I think weapons like shortbows or longbows don’t fit guardian well. I’d rather see more gap closers with meele weapons.
I think 3 are good enough FB, LoF, JI. People complain enough about me teleporting all over the place and appearing out of nowhere with just those 3 if you want more might as well roll a thief.
I’d agree with a need for condition options. But don’t you think that ranged weapons don’t fit guardian? I mean, was there any ‘guardian’ with ranged weapons in a history (or movie, book)? No offense, I’m just curious if there was any. DW: sword, shield, axe, hammer, mace; 2H: sword, hammer, staff, spear – all of these weapons are close-medium range and all of those fits guardian. I don’t mean that guardian shouldn’t have range options, but CC+gap closers fits better than bow. Let me know what you think. I don’t want to offend anyone, these are only my thoughts.
-Defensive Virtues are exchanged with offensive ones.
-Longbow with “judgemental” themed skills with conditions. Could maybe inflict torment because they fear the Zealot’s conviction or something.
-Traitlines bring new awesome offensive skills but some of the most fun defensive traits are locked to keep Guardian from being overpowered.
I think Swapping virtues alone would be a big change, Guardians have low health to compensate for how good their defensive abilities from virtues and traits, taking these away would allow Anet to go nuts and makes Guardian have much more damage.
I’d agree with a need for condition options. But don’t you think that ranged weapons don’t fit guardian? I mean, was there any ‘guardian’ with ranged weapons in a history (or movie, book)? No offense, I’m just curious if there was any. DW: sword, shield, axe, hammer, mace; 2H: sword, hammer, staff, spear – all of these weapons are close-medium range and all of those fits guardian. I don’t mean that guardian shouldn’t have range options, but CC+gap closers fits better than bow. Let me know what you think. I don’t want to offend anyone, these are only my thoughts.
Keep in mind the whole point of this specialization is to open up a new playstyle which the Guardian can’t access to normally (maybe citing balance issues) by locking some stuff away in exchange for new stuff.
Anet stated that they didn’t want Guardians to be too powerful with a ranged weapon because of their defensive abilities. Take away their defensive abilities and replace them with offensives abilites and suddenly you can hand us a good offensive ranged weapon.
First of all, the Templar/Crusader concept is a very specific, very contextual idiom that really makes no sense in Tyria and besides that, they were just knights – warriors and guardians cover that pretty well.
I’d like to see more of a duelist style specialty – call it whatever you like:
Champion, Duelist, Master at Arms
1. Staff becomes a melee weapon with KD and stun.
2. Offhand Dagger: “main gauche” to parry, block, bleed
3. Offhand Pistol: we might be too close to a thief here
4. Different sword skills with an emphasis on speed and agility (haste)
5. Signet with 25% speed increase – haste on demand
I don’t expect the Guardian specialisation to appeal that much to me, because the whole point is to change its playstyle and I like it the way it is.
The most obvious contender is a condi-spec, probably at range. So my prediction is the Avenger, wielding a longbow that inflicts Torment and possibly an AoE burning attack. New slot skills and profession mechanic is a little harder to guess…
why waste hours doing something that you get nothing for? Enjoyment? I’d rather run fractals.
Rifle: Another likely addition; only problem is that it just don’t fit with the class
I know I’m hella biased here, but I really don’t think the Rifle wouldn’t fit with the Guardian. I think it would look awesome to see blue flames spitting out of a blunderbuss.
Yeah, and in exchange for giving you their “flames coming out of a rifle and/or a rifle-like weapon” motif, Engineers can use your fiery hammers and kitten kitten up on the front… well, maybe not the frontline, but the behind-the-frontline-but-not-exactly-backline area! Since they wear medium armor and all. But I think it’d be a nice trade.
Longbow seems the most likely to me, but we’ll see! If ANet doesn’t want Guardian to be strong(er) at ranged combat, then Axe.
“Quaggan will kick your tail so hard it slaps you in the face!” – Willoo
I still think a Templar specialisation would be good, make use of shield, maybe update mace with a few more abilities (though mace is sweet atm), get longbow, larger health pool with less healing/buffing, kinda like ‘Guardian-Lite’. The warrior will undoubtedly go more like a Beserker/Barbarian specialisation rather than going down the Phalanx route.
A recent patch has made my guess for guardian. Yeserday’s balance patch also fixed: “Fixed a bug that caused warhorns to drop from the Piece of Guardian Gear boxes in Log-in Reward chests.” This sort of bug would be very odd. More likely a dev accidentally checked “warhorns” in the ‘what should drop’ area. While this might be a bug, It could also mean that he checked it not out of accidence but rather because he/she had been working bug testing HoT with their warhorn guardian all day.
