Guild Wars 2

Things have been a bit of a bummer around here lately, so I thought it might be fun to put together a “What Would You Give Guardians If You Were In Charge” thread.

No rules really, just think of things that would make you happy to have and/or change for your Guardian and make a wish list!

I’ll go first ;P

1. Get rid of the redundant Kindled Zeal trait and replace it with “Symbolic Liberation:” your symbols are no longer light fields.
   Yup! I want a trait that does nothing but take away something from the class: Hammer/Mace is one of my favorite set ups to play, but I always get super bummed out because those darn light fields get in the way during dungeons, raids, fractals, whatever. I’d love to be “free” to use those weapons whenever I wanted ;P

1. With some of the new technology they’ve been showcasing, I think it’d be great opportunity to overhaul a lot of the problems with Spirit Weapons. Now that Anet can make skills that move with the player, I think this would be fantastic for spirit weapons, especially Shield of the Avenger: keep it’s “pulsing” quality, but have it stick by the guardian for a (now) reliable alternative to wall of reflecion.
   Bow of Truth wouldn’t really need any changes because it’s command skill has a long range anyway, and having it stick near you would help keep it alive, and maybe actually see it use those healing arrows its supposed to shoot.
   Not sure what to do with the Hammer or the Sword though…

1. For my last one, I’m gunna stick with more Spirit Weapon changes. If I could, I would totally get rid of Wrathful Spirits (a big dps loss for Sword and Hammer, but it doesn’t really affect Bow or Shield at all) and replace it with a trait that did something along the lines of “50% of the damage taken by your Spirit Weapon is transfered to you.” This would basically double the health of the Spirit Weapons, but it comes at a cost to the user: especially if the weapons were changed to stay close to the caster: if you get caught in an AoE, you’re taking 1) your own damage and 2) half the damage of any spirits you have up. Imagine if you had all three out at once!

Okay, those are mine. Remember, these are just for fun! They don’t have to be good ideas, or perfectly balanced ideas or anything like that, so there’s no need to hold back (and no reason to be overly critical)!

Have at it my fellow Guardians! ^.^

Spirit weapons act more like Engineer turrets.

Shield 5 to either remove all conditions from all nearby party members, or provide a water field to blast so the guardians can actually have one available.

Upcoming bow skills to work similar to how I want shield 5 to work.

Our reflection skill to work like the Revenant’s.

1. Fix Sword. idc about the autoattack #3 even though yes it is annoying just Git rid of zealots defense omg its the worst. Dont even replace it with anything if you dont want i just want it gone.

2. Spirit Weapons being unkillable again or at least less squishy. I mean Conjures are the most broken thing in this game. they are really well designed as a set but its darn near impossible to use em since all they do is die in anything bigger then 2v2

3. I wish there was an incentive to keep the shield #5 up. when I do shield i just spam it for the KB and heal. lets buff it so there is some sort of benefit for leaving it up, in a melee since like if an enemy is in the ring it burns them or applies protection to allies I dunno. Same with Mace #3 lets not have it proc on ranged attack so we have a decent gap closer

I dream for a trait with 25% movespeed, so I can replace traveler’s runes, and Whirling Wrath not slowing down your already miserable speed.

1, condition build
2, movement speed like everybody else
3, ranged weapon
4, velocity on scepter auto
5, cast time reduction on hammer auto3
6, shield fix
7, CD reduction on Merciful Intervetion…

1) Consolidation/remvap of symbol-related traits.
2) Movement speed trait.
3) Condi spec.
4) Power spec.
5) Revamp of virtue traits.
6) Spirit weapon buffs.

1) Remove spirit weapons and put in a new set of utilities that are more thematic/functional.
2) movement speed trait plox
3) Condi spec
4) A new GS 3 animation so you aren’t just spinning around like a re****.
5) Sanctuary reflects projectiles just like wall of reflection.

1) Shield of Judgement actually doing something useful
2) Move one of the virtue traits to Adept so you can slot one for each virtue (not going to happen but I’ll dream anyway)
3) A nice movement trait (probably as long as Aegis is up get 25% bonus movement)

Hell yes to the “no more lightfields” thing, considering it’s a wishlist I’d even go as far as to say make them fire fields, it’s not unheard of to have perma fire fields, look at Ele.

Spirit Weapons… tons of options but I’d like to have them be good, I’d personally probably have them be persistent creatures that do nothing unless activated, and with this they’re invincible, basically separate animated entities that execute strong attacks. /shrug like i said many options, but i dream of a world where they’re useful outside of shield.

Large buff to torch to make it truly the best offensive tool over focus, and with that a huge buff to shield to make it actually worthwhile. I’m thinking something like making the 5 skill similar to the new revenant thing, moving large block, early collapse = blast. 5 skill will be an actual block, if you don’t block cast protection…. basically mace3, 15s reuse seems about right. Melee return strike as it’s a shield and we’re not Xena/Capt America.

first and third thing would probably be my favs, but spirit weapons look awesome and I’d love if I could run around with them all the time. Hell give me a giant Axe as an Elite skill too.

