Guild Wars 2

Noticed a few skill effects in official videos or from fighting with Logan Thackery that didn’t match up with how Guardian’s play today. This prompted me to look up beta and earlier abilities to see what has changed with Guardian’s and I came up with this interesting list compiled from Qazaam.

Source:
http://guardianslight.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/handbook/

• Virtue of Justice – 3 sec burn on activation
  (5 sec now[only does 4 sec tick in game])
• Virtue of Courage – Blocks every 5th attack
  (in game creates aegis every 40 sec)
• Virtue of Resolve – Removes all conditions from self and allies and provides a larger regeneration heal for a short time
  (in game at most trait for 3 boons removed, heal is direct heal not heal over time)
• Protector’s Strike (mace) – Blocks, damages, and knock backs enemies
  (in game only blocks and damages)
• Orb of Wrath (scepter) – Fire damage on auto attack
  (in game just direct damage)
• Sword of Wrath (sword) – provided a double attack
  (chains have been improved and now does 1,1,3 strike)
• Shield of Absorption (shield) – Knocks back enemies attempting to enter shield
  (in game only knocks back on activation)
• Ray of Judgement (focus) – passes through allies providing regeneration and bounces off 3 enemy targets to blind and damage
  (in game allies count as bounce targets now)
• Symbol of Swiftness (greatsword) – Movement speed and damage
  (in game this was replaced with Symbol of Wrath)
• Faithful Strike (greatsword) – Leap to enemy doing damage and healing allies
  (in game this was replaced with Leap of Faith which blinds targets instead of heals allies)
• Blinding Blades (greatsword) – Throws out chains that cause enemies to teleport to Guardian if they move too far away
  (in game the Guardian has to trigger a pull, and if targets run too far it loses effect)
• Purge Conditions (hammer) – Burns enemies and removes 5 conditions from allies
  (in game replaced with Zealot’s Embrace which immobilizes targets in a line)
• Symbol of Protection (staff) – Places a symbol that provides protection boon
  (in game replaced with symbol of swiftness)
• Martyr (staff) – Removes ally conditions and places them on Guardian as well as gives you every boon in the game
  (in game replaced with Empower which provides might and heal after channeling)

Some interesting changes, and some things I would have liked to see remain in the game.

Some more info on changes during beta which apparently happened three weeks before launch. So Guardian changes were fairly new at the time of launch. Does that show?
http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/vanguard-guardian-beta/

Honestly, there’s a few changes I’ve noticed that are impacting as well. Virtues had shorter cooldowns. Above all, Virtue of Courage blocked every 5th attack. I like the thought of Virtue of Courage’s block being seperate from Aegis so you could effectively cue up blocks (if Aegis would stack). Retreat would become a nice option for a build. Martyr became Save Yourselves. Condition removal was nerfed, yes, but you have to admit that the amount of condition removal the Guardian had was rediculous.

I would have liked to have seen Greatsword maintain its heal on leap as it could pair well with the Zealous Blade trait, especially if Zealous Blade would affect allies as well. Blinding Blades auto-pulling when an enemy leaves range is a little overpowered. Oh, and apparently Scepter had worse range than it does now. Imagine that.

I’m pretty satisfied with Guardian in its current state. I’ve been experimenting with builds, so really the only complaint I have with Guardian is the market’s prices being fairly high to purchase new equipment everytime I try a new build. Other than that, Guardian feels like its worse attributes could be buffed to the same level as the widely used weapons and utilities.

Good catch on the Virtue of Courage every 5 attacks is blocked. I wonder if that proved to be overpowering or not. I do feel like they intended for us to block a lot more than we do now.

Overall I think we are in a decent place, but I can tell that there are old ideas that are not effective anymore and dragging us down due to the way Guardian’s have developed. We need a clean sweep to update our traits and skills to where we are now.