Guild Wars 2

This is what we waited 4 months for…? A nerf to our only damage dealing skill in pvp and some meaningless base virtue and shout buffs?

Virtue of Justice: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.
Virtue of Resolve: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 50 seconds to 45 seconds.
Virtue of Courage: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 75 seconds to 60 seconds. This skill will no longer attempt to break stun for NPCs who aren’t already in combat.
Ring of Warding: The number of times this skill can be used to attempt to knock back an enemy has been capped at 10.
Line of Warding: The number of times this skill can be used to attempt to knock back an enemy has been capped at 10.
“Save Yourselves!”: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 60 seconds to 50 seconds.
“Hold the Line!”: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
“Retreat!”: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
“Stand Your Ground!”: The duration of stability this skill applies has been increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.
True Shot: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 20%.
Deflecting Shot: The base damage of this skill has been increased by 17%.
Symbol of Energy: The damage of this skill has been increased by 25%.
Hunter’s Ward: This skill now creates barriers on enemies only if they are struck by the final attack. Barriers created by this skill now only stop enemies who have been marked (struck) by the final attack. The final attack damage has been increased by 33%. Ring duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds. Added a red ring for enemies so they can be identified as hostile.
Test of Faith: The number of times this skill can be used to attempt to strike an enemy has been capped at 10, after which the trap will disappear. The damage of this skill has been reduced by 7%.

What did you expect we are in a good spot, while Revenant/Herald , Reaper and Chrono got buffs slam down guardians cause they need to be worse than Warriors right now heck they even destroyed Scrappers too.

I agree. Useless buffs to shouts that are rarely used in PvP. No QoL for any of our weapons (sword, hammer). Nerfs to most of our damage (reflecting shot and symbol of energy are not reliable damage sources). I guess we at least got shorter cds on our virtues.

Time to finally drop guard after 4 years of nothing getting better.

Quozex.9430:

I agree. Useless buffs to shouts that are rarely used in PvP. No QoL for any of our weapons (sword, hammer). Nerfs to most of our damage (reflecting shot and symbol of energy are not reliable damage sources). I guess we at least got shorter cds on our virtues.

Time to finally drop guard after 4 years of nothing getting better.

the shorter recharge on virtues are only on BASE guardian vritues.

DH virtues got nothing changed.

Darknicrofia.2604:

Quozex.9430:

I agree. Useless buffs to shouts that are rarely used in PvP. No QoL for any of our weapons (sword, hammer). Nerfs to most of our damage (reflecting shot and symbol of energy are not reliable damage sources). I guess we at least got shorter cds on our virtues.

Time to finally drop guard after 4 years of nothing getting better.

the shorter recharge on virtues are only on BASE guardian vritues.

DH virtues got nothing changed.

“Ok team, how many Dragonunters do we have in the pro leagues.”
“0, sir”
“What?! Where’s my nerf hammer?!”

Lovely, good job with ruining LB. I was at least expecting a 10% nerf but it turns out 20%. Should of just nerfed traps damage.

yup looks like i will be playing my power rev more

About time. Although I would have preferred a nerf to trap damage honestly.

Hendrix.9763:

About time. Although I would have preferred a nerf to trap damage honestly.

Really? So you are telling me that you had problems dealing with DHs on the previous patch and that they needed nerfs? You are either a troll or a complete noob.

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

Darknicrofia.2604:

True Shot: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 20%.

Would be better if they increased CD instead damage nerf, because spammable true shot is brainless. But it still the only option for dps deal. To stand still and use auto + true shot.

Ryou.2398:

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

yes, people spec into DH because the longbow was about the only weapon worth using.

the diversity and general problems that guardians have isn’t our virtues or shouts have too long of a cooldown, its that we have generally useless weapons and traits that doesn’t involve DH.

this patch did none of that, it did however, bring the longbow back down to base guardian weapons’ effectiveness.

so instead of being the 2nd or 3rd worst class, we’re now tied squarely with warriors for worst class in the game.

Ryou.2398:

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

The problem is that, although Dragonhunter did out-spec everything else that was the Guardian, Dragonhunter is most if not all that would be presumed worth to take in PvP.

Dragonhunters could burst and after that they’d be sitting ducks.
Ranked PvP’ers realize that the Dragonhunter was nothing but a one-trick pony in most occasions and as such it didn’t become top tier.

