Guild Wars 2

Weapon: Off-hand Mace
Skills: Stances
Mechanic: The activated portion of your Virtues are changed in function, becoming Seals that circle around you and aid allies while hampering enemies. They’re heavily focused around Regeneration and a new Boon called Serenity.

Role/Theme
The Auspice, as the name might suggest, is a Healer Elite specialization that, unlike the Druid, focuses more heavily on defensive aspects rather than offensive aspects. The Auspice has better access to Condition Control, Boon Application and is tankier than the Druid, designed to fill the role either of a full-fledged Healer or a Tank with Off-healer capabilities. In return, their access to Soft/Hard CC, Offensive Buffs and DPS through pets is lower.

Mechanic: Seals
Like the Dragonhunter, the Auspice can manifest her virtues into solid shapes, however unlike the Dragonhunter these do not carry a wide array of versatility. Instead, each Virtue will, when called upon, take the form of a flaming Seals that circle the Auspice, affecting allies and enemies within a short radius. Each Seal takes about 1.5s to make a full revolution around the Auspice and have a maximum of 10 hits before it expires, in return having a rather generous duration that can be pre-activated.

• Seal of Justice – Creates a Seal of Justice that circles around you, granting Might (1 stack, 5s base) to Allies and Burning (1 stack, 3s Base) to enemies it passes through.
  • Radius: 180.
  • Max Impacts: 10.
  • Duration: 20s.
  • Cooldown: 20s.
• Seal of Resolve – Heal yourself and create a Seal of Resolve that circles around you, Healing and granting Regeneration (3s) to allies when it passes through them.
  • Self Healing (Base): 2.490.
  • Base Healing: 421.
  • Radius: 180.
  • Max Impacts: 10.
  • Duration: 20s.
  • Cooldown: 35s.
• Seal of Courage – Grant Aegis (5s) to yourself and create a Seal of Courage that circles around you, granting Aegis (3s) to allies it passes through.
  • Radius: 180.
  • Max Impacts: 10.
  • Duration: 20s.
  • Cooldown: 75s.

Serenity is the anti-thesis to Poison, as it increases any Healing the target recieves by 20% in addition to giving them a slight Heal-over-time effect (Although weaker than Regeneration).

Weapon: Off-hand Mace
The Off-hand Mace is a Supportive Weapon, designed around Healing and Protecting Allies. It grants sustain to the Auspice through means of heavy healing and condition removal, and pairs well with just about any Main-hand weapon depending on intentions.

• Serenitous Impact – Strike the ground, creating a resonating node at your position and the target area. The nodes will send shockwaves in between eachother, Healing all allies in between them.
  • Duration: 4s.
  • Number of Pulses: 5 (once on creation).
  • Intervall: 1s.
  • Range: 900.
  • Healing (Base): 236.
  • Cooldown: 20s.
• Living Fire – Strike down and create a destrucible Heart of fire that Burns (1 Stack, 3s) enemies and Cleanses Conditions from allies with each Pulse in an increasing radius. Once the duration is up, the heart will explode, scattering flames that Heal allies and grant them Serenity (3s). The Heart is considered a Pet and can be targeted and destroyed by enemies before the final heal Triggers.
  • Duration: 3s.
  • Number of Pulses: 3.
  • Conditions pulled per pulse: 1.
  • Number of targets: 5.
  • Radius: 180/240/360.
  • Final Heal (Base): 2.570.
  • Combo Field: Fire.
  • Cooldown: 25s.

Utility Skills: Stances
The Auspice’s stances differ widely from that of the Warrior. Whereas the Warrior enters a stance purely from a martial stand-point, the Auspice does it for an entirely different reason: To become a presence on the battlefield, one that inspires and protects her allies while simultaneously telling the enemy that they will need to go through her if they want a shot at those under the Auspice’s protection.

