Guild Wars 2

Hey all,
Phyrak here

I’ve spent the last few days creating what I would see as a viable longbow to give to the Guardian with a couple of unique mechanics – this weapons traits would be put into the Zeal line.

I’ve been wanting to see an agressive range weapon for the guardian, the scepter doesnt cut it for me – so I had a go at balancing a longbow for a guardian – giving high damage but low mobility.

Weapon Abilities

#1: Shard of light
- 250 dmg (0.7)
- 1200 range
-3/4 cast time
-1 stack of vuln (5 sec)
- pierces when traited

#2: Inspiring Symbol
- 50 dmg (0.8)
-last 3 sec (5 sec when traited) – writ of persistence
- 1/2 cast time
-effects upto 3 allies
-increases attack speed by 15%
-240->360 area when traited
- 10 sec CD
- fire field

#3: Celestial barrage – as rangers barrage
- 1000 damage over 5 shots
- 240->360 when traited
- 5 targets
- 2 sec cast time
-12 sec CD
- immobile whist casting

#4: Expulsion
-80 damage (1.0)
- 320->450 knock back
-launches
- 25 sec CD

1. Hallowed Shot
   600 (0.8) OR 800 (0.7)

options

single target – 3sec cast time

AOE (3 targets)

Tome of Wrath – smiters boon style attack -> 2 sec cast time

Traits:

Empowered Light: bow does 5% more damage

Bright strings: 20% CD + additional effects

Inspiring Symbol: when standing on this symbol, you gain symbol attacks

example – symbolic exposure
your attacks now do vuln whilst standing on the symbol

example – symbolic power
your attacks now gain a temporary 5% additional damage
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Thank you for reading

thoughts and ideas welcome

-Phyrak

I’d like for it to be something unique, both visually and skills.
For example, make it shoot blue rays.

Blue flame looking arrows and the like

Why use normal arrows when you can shoot them with light!

Yes! I was waiting until this was going to brought up again.

I’d say the knockback is a no-no. Guardians are intended to be in the thick of battle and a ranged weapon with a knockback works against that philosophy. What would be cool is a ranged weapon that has a pull. That way it works well together with our weapons.

Second point of criticism: Symbols are Light fields. We all want an easily accessible Fire field, but that’s just not what Symbols are.

But I agree that we need a decent ranged weapon. I’ve been saying that since launch. I personally prefer the aesthetics of a Rifle, but I understand that not many people share that idea.

The easiest way to get us a better ranged option is to make the Scepter a better option. One-handed weapons are probably easier to balance and we already have a Scepter.

Random idea: What about a Pistol?

Scepter could have similiarities with the nades spam for guardian also be the condi weapon for guardian.

let see 1200 range and 1500 range like the hand nades.

based on this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQBRYiVEpF03CwTB-w

Why the guardian need a bow? All they need to do is to fix scepter skills, for the PVE players who like to have more range options. Guardians are close range melee fighters, if you wanna range play ele, necro, ranger, thief. If you dont like to be face to face with your enemy, then the Guardian is not the right class for you.
More range weapons, heavy conditions builds, thats not a Guardian,this is some kind a mutant. Some kind soft CC like crippling or chill is ok, but nothing more.The
only new weapon i like to see for the Guard is polearm, with mass stun for 2 or 3, or even for 1 sec. to work mainly like interrupt, skill 5 with 40 sec cooldown=32 sec. with traits.
This is my vision for the Guardians, and i dont obligate noone to think like me.
Cheers

Have to say no to this, especially since we have a clear understanding of the class concept from devs … and ranged weapons isn’t part of it.

Scepter, focus, torch, and to a degree, staff.
A large aspect of the class shouldn’t be completely ruled out just because the class was intended primarily for close-combat. I’m sure warriors were intended to be front-liners yet they have two ranged weapons, and I’m completely fine with that because professions in this aren’t supposed to be so linear and stifling.

