Guild Wars 2

Spirit weapons, like necormancer’s pet, should last until killed.
They should be reworked/upgraded to fit more into their new roles:

Hammer of Wisdom: last hit should daze instead of knocking back. (damage from this weapon should scale with your power)
Sword of Justice: should naturally cause burn on hit. (damage from this weapon should scale with your condition damage)
Bow of Truth: should heal allies with its basic attacks and ever 3rd basic attack should remove conditions. (healing from this weapon should scale with your healing power)
Shield of the Avenger: should attacks nearby enemies and every 4th hit should grant aegis to nearby allies. Active should cause it to rush to you and then deploy its dome. (damage from this weapon should scale with your toughness)

Trait Expeditious Spirit should affect each spirit weapon differently:
Hammer: will now knock back and knock down on third hit instead of dazing.
Sword: burn longer and active apply more burn stacks.
Bow: increase all healing caused by it.
Shield: grant stability or/and resistance when it grants aegis.

ALTERNATIVE VERSION (based on suggestion made by Tenrai Senshi)

Healing: Bow of Truth.
Passive: your every Xth basic attack will heal you. If you get downed, this weapon will detach from you and take conditions from you and transfer them to nearby enemies. (passive remains active even if active part is on cooldown)
Active: command your spirit bow to rain down healing arrows in targeted area, healing all allies in that area and cleanse conditions from them.

Utility1: Sword of Justice.
Passive: your every Xth attack will deal moderate bonus damage, inflict vulnerability and reveal your target. When you get downed, your spirit weapon will detach from you and attack nearby enemies. (passive remains active even if active part is on cooldown)
Active: blink to your target, dealing damage to him/her and stack X stack of vulnerability to all nearby enemies.

Utility2: Hammer of Wisdom.
Passive: every X sec, your next basic attack will daze your target. When you get downed, your spirit weapon detach from you and attack nearby enemies, knocking them away from you. (passive remains active even if active part is on cooldown)
Active: slam your spirit weapon into targeted area, dealing damage to enemies, crippling and blinding them.

Utility3: Torch of Hope.
Passive: every X sec remove a condition from yourself and replace it with a random boon.
Active: shine a bright light, revealing invisible enemies and remove a boon from them every X sec. Also, removes weakness from nearby allies.

Utility4: Staff of Might.
Passive: when you get downed, your spirit detaches from you and create a barrier around you, preventing enemies from getting close to you. This barrier doesn’t stop projectiles. (passive remains active even if active part is on cooldown)
Active: release a nova of energy, dealing heavy damage to nearby enemies and giving might to nearby allies. You gain might for every affected ally.

Elite: Shield of the Avenger.
Passive: when nearby ally gets downed or killed, gain fury, swiftness, quickness, might, regeneration and retaliation. When you get downed, your spirit weapon will detach from you and will slowly heal you. (passive remains active even if active part is on cooldown)
Active: gain retaliation and for next X sec you will take X% less damage from all sources. While this ability lasts, reflect all movement impairing effects: cripple, chill, slow, immobilize.

Detached weapons gain their own health bars and can be killed. If detached weapons gets killed, then active and passive effect of that ability will go on 20 sec cooldown.
If you get up from downed state, your spirit weapons will reattached themselves back to you. Attached weapons can’t be attacked or damaged, because they works as signets. Only when they detach they can be attacked.

At the case of damage output, spirit weapons should offer DPS equal to Dragon Hunter’s traps (this include active and passive damage done by spirit weapons). This would form alternative gameplay for Dragon Hunters and would probably make core guardian nearly as good as DH in terms of damage and utility.

Make them similar to GW1 versions. Make them invulnerable and stuck to guardian and only command skills make them move to target. keep the command skills as they are or buff a little. Buff spirit bow command skill to heal more.

Spirit weapons need some serious love. At this point, nearly anything that anyone has suggested over the past half-year is preferrable to what we have now.