Mmm, I’ll just post what’s on my mind.

Remove Kindled Zeal. Replace it with some cheesy name, like “Symbolic Inferno.” Your symbols are now fire fields. Blast finishers executed on these fields make might last 15% longer.

Radiant Retaliation- Just fix it. Please. Not too hard to ask.

For weapons, I’ll state that I think Scepter, Focus, Hammer, and Greatsword are fine. I don’t personally use Staff or Mace very often and since I have little experience with them I will refrain from making a possibly uneducated remark.

Sword:

Auto-attack chain: For the love of Dwayna remove the classification of the third attack as a projectile. This is just plain unnecessary.

Flashing Blade: Nerf to not use to negate falling damage was also completely unnecessary. I’d like to see this reverted as in the first place there should be much bigger priorities to “fix” than nerfing an already slow class’s way of a skillful escape.

Zealot’s Defense: The changes I’d like to see to this are twofold.

First off, make the projectiles more accurate traveling to the target at 600 range. At the speed they travel and even at maximum (600) range they should seek the target, not go off to the side even if the target is static.

Second, when Zealot’s Defense is reflected back onto the guardian, it should have no effect. It makes no sense to me for a skill that allegedly “destroys ranged attacks” to hit through its own shield and protective purpose.

Torch:

Zealot’s Flame/Fire: Okay, keep them as is.

Cleansing Flame: Keep damage, cast time, and number of pulses the same. Remove one condition every third pulse from both the guardian and any ally within a 240 radius, for a total of 3 conditions if allowed to fully cast. Cooldown increased to 25 seconds.

Shield:

Shield of Judgment: Add Aegis to it, keep Protection duration and cooldown the same.

Shield of Absorption: Shield gives the heal right after being cast, does not root the guardian, and stays for the full four seconds in the same spot. Making it a water field is also something I was tinkering with in my mind, but that might be too powerful. Keep the cooldown the same.

Of course, these are just my opinions, and I know they won’t be implemented into the game. However, it is fun to play make-believe.

Leap of Faith CD reduced to 10s base.

Flashing Blade no longer requires a target to perform the teleport.

Judge’s Intervention is now ground targeted.

Orb of Wrath proyectile speed increased by 33%.

Smite is now considered a symbol.

Bonus:

Binding Blade maximun leash range increased to 750, aftercast of this skill significantly reduced.
Pull (Binding Blade chain) casting time reduced to 1/4s, aftercast of this skill significantly reduced.
Ring of Warding can now be used while moving.
Shield of Judgement cast time reduced to 1/4s, now it also dazes targets for 1/4s. Cannot be blocked.
Shield of Absorption proyectile blocking bubble now persists for its full duration regadless of detonation and follows you around.
Detonate Shield of Absorption now provides 5 seconds of regeneration in addition to the current heal. It no longer makes the proyectile blocking bubble dissapear.
Cleansing Flames now cleanses up to 3 conditions from you and your allies, cast time reduced to 3s. Initial precast time significantly reduced. Base CD increased to 20s.

1. Cleansing Flame’s range increased to 600-900. Its maximum amount of targets is separate for the cleansing effect and the damage. Channel time decreased to 2 (1/4), still clears 9 conditions over this duration.
2. Merciful Intervention CD reduction.
3. Spirit Weapons go on cooldown as soon as they are summoned.
4. Expeditious Spirit CDR increased to 40%. Improved Spirit-Weapon Duration merged into Spirit-Weapon mastery.
5. Bow of Truth’s command doesn’t have a cast time.
6. Some trait gets added that’s like Aquatic Benevolence.

1. What op said about spirit weapons.

2. Another target teleport skill or ability

3. Permeating Wrath: Burn AOE effects around your target instead of yourself.

4. Burn on block: People who attack and is burned will also burn others around him in a 180 radius.

5. Shield Skills now offer Aegis When traited.

6. You’re allowed to Leap across the map when some one says, “Help me Saiyan!”

I have been drinking for a few days now, but w8 for it…

wait….

Sigil(s) that proc burning on crits or weaponswaps

and¨

torch #4 would burn conditions

and pretty much what everyone said earlier in this thread, especially all shield buffs

Remove aegis shield effect

Delete the minor trait “Courageous Return” and replace with “+25% movement speed when under the effects of Aegis”.

Short list:

• 1. Fix Radiant Retaliation. It is currently completely broken.
• 2. Revamp/Redo Purity of Body (no Grandmaster trait should be designed to be useless unless paired with one other specific Grandmaster trait.)
• 3. Spirit Weapon Survivability: Make them invulnerable, harder to kill, traited for extra health, or if they are doomed to die let us give them an effect on death or an effect on summon.

- Make heal skills either heal for a lot with high cooldowns or heal for a small amount with low cooldowns.

- Make healing power scale better with guardian heal skills. Everything except for Selfless Daring scales too poorly IMO.

- Speaking of Selfless Daring, remove the PvP nerf for this please. It’s only effective on builds that have no damage anyway.

- Remove the projectile property from sword autoattack.

- Make Zealot’s Defense on sword hit more reliably, whether that’s faster projectiles or the ability to cast while moving or both.

