Guild Wars 2

Whether it be through traits or through a direct buff, these guys definitely need more health.

In a team fight or against a char with lots of cleave, this thing could die in seconds.

I would suggest adding “+75% more health” to the Virtues Trait; Improved Spirit Weapon Duration if Anet does consider buffing the health of these rarely seen skills.

I hope this isn’t for PvP

Why not style? SW Guard is the most active of the AI builds. Id rather have them running around than turret engineers at the moment. I dont know about increased health. But a resistance to raw physical damage would be nice. And htere low HP pools would keep them weak to conditions. Direct and available counterplay.

I’ve been suggesting this since they redesigned them.

Before the redesign their damage was pitiful but at least they couldn’t die.

Now they die in seconds to cleave & the only real useful one is shield in a few very niche PvE encounters.

What they really need to do is consolidate the traits (having to spend the majority of your traits on something so unreliable is just bad) & add/merge to one of the traits "Also increases your spirit weapons health by 100%. (Similar to what the rangers have)

Or even better idea, they could just redesign them completely.

Personally I’d love to see them either

1: Be made more akin to ele conjure weapons, they would give you more attack skills, last for a set amount of time (non charges unlike ele) and could not be maintained indefinitely unless fully traited for. (Also would have CD start as soon as summoned, but would not create a second version on ground like ele conjure weapons.)
or
2: Have them be made more akin to banners. They would be invulnerable, give a stat boost to allies around them (one stat, not 2 like banners), follow the guardian & could be commanded to grant a special effect in area, or to nearby allies.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

I’ve been suggesting this since they redesigned them.

Before the redesign their damage was pitiful but at least they couldn’t die.

Now they die in seconds to cleave & the only real useful one is shield in a few very niche PvE encounters.

What they really need to do is consolidate the traits (having to spend the majority of your traits on something so unreliable is just bad) & add/merge to one of the traits "Also increases your spirit weapons health by 100%. (Similar to what the rangers have)

Or even better idea, they could just redesign them completely.

Personally I’d love to see them either

1: Be made more akin to ele conjure weapons, they would give you more attack skills, last for a set amount of time (non charges unlike ele) and could not be maintained indefinitely unless fully traited for. (Also would have CD start as soon as summoned, but would not create a second version on ground like ele conjure weapons.)
or
2: Have them be made more akin to banners. They would be invulnerable, give a stat boost to allies around them (one stat, not 2 like banners), follow the guardian & could be commanded to grant a special effect in area, or to nearby allies.

Your second idea is more in line with what I think they could be. I kinda invision them acting as buffs. Attacking with the guard for example. (Guard uses sword of justice and attacks. The sword also swings at the same target) While they float over guardians shoulder. And there active effects act more as ‘beacon’ skills. (activated sword of justice lodges into the ground and pulses vuln to nearby enemies for 5 seconds. Deals damage with each pulse. Similar to a mobile symbol) (Bow of truth passive cleanses conditions from anyone in close vicinity to the guardian. Fires one arrow at the guardian and one at an ally with each shot) (Bow of truth begins to scatter a large barrage of healing arrows into the area around the guardian healing both the guardian and all nearby allies)

Theyd lose some of the benefits of being outside sources. But be MUCH more reliable since you wouldnt have to worry about them accidentally dieing when no one was even attacking them directly.

Add a 50% health increase in Honor’s major trait line for our spear head spirit weapons.

Saiyan.1704:

Add a 50% health increase in Honor’s major trait line for our spear head spirit weapons.

So you want to have to go into 4 separate trait lines to be able to get spirit weapons that are half decent ?

As is you already have to use 8 of your 14 trait points to make them half decent & that leaves very little room to spend elsewhere thus making your ability to do other things greatly diminished.

if i recall Anet already incrased Spirit weapon health by 15%-20%i think, there arent any dev experimenting this skill / class on WvW side for pve i guess skill works, but for pve anything works even naked guardian works.

Shadelang.3012:

Why not style? SW Guard is the most active of the AI builds. Id rather have them running around than turret engineers at the moment. I dont know about increased health. But a resistance to raw physical damage would be nice. And htere low HP pools would keep them weak to conditions. Direct and available counterplay.

That is interesting if i recall spirits from Ritualist class (GW1) were weak to fire, but just a minor work on traits might solve the spirit problem at least on shield

A flag like the command for heroes would be amazing to command shield and prioritize the area we want to defend, for a more tactical gameplay.

Why not delete Spirit Weapons instead? There’s already a ton of pet classes in the game (Rangers, Minionmancers, Mesmers, turret Engineers…) and those ones were always more or less viable, whereas Guardian Spirit Weaons were a joke even in the days in which were indestructible.

