Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,
I will begin by saying that my thoughts are, of course, kinda early since we don’t really know everything about the spec and it’s potential, but those two things have been bugging me a lot while thinking about firebrand and what we’ve seen for now.

The first is the lackluster amount of burn and bleed the AA gives, this is mainly a concern when we look at the firebrand as a whole.
It’s true that we actually get two stacks of said conditions instead of one, which is pretty good, but since we will have to use tomes and mantras it kinda concerns me that a lot of our “casted support” time will be wasted because out AA’s conditions already ended lots of time ago… but this one is really the smallest matter.
We need to see first how it plays and then check is the DPS is balanced enough. Plus a nice part of our DPS will probably come from Ashes of the just from supporting with quickness and the tome. Also i’m not expecting a 100% dps spec, so even if the dmg isn’t that high, it doesn’t matter much to me. It’s mainly for others that might want that option.

Now comes the second part of my concern…and actually the biggest part imo. The devs said how the firebrand is a condi spec with a support side, that favors casted support instead of instant support, but then again…where is the support in the axe ? It doesn’t have the tiniest heal, not boon. Hell…axe got the (now) only symbol in game that doesn’t give even a shred of boon. It just feels really off for me.
If firebrand is the support spec for now, why it’s weapon doesn’t support at all ? What do i have to do ? Run mace/shield for support ? forced playing “power” when my whole spec revolves around conditions ?
A suggestion could be, since boons are too “immediate” for a spec built around casted support, make the symbol tic 4 times, giving aegis every three. That way it doesn’t lose usefulnes even with Writ of Persistance, as it would last 6 seconds, ticking two times, but at same time it follows the theme of the spec, without being too straightfoward with the support (also I used aegis because it’s one of the few “viable” boons never used by a symbol).
In the end it would give a nice boon to allies, works well with many traits of the core class (all the various symbols’ traits and pure of heart ) and synergize better with the grandmaster trait Quickfire.

And this kinda leads to another concern of mine btw, but not axe related.
We would have no proper ranged weapon anymore…no matter what kind of build we follow.
Want to run pure condi dps ? Well, no ranged weapon gives conditions. Good luck.
Want to run support build ? Well, you could take staff. Too bad the support side of it is still meh and they practically made it a barely mid ranged weapon.
Maybe reworking a bit more the staff could be enough. At least for the support side. Like change the AA and make it a bounding projectile that heal and buff some of the other skills.

Those are my two cents, hope it helps !

They didn’t give axe any support skills because guard already has multiple support weapons. The only thing it didn’t have was a dedicated condi main hand weapon.

It’s just that Dragonhunter fixed so many problems guardians had that you can’t live without it. I think the support side of the Firebrand is coming from the virtues and axe is supposed to be this pure condi dmg thing. Firebrand will probably only be used in pve IF the dmg is higher than DH and in WvW because the frontline specs don’t/didn’t need DH. Dragonhunter just fills too many holes in the other gamemodes.

Kuya.6495:

They didn’t give axe any support skills because guard already has multiple support weapons. The only thing it didn’t have was a dedicated condi main hand weapon.

Yes, but while I understand that guardian got many support weapons already, none of them (main hand) really synergize with Firebrand except mace…Moreover making you use a power based weapon on a condi spec…which is really meh if stuff like Ashes of the just scales off your condi stats. Druid bring a lot of % dmg boons, but i’m not allowed to give my team extra damage with my skillset because I have to use “opposite stats” weapons ?

And even if we consider that axe is supposed to be a DPS weapon, we do not have to forget the supporting core which guardian as a whole revolves around.
So why do stuff like a sword, GS etc etc keep even a tiny bit of support with boons, symbols and so on, while axe have literaly none ? Could understand that if it was pre weapons’ revamp. Where some stuff like scepter and sword actualy had no symbols, but now you make a symbol with no beneficial effects at all ? Then just call it a normal field, because like this it ain’t a symbol at all. It just feels off.
Moreover from the description it’s not even a true symbol. It doesn’t have any pulsing tooltip…i wonder how it works at all.

To end this, i’m not asking for axe to be the like the druid’s staff. Just make it on par with the other guardian’s weapons.

