Guild Wars 2

Symbol of Faith looks really bad to me. Long cast time, pitiful damage and healing. Is it worth it to even hit the “2” button? I am playing a tanky point-holder. I think I’m better off auto-attacking and never using this skill.

Mace symbol actually has the second best base damage and damage scaling for all guardian symbols, (Wrath obviously being the best in both) and also provides free regen, on top of whatever other trait bonuses you have. Add in that you can stack it with other symbols for even more point damage, you really should be using it. Also even if it does “pitiful” damage, nobody is going to stand in a symbol regardless, so at the very least you can push people off point for a small breather with it.

It’s actually decent, but only if you are able to run around without any conditions on you.

Bash, it’s the only symbol on my build. (Scepter, torch, and shield are my other weapons.) So I’m not traited for it. And the regen isn’t free, it costs me over a second to cast it for what amounts to a few hundred healing IF I can stay in the same spot for 4 seconds.

Bash.7291:

Mace symbol actually has the second best base damage and damage scaling for all guardian symbols

For power damage, there is actually no such thing as base damage. It is scaling damage only. Condition damage however does have a base damage component along with scaling damage.

How GW2 calculates power and condition damage is explained here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage

The more you know :^)

Well, there is and there isnt, base damage would just be a steady weapon, no extra power, and no extra armor on the target. yes, it is basicly just what the skill coefficiant is, but there is a “base” based on weapon/power/armor amounts.

Good for personal defense, but that’s about it.

Mace doesn’t have a good way to keep people on its symbol and isn’t very offensive as a whole. And allies won’t be standing on symbols that long, so any support benefit is fleeting.

I fought Quebecois meditation guardian that kicked kitten with his mace and defended points really well with the symbol.

Sergo.2867:

Bash, it’s the only symbol on my build. (Scepter, torch, and shield are my other weapons.) So I’m not traited for it. And the regen isn’t free, it costs me over a second to cast it for what amounts to a few hundred healing IF I can stay in the same spot for 4 seconds.

But if you want to play a “pointholder spec” (bunker?) then why do you have DPS weapons (scepter, torch) instead of something that helps you survive and support allies?

A fair enough question, Witcher. I’ll take a another look at my secondary weapon choices. I originally chose the scepter for a ranged option and the torch because FIREFIRE. But the character wasn’t made with PvP in mind. In addition to lots of burning, retaliation and protection uptime, the build has above average staying power. So I continue trying to figure out what it can do in PvP, hence the original question.

I’ll start by saying it is insufficient compared to other things you can do, such as building for damage with gs/hammer/scepter scenarios.

What Symbol of Faith can do is provide an on demand near 100% up time symbol (hammer requires auto attack) to land.

With an on demand 100% up time symbols you can:

• Maintain a steady stream of boon application (good for AH healing procs)
• Maintain vulnerability stacks enemies
• Utilize layered healing with Regeneration ticks/Writ of Merciful ticks/Virtue of Resolve ticks getting up into the 800-900 health per tick with all 3 combined.
• Layer damaging symbols for upward of 1k damage per tick when building for damage (2 symbols 1k+ each for 5 ticks = ~10k damage to 5 possible targets) [if they stay in it…big if].
• Mind game against opponents, since people tend to stay out of red circles (area control via ground effects).

All of the above sounds great, but what you sacrifice to achieve or the net effectiveness of trying to get allies and/or opponents to stand in the symbol is unreliable and self defeatist.

In practice it is not as great, but on paper it sounds pretty cool. I think some symbol buffs could be warranted. In the expansion, we may see symbol damage become threatening with the 20% damage buff…but will it be enough to make them good?

In the past staff and mace were the more reliable bunker weapons, due to application of boons and AH procs. Your mileage in bunkering will vary now a days, but still useful in the right scenarios.

I’ve used mace quite a bit in the past, it’s great against anything that comes to you, ala melee, but will leave you crying versus ranged. #2- the symbol mentioned by OP is a great in-between.. Basically, throw one down when another skill isn’t called for at that moment. Like one would with staff 1