- Make Zealot’s Defense worth using over the sword autoattack, whether that’s by upping the DPS, stacking vuln per hit, etc.

- Remove the projectile property from Whirling Wrath and allow it to deal full damage from melee range without requiring the user to be INSIDE the target hitbox.

- GIVE US SOME GODkitten SOFT CC.

- Redesign shield skills so they don’t suck.

- Decrease cast times for mace and hammer.

- Give Protector’s Strike a cancel sub-ability to grant protection to nearby allies.

- Rework Protector’s Strike so that it works similarly to other weapon-based blocks that only proc a counter on melee-range attacks.

- Allow for Ring of Warding to be cast while moving.

- Either increase the speed of scepter projectiles or give them a homing property that requires an actual DODGE to avoid.

- Rework Smite slightly so that it hits more consistently on single targets but splits the damage based on the number of targets in the AoE. A slight damage decrease may be necessary to compensate.

- Fix Zealot’s Fire (the sub-ability of torch 4) so that it hits more reliably and isn’t obstructed by literally nothing.

- Rework Cleansing Flame so that it provides a benefit to the guardian using it, whether that’s self-condi cleanse, increased DPS, an extra effect, etc. Increase cooldown or reduce number of hits to compensate if necessary.

- Reduce cooldowns on some heal skills and utility skills (looking at you, Sanctuary).

- Make Litany of Wrath instant cast. Withdraw is an uninterruptible instant cast heal for thief, so wanting to provide “interrupt counterplay” is not an excuse for making this skill not worthwhile.

- Rework all signets other than Bane Signet.

- Rework spirit weapons so that they’re less AI reliant. If AI isn’t removed entirely, make it more consistent so that the weapons will either target your current target or the target you were locked onto upon casting them.

- Introduce a trait for spirit weapon builds that starts cooldowns upon casting so that spirit weapon builds will have less downtime. Better yet, add this as an extra effect to one of the existing spirit weapon traits since there are already way too many of them.

- Make signet traits more enticing. This, combined with better signet skills, might actually encourage their use in some builds.

- Consolidate traits. Consolidate traits. Consolidate traits. There’s absolutely no reason for symbol traits to be spread out over 2 conflicting traitlines and there’s absolutely no reason for spirit weapon traits to be spread out over 3 different traitlines. Also traits like VoC providing stability and VoC providing a team stunbreak should be combined.

- Rework traits that nobody uses. It should be pretty obvious that nobody who knows what they’re doing will ever touch Kindled Zeal.

- Speaking of Kindled Zeal, guardians either need more DPS conditions than burning, or the “condi guardian” push needs to stop. Full condition builds cannot rely on burning alone.

- Make traits more competitive. Every build that uses Zeal takes Fiery Wrath. There should be better traits that better compliment different builds so that there’s incentive to take something else.

- Make traits more interesting. “Deal X% increased damage to a target with conditions” and “Reduce the cooldown of X skills by 20%” are boring and add little to the way a particular build is played. I want to see more traits that can create an entirely unique playstyle, like Fresh Air ele or Terrormancer necros.

I’m sure there’s probably more, because I think of how I would want to change this game’s balance all the time. But that’s what I’ve been able to come up with for now.

All I want is a trait/signet passive with +% movespeed. I am tired of falling behind people who can keep themselves permanently faster, while I’ve got to burn utilities to keep up.

Symbol of Swiftness can only do so much.

• Shield 4 gets a CC component to the skill for enemies it hits.
• Swiftness on Meditation use trait
• Merciful Intervention buff (cooldown reduction would be ideal)
• Some kind of grandmaster trait that turns Symbol fields into Fire fields

Some of the other ideas here are pretty good, too, although I’m perfectly okay with Spirit Weapons being terrible. I’d actually prefer it if all AI utilities were reworked to be require more action from the player. For instance, remove the auto-attack on Spirit Weapons, super buff their command skills, and that’s great. Now it’s a powerful utility skill with the counterplay that you can kill the spirit weapon.

Some thoughts I’ve had:

