Guild Wars 2

Have you eaven looked at guardian ranged weapons?
You fix mesmer scepter while guardians dont have deacent ranged weapon!
First of all fix orb of wrath (scepter 1st attack skill),its stupidly slow right now -people run faster than orbs moving speed -would be fun if it were not tragic.Tested it with my mesmer friend ,he can shoot at 1200 range and hit me -i cant run away thnx to his lock on skill and when i shoot at him he moves 2-3 steps and i miss everything !
Also range is 1200 but in many cases you will get obstructed and out of range message eaven if you are in range.

Second fix bloody Orb of light -its buged and slow -when you shoot it on wall of keep for example it stucks inside wall and you have to detonate it,also if you target friendly and try to use it for healing it shoots in ground and then again you have to detonat it for nothing.

Also staff main attack could be 900 instead of pathetic 600 witch is like mele range .

Greatsword pull Binding blades is buge too since it does not pull people all way to you-for example if betwean you and target is small bump in ground target will stuck on it.

If you know any other skill thats not working right post it,guardians have plenty of it.

A 900 range cone would be insanely powerful. The staff main attack is meant to be short ranged. The orb of light is also supposed to be slow, for the purposes of detonating it accurately.

I agree about the scepter though.

This has been an issue since beta.
There have been plenty of suggestions from the community.
The one I liked most for the Scepter is:
Make the #1 skill a chain that ends in a projectile finisher.
Make the #2 skill a Symbol of some kind.

The Staff could use an overhaul.

cannons.8109:

Guardians will never be viable at 1,200 range in PVP, and this is intentional.

I don’t really believe this. During the beta we got a range increase on the Scepter, the Staff and our off-hands. If Arenanet doesn’t want us to be viable at range they wouldn’t have increased the range on those weapons.

I’m still surprised after these patches (more so this big one) that they couldn’t simply increase the orb speed by say 25% and reduce the damage on each orb by a percentage (to keep the DPS the same).

It shouldn’t be hard (or at least i wouldn’t expect it to be).

They could even have adjusted the scepter trait to also make the range 1200.

I’ve been saying this since the beginning….Anet should give guardians a TRUE ranged weapon. Every other class has at least 1 weapon or weapon combo(some have more than 1 available) that is solely for ranged dps. Guardians are the only ones who lack in this department. And no scepter+focus is NOT a viable ranged option. It’s a kittened option at best. My suggestion all along has been to give guardians a longbow option. The weapon still fits with the guardian theme and the fact that one of our spirit weapons is a bow, it just makes sense (all the other spirit weapons we can wield their counterparts, so why not the bow?). It would solve A LOT of problems with guardian ranged issues while allowing Anet to keep the scepter+focus/torch as is. Why Anet didn’t implement something like this from the beginning is beyond me. Yet again, they’re proving that they don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing.

cannons.8109:

Guardians will never be viable at 1,200 range in PVP, and this is intentional. The latest patch proved this by giving the mesmer scepter a 33% projectile speed buff that wasn’t even asked for by the mesmer community. meanwhile, guardians have been QQing forever about our scepter projectile speed, and it will never change. I think you should adjust your expectations and move on b/c we were not meant to be a ranged class in PVP. and yes, WOW at 900 range would be OP.

This. The scepter is already incredibly powerful if used correctly in WvW and PvE. QQ’n guardians want their class to be able to do everything that all the other class can and that just won’t happen.

You do realize that ranged Guardians are meant to be supportive types, right?

The conceptual term would be ‘Clerics’.

You’re not suppose to focus on damage-dealing if you’re going ranged on a Guardian. You’re focusing on keeping your allies alive and booned, while offering support-DPS.

And even then, it’s pretty good.

It just doesn’t seem right. Every other class has a pretty solid ranged weapon besides the Guardian. The Scepter requires your target to stand still to be effective which never happens. Those little orbs can be avoided by simply strafing left/right, it’s rather embarrassing.

Every class has a solid range weapon but us.

