Guild Wars 2

Just end to watch skillbar. Guardian changes really sucks or feels like nothing changed…
What are you guys thought about it?

Guardian
•Elite Focus – In addition to current, will now grant stability with tome skills. Each Tome will gain stability when it gains its associated boon.
•Glacial Heart – Recharged reduced to 15s, chill duraiton reduced from 4s to 3s
•Eternal Spirit – Expedeious Spirit – reduce the cooldown on spirit weapons skills
•Spirit weapons – No longer lose your spirit weapon when you activate the command ability.
•Hammer of Wisdom skill – blast finisher
•Bow of Truth – Ground targeted and can be casted at 1200 range
•Merificful intervention – Now only ground target- no shadowstep guardian
•Renewed Focus – Now classified as a mediation skill.
•Tome of Wrath – Conflgurate – damage increased by 10%
•Judgement – Cast time reduced by 1.5 sec
•Tome of Courage

You freaking kidding me?

Medi guard buffs are massive and will make us far more viable in any state of the game. I’m excited especially for MI, but RF buff is even larger.

KEKSMUFFIN YOU DID IT!

Welllllll medguards are happy. They just got more fury another heal and e reduced cd on renewd focus. With no nerf so med guards just got buffed pretty good I think

Some of the best guard changes in awhile. First time I can say I’m pleased with the way Guardian is headed.

I wonder if bunkers will use Mi as well. It’s pretty much a second heal.

Also if you are a spirit weapon guardian, you can do some cool combos by using Mi on your Spirit Weapons.

What? I thought MI still needs an ally in order to work though?

So…ANet dropped a bucket full of buffs in your lap and you’re complaining?

Just because they didn’t buff your direct build doesn’t mean that it didn’t change anything.

XxSmokedatganjaxX.2948:

What? I thought MI still needs an ally in order to work though?

You get the heal with or without the ally. You only get the shadowstep if there is an ally in the targeted area.

Oh ok, from 0/10 to 4/10

Well, I already use it occasionally now. Medi guard will be even more fun in a group fight after the patch. Perk up!

Quintuple medi builds??

It’s nice and all, but is this really they can do in 5 or however long it was months?

ventusthunder.5067:

XxSmokedatganjaxX.2948:

What? I thought MI still needs an ally in order to work though?

You get the heal with or without the ally. You only get the shadowstep if there is an ally in the targeted area.

Are you sure about it being able to heal without an ally, I don’t think it works like that now

By far the best change is that Renewed Focus is a med. This is pretty awesome.

The AI buffs are ok if you like more AI in game, I’m kind of hesitant about them.

I don’t think I will be using Tome still, but the buffs are nice.

• I really wish they would have touched upon some of our other issues, such as our issues with the slow a@$ hammer, sword issues such as being immobile and missing targets on one of the skillz, the slow a#$ mace, and the still dorked up orbs from the scepter.

I like the buffs and all, but I was expecting more. I think many of you are so used to never getting any love from the devs, once they finally give you a crumb you think it’s Christmas.

Bunker will use Tomes now. Stability was the thhing that turn off most ppl because the long cast times would make you an obvious target to get interrupted. Now Thieves will also be wanted even more in team fight because they will be the only ones able to stop such castings (I’m referring to number 5 on Tome of Courage, idk the name).

Also another medi and I might even try Tome of Wrath now in a damage Guard build.

Boy gotta love this changes

Deathmond.7328:

Just end to watch skillbar. Guardian changes really sucks or feels like nothing changed…
What are you guys thought about it?

Guardian
•Elite Focus – In addition to current, will now grant stability with tome skills. Each Tome will gain stability when it gains its associated boon.
•Glacial Heart – Recharged reduced to 15s, chill duraiton reduced from 4s to 3s
•Eternal Spirit – Expedeious Spirit – reduce the cooldown on spirit weapons skills
•Spirit weapons – No longer lose your spirit weapon when you activate the command ability.
•Hammer of Wisdom skill – blast finisher
•Bow of Truth – Ground targeted and can be casted at 1200 range
•Merificful intervention – Now only ground target- no shadowstep guardian
•Renewed Focus – Now classified as a mediation skill.
•Tome of Wrath – Conflgurate – damage increased by 10%
•Judgement – Cast time reduced by 1.5 sec
•Tome of Courage

OP do you play a shout guardian? That might explain not being too happy with the changes, but shouts are strong in every single game mode.

