Guild Wars 2

If you think the guardian could be much more, feel like the virtues aren’t enough, or are just bored and want to talk about crazy ideas, this is your thread. Talk about anything you want, no limits.

So, just for fun, how would you redesign the guardian?

Few personal ideas to start the thread:

Idea 1 – Virtue customization

Virtues feel very limited, and they don’t really adapt to your builds, not even dragonhunter ones. So, what if each virtue had some variations, and we decided which ones to use? Kinda like rangers can customize their pets. Then every elite specialization would add 3 new virtues, that could be locked to that elite spec or available for the entire profession, depending how far we go.

Some examples of the new virtue categories. Not that all of them would have a passive and active effect. The passive effect could be the same, or change depending on the family:

• Signet virtues: The three originals we now have at the core profession. Would have traits to let you keep the passive effect even if the active effect is on cooldown.
• Symbol virtues: Based on symbols.
• Shield virtues: Based on wards and consecrations. Dragonhunter Shield of Courage would be moved here.
• Spear virtues: Dragonhunter exclusive. Spear of Justice would be moved here.
• Wing virtues: Wings of Courage would be moved here. Saved for another elite specialization, something paragon-like. An example here.

So with this model, the virtue bar would effectively become pretty much an extended slot skill bar. Proper categorization of the virtue categories would enhance trait synergy as well.

You would be able to choose one variation for each virtue, from different families if you want too. The dragonhunter and future elite specializations would have the 3 core families and their exclusive family, instead of being locked to the new virtues only.

Idea 2 – Dragonhunter expanded

I think the guardian is pretty solid, and the above idea would pretty much make it perfect for me, but when I look at the dragonhunter, specially after this change, I feel like it could be much more. Even if we disregard the previous idea, that could make him lose some uniqueness, the mechanic skill upgrade of the dragonhunter feels far too simple in comparison with the guardian.

The dragonhunter needs something more than just the existing three virtues, and if it respects the original playstyle, even better.

A simple solution would be to give him a fourth virtue, in F4, called wrath, with a new effect, that applies cripple every few attacks, inspired by the Zealot’s Aggression trait (dragonhunter traits would be balanced accordingly). If we follow the previous idea, wrath would have 4 different versions to choose from (signet, symbol, shield, and spear). If not, it would have a single skill.

I think this could make him stand out from the guardian a bit better, and keep him unique enough for the future, when we get new elite specializations with crazy mechanic skills, like pets, transformations, or whatever.

Just some random ideas to begin the thread. Waiting for yours!

…

Full list of redesign threads:

Elementalist – Mesmer – Necromancer

Engineer – Ranger – Thief

Guardian – Revenant – Warrior

Remove revenant entirely. Swap guardian’s virtues with glint’s facets.
JK.
I will not speak about pvp cause i’ve lost the idea on what is going on there thanks to the HoT’s powercreep.

-Virtue of courage should have a trait that gives its passive effect to every1 in party. Same thing with virtue of justice. Making it baseline would be too much i guess.
-Redesign all minor traits in Valor line. Seriously. They feel like crap. Maybe even throw some movement speed over there.
-Remove duration limit on spirit weapons. They are crap in all game modes, at least turn them into equivalent of MM necro. That would be at least fun for some new players.
-Remove Radiant Retaliation trait. It was always buggy and even if it wasnt, nobody would use it because of the other GM trait in the same line which is Amplified Wrath that is simply better. It would also give some love to that spec line since it has literally no good GM traits for power build (who the hell is using any other signet than Bane’s passive anyway).
-Reduce cast time and aftercast on hammer skills, maybe not AA chain cause it is already superstrong, but #4 banish and #5 ring of warding are really painful to use mid-fight.
-Redesign signet’s active effects. Resolve is fine, gives large heal and condi clear on fair interval. The rest of them dont really synergize with themselves. Bane gives knockdown on single target which is really lame (make it aoe maybe or turn it into "increase the damage of teammates by X% for 5 seconds). Wrath gives immobilization (guard is not a necro but if i lose a bonus condi dmg then i want to at least trade it for some nasty condi bomb, like Xstacks of burning+something). Mercy should be a 5-target skill to be considered useful and Courage should have either shorter passive interval or instant active.
-Give us ANY KIND OF SYMBOL for underwater weapon. Be it spear or trident i dont care, just throw me ANYTHING and i will take it.