Scepter is the single worst weapon in any game ever made.
Staff is simply not fun to use nor practical.

Why shouldn’t guardians be able to deal good, reliable damage at max range? If warriors want to play support healing, they can do that by taking shout healing and taking healing power gear, bam, support healer build.
Guardians could do the same with ranged damage if we at least had the option to do so, but scepter is clearly lacking in that department. You can stack as much power, crit and crit damage as you want if your projectiles never hit the enemy, and that is just one aspect why scepter is not really good.

I like the options we have now, as they make us distinct. What I dislike is their viability.

Focusing on the scepter, specifically for WvW:

Range is a last resort for us, generally. I see the scepter as more of a suppressing fire weapon than a true ranged weapon.

Instead of a slow-moving orb that I can detonate for heals, let me ground-target it. It pulses for damage and healing, and can be destroyed by opponents. It now bypasses projectile blockers and, as it can be summoned to the top of a WvW wall, allows me to force some casters back behind the ramparts, or an arrow cart user to top firing long enough to take it out.

The scepter #1 is too easy to dodge. We could increase the speed or make it not a projectile at all. I’m thinking something along the lines of a weak, channeled Ray of Judgement (GW1 RoJ, that is).

I don’t mind being restricted to mid-range because I am the one that is supposed to lead the charge—I should be leading from the front.

For the greatsword, there is a line between strategic use of terrain and bug. I have a feeling this is a matter of refining where that line lies.

I’d rather the staff keep the shorter range but allow more targets. Again, we’re leading from the front, putting ourselves in danger. While 5 is a typical AE target count, I could do better, more focused damage against 3 targets being just a little closer.

Scepter
- the 1 ability misses more often than not, this weapon has range of 1200 but it can not be used at that range, this 1 skill needs to be reworked to be more like the Mesmer scepter or perhaps like the Necro where it just hits every time
- the 2 ability does poor damage, its hardly worth casting, it needs more damage or to apply a nice buff and debuff
- the 3 ability is nice, but it is really designed to be used with the 2 but the damage on the 2 is so bad you are really pushing 2 buttons to maximise the bad damage of one skill… kinda dumb really… the 3 is best used to hold something so that you can then teleport and switch to gs for Spin to Win

Staff – oh how I hate the staff – its support skills are best cast at range but the attack skill is short ranged – its a misfit and you can only use part of the skills at once
- the 2 skill is pretty crappy, for the amount of time it takes to use properly it has very little effect on the outcome
- 3 is a nice skill and I’d probably leave it
- 4 seems nice but its hard to guage if its doing anything
- 5 very situational but some people love it – take a little off the cast time and it would be more useful
- I’d love to see our staff have 4 ground target AOE’s providing conditions and condition removal – much like the Necro has 4 GT skills
- range should be increased to 1200

I kind of like the longbow idea. People keep saying Guardians “aren’t supposed to” this and that yet warrior support healer builds are ok though…even though to me that doesn’t make that much class sense, but i like flexibility in classes so i’m ok with it. we also hear classes are supposed to have all roles yet Guardians are seemingly being pigeonholed into support only. At least half the posts you read are trying to do this when all classes basically heal and can spec defensively.

I’m just going to say it again: RIFLES!

But if the Scepter got improved, I’d be just as happy. (Okay, maybe slightly less happy.)

the scepter did get improved. See if you can spot the difference.

and the scepter 2 ability has always been the most damaging combo of any skill; look at the base stats.

Scepter 2 is very damaging in theory, but not every projectile hits, and it doesn’t all hit one target. However, the very low cooldown makes up for this.

Scepter 3 is fine.

Scepter auto-attack projectiles just needs to be faster. If you use it in melee range, it’s the fastest autoattack by far, but one of the slowest if you use at max range. That makes the scepter actually a better melee weapon than a ranged one… If they make it like they did with the mesmer scepter, I’d be pretty happy.

I am okay with the scepter, it does its job okay. It’s just not very exciting to use.

fix mesmer scepter? please its still absolute trash lol.

