The downed mechanic is IMO the number one reason why heavies are so dominant. The most powerful weapon in large fights is downing someone at the right time. Heavy classes are harder to down and more forgiving of mistakes.
The rally mechanic is part of it, but the biggest thing by far is boons an overall build efficiency.
Just think about what 5 guardians acting in coordination can do:
-Provide 300 stacks of might and 9k+ healing with one skill
-Provide 25 players with stability and protection (protection again with virtue)
-Provide another 9k+ healing all blasting water, maybe even blasting players at the same time
-Purge 75 conditions and provide 9k+ healing with one skill
-Imob stack 5x
-Lay down enough rings or lines to lock down a huge area
-Provide perma swiftness to whole group with new symbol mechanic on the move
-Provide all kinds of small heals from dodge rolls and orb burst
-The only AoE stun break in the game, or spec’d in radiance, be the new boon stripping machine
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Can you please clarify how you get the following:
-Provide 300 stacks of might and 9k+ healing with one skill
-Purge 75 conditions and provide 9k+ healing with one skill
Its also worth pointing out that to get:
“Provide another 9k+ healing all blasting water, maybe even blasting players at the same time” you would need 5 hammer guards with 2500 healing power each. (Blast = 1.3k + 0.2hp). This is not possible. They would also do non-existent damage, so any setup like this would be less than ideal.
Lastly:
“The only AoE stun break in the game, or spec’d in radiance, be the new boon stripping machine”. Stability > stun break IMO, so very few guards spec for this. Regardless, you could also rather trait for stability instead of the stun break. The boon stripping is nice, but removing 1 boon per 10secs on a single target is hardly game changing. I haven’t tested this, but I am pretty sure it is single target.
I do agree with you that guardians are currently very strong in WvW group play, due to all of the support they can provide. Being very tanky at the same time, makes them an easy pick for groups. All things considered, an ideal large group setup should have more guards than any other class. They can however not really function on their own and Warriors, Eles and Necros are also very important. If this was a schoolyard team picking, it would go something like this:
Guard > Warrior > Ele > Necro > Mesmer > Thief > Engi. Ranger would be asked to please leave…
Read up, I said 5 guardians…
Empower = 60 stacks of might (12 stacks to 5 players) x5 = 300 + 1,500 base healing + 300 more healing with the 300 healing power virtually every guardian has, so at least 9,000 healing
Virtue of resolve activation with absolute resolution trait = instant purge 3 conditions on 5 allies, plus 1,625 healing, plus another 225 with 300 healing power, plus some regen = at least 9,500 healing.
The water blast I quoted was too high, but players other than guardians are also going to be blasting it. One thief can blast a big water at least 3 or 4 times.
Not everyone runs the 0/0/30/30/10 zergway guardian build. Virtues have always been very powerful, and the boon stripping possibility with the reduced searing flames cooldown and renewed justice is also potentially very powerful. I gave this example as, again, 5 guardians because you have to think of how their abilities pile up acting together.
Using your example with searing flames, of course 1 guardian in radiance is weak, but think if you had a group of 30 with 10 guardian and 5 of those were in radiance. They are going to get good strips (together) on the first whack, and maintain the boon denial pressure through the battle, between the mass strips from corruption and null field.
People always way, way, way underestimate the power of disciplined coordination, and how effects that seem small or even negligible add up to be extremely powerful. I’d venture to say that 30 disciplined players that lose on a zerg dive of 60 players or more, more times than not, it’s because things break down in the blob of particle effects, and you’re fighting low FPS, inability to effectively ground target, or stay on the driver more than the enemy players.
. I still don’t think that searing flames will be that great overall, since 5 people would still amount to 1 boon total every 2 seconds. Compared to the rate of which boons get applied, i think in large scale it would not be that great.