Guild Wars 2

The Archivist
After countless hours of studying long forgotten incantations and sounds, some guardians have finally emerged from their studies to become The Archivist. These divine warriors of knowledge bring ancient mystic tomes into battle to become the ultimate source of support for their allies! A backline healer/support character that wields a warhorn into battle. Also regeneration focused as this is an attempt to make the boon relevant. If you feel a trait or skill is to strong then suggest a reasonable recharge time. Please rate and improve!

Class Mechanic
Tomes-Virtues are replaced by 3 tomes. Tome of Wrath, Tome of Rejuvenation, and Tome of Conviction. Tomes no longer have time limits; this is balanced as archivist not able to easily heal themselves when reading the tomes as they are truly altruistic. When using tomes heal, utilities, and elite are disabled as it was before. 20 second recharge applied when leaving a tome. Tomes of courage and wrath make a return with same skills as before but with a few changes. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tome

Tome of Wrath change
Zealot’s Revenge (replaces Zealots Fervor)- Grant retaliation and might to allies

Tome of Courage (aka now tome of Rejuvenation) changes
Persistent self-Regeneration instead of protection
Light of Deliverance-Revive a downed character to half health

New Tome of Conviction
Persistent self-protection
Skills
Protect area- grant 1 second aegis in the target area (1.5 second activation time)
Binding resolve- energy bounces from allies and enemies granting resistance and weakness
Steadfast charge- Send out a cone that grants swiftness and stability
Final reserves- increases toughness and vitality for you and nearby allies.
By my life- aoe 4 second taunt

Weapon (War horn)
• Heavens sound- cure 2 conditions and grant rejuvenation to allies
• Mighty radiance- mobile light field and swiftness to allies in field

New Utility – Chants (grant effects pulsing every seconds for 10 seconds, potential long cooldowns to balance)
• Angelic Protection (Heal Skill)- start a chant that heals nearby allies and self for the full Regeneration amount of any regeneration applied to them for 10 seconds (ex. If Regeneration would heal for 2000 over its duration now it also ticks 2000 each second for 10 seconds)
• Anthem of Flame- allies burn conditions inflict 10% more damage for 10 seconds
• Anthem of Guidance- grant regeneration while increases boon duration for nearby allies for 10 seconds
• Zealous Anthem- allies gain vigor and might for 10 seconds
• Angelic Bond (Elite Skill)- Any time a nearby ally would be downed instead heal them to full and down yourself

Traits (Minor)
• Hidden knowledge- You can equip warhorn, gain access to Chants and tomes
• Double recovery- Grant regeneration to self and allies on heals
• Word is bond- Gain + 500 healing power for 5 seconds after granting regeneration(stacks up to 5 times)

Traits (Adept)
• Riotous fire – Enemies hit by retaliation you apply also burns
• Swift healing- Swiftness applications grant regeneration
• Writ on life- Bounce effects bounce an additional time and tome radius of effects are larger

Traits (Master)
• Speed reader- grant superspeed for 5 seconds each time opening a tome
• Esoteric vitality- Increase outgoing healing based on a percentage of vitality & while regeneration is applied to self reduce damage by 25%
• The Call- when Warhorn equipped all stats increase 10%, Warhorn skills recharge reduced 20%.

Traits (Grandmaster)
• Heartfull protector- Heals have a 15% chance to apply aegis
• Echo chamber- Chants last 5 extra seconds. Recharge reduced 20% on chants
• Symbolic gesture-any time entering or leaving a tome lay a Symbol of Faith on the ground.

Neat idea but Sacrificing so much personal DPS/utility to aid others just doesn’t really work in this game because it would need to be a very large boost to warrant the personal loss which in turn causes allot of QQ both ways. (look at how well Ventari stance is viewed by rev players)

Frankly I think it would be allot better received & much easier to balance if the effects didn’t cost you so much personally (dps loss etc…) to use…. even if that meant they had to be toned down a bit.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Neat idea but Sacrificing so much personal DPS/utility to aid others just doesn’t really work in this game because it would need to be a very large boost to warrant the personal loss which in turn causes allot of QQ both ways. (look at how well Ventari stance is viewed by rev players)

Ventari is all defense
A better example is Chronomancer. Chrono has terrible personal dps, but that doesn’t matter because its support is so powerful.

Who knows what mechanics future raids will have, I doubt the current state of affairs will be the same in perpetuity. I believe the Archivist can be a good AOE burn condition class too if traited correctly.

I thought that the “Speed Reader” trait alone would get this more love. Guardian with 15 potential seconds of super speed every 20 seconds would finally address the “to slow” complaints.

You have some great ideas here:
-Elite spec seems very thematic, lots of room for lore, great animations and FX.
-Combat wise, it seems well-thought out. Having the class’ support aspect primarily come through tomes is well-complimented by a “pop it, and move on,” type utility, and a warhorn-offhand.
-Unique form of team-support provided through chants.

