Guild Wars 2

I find that, aside from pretty good single target damage, the sword is the LEAST ally friendly weapon. It’s a real shame because I LOVE SWORDS! XD I also really enjoy the philanthropic nature of the Guardian.
I really want to use a sword right, but there’s no combo fields, no symbols, no finishers and it applies no boons (scepter also applies no boons ). They’re the only above water weapons that don’t apply boons (I’m aware spear doesn’t apply boons but it at least has the equivalent of a field and does really decent AoE damage)
I love playing frontline support roles so Guardian pushes all my buttons, but I also like using swords and I’ve found the sword offers almost no synergy with other professions.
I’ve been using mace instead and I really like the support, ok damage and cross profession synergy that mace offers but there’s a part of me that is still sad that it’s not a sword. I know it’s purely a problem with aesthetics and I may just have to settle with not being able to have a sword. In any case I think the sword and scepter need some love.

Sword
- Does Sword Wave only hit one foe three times? The tooltip says otherwise.
- I like how Flashing Blade and Zealot’s Defense work but I still find it lacking compared to other weapons in terms of team support. Does the blocks from Zealot’s Defense count as REAL blocks? I don’t see the word, ‘block’ appear when I use it against ranged, in fact I don’t even know when it’s working and I tried out using the Defender’s Flame trait and didn’t notice any extra burns, I could just be blind though…
- Without changing any sword skills completely, Zealot’s Defense looks like a suitable candidate for a small combo field at least and/or perhaps making its projectiles hit foes in a line rather than being entirely single target. I would LOVE a symbol or something on sword but I see it would be difficult jimmy in although I’m not opposed to a re-work of the sword.

Scepter
- I think scepter is about as saddening as sword but at least it gets a combo field (I think, it’s not listed but I think I’ve combo-ed off it).
- I find smite is just WEIRD and I don’t think I like it, it looks like a symbol, but it isn’t. In fact, a symbol would be more reliable than how smite currently works since the damage seems to be randomly dispersed around the field whereas symbols damage the whole area albiet a little slower.
I understand that it may not be a symbol due to it being too small if it was, which would almost require having the Writ of Exultation trait to make it the size it is now. But if it WAS a symbol we could get all the nice little bonuses our traits offer symbols, healing, vulnerability etc, once again increasing team support/syngery.
- I needn’t bring up Orb of Wrath, I think we all know what’s wrong with that one.

Anyway, sorry for the wall, I just really think these weapons need some help. I would love to know what the design ideas behind these two weapons are. Maybe I’m just trying to use them in a way they weren’t designed to be used.

I would not say the sword has design problems; it is simply designed for a play style that is different from your own. The sword does a lot more pure damage than the mace and offers more mobility through the flash. Sure, it doesn’t support nor does it offer combo options, but that’s not the purpose of the sword – it is a damage dealing option for the main-hand. Sword wave shoots out 3 little bolts in about a 60 degree fan that will only hit one enemy if you are close, but can hit multi from a larger distance. As far as I know, the zealot’s defense does not count as a actual block. I actually would prefer not to see symbols on the sword – it’s supposed to be a fast, mobile weapon. Symbols will only slow it down.

Scepter is something most people don’t like (myself included) because 1) it’s boring, and 2) it tries to be a ranged weapon through the immobilization, but doesn’t work because the primary attacks are so unpredictable. Since the guardian doesn’t really have much other skills/traits that synergies well ranged options, it’s kind of difficult to use. Nevertheless, it has the fastest auto-attack of all guardian weapons and the fastest recharge on “damaging” skills. So if you spec into on-hit or critical hit effects, you might be able to make use of it.

Whaaat? I love the 1H Sword! It’s my favorite weapon…

I do agree that smite needs to be treated as a symbol. It would really help the scepter go a long way.

Support your team through blinds and reflecting projectiles.

Or just killing the enemy.

I do like sword, don’t get me wrong I just feel it’s still lacking compared to other weapons. Once again, it could be I’m trying to use it in ways it’s not designed to be used.
I’m currently using mace+shield with a weapon swap of whatever suits the situation, usually greatsword, hammer or staff. I like having a damage swap for solo situations (although mace isn’t that bad if you get the big hits off), I would switch to sword for that (perhaps sword+torch) but even then I don’t think the damage would match that of the greatsword AND the greatsword has a symbol with finishers too. Still seems like a better option.

