Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: This is NOT confirmed. Sources of this info are this and this.

GENERAL

GUARDIAN

Just looking for discussions in case they’re true (and because there’s hardly anything new to discuss in this forum).

I repeat, this is NOT confirmed. Go step on a lego if you assume them to be.

If they’re true, finally Zeal is seeing some love… I’m even going to try a Spirit Weapon build again (the Sword should hit for 1000ish, that’s pretty good).

I’m kinda annoyed that Zealous Blade still only works with Greatsword but well…

And the new grandmaster trait that will replace Zealous Blade will be even worse, I can’t even think why someone would take it to increase in 50~ every burning (in a 2k Power build).

Very nice changes if true.

Smite still isn’t a symbol? >_<

roachsrealm.9284:

Smite still isn’t a symbol? >_<

Yeah… but who needs scepter when GS is getting buffed to be our ultimate weapon! lol

Danicco.3568:

If they’re true, finally Zeal is seeing some love… I’m even going to try a Spirit Weapon build again (the Sword should hit for 1000ish, that’s pretty good).

I’m kinda annoyed that Zealous Blade still only works with Greatsword but well…

And the new grandmaster trait that will replace Zealous Blade will be even worse, I can’t even think why someone would take it to increase in 50~ every burning (in a 2k Power build).

At least we will have a reason to go 20 into zeal now? >.>

I’ll be honest, I do not really buy all this. It seems sorta out there.

If this is true i think that i will still use my 15/30/20/5 to dungeons/fractal in my GS build, but a full Zeal to farm or to try Spirit weapon build is not bad.

My major dissapoint is the lack of imprve to 1H Sword in PVE at least.

Blind Exposure is a small Sword buff, so it’s not like it was completely left out. It just wasn’t addressed directly.

Would be nice but I really can’t believe that guardian would get this massive amount of buffs.

Considering the massive amount of buffs other classes are getting? It’s not far-fetched at all, and the 30% Orb of Wrath speed has been in the works for ages now. There’s a dev post on it in these forums.

it does seem like they’re more buffs than anything. though i quite enjoy the changes though!

the scepter got a lot of buffs too. which i’m liking. it’s easily one of my favorite weapons in the game as of late.

merging the GS traits is quite nice. and i like the fact that most of our weapon related traits either got buffed or added effects since most other classes have the same. 250 healing on Mace is nice!D though argubly, most of my healing builds at least, don’t go that deep into valor. heh

AoE stun break on Shielded Mind seem kinda OP though XDD

and could we finally see some decent spirit weapon builds again?D

I for one am very excited about the changes they are making to guardian, not only are they giving the stun breakers to different builds like they talked about in their overall goal, but they have greatly improved the option for guardians to go full damage with conditions and power, which is a build a large majority of players have turned away from

not sure if this is legit either. just posted in the Necro forums (these are the two classes i really care about lol)

the changes seem pretty darn awesome so far. though, not sure if this is worth mentioning or not..

in these “leaked notes”, Death Shroud 5 is called Dark Binding.

however, from the GW2Upcoming Skill and Trait Changes update, it states that the name for DS5 is Tainted Shackles?

Necromancer Death Shroud 5

As the professions in Guild Wars 2 continue to grow, we will continue to find ways to augment them and add potency to their arsenal of abilities. With the next balance update, necromancers will be unlocking their fifth ability within Death Shroud: Tainted Shackles. This skill will cause nearby enemies to be inflicted with conditions and controlled if they don’t take very quick action.

there is a slightly mismatch to the skills description as well. though on the gw2 update, it’s rather vague… or am i missing something?

i quite like the Guardian changes from these same “notes” as well, so kind of hoping them to be true. XDD couldn’t help but notice this small discrepancy though.. but who knows.

thoughts? ; ))

Cleansing Flame is still a terribad skill even with the changes to Burning and the 20% reduction for Torch skills.

Oh and talking about Consecrated Ground bugs ~ How about the bug where it also makes Sanctuary last for 10s along with the 1/4 second cast time.

This just in, the new popular build is 20/0/30/20/0.

No seriously, 25HP on every hit with a Greatsword, might on crits, and Altruistic Healing. I’ve seen builds using both Zealous Blade and Altuistic Healing before, but that was relying on other forms of Boon application. If these notes are right, I know exactly what I’ll be doing next patch.

Kinda sad they didn’t do anything to shout builds. Guardians running shout builds + soldier runes are practically invincible to condition builds. Don’t remember the last time I was taken down by a pure condition thief/necro

Glad to see Zeal getting some love though.

Shout builds are one of our best condition removal methods, yes, if you specialize for it. It forces us to lock in one set of runes as well as 30 points in Honor. Shouts don’t particularly offer anything of value beyond some Boons that can be removed from the numerous Boon-removal skills being added over the patches. I’d much rather see some more traits merged. Symbols last longer, Symbols are larger, and Symbols heal are different traits in the same tree that barely alter the function of Symbols. We have five Spirit Weapon traits across three trees. And yet, Consecrations last longer and have a 20% reduced cooldown is a single, powerful trait as an Adept level in Virtues.

