Guild Wars 2

I know the point of elite skills is that they’re supposed to look sexy and do nothing but I say nerf the spells in the tomes and make them a kit guardians can equip like an engineer can equip their weapon kits. Add a 10 second cooldown to it, too, to avoid stupid spamming in and out of these tomes, like engies can spam their kits.

And with nerf, I don’t mean reduce the stats a little, I mean: overhaul them completely.

Add a consistent but useful number 1 skill, and change the other skills so that they allow guardians to either support or attack reasonably with the help of their tomes
Think: Grenade kit and Elixir gun!

I know the elite skills can have their moments of glory but let’s be honest, everybody and their grandmother runs Renewed Focus because the tomes are super situational.

And actually, no. This isn’t QQ, I love the game’s balance and skills but it feels such a shame to look at these tomes and come to the same conclusion you come to when looking at spirit weapons: Cool idea! But inferior to this other skill I have which is always useful and doesn’t have this and that drawback.

—prepares to get slammed into the ground by the minority that uses the tomes—

Agreed.

But we must be able to smack people with the tomes.

Pretty sure Tome of Courage is far more useful than Renewed Focus when timed right, although admittedly it’s a lot harder to use, but I think it’s reasonable considering its 5 skill is a group full heal. Idk about Tome of Wrath since I don’t tend to use it.

I’d really love utlity versions of the tomes though, that’d be really fun and a great way to give guardians some better ranged abilities. By having tome utilities and tome elites, they could even open up a whole new set of traits for tomes as well. That’d be so lovely. :>

Tome of Courage is strong. Every Guardian in my guild runs it in group play except for me, and that’s only because I’m the token JI/ring and I’m about as glassy as you can imagine.

I’m not against changing/downgrading ToW though.

The Tomes aren’t bad, they are just very situational, while Renewed Focus can be used everywhere.

I like to run around with Tome of Wrath, because it gives Quickness to my allies, and I can buff them with Swiftness and 5 stacks of Might as well. The #1 skill is somewhat strong too and AoE with burning.

I think the CDs should be a little bit lower though.

Tome of Courage is good yes, but is the 20 seconds – 30 if traited – of healing and support really worth the 180 second CD, the loss of other utility abilities, weapons skills and get out of jail free card with the Renewed focus unvulnerability?

In some PvE fights, no doubt, but try using it in PvP or WvW.

In PvP you’d need stability for starters, and it’s also focussed on aiding allies, so won’t help much in duels. Overall, I simply whack and butcher any guardian who uses the tomes because I can do far more damage than they can heal with it in those 20 seconds. Guardians using ToW in PvP are ussualy new, because it’s horrible.

In WvW, it can fully heal 5 random allies. In what is likely a ~25-50 people group. Or you can spam heals, but again, not fast enough to prevent total failure if that’s what going to happen. Unlike what people keep saying, in WvW, ToC does not save the day. It helps, but so does blasting a water field with a hammer.

Tome of wrath feels like a racial, it’s on my list of: Never use this, it doesn’t do anything.

I’m not saying make them utility, I’m saying keep them elite, but allow us to use them in a more flexible manner. I’d much rather have a weaker tome of courage/wrath I can quickly rely on when I need it to heal up a bit, hand out boons or deal ranged damage than a 180 panic button that can save your skin… or not.

Engineer kits are an amazing example of how skill versatility can aid yourself, your team and your gameplay experience, I love those things!

Anything can be useful in the right situation in PvE, so I don’t care to discuss that. The long cast times and long recharge times kill the Tomes for me.

Tome of Wrath is useless in WvW/sPvP since you just make you yourself a target: “look at me, I have a big boon book, kill me now!” However, I remember busting up a few zergs with it when no one knew what I was doing, when the game first started xD.

Tome of Courage is good, but doesn’t fit my plays style. Even when I’m support, I’m usually in the front of the pack. As a result I always choose to take Renewed Focus with trait boosted virtues over it any day.

Kasei.8726:

Anything can be useful in the right situation in PvE, so I don’t care to discuss that.

True, but the thing is that while the Tomes are useful in certain situations, Renewed Focus works in every situation.