Pitman.9210:

It’s just that Dragonhunter fixed so many problems guardians had that you can’t live without it. I think the support side of the Firebrand is coming from the virtues and axe is supposed to be this pure condi dmg thing. Firebrand will probably only be used in pve IF the dmg is higher than DH and in WvW because the frontline specs don’t/didn’t need DH. Dragonhunter just fills too many holes in the other gamemodes.

Imo that kinda is a good thing. It’s really hoped that specs gave different gameplays and would be more or less useful in different enviroments. If a specs is just a 2.0 version of what we already have, then it have no point in being called a specialization, they would have put them as linear job advancements.

Braghez.7529:

Pitman.9210:

It’s just that Dragonhunter fixed so many problems guardians had that you can’t live without it. I think the support side of the Firebrand is coming from the virtues and axe is supposed to be this pure condi dmg thing. Firebrand will probably only be used in pve IF the dmg is higher than DH and in WvW because the frontline specs don’t/didn’t need DH. Dragonhunter just fills too many holes in the other gamemodes.

Imo that kinda is a good thing. It’s really hoped that specs gave different gameplays and would be more or less useful in different enviroments. If a specs is just a 2.0 version of what we already have, then it have no point in being called a specialization, they would have put them as linear job advancements.

Why’d you have to bring Daredevils into this?

Braghez.7529:

Kuya.6495:

They didn’t give axe any support skills because guard already has multiple support weapons. The only thing it didn’t have was a dedicated condi main hand weapon.

Yes, but while I understand that guardian got many support weapons already, none of them (main hand) really synergize with Firebrand except mace…Moreover making you use a power based weapon on a condi spec…which is really meh if stuff like Ashes of the just scales off your condi stats. Druid bring a lot of % dmg boons, but i’m not allowed to give my team extra damage with my skillset because I have to use “opposite stats” weapons ?

And even if we consider that axe is supposed to be a DPS weapon, we do not have to forget the supporting core which guardian as a whole revolves around.
So why do stuff like a sword, GS etc etc keep even a tiny bit of support with boons, symbols and so on, while axe have literaly none ? Could understand that if it was pre weapons’ revamp. Where some stuff like scepter and sword actualy had no symbols, but now you make a symbol with no beneficial effects at all ? Then just call it a normal field, because like this it ain’t a symbol at all. It just feels off.
Moreover from the description it’s not even a true symbol. It doesn’t have any pulsing tooltip…i wonder how it works at all.

To end this, i’m not asking for axe to be the like the druid’s staff. Just make it on par with the other guardian’s weapons.

Axe has a symbol. You can trait it with honor to give healing .

The main thing Hot has shown me is how reliant guardian as a class is on its virtues. If core guardian is ever going to compete with the elites the virtue CD on them needs to go down

f1 20 sec- 10/15 sec
f2 30 sec – 15/20 sec
f3 45 sec – 20/25 sec

The active of the core guardian virtues is simply too weak as they currently stand.

The main worry I have with firebrand is similar, the skills are gated so you can only used 5-8 of them. The skills themselves have cooldowns. And on top of that the tomes have long cooldowns. The triple combo of this leads me to believe we will be locked into Renewed Focus as usual.

Kuya.6495:

Axe has a symbol. You can trait it with honor to give healing .

Yes, but still there’s the point that without boon giving, it ain’t a symbol. It’s just a normal aoe.

I think it’s a bit too early to judge axe as a whole but in my opinion, they really should have put quickness as the boon associated with axe.

Lets look at the facts:

-Every main-hand weapon has one unique boon associated with it’s symbol.
-No repeats
-4 possible boons left for current and future mainhand weapons
-It is unlikely we will see 4+ more expacs without the creation of new boons (may as well start putting 1 boon per weapon introduced to guard from here on out).
-Thematically, axe shouldn’t be given a defensive boon.
-Only 1 out of the 4 boons left is non-defensive – quickness.

Taken together, this argues we should be given quickness. Symbol duration/cooldown/boon duration/pulsing are usually what is balanced, not whether or not the symbol gets a boon.

