Guild Wars 2

“Guardian

Tank and supportive guardians are in a strong position in many game types. We do feel that damage guardians are not as powerful as they could be. While we don’t want guardians to be as strong offensively as some of the other classes (given their powerful defensive abilities), we opened up more offensive guardian builds.

Zeal V—Shattered Aegis: This trait now applies damage instead of burning.

Zeal VII—Zealous Blade: This trait now scales with healing power by 2%.

Zeal XII—Kindled Zeal: Increased the conversion from 10% to 13%.

Radiance V—Searing Flames: Reduced the cooldown from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.

Radiance X—Powerful Blades: Increased the damage from 5% to 10%.

Valor VI—Retributive Armor: Increased the conversion rate from 5% to 7%.

Honor VI—Pure of Heart: Increased scaling with healing power from 25% to 40%.

Virtues VIII—Supreme Justice: Decreased the number of attacks from 4 to 3.

Symbol of Swiftness: This skill now applies 4 seconds of swiftness per pulse, rather than 8 seconds to players without swiftness and 1 second to players with swiftness.

Bug Fixes

Virtue of Justice: Updated the skill facts to indicate the number of attacks required to trigger this skill. Added a fact that indicates radius when Permeating Wrath is traited.

Updated the skill to indicate the increased burn duration when Supreme Justice is traited.

Virtue of Resolve: Updated the skill facts to display the correct healing when Absolute Resolution is traited.

Tome of Wrath—Zealot’s Fervor: Fixed the range indicator so that it will now update properly.

Signet of Wrath: Updated the skill facts to indicate vulnerability when Binding Jeopardy is traited."

Devs stated they opened up some new offensive builds for guards. Where are they? I see nothing that will be used. I was excited about Powerful Blades, but looks like they decided not to change the 5% increase after all.

I see only nerfed SoS which no one wanted but they ignored every post on it and just force it in to game.

Why do they even ask for feedback when they introduce “lackluster change[s]” anyway? (Jon Peters on Radiance X, one month ago)

That’s ridiculous.

The numbers on Shattered Aegis are 293 base, btw. Too weak to compete with Fiery Wrath. Wasted

Wasn’t expecting much for shattered aegis, however quite happy with the now 10% dmg on powerful blades.

Shattered aegis was better before than what we have now really its nearly the equivalent of a retaliation tick.

Complete and utter joke. ANET tell us again why your new Guardian “MEDITATION” heal has a 1 second cast time? What’s with all the Burning upgrades when as a whole its still worthless anyway? Where’s our soft CC?

EDIT: I’m not saying burning is worthless, just burning on a Guardian is.

I wish someone in the balanced team can explain the change to SoS.

The lack of knowledge about this class from the balance team….

In my work, in similar situation with stuff related to my work, if i have this poor performance because my lack of knowledge i get fired.

Maybe this sound offensive, but is not. Is the true and what i feel after a lot of feedback for nothing. That changes are awful and useless.

And still no passive speed or soft CC.

Love the increased dmg on Powerful Blades. Havent tried out the new SoS, but it seems to hamper a already slow moving Guardian

rojak.1894:

Love the increased dmg on Powerful Blades. Havent tried out the new SoS, but it seems to hamper a already slow moving Guardian

I tried that. Guardian is now twice as slow as before.

Honestly devs do us a favor don’t even come into the forums and read or ask for feedback. Quit pretending you care about our input this right here shows you don’t I already don’t look forward to any patch they put out knowing they just mess with numbers to see how it works. No testing is involved with anything you put out and you throw it at us and expect us to be OK and pat you on the head like you did something great. Granted some of these changes are nice nun of the feedback given was even thought about. But its OK you know what’s best for the game. You know how to build a community of good feedback to keep the game going strong. But I still haven’t seen any wow factor from this game. Nothing that makes me want to say “guild wars 2 is better than the original!” But that doesn’t matter this like every other post by the community will be in heard and I again won’t be surprised

<https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dec-10th-Balance-Preview-Updated-Nov-6th#post3133112>

Just to remind you this thread, guys. First post, first paragraph.