Imo as a first step towards buffing spirit weapons, they should be made more reliable as utility skills. Change sword activate to a mobile skill, hammer activate is okay but should affect more targets, bow should be changed to an offensive/soft cc weapon and its activate should cleanse condis. Shield should stick to guardian better and its active should be an aoe stunbreak + boons for allies rather than a contradictory offensive skill.

Bow and shield have too long of a cd and should be shortened (to around 30 to 40s). Spirit weapons should also last indefinitely until killed.

To be honest, when I think of Spirit Weapons, I think of the early Guardian concept art which gives a more inspiring visage of what they could have been as opposed to the rather mediocre iterations we have in practice right now.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/8/84/Guardian_06_concept_art_%28Judgment%29.jpg/800px-Guardian_06_concept_art_%28Judgment%29.jpg

As shown in the image above, I thought of Spirit Weapons less as pets that mindlessly wander and attack enemies, and more as magical manifestations that were an extension of the Guardian him/herself, conjured through their power and will.

As such, this is how I imagine Spirit Weapons functioning as a rework:

Spirit weapons are no longer pets, but are instead direct manifestations of the Guardian’s holy power.

How this would work is as follows. Spirit weapons would have two parts to them. The first is a passive effect that manifests under certain conditions, the second is a more powerful active effect that can be activated at will on a cooldown. In this sense, they would be similar to signets, only unlike signets, they manifest themselves as physical apparitions when their effects take place and do not lose their passive effects while their active effects are on cooldown.

Here are some examples of how the skills might function as a reworked utility set:

Heal: Bow of Truth

Passive: Once every ten seconds, a spiritual bow will appear, firing a bouncing arrow that cures conditions on you or nearby allies. Bounces 2 times. Must be in combat to activate.
Active: Cause your spiritual bow to fire a rain of healing arrows over the target area, recovering health and granting regeneration per tick. (25 second cooldown).

Utility 1: Sword of Justice

Passive: Your attacks have a 30% chance to summon an arcane sword that strikes your target, dealing damage causing vulnurability (5 second internal cooldown for each hit).
Active: Manifest your spiritual sword to impact the target area, dealing damage and crippling enemies (15 second cooldown).

Utility 2: Hammer of Wisdom

Passive: Your attacks have a 30% chance to summon an arcane hammer that damages and dazes your target (10 second internal cooldown per hit).
Active: Manifest your spiritual hammer to damage and knockdown the target (20 second cooldown, 2 second knockdown).

Utility 3: Shield of the Avenger

Passive: Incoming attacks have a 10% chance to be blocked by an arcane shield.
Active: Manifest your spiritual shield at the target area, summoning a protective dome that blocks projectiles while granting aegis to allies in the area of effect (10 second duration, 30 second cooldown).

Utility 4: Lantern of Knowledge

Passive: 30% chance on being hit to summon a torch that releases a radiant flash of light, blinding and revealing nearby enemies (15 second internal cooldown).
Active: Manifest your torch in the target area and cause it to explode with searing flame, burning, blinding and revealing nearby foes.

Elite Skill: Armor of Courage

Passive: Gain 1 stack of stability every 10 seconds (3 second duration). Incoming attacks have a 30% chance to grant 1 stack of retaliation (1 second internal cooldown).
Active: Manifest your spiritual armor to protect you from incoming damage, absorbing up to 10 000 damages and granting stability and retaliation every second it remains active. If your armor survives the full duration, it shatters violently, dealing damage equal to its remaining hitpoints and knocking back nearby enemies (90 second cooldown, 5 second duration).

This is just an example, obviously it would need to be balanced but I personally like this take on Spirit Weapons. I also think it would be more reliable, as you wouldn’t be at the mercy of pet AI.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

How this would work is as follows. Spirit weapons would have two parts to them. The first is a passive effect that manifests under certain conditions, the second is a more powerful active effect that can be activated at will on a cooldown. In this sense, they would be similar to signets, only unlike signets, they manifest themselves as physical apparitions when their effects take place and do not lose their passive effects while their active effects are on cooldown.

