Guild Wars 2

I want to start off by saying that, there will be a lot of grammar errors and maybe things that I don’t explain well. I wrote these changes through the night so cut me some slack here.
But seriously, sometimes when I read what I wrote a day before it all sounds like gibberish. If you don’t understand a change I suggested, then ask me to explain it differently.

There will be a wall of text before the changes just explaining stuff.

For my suggested changes Im making the assumption that, currently, Radiance is the Utility line, Valor is the Self-support line (to help keep yourself alive), Honor is the line for boons and Support to your allies, Virtues Is about Improving your class mechanic, and Zeal is a weird line with weird traits and symbols as minors :-\ (in other words, the symbol and spirit weapon line – yay!).

To me, Radiance and Zeal have their traits mixed up together. Hopefully we can separate them a bit and have one focused more on conditions and one focused on bringing more utility to the guardian. (Sadly, I didnt achieve this.)

I also think anet should stop trying to push this condi guardian movement. Any self-respecting guard shouldn’t be aspiring to run conditions……I mean, you only have access to one damaging condition, It just wasn’t meant for your class ma boy.

Note:

• If I have the name of a trait with nothing else beside it, then it remains the same as what you showed us.
• If you see a trait tier that only has two traits, it’s because you can put something new there OR it doesn’t matter what you put there because no one will take it.
• I have two-handed mastery in the HONOR traitline giving a reduced recharge on all two-handed weapons, and I have two other traits giving the same reduced recharge for specific two-handed weapons.
  This reduced Recharge wont stack and won’t go past 20% for any two-handed weapons. The reason I spread out these traits is so I don’t force players into a specific line ,and I allow them to be more versatile. Players that use hammer/greatsword don’t have to go into the honor line, but 99% of staff builds go into the Honor line.
• Under the traits I have different effects written down.
  —These are all the effects that should be given by that trait and not something that you should choose between.
  —Sometimes I just try to clarify stuff.

Things to fix/change.

1. Revert our Virtue active to 1200 Radius.
   — There have been countless times when I make it in the nick of time to support my allies with virtues (condi clear, stab). Your recent change makes me feel as If I shouldn’t try to use my virtues for support anymore. Because, Im already moving very slowly around the map, by the time I reach to support my allies it would of already been too late. By the time I run over the other side of a point to give my ally stab, he’s already dead.
   — Look at it like this Anet. When my allies get ganked they need to get away from that pressure (kite). The LAST thing my ally should be forced to do is, run in my direction just to get in range of my support, because running in my direction generally means running into the direction of focus fire (front line guardians, Bunker guards on point, Guardians in team fights)
2. If you use an aoe attack and your virtue of Justice is activated, then the burning and any added effect should hit all the enemies you hit with that skill (The burning from Virtue of Justice, Wrath of Justice)
   — For Example. If Use my Virtue of Justice and then use my Mighty Blow ( hammer #2 ) I should burn all the enemies I hit with Mighty Blow; and if I have Wrath of Justice Equipped I should Immobilize all the enemies I hit with that mighty blow.
3. Make it baseline that shield 4 taunts foes that it hits for 2 or 3 seconds . Increase the cast time or change the animation for shield 4 To give it more counter play.
4. Remove the split for shield between PVE and PVP. (Take the pve version)

1. Make it baseline that symbols damage foes that walk out of them. Just like the new trap (Not really necessary,but its something)
2. If I’m using more than one block skill, then the game should only remove one of those blocks and should prioritize the removal of blocks in this order. Shelter>Aegis>Focus 5.
   — I don’t know if that’s clear enough so here’s some further clarification. If I have Focus 5 up and I also have aegis, the game should remove one block from my focus 5 when I get hit ,and NOT one charge from my focus AND my aegis (My Precious aegis :-< ). If I have focus 5 up and I use shelter, the game shouldn’t remove the charges on my focus.
   — The priority should always have Shelter at the top.
3. Smiter’s Boon should Happen at the Beginning of your heal’s animation/cast time
4. Healing Breeze:
   Traits/Runes that affect shouts should remove the condition at the beginning of the Cast/animation.
   It just makes sense to make this change. Healing Breeze can be interrupted and Healing Breeze is a healing over time skill which will get better if you don’t have poison.
5. Reduce Valorous Defense to 30 secs cooldown, and make it baseline
6. Courageous Return Baseline
7. Fix a hammer bug.
   — If you use your hammer #2 ( Mighty Blow ) immediately after weapon swapping, it will leap you in the opposite direction of your target (away from them). This can really screw you over because, most of the time You use mighty blow ,you are trying to close the gap.

