Guild Wars 2

Hey guys! I’m bored at work, so it’s fun post time!

The question I wanted to ask, for interests sake, is this. If you make just one change on the guardian, what would it be?

You can only list one change, because it’s meant to be your ultimate dream change. It doesn’t matter how strange or it seems, and it can be anything from a change to a trait, or to a skill, or whatever else.

For me personally, the one dream change I’d like to see on a guardian, is for Shelter to be changed to a meditation. If that ever happened, I’d probably explode from the sheer awesomeness of it (litany of wrath is crap anyway).

GIve guardians a trait that increases speed by 25% like Warriors Sprint does for warriors. Then i wont have to be stuck with Traveller runes in WvW.

Guardian mobility sux but Anet will never do it.

Easy, change skills from Focus to Shield and revamp focus skills <3

Giving Shield an actual blocking ability would make my day.

Shield 4 should stay the same but have a launch effect to it so that it is worth the 30 second cooldown.

Shield 5 it would be interesting to have it reflect all attacks for 3 seconds back to it’s opponent and you only take 50% of the damage while the opponent receives the other 50%.

Change aegis visual to not destroy certain shields.

Buff Medi Guard so it can be meta in PvP. I think making MI a teleport should be enough for that, an actual teleport that doesn’t require a ally target to do so should be enough, a way for us to disengage if needed. I want the Guardian to be the support class it is (already meta) but to be also the “magic swordsman” it should be. An actual class with defensive and builds and a offencive one. I want to be able to choose if I want to go full support or full damage be at least viable on both. This is my dream for this class

If leap had a 20,000 yard radius.
I want to fly across the map like superman Goku.

Saiyan.1704:

If leap had a 20,000 yard radius.
I want to fly across the map like superman

or like goku

Hammer and Mace Symbols are no longer light fields. (if we’re dreaming, they’re now fire fields!).

I’d like to see the sword AA get fixed. A cripple on #2 and change #3 so it can’t be reflected. It sucks eating your own melee attack because of ranged defense.

Also…

Spartacus.3192:

GIve guardians a trait that increases speed by 25%.

This…

Farzo.8410:

Change aegis visual to not destroy certain shields.

This…

mPascoal.4258:

I think making MI an actual teleport that doesn’t require a ally target to do

This…

Jerus.4350:

Hammer and Mace Symbols are no longer light fields.

And this are all right up there.

HOWEVER

Guardian of Angels.9867:

Easy, change skills from Focus to Shield and revamp focus skills <3

Just because the shield needs a revamp doesn’t mean the focus needs to be destroyed. Anyways, the shield needs a duration block not the the offensive hybrid shield of wrath of the focus. The blinds don’t fit the shield either. Something like a knockdown added to #4 and a duration block on #5 would suit it much better.

Saiyan.1704:

If leap had a 20,000 yard radius.
I want to fly across the map like superman Goku.

I can just imagine how funny that would look.

“I must go. My guild needs me…”

I would make all the useless minor traits into actually useful ones. Guardian has way too many bad minor traits.

Gaining aegis when health gets to 50% with a long CD is useless and recharging VoC upon rally also silly because it requires you go down.

There’s some other ones that are really, really bad. I’d change them entirely and actually have them grant some CC to a guard. Like a mild chill or cripple. Anything but a situational and rather poor minor like the ones they have now.

give guardian more access to movement impairing conditions.

seriously getting kited to death is bloody stupid

Supreme justice needs to be in adapt slot seriously….virtues builds need to be stronger

Greater mobility (to both keep on target and dis-engage from fights)

Guardians being able to use longbows. Not a ranger-wannabe longbow though, I’m thinking more along the lines of a long-ranged supportive weapon (with decent damage). Kind of like if the trident had decent values, and could be used on land.

Fix all our broken skill facts, once and for all

Gotta agree with the greater mobility.

Or, actually, I wish the hammer felt as nice to use as the greatsword. Which is a kind of nebulous observation to make, just… greatsword FEELS good to use. Hammer feels odd and clunky.

