Guild Wars 2

People tend to complain about how hard it’s to land attacks as a warrior, yet having played both warrior and guardian the guardian is so much worse off. As a warrior I have several tools to sit a target in place to eat my spikes. I have access to cripples, ample acces to swiftness, and a good set of stuns.

I cannot say the same for my guardian, and I think we need some quality of life improvements to see anything more than bunker.

More damage is not really the solution. Guardians do very good damage, the problem is landing it on a moving target.

The offensive guardian may have a port and a leap if playing s/f+gs, but that’s simply not enough when the opponent can open the gap so easily and consistently. This is in part because of a few things holding back the offensive guardian:

- Lack of snares
-Lack of swiftness to keep up with opponents who can easily have either a signet or high swiftness uptime.
- Lack of synergistic CC on his weaponset for his burst abilities.

Let’s face it, Zealot’s Defense is so laughably easy to avoid. Does it really need to root the guardian, a class with low uptime to begin with?

I propose some tweaks:

- Flashing Blade could provide a cripple and swiftness when it hits.

- Greatsword leap or Whirling Wrath could apply a snare.

- Bane Signet’s cast time should be reduced to 1/4-1/2 sec cast, reduce the cd a bit.

- The chill on crit trait should apply to all weapons, and be a 3 sec chill on a 10 sec ICD. Move Glacial Heart to the Virtues adept traitline and switch it with retaliatory subconscious (that belongs more in a defensive line anyways).

- Searing Flames, if it will stay on a 30 sec cd, should strip 3 boons instead of 1. Otherwise lower the icd to 5 seconds and one boon removed per burning application. Removing a boon gives the guardian a application of fury.

- Condition removal on signet use should clear 2-3 conditions per signet use, not one. Maybe make it 2 conditions removed and a heal for removing the conditions or might procs for removing conditions.

- Judge’s Intervention could use a cripple as well.

- Merciful Intervention should be instant and grant a few secs (3 secs) of prot and aegis.

- Make one of the traits proc weakness when blind is applied.

Basically, give the guardian better tools to land his burst and sustain himself in a teamfight.

Use scepter-torch/scepter-shield instead of GS.
Or bring retreat if you want swiftness.
And don’t use Zealots Defense as a DPS skill.

Guardian, just like entire GW2, doesn’t need any more dartboard buffs.

guardian is meant to be played as a defensive profession. I have seen some guardians do fairly well offensive though, this is how you do it.
1. Do your spinning sword slash move.
2. When they get out of range pull them back to you.
3. Immobilize them.
4. Do your spinning sword slash move again.
5. Keep doing your spinning sword slash move until they die.

But asking for guardians to be more offensive viable is like asking for thieves to be bunker viable. Thieves are the worst kind of bunker in GW2, do you think they need to be more viable to be bunker specced?

I use the scepter to immobilize. the spirit hammer to knockdown and knock back plus the pull you can use from the Greatsword. No one gets away…..

More cripple and snare would be nice though.

Vidal.5384:

I use the scepter to immobilize. the spirit hammer to knockdown and knock back plus the pull you can use from the Greatsword. No one gets away…..

More cripple and snare would be nice though.

Condi cleanse, stability (and how many guardians in pvp can actually run spirit hammer in teamfights, not just 1v1?), and the greatsword pull is among the most telegraphed of guardian skills so it’s easily dodged.

uberkingkong.8041:

guardian is meant to be played as a defensive profession. I have seen some guardians do fairly well offensive though, this is how you do it.
1. Do your spinning sword slash move.
2. When they get out of range pull them back to you.
3. Immobilize them.
4. Do your spinning sword slash move again.
5. Keep doing your spinning sword slash move until they die.

But asking for guardians to be more offensive viable is like asking for thieves to be bunker viable. Thieves are the worst kind of bunker in GW2, do you think they need to be more viable to be bunker specced?

Most baffling crap I’ve ever read. Of course there should be thief bunkering builds. You know, how rangers can have bunker builds but can also build offensive trapper.

Engineer can build glass cannon condi hgh or go bunker as well.

This is not unique.

Last time I checked, Whirling Wrath has a 10 sec cd, and is a channeled interruptible skill that needs melee range to pull off. If they get away, and don’t brainfart and dodge as soon as you try to do bindingly blade projectiles, you won’t catch them.

And even if you managed to pull them back, a 10 sec cd on whirling wrath won’t allow you to spin again for a good bit.

sid.9870:

Use scepter-torch/scepter-shield instead of GS.
Or bring retreat if you want swiftness.
And don’t use Zealots Defense as a DPS skill.

Guardian, just like entire GW2, doesn’t need any more dartboard buffs.

Chains of light is a 20 sec cd. You also happen to give up a retal symbol and much of your burst aoe from greatsword just to trade for a 20 sec cd root and projectiles people can outrun.

This is like telling a warrior that if we removed the cripples/several charges from their greatsword or axe, that they should take the longbow for skill 5 root just so they can have slight uptime on a target. It’s absurd to present a single long cd root as a solution for melee uptime against classes with perma swiftness, a whole of evades, and several snares to apply to you.