We need some more merged skills. On top of that, we have three, mediocre traits that apply effects when Aegis is destroyed and one that applies a huge damage boost while Aegis is active. Aegis isn’t a managable Boon. In one encounter, you can apply it up to six times by its passive effect, activating Virtue of Courage, using Retreat, gaining it again by using Renewed Focus, using Virtue of Courage again, and then having your health drop below 50% with Valorous Defense. It becomes too difficult to manage it as you waste off your key abilities for a few, weak effects. I’d like to see more methods of applying Aegis to make these traits better.

No way!

“Zealous Blade: This trait has been merged with Greatsword Power and is now labeled as a Tier 2 trait.”

“Pure of Heart: This trait now heals for its base amount +25% benefit from healing power, up from 10%.”

Awesome buffs for zerk guardians. Doubt Anet would do it, tough…

Please God let Glacial Heart get some attention. 5 sec chill on a 30 sec cooldown is very, very nice if true.

I’ll be one satisfied Zerker Guardian if these notes hold true.

/nothingcanstopmenow

Haha, these changes sound as if they could be actually true. Reading the stuff about the new Zeal grandmaster, it reminded me of the statement by some dev that guardians were great in condition (burning) builds. They must actually believe this

At least these changes will probably make me try 20 points in Zeal. The merged trait of Zealous Blade and Greatsword Power sounds pretty nice for a DPS build.

mann, the more i think / read, the more i hope is true lol.

don’t see any HUGE drastic changes, but definitely offers up some tweaking to existing builds.

Setun.4368:

Please God let Glacial Heart get some attention. 5 sec chill on a 30 sec cooldown is very, very nice if true.

agreed mang. am already making tweaks to my “Ice Age” build lol. well just in my head at least. :pp

Very good changes I have to say. I was expecting something for the Sceptre though, haven’t used it in a long time but it still would be nice for it to be buffed I guess. Still, go go GS!

With scepter power and speed buff it’s going to be absolutely lethal – near 3k crits that have a fair chance of hitting?

This along with damage from chains of light and improved bane signet CD is a real bonus to my roaming builds.

Blind Exposure buff for sword and great sword users is huge ( unless they fixed the leap of faith bug )

Personally I think someone must be trolling us…

sounds too good to be true eh?
what’d be a decent build though if true?
i’d assume you want RHS as well so that’s already 20/30/x/x/x

OMFG Guardians will not receive symbol to sword and scepter again!

akamon.2769:

AoE stun break on Shielded Mind seem kinda OP though XDD

Yes, but wasn’t it always meant to be AoE and was just bugged recently? It’s still not worth taking over Indomitable Courage and Absolute Resolution ( the former has nearly the same effect both pro-actively and retro-actively )

khefka.2804:

Would be nice but I really can’t believe that guardian would get this massive amount of buffs.

Do i sense sarcasm here?
Because in fact, Guardian is the class with least updates.
Which makes no sense, since there is only one viable build in tPvP and two builds if you count WvW (AH, Shouts).

ahh, seems as you’re right, Tarsius. according to Wiki at least.
though i tend to agree as well so i’ve never really looked into that Trait before as I felt taking IX and X were more beneficial.

I’m really hoping they’re either fake or we’re missing things cause I feel like we got the short end of the stick compared to other classes and all the changes feel subpar at most.

tbh I’m quite happy – if this list is verbatim then I was expecting lots of nerfs to our current viable builds.

Also if you look closely at other classes, not everything is good news for them.

These have to be fake…

Why would they combine Zealous Blade and Greatsword Power and move it to Tier 2, thats overpowered, then give us a horrible new Major Zeal trait that converts power to condition damage?

They did nothing to fix the fact that condition damage is still the worst stat ever for us.

Viralseed.9362:

Symbols last longer, Symbols are larger, and Symbols heal are different traits in the same tree that barely alter the function of Symbols.

In stacking situations, Symbols lasting longer and Symbols healing combo is very powerful, especially with some modest boon duration. Even alone they allow you to be lazy when fighting veterans or champions or to over-aggro.

Even if you dungeon team won’t stack, symbol traits are nice when fighting a boss. You are able to dodge out of the big effects, run back and melee the boss and after symbol of protection goes down again switch to another weapon and cycle through the skills and back to hammer with protection never going down. That is increased symbol duration with boon duration and it changes the dynamic of fighting. You can lock down many bosses so your team can unleash the fury on them (and do pretty good damage yourself).

If this is true info, I’m a bit disappointed in the changes myself. Don’t get me wrong though, I liked the changes put in. Zeal REALLY needed help.

But(!), I feel like there should have been more. There’s still other traits that needed some kind of boost. I especially feel that the traits Power of the Virtuous and Permeating Wrath are not strong enough for going 25(+) into Virtues, especially compared to the same Minor/Major Grandmaster trait levels of the other trait lines, and compared to other classes as well. Afterall, Virtues is supposed to be the defining class trait line. This is also with consideration that Retaliation has been nerfed so much. It’s time they give a damage boost to Virtue line as well.

Signet of Judgement: This ability now breaks stuns. Increased cooldown to 30s.

