Guild Wars 2

Well dang ANet

DH deserves it because its a garbage low skill cap build and always has been and always will be and it doesnt fit with the original class theme at all. I wish they would put diminishing returns on traps of the same type being thrown in succession to kill it off even more. I just with they would make meaningful positive changes to base guardian so I could play my guardian again. The buffs to signets are a joke. Nice renewed focus nerf not.

Lets discuss the changes, shall we! Here is my take from a pvp and wvw standpoint:

Offense-based nerfs:

• Smite condition: really? I don’t think this was necessary. In light of nerfs other classes received, I suppose this one is fair though.
• Test of Faith: 10% is fair. This skill did quite a bit of damage to squishier opponents who were more likely to fall victim to it (thieves, mesmer and some necros).
• Trueshot: Nope. This is a terrible nerf. It already didn’t hit very hard and the fact that you had to remain immobilized and had a very obvious/long cast time for a reflectable projectile made the skill balanced. Also, this resulted in a highly unnecessary nerf to DH roamers in WvW when other overperforming roamer classes received absolutely no nerfs at all (in fact, thief got heavily buffed with shortbow/pistol changes). Idk what Anet dev got wrecked by a DH roamer but they shouldn’t take it out on the rest (few) of us in this manner. This change just tossed LB into the trash can.
• Spear of Justice: This is a nice buff but not really game changing. Experienced DH shouldn’t really be too excited about this. If you tether someone and then they stealth, you know that you can pull them to your location (and so do your allies if you’re coordinated). I don’t necessarily agree with this buff being implemented considering how powerful SoJ already is but I’ll take it considering the nerfs

Sustain changes:

• The buff for “Save Yourselves!” is about 6-12 months overdue. Sorry Anet, no praise for you on this one. 1.5s is a bit short but considering that many guardians in WvW run with some boon duration plus any boon duration from revenants, it’s easily balanced.
• Wings of Resolve: Rather neutral about this change. Other classes have had their sustain nerfed so I suppose this change is fair.
• Shield of Courage: It’s almost a neutral change (roughly the same block time/second) but I believe it’s an overall nerf and disagree with the change. I made this argument after the patch that knocked SoC from 5 seconds down to 4, and I’ll make it again: 3.5 to 4 seconds is the lowest you should ever go for nerfing SoC’s duration. If you go down to 3 seconds, it’s almost not worth it to use the skill considering its cast time (unless you’re specifically using it to break stun). A 3 second SoC ruins it’s ability to allow guardians to safe stomp (guardian was never that large of an offender in this category anyways).
• Hunter’s Determination: Fair change given the nerfs to other classes. I agree with this nerf.
• Renewed Focus: Nerf not really necessary but I think it’s mostly in line with the other sustain nerfs that went around this patch, so no large complaints.

Underused utilities… First of all, we really gotta try em out before we critique them imo but here are my initial opinions:

• Signet of Mercy: Good change. I may actually use it in wvw now that it can compete with warrior and mesmer revival tools. I likely won’t use it as a mainstay but may swap to it in some situations.
• Hallowed Ground: I think a 40 second cd would have been more appropriate. Otherwise, I like this change.
• Signet of Courage: A positive change but honestly this is how it should have been a couple balance patches ago. The only thing stopping me from using it is the trash passive effect. The healing interval should be 4 or 5 seconds imo.
• Signet of Judgement: That was a very nice buff for the passive effect but this signet is a defensive one, not an offensive one so I don’t think the stacks of burning are a good idea. Those 2 stacks of burning should be moved to Signet of Wrath and give a short duration of aoe protection on Signet of Justice instead.
• Wall of Reflection: Great change! I think WoR has hit its sweet spot now in terms of pvp balance.

WoR traited and with perma alacrity has 6 seconds downtime. Without alacrity, it’s 50% uptime.

It might become useful in a niche boss fight in the future, although mesmers could just cast multiple feedbacks, too, if necessary.

I don’t know why they needed to change Trueshot and Wings like they did. Trueshot was already weak, even on a glass-build DH you’re seeing only 5k to 6k crits, on a 6s CD weapon skill, when several classes crit for higher, on their AA’s for crying out loud… Wings, well, it was a nice healing skill to grab a bit of health on escape, but no longer, it’s like slapping on a band-aid on a gushing wound now, pretty useless outside of gap closing/escape.

What I would like to see is the LB’s AA’s damage be increased to make up for the damage loss to TS, and Wings get either a shorter CD, increased regen, or, invuln during use to just after landing, so that the heal can actual do something.