Originally it was guardians who had the cooldown free, energy driven design which was given to thieves. I’d have loved that. Not likely to get it now though.

If I could ask for one thing there might be a snowflake’s chance in hell of actually getting, it would be a change to spirit weapons. They’re very cool looking but it gets tedious resummoning them constantly so I rarely use them when I do play my guardian which is very rarely lately. And having to cycle between sword and hammer isn’t ideal, especially with hammer’s knockback. Knockback is sometimes great but more often annoying.

So give us the inherent or traited ability to perma summon spirit weapons. Or even just perma summon one spirit weapon in the elite slot.

Caeledh.5437:

Originally it was guardians who had the cooldown free, energy driven design which was given to thieves. I’d have loved that. Not likely to get it now though.

I’d love it if that concept got brought back in an elite spec or something.

I think DH is in a decent spot right now. The damage is very decent, they’re very survivable and can still bring the few worthwhile support skills the core guardian brought. It’s exactly as advertised pre-hot, a selfish dps spec.

For the future I just hope new e-specs will fill in a new niche. 3 things come to mind: Offensive support (like warrior, rev), A worthwhile healer (not completely outmatched by druid and their grace of the land) and an actual condi build. I don’t rly care which one they’re going for as long as it continues to have a decent meta spot.

As for what I believe needs a change asap: The greatsword. For the longest time the GS was THE dps weapon. The burst was amazingly good and combined with a second set for CD down time guardian had an actual rotation and decent dmg. However the HoT powercreep combined with long fights made it rather insignificant. Since it’s still my favourite weapon and I feel the class would be more interesting to play if it wasn’t just symbol spam and aa-ing I’d love to see a cd reduction on it. A 16sec cd (traited) on the symbol just isn’t viable anymore.

cranos.5913:

A worthwhile healer (not completely outmatched by druid and their grace of the land) and an actual condi build.

Concerning the worthwhile healer part, Guardian healing suffers from 2 major problems:
1) 5 person cap on boons destroys Guardian healing because you can not target specific people with your aegis. Try healing fractal 100 challenge mode as a Guardian, the aegis spam seems near broken against the final boss and combined with “Stand your Ground” you can basically ignore 80% of his attacks.
2) Ever healer (Ele, Rev, Engi, Guardian) suffers and is not viable because of Grace of the Land. The true fix to this problem if Anet really wanted viability for other healers would be to remove it from the game or let buffs hit 10 people (which would fix Guardian healing problem #1).

And concerning a condition DPS spec, if they made spirit weapons last forever like necromancer minions, you’d have a Zeal, Radiance, Virtues build for condition damage using both the sword and hammer to put on 8s of burning each time they attacked (4s baseline and with burn duration 8s, though I might be wrong and it’s 3/6s). They could also touch up torch 5 and make it give out 1s or ever 0.5s of burning per damage tick. Also if the change to VoJ makes its way to PvE from PvP that would help too.

Azoqu.8917:

cranos.5913:

A worthwhile healer (not completely outmatched by druid and their grace of the land) and an actual condi build.

Concerning the worthwhile healer part, Guardian healing suffers from 2 major problems:
1) 5 person cap on boons destroys Guardian healing because you can not target specific people with your aegis. Try healing fractal 100 challenge mode as a Guardian, the aegis spam seems near broken against the final boss and combined with “Stand your Ground” you can basically ignore 80% of his attacks.
2) Ever healer (Ele, Rev, Engi, Guardian) suffers and is not viable because of Grace of the Land. The true fix to this problem if Anet really wanted viability for other healers would be to remove it from the game or let buffs hit 10 people (which would fix Guardian healing problem #1).

And concerning a condition DPS spec, if they made spirit weapons last forever like necromancer minions, you’d have a Zeal, Radiance, Virtues build for condition damage using both the sword and hammer to put on 8s of burning each time they attacked (4s baseline and with burn duration 8s, though I might be wrong and it’s 3/6s). They could also touch up torch 5 and make it give out 1s or ever 0.5s of burning per damage tick. Also if the change to VoJ makes its way to PvE from PvP that would help too.

I guess. I was mostly talking about a new e-spec there tbf. From core guard the only thing I really want is the GS change. A condi build where AI does the work for me sounds like a snoozefest.

cranos.5913:

I think DH is in a decent spot right now. The damage is very decent, they’re very survivable and can still bring the few worthwhile support skills the core guardian brought. It’s exactly as advertised pre-hot, a selfish dps spec.