Sauncho.8076:

ventusthunder.5067:

XxSmokedatganjaxX.2948:

What? I thought MI still needs an ally in order to work though?

You get the heal with or without the ally. You only get the shadowstep if there is an ally in the targeted area.

Are you sure about it being able to heal without an ally, I don’t think it works like that now

MI’s healing effect won’t proc, but it will still trigger Monk’s Focus and other generic meditation effects ( you can see Focused Mind granting Fury for the non-ally targetted MI demonstration in the video for instance ).

Tarsius.3170:

Sauncho.8076:

ventusthunder.5067:

XxSmokedatganjaxX.2948:

What? I thought MI still needs an ally in order to work though?

You get the heal with or without the ally. You only get the shadowstep if there is an ally in the targeted area.

Are you sure about it being able to heal without an ally, I don’t think it works like that now

MI’s healing effect won’t proc, but it will still trigger Monk’s Focus and other generic meditation effects ( you can see Focused Mind granting Fury for the non-ally targetted MI demonstration in the video for instance ).

Oh I see what you are saying….thanks!

Tarsius.3170:

Sauncho.8076:

ventusthunder.5067:

XxSmokedatganjaxX.2948:

What? I thought MI still needs an ally in order to work though?

You get the heal with or without the ally. You only get the shadowstep if there is an ally in the targeted area.

Are you sure about it being able to heal without an ally, I don’t think it works like that now

MI’s healing effect won’t proc, but it will still trigger Monk’s Focus and other generic meditation effects ( you can see Focused Mind granting Fury for the non-ally targetted MI demonstration in the video for instance ).

Oh, they changed that? Makes sense. Probably for the better.

So in 1v1 probably still best to take Contemplation, whereas in a group fight MI becomes far more formidable.

I wonder if it would be worth while as a med Guardian to go Shelter, 2 x Med Utilities, Focus Mind that is now a med, and the bow as an extra heal……hmm

Well, I like the changes for the most part (best patch in quite awhile for guardians). Kind of disappointed that Bow of Truth apparently STILL doesn’t scale with healing power.

edit: A Signet of Mercy buff would’ve been nice too. Like instead of healing power it increases healing to allies by a percentage.

Do I still have to trait for 20% utility Cooldown, 20% spirit weapon special attack Cooldown and 50% duration increase? And all in silly trait lines?

Renewed Focus change is good. Everything else is useless and won’t change anything. I’m really disappointed by these patch notes, but to be honest I’d expect nothing more from this game’s balance team.

ventusthunder.5067:

Deathmond.7328:

Just end to watch skillbar. Guardian changes really sucks or feels like nothing changed…
What are you guys thought about it?

Guardian
•Elite Focus – In addition to current, will now grant stability with tome skills. Each Tome will gain stability when it gains its associated boon.
•Glacial Heart – Recharged reduced to 15s, chill duraiton reduced from 4s to 3s
•Eternal Spirit – Expedeious Spirit – reduce the cooldown on spirit weapons skills
•Spirit weapons – No longer lose your spirit weapon when you activate the command ability.
•Hammer of Wisdom skill – blast finisher
•Bow of Truth – Ground targeted and can be casted at 1200 range
•Merificful intervention – Now only ground target- no shadowstep guardian
•Renewed Focus – Now classified as a mediation skill.
•Tome of Wrath – Conflgurate – damage increased by 10%
•Judgement – Cast time reduced by 1.5 sec
•Tome of Courage

OP do you play a shout guardian? That might explain not being too happy with the changes, but shouts are strong in every single game mode.

I play in shouts\consecration in WvW, medi-zerker in solo or PvE.
But the main problem, in my opinion, that DEVs don`t see any other builds for guardian except shouts or medi. I don`t see any good changes for spirit weapons or condi for last 2 years…
Anet polished only builds that already good. but don`t do anything for others builds.

Could we please keep the discussion for the announced changes in one place? There’s no point in saying the same thing in multiple threads.

ventusthunder.5067:

You freaking kidding me?

