Guild Wars 2

Hello,

Some notes on the new Guardian trait system.

I recognize that many Guardian players were concerned about the Guardian’s inability to deal damage. My new concern is that with our added potential to do physical damage post-patch, we have lost immense tanking and condition damage potential.

PvE Traits
There were always options in GW2 for damage. For raw physical damage a greatsword warrior could not be beat. For instant spikes, thief. Necros, mesmers, and to a degree elementalists/rangers had condition damage. Guardians were always an excellent tank and party supporter for myself and others. I feel as though this patch has gone great lengths to mitigate my ability to guard myself and others in combat as a Guardian.

The new trait system, which combined all of the symbol related traits (larger, last longer, heal allies), shout traits (20% reduced CD, purge conditions) and meditation traits (20% reduced CD, heal, fury) most definitely warrant grandmaster status. That being said, they severely limit effective build crafting.

My old build involved altruistic healing, reduced CD for meditations (for renewed focus), healing symbols, reduced CD on shouts, and condition removing shouts. Because all of these traits are now grandmaster, I must choose 2 of 4. In essence, guardian’s tanking potential was reduced by no less than half (taking 20% longer for less effective skills if healing is chosen or loosing all manner of supplemental healing if recharges and niche tricks are chosen).

I am looking into other builds already and have seen potential for a multiple aegis and non-buff (as in stackable) regeneration; however these designs would not have nearly as much sustainability or critical value.

How To Tank
A tank needs to be able to absorb enough damage to stay alive for long periods of time much like a damage dealer’s duty is to send massive spikes to deplete the enemy’s health bar before they can retaliate. The aegis design would block 2 attacks every approximately 15 seconds, which would leave plenty of time for damage and mitigate sustainability. With the new regeneration design, the new signet of courage would be vital; however it would only heal every 10 seconds. This would not be nearly sufficient even when paired with virtue of resolve’s improved passive effect which procs only every 3 seconds. Too much of a gap is present.

That being said in the event of a spike, or while in between defense rotations, a tank must also be able to react and survive the burst while still maintaining itself afterwards. Because the new signet would be necessary, that would mean replacing renewed focus; which I still see as being a much more viable option in the event of a crisis. The signet has the ability to heal the entire party to full after a 4.5 second charge. I find the long cast time for this ability of absolute necessity and entirely agree with it due to the incredible benefit of a 100% heal. But that also means it cannot help in times of crisis where immediate help is necessary. I also agree with the long cooldown, but this once again means that it could not be used as a sustainable rotation segment.

So we’ve lost our ability to sustain medium amounts of damage and to defend against heavy spikes in the process of gaining the abilities of a warrior.

sPvP And Conditions
It is obvious that this new patch was centered around the idea that conditions should be a part of the game as much as raw power. I myself have instructed on multiple occasions that while conditions are a good choice against enemies with high vitality, if so much as 2 well designed condition users are present, their actions will conflict or cancel and become null. So I applaud and respect the changes. This also means that the ability to use conditions to ones advantage has become of absolute importance, especially as the new meta will feature an explosion of condition based ideas in the excitement.

As for condition damage, I mainly used in sPvP. I am actually very proud of the 1 second added cooldown to amplified wrath because frankly I was incredibly over powered to begin with. My old build centered around 33% increased burning damage, and burning on blocking, which meant that a ranger using rapid fire would immediately accumulate enough burning to equal approximately 19k damage. And of course other features of my build would reapply the burning and do raw damage later in the event of purging. Once again, incredibly over-powered. However now I will not be able to stack enough burning to be of any threat nor sustain what stacks I can provide.

My concern is that after this change, I am finding few other options for condition damage, seeing as how burning was the Guardian’s primary source of condition damage to begin with. I see potential for might and retaliation, and in general a berserker Guardian that utilizes burning as a method of causing their physical abilities to do more niche tricks. I do not see potential for burning to be the main show on a Guardian’s damage design.

Why Any of This Matters
Back before GW2 came out, in an old promotional video, you claimed that players will no longer have the option of choosing a secondary class, because you wanted each and every class to feel unique and individual. That every class should feel like its own. I thought you lived up to that statement upon the game’s initial release.

I mentioned earlier, a Warrior could attack, a thief could spike, an ele could be a wild card. And a Guardian could defend their team from the dangers at hand.

In PvE my job was always to reduce damage to manageable proportions while healing myself and curing conditions on everyone around me. And to hold the boss, the mob, the turret, or whatever else at bay. To allow everyone else to perform at their very best by negating and absorbing anything the enemy threw at my allies.

In PvP once I discovered the burning block build I was astonished at the absolute genius you’d placed into possibility. I was not intended to charge at someone and decapitate them with a greatsword like a warrior would. Instead I would simply defend myself or team mates and those with the audacity to attempt to do us harm would die. I could not harm anyone who did not first attempt to attack me. The skill names wrath, judgement, etc. as a Guardian actually meant something.

My role was once to defend myself and my allies, and I was equipped with the tools to carry out that role.

I do not need the 6 heals and invulnerability I am accustomed to. I do not need what was literally infinite burning damage that broke the game. I do not need to be over-powered nor do I find these nerfs universally detestable. However I also do not need to be made into a berserker warrior, or a thief, or an elementalist, or a mesmer, or a necromancer, or an engineer, or a ranger. You had one of the best class designs I have ever seen: effective, unique to other classes, original when compared to other games, and enjoyable to play as. Please don’t remove the things that both surprised and kept me playing.

I realize that we simply have not had much time to explore the new trait system and develop new builds, this was simply to express my fears for the future, especially with the new Dragon Hunter specialization being released.

This and the removal of the innate 30% boon duration in virtues has killed shout support guardian for pve. The boons last maybe 4s? seriously? how does that have any impact on gameplay when other classes can self tank our whole burst then deliver 40-50k condi bursts?