Guild Wars 2

Hey I want to share my opinion in some stuff to help devs in the Guardian improvements.
Until now developers did a good job, now we can see a lot of different guardian’s builds than before the specialization’s update, but have some skills and traits that still need to work.

TRAITS

Zeal:
1. Wrathful Spirit: Aegis gives retaliation when it ends.
– Complete useless, I never used this trait. You should think add a extra boon to it like swiftness. So it can compete versus the other traits. Damage versus mobility.

2. Shattered Aegis: When an aegis you applied blocks an attack, it damages nearby foes.
– This trait have potential but the damage is not good to be as master trait. Base damage in wiki is 631 (1.0)? but in the game its not. Without power its 266. Enemies can remove your aegis from long range easy so it needs a good damage to work better as a master trait.

3. Symbolic Avenger: You deal more damage to enemies standing in your symbols.
– In Pvp at least, this trait should be 20% damage. Its to easy to kite guardian symbols.

4. Expeditious Spirit:
– Add again the damage modifier for Spirit Weapons.

Radiance:
1. Healer’s Retribution: Gain retaliation when using a heal skill.
– At least 10s of retaliation.

Valor:
1. Might of Protector: Gain might when you block attacks.
– Remove internal cd again and only 1 might per hit. Enemies should pay to keep attacking us in block.

2. Stalwart Defender: Gain additional toughness while wielding a shield. Shield ability recharge is reduced.
– Add shield skills gives weakness.

3. Retaliatory Subconscious: Gain retaliation and aegis when stunned, dazed, knocked back, pulled, knocked down, sunk, floated, launched, taunted or inflicted with fear.
– Retaliation need to be at least 5s.

WEAPONS:

1. Shield:
– Skill 4 add knock back too.
– Skill 5 should scale better with healing power. 1,300 (0.2)? change to 0.5.

2. Torch:
– Skill 5 should remove conditions to yourself too.

3. Mace:
– Skill 1 sequence should remove a bit of casting time.

UTILITIES

1. Merciful Intervention
– “If no ally is present in the targeted area, this ability will not shadow step.” Remove this.

2. Hallowed Ground
– Add 1 more stack of stability.

3. Signet of Courage:
– Cast time turn it to 3 1/2.
– Passive heal scale more with healing power.

Shattered Aegis : You would be surprise of it’s efficiency in PvP. It’s part of the meta right now for the medi guardian. Maybe a small buff would be nice, but it’s a good trait right now.

Symbolic Avenger : I agree. It’s not like 10% dmg modifier is rare and most profession have a less restrictive trigger than that. It’s not like the guardian is OP right now, making it to 20% would push for a high risk high reward gameplay where it’s gonna be hard to pull a WW on someone while being on your symbol, but when you do, it’s gonna hit like a truck.

Expeditious Spirit: The trait isn’ the problem. Until they make the spirits weapon viable, the trait will always be lackluster.

Healer’s Retribution : There is two role that this trait can achieve. The first is in a pve build to trigger Retribution. But right now it will never compete with RHS even if you boost it to like 20 second or something like that so you can keep Retribution uptime very high. For this trait to work in this kind of build it would need to be a master Virtue trait or a adept/master honor trait to work with a Hammer build. The second role is in WvW zerg or sPvP Bunker. Both of those just don’t use Radiance, but if you put Healer’s retribution as a adept in honor then suddently it could be a good option. So in the end, they should put it as an adept in Honor. That way it will be usefull to hammer guardian in PvE and to bunker guardian in sPvP and Frontliner in WvW.

Stalwart Defender : Again, it’s not the trait the problem, but the weapon. The shield need to be good first.

Retaliatory Subconscious : This trait is fine. It’s already used on medi guardian. They could add 2 second, but the trait is ok like it is.

Mace : The weapon is good right now. It’s one of the most popular weapon in PvE right now. No need to that really.

Hallowed Ground : I rather want a lower cooldown. 80sec is just insane.

Other than that I agree.

Thaddeus.4891:

Shattered Aegis : You would be surprise of it’s efficiency in PvP. It’s part of the meta right now for the medi guardian. Maybe a small buff would be nice, but it’s a good trait right now.

