Guild Wars 2

Hi I’d like to make a bunch of threads to sort suggestions for future readers and Devs.
If you have a better suggestion or would like to discuss suggestions feel free but keep it polite and constructive not defensive so people find it interesting to read.

We can all see the problems with the Grandmasters of Radiance and the lack good synergy traits for signets is holding them back so these are my suggestions:

Firstly Radiant Retaliation is a trait where very few people even understand the mathematics behind it and hence it is never picked. It is obviously designed for a PvP scene as that is nearly the only place where you get hit and yet even there extra burn damage is way better.
So my suggestion is reinvent this trait to deal retal damage when you attack also. Retaliation becomes a boon that deals additional damage when you attack as well as when you get attacked. Hence making it a real dps boost to power based specs.

Next the Signets with the worst Actives and probably the worst set of Passives and definitely the worst trait across all classes.
I suggest making Signets be the Symbol utility. Each signet gets a unique symbol.
Heal -> Symbol of Energy at feet. (Long Bow) Vigor added to heal not game breaking.
Immobilise -> Symbol of Swiftness at feet. (Staff) 12/30s Our movement signet.
Knockdown -> Symbol of Wrath at target. (GS) DPS signet that KD to guarantee DPS.
Dam Reduction -> Symbol of Protection at target. (Hammer) Lose 10% gain Protection.
Resurrection -> Symbol of Faith at ground target. (Mace) Regen for health after res.
Elite -> Symbol of Judgement at ground target and at cast time. (Downed)
Worst thing about the full heal is it doesn’t res people but if played right this symbol could res ally then full heal them right as they stand up. And access to this powerful symbol is still restricted because of the cast time.(may need thought on cancel casting…)

This would give Signets a lot of Synergy with Zeal, Radiance, Honor maybe becoming a super Symbol build? And buffs them majorly without even touching the base Passives and Actives.

Looking forward to other people’s suggestions.

I’ll start with traits since I believe the Guardian has some of the worst(outdated) traits across all professions.

Minors:

Renewed Justice: Overhaul this, traits that only work against dead/downed opponents are worthless in combat.

Radiant Power: Revert this back to a 10% dmg bonus before the trait changes. Guardians lost 4 damage modifiers and this would be welcomed.

Majors:

Inner Fire: Reduce ICD to 5, add swiftness to this as well. (other classes can have permanent swiftness, why not Guardians?)

Right-hand strength: Remove the 20% cd reduction on sword, add something that makes each 1h weapon unique.

Healers Retribution: Remove retal, add protection. Retal is useless

Retribution: Change to when you have Might or something else that’s not useless.

Wrath of Justice: Reduce CD to 20.

Amplified Wrath: Remove the burn-on-block, increase burn damage to 20-25%. Guardians are supposed to be the masters of Fire and since we can’t bury it, it should be exceptionally powerful.

Perfect Inscriptions: uh…..

Radiant Retaliation: uh….

Signets:

Signet of Resolve: Remove 2 condi’s every 5 seconds passively. Reduce CD to 30 seconds.

Bane Signet: Remove the Knock-down, give it an empowering effect(self-buff), reduce the CD to 30 seconds.

Signet of Wrath: Reduce Cast time to 1/2 seconds, Reduce cd to 25 seconds.

Signet of Judgement: Increase to 20% dmg reduction(probably too strong), change active to also be more self-empowering instead of what it is.

Signet of Mercy: Change active to revive all allies(down-state) with a cast time of 2 seconds and can be used while mobile. Reduce cd to 90 seconds.

Signet of Courage: Change to be personal regen for the active. Change active to grant AoE resistance for 5 seconds and a 4k heal on a 2 second cast-time.

Radiance should focus on:

• Burning
• Critical hits
• 1-handed weapons

It’s abilities shouldn’t require it to stick on a target, just get a few bursts and then back off and let burning or other effects do their work.

Retaliation focus belongs in Zeal. Swap Fiery Wrath and Retribution and ditch Radiant Retaliation for starters.

This is why we have opinions on this matter. I disagree, the ability to stick to your opponent has always been an issue and a necessity for more focused damage. Zeal would fall in the category of more AoE.

