Guild Wars 2

So running along doing the normal thing in wvw, then BAM my HP drops from 20k to 3k almost instantly. So im aggravated and confused as to what is going on. Look around to see if there is a zerg or group on me, and no, its a single guardian that hit me for with a Shield of Wrath for 7k followed by some other skill that hit really hard. The attack says only 700ish hp for damage and it hits me for 7k at 3.1k armor. What is wrong with this picture?

Is it even possible to get 3.1k toughness? You would sit at around 4.1k armor in that case. Doubt the Guardian is able to hit that much on someone having 3.1k toughness. Anyways, a full on Burst Guardian with everything maximized (ascended, bloodlust, guard stacks, food) could achieve such a high number with Shield of Wrath quite easy. Especially in combination with things like Sigil of Fire and Sigil of Air.

Oh and I found ’what’s wrong with this picture’. You say you went from 20k to 3k while the guardian only did 7k! Then you would be left at 13k hp.

I smell a l2p issue, even if you got hit by the shield, you could’ve dodge his combo

guards can do like 4 strong hits within ~1/2 sec from outside of line of sight (or from around 1800 range) if timed right. its not really an l2p issue if it wasnt a prearranged duel but it is kinda the nature of wvw in that you got jumped by a full zerker who knows how to set up his burst and you werent all that prepared or maybe not aware of your surroundings.

damage is a little too high right now imo.

paladinecho.3024:

So running along doing the normal thing in wvw, then BAM my HP drops from 20k to 3k almost instantly. So im aggravated and confused as to what is going on. Look around to see if there is a zerg or group on me, and no, its a single guardian that hit me for with a Shield of Wrath for 7k followed by some other skill that hit really hard. The attack says only 700ish hp for damage and it hits me for 7k at 3.1k armor. What is wrong with this picture?

If you see Shield of Wrath, don’t attack. A lot of guardians are running Amplified Wrath, which just means breaking it results in you burning to death.

It lasts four seconds. There are no traits that increase or decrease its duration. Just dodge it to avoid the damage.

I didn’t hit him at all and got alot of damage. I am just saddened at the overall value of toughness now. Its as if toughness does nothing for you as a stat like it used to. Survivability seems to be greatly reliant upon blocking with the toolbelt shield or dodging attacks altogether now. I have yet to run into a successful engineer on here in a long time. Although Poe did post some good information rather than hoping on the attack. I definitely will be more watchful for the guardian burn. That advice was actually quite valuable.

OP is exaggerating a bit, but his point stands, toughness is much less effective due to the power creep. Especially considering the diminishing returns on it.

They have never emphasized defensive aspects of the game other then dodges. Now that damage out put is increased with the last patch, it is worse. We lost some with the changes of all stats to gear. As well, we lost multiple defensive traits.

i think toughness is worthless at the moment i switch from my rapid gear to carrion or sinister even in sinister it is not much difference to rapid in dying, damage is so high at the moment.

I play full nomad gear on my guard with about 3.5K armour, which i extent it up with food and etc.
After patch I am getting hit stupid skills like putrid mark for 7k on data sheet, and almost every meteor shower hits me for 5K.
Before patch even the highest burst on me would hit me for 2.5k
I dont know what’s wrong lol.

There is still some stupid buggy stuff post-launch, but that isn’t the main issue.

It just seems like Offensive Stats (Power, Precision, Ferocity, Condition Damage) provides more bang for your buck (HA!) than defensive stats (Vitality, Toughness, Healing Power). It’s more than just the fact that defensive stats are often made less useful by active defense (dodges, utilities, etc), but it seems that the stats themselves are just weaker.

I’ll put it this way: In a 1v1 duel between similarly built (traits, skills) and similarly skilled Guardians should take a similar amount of time if they’re both wearing Celestial Gear to if one was wearing Nomad’s and the other Berzerker’s if defensive stats were balanced with offensive stats. I don’t think that that’s the case at this point.

MattyP.6954:

There is still some stupid buggy stuff post-launch, but that isn’t the main issue.

It just seems like Offensive Stats (Power, Precision, Ferocity, Condition Damage) provides more bang for your buck (HA!) than defensive stats (Vitality, Toughness, Healing Power). It’s more than just the fact that defensive stats are often made less useful by active defense (dodges, utilities, etc), but it seems that the stats themselves are just weaker.

I’ll put it this way: In a 1v1 duel between similarly built (traits, skills) and similarly skilled Guardians should take a similar amount of time if they’re both wearing Celestial Gear to if one was wearing Nomad’s and the other Berzerker’s if defensive stats were balanced with offensive stats. I don’t think that that’s the case at this point.

Yes, i hope they will address this issue. I always use Sinister now no need for defensive stats and if Vitality is the best of it.

Toughness is actually more effective. With people investing fully into zerker stats that’s more damage getting mitigated per a point of toughness. However none of that matters if their burst is higher than your HP pool So its really the low base HP pool (comparatively) to the max burst that’s the issue right now.
It’s an issue all classes are having right now (excluding those who use stealth for defense). My suggestion would be taking some hard defensive traits/runes so you can survive that high initial burst. Anything that autoprocs protection so they explode their bag of tricks at 66% effectiveness would probably be the best idea for you.

Also I’d like to point out that you got jumped by one of the slowest classes in the game. It’s not like he came up from behind. And if you do get jumped and survive the initial burst, really, just run.

All that being said you shouldn’t have to completely alter your play style just so don’t get jumped by every scrub with a focus. I would suggest however putting some tankier gear on you if this is a regular issue.

Play full zerker, die instantly, don’t suffer

Because of the conditions and epic instabursts toughness has less value yes. But imagine if you did not have 3 k of it. Soldier sets will be very expensive in later months it seems.

Woah woah woah. DONT burst his SoW? That’s terrible advice. Amplified wrath has a 1s ICD so just by auto attacking, you should proc two stacks of burn at the very most for about 2-3s. If he’s a power guardian, that burn shouldn’t be that big of a threat. Leaving the power guardian to have his SoW burst can (and will) do an unholy amount of damage. In sPvP, with around 10 might stacks and marauder amulet, my guard’s SoW burst for 6k. Im fairly certain you DONT want to try tanking that in WvW, what with its inflated stats. If he’s a burn guardian, you’ll most likely see him open with torch instead of the usual SoW > JI > WW combo.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Woah woah woah. DONT burst his SoW? That’s terrible advice. Amplified wrath has a 1s ICD so just by auto attacking, you should proc two stacks of burn at the very most for about 2-3s. If he’s a power guardian, that burn shouldn’t be that big of a threat. Leaving the power guardian to have his SoW burst can (and will) do an unholy amount of damage. In sPvP, with around 10 might stacks and marauder amulet, my guard’s SoW burst for 6k. Im fairly certain you DONT want to try tanking that in WvW, what with its inflated stats. If he’s a burn guardian, you’ll most likely see him open with torch instead of the usual SoW > JI > WW combo.

I’m glad this comment exists. I scrolled all the way to the bottom of this thread hoping someone would make this correction.

Shield of Wrath you DO want to attack ASAP. This skill is from the focus, and the graphic is bubble of stationary shields tightly around the Guardian (it also pulses if you look closely). The Guardians animations are NOT interrupted. If you do not break this shield you will take a lot of damage, it doesn’t matter if you think you’ve kited away just assume the Guardian will teleport. Grenades, PDV, Flame Jet, and Fumigate are really good ways to get rid of this skill safely because of the high rate of attack.

Protector’s Strike is the skill you don’t want to attack (or you can attack from range). This is a mace skill, the graphic is more of a ring around the Guardian with rotating shields where they hold the mace up until the duration is over. This skill does less than half the damage of SoW, so either way it’s not a huge deal.

Silhouette.5631:

It’s an issue all classes are having right now (excluding those who use stealth for defense). My suggestion would be taking some hard defensive traits/runes so you can survive that high initial burst. Anything that autoprocs protection so they explode their bag of tricks at 66% effectiveness would probably be the best idea for you.

Do any runes proc protection?

Runes of the forgeman do on being hit.

I’ve had some good performance from them with carrion gear. They also increase duration. Protection on shield skill and protection injection give a very high protection uptime.

Also buffs burn duration a little too.

Peutrifectus.4830:

Runes of the forgeman do on being hit.

I’ve had some good performance from them with carrion gear. They also increase duration. Protection on shield skill and protection injection give a very high protection uptime.

There is also Rune of the Grove and Rune of the Earth . Unlike Rune of the Forge can they trigger over 50% health, and have 30 sec cooldown instead of 60 sec and give 30% protection durration instead of 25%. However, they only apply 4 sec of protection instead of 10.

While fixing toughness scaling is quite necessary, IMHO, I have been having a lot of success (and survivability) using our traits. There is a ton of QoL in our Alchemy and Inventions lines

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdQQJAqalcThatY5Vw+KQ+FL3FV4EGQZGYD+gBg4B9D5AA-TxhAwAy0Dc5BAAb/hwK/Oq+DgTAAblgAA-e

This build is primarily used for Silverwastes and WvWvW. I can stay in the thick of the damage for quite a while before I have to heal or peel off. On the Morderm Husk Copper fight, I can stick on him and usually not fall below 50% health.

Also, it’s not a bunker build! I can put out a ton of condi.

this is why engineer has the best HEALING skills in the game. And even a dedicated healer kit.