I’m with the OP too.

I really like the Sword & Shield concept, and they’re good already in what they do but… it just seems to lack compared to a Greatsword + Anything combo.

Also, Traits are kinda… 1h unfriendly in my opinion.
Greatswords have a very great trait combination that works for more than 1 weapon, like Symbol improvements for Staves, Hammers and Greatswords, and reduced CD, etc
Sword and Shields don’t have anything similar like that, there’s great traits but none that you can combo for a good dual set. If you pick the essentials (Radiance 3, Valor 2, Honor 2) there’s no other weapon you could use that would benefit greatly from these traits as well.

They’re great already but… I dunno, wish they had better synergy/combos with other weapons trait-wise.

Ezrael.6859:

Support your team through blinds and reflecting projectiles.

Or just killing the enemy.

That stands true. However sword doesn’t reflect projectiles, it fake blocks them, for a pretty short amout of time to be honest but I guess the recharge is nice. Most of the time I have Wall of Reflection running anyway, the amount of damage I’ve done with that is rediculous (I have them ground targetted, try dropping one in front of a keep/tower door from above ), that along with the shield, projectiles really aren’t a worry.
Blind and teleport is really nice, for a long time in all the betas it was one of my favourite skills. However, it usually requires pretty judicial timing, which I don’t have a problem with but I’ve found it more useful to have more constant team support in ways of healing and boons which allows them to stay alive and do the big damage.

As I said earlier, it may just be a case that sword is not for me I really like swords hahah!

I feel like Zealot’s Defense could be replaced with a Symbol of Fury and Smite could be changed to a Symbol of Might. That would give a symbol on all of the Guardian’s weapon options, buff scepters a fair bit, and keep 1h sword as a pretty offensive option with the fury. The auto attack on the scepter needs to be sped up some as well, perhaps at the cost of some damage.

Hey that’s a cool idea, perhaps to keep Zealot’s Defense similar to its original intended design, it could be a sword smash into the ground (similar to Symbol of Faith with mace) that also sends out a magical projectile (or more) like it already does but leave a symbol on the ground. Granted that would slow it down a little (maybe) and it’s designed to be fast.
In any case, throwing suggestions around can be helpful. Maybe a dev will read it and think, ‘Hey not bad.’

Hassohappa.9278:

I feel like Zealot’s Defense could be replaced with a Symbol of Fury and Smite could be changed to a Symbol of Might. That would give a symbol on all of the Guardian’s weapon options, buff scepters a fair bit, and keep 1h sword as a pretty offensive option with the fury. The auto attack on the scepter needs to be sped up some as well, perhaps at the cost of some damage.

The auto-attack on the scepter is already the fastest! How fast do you want it to be? Also it has the worst damage of all weapon auto-attacks except for the staff (which is AOE). Are you sure you are not thinking of the mace or the hammer?

the scepter is amazing, especially in pvp. however, i really hate its visuals.

Telegraph.7509:

The auto-attack on the scepter is already the fastest! How fast do you want it to be? Also it has the worst damage of all weapon auto-attacks except for the staff (which is AOE). Are you sure you are not thinking of the mace or the hammer?

I wasn’t very clear, but I meant the auto attack’s projectile speed needed to be increased, not its attack speed. I don’t know if they intended for it to be so simple to avoid, so if they did perhaps they tried to account for that by having it do more damage than it otherwise would have. If that was the case then making it easier to hit with would mean that reducing the damage those hits did might be appropriate. I know its damage already isn’t particularly awe-inspiring, but I think they didn’t really intend for the Guardian’s ranged options to be overly devastating.

i’m a GS + Scep/Focus

Power, Precision stats on everything i have.

I can quick kill something or many somethings? GS ftw.

Big baddie or strong guys that are hard to mob? Scepter for the kite.

What i think some people don’t realize with scepter is that the slow projectiles actually help manage boss agro when luring… i do this with enough efficiency that it makes up for not having any vit or toughness.

Just auto attack and run around in circles, popping the other skills upon cooldown. The slow projectiles make the lumping of damage more consistent rather than quick successions that break rythm faster… at least that’s what i noticed.

Sword and scepter are actually both very powerful weapons. Sword has nice damage for a one hander and the number 3 attack has high burst potential.

