Guild Wars 2

As a player with 3.5k hours on guardian id like to give my insight of some changes I think would help. This is just some of the changes Ive thought of over the years, list would be wayyy too long if i listened everything.

Core guardian virtues
VoJ -Active gives 1-2 Secs of unblockable attacks (the spear has it so wouldnt be unfair)
VoR -Active made to match Wings of Resolve healing
VoC -A visable timer somewhere to show the player when aegis will be reapplied
Reduce Cd to 40 secs

Dh Virtues
SoJ -Visable timer at all times to show the Cd of the pull
Also the pull is unaffected by the Cd reduce trait in virtue traitline
SoC -Should apply a number ( I say 5) of SoC stacks and can only block that number
of attacks

Scepter
Orb of Wrath -Velocity increase, its been 5 years and people have been spamming A
and D to avoid 90% of these hits
Symbol of Punishment -Applies a condition instead of boon, its a ground target
range which means 60% of the time you wont be standing in the symbol.
Bug Only pulses 4 instead of 5 times

Focus
Ray of Judgement -Visual change and velocity increase (it looks pathetic)
Shield of Wrath -Turns into a sequence attack which lets u detonate the shield but
increase the Cd by double if detonated this way

Greatsword
Whirling Wrath – Damage increase by 10-15%
Leap of Faith – Applies 3 secs of cripple
Binding Blade -Velocity increase

Slotted Skills
Litany of Wrath -Duration increase from 6 to 8 secs
Shelter -Reduce Cd to 25 Secs
Merciful Intervention -Range reduce to 900, can teleport to area even without an
ally there
Judges Intervention -Cd reduced from 45 secs to 40 Secs
Bane Signet -Active is unblockable
Bug -If the target runs behind you while your casting it the skill will fail and go on full Cd
Signet Of mercy -Passive gives 180 Vitality instead of healing power, Active cures all
conditions in target area. Cd reduce to 60 secs
Signet of Courage -Passive reduce condition duration by x% amount, Active recharges nearby allies healing slot and no longer roots the player

I have quite a few thoughts on things that should change regarding guardian. There’s a lot of fluff in guardian that seems wasteful. So, I’ll list my thoughts along side your short list here… in no particular order.

Greatsword
Instead of increasing the damage of whirling wrath, simply removing the pointless projectile component and rolling it into the whirl itself will make its damage more reliable, and therefore higher on average… Perhaps increase the range of the whirl itself to compensate for any perceived ‘advantage’ from the projectiles that might be lost.

Either that, or increase the hit box of the whirling wrath projectiles so that they’re more likely to hit a target.

If damage is still a concern, the Zealous Blade trait in zeal should increase greatsword damage by 10% instead of 5%; it’s heal should also be more substantial. As it stands, the healing portion of Zealous Blade is completely inconsequential; no one cares.

I agree with increasing the projectile speed of binding blade. In PvE, it makes it rather dangerous to pull enemies in to whirl because of the time it takes to set up. In PvP, it’s very easy to see and evade.

Scepter
I disagree with changing Scepter projectile speed and changing the symbol. Scepter is a melee weapon disguised as a ranged weapon. It’s autos and symbol encourage you to stay close to your enemy, and this is true of every guardian weapon. All of the guardian’s weaponry encourage you to stay close to your enemies and your allies, and I feel like this is a conscious design choice of the profession. Longbow is the exception.

And as much as I dislike the projectile component of whirling wrath, it also reflects this design motif of “ineffectual at range, powerful in melee”. The projectiles are worthless, unless you’re inside the enemy.

Maybe your changes would make scepter a better ranged weapon… but I don’t believe that to be the goal of scepter as a weapon for Guardian.

Focus
I think just making ray of judgement move faster would make it look better, but this brings back the motif of “ineffectual at range, powerful in melee”. It’s a slow projectile, but in melee, that doesn’t matter and that’s where core guardian is meant to be in my eyes. I see now harm in making it much faster though.

I like your suggestion on Shield of Wrath, but if they did that, they’d of course move the blast finisher to the turn over… either that or make it blast twice: once for each skill activation.

Mace
Mace 3, Protector’s Strike, has this annoying bug where it won’t trigger even if you blocked at attack, or 5. I also feel like it should do something if it isn’t triggered, perhaps a shorter recharge?

Signet of Courage
I think I’d prefer Courage pulsing a small barrier instead of healing; it’s active giving a full barrier. I think that would make it much more usable and useful.

In general, I think Guardian should have a lot of barrier introduced into their kit. It fits thematically and Guardian’s low health pool prevents it from being as strong on them personally… another thing fitting thematically of the Guardian. I’d like to make a general wish for some barrier to be introduced, and perhaps some aegis to be replaced/supplemented with barrier.

Definitely agree on the issue of the new Barrier mechanic fitting the whole “Guardian” theme and I’m saying this for the base Guardian. I would say that it would work really well on some of the Consecration Utilities (Hallow Ground or Sanctuary being almost tailor made to have it added to them) or other utilities also. This situation reminds me of when they introduced the new boon Resistance with HoT in that it was accessible by other classes but it wasn’t applied to the Guardian Shout “Save Yourself” until May of this year which was silly. Aegis I always felt should have had a trait option that would give 1 to on the outside 2 seconds of Protection when drops. Considering we are constantly forced to stay in melee range but unless we use the Staff which is really pretty useless outside of a zerg or slot the Shout Retreat or slot in a Rune or Sigil to give us movement increase we often find ourselves sitting duck. I’m hoping that they rethink some of the directions they are going with the guardian because be honest they feel like they are contradictory to each other, I mean understand you want us to view and use the Staff as a support weapon, but cutting the range on the auto attack and not changing it in any other way isn’t a way to make it a support weapon it would to be reworked somewhat, options lower the AA damage have it apply a small heal or cleansing(possibly as part of a chain attack so as to not be over powered on that) , maybe give second skill a wider blast radius(from 240 radius to 300)and maybe change it from a light field to a blast finisher, third skill make so the guardian gets the Full duration of the Swiftness on themselves irrespective of if they are standing in the symbol or not(seriously counter productive for the boon usage, why it was done like this and left that way I’ll never understand), four skill someone mentioned an idea that Altruistic Healing be modified that along with healing yourself you also would heal those around you for a portion(1/2 or less), the fifth skill not sure what it needs or if it needs anything. And still nothing on the Spirit Weapons from the last patch Aug 18 where they fixed something with them and then broken them again later that day with another patch.