Although I don’t really like this set of skills (seems somewhat bland and inappropriate for guardians imo), I think a longbow for guardians would be nice.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Scepter, focus, torch, and to a degree, staff.
A large aspect of the class shouldn’t be completely ruled out just because the class was intended primarily for close-combat. I’m sure warriors were intended to be front-liners yet they have two ranged weapons, and I’m completely fine with that because professions in this aren’t supposed to be so linear and stifling.

Although I don’t really like this set of skills (seems somewhat bland and inappropriate for guardians imo), I think a longbow for guardians would be nice.

Then what’s the point to have different classes?
All with range weapons and condition builds, so much fun.
And yes, if you ask me warriors dont need bow, they even look stupid with this weapon. The problem is that Anet mess up the classes from the very beginning, and every time they try to fix it /once every 6 months/ they make it worst.

Indeed. The whole point to having different classes is that they provided different options for gameplay. It’s completely reasonable to rule out certain things for a class if those things don’t align with the concepts the devs have created for it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for improvements, etc… but we already know where new or improved ranged weapons will go with Guardian because Anet has already told us.

I don’t think a ranged weapon is inherently against the Guardian’s concept. And even if it was, I’d take it as evidence that the Guardian was designed badly in some way or another. I mean, look at the Scepter. We have a ranged weapon, so why are we arguing about whether or not the Guardians should have one?

I’d prefer if they’d just improve on the Scepter. That would be less work and wouldn’t bring us closer to feeling like a Warrior.

But the need for a ranged weapon is there. WvWvW remains a pain without a ranged weapon, especially at lower levels.

And let’s not argue about the aesthetic. Everyone will feel differently about it.

For me personally, I’d rather they just made improvements to the scepter and torch, rather than introducing a new ranged weapon altogether, otherwise you have a situation where you simply make one or more weapons redundant by introducing a better one to replace them. In saying that, I think it’s fine to introduce a new ranged weapon eventually, with different mechanics, but rather prioritize fixing current weapons first.

For me personally, I think the scepter actually does really good damage relative to other ranged weapons. It’s auto has the highest dps of any ranged weapon auto attack I can think of, and smite is actually the highest damage weapon skill in the game, relative to its cast time and cooldown (if all attacks hit). The only real issue is that scepter struggles to hit moving targets. Smite is glorious against slow targets with big hit boxes, but against smaller moving targets, not as much. The auto attack does a decent job of tracking ai targets with predictable pathing, but completely fails when the enemy moves unpredictably (against human players, this issue is much more obvious and is inflated over longer attack ranges).

If I were to make changes, they would be as follows:

Orb of wrath (auto): I’d give this skill some homing capabilities. That’s not to say that it should be a fire and forget skill, but if it just homes to a certain degree, it can make up for unpredictable sudden turns or odd enemy movements. It must still be avoidable though, just not as easy to avoid as it currently is.

Smite: The problem with this skill is, even against single targets who stand still, not all attacks are guaranteed to hit if the target has a small hit box. I’d either increase the aoe of each smite attack so they’re more likely to hit more often, or change the mechanic altogether. Perhaps make it a delayed blast, like a skill that you cast on an area, with an orb of light that explodes after 2 seconds (a blue flame explosion would be cool). Make it so that it still does a large amount of damage (same total damage that smite does if all attacks hit), but make it so that the damage is split between every enemy inside the aoe, up to five enemies. That means you can either use it for high damage against single targets, or for smaller amounts of damage against multiple enemies. Make it a blast finisher as well to give the scepter more utility.

Chains of Light:

This skill is fine, I just think it needs to have the same base range as other scepter skills.

Avit.3165:

Then what’s the point to have different classes?

I agree. Classes should be different, but that still doesn’t mean basic aspects (like range) should be entirely removed from a class. A ranged guardian could and should be something very different to that of a ranged ranger/warrior/etc.