ZEAL

MINORS

• Karrrllllll
  —Drop a symbol of wrath when hit below the health threshold
  —The name should be changed from Zealot’s speed, anything new will do.
• Symbolic Exposure:
  —Symbols Cripple foes for 2 seconds and Apply Vulnerbility for x Seconds for each tick.
  —Increase the number of stacks of vulnerability From symbolic exposure. (Maybe from 1 to 2). Also increase the duration of the vulnerability to keep players in combat.
  —If this trait line is to buff your symbols, then players should be punished for standing in them. They shouldn’t be thinking “Oh he runs that trait, lol.” ,They should be thinking “Oh he runs THAT trait, I need to avoid his symbols then.”
• Symbolic Power
  —You could increase the chance for burning to proc to 50%.

ADEPT

• Fiery Wrath
• Protectors Impact
• Blinding Jeopardy
  —This was a trait that I removed completely, but I put it back as a placeholder until we get something good.
  —The vulnerability on this is really small. The vulnerability could be changed to chill and this trait would be very good (with an ICD). If you make this change then you could move this trait into another traitline.

MASTER

• Put Writ of Persistence in the Zeal line as a master trait, and Remove Blinding Jeopardy
• Kindled Zeal
  —I removed this trait as well, but I put it back as a place holder.
• Zealous Blade

GRANDMASTER

• Expeditious Spirit
• New symbol trait called “Provoking Symbols”. Symbols now Taunt foes for 1second when they are used.(ICD of 20s or 30s)
  —The taunt is applied at the beginning of the symbol and doesn’t apply on any tick other than the first one.
  —I added this trait to give guardians a fairly effective interrupt (good for enemy heals), as long as they can stay in range of their target (which can be difficult sometimes)
• Symbolic Avenger
• Remove Shattered Aegis from this traitline and merge it with Unscathed Contender in Virtues
  —I don’t like how the aegis traits are all over the place. At the least, there should be an aegis trait that buffs aegis to be more damaging, and then there is an aegis trait that makes it more about survivability.[/spoiler]

RADIANCE

MINOR

• Make a Minor that gives 15% crit chance when wielding one-handed weapon.
• Radiant Power:
• Attacks against burning foes have a 10% increased chance to critical hit.
• Radiant Retaliation:
  —You are healed for a percentage of Retaliation damage you do (50%)

ADEPT

• Purging Fire/Searing Flame
  —Gain fury for 7 seconds when you strike a foe with 3 or more stacks of burning, and remove a boon from them
• One-Handed Strength:
  —Gain ten seconds of might when your Virtue of Justice triggers. One handed weapons deal 10% more damage and recharge faster
  —You don’t need to have a one-handed weapon equipped to proc the might
  —Reduces the recharge of only mainhand weapons
  —Increases the damage of both mainhand and off hand weapons
  —Cannot Trigger more than 10 times in 10 seconds. Im basically trying to cap the might you can get at 10.
• Healers Retribution:
  —Gain Resistance when you use a heal skill (4 or 5 seconds).

MASTER

• Wrath of Justice (I’m looking forward to using this one. Thanks anet)
• Radiant Fire
• Retribution merged with Radiant Retaliation
  —I think Retribution should be changed to give a different buff or be affected by a different boon/condition. I say this because retaliation is a mediocre boon and, even though its supposed to be what we are known for, we don’t have a high up time on it.

GRANDMASTER

• Amplified Wrath
• Perfect Inscriptions:
  —The same effects you showed us in the live stream and….
  —Make this reduce the cast time on our res signet and the new elite signet. (Bring the res signet down to the same time as banner)
  —If the light aura is given at the beginning of the signets cast time, then enemy players can know that you are using this trait and interrupt your signets earlier.
• Invigorating precision. Heal yourself for a percentage of the critical damage done to enemies. This is to give guardians some form of sustain outside of meditations or AH.
  —This one is kinda crazy but it’s an Idea I had.

