Guild Wars 2

I’m still unsure about all of these changes. A 30% increase to scepter 1 is nice but it may not be enough to stop the strafe dodging. Looks they they’re addressing the GS in zeal but the one issue I have is this, did they actually fix zealous blade or does it still heal for a crappy amount. If it’s the latter, then I won’t bother with it.

Deathmond.7328:

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

Did anyone think they would?

Anyways, Looks like I will have to rework my CD builds. Not sure I’m completely thrilled by that prospect actually.

Arken.3725:

A 30% increase to scepter 1 is nice but it may not be enough to stop the strafe dodging.

I think part of that can be attributed to the forum QQ brigade not actually understanding the problem and describing it properly.

Right, but again, the speed at the moment is absurdly slow. A minor increase to something so slow won’t help much.

LOL @ all the discussion on fake changes.

Also, I was surprised they didn’t merge the Symbol traits(assuming this is final). Still too many majors to choose from when they’re better options available.

Littlefeather.8623:

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….

Lol. Some people are so stuck in their ways.

foofad.5162:

Littlefeather.8623:

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….

Lol. Some people are so stuck in their ways.

Completely missed that post… All I can say is wow… someone seriously has no clue what they are talking about. Scepter is AWESOME 1v1, just sucks it falls off with more targets.

Yes scepter is very good. Sure the auto attack is a bit slow, but other then that it’s great.

Think of it as a melee weapon with a range option.

It CAN be a good weapon if it hits. Problem with this is against a somewhat skilled player, you’ll hit maybe them 2/10 times until you realize you must go melee.

Bash.7291:

roachsrealm.9284:

Smite still isn’t a symbol? >_<

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

scepter does more DPS than the GS, even more so when the 10% damage trait comes around

lmaonade.9207:

Bash.7291:

roachsrealm.9284:

Smite still isn’t a symbol? >_<

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

scepter does more DPS than the GS, even more so when the 10% damage trait comes around

Well that depends on what you are fighting, 1v1 yes, anything more? No. besides, I would run both anyways lol

Arken.3725:

Also, I was surprised they didn’t merge the Symbol traits(assuming this is final). Still too many majors to choose from when they’re better options available.

They aren’t real. Duh.

lmaonade.9207:

scepter does more DPS than the GS, even more so when the 10% damage trait comes around

You forgot the most important part: if it hits.

Regardless if these notes are real or not, there have been quite a few changes that to me, don’t seem to be enough.

30% increase of a slow weapon is still….slow. I’m cautious about Zealous blade being terrible as it was before just with a tiny dmg bonus. Pure of heart still isn’t worth it since Superior Aria is well….a superior choice.

While I understand these aren’t official, i’m just speculating that this route for guardians, is the wrong one. Symbol traits need to be merged, minor traits need to be looked at especially.

I keep stating this point and i’ll stick to it, even if these changes were implemