Guardians need a role in raids!
Honestly the easiest way I see it working right now is buffing condi dmg up to engi/berserker level. The reason I’m saying this is because unlike power, condi dmg is ridiculously unbalanced anyway between professions. You want condi atm? You have 2 classes to choose from… Even then, our CC would be worse then an engi’s and we wouldn’t have the banners of a warrior, but it’d still give us some options aside from literally half the raid comp consisting of warriors (PS + burnzerker).
As far as support we don’t even count atm. Healing will always be better as a druid, just because of the fact they do more DPS, bring 3 group wide dmg buffs and can burst heal when necessary with just a tiny bit of extra healing power.
And buffs… Well quickness is the chrono’s thing again, and they have alacrity. Even in its nerfed form 33% is better than 0%. Herald is even worse, they have all useful buffs at the flick of a button. Not to mention they have better access to stability too. Unless you suddenly need high stacks of it, which we never needed before in PvE, Their spammable stab is as good as stand your ground and 10x better than hallowed which just has the worst CD ever… And they even have a longer, more reliable projectile defense option if that would become necessary in future raid design.
Your position in raids will be even worse starting with the new patch. Thieves will be top dog dps and will only push the Guardian further down the food chain.
Raid classes usually consist of 2 revs 2 chronos, druid and 1 tempest. 4 other spots will be between thief warrior necro guard and engie.
Taking a Guardian over anything else is a hindrance to the team
I do hope this balance patch has taken into account the state of guardian not just in pvp, but in raids as well. Here’s hoping there’s a lot more in the patch notes for this class that aren’t nerfs.
I don’t believe this patch will fix anything, but I will stay patient until the next big patch. Both Raid team and balancing team should wake up. The current situation is unacceptable.
Yeah, the fact that they looked at herald and said “boonspam” as if there wasn’t already a class that’s supposed to be built around giving boons is rather unsettling.
Don’t cry, Signet of Mercy. Others may forget you, but I will always remember.
Our deficiencies may be overcome by practice and self-discipline.
And mind you, the problem isn’t that another class can do what guard can do. The problem is when other classes do everything a guard can do but better, making the class suboptimal for everything.
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
I have cleared the raid with my guild using a dps hammer guard on Sabetha and a hammer tank on VG.
In an organised guild or group guard is fine if they know what they are doing. For pugging it can be a problem because everyone wants the meta builds and meta classes.
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Chronomancer is the go-to tank, yo
Levi Ironhart, Cassandra Irehart, Lucio Trothart
Discord Gearhart, Naevius Soulhart, Frisk Softhart
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Chronomancer is the go-to tank, yo
With the upcoming changes that doesn’t seem likely to remain true.
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Guardian would be a good go-to if there was enough damage that tanks had to go somewhat potato. Even then people would probably prefer scrapper. Thing is there isn’t much focused damage on the tank, so the best go-to is something that already has comparatively bad dps but something vitally important to a raid group. See: alacrity-stacking chronomancer.
Don’t cry, Signet of Mercy. Others may forget you, but I will always remember.
Our deficiencies may be overcome by practice and self-discipline.
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Guardian would be a good go-to if there was enough damage that tanks had to go somewhat potato. Even then people would probably prefer scrapper. Thing is there isn’t much focused damage on the tank, so the best go-to is something that already has comparatively bad dps but something vitally important to a raid group. See: alacrity-stacking chronomancer.
I see problem with GW2 that it breaks classic RPG model of professions. It doesn’t make any sense, nor it is fun to play a game where this formula doesn’t work: heavy armor freaking tank should be taunting the boss while glass DPS tries to look innocent and shoot big freaking fireballs at the boss and support running around like a madman giving boons and heals and cure diseases. However, what we have is, tanks a laughing stock. Every poor fellow can tank the boss in a cloth rag and a walking stick.
What I would do, and I really do it is the best thing possible: I would make a custom balance/restrictions in raids. So the support or DPS cannot reliably tank a boss. You don’t have a heavy armor? Forget being a tank. You deal crazy amount of support and heal?-forget tanking again. You hit big criticals? – Be prepared to die in 2 seconds if the boss actually looks at you. And some conditions have to be capped. It is ludicrous that some class can do 12 000 burning damage per second.