I do agree that all weapons should have combo field or combo finisher ability. This is more of a quality of life thing than a balance thing though.

The one thing I feel Sword lacks is a Combo Finisher. I expected Sword 2 to have a Leap Finisher but it doesn’t. I expected Sword 3 to have a Blast Finisher but it doesn’t. While Greatsword has 3. That said, I play Greatsword and Sword/Torch when running solo and wouldn’t trade it. Well, except for the times I swap to Hammer for defense of Mace for support.

Swords are great, the mistake here is considering them a support or party weapon. They’re just raw damage/murder, something this class does not have that much of otherwise (considering the theme). A sword/torch condition build is quite a monster to behold.

I wish Sword 3 was a projectile finisher.

Shimond.2478:

Swords are great, the mistake here is considering them a support or party weapon. They’re just raw damage/murder, something this class does not have that much of otherwise (considering the theme).

I don’t agree with that, greatsword easily does the most damage, could be considered a raw damage dealer and yet it has a symbol; which can be used for all number of synergy and support related things via traits, plus THREE combo finishers.
What I was originally saying is that sword and scepter don’t have a lot of synergy/support options like other weapons do, even the big damage ones.

Sword and Scepter are my favs. Everyone has opinions I guess.

Silver.8023:

Shimond.2478:

Swords are great, the mistake here is considering them a support or party weapon. They’re just raw damage/murder, something this class does not have that much of otherwise (considering the theme).

I don’t agree with that, greatsword easily does the most damage, could be considered a raw damage dealer and yet it has a symbol; which can be used for all number of synergy and support related things via traits, plus THREE combo finishers.
What I was originally saying is that sword and scepter don’t have a lot of synergy/support options like other weapons do, even the big damage ones.

Greatsword doesn’t necessarily do the most damage. The damage is strong, and the Might at the end of each Chain 3 swing is definitely nice. If you’re routinely attacking multiple opponents, there’s no question of the efficacy of Greatsword as a damage-dealing weapon.

But what we need to remember is that sword is versatile and deals routinely solid damage, and can be built to deal excellent damage. A very fast attack speed coupled with 5 attacks per chain means a Burn trigger every single attack chain. Couple that with deep Radiance (a natural choice for a sword user for Right Hand Strength), and you’ll trigger more crits and bigger Virtue of Justice passive burns. Zealot’s Defense alone is an excellent spike damage attack, triggering two Virtue of Justice burns and dealing high damage, plus range and a modest anti-projectile.

Sword actually does have a great deal of synergy, but the synergy is more subtle. The fast attack speed and high number of strikes alone provide excellent synergy with Empowering Might (Honor VIII), making it comparable to Greatsword for steady damage coupled with aggregate damage from handing out 2-3 stacks of PermaMight on all nearby allies.

Then there’s Blind synergy. Radiance—which sword users should be taking—adds a blind component and an instant recharge to Virtue of Justice. Pair up Sword with Focus, and you can lay out three blinds—one from Flashing Blade, one from Virtue of Justice, one from Ray of Judgement. That cancels out three attacks of your choice. Throw in Shield of Judgement to block another 3 attacks or deal big area damage. All this while spreading Might to your allies and dealing steady damage with a sword.

Sword does have synergy, but it’s a functional synergy evident in its ability to couple with any off-hand weapon, and a tactical synergy that comes from having a short-cooldown Blind. It doesn’t hit as hard as Greatsword, but it rakes up Virtue of Justice passive burns very fast. On top of that, Zealot’s Defense is the go-to skill for Guardian spikes.

And this is to say nothing of Sword/Torch synergy.

Don’t get me wrong—I’d LOVE to see a projectile combo finisher on Zealot’s Defense, speaking as a big fan of Guardian Sword. But you’d really just be making an already excellent weapon even better, stealing some thunder from scepter and mace and greatsword, and penalizing players who don’t take sword.

One-handed sword is a fantastic weapon with its Blind, if your combo that with a Focus the blind is fantastic, especially with how important blind is right now. Scepter is incredibly boring however, and could benefit from a three combo chain with something interesting at the end of it, and making Smite a symbol so it gains the benefits of traits.

The Scepter is efficient, but extremely boring, so it probably won’t be changed anytime soon.
The Sword doesn’t need any real changes. It’s a more offensive weapon that goes great with every off-hand. And blinds are really good support/control. It doesn’t really fit a supportive playstyle, but that’s okay, really.