For the future I just hope new e-specs will fill in a new niche. 3 things come to mind: Offensive support (like warrior, rev), A worthwhile healer (not completely outmatched by druid and their grace of the land) and an actual condi build. I don’t rly care which one they’re going for as long as it continues to have a decent meta spot.

As for what I believe needs a change asap: The greatsword. For the longest time the GS was THE dps weapon. The burst was amazingly good and combined with a second set for CD down time guardian had an actual rotation and decent dmg. However the HoT powercreep combined with long fights made it rather insignificant. Since it’s still my favourite weapon and I feel the class would be more interesting to play if it wasn’t just symbol spam and aa-ing I’d love to see a cd reduction on it. A 16sec cd (traited) on the symbol just isn’t viable anymore.

Pre-hot adverts also said that they would gain much needed movement speed and mobility. Instead they got a rooted true shot and rooted lb 5, and the only class without 25% movement speed. And no new sources of swiftness.

Azoqu.8917:

Concerning the worthwhile healer part, Guardian healing suffers from 2 major problems:

I think the biggest problem with healer guardians in general is that they don’t have a weapon properly dedicated to healing. The staff kind of only goes half-way in that regard since 20% of it is dedicated to farming and 20% of it is dedicated to swiftness-botting. Another issue with it is that the guardian’s healing utilities are spread out across every skill category, so traiting isn’t made easy in that regard.
In PvP specifically, I feel like the biggest issue is the range limitation to some of their abilities. A full healer/support guardian doesn’t last long if they get caught out supporting their allies from 400-600 range.

Spirit weapons being fixed would probably lead to a great condition build. The spirit weapon grandmaster trait is really good; it’s just too bad that spirit weapons themselves are so flawed.
Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Azoqu.8917:

Concerning the worthwhile healer part, Guardian healing suffers from 2 major problems:

I think the biggest problem with healer guardians in general is that they don’t have a weapon properly dedicated to healing. The staff kind of only goes half-way in that regard since 20% of it is dedicated to farming and 20% of it is dedicated to swiftness-botting. Another issue with it is that the guardian’s healing utilities are spread out across every skill category, so traiting isn’t made easy in that regard.
In PvP specifically, I feel like the biggest issue is the range limitation to some of their abilities. A full healer/support guardian doesn’t last long if they get caught out supporting their allies from 400-600 range.

Spirit weapons being fixed would probably lead to a great condition build. The spirit weapon grandmaster trait is really good; it’s just too bad that spirit weapons themselves are so flawed.
Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

Anything but the ridiculously name dragonhunter spec will be fine. Make it a condiboat just don’t make it roflhunter.

Gwaihir.1745:

Pre-hot adverts also said that they would gain much needed movement speed and mobility. Instead they got a rooted true shot and rooted lb 5, and the only class without 25% movement speed. And no new sources of swiftness.

We got wings man. Crazy mobility. :>

In all fairness I kind of expected a 25% movement speed trait. Doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon. I guess they really just meant the 1 extra leap.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

How so? Afaik the leak in question only called the new spec “purifier” and said we would get an axe. Purifier kind of sounds like the opposite of condi cancer. (I’d be pro getting an axe tho)

Fashion Mage.3712:

I’d love it if that concept got brought back in an elite spec or something.

Yeah that’s a possibility. Potentially a lot of work though since they’d need to rebalance all existing guardian weapon and / or utilities to work off energy.

I’d love it. But then I’d never play any other guardian elite spec.

Fashion Mage.3712:

I think the biggest problem with healer guardians in general is that they don’t have a weapon properly dedicated to healing.

Mace. Especially with shield.

I know a lot of people poop all over regeneration but symbol of faith’s regen is 5 stacks. Geared for healing that can be 1300+ health per second.

And protector’s strike is the ultimate in preventative health.

The guardian doesn’t really need a redesign what needs more than anything is rework to some degree to it’s trait line to give greater synergy on the various trait lines as has been done on the ranger and some of the other classes with a little work on the staff to improve it’s utility . Personally I would like the Symbol of Swiftness to just give the speed buff straight to the guardian in full and Symbol placed on the ground would be there to help his team mates those removing the guardian dance while trying to run and place it then making sure to run through and possibly something additional for the Line of Warding (buff, condition I’m not sure just something to give more utility being as you can just roll dodge thru it). Other than that I would like us to have access to another condition or a water field and one more blast finisher somewhere .

