Guild Wars 2

Mostly fine. So much Symbol emphasis limits the traitline appeal.

Fiery Wrath seems the undisputed choice for the majority of builds. With Burning stacking in time it might be harder to maintain in PvE, otherwise I would suggest to reduce it to 5% (As I would do with any easy to maintain damage multiplier).

Wrathful Spirit has niche uses for PvP and it’s not bad at all.

Scepter does not have true AoE capabilities and Zealous Scepter requires a ridiculous amount of hits (even with Supreme Justice) to build decent might. Even if that’s the case, the Power increase you would get is somewhat lined up with the burn upkeep you would achieve and the effectiveness of Fiery Wrath.
Fiery Wrath, on the other hand, can benefit from different sources of burning (sources you probably have if running the kind of hybrid build which could make better use of might stacks) and works for both weapon sets, which makes it a better pick for almost any scenario.
Since might stacks can be handled and capped by different means in PvE and a multiplier would increase their effect even further, the trait is lackluster even when facing the kind of large hit box static enemy that could make scepter shine.
I would introduce a possible replacement further on.

Zealous Blade is fine for any GS centered build.

Kindled Zeal can be useful for hybrid builds but feels rather boring. I would swap it with Expeditious Spirit and rework it as a Grandmaster.

The remaining trait should be much more generic than Binding Jeopardy, as it should try to cover almost any non-GS build. Neither Mace nor Staff, both symbol weapons that fit into Zeal, have blinds or immobilizes.
I would move Binding Jeopardy to the free slot we got on Adept tier after removing Zealous Scepter, and rework it to “Immobilizing a foe also applies vulnerability (5 stacks, 5 seconds). Immobilizing skills recharge 20% faster”.
The utility gain from reduced CDs on top of the higher amount of vulnerability could make it a serious contender for Fiery Wrath when building around burst and teamplay.

The last trait in Master should bring something generic, somewhat useful for almost any build and any game mode. This can be a good place to reallocate and improve Healer’s Retribution from Radiance, which is just a terrible trait.
My suggestion: Burn nearby foes (3s) and gain retaliation (3s) when you use a healing skill. Gain additional retaliation (2s), swiftness (3s) and reduce your healing skill CD (5%) for each enemy hit (For Shelter, the burn blast should happen at the end of the channel).

Symbolic Avenger is a good option for sPvP. It enhances area denial of symbols and promotes a good burst set up.
For PvE, where enemies won’t avoid fighting on top of symbols, it’s too powerful and can easily bring autoattack hammer builds to a ridiculous and undeserved damage level.
The trait should be shaved to 10% for PvE. The mechanic remains the same and there are no CDs or timings involved, so the split shouldn’t cause any confusion.

There’s a nice synergy between Expeditious Spirit and Shattered Aegis in small scale PvP which is lost by placing them in the same tier. I would downgrade the first one to master tier in the place of Kindled Zeal.
On top of that, it would be great if Expeditious Spirit would provide further (big) enhancement if only one Spirit Weapon were slotted. A competitive petting zoo build will never be welcomed, but a single spirit weapon could be tolerated and allowed to exist at competitive levels as long as the active part is what makes it great.

The remaining trait slot should bring something useful for hybrid builds (but better than Kindled Zeal) and no symbol based PvE power builds which invest in both Zeal and Radiance.
Something that makes the Guardian deadlier as the end of the fight approaches could make sense for Zeal. “Gain condition damage (7% of Power) and deal increased damage (4%) for every Virtue on CD” could work.

Justice is Blind is awesome.

Since I’m moving Renewed Justice to Adept major level, there’s a vacant at Master level.
Since Radiant Power already provides some critical chance, I would suggest something straightforward like “Gain Might (5s) when you critically hit a burning foe (1s ICD)”.

Radiant Power looks extremely powerful.
In combination with Inner Fire or Right Hand Strength, it can easily make for good hybrid builds with many different amulets.
Unfortunately, as it is now, this line can easily have more appeal than Zeal (I’m looking at you Wrath of Justice) even for Berserker specs.
For PvE, the increased critical rate is huge. So huge that makes rather easy to reach the 100% critical chance and removes most of the appeal for One Hand Strength.
I suggest to reduce the base Critical Rate bonus to 10%-15% and incorporate a second source, which could either work in a similar fashion (against burning foes) or be completely passive, based on Condition Damage.

Inner Fire looks nice and interesting. Loses appeal for PvE group play where fury will be provided by different AoE means, but it’s interesting for solo, where Guardian usually lacks fury.