No comments.

Fellow Guardians, welcome to Mesmer Wars 2, my friend and myself already tested the heal, pretty much cannot be killed.

Sword changes is a piece of ****

“The change to sword damage from 5% to 10%. I’ve seen a lot of talk that maybe it is not really needed. The fact was this was a lackluster trait and this is a lackluster change to it. I would love to do the right thing here and have a change that MH sword wants rather than just 5% more damage.
Thoughts?
Jon”

Six pages of suggestions later-

“Radiance X – Powerful blades. Increased damage from 5% to 10%.”

No one lied. I just think they bit off more than they could chew, this was a big balance patch (for other professions, anyway) and we are at the bottom of the priority list for changes. As we have been told by the devs, they see Guards as more than viable in almost all if not all types of play as is. We have our role in PvE/ dungeons/ fractals/ WvW/ PvP. We might not like being stuck in a single role, but we have basically been told to get used to it. Its not going to change soon.

Time to pick up my sword, put down my mace, cross my fingers and try to “rise” as a “power gaurdian”. Hope that 5% extra sword damage can compete with all those other class changes out there.

Wow so much anger. I am angry too about this update and not only becouse of guardian. Jon Peters really didn’t showed much care about guardian and ours feedbacks on him, but don’t call him liar. Lets hope he will learn from this mistake and start doing more for guardian and care about ours opinions.

There were a lot of good ideas / sugestions in that discussion thread. To bad they were, for all points and purposes, ignored (as far as we can tell anyway).

Are any of the issues brought up in that thread even considered issues by Anet?

It would be nice to know if anything from that thread is being considered for future patches or even at all really. While guardians may not have such glaring problems as some of the other classes there are still things that need fixing / adjusting / tweaking and the aforementioned thread was full of constructive, well thought out solutions / answers. It would be a shame if that all went to waste.

SoS change isn’t horrible. Actually its quite easy to stack up the swiftness.

No there is no need to defend them about the patch if this was a year ago then OK thus would be fine. We are a year and some months in being last on the list to changes isnt acceptable anymore. They need to take a risk with something in their game that goes more than the class change because everything they are doing is lackluster, flavorless, and safe again nothing attractive about these patch except for the heal and its barely worth looking at on paper after a thread 10 pages worth of suggestions

This is just a bad joke. My poor guardian…

SoS change is just stupid. Give us the old version back. Moving across a map is like riding the subway now, with all the local stops. The “fix” to our broken swiftness ability makes us slower. Excellent work.

I’m perfectly fine with getting infracted for my post:

Jon Peters needs to actually play a guard for a second. He obviously has never played the class past maybe level 10.

The nerf to SoS?! I can’t believe they shoved that through even though everyone on the guard forums said it was an awful nerf to already slow guardians. Time for guards to stop using the staff as a weapon. Nice kill to a weapon that only had two useful skills to begin with (3+4 and on the rare occasion 5) now it only has one skill worth using so not worth bringing anymore besides in TA. Too bad I wasted money making an ascended one….

Seriously ANET needs to quit asking for feedback that they ignore. It just makes people even more livid. We obviously realize that Jon Peters only cares about his precious eles, thieves, and warriors, but come on…. this update was a joke, and you have never played a guard if you think this patch opened a single new build for us. Quit acting like you care…..

/endlividrant

swiftpaw.6397:

Wasn’t expecting much for shattered aegis, however quite happy with the now 10% dmg on powerful blades.

I already knew shatter aegis was going to be bad, its a adept trait and I don’t have any faith that the devs were trying to make it viable.

The powerful blades change is probably the best change in the patch.

Watch the liar piece everyone or keep that in the back of your mind. In the forum community it will mean a quick death to a thread, good or bad, and a possible ban. Look, I’d wager most people are either putting the palm of their hands to their forhead or just flat out flabbergasted at the patch notes. However, it is what it is and really nothing we can do about it.

Want some change or attention material? Easy, stop playing the class and it will be noticed. However, with a game over millions played I really don’t think it would be noticed and we’ll come across nothing more has a spoiled brat. Just saying.