How would you redesign the guardian?

Would remove traps and bow….or maybe leave bow and change wards in place of traps, the DH virtues are very good and easy to counter if not figthing against the traditional gw2 brainless player.
No more aoe damage utilities i would like to see many players dropping from being carried against bad players.

Buff shouts traits and stronger shouts (other classes have better boon stuff)and guardian needs boons to get stronger, does not makes sense what Anet is doing as usual.
Anet borked up the class so traps could be forced to be accepted since not many players liked the inital elite speck, Anet forced the situation, i would increase the class to force 2 vs 1 situations since they offer low damage, and could increase their support ally role since its weak as well.
I dont like how save yourselves work, sometimes we overstack so much condis we dont have time to use Contemplation of Purity.

Issue with this game lack of balance, it that some classes could do and some still can do the offensive speck while in defensive stats… that needs to be adressed.

Would make toughness or healing more valuable (for defensive builds with low support)since Guardian with toughness has low surviability and VERY LOW damage. they sacrifice to much for what they do even weak on team support.

Make Spirit weapons being damage only by conditions, increase the burn damage from SW, and probably increase Sword and Hammer walking speed.
Also fix the SW Bow that isnot a damage weapon still shoots against the enemy and ive seen removing condition from enemy…. when it tryed to atack the enemy…

Make santuary really big like Shield dome that would reduce damage by X% and put it in elite consecration.
Add new minor consecration also based on sanctuary while keeping the smaller version and shorter duration and shorter CD.

Signet elite is awfull for the game… as well, its not hard to balance all skills to be used in every game type yet anet doesnt want to or fails to.

Reduce CD on staff 5 skill, or probably make it a 2-3 seconds absortion wall as well with the 25-30sec CD while it stills stop enemies movement.

I’d give them that Revenant trait that steals HP when you hit an enemy from the side or behind… Hehehe

cranos.5913:

Gwaihir.1745:

Pre-hot adverts also said that they would gain much needed movement speed and mobility. Instead they got a rooted true shot and rooted lb 5, and the only class without 25% movement speed. And no new sources of swiftness.

We got wings man. Crazy mobility. :>

In all fairness I kind of expected a 25% movement speed trait. Doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon. I guess they really just meant the 1 extra leap.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

How so? Afaik the leak in question only called the new spec “purifier” and said we would get an axe. Purifier kind of sounds like the opposite of condi cancer. (I’d be pro getting an axe tho)

purify by fire ;-)

megilandil.7506:

cranos.5913:

Gwaihir.1745:

Pre-hot adverts also said that they would gain much needed movement speed and mobility. Instead they got a rooted true shot and rooted lb 5, and the only class without 25% movement speed. And no new sources of swiftness.

We got wings man. Crazy mobility. :>

In all fairness I kind of expected a 25% movement speed trait. Doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon. I guess they really just meant the 1 extra leap.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

How so? Afaik the leak in question only called the new spec “purifier” and said we would get an axe. Purifier kind of sounds like the opposite of condi cancer. (I’d be pro getting an axe tho)

purify by fire ;-)

I would hope that if we do get a condi elite spec it consists of more than just burning tho.

cranos.5913:

megilandil.7506:

cranos.5913:

Gwaihir.1745:

Pre-hot adverts also said that they would gain much needed movement speed and mobility. Instead they got a rooted true shot and rooted lb 5, and the only class without 25% movement speed. And no new sources of swiftness.

We got wings man. Crazy mobility. :>

In all fairness I kind of expected a 25% movement speed trait. Doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon. I guess they really just meant the 1 extra leap.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

How so? Afaik the leak in question only called the new spec “purifier” and said we would get an axe. Purifier kind of sounds like the opposite of condi cancer. (I’d be pro getting an axe tho)

purify by fire ;-)

I would hope that if we do get a condi elite spec it consists of more than just burning tho.

i will hope redesigning of all condi builds to be more like guardian, one max two condis with max presure in it than the actual high spamming of different low condis that have other clases. that will give a more balanced condi play

megilandil.7506:

cranos.5913:

megilandil.7506:

cranos.5913:

Gwaihir.1745:

Pre-hot adverts also said that they would gain much needed movement speed and mobility. Instead they got a rooted true shot and rooted lb 5, and the only class without 25% movement speed. And no new sources of swiftness.