(edited by Mortifer.2946)
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Guardian would be a good go-to if there was enough damage that tanks had to go somewhat potato. Even then people would probably prefer scrapper. Thing is there isn’t much focused damage on the tank, so the best go-to is something that already has comparatively bad dps but something vitally important to a raid group. See: alacrity-stacking chronomancer.
I see problem with GW2 that it breaks classic RPG model of professions. It doesn’t make any sense, nor it is fun to play a game where this formula doesn’t work: heavy armor freaking tank should be taunting the boss while glass DPS tries to look innocent and shoot big freaking fireballs at the boss and support running around like a madman giving boons and heals and cure diseases. However, what we have is, tanks a laughing stock. Every poor fellow can tank the boss in a cloth rag and a walking stick.
What I would do, and I really do it is the best thing possible: I would make a custom balance/restrictions in raids. So the support or DPS cannot reliably tank a boss. You don’t have a heavy armor? Forget being a tank. You deal crazy amount of support and heal?-forget tanking again. You hit big criticals? – Be prepared to die in 2 seconds if the boss actually looks at you. And some conditions have to be capped. It is ludicrous that some class can do 12 000 burning damage per second.
Wrong game.
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Guardian would be a good go-to if there was enough damage that tanks had to go somewhat potato. Even then people would probably prefer scrapper. Thing is there isn’t much focused damage on the tank, so the best go-to is something that already has comparatively bad dps but something vitally important to a raid group. See: alacrity-stacking chronomancer.
I see problem with GW2 that it breaks classic RPG model of professions. It doesn’t make any sense, nor it is fun to play a game where this formula doesn’t work: heavy armor freaking tank should be taunting the boss while glass DPS tries to look innocent and shoot big freaking fireballs at the boss and support running around like a madman giving boons and heals and cure diseases. However, what we have is, tanks a laughing stock. Every poor fellow can tank the boss in a cloth rag and a walking stick.
What I would do, and I really do it is the best thing possible: I would make a custom balance/restrictions in raids. So the support or DPS cannot reliably tank a boss. You don’t have a heavy armor? Forget being a tank. You deal crazy amount of support and heal?-forget tanking again. You hit big criticals? – Be prepared to die in 2 seconds if the boss actually looks at you. And some conditions have to be capped. It is ludicrous that some class can do 12 000 burning damage per second.
Wrong game.
Not a wrong game. There are some genre rules that should never be broken!!!!
Not a wrong game. There are some genre rules that should never be broken!!!!
No I have to disagree. Part of this game is supposed to be fluidity of role; technically any role could be filled by any profession, but each profession does it a particular/unique way (at least how it should work). The issue is almost all of the elite specs are OP compared to base professions, mainly.
Don’t cry, Signet of Mercy. Others may forget you, but I will always remember.
Our deficiencies may be overcome by practice and self-discipline.
Not a wrong game. There are some genre rules that should never be broken!!!!
No I have to disagree. Part of this game is supposed to be fluidity of role; technically any role could be filled by any profession, but each profession does it a particular/unique way (at least how it should work). The issue is almost all of the elite specs are OP compared to base professions, mainly.
Dunno I’d say the biggest problem with guardian atm is the change in content design. Instead of 1 shot attacks which aegis was rly helpful for, they nerfed dmg throughout the “hardcore” content in favor of sustained dmg, which makes aegis about as useful in pve as it is in pvp atm (blocking 1 auto).
I was mainly talking about Mortifer’s idea that the problem is that the heavies aren’t tanking, the lights aren’t always glass cannons, and support can do things besides support; as opposed to guardian-specific problems.
Don’t cry, Signet of Mercy. Others may forget you, but I will always remember.
Our deficiencies may be overcome by practice and self-discipline.
I don’t believe this patch will fix anything, but I will stay patient until the next big patch. Both Raid team and balancing team should wake up. The current situation is unacceptable.
Why stay positive when since launch Guardian has not really improved or changed? Getting the weakest and most boring elite class just made our laxk of attention more obvious.
Anet lied (where’s the Manifesto now?)