This could also work. Might even fit guardian better that pet weapons.

Updated base suggestion with alternative suggestion. Instead of minions, passive+active weapons to aid you.

How is all of this different than Signets? I would rather go with the pet thing.

Jack Skywalker.5674:

How is all of this different than Signets? I would rather go with the pet thing.

Signet passives are completely passive. They don’t change game-play. Signet’s passive effect is lost when you activate it. Most of signets are somewhere between passive play and one trick pony. Either never use it unless you have not other option (because passive is too good to be lost), or spam them on cooldown and ignore the passive effect.

Second suggestion (signet-like spirit weapons) would act as extra weapon skill and would probably change the game-play of several builds. Certain spirit weapon would work for certain build, augmenting it and making it more viable.
For example, burn guardian is pretty bad right now. Most on-hand melee weapons don’t work together with traits to be effective. Torch off-and is required for burn builds, but all other main hands are equally bad. However, spirit weapon sword will add so needed mobility, to stay close to an enemy and continue to burn your target.
Spirit staff would also greatly benefit for support and power builds, especially melee ones.
Core elite abilities are so bad, core guardian is pretty much garbage. Signet-like spirit weapon would be very good compared to most other elites and it would help guardian to be played as guardian. Because now, guardian is pretty much a mob other players to farm in pvp. Nothing about guardian feels like he truly is a guardian.

Then again, spirit weapon as pets would also be very nice addition, allowing more build diversity and more interesting things to do.
So i view both suggestions as equally good.

Jack Skywalker.5674:

How is all of this different than Signets? I would rather go with the pet thing.

Aside from what was said above, I would surmise the main differences as follows:

1: Most signets provide a continuous active effect. My idea for the spirit weapon passives is that the provide a “Condition Dependent” effect. In one case, the condition is attacking the enemy, in another case, the condition is being hit, etc.

2: Signets lose their passive effects when you activate them. My idea for spirit weapons would retain their passive effects even when you activate them. This is so that you never feel like you have to choose with a constant passive effect that alters stats or an occasional active effect. This promotes more active use without punishing the player for it and makes using spirit weapons more fun and engaging.

3: Spirit weapons would manifest themselves in a more physical, visual form. The idea is to make them feel less like invisible effects that simply alter stats and more like physical manifestations that act as an extension of the guardian’s spiritual power. This again makes them more appealing and fun.

As for why I’m not a fan of the whole pet idea, it’s simple really. Pet AI is not that great, and with spirit weapons, which are mostly melee in nature, it’s even worse because they aren’t very good at chasing enemies and positioning properly for hits (except for the bow which doesn’t even attack enemies).

In PvP, any player with a decent amount of mobility will run circles around Spirit Weapons, that is if they don’t melt first from aoe spams first. Having effects that activate from the guardian’s attacks and affect your target directly, or that you can aim yourself is, in my opinion, much more reliable than relying on clunky pet AI. It also makes the entire skill chain feel more unique and less like shiny necro pets.

I’d much rather see spirit weapons function much like Scrapper gyros.

I’d like if the trait for spirit weapons didn’t add burning cause Bow has no way of doing burning.

DesuNyan.4783, balanced, guardianis in good spot.

Aeolus.3615:

DesuNyan.4783, balanced, guardianis in good spot.

The bottom of the pvp, not even in meta is a good spot? Or are you being sarcastic?

sarcastic.

Players have been asking for fixes for Spirit Weapon the last 3+ years, when Anet decided to kill/shutdown those utilities, Anet never cared…..
Overall SW is the image how Anet looks at Guardian class, they dont care….

The issue is not guardian alone, the entire process affects the whole game, while they keep up with this mentality and forcing it, game wont grow well.

When classes are pve designed on a aoe spammy content and forced to a pvp that suffers from balance in exchange to what would sound good for esports speakers to talk abaout in matches.. alot of things are wrong..

