Guild Wars 2

Guardian
Symbol of Protection: This symbol now has the appropriate duration increase when traited with Writ of Persistence.
Purging Flames: Updated the skill fact to show the correct condition duration reduction (33%).
“Stand Your Ground!”: Added a skill fact for number of targets.
Binding Jeopardy: Facts from this trait will now show up on skills that immobilize.
Ring of Warding: Added a skill fact for the light field generated by this skill.

Hammer is now very very powerful if the symbol trait is to be believed. Possibly even our highest dps weapon.

The change to hammer is DOPE. WOW!

Hammer BUFF!…unless you don’t like light fields.

Just tested in game , hammer symbol seems to last about 2 secs with the trait. Lasts about 1 sec without the trait.

Although the tooltip does now say 2 and 4 sec respectively.

Superior Rune of Resistance grants bonus toughness, a reduction in condition duration, and aegis upon using a signet.

Awesome….

Now if they just do shattered aegis right. /grin

Amins.3710:

Superior Rune of Resistance grants bonus toughness, a reduction in condition duration, and aegis upon using a signet.

Awesome….

Now if they just do shattered aegis right. /grin

For some reason this Rune set bothers me. Aegis is the Guardians niche. Now it is not.

Without trait:
Hammer swing
Hammer bash
Symbol of protection (this is the 3rd swing) + Tick 1 hits at the same time
Tick 2
Tick 3

With trait:
Hammer swing
Hammer bash
Symbol of protection (this is the 3rd swing) + Tick 1 hits at the same time
Tick 2
Tick 3
Tick 4
Tick 5

This takes the total auto attack chain from:
296, 333, 370, (185*3=555 ) = 1554
to
296, 333, 370, (185*5=925) = 1924

Meaning ~23% dmg increase over not having the trait and roughly 10% dmg increase over the previous bugged version.

It also means perma protection is easy, and it’s even possible to provide perma protection AND regen to static groups via hammer/mace swapping.

really? i feel underwhelmed though. Beside it’s not really a buff strictly speaking, they merely fix it to what it should be.

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

For some reason this Rune set bothers me. Aegis is the Guardians niche. Now it is not.

Rightfully so. I hate it too. Aegis was a very cool thing we had easy access too. Now they went and spoiled its beautiful name, by making Signet warriors able to…. Can’t even finish this sentence.

“I don’t care if you hit it with your car and peeled it off your grill, that buck has a great rack”.

Don’t care where it comes from or if it feels cheap. I’m biased because I love the hammer but … I’m not letting Anet off the hook for conditions and spirit weapons.

I am using the 15/25/0/20/10 build with hammer. My gear is almost entirely berserker (just a little Valkyrie for the HP) and full ascended.

I just tested out the hammer change. Still feels like I hit a little light compared to a 10/30/x/x/x s/f + gs build. I’ve seen Zealot’s Defense and WW numbers in the 8-10K range. Never seen hammer tag like that ever. In a dungeon group with boons up (fury 8-15 might average) I see crits in the 2k-2.5k range. Mighty blow 4.5k-5.2k. Pretty sure my symbol is ticking around 1k a pulse.

I guess my point is, hammer is neat and the perma prot support is really good in fractals but I don’t see how hammer is a top dps setup. Can someone better at math elaborate for me? I’d love to see some figures. Thanks!

PraetorMortis.8610:

I am using the 15/25/0/20/10 build with hammer. My gear is almost entirely berserker (just a little Valkyrie for the HP) and full ascended.

I just tested out the hammer change. Still feels like I hit a little light compared to a 10/30/x/x/x s/f + gs build. I’ve seen Zealot’s Defense and WW numbers in the 8-10K range. Never seen hammer tag like that ever. In a dungeon group with boons up (fury 8-15 might average) I see crits in the 2k-2.5k range. Mighty blow 4.5k-5.2k. Pretty sure my symbol is ticking around 1k a pulse.

I guess my point is, hammer is neat and the perma prot support is really good in fractals but I don’t see how hammer is a top dps setup. Can someone better at math elaborate for me? I’d love to see some figures. Thanks!

Hammer isn’t top. That goes to sword/GS rotations. If the hammer didn’t give perma prot, it wouldn’t be used. It does good enough damage while giving great support.

And with warriors, vuln isn’t even needed to come from us.

I believe hammer to have higher slightly higher dps if you have the symbol trait, but greatsword takes the lead once again if you factor in what else you could have done with those 10 or 20 trait points.

Base GS auto attack dps works out at just over 400, when factoring in the burst of WW/Symbol it takes 24 seconds to use 2 whirling wraths, 1 symbol and ~19 seconds of auto attack dps. Using base damage numbers this comes out just under 500. Swapping to 1h is useful but realistically only changes 10 seconds of gs autos for 10 seconds of 1h autos, which isn’t enough to change this paragraph. Using nothing but the hammer auto chain over 3.7 seconds works out at just over 500dps. It climbs slightly with mighty blow usage.