The increased critical chance from Right Hand Strength shares too much functionality with Inner Fire. On top of that, both can easily be useless for some PvE scenarios as I already said.
I suggest to split the critical chance bonus into a critical chance and a direct damage part (10/5). Mace hould be removed from here, ince it synergizes far better with Zeal traits.

As the third trait option (since I suggested to rework and move Healer’s Retribution into Zeal), Renewed Justice could be moved here, so the full potential of a Wrath of Justice without ICD (as I will suggest) requires some additional sacrifice and fights don’t snowball too easily after a kill.
Even if Wrath of Justice retains some ICD, it would still be great to have Renewed Justice somewhere where it’s not automatically chosen and interferes with the CD alignment.
In any case, the trait could use some additional effect, like “Gain retaliation (3s) and Swiftness (5s) whenever VoJ is recharged”, which makes it more appealing for PvP and feeds some damage multipliers for PvE group play.

Wrath of Justice is probably the jewel of the crown for burst specs. Unfortunately, it comes with a noticeable ICD issue.
Unlike many other ICD procs across the game, Wrath of Justice requires activating a moderate CD skill to trigger another moderate, but not perfectly aligned, ICD effect. On top of that, Renewed Focus and Renewed Justice can recharge VoJ and make even easier to waste 2 CDs for no useful result.
Just for convenience, and since it’s really close to the VoJ one, this trait should get rid of the ICD (or, at least, get it reduced to 20s so there are no weird dependencies with Perfect Inscriptions and a possible Virtue specialization).
The effect itself should be nerfed and reduced to something like 2s. The signet component should probably remain to slightly increase the appeal of Perfect Inscriptions.
The traits is easily grandmaster level. I would swap it with Perfect Inscriptions so it directly competes with another monster like Amplified Wrath.

Retribution should be merged with Radiant Retaliation at Grandmaster level.

Radiant Fire looks like a beast for a Master tier trait. I would make it work on weapon swap (which effectively increases the CD) and get rid of the first Zealot’s Flame tick. The trait would basically inflict 3s of AoE burning around the Guardian 3s after a weapon swap, which on top of a 20% burning duration increase, makes for a really solid pick while still allowing counterplay.

The freed spot could be occupied by an improved version of the ol’ good Blind Exposure: “Applying Blind also applies Vulnerability (3 stacks, 10s). Gain swiftness (5s) when you critically hit a vulnerable foe (10s ICD)”

Radiant Retaliation, as it is presented (and assuming it’s fixed and actually does something), is only useful for condition specs, a departure where it just can’t compete against Amplified Wrath, an awesome Grandmaster level trait.
It also presents some direct synergy with Perfect Inscriptions which is lost by placing them on the same tier but can easily be recovered by swapping it with Wrath of Justice.
A merge with Retribution preserves the synergy between this and Perfect Inscriptions, and makes it more appealing for hybrids and PvE power builds.

Perfect Inscriptions is an overall decent trait for Master tier but could still receive some love (like a 50% passive stat boost instead of a 20%, which would make it not so underwhelming for PvE).

Courageous Return doesn’t exactly promote the most skillful play for PvE, but it’s not completely useless either.

Might of the Protector rewards a skillful usage of Shelter and punishes enemies who keep spamming against it, which is a good thing.
Either the amount of stacks or the duration should be reduced for PvP and WvW. As it is presented, it looks rather easy to build a massive amount of might with no special gameplay.
It’s quite interesting for PvE solo play, where guardians often suffer from low might stacking, but not so much for group play, where maxed might stacks are usually already covered by other classes.

Valorous Defense is just terrible. Even if it will act as a small damage reduction most of the time, there’s a chance of randomly blocking some hard cc or particularly devastating attack, changing the tide of the battle by pure luck. 2-3 seconds of protection would be a fair alternative.

Even if it can be situationally better than Strength of the Fallen (boring but useful) for any build, Meditation builds are the ones getting full advantage on Smiter’s Boon, more so if shelter is finally made a consecration.
It might not be a great problem as it competes directly with Focus Mastery, which is also a good option for these builds, but it’s quite niche and unnecessary and fills space that could be used for more interesting options.
Even if it provides an edge for builds running both weapons (not exactly a popular choice), Focus Mastery could easily be merged with Stalwart Defender and allocate it wherever Smiter’s Boon (if exists) stands.

Strength in Numbers is quite straightforward and OK.

As it was proposed during the livestream, Stalwart Defender could easily provide a short duration (3s) Aegis to allies affected by shield skills. This change could bring the weapon to a completely new level, specially for PvE.
The baseline shield would still need some PvP love though. Even if it requires longer CDs, a small daze, weakness or boon removal on #4 would be great, while #5 could use some mechanical tweak.