VALOR

• Reduce Valorous Defense to 30 secs cooldown, and make it baseline
• Courageous Return Baseline

MINORS

• Nearby Allies gain Aegis and Retaliation when you block an attack
• Might of the Protector.
  —Remove the internal cooldown on Might of the Protector. (Suggested by snoow.1694)
• Communal Defense Gain up to 250 toughness after blocking an attack and heal for a small amount.

ADEPT

• Smiter’s Boon
• Strength of the Fallen:
  —Lose a condition every ten seconds and your downed state 3 has increased effectiveness
  —Remove the Reduced degeneration of your downstate from Strength of the Fallen. It can stay for pve, but in pvp being bled out for longer is the LAST thing anyone needs.
• Focus Mastery
  —The same effects as shown in the live stream
  —This one is a maybe. Focus 4 also grants resistance for 1.5 sec for each bounce that hits you or allies.

MASTER

• Retributive Armor Gain ferocity based on 10%/13% of your current Armor
• Stalwart Defenders:
  —Reduces the recharge of Shield skills,Removes two conditions when you use shield 5, and Removes one condition when you use shield 4. Shield 5 removes conditions on the first part of the skill
  —This Trait will also affect Protective reviver and make it remove two conditions.
  —You and nearby allies gain up to 180 toughness based on your level
• Glacial Heart
  —Chance on Critical hit with a hammer to inflict chill for 3 secs. Hammer skills have a Reduced cooldown and deal more damage.

GRANDMASTER

• Altruistic Healing
• Monk’s Focus
• ???

HONOR

MINORS

• Vigourous Precision
• Selfless Daring
• Purity of Body:
  —Your Virtue of Resolve passive Effect Regenerates endurance by 30%
  —As guardians we don’t have the ability to run away or stealth. The Change to vigor will really hurt us more than anyone else, because dodging skills in fights is one of the main ways we survive.

ADEPT

• Change Invigorating Bulwark into Invigorating Healing. Healing done to allies below 50% health is increased. Or, Healing done to allies is increased by x%
• Protective Reviver (Affected by the Shield trait)
  —All the stuff currently on it
  —Increased revive speed by 10%
  —You might think the revive speed will make this trait have too much stuff, But warriors,eles, and even mesmers get this trait easily and they all have res utilities that are much much MUCH better than ours.

MASTER

• Empowering Might:
  —Make empowering might an aoe party buff like Strength in numbers/Vampiric presence (make it have the same radius as Ring of warding, or a little bit larger). The might given should be between 4 and 5 seconds.
  —More Clarification: Make it apply a buff to all allies in an area around you. This buff allows allies and you to give might to each other when you crit.
• Two-Handed Mastery:
  —Reduce the cooldown of all your two-handed weapons and gain an additional effect based on the 2-handed weapon you are wielding
  —Gain increased boon duration while wielding a staff (Honorable Staff).
  —The last two effects are up for Debate. The trait can make Greatsword and Hammer Apply slow to enemies on Critical hits (13 sec Shared ICD). OR it can Make Hammer apply slow to enemies on critical hit and Greatsword applies quickness to yourself on critical hit. The duration for the Quickness and Slow can be 3 seconds.
  —Even if you don’t put the slow and quickness on the hammer and gs (which you should :-P ), I still think the reduced recharge should affect all two-handed weapons

GRANDMASTER

• Pure of Voice
• Force of Will

VIRTUES

MINOR

• Inspired Virtue
• Preservative virtues:
  —Create a new minor called “Preservative virtues”. This trait will blind nearby foes when you use Virtue of Justice (Justice is Blind), Give 2 seconds of Resistance when you use Virtue of Resolve, and Heal allies when Aegis is removed (Pure of Heart). This minor will Replace Virtue of Retribution
• Virtue of Jubilation/Exultation
  —Create a new minor called Virtues of Jubilation/Exultation. This trait will make virtues recharge 15% faster, Justice is Renewed when you kill a foe (Renewed Justice), and Virtue of Resolve and Virtue of Courage Have a percentage of their cooldown reduced when you kill a foe. This minor will replace Power of the Virtuous.
  —OR
  —Create a new minor called Virtues of Jubilation/Exultation. This trait will make virtues recharge 15% faster, Justice is Renewed when you kill a foe (Renewed Justice), and Virtue of Resolve and Virtue of Courage Have a percentage of their cooldown reduced based on the number of allies affected by your active. So if you use your Virtue to help more allies, it will recharge faster.