Another point I’d like to stress: In relation to pvp and wvw, I think Anet balance team has a bad habit of looking at skill balance in a vacuum. They may think “oh no, a 180 radius field for 5s that pulses quickness. And if players throw in a couple traits, the symbol lasts a bit longer and is a bit bigger. Oh nooooo, so overpower, much strengths, such boon.” and yes, it would be powerful…. but not on a somewhat slow, melee-ranged weapon associated with a support-based class. Compared to what other classes are getting, I don’t think tossing us this bone is going to break any camels’ backs.

What they wanted to make in my opinion is a cond spec with some kind of support, and not a specific support spec.

My only problem with axe is the #2 skill – it has the same cast time as mace #2, which for me is the reason why mace is so weak. In PvP and WvW will be impossible to hit anyone with that skill. In my opinion, they should reduce the cast time of this skill, if it is too strong, then reduce the bleed/cripple time, but it need to be faster.

Anyways, I’ll wait to test it live.

Also, I believe the next spec will be a full support oriented, since we already have a power and a condition oriented ones.

Arcaedus.7290:

I think it’s a bit too early to judge axe as a whole but in my opinion, they really should have put quickness as the boon associated with axe.

Lets look at the facts:

-Every main-hand weapon has one unique boon associated with it’s symbol.
-No repeats
-4 possible boons left for current and future mainhand weapons
-It is unlikely we will see 4+ more expacs without the creation of new boons (may as well start putting 1 boon per weapon introduced to guard from here on out).
-Thematically, axe shouldn’t be given a defensive boon.
-Only 1 out of the 4 boons left is non-defensive – quickness.

Taken together, this argues we should be given quickness. Symbol duration/cooldown/boon duration/pulsing are usually what is balanced, not whether or not the symbol gets a boon.

Another point I’d like to stress: In relation to pvp and wvw, I think Anet balance team has a bad habit of looking at skill balance in a vacuum. They may think “oh no, a 180 radius field for 5s that pulses quickness. And if players throw in a couple traits, the symbol lasts a bit longer and is a bit bigger. Oh nooooo, so overpower, much strengths, such boon.” and yes, it would be powerful…. but not on a somewhat slow, melee-ranged weapon associated with a support-based class. Compared to what other classes are getting, I don’t think tossing us this bone is going to break any camels’ backs.

So much this, especially when you look at Firebrand as a whole and the entire thing is built around having/giving quickness yet unless you take the middle traits the only way you will have quickness is picking up/dropping a tome. The cast times are all balanced around having quickness (which honestly is stupid because then other classes should also have atrocious cast times in case they get quickness) and when you don’t have quickness everything takes an eternity. Now the last mantra might be a quickness mantra which would make the rest of this make more sense, but then that would be a skill perma-glued onto every Firebrand bar ever.

Braghez.7529:

Pitman.9210:

It’s just that Dragonhunter fixed so many problems guardians had that you can’t live without it. I think the support side of the Firebrand is coming from the virtues and axe is supposed to be this pure condi dmg thing. Firebrand will probably only be used in pve IF the dmg is higher than DH and in WvW because the frontline specs don’t/didn’t need DH. Dragonhunter just fills too many holes in the other gamemodes.

Imo that kinda is a good thing. It’s really hoped that specs gave different gameplays and would be more or less useful in different enviroments. If a specs is just a 2.0 version of what we already have, then it have no point in being called a specialization, they would have put them as linear job advancements.

But that wasn’t even my point really. Core Guardian is just broken on a fundamental level. I could talk about the how’s and why’s but I’m fed up with talking to a wall called Anet.

Every profession should have some holes to differentiate them from others and gives them a way to beat them, but Guardian is swiss cheese in that regard. Dragonhunter filled a lot of these holes to a point where people can’t play without it. Thats why you hear about “We don’t have any decent ranged weapon” or “People run out of my stuff, we need shorter cast times” (which is actually a different way of saying "I get kited constantly, give me swiftness/cripple).

I want elite specs to be a new way of playing and not a bandaid, Firebrand seems to be the former, but Dragonhunter clearly is the latter.

Well, think that the main support capabilities this spec has are containet in tome #5 skills:

We need burst: tome of justice >>> #5 >>> #2 >>> deactivate
We need healing: tome of resolve >>> #5 >>> #4 >>> #3 >>> spam #1
We need stability: tome of courage >>>#5>>> spam #1

I expect Firebrand to be a more situational support.