To maybe put this into perspective I’d like to point out two threads in which case one thing was done and one was not. Case in point I’d like to bring up the so called Guild vs. Guild thread. Here we had a lot of drama about nothing yet a change was made and enter the newly added open area in the EB JP. Follow the path on the left, head down a few tunnels, and you are in a major coliseum where you can Guild vs. Guild or set up other matches till your heart is content and fingers bleed. Now let me ask you a question to all reading this. What was the percentage of out burst over that drama thread, what sort of outcome did the designers or employees post, and now compare that to the actual use of the new environment….

Enter ascended item introduction and that out burst by the community. Thousands of pages of discussion, ranting, raving, and high fives. Probably the most active or vocal yet again employees made a statement and it is here to stay.

I only raise this has two examples of when something snowballed and cause and effect took place. Yet in the former (first example) it really isn’t benefitting much of anyone. In fact, I’d honestly wager it only satisficed a few people when compared to the Guardian community who provided countless pages of ideas that got completely ignored…and could have helped a much larger active player base.

I think to me, that is the question. Where is the consistency in all this or is it just a knee jerk reaction to the squeaky wheel? Not like there is any monthly fee associated with the game and we can all walk away today. This isn’t a F-16 whereas I can turn on a dime, hit AB, and get out of town. This ship takes a few miles to right the rudder and if I was to be perfectly Frank (don’t call me Shirley) I think the changes were already made and the discussion was a afterthought.

Just my $0.02 worth.

eleshazar.6902:

Jon Peters needs to actually play a guard for a second. He obviously has never played the class past maybe level 10.

They have the data but going off what I see in regards to Arena Net tags when I play, they all roll thieves. I can make this into a startling statistics because I see a low number of Arena Net tags, the overall percentage is low of course yet 100% being a thief, well, speaks volumes.

Hello.

Is there a way to hide from profession changes in the future? Like, lock my profession the way it is now?

I’m scared, and I don’t want to reroll a Mesmer, Thief, Necromancer or a Warrior in the future.

Farzo.8410:

Hello.

Is there a way to hide from profession changes in the future? Like, lock my profession the way it is now?

I’m scared, and I don’t want to reroll a Mesmer, Thief, Necromancer or a Warrior in the future.

You do realize most of the numbers went up (just not as much as anyone wanted to). I mean, one handed sword bonus damage doubled.

styx.7294:

Farzo.8410:

Hello.

Is there a way to hide from profession changes in the future? Like, lock my profession the way it is now?

I’m scared, and I don’t want to reroll a Mesmer, Thief, Necromancer or a Warrior in the future.

You do realize most of the numbers went up (just not as much as anyone wanted to). I mean, one handed sword bonus damage doubled.

I don’t see myself ever traiting into Radiance.

Farzo.8410:

styx.7294:

Farzo.8410:

Hello.

Is there a way to hide from profession changes in the future? Like, lock my profession the way it is now?

I’m scared, and I don’t want to reroll a Mesmer, Thief, Necromancer or a Warrior in the future.

You do realize most of the numbers went up (just not as much as anyone wanted to). I mean, one handed sword bonus damage doubled.

I don’t see myself ever traiting into Radiance.

Exactly. Increasing damage on a weapon that isn’t that great dps wise in a line that no guard worth his beans traits into…. Scepter/torch offers far more dps than sword/anything combo and more mobility (don’t have to stand still). So good job on giving us a near useless change. There is a reason almost every guard runs 0/0/30/30/10.

meditations are now viable in many aspects of the game. u can basically keep healing yourself to full, and have perma fury. the new heal does not work well with tanky builds, but is decent if youre bursty. in any case it gives u fury.

their attempt at making zeal more appealing was pathetic.

Mightymealworm.8409:

“Guardian

We do feel that damage guardians are not as powerful as they could be. While we don’t want guardians to be as strong offensively as some of the other classes (given their powerful defensive abilities).

Why can’t they just call it what it is, a Hybrid tax.