• Permeating Wrath definitely needs to trigger on foe’s location
• Sword and Scepter (but especially scepter) need a Symbol of some sort. Longbow too if that’s the weapon we’re getting. There are just too many symbol related traits and mechanics that they can’t take advantage of.
• Spirit Weapons could afford something. Bow needs to damage (even if its low), and all weapons need a better relation of cooldown to uptime. Whether that means start the cooldown on summon, or don’t remove their summoned duration (alive until killed), or something else. They still feel like they have all the disadvantages of each minion skill without all the benefits.
• Kindled Zeal needs to be different. Either Guardian needs access to a lot of different conditions and has a good hybrid build to be worth taking over Amplified Wrath, or it needs a complete overhaul to a different effect.
• Shimmering Defense’s cooldown to effect and uptime ratio isn’t good at all. Even dropping something like a 14s burn isn’t going to help you if you’re at 25% health, especially if it only occurs once every minute.
• Searing Flames could afford to be per target, rather than 10s for any proc.
• Powerful Blades should put the spear damage with Zealous Blade, and then finally figure out what nifty effect swords need.
• Radiant Retal needs to work correctly of course
• Resolute Healer is in a similar situation as Shimmering Defense. 60s cooldown for a knockback and maybe some projectile absorbtion. Mesmer can pop a feedback once every 10s, which I would say is the better deal in every way. The disparity between those two traits is too wide imo.
• Hallowed Ground’s cooldown is a little too long, and now the Stability doesn’t stack quite so fast, especially when it’ll now compete with Revenant’s Inspired Reinforcement
• Sanctuary is too small for its effects and cooldown. 240 size would be fine, or drastically lowering cooldown, or even both.
• Retaliatory Subconscious doesn’t provide much benefit for the cooldown in its current state. A quick cooldown like 5s might be more appropriate.
• Purity of Body could afford to be 20% Enduro regen rather than 15%
• Virtues (like Resolve and Courage) have a pretty high cooldown. VoJ you can get around with 3 in Radiance, but without that trait, it still kind of hurts to have on cooldown.
• Allowing movement on Ring of Warding would be nice
• Orb of Light could be popped for 2x cooldown instead of 4×.
• Faithful Strike ((Mace) and similar skills around the game) should damage 3 enemies, but only have the heal once. Thief and Necro dagger autos already do this.
• Sword Wave has all the disadvantages of projectiles without the benefits. It should probably act like a wave a la Staff 1
• Flashing Blade could afford some more damage, like only 2x or so.
• Zealot’s Defense Should probably either actually block (maybe melee too) or allow movement while channeling (Like Engi shiled 4)
• Shield of Judgement could afford an additional effect (like stun or something).
• Shield of Absorption could allow for movement also like Engi Shield 4
• Cleansing Flame could remove only 3 conditions, but also remove from the Guardian. 9 conditions from allies and yourself every 15-12 seconds is a bit much, but 3 seems good.
• Litany of Wrath needs another 1/4 second shaved off the cast time.

• Not so much Guardian specific, but I think Retaliation should become a stacking boon. Drop the damage to 1/10th or 1/5th of normal, but have each skill give a few stacks of Retal. This way it acts as it was sort of designed to, as a defensive measure to rapid hits, rather than a fairly easily maintained plink damage thing.
• Skills you currently can’t use underwater need an underwater version.

That should hit most things.

just a thought
Spirit Weapons teleport to target when you do..

1) Spirit Weapons function like Engi Kits.

2) Signets get a full revamp (condition utility focus)

3) Condi / Support Hybrid Build

Soft CC

some way to build for condition damage

Wards traits

Hammer speed up too slow

Improve Sword and Shield skills and related traits, for example to apply soft cc

Torch 5 reworked or something

Supreme Justice moved to adapt so we can actually do a virtues build

Permeating Wrath Improved. It is by no means a grandmaster worthy trait along with its fellow grandmaster traits in Virtues

Rework Signets atm they are utterly pointless

Consecration skills cooldowns shortened

Spirit weapons reworked and to not expire unless killed

Radiant Retaliation and Kindled Zeal scraped for something worth looking at

Litany of Wrath instant cast time. even though Shelter will never be dropped

• 25% movement speed trait: Whether it’s conditional or not is fine. Something like “while wielding 1 handed weapons” as an adept radiance trait. Or perhaps “with at least one virtue passive active” as an adept virtues trait (which both lines are lacking in past 1 or 2 traits). The problem with it only active during aegis is that it would only be good for out of combat travel, it would have nearly no uptime in combat.

• Sword AA #3: Shield Wave projectiles need to be worked on. You should not eat half you melee AA chain damage when reflect is up, it’s just bad design. The skill could be treated simple as not reflectable, or completely reworked. I’d also like to see a 2s cripple added somewhere in the AA chain.

• Soft CC: 2s chill on blind would be nice. Or a five second cripple. Either would be fine, but some access to soft cc would go a long way. I would like to see some access natively on weapons and not have to trait for it though.

• Boon Stripping: My idea is to rework Cleansing Flame. Reduce the cast time to 2s and reduce the hits down to 4 (1 per half second). Readjust the conditions cleansed on allies to be the same, but add boon stripping per pulse. It would make focus not the clear choice, and give the guardian some options to deal with boon spam. And 4 boons stripped over a 2s channel is not terribly OP, the blue flame is quite easy to spot and dodge.

There’s been a lot of good suggestions in this thread though. I’m glad to see so many asking for a 25% movement speed, and I thin the more vocal we are the more likely it will come. I could probably list a bunch more, but these are what I feel are most important.

Superior Aria, Retreat, and no boon duration make an effective +25% movement speed, and you get a free aegis.

Haha, there are a lot of neat ideas in here!

Someone up above mentioned a Sigil that applied burning, and I’ve always secretly wanted one of those two :o

I’ve also sort of wanted more utility oriented Sigils in general: things that can proc some of the defensive boons (Regen, Protection, maybe stability), or some that increased the durations of specific boons— heck, it’d be super neat to have a Boon equivelent to Giver’s Weapons (Giver’s weapons give 10% or 20% condition duration depending on wether the weapon is one or two handed). I’d love more alternatives to increasing boon duration (right now all general Boon duration runes are on healing power sets; certain offensive runes offer high duration increases to Offensive Boons, and there are a couple Toughness Runesets that offer Protection duration, but that’s about it).