I wish JI and MI (and sword Flashing Blade) were ground-targeted skills…. That’s all

alienfirst.6493:

Gotta agree with the greater mobility.

Or, actually, I wish the hammer felt as nice to use as the greatsword. Which is a kind of nebulous observation to make, just… greatsword FEELS good to use. Hammer feels odd and clunky.

Greater mobility sadly will never happen.

They have stated numerous times they want the guardian to get into a fight &stay until the end, not run away as many other classes can do.
The bad part about this is they do not give the guardian enough tools to stay in melee combat, sure it has a few teleports & 1 or 2 immobilizes but they are all on moderate CD’s and given the other melee specs ability to be mobile, stun/daze/knockback/cripple/chill/etc… spam the guardian ends up being heavily kited. (which is why it’s not as viable in high end PvP as other classes for the melee dps roll)

As for what I would like to see changed, it’s hard to decide where to start.
I have a list around here somewhere with the 20+ useless/badly designed traits, the bad skills/design that make a few of the weapons, utility skills & elites rarely if ever used.
I’ll see if I can find it and post it.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

alienfirst.6493:

Gotta agree with the greater mobility.

Or, actually, I wish the hammer felt as nice to use as the greatsword. Which is a kind of nebulous observation to make, just… greatsword FEELS good to use. Hammer feels odd and clunky.

Greater mobility sadly will never happen.

They have stated numerous times they want the guardian to get into a fight &stay until the end, not run away as many other classes can do.

Well, they can still give guardian 25% movement speed and it wouldn’t effect our disengage. You don’t see traveler runes giving us the edge to get away. Something like merciful intervention not needing allies or judge’s intervention with ground targeting on the other hand would give us a disengage and to that I agree that it won’t happen.

If 25% movement speed on guardian is such a terrible thing, then we shouldn’t be able to equip traveler runes at all. It’s a contradiction to give us an option on runes but not through natural means of traits/signets.

Fix Radiant Retaliation! For awhile now it is 100% broken and does not change your retaliation damage at all.

The only guardian build I actually enjoyed playing depended on it.

Only one? That’s pretty hard. I’m going to put in a weird one, since I guess the more obvious ones will be said by other people.

Give the Guardian a Pistol (less cool, but easier to balance) or a Rifle (very cool, but harder to balance).

Bunker/condi builds could be lots more powerful if retaliation ticked for 500 damage. But then again… an instant 10hit from thief or ranger would be utterly OP… maybe only have it affect ourselves; when we apply aegis on someone?

If our Aegis could proc a 500 damage retaliation, then Rune of Resistance (aegis on signet) Communal Defense, and other Aegis traited abilities would be very powerful.

It would be to give Guardians mobility(runspeed mostly). I don’t even care much for controlling conditions(cripple) in comparison to speed.

give flashing blade 1s chill and make zealots defense wind up 1/4s instead of 1/2s.

Arken.3725:

It would be to give Guardians mobility(runspeed mostly). I don’t even care much for controlling conditions(cripple) in comparison to speed.

I don’t want my Guardian to play like a warrior… improve our “teleport” skills by remove that crappy ‘shadow step’ mechanic… or just call it a shadow step so i don’t rage when my Teleport fails
Better our movement impending skills and signet knockdown skills…these signets should be an instant cast.

Saiyan.1704:

Arken.3725:

It would be to give Guardians mobility(runspeed mostly). I don’t even care much for controlling conditions(cripple) in comparison to speed.

I don’t want my Guardian to play like a warrior… improve our “teleport” skills by remove that crappy ‘shadow step’ mechanic… or just call it a shadow step so i don’t rage when my Teleport fails
Better our movement impending skills and signet knockdown skills…these signets should be an instant cast.

How does adding a 25% movement speed trait liken it to playing like a warrior? 6/8 classes have access to 25% movement speed through traits or signets, and mesmer has a trait that increases it 10% per clone. Are you saying that it’s a feature for guardian to be the only class without access to movement speed through traits?

