Guild Wars 2

….I know I’m probably beating a dead horse, but I’d really like a non magic themed ranged weapon, like longbow or shortbow. I’d even take rifle if I had to. My Norn Guardian really doesn’t fit the whole finger wiggling at the enemy thing.

Vote for Rifles!

Viable ranged weapons have been asked for since the first beta weekend. So far, all we’ve got was a range increase on a couple of skills, but that didn’t do much to improve our situations.

Here’s how the debate is going to go (based on the discussion in the past).
1) Our ranged options are horrible and they severely hamper the profession.
2) Ranged weapons don’t fit the Guardian.

That’s about it.

In my humble opinion Guardians should have portable trebuchets as their ranged weapon. What we currently have is pathetic to say the least.

I actually like the scepter and it’s uses but I do wish the balls it shoots out could lock onto the mob/player or at the very least moved faster.

I personally main Staff/Scepter w/shield and get good use out of all of the skills on them so this is a non-issue to me.
The Guardian aesthetic is very shiny and magical so rifles would either be out of place or completely ridiculous. I can, however, see bow-wielding guardians that shoot magic arrows. That would also make it so that we can wield all of the foefire weapons.

I think the Scepter alone is fine (though it does need work in how it functions, either more homing to the balls or faster travel time) but I wouldn’t mind one of the bows just as a means to mix it up. Once a Guardian is at range, there’s not much to be surprised at when it comes to what they might pull. We can close the distance with a Sword, Greatsword or Hammer or pull out a Scepter and that is just a bit quicker than so slow you can outrun it. Having one other option to that would help.

I vote for Holy Crossbow. Fires Holy Bolts that burn targets. Realistically, staff isn’t a ranged weapon. Scepter is very lackluster, but its “good enough” to kite bosses around with in PvE.

The scepter is nice except for the way the ball moves. The advantage of the scepter is that the autoattack has 1/4 second cast time, faster than the autoattack of any other weapon we have. You also get to continue autoattacking while your AE is going off, unlike most weapons. That means that you get a lot of “on crit” abilities. Scepter is far and away the best weapon, melee included, for doing this on a single target.

Archer.1658:

I vote for Holy Crossbow. Fires Holy Bolts that burn targets. Realistically, staff isn’t a ranged weapon. Scepter is very lackluster, but its “good enough” to kite bosses around with in PvE.

Sounds like Rifle and Bow for Warriors. This is intentional.

I’d be happiest with Longbow; fits the type of archaic martial theme Guardian has, the class already has a longbow summons. (Ideally it would have some of the same options – ally condition removal and healing arrows, maybe foe-fire burns).

I just want a ranged option that isn’t some pansy caster weapon. I’ve got alts for when I’m in a mood to run around in cloth waving fancy sticks.

Personally I don’t want a bow or rifle for the Guardian. It doesn’t fit the theme of magical spirit hero.

Something like a javelin though would be great. It was used by the ancient Greek heroes, which fits the lore of our class.

I agree. I think a spear/shield combo would be cool (kind of like the paragon from gw1).

So now the thread has become suggest your own guardian ranged weapon, regardless of how unlikely it’s going to happen?

My pick is a 2 handed tower shield, used as a nuking weapon.

GoZero.9708:

I think the Scepter alone is fine (though it does need work in how it functions, either more homing to the balls or faster travel time)

I’ve suggested the idea of having the balls travel faster, but giving the ability a slower animation or short cast-bar. This makes the skill more accurate, without actually increasing the rate of fire.

Thrumdi.9216:

Personally I don’t want a bow or rifle for the Guardian. It doesn’t fit the theme of magical spirit hero.

I see this again and again, but I still don’t get it.

GoggleHat.2547:

I can, however, see bow-wielding guardians that shoot magic arrows. That would also make it so that we can wield all of the foefire weapons.

This is what most of you seem to forget when making suggestions about our (viable) ranged weapon option. The answer has been there for a long time.

A longbow causing burns with some sort of cleansing ability would fit the theme of the guardian perfectly.

look at the guardian spirit weapons: GS, shield, hammer… and longbow.

i personally think someone made a last minute decision to talk longbows off guardians.

i vote for nothing, Why have to same mechanic on all classes? i prefer a mechanic to keep enemies on melee range!
if a want to play an heavy armor class with a good ranged option, i just roll a warrior.

I think “non-magical” is kind of out of the question considering that virtually all of the Guardian’s abilities are magical in some way.

I personally feel like scepter is a better ranged weapon than rifle/longbow on warrior. The only issue is the way the attacks miss moving targets.

I vote for the rifle. You can make anything magical.

Also for some obscure reason I’m under the impression that a lot of people think “projectile speed = attack speed (cast time), ergo if one gets buffed the other needs a nerf for the same DPS on a stationary target”. If anyone actually has issues with that, they can just imagine whacking the wriggling tennis balls at point blank (with no travel time) and come to the conclusion that projectile speed doesn’t affect DPS, assuming that the first projectile has already reached the target and that all projectiles hit.

PS: Orb of Wrath attack speed is sure as koala not 0,25s. The wiki says it’s 0,83s, though you can measure it yourself and it’s easy enough to tell that it’s not 4 attacks every second (not even with quickness).