There is a reason why there are no offensive guardian specs in tpvp teams, so leave the bias because bunker guard happens to be annoyingly strong out of this conversation.

lol yes I agree that the moves can be predictable. I find I am one of the rares that uses the spirit hammer…. shame. But like you said that is all we have!

uberkingkong.8041:

guardian is meant to be played as a defensive profession. I have seen some guardians do fairly well offensive though, this is how you do it.
1. Do your spinning sword slash move.
2. When they get out of range pull them back to you.
3. Immobilize them.
4. Do your spinning sword slash move again.
5. Keep doing your spinning sword slash move until they die.

But asking for guardians to be more offensive viable is like asking for thieves to be bunker viable. Thieves are the worst kind of bunker in GW2, do you think they need to be more viable to be bunker specced?

“Where all professions can play all roles.” That’s what they said. So what your saying is irrelevant in regards to “How they’re meant to be played.”

Guardians have tonnes of gap closers. All of them flawed by ping rubberbanding and server side geomapping.

Guardians are the only profession in gw2 that have no alternate condition build. Every other profession can at least stack bleed. Relying on pure damage makes them ultimately unflexible.

All the greatsword skills you have mentioned also carry overt animations making them predictable, broadcasted and easily dodged. Even then, the pull is extremely buggy and whirling wrath offensively does 5k..defensively 1.8..not exactly hard hitting enough to justify the slow and overt animation.

Their defense is relative to how many allies they have around them, they are not defensive solo..they simply have an elite that can make them invulnerable, which you a lot of because they’re other elites don’t have synergy with any build they can use.

All in all, they come closest to what builds should be like in this game, but at the cost of being unflexible.

Zenith.7301:

Vidal.5384:

I use the scepter to immobilize. the spirit hammer to knockdown and knock back plus the pull you can use from the Greatsword. No one gets away…..

More cripple and snare would be nice though.

Condi cleanse, stability (and how many guardians in pvp can actually run spirit hammer in teamfights, not just 1v1?), and the greatsword pull is among the most telegraphed of guardian skills so it’s easily dodged.

uberkingkong.8041:

guardian is meant to be played as a defensive profession. I have seen some guardians do fairly well offensive though, this is how you do it.
1. Do your spinning sword slash move.
2. When they get out of range pull them back to you.
3. Immobilize them.
4. Do your spinning sword slash move again.
5. Keep doing your spinning sword slash move until they die.

But asking for guardians to be more offensive viable is like asking for thieves to be bunker viable. Thieves are the worst kind of bunker in GW2, do you think they need to be more viable to be bunker specced?

Most baffling crap I’ve ever read. Of course there should be thief bunkering builds. You know, how rangers can have bunker builds but can also build offensive trapper.

Engineer can build glass cannon condi hgh or go bunker as well.

This is not unique.

Last time I checked, Whirling Wrath has a 10 sec cd, and is a channeled interruptible skill that needs melee range to pull off. If they get away, and don’t brainfart and dodge as soon as you try to do bindingly blade projectiles, you won’t catch them.

And even if you managed to pull them back, a 10 sec cd on whirling wrath won’t allow you to spin again for a good bit.

sid.9870:

Use scepter-torch/scepter-shield instead of GS.
Or bring retreat if you want swiftness.
And don’t use Zealots Defense as a DPS skill.

Guardian, just like entire GW2, doesn’t need any more dartboard buffs.

Chains of light is a 20 sec cd. You also happen to give up a retal symbol and much of your burst aoe from greatsword just to trade for a 20 sec cd root and projectiles people can outrun.

This is like telling a warrior that if we removed the cripples/several charges from their greatsword or axe, that they should take the longbow for skill 5 root just so they can have slight uptime on a target. It’s absurd to present a single long cd root as a solution for melee uptime against classes with perma swiftness, a whole of evades, and several snares to apply to you.

There is a reason why there are no offensive guardian specs in tpvp teams, so leave the bias because bunker guard happens to be annoyingly strong out of this conversation.

There is a reason, why no successful player ever used GS in top tier tpvp – it blows.
When both retal symbol, and whirling wrath can be avoided with one dodge.
DPS Guardian has always been about massive autoattack chain on sword.
Now the reason its out of pvp is, there are classess that to the same but better (thieves, eles, mesmers, even warriors).
Please do not speak of things you have no clue about.

And I strongly disagree with every class being good at everything, as in thief bunker, since this is the root of the imbalance in this game.

I’ll quote myself from a thread I reciently created:

Khenzy.9348:

Torch

Zealot’s Flame. In addition to it’s current effects, it now provides 10 seconds of swiftness on cast. CD increased to 25s.

Cleansing Flame. Conditions are now also cleansed from the guardian casting the skill. It now cleanses up to 5 conditions total, 1 on cast and 1 each second afterwards. CD increased to 25s.

Sword

Flashing Blade Changed funtionality and updated description to: Teleport forwards, striking and blinding nearby foes. It no longer needs a target to perform a 600 range teleport, similar to Mesmer’s Staff Phase Retreat skill.

Pros of these changes:

Relieve some of the pressure on having to carry a Staff and/or Greatsword for mobility and/or swiftness.

You no longer feel as pressured to take Pure of Voice+Soldier Runes and/or Absolute Resolution for condition removal.

All of this definetly opens up new build possibilities.

Thoughts?

I imagine Guardians as tough and selfsustainable fighters with the always available support on the side. They are not Warriors in the sense of having huge control in the form of cripples and several stuns. Offensive Guardians provide spiky damage through brief windows, so they need to withstand the fight for that in my opinion.
Providing some improved roaming capabilities should be agood start.