• Beacon of Hope – Healing Skill. You enter into an inspiring stance that causes allies to surge with renewed hope for victory. Heals all nearby allies, before it Pulses Healing and Serenity (1s x3) around yourself.
  • Initial Healing (Base): 2.560
  • Healing per pulse (Base): 850
  • Duration: 6s
  • Pulses: 3
  • Initial Heal Radius: 240
  • Pulsing Heal Radius: 600
  • Activation Time: 1/2s. Cooldown: 30s
• Daunting Presence – Your presence instantly catches the enemy’s attention. Taunts (2s) all nearby enemies, granting you Protection (1s) for each enemy taunted. For a short time, enemies that attack you are Weakened (3s). Each enemy can only be affected by this once per intervall.
  • Duration: 6s
  • Initial Radius: 240
  • Weakness Intervall (per target): 2s
  • Activation Time: 1/4s. Cooldown: 40s
• Hero’s Charge – Take to the frontline and lead your allies to victory! Breaks Stun for all nearby Allies and grants them a burst of Superspeed (3s), before pulsing Swiftness (2s) around you with each Pulse.
  • Breaks Stun
  • Duration: 6s
  • Pulses: 3
  • Initial Radius: 600
  • Pulse Radius: 360
  • Activation Time: Instant. Cooldown: 30s
• Inspire Courage – For a short time, you Pulse Protection (2s) to and Cleanse 1 Condition from yourself with each Pulse. Whenever you take Damage while this stance is active, Allies within range gain Might (1 stack, 5s). Can only happen once per ally per intervall.
  • Duration: 6s
  • Pulses: 4 (Once on creation, then every 2s)
  • Might Intervall (per target): 1/2s
  • Radius: 360
  • Activation Time: Instant. Cooldown: 35s
• Guiding Light – Raise your hand, creating a beacon that draws the wounded towards you. Channel, teleporting a nearby Downed Ally to you with each Pulse, while also healing all allies around you.
  • Self-Root. Channeled Skill.
  • Allies Teleported per Pulse: 1
  • Duration: 6s
  • Pulses: 7 (Once on activation, then every second)
  • Downed Ally Healing: 4%
  • Healing per Pulse (Base): 578
  • Pull Radius: 600
  • Healing Radius: 240
  • Activation Time: 1/4s. Cooldown: 60s.
• Martyr’s Vow – Elite Skill. Stand tall against attacks and protect allies behind you. You pulse Aegis (1s) every second, while Allies in a Cone behind you become Immune to Damage as long as you channel, but can still be affected by Control Effects and Conditions.
  • Breaks Stun. Self-Root.
  • Duration: 3s
  • Pulses: 3
  • Range: 180
  • Activation Time: 1/4s. Cooldown: 50s

Specialization Line

Minor Traits

• Heroic Spirit – Gain access to Seals and Stances.
• Seals of Restoration – Activating a Virtue grants you Serenity (2s). Seals will now grant Serenity (1s) when passing through Allies.
• First In, Last Out – Increases Movement Speed by 25%. When an ally within range is Downed, you gain Quickness (2s). Radius: 240. ICD: 15s.

Adept Traits

• Anodyne – Healing to allies affected by Regeneration is increased by 10%. Regeneration you apply reduces incoming Damage on allies by 7%.
• Protective Healer – Grant Regeneration (3s) when granting Aegis to an Ally. ICD: 5s.
• Burning Heart – Create a Heart of Fire at your position when you activate an Elite Skill. ICD: 50s.

Master Traits

• Powerful Mender – Increases the effectiviness of Regeneration you apply by 50%.
• Courageous Defender – Activate Inspire Courage if your Seal of Courage affects the threshold of allies. Threshold: 5. ICD: 75s.
• Turn the Tides – Apply Serenity (2s) in an area when you remove Conditions from allies above the Threshold. Threshold: 3. Radius: 600.

Grandmaster Traits

• Repurpose – Granting Regeneration to an ally now stacks Might (1 stack, 5s) and continues to apply Might at a set intervall. Intervall: 3s.
• Unbreakable Shield – When an Aegis applied by you Blocks an Attack, target ally regains Aegis (3s). ICD per Ally: 10s.
• Warding Serenity – Serenity you apply now decreases Condition Damage on the target by 33%.

Some mechanical problems with this:

1. No oh mace in game; designing it is outside anets ability right now.
2. Only 1 symbol is allowed per guardian weapon set. Having it on OH breaks that rule.
3. Stances are selfish by design (no team support). Rename it.

Unbreakable shield would be a great adept but unless the icd is per ally it would be insanely weak due to aegis already being negated by fast hitting attacks since hot. I like warding serenity though.

Gwaihir.1745:

Some mechanical problems with this:

1. No oh mace in game; designing it is outside anets ability right now.
2. Only 1 symbol is allowed per guardian weapon set. Having it on OH breaks that rule.
3. Stances are selfish by design (no team support). Rename it.

Unbreakable shield would be a great adept but unless the icd is per ally it would be insanely weak due to aegis already being negated by fast hitting attacks since hot. I like warding serenity though.

I’ll adress these one by one:

1. Mace OH does exist. Warriors have Mace Off-hand, so it’s not a Main-hand exclusive weapon at all.
2. You must’ve misread somewhere. Mace Off-hand, while creating AoE fields, does not have any Symbols attached to it.
3. Fair Point, but I saw stances more as in Instant or nigh-instant effects that pulse over time, and decided to work from that angle to put a unique spin on the Utility Skill while maintaining the overall core aspect of Stances. What’d another name be? “Presences”?