Kvader.2689:

PS: Orb of Wrath attack speed is sure as koala not 0,25s. The wiki says it’s 0,83s, though you can measure it yourself and it’s easy enough to tell that it’s not 4 attacks every second (not even with quickness).

After testing, the wiki seems to be correct. I suspect our other attack speeds are not accurate either.

Just tested the Hammer attack chain as well, takes about 3.5s to execute the entire chain vs. the 2.25s on the tooltip.

Idk what you guys are talking about…. I think longbow would fit in very well on a guardian. Hell I wouldnt mind if they took off both the scepter/staff and replaced them with longbow… as long as it has useful skills

I agree with a Holy Cross Bow type of weapon I also agree with Javelins its cool unique, would fit a middle range weapon one thing I want on it though.

You know how necros get a sickle graphic on the staff when they pull it out ( which is awesome) I want a flaming blue Javelin

i don’t think bows or rifles or javelins suit the profession.

if it were up to me i would rework our greatsword to include ranged attack not unlike that from elementalist’s conjured sword.

after all, we already deal fire as condition. why not let us throw fire from the edge of our sword too?

Twill.6217:

I don’t think Bows or Rifles or Javelins suit the profession.

People keep saying that, but they never say why.

Anyway, I don’t think we need a new weapon. Just make the Scepter into something good.

Ynna.8769:

Twill.6217:

I don’t think Bows or Rifles or Javelins suit the profession.

People keep saying that, but they never say why.

Anyway, I don’t think we need a new weapon. Just make the Scepter into something good.

It is good.

Yaki.9563:

It is good.

It’s passable. At best. In PvE it’s kinda okay, but has almost no internal syngergy (which is forgivable in one-handers, to be fair). The Scepter’s thing is that it’s a ranged weapon, which, in my opinion, isn’t enough. In WvWvW the Scepter has pretty much only two functions, with the first being your safest option to survive the zerg. In sPvP the Scepter has a functional range of 600 at best.

As much as I would love to have a longbow or even a some type of crossbow for my guardian I doubt it’s gonna happen. Think the best we can hope for is improvements to scepter. Of course a speed increase on 1 would be nice. What I would like to see is Smite changed to a symbol, kinda acts like one anyways. Then the Zeal tree might be a little more viable, and better support with Writ of the Merciful in Honor

Twill.6217:

i don’t think bows or rifles or javelins suit the profession.

if it were up to me i would rework our greatsword to include ranged attack not unlike that from elementalist’s conjured sword.

after all, we already deal fire as condition. why not let us throw fire from the edge of our sword too?

Oh you sir don’t know your Guardian’s history. We are the spiritual successors to the Paragon class from Guild Wars 1. The Paragon’s weapon was a short ranged spear not unlike a javelin.

Mazer.8923:

I agree. I think a spear/shield combo would be cool (kind of like the paragon from gw1).

Imbagon! Imbagon! Imbagon!

I do like the idea of a short ranged weapon with faster firing speed than the scepter. Which can stay as our long ranged weapon.

All I know is guardian has worst ranged in game and it needs to be fixed.

Tyber Valens.5148:

Oh you sir don’t know your Guardian’s history. We are the spiritual successors to the Paragon class from Guild Wars 1. The Paragon’s weapon was a short ranged spear not unlike a javelin.

Saying the Guardian takes after the Paragon is probably the biggest marketing kitten ANet has ever spewed. Because paragon was one of the favorites and they have to appease that crowd, while the dervish was the whipping boy of OPness, nerfed to obsolescence, then buffed back to OP again.

But the Guardian is a remake of the dervish—the magical melee fighter with defensive spells—with little tidbits from every support class in GW1, which does include the paragon, but only a very small part. In fact, only the singing aspect from paragons was kept. Superior Aria and Pure of Voice are both references to paragons, but other than that? nope..

The inspiring support soldier type is handled by warriors in GW2. They’re the ones with the battle standards and capability of fielding mid-line roles.

Guardian is a mix of monk and paragon with some spiritual stuff, that is nothing new, Heinel.

What dervish element is there in a guardian? Oh, right, a scythe.

Razor.9132:

Guardian is a mix of monk and paragon with some spiritual stuff, that is nothing new, Heinel.

What dervish element is there in a guardian? Oh, right, a scythe.

It’s quite clear you’ve never played a dervish, and it doesn’t seem like you understand what paragons are about either.

Interestingly enough, one of the number one most-suggested change players made in this forum is to turn symbols into flash enchantments. The way I see it is that symbols are actually an evolution from flash enchantments. It took Anet a very, very long time to get the aura-like ability to sort of semi-work. And with GW2 I think they just say to hell with that and start from a different angle—by putting a fixed location aspect to the enchantment. Most people hated the way it works now, but what do they know—the alternative was an arduous, much scorned path, that was either clearly OP, or clearly UP, and in any case it was still a clunky mechanic that behaves like a stance, but is not a stance.

But as I said, nobody cares about all these things, if they can convince themselves Guardians are the successor to Paragons, truth is a foreign concept alien to their mind.