We got wings man. Crazy mobility. :>

In all fairness I kind of expected a 25% movement speed trait. Doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon. I guess they really just meant the 1 extra leap.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Either way, If the leaks are anything to go by, guardians will be getting a condition cancer elite spec by the next expansion. Not that I’m excited at all for that.

How so? Afaik the leak in question only called the new spec “purifier” and said we would get an axe. Purifier kind of sounds like the opposite of condi cancer. (I’d be pro getting an axe tho)

purify by fire ;-)

I would hope that if we do get a condi elite spec it consists of more than just burning tho.

i will hope redesigning of all condi builds to be more like guardian, one max two condis with max presure in it than the actual high spamming of different low condis that have other clases. that will give a more balanced condi play

If they would do that they’d have to rebalance all condi cleanse on most classes as well in order for them to be slightly useful in pvp tho. I’m not necessarily against it mind you, I just think it’s highly unlikely.

For me thats relatively easy

Guardian and DH are both in a good spot, not the best at any certain aspect, but good.

There are some things and reworks I would like to see to spice it up and make it more fun though.

Most definetly and absolutely: Gimme Spear and Trident or their equivalents on Land instead of just underwater !!!!!!

Seriously, they are good weapons, 1 utility, 1 melee with some unique mechanics, just adjust them to function on land and off we go !

Rework some stuff that is underused. It is underused for good reasons. It either falls short and fell more behind as everything else got buffed via HoT powercreep, or just kinda sucks in general. Scepter, torch, mace come to mind. Yes these have some situational build and situational uses, but they need to be viable in more general gameplay. Not going into specific issues because they are the same ones that were there since forever and have been brought up and discussed many times in the past. But these along with some traits etc. just need a rework.

The questions is not how to redesign Guardian but why? Guardian does have weakness and some weapons/skills are outdated, but overall, it is the most versatile class with the most options. It is also effective in every game mode.

If there is a redesign needed Rev are right there —-—→

otto.5684:

The questions is not how to redesign Guardian but why? Guardian does have weakness and some weapons/skills are outdated, but overall, it is the most versatile class with the most options. It is also effective in every game mode.

If there is a redesign needed Rev are right there —-—->

While valid, you missed the point a bit. The opening posts clearly states that this thread is purely for fun (i.e. even if a profession does not or would not need a redesign for valid reasons at the moment). So the “for fun” part is the answer for the why question.

No class needs a redesign, particularly not Guardian.
However, plenty could use various touch-ups. Here’s what I’d do for Guardian:

• Spirit Weapons live until killed. Shield’s AA and active attacks are swapped. Bow gets a nominal damaging attack.
• Add nominal healing to Staff 1
• Increase heal scaling on a few particular healing skills, like passive VoR when combined with Battle Presence and Zealous Blade.
• Nominally lower some aftercast/cast time from Hammer (2, 4, 5)
• Nominally lower some aftercast/cast time from Greatsword (4, 5)
• Give Longbow 5 current ward mechanics (affects everyone, but 10 target limit)

Condi is pretty decent, especially if the VoJ change (and the aforementioned Spirit Weapon wishes) goes game-wide. Healing is actually not that bad either, its just lacking a niche place of use. There probably some other things I’d like to touch-up, but I can’t think of them right now.

Here’s what I would change.

1. Take permanent party protection away from just the hammer and give it to all weapons. 1 way to do this is to have Writ of Persistence give protection to allies instead of healing allies, then make every #1 weapon skill give their associated symbol like hammer has, finally change the hammer’s symbol so it isn’t redundant. Of course this would come with some nerfs to some symbols.

2. Substantially buff strength in numbers. 1 way to do this is to let the Guardian give a percentage of its Toughness and/or Vitality and/or Concentration to the party. As damage is more important than defense in GW2 the buff needs to be great enough to justify a damage loss for the party.

3. Change virtues so they aren’t identical to signets mechanically. DH did this a bit, but they’re still too much like signets in my opinion. 1 way this could be done is to make it so you can deactivate a virtue passive if you want but gain a shorter cooldown to use the active more frequently. In addition, make it so you can deactivate the virtue active if you want (making it unusable) but gain a stronger passive effect. Switching modes like this would have to be done out of combat.