Healer’s Retribution : There is two role that this trait can achieve. The first is in a pve build to trigger Retribution. But right now it will never compete with RHS even if you boost it to like 20 second or something like that so you can keep Retribution uptime very high. For this trait to work in this kind of build it would need to be a master Virtue trait or a adept/master honor trait to work with a Hammer build. The second role is in WvW zerg or sPvP Bunker. Both of those just don’t use Radiance, but if you put Healer’s retribution as a adept in honor then suddently it could be a good option. So in the end, they should put it as an adept in Honor. That way it will be usefull to hammer guardian in PvE and to bunker guardian in sPvP and Frontliner in WvW.

Shattered Aegis really need a small buff in damage, i think most of the Guardians like more play Honor instead of Zeal in conquest.

Healer’s Retribution concept by arena net i think its to have synergy with Retribution and Radiant Retaliation so more uptime of retaliation will be good.

When list all the trait that people run in popular build you get a list of trait that none of them use. I use the following build : Meta PvE, Hammer PvE, Bunker Guardian, WvW Frontliner AH, Medi Guardian, Sinister Condi PvE and PvP Burst Burning. Here is the list of unused trait.

Zeal : Wrathful Spirit, Blinding Jeopardy, Expeditious Spirit
Radiance : Healer’s Retribution, Wrath of Justice, Radiant Retaliation
Valor : Strength of the Fallen, Stalwart Defender, Retributive Armor
Honor : Protector’s Impact, Honorable Staff, Force of Will
Virtue : Glacial Hearts

So there is something wrong with those trait IMO. It can be because they need a buff, because they need to be placed somewhere else, but it can also be because they just don’t fill any role.

Thaddeus.4891:

When list all the trait that people run in popular build you get a list of trait that none of them use. I use the following build : Meta PvE, Hammer PvE, Bunker Guardian, WvW Frontliner AH, Medi Guardian, Sinister Condi PvE and PvP Burst Burning. Here is the list of unused trait.

Zeal : Wrathful Spirit, Blinding Jeopardy, Expeditious Spirit
Radiance : Healer’s Retribution, Wrath of Justice, Radiant Retaliation
Valor : Strength of the Fallen, Stalwart Defender, Retributive Armor
Honor : Protector’s Impact, Honorable Staff, Force of Will
Virtue : Glacial Hearts

So there is something wrong with those trait IMO. It can be because they need a buff, because they need to be placed somewhere else, but it can also be because they just don’t fill any role.

Protector’s Impact and (maybe) Honorable Staff help at open world exploration.

I feel like Wrathful Spirit is actually a pretty solid skill when paired with Communal Defenses and Shattered Aegis.

If you run something like this here (you can sub sword for Scepter but the sword brings more chances to block) whenever you block you’re going to give your nearby allies Aegis, and when that Aegis breaks your allies are going to get Retaliation and it’ll deal damage. That’s a lot of potential damage being thrown out there. It’s also a really cool way to have team support while being DPS…I wish Warrior had something like that in PvP…

baroi.3264:

Thaddeus.4891:

Shattered Aegis : You would be surprise of it’s efficiency in PvP. It’s part of the meta right now for the medi guardian. Maybe a small buff would be nice, but it’s a good trait right now.

Healer’s Retribution : There is two role that this trait can achieve. The first is in a pve build to trigger Retribution. But right now it will never compete with RHS even if you boost it to like 20 second or something like that so you can keep Retribution uptime very high. For this trait to work in this kind of build it would need to be a master Virtue trait or a adept/master honor trait to work with a Hammer build. The second role is in WvW zerg or sPvP Bunker. Both of those just don’t use Radiance, but if you put Healer’s retribution as a adept in honor then suddently it could be a good option. So in the end, they should put it as an adept in Honor. That way it will be usefull to hammer guardian in PvE and to bunker guardian in sPvP and Frontliner in WvW.

Shattered Aegis really need a small buff in damage, i think most of the Guardians like more play Honor instead of Zeal in conquest.

Healer’s Retribution concept by arena net i think its to have synergy with Retribution and Radiant Retaliation so more uptime of retaliation will be good.

the reason more guards play honor instead of zeal isn’t because shattered aegis’ damage is low, its because they’re playing bunker instead of medi.

