Swiftness and "Unscathed Contender"
I think this is one of the many classes that prove that the devs do not play this game.
Guardians are expected to give up TWO utility slots AND use a 2-handed weapon for a lousy swiftness buff.
So after giving up your signets, your reflective walls, your spirit weapons, your main and off-hand secondary weapon slots, and investing heavily into a trait line that offers almost nothing….
…all this class really is, is a buff-bot.
You can even heal yourself by buffing other players!
Well isn’t that special?
Playing the engineer “as intended” is simply not viable.
60-100% swiftness uptime with 1 weapon skill isn’t that bad. A guard can travel at about the same speed as an engie, mesmer or necro. Its the lack of action-based move skills hurts the most.
- Engis get perma-swiftness by picking 1 trait and switching to a kit every 5 secs.
- Necros at least got a +25% speed signet.
Mesmer are about as bad as guardians when it comes to movement speed…sure, you can use Mirror + Runes of the Centaur/Air but that means you’re giving up on all of your armor upgrades…
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTjZ2yriM20o_36MZmMTuA/videos
Unscathed Contender is actually a skill many DPS guardians trait into for PvE purposes. It stacks well with high damage and Fiery Wrath. Essentially, with this trait, virtue of courage and Retreat become burst damage skills, upping your damage output by 10% whenever you want. In WvW it’s hard to use because you’ll be getting focused a lot but for dungeons it’s a great skill.
Honestly, I don’t have a real problem with movement on my guardian. With 50% boon duration you can use staff #3 only for permaswiftness. Mix in Retreat and you never really have to worry about not being able to get anywhere. If your goal is to play a WvW guardian, you should always have a staff equipped anyway (or at least one in your inventory you can equip when you want to.). And it’s easy enough to switch out at least one shout for Retreat. There is also food for boon duration increases, which you can pop until you meet up with your Zerg.
I’ve played other classes in the game, and honestly, I feel the Guardian is easily the most mobile class I’ve played.
Even if Unscathed Contender was changed to give run speed, it would still have the same problem as it does now. Aegis lasts for one hit and after that you lose the buff. UC is counter productive, since aegis isn’t really meant to be maintained. It would be better if the damage buff or in this case the run speed buff was given once aegis shatters.
Windows 10
I’ll switch to Unscathed in pve anytime there’s no need for consecrations/spirit shield. It’s pretty easy to keep up Aegis when you are ranging in boss fights, and even when not there’s no other trait in 10 Virtues that’s much better. I wish Aegis wouldn’t break before focus 5 though, would provide some nice extra burst.
I could actually see me use it in a boss fight as I was typing it up.
The reason I’m not happy with the staff is caus the symbol is slightly bugged to not give priper swiftnesd alot of the time.
Also i am not looking for in combat mobility, I am looking to get across the map quicker!
unscathed contender paired up with our other 10%+ or 5%+ damage skills / traits would be pretty awesome. if you don’t mind the scepter, that could be a good option to have that 20% kicker active for as long as possible, as opposed to being in melee range. : ))
and if i am corect, the symbol gives swiftness based off of ticks. so if you’re running, cast it a little ahead of you or your allies. that usually works for me. and make sure peopel don’t dodge through it lol cause i THINK, you can actually dodge the tick. just as enemies could dodge the tick of damage that the symbol would do. haevn’t done extensive testing, just what i think.
hmmm ways to get across the map quicker, in addition to what you mentioned.. GS #3, Judge’s Intervention, even Sword #2 (but you need sth targeted for the last two) are great.. but like you said, in WvW, what happens if you burn all you CDs and then a fight comes to you right at that moment? so you’ll have to decide for urself. i usually switch between GS and staff actively, while keeping my second weapon set stagnant. and if you’re running with a large enough group, you should be able to have swiftness on you at all times regardless due to everyone else’s skills, etc
Akaigi | Warrior Made of Wood
[CDS] – Sanctum of Rall
Or you know, you could keep a staff / greatsword in your backpack that you swap to while traveling, then switch back to your primary weapon sets when fighting’s about to happen. That what I do with my hammer / scepter & torch combo and I have no problems getting around.