I wouldn’t mind having a longbow (or even a crossbow for that matter) in my arsenal. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything “wrong” with the staff, I just feel silly walking around as a wall of iron… with a kitten staff in my hand. There are possibly tons of cool guardian-ish (abusing the English language ftw) things they can do with/to a longbow. And I cannot see why a longbow/xbow wouldn’t suit a guardian.

the scepter is actually pertty darn strong i feel. as someone said, it’s not a full on ranged weapon but more of a support or surpress fire ranged wep if you will. but at mid range, or even close range, it deals a LOT of dmg. so the scepter isn’t broken per se, it’s only if you want to use it like rangers use bows.

which goes back to the reason for this thread. i agree a ranged bow would be pretty frigging cool. and one of the BIGGEST well, issues, is that our spirit weapon has a bow, so why not for our actual arsenal of weapons to choose from?

Just having a little fun here:
1) Rays of Light / Auto-attack / chain attack / 1200 range – shoots bolts of energy from bow, up to 4 chains, each increasing slightly in dmg, if all 4 shots connect (with any mob, no need same target), 5th shot hits on an aoe blind and burns
2) Focused Arrow / blast finisher / stationary / 1200 range – suspends bow in midair sideways in front of characer and uses both hands to pull on the bow and release a stream of blue flames, burns mobs, maybe can pierce as well
3) Chains of Judgment / tiny charge-up / 900 range – a blast of energy that cripples up to three foes. “activate” energy chains to bring enemies closer or in (increased cooldown if activated)
4) Merciful Downpour (Shower? lol) / gound-targeting / 600 range – shoot up in a small arc a round of healing areas, AoE effect, can either heal for a bit over time, 5 seconds? or heals for a bit more but in one go
5) Wrathful Dome / 600 range – create a dome around you that absorbs projectiles, lasts for 5 seconds, activate again to release dmg absored back out in random directions

I’m a scepter dps and it works fine for me and i would rage if theychanged any of the skills – bar number 1

Give the staff 1200rng and dmg like the great sword xD
No tbh if staff got longer range you could easily pull tooo much in pve xD
Maybe increase the orb of scepter or just make it a lightning strike from the sky so there was no projectile..
Or at least make it a projectile.. Add symbol to smite:)
Oh and chance shield and focus 5 ability xD even though I love shield 5, it just seems weird that focus block:D

There are only a few minor changes that need to be made to sceptre for it to be a viable ranged weapon.

1) The projectile speed needs to be increased. The first skill needs to be a chain skill. Damage/damage/condition. Not sure which condition. Burning would be the thematic choice, but we already do enough burning. Maybe weakness.

2) Smite needs to be changed into Symbol of Smiting, so it can take advantage of a number of traits. Each tick needs to do damage and give allies might. Give us a bit of an offensive boost for a change.

3) This skill is pretty good, although I think it could do with 5 stacks of vulnerability rather than 3.

@Toast:
1) My idea was to increase the projectile speed and give it a short cast-time. Weakness and Vulnerability could both fit, but my idea was to make the last one a projectile finisher.
2) This is obvious and it’s weird that it isn’t like this already.
3) This skill is perfectly fine and actually pretty powerful.

I do like the idea of the Guardian getting a longbow, but I never gave the idea much thought. I imagine Anet just doesn’t want Guardians dealing out reliable damage at range, while protected by a Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger. Sanctuary has a short duration, long cooldown, and doesn’t reflect attacks, so I doubt they care about that one much. I would make the Guardian longbow attacks do something around 50% less damage if it passes though a Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger, that you own not anyone elses.

@Ynna:

If they don’t make the skill a chain, then that’s not a bad idea. That being said, it should be a 20% projectile finisher even on a chain.

Scepter ’s already strong. Dmg is similar to other range weapons so far.
with other tools guardian has , there is no need to change anything.

