generally used as a ceremonial prop for monarchs. Yes this is a game and not RL, but its just one of those things that struck me as odd.

Deeper into defense- I mainly listed some of the more defensive aspects of polearms, but make no mistake it was a very lethal weapon that could breach shield walls and stop a cavalry charge.

Wannabe ranger- Except it will have serious heals and full plate defense.

Pure long range option- As I said the scepter could have fulfilled that role with a minor tweak to range and speed.

Again this would have been my “personal preference”, and I get that others may not agree and I’m ok with that. So thank you all for the replies

For what its worth they are using the word scepter in place of wand (which is one of the definitions of scepter).

dragonhunter(excluding the name) is actually close to the top of my list as far as effectiveness of the new specs goes. The bow skills seem to do solid damage, the traps do great damage, the skills appear to synergize.

I’m going to keep an open mind and give it a fair chance. I just don’t want my guardian to be my first choice for ranged combat when I have a ranger for that.

P.S. And Ashen I’ll buy that. It makes sense.

It was selected because most guardians wanted more and/or better ranged option then scepter, guardians are already strong in melee and dont need anymore.

I personally have not had opprtunity to try out the guardian bow, so can’t comment, but from other peoples feedback so far it sucks real hard. But that is a problem with implimentation, not the choice itself.

I think the Longbow is a entirely reasonable choice for the Guardian, but there’s no way it can stay as it is unless Anet wants this “Elite Specialisation” to be a joke.

Most of the needed changes could actually be done by just changing some numbers.

Something I find kinda disappointing as well is that some of the Traits look as messy as the ones we got rid of in the last mayor Patch, where many traits were incorporated into the skills right away or just merged. Since you have only 6 Traits for the new Utility AND Weapon Skills (the old ones obviously don’t have something for Traps/Longbow on the Guardian).

Kamara.4187:

Eh. Everyone has an opinion and they are certainly entitled to it. Like I stated above I’m just tossing my 2 cents in, but to answer a few of the post here-

No new weapon types- Which translates to passing off old animations and mechanics as new content for an upcoming expansion. A funny thing I’d like to point out is a mace and scepter are essentially the same thing (club) except the scepter is generally used as a ceremonial prop for monarchs. Yes this is a game and not RL, but its just one of those things that struck me as odd.

Deeper into defense- I mainly listed some of the more defensive aspects of polearms, but make no mistake it was a very lethal weapon that could breach shield walls and stop a cavalry charge.

Wannabe ranger- Except it will have serious heals and full plate defense.

Pure long range option- As I said the scepter could have fulfilled that role with a minor tweak to range and speed.

Again this would have been my “personal preference”, and I get that others may not agree and I’m ok with that. So thank you all for the replies

Despite the difference in nomenclature, truly all staves, foci, and scepters in Tyria are magical foci, in fact aside from the warrior and engineer’s weapons and perhaps some of the ranger’s, it seems that so are the rest of the weapons types. In real life, none of these things are used for magic, but as most have form and function that doesn’t lend itself to any kind of reasonable argument.

A better argument for a spear or lance is that a logical permutation of the Guardian’s trait lines and the Tyrian lore is Paragon. Easily they could have followed the Paragon style and the Tyrian tradition of using martial weapons as magical foci, making it a 1200 range energy weapon. It would meld better with the winged animations for the new virtues and the leap. Alas… no new weapon.

Fashion Mage.3712:

I’m fine with the bow; I’m not fine with it being a ranger wannabe bow.

Rangers would think they’d died and gone to Arrow-Heaven to have the guardian’s bow skills.

The guardian bow is alright with a few exceptions

The 5 skill is on a 1 minute cool down let me state that again 1 minute

The problem is that while it is powerful in theory anyone with stability or a teleport is going to get right out of the ring it creates.

It should be changed to a pulse effect that pulses damage and immobilize for 1 second 3 times in the targeted area with a CD of 30 seconds.

Other then that I can only give a few personal gripes
like
Deflecting shot should be slowed down slightly, made to count as a block and do a knock back on anything it hits so that they can change the trait “Heavy light” to be something useful.

It would also be nice if they upped the damage on puncture shot.

Looking at it compared to the scepter number 1 shows the scepter number 1 coming out much much further ahead in terms of damage & control.

