Guild Wars 2

This is my own attempt to design an elite specialisation for the Guardian. This is only meant to be a short overview, I did not set values for every single attribute like cast times etc, to keep it as short as possible. Only the most important attributes will be displayed.

Purpose of Elite Specialisations:
Allowing a profession to be played in a way that it could not be played before.

Notable differences to first generation of Elite Specialisations:
Utility category is not an existing category of a different profession, but completely new.

Theme:
Intervention: Helping allies in danger, through offense or defense coupled with mobility bursts.

Additional Notes:

• All abilities that affect allies in a certain radius also affect the Guardian who cast it.
• One of the Major Traits has to be very similar to Monk’s Focus, because Guardian needs high sustain to be viable in PvP. I had to bind that sustain to the new utilities, because stacking Monk’s Focus or Altruistic Healing with another high sustain
  trait would make Guardian too tanky.
• The new Virtues are supposed to be a little stronger than the old ones, because you give up your first Minor Trait for them.
• HP = Healing Power
• ICD = Internal Cooldown
• I had a specific role and a scenario in mind for every skill. I also tried to keep everything as balanced as possible, by comparing my skill designs to existing ones and doing some math.

Utilities:

Category: Intervention

Idea: Two twin utility skills, one part of a twin is supportive, the other one offensive. One twin pair is mobility to reach your ally/foe, the other pair should discourage opponents from staying in a location.

Redeeming Intervention:

• Dash 600 range (evade whilst dashing).
• At the end of the dash give all allies within a 240 radius 4 seconds of Protection, Aegis and Resistance.
• 30s cooldown

Fiery Intervention:

• Dash 600 range (evade whilst dashing).
• At the end of the dash deal moderate damage, chill (3s) and burn (x3) (3s) foes in a 240 radius.
• Gain Quickness for 3 seconds.
• 30s cooldown

Pulsing Radiance:

• An expanding light pulse, pulses 2 times in a row. 240 radius.
• First pulse instant, second one after 2 seconds.
• First pulse: Blind (5s) and slow (3s) foes.
• Second pulse: Knockdown (2s) foes.
• 45 seconds cooldown
• Breaks Stun

Pulsing Wrath:

• An expanding light pulse, pulses 2 times in a row. 240 radius.
• First pulse instant, second one after 2 seconds.
• First pulse: Moderate damage, chill (3s) and burn (x3) (3s) foes, gain Quickness for 3 seconds.
• Second pulse: Very high damage, unblockable
• 45 seconds cooldown
• Breaks Stun

Healing Skill:

Category: Intervention

Idea: Protect yourself against Condition bursts, can make reviving an ally easier.

Purity of Mind:

• Gain Resistance (4s) and heal for 6,500 + 1*HP.
• 30s cooldown

Elite Skill:

Category: Intervention

Idea: Better offense and defense, whilst getting some extra utility to make reviving allies easier.

Avatar of Justice:

• Constant Super Speed
• Revive allies 50% faster.
• Gain Stability (x2) (3s) every 3 seconds.
• Slow (1s) foes around you (360 radius) every second.
• You deal 25% more damage with all sources.
• Take 25% less damage from all sources.
• 15s duration
• 180s cooldown

Traits:

Idea: Minors for mobility, new Virtues offer extra tools to help your allies. The Major Traits always offer one offensive, one defensive and one supportive option in every tier. I tried to have at least one universally useful Trait in every tier, so that you always have at least one choice that works with most builds.

Minor Traits:

Adept:

Blade of Justice:

• You can equip a sword in your offhand now. Your Virtues change to:

Charge of Justice:

• Passive: Burn foes every few attacks.
  Active:
• Gain Super Speed (3s), your next attack burns your foe (x1) (6s).
• 20s cooldown

Pulse of Resolve:

• Passive: Regenerates health.
  Active:
• An expanding light pulse, cleanses 2 Conditions from allies and heals them for 1,625 + 0.75*HP.
• 240 radius
• 40s cooldown

Safeguard of Courage:

• Passive: Gain Aegis every few seconds.
  Active:
• Protect yourself with surrounding light, take 50% less damage from all sources for 4 seconds.
• Grant Aegis to nearby allies.
• 60s cooldown

Master:

Zealous Duty:

• Passive: +25% movespeed
• Whenever there is a downed ally within a 1200 radius, you gain Super Speed (5s) (30s ICD).