Melee without movement speed is just asking to be kited, and it’s a problem many meditation guardians face regularly. Cripple would help a lot, but I think access to both is best.

Not sure if you realize this but “shadow step” is a teleport. Judge’s Intervention resembles more of steal than shadow step as it’s target based and not ground targeted. It shares a lot of the same issues steal does with terrain changes that ground target teleports don’t. It certainly is something that needs to be looked at, but it’s not exclusively a guardian problem.

No Mesmer ever takes Compounding Celerity (move faster for each active illusion) as it requires you to be in combat.

Anyways, the Scepter 1 and 2 I’d like to see updated. Scepter 1 speed and the completely counter of straffing to dodge it need to be updated. Scepter 2 I still want to see as a symbol.

Sword 2 needs to add a cripple or chill effect.
Sword 3 would be great if we weren’t rooted in place for the full duration and didn’t count as a projectile. At least make us move at the speed of GS Whirling Wrath.

And lastly, making JI a ground targeted skill like the rest of the teleports in this game.

phokus.8934:

No Mesmer ever takes Compounding Celerity (move faster for each active illusion) as it requires you to be in combat.

Anyways, the Scepter 1 and 2 I’d like to see updated. Scepter 1 speed and the completely counter of straffing to dodge it need to be updated. Scepter 2 I still want to see as a symbol.

Sword 2 needs to add a cripple or chill effect.
Sword 3 would be great if we weren’t rooted in place for the full duration and didn’t count as a projectile. At least make us move at the speed of GS Whirling Wrath.

And lastly, making JI a ground targeted skill like the rest of the teleports in this game.

good ideas here

A condition weapon. Giving the Guardian bleeding would be nice. As it stands they have no reason as to why the guardian doesn’t have access to it.

I would fix guardian shield skills.

1. Shield of Judgement: ok damage, low protection time, long cool down
2. Shield of Absorption: Blocks most projectiles, knockback, small burst heal, light field, very long cool down

Yes there is a trait to reduce cool down on shield skills, but even with the trait they are still very long cool downs. Currently the only reason to bring out the shield is in pvp for the knockback. That tiny heal is insignificant and doesn’t seem to scale well. Projectile blocking is nice but it locks you into position. The cooldown is brutal and really makes it a far weaker weapon than a focus (which actually blocks when a shield doesn’t)

Shield 4 is Shield of Judgement. In GW1 that was an Elite skill that was a prized skill of many monks. It was a boon that would knock down any enemy that hit you and dealt some solid damage back to them as well (think retaliation boon).

SUGGESTED CHANGES:
#4. SoJ: Reduce normal cooldown by 5 seconds. Add 4 seconds of retaliation boon. Consider making it a knockdown/stun/daze for 1-2 seconds
#5. SoA: Reduce normal cooldown by 5 seconds. Add blocking of normal attacks as well just like the warrior shield does. Make the burst heal skill a combo blast finisher for more retaliation since the first part of the skill is a light field.

can’t stick with just one, the traits are too goofy, BUT

Torch skill 5! seriously it needs to burn like a flamethrower or a zippo I don’t care just something burn.

but I’d really like traits to be reworked/re-paired

Guardians should have a passive effect using shields if they are forced to keep the way the skills are.

The passive effect could randomly put burn on the enemy target for 1 second when they attack you, just like how those Ascalonian ghosts got the Fiery Block thing, but a little bit different.

Give us X-Bow’s.

Amins.3710:

Give us X-Bow’s.

I will imagine you mean X-bow from Clash of Clans because guards running w/ an x-bow is funny.

• Make Litany of Wrath worth a slot instead of Shelter. No one uses that because Shelter has more synergy with Valor and it has a priceless 2s block which you can’t beat.