ADEPT

• Mix Unscathed contender with the damaging aegis traits. Therefore, Unscathed contender gives the same damage buff AND damages foes when aegis is removed (or damages foes when you block an attack)
• Retaliatory Subconscious:
  —Gain Retaliation when you activate a Virtue, and Gain Retaliation when cc’ed
• Master of Consecrations:
  —Consecrations last 20% longer and have a 20% reduced recharge, AND give resistance to allies that enter them (3 seconds of Resistance)

MASTER

• Absolute Resolution
• Supreme Justice
• Just a Reminder
  —Dont put Glacial Heart here. Absolute Resolution is superior to Resolution and makes it impossible to take Glacial Heart.
  —I dont see any traits being able to compete in this tier. Absolute resolution is my every thing man. Without it my Justice becomes crappy and I cant condi clear my allies when they need help :-< . Please dont touch my Absolute Resolution <3

GRANDMASTER

• Permeating Wrath
• Battle Presence
  —I dont like this trait because Virtue of Resolve doesnt heal much and this promotes passive play. If this trait combos with Purity of Body, then I can think about it for the Party wide mini Vigor……. But I would never take it for the Regen
• Indomitable Courage

TLDR: Lots a stuff, just lots of Stuff.

Which changes do you agree with, which ones do you disagree with? What do you think can be tweaked? Any bugs that are bothering you?
Leave your answers below so Anet can see them!

And yes this is my last hope for Guardian changes. If I cant see any changes from anet, in a reasonable time, I might just re roll.

Good bye friends!! Time to sleep

A lot of really thought-out suggestions. Some may be considered a little too strong(such as the minor for 15% more crit chance) but your heart is in the right place.

Arken.3725:

A lot of really thought-out suggestions. Some may be considered a little too strong(such as the minor for 15% more crit chance) but your heart is in the right place.

Thank you Arken

humm i dont know how to start but noticed the flavour in hammer/gs rotation mostly, try not to be biased in just how u play maybe, also it seems that would lock and cut diversity of the class and spread it in several “hammer boosting traits” , also i know this is your opinion but is was my impression after reading it and sorry if im wrong.

-So lets start, the mace trait vanished so no mace love ?

-Your two handed mastery is to muuch, but having a source applying slow would be nice, i kinda feel its a thing that belong to guardians and can be for support or burst target before a heavy hit, making the enemies think twice when to use it.

-Also shield dome already removes condis if u are attacking trough it like a light field, by absorbing some attacks will also eat up the condi to.

-Agreed on Zeal “zealots speed” looks like we will do something fast, but its a simbol @ X% health threshold.

-I also like on resistance pulse interval on traited consecrations, an larger Sanctuary with 80-90cd for start we could see more use of it. or even maintain the actual 120cd but increase the duration a bit.

-About glacier they made a few trade of i think its fair, with hammer guardians have some possible rotations.

-What if Absolute Resolution got merged with battle presence to grandmaster?

Aeolus.3615:

humm i dont know how to start but noticed the flavour in hammer/gs rotation mostly, try not to be biased in just how u play maybe, also it seems that would lock and cut diversity of the class and spread it in several “hammer boosting traits” , also i know this is your opinion but is was my impression after reading it and sorry if im wrong.

Actually, In not a fan of hammer being used with greatsword. I think hammer with greatsword lacks counter pressure for ranged targets, and from my experiences in pvp, a good player will just kite you until he is ready to close the gap with you.

