Guild Wars 2

We all know several small changes could make the Guardian much much more fun to play.

But, dowe expect Arenanet to make such changes? Or will they stay away fro, changing mechanics this late to not even more unballance things?

What are your expectations?

Of course you can expect anet to make changes. One year after release, and they will be focused on making firebrand a better condi dps.

Okay, they might reduce Sanctuary’s cooldowns a bit, too, it’s a tradition at this point.

This is a rather odd question …

Anet makes changes all the time.

They said there were few mechanics of FB and they decided this with huge CD tomes so maybe they pick something else than this horrible design.

I prefer engineer kits (with no cd on tomes) instant abilities with medium cd of tome skills (range from 10 to 45 sec), pages regen of some sort and better heals and support than now.

What we will probably get:

Signet of mercy cd decreased to 120 s cd.
Sanctuary cd decreased to 60 cd
Wall of reflection cd decreased to 25 sec
Signet of courage cd decreased to 80 sec
RF cd increased to 120 sec
Traps nerf by 15%
Wings of resolve heal nerf by 20%

My expectations? From experience, I expect nothing useful, so I’ll probably slot FB once to confirm how bad it is and then remove it and leave it untouched for a long long time.

Obtena.7952:

This is a rather odd question …

Anet makes changes all the time.

Yes but there is a difference between minor mechanics, and giving in to the allmost complete elitespec overhaul many people are asking for…

The current mechanic bossts simplistic gameplay witouth many decisions to make, open a tome.. and then cast all the chapters to be efficient.. and wayt for the cooldown of the tome…

Many people prefer nechanics, where you would open a tome cast 2 or 3 chapters and move to the next tome or a weapon… atleast thats what read from the comments… and this would mean a major overhaul on a classmechanic, last minute… and thats something different then changing a few stats…

We’re gonna get the Guardian from the demo.
They have a month until launch and lot’s of work to do without substantial changes.
At most expect a few numbers to get tweaked

I expect they reduce casting on tomes and increase the range in the mantras.

But it might be wishful thinking.

lordbachus.6091:

Obtena.7952:

This is a rather odd question …

Anet makes changes all the time.

Yes but there is a difference between minor mechanics, and giving in to the allmost complete elitespec overhaul many people are asking for…

We have never seen a complete espec overhaul … and there is only 1 month to release so people should temper their expectations by those things. Complete overhaul? That’s unreasonable.

Still, we know Anet makes changes to things all the time, but I think the core elements aren’t. For instance, Firebrand will definitely be an Axe, Tomes, etc … Concept is cemented. What we might see are timing and strength changes.

I expect them to overtune everything in order to compensate for their terrible design, and then nerf it to the ground much later. So pretty much exactly what they did with DH.

I expect both DH and FB to be out of the raid meta within 6 months.

cranos.5913:

I expect both DH and FB to be out of the raid meta within 6 months.

I remember when Spirit Vale came out, forced me to drop my Guardian for an Elementalist for 10 months. Hopefully this time around I don’t have to do that.

Azoqu.8917:

cranos.5913:

I expect both DH and FB to be out of the raid meta within 6 months.

I remember when Spirit Vale came out, forced me to drop my Guardian for an Elementalist for 10 months. Hopefully this time around I don’t have to do that.

It’s looking like the mirror comp is staying so meta spots will come and go as they adjust dps numbers.

My expectation was that FB would compete as a raid support option in either boon support or in heals, as FB was labeled as a support elite spec (this would bleed over in effectivness to other game forms in effectivness). However, beta stripped my hopes for this and showed ANet was content with mediocrity for guardians.

My only hope is that they don’t nerf burn into the ground while they attempt to make FB more appealing in the month before release. How they’ll do this, who knows. As it stands, i don’t have any FB expectations and i’ll on unlock it for the sake of completion on my guardian main. DH or base guardian is simply better or more flexable than what i saw in beta.

My current hope is that they take community criticsism to heart on the design decisions, but i doubt it.

At MINIMUM, I expect the following changes to Firebrand to make it more viable in a pvp/wvw setting:

• Instant cast or 0.25s cast time to enter/switch tomes.
• Cooldowns on Tome of Resolve and Tome of Courage to be reduced to 30-35 and 40-50, respectively.
• Serious buffing to the final charges of mantras (as is, they’re not worth using with exception of the heal).
• Serious buffs for ToR (cast time reductions, added functionality and increased base-healing values).
• Change boons/effects granted by Legendary Lore (burning and aegis on f1/f3 make them too strong in certain scenarios).

I don’t expect much to be honest.

Learn to expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed

With the expansion due in just weeks, nope, don’t expect sweeping changes to the elite specs. Any major changes would likely be on the next balance patch. Color me surprised if FB receives a badly needed overhaul for its’ tome mechanics. Players will (predictably) run FB as a burn guard and little else.

Yolanda Hardass.8045:

Learn to expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed

I prefer to dream… because dreams are what keeps us from going insane in a bad situation… i can handle the disapointment..

I still don’t see the problem with the spec other than needing an increased buff radius and some number fiddling for the tomes. You can run with nearly permanent quickness, recharge your Tome of Justice whenever Renewed Justice procs, and pop Renewed Focus every 90 seconds to bring up all three tomes. I also like the new mantras, the heal in particular. Tome of Resolve only seems a tiny bit weak considering the build is support-based rather than purely healing-based like the Druid, and Tome of Courage’s long recharge time doesn’t seem overly awful because it’s use is situational.

The main problems that I found:

• Axe 2 cast time is too long;
• Tomes cast times and cooldowns are too high;
• Tome of Resolve is too weak (even if gets proper cast time and CD reduction);
• Melee mantra cones. It is not realiable to use as support. Either increase the range to 600 or change to AoE.

If there is no changes, the spec won’t be viable on PvP or WvW.

I do believe there will be some changes until the PoF release.

lordbachus.6091:

Yolanda Hardass.8045:

Learn to expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed

I prefer to dream… because dreams are what keeps us from going insane in a bad situation… i can handle the disapointment..

It’s true. You just caught me at a cynical moment.

Its not that the spec is garbage, its not. The Axe is well done and was needed for years. The F1 tome has potential and so do portions of the F3. I also liked the elite and healing mantra.

The buffs on F3 are to many and locked behind crazy cooldowns. Tomes in general are a grwat idea, but poorly executed considering i loose my weapon. And F2 is just to weak and watered down. The mantra rage/cone was horrid… and this was discussed in over 10 different posts by dozens of testers.

Simply put, support is not competative; with the tomes being either clunky or inneffective. While mantras support is a barrier to effective support.

It will shine in WVW due to the F3 and group swiftness. The only area where guard already performs. It will also be a strong condi option, improving its dps versatility. It does not compete in top slots that the guardian already doesn’t fill… wasted and poorly executed