Instead of improving the diversity of other skills (Spirit Weapons, Signets, consecrations, shouts (5 seconds less on CD isn’t a real help in the long run.)) A-net decided to simply tone down the last ray of sunshine that shown upon our Guardians.

I have been playing a Guardian since the Beta and perhaps most of my comments are biased towards my love for Guardians but right now this feels like kicking us Guardians in the groin while we’re already down on the floor.

Marvok.1083:

Hendrix.9763:

About time. Although I would have preferred a nerf to trap damage honestly.

Really? So you are telling me that you had problems dealing with DHs on the previous patch and that they needed nerfs? You are either a troll or a complete noob.

Awesome, so just call me stupid or unskilled just because I’m happy about a nerf.

Just as ANet is trying to change, guardians do too much damage too quickly, with traps and trueshot. I’m in diamond atm and I’ve seen too many times where a guard kills a majority of my team with traps.

Now, you can say “omg Hendrix your team must suck then!!#$@@” or you can say, “Wow, that really shouldn’t be possible in the first place…”

I prefer the latter.

Nero.8047:

The problem is that, although Dragonhunter did out-spec everything else that was the Guardian, Dragonhunter is most if not all that would be presumed worth to take in PvP.

Dragonhunters could burst and after that they’d be sitting ducks.
Ranked PvP’ers realize that the Dragonhunter was nothing but a one-trick pony in most occasions and as such it didn’t become top tier.

Instead of improving the diversity of other skills (Spirit Weapons, Signets, consecrations, shouts (5 seconds less on CD isn’t a real help in the long run.)) A-net decided to simply tone down the last ray of sunshine that shown upon our Guardians.

I have been playing a Guardian since the Beta and perhaps most of my comments are biased towards my love for Guardians but right now this feels like kicking us Guardians in the groin while we’re already down on the floor.

Yup I completely agree. At this moment guardians have sub-par dmg across all weapons, traps and a few meditations. As you stated spirit weapons, consecrations and shouts are pretty bad utilities for PvP.

Sword: bad auto chain, skill 3 never hits and locks you in place the only thing its moderately good at is gap closing and even then it’s not great.

Hammer: could still use some QoL in the auto chain speed, a mobile ring of warding, not feeling clunky in general to use.

Scepter: the misfit longbow.

Staff: useless apart from mob tagging and attempting a bunker build only to die just after the rest of your team in which you never helped in the first place.

Then we have our messy half garbage trait lines that didn’t get a single change. At least put heavy light on LB 3 so we have some control over the knockback.

I mean it’s not like the guardian forums have been talking about these exact changes for the past 6 months+. Warrior looks like it’ll be more useful than us; we are the new worst class.

EDIT: yes i’m salty as balls right now since this class has been going to the kittenter for the past 4 years slowly and it’s finally hit the bottom. But guys, don’t forget the great guardian excuse, “Guardian is in a good spot.” Great I love being at the bottom.

I’m surprised about the nerfs, I didn’t expect a single buff, but this is like the third nerf in a row in the single trap I use.

I’ll fight the entire season 3 in PvP using my Rev. This changes doesn’t only assure another 3 months (9 and counting) of uslesness of the class in PvP but also heavily nerfs our proficiency soloing content in PvE.

Actually I’m largely pleased.

First it’s easy to overlook we got some SUBSTANTIAL buffs in the way stability works now.

The nerf to True Shot is harsh, but it also reflects what I said all along about the skill during HoT beta: while people are flipping out about being required to pick a good spot, once people learn how to use the skill it will be terrifying. A -20% nerf says the Devs were terrified by what they were seeing . And as nasty as it is, the other longbow buffs are going to smooth out and spread around the threat we pose.

Final Judgment on the Longbow changes: Let it play out and see how it goes.

I’m glad base Guardian got some love on the Virtues (all guardians) and the shouts (my guardians). You may not use these things, but there are people who do, and they will be stronger for it.

If there’s anything that annoys me, its that Spirit Weapons are once again COMPLETELY IGNORED. A ton of work put into the things that a ton of people use is fine, but that line of utilities has been a seeping wound in the profession that’s been left to fester a long, LONG time now.

Buran.3796:

I’m surprised about the nerfs, I didn’t expect a single buff, but this is like the third nerf in a row in the single trap I use.