Yeah, as I said I do not expect nor want a typical “full support” build like …idk. Druid can be.
I apprecciate Firebrand because it’s more on the support side of mesmer, aka boon spamming and other stuff.
That’s why i’m not asking for making axe a full support weapon, but just make it on par with the other guardian’s weapons. Throw a boon into the symbol and ta-da. I’m perfectly fine. About the AA matter we have to see the dps first and then judge.

Assic.2746:

Well, I don’t think that the main support capabilities this spec has are containet in tome #5 skills:

We need burst: tome of justice >>> #5 >>> #2 >>> deactivate
We need healing: tome of resolve >>> #5 >>> #4 >>> #3 >>> spam #1
We need stability: tome of courage >>>#5>>> spam #1

I expect Firebrand to be a more situational support.

Still, for how much i can agree with the situational support thing, the book have waaay to long cooldowns. 90 seconds of tome of courage ? That’s..like…way TOO situational. A druid can spam heals and dmg bonus % every 10 seconds, if he charge enough, for 15 seconds, but we can give some boon at a decent interval ? Especially when tomes have a limited skill usage.
Idk, I just think that they should work like something between kit and attunement. Basically they could put a mechanic that let you gain pages in a passive or active way, then let you swap between them like attunements with a CD, but at the same time let you stow them like a kit.
Or at least reduce the cd on them. Like…20 seconds for Justice, 30 for resolve and 40-45 for courage. It may feel…“exaggerated” at first, but we can use only 5 to 8 skills with them…it’s not that bad.
Otherwise we will be forced to play Renewed focus, and Virtues line plus other traits, just to be able to use them “normally”.
I know we didn’t play the spec yet so it’s hard to tell what it can or can’t do, but there’s not much need to play it to see/know that those long ass cooldowns will just make the spec slow and kinda dull, forcing you to a certain setup…because let’s be honest. The whole spec rotates around those tomes. Beside the condi damage factor all the tasty stuff that the spec can give, is there.

If you use Firebrand’s trait which reduces the tome recharge you will have them on: 20, 30, 60s CD. If you further reduce it by 15% via Virtues trait line it’s: 17, 25, 50s. Tome of Justice seems pretty good on 17s CD.

Assic.2746:

If you use Firebrand’s trait which reduces the tome recharge you will have them on: 20, 30, 60s CD. If you further reduce it by 15% via Virtues trait line it’s: 17, 25, 50s. Tome of Justice seems pretty good on 17s CD.

I think the trait just reduces the cd on the skills and not the tomes.

The trait in virtues reduces the cd on tomes.

I might be incorrect though….

No, you are right.

Casting times are bad, just look at mace symbol and hammer symbol. Noone use those weapons.

i think a symbol that pulses quickness might be a LITTLE overpowred. Maybe granting Quickness for the first and the last Pulse !?? Wouldn´t be that OP but still a good way to work with the hole quickness Traitline

What about resistance?

Arcaedus.7290:

I think it’s a bit too early to judge axe as a whole but in my opinion, they really should have put quickness as the boon associated with axe.

Lets look at the facts:

-Every main-hand weapon has one unique boon associated with it’s symbol.
-No repeats
-4 possible boons left for current and future mainhand weapons
-It is unlikely we will see 4+ more expacs without the creation of new boons (may as well start putting 1 boon per weapon introduced to guard from here on out).
-Thematically, axe shouldn’t be given a defensive boon.
-Only 1 out of the 4 boons left is non-defensive – quickness.

Taken together, this argues we should be given quickness. Symbol duration/cooldown/boon duration/pulsing are usually what is balanced, not whether or not the symbol gets a boon.

Another point I’d like to stress: In relation to pvp and wvw, I think Anet balance team has a bad habit of looking at skill balance in a vacuum. They may think “oh no, a 180 radius field for 5s that pulses quickness. And if players throw in a couple traits, the symbol lasts a bit longer and is a bit bigger. Oh nooooo, so overpower, much strengths, such boon.” and yes, it would be powerful…. but not on a somewhat slow, melee-ranged weapon associated with a support-based class. Compared to what other classes are getting, I don’t think tossing us this bone is going to break any camels’ backs.