Consider 10/25/0/20/10 +5 as the dps orientated hammer build and you can see the greatsword variant can drop 10 honor and use the 5 spare points to go 20/30/0/10/10 for both superior 1h and greatsword, or pile it all into virtues for 10/25/0/10/25. Either way it picks up 5-8% more damage and either 100 power or condition removal.

As mentioned above, if you can deal with slightly less dps, perma prot is fantastic. Sword blind/vuln, gs blind/vuln, focus #4 (more burst vuln) and #5 are all great as well.

Hammer, 1h and gs are all really good right now for different reasons. I think we’re in a good place. One hammer guardian and one gs/1h guardian in a single group should work fantastic.

My experience in dungeons has been that a party consisting of 2 guardians, 2 warriors, and either an elementalist or a Mesmer for utilities is generally a solid group. Both scholar classes offer unique benefits to the group and help round out the team. FGS, especially if a warrior picks it up, just ruins most bosses in seconds. A well placed timewarp does the same.

If the symbol lasts longer than the frequency it can be applied … what happens? Do you get double ticks while it’s duration overlaps?

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

10/25/0/25/10 can be better. Same support same DPS and u don´t need unscathed contender.
If u don´t need WoR as often as u can, u can pick up UC and do even more dmg.
For PuGs 15/25/0/20/10 should be better too (Vul is often a big problem here).

But there is still the main problem. The weapon will still suck (a little bit) in PvE, cause of this stupid Lightfield on our AA Chain.
I play often with my hammer, cause i like it it´s fun to me. But in a lot of groups, i switch to suboptimal traits (empowering might in honor) with GS/Sword/Focus to not overwrite fire/water/ethereal combofields.

This field should be removed. One combofield is enough, no weapon needs 2 combofileds of the same type. And we guardians have a lot of low CD light fields.
The symbol is ok, but this specific symbol (of protection) shouldn´t be a combofield.

“It does kittens with the trait, 4 before this patch. 3 without.”
qoute removed post.

It´s easy to see cause protection can be stacked a little bit now without boon duration, before it expieried as fast it got applied.

Edit: Some1 removed his post, which was including it was a tooltip fix only and not a functional fix.

Obtena.7952:

If the symbol lasts longer than the frequency it can be applied … what happens? Do you get double ticks while it’s duration overlaps?

Yes. And that’s exactly what happens. You’ll notice now with the trait, that the cadence for the autoattack chain is swing, swing … swingpulse, pulse, pulse, pulse, PULSEPULSE, swing… etc.

It’s ridiculous and wonderful. The symbol stays down permanently as long as you keep swinging.

:DDDD this makes me so happy. i just frigging love the hammer lol.

wait, so did the trait Honor VII do nothing for the hammer symbol before? or was it just not lasting as long as it should have been?

and runes of resistance. meh. not a big deal to me.. yet. we’ll have to see if it picks up or not in WvW.

It used to only give one second, instead of two as it’s supposed to.

I say “supposed” to, but it wasn’t actually always intended for that to be the case. It used to be that the trait increased Symbol duration by 50%, rounded down. So a 4 second symbol would last 6 seconds, but a 3 second symbol would last 4, which is what the Hammer would do. And eveyone was okay with that, because it made sense. Then when they redid the trait tooltips to tell you exactly what it did, they switched it to say a flat two second increase. All of a sudden Symbol of Protection was “bugged” but I don’t think anyone really noticed because no one expected any differently.

ahh, good to know. thanks, foo.
well, all the better for hammer wielders. : ))

Agree the combo field is annoying. Anet need to rethink combo fields.

This just makes no sense to me.

Just cut the animation time on the chain and make the symbol tick two times to compensate and make WoP add 1 ticks when traited. Just make the length of the chain so 2h mastery adds dps due to lowered cd on mighty blow so it “fits” with the length of the chain.. It would make life much more fun i both pve and pvp.

And ofc make it possible to move while dropping ring of warding. kitten it was called a QoL change on warriors why shouldnt it be QoL on guardians?

The just fixed something that didnt need a fix tbh.

And we dont need an other light field, swap RoW to a fire field and it starts to be interesting and 2h mastery would add to dps in that individual skill, in both pve and pvp. That is a QoL change worth making.

Brutaly.6257:

swap RoW to a fire field and it starts to be interesting and 2h mastery would add to dps in that individual skill, in both pve and pvp.

That is a QoL change worth making.

Dat dere iz jus Crazy Talk.

Amins.3710:

Brutaly.6257:

swap RoW to a fire field and it starts to be interesting and 2h mastery would add to dps in that individual skill, in both pve and pvp.

That is a QoL change worth making.

Dat dere iz jus Crazy Talk.

How come?

Brutaly.6257:

And we dont need an other light field, swap RoW to a fire field and it starts to be interesting and 2h mastery would add to dps in that individual skill, in both pve and pvp. That is a QoL change worth making.

All your might are belong to us.

Skill 5 was a lightfield before the patch. It was only a tooltipfix. And 1 combofield per weapon is enough.
But a combofield on a AA Chain that is the DPS key of the weapon too, is fail.