As for Unbreakable Shield, I figured that having Aegis Self-refresh is an extremely powerful ability, especially in PvP and WvW. Indeed, the ICD is per Ally and not universal for all Aegis you apply.

Thanks for the input!

Seems more like a tank elite spec than a healer. It certainly doesn’t offer any better healing than the guardian can currently do.

Gwaihir.1745:

3. Stances are selfish by design (no team support). Rename it.

Before reapers shouts were (mostly) supportive by design, so doesn’t really seem like a legitimate problem.

and tanky guardian are easilly beated… so this would not bring anything new….

Lol had to wiki that warriors have oh mace, in years of pvp and wvw I’ve never seen a warrior use it.

Serenitous Impact I assume to be a symbol from the 5 pulse standard. I’d change it to act like less like one and have it pulse from the guard like protection field on a scrapper.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Seems more like a tank elite spec than a healer. It certainly doesn’t offer any better healing than the guardian can currently do.

Certainly doesn’t give as massive of a boost to healing as Druid gave Ranger, but the reason for that is quite simple:

Guardians already have a load of party support and healing. There’s only so much that can be added to that without making it entirely broken. For Druid, it was relatively easy since Ranger had very limited AoE healing in the Core Spec. So I had to take care and consider all the Trait interactions, Weapons Combos and Utility Choices while coming up with this idea.

Naturally, some numbers will need tweaking, but that was given from the start, heh. Can’t get everything right in one go.

Gwaihir.1745:

Lol had to wiki that warriors have oh mace, in years of pvp and wvw I’ve never seen a warrior use it.

Serenitous Impact I assume to be a symbol from the 5 pulse standard. I’d change it to act like less like one and have it pulse from the guard like protection field on a scrapper.

Not surprised, OH Mace is a typical PvE weapon. Little incentive to use it in PvP or WvW where you need the defensive options from Shield or the Mobility from Warhorn.

As for Serenitous Impact, It’s quite different from the Symbols already, actually.

It creates 1 Node at a target area, and another Node at the Auspice’s position. The Nodes then send waves of healing in between eachother once every second, Healing any ally that stands in between the two nodes. This allows it to have a greater range than an AoE circle’s Radius Coverage could potentially have (I just forgot to add that range, mea culpa.)

TheSwede.9512:

Certainly doesn’t give as massive of a boost to healing as Druid gave Ranger, but the reason for that is quite simple:

Guardians already have a load of party support and healing. There’s only so much that can be added to that without making it entirely broken. For Druid, it was relatively easy since Ranger had very limited AoE healing in the Core Spec. So I had to take care and consider all the Trait interactions, Weapons Combos and Utility Choices while coming up with this idea.

Naturally, some numbers will need tweaking, but that was given from the start, heh. Can’t get everything right in one go.

I’m not complaining, but if it doesn’t offer better healing than the guardian can currently do, then it simply can’t be referred to as a “healing elite spec”.

Something being more specialized does not make it broken, usually because major trade-offs are being made when you specialize. A perfect example of this is a glass staff ele, but honestly even guardians using the recently buffed Signet of Courage can see that it offers a lot of support, but not using RF makes the user more much vulnerable. Ditto for choosing the recently buffed base virtues over DH virtues; not having wings of resolve and shield of courage make you much more vulnerable but base virtues offer more support.
The ironic part is that things usually get more broken when they aren’t specialized; the perfect example here being the celestial eles of old.

If I had to list my main complaint about this elite spec, it’s that it’s another case of “support allies with point-blank AoEs” spec. I don’t dislike this elite spec as a whole though, and it does have interesting ideas, although it’s not something I would personally enjoy.

So what’s the difference between Living Fire and Heart of Fire?
Also, does it cleanse or pull conditions? It says both right now.
Am I understanding correctly that the OH Mace abilities don’t do damage?
Turn the Tides – Does the effect apply as you remove 3 conditions at once, or after removing 3 conditions?

- Daunting presence is a bit too strong, the taunt should be applied only once per enemy.
- Martyr’s Vow is completely OP in an organized team, I’d suggest just making it give 2-3 boons. You can increase duration to compensate. Also, how wide is the arc?
- Burning Heart is a bit too strong for an adept trait, or maybe altogether. Consider how well it will synergizes with Renewed Focus and Monk’s Focus. That’s about 6k healing right there without healing power.
- First In, Last Out. Quickness doesn’t really work here. It feels like you dice-rolled which boon to throw here.

