Guild Wars 2

I used to run a Spirit Weapon/Burning build, but stopped when they were given health bars. After they were recently buffed and pet AI was improved, I decided to try a SW build again (Minus the huge focus on CD this time). Just wondering what your opinions are on the matter.

Are you referring to PVE, Spvp, or Wvw? I’ve never tried them before so let me know what you find out.

I primarily do PvE, but I probably won’t be playing my guard all that much right now, since he mainly gets used for dungeons and I’m leveling several alts right now. I’m just curious in general how they are.

I remember they were cool back in the beta and early post-release days, but I don’t really see anyone run spirit weapon focused builds anymore due to the fact that they are just sub par in most scenarios, be it pve or pvp. Now don’t get me wrong they have their uses in specific situations like dungeons for example you can use bow to cleanse conditions for your group but PoV does it better still IMHO.

Hammer is #1 choice if any guards roll one and it’s exclusively for the knockback. Pretty nice actually if hammer actually hits but it’s just so friggin slow. Just my perspective. Hope that helps. You may find others with different opinions on the matter here.

The shield is still in high demand for higher level fractal runs, which is nice. I’ve seen a few people here and there that use the sword and/or hammer, but not often sadly.

I use a SW build for sPvP, and even though they aren’t as good as they were when they were invulnerable, they completely dominate small scale battles like 1v1 or 2v2. Hammer brings a ton of control and the sword really shines in rhe DPS deparment.

I just ran Molten today with a 30/20/0/0/20 build, using Hammer, Sword, and Shield. I’d specced for Spirit Weapons and massive upgrades to Virtue of Justice, and I got some really nice DPS on it, and my guildies commented on how much better it was than my last SW build.

I really love the idea of Spirit Weapons. When I first saw the skill video ArenaNet released of the Hammer my mind was blown, it looked so awesome.

The sad thing is that the duration and the cooldown of the Spirit Weapons doesn’t really make it worthwhile, as well as the randomness of some things (like the hammer knocking enemies back the 3rd attack it makes, making it hard to plan your fights if you don’t time it right.)

As said, their hp is really low, the duration is short, and the cooldown is too long. Otherwise I sure would use a Spirit Weapon on my build more. The only part where I use a Spirit Weapon is in the fractals, and that is only the Shield of the Avenger.

Trait for them and the cooldown goes way down and the duration way up. You can command them without destroying them too. Give it a shot sometime.

In WvWvW spirit weapons useless(will die instant during battle 20×20 or more also die near gates etc) in PvE bad choice(except shield because also die too much). Anet must bring back “no health” to spirit weapons in WvWvW\PvE…

GW2 give`s such good variability of skills but…all we know that good guardian must play(in group) with shouts or goodbye.

Spirit weapons are useless. I don’t think Anet likes the idea of summoners in this game.

I tried out the hammer with its new hp buff and guess what? One shot and back on a long cd.

I wish they were good because it could open up a totally different guardian playstyle.

They are mostly just useful for pvp in my opinion. A little for fractals and the shield is pretty good in wvw when combined with wall of reflection and the staffs line of warding. Add aoe stability and you will be a great help to your team.

I personally love using the shield and hammer in spvp. I don’t use burning though. I use AH because it counts the SW as allies. Plus you can add rock dog to the bunch.

20/0/30/5/15

They do decent in PvP and PvE. Also in small skirmishes in WvW.

They tend to evaporate when there is a large amount of mobs/players with a lot of AoE.

Deathmond.7328:

GW2 give`s such good variability of skills but…all we know that good guardian must play(in group) with shouts or goodbye.

Thanks for the negativity but I get along just fine with consecrations slotted.

Harbinger.8637:

They do decent in PvP and PvE. Also in small skirmishes in WvW.

They tend to evaporate when there is a large amount of mobs/players with a lot of AoE.

Pretty much this.
Hammer and sword are still your best friends in 1 v 1/2/3.
Shield is still great for PvE, as mentioned before – does the job for fractals.

The thing is, they will only get KO’d in large scale battles since there’s AoE everywhere, but you won’t find a single or a small group of players focusing on your weapons. That will simply leave them more open for attacks.

If you like WvW roaming or sPvP, I’d still recommend traiting into them.

shield is amazing in dungeons (any with projectiles; not just fractals)
ive seen a few people use bow in dungeons too; but it doesnt… have a great impact

open world pve they can be great.

Shield is probably the most generally useful.

But other than that, I’d steer clear of them. But I dont run dungeons so cant commetn on that.

The Shield is amazing in PvE.
Its suprising effective in certain PvP situations as well.

I wish that if you used the sweapon skill it wouldnt destry it and you dont have to trait for it x.x .