I want you to consider the possibility the reason you use the trap is because it’s overpowered.

R.I.P Guardian 4/19/2016. What’s most infuriating is they take zero feedback from anybody. The just roll out a steaming pile of kitten with no warning. The way they operate is an embarrasment. No nerfs to revenant or mesmers and yet another round of nerfs to DH with no meaningful buffs elsewhere.

DH was hitting at about 50-50 win or lose for me. These changes put the class right back in the toilet. Thankfully I now have other classes I can play that I leveled and equipped just in case they did this. Thief seems to be the new flavor of the month again and warrior is looking a little better. I hate to switch but I’m not going to play the guarding whipping post ever again…those days are over.

Perfect balance…
guardians needed that nerf for so long….hope we will see less of this op prof in esl tournaments and in top level raids

Kicast.1459:

Perfect balance…
guardians needed that nerf for so long….hope we will see less of this op prof in esl tournaments and in top level raids

You mean the one that got nerfed and couldn’t even make it into the top ranked pvp….Yes it was sooo op.

Treat is as what it is: The top 1% of PvPers and the 5% that raid DO NOT dictate changes to the game as a whole. Any argument the game is being changed solely on their account is between 99% and 95% wrong.

Please try and grasp that the people making these decisions make them with access to summary metrics from the ENTIRE length and breadth of the game. Some of those decision can be a little weird but they aren’t ignorant.

If you’re a Dragonhunter, leverage the added benefit of more 25% more #4 damage and 33% more final tick damage on #5 along with shorter cooldown. Press your enemies with that instead of revealing yourself to be the one-button wonder all the other professions have been accusing us of being.

If you’re a Guardian, revel in nothing but sweet, creamy BUFF.

…Instead of making whiney one-note threads like this one. Which really ought to be beneath our collective dignity.

Nike.2631:

Treat is as what it is: The top 1% of PvPers and the 5% that raid DO NOT dictate changes to the game as a whole. Any argument the game is being changed solely on their account is between 99% and 95% wrong.

Please try and grasp that the people making these decisions make them with access to summary metrics from the ENTIRE length and breadth of the game. Some of those decision can be a little weird but they aren’t ignorant.

If you’re a Dragonhunter, leverage the added benefit of more 25% more #4 damage and 33% more final tick damage on #5 along with shorter cooldown. Press your enemies with that instead of revealing yourself to be the one-button wonder all the other professions have been accusing us of being.

If you’re a Guardian, revel in nothing but sweet, creamy BUFF.

…Instead of making whiney one-note threads like this one. Which really ought to be beneath our collective dignity.

I agree and while I’m still salty it’s not because of the nerf to the “one button wonder.”

Guardian could be such a cool class if it had interesting mechanics/utilities/traits. Guardian has become one-dimensional with no interesting combos apart from JI+any other skill or pulling knocking someone back though a trap. Even with these ‘buffs’ guardian is still extremely predictable. True Shot just does less damage and the class wont be able to carry any mechanically skill-less players anymore.

I feel as a class we’ve just been neglected for the past 3 years.

The problem with shouts is not their cooldown. The problem with shouts is they do not provide enough benefit. Buff SY, SYG, and HTL boon duration.

Virtues buff are welcomed but ultimately minuscule.

The CC nerf is perfectly acceptable.

The Trueshot nerf is not acceptable. The casting animation coupled with the large amount of meta reflects and other damage negation made this skill easy enough to avoid.

The other LB changes are welcomed.

I’ve no comments about the other changes; they stand for themselves. Once again these changes reflect many of our concerns; other weapon utility, consecrations, and spirit weapons keep getting ignored. Stop that. Pay attention to our feedback.

I was going to make a few suggestions a few days before the patch to make a lot of skills and traits useless more viable (not meta, but at least viable), but I decided to wait to see the changes…

This is really unacceptable. What about Hallowed Ground? Spirit Weapons (ALL OF THEM)? Sanctuary (the CD reduction wasn’t enough)? Signets? “Receive the Light!” (that have the power level of “Wash the Pain Away!” but almost twice the Cooldown and Cast Time and is 300% harder to hit allies)? Merciful Intervention? QoL changes fo Hammer or Sword? Or what about the useless traits (half of them)?

