Overview
So i have noticed that each patch that has been released (not all patches) there have been “balance” changes to guardian but these balances are affecting the viability of even playing a guardian as some other people have said on this forum already everything a guardian can do can be done better by another class it seems that whenever we the guardians find a way to adapt and overcome the changes that make our builds ineffective we have it stripped from us to “balance” the game i understand that there will always be counter classes and counter builds but its getting to a point where it is unreasonable now.
Guardian Class Flaws
upon joining the GW2 community i instantly selected guardian as i was under the impression this would be a very “tanky” class that’s is the implication of the name Guardian by definition it protects and defends i came to discover that i was completely wrong about this pre conception and that guardians in fact had one of the lowest health pools in the game and weren’t at all useful as a tank that classes in light “cloth” armour served as better tanks and so i consigned myself to be a damage dealer i eventually fell in love with the damage dealing capability that guardians brought to the fore however over time the ability to actually do significant amounts of damage has been slowly stripped away and each build from direct damage to condition builds has become less and less potent and so we are forced to go back to “glass” builds such as berserker stats and that brings us back to the health pool issue, anyway moving on to mobility it is well known throughout the GW2 community that guardians are extremely slow and immobile if you want to get anywhere with a guardian you have to use either “wings of resolve” or great sword two “leap of faith” and even then you gain very little ground, you could use “retreat” but then that takes away from the utility and in any combat situation retreat is essentially useless, “what about symbol of swiftness?” i have been asked in the past anyone who has played a guardian will know that once placed the symbol will grant a very small period of swiftness and if so much as a random creature steps into it bang you are in combat and the whole purpose of the swiftness becomes negated. It is my understanding that most if not all other classes have some manner of non target mobility and or a passive speed boost be it either in traits or a “signet” why is it guardians have to suffer and lag behind a group when they aren’t even tank’s it seems to me that somewhere along the line the guardians purpose has become mixed up and confused. Conditions: guardians don’t seem to have many options when it come’s to applying condition’s it’s “burn or go home” now burn may be the most damaging offensive condition in the game but it is unbelievably easy to wipe away a stack of burns as it is only one condition and the duration is painfully low also i have had a few fellow guardians who use condition builds come to me and complain that since recent patches they are not burning for nearly as much as they did previously.
Healing Skills
lets start with shelter now this heal has always been essentially pointless alright it gives us a block for a very finite period of time but the heal is so miniscule that you may as well not have used it in the first place and the cooldown?! 30 seconds for so little a heal enough said on that skill. Litany of wrath do i even need to talk about this one? completely useless and unviable in every situation from WvW to PVE. Signet of resolve : 1 condition removed every 10 seconds provided you haven’t had to heal yourself which you more than likely have being that guardians have such a limited health pool anyhow that as a passive is ineffective the healing amount is reasonable enough but the cool down of 40 seconds once again hurts the viability of the skill. Receive the light is a “shout” and thus should act as a shout does and affect an area around the user as opposed to a very narrow cone which relies on your allies being densely grouped once again for such a small amount of healing 40 seconds is for want of a better term an unfair cool down. Purification is a fairly decent heal all in all being that it is a trap you have to rely on clever and well timed placements to make this useful.
Utility skills
“Spirit weapons” are completely pointless they serve no purpose they aren’t useful for combat and they aren’t useful for any kind of utility remove them from the game or make them useful the only reason anyone would use them is because it looks “cool” to have a bunch of floating weapons follow you about that’s all on spirit weapons.
“hold the line” is also useless why would you use that when you can equip a shield and have the same effect with the four skill “shield of judgement” for a smaller cool down period minus the regen.
“Stand your ground” I have no issues with this skill any more since the recent patch which corrected the damage done to stability as a defense against crowd control.
“Save yourselves” pulling conditions to yourself in a large fight situation for example WvW is basically instant death the skill itself isn’t terribly bad but perhaps the cool down could do with adjusting.
“Sanctuary” i don’t think i really need to go over this one its pretty self explanitory its a pointless skill with an excessive coold own for what it does, a tiny little bubble that generates an even smaller amount of healing i honestly don’t know why this skill exists let alone why the cool down is so long.
