Guild Wars 2

I feel the staff skill 5 “line of warding” is useless right now.
It has 40 second cooldown that blocks path for only 5 seconds which is “meh”.
Hence I never seen guardians use staff skill 5 “line of warding” ever.

Now compare it to guardian shield weapon skill 5 “shield dome”.
Skill that blocks projectiles for 5 seconds (now it is buffed so we can move while blocking), it can be detonated for heals and only has 24 second cool down. Staff skill 5 is useless compared to shield skill 5.

Personally I think staff skill 5 “line of warding” need to be buffed with 10 second duration instead of 5, or a 20 second cool down instead of 40.

Edit: for spelling errors.

I wish they made a trait that makes enemies take damage when they get “bounced back” by a ward

and yeah i agree with those solutions, the cd/duration is too high/low right meow

I wouldn’ t be against a cool down reduction. It is a very situational skill as it stands. Can get some good laughs out of it against dumber people in spvp.

What game mode are you playing? If you’re talking about PvE, then I can see how you wouldn’t get much mileage out of Staff 5 in general situations, but it’s an extremely powerful area-denial tool in PvP and WvW.

Unlike Shield 5, Line of Warding can CC targets repeatedly if they continue trying to move across the wall (great if you can throw it down in the middle of the battlefield), which lets you peel enemies off of allies when they’re trying to retreat, prevent foes from reaching capture points and/or downed players, and block off escape routes when enemies are disengaging from a fight. Line of Warding is also currently our only ward-type skill that can be ground-targeted at 1,200 range (excellent for interrupting stomps, rezzes, and other long casts from a distance) and it has no limit to the number of targets it can affect, making it a staple of zerg combat in WvW (either to strip stacks of Stability en masse from players or to trap those who have already lost Stability).

Line of Warding and Shield of Absorption may both provide CC, but they serve very different roles in battle, and the current duration/cooldown for Line of Warding is justified. 10-second lines or 5-second lines twice as often (almost 33% uptime if you took the Staff trait) would make it too easy to control entire enemy groups just by stacking Guardians.

It’s used quite often in PvP securing a Cap by knocking people down at the boundary of the cap.
The difference between the two is line of warding can cause multiple knockdowns if people repeatedly try to walk through it, drawing out a stability in many cases.
Whereas the shield one only causes 1 knockdown as a drawback for being able to move the bubble.(So people can’t repeatedly knockdown foes by backpeddling)

Now whether this is worth the exact cooldown numbers the skills do have, I am not sure, probably 30s cd on Staff 5 would not be unbalanced, by it is definitely Not useless.

PS. It is just a byproduct of the meta: medi has become burn which doesn’t need a support weapon and bunker works better with Mace and Scepter due to heal and ranged immobilize.
I personally still often play Roaming Guardian which needs a lot of swiftness so use GS Staff, SY, SyG and JI, Zeal, Honor, Virtues Sentinels with PermaSwiftness to turn up to places people don’t expect. (I know other classes make better roamers but I enjoy this style)

EDIT: something I forgot, as Soryuju pointed out above me, the long range is also a huge difference between them, making them used in completely different circumstances, I can’t believe that slipped my mind as it is the biggest point.

This skill is a must in WvW for me, i can see how its uses are pretty crap in PvE however. But in WvW if ur not using it do so, fit it in your rotation.

Well 5 seconds duration and 40 second cooldown is still pretty useless.

Plus why would anyone stack guardians with “lines of warding”.
1. never seen it happen (PVE, PVP, WVW)
2. The wall is not very wide hence no point stacking “line of warding” on same spot as people can easily circumvent the line hence you can’t slice/split mobs very effectively unless you’re blocking a tight entrance.
3. nobody is dumb enough to keep trying to pass thru the wall once they know they cant, hence no point calling it “unlimited knockback” (also it does not actually knocks back like shield skill 5, or hammer skill 4 do)

What I’m saying is it is impractical in its current state.
Though yes its role is supposed be splitting zergs, denying entrance and so on.
But with only 5 second duration and 40 second cooldown is just not worth it.

Masterchief.1754:

Well 5 seconds duration and 40 second cooldown is still pretty useless.

Plus why would anyone stack guardians with “lines of warding”.
1. never seen it happen (PVE, PVP, WVW)
2. The wall is not very wide hence no point stacking “line of warding” on same spot as people can easily circumvent the line hence you can’t slice/split mobs very effectively unless you’re blocking a tight entrance.
3. nobody is dumb enough to keep trying to pass thru the wall once they know they cant, hence no point calling it “unlimited knockback” (also it does not actually knocks back like shield skill 5, or hammer skill 4 do)

What I’m saying is it is impractical in its current state.
Though yes its role is supposed be splitting zergs, denying entrance and so on.
But with only 5 second duration and 40 second cooldown is just not worth it.

Well the facts have been laid out to you and no one has agreed with you yet so it is a matter of your opinion, you have probably never seen it used properly since everyone has described multiple places it is useful.

But the answer to your Question as the title is No it is Not Useless: in PvP or WvW.

Even with the three points you brought up in the quote, you can’t do that with shield either so comparing them and asking for buff is not working out for you.

Well everything in argument is an opinion.
That includes everyone’s feedback.

The only fact here is “line of warding” has 5 second duration and 40 second cooldown.
That’s the fact

I am only suggesting it gets some buff, with duration increase or cooldown reduction
because I think in its current state is not that great.