To me, the biggest theme and concept behind the guardian is “defense” or “support”, not “no range”. If they added in a longbow for guardians, I think it should be something that provides long-ranged support primarily, and long-ranged damage secondarily. I wouldn’t want it to be a ranger-wannabe weapon for guardians, and it wouldn’t fit either.
My point is that guardians can have another ranged weapon, with that weapon still fitting guardians and providing a playstyle that is mostly unique to guardians. The only other class really capable of long-ranged support are water staff eles, but eles kind of do a bit of everything so I wouldn’t say that counts against it.

To anyone saying that professions should be different, therefore Guardians shouldn’t get a Longbow: I encourage you to play two professions that share weapons. You’ll notice that those professions play widely different, even if you use the same weapons.

There are good arguments to be made against giving a Guardian a dedicated long-range weapon (such as a Longbow or a Rifle), so please make those arguments.

Ynna.8769:

I don’t think a ranged weapon is inherently against the Guardian’s concept. And even if it was, I’d take it as evidence that the Guardian was designed badly in some way or another. I mean, look at the Scepter. We have a ranged weapon, so why are we arguing about whether or not the Guardians should have one?

I’d prefer if they’d just improve on the Scepter. That would be less work and wouldn’t bring us closer to feeling like a Warrior.

But the need for a ranged weapon is there. WvWvW remains a pain without a ranged weapon, especially at lower levels.

And let’s not argue about the aesthetic. Everyone will feel differently about it.

What you think and what Anet has outlined for the class concept in the video update a number of months ago are clearly two different things. Perhaps you didn’t see it but they were pretty definitive; They WANT Guardians at the front; part of the approach to make that happen is a weak ranged component. It’s also why you can likely bet that if there is some improvements to the weapons in the class, it won’t be giving ranged awesomeness unless the devs do a 180 on the class concept.

I like the idea of a eastern themed guardian using a bow with “Light Arrows”.

However like others I believe they should improve existing ranged weapons before they create new ones.

Some examples.

Scepter
1: Get rid of the orb, make it a channeled beam of light that does damage every second & can be used while moving. (this would allow them to increase the speed making it finally useful on moving targets further then 600 units away)

2: Turn smite into a symbol (this would make it true AOE & add some utility to scepter to compensate for the fact it has lower damage then sword & greatsword)

Staff

1: Swap the #1 & #2 abilities around

2: Make Orb of light faster & get rid of the detonate. Then make it spammable. (damage may have to be adjusted slightly)

3: Increase the CD on the wave to 5 seconds, but increase the damage to compensate.

Torch

1: Zealot’s Fire, Get rid of the cool down increase it causes to Zealot’s Flame

2: Cleansing Flame, Cut the cast time & number of conditions removed in half. But make it also effect the guardian.

Bam problem solved.

After that if they want to create a bow using light energy then by all means go ahead. At least after our current ranged options would be worth using as well.

Obtena.7952:

Ynna.8769:

I don’t think a ranged weapon is inherently against the Guardian’s concept. And even if it was, I’d take it as evidence that the Guardian was designed badly in some way or another. I mean, look at the Scepter. We have a ranged weapon, so why are we arguing about whether or not the Guardians should have one?

I’d prefer if they’d just improve on the Scepter. That would be less work and wouldn’t bring us closer to feeling like a Warrior.

But the need for a ranged weapon is there. WvWvW remains a pain without a ranged weapon, especially at lower levels.

And let’s not argue about the aesthetic. Everyone will feel differently about it.

What you think and what Anet has outlined for the class concept in the video update a number of months ago are clearly two different things. Perhaps you didn’t see it but they were pretty definitive; They WANT Guardians at the front; part of the approach to make that happen is a weak ranged component. It’s also why you can likely bet that if there is some improvements to the weapons in the class, it won’t be giving ranged awesomeness unless the devs do a 180 on the class concept.

