Guild Wars 2

Hello,
I’ll make this quick. I enjoy the Spirit Weapon skills of the Guardian, and am actually building my character around using them in combination with Scepter/Focus. But that’s inconsequential. The thing is, I was wondering about maybe implementing a “Buff Timer” on our buff bar to indicate when the Spirit Weapons will fade, and how long they will last.
I figure it’ll help players like me who want to try and continuously keep at least one Spirit Weapon active at a time.
Just a thought.
~TCT

i only wish spirit weapon could be use like the engi torrets or necro mm (more like gw1 ritualist)

Id get behind this. this is also the one pet that I think a “kill” button is kitten near required. When using htem its a gamble that you wont need it again for 40-50 seconds.

You have to wait out the duration. And then wait for the cooldown seperately.

My biggest issue has been needing to very carefully space out the summons for specific opponents in pvp. (Okay I need the shield for the engi with the hammer once hes low on health. I need to save the sword though for the warrior I KNOW will be following him) OR we get to gamble popping htem all in an attempt to overwhelm the targets sustain with a few moments of really high burst and stun locking.

Buff timer would be nice.

That being said the spirits still would have a few problems.

They die extremely easily when focused, you have to spent practically all your trait points to make them viable & unless you bring all of them you end up with decent sized gap times.
Then there is also the problem where if you do spec for them & bring more then one you end up being extremely vulnerable to CC, burst & conditions because of your lack of traits for anything else & lack of utility skills for anything else.

Personally I’d prefer if they consolidated several of the spirits traits, then changed 1 of them to increase the health of spirits by 100% & cause them to do their activate upon death (like the ranger spirit traits)

That alone would reduce the amount of problems you have playing a spirit spec.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Buff timer would be nice.

That being said the spirits still would have a few problems.

They die extremely easily when focused, you have to spent practically all your trait points to make them viable & unless you bring all of them you end up with decent sized gap times.
Then there is also the problem where if you do spec for them & bring more then one you end up being extremely vulnerable to CC, burst & conditions because of your lack of traits for anything else & lack of utility skills for anything else.

I agree with the issue of there low health. However there temporary nature fits into there immediate power pretty well. As far as the vulnerability to CC,Burst & conditions…yes and no.

I can’t tell you have many times ive simply stopped a CC chain or a burst combo with the hammer. Like straight up prevented it from happening. One well timed hammer smack is a gold mine of laughs. Its like a giant rod of “nope” comes flying out of hte sky the second they try to hit you. The shield with its on demand weakness and its ability to negate ranged attacks makes fighting gnade spamming engis and power rangers alot easier as well.

Id say were vulnerable to ambush more than burst. If we know were about to be in a fight were almost always ready for it. But if we get ambushed from outside our LOS it can hurt like HELL in comparison to other guardian builds.

they shoudl make it more like gw1 ritualist spirits
they should bound to 1 location and affect this area
like

hammer will aoe kd every 5 sec radios 180 and do dmg every 1 sec 250
sword will do dmg every 0.5 sec for 800 dmg and vulnerability every 3 seconds . radios 180
bow will cleanse condition from allies every 3 sec and remove boon from enemies every 3 sec radios 180
shield will heal and burns enemies with each attack 180 radios

or you can put it like active and passive abilities as if you see you spirit gonna die you activate it for dmg/kd/heal etc

trait changes
+60 radios (adapt)
50% more dmg (master)
10% attack speed (adapt)
100% more health (master)
20% recharge (adapt)
spirit can follow you (gm trait)
spirit attack do bleeding/poison/cripple/blind condition (master)

thus more role instead the bunker meta or the zerk meta
more fun with spirits

and maybe elite spirit (deaming)

With there low mobility I think theyd just get killed even faster even with more health. And one of the big boosts about them is that they synergise perfectly with virtues. Guaranteeing youl get he most out of htem even if another player isnt nearby (since boons apply to players first) If they were drop and forget I doubt theyd still be able to synergise properly.

As for there role. I use them primarily as a point defense method or using a striker method.

I wouldnt mind seeing the bows cleanse effect being AOE however. Infact I think thats kitten near mandatory before I use it outside of a cleric bunker build. The other spirits work just fine though. The only things I think need to be honestly changed are.

