Guild Wars 2

Thread in PvP: “Upcoming Changes to Skills”.

Guardian

We’d like to give the guardian some core buffs to encourage non-elite spec play, ideally pushing them towards a potential support role. As for Dragonhunter, we’re seeing a disproportionate amount of play across all skill levels. We’re mostly happy with their damage output, and have decided to instead shave some of their utility.
Piercing Light: This trait no longer causes traps to daze enemies and will instead inflict the Slow condition on enemies for 1.5 seconds on the initial ‘trigger’ of a trap.

• Virtue of Justice: Increased the Burning duration of the passive effect from 2 to 4 seconds in PvP only. Increased the amount of burning of the active effect from 1 to 3 stacks in PvP only.
• Virtue of Resolve: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 45 to 30 in PvP only. The healing contribution of this ability has been increased by 87% in PvP only.
• Virtue of Courage: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 60 to 40 seconds in PvP only.
• Shield of Courage: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to grant benefits without going on recharge.
• Detonate Orb of Light: The healing contribution of this ability has been increased by 67%.
• Line of Warding: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 40 to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Signet of Courage: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 180 to 120 seconds in PvP only.

New Amulets

• Deadshot Amulet
  1050 Precision
  1050 Condition Damage
  560 Vitality
  560 Expertise
• Rune of the Lynx
  175 power
  100 Condition Damage
  +25% Movement Speed
  ____________________________________________________________

My Thoughts
VoJ’s passive burn duration buff helps burn DH a lot considering core burn Guard builds ran circles around DH burn Guard in PvP. It’s now possible to have increased damages by running with Scavenging runes. The higher the burn duration the more gimmick the burn build gets so it would be optimal (damage multiplicative) to run Scavenging runes rather than have a 12+ burn duration with just 3 burn stacks.

• That said, it’s still unclear whether or not DH Burn Guard will be more or less optimal than Core in SPvP… the damages, however will still be less than core DH

The trap stuns was a big nerf in group skirmish fights but considering the nerf of certain other classes, this change wont exactly kill DH for a 5th spot in PvP. I personally think the slow needs to be 2.5 seconds for better synchronization with other classes like Necro’s Chill abillities.

As for Support DH, I think it will remain in the same spot as before.

Amulet thoughts
Carrion is a good amulet (best we have) but I always felt it offered a bit to much sustains for what a burst burn guard was. From experience Wanderer’s amulet offered great dps only we gained nothing for having toughness to support our 10k health pool. Deadshot is the Wanderer’s equivalent, only we actually benefit from its stats. At a 17k health pool, it’s the Marauder equivalent for Burn Builds

Rune of the Lynx sounds like a good speed boost alternative over Trav runes. DH burn damages and duration are multiplicative as you increase it thanks to F1 proc burn stacks. So I personally would sacrifice movement speed for something like Scavenger runes on point.

The new amulet will be a big buff to all burn guardian builds.

You should include the new rune and amulet in the OP, they seem good for burn Guardian:

Deadshot Amulet
1050 Precision
1050 Condition Damage
560 Vitality
560 Expertise

Rune of the Lynx
175 power
100 Condition Damage
+25% Movement Speed

I wouldn’t be playing Guardian next season if I was you. DH is a noob killing class and the dazes were a big part of that. Support DH is not as good as ele not sure why anyone plays one and with the big increase to virtue of resolve there is less reason to play one instead of a vanilla support build. Burn has been and will always be a noob killer that isn’t really usable against good players. Not trying to be negative but there it is.

RabbitUp.8294:

You should include the new rune and amulet in the OP, they seem good for burn Guardian:

Deadshot Amulet
1050 Precision
1050 Condition Damage
560 Vitality
560 Expertise

Rune of the Lynx
175 power
100 Condition Damage
+25% Movement Speed

Thanks I added them in the OP and gave thoughts on both

What’s funny is I asked for Deadshot’s (not the name, that name is way more cool) exact amulet stats months ago. Looks like some one agreed!

steelheart.7386:

I wouldn’t be playing Guardian next season if I was you. DH is a noob killing class and the dazes were a big part of that. Support DH is not as good as ele not sure why anyone plays one and with the big increase to virtue of resolve there is less reason to play one instead of a vanilla support build. Burn has been and will always be a noob killer that isn’t really usable against good players. Not trying to be negative but there it is.