The nerf bat were 300% stronger than the buffs… Wanna to decrease the burst potential? INCREASE THE DPS, which is awful. The LB #2 were harder than really needed. As well Test of Faith, no reason to lower even more its damage.

Engineer (Scrapper) that most needed nerfs got more meaningful buffs than nerfs. Necro is the same, the buffs really outshine the nerfs…

Guys, GIVE UP. There is no reason to even try any more.

Ragnarox.9601:

What did you expect we are in a good spot, while Revenant/Herald , Reaper and Chrono got buffs slam down guardians cause they need to be worse than Warriors right now heck they even destroyed Scrappers too.

Necro buffs? Deathly chill is gone. It applies bleed.

Same here!

I couldn’t care less about the LB2 nerf since I suggested something similar but +1 sec cast-time… What equals to -20% DPS from that skill alone.

What really kittenes me off is that sword/hammer/consecrations/signets/spirit weapons haven’t been touched…. Why?

They could nerf TS by 90 percent and I wouldn’t give a flying kitten about it because it was a cheap and skill-less nuke but why ignore the rest of the problems?

This Guardian balance makes no sense to me… I mean at all….

Aggrostemma.1703:

Same here!

I couldn’t care less about the LB2 nerf since I suggested something similar but +1 sec cast-time… What equals to -20% DPS from that skill alone.

What really kittenes me off is that sword/hammer/consecrations/signets/spirit weapons haven’t been touched…. Why?

They could nerf TS by 90 percent and I wouldn’t give a flying kitten about it because it was a cheap and skill-less nuke but why ignore the rest of the problems?

This Guardian balance makes no sense to me… I mean at all….

It’s not about senselessness. It’s simply lazyness and/or inability. It’s Anet.

Cause…we have been officially KARLIFIED

I was really expecting buffs across the board for Guardians and DH’s, not nerfs.

Guardian was my first and only class for the longest time and I had a love hate relationship with it but this patch just left me shelving that toon for the long foreseeable future.

I was expecting nerf on TS and buffs all across…

Well I was right about the first part….

Mikau.6920:

Engineer (Scrapper) that most needed nerfs got more meaningful buffs than nerfs.

You must be reading a different set of patch notes than the rest of us. Scrapper was nerfed. Regen nerfed, Hammer 3 only 2 leaps (which is a big nerf to DPS/CC and to healing due to only 2 leap finishers in the water field now). Slick shoes HUGE nerf.

Adrenalin.5719:

Aggrostemma.1703:

Same here!

I couldn’t care less about the LB2 nerf since I suggested something similar but +1 sec cast-time… What equals to -20% DPS from that skill alone.

What really kittenes me off is that sword/hammer/consecrations/signets/spirit weapons haven’t been touched…. Why?

They could nerf TS by 90 percent and I wouldn’t give a flying kitten about it because it was a cheap and skill-less nuke but why ignore the rest of the problems?

This Guardian balance makes no sense to me… I mean at all….

It’s not about senselessness. It’s simply lazyness and/or inability. It’s Anet.

well, our last patch’s changes were “smite condition cleans 1 more condition, zealous scepter gives 2 stack of might instead of 1”

you do the math on how lazy Anet is with the guardian class.

Kamara.4187:

Kicast.1459:

Perfect balance…
guardians needed that nerf for so long….hope we will see less of this op prof in esl tournaments and in top level raids

You mean the one that got nerfed and couldn’t even make it into the top ranked pvp….Yes it was sooo op.

Why would they nerf it if they are not complete kittens at balancing then ? ;-)

Ragnarox.9601:

Cause…we have been officially KARLIFIED

This…there is no worth curse

4 Years,…no rework,…i got other classes to play. Thx Anet.

Rajnesh.4526:

4 Years,…no rework,…i got other classes to play. Thx Anet.

Same LOL. I’ll just pick me one of the pet classes the staff plays and dodge more nerf bats in the future.

Some meh buffs and some fairly big nerfs. They should’ve buffed some of the more underused/useless utilities and weapons rather than nerfing the only decent weapon.

Kamara.4187:

Rajnesh.4526:

4 Years,…no rework,…i got other classes to play. Thx Anet.

Same LOL. I’ll just pick me one of the pet classes the staff plays and dodge more nerf bats in the future.

This is the secret to a happy GW2 life. Play one of the pet classes like Rev/Scrapper and now it seems Mesmer. You will be safe for a while.