Kamara.4187:

Eh. Everyone has an opinion and they are certainly entitled to it. Like I stated above I’m just tossing my 2 cents in, but to answer a few of the post here-

No new weapon types- Which translates to passing off old animations and mechanics as new content for an upcoming expansion. A funny thing I’d like to point out is a mace and scepter are essentially the same thing (club) except the scepter is generally used as a ceremonial prop for monarchs. Yes this is a game and not RL, but its just one of those things that struck me as odd.

Deeper into defense- I mainly listed some of the more defensive aspects of polearms, but make no mistake it was a very lethal weapon that could breach shield walls and stop a cavalry charge.

Wannabe ranger- Except it will have serious heals and full plate defense.

Pure long range option- As I said the scepter could have fulfilled that role with a minor tweak to range and speed.

Again this would have been my “personal preference”, and I get that others may not agree and I’m ok with that. So thank you all for the replies

If you post an opinion is one thing…. but if you’re making suggestions they need to be at the very least plausible given the context. And knowing Anet, thats a very narrow set of plausible ideas.

Scepters as a name is just a name, as their functionally Wands for this game… so really, thats not even an argument. As for Pole arms, how do you make them unique among the weapons? They reach further, and pole vault, and sweep…. which is what they’re doing with Thief and the existing Staff. So still not unique. 2H Axe tends to fail this concept test as well, since there are too many overlaps with both Great Sword and Hammer.

As it stand, I think the only weapons that have potential for uniqueness are Knuckles, Whips, and throwing spear. And whips are skill kind of iffy, unless its unifying trait is cripples.

We got a longbow because:

1. We lacked a reliable long range option
2. It fits the theme that ANet created for the class.

I would have loved to see some new weapon categories but I can understand that’s a ton of work for little gain; eventually I think we will see it though. Frankly, I don’t believe a pole arm concept would give too much more tools or diversity to the class, especially if it was defensively focused; that would have questionable application in PVE.

I honestly don’t know if they could’ve implemented another weapon as a long ranged option.

The only weapons they didn’t have access to were:

Dagger MH and OH
Axe MH and OH
Pistol MH and OH
Warhorn
Rifle
Shortbow

the only other option would have been rifle, but rifle doesn’t seem a very “guardian” weapon imo

i guess they could have pulled a “revenant hammer” situation and made axe or dagger a 1200 range option through “holy magic”

Nike.2631:

Fashion Mage.3712:

I’m fine with the bow; I’m not fine with it being a ranger wannabe bow.

Rangers would think they’d died and gone to Arrow-Heaven to have the guardian’s bow skills.

Agreed. I find that DH is going to be amazing. Especially backline with +20% damage while aegis is up. If you’re backline. . . wheee~! xD

Kamara.4187:

Pikes or polearms are a frontline weapon for heavy plate fighters.

Crossbows fit in well though. As a by the by …. have you seen the #2 skill for longbow warriors?

Menadena.7482:

Kamara.4187:

Pikes or polearms are a frontline weapon for heavy plate fighters.

Crossbows fit in well though. As a by the by …. have you seen the #2 skill for longbow warriors?

I should be ashamed. I have a level 80 warrior but I have yet to put a bow on her to see what it can do. So I have to say no to your question :S
———————————-

As for everyone that posted above Menadena; it would appear that my opinion is definitely in the minority (lol which wouldn’t be the first time in my life). Like I said I’m trying to keep an open mind. I just don’t want to see the Revenant over shadow the role of the guardian, or the guardian being a better choice for range combat over my ranger.

I’d also like to thank you all for your opinions which gives me a better understanding of the community vibe and aids me to keep an open mind.

guardian LB is not pew pew like ranger though. So I suspect for pure pew pew, rangers will still win out.

Rangers definitely has the pewpew with rapid fire, that skill owns…..whereas dragonhunter hits really really hard all at once, and then relies on traps and the 5 skill to survive while he waits for the really hard hitter to come back up

jk haha

Rapid Fire:

Damage Damage (10x): 1,320
10 Vulnerability (10s): 10% Incoming Damage, 10% Incoming Condition Damage
Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
Range: 1,500
2 1/2s channel
10s cd

vs

True Shot

Damage Damage: 1,641
Combo Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
Range: 1,200
3/4s cast time
4s CD

Rapid Fire verges on noise in my (limited) PvP experience. Once you hear the sound and the ticks start rolling in dodge rolling is muscle memory and 80% of the attack wiffs into the void. Plus if you know you’re rolling up on a Ranger there’s an absurd likelihood they have a longbow (I prefer the short bow myself, but I’m a mutant) so you’re already watching for their fairly obvious rotation.

Seriously looking forward to trying out Dragonhunter next week.