Also, as a melee oriented player who basically weapon swaps on cool down, I’d like to see a few more “On Swap,” weapon sigils make it into the game (Gain [insert Boon here] for [3-5] seconds on weapon swap, _[insert stat here] is increased by “x” amount for [3-5] seconds on weapon swap. Deal x% more damage for [3-5] seconds on weapon swap).

I’m just spit ballin’ random ideas here, but you get what I’m going for.

Shield Stun
Sacrifice : Restores another character’s HP by sacrificing your own
Tribunal: provoke an enemy to attack while temporarily decreasing their critical attack rate.

lineage 2 paladin skills but something similar would be awesome

Give me a out-of-water, spear pls, and thanks.

Shield should give a true block or reflect. I’d also like to see it proc aegis on trait.
Torch 5 remove condis on you, rebalance required.

Lastly, virtue passives suck. They need more incentive or better counterplay of choice between passives and actives. Same goes for our signers minus the healing one. Take a lesson from warrior signets or necro signets. Also, the trait investment to just make one virtue good is simply not worth the point investment as it currently stands.

Lastly, swap ferocity from third traitline with boon duration in 5th line.

Much of this has already been covered by some of our more comprehensive posts above, but here’s my 2 cents. I believe some of the most important fixes that could be made to guardian which would further increase build diversity would be:

- Various trait fixes in both virtues, and radiance. I can think of a grandmaster trait or two that need reworking… I’m looking at YOU Radiant Retaliation! Seriously, broken traits aside, we just straight up have traits that no one ever uses for good reasons. This can definitely be fixed.

- Rework Spirit weapons. Nearly everything about them needs reworking. They’re a good source of damage, and great in 1v1 duels, however that’s about it. Literally, they lose almost all of their value as soon as you go from 1v1 to 2v2. Also, It’s rather annoying that you need to invest about 6 to 8 trait points (Condition Damage build, or Power build respectively) to even make spirit weapons mildly viable in said 1v1 situation. People have made many suggestions on how to fix them, ranging from letting their cool downs start as soon as they’re summoned, or instead reducing their cool downs. Additionally, reducing the amount of trait lines they’re spread across would be great. Example: The benefits incurred from Expeditious Spirit, Spirit Weapon mastery, and Improved Spirit Weapon Duration don’t need to be three separate traits.

-Signets: Signets need some love too. Besides signet of resolve, the other signets are fairly lackluster, even when traited for. An excellent signet trait would encourage people to invest some trait points in radiance, and maybe take one or two signets which could lead to some interesting builds!

-Some access to bleeding: This would definitely increase build diversity without breaking lore too much. Access to bleed through 1h sword, greatsword, and various traits would make sense. Don’t forget: While we are magical, we still use physical weapons for the most part, and for sword/gs users, we’re still cutting down our foes! Guards being able to maintain 6-10 stacks of bleeding in addition to burning would make for more interesting condition damage, as well as hybrid builds.

-Glacial Heart: This trait could be changed to remove the chill, keep the damage the same, and change the animation to that of a blue fiery explosion for aoe damage, and burning. This would increase condi build diversity, and especially hybrid builds, as hammer would no longer solely be a power weapon! As for losing the chill aspect of glacial heart, increased access to chill would be our access to soft CC that everyone so desires. This has potential as a future specialization! Trading out the wrath/burning theme we have now for a theme of justice and pursuit (slowing down the enemy) sounds promising!

-Shield needs to be brought up to par, and become the defensive analog of focus. Plenty of great, and sensible suggestions have already been made about shield. Take your pick, ANET!

1) Merge Radiant Fire (Radiance VII) with A Fire Inside (Radiance VIII), move Blind Exposure (Radiance VI) to master tier and Add a new Adept trait:

-Blinded and Crippled: Inflicting blind on an enemy makes him cripple for 1 second (1 second CD)

That would provide some of the CC we so much need. The trait would synergize with Justice is Blind and force us to use our blinds smartly, as they would be useable to either slow our opponents or protect ourselves.

2)Move Writ of the Merciful (Honor X) to Adept tier and merge it with Writ of Exaltation (Honor III) and add a new Master trait:

-Confident Commander: Boons provided by shouts have 100% increased duration on yourself. Shouts give vigor to the user for 5s (5s cooldown)

This would bump up shouts for solo roaming and make some Guardians think before spamming all of their shouts at once for instant burst. Running this with Retreat! would provide 100% uptime swiftness. Vigor on shouts would help bunker guardians to survive since they can’t afford to run crit for Vigorous Precision (Honor Minor Adept) and compete with today’s bunkers

3)Replace Expeditious Spirit with the following trait:

-Spirituous Master: Using a spirit weapon’s command skill and summoning it converts a condition into a boon.