This one made me very happy. I assume the cast time drops from 0.25s to instant to support the stun break.

I almost always have this signet slotted with Signet Mastery — making that skill a 24s stun break.

Also it’s a weakness applier, and that’s a buff in itself with the changes to weakness.

Super-signet!

Orb speed buff \o/

I smell a GS + Signet build in my future. Bane signet also received a buff.

Ok if true then my wolf and spirit weapons will be used more often.

Atlas.9704:

Ok if true then my wolf and spirit weapons will be used more often.

“Wrathful Spirits: This trait now increases damage dealt by spirits by 50%, up from 10%.”

On the face of it… this sounds almost too good to be true. But… having never used spirit weapons myself… I have no idea if spirit damage was previously so pitiful that this buff merely brings them back up to the level of mediocre or not.

I.e… will they be worth using now ?

If this is true i want to try a Caster Guardian+SW build, using scepter/torch, the damage buff of the SW is good but need a imprevemnt in defence altought, they die too easily.

The zeal GS improve is good to a farm build or full DPS to COF but to Hight level Fractals or harder dungeons like Arah i think that i still use my old AH build 15/30/20/5.

I lost too many things to reach a 20/0/30/20/0 , i win 5% GS damage, 200 power and 20HP por hit….

but i lost 8% Critic, 20% CD in seals wich means more buffs to party using judgement and worst healing to me, a lot of party buffs using Virtues wich means less AH regeneration.

I see zeal now to a good solo build to farm, or easy things like COF wichi is good, but to play seriusly i still like my AH build.

Now we need see new builds with spirit weapons and full caster scepter builds.

There’s actually a couple of interesting builds I want to try out when this hits.

Also I don’t think it’s fake. If it was fake Anet would have said something or just removed all the threads.

It’ll take some courage to not run AH in WvW. I’ll have to wean myself slowly. I can’t have AH, GS, 2HM, Signets, and Virtues… too many choices.

The new zeal grandmaster trait is what makes me think this is fake. They said they were trying to get rid of useless stuff so why waste company resources to add trash like that. I wouldn’t take that trait if it were a t1 trait. I most certainly won’t take it as a T3 trait.

If it were 20% I MIGHT look into it because that would make for some really good burns. But 10%? No thank you.

I haven’t run AH in WvW in six months at least. It’s not necessary.

Sadly, I think that the great irony of this update is that there is no more, or potentially even less incentive to go 30 Zeal. No one is going to go for 10% of power → Condition Damage when at best you are getting 50 DPS out of it. Burn builds are flat out not viable for Guardians in anything but solo. Further, even with 50% more damage Sword and Hammer are terribly weak in WvW and dungeons and never see use around significant AoE due to their still abysmal HP. A better trait would be one that halved their AoE damage received. So now, people will go 20 Zeal for the massively improved Greatsword Power and stop there. It’s a shame, too.

Harbinger.8637:

There’s actually a couple of interesting builds I want to try out when this hits.

Also I don’t think it’s fake. If it was fake Anet would have said something or just removed all the threads.

They have removed (not merged/moved/closed) threads on this unofficial patch on the discussion forum.

Hexalot.8194:

Atlas.9704:

Ok if true then my wolf and spirit weapons will be used more often.

“Wrathful Spirits: This trait now increases damage dealt by spirits by 50%, up from 10%.”

On the face of it… this sounds almost too good to be true. But… having never used spirit weapons myself… I have no idea if spirit damage was previously so pitiful that this buff merely brings them back up to the level of mediocre or not.

I.e… will they be worth using now ?

Well I tend to use them now because I can slightly troll a few folks in WvW when I have to fight. Plus when dealing with large mobs in PvE they are distractions to the enemy. Brief distractions, but hey I’ll take what I can get.

Problem is their health is rather low, as such they aren’t really useful unless you trait Improved Spirit Weapon Duration, Spirit Weapon Mastery, and Eternal Spirit which does absolutely nothing to health, but does keep them in the game longer assuming they still have health.
They don’t destroy as soon as you use their command, they recharge a bit faster, and also they hang around longer if not killed off.

By increasing the damage they’ll at least do something worthwhile damage-wise compared to before. This is all assuming they don’t get one-shot to death just before dealing damage.

Take for example Sword here 50% of 694 is a nice boost.

I have no clue or not if these are the actual changes but why don’t people think that guardians won’t get a lot of buffs? Every class should be getting a lot of buffs with this patch this is suppossed to be an over-haul of bad/useless traits and guardians have as many of those as anyone. Sure guardians are strong and so are a bunch of other classes that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of bad/worthless traits.

I can’t wait to try a troll spirit weapons spec with scepter and greatsword. It will smoke people 1v1.

Kwll.1468:

I can’t wait to try a troll spirit weapons spec with scepter and greatsword. It will smoke people 1v1.

You actually use Scepter?

IMO, Guardians who cant face tank should have rolled a Warrior or Ranger…

You ever fought a real GS Guardian (3.9k Attack/3.5 Armor) toe to toe before? Yea?, I bet thats why you would use Scepter I guess….