Guild Wars 2

Another random topic from me as I reintegrate myself back into GW2.

PvP and weapons for the guardian.

Traditionally we have seen GS/Sw+Fc as our DPS weapon sets. Sometimes this swaps on scepter or even mace lately.

Normally people try hammer, it tends to have niche usage. Staff is wholly ignored except for bunker.

I wanted to think out loud about what I think a good pvp weapon should have.

First and foremost – Damage

A weapon should deal damage and provide a rotation of on demand burst and sustain damage.

Secondly – Mobility

This weapon/s should provide capability in mobile combat, especially for pvp environments.

Third – Utility

In GW2, utility type effects such as control or support are often integrated into the weapon sets.

So…

GS – Good mobility, burst capability, control aspects……..but easy for enemies to avoid

Sw – Good mobility………..minor burst, and some control with blinds and projectile blocks

Sc – “Ranged” but no tracking and easy to avoid. Burst but inconsistent damage, good control with immob and vulnerability…long cooldown.

Hmr – Good damage, decent burst, good control…..hard to do damage as it relies on auto attack and stationary targets

Mc – Decent burst damage, slow sustain damage, stationary again, support on it is weak without healing power, block is on a long cooldown.

Stf – Good support with might, still buggy burst, auto attack is….weak/strong? Good ae, can hit hard, but non threatening somehow without burst…could do with a secondary effect to it. CC on it is easy for most to avoid (line of warding).

Bottom line our weapons are often limited by mobility and ease of enemies avoiding our damage.

We often ask for soft CCs to help maintain combat distance, but no huge changes in 2 years. GS/Sw are our best bet more often than not…but it feels lacking still.

Mace is interesting, but primarily meant for stationary effects, and I would like to see more healing out of it possibly.

Symbols can do HUGE damage, especially layered……but they are stationary and slow ticking, so easy to avoid.

Our ranged options…we talked about that a lot in the past, but still lacking.

Most of our weapons tend to be direct damage oriented with not a lot of secondary effects to them. This is probably due to built in condition damage with Virtue of Justice.

I didn’t even go into shield/focus/torch. Torch is good?…but not used, focus is great, but long cooldowns…shield…oh shield….I see what you are trying to do but not there yet.