• Fix Shield please

• Make Inner fire work with Zealot’s Flame please + 3s blind

• Fix Shield please

• Fix the teleport bug that occurs in chain with Leap of faith

• Give us a more reliable way to gain increased attack speed or quickness as we lack soft CC, and we lack movement speed trait’s (which is fine really)

• Fix shield please

• Would be nice to increase the healing of Zealot’s Blade a little bit, as of now people only take it for the dmg bonus, the healing on it is just too low, even on 5 target’s.

• a 4s swiftness boon when you activate Shield of Wrath would be nice.

Sorry OP couldn’t help myself to think only of 1.

Lily.1935:

A condition weapon. Giving the Guardian bleeding would be nice. As it stands they have no reason as to why the guardian doesn’t have access to it.

Burns is the guardian’s condi trademark. We’re suppose to be Thee burn class. It’s one of the reasons why we got Amplified Wrath. We have the most damaging condition in the game.

Something has to be done with Supreme Justice. It has to be buffed or merged with another trait.

creepmatic.9435:

• Make Litany of Wrath worth a slot instead of Shelter. No one uses that because Shelter has more synergy with Valor and it has a priceless 2s block which you can’t beat.

• Fix Shield please

• Make Inner fire work with Zealot’s Flame please + 3s blind

• Fix Shield please

• Fix the teleport bug that occurs in chain with Leap of faith

• Give us a more reliable way to gain increased attack speed or quickness as we lack soft CC, and we lack movement speed trait’s (which is fine really)

• Fix shield please

• Would be nice to increase the healing of Zealot’s Blade a little bit, as of now people only take it for the dmg bonus, the healing on it is just too low, even on 5 target’s.

• a 4s swiftness boon when you activate Shield of Wrath would be nice.

Sorry OP couldn’t help myself to think only of 1.

I know there are a lot of things on guardians that could use some work, but the idea of the post was to list your ideal change. In other words, if you could only pick one change for the guardian and nothing else, what would it be?

Going by your list, I think your ideal change would be fore them to fix the shield. :P

Saiyan.1704:

If leap had a 20,000 yard radius.
I want to fly across the map like superman Goku.

i say hulk, wanting to jump like superman means 35k height jumps and being turned to shredded cheese by an asura commando turbine(they have drop ships in tyria when messing with those quantum doodads asurans screw up experiments with)

Shield :
Shield of Absorption should not root you and the second skill of the shield should not be detonate for heal, but to put your shield down so you can other action, but not being able to move your bubble any more. If you compare that skill to Shield of the Avenger. SotA have a 20sec duration while having a 60sec DC. If you want to apply that same ratio to the shield it would be 12sec, but that doesn’t work because SotA don’t push back and its protective bubble is not there 100% of the time. So i would say that 30sec is a better CD for that skill if you compare it to SotA.
Shield of Judgment is actually a nice skill in WvW since it can tough 5 enemies, 5 friends and yourself, while giving more protection than Hold the Line. With the moving Shield of Absorption Shield could become a valuable weapon in WvW IF and only IF they add a good main hand weapons to go with it because for now Sword can’t do it. Maybe adding a Axe build toward complementing the shield in WvW could fix that. Shield is already appreciate by some bunker in sPvP, making the change to Shield of Absorption would probably make it a more competitive choice over focus.

Torch :
It need a reason to exist. It should be a possible replacement for the focus for PvE Meta and Solo Guardian. To achieve that it need to have a similar dmg than focus, while giving that little thing extra that make you take it over focus. The torch can already do more dmg than the Focus, but the problem come from the Skill 5 that is a very long channeling that will prevent you from using more hard hitting skill of your greatsword and sword, while the focus have quick or instant skill that won’t delay you. To fix that, I would say that the torch need to hit faster, while hitting harder than the focus since it doesn’t have as much support as the focus. The focus can give block, blind and regen, while the torch can only give condi removal. No need to change the Torch skill 4, but the skill 5 yes. Right now it pulse 9 times, but can only hit 3 target in front of you and won’t condi remove on yourself. Lets make it a bit more like the shield so it could hit 5 enemy, 5 ally and yourself. If you then reduce the pulse to 3, it will keep about the same result, but in a way shorter time with a channeling of about 1.5sec. That transform that skill into a high burst similar to whirling Wrath, which is not a good idea for a off-hand. We would need to decrease its dmg by about 40%-50% so that it can reach or be a little under the max dmg of the focus, which is good since that in total the torch would have more dps than the focus, but have less survivability. That would make the torch the new meta in most situation and give a new team condi removal to the meta guardian in his support role. The focus would become more useful against hard hitting boss like the archdiviner, mossman, Mai trin, Lupi where the extra block/blind would be useful. But that situation really push the focus into a niche spot, the dmg of the skill 5 of the toch could be reduce by even more to balance the dmg between them so they became about the same in term of dmg. Focus would stay the main meta, while torch would be a good choice mostly when you lack fire or condi removal, while not decreasing your dmg output like it does right now.

