First into the fight, Vanguards excel at entering the fray and breaking the enemy’s front line. They thrive in the midst of combat and have the tools and discipline needed to fight against impossible odds. Although they focus their power on themselves, they have not abandoned the motives of Guardians – they have merely changed their mindset. What better way to protect their allies than the disruption and cleaving of their enemies?
With the Vanguard, I wanted to take an approach opposite the Dragonhunter – rather than keeping your distance, I wanted to see better ways of closing it. I aimed for a more melee-based, offensive guardian. I did want the elite spec to be more efficient in this role without being too powerful, so many of the more powerful abilities or effects I tied to the number of nearby enemies. The idea was that the more dire the situation, the stronger the Vanguard needed to be to beat it. This also helped balancing for PVP and WvW, as these effects would only reach their full effectiveness when surrounded by enemies (and not in 1-on-1 situations).
Let me know what you think, and if you’ve got any questions!
New weapon: Axe (main hand)
Weapon 1 (chain) – Front Cleave > Throat Slice > Shield Rip
Front Cleave: cleave foes in front of you, damaging enemies and getting ready for a follow-up attack. (Medium damage. 1/2 sec. Up to 3 targets. Refreshes Back Cleave on hit.)
Throat Slice: slice back with an accurate cut to the target’s throat. (Low damage, applies damaging bleed. 1/4 sec. 1 target.)
Shield Rip: use your axe to rip away the target’s shield, as well as any magical protections. (Very low damage. 1 sec. 1 target. Unblockable. Interrupts and removes blocking effects. Removes Protection and Resistance boons from the target.)
Weapon 2 – Back Cleave
Cleave your foes, damaging enemies and preserving your momentum for future strikes. (Medium damage. 1/2 sec. 5 sec cooldown. 3 targets. Grants Cleaving for 5 seconds, which increases Front Cleave and Back Cleave damage by 10% and allows them to hit up to 5 targets.)
Weapon 3 – Weapon Blind
Shine brilliant light off your weapon, stunning and dazing nearby foes and dazing foes further away.
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Duration: 1 second
Stun and daze range: within 450 range
Daze range: within 1200 range
Max targets: 5
For the Vanguard’s weapon, I felt the Axe was the best choice given what I was trying to accomplish. It made sense for a weapon where you really wanted to be in the thick of the fight (that the Guardian didn’t already have). Although I did consider Axe off-hand, I felt that it 1) made more sense to make it a main-hand given what I wanted to do with the elite spec, and 2) helped fulfill a role the guardian didn’t already have for a main hand weapon. (In addition, I’m already a big fan of many of the Guardian’s off-hand weapons already, so I was all for making a main hand weapon to go along with them.)
When making the weapon skills of the Axe, I tried to embody what it meant to be a Vanguard. To me, this meant damaging (Cleave attacks) and disrupting (Weapon Blind) multiple enemies. Throat Slice and Shield Rip I felt were good additions to this, as they help the weapon out when it comes to condition builds, offer a bit of utility, and seem fitting given the weapon is an axe.
Traits
Minor Adept/Master/Grandmaster
1) Honorable Onus – activated Virtues can no longer affect allies. Instead, they have greatly reduced recharge and repeatedly affect you over time for each enemy nearby.
Reduced recharge: 40%
Reapplication interval per enemy: 1 second
For the Vanguard, I wanted to alter the Virtues a bit yet keep them the same. I liked how Dragonhunter changed things up, but there are times I felt they were changed too much. My solution to this was to keep the effect of the Virtues the same, but change how and to whom they were applied.
Honorable Onus makes it so that when a Virtue is activated, the Vanguard repeatedly gets the virtue’s active effect (instead of granting it to himself and allies around him).
For example, if the Vanguard activates Virtue of Courage with no enemies around:
The Vanguard gains Aegis
If the Vanguard activates Virtue of Courage with 1 enemy around:
Gains Aegis > waits 1 second > Gains Aegis again
If the Vanguard activates Virtue of Courage with 2 enemies around:
Gains Aegis > waits 1 second > Gains Aegis again > waits 1 second > Gains Aegis again
And so on, for up to 5 enemies nearby. In short, it makes the active effects more powerful on the Vanguard, but offer no benefits to his allies. To make the most of this ability, you have to be in dangerous situations – facing many enemies without allies around.
The idea, again, is that the Vanguard fights on the front lines to protect his allies. (Onus refers to something that is one’s duty or responsibility; hence, the Vanguard has an honorable duty or responsibility to uphold and fulfill this idea to protect his allies in this way.) I feel that this trait exemplifies and enables that – possibly more than any other trait or skill I’ve created for the Vanguard.