Using burn guard to nuke opposition is surely not a smart idea against good players. With the changes VOJ though could be used to put constant pressure offensively while maintaining decent defense. I do not see though how the new amulet will help out. Both the precision and experts are bad stats for burn guard. Mage amulet will be better.

I currently play burn guard med/virtues/valor with mage amulet and it is reasonable. That will probably be top burn guard build after the changes. Anything with torch and zeal will be one trick pony.

I’m not sure daze→slow will actually be a nerf. Interrupting is annoying but messing with someone’s timing could prove equally obnoxious. Slow isn’t affected by stability and stacks in duration.

Justine.6351:

I’m not sure daze->slow will actually be a nerf. Interrupting is annoying but messing with someone’s timing could prove equally obnoxious. Slow isn’t affected by stability and stacks in duration.

I honestly see this as valid though.
Daze was obnoxious as well and way too strong even with it’s short duration because you could spam/prepare it and eat up low amounts of stability.

While this is surely annoying as well it can be countered a bit better while still providing opportunites for the DH’s team.

Justine.6351:

I’m not sure daze->slow will actually be a nerf. Interrupting is annoying but messing with someone’s timing could prove equally obnoxious. Slow isn’t affected by stability and stacks in duration.

I was considering this myself: in many situations, I could see this coming out even, maybe even a small buff. I think the main thing it will do is prevent the situation where stacked guardians can chain-daze people: slows will, well, slow the enemy down but not shut them down altogether, while piling a lot of slow on the enemy team will still allow them to act (including, potentially, to remove the slow). I’m inclined to think that making DH stacking less potent is probably good for the game, so I’m happy with that approach.

Core Burn Guard is looking pretty viable now.

Good changes imo, the only bad thing is that those changes is desperately needed in wvw as well. I wonder why they didnt introduce them in the entire game?

The amulet isnt and option imo but the runes can be a bit interesting, are those in pvp only as well?

because this was a change made by the pvp team, not the pve or wvw team.

Brutaly.6257:

Good changes imo, the only bad thing is that those changes is desperately needed in wvw as well. I wonder why they didnt introduce them in the entire game?

The amulet isnt and option imo but the runes can be a bit interesting, are those in pvp only as well?

Considering they doubled the effectiveness of the VoJ passive, I can see them being reluctant to port this over to pve hastily. That’s a free +100% condi duration, or 1500 expertise, when the vast majority of guardian’s condi pressure comes from VoJ passive.

The changes prove how uninformed those who complain about DH really are. Complaints of how DH is buffed yet again, where it is the core Guardian has gotten buffs.

The only thing good with trap is gone.

Now guards have to play condi with the same weakness they always had:only one type of condi apply too easily cleansed. Ridiculously strong against low cleaner prof and ridiculously weak against others. All in all never pleasant to play.

The only thing that was possible to do against ele with all the projectile hate they provide and all the absurd amount of heal they give was to cc them. This option is dead now. In top of that the burn guard will also be erased with the condi clean of ele.
And for those who say slow is a nice trade-off I defenitely do not leave on the same planet.
This slow will last half a sec maxin teamfights and will remain laughably unoticed.
Now guard can just switch class when ele will come.
Meanwhile support effectiveness of ele seen as overlords by Anet themselves is kept unchanged…with slight other buffs. This is absurd.

Why couldn’t the burn duration increase be for PvE as well? I really would love for burn Guardian to be viable for once.

Spartacus.3192:

Core Burn Guard is looking pretty viable now.

yeah, but is a guardian, easy to beat -.-", people that loose to them are people that dont know the skills.

Aeolus.3615:

Spartacus.3192:

Core Burn Guard is looking pretty viable now.

yeah, but is a guardian, easy to beat -.-", people that loose to them are people that dont know the skills.

but now guard have better healing (F2) so the rotations might be easier while the burn stacks are harder. if now i can surprise enemy with 10 burning stacks after patch it can be insane. but yes still some build can counter it or at least not die to it

more condi meta coming in our way …