I remeber the days in which I did level my first Guardian using SWs and man, seeing that in time, how clueless I was! SW aren’t only subpar: even if they were proficient, it still would be a lose! Because means relying your gameplay in a passive style. If you enjoy that kind of gameplay with your Guardian just try a Maruder 6 Demon Hunter in Diablo III… -is comfy and rewarding for a while, but starts to becoming boring very fast-.

Buran.3796:

Why not delete Spirit Weapons instead? There’s already a ton of pet classes in the game (Rangers, Minionmancers, Mesmers, turret Engineers…) and those ones were always more or less viable, whereas Guardian Spirit Weapons were a joke even in the days in which were indestructible.
(…)

Well because its simpler to redesign/change something that is already built than implementing from scratch.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Saiyan.1704:

Add a 50% health increase in Honor’s major trait line for our spear head spirit weapons.

So you want to have to go into 4 separate trait lines to be able to get spirit weapons that are half decent ?

As is you already have to use 8 of your 14 trait points to make them half decent & that leaves very little room to spend elsewhere thus making your ability to do other things greatly diminished.

Think about why the spirit weapon trait line is spaced out to begin with. If say, Virtue’s Spirit Duration was moved to Zeal or Radiance, not only would build diversity be bland but spirits may be OP. There was a reason why spirit weapons are no longer invincible. The Honor trait line makes more sense than any of the others.

There isn’t 1 guardian build that’s superior, not even the meta. There’s a reason why the Guardian is so balanced no matter what ‘viable’ build you choose.

Considering guardians are slowly being driven out of the meta, i wouldn’t really go and say spirit weapons will be OP anytime soon.

If anything i can hope for them to be at least meta worthy material, but as of right now, they are better off deleting or completely overhauling them than try to kittenly make them “viable”

Aeolus.3615:

Buran.3796:

Why not delete Spirit Weapons instead? There’s already a ton of pet classes in the game (Rangers, Minionmancers, Mesmers, turret Engineers…) and those ones were always more or less viable, whereas Guardian Spirit Weapons were a joke even in the days in which were indestructible.
(…)

Well because its simpler to redesign/change something that is already built than implementing from scratch.

I`m not asking for new skills. Just a delete of SWs, to prevent people from being emotionally involved in useless skills. Just erase them.

Saiyan.1704:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Saiyan.1704:

Add a 50% health increase in Honor’s major trait line for our spear head spirit weapons.

So you want to have to go into 4 separate trait lines to be able to get spirit weapons that are half decent ?

As is you already have to use 8 of your 14 trait points to make them half decent & that leaves very little room to spend elsewhere thus making your ability to do other things greatly diminished.

Think about why the spirit weapon trait line is spaced out to begin with. If say, Virtue’s Spirit Duration was moved to Zeal or Radiance, not only would build diversity be bland but spirits may be OP. There was a reason why spirit weapons are no longer invincible. The Honor trait line makes more sense than any of the others.

There isn’t 1 guardian build that’s superior, not even the meta. There’s a reason why the Guardian is so balanced no matter what ‘viable’ build you choose.

Even if you consolidated the traits for spirit weapons down to 4-5 instead of the current 8 and tacked +100% spirit weapon health on one of them they still would not be over powered.
That ^ is because you would still be able to kill them rather easily if focused (they just wouldn’t incidentally die as much) and because of the large downtime each one has.

I just believe that if I choose to put points into my spirit weapons, they should be more powerful than someone who doesn’t put points into them. So a health boost would really be nice on one of the many traits they have.

Dirame.8521:

I just believe that if I choose to put points into my spirit weapons, they should be more powerful than someone who doesn’t put points into them. So a health boost would really be nice on one of the many traits they have.

they are not that powerfull when traited, they cant even reach target sometimes.

I see what you’re saying but no one focus’s AI pets except for maybe turrets. A person isn’t going to waste a 2-4k damage skill on a spirit weapon. They will just (try) to aoe them down.

Spirit weapons are on par with ranger spirits, except not as efficient…

Saiyan.1704:

I see what you’re saying but no one focus’s AI pets except for maybe turrets. A person isn’t going to waste a 2-4k damage skill on a spirit weapon. They will just (try) to aoe them down.

Spirit weapons are on par with ranger spirits, except not as efficient…

While it’s true people won’t focus them in most cases, however its because they die so quickly to cleave & AOE.

As for them being on par with ranger spirits. I wouldn’t really say that.
Ranger spirits are on much shorter cool downs, offer more utility (Shield being the exception), help the group more & can be traited to have a good deal more health.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Saiyan.1704:

I see what you’re saying but no one focus’s AI pets except for maybe turrets. A person isn’t going to waste a 2-4k damage skill on a spirit weapon. They will just (try) to aoe them down.