With offhand guessed primary offhand is still to be decided.
primary guess is axe, dagger, pistol
Pistols are possible but very unlikely as they are not a magic weapon.
daggers are not a weapon a guardian would be using.
If pistols can’t be considered as magical weapons, please explain the Mesmer’s offhand pistol.
One skill summons an illusion that fires two magic pistols.
And the other fires a magic bullet.
Thematically Pistols will not work, Mesmers come across as ‘dandy’/lovable rogue magicians, even their typical attire is thematically in synch with firearms. Guardians are based off Chevaliers/Knights thematically speaking, firearms just don’t suit them in the slightest.
I just realized some strong evidence that the new weapon for guardian could be bow.
Our spirit weapons..
we have hammer, sword, shield and.. bow. All of those we can already use ourselves except the bow.
Although its not my first choice for guardian I do like bows thematically and some decent ranged would be more than welcome since they don’t want to give us soft cc to catch targets.
I don’t expect the Guardian specialisation to appeal that much to me, because the whole point is to change its playstyle and I like it the way it is.
The most obvious contender is a condi-spec, probably at range. So my prediction is the Avenger, wielding a longbow that inflicts Torment and possibly an AoE burning attack. New slot skills and profession mechanic is a little harder to guess…
LB+condition…. count me in I will definitely would play that over current condition guard build if they do it right.
“Revenant is actual proof that devs read the necromancer forum” – Pelopidas.2140 The Dhuumfire thread
why do people keep mentioning new weapons? no new weapons will be introduced in the xpac.
the guardian can use so many…it’s missing the dagger, axe, pistol, rifle, SB, WH and LB. honestly I would love to see some sort of “spirit archer” archetype, with support and ranged damage functions.
I don’t think we’ll be seeing the monk because ANet won’t introduce a dedicated healer spec to the game. it would break too many things. I think we can rule out pistol, rifle and dagger.
axe, LB and SB are the likely choices. we’ve been asking for LB, so that’s what I expect. SB is what I would like. axe and WH also seem viable, but not sure how they would be implemented.
The new specialization for Guardian will be called, “Templar”
He will be able to wield an enchanted Long Bow to fire specialized
arrows imbued with Light and Fire. Light arrows are more defensive
and supports you and your group. Fire Arrows are more Offensive
annihilates your foes. The more you use one type of arrow, the more
powerful they become. Using Light arrows repeatedly will place an Aura
of golden flames on you, and turn you into a powerful healer. Using the
Fire arrows repeatedly will place an Aura of Crimson Flames on you, and
allow your attacks to be swift and dangerous.
He will be Fierce and beautiful.
If it’s anything other than a longbow, I’m going to be extremely disappointed.
They’ve already said that they want the specializations to focus on roles that the existing professions aren’t very good at it, and there’s nothing the Guardian is worse at than ranged damage.
I really like the speculation above that the long bow would still be a support-esque weapon, but at the same time, as I imagine the specialization would have to come with a survivability trade off, I would hope that we see some serious damage potential made available for the weapon (and possibly the staff, if existing weapons are reworked at all).
I’ve always wanted a spear on my character as a land weapon! Spear and shield. How Awesome? Or perhaps as a two hander?
One Handed spear (Which I would much prefer to see)
1. Auto attack with 3rd attack inflicting Vulnerability
2. Powerful leap attack/Throw spear and cause cripple.
3. Flurry of flaming spear jabs
If a Twohanded weapon:
4. Symbol granting fury causing weakness to hostiles
5. A push bubble like shields 5 that cause a stun or cripple or even weakness.
I think that the weapon given to gaurdian will be a new one not seen on land. Bows/rifle just dont seem right to me. Hopefully some sort of spear or poleram.
If they do give us a bow, it’ll be a short bow that has a similiar skill set as our Spirit Bow. Just like our off hand shield and spirit shield…
AA faster than the scepter, half the damage. 900 range
Barrage location with arrows, healing the area. 5s duration. Channeling: 3s 1200 range. 30s cd
(3x) cleansing arrow that cures 3 conditions on yourself and allies. 40s cd
Instantly pull targets towards you with a grasping arrow. 15s
(Ward) Shoot a slow arcing, blue flamed arrow. Foes struck burn. Allies struck gain 2s regen. Arrow falls to the ground making blue flames in a 120 radius for 2s. Foes caught are burned. Allies inside gain regen 2s.
aka FalseLights Rank: Top 250 since Season 2 #5 best gerdien in wurld
If they do give us a bow, it’ll be a short bow that has a similiar skill set as our Spirit Bow. Just like our off hand shield and spirit shield…
AA faster than the scepter, half the damage. 900 range
Barrage location with arrows, healing the area. 5s duration. Channeling: 3s 1200 range. 30s cd
(3x) cleansing arrow that cures 3 conditions on yourself and allies. 40s cd
Instantly pull targets towards you with a grasping arrow. 15s
(Ward) Shoot a slow arcing, blue flamed arrow. Foes struck burn. Allies struck gain 2s regen. Arrow falls to the ground making blue flames in a 120 radius for 2s. Foes caught are burned. Allies inside gain regen 2s.
sorry, that sounds extremely dull.