I’m pretty sure the only reason they didn’t give quickness to axe is so that you are not forced to choose it as a quickness share firebrand. It’s a pure condi weapon for DPS firebrand, while it might be possible to play mace/shield tank firebrand that’s equally effective at giving quickness.

Every weapon can be a condi weapon with Permeating Wrath/
Axe already outputs the most burning just from PW, let alone the bleed and burn stacks it adds.
Symbols used to not give conditions, but that changed. Now they can be boon-less. Its a conscious progression that Anet has chosen.
Axe cast times assume quickness where they aren’t that crazy
Mace/Shield gives aegis, which gives quickness. All of a sudden Mace isn’t so slow.
Radiance and Valor each give traits that can recharge Justice and Courage respectively. You’ll have options to get into those tomes more often if you choose to take them.

Firebrand is going to be a different kind of traitline, but I’m excited for it. There are a lot of potential combos, but I’m probably going to go for Honor/Virtues/Firebrand myself. Condi damage with some support.

my only problen with firebrand’s axe skills is that skill 1 and 2 apply bleed… well burn would fit more for it. i know we have “enough” burn (never enough tbh) and we have finaly ability to apply other than burn, but this doesn’t fit for the spec

So basically, the Firebrand is a caster with the scrolls and mantra’s. I dont see a savage axe in that picture…

Elbritil.3817:

my only problen with firebrand’s axe skills is that skill 1 and 2 apply bleed… well burn would fit more for it. i know we have “enough” burn (never enough tbh) and we have finaly ability to apply other than burn, but this doesn’t fit for the spec

The bleed is supposed to serve as a cover condition against skills that only remove 1 condition.

OP, Guard condition damage currently comes from VoJ, torch and utilities. If we make the MH provide strong condition damage then it will be way over the top. We still need to actually test, but my concern is that the symbol takes 1.25 secs to cast. That is way too long to be functional in sPvP. In addition, playing axe torch does not seem to offer much in terms of survivability.

So is torch the only viable offhand weapon for the axe?

Genesis.8572:

So is torch the only viable offhand weapon for the axe?

We do not know how things will work out in PvP. Though torch is the only viable offhand weapon for damage in PvE in any and all builds using MH and OH.

I dont know how mantras work but the cast time on those utility skills seem long. 2 and 3/4 of a second.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Every weapon can be a condi weapon with Permeating Wrath/
Axe already outputs the most burning just from PW, let alone the bleed and burn stacks it adds.
Symbols used to not give conditions, but that changed. Now they can be boon-less. Its a conscious progression that Anet has chosen.
Axe cast times assume quickness where they aren’t that crazy
Mace/Shield gives aegis, which gives quickness. All of a sudden Mace isn’t so slow.
Radiance and Valor each give traits that can recharge Justice and Courage respectively. You’ll have options to get into those tomes more often if you choose to take them.

Firebrand is going to be a different kind of traitline, but I’m excited for it. There are a lot of potential combos, but I’m probably going to go for Honor/Virtues/Firebrand myself. Condi damage with some support.

Well. True, but permeating wrath, for how good it can be, won’t make a weapon 100% compatible…especially when tome of justince have a weaker passive effect compared to core guardian too.

I thought about using mace too, which is cool and could definitedly work, but at the same time I guess we would lose A LOT of our “support” potential ? Why ? Well. Simply Ashes of the just will probably do no damage without having condi damage ourself…and as i said before, being forced on a condi setup with power weapons is just a really dumb design.

My main concern is raiding and other hard content like CMs. Why ? because it’s the only content which have precise classes requests. I can run whatever I want in PvE and T4 fractals honestly, but in those I can’t. From what it seems Firebrand will be another viable option to quickness sharing, so…yes. I want it viable in the best way possible.
And the way they thought about it is clearly with conditions, and thus probably axe, in mind. Otherwise they wouldn’t have made Quickfire the way it is.

Firebrand have to offer something that a mesmer can’t to have a possibility…and right now it just don’t. It feels kinda all over the place…and right now the only role i could see it kinda work is probably cDPS.

Kyedai.8462:

I dont know how mantras work but the cast time on those utility skills seem long. 2 and 3/4 of a second.