I’m legitimately confused. I thought Guardian was the Go-To tank for Raids? I am trying to gear up one of my characters for tanking and thought Guardian would be the most secure. What is going on?
Guardian would be a good go-to if there was enough damage that tanks had to go somewhat potato. Even then people would probably prefer scrapper. Thing is there isn’t much focused damage on the tank, so the best go-to is something that already has comparatively bad dps but something vitally important to a raid group. See: alacrity-stacking chronomancer.
I see problem with GW2 that it breaks classic RPG model of professions. It doesn’t make any sense, nor it is fun to play a game where this formula doesn’t work: heavy armor freaking tank should be taunting the boss while glass DPS tries to look innocent and shoot big freaking fireballs at the boss and support running around like a madman giving boons and heals and cure diseases. However, what we have is, tanks a laughing stock. Every poor fellow can tank the boss in a cloth rag and a walking stick.
What I would do, and I really do it is the best thing possible: I would make a custom balance/restrictions in raids. So the support or DPS cannot reliably tank a boss. You don’t have a heavy armor? Forget being a tank. You deal crazy amount of support and heal?-forget tanking again. You hit big criticals? – Be prepared to die in 2 seconds if the boss actually looks at you. And some conditions have to be capped. It is ludicrous that some class can do 12 000 burning damage per second.
Wrong game.
Not a wrong game. There are some genre rules that should never be broken!!!!
What should have never been broken is now broken my good man, the devs at Anet wanted to make a game where anyone could play anything at any level, the whole play it your way. I do agree that heavy armor classes should be the prime tanks but thats just old thinking and as we look across the board now Guardians can not be as tanky as other classes that wear light armor, eles and mesmers, I wish they had put in a aggro grabbing skill for each of the heavy classes so that role would be for the tank but it is what it is and in this game you will never see that come to light. Guardian was the most balanced class in the game since start so they never changed much but the way I see it is that was the problem of the whole thing, as mmos are never balanced and can never be if you think a game of this size with this many classes can be equal across the board its impossible sorry to wreak the dreams of the many but thats what it is. The future holds the key and I feel bad for many people who want that paladin feel from this class and they will realize it can never be obtained the same way as another mmo did it. It will never be top dps, it will never be best support, and it will never be the one class everyone wants in pvp,raids, ect… well it was once when WvWvW was a thing but when that comes back Guards will be replaced by reves as guards don’t hold that boon card any more. You want to play a class with a unique class skill? play something else as every other class can do it better than this guard and this is coming from someone who’s played guard since beta and still play to this day even though I watch other classes and wish I could do something fun like what they do.
(edited by Alaryk.6310)
Not a wrong game. There are some genre rules that should never be broken!!!!
No I have to disagree. Part of this game is supposed to be fluidity of role; technically any role could be filled by any profession, but each profession does it a particular/unique way (at least how it should work). The issue is almost all of the elite specs are OP compared to base professions, mainly.
Dunno I’d say the biggest problem with guardian atm is the change in content design. Instead of 1 shot attacks which aegis was rly helpful for, they nerfed dmg throughout the “hardcore” content in favor of sustained dmg, which makes aegis about as useful in pve as it is in pvp atm (blocking 1 auto).
This ^ is why I really like the idea of changing AEGIS so that it “blocks” (absorbs) all damage you would receive up to a set point which scales based on level (as well as game mode)& has various traits in each trait line which can improve it via scaling on a specific stat.
Weather or not it would “block” (absorb) condition damage is up for debate but either way it could go a very long way toward making a guardian more on equal footing with other classes for various game modes.
So I just learnt that 1 mesmer can stack 6-7 second of invulnerability to his party, which means there are people who killed Vale guardian in 5 people (herald, zerk, druid, tempest, chrono). Guardian could never get even close to such functionality. Is this fair? No it’s not.
I agree we need some trait line that will completely rework our Aegis and we need little bit higher damage. Chrono should get buffed DPS and nerfed this Distortion buff along with that horrible invention called Alacrity.
Also, guardian should get better burning – not spike, but sustained, so it is almost as good as berseker. And once arenanet releases some specialisation that is focused on spirit weapons+burning, we should be able to do as much burning as berseker.
