Guild Wars 2

So, I understand the next balance patch is probably a long way out at this time, but I would like to point out a few bugs that could be fixed with the guardian that would very much improve the classes quality of life. Just 6 little things.

1. Zeal Adept Minor Trait: Zealots Speed.
   While the tool tip does correctly state that the symbol created by this skill is a symbol of wrath, the skill description itself states “sear a mystic symbol into the target area, damaging foes and granting SWIFTNESS to allies”. Clearly, with the name Zealots SPEED and the description indicating swiftness, this skill was meant for a symbol of swiftness vs. wrath. Having swiftness when falling low on health is far more intuitive than retaliation, it would be a small yet very beneficial change to a rusty trait line.

1. Torch Skill #5: Cleansing Flame.
   I have a hard time thinking of another cleansing skill that only effects allies and not the caster. Surely, as quirky as this skill is to use and aim, it must be a mistake to not have this skill remove conditions on the caster. Having cleansing flame remove a condition per tick from the caster as well as allies in the line of fire would make much more sense. It would also revitalize the torch as an excellent tool for DPS guards giving them a way to deal with conditions. Plenty of time for counter play as well, due to the long casting channel and big blue fiery tell.

1. Mace, third chain strike: Faithful Strike.
   The third attack on the mace auto chain does not cleave. I find this strange as the previous attacks cleave, as do all other guardian melee weapon normal strikes (sword #3 is a bit different, but it is understandable by design). This lack of cleave on the mace auto chain really hampers its use vs. other weapons on multiple enemies. I firmly believe that if you look back into why this attack does not cleave you will find that it probably had issues with with multiple healing procs when striking multiple enemies. If this is the case, please fix it properly and return some core functionality to the mace. It could be as simple as reducing the healing amount to balance it out.

1. Mace, skill #4: Protectors strike.
   This skill is a whirl finisher, and that is not indicated in the tool tips. If this skill is intended to be a finisher, being a whirl finisher is an odd choice as it only has time to produce a single bolt fired in a random direction. Please consider giving this skill a proper finisher if it is intended to be so. If it is unintended, please remove the finisher and re-adjust the skill accordingly. I know skill finishers must add in to the overall skill calculations, so when whirl finisher was added to the skill that damage, boon duration or skill cool down must have also been effected.

1. Staff skill #2: Orb of Light.
   We all know this skill gets ‘stuck’ or ‘hangs’ in the terrain, forcing the caster to detonate the orb and eat the longer cool down. This could easily be fixed by changing the ‘ranged’ feature of the skill with a ‘duration’. Simply calculate how long the orb must last to travel 1200 units and have the skill end at that time. No more missing orbs. Would be really really great.

1. Contemplation of Purity: Condition Conversion.
   Conversion of conditions to boons by this skill is not nearly as powerful as the conversions from Pure of Voice. You miss out on multiple stacks of might vs. one, no chance of vigor, and usually end up converting 6 or more stacked conditions to about 2 or 3 non stacked short duration boons. This skill really needs to be normalized with PoV to be more worthy of its long cool down, and a decent counterpart to Corrupt Boon.

There, 6 simple small ‘fixes’ that would do wonders for the class. These are not the changes I would like to see in a big balance patch, but considering that ship has sailed for the foreseeable future, this should be easy enough to implement.

These are good and I can agree to every one of them.

I haven’t encountered the Orb of Light getting stuck in terrain for some time now. However, if said orb happens to be reflected, it won’t go on cd until you detonate it, which either could be intentional or not. (I’m fine with it either way, but I’d prefer if the orb always goes on cd when its “done”)

There’s no real need for Faithful Strike to have anything changed other than allowing it to melee cleave like most skills. Unless, you added functionality that would apply a heal for each enemy hit.

I’d also like to add, Orbs of Wrath to be given full projectile status. Sometime much earlier, Orbs weren’t considered projectiles at all, and would pass through WoR or Feedbacks. Now however, they’re destroyed or reflected, but still don’t count as projectile finishers. That’d be a nice and welcome change. Along with possibly Orb of Light and Zealot’s Defense projectiles. Afaik Guardians have a total of 0 projectile finishers. Some weapons have 0 finishers or fields, and other weapons (like GS) have far too many.

Spear has projectile finishers. Not helpful on land I know, but I think the intention with projectile finishers was that they were tied to ‘physical’ projectiles.

I’m not out to ‘balance’ or ‘change’ mechanics, simply point out flaws and inconsistencies with certain skills/traits that need to be fixed or addressed.

Regarding point 1, don’t all whirl finishers only fire off a single bolt?

Whirling Wrath fires off more, but biding blade looks like 1 as well. I just assumed there were more, because the projectiles look so similar.