Medi guard buffs are massive and will make us far more viable in any state of the game. I’m excited especially for MI, but RF buff is even larger.
!

The Medi Guardian buffs are okay, but at the same time they make all the changes to the Tomes useless. Renewed Focus remains comparatively better in most situations (although Bunker Guardians who go in Virtues might enjoy Tome of Courage a bit more.)

Anyone other than Medi Guardians has little reason to be excited. Spirit Weapons have been improved but are comparatively still worse than Shouts or Meditations. The AI on Spirit Weapons can be unreliable and timing their activated skill can be hard. The Hammer’s new Blast finisher will only be useful by accident.

Signets haven’t even been touched. They are by far the most boring thing about a Guardian and have never been viable (Although during Beta there was a high mobility build that used two Signets, but that’s not important.) And by making Meditations better, there is even less reason to take a Signet.

Shout builds were already in a good spot, compared to other Guardian builds, so it’s normal there are little changes to it, but that also doesn’t give a reason to be excited. If there was a good weapon change, Bunker builds might be happier with these changes.

Bringing us to weapons. Glacial Heart isn’t enough. If Guardians are intended to fight (almost exclusively) at melee range, we need more ways to keep our foes there. Without structural changes to our weapons, we’ll continue to struggle keeping intelligent opponents in the battle. (Plus the Scepter is a terrible, boring weapon.)

even if guardian buffs were:

- base hp increased to match warrior’s
- all blink skills are now ground targeted (with no restrictions or conditions)
- halved cd on all virtues

people would still find ways to complain

adozu.6398:

even if guardian buffs were:

- base hp increased to match warrior’s
- all blink skills are now ground targeted (with no restrictions or conditions)
- halved cd on all virtues

people would still find ways to complain

With good reason too.

That first change is unnecessary, the second defeats a core aspect of the profession and while there are some problems with Virtues, the cooldown certainly isn’t one.

If they really wanted to open new build for guardian they should have improve weapon that aren’t used.

Shield, torch, mace has some use but could need some improvement

Shield, lower cooldown, different effect on skill 4
Torch, skill 5 cure condition on the person using it too. Maybe faster or improved damage
Mace, sightly faster third auto attack, faster skill 2, skill 3 keep blocking when receiving projectile (like every other class, warrior offhand sword, main hand mace, ranger greatsword)

i rest my case

/15

The class got nothing but buffs (even if they’re not the kind which may benefit your build) just be glad you didn’t get nerfed like most other classes.

Trice.4598:

Mace… skill 3 keep blocking when receiving projectile (like every other class, warrior offhand sword, main hand mace, ranger greatsword)

Thank you for bringing this up. It still baffles me that we have the only weapon block in the game with a melee range counter that procs from a ranged attack. It also does not have a sub ability that can be used in place of the block like every other weapon block in the game, meaning that if you don’t block immediately you’re forced to either wait 4 seconds for the protection or cancel it, putting it on full cooldown and gaining no effect at all.

I still can’t believe that this hasn’t even been acknowledged, let alone reworked.

adozu.6398:

even if guardian buffs were:

- base hp increased to match warrior’s
- all blink skills are now ground targeted (with no restrictions or conditions)
- halved cd on all virtues

people would still find ways to complain

You aren’t comparing them fairly with your example :P it is more like “wow it took you this long just to update a small part of guards while ignoring other parts, did you just plan this way back and saved it for the feature pack? What else are you holding back that will require another yr+”

Why the guardian needs a blink I’ll never understand

Cam Ron.4170:

Why the guardian needs a blink I’ll never understand

because part of Anet’s guardian design is that we’re suppose to be the first ones in a fight and the last ones out. Hence why we have targeted blinks, but a lack of soft cc and abilities that make it easy to disengage.

As far as the changes, I’m not super excited either. I never felt meditations were a part of the guardian that needed a lot of help. they’ve always been strong for offensive solo oriented playstyles. spirit weapon changes are welcome, but if the ai still doesn’t work or the weapons die in 2 hits its not gonna make much of a difference.

Really I think the OP is overreacting.