Farzo.8410:

styx.7294:

Farzo.8410:

Hello.

Is there a way to hide from profession changes in the future? Like, lock my profession the way it is now?

I’m scared, and I don’t want to reroll a Mesmer, Thief, Necromancer or a Warrior in the future.

You do realize most of the numbers went up (just not as much as anyone wanted to). I mean, one handed sword bonus damage doubled.

I don’t see myself ever traiting into Radiance.

My point was that, ‘cept the staff change, we’re not really off any worse. shrug I do wish it got more shaken up but I can’t say I’m scared. Plus nerfs/buffs come and go.

Warriors are far more tanky, far more bursty, far more supportive than Guardians now.

It feels really sad.

Mightymealworm.8409:

“Guardian

Tank and supportive guardians are in a strong position in many game types. We do feel that damage guardians are not as powerful as they could be. While we don’t want guardians to be as strong offensively as some of the other classes (given their powerful defensive abilities), we opened up more offensive guardian builds.

Then we, Guardians, don’t want other classes to be as strong defensively has we are given their offensive abilities. However, every other class can mitigate or reset fights at will. How is this even the slightest bit fair when we take apart the quote noted above???

People exagerate. This isnt the end of the world.

Did they add useless stuff, yes they did.

Did the offensive guardian need more dps, in sword in particular, no it didnt.

Is kindled zeal still useless, yes it is.

Was the change to Sos a nerf, no it wasnt. In most scenarios its a buff and in some a huge buff. The fact is its only in one scenario its a nerf when you have no other mean of swiftness, you havent traited larger symbols and dont have time to stand still in the symbol for approx 0,2 seconds.

Did we know that the preview wouldnt change to release, yes we did. At last if you read what Anet previously posted about their development cycle and the time frame they need to alter stuff in that cycle.

The only thing we should be upset about is the fact that Jon peters clearly stated:
1. we didnt have the full picture and there was more to come than the part the posted in the preview. Clearly the preview was the entire patch so there was no big picture and this is a bit worrying.
2. He recognizes that the offensive guardian isnt in a good position and they want to address that and yet do nothing in the patch to fix it. We dont need more condition damage and more damage to 1h sword, what we needed was working spirit weapons, more utilities in zeal in particular, fix of our signets and working symbol builds.

What we got actually mostly addressed the defensive traitlines and the defensive guardian setups.

One might hope that Jon actually trait a 30/30/x/x/x with full berserker and go into wvw/pvp and try to make it work.

Brutaly.6257:

People exagerate. This isnt the end of the world.

Was the change to Sos a nerf, no it wasnt. In most scenarios its a buff and in some a huge buff.

Wrong. In very few scenarios it is buff and in most it is HUGE nerf.

daros.3407:

Brutaly.6257:

People exagerate. This isnt the end of the world.

Was the change to Sos a nerf, no it wasnt. In most scenarios its a buff and in some a huge buff.

Wrong. In very few scenarios it is buff and in most it is HUGE nerf.

Trait larger symbols and learn to land the symbol so two ticks hit you when running thru. With untraited symbols its a nerf and as long as you have a secondary source of swiftness (if swiftness is what you want) its a buff.

With superior aria and larger symbols its a buff.

So its not Sos that got a nerf, its your way of using it. And mine ofc, but i will/have changed my way of using it so the change benefits me.

Brutaly.6257:

The only thing we should be upset about is the fact that Jon peters clearly stated:
1. we didnt have the full picture and there was more to come than the part the posted in the preview. Clearly the preview was the entire patch so there was no big picture and this is a bit worrying.
2. He recognizes that the offensive guardian isnt in a good position and they want to address that and yet do nothing in the patch to fix it. We dont need more condition damage and more damage to 1h sword, what we needed was working spirit weapons, more utilities in zeal in particular, fix of our signets and working symbol builds.

What we got actually mostly addressed the defensive traitlines and the defensive guardian setups.

One might hope that Jon actually trait a 30/30/x/x/x with full berserker and go into wvw/pvp and try to make it work.

Don’t forget Virtues, especially passives.