My main problem with trait and skills are:

Traits:

• Wrathful Spirit (Zeal): I’ll never, literally never, use this trait.
• Zealous Scepter (Zeal): I’ll never use this trait over Fiery Wrath. It should at least reduce the CD of Scepter.
• Symbolic Avenger (Zeal): Is really weak on WvW or PvP.
• Healer’s Retribution (Radiance): I’ll never, literally never, use this trait.
• Radiant Retaliation (Radiance): There is no reason, at all to use this trait. It does not matter if you use full dire or even anything else, Amplified Wrath will always be the pick as condition build or any other build that doesn’t uses sigets (maybe even if you use signets). PLEASE ANET, replace this trait for something else. It could even be the older trait “remove a boon when applying burning, 7 sec of cooldown”.
• Stalwart Defender (Valor): This trait is really weak. There is no reason to use it over the other 2 options even if use shield (which is already a weak weapon).
• Invigorated Bulwark (Honor): After a lot of testing, I find this trait weak. The block application, estrange as like, is limited. The healing stacks should be increased to 30 seconds at least. The CD reduction doesn’t worth the take over Protective Reviver in PvP/WvW.
• Protector’s Impact (Honor): This, and ALL ON FALL TRAITS, must have another effect. As Guardian it can be a real problem to pick an Adept trait in Honor becauseall of them are too specific.
• Pure of Heart (Honor): Is still weak, even if you use Communal Defenses.
• Retaliatory Subconscious (Virtues): It still weak and underwhelming, you only take this trait if you don’t use a Consecration (Master of Consecrations). Unscathed Contender might be more viable with th long bow.
• Battle Presence (Virtues): Considering that doesn’t apply the heal when Virtue of Resolve is on CD anymore, it should at least double or triple the heal amout on allies. Smooting Mist of Elementalist heals for 300 hp/s, while this heals for 90 hp/s with the same healing power. Or add another effect to this trait.

Weapon Skills:

• Both Shield skills: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Shield-should-be-re-dessigned/first#post5340047
• Faithful Strike (last hit of Mace #1): It is too slow, should have ~0.75 sec of cast time. May reduce the damage according (but keep the same DPS).
• Symbol of Faith (Mace #2): It is too slow, it should have 0.75~1 second of cast time.
• Protector’s Strike (Mace #3): Reduce the channel to 3 seconds.

Utility/Elite Skills:

• Hallowed Ground: Reduce the Cooldown to 60 seconds. This skill already have a very specific usage.
• Sanctuary: Reduce the Cooldown to 90 seconds.
• Merciful Intervention: Either reduce the Cooldown to 25~30 seconds or allow to teleport anywhere.
• Signet of Mercy: Reduce the cast time to 2 seconds (as well every other revive skill in the game, these skills already have a long cooldown).
• Spirt Weapons: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Let-s-Talk-About-Spirit-Weapons/first#post5316627
• Signet of Courage: Reduce the cast time to 2~3 seconds and double the healing of the passive or reduce the passive CD to 5 seconds.

Darknicrofia.2604:

the reason more guards play honor instead of zeal isn’t because shattered aegis’ damage is low, its because they’re playing bunker instead of medi.

Meditation with Honor, you should try…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7dlsAhqhY3QwcIwPEHNEVO+uv8DPBRQXeH2tMAA-TZBFwANuAAEOIA42foaZAAPBAA

don’t stay locked in builds of meta battle website, they are only one way for those who do not know the class, builds are chosen by your role and team composition.

baroi.3264:

Darknicrofia.2604:

the reason more guards play honor instead of zeal isn’t because shattered aegis’ damage is low, its because they’re playing bunker instead of medi.

Meditation with Honor, you should try…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7dlsAhqhY3QwcIwPEHNEVO+uv8DPBRQXeH2tMAA-TZBFwANuAAEOIA42foaZAAPBAA

don’t stay locked in builds of meta battle website, they are only one way for those who do not know the class, builds are chosen by your role and team composition.

Ya that’s pretty much the build that I used to play when the patch came out. It was decent enough and I had fun, but I eventually changed because of the following reason.

Hammer just don’t have enough burst without Glacial Heart, and the lack of chill + lack of mobility (no GS #3) made it more difficult to keep up with my targets.