Line of warding works great in Pve. Sounds like a learn to play issue for some of you.

I use “line of warding” in (PVE, PVP, WVW)
But I feel it needs a buff tho.

Especially lower the cooldown so it can be used more
or increased duration.

It’s not bad, but the duration or cooldown could definitely use a small buff.

I don’t know. It’s pretty amazing in PvP and WvW. I don’t think it’s OP right now so i’m not against a buff to cooldown/duration, but I won’t be advocating for it.

Line of Warding is pretty dank. I like putting it in the middle of a point if find myself in a bad situation where we must hold a point or lose and I’m 1v2.

And I’m doing my circle dance of dodges and blocks it often interrupts unsuspecting foes trying to keep on me.

I feel that Line of Warding is fine where it is today. The amount of stab you can strip from a zerg is one of the reason why Guardians run Staff in WvW. When you have more than 5 Guardians on your side of the fight, it’s going to pose movement problems for your enemies.

As a WvW and an experienced Guardian player, I use it like a “sheepdog herding sheeps”.

It’s cast time and CD needs to be reduced slightly. The cast time right is so long that you need to either pre-cast it while the enemy is about 800-1200 range or have at least a 1-2s CC.

Really given the sheer amount of teleports & stability in game its long past due that the wards did something else at base.

Making them pulse protection to nearby allies & weakness to nearby enemies would be a good step towards making them worth using.
(it would also fit with the theme of warding)

Linfang.1087:

Line of warding works great in Pve. Sounds like a learn to play issue for some of you.

Its good vs random mobs but against anything champ lvl its worthless.

In pvp its also severely hindered by the sheer number of teleports & stability stacking that an organized team can do.

I have been maining a Guardian since launch, despite all of the…changes we’ll call them I still love the class, and love creating new builds for them.
I think staff 5 is lackluster for the most part, and I would like to see it changed to provide a water field, of which guardians have none. I would also go ahead and say that the cooldown could use a change also, perhaps 25-30 sec. I wouldn’t call the skill useless at all, but I do feel it’s long overdue to be looked at in the aspects of providing something more than it does currently.
…looking at you masteries and elite specs…

.2c

Soryuju.8164:

What game mode are you playing? If you’re talking about PvE, then I can see how you wouldn’t get much mileage out of Staff 5 in general situations, but it’s an extremely powerful area-denial tool in PvP and WvW.

Just to say I’ve found a surprising amount of uses for LoW in PvE (particularly in Dungeons). Placing it right in front of you so that an enemy keeps trying to close range but is still within your melee range isn’t too far off of 5s invulnerability for the party.

Thaddeus.4891:

I don’t know. It’s pretty amazing in PvP and WvW. I don’t think it’s OP right now so i’m not against a buff to cooldown/duration, but I won’t be advocating for it.

Agree with this. Line of Warding is an amazing skill in terms of area denial, and if you place it right on top of someone, you can knock them off when they’re trying to stomp or rez. I wouldn’t complain about a CD reduction, but it doesn’t need one.

I agree in pve its useless. But wvw it is amazing for splitting groups. I would be fine with cd reduction but duration increase would make this skill too strong in wvw for perma blocking players.

I would love a shorter cast time. I often try to use it as area denial or to prevent an enemy escape, but the time for it to cast and the enemy has already passed the barrier… 0.5s or at least 0.75s would be great.

Thaddeus.4891:

I don’t know. It’s pretty amazing in PvP and WvW. I don’t think it’s OP right now so i’m not against a buff to cooldown/duration, but I won’t be advocating for it.

Agreed. At face value it may not seem like much, but there’s plenty of potential in all three game aspects for LoW. Though no complaints/support from me for those that want to bring up a solid argument for a buff to the skill.

It’s in a good spot now, but I wouldn’t complain if it would be in an even better spot… ;)

its pretty useless lol I only use it when skipping mobs in TA

LoW actually sounds like it would be great for keeping seekers away on vail guardian. Same with other wall spells like spectral wall with necromancers.

Edit: actually a dragonhunter running longbow/staff would be able to control seekers for a rather long time while still doing decent damage. (not max damage obviously but as far as control builds go for pve it would be pretty kitten nice)

Shadelang.3012:

LoW actually sounds like it would be great for keeping seekers away on vail guardian. Same with other wall spells like spectral wall with necromancers.

Edit: actually a dragonhunter running longbow/staff would be able to control seekers for a rather long time while still doing decent damage. (not max damage obviously but as far as control builds go for pve it would be pretty kitten nice)

A problem I could see happening is that the seekers don’t always come from the same direction. I think a shield could also work since you would push the seekers back in a circle around you. Shield of Absorption has a cool down of 20 seconds (traited) which is also nice compared to the 40 seconds on line of warding.

On topic: Line of Warding works nice in PvP when you’re on a point as a support guardian. Especially when you can corner them just off the point.

Masterchief.1754:

I use “line of warding” in (PVE, PVP, WVW)
But I feel it needs a buff tho.

Especially lower the cooldown so it can be used more
or increased duration.

This is not the truth. If you read the original post you say you have never seen it being used.

If you were in wvw or PvP long enough to have learned something I can assure you that you would have seen the skill used. As it is meta. Guardian has always used the skill in wvw, and in PvP it was part of every bunker guard meta.

It has only been lackluster in one gamemode and only because the creatures don’t move as much.

This is what life of warding with a reduced cooldown looks like.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Unsteady_Ground