OK so the patch notes have dropped and there are some interesting and some heart breaking changes made to us as a class but this is me venting a bit to the community so please humor me for a second (beware might be a wall of text since I’m on my phone posting). I came from guild wars 1 like most of you all and I played a dervish and loved it the class mechanics in the game were great and cross class combos to cover up the weaknesses of your primary class was great it was new and different and exciting and made making builds that were viable in pve and pvp possible and endless with all the customization and creativity a person can have to fit how THEY played. It required you to think a little more on choices since you had so many and it broke away from the cookie cutter mmo that was out. When things were nerfed and buffed no one really complained they adapted thanks to all the choices you had at your finger tips your mind went back to work finding a new way to play how you wish and it was and still is a great game.
Now guild wars 2 was announced and we were all excited to seeing our old love come back new and fresh and again like most people here we pre purchased it and beta tested the heck out of it so we can get a taste of the new new that’s coming for us. I picked a guardian due to the fact that I played a dervish in the first game and knowing that it wasn’t coming back in this one and that this game is different that the first I made a guardian due to it being the closest thing to my old class that I had and I was not disappointed at all I found another class I love. Beta had its ups and downs and since it was beta it had a ton of fixes but I still loved the guardian and still do and still remembering guild wars 1 I was excited to seeing how many different builds I can make with this new character especially when I saw the zeal line for the first time the last trait with great sword attacks healing me reminded me of my dervish since it use to do that too I was stoked.
Launch came and now we are here after a few patches and weird changes though not build breaking or classes ruining I realize there arnt as many options as I thought there were. This isn’t just for guardian but for every class between lack of interchangeable weapon skills(not utilities), weapons that don’t see a fix (scepter 1 skill, ring of warding not being used while moving slowly, torch in general ect), and traits or whole trait lines not being useful at all ( zeal line almost as a whole, zealous blade healing for 25 lol, and fall damage and down state reduction traits ect) we are pigeon hold it seems to follow a fotm build to be viable sometimes and maybe I’m over reacting a bit and please correct me if I am but that worries me the constant stream of fixes that anet does and nerfs and changes that they do don’t seem to have any reason behind them. They change and don’t give any other option they just change and then move on saying good luck. They need to seriously look at this class and every other class and look at the traits we all have and give us more things to play with and get rid of the uselessness in the traits. I’m not going to be falling or jumping off cliffs all the time, if I’m downed I want to die so I can respawn and com back to the fight, I want all the trait trees to have appeal so I can seriously look at and make a good choice on what is right for me. I don’t is that to much to ask for in a game the is all about play style choice? I get giving up something to do something else but how can I give up something if you didn’t give me anything to begin with?
Again sorry needed to vent a bit and again correct me if I’m over reacting or coming off as chicken little screaming sky fall but that’s just how I feel at the moment. Thanks for reading my little rant.
you are not overreacting, i think that “dedicated player” are now looking elsewhere, because anet continue to change(massive nerf) things that work, they dont fix bronken things, and our build diversity is going down with every single patch.
Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs.
It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill"
LOL
Actually, guardians haven’t changed much in this recent patch (unlike the greatsword update) and it has been said that they will be a lot more dependent on boons. Currently there are several ways to play the guardian – AH, 100% prot, VoJ + Block/blind spam, Monk’s Focus, JI Spike, and Staff + ground consecration caster support.
Downed state is not at all useless unless you’ve made a mistake in WvW. A downed mesmer is arguably more powerful in that form due to the fact that they can stack confusion on threats really fast, which will force people to try to dunk you instead of whittling you down, at which point you can cloak away and rally off them when they have to face the rest of your team (and of course, this works triple for PvE). Downed guardians are great when healing power + toughness traited, because they’ll usually ensure a res if they get the healing symbol out.
Zeal could use some work, but this is mainly because spirit weapons have the potential to become so powerful that ArenaNet is perhaps too cautious in providing buffs in that line.
I get what you are saying but I just feel that with the changes made even though we are i guess still the same it feels like nothing is given back as an alternative and the customization is lacking a bit you listed 4 pretty good ways to go about it but but still from the first game i am use to the endless possibilities that made guild wars unique. I still love this game dearly but just the changes without explanation is what im worried about and the lack of use from some if not half of the traits is concerning. I want every option that my class has open for me not just a few to make one out of the 4 builds that are good.