I question of bows : I would love LB but you ar right SB is more realistic because LB would compete with scepter for long range weapon. yet “lore wise” a shortbow on a heavy armored class seems not right.
Spear could fill the close range weapon gap as well but I dislike the idea of a AA throwing spears… where do they come from and where do they go? the undewater spear of light thing does not convince me either
What i would find intersting if the spear had inflict a long melee range. lets say 180 on AA (Gs has 130, 180 is the radius on untraited symbols as well). Combo that up with sweep skills that cripple and the weapon could be used to keep just enough distance to fend of melees. would take some skill to master it and force the opponent into ranged.
heck the underwater skills are not that bad (damage needs to be way higher though)
I find it hard to imagine dual pistol or rifle but could see myself loving that too.
Overall it makes a lot of sense that spears will be introduced as land weapons. They have models for all of those and some are really really cool.
At least it’s actually supportive, and not some ranger/condi-necro wannabe longbow. It could use some more imagination (and shorter cooldowns) though, I suppose.
Personally I think a longbow is more likely, and I don’t think it’d compete with the scepter due to the scepter being primarily a DPS weapon, and I would guess that the longbow would primarily be a supportive weapon (or a hybrid support/DPS weapon).
As for someone who like the idea of the shield as a weapon rather than only defence, id like to see it used more as an offensive thing like in WoW or Crusader in Diablo. Also an axe to go with it.
But thats just me id like to see my guardian as a blue glame wearing warrior rather than this buff machine. But thats just me i like to go on the more offence style of things.
Spear as a very offensive weapon with shield might be an interesting weapon set, but only If they redesign shield. Spear + shield = holding a point for me. You know, like Spartans defending one place, not moving at all, but they were killing machines. You can run easily, but you can’t take point, when there’s guardian there. It won’t be op, because that kind of guardian would not have any ways to catch it’s opponent. This means it might be weak (useless) in roaming, but a must have for tournaments.
Spear as a very offensive weapon with shield might be an interesting weapon set, but only If they redesign shield. Spear + shield = holding a point for me. You know, like Spartans defending one place, not moving at all, but they were killing machines. You can run easily, but you can’t take point, when there’s guardian there. It won’t be op, because that kind of guardian would not have any ways to catch it’s opponent. This means it might be weak (useless) in roaming, but a must have for tournaments.
Spear as a very offensive weapon with shield might be an interesting weapon set, but only If they redesign shield. Spear + shield = holding a point for me. You know, like Spartans defending one place, not moving at all, but they were killing machines. You can run easily, but you can’t take point, when there’s guardian there. It won’t be op, because that kind of guardian would not have any ways to catch it’s opponent. This means it might be weak (useless) in roaming, but a must have for tournaments.
Yeah I wouldt mind a sweet shieldbash while holding a spear, or something similiar to Athena in Smite if you have played it. She has a pretty sweet design around this idea.
Alternatively, main-focus can be a bit like the cross from dante’s inferno ( but with guardian ankh projectiles )
Focus as a main hand weapon perhaps?
Would make sense
This would be really cool
except that most focus— foci?— are just a form of semi-circle w/ a bar between to hold it… while some are nice looking, most of the new ones i’ve seen added in game are boring as all.
Alternatively, main-focus can be a bit like the cross from dante’s inferno ( but with guardian ankh projectiles )
Focus as a main hand weapon perhaps?
Would make sense
This would be really cool
except that most focus— foci?— are just a form of semi-circle w/ a bar between to hold it… while some are nice looking, most of the new ones i’ve seen added in game are boring as all.
This. Foci are boring and as far as there are some interesting ones I still can’t imagine wielding focus as a mh.
For me there are two options – devs will make guardian more professional class (more complex, for tournaments) or casual (for pve, roaming, all round builds). I think bow would be great, but for roaming (wvw in general) mostly, while spear, redesigned shield, main and offhand pistol might make guardian harder class, more complex, more useful in highest tier play.
Foci range from “semi-circles” to books to wands to scrolls to musical instruments to keys, and so on. The newest one added is an hourglass. There is no weapon type in the game that are as varied as foci. So I wouldn’t call them “boring”.