A. There cooldowns/uptimes seem to be really working against eachother in combat. Its difficult to know when you will and wont have them available.

B. Either having hte cooldown start on summon or having them be resistant to certain types of attacks. (If turrets are immune to condis I dont see why spirit weapons cant be more vulnerable to condio but highly resistant to physical attacks.) These would make them reliable enough in combat that I wouldnt worry about summoning one when it might not be up again 10 seconds later when that engi thats coming pops around the corner.

C. Possibly making them instant cast but with a summoning animation the same duration as there current summon spell. They wont be available for use any faster but youl be able to get the hammer out while being fear chained. Instead of needing it to be out BEFORE the necro hits you with the first fear.

messiah.1908:

they shoudl make it more like gw1 ritualist spirits
they should bound to 1 location and affect this area
like

hammer will aoe kd every 5 sec radios 180 and do dmg every 1 sec 250
sword will do dmg every 0.5 sec for 800 dmg and vulnerability every 3 seconds . radios 180
bow will cleanse condition from allies every 3 sec and remove boon from enemies every 3 sec radios 180
shield will heal and burns enemies with each attack 180 radios

or you can put it like active and passive abilities as if you see you spirit gonna die you activate it for dmg/kd/heal etc

trait changes
+60 radios (adapt)
50% more dmg (master)
10% attack speed (adapt)
100% more health (master)
20% recharge (adapt)
spirit can follow you (gm trait)
spirit attack do bleeding/poison/cripple/blind condition (master)

thus more role instead the bunker meta or the zerk meta
more fun with spirits

and maybe elite spirit (deaming)

While these changes could work I sure hope changes would include consolidating traits (having to spend all your traits to make them viable leaves your extremely weak vs allot of things) As well as having spirits grant some kind of stat bonus while active.

Here is my list of Spirit-Weapon changes:

Traits:

Zeal:

Adept: Spirit-Weapon Mastery → Improved Spirit-Weapons – Spirit weapons have increased health (50%).
Master: Expeditious Spirit → Spirit-Weapon Mastery – Spirit-weapon command skills have reduced recharge (20%).
Grandmaster: Wrathful Spirits → Wrathful Spirits – Increases spirit-weapon damage (20%). Spirit weapons last until death.

Radiance:
Master: A Fire Inside → A Fire Inside – Spirit weapons cause burning

Virtues:
Adept: Improved Spirit-Weapon Duration → Expeditious Spirit – Reduces recharge on spirit-weapon skills (20%).

Spirit Weapons:

Hammer of Wisdom: Third hit of the three-hit chain no longer knocks back enemies. Attacks are unblockable.
- Command: Unblockable

Sword of Justice: Uses three-hit chain, 3rd attack removes a boon.
- Command: No longer applies Vulnerability. Applies Cripple.

Shield of the Avenger: No longer creates a Shield of Absorption. Has Retaliation and absorbs half of the damage the Guardian and his allies take. (Think Phantasmal Defender)
- Command: No longer attacks enemies. Now creates a Shield of Absorption at the Guardians location.

Bow of Truth: Should be moved to the Healing slot.
- Command: Is now a ground target skill.

I would also like to add two new Spirit Weapons. I have always felt like having two Tome Elite skills was lazy. They should be combined into one skill.

Javelin of Light: Elite Skill. Ranged attacks that pierce through enemies.
- Command: Five javelins pierce through enemies. Each javelin applies 3 stacks of Vulnerability. (Think of Elementalist’s “Hurl” skill)

I took the old Tome of Courage and turned it into a Spirit-Weapon. Whats cooler then a floating book?

Tome of Courage: Utility Skill. Attacks Weaken enemy.
- Command: Daze target enemy and those around them.

ANet can decide which skills they want to combine from the two Tomes if they merge them. Personally I hope if they add a new weapon into the game it is a two-handed spell book weapon. Then the Tome Elite skills can be replaced entirely. Guardians, Mesmers, Elementalist and Necros would look sweet carrying around a spell book tossing out spells. Aion has them, Leon from Star Ocean 2 has them and Robin from Fire Emblem has them.

leave SoR absorb alone, it rocks when some some 1 is about to get spiked by range progectiles and all the damage is absorved :P, nades, arrows etc, but yeah create a bubble on command would be fun and usefull.