Guild Wars 2

I’ve been deployed for the past 6 months, and I’ll be coming back home to the US in the near future. That said, the internet (when we have it) is spotty and slow, so no GW2 for me during my trip. I’m excited to play again, and I have an 80 guard, but I’m a bit lost and wondering what’s changed over the past few months.

Could anyone provide a general summary of how guardian gameplay has changed recently?

Not a lot has changed. Spirit Weapons can be killed and Vigor on Crit is 5 sec/5 sec CD but not sure if those nerfs were within the last 6 months or not. Other than that some buffs came in, reworked some traits too. Class hasn’t received many nerfs that I can recall. I’m sure someone else can post better info though.

WB
Blood~

• Burning builds are marginally more viable than before. ( although condition damage still isn’t )
• The scepter finally got some orb speed improvements.
• GS blind/vulnerability stacking got nerfed/fixed.
• Mace trait includes a nice HP bonus
• Downed state “wrath” now hits 3 targets
• Most signets got a nice double stats buff ( inline with other professions )
• Symbols got made uniformly larger
• Some professions got unblockable attacks or ways to make their next attack(s) go through Aegis
• Merciful Intervention might actually be useful

Generally you’ll find the Guardian has kept status quo, although other professions have received a fair number of improvements that make life harder for us ( more ways to ladle on conditions, unblockable attacks and new debuffs like torment ).

Strength in Numbers now gives 150 toughness. Zealous blades was combined with the GS damage trait. A new, useless GM trait for converting power to condition damage was added. The trait that makes virtue of courage break stuns now apparently breaks stuns on those affected by it too (the only group stunbreak I believe). That one hammer chill on crit trait is now 100% on crit instead of 50%, and I think its potential uptime was increased. In the latest build, I think they might’ve secretly buffed Pure of Voice to remove 2 conditions instead of one, not completely sure, don’t tell a.net. Torch cooldown trait also increases burning duration by 20%. The increased spirit weapon damage trait is now 50% instead of that paltry 10%. Activating Captain America’s ability breaks stun. I think I remember someone saying that the second part of torch 4’s damage was nerfed a while back. New hammer and greatsword skins. Yet another greatsword with blue fire particle effect, that makes what… 5 blue fiery particle greatswords now? I really want that cliffside cultist hammer skin… and that shiny golden looking one too.

Comparing the changes to other classes to the changes made to Guards is like asking how much a Red Wood has grown in the past year. Nothing much has changed except some minor things such as symbols and further nerfing of spirit weapons (because they were so OP ya know?)

On a heavier note, keep your head down and get back safely. The last month I spent in the sandbox felt 3 times longer than it actually was =P