Grandmaster:

Unstoppable Determination:

• When you drop below 50% health, gain Super Speed (3s), break stuns, gain Stability (x3) (3s)
  and remove Cripple, Chill and Immobilize (30 seconds ICD).

Major Traits:

Adept:
1: Precautious Preparation:

• Evading an attack grants Aegis (5s) (15s ICD).

2: Valiant Force:

• When under the effect of Super Speed, gain Might (x1) (8s) (1s Intervall).

3: Unshakable Mercy:

• When you begin reviving an ally you gain Stability (x3) (5s) (10s ICD). Revive allies 10% faster.

Master:
1: Fortified Safeguard:

• Safeguard of Courage has 20% reduced recharge duration and now makes you invulnerable instead.

2: Break the Ice:

• When you critically hit a foe, chill (3s) them and gain Fury (8s) (15s ICD).

3: Benevolent Devotion:

• Granting Boons to allies heals them (1000 + 1*HP) and cleanses a Condition. (15s ICD, individual per ally).

Grandmaster:
1: Rejuvenation of the Just:

• Reduce the recharge duration for all Intervention skills by 20%. Intervention Utility Skills (only Utility Skills!) heal you for 2500 + 0.5*HP.

2: Shattering Purification:

• When you hit a foe below 50% health, remove all their boons and knock them down (2s) (20s ICD).

3: Aura of Sanctification:

• Allies standing next to you take 10% less damage from all sources and regenerate health (300/s) (240 radius). Does not include yourself.

Sword offhand skills:

Idea: Mobility and a control ability, which can be used defensively or offensively.

#4: Valiant Charge:

• Gain Super Speed (3s), your next attack applies Chill (3s), Weakness (5s) and is unblockable.
• 25s cooldown

#5: Sword of Salvation:

• Raise your sword into the air, emitting a light pulse that launches nearby foes (240 radius)
• Moderate damage
• 40s cooldown

Edit 1: Toned down the dashes and Benevolent Devotion a little bit.

It would be really nice to have an alternative for Valor to provide us some sustaineable damage. Makes me wish this was how regular Guard was designed. Very powerful traits and well distrubuted, which can provide lots of build variety seeing this spec can be played either offensively or defensively.

Great ideas mate. I kinda feel like this would kill the regular meditation guardian though, just because it seems like a much more powerful alternative.

Also, i did miss a trait to buff the sword offhand

Clap clap, well done.

You know, in a sarcastic attempt i was going over in my head what utility set they could give us to rival traps in lack of usefulness and down right being bad, and after looking at every single profession, i could not find any!

So basically ANYTHING they would give us will be an upgrade over traps.

I have the strange feeling that you are frustrated by the guardian’s mobility.

Overall, I’m not sure you change this much the way you play a guard, There is a bunch of trait that are OP (especially combined with the core profession) and I don’t think that “evade” skills fit the guardian global design.

Some last last thing. Safeguard of courage is totally OP. There is no trait for sword OH. Break the Ice is redundant as a trait. Shattering Purification is a death sentence with no tell. Valiant charge need some work, it’s a weapon skill not a mantra (remove super speed, make it a charge or better, make it a double skill which would block an attack and riposte on mele hit, applying chill and weakness or grant superspeed on skill use). Something like this :

#4: 1 valiant riposte :
- for 2 second block incoming attack. If a mele attack is blocked it end and you hit your foe for x damage and apply chill and weakness
→ 2 Valiant charge :
- stop blocking attacks, you gain x second of superspeed and x second of quickness.

A lot of the skills/traits need tuning, but I really like the theme behind it. It suits the core guardian’s supportive nature while allowing you to play/support in a way that’s quite new to guardians (mobility/support). That’s what an elite spec is supposed to be.
I’d still prefer a tome elite spec before something like this happens, but the concept is great imo, and I hope guardians get a “speedy support” spec like this in the future.

+25% movement in adept and millions of seconds of super speed.
New skills don’t have a skill type
Bloated traits and effects.

Do not want

Do you realize that if your proposed spe was implemented, all others elite will be upgrade because your spe is totally unbalanced.
The Dh doesn t look good but it´s effective and not over cheated..