That being said, I believe the trait in Honor will help out guardians in GvG and any pve guardian build that decides to run double two hander. Putting two handed traits in more than one line diversifies guardians in my opinion. Before you had to go into a certain line to get effective two handed weapons, and this would limit your playstyle to that trait line. Now you can have choices into which trait line you go, and still be able to have an effective twohander. Lets not forget that 90% of guardian builds use a two hander, this will allow you to switch twohanded weapons on the fly in pve/wvw.

Aeolus.3615:

-So lets start, the mace trait vanished so no mace love ?

How about this?

• Invigoration Bulwark/Healing
  — Healing done to allies is increased by x%. OR, Healing done to allies below 50% health is increased.
  —Mace skills do more damage and have reduced cooldown.

Aeolus.3615:

-Your two handed mastery is to muuch, but having a source applying slow would be nice, i kinda feel its a thing that belong to guardians and can be for support or burst target before a heavy hit, making the enemies think twice when to use it.

Its not too much ma boy. You will only get to make use of two of the three effects, and I added an shared internal cooldown for the double slow scenario.

Aeolus.3615:

-Also shield dome already removes condis if u are attacking trough it like a light field, by absorbing some attacks will also eat up the condi to.

Isnt this a more reliable condi clear?

Aeolus.3615:

-About glacier they made a few trade of i think its fair, with hammer guardians have some possible rotations.

I dont really understand what you mean here. What about the change makes you think its fair?

Aeolus.3615:

-What if Absolute Resolution got merged with battle presence to grandmaster?

Oh Noes, then it would compete with my indomitable courage……. and I loveee my Indomitable courage (especially since its going to break stuns now). But seriously though, that sounds like a great change to Absolute Resolution. But if its competing with Indomitable Courage, it will really screw up a lot of things.

This would also be something that isn’t really necessary, but hey, I’ll take it anet.

You’ve got some good ideas. Others may be a little over the top. A key point is that you at least tried to address how our trait lines lack focus at best or all over the board at best.

Some Issues:

• You say that you want Honor to be the boon specialization, but I don’t think that’s a good choice. Virtues are very boon-centric, so you end up with two boon lines.
• With cripple and other effects, symbols become too close to traps – more than they already are. I think it would be better to go the route of forming them into area control/denial.
• Wrath of justice is too good and will eventually be nerfed/removed. The counter-play is virtually non-existent.

Exedore.6320:

• With cripple and other effects, symbols become too close to traps – more than they already are. I think it would be better to go the route of forming them into area control/denial.

Honestly, symbols should have gotten soft CC and we shouldn’t even have gotten traps to begin with. Symbols have potential but need means to keep targets locked in. Traps are just terrible by design and just make for more area denial that we didn’t need.

Exedore.6320:

• You say that you want Honor to be the boon specialization, but I don’t think that’s a good choice. Virtues are very boon-centric, so you end up with two boon lines.
• With cripple and other effects, symbols become too close to traps – more than they already are. I think it would be better to go the route of forming them into area control/denial.

• To me Virtues is the real boon line, every trait in that line gives you a boon or buffs a boon (The trait line even gave extra boon duration). Honor is more focused on ally support. Yes it does buff shouts, which will give your allies boons; but It doesn’t directly give you any boons, you still have to equip the boon giving utilities (shouts)
• Like Black Box said, we shouldn’t of gotten any traps and Symbols need a soft cc to keep enemies in them.

Your points gave me an idea for a new trait

VIRTUES
Adept

• New Trait Name here
  — Boon duration increased by 20% or 30%

With that trait Virtues definitely becomes the boon line

Exedore.6320:

• Wrath of justice is too good and will eventually be nerfed/removed. The counter-play is virtually non-existent.

Dont go Breaking my Heart.

Well as for pvp hammer medi guard is quite strong against ranged classes for what i have been seen, play with map and ranger LoS and ji on him.

I hope that blob clash water-field spam on OS isn’t what u call gvg? it makes people on group sinergizing better but called GvG…… :P

The two handed weapon in same trait would force me to use that trait fully, even if i dont need that line since now we need to pick up 3 full line and not just half of it, if i want to play GS i got a trait just for that since we dont need traits for stats, that is the reason i liked when anet divided the weapons per trait.
About mace i really love the new trait for it(guardian needs to be active to earn healing power), only feel that shield needs something, well condi cleanses migh be good and are always welcome, but has i suggested in another thread it needs some clever play and imo “slow” it feels that can be used with the 3 1hand weapons guardian has.
The Honor – master trait line looks a bit empty but making has it was before that means every one who wants 2 handed weapons would have to take that full trait line, that would be a huge sacrifice :\ .