Ring of warden useable while moving and removing the combofield from symbol of protection will make the weapon much more viable in both PvE and PvP.
MB in PvE? Why not, no stupid Lightfield and we can stack might by using firefield. Heal with water and so on…everything better then retalation.

Strong DPS chain and a strong DPS + combofinisher skill, thats more fun then just raw dps.

oh mang. i would LOVE a fire field on the hammer lol. and that also would make GS + Hammer combo that much more fun.

I agree, guardian has a overabundance of light fields.

Aza.2105:

I agree, guardian has a overabundance of light fields.

They should had more field combos to teh game, and some restricted to classes.

Ay, and bigger impact on the combo fields, some of them are rather good but alot of them are so crappy.

Aeolus.3615:

Aza.2105:

I agree, guardian has a overabundance of light fields.

They should had more field combos to teh game, and some restricted to classes.

Each symbol should had its own field, instead of all of them being light fields.

Aza.2105:

Aeolus.3615:

Aza.2105:

I agree, guardian has a overabundance of light fields.

They should had more field combos to teh game, and some restricted to classes.

Each symbol should had its own field, instead of all of them being light fields.

Spot on, as an example its just silly that mace has a light field, water is more fitting.

The only symbol that should be light is GS imo, retaliation is fitting with the symbol it self.

And staff should have swiftness on blast finisher on SoS and all problems with that symbol would be solved.

I blame copy and paste

Tarsius.3170:

I blame copy and paste

Pretty much.

And I’d say the devs forcing guardian to role play. I.E guardian can’t have anything but light and fire fields since they are suppose to be holy or whatever.

If I had the ability to I’d change the symbols to:

Symbol of Protection: Ice Field
Symbol of Faith: Water field
Symbol of Wrath: Light field
Symbol of Swiftness: Lighting Field

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/do-combo-fields-need-reworked/first#

:)

fadeaway.2807:

Agree the combo field is annoying. Anet need to rethink combo fields.

The combo field is indeed annoying in a situation where you need to optimize DPS.

I did find the combo field very useful in situations where you suffer from conditions. It removes a lot of conditions every time a projectile finisher goes on it. You’ll have to rely on other classes though because we don’t have projectile finishers.

On top of that applying the symbol will trigger healing with each pulse for each ally affected (including yourself) if you have Altruistic Healing traited.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Amins.3710:

Superior Rune of Resistance grants bonus toughness, a reduction in condition duration, and aegis upon using a signet.

Awesome….

Now if they just do shattered aegis right. /grin

For some reason this Rune set bothers me. Aegis is the Guardians niche. Now it is not.

There is one set that gives invisibility (thief/mesmer niche) and another that gives mist form (ele niche), so this is hardly a precedent.

Symbol of protection should be NO combofield. It doesn´t matter which, even Fire, Water, Frost and Ethereal can be useless in teamplay. Depending on the Situation.

The Problem is, Hammer without is the symbol is useless. It´s the main source of protection and dps. Well and a pig part of the weapons gameplay and feeling too.
So interrupting the Chain is a worst case scenario. But if the gruop wants a specific kind of combofield (let it be water, fire or whatever). We can´t or better shouldn´t use the field.
If we do this, our hammer will be nearly useless. So better no field on the Chain, but a low CD finisher on MB. Much better.

The other symbol fields are ok, they´re used on demand and not so important for dps (even GS symbol is not so important for GS dps as the hammers symbol).

Tarsius.3170:

I blame copy and paste

It may sound rude, but that is what gw2 is all about copy pasta, aka redundancy!

I don’t see the difference in Hammer?

I’ve been using Hammer traited with symbols for a while and I’ve noticed no difference. As for #5. I’m certain it’s always been a Light Field, just not in text on tooltip.

Do you use Writ of Persistence? That’s what changed.

Ay and big change indeed, it might not seem like much. But as it is now, the dev keep pushing the high meta and the low meta even more apart, limiting us even more to what we choice in most cases.

One might even start assuming they work for the U.S Government as well, that is how wide the gap is starting to become between low class and high class weapons.

Lol, that’s just a little hyperbolic, don’t you think?

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

Aza.2105:

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

I magine guardian updates will maintain class in same spot, other classes can get to a sturdy lvl (better than guardian in some cases) better suppor and better damage.

foofad.5162:

Aza.2105:

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

Does it take symbolic power into consideration?

Symbolic power is a rather poor grandmaster minor trait.
Consider the base damage of hammer chain being 296 + 333 + 370, and the symbol being 185 per tick (925 total with writ of persistence).
The total being 1924, roughly half of that coming from your symbol. That means roughly a 5% increase in overall dps from a 10% increase in symbols.
Mighty blow causes this overall increase to drop, as your dps comes less from the symbol and more from mighty blow.

100 power and just under 5% more dps is nice, but I think I’d rather have 10 in virtues for the consecration. The virtue of justice spam causing 3xMight alone will probably make up for the dps.