I’m fed up with other professions stealing our profession mechanics and doing it better than us.
This is paradox created by anet
One of the main selling points of gw2 was NO roles. To hell with trinity (tank, healer, dps)
…and now we are searching for roles because of raids ? Whats next dedicated tanks, healers ? Anet slowly trying to introduce trinity ?
I think guardian is the least touched (balance patches) proffesion since release of gw2 so yes it doesnt have role because that was the mind set of anet back then
In my opinion herald had to be gurd esplanade and dh for revnant
Not a wrong game. There are some genre rules that should never be broken!!!!
No I have to disagree. Part of this game is supposed to be fluidity of role; technically any role could be filled by any profession, but each profession does it a particular/unique way (at least how it should work). The issue is almost all of the elite specs are OP compared to base professions, mainly.
Dunno I’d say the biggest problem with guardian atm is the change in content design. Instead of 1 shot attacks which aegis was rly helpful for, they nerfed dmg throughout the “hardcore” content in favor of sustained dmg, which makes aegis about as useful in pve as it is in pvp atm (blocking 1 auto).
This ^ is why I really like the idea of changing AEGIS so that it “blocks” (absorbs) all damage you would receive up to a set point which scales based on level (as well as game mode)& has various traits in each trait line which can improve it via scaling on a specific stat.
Weather or not it would “block” (absorb) condition damage is up for debate but either way it could go a very long way toward making a guardian more on equal footing with other classes for various game modes.
Exactly this. What were the strength of guardian since day one.
- Aegis to block big attack
- Projectile defense, which was really important in dungeon
- Blind against adds
- Add pull with GS #5
- Group condi removal
- Protection
But none of those advantage are worth anything in the raid. Blind don’t work, there is limited amout of adds in raid and the only place where GS #5 could be nice, the range just isn’t long enough to matter. No projectile defense is needed, aegis doesn’t work well because of all the bigs attack, there is no condi in raids, and herald can take care of the protection.
That’s the reason why Guardian are useless. Ways to fix it?
- The Aegis that absorb damage would be nice, but hard to balance. It can be op or take the place of protection. My solution would be for aegis to block all attack that would otherwise hurt for a set percentage of your health. The exact % would need to be balanced, but let say 30% for the sake of explanation. While you have aegis on you, all attack that would remove 30% of your total hp would be block. That way, it still have the same role as before, block big shot, but it wouldn’t removed by all those auto-attack in raids. Now you can either diminish the duration so that you can’t have perma aegis on your team but that blocking a hit would not remove your aegis. Or you keep most of skills and trait like they are now and make aegis stack in intensity, while blocking a hit will remove your aegis just like now. This way, protection would be better against auto-attack, and aegis would take care of those big attacks. Your goal as an Guardian would be similar to the initial aegis in dungeon.
I prefer the second option because that way skillful use of aegis would be rewarded. You want to time your aegis for maximum effect otherwise if you spam them you gonna be super protected, but then your aegis will run out of duration and you will have none. The first option, is just an easy spam when skill is ready to stack duration. The second option also need a lot less balancing for all the skills and trait about aegis that currently exist.
- Add some projectile defense need in the current raid and future one. Make some of those attack stoppeable by projectile defense like when VG have a break bar, sabetha have a lot of attack that could be affected by projectile defense like Flak Shot, Kernan, karde’s turret, etc. I’m not saying make all attack projectile, but put some when it’s can.
- Add some condition in raid. Not really adding damage, but replacing some direct damage with condition would be nice. Guardian isn’t the only one that can remove condition to the group, but he’s good at that. And it would add another mechanics to the raid.
I’m not saying that Guardian will be one other best choice in raid with those changes. But it will be an improvement. Guardian at sabetha would be a lot usefull, especially in the last phase where they could protect the team against a lot of things.
I do agree with some of the ideas here and the idea of burning be buffed so that guards could keep up the stacks and compete with other (Burnzerker), and if you go way back into the younger years of the game Guardian was the most balanced class in the game according to the devs.
Why does torch 5 not do condi damage? or remove boons?
Why does shield 4 hit for so little and boons last a second or two?
Why is sword a physical weapon instead of a condi or boon giving, or why would you take sword over great sword?