Spirit weapons are on par with ranger spirits, except not as efficient…

While it’s true people won’t focus them in most cases, however its because they die so quickly to cleave & AOE.

As for them being on par with ranger spirits. I wouldn’t really say that.
Ranger spirits are on much shorter cool downs, offer more utility (Shield being the exception), help the group more & can be traited to have a good deal more health.

I wish they could help the group

Played this weekend to full traited SoR, and untraited SoR, i didnt noticed any kind of diference the spirit was rare to last the 30 seconds mos of time lasted 2-3 seconds due the ammount of red circles and conditions, in a few enconters went to protect players that were not in combat, command someitmes not obeing and started a cooldown as if skill was trigered.

Since Anet can gather data fom skill use, would be great if players could help by more guardians using spirit weapon in more situations.

Trying to view from the other side of the looking glass, developers cannot improve skills if they dont have data to make any decision.

Aeolus.3615:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Saiyan.1704:

I see what you’re saying but no one focus’s AI pets except for maybe turrets. A person isn’t going to waste a 2-4k damage skill on a spirit weapon. They will just (try) to aoe them down.

Spirit weapons are on par with ranger spirits, except not as efficient…

While it’s true people won’t focus them in most cases, however its because they die so quickly to cleave & AOE.

As for them being on par with ranger spirits. I wouldn’t really say that.
Ranger spirits are on much shorter cool downs, offer more utility (Shield being the exception), help the group more & can be traited to have a good deal more health.

I wish they could help the group

Played this weekend to full traited SoR, and untraited SoR, i didnt noticed any kind of diference the spirit was rare to last the 30 seconds mos of time lasted 2-3 seconds due the ammount of red circles and conditions, in a few enconters went to protect players that were not in combat, command someitmes not obeing and started a cooldown as if skill was trigered.

Since Anet can gather data fom skill use, would be great if players could help by more guardians using spirit weapon in more situations.

Trying to view from the other side of the looking glass, developers cannot improve skills if they dont have data to make any decision.

I & allot of people I know wish they would just redesign them to be more like a mix between ranger spirits & banners. (With the CD starting when it’s summoned)

In that I mean invulnerable & stationary (trait could make them follow you but be vulnerable to damage) but grant a passive stat boost to allies & be commandable to grant a special effect to the guardian (with a trait to cause the special to be shared or boosted).

Sword could give a boost to precision. It could then have a command so that the next X attacks the guardian makes apply bleeding & vulnerability.

Hammer could grant a bonus to power. The command could cause the next attack made (next one that lands) to cause a knock down.

Shield could grant a bonus to vitality & the command could be to create a dome around the guardian which absorbs projectiles.

Bow could grant a bonus to critical damage & the command could cause it to… well do something useful.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Aeolus.3615:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Saiyan.1704:

I see what you’re saying but no one focus’s AI pets except for maybe turrets. A person isn’t going to waste a 2-4k damage skill on a spirit weapon. They will just (try) to aoe them down.

Spirit weapons are on par with ranger spirits, except not as efficient…

While it’s true people won’t focus them in most cases, however its because they die so quickly to cleave & AOE.

As for them being on par with ranger spirits. I wouldn’t really say that.
Ranger spirits are on much shorter cool downs, offer more utility (Shield being the exception), help the group more & can be traited to have a good deal more health.

I wish they could help the group

Played this weekend to full traited SoR, and untraited SoR, i didnt noticed any kind of diference the spirit was rare to last the 30 seconds mos of time lasted 2-3 seconds due the ammount of red circles and conditions, in a few enconters went to protect players that were not in combat, command someitmes not obeing and started a cooldown as if skill was trigered.

Since Anet can gather data fom skill use, would be great if players could help by more guardians using spirit weapon in more situations.

Trying to view from the other side of the looking glass, developers cannot improve skills if they dont have data to make any decision.

I & allot of people I know wish they would just redesign them to be more like a mix between ranger spirits & banners. (With the CD starting when it’s summoned)

In that I mean invulnerable & stationary (trait could make them follow you but be vulnerable to damage) but grant a passive stat boost to allies & be commandable to grant a special effect to the guardian (with a trait to cause the special to be shared or boosted).

Sword could give a boost to precision. It could then have a command so that the next X attacks the guardian makes apply bleeding & vulnerability.

Hammer could grant a bonus to power. The command could cause the next attack made (next one that lands) to cause a knock down.

Shield could grant a bonus to vitality & the command could be to create a dome around the guardian which absorbs projectiles.

Bow could grant a bonus to critical damage & the command could cause it to… well do something useful.

This would directly effect Signets and make them obsolete.
I do like the idea of hammer, sword and shield command abilities to automatically activate on their death. That would make it them on par with spirit rangers.