I took something a little different away from that.

They want guardian ranged options to be less useful then melee ones, but not technically “Weak”

There is also that part of the selling point of GW2 was that you could spec to do most anything you want to do.

So maybe they could get rid of a few of the useless traits guardians have (or merge nearly useless ones) then create new traits which bring ranged options a little more up to par.

This would be fairly balanced, you would have to spec to make ranged options “good” and they still would not be quite as “Good” as melee options after you spec for melee.

I think this could be a great idea but as ppl here said It’s most likely not gonna happen. Neither this or anything like this

ANet wanted us to hold ppl, support, be in the heat of battle, them gives us a game where none of that kitten is useful except of some areas in PvP (and NA PvP meta doesn’t even uses bunker guards so, romaing I guess, where ANet doesn’t even look) and refuses to change it.

And this is pretty much it. Since they will stay with the same idea they will not make this viable. Has they will also never make getaway options for us or movement speed increase

Obtena.7952:

Ynna.8769:

I don’t think a ranged weapon is inherently against the Guardian’s concept. And even if it was, I’d take it as evidence that the Guardian was designed badly in some way or another. I mean, look at the Scepter. We have a ranged weapon, so why are we arguing about whether or not the Guardians should have one?

I’d prefer if they’d just improve on the Scepter. That would be less work and wouldn’t bring us closer to feeling like a Warrior.

But the need for a ranged weapon is there. WvWvW remains a pain without a ranged weapon, especially at lower levels.

And let’s not argue about the aesthetic. Everyone will feel differently about it.

What you think and what Anet has outlined for the class concept in the video update a number of months ago are clearly two different things. Perhaps you didn’t see it but they were pretty definitive; They WANT Guardians at the front; part of the approach to make that happen is a weak ranged component. It’s also why you can likely bet that if there is some improvements to the weapons in the class, it won’t be giving ranged awesomeness unless the devs do a 180 on the class concept.

I have indeed missed that video, as I only recently started playing. I’ll seek it out.

And I don’t think anyone is asking for ranged awesomeness, just for a viable thing to do when engaging the enemy up close is impossible or lethal.

mPascoal.4258:

I think this could be a great idea but as ppl here said It’s most likely not gonna happen. Neither this or anything like this

ANet wanted us to hold ppl, support, be in the heat of battle, them gives us a game where none of that kitten is useful except of some areas in PvP (and NA PvP meta doesn’t even uses bunker guards so, romaing I guess, where ANet doesn’t even look) and refuses to change it.

And this is pretty much it. Since they will stay with the same idea they will not make this viable. Has they will also never make getaway options for us or movement speed increase

Lol the problem with their “vision” for the guardian is they refuse to give the guardian the proper tools for holding ppl in melee.

Sure the guardian can get there rather easily via leaps or teleports but people can easily escape because the guardian lacks enough cripples, immobilizes, chills & burst to keep them there.
Heck in the current build options the guardian can’t even bunker as effectively as a elementalist, warrior or engineer due to reliance on longer cool downs & a low health pool which necessitates spending more points for health which in turn ends up with less for damage/utility potential.

So there are really only 3 options to make mix use of.
1: Improve ranged to be more viable for when you cannot get into melee & stay there.
& or
2: Give the guardian more access to cripples, chills, immobilize & burst
& or
3: Create new or adjust existing abilities so that they are not as strong per use but can be used more frequently (guardian has strong abilities but the long CD’s make them very easy for skilled players to counter.)

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Obtena.7952:

Ynna.8769:

I don’t think a ranged weapon is inherently against the Guardian’s concept. And even if it was, I’d take it as evidence that the Guardian was designed badly in some way or another. I mean, look at the Scepter. We have a ranged weapon, so why are we arguing about whether or not the Guardians should have one?

I’d prefer if they’d just improve on the Scepter. That would be less work and wouldn’t bring us closer to feeling like a Warrior.

