Guild Wars 2

Currently guardian is in a good spot, while not being meta it still has good builds for every playstyle (condi, dps and bunker). Some little things could still be improved to see even more builds. The proposed changes should push rarely used weapons and skills without making guardian op.

DPS guard:
Dps guard is a bit underrated right now (imo), it also gets pushed out of the meta by dd-eles and vamp rune. I would suggest to remove the 6th bonus of Vamp rune for a more punishing meta.

Condi Guard:
While many people complain about burning, I don’t think it’s too strong. It’s a good build on low level but it is easily countered on high level just by team comp (eles, shoutbow, bunker guard, necros). I would mostly let this build stay the way it is. To battle burning I would suggest to remove a few stacks for walking through ring of fire and purging flames. Also ele fire line needs to be brought in place, but this is not a guardian balancing issue

Bunker Guard:
Wouldn’t change much here. Except for making shield a better option

Weapons:
Nearly all weapons of the guardian have found a place in current builds. Gs in dps builds, scepter+focus in dps and condi, sword and torch in condi and mace as well as staff in bunker builds. There are two weapons missing: Hammer and shield. I feel like there is not much needed to put them in the right spot. These changes could make them a viable choice:

Shield:
Shield4: Give out aegis with it. This would work well with Bunker guard and their synergy with aegis related traits like “pure of heart”
Shield5: Fix the duration bug
Shield related Traits: Combine “Strenght of the Fallen” and “Stalwart Defender” into one Adapt trait. Remove the downstate part. New trait: Shield recharge -20% + lose on condition every 10 sec. This way Bunker guard could choose between Valor-Adept-Top for shield and Valor-Adapt-Bottom for focus as offhand to mace.

Hammer:
Hammer could be a good choice for a dps guard but it lacks the last bit of dmg. This comes mainly due to the loss of “glacial heart”. To battle this I would suggest to move glacial heart back into valor. With the above proposed changes it would perfectly fit into the master tier (top). This could already make Dps-Hammer-Guard a thing again.

Other Traits:
Valor and Virtues are a good choice for every build. Zeal got great traits for dps guard, Radiance good traits for condition, valor good traits for bunker. One thing I would love to see, is a dps focused variant for Radiance. I can imagine that people want to go dps with sword, so I would like to see “Retribution” and “Radiant Retalliation” to switch their place. Currently we have 2 condi GM and 1 utility(signet) GM. This way we would have a condi, one signet and a dps GM.

Utility skills:

Meta guardians always run shelter. I would like to see another option here. I would suggest to remove the cast time of “Litany of Wrath”. This way it could be a viable choice. It would synergize with “Smiter’s Boon”and could add some nice plays (risk/reward gameplay). Even without cast time I think this skill got enough counter play and therefor wouldn’t be op.

Merciful intervention:
While this skill is a nice idea in theory, it sees no use in practice. To change this I would love to see it being a port without an ally needed. To still provide the idea of the skills I would suggest that the heal only triggers if you hit an ally with it. This way guardians would have the much needed mobility skill. MI would be a serious contender to JI.

Signet of Mercy:
The cast time is way too long to make it a useful skill. I would love to see it reduced. A 2sec maybe even 2.5sec cast time would maybe make this skill more viable. With the long cooldown it would be a something like a warrior banner

Anti.9156:

Hammer:
Hammer could be a good choice for a dps guard but it lacks the last bit of dmg. This comes mainly due to the loss of “glacial heart”. To battle this I would suggest to move glacial heart back into valor. With the above proposed changes it would perfectly fit into the master tier (top). This could already make Dps-Hammer-Guard a thing again.

Other Traits:
Valor and Virtues are a good choice for every build. Zeal got great traits for dps guard, Radiance good traits for condition, valor good traits for bunker. One thing I would love to see, is a dps focused variant for Radiance. I can imagine that people want to go dps with sword, so I would like to see “Retribution” and “Radiant Retalliation” to switch their place. Currently we have 2 condi GM and 1 utility(signet) GM. This way we would have a condi, one signet and a dps GM.

I would definetly love to see these happen. It really doesn’t make sense to me that radiance has multple traits for dps stuffed into adept and and master slots but then no decent option in the grandmaster slot.

While most people know that I never was a fan of hammer I would agree with glacial heart being in valor. It’s kind of the same as with radiance. In the adept and the grandmaster slot you have traits specificly made for dps med guard and the master slot offers nothing apart from communal defenses which only use is getting off more damage with shattered aegis (on a dps build anyways).

The other suggestions are alright but I don’t think they would really change a lot tbh.