I used a spirit weapon today
To wreck somebody with spirit weapons, you need to invest heavily in Condition Damage, Burn Duration, Aoe Aegis, AoE Retal, AoE Blind, have at least one way to immobilize your foe, and have a way to repeatedly cripple your foe. It can be done.
Most Guardians take Virtues for decent burning. Burning Spirit weapons provide an alternative way to dish out AoE burning damage… for 30 seconds at a time. They also serve as allies to put AoE Retaliation and F1 burning buff on when you are by yourself. The majority of the time, the spirit weapon skill is a waste on your bar because it is sticking around when it isn’t needed, is on a long cooldown, takes a long time to resummon, then takes time chasing your target. And when you do activate a command skill, it often misses (Sword) or falls short (hammer).
There are niche uses. The shield bubble is really good at projectile defense if you can get the hang of where it will activate. The bow on a healing build can fill the screen with green numbers in a WvW chokepoint.
To wreck somebody with spirit weapons, you need to invest heavily in Condition Damage, Burn Duration, Aoe Aegis, AoE Retal, AoE Blind, have at least one way to immobilize your foe, and have a way to repeatedly cripple your foe. It can be done.
Most Guardians take Virtues for decent burning. Burning Spirit weapons provide an alternative way to dish out AoE burning damage… for 30 seconds at a time. They also serve as allies to put AoE Retaliation and F1 burning buff on when you are by yourself. The majority of the time, the spirit weapon skill is a waste on your bar because it is sticking around when it isn’t needed, is on a long cooldown, takes a long time to resummon, then takes time chasing your target. And when you do activate a command skill, it often misses (Sword) or falls short (hammer).
There are niche uses. The shield bubble is really good at projectile defense if you can get the hang of where it will activate. The bow on a healing build can fill the screen with green numbers in a WvW chokepoint.
While they may do decent burn damage the spirit weapons are still easily killed
The guardian also effectively loses most of their personal sustain, condition cleanses etc…
This means skilled players will kill them easily or just toy with them & in any group setting the guardian will be easily mowed down.
Anet really should just scrap the current iteration of spirit weapons and either make them into a mix of traited banners/turrets or a copy paste of ele conjure weapons (with a timer instead of a weapon use counter & for the guardian only)
^^ exactly that is my issue. You use spirit weapons, you lose half of your defensive abilities. The pay off? 30 seconds of having a summon.
If weapons really have to stay like this, ArenaNet at least make them at least twice as fast so they never miss their target. However, in my opinion, spirit weapons deserve a major overhaul – and not by deleting them and giving them to a future specialisation. The way we operate them is fine, but they need to be faster, last until they die and have some stunbreak/boon/ anything that adds some mechanic. And bow should shoot enemies…healing volley as a command is fine. Shield needs to be quicker and stick to the guardian and they should be able to move while they cast the deflective bubble
no, spirit weapons in their current iteration is NOT fine and never WILL be fine.
they’ll either remain worthless or buffed to such ridiculous levels that they’re essentially turret engies 2.0
having AI play for you is bad game design. spirit weapons in GW1 enhanced your attacks with different functionality (giving AoE damage, armor piercing, life steal etc)
Shiro’s heal is a step in the right direction of what spirit weapons should do.
Darknicrofia Sage – Bad Gerdian, Merciless Legend, Platinum NA Solo Que
Spirit weapons could easily be balanced so they were helpful without being overpowered. Anet will never invest the time in doing so though.
Only two spirit weapons have uses:
- Shield – for reflection / aegis / stun break; especially helpful on Uncategorized / Volcano fractals
- Bow – for condition cleanse – it’s an area cleanse that activates every 5s, for removal of 4 conditions – useful on Volcano fractal, where burn is applied fairly often
no, spirit weapons in their current iteration is NOT fine and never WILL be fine.
they’ll either remain worthless or buffed to such ridiculous levels that they’re essentially turret engies 2.0
having AI play for you is bad game design. spirit weapons in GW1 enhanced your attacks with different functionality (giving AoE damage, armor piercing, life steal etc)
Shiro’s heal is a step in the right direction of what spirit weapons should do.
I am all for this. Rather then adding more AI, we should look at what the Ritualist were given in Guild Wars 1.
Skills such as Splinter Weapon For the Spirit Bow http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Splinter_Weapon
Skills like Great Dwarf Weapon for the Spirit Hammer http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Great_Dwarf_Weapon
Spirit Sword
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon_of_Aggression
Kinda like the Shield as it is for high end fractals, but http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Xinrae%27s_Weapon or
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon_of_Remedy maybe?
“We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville.”
no, spirit weapons in their current iteration is NOT fine and never WILL be fine.
they’ll either remain worthless or buffed to such ridiculous levels that they’re essentially turret engies 2.0
having AI play for you is bad game design. spirit weapons in GW1 enhanced your attacks with different functionality (giving AoE damage, armor piercing, life steal etc)
Shiro’s heal is a step in the right direction of what spirit weapons should do.
I am all for this. Rather then adding more AI, we should look at what the Ritualist were given in Guild Wars 1.
Skills such as Splinter Weapon For the Spirit Bow http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Splinter_Weapon
Skills like Great Dwarf Weapon for the Spirit Hammer http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Great_Dwarf_Weapon
Spirit Sword
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon_of_AggressionKinda like the Shield as it is for high end fractals, but http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Xinrae%27s_Weapon or
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon_of_Remedy maybe?
I have been suggesting something like this for quite some time.
Make them something that cannot be killed and provides a stat buff to nearby allies while out (single stat) while providing a secondary buff to or around the guardian.
They would need a decent up time to be worth it however.
I’m much more in favor of the current spirit weapons all being removed and reworked in a future elite spec.
Doing so would also free up another grandmaster trait slot where something actually useful could take its place
Darknicrofia Sage – Bad Gerdian, Merciless Legend, Platinum NA Solo Que
I also use Spirit Weapons in my build even though Dmg right out sucks. I hope one day Guardian will get a boost to Spirit Weapons because it fits my theme of my character.