My hope is close to zero. But I’ll wait till the patch day.

I made a list of the main problems with the calss change here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/June-23-Specialization-Changes/page/9#post5172682

Some changes they’ve said on VOD doesn’t really makes sense, like reducing the damage on standing on symbols to +10% only. And don’t forget about the new Binding Jeopardy that is a lot worse (useless actually) than the current Binding Jeopardy or Blind Exposure. 3 seconds only? Must be joking.

Also a lot of useful traits was lost and have not been made base line, like Radiant Power, Powerful Blades (should be merged with the new sword trait), Searing Flames (not really useful, but could be merged with the new Amplified Wrath, considering all its nerfs).

In my opinion the changes to the class are a mess.They have no clue on what they are doing. Also, the changes on Consume Conditions of necro makes any sense what so ever. They already nerfed by increasing the CD, why put 10 stacks of vulnerability?

On the other hand, my Elementalist, my Mesmer and my Warrior will be amazing with the buffs. The Necro changes except for the nerf on consume conditions and plague are good, and Engi are “ok” (not powerful as the first ones listed). Can’t say about thief because I don’t play (but the lack of ricochet reallydoesn’t make sense). Finally, my Guardian (once my favorite class) will go to oblivion.

@edit
Forgot about Ranger! I think the changes on the class are really good as well.

Mikau.6920:

And don’t forget about the new Binding Jeopardy that is a lot worse (useless actually) than the current Binding Jeopardy or Blind Exposure. 3 seconds only? Must be joking.

This really kittened me off, too. 3 seconds of vulnerability is virtually worthless, as is a single 5s stack of might, and yet those are basically all we get with our traits. The two exceptions to these extra short duration damage bonuses (Blind Exposure and Might of the Protector) both got pretty crippling nerfs for no good reason at all.

I almost feel like they’re trying to compensate for the damage modifiers they’ll be giving the elite spec, which is in very poor taste. Elite specs are supposed to be alternative ways to play a class, not a literal upgrade.

rupi you are a SCRUB

Black Box.9312:

Honestly, symbols should have gotten soft CC and we shouldn’t even have gotten traps to begin with.

Unfortunately traps are here to stay and the profession has to be designed with them in mind. It’s not ideal, but it is what it is.

However, even with that restriction, CC on symbols would still be a little too good. Symbols do quite a bit of damage, buff the guardian, and are relatively easy to apply. Giving symbols more area control while not locking enemies on the symbol is a better option and differentiates symbols from traps.

To address the issue of guardians having trouble sticking to targets, possibly consider a source of a super speed. To tie it into the symbols theme, maybe grant it when you do a combo finisher on a light field. You could even call it “Zealot’s Speed”…

Exedore.6320:

Black Box.9312:

Honestly, symbols should have gotten soft CC and we shouldn’t even have gotten traps to begin with.

Unfortunately traps are here to stay and the profession has to be designed with them in mind. It’s not ideal, but it is what it is.

However, even with that restriction, CC on symbols would still be a little too good. Symbols do quite a bit of damage, buff the guardian, and are relatively easy to apply. Giving symbols more area control while not locking enemies on the symbol is a better option and differentiates symbols from traps.

To address the issue of guardians having trouble sticking to targets, possibly consider a source of a super speed. To tie it into the symbols theme, maybe grant it when you do a combo finisher on a light field. You could even call it “Zealot’s Speed”…

Honestly, the CC wouldn’t even have to be on the symbols themselves. It should just be SOMEWHERE in our skillset or traits. The new elite spec’s access to cripple really doesn’t even count, if you ask me, because it’s so incredibly situational that unless you’re camping the bow against 2+ enemies you won’t even see it.

That was a big complaint I have about Dragonhunter. The longbow traits tend to focus on keeping enemies at range, while the traps and virtues are better when fighting up close.

kylekied.4820:

rupi you are a SCRUB

<3 <3