Gives a little more room for spirit weapons and provides some more condi clease to the build, not obligating you to use bow for it.

4) Zealous Blade now scales 0,1 with Healing Power instead of 0,02. Base healing reduced to 10.

Makes the trait a lot more interesting as if you have ~1000 healing power, it will provide ~100 heal per hit, instead of the old ~45.This provides some soft survivability for squeeshier guardians builds and makes zeal more competitive with other lines.

This could go on for a while… I’ll do more later

I was thinking about the shield earlier today and I think it would be cool if:

1. Skill #4 (Shield of Judgement) had it’s protection swapped for Aegis (and preferably turn it into an AoE around the user instead of a cone), and
2. Skill #5 (Shield of Absorption) was changed to function more like Empowering might on the staff— have it throw up its knockback and absorption dome as usual, yaddadaa, but instead of a “sit there or detonate” mechanic, have it pulse out an AoE heal once for each second channeled, then if you get through the whole channel uninterrupted have it apply Protection to everyone in range (Set it up sort of as an inversion of Empowering Might which gives you stacks of Might per tick, then a big heal at the end).
   This would turn skill #5 into sort of a “soft reset;” enemy disruption with the Knockback/Projectile Absorption, healing for some recovery, and finally protection to set-up for a push, counter push, mob pull, whatever. And you still have that whole risk/reward thing that Anet is nuts over, because with the current rooted aspect of the skill, you’d have to properly judge wether it’s safe/possible to get the full effect off or wether you have to cancel it (either because you just need a quick knockback, or because the enemy decides to focus you before you can get the full effect off).

I think a change along these lines would make Shield viable for everyone, while still mainting it’s “original vision” as a support based weapon. Heck, an extra application of Aegis alone would make it a really attractive weapon to a lot of people xD

Edited for typos.

My ideas for shield are:

• Shield of Judgement: This skill now knockdown those hit for 2 seconds. I think this would add a lot of versatility to the shield and give it a reason in itself to take it over focus or torch.

• Shield of Absorption: The dome on this skill does have it’s use, and doesn’t need to be thrown out. However, I think it would be fine if the guardian had a duration block while channeling it. You’ve got the shield up in a defensive pose, so it makes sense. It would still keep the function of defending allies from projectiles with the dome but you yourself get a duration block from melee attacks and AoE. Even better if the skill could work while moving.

Those two buffs to the shield would go a long way without needing to completely rework them. It would be useful in all sorts of builds, both sustain and dps.

Also, I’ve been thinking about a trait to replace Kindled Zeal with. What are you guys’ thoughts on a +20% damage on foes under 50% hp? I think it would give the zeal line a reason to invest into it.

Haha! Sorry, I think a small typo in my post lead to a misunderstanding: I don’t wanna get rid of Shield’s Knockback/Projectile Absorption dome. I actually meant that the “detonation” aspect should be removed, and replaced with a channeled heal/buff.

While I genuinely don’t like the knockback, I know a lot of players have found their uses for it, so I would never dream of taking that away from them xD

(gunna edit my post to get rid of that confusing typo).

Shanks.2907:

Also, I’ve been thinking about a trait to replace Kindled Zeal with. What are you guys’ thoughts on a +20% damage on foes under 50% hp? I think it would give the zeal line a reason to invest into it.

“/sigh.” I’m gunna be honest: I know Percentile Damage Modifiers are one of the most important aspects of a DPS build, but I (personally, as a singular individual) think that they way they’re currently implemented is unhealthy for the game. Especially given how passive and easy most of them are to upkeep (I’d go so far to argue that the only ones I respect are the ones like Scholar Runes or our own Unscathed Contender trait. The one’s that really reward and require active gameplay).

But this is a thread for dreams! So sidestepping my “downer-dan” attitude: yes, a 20% damage on foes under 50% hp damage modifier would be a powerful trait (just like it is on Necro or Thief). Probably to the extent that 6/5/x/x/x would become the new “mandatory meta” (because percentile modifiers are multiplicative, that trait spread— with our new theoretical Zeal grandmaster— would give a 45% dps increase— 59.7% on our symbols. And that’s before you factor in other modifiers like Sigil of Force, Scholars/Flame Legion/Strength Runes, etc…)

Basically it’d be a huge damage increase for Guardians, but wouldn’t really impact our utility or versatility. After all, we’d still have 3 points to spec into either Superior Aria or Master of Consecrations, which are basically two of our strongest Utility types. The only thing we’d really lose with that spread is Absolute Resolution.

Krestfallen.8025:

Shanks.2907:

Also, I’ve been thinking about a trait to replace Kindled Zeal with. What are you guys’ thoughts on a +20% damage on foes under 50% hp? I think it would give the zeal line a reason to invest into it.

“/sigh.” I’m gunna be honest: I know Percentile Damage Modifiers are one of the most important aspects of a DPS build, but I (personally, as a singular individual) think that they way they’re currently implemented is unhealthy for the game. Especially given how passive and easy most of them are to upkeep (I’d go so far to argue that the only ones I respect are the ones like Scholar Runes or our own Unscathed Contender trait. The one’s that really reward and require active gameplay).