Ryou.2398:

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

Yes, and it’s still going to be. I don’t consider the nerf of 1 skill to be all that dramatic actually, but you can count on the typical sensational MMO player to make it into something huge.

Obtena.7952:

Ryou.2398:

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

Yes, and it’s still going to be. I don’t consider the nerf of 1 skill to be all that dramatic actually, but you can count on the typical sensational MMO player to make it into something huge.

The problem isn’t just that. The real problem is: Where are the needed buffs? I listed a lot of things that need buffs and none of them even got touched.

Mikau.6920:

(…)

This is really unacceptable. What about Hallowed Ground? Spirit Weapons (ALL OF THEM)? Sanctuary (the CD reduction wasn’t enough)? Signets? “Receive the Light!” (that have the power level of “Wash the Pain Away!” but almost twice the Cooldown and Cast Time and is 300% harder to hit allies)? Merciful Intervention? QoL changes fo Hammer or Sword? Or what about the useless traits (half of them)?

(…)

I say no…

I will check back later again…

(you might think I rage but I did give up playing GW2 in season1 … I love guardian… Untill it is on-par with other classes I’m off…)

Back to Hearthstone lads

Mikau.6920:

Obtena.7952:

Ryou.2398:

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

Yes, and it’s still going to be. I don’t consider the nerf of 1 skill to be all that dramatic actually, but you can count on the typical sensational MMO player to make it into something huge.

The problem isn’t just that. The real problem is: Where are the needed buffs? I listed a lot of things that need buffs and none of them even got touched.

You can invent all the ‘needed’ buffs you want. There isn’t any such thing actually, because obviously, after observing this game and others, what is needed and what get’s changed are rarely in alignment.

The most relevant question is “What were the changes Anet wanted to make”.

Miku has it right in his assessment.

After 4 years my best advice is roll something else because there are several classes that can do everything a guardian can do just as good if not better while having more flexibility.

Those classes have also shown to have much better design behind them and a great deal more flexibility of roll given the same gear/weapon choices.

And thats not even going into detail about half the weapon skills, traits & utility skills completely suck.

Maybe if enough people quit playing guardian they will actually take a look at it and bring it to par with the others & give it some real complexity.
Even then I doubt it due to the size of Anet and how much of their staff are needed designing expansions/cash shop stuff to stay afloat.

If Guardian is in such a bad place, and if it has been bad for as long as you can remember then why are you still playing? The only way anet will fix the problem if people quit playing it in mass. So either stand by your statements and stop playing Guardian or keep playing a sub par class. I quit playing Guardian long time ago, I only played it this season to get YotA complete.

Obtena.7952:

Mikau.6920:

Obtena.7952:

Ryou.2398:

Sorry im new to guardians myself but wasnt the main complaint that dragonhunter out specced everything else guardian had to offer? Doesnt this help the guardians build diversity?

Yes, and it’s still going to be. I don’t consider the nerf of 1 skill to be all that dramatic actually, but you can count on the typical sensational MMO player to make it into something huge.

The problem isn’t just that. The real problem is: Where are the needed buffs? I listed a lot of things that need buffs and none of them even got touched.

You can invent all the ‘needed’ buffs you want. There isn’t any such thing actually, because obviously, after observing this game and others, what is needed and what get’s changed are rarely in alignment.

The most relevant question is “What were the changes Anet wanted to make”.

I did not invent anything. Everyone who plays the class knows these skills need changes.

And yes. That is the real problem. ANET refuses to see what is wrong.

No, those skills you point out don’t need changes because the class is not dependent on those skills being any good. In fact, some of those skills are SOO crap that Anet could remove them and it would have no impact on the class whatsoever.

The real problem that there is less build diversity because of skills that aren’t up to par with others. That doesn’t mean they need buffing over other skills because diversity is not necessary for the class to be good. It’s simply nice to have more diversity. That’s why Anet can continue to choose to buff things that THEY want without big negative impacts on the class.

>tfw reading Guardian’s “balance” notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXzEcwYs8Eo

there is a big dev event on reddit!

go there and say thank you!

I am also really displeased… they managed to buff core engineer stuff (which were already good.) and they do not touch Guardian’s traits that were called for to be buffed for 4 years?
Huh… I don’t even know what to say anymore.