Mantras work with charges now. They have three charges, the last one will be more powerful than the first two, so it should be used as a “last measure”. Those charges automatically recharge too, but if you fully use the mantra you will have to wait for full cd and recast them again.
Anyway it won’t be such a huge problem anyway thanks to the quickness spam (in theory)

Genesis.8572:

So is torch the only viable offhand weapon for the axe?

Would say torch for DPS and shield for support…mainly shield because with boon duration you can give a tasty amount of protection (8s with 100% boon) and aegis to trigger Firebrand’s Stalwart Speed.

mace/shield is definitely the way to go for quickness spam firebrand while axe/torch is what you use of you wana focus on condi dps. i suspect firebrand in pve will use the later and focus on getting quickness from tome of courage, mantra heal, potent mantra and elite mantra while pvp focused on taking mace/shield and scepter/focus for self sustain with honor, firebrand, virtues along with a sage amulet.

I think a 0.75 s or 1 s cast time will feel more fluid and thematic for a high risk close range fast weapon like the Firebrand’s axe.

Let’s see how it feels this weekend and then give Irenio our constructive feedback.

But not unrelenting criticism like Ragnarok, RabbitUp and Fashion Mage’s posts.

Ezrael.6859:

But not unrelenting criticism like Ragnarok, RabbitUp and Fashion Mage’s posts.

Maybe a firebrand burned their houses down and that’s why they’re so mad?

To the OP. I have wanted to play a Condi Guard since I created my Guard during GW2 pre-release. Condi guard has been attempted as flavors of the month (mostly in pvp) in the past, mostly due to the burst. And condi guard has always fell short due to two reasons:
1. A single condi is to suseptable to clears
2. No main hand condi attacks forced a raliance on virtues and utilities/traits

The Axe is the first time Condi may be viable and though the Firebrand is “support focuses” those should remain in the virtues and mantras. Your lack of support in the Axe skills should not be a concern, it sbould be embrced. Guard has a full selection of support weapons: mace, sheild, hammer, staff… use one.
Leave the Axe full DPS as it should be

For your other weapon concernes. Building current weapons in the pre-path of fire balance patch is fairly easy through an embrace of virtues and symbol burn. The ideal burn set is sword/torch or sceptor/torch for range selection or alternatly hammer is an often overlooked option that give a permanent symbol (statisticly burning symbols and inproved justice lead to a burn on roughly 1/2 your attacks in concept). You will still have these options on the firebrand.

As for your condi-support, this doesn’t have a strong solution. But this combination probably isn’t a good choice for any optinal build outside of a class fantasy. Your support weapons are power based, then your going to be power based for optimal builds. They would need to create/rework a weapon to acheive that combination. Adding support to the axe would only lead to a inneffective condi guard for the 5th year in a row

Condi guard has been effective ever since Burning stacked, and I ran it even before that. Its absolutely viable in pvp, and I’ve been running it in wvw to good effect.

The guardian does already have support oriented weapons. What they were lacking was a dedicated condition weapon, and that is what they got. But if you run a support build, no-one’s saying you have to use an axe, you can simply switch out for a staff, mace or hammer, or whatever else you feel is appropriate.

Don’t feel limited to using new weapons with new elite specs, they are just there for more options but are by no means a necessity (in fact, I haven’t used any of the new weapons given by elite specs on any of my main builds except longbow on guardian in certain situations, though I still prefer scepter as a dps option in PvE).

I think the axe will be good for condition applying, not just because of the base conditions built into the weapon, but also because of the fact that the auto attacks hit multiple times with each hit, which will proc VoJ more often. But we will have to test it this weekend and see whether or not that’s the case.

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

I can’t wait to test out the axe this weekend. The concept sounds good with dual hits when it comes to VOJ, doe mainhand sword applies VOJ pretty reliable too. I’m not too sure on how well that bleeding works out, since our trait system is geared towards burnings that favor sword abit more as it is equally good as a power weapon while applying plenty of VOJ burn with the third tri-hit. Also giving up the long bow for another melee weapon is abit tough of a choice since i’m not a big fan of slow moving orbs and shorter range of scepter.

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

It’s not a cover condi, it’s part of its dps. Plus, warrior has plenty of burn with Berzerker.