As a concept I love this, and I think you have created something beautiful here. However, there are always a few kinks to work out.

Yannir.4132:

So what’s the difference between Living Fire and Heart of Fire?
Also, does it cleanse or pull conditions? It says both right now.
Am I understanding correctly that the OH Mace abilities don’t do damage?
Turn the Tides – Does the effect apply as you remove 3 conditions at once, or after removing 3 conditions?

- Daunting presence is a bit too strong, the taunt should be applied only once per enemy.
- Martyr’s Vow is completely OP in an organized team, I’d suggest just making it give 2-3 boons. You can increase duration to compensate. Also, how wide is the arc?
- Burning Heart is a bit too strong for an adept trait, or maybe altogether. Consider how well it will synergizes with Renewed Focus and Monk’s Focus. That’s about 6k healing right there without healing power.
- First In, Last Out. Quickness doesn’t really work here. It feels like you dice-rolled which boon to throw here.

As a concept I love this, and I think you have created something beautiful here. However, there are always a few kinks to work out.

Thanks for the input!

• 1. Daunting Presence might be a bit strong, considering the removal of agency that comes with Taunt. Perhaps the stance should stack Weakness rather than Taunt on enemies attacking the Auspice while active, instead?
• 2. The counter to Martyr’s Vow was, in my head, Unblockable Attacks aimed at the Auspice himself, as they only Pulse Aegis and not Invulnerability. I think changing it to only give a Damage Immunity (A la Warrior’s Endure Pain) to allies behind you will help balance it, as opposed to straight-up invulnerability.
• 3. Heart of Fire is a construct of sorts created with the Weapon Skill Living Fire. The Traited version is pretty much exactly the same and I agree that it’s very powerful, which is why I decided to place it at a 50s Cooldown. Perhaps swapping places between it and Unbreakable Shield might be prudent. As for the Heart itself, I shall add to the OP that it can be destroyed by enemies to prevent the final Heal, but like a Pet it has a high Resistance to AoE damage so Focus Fire will be necessary.
• 4. The idea for Quickness on First in, Last out is that as a Bunker Guardian, your first reaction when an ally goes down is obviously to get them back up on their Feet. Movement Speed helps make sure you’re the first into the fray, Quickness on downed ally helps make sure you’re the last one to leave alive. I thought it was clever, at least.
• 5. Mace OH does not have any skills that causes Damage, nope, aside from the Heart of Fire causing AoE burning (I believe it does).
• 6. Turn the Tides procs when 3 or more Conditions in total are removed. Wether they’re from the same source, or 1 Condition from 3 different players, doesn’t matter (Which is why the Serenity grant is its own AoE centered around the Auspice, yepyep.)

TheSwede.9512:

• 1. Daunting Presence might be a bit strong, considering the removal of agency that comes with Taunt. Perhaps the stance should stack Weakness rather than Taunt on enemies attacking the Auspice while active, instead?

I think Taunt would be better but it shouldn’t proc on a single player more than once. Adjusting the numbers to reflect that would be best IMO.

TheSwede.9512:

• 2. The counter to Martyr’s Vow was, in my head, Unblockable Attacks aimed at the Auspice himself, as they only Pulse Aegis and not Invulnerability. I think changing it to only give a Damage Immunity (A la Warrior’s Endure Pain) to allies behind you will help balance it, as opposed to straight-up invulnerability.

That sounds much better. Would maybe even warrant a pulsing Stability for the Stances duration.

TheSwede.9512:

• 3. Heart of Fire is a construct of sorts created with the Weapon Skill Living Fire. The Traited version is pretty much exactly the same and I agree that it’s very powerful, which is why I decided to place it at a 50s Cooldown. Perhaps swapping places between it and Unbreakable Shield might be prudent. As for the Heart itself, I shall add to the OP that it can be destroyed by enemies to prevent the final Heal, but like a Pet it has a high Resistance to AoE damage so Focus Fire will be necessary.

Push the cooldown to 60s in addition to the changes and we should be golden. That way RF with 100% Alacrity uptime and trait won’t make it fire every single time you use RF off-cd.

TheSwede.9512:

• 4. The idea for Quickness on First in, Last out is that as a Bunker Guardian, your first reaction when an ally goes down is obviously to get them back up on their Feet. Movement Speed helps make sure you’re the first into the fray, Quickness on downed ally helps make sure you’re the last one to leave alive. I thought it was clever, at least.

Ahhh, I see what you did there! That does make sense. Carry on!