Arken.3725:

This is why we have opinions on this matter. I disagree, the ability to stick to your opponent has always been an issue and a necessity for more focused damage. Zeal would fall in the category of more AoE.

Thematically and even in gameplay, Zeal and its associated traits are more about constantly sticking to a target.

Radiance still functions when it can hit a target for a burst in a few seconds, and then bide its time with range or doing damage through burning until it can get on the target again. The one-handed weapons, off-hands, and even signets all support this kind of play. It does need some better traits to increase the spike and land it more reliably.

Do you just want radiance to be zeal but with burning?

Theme’s don’t exist anymore so I think that argument is moot. Thematically, Zeal should be the line with the most damage output potential and it is…on paper. If anything, i’d like Radiance to be the condition line. The problem with this is you still only have burning access and…that’s it. Other forms to cover/bury would be enough.

Arken.3725:

Theme’s don’t exist anymore so I think that argument is moot.

No, they just suck with guardian. If you look at other professions, trait lines have a theme or playstyle in mind. Necromancer does it best.

Thematically, Zeal should be the line with the most damage output potential and it is…on paper.

“Best damage” is not a good example. A good example is that Zeal should support a playstyle where you’re out in front and aggressive, as opposed to being more conservative or defensive. Retaliation fits well with this line and it’s a decent boon, as much as you hate it.

If anything, i’d like Radiance to be the condition line. The problem with this is you still only have burning access and…that’s it.

The concept of a “condition line” is gone from almost every profession. Instead, you have a condition damage friendly line, but it doesn’t necessarily require you to go for condition damage as a stat. And Radiance does that – just poorly because of awful filler traits. Give me an hour or so and I’ll provide suggestions.

Then if we’re talking thematically, the Guardian will only further be limited by what it can or cannot do.

Retaliation is not a decent boon, especially one going for high damage since your self-sustain is too low to make proper use of it.

Filler traits are, quite literally, in abundance within each Guardian line. Unfortunately, if you want to utilize conditions as a Guardian(lol), you need to go into Radiance for the tiny burning damage bonus.

Leaving out names of traits. Numbers can be tweaked.

Minors

• Burning duration increased by 30%
• Increased critical chance by 10% against burning foes
• Critical strikes against burning foes reduce the recharge on VoJ by 3s. 1s ICD

First Major

• Increases attack speed, projectile speed, and reduces cooldown of one-handed weapon abilities.
• Gain condition damage equal to a percentage of your precision.
• When your passive VoJ applies burning, gain 10s of might. Zealous Scepter in Zeal gone.

Second Major

• Increased damage against burning foes. Fiery Wrath in Zeal replaced with Retribution.
• Striking a foe with over 3 stacks of burning applies 5x vulnerability for 10s and cripple for 3s. 10s ICD.
• Torch cooldown reduced by 20%. When you critically hit a foe, apply 5s of burning in a 180 radius (3s CD).

Third Major

• Signets passives are 20% stronger. Signet CD reduced by 20%. Activating a signet applies 2x burning for 3s to target or affected area.
• Gain 2s resilience and apply burning for 5s on your next attack when you have 3 or more conditions (20s ICD).
• TBD, something more PvE-friendly.

Overview of Changes
Just a quick summary of why stuff is missing/changed

• Amplified Wrath’s raw increase to burning damage was a bit much. Replaced that with the stat conversion trait, which keeps a theme of crits and burning tied together. Not sure if burning on block adds all that much value.
• Justice is Blind fits better off in the Virtues line IMO. It’s more utility than offense.
• Inner Fire granting Fury felt excessive since there were so many critical strike traits.
• In PvP, if you set up burning stacking properly, you can should be able to get a decent burst off.

I like the majority of these Exedore except a few.

-Your signet change doesn’t really make signets all that desirable. I think the Signets themselves need to be looked at.

-the resistance and burning seems pretty weak for the major but maybe that’s just me.

The signets other than Mercy and Courage are appropriately balanced. Just that so many other abilities across many professions are out of hand. Possibly reduce the cooldowns on Wrath and Bane and change Wrath to Precision instead of condi dmg, but that’s about it.

The numbers can be tweaked. Resilience is new, so it’s hard to say what’s a proper number.