Guardian, on the other hand had its VoJ cut in half.

RabbitUp.8294:

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

It’s not a cover condi, it’s part of its dps. Plus, warrior has plenty of burn with Berzerker.

Guardian, on the other hand had its VoJ cut in half.

what do you mean with VoJ cut in half??? The passive burning from Tome of Justice is 541 for 1 1/2 while voJ does the same dmg but with 4s. Isn´t ToJ better because it provides more dmg in a shorter period of time ??

ToJ: 360,67 dmg per second
VoJ: 135,24 dmg per second

another advantage is that you don´t have as much time to cleanse it.

InViictuZz.1705:

RabbitUp.8294:

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

It’s not a cover condi, it’s part of its dps. Plus, warrior has plenty of burn with Berzerker.

Guardian, on the other hand had its VoJ cut in half.

what do you mean with VoJ cut in half??? The passive burning from Tome of Justice is 541 for 1 1/2 while voJ does the same dmg but with 4s. Isn´t ToJ better because it provides more dmg in a shorter period of time ??

ToJ: 360,67 dmg per second
VoJ: 135,24 dmg per second

another advantage is that you don´t have as much time to cleanse it.

All burning does the same base dps per stack, you see a bigger number on the tooltip because of traits and condi damage gear.

It’s also not 1.5, it’s 1s, half of what it is now. 1.5 must be the pvp version.

I didn’t see it mentioned here, but the tooltip for Symbol of Vengeance says it only affects three targets versus the usual five for a symbol. I’m hoping that’s just a tooltip error.

http://i.imgur.com/aUBuGeL.png

RabbitUp.8294:

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

It’s not a cover condi, it’s part of its dps. Plus, warrior has plenty of burn with Berzerker.

Guardian, on the other hand had its VoJ cut in half.

The swords main condition for a war is bleeds. Guardian has a second (primary) tied to the axe, Why should we compare the war sword and the guardian axe?

Building a condi FB will never ever focus on having huge stacks of bleeding and balthazar runes will still be the way to go in any game mode. In pve it bleeds will be minor and in pvp and wvw it is a cover condi, nothing more.

Its apples and pears.

skeeman.3140:

I didn’t see it mentioned here, but the tooltip for Symbol of Vengeance says it only affects three targets versus the usual five for a symbol. I’m hoping that’s just a tooltip error.

http://i.imgur.com/aUBuGeL.png

If this is true, along with the reduced VoJ passive and short durations on the bleeds I believe they’re intentionally holding firebrand back so it doesn’t become a burning monstrosity. Equiping Firebrand will be like nerfing yourself against single targets in exchange of massive cleave damage, which is not a good prospect for raids.

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

It’s not a cover condi, it’s part of its dps. Plus, warrior has plenty of burn with Berzerker.

Guardian, on the other hand had its VoJ cut in half.

The swords main condition for a war is bleeds. Guardian has a second (primary) tied to the axe, Why should we compare the war sword and the guardian axe?

Building a condi FB will never ever focus on having huge stacks of bleeding and balthazar runes will still be the way to go in any game mode. In pve it bleeds will be minor and in pvp and wvw it is a cover condi, nothing more.

Its apples and pears.

I think they want us to take unrelenting criticism when building for condi damage. They moved the “main” bleed damage to a trait so it can have a proc chance.

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

Brutaly.6257:

RabbitUp.8294:

The condition duration of axe is such a joke though, 2s seconds of bleeding on auto, when warrior sword does 8s and has a trait that increases it by 20%.

The difference is that warrior has bleeds as main condi and for FB it is a cover condi. FB does not need more bleeds.

Comparing apples and pears.

It’s not a cover condi, it’s part of its dps. Plus, warrior has plenty of burn with Berzerker.

Guardian, on the other hand had its VoJ cut in half.

The swords main condition for a war is bleeds. Guardian has a second (primary) tied to the axe, Why should we compare the war sword and the guardian axe?

Building a condi FB will never ever focus on having huge stacks of bleeding and balthazar runes will still be the way to go in any game mode. In pve it bleeds will be minor and in pvp and wvw it is a cover condi, nothing more.

Its apples and pears.

And the axe’s main condi is bleeding, so what’s your point?