I’ve been using SoS today. I don’t see it as a nerf….

Matter in fact, if you stay in the symbol for an extra second you can make up that distance with GS leap and have more swiftness applied. Moving from point A to point B is quicker. Or if you just take a camp/sentry and are waiting for the flip, just stack the swiftness.

For combat its pretty nice, you get more out of the symbol then before.

Brutaly.6257:

daros.3407:

Brutaly.6257:

People exagerate. This isnt the end of the world.

Was the change to Sos a nerf, no it wasnt. In most scenarios its a buff and in some a huge buff.

Wrong. In very few scenarios it is buff and in most it is HUGE nerf.

Trait larger symbols and learn to land the symbol so two ticks hit you when running thru. With untraited symbols its a nerf and as long as you have a secondary source of swiftness (if swiftness is what you want) its a buff.

With superior aria and larger symbols its a buff.

So its not Sos that got a nerf, its your way of using it.

So now i am forced to trait for something to make my class viable. Isn’t that what balance team alway wants to avoid?
This change is irrational and should never happen.

Brutaly.6257:

daros.3407:

Brutaly.6257:

People exagerate. This isnt the end of the world.

Was the change to Sos a nerf, no it wasnt. In most scenarios its a buff and in some a huge buff.

Wrong. In very few scenarios it is buff and in most it is HUGE nerf.

Trait larger symbols and learn to land the symbol so two ticks hit you when running thru. With untraited symbols its a nerf and as long as you have a secondary source of swiftness (if swiftness is what you want) its a buff.

With superior aria and larger symbols its a buff.

So its not Sos that got a nerf, its your way of using it. And mine ofc, but i will/have changed my way of using it so the change benefits me.

If I gotta use a trait to do what I could do before without the trait (have 100% swiftness up time), I’m likely to think it’s a nerf.

Without trying it in game yet, I can’t judge though.

Read what blasino wrote, just like me he has actually been in game and tested it and you dont need traits to make it more powerful compared to the old SoS. 16s swiftness from one symbol with 20% boon duration, reaapply it 3 times while retreat is running adding 12s more. 28s swiftness from one symbol with. 26+15=41s with 50% boon duration with one symbol.

You can reapply it 3 times during retreat for an additional 12 seconds of switness with 0% boon duration..

Whats changed is the way you use it and you dont have to trait it for it to be very good.

Do i personally like the change, no i dont but that dont make it a nerf.

Brutaly.6257:

Read what blasino wrote, just like me he has actually been in game and tested it and you dont need traits to make it more powerful compared to the old SoS. 16s swiftness from one symbol with 20% boon duration, reaapply it 3 times while retreat is running adding 12s more. 28s swiftness from one symbol with.

You can reapply it 3 times during retreat for an additional 12 seconds of switness with 0% boon duration..

Whats changed is the way you use it and you dont have to trait it for it to be very good.

Do i personally like the change, no i dont but that dont make it a nerf.

I tested it too and and consider it to be nerf. I play DPS guardian without boon duration/retreat i use staff for traveling in open world and instances and i am now greatly slowed. It is nerf.

If you trait larger symbols you can’t trait 2 hand mastery which means you can’t cast SoS as often as you did before.

Its a nerf for me too. Tried it, don’t like it.

perma swiftness with 50% boon duration is now possible with staff and retreat alone.

I have 100% uptime on swiftness with 5% boon duration with two shouts and staff, totally untraited.

So what you are saying is that your build in particular got nerfed.

It’s only a nerf when you have no other source of swiftness. In all other cases, its a hefty buff, allowing you to stack swiftness duration.

That said, I don’t see anything terrible in this patch. Nothing great, but nothing that breaks my guardian.

Yes, the mighty swiftness build, so powerful at map discovery…OP.

Maladon.5760:

If you trait larger symbols you can’t trait 2 hand mastery which means you can’t cast SoS as often as you did before.

you dont need larger symbols for it to be better. And ofc you can trait both as long as your not into shouts and if you are into shouts you have 100% uptime with shouts and staff with 5% boon duration with no symbol traits ofc.