2) Into the Fray – movement speed increased by 25%. Gain swiftness when Aegis is broken.
Swiftness duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 15 seconds
3) Front-line Defender – gain damage reduction for each enemy near you, up to 5 enemies.
Damage reduction per nearby enemy: 5%
Range: 600
Major Adept
1) Shock trooper – crowd control effects you inflict have increased duration per nearby enemy, up to 5 enemies.
Duration increase per nearby enemy: 10%
Range: 600
2) Always Honorable – Honorable Onus always provides 1 additional interval application.
3) Bathed in Blood – conditions and crowd control effects you inflict have a chance to inflict bleeding.
Chance: 33%
Major Master
1) Great Cleave – doubles the duration and damage bonus of Cleaving. Axe skills have reduced recharge.
Recharge reduced: 20%
2) Second Wind – your virtues are recharged when you fall below the health threshold.
Health threshold: 50%
Cooldown: 50 seconds
3) Zealous Attacks – Physical skills inflict bleeding and have reduced recharge.
Reduced recharge: 20%
Major Grandmaster
1) Vanguard Charger – gain Might when you gain Swiftness. Gain Swiftness when you critically hit.
Might: 3 stacks, 12 seconds
Swiftness: 3 seconds
Cooldown: 1 second
2) Reflective Purpose – activating a virtue causes you to reflect projectiles near you for a time.
Duration: 3 seconds
Radius: 450 range
3) Burning Blood – burning foes take increased damage from bleeding you inflict. Bleeding foes take increased damage from burning you inflict.
Damage Increase: 20%
New skills – Physical skills
Healing) Honor Before Death – pump yourself up for a short time, readying to keep fighting when others couldn’t. If you take fatal damage within 5 seconds of using Honor Before Death, regain half of your health, break stuns, and gain stability. If Honor Before Death expires, only heal for a small amount.
Stability: 3 stacks, 8 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds
1) Shield Charge – charge forward in a direction, moving quickly, blocking attacks from the front, and damaging enemies you hit. Deal additional damage for each attack blocked during the charge, up to 10 attacks. (Low damage)
Additional damage per blocked attack: 10%
Range: 900
Max targets: 5
Duration: 0.5 seconds
Cooldown: 15 seconds
2) Blazing Sweep – leap forward, turn your leg ablaze, and unleash a kick on enemies, burning and knocking them down. (Low damage, high burning damage)
Range: 900
Radius: 450
Knockdown: 1 second
Max targets: 5
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Finisher: Leap
3) Smashed Ground – smash your weapon/fists into the ground, knocking down and crippling nearby enemies. (Low damage)
Radius: 600
Knockdown: 3 seconds
Cripple: 6 seconds
Max targets: 5
Cooldown: 25 seconds
Finisher: Blast
4) Haymaker – wind up for a powerful punch that stuns your target. Activate while charging up to cancel the punch for a much shorter recharge. (High damage)
Wind-up: 1.25 seconds
Stun: 2 seconds
Max targets: 1
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Canceled cooldown: 5 seconds
Elite) Dragoon’s Jump – jump high in a flash of light and then brutally land with a pillar of light, damaging and dazing nearby enemies. Has a reduced cooldown if it hits an enemy upon landing. (Medium damage)
Radius: 450
Range: 1500
Daze: 3 seconds
Max targets: 5
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Reduced cooldown: 45 seconds
At first, I was a bit hesitant to make the new skills for the Vanguard into Physical skills. Ideally, I could’ve used Rage skills, but considering that they all generate adrenaline (not to mention they’re elite skills) I shied away from that.
Instead, I tried to come up with things I thought a Guardian would have if she was a physical fighter. I realized that she would probably combine different parts of the Guardian (light, fire, etc) into her abilities – which is what I did here. Admittedly, I might have stretched the definition of what a ‘physical’ skill is, but they’re so useful and fitting I don’t have much of an issue with it.
Each skill offers something unique and powerful, and I feel they’d all be worth a spot on your bar if the Vanguard actually came to be.
I do feel the need to make one note on Dragoon’s Jump, though. Originally, it was only meant to have a 30-45 second cooldown, but I realized it gave the Vanguard way too easy of an escape (not really what I wanted on an elite spec meant to close the distance). Hence, I incentivized using it to start/join a battle and punished it for using it for other means (or a lack of skill). I’m not sure if it’d be too powerful or too weak given its current state, but given its range (1500) I’d probably leave it be until people were able to figure out how to use it best.