And the traits that effect downstate and fall damage im not going to take because of more useful ones in the tree and me dying and respawning with full health is more benificail than being downed and coming back with 10% health (i mainly play with some co workers so thats the reasoning)
Well guild wars has made a conscious decision to move away from the build meta that was the first game, which also had its fair share of duds (like almost all the ele energy storage elites). This is I think the first time where they’ve stated future goals for each class, so I guess a future update is incoming that will be more zealous in making class changes to fit some paradigm.
The problem is the lack of a beta to test overhauls, which is unfortunately an issue because GW2 is not an instanced game and needs every bit of its playercount to thrive.
It seems the people that are really upset about this have little history playing MMO’s. Just some friendly warning … very few MMO’s achieve a satisfactory balance of character abilities within the first year of a games release. Some never do. There is always a lot of changes happening and some of them may even be fundamental to how players perceive the classes and build their characters. I don’t think GW2 will be any different. So far I’ve only seen rather superficial changes to this class.
Really guys? You maybe lost a few hundred HP in heals. If you can’t survive without depending on that – you need to roll a new class anyway. It’s really not a big deal. Still able to play a front-line guard in WvW without noticing any difference -.-
OMG i see this kittening phrase on every single class forum.
This is not That people Cant survive without IT, BUT This is a stupid nerf that can simply be fixed with and internal cd of 1 second to VP, instead of this 5 sec duration for 5 sec CD.
For me is not a matter of survivability ( its a month that i dont play so for me its not a problem) BUt its matter of reasoned things. Massive nerfs are just stupid, instead of try with little changes tha can affect builds without Messing them UP, they go ALWAYS with the Hard WAY (MASSIVE NERF and then little buff) and every time a plan to return, they simply add reason to me to unistall the game and forget it.
Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs.
It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill"
LOL
Why would a 1 second cooldown be better for the game as a whole?
Because in the lapse time of 5 seconds if you crit every time, you can have 5 procs of vigor, so something like 70*5=350 HP every 5 seconds from vigorous precision.
With the change you only have 70 HP every 5 seconds from vigorous precision.
1 sec cd, only need to avoid the AOE AH heal.(from vigorous precision) Because if you land a mighty blow (only for example) on a group of enemy, even if you land 5 or 6 crits, you will be healed only for one proc.
Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs.
It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill"
LOL
Doesn’t empowering might make up for that, though? When I think of AH, I think of 0-0-30-30-10; I haven’t seen may builds with 10 in honor that didn’t also use some alternate method of healing, like faster signets or Monk’s Focus instead of AH.
Really guys? You maybe lost a few hundred HP in heals. If you can’t survive without depending on that – you need to roll a new class anyway. It’s really not a big deal. Still able to play a front-line guard in WvW without noticing any difference -.-
Thats not the point at all the point is it was changed for no reason we get it we can survive without it and we will adapt but the few points of healing we lost isnt what this whole thread is about
Doesn’t empowering might make up for that, though? When I think of AH, I think of 0-0-30-30-10; I haven’t seen may builds with 10 in honor that didn’t also use some alternate method of healing, like faster signets or Monk’s Focus instead of AH.
Ah build are not just that, the only thing you need with to old AH build was the 30 valor points, your build is the AH Hammer, but if you play an AH sword, you will rely on maxing radiance (so take empowering might, is just like waste 20 points)
Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs.
It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill"
LOL
We’re nowhere near pidgen-holed. I honestly do not understand where all of this nerf QQing is coming from. We’ve hardly changed.
Did you read what the post said? it isnt QQ its an observation now look at the build that you have been using is it a Monks Focus or an AH build? those right now are the best 2 traits we have and in almost every single build I have seen one of those traits are the main focus in both PvE and PvP. Im saying we need more choice and like someone said earlier in the thread maybe its me wanting the game to progress faster to my liking but the lack of customization i had back in the first concerns me. We do need a test server for new updates so we can see what works and what doesnt that will also help to devs fix traits that are bugged and not working as intended and with our class tree we know there are a few that are messed up atm.