Been thinking about this patch for a while and the list of improvements, while a little underwhelming, they are all buffs and should add a little to each person’s play. Traited tomes and Meditations definitely got a nice boost.

Definitely beats nerfs.

I’d really love them to look at 3 things next patch. A signet for speed, virtue cd or maybe a total revamp of virtues to make them more interesting, and spirit weapon longevity. I really think those 3 things could lift this class quite a bit.

Relentliss.2170:

Really I think the OP is overreacting.

Been thinking about this patch for a while and the list of improvements, while a little underwhelming, they are all buffs and should add a little to each person’s play. Traited tomes and Meditations definitely got a nice boost.

Definitely beats nerfs.

I’d really love them to look at 3 things next patch. A signet for speed, virtue cd or maybe a total revamp of virtues to make them more interesting, and spirit weapon longevity. I really think those 3 things could lift this class quite a bit.

I don’t think the changes are terrible at all. they are quite good, but I personally would have liked to see more changes to things that really need improvement(like spirit weapons) and less changes to things that are already strong (like meditations)

was just thinking that merciful intervention was pretty much nerf/buffed.

Previously you could use it as targetless instant secondary heal (monk’s focus + skill heal was something about 4-5k heal on one button).

Now we can’t activate it WITHOUT an ally nearby, thus nixing some of that sustain it previously provided BUT giving us a shadow step IF allies are in range.

Relentliss.2170:

Really I think the OP is overreacting.

Been thinking about this patch for a while and the list of improvements, while a little underwhelming, they are all buffs and should add a little to each person’s play. Traited tomes and Meditations definitely got a nice boost.

Definitely beats nerfs.

I’d really love them to look at 3 things next patch. A signet for speed, virtue cd or maybe a total revamp of virtues to make them more interesting, and spirit weapon longevity. I really think those 3 things could lift this class quite a bit.

Well I won’t disagree that it’s better than receiving nerfs, but the majority of it is pretty insubstantial. The renewed focus change is great, but it’s not what we needed by any means. Spirit weapons, like plenty of people have said already, will still be nearly worthless because of the significant trait investment and the large amount of downtime they have. Stability on tome trait is cool, but tomes will still only really see use in WvW zergs because, like spirit weapons, they have far too much downtime to be useful anywhere else. And glacial heart is alright, but it’s still limited to our slowest weapon we have, which is still too easily avoidable.

Meanwhile shield is still worthless, we’re still far too susceptible to kiting, our signets are still among the worst utility skills in the game, we’re still pigeonholed into 2 roles, and we still have issues like having the mace 3 counter proc from a ranged attack despite every other weapon block in the game only countering from melee range.

It’s not that I’m not grateful for getting buffs instead of nerfs this time around. It’s just that these buffs didn’t really solve any of the core problems of the class.

Black Box.9312:

Well I won’t disagree that it’s better than receiving nerfs, but the majority of it is pretty insubstantial. The renewed focus change is great, but it’s not what we needed by any means. Spirit weapons, like plenty of people have said already, will still be nearly worthless because of the significant trait investment and the large amount of downtime they have. Stability on tome trait is cool, but tomes will still only really see use in WvW zergs because, like spirit weapons, they have far too much downtime to be useful anywhere else. And glacial heart is alright, but it’s still limited to our slowest weapon we have, which is still too easily avoidable.

Meanwhile shield is still worthless, we’re still far too susceptible to kiting, our signets are still among the worst utility skills in the game,

I won’t argue with those things at all. I really don’t like our shield much. Maybe if the CD was simply 15 and 24 sec then I could see a point to it, but as it stands your waiting a long time for a pretty paltry couple of skills. I don’t see it changing though.

But you have to consider, Anet considers Guardian pretty balanced, they want to give it’s players something and they are very worried that if what they give is too much the class will be OP like Warrior became after its revamp. So they add a little here and a little there. Maybe it’s not everything we want.

Like you I am not in love with their Quarterly update cycle either. It seems a bit long. But I am aware they are simply trying to add a bit here and there.

More work seems to have gone into Guardian this patch than any other. I know my Spvp spec will be much better off.

My issues with being kited at times are more to do with the plethora of CC abilities and invisibility than anything else. One of the reasons I prefer the Conquest Mode over WvW roaming.