But the need for a ranged weapon is there. WvWvW remains a pain without a ranged weapon, especially at lower levels.

And let’s not argue about the aesthetic. Everyone will feel differently about it.

What you think and what Anet has outlined for the class concept in the video update a number of months ago are clearly two different things. Perhaps you didn’t see it but they were pretty definitive; They WANT Guardians at the front; part of the approach to make that happen is a weak ranged component. It’s also why you can likely bet that if there is some improvements to the weapons in the class, it won’t be giving ranged awesomeness unless the devs do a 180 on the class concept.

I took something a little different away from that.

They want guardian ranged options to be less useful then melee ones, but not technically “Weak”

There is also that part of the selling point of GW2 was that you could spec to do most anything you want to do.

So maybe they could get rid of a few of the useless traits guardians have (or merge nearly useless ones) then create new traits which bring ranged options a little more up to par.

This would be fairly balanced, you would have to spec to make ranged options “good” and they still would not be quite as “Good” as melee options after you spec for melee.

Words like ‘good’ or ‘poor’ are relative. Considering what the devs are targeting for the Guardian concept, the current spread of ranged options fits us really well … they suck just enough to make people go melee … or … they are good enough to make ranged a last resort. Whatever wordplay you want, it’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

As you said in another post, the problem isn’t our ranged options, it’s our ability to control the fight in close quarters. If there is any suggestions that would address that, it would be the most likely to garner everyone’s attention because it aligns to the concept.

Obtena.7952:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Obtena.7952:

Ynna.8769:

I don’t think a ranged weapon is inherently against the Guardian’s concept. And even if it was, I’d take it as evidence that the Guardian was designed badly in some way or another. I mean, look at the Scepter. We have a ranged weapon, so why are we arguing about whether or not the Guardians should have one?

I’d prefer if they’d just improve on the Scepter. That would be less work and wouldn’t bring us closer to feeling like a Warrior.

But the need for a ranged weapon is there. WvWvW remains a pain without a ranged weapon, especially at lower levels.

And let’s not argue about the aesthetic. Everyone will feel differently about it.

What you think and what Anet has outlined for the class concept in the video update a number of months ago are clearly two different things. Perhaps you didn’t see it but they were pretty definitive; They WANT Guardians at the front; part of the approach to make that happen is a weak ranged component. It’s also why you can likely bet that if there is some improvements to the weapons in the class, it won’t be giving ranged awesomeness unless the devs do a 180 on the class concept.

I took something a little different away from that.

They want guardian ranged options to be less useful then melee ones, but not technically “Weak”

There is also that part of the selling point of GW2 was that you could spec to do most anything you want to do.

So maybe they could get rid of a few of the useless traits guardians have (or merge nearly useless ones) then create new traits which bring ranged options a little more up to par.

This would be fairly balanced, you would have to spec to make ranged options “good” and they still would not be quite as “Good” as melee options after you spec for melee.

Words like ‘good’ or ‘poor’ are relative. Considering what the devs are targeting for the Guardian concept, the current spread of ranged options fits us really well … they suck just enough to make people go melee … or … they are good enough to make ranged a last resort. Whatever wordplay you want, it’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

As you said in another post, the problem isn’t our ranged options, it’s our ability to control the fight in close quarters. If there is any suggestions that would address that, it would be the most likely to garner everyone’s attention because it aligns to the concept.

My suggestion for fixing it would be to
1: Add a 3 second cripple onto Flashing Blade
2: Add a 4 second cripple onto Leap of Faith
3: Reduce the Cool down of Glacial Heart to 15 seconds
4: Cut the cool down of virtue of Resolve & Courage by 30% or so in solo & team PvP.
5: Cut the cool down of Save yourselves in half for PvP (Duration is already halved)

This would be some of the base things I would suggest.
There are also tons of traits (around 20) that are either very lack luster or make you wonder WTF they were thinking when they were made.