“Hallowed Ground” ok this skill has seen next to no use by anyone since its conception because there is no reason to use it when you have skills such as “stand your ground” and the boon duration bonus you have from it can be provided by runes, armour or other classes shared buffs such as the revenants F2 ability naturalistic resonance.
“Purging flames” a generally useful skill no major issues with this one other than it’s lacking duration and the ability to condition cleanse allies seems to be a one time deal perhaps pulsing cleanse may be an idea?
“wall of reflection” its a fairly handy skill in certain PVE situation’s as in some dungeons or fractals though you could just have a revenant use a hammer and have a portable version of this skill perhaps make it mobile for guards as well?
“merciful Intervention” once again we come to another pointless skill in this day and age unless you are traited and built for healing the small heal it provides isn’t going to do much you can have a friendly built with toughness and vitality and they will still take more than the amount healed in a single hit from almost anything at level 80 the cool down is far to long for the small utility it brings sure its a “blink” but its only useful if you have someone to blink to this skill should not require a friendly for the blink to work and the cool down should be significantly lower.
“Judge’s Intervention” This is a very widely used skill by all build’s from direct damage to condition it’s ability to get you into the thick of a fight or to catch up to a group is very useful but once again it requires a target to do anything else it is just wasted if a target goes out of range and as i’m sure any other guardian would tell you that’s a long wait for it to come back up again cool down is a problem here.
“Contemplation of purity” good skill no issues with this one at all it is well balanced for what it provide’s.
“Smite condition” perhaps this skill should apply burning as the animation is an exploding ring of fire.
“Signet of mercy” the potential here is good but the skill simply cant be used in anything but an ideal PVE situation the effect is similar to a warrior’s “war banner” but with a smaller area of effect the issue with this skill is the ridiculous cast time 3.75 seconds to cast it and its on a 150 second cool down not to mention how you are forced to remain stationary to cast the skill you may as well hold up a flashing sign saying “kill me now”. when using this skill you are basically begging to be interrupted and interrupting is easy these days just a little bit of crowd control a knock down, push or pull and bang huge cool down skill wasted and probably battle lost as a result.
“Bane Signet” no real issues with this one the passive is good and the cool down is appropriate for the active ability.
“Signet of wrath” like the bane signet good passive appropriate cool down.
“Signet of judgement” also pretty good all round although weakness doesn’t really feel useful.
“traps” all traps with the exception’s of Purification and Dragon’s maw are almost completly ineffective for everyone but a player running full berserker’s stats and if you manage to drop all thoose in a fight without being killed before you do so then bravo.
Elite skills
“dragon’s maw” again cool down is an issue for what the trap provides, the maximum “wall hit’s” will be over very fast in any situation involving a group fight making this skill only useful in smaller fights the 10 stacks of might is fantastic but that will run out in a hurry and you will be waiting 75 seconds to get more.
“feel my wrath” reasonable skill well balanced for what’s provided, no issue’s
“Signet of courage” absolutely brilliant skill however like “signet of mercy” the cast time (4.25)is absurd and forces you to be stationary to complete the skill once again inviting interruption and more than likely death as you will only be using this in a situation where your or your parties health is at a dangerously low point.
“Renewed Focus” useful skill recharging virtues in a tricky situation can be a life saver though three seconds is over awfully fast.
Weapon skills; i will only go over the ones i have issues with here as there are so many.
off hand shield number 5 skill now the description of this skill states that it absorbs projectiles however i have personally seen many different kinds of projectile pass straight through it perhaps this needs to be looked into as a bug of sorts or maybe the description needs to be changed to match the actual effect as a shield bubble i feel that enemies shouldn’t be able to pass through it the duration is 4 seconds which isn’t a long time so it’s isn’t an unreasonable suggestion.
Hammer 1 skill the final skill in this combo take far to long to cast it is easy to interupt and the lack of DPS provided makes the hammer a bad option for anything but crowd control
Hammer 2 mighty blow the animation is a leap so we should be leaping the range should be greater perhaps 600
Staff 3 “symbol of swiftness” should provide a longer duration of swiftness in one hit and instead of a ground targeted ring it should be a local AoE pulse it is well known that placing the symbol on the ground will more often than not result in your character entering combat once so much as a single enemy enter’s its radius.
Staff 5 “Line of warding” now this skill is limited on how many targets it can effect making it no longer effective as a means of controlling a “choke point” the cool down should be reduced somewhat