First of all I want to say I think these threads are a good idea. Guardians have some of the most outdated/backwards traits in the game and I think talking about them as individual trait lines/skill groups is a good way to keep these conversations centered instead of devolving into general “guardians are bad, change everything.”

I don’t think signets themselves are bad. Signet of Judgement is arguably the strongest defensive signet in the game. Wrath/Bane signets are also fine, the passives and actives are both useful. Courage is a very strong signet, it’s biggest problem is having to compete with the other guardian elites.

If I could make one major change to Radiance traits it would be swapping Perfect Inscriptions and Right-Hand Strength. First of all, right hand strength is a kitten trait no matter how you look at it. The increased crit chance has very little use in any guardian build, and CDR on sword skills is similarly useless because sword is so bad. If it were swapped and made into a grandmaster trait it could be reworked to be an actually useful trait, such as having either a flat damage increase or might on hit with main hand weapons.

As for Perfect inscriptions, I don’t think it’s a bad trait as it is now. In fact, I think it’s a very strong trait. The biggest problem it has is that as a GM trait in Radiance, it’s impossible to justify taking it over Amplified Wrath. If you’re going to take the radiance trait line, you’re going to take AW, period. If it were switched with Right-Hand Strength and was an Adept trait (similar to the warrior signet trait) it would become viable to take.

A huge problem with guardian traits as they exist now is that almost all skill traits (specifically Expeditious Spirit, Perfect Inscriptions, Monk’s Focus and Pure of Voice) are Grandmaster traits. The only exceptions to this are consecrations and traps, so unless you’re a dragon hunter or running some strange shelter+ all consecration build, you are very limited in what GM traits you can take. For this reason it’s very difficult to run builds with traits like Writ of Persistence, Retributive armor or Radiant Retaliation, regardless of the strength of the traits themselves.

Finally, I want to say that while I’ve never been able make a build with Radiant Retaliation work, I am a big fan of the trait in concept. I think it’s a great idea for a trait, it fits thematically with guardians, it fits thematically with the radiance traits, and its a ton of fun to think about from a build perspective. The problem is it just isn’t viable with the way traits are right now, largely because of the GM trait issue. If the changes I outlined above would be enough to make it viable or if RR itself needs further changes, I don’t know, but either way I would like to see it stay in the game.

TL;DR:
-Make Right-Hand Strength a GM trait, give it flat damage or might on hit
-Make Perfect Inscriptions an adept trait
-Having 4/6 skill traits as GM traits is hugely restrictive

Exedore.6320:

The signets other than Mercy and Courage are appropriately balanced. Just that so many other abilities across many professions are out of hand. Possibly reduce the cooldowns on Wrath and Bane and change Wrath to Precision instead of condi dmg, but that’s about it.

The numbers can be tweaked. Resilience is new, so it’s hard to say what’s a proper number.

How are they appropriately balanced? Ever notice the only signets that are ever utilized are the ones that are self-empowering(Dolyak for instance) or incredibly strong offensively(Plague).

Arken.3725:

How are they appropriately balanced? Ever notice the only signets that are ever utilized are the ones that are self-empowering(Dolyak for instance) or incredibly strong offensively(Plague).

They provide stats, which are equivalent to other signets, and the cast time on CC of 0.75 is appropriate compared to other abilities. The CC is pretty strong too (3s stun or 3s immobilize).

Reducing the activation time would definitely make them stronger, but a little cheesy. You could also reduce the cooldown significantly so that using the activation isn’t that big of a penalty. But really I think you’re seeing a general problem with signets. Out of at least 28 in the game, only a handful are used, usually for powerful activation effects while the passive is ignored.

The only ones utilized are from Necromancer. The active benefit from the other 25 just aren’t up to snuff. I’m not saying a 3 second KD isn’t strong just you’re running the risk of putting it on full cd without its effects actually pulling any weight vs. a signet that will ALWAYS work due to it being self-empowering.

Arken.3725:

The only ones utilized are from Necromancer.

Necromancer only uses signets (other than Plague Signet) because the Signets of Suffering trait is so strong. Too strong IMO.

Exedore.6320:

Arken.3725:

The only ones utilized are from Necromancer.