4. Give every weapon (that doesn’t have one) a parry mechanic of sorts. Grant retaliation or perhaps stability to allies if the parry is successful. In the case of Longbow’s Deflecting Shot, remove the increase in damage and increase the stacks of retaliation or stability for each projectile destroyed.

5. Give Guardian more access to Resistance for allies. Perhaps change signet of resolve’s passive from curing a condition from yourself to granting resistance to yourself and allies.

Basically make Guardian fill its role as a guard/defender/protector for the party as best as possible and in such a way to move it away from a dps meta.

I’d love to give them more capabilities for stable boon share, because this is what they were made for, not Revenant.
Perhaps tomes as kits for some more interesting rotations, some kind of a mechanic that is similar to what Berserker and Druid offers (instead of tomes if it’s possible)
Also give them something extra for symbols, make’em follow a guardian like warrior’s fire field on torch.

What about a spirit weapon redesign, where instead of being this dumb minions, they are addons that attack together with you?

They would stick near to you (kinda like gyros) and only attack when you do, and to the same target, with their slot skill providing an extra skill. Maybe even remove them as minions you can target, and make them a visual effect like the function gyro.

Check this original artwork. Here it looks like the spirit weapons are an extension of the guardian, instead of autonomous individual entities.

So, when you summon the sword, it appears, floating behind you, chained to you. Now, when you attack, the sword attacks too, but it won’t move from its position near you, and the enemy won’t be able to target it.

The extra skill provided once summoned could be redesigned to provide additional utility, instead of just stronger attacks. The idea is to make spirit weapons a small but constant dps boost.

These new spirit weapons could last forever, disappear after a while, or disappear once you use the special skill.

As for the two missing spirit weapons, a few ideas:

• Healing: A spirit chalice or a censer, which provides passive healing to all nearby allies. Special skill heals for a considerable amount, but deactivates the passive bonus.
• Elite: A spirit spear or lance, which cuts through enemies. Special skill fires the lance to the enemy target, knocking him down and then immobilizing him as well.

Tongku.5326:

Most definetly and absolutely: Gimme Spear and Trident or their equivalents on Land instead of just underwater !!!!!!

Seriously, they are good weapons, 1 utility, 1 melee with some unique mechanics, just adjust them to function on land and off we go !

Dual 1h spears need to happen, for the core profession. They could provide the much needed ranged weapons we’re missing now. Trident could be saved for a later paragon-like elite specialization, still 2h.

Rodzynald.5897:

I’d love to give them more capabilities for stable boon share, because this is what they were made for, not Revenant.
Perhaps tomes as kits for some more interesting rotations, some kind of a mechanic that is similar to what Berserker and Druid offers (instead of tomes if it’s possible)
Also give them something extra for symbols, make’em follow a guardian like warrior’s fire field on torch.

I think this would be addressed better through an elite specialization, just like the herald and the druid. Check my Sunspear idea, which is focused on leadership and boon support.

My redesign idea is more of a buff to unused weapons and traitlines in a way that dh won’t benefit from without sacrificing existing strengths. Also stuck some of the weapon buff in traitlines to further limit benefit to dh.

Zeal:

Zealot’s Speed: Change the symbol of wrath it uses to the one on the gs and have its cooldown be affected by gs trait.

Zealous Scepter: Remain as is but add 20% cooldown reduction for scepter.

Symbolic Exposure: Currently this is a really weak trait. One of the main issues with symbols is keeping people in them. I suggest this does cripple instead of vuln.

Binding Jeopardy: Delete this trait. Instead move glacial heart from virtues to this spot. Rename Glacial Smoke, add 3 sec blind to the effect. Replace glacial heart in virtues with virtuous protection, boons you apply to allies reduce damage by 1%.

Zealous Blade: Keep the 5% damage buff and cooldown reduction. Remove the heal on attack. Cause whirling wrath to lose it’s movement penalty or drastically reduce it. Whirling Wrath heals the guard for around 300 health with each hit, but cap the num of heals at 7. This would allow whirling wrath to be a more reliable attack that cant just be walked out of. It would also buff core guard sustain which is needed. Wouldn’t buff DH because they don’t take gs and even if they did they would have to give up virtues or valor to get it.