But this is a thread for dreams! So sidestepping my “downer-dan” attitude: yes, a 20% damage on foes under 50% hp damage modifier would be a powerful trait (just like it is on Necro or Thief). Probably to the extent that 6/5/x/x/x would become the new “mandatory meta” (because percentile modifiers are multiplicative, that trait spread— with our new theoretical Zeal grandmaster— would give a 45% dps increase— 59.7% on our symbols. And that’s before you factor in other modifiers like Sigil of Force, Scholars/Flame Legion/Strength Runes, etc…)

Basically it’d be a huge damage increase for Guardians, but wouldn’t really impact our utility or versatility. After all, we’d still have 3 points to spec into either Superior Aria or Master of Consecrations, which are basically two of our strongest Utility types. The only thing we’d really lose with that spread is Absolute Resolution.

Yeah, I agree with your reservations on % damage traits. It doesn’t add anything to active gameplay or the way guardian plays. I think things like soft cc, mobility and boon stripping would shape the guardian in a much better direction, but I don’t see any of those fitting into a zeal grandmaster.

Though, I do think it would be best if the new zeal grandmaster focused somehow on physical damage, as right now there’s a spirit weapon trait and two condition traits. There’s no reason to invest into a power line without any traits dealing with power.

Shanks.2907:

Though, I do think it would be best if the new zeal grandmaster focused somehow on physical damage, as right now there’s a spirit weapon trait and two condition traits. There’s no reason to invest into a power line without any traits dealing with power.

I agree with you there. While Zeal is technically a Power/Condi line (condition duration), but its Grandmasters are way too focused on Condi/Hybrid builds. It definitely needs a Grandmaster trait that caters to Power focused builds.

This is another tangent, but honestly I’d like to see those Spirit Weapon traits not only consolidated, but actually moved down to the Virtues line, and have some of those Virtue traits shifted into other, thematically appropriate trait lines.

It’d be cool to be able to both boost our virtues without having to go fully into a single line, and be able to spec to improve a certain virtue based on the desired goal of our build. This would not be unprecedented, as many classes have traits throughout all their lines that affect their class mechanics in different ways (I’m thinking about professions like Ranger, Necro, Mesmers… Thieves have different lines that affect either/and/or Stealing or Stealth, etc…)

The first two Minors in Radiance are a great example of this: they completely change the functionality of Virtue of Justice and synergize great with mobile, offensive oriented builds.
You can see they attempted to do something similar with Virtue of Courage in Valor but the functionality and cooldowns of those minors just makes it kinda “meh.” Aegis when hit below 50% hp once every 90 seconds? Virtue of Courage recharges when you rally? Decent I guess, but overall “meh.”

Krestfallen.8025:

Shanks.2907:

Also, I’ve been thinking about a trait to replace Kindled Zeal with. What are you guys’ thoughts on a +20% damage on foes under 50% hp? I think it would give the zeal line a reason to invest into it.

“/sigh.” I’m gunna be honest: I know Percentile Damage Modifiers are one of the most important aspects of a DPS build, but I (personally, as a singular individual) think that they way they’re currently implemented is unhealthy for the game. Especially given how passive and easy most of them are to upkeep (I’d go so far to argue that the only ones I respect are the ones like Scholar Runes or our own Unscathed Contender trait. The one’s that really reward and require active gameplay).

I think there are more people that agree with you than you might think on this. They’re a major contributor to the one-dimensional nature of PvE, and on top of that they’re just really boring and don’t add any sort of depth to a build.

Viable alternatives.

Some good suggestions so far, especially @Black Box’s long list.

I want to also add my tought’s on Zeal line. I feel like the symbol minor traits and Zealot’s speed are holding our class back as a whole when it comes to a real power build, which the guardian doesn’t currently have one, especially when it comes to our Zeal GM traits, there is nothing build defining there atm.

If you compare the guardian power line with ele and thief (all 3 lowest health pool in game) you can see that both thief and ele have builds that go 6 points into their power line in WvW/pvp (staff back line/panic strike). We don’t even benefit in Pve going 6 points in Zeal which is very annoying.

Before going to specific traits I would like to characterize Zeal and what I personally (myself only) think it should be about.

• Increased Atack Speed
• Heal a certain % of your HP pool on Crits/Burning targets (or better yet adapt Litany as Zeal trait/mechanic)
• a small % chance to pass the attack speed for a few seconds to team
• swiftness and a small % in CD reduction for our offhands after killing a foe

We are known for being slow, long CD on our weapon sets which our burst also suffers from it. All of the above will complement and make up for the guards weakness (also the lack of CC) in a nice power package.

This is what I feel Zeal should be about. Roughly.

Edit: Rip English, sorry for the poor phrasings.

Sword: Remove the projectile from AA
Sword: Remove the root on Zealot’s Defense

GS: Remove the slow down on Whirling Wrath

Staff: 1200 range 360 radius.