I really dont see how you guys can see the scepter as a “fire suppresser”. All other classes with ranged, which is all other classes, can move out of the way and hit your team mates without suppressing them. Suppressing fire would be something that would attack fast have a fast cast animation but not do that much damage but over time if you there to take it you would feel its effects to scare someone off.

That slow ball doesnt do anything in any type of gameplay unless your right on the target and with that being the case you might as well just have a sword or mace with an offhand. If your doing DE’s the root doesnt work on any of the champions, so you cant land anything else, your only option is a staff if you want to do ranged because most of the people with slows dont know how to use their slows to slow things like the champion risen abomination.

Scepter #1 needs a rework, it doesnt take skill to dodge it, cant really be used in DE farming, and in pvp the only useful combo would be root, smite, switch weapon. If you cant use all the abilities effectively then its a poor design.

there are other classes that don’t have a nice melee option neither.

so what ?

I can’t think of a class that’s mele option is as bad as the scepter. Ranger, ele, necro can all deal some damage in mele range. Guardians can not at 1200. The whole orb idea was dumb.

@Jongi:
Nicely said. I wholeheartedly agree.

@punny:
1) damage isn’t the issue, usability and synergy are the issues.

2) If you’re referring to engineer, rifle has several good close range skills, not to mention they have several kits that work well in melee and mid-range.

Punny.9210:

Scepter ’s already strong. Dmg is similar to other range weapons so far.
with other tools guardian has , there is no need to change anything.

I agree with you, the scepter doesn’t need more damage, it needs less damage and either homing or higher projectile speed for it to be effective at a longer range than 600.

Punny.9210:

there are other classes that don’t have a nice melee option neither.

so what ?

Are you trying to say that there are classes that are as ineffective at dealing damage at melee range (130) against a moving target, as a guardian is at long range (900+) range against a moving target? That’s not true.

Are you trying to say that since the Engineer’s Tool Kit sucks, for example, we shouldn’t have a reliable long range weapon? That’s a pretty weak argument.

I’m not in huge support of gaining a longbow, although it would be cool, but I don’t think you can try to argue that our damage at 900+ is as effective against moving targets as others.

I share the sentiment towards this issue as many others that at 900+ range we can either find a way to get closer, or fall back and support others. However, that should be a player’s choice, rather than be limited in that manner.

if Scepter hit as fast as rifle then there is no need to play other classes lool my scepter 1# hit around 1500 – 2000

and if u actually played engi melee necro melee or Ele melee u would know spaming ur scepter is a lot of easier while u already have awesome Melee option unless u suck at it .

1,5k-2k autoattack.. Is that in WvWvW? Or else a picture to prove your point would be nice. Imho I think there are too many random number on the forums.

Staff is mainly a support weapon. The wide arc is good, but it has a lot of issues with missing targets that are point blank. Damage is meh, not worth using as a primary weapon. It’s really good for attacking people through doors though. Line of warding can stop an entire raid in their tracks.

Punny.9210:

if Scepter hit as fast as rifle then there is no need to play other classes lool my scepter 1# hit around 1500 – 2000

You didn’t even read our posts, did you?

Punny.9210:

and if u actually played engi melee necro melee or Ele melee u would know spaming ur scepter is a lot of easier while u already have awesome Melee option unless u suck at it .

What are you talking about? Seriously, I don’t know what point you’re trying to make here, but yeah, I’ve played those classes.

I’ve always thought that it was stupid that scepter #2 isn’t a symbol. In fact, when I started playing my guardian, I saw the ability and was like “oh cool, another symbol” and then had to do a double take when I noticed that it wasn’t. I mean come on, if Anet isn’t going to give us a better ranged weapon option, then the least they could do is increase the utility of the scepter. The damage increase trait for scepters is in the Zeal trait line for crying out loud! You know, the one with all the symbol minor traits in it? So why doesn’t the scepter have a symbol to synergize it with Zeal? It’s like Anet was going to make scepter #2 a symbol, but at the last minute removed the symbol status and just changed it into a damage ability. Some of their design ideas for guardian are pretty messed up.