I wouldn’t mind bringing in a 4k-6k cc hammer burst into a group fight

Saiyan.1704:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Aeolus.3615:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Saiyan.1704:

I see what you’re saying but no one focus’s AI pets except for maybe turrets. A person isn’t going to waste a 2-4k damage skill on a spirit weapon. They will just (try) to aoe them down.

Spirit weapons are on par with ranger spirits, except not as efficient…

While it’s true people won’t focus them in most cases, however its because they die so quickly to cleave & AOE.

As for them being on par with ranger spirits. I wouldn’t really say that.
Ranger spirits are on much shorter cool downs, offer more utility (Shield being the exception), help the group more & can be traited to have a good deal more health.

I wish they could help the group

Played this weekend to full traited SoR, and untraited SoR, i didnt noticed any kind of diference the spirit was rare to last the 30 seconds mos of time lasted 2-3 seconds due the ammount of red circles and conditions, in a few enconters went to protect players that were not in combat, command someitmes not obeing and started a cooldown as if skill was trigered.

Since Anet can gather data fom skill use, would be great if players could help by more guardians using spirit weapon in more situations.

Trying to view from the other side of the looking glass, developers cannot improve skills if they dont have data to make any decision.

I & allot of people I know wish they would just redesign them to be more like a mix between ranger spirits & banners. (With the CD starting when it’s summoned)

In that I mean invulnerable & stationary (trait could make them follow you but be vulnerable to damage) but grant a passive stat boost to allies & be commandable to grant a special effect to the guardian (with a trait to cause the special to be shared or boosted).

Sword could give a boost to precision. It could then have a command so that the next X attacks the guardian makes apply bleeding & vulnerability.

Hammer could grant a bonus to power. The command could cause the next attack made (next one that lands) to cause a knock down.

Shield could grant a bonus to vitality & the command could be to create a dome around the guardian which absorbs projectiles.

Bow could grant a bonus to critical damage & the command could cause it to… well do something useful.

This would directly effect Signets and make them obsolete.
I do like the idea of hammer, sword and shield command abilities to automatically activate on their death. That would make it them on par with spirit rangers.

I wouldn’t mind bringing in a 4k-6k cc hammer burst into a group fight

They would only make signets (signet of judgment excluded) obsolete because signets absolutely suck.

Spirit Weapons basically operate as a cross-between weapon spells and binding rituals from the original Guild Wars ritualist profession. They can attack independently of the Guardian and allows for a strong command skill, when compared to their regular attacks at least, but they are quite fragile so they tend to die quickly.

Bow – regular attacks removes conditions while the command skill heals a selected area.
Hammer – regular attacks cause damage with knockback on the last attack while the command causes solid damage, knockdown and is a blast finisher.
Shield – creates a shield of absorption which absorbs projectiles and the command grants aegis, causes weakness and is a stun break.
Sword – regular attacks cause damage and command causes vulnerability and damage.

Make spirit weapons impossible to kill but have a limit of one activated at a time or reduce their duration to compensate. Additionally, link the spirit weapons regular attacks to the attacks made by the Guardian and the “Command” skills would remain unchanged. It increases control of the spirit weapons, avoids the problem of their fragile nature and does not require any change to the traits.

Essentially, it allows them to have a similar function to the weapon spells the ritualist had in Guild Wars. Of course, such a thing is just as unlikely as the Necromancers having access to party-based Guild Wars spells like the elite skill “Order of the Vampire.”

Corana.9837:

Spirit Weapons basically operate as a cross-between weapon spells and binding rituals from the original Guild Wars ritualist profession. They can attack independently of the Guardian and allows for a strong command skill, when compared to their regular attacks at least, but they are quite fragile so they tend to die quickly.

Bow – regular attacks removes conditions while the command skill heals a selected area.
Hammer – regular attacks cause damage with knockback on the last attack while the command causes solid damage, knockdown and is a blast finisher.
Shield – creates a shield of absorption which absorbs projectiles and the command grants aegis, causes weakness and is a stun break.
Sword – regular attacks cause damage and command causes vulnerability and damage.

Make spirit weapons impossible to kill but have a limit of one activated at a time or reduce their duration to compensate. Additionally, link the spirit weapons regular attacks to the attacks made by the Guardian and the “Command” skills would remain unchanged. It increases control of the spirit weapons, avoids the problem of their fragile nature and does not require any change to the traits.

Essentially, it allows them to have a similar function to the weapon spells the ritualist had in Guild Wars. Of course, such a thing is just as unlikely as the Necromancers having access to party-based Guild Wars spells like the elite skill “Order of the Vampire.”

This….would actually fix all if not all of the problems that SW guards face than atleast most of them. And it would really push them into a role there own. Instead of “bad pets with good burst” theyd end up being summoned augmentations instead. I would like that VERY much.