Regon Phoenix.8215:

The bottom of the pvp, not even in meta is a good spot? Or are you being sarcastic?

At this point if you hear anyone mention “guardians are in a good spot” ironically or not, you can sleep well knowing they’ll never make an intelligent post again.

Personaly I would redo spirit weapons so that you first execute the command skill,then summon the pet.

For example the Command for Shield of Avenger would be called Avenging Shield, would deal its damage and at the end of the 3rd bounce it would spawn the pet.

Made like this,we do not care what happens to the pet because we don’t need it alive to access the commands.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Regon Phoenix.8215:

The bottom of the pvp, not even in meta is a good spot? Or are you being sarcastic?

At this point if you hear anyone mention “guardians are in a good spot” ironically or not, you can sleep well knowing they’ll never make an intelligent post again.

They have been lowered to the level of guardian changes overtime…. no inteligent guardian updates either.

instead of oppening a new thread with the exact same plea, I’ll use thread-necromany.
Read Tenrai Senshi’s suggestion.

A better rework idea I had of Spirit Weapons would be to to have them function like Ventari’s Tablet on Rev. Keep them timed summons but untargetable. When they’re out, you can command them for effects. Spirit Weapons will despawn and go on cooldown if you move too far away from them. They are also affected by your stats. Spirit weapons are stationary and will only move when commanded.

Hammer of Wisdom – Command Hammer – Command your hammer to strike the targeted area knocking down foes and creating a symbol of protection. for 3 seconds. Cd on command skills would be 5s. Tether Range 1200

Sword of Justice – Command Sword - Command your sword to move to the targeted area, dealing damage as it travels (Whirlwind Attack animation). Create a Symbol of Wrath at the end of Sword of Justice’s destination. 5s Tether Range 1200

Bow of Truth – Ranged Ground Targeted Summoning/Command Bow-Command your bow to fire on a targeted area for 4 seconds healing allies and clearing conditions, creating a Symbol of Judgement at that area for the duration of the bow’s channel. 10s CD on command. The bow is stationary once summoned. Tether range 1500.

Shield of the Avenger – Command Shield- Command your shield to move to targeted area and create a Symbol of Faith. When commanded Shield of Avenger will create a bubble that absorbs projectiles for 6s. CD 5s on command. Tether range 1200

They already have the tech to do this since Ventari Rev exists, I think it just mainly needs to be worked on. This will make spirit weapons a lot more fun to play imo.

I would keep it simple:
Turn down CD to 20-30s
Make them unkillable.
Sword should apply burn on regular basis.
Stun on hammer instead of knockback would be better too.
Bow heals on hit sounds good too.
The projectile defense of shield is good but i would swap active and passive to gain better control over it.
The trait should let the spirits cast a symbol on activation.
Hammer-Hammer Symbol
Sword-Sword Symbol
Bow-Mace Symbol
Shield-Greatsword Symbol
(I dont wanted to look up the names)
These Symbols are all vanilla and have a fitting effect on the weapon.

That would be enough to make them decent.

I’d really prefer it, if there are no AI involved. It feels clumsy. I hope ANet is taking the heal skill of the Revenant Assassin stance as an inspiration for the spirit weapons. Make it float behind the guardian with chains and stuff.

I truly hate that spirit weapons are just stupid pets now like any other classes’. It’s irritating to see how un-unique they are.

I think the above suggestions that they become an additional weapon – maybe doing something alongside your 1 attack and having an activation ability that shatters them – would be awesome and unique. I also wish they didn’t have an HP bar. Now that we have the defiance bar technology, they should instead get a defiance bar that when broken causes the weapon to shatter.

azureai.9764:

I truly hate that spirit weapons are just stupid pets now like any other classes’. It’s irritating to see how un-unique they are.

What do you mean un-unique? The are totally unique in the fact that they are necro minions that are on a timer! aka totally sucking balls are a complete kitten show compared to necro minions (which they are but are on a timer, everything else is the same).