I tried playing round w/ a spirit weapon build in sPvP. I used traits that extended weapon duration and allowed targetting without destruction+ spirit weaps do 10% damage. On the training area elementalist their dagger water attacks destroyed the sword in 2 hits. The hammer managed to get a single knock down, then also got destroyed in 2 hits of auto attack. After aggroing each profession type the results remained the same..2 hits at most destroy each weapon. The warrior w/ hammer destroyed both in 1 hit. I then ran it in actual games to see how live players dealt w/ them. Again one warrior swiping great sword destroyed both instantly. One guardian whirling wrath destroyed both instantly. The only time they work kinda well was when i engaged another player already skirmishing against another. In the end, it just wasn’t very viable. The sword dmg could peak around 1ooo dmg on some hits. Also traiting into them leaves your guardian decidedly squishy as far as guardians go. When i traited again for them to just cause burning, I got a few burns..but nothing that proved to be troublesome against other players. In the end I think the addition of health bars to them has pretty much sealed their fate. Which is fairly sad considering 4 of the guardians skills are spirit weapons..meaning 20% of their skills rarely, if ever get used across all aspects of the gw2 gaming experience. I think anet could have handled the spirit weapon issue differently than to give them a token health bar. It seems that option has made players pretty much abandon spirit weapons in general. When a nerf makes 90%+ players abandon using those skills, it is a bad nerf..a well handled nerf you’ll still see players using it and being ok w/ damage reduction or slightly longer cool downs. It is unfortunate because they were specific to guardians. It is like removing mesmers abilities to create a viable amount of clones, or limiting necro’s death shroud or reducing the amount of kits an engineer has available. It didn’t tone down the builds, it just made players not want to use those skills any more.

I would have to disagree with the above. I think the spirit weapons all have their uses in specific situations. I have used spirit hammer since release in spvp and it has never done me wrong. Sword is not worth it unless you go for burning spirit weapons. Shield works amazing against all range and will force them to play on your terms. Bow is a little eh but maybe for a support build.

I love activating spirit hammer to stun a reviver while I finish off his buddy.

I think most people just don’t know how to use them effectively like the above post. You expect it to do your job perhaps? It is not a pet that can tank your enemy. That’s your job.

The AI is still a little wonky at times and they still, even after the buffs, have way too little health. The damage is not quite as high as I’d like it but the gimmick comes from the use on each spirit weapon. Each having their special own ability but I feel as if the cooldowns are just a tad long. I haven’t played with SW extensively but these are just my expressions on the new “buffs” they’ve given them. Far reach from beta, that’s for sure…

In looking at the traits, you can invest into three lines (two out of the three semi deeply) which to me, makes these weapons as after thoughts on the class core.

Vidal.5384:

I would have to disagree with the above. I think the spirit weapons all have their uses in specific situations. I have used spirit hammer since release in spvp and it has never done me wrong. Sword is not worth it unless you go for burning spirit weapons. Shield works amazing against all range and will force them to play on your terms. Bow is a little eh but maybe for a support build.

I love activating spirit hammer to stun a reviver while I finish off his buddy.

I think most people just don’t know how to use them effectively like the above post. You expect it to do your job perhaps? It is not a pet that can tank your enemy. That’s your job.

This is true. A good spirit weapon guardian is very, very powerful in tpvp/spvp. People just aren’t playing them well. However, I would probably not use spirit weapons in pve groups (other than the shield). There are many more useful skills that a guardian has for that.
For WvW (not speaking from experience), I would still use spirit weapons for smaller battles, but I would likely swap them out for zerg fights. Sanctuary and wall of reflection are amazing.
Personally, I believe that spirit weapons should be invulnerable (or at least much more tanky) in WvW and Pve.
Also, the sword spirit weapon’s “command” ability is useless. Using it actually decreases the dps of the weapon as it will simply sit there for a while doing nothing after activation.

Vegito.3048:

Personally, I believe that spirit weapons should be invulnerable (or at least much more tanky)

Yeah, I can’t shake loose of this thought either. It just doesn’t make any sense to me to give them a healthpool and make them kill-able at all. I could understand if they gave a direct boon while summoned and dissipated if that were removed, but what’s going on now just seems extremely unintuitive and punishing to the build overall.

I wanted to like spirit weapons and even trained in it for them to last longer. I love the look of the spirit weapons and thought that they were really cool. I knew from the beginning that they were not tanks or high dps dealers but I still wanted to find uses for them. Im thinking now that I have experience with them its a waste of trait points and a waste of a slot.

I have no experience with the shield because im thinking even with the extended duration I trained for it wont be up long enough to matter and a different skill in the slot would be better to use.

maybe if i had more slots i would bother but not the way it is. they are not doing enough, long enough to matter.