Also even with Will of Force I just didn’t have as much hp as the meta with Marauder amulet. This wouldn’t be a big deal pre-patch, but with the power of burning right now, it’s more of a issue. Not in all game, but some game are very hard against a bunch of condition build.

shatterd aegis deals 2,8k crits on marauder. thats pretty kitten good dmg. combine it with communal defense and it can hit 2,8k x 5 with 4 allies near you (lets say a rezz situation). thats pretty insane dmg from just a block.

back to the original topic, here are my suggestions (from a pvp point of view):

Traits:

Zeal:
seems good for pvp aswell for pve. we have a bunch of useless stuff like “wrathful spirit” and “zealous scepter” but who cares we got good traits too. “Symbolic Avenger” seems weak in pvp. could need a buff. but that could make it op in pve? also “kindled zeal” feels like it should be in radiance (condi). but overall i wouldnt change the traitline

Radiance:
Switch “retribution” and " radiant retalliation" so we have a dmg orientated traits as gm (incase you go dps with one handed weapons). alternative: switch “wrath of justice” with " perfect inscription"

Valor:
must-have for all guardians. still some issues:
“strengh of the fallen” shouldnt have the downstate part. its a pretty bad thing to have in pvp and actually makes a good trait bad. so pls. just remove this part of the trait.
valor master lacks a dmg trait. this is where “glacial heart” should be. instead of “stalwart defender” maybe? (bc we need the other two traits for other builds). stalwart defender could go into valor adapt tier (instead of strenght of the fallen). so you can choose between a focus or a shield trait.
Also i would like to get “might of the protector” reverted. there is only one skill that really uses it (block mutiple times per second) and that is shelter. it has a clear animation and people should pay for spamming their stuff into blocks
Another thing is: “Courageous Return”. this trait is bugged and doesnt work if the virtue is traited. pls fix anet

Honor:
its a good support traitline. would not change it

Virtues: (onther must-have traitline)
“glacial heart” needs to be in another space. “absolute resulution” and “indomitable Courage” are must-have. every other trait in virtues in master and GM are basically lost. adapt tier has nice choices. so pls just get glacial heart out of that line and make hammer viable again

Utility skills:
“litany of wrath” is a high risk skill right now. make it more rewarding/useable by making it a instant cast.
“merciful invention” to make it viable this needs to be a shadow step (make it only heal if you hit an allie with it)
“signet of mercy”, reduce the cast time.
“receive the light” make each tick count as a shout (for trait +rune) (this would make it like ether renewal. maybe make it only 3 pulses then (so 6 condis removed)
Rest is kinda fine in my eyes. i dont like AI so i wont say anything on spirit weapons

Weapons:

Shield: make 4 give out aegis and bugfix 5
Torch: make 5 also remove condis on you (lets say 2 at start). or make it heal abit (initial for you and allies per tick?) otherwise give it burning. right now its plain useless. its better to autoattack with a weapon instead of useing it. it basically makes you play with 4 skills instead of 5
Sword:
make 3 hit mutltiple targets/pierce or make it follow a target better
maybe make 2 hit faster so you can activly blind skills of enemys
Scepter could use some velocity increas. but its already a good weapon. other weapons (staff,gs,hammer, mace and focus) are pretty good

Edit: only weapon guard is really lacking (after longbow comes) is a condi weapon. guard is the only class without a condition weapon set. i kinda like it bc it makes guard less cheesy. but i understand that people want to play condi on guard. so a weapon that deals abit of bleeding or poison. this could make condi guard op pretty quick tho

baroi.3264:

Darknicrofia.2604:

the reason more guards play honor instead of zeal isn’t because shattered aegis’ damage is low, its because they’re playing bunker instead of medi.

Meditation with Honor, you should try…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7dlsAhqhY3QwcIwPEHNEVO+uv8DPBRQXeH2tMAA-TZBFwANuAAEOIA42foaZAAPBAA

don’t stay locked in builds of meta battle website, they are only one way for those who do not know the class, builds are chosen by your role and team composition.

you’re preaching to the choir: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Making-zerk-ammy-work-and-critting-for-10k/

Wrathful Spirit – The most useless trait of Guildwars 2 hahaha