Some feedback/critique on the elite spec:

Focusing mainly on team support/healing is not a good idea imo. Team support/healing should always come as a secondary focus, and should be paired with great damage, or great defensive capability. As such, either one or more of the chants, warhorn skills, and/or the tomes should be upped in their capabilities to further define the spec as either more offensive/defensive oriented. Team support and healing is not enough.

Some additional buffs/nerfs/changes to the skills and traits: I like the ideas for the warhorn skills, but I honestly think that the swiftness + condi clear could be grouped together on the 4 skill, with the mobile light field + a unique functionality placed on the 5 skill.

I don’t really like the idea of chants as a whole, they would seem a bit out of place in this game given the fast-paced bursty nature. If the numbers were pumped up too much, the chants might be overpowered as well.

Traits look great, but I would much rather have something that is suited to more “team-oriented burst heals,” such as “gain + 500 healing power for 5 seconds after blocking an attack” on longer cds rather than small healing power multipliers.

Lastly, you say the spec is a bit more focused on the regeneration boon (which is one of the more useless boons in the game currently), yet none of the traits really benefit you for having the boon on. Perhaps include traits that up the power of regeneration, and traits that give you additional perks for having regen on, and for applying it to team mates.

Arcaedus.7290:

You have some great ideas here:
-Elite spec seems very thematic, lots of room for lore, great animations and FX.
-Combat wise, it seems well-thought out. Having the class’ support aspect primarily come through tomes is well-complimented by a “pop it, and move on,” type utility, and a warhorn-offhand.
-Unique form of team-support provided through chants.

Some feedback/critique on the elite spec:

Focusing mainly on team support/healing is not a good idea imo. Team support/healing should always come as a secondary focus, and should be paired with great damage, or great defensive capability. As such, either one or more of the chants, warhorn skills, and/or the tomes should be upped in their capabilities to further define the spec as either more offensive/defensive oriented. Team support and healing is not enough.

Some additional buffs/nerfs/changes to the skills and traits: I like the ideas for the warhorn skills, but I honestly think that the swiftness + condi clear could be grouped together on the 4 skill, with the mobile light field + a unique functionality placed on the 5 skill.

I don’t really like the idea of chants as a whole, they would seem a bit out of place in this game given the fast-paced bursty nature. If the numbers were pumped up too much, the chants might be overpowered as well.

Traits look great, but I would much rather have something that is suited to more “team-oriented burst heals,” such as “gain + 500 healing power for 5 seconds after blocking an attack” on longer cds rather than small healing power multipliers.

Lastly, you say the spec is a bit more focused on the regeneration boon (which is one of the more useless boons in the game currently), yet none of the traits really benefit you for having the boon on. Perhaps include traits that up the power of regeneration, and traits that give you additional perks for having regen on, and for applying it to team mates.

Thanks for the feedback I made the following changes:
• Word is bond- Gain + 500 healing power for 5 seconds after granting regeneration(stacks up to 5 times)
• Esoteric vitality- Increase outgoing healing based on a percentage of vitality & while regeneration is applied to self reduce damage by 25%
• The Call- when Warhorn equipped all stats increase 10%, Warhorn skills recharge reduced 20%.

As far as being beneficial beyond support, I think this elite spec can have some of the best aoe condition damage in the game(so hybrid damage/support). Choosing Anthem of Flame, Zealous Anthem, Riotous fire, The Call, and Echo chamber while in Tome of Wrath should melt groups of enemies with conditions while giving benefits to allies to do the same.

This may be overpowered in tandem with the conflagration skill of the wrath tome, but would you consider a chant that constantly pulses out damage? It would synergize well for burn builds, and would certainly gain some interest if an elite spec like this were released.

Well regardless of what ANET does next, I REALLY hope they look at your idea of tomes replacing virtues (much cooler than having 4 utility skills-worth of books lol). It would make for a very cool way to bring back tomes, and would freshen the heck out of our class-function! I would like to point out that synergy between the Virtues line, and the proposed tome-virtues you listed above is very off. If a tome is only on 20s cd, that greatly increases usefulness of our f3 almost to the point of being op. Same could be said for our f2 cleansing conditions – I mean, that tome already cleanses conditions on self and allies, so you’re getting huge amount of group condi cleanse from f2 alone without having to take shouts or medis).

I’d say tomes should have these cds: 20, 40, 60s cd, and they go into cd once you exit them. However, like you said, you can remain within a tome as long as you like with no time limit. This would make for the best balance imo.

The down side to chants is that unless they are true toggle abilities like what the herald on Rev has they are prime targets for being interrupted which would make the class very easy to lock down.

Other then that the one critique I have is that the tomes aside from wrath are far too powerful to be anything but elites unless they are severely toned down in which case allot of people probably wouldn’t want them.