Meditation changes were decent.

All the other changes were useless.

No one is going to seriously use spirit weapons still considering the main reasons why people don’t use them haven’t been addressed at all. (too squishy, too slow, etc.)

Cam Ron.4170:

Why the guardian needs a blink I’ll never understand

Because Anets concept of a paladin is a self healing blinking rogue.

CMF.5461:

was just thinking that merciful intervention was pretty much nerf/buffed.

Previously you could use it as targetless instant secondary heal (monk’s focus + skill heal was something about 4-5k heal on one button).

Now we can’t activate it WITHOUT an ally nearby, thus nixing some of that sustain it previously provided BUT giving us a shadow step IF allies are in range.

I’ve been using Merciful Intervention lately, and I believe the heal doesn’t go off without an ally nearby. So that didn’t change. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)

I was informed that in the video it still works without an ally, just no shadow step. I have not watched the video yet myself. Will watch now.

edit:

inconclusive, The skill was used in the “ready up – skill bar” segment without a friendly in range, no teleport, went on cooldown, but moved nowhere. No green numbers showed up saying the heal activated since the health bar was full, and this will need to be tested once we see it go live.

Also, for sake of showing the previous functionality, here is a screenshot showing two ticks of healing from Merciful Intervention. One from Monk’s Focus, and one from the skill itself.

IIRC, in the video there was a little animation that denoted MI going off, but again like it was said, no easy to see green numbers because of full health. (having just watched the video, I’m pretty sure its as stated http://youtu.be/jy19DA7HeSo?t=5m14s)

The only issue would be if it currently has that healing puff, and doesn’t heal, and then keeping that same functionality. We’ll have to see

Pretty good improvements on guard, but they could changed sanctuary CD a little bit :P, i might run again SoA, and change sometimes with WoR depending situation.

Awesome changes guys. I have always run my own builds, not the typical builds. These changes are buffing all of my builds and i don’t run medi heals or renewed focus. Come at me kittens.

FYI here is how Merciful Intervention currently works

As others have noted the heal from Merciful looks like a fairly subtle star-filter glow around the player that triggers directly after cast. ( and has an effective radius of about 240 ).

I’m fairly certain from looking at the video that with new version of the skill you will no longer get any of the MI procs when you teleport with no target. But you will still get healing from Monk’s Focus.

=Tarsi=

I see no reason to complain. These are all buffs, yes they are buffs to certain aspects but buffs none the less. Look at every other profession, the all received buffs as well as nerfs to certain aspects as well. Only other class that recieved only buffs was ranger.
The change to MI was a buff, it’s now ground targetable so you can target near an ally for the tele, this gives you the choice of which ally to tele to unlike before. If there is no ally, it still activates the skill and you get the heal and the one from monks focus just without teleporting. Remember anything without a red name is an “ally” this includes AI.
Be happy with what we received.

Ynna.8769:

adozu.6398:

even if guardian buffs were:

- base hp increased to match warrior’s
- all blink skills are now ground targeted (with no restrictions or conditions)
- halved cd on all virtues

people would still find ways to complain

With good reason too.

That first change is unnecessary, the second defeats a core aspect of the profession and while there are some problems with Virtues, the cooldown certainly isn’t one.

You blow my mind with your clear mental illness. That’s like someone saying “Hey man want some cake?” And replying “No it’s unesessary and it’s not my birthday.” That really is complaining for the sheer sake of complaining. No reason at all.

rajule.8054:

Relentliss.2170:

Really I think the OP is overreacting.

Been thinking about this patch for a while and the list of improvements, while a little underwhelming, they are all buffs and should add a little to each person’s play. Traited tomes and Meditations definitely got a nice boost.

Definitely beats nerfs.

I’d really love them to look at 3 things next patch. A signet for speed, virtue cd or maybe a total revamp of virtues to make them more interesting, and spirit weapon longevity. I really think those 3 things could lift this class quite a bit.

I don’t think the changes are terrible at all. they are quite good, but I personally would have liked to see more changes to things that really need improvement(like spirit weapons) and less changes to things that are already strong (like meditations)

This!…exactly what I want to say…

Some amazing changes …

…for PvP. Gratz PvPers.