Like I said, with those modification the guardian would need a new main hand weapons for WvW. The Axe/Shield combo would need to replace the GS or Hammer. Of course we can make Axe hit as hard as hammer in a static situation and we can’t make it burst as much as the GS. So the main goal here would be to have a decent auto-attack. Less burst than GS, but a better average dmg. Its basically like the sword, but it still need to be different. And that would be achieve with trait and skill 2 and 3. If Axe is a WvW weapons we need trait in Honor, Valor or even virtues that boost it, so its dmg is under the Sword in PvE, but over it in WvW. A master trait that reduce cooldown of the axe and boost its dmg by 10% in the Valor line would be perfect. That line was always strong because of AH in WvW, but weak in choice otherwise. What would be the skill 2 and 3. They need to be interesting for WvW. Blast, cripple, immobilize, chill, CC, block are all good choice to push the Axe/Shield combot into the meta WvW. GS/Staff would still need to be the higher burst, while AxeShield/Staff would be more of a support setup. Whatever the skill 2 and 3, its shouldn’t be a blast and a immobilize since its what the Hammer have and we should kick something out of the meta just to put another weapon in its place. A blast finisher and a Block would be my choice, but several combinaison could be done.

That what I would change the most on the guardian. To make more weapons good in specific situation.

Torch is fine, at least for burn builds. In TPVP you’re also giving your team (600 radius) 9 condi cleanses, which helps tremendously. 10x hits from skill #5 make burn procs that much desirable.

You’re trying to make torch sync more with Zerker type builds but unless you prefer a 3k crit ranged torch or a 3block/3k crit melee-ranged focus. that’s going to be your personal preference.

Saiyan.1704:

Torch is fine, at least for burn builds. In TPVP you’re also giving your team (600 radius) 9 condi cleanses, which helps tremendously. 10x hits from skill #5 make burn procs that much desirable.

You’re trying to make torch sync more with Zerker type builds but unless you prefer a 3k crit ranged torch or a 3block/3k crit melee-ranged focus. that’s going to be your personal preference.

I know that Hybrid guardian build are receiving more and more attention these day and that they use torch. But torch like shield even if some build are using it in spvp are still very niche. That’s why I didn’t suggest changing skill 4 of the toch because it was alright like it is now. But can you link your hybrid build and explain how you use skill 5 of the toch with it? Because right now even if it hit hard, the skill 5 should make you highly vulnerable since its such a long channeling and don’t remove condition on you, so its usefulness seem limited to me since you rarely gonna have 3 enemies in front of you in sPvP and it seem clumsy to use on allies to remove condition in the middle of a battle. Maybe i’m wrong, but the change to the toch I suggest wouldn’t modify the main strenght of the torch for a hybrid build which is skill 4, while improving the skill 5 for both PvE and sPvP. But i’m really interesting to hear the spvp side of it since I use my guardian as bunker and are not really interested to try an hybrid for the moment.

We need like warriors 7% power converted to vitality trait.

I want that gadawful Sword # 3 skill beaten to death and thrown in a pit. I mean lets put a self root on a weapon that you use when running zerker ..it’s like asking for them to kill you

Saiyan.1704:

Lily.1935:

A condition weapon. Giving the Guardian bleeding would be nice. As it stands they have no reason as to why the guardian doesn’t have access to it.