These are all very good points and I agree with most, if not, all of them.

My main problem however, judging by what people have said here, is that the sword requires traits to be most useful, while I’m not discounting the effectiveness of sword’s damage and how useful you can make the following weapons via traits, they CAN require absolutely NO traits to be a good synergy/support/damage. I’m talking mostly combo fields/symbols/finishers here.
Hammer needs no traits to be effective, staff needs no traits to be effective (some people would disagree here though), mace needs no traits to be effective, greatsword needs no traits to be effective, heck even shield. See where I’m going with this? I don’t NEED 30 points in any trait line for those weapons to synergise well.
The only weapons that lack this instant team combo effectiveness are swords, possibly scepters (if smite doesn’t count as a combo field, I forget if it is, the tooltip doesn’t say so) and I guess torches. You could argue that they’re all the one handed damage dealers so they shouldn’t HAVE finishers and fields. Why then do other professions get them? Because we can heal a lot? So can pretty much everyone else.

I know it’s not ALL about every single weapon having crazy synergies with other people and I’ve mentioned before that perhaps sword just isn’t for me, even though I really like the sword and shield look and feel.
Sword just still just feels lacking, I mean there are mesmer teleports that are leap finishers, why isn’t sword’s? There are plenty of projectiles that are not only projectile finishers but hit foes in a line, why doesn’t Guardian sword’s? This is why I mentioned earlier that I would like to know the developer’s design decisions behind the sword. Like is it deliberately a pretty much only single target damage weapon or did the skills just end up like that? etc etc

I’m not angry or having a go at anyone here by the way, I really like swords but I feel my playstyle is a little incompatible with them, I’m going to give it a go as my damage weapon swap, see how that turns out.

1H-Sword:
Quick swipe attacks with Justice activated each cycle.
AoE blind and gap closer.
Big burst damage w/ ranged block at the same time.

Scepter:
Well, this one needs some work on orb speed but the damage is decent.
Ranged AoE good damage, fast recharge.
Immobilise at good range plus vulnerability.

I honestly can’t see how you can complain about these weapons.

They don’t do the same things as mace or as GS or staff, and they shouldn’t. They’re for a particular play style like all weapons. I use them and find them incredibly useful.

I know how the weapons work and I’m aware they aren’t necessarily bad, I’m just saying they could be better. I’m also not saying they should behave like greatsword or staff, I’m saying it would nice if they could have their own fields and/or finishers like most weapons do.
Imagine how cool Flashing Blade would be if it was a leap finisher, teleport through Purging Flames and get yourself a Flame Aura as well as blinding them! Mesmer can teleport backwards and get a leap finish, surely we should be able to teleport forwards and get one too!
I seriously think these weapons need a buff, YES they are good but let’s look at greatsword with sword in mind:
- If I’m versing three or more enemies, which I do often, I’m proccing Justice every chain ANYWAY, kinda like sword, add to that all the extra might I get, plus it swings at about the same speed.
- I get a nice symbol, affected by all my nice symbol traits which also is a combo field and all the nice AoE damage that comes with it.
- Fattest damage skill also can be used to finish combo fields AND shoots projectiles, kinda like sword but without the ranged fake block and isn’t single target.
- Leap finisher that AoE blinds AND does pretty good damage, unlike sword. Sure it’s no teleport but the functionality is remarkably similar.
- ANOTHER finisher that has limited crowd control and again, ok damage for what it does.

Compared to that, the sword looks kinda useless. Yes you can use offhands with it, but how many offhands have combo fields? One, with a 40 second untraited cooldown. How many finishers can sword use on it? None because it has none. How many offhands have combo finishers? One, with a 45 second untraited cooldown.
While I’m at it, how many Guardian skills have some kind of projectile? I counted 14, how many are considered projectile finishers? I counted one, if Bow of Truth counts.
I’m not saying, ALL WEAPONS MUST HAVE COMBO FIELDS! I’m still comparing sword to the greatsword.
I’m not dissing people who like swords or scepters, if you like them, that’s totally fine!
In any case, I think I’m just repeating myself at this point and I’ll stop wasting people’s time. Thank you for reading

Funny sidenote. The basic GS attack has a range of 130. The basic Sword attack 150. That is if the tooltips are correct. Not a huge difference but it totally blows my mind cause it makes no sense.