Necromancer only uses signets (other than Plague Signet) because the Signets of Suffering trait is so strong. Too strong IMO.

I think the effects are fair, the instant nature of Plague is not fair. A cast-time for that would make things a lot more balanced.

Signets aren’t necessarily bad on Guardians because the effects are underpowered (though some are, like Mercy). The reason why they’re barely used in PvP/WvW is because the utility they provide isn’t matched well with what the Guardian actually needs from its utility slots. Most professions depend heavily on their utilities for sustain and condition cleansing, since weapon skills generally don’t provide enough. The vast majority of utility skills currently used in the PvP meta are geared toward healing, condition removal, and other defensive utility. Just glance through the recent PvP builds used in the Pro League matches or the ones listed as being meta on Metabattle. Almost all of the utilities in those builds are either defensive in nature or can be traited for some secondary defensive benefit. The handful of CC utilities that show up in these builds also generally affect all players in an area, making them another form of reliable defense.

Since Necromancer Signets came up, take a look at them in comparison. Only three are ever used: Vampirism, Plague, and Locust. These utilities have reasonably low cooldowns (promoting consistency and allowing flexibility with the Signets’ passive/active effects), and they offer both cleansing and healing on top of a high-utility trait effect (which can contribute to both offense and defense). We saw the Necro Signet build emerge with the revamp to Signets of Suffering, but the base effectiveness of their Signets in their role as utilities was a prerequisite for that. If you were to swap Guardian and Necro Signet options, I doubt Signet Necros would retain their currently level of popularity.

This is a problem that extends beyond just Signets, though – very few offensive utilities are viable outside of gimmick builds in PvP settings. If we want to see this change, then profession mechanics and weapon skills need to start picking up the slack when it comes to providing healing/cleansing (Dragonhunter does this decently with its new Virtues), and we also need to see a significant reversal in the power creep that’s been plaguing the game (so that there’s less risk of blowing up immediately if you spec for offense).

In the meantime, our Signets could benefit from some cooldown reductions, some effect revamps that would make them more suitable for defense and utility, and another rework to Perfect Inscriptions. I’d also like to see most of the passive effects changed to something more interesting, even if they keep the same basic purpose. For instance, +180 power on Bane Signet is boring and uninspired – I’d prefer something like a stacking buff for +50 power each time Justice procs on a target.

To replace the near useless Radiant Retaliation we could have Searing Flames back.

It could be:
Searing Flames: “When you apply burning, remove a boon. 5~7 seconds of cooldown.”.

Also, they could add back to the Perfect Inscriptions the “Inscribed Removal” (eemove a condition when using a signet). That would help a lot to make them more viable.

My suggestions would be

Healer’s retribution Make it apply in AOE when the guardian heals

Renewed Justice Give it a secondary effect, perhaps a chance on critical to apply a short (1 second) burn.

Perfect Inscriptions Make it remove 2 conditions on signet use, reduce signet CD by 20%. _(so many ways to get light aura another is useless)

Radiant Retaliation Delete it, even with full dire gear (which nobody in their right mind would ever do) it only increases retaliation damage by 5%.

Instead of radiant retaliation bring back searing flames with a slight modification

Searing Flames When you apply burning to a foe you also remove a boon & trigger a flame blast _(internal Cd of 8 seconds).

As far as signets & other rarely used skills go.

*Bane Signet" Reduce the knock down to 2 seconds, but reduce the Cd to 30 seconds and make it effect up to 5 enemies in a cone (similar to warrior off hand mace skill tremor)

Signet of Wrath Remove the current passive, instead make it increase run speed by 25%.
Then change the active so that it also applies 2 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.

Signet of Mercy Change the passive to increase boon duration by 20%.
Then change the active to grant resistance & Healing in AOE around the guardian. _(1/2 second cast time, resist duration of 5 seconds, healing similar to pure of heart, CD of 45 seconds)

Signet of Courage Change the passive to heal for about 1/9th of what it does down but heal every second.
Then change the active to break stuns for nearby allies, while granting them protection & stability.
( cast time of 3/4 second, protection and stability (2 stacks) duration of 5 seconds, cool down of 50 seconds)