I think the shield of courage nerf was too much and it’s just not in line with other blocks.
It’s big counter is that you only block 180 degrees and not everything.
It’s now a 3 sec block on a 60sec cd. Obsidian Flesh is 3 sec invuln on a 50sec cd. Warrior shield block is a 3 sec full block on 25sec cd. Sure you can still use other skills while the block is active, but it’s only blocks and not in all directions so I think that is more than enaugh of counterplay there.

Tof is okay I guess. Not too much.
Smite conditions was really unnecessary imo.
Wings of resolve… I think it’s OK to nerf the base heal of things, but add healing power scaling instead. I’m running healing power and it feels more and more useless.
Signet of courage is still bs. They need to make the heal every second like it’s with any other class. You just can’t rely on a heal every 10sec. Also 80hps is was too little for it to be an elite skill imo.

Signet of Courage is now the best burst heal in the game and the only reason people are considering using it is because its passive is a sub-par Healing Signet. Typical guardian community. :>

Fashion Mage.3712:

Signet of Courage is now the best burst heal in the game and the only reason people are considering using it is because its passive is a sub-par Healing Signet. Typical guardian community. :>

You can’t simply ignore it’s passive effect. It’s bad and that’s all you can say about it.
Also explain to me how in 99.9% of the possible situations where someone, who could profit from this kind of heal, would be able to wait over 2 seconds for it without dying.
For being a “burst” it would need a lot smaller cast time. Perhaps even 0.5-0.25 in PvE only as a one time life saver.

the passive will only happens if guardian has taken damage, that is how the pulse happens, and 1.6k heal every 10seconds? maybe with a 10 guardian party, but loose a refresh to virtues wich provide aoe boons for a skill that might get u in trouble…

no ty.

Entenkommando.5208:

Fashion Mage.3712:

Signet of Courage is now the best burst heal in the game and the only reason people are considering using it is because its passive is a sub-par Healing Signet. Typical guardian community. :>

You can’t simply ignore it’s passive effect. It’s bad and that’s all you can say about it.
Also explain to me how in 99.9% of the possible situations where someone, who could profit from this kind of heal, would be able to wait over 2 seconds for it without dying.
For being a “burst” it would need a lot smaller cast time. Perhaps even 0.5-0.25 in PvE only as a one time life saver.

But its passive effect gets stronger with perfect inscriptions and it scales relatively well with healing power. I always thought that it was a elite for a healing spec.

A healing elite spec will probably come with its own healing elite.

Entenkommando.5208:

You can’t simply ignore it’s passive effect. It’s bad and that’s all you can say about it.
Also explain to me how in 99.9% of the possible situations where someone, who could profit from this kind of heal, would be able to wait over 2 seconds for it without dying.
For being a “burst” it would need a lot smaller cast time. Perhaps even 0.5-0.25 in PvE only as a one time life saver.

Yes you can, in fact I’ve been doing so for awhile now, and SoM and SoC have been doing just fine for me. Those aren’t the only signets where people ignore the passive either.
As long as you have a shred of skill and foresight (which most guardians don’t have, oops), Signet of Courage can be used to save someone quite easily. Waiting to cast it when someone is at 10% health obviously isn’t how to use it properly.

Signet of Courage could be on a 10s cooldown and people would still complain about its boring passive effect.

steelheart.7386:

DH deserves it because its a garbage low skill cap build and always has been and always will be and it doesnt fit with the original class theme at all. I wish they would put diminishing returns on traps of the same type being thrown in succession to kill it off even more. I just with they would make meaningful positive changes to base guardian so I could play my guardian again. The buffs to signets are a joke. Nice renewed focus nerf not.

concidering DH is one of weakest classes in pvp , and only total clueless people cant counter a dh (avoid traps and outrotate) i wonder from where all the hate come from…dont tell me you find a dh hard to counter? i mean some ppl do but we speak about totally clueless people…

steelheart.7386:

DH deserves it because its a garbage low skill cap build and always has been and always will be and it doesnt fit with the original class theme at all. I wish they would put diminishing returns on traps of the same type being thrown in succession to kill it off even more. I just with they would make meaningful positive changes to base guardian so I could play my guardian again. The buffs to signets are a joke. Nice renewed focus nerf not.

This logic is beyond stupid. Yes, let’s remove DH from the game completely. Surely, base guardian with no spec will be able to compete with all other classes having a usable spec.