The Axe:
Love it!
Animations:
Give the tome a Book. It’s been said in other post, and it’s correct. I have 4 main hand legendries on my Guardian and nothing in my hand for tomes. Yet the Revenants Elite will fire Unicorns out of a Mist portal. Clearly an even level of effort…
Mantras:
To disagree with most of the community, the cast times are where they should be to justify the level of utility. The tradeoff is the time associated. And the ammo system is exceptionally well implemented on Mantras.
Mantra of Solace (Heal) is fine, with the exception of range, it should be 600 or an AOE; as it’s more of a support skill. This heal couldn’t hit more than one other player, forget 5.
Mantra of Flame is what it should be, keep it
Mantra of Lore is interesting as a condi clear, but the Regen is a waste; it also has an exceptionally poor hit box. Same problem as Solace.
Mantra of Truth is pointless… This Mantra should be a Utility such as a movement leap or blink; or it should be where our taunt was put.
Mantra of Liberation (Elite) is Exceptional! But suffers the same ridiculous hit box issue. 5 targets is pointless as it will only hit 1-2 allies in most area of the game during a fight.
Mantras in their current form are kind of like taking a group photo: “Ok Boss, please wait one minute while we all get closer together. Umm Ranger, I need you to squeeze in more on the left because you’re not in the shot…. Say cheese!… Opps, I need the Norn to bend down cause I cut off your head.”
You can’t correctly implement a pure melee Support skill that is meant to hit multiple allies in the actual fights that currently exist. This is a penalty and not expected of other classes that currently offer BETTER support than FB does. WTF?
Tomes:
The separation of support on Courage and Healing on Resolve is a brilliant choice and should be further implemented beyond what we see in Resolve currently.
Other than the lack of an appropriate weapon animation, I don’t have a complaint about the Tome of Justice
For Tome of Resolve, this is what is mainly wrong with Fire Brand. It is correct in concept but suffers poor execution. I really don’t need the Condi removal or Vigor in any of these Tome skills. Tome of resolve addresses two things: our solution to swiftness (with Unflinching charge), and it adds to our abysmal healing. This tome should be a competitor for the Raid healing slot and offer a choice equal to Druid. If it does not, ANet has done the Guardian a great disservice. Tome of Resolve needs less random boons and more base healing / targeted healing. I don’t expect to put out significant Heals without the Tome. But while in the Tome, that should be my main purpose in life. The fact I don’t have 100% up time is the tradeoff here with design and to add more random boons would only lead to less base healing.
Tome of Courage, is again well executed and offer my favorite selection of skills coming with the FireBrand. Unflinching Charge, Stalwart Stand, and Unbroken lines are extremely useful and will actually hit our intended targets. However, Daring challenge should have been a Mantra. Placing it behind the virtue cooldown of over a full minute will ensure that it doesn’t see regular use. This slot should have been where the Condi removal and Vigor from Resolve were placed.
(edited by momophily.3814)