Knowing this I would say they would fit better as elite skills with moderate Cool cool downs on their abilities but only moderate effects and have them be freely toggle’able (Much like engineer mortar kit)

This would be best in terms of balance. I say this because engineer has to sacrifice a secondary weapon slot in order to have access to kits & essentially having multiple kits would require similar levels of sacrifice. (which could be alright if all the kits were done well and they were able to fill all roles like engineer kits can, but this is guardian and Anet we’re talking about so the chances are slim)

Arcaedus.7290:

This may be overpowered in tandem with the conflagration skill of the wrath tome, but would you consider a chant that constantly pulses out damage? It would synergize well for burn builds, and would certainly gain some interest if an elite spec like this were released.

Well regardless of what ANET does next, I REALLY hope they look at your idea of tomes replacing virtues (much cooler than having 4 utility skills-worth of books lol). It would make for a very cool way to bring back tomes, and would freshen the heck out of our class-function! I would like to point out that synergy between the Virtues line, and the proposed tome-virtues you listed above is very off. If a tome is only on 20s cd, that greatly increases usefulness of our f3 almost to the point of being op. Same could be said for our f2 cleansing conditions – I mean, that tome already cleanses conditions on self and allies, so you’re getting huge amount of group condi cleanse from f2 alone without having to take shouts or medis).

I’d say tomes should have these cds: 20, 40, 60s cd, and they go into cd once you exit them. However, like you said, you can remain within a tome as long as you like with no time limit. This would make for the best balance imo.

Thanks for the feedback. I would take that reverse balance method and just put cooldowns on the virtue trait effects of 20, 40, and 60 respectively. As far as one button condi clears druid is king of that already with Druidic Clarity and Seed of Life so this would allow tome of resolve to at least compete.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

The down side to chants is that unless they are true toggle abilities like what the herald on Rev has they are prime targets for being interrupted which would make the class very easy to lock down.

Other then that the one critique I have is that the tomes aside from wrath are far too powerful to be anything but elites unless they are severely toned down in which case allot of people probably wouldn’t want them.

Knowing this I would say they would fit better as elite skills with moderate Cool cool downs on their abilities but only moderate effects and have them be freely toggle’able (Much like engineer mortar kit)

This would be best in terms of balance. I say this because engineer has to sacrifice a secondary weapon slot in order to have access to kits & essentially having multiple kits would require similar levels of sacrifice. (which could be alright if all the kits were done well and they were able to fill all roles like engineer kits can, but this is guardian and Anet we’re talking about so the chances are slim)

Actually I think chants can not be cancelled once started(so you would have like 1 second to interrupt). Think of chants working like Troll Unguent.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Troll_Unguent

The balance would be you can’t dodge, self heal, use utilities, or elites in tomes. It is safe to say those are pretty important mechanics in Guild Wars 2 so an Archivist would have to be intelligent on when to camp in a tome. They can be toned down a bit but when I look at the insane support of druid form I don’t think they are that far off.

Can we just take a second to realize that staff and Mace can get easily get over 4k healing power from doing almost nothing in Zealot’s armor? 4k selfless darings in addition to stacking Force of Will and Esoteric Vitality. But forget about that. You don’t even need healing power with Sentinels or Soldiers, and Shamans is just stupid with everything possible. Even Marauder’s can just not care, because 58% damage reduction under protection, Protection, and the high base Armor from Guardian.

Not even pre-nerf Chronomancers were this grossly imbalanced.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Can we just take a second to realize that staff and Mace can get easily get over 4k healing power from doing almost nothing in Zealot’s armor? 4k selfless darings in addition to stacking Force of Will and Esoteric Vitality. But forget about that. You don’t even need healing power with Sentinels or Soldiers, and Shamans is just stupid with everything possible. Even Marauder’s can just not care, because 58% damage reduction under protection, Protection, and the high base Armor from Guardian.

Not even pre-nerf Chronomancers were this grossly imbalanced.

I would say active defenses like group distortion beat out massive healing every time, especially since over healing exists. I would need healing comparisons between current guardian max healing and druid max healing before I would say a guardian healing elite would be imbalanced. I didn’t put cooldowns or specific numbers so those can be tweaked if the trait is to strong.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Can we just take a second to realize that staff and Mace can get easily get over 4k healing power from doing almost nothing in Zealot’s armor? 4k selfless darings in addition to stacking Force of Will and Esoteric Vitality. But forget about that. You don’t even need healing power with Sentinels or Soldiers, and Shamans is just stupid with everything possible. Even Marauder’s can just not care, because 58% damage reduction under protection, Protection, and the high base Armor from Guardian.

Not even pre-nerf Chronomancers were this grossly imbalanced.

Healing guardians “grossly imbalanced”? Wait, what?

In which meta is this mace/staff healing guardian used? I don’t think I’ve seen any in PvP… maybe I’m just not playing at that level? I certainly haven’t seen it presented as part of the raid meta. In both cases, it’s the druids that are the experts of outhealing anything that comes at them.

Guardian party healing was pretty good in pre-HoT terms, but druid pretty much shatters that standard when it comes to keeping people alive – a druid popping Celestial Avatar basically means that every ally in the area the heals get dropped on is going to be healed back to full in seconds. Either druid needs to be toned down, healing specs on other professions need to appear that can compete, or we’ll be increasingly likely to see LFD become the new LFM.