Guild Wars 2

I’m sort of new to the game but I really enjoy the Guardian. Have been following a basic dps build, but I started deviating from it through leveling when I started unlocking all of these summons. I have searched the internet looking for answers and haven’t found much talk about spirit weapons in guardians so I’m wondering if a build centered around them is viable for end game PvE? Probably not but I’m hoping it is lol.

Sadly, not at all.

Maybe a build for kitten and giggles but nothing more. I like the idea of spirit weapons too, bu they aren’t good enough.

ugh that stinks I was really hoping there was some way they’d be good. I really enjoy rolling around through leveling with 3 spirit weapons but it saddens me to know they won’t be useful endgame..

There have been many attempts to make a viable spirit weapon build but truth be told there has been no luck. Since release, spirit weapons have been the weakest of the Guardian’s supposed ‘assets’. Its a shame as it means we essentially have a wasted set of skills and traits that are never used.
For spirit weapons to ever be viable the skills need some strong improvements and the trait lines need to be switched up a bit too.

The spirit shield is pretty good in some dungeons. In combination with traited wall of reflection you can basicly keep up the projectile reflection/absorbtion up for 44 seconds.

And the spirit bow is op cuz it has the most beautiful animation in this game.

Apart from that they are pretty useless but I’m not a fan of AI-builds anyways so whatever.

Unless they make spirit weapons work like Engineer turrets, don’t count on them being viable anytime soon.

If they make spirit weapon like minions that only disappear when killed they might become a bit more useful.

I was thinking of a new trait that would be pretty cool.

Vengeful Spirit (dat dota 2 reference)- Spirit Weapons immediately respawn after being destroyed.

Obviously it would have to have a fairly long CD to balance it.

Meh I would rather see the other spirit weapons become useful in niche situations because of their effects like the shield is now than a “build” with three spirit weapons ever becoming a thing. Dunno why people actually want to play with AI. :<

Keksmuffin.1450:

Meh I would rather see the other spirit weapons become useful in niche situations because of their effects like the shield is now than a “build” with three spirit weapons ever becoming a thing. Dunno why people actually want to play with AI. :<

I just find the concept and notion of Spirit Weapons to be cool, more so than turrets or minions, that’s fairly boring.

What I really like to see, but I know it’s never going to happen is. When you command a Spirit Weapon you take control of it, and you get all new weapon skills. Similar an Ele’s Conjure. This would make only running one or two spirits more viable and also open up some more options.

I use allot SoA in WvW, guardian blue bubbles are also cool.

When notice there are a few rangers that going to spike a commander or a zone…. its a good oportunity, please i present you my walking shield for the next 30 seconds.
Also block nades, but yest it is a pain to work with shield AI, attack weapons are a laugh since target can ignored them and they still miss or cant reach target duue speed.
They can be 1hit K.O.

Sadly until something happens to make spirit weapons RELIABLE I dont think theyl really matter in a team fight much. And I play a SW guardian more than any other spec.

Ive said it before but id love for them to be immune to physical damage. Like how turrets are immune to condition damage. I wouldnt mind if they lost a bit of health to compensate for that. But as they are now even with every trait they die WAY to quickly to be reliable. While simultaneously being just as succeptable to CC as you are seeing as you gave up nearly every source of stability you had access to by USING spirit weapons. Kind of a death sentance for a class reliant on active defense as the guard is.

Using SW I can usually beat most opponents. But the build as it is now has a decently low skill ceiling while still requiring a decent amount of awareness,skill, and timing to actually pull off against non braindead opponents.

You end up with this weird goldilocks zone where you can beat any opponent below a certain skill level as long as your ABOVE that skill level. But no matter how high your skill level is you will simply never beat people above X skill level as long as there using ANY of the meta builds. The build has alot of potential in its zone. But outside of it it gets shafted pretty quickly.

Thats just my experience after playing it since the release date however >.<

Keksmuffin.1450:

Meh I would rather see the other spirit weapons become useful in niche situations because of their effects like the shield is now than a “build” with three spirit weapons ever becoming a thing. Dunno why people actually want to play with AI. :<

Keksmuffin.1450:

And the spirit bow is op cuz it has the most beautiful animation in this game.

You answered yourself why I’d like spirit weapons to be viable, they just look pretty awesome. I’d love for them to be more about active play, but I just want them around because it looks kitten.