Kindled Zeal: Dumb trait. Condi trait in power line. If you are running condi you take radiance and don’t have room for zeal anyway. Change to Zealot’s Defense. 10% less damage taken while in symbols. Gives trait option for those not running gs or hammer.

Symbolic Power: Weak trait. 10% damage buff only on a certain type of skill, which does damage over time and can be walked out of. Burning also out of place in a power trait line. Remove burning. Keep 10% buff. Add one sec of quickness on symbol creation.

Symbolic Avenger: 10% damage buff is good. 10% situational damage buff is meh. People immediately leave symbols. I suggest keep current buff but also add a 1.5 sec immob on symbols when in melee range with a 15 sec icd to help keep people in symbols.

Shattered Aegis: Keep current effect. Add 3 sec aegis on symbol creation. 10 sec icd. Trades the utility and potential damage of Symbolic Avenger for defense and immediate damage.

Radiance:

Healer’s Retribution: Keep current effect. Add a small heal to retaliation.

Perfect Inscriptions: Keep current effects. Light Aura now blinds attacker on a 2 sec icd.

Greatsword:

The changes we got recently are a huge step in the right direction. However more needs to be added. Currently this weapon is severely lacking in sustain as well as reliability, with a few lack luster skills.

Auto Chain: Vuln on first, might on second, short cripple on third.

Whirling Wrath: Remove the projectiles. Place half of projectiles damage into the base 7 attacks. Fix bug where only 12 hits are done instead of 14 when using a character besides human male.

Leap of Faith: GS currently lack sustain. Add an evade frame. Perhaps remove blind to compensate.

Symbol of Wrath: Decrease the duration to 3 sec. Keep the damage the same. Pulses 2 stacks of might with a 5 sec duration instead of retaliation.

Binding Blade: Improve the travel speed and reliability of the projectiles. Make the tick damage scale off of power instead of condi.

Hammer:

Auto Chain: Reduce the cast time of the third chain skill.

Mighty Blow: Slightly increase damage.

Zealot’s Embrace: No change.

Banish: Increase number of targets to 3.

Ring of Warding: Allies within ring take 33% less damage.

Virtues F1 to F3:

The active affects of Core Guards virtues are much weaker than DH. To compensate the passives should be stronger.

Virtue of Justice: Attacks to trigger from 5 to 4.

Virtue of Resolve: Improve the passive healing.

Virtue of Courage: Aegis refresh down from 40 sec to 30 sec. When traited in virtues down to 20 sec. And in pvp only, 10% reduced damage as an added passive to help up sustain.

Conclusion:

Let me know what you guys think. My goal was to increase the viability of core guard without buffing DH. Do you think these changes would accomplish that? The main issue is the survivability of core guard. That was my central focus. However I did add some changes to increase the damage to keep up with the crazy damage of DH, as well as some changes to skills to make them more reliable. Looking forward to hearing from you all! I would especially love an Anet Dev to tell me what they think.

Greatsword, hammer and staff skills 3, 4 and 5 speed change to 12, 18, 25.

The 1hands work well.

Add a mace required main/offhand combination

Skill 4 knockback 120
Skill 5 Knockdown 1 second

Chains of light – If target immune create large symbol granting regeneration and aegis 3 second duration 2 pulses.

Orbs of Lights. stops at target location; can be dodged or evaded. Blocked detonates.

Bow homogenizes the class. I won`t use because of a very personal opinion. Guardian (and warrior too) is a heavy armor class. They are the front line. I play it as such. I have a ranger. My engineer satisfies my BWT (boys with toys) need.

Longbow replaced with spear.

skill 1 Guardian – 240 range 180 degree arch in front. Damage. Bleed

skill 2 Guardian`s Will – 240 range. Stab ground. Symbol. Visual effect shock wave

skill 3 Guardian`s Wrath – 240 range 180 degree arch in front. Damage. 360 radius effects guardian and allies burn on next attack.

skill 4 Guardian`s Gift – 240 range 180 degree arch in front. Damage. Grant aegis to you and allies. 360 radius. 6 seconds proc twice

skill 5 Dragonhunter – 1650 range superspeed Leap. Damage. Bleed. Burn. Display DRAGON WINGS for leap. Stability in flight. Locks on target. Can be dodged, blocked or evaded. Dodge breaks lock on.