I posted changes i’d like to see many months ago so here’s another look:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Changes-in-the-Sept-2014-Feature-Pack/4307390

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/The-bad-trait-skill-list/3993342

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/The-bad-trait-skill-list/3983336

Let me know what you guys think.

creepmatic.9435:

I want to also add my tought’s on Zeal line. I feel like the symbol minor traits and Zealot’s speed are holding our class back as a whole when it comes to a real power build, which the guardian doesn’t currently have one, especially when it comes to our Zeal GM traits, there is nothing build defining there atm.

I was thinking about this a little bit earlier, and I think that the Zeal line could do with the same sort of polish that was applied to Necro’s Death Magic line.

Just like how all our Zeal minors are focused on Symbols, Death Magic had minors that were completely focused on minions, making it… less than desirable for anyone who wasn’t a minion master.
When they went over the Death Magic line they took these Minors and merged them (either together, or with other already existing traits), then made them Majors. The line was then given new minors that were more useful to a wider variety of builds.

I think it would help immensely if Guardian’s Zeal line got the same treatment. I mean the premier weapon set ups for power guard (not the only, but one of the most promenent) is GS/Sword+Focus. GS has a symbol, but untraited it has a mere 4 second duration and a hefty 20 second duration (traited that becomes 6 and 16 respectively, which is better, but still not enough to classify GS as a “Symbol focused weapon.”) And Sword+ any off hand (also scepter+any off hand) lacks any symbols at all.

Just as Necros spent a couple of years pointing out the glaring flaw in one of their major defensive traitlines, I think it’s fair to argue that it’s both frustrating and limiting that one of Guardian’s major offensive traitlines caters only to a specific, rather niche build (and this is coming from someone who, as I said in the OP runs Hammer/Mace as my favorite set up).

So basically, take these Minors and turn them into Majors, then replace the now vacant Minor slots with traits that influence Power oriented builds in a more general way.
This way, just like Necros who want to Minionmancer still have the option to spec for Minions, Guardians who want to spec for Symbols can continue to do so without “ruining” the entire traitline for everyone else xD

As a little tangent I think that, while they’re no where near the level of disorganization that Spirit Weapons face, Symbol Traits could use a little bit of consolidation/reworking/repositioning as well.
This post is already a little lengthy, so I won’t get into that too much here— if people are interested in discussing QoL improvements for Symbol builds maybe we can do that a little later ;P

However I will say that Zealot’s Speed is a monumentally lackluster trait, even as an Adept Minor. Symbol of Retaliation at 50% health? Really? At least make it a Symbol of Protection or Regeneration, something that might actually help turn the tide in a fight.
But honestly, I just sorta think it’s lackluster overall and needs to be merged with another trait or just outright scrapped so something else can take its place.

TL/DR: Change Zeal’s minor traits from being Symbol exclusive into something that can be used by a wider variety of offensive Guardians.

I think my biggest dream is something like:
Grandmaster trait:
“Wrathful Inquisition”
All your symbols are now fire fields

BOOM! dps boost, condi boost, no more hate for hammer guardians on dungeons

OanSur.4590:

I think my biggest dream is something like:
Grandmaster trait:
“Wrathful Inquisition”
All your symbols are now fire fields

BOOM! dps boost, condi boost, no more hate for hammer guardians on dungeons

Hah! I have to admit, that’d be freaking spectacular; I even like the name you came up with!

Krestfallen.8025:

OanSur.4590:

I think my biggest dream is something like:
Grandmaster trait:
“Wrathful Inquisition”
All your symbols are now fire fields

BOOM! dps boost, condi boost, no more hate for hammer guardians on dungeons

Hah! I have to admit, that’d be freaking spectacular; I even like the name you came up with!

Thanks! Actually i have a few more ideas but this one i think would make a biggest difference. I would also increase fury duration on two only traits that grant this powerful boon (dont remember names, one that gives fury if u have burning condition and other that grants fury when casting meditation skill). Both are laughable (3-4s duration) and need to be changed.
Other idiotic trait is Glacial Heart. Chill on crit when using hammer sounds awesome. But on (!)15s(!) cooldown… WHAIT WHAT?! WHY?!

But enough of criticism. Lets think about something new…
Adept trait
“Zealot’s Retribution”
Aegis grants fury when it ends

Just make Shield and Torch a viable option in the game. Currently, if you want to be effective, you just can’t play with those weapons. For instance staff is just sooo good, that I can’t replace it with shield even tho I hate staff!! I’m not asking for much, just make it at least viable!

Sorlis.9238:

Just make Shield and Torch a viable option in the game. Currently, if you want to be effective, you just can’t play with those weapons. For instance staff is just sooo good, that I can’t replace it with shield even tho I hate staff!! I’m not asking for much, just make it at least viable!

This !!!

& Zeal traits rework.

Shield needs to be looked at, not just slapping on timer reductions but an overhaul of what it does, i like the suggestions of aegis for SoJ and maybe a daze for foes(1 second).

The SoA should last the full 4 seconds, i dont mind that it roots you in place so much as the initial trigger is a knockback and you can end it at any time by popping it. The detonate could be a blast finisher and also scale a lot better with healing power to compete with the staff heal(which is incredible as it also grants might to everyone).