Foci range from “semi-circles” to books to wands to scrolls to musical instruments to keys, and so on. The newest one added is an hourglass. There is no weapon type in the game that are as varied as foci. So I wouldn’t call them “boring”.
i’m w/ you that they can be cool, but by and large, the majority of them are boring semi circles. i think its a verifiable fact…. pls don’t make me count them
Foci range from “semi-circles” to books to wands to scrolls to musical instruments to keys, and so on. The newest one added is an hourglass. There is no weapon type in the game that are as varied as foci. So I wouldn’t call them “boring”.
There are some really cool Focus skins in the game but you kinda need to go out of your way to get them. In terms of visual variety at the lower levels, they probably suffer the most, together with Staffs and Pistols.
I counted roughly 31~ semi-circles, 7~ fancy semi-circles (38 semi-circles total), and 58~ non-semi-circle foci. So about 60% of foci are not semi-circles. I didn’t know what to classify the ascended “artifact” foci as though, so I just left them out (they look like weird guantlet things to me).
If they do give us a bow, it’ll be a short bow that has a similiar skill set as our Spirit Bow. Just like our off hand shield and spirit shield…
AA faster than the scepter, half the damage. 900 range
Barrage location with arrows, healing the area. 5s duration. Channeling: 3s 1200 range. 30s cd
(3x) cleansing arrow that cures 3 conditions on yourself and allies. 40s cd
Instantly pull targets towards you with a grasping arrow. 15s
(Ward) Shoot a slow arcing, blue flamed arrow. Foes struck burn. Allies struck gain 2s regen. Arrow falls to the ground making blue flames in a 120 radius for 2s. Foes caught are burned. Allies inside gain regen 2s.
I think this is going to be close to what we get. Bow is the only spirit weapon we can’t use ourselves so it would make sense if we get that. Although I personally would have loved to see something like a polearm or halberd. If we do get a bow I’d like to see a bow skill that gives us more access to different conditions. For example, skills that add chill and bleeding. Although I’m not sure what to think of a Guardian with a unicorn shooting legendary shortbow.
Main reason being the Bow of Truth being the only spirit weapon we can’t wield, plus the lack of a martial ranged weapon. Imagine if you will, an arch-angel in plate armed with a greatbow. Boom.
I’m loving the idea of a bow-wielding guardian. I know this might be too much of a ripoff, but I’d love to see the bow’s 5 skill be a gigantic arrow that flies across the battlefield ripping through everything its path and healing allies and then exploding at the end. Of course, it lacks some originality… (Yes, yes. Ashe and Ezreal both do this exact move. I get it), but still, just imagine seeing that arrow fly and the feeling you get when it gives you the killing blow with a satisfying thwack.
Foci range from “semi-circles” to books to wands to scrolls to musical instruments to keys, and so on. The newest one added is an hourglass. There is no weapon type in the game that are as varied as foci. So I wouldn’t call them “boring”.
i’m w/ you that they can be cool, but by and large, the majority of them are boring semi circles. i think its a verifiable fact…. pls don’t make me count them
but you could fight with a mug and and a bottle at the same time!!!
I think it will be zealot. Torch skill hints that imo. But then again who knows.
I really do not care what it is as long as it is cool in terms of animation and effect. meaning it has to bring something to the table that makes me want to use it and other jealous.
it would als be nice if the new specialisation would add a new virtue causing all burn procs to also cause a 5 sec bleed for a duration of 10 secs or so.
this would turn toch and scepter in into single target condi weapons due to the multiple hit skills. permeating wrath gets a really good reason to use it making the bleeds aoe and to combo it up with supreme justice … probably OP in WvWvW but we can dream.
In my opinion, Anet will try to think out of the box and improve the classes in the part they have gaps. They said this in a interview.
For me the new Guardian specialization will get a Longbow (because of Bow of Truth and guardian lack of long range) and will leave the aspect of supportive, changing the concept of the main Guardian.
Probably this Longbow will have a cool auto ataque speed, skills with a better disengage/mobility.
Now, what i would love in the skills. But maybe something can be OP in the balance, but dreaming…
1. Fast auto atk with a good dmg, third atk swiftness.
2. Shot 3 fire arrows in the target, burn and dmg.
3. Shot an arrow in the target location that create a symbol, dmg and fast immobilize in impact.
4. Shot an burst arrow with extreme dmg, around 1000 1500 base dmg, plus blind.
5. Teleport to the target location, blind foes before teleport, 1200 range.
I’d like to see more conditions rather than more support on longbow. I mean, depends on what kind of support it might be. If it’s offensive support with good mobility then ok, but I can’t imagine zero mobility (bunker???) healing build with longbow.
@Tiale
I like #5 skill. It can also blind targets after teleporting.