Why do Spirit weapons have a timer and engineer turrets do not?
The questions could go on and on…
But why change Aegis to add more blocking to it? why not look at other classes like elementalist with obsidian flesh only to make Aegis work like that? lol that would be over powered… but why? both classes have same health pool and armor does not matter in this game, just an idea thrown out there.
But why change Aegis to add more blocking to it? why not look at other classes like elementalist with obsidian flesh only to make Aegis work like that? lol that would be over powered… but why? both classes have same health pool and armor does not matter in this game, just an idea thrown out there.
Well because Obsidian Flesh is easy to balance. It’s a fix 4second invulnerability with a 50sec CD. There isn’t even a trait that reduce the cooldown.
Aegis on the other end is a boons. If that would grant invulnerability when you can double the duration? Aegis also come from a lot more different sources.
Shield of Judment, Retreat, SotA command, Fragments of Faith, Virtue/shield of Courage, Valorous Defense, Communlal Defense, Protective Reviver, Retaliatory Subcouscious, Hunter’s Determination, etc.
Just so many sources from skills and trait that it would be impossible to balance it unless you remove like a lot of those sources.
Im still a very new player to this game, maybe 3-4 months or so. I first leveled a guardian because I thought “Cool, I like playing tanky characters, and whats could be more tanky
than a profession called Guardian?”
I still dont understand the role of this class. Its a plate wearing beefcake and even has a magic shield but its also the slowest kind of hunter I could ever imagine which apparently was recreated to fulfill a ranged need, but then its most iconic elite spell, dragons maw, isnt even ranged. its like a giant pile of kitten i lay at my feet hoping something will step in it.
I also leveled a ranger and actually its painful to go back to the dragon hunter with its lead feet movement speed.
Overall I rate this profession a 2/10.
People probably don’t like it because its really just boring and slow as well as confused.
“Im a guardian…but im not really.”
If i was a raid leader and Im looking at my choices, I obviously want profs whose role is clear. With this profession it is not clear. And who wants a ranged dps that has to go into melee range to drop a trap with the speed of a manatee? its just doesnt feel like a prof i need.
keep in mind, im new, but thats my newbie perspective.
if the prof was simply just faster it might attract more interest.
(edited by setdog.1592)
Im still a very new player to this game, maybe 3-4 months or so. I first leveled a guardian because I thought “Cool, I like playing tanky characters, and whats could be more tanky
than a profession called Guardian?”I still dont understand the role of this class. Its a plate wearing beefcake and even has a magic shield but its also the slowest kind of hunter I could ever imagine which apparently was recreated to fulfill a ranged need, but then its most iconic elite spell, dragons maw, isnt even ranged. its like a giant pile of kitten i lay at my feet hoping something will step in it.
I also leveled a ranger and actually its painful to go back to the dragon hunter with its lead feet movement speed.
Overall I rate this profession a 2/10.
People probably don’t like it because its really just boring and slow as well as confused.
“Im a guardian…but im not really.”If i was a raid leader and Im looking at my choices, I obviously want profs whose role is clear. With this profession it is not clear. And who wants a ranged dps that has to go into melee range to drop a trap with the speed of a manatee? its just doesnt feel like a prof i need.
keep in mind, im new, but thats my newbie perspective.
if the prof was simply just faster it might attract more interest.
Mobility is definitely an issue, but I’d rate it a lot more as a PvP/WvW roaming issue. In raids or PvE in general it isn’t rly much of a problem since perma swiftness is easy anyway.
As for the role, it used to be support DPS. Lots of defenses on top of what used to be decent dmg. Now however defenses are no longer needed. As said in earlier posts there’s no need for the useless aegis, projectile defense or honestly even protection.
So its role right now is just underperforming DPS.
Im still a very new player to this game, maybe 3-4 months or so. I first leveled a guardian because I thought “Cool, I like playing tanky characters, and whats could be more tanky
than a profession called Guardian?”I still dont understand the role of this class. Its a plate wearing beefcake and even has a magic shield but its also the slowest kind of hunter I could ever imagine which apparently was recreated to fulfill a ranged need, but then its most iconic elite spell, dragons maw, isnt even ranged. its like a giant pile of kitten i lay at my feet hoping something will step in it.
I also leveled a ranger and actually its painful to go back to the dragon hunter with its lead feet movement speed.
Overall I rate this profession a 2/10.
People probably don’t like it because its really just boring and slow as well as confused.
“Im a guardian…but im not really.”If i was a raid leader and Im looking at my choices, I obviously want profs whose role is clear. With this profession it is not clear. And who wants a ranged dps that has to go into melee range to drop a trap with the speed of a manatee? its just doesnt feel like a prof i need.
keep in mind, im new, but thats my newbie perspective.
if the prof was simply just faster it might attract more interest.
Well not really the fault of the Guardian if you don’t get it. But again, if Guardian was in a good place for 3 years, since HoT it’s not looking as good as it used to.
See for the first 3 years guardian was in a really great place. His strenght, was the same as his current strength. He got built in active defense with health regen, condi removal, block, invulnerability, etc. So a good guardian is hard to kill because of that. He was also the king of defensive support with group condi removal, projectile defense, aegis to block and back then Aegis and Reflection were just super powerful. A single guardian could keep your team alive in tough situation.In dungoen you could see a whole team wipe because the Guardian didn’t put his WoR at the good time. In fractal, it was even better and guardian was view almost as a must have in there. Offensively, the Guardian always been dangerous in close range. With symbol, melee, smite condition, aegis, he was build for close combat and burst. With built in active defense combine with mediation healing + fury allowed him to have enough survivability to play in Marauder gear something that not many melee character were able to do. Most other marauder character were ranged or had good mobility to get out of danger if need. So Guardian was kind of unique in that sense.
And guardian is still exactly that. He’s best at dps in close combat while using his active defense to stay alive. He still have all of his support with protection, reflection, aegis, condi removal, etc.
So what happened? We first of all Guardian isn’t in a bad place everywhere. In PvP, he is still in a decent place. He wreck people in low tier of pvp, while having more difficulty in higher league, he still have a great place in fractal and dungeon. The realy only place where he have a hard time is raid. The problem is that dungeon were abandoned, people play specific fractal where guardian isn’t necessarily needed, while back pre-hot you often wanted a Guardian if possible just in case. And Raid is the main team PvE content right now. The fact that other profession started to creep out on the Guardian job (talking mostly about Herald here), doesn’t help.
The Guardian is actually quite good, but the game focus on content that doesn’t play with the strength of the guardian. So either the content get refocused or the guardian get adapted to the new type of content. I would prefer they do a little bit of both.
he still have a great place in fractal
Ummm, what? The last 20 levels you can’t use half your skillset and traits because the mobs will steal your retal and the pt wipes. They also become such no-risk HP spunges that a chrono is much preferred. So no, I wouldn’t call instabilities that make it so the guard has to shoot himself in the foot “a great place”.
he still have a great place in fractal
Ummm, what? The last 20 levels you can’t use half your skillset and traits because the mobs will steal your retal and the pt wipes. They also become such no-risk HP spunges that a chrono is much preferred. So no, I wouldn’t call instabilities that make it so the guard has to shoot himself in the foot “a great place”.
True. But who play in the last 20 level of fractal more than once? We could also talk why would you need a guardian if you only do some Swamp, but that’s pretty much because fractal was butchered with HoT. At least in my opinion.
he still have a great place in fractal
Ummm, what? The last 20 levels you can’t use half your skillset and traits because the mobs will steal your retal and the pt wipes. They also become such no-risk HP spunges that a chrono is much preferred. So no, I wouldn’t call instabilities that make it so the guard has to shoot himself in the foot “a great place”.
True. But who play in the last 20 level of fractal more than once? We could also talk why would you need a guardian if you only do some Swamp, but that’s pretty much because fractal was butchered with HoT. At least in my opinion.
We could talk about the lower levels being so faceroll easy you don’t need defense. It’s not just swamp, even high level volcanic for example nothing hits even slightly hard. I drop WoR or I don’t, no one even notices. So no, not quite in an awesome spot for fractals either, but I’d argue that fractals are so faceroll and boring it doesn’t matter what you bring anyway.