Keksmuffin. People like to play with AI some times for alot of reasons. Some of us find the “Hunter-killer” aspect of pets very satisfying. The feeling of control the build gives is very good as well. Other people like the “divide and conquer” feel you can pull off with it. Sending pets after one enemy to delay them while finishing off another is a VERY fun thing to do.

Then you have people that like to play the villain in a game. Being able to drag an opponent down kicking in screaming with a continuos flurry of attacks and CCs is one of the primary reasons I play a MM necro every now and then.

Some people find the more upfront playstyles boring as hell. I personally like to keep track of more than just myself and an enemy. Its more engaging for me as a gamer to keep trap of 6-7 things and how they relate to my target.

Theres also the feeling of always having backup. Many of us have loner playstyles but at the same time know how valuable it is to have something that can attack when your being stunlocked in a 1v1… One of the best parts about being a SW guard with a spirit hammer ready is having something to smack the hell out of that necro that just feared you. Its a really satisfying feeling taking away the advantage that necro had and its also something that can be difficult to pull off mid fight.

Many of us also came from RTS games. Were used to keeping trap of multiple locations and targets. Focusing on just one causes us to tend to zone out a bit. Its difficult for me to pay attention in a fight if its just me and one opponent. Might sound weird but there it is.

Anyway you probably dont even really care why people use AI. You most likely just mindlessly hate it despite it being one of the weakest build types in the game…actually I think with all the bugs involved it actually IS the weakest build type in the game now.
But I thought id type this out so youd see some of us actually have a reason why we enjoy the playstyle more. And that it isn’t because we “like playing with AI”

The only spirit weapon worth ever using is the shield. It helps with some dungeon encounters that require constant/near-constant reflect/absorb time. Ive occasionally used the bow for some extra condi removal but it depends on the group make-up and is generally not worth taking. For pvp/wvw i doubt that spirit weapons would be any good since they would immediately get vaporized in the mass aoes that happen in zergs.

there are two options to make spirit weapon viable
1. make them hit harder as they tend to die pretty fast
2. or make them respawn sooner so reduced the cd significantly

i like the hammer with the kd and the heavy dmg on demand
the sword dont give much dmg to pressure
the bow is nice gimmick but nothing else
the shield the same

messiah.1908:

there are two options to make spirit weapon viable
1. make them hit harder as they tend to die pretty fast
2. or make them respawn sooner so reduced the cd significantly

i like the hammer with the kd and the heavy dmg on demand
the sword dont give much dmg to pressure
the bow is nice gimmick but nothing else
the shield the same

Third option, redesign them.

I know a guy that came up with a few ideas of how they could be redesigned that actually sounded very nice.

First idea was to make them a bit more akin to warrior banners. They would give a stat boost to 1 stat (unlike 2 for warrior banner) and follow you around as a passive.
Then they could be commanded to do something active, like give everyone effected a special effect, cause projectile attacks into the area to be absorbed (in case of the shield), cause your next attack to stun etc…. (in this idea they would be invulnerable passives stat boosts with a command that effects nearby allies.)

The other idea he had was that they could be redesigned to be more like conjured weapons from the elementalist. In that they last for a set amount of time, give you access to a new set of 5 attacks with special effects etc…
The difference being that they last for a set amount of time & only the guardian has access to them instead of being tied to charges & having a second copy anyone could use. This would mean that unless you were fully traited to use them they would not be able to be kept up indefinitely. (Their CD’s would need to be adjusted but the CD would start as soon as it’s summoned.)

I think ANet’s plan for Spirit Weapons was to make them the “support pets” (which I love the concept of, very unique), and while ANet actually succeeded in making them just that, they’re still mostly clunky and undertuned. The biggest reasons for their clunkiness are their cast times, the fact that they don’t go on cooldown immediately after summoning, and spirit weapons’ wonky trait placement. They also each have their own individual clunkiness, like how BoT’s active has a cast time when the other spirit weapon actives don’t, and like how controlling the shield’s reflection position is very difficult.

As for the idea of them being redesigned into conjured weapons and their old concept being removed entirely, utility tomes could just be a thing. Utility tomes could also give guardians more reliable ranged options (with trade-offs).

I’ve seen people make the hammer work in 1v1 or 1v2s…. but thats about it

Hamster.4861:

I’ve seen people make the hammer work in 1v1 or 1v2s…. but thats about it

The Hammer is easily the best of them in PvP. A while back I was trying out different gimmicks and one of them was an “All the CC” build that used Spirit Hammer to great effect.