Guild Wars 2

Posted in the Guardian sub-forum but didn’t really generate much response. I’d like to throw this bone to the sPvP community as I think this is actually a big issue.

Despite all the nerfs most recently to the tomes, Guardians are still going to be pretty much at the core of every team. Stability is essentially the key to winning team fights. Making sure that stomp goes through or ensuring that revive.

Stability got hit across the board with Engineers completely losing it on Juggernaut. Toss Elixir S is also not as reliable as it could be either stealth or stability, you can’t choose. Elementalists can still grant 2s of stability, but it’s a Grandmaster Earth trait and not all builds can find the points for that.

The Warrior lost its pulsing stability from Battle Standard, they can still pick it up to “Inspire” it, however it’s very much more clunky and harder to pull off.

Necromancers can grant themselves stability when they enter Death Shroud for 3s. However, like the Elementalist, this is a Grandmaster Soul Reaping trait. The fact of the matter is, you also can’t revive people while in Death Shroud. To get someone up with stability on a Necromancer, you have to go in and out immediately, just enough for fear (as it’s instant) and lock yourself out of shroud for 10s.

Then we have the Guardian, “Stand Your Ground!” and Hallowed Ground. The ease of use AND access compared to all other forms of stability out there is ridiculous. The shout being a stun break made it a complete no brainer to bring on ANY Guardian build. Hallowed Ground is also extremely easy to fit in as a lot of point defender builds are running consecrations. The fact of it is, the Guardian has the easiest time maintaining frequent stability for his teammates (not to mention the longest duration) out of any class.

It’s already extremely easy to fit a Guardian on your team as they excel at point holding. The gradual changes ANet has done with stability merely cements that. I’m not trying to say nerf Guardians moar so this doesn’t happen. What I’m hoping for is perhaps a more even distribution of access to stability across more classes. This way you won’t feel you have to bring a Guardian JUST for that. This also helps the Guardian as they don’t always have to pack the same skills and can increase build diversity in tPvP.

i think the problems stem from the downd system being extremely poorly designed rather than them changing around stability related spells

but yeah, guardian is kind of really good right now pretty much for the sole reason that warriors are horribly useless

i agree with this. ressing and staking is such a critical part of tourney, and guardians are by a wide margin the best at doing so uninterrupted, that it really makes having one a big boon. to the point they’re pigeonholed almost into being the staker/resser

then again maybe this is the vision they have for guardian, as the protector class. but it does make it so you’d tend to pick a guardian over anything else if you didn’t have a guardian

bump bump, herp bump dump

I can definitely agree with the OP on this.

As a hammer warrior I feel I have a lot more say in team fights than a guardian does. Sure I don’t have a full heal but unless the enemy has stability no one is getting stomped. Also balanced stance is the bees knees for getting stomps. If the trait popped I can get as much as 21s of stability. Longer than any team fight should last.

Not trying to discredit warriors as I love them too, ANet did an extremely good job capturing an iron-clad unstoppable juggernaut that gives kitten all. Balanced Stance, Endure Pain, Frenzy, and Earthshaker all give off this vibe extremely well.

However, unlike other forms of stability, both of which the Guardian has access to happens to be AoE, it affects more than just themselves. Only class alongside Guardian that can achieve this is the Elementalist and theirs is extremely small in duration in comparison.

Their Shield of Absorption on revival trait shares the lowest internal cool down (10s) with the Mesmer equivalent. Not to mention Protection/Aegis/Regeneration for BOTH (10s) after they bring them up makes for very safe resses. I like that Guardians are the best at getting people up on their feet, it fits extremely well thematically.

The problem is when it all fits together, you have perhaps the best point defender who also packs the fattest heal, extremely durable and packs some of the best hard control options in the game (I’m looking at you wards + KB/KDs). You then add on the fact that they can give everyone stability and happen to bekittengood at utilizing it. They’re great at washing off conditions for allies and the kicker is, you can fit this all in one build. All in all, there really is no reason why you wouldn’t want a Guardian on your team.

I suppose that holds true if you don’t take shout warrior into consideration. I see guardians as selfish things that can’t hold a point for their life if the thing they’re fighting has a stun break and knows how to pop stability. Specifically how you can break knockdown as soon as your character faceplants, and how stability counters everything a guardian can do except for burn damage.

But I suppose some of their most common builds do have a lot of necessities. Honestly I’d much rather run alongside a support ele. Water field too strong.

The difference between Warriors and Guardians is how they execute their form of control. Warriors do still have knock backs in the form of Staggering Blow (though it self roots), Rifle Butt and Kick (will not be used so much in a shout build). Warriors still mainly pin people down and not so much knock them into an unfavorable positioning or deny them of a favorable one like Guardians would.

Every class has some form of stun breaks and I agree, is a necessity when it comes to PvP, however it’s still different from stability where it grants immunity for a short while. I’m also glad that you brought up how stability can really negate a lot which the Guardians excel at, guess who happens to have it in abundance relative to most other class..Guardians.

Once again, I’m not trying to get Guardians nerfed, but it seems the scales are tipped a bit in their favor of how easy they have access to such a key boon that most other classes don’t have outside of a few elite skills.

“LFM 1 more guardian rank 15+”

Sick of seeing that? So am I.

Point is, everybody just wants a guardian, yet other classes can fit their role just as well.

debump hehump. inb4flames, i too play a guardian.

Guardians need a god.d..amn re-work. They’re generally not fun to play against for an “aggressive game.” They’re too fail-safe due to their healing and defense buffs coupled with some dumba.ss vitality and toughness build. Normally I would say ignore them if they build full survivability + healing and simply kill them off if they go DPS, but the point stands why do I have to have a Guardian on my team just so I can deal with an enemy Guardian?

Guardians shouldnt get that many knockdowns for going survival, they are a must in tournaments and too good at holding stations. Add knockbacks to dps weapons and give the survival/heal weapons something else. Also the elite skill is good, no other game allow someone to heal all their team mates to max. It got removed from paladins in wow arena for example, and they aren’t e-sport material which GW2 is aiming for.