Communal Defenses could easily require its own thread.
Single hit blocks feel designed for selective use against particularly nasty moves, something that Communal Defenses, like Valorous Defense, can’t achieve. The long ICD makes it even more random.
Without target limit (don’t know if intended), it really feels like a massive mindless fodder for Aegis triggered traits, like Shattered Aegis, which I don’t think is a good thing. It’s not even that great for this purpose, as it creates a chain reaction which wastes most Aegis’ and puts the trait in CD for everyone.
It’s a little more reliable for small scale PvE (and only under voice communication), but still feels inferior to providing Aegis through Shield skills, at will and when really needed.
If the changes to Stalwart Defender were approved, I would completely get rid of this trait or maybe replace the Aegis with a short protection (3s, with 3s ICD) on a 600 radius for up to 5 allies.

Any possible vacant in this tier could be filled with a cheap Toughness to Ferocity/Precision conversion, as I’m suggesting Retributive Armor to be changed.

Altruistic Healing is fine. Solid pick for bunker-ish supportive specs and awesome training wheels for new PvE players.

Monk’s Focus is out of hand. Meditation Guardians are top dogs already and will likely remain this way, either in the current form or on a more hybrid fashion.
Fury duration should be halved and even the healing part could receive a bit of shaving.

Retributive Armor looks far inferior to his contenders for PvP, and doesn’t look amazing for PvE either.
The idea around blocking the hardest hits and enduring the regular ones makes sense, and having some not boon related damage increase is always welcomed.
However, since minors are lackluster for skillful PvE play and AH already offers tons of self-sustain, I would love to see an interesting block related offensive choice here. A stacking 15 second 4% outgoing damage boost on block with a 2 second ICD would be awesome.

Mostly fine. I get it’s there so it can work group wide with Battle Presence, but Purity of Body feels really redundant.

Invigorated Bulwark is somewhat flawed.
While the vision of Mace, and the whole tratline to some extent, as a healing tool would suggest using Healing Breeze as heal skill, this trait is extremely reliant on shelter usage.
The trait should get a small ICD (3s), and the healing boost should get improved by about 50% in both intensity and duration.

Protective Reviver needs a 50% cut in the boon duration.

Since I suggested to merge Protector’s Impact with Strength of the Fallen in Valor, there’s a free slot in this tier.
Invigorating Bulwark is limited to mace, and Protective Reviver is a supportive tool that doesn’t promote skillful play outside of PvP.
I suggest bringing back a toned down (5%) version of elusive power, which is always good to have in any game mode and might appeal to players who invest in honor for different reasons (like Force of Will for survival or Writ of Persistence for damage purposes).

If Communal Defenses is reworked, Pure of Heart could use a 50% improvement and/or even remove a condition on Aegis application.

Empowering Might is a rather crappy might stacking tool, often combined with Altruistic Healing for increased sustainability. It could easily get the range increased to 600 and be merged with Honorable Staff.

The freed slot could be used for something generic and not completely support related. “Healing skills recharge 20% faster. Nearby allies (360 radius) gain Resistance (4s) when you use a healing skill” could work.

Pure of Voice and Writ of Persistence are fine.

Force of Will looks confusing, like two completely unrelated traits being merged together.
Among defensive stats, vitality is the least related to sustainability. On the other hand, having low vitality seems the main reason to go after a 300 point boost.
I guess we can see the trait as two different options, each one also granting some side effect for free.

Everything OK here. Virtue of Retribution is quite underwhelming for PvE, albeit Retribution (in Radiance) makes it slightly more useful.

Unscathed Contender is fine

The proposal of making Shelter a consecration makes Master of Consecrations much more interesting for PvP. The combination with Smiter’s Boon could be dangerous though.
IMHO, there’s no need for every skill to fall into some category. While it can have positive results for some underused skills, the change might bring nothing but unnecessary power creep when applied to arguably BiS choices like shelter.

Retaliatory Subconscious is ridiculous as an anti-CC trait and should be completely redesigned. Creating a Symbol of Protection, on a longer CD of course, would be much more useful and interesting.

Absolute Resolution is fine. Supreme Justice looks much more interesting on an overhauled burning scenario.

Virtuous Mallet might have hard time being used by Meditation builds over Absolute Resolution, but Hammer CDs are definitely huge for PvP and Slow can benefit both offensive and more supportive builds, which could have different means of cleansing.
It’s going to depend a lot on the content we receive, but slow can potentially be great for PvE too, where Hammer CDs are far less impactful.
A 10 second ICD, perfectly aligned with weapon swap, is welcomed.
A 5% damage boost might be required.

Everything is OK. Permeating Wrath looks underwhelming, but definitely brings something completely different to the table.