Burns is the guardian’s condi trademark. We’re suppose to be Thee burn class. It’s one of the reasons why we got Amplified Wrath. We have the most damaging condition in the game.

Something has to be done with Supreme Justice. It has to be buffed or merged with another trait.

Actually, terror fear on a necromancer does more damage then burning. Not to mention confusion out damages it with two stacks. Also other damage conditions can out damage it when you start to stack them. The only condition it out damages 100% of the time is poison. Not saying burning is bad, its good. You can’t really make a condition build with just one damage condition though. I’m thinking more for PvE then PvP.

I’d have to show you game play footage instead of build theories. In TPvP I mainly use torch #5 to clean my partner’s conditions, not for dealing damage. If I see a warrior’s bow burn, ele’s fire circle, necro’s aoe condi burst or specific engi condi skills. I usually do a good job at looking at my team’s conditions and acting appropriately.
I’ll use it to cleave, when a Guardian pops sanctuary, when a thief enters Shadow Refuge. If I have no other skills up I’ll of course use it as a filler to deal damage or to attack when I’m not in range with my sword.
If #5 cleansed conditions on myself, or if you gave it 5 more hits in a short time span, it would be too powerful.

Saiyan.1704:

I’d have to show you game play footage instead of build theories. In TPvP I mainly use torch #5 to clean my partner’s conditions, not for dealing damage. If I see a warrior’s bow burn, ele’s fire circle, necro’s aoe condi burst or specific engi condi skills. I usually do a good job at looking at my team’s conditions and acting appropriately.
I’ll use it to cleave, when a Guardian pops sanctuary, when a thief enters Shadow Refuge. If I have no other skills up I’ll of course use it as a filler to deal damage or to attack when I’m not in range with my sword.
If #5 cleansed conditions on myself, or if you gave it 5 more hits in a short time span, it would be too powerful.

That’s why I would nerf its damage. It would hit a bit more hard, but for less time so that for the total duration of the channeling it would make less dmg than now, but it more target and remove condition on you. Like I said you wouldn’t want to make a burst dmg skill.

Saiyan.1704:

Arken.3725:

It would be to give Guardians mobility(runspeed mostly). I don’t even care much for controlling conditions(cripple) in comparison to speed.

I don’t want my Guardian to play like a warrior… improve our “teleport” skills by remove that crappy ‘shadow step’ mechanic… or just call it a shadow step so i don’t rage when my Teleport fails
Better our movement impending skills and signet knockdown skills…these signets should be an instant cast.

Not exactly sure how this would translate the Guardian to being more like a Warrior. Theme-based professions are severely limiting. Being a (primarily) melee profession with little mobility, no controlling conditions and terrible ranged weaponry makes little-to-no sense. Like I said earlier, I could give a doode about controlling condi’s, I just want speed(and scepter #1 to be fixed).

Zealot’s Flame/Fire is great for both hybrid and zerk builds. Right now it’s the reason to take torch maybe over focus and certainly over shield. Some changes to Cleansing Flame (torch #5) I think would put torch in a good place to make an actual tough call between it and focus.

• Lower hits from 9 to 4
• Increase conditions removed per pulse
• Strip boon per pulse

As it is now, it’s a dps loss over AA and is a niche condition cleanse on party. It can be really powerful though, removing 50 something in total IIRC. Regardless, by lowering the hits and increasing the conditions removed per pulse it can still fill that niche with less of a cast time. In addition, it will serve as boon strip that could put medizerk/hybrid guardian into new roles.

Of course specific numbers are subject to balance but the idea is what counts. Right now guardian has a measly 1 boon strip every 10 seconds (which should be bumped to 2/10s or 1/5s) and is usually passed on for classes that can strip. With a boon heavy meta and how hard it counters medizerk (think d/d celementalist) I think it would put torch in it’s own.