Guild Wars 2

I have only recently come back to the game after a very long break. Reading the Metabattle.com and other build reviews it seems GS, 1hSW, focus, and scepter were/are the best weapons with GS being top dog. Mace, shield, and torch seemed to fall by the wayside. Then the apparent joke that have been spirit weapons. Does this upcoming HoT update make other weapon combinations viable or even preferred?

I would consider coming back (maybe even buying the expansion) if this was true. If its just the same old GS spam then mehy may just pass.

All I read was:

“There’s a website, with opinions on it, that prevents me from playing the game.”

Ghotistyx.6942:

All I read was:

“There’s a website, with opinions on it, that prevents me from playing the game.”

I see the forum trolls are as snide as ever. I used the website as an example/indicator of problem. For those of you that are bright enough see the issue I would like to hear your opinions.

The only weapon that really lacks is shield, other than that I use all of the guardian weapons in different situations. Especially in fractals.

There is no such thing as GS spam, whoever does that has no clue on how the game works and doesn’t understand rotations or he/she is getting carried.

If we are not talking about PvE than this only solidifies my argument even more.

- Torch might see more gameplay due to good/better burn stack application, since you have been gone it became already the best (single target) dps offhand, due to removing the extened CD of zealots flame.
- Mace will be beste in slot for 1h damage, presumeably overall dps king due to high symbol uptime and Mace Mastery
- Shield needs a tweak

In general …
a lot will change especially for guards. So forget the current metabuilds. Some will still be there but there are so many possibilites with HoT especially for condi builds that there is no telling what will end up being meta.

If spirit weapons are still kitten after HoT is also not clear. Since all traits will be confined in a singe GM trait and Guards are masters in strengthen allies there might be something as well. Some still need tweaking. Bow of truth is awful.

and even if nothing changes…
A site that promotes the possible best builds is not the right source to judge weapons viability as a whole.

Well, we already have a good diversity in weapons.

Yes GS + Sword/Focus is the most optimal in most situation, but.

- Hammer build are only 5-10% less dps and give one of the most powerful support in the game.
- Mace can replace sword with only a 2% lost in dps, while healing the group.
- Torch is actually better than Focus in 20sec + fight because of the low CD. It’s also a more consistent dps than focus.

Really the only weapon that is bad is shield.

But anyway. With HoT Hammer and Mace will be improved a lot by the trait that give 20% damage on foes on your symbol. The vulnerability change might just be what will push the Torch on par or even higher in term of dps compare to focus. So GS + Mace/Torch might be the next meta with replacing Torch by focus when you need the defensive capability of the focus.

In HoT you will be able to use the Longbow with the Elite Trait of the Dragonhunter. Finally a good long range dps weapon with some good skills and dedicated traits.
Out of that, we’ve already show you all.

Tyber Valens.5148:

Ghotistyx.6942:

All I read was:

“There’s a website, with opinions on it, that prevents me from playing the game.”

I see the forum trolls are as snide as ever. I used the website as an example/indicator of problem. For those of you that are bright enough see the issue I would like to hear your opinions.

If you actually played the game, instead of calling whatever you don’t like as " trolling ", you’d know the answer to your first question already.

Ghotistyx.6942:

If you actually played the game, instead of calling whatever you don’t like as " trolling ", you’d know the answer to your first question already.

I don’t really see what your first comment achieved aside from being a bit kitten-y. He’s asking these questions because he wants to know whether he should play the game or not.

Speaking from spvp only:

Scepter: AA misses most of the time, Smite’s dmg is inconsistent

Mace: Auto is incredibly slow, 3rd swing doesn’t cleave and the heal is a joke. Symbol is also a joke

GS: Does less damage than Hammer, Symbol is only useful against downed-bodies, Whirling Wrath’s dmg is incredibly small for such an obviously animated skill. (Whirlwind does the same damage much faster and acts as mobility/evasion.)

Sword: 3rd auto doesn’t cleave and tends to miss quite a bit, Zealot’s defense’s projectiles miss while rooting you.

I’d love to use these weapons but with the way they’re structured, I can’t justify it. They’re either too slow, not enough dmg to justify the slowness or just useless overall(Most symbols come to mind).

Apparently he hasn’t played the game in awhile. He sees builds posted on meta battle, but has no context to what those builds mean. He draws conclusions from that, and then complains on the forums about those conclusions. I had no compelling reason to answer him directly, when he draws conclusions so abstractly. But perhaps I had a hope, that when he read “I don’t play this game because of opinions from a website”, that he’d realize, “Hey, I should go play the game to see what’s actually going on in game and draw my own conclusions!”. Apparently I was mistaken in that hope. Instead he calls it " trolling ", even though that’s not the correct usage of that word, and asks other people for their opinion. Luckily other people are around to tell him he’s off his rocker in a much nicer way.

Technically his question was about the upcoming HoT changes affecting the " dominance " of GS, but he clearly hasn’t read any of that information, or he’d be able to draw his own conclusions about that too. In any regard, I’m not one to help people who don’t help themselves, despite how filled with sass I am at the time.

Metabattle is a good resource, but optimal builds/weapons change based on the situation. Also you clearly didn’t read it at all. Here’s some quotes off metabattle:

PvE: Dungeon: Guardian – GS Sword/Focus/Torch build
“Max DPS offhand for fights longer than 30s”- referring to torch
“Mace for difficult boss fights or when the Sword cleave works poorly.”

PvE: Dungeon: Guardian – Fractal Hammer
“use Shield of the Avenger for projectile heavy fights.” (thats the spirit weapon, but yes other spirit weapons are terrible)
“When appropriately traited, staying on hammer isn’t abysmal DPS. With Writ of Persistence , using only hammer auto attack is about 90-97% of the DPS of a proper GreatswordS+Hammer rotation with the same build.”

Staff is terrible for dps so you only use it in dungeons for swiftness generally, but for world bosses and general farming its good.

I’m assuming you meant pve, but in case you meant pvp as well:

The main meta guardian build is Meditation Hammer

Bunker guardian has kinda fallen out of the meta, but:
Virtue Bunker uses mace/shield + staff
Altruistic Healing Bunker uses mace and staff, with shield as a variant over focus

(In pvp staff and mace give good sustain and team support. Shield is useful for the knockback to push people off point and sometimes the projectile stopping is useful.)

For WvW:
Staff is the primary weapon in zerg builds, and a variant of meditation roamer uses scepter/torch.

Let’s be honest … if something as insignificant as a few weapons being not viable is keeping you away from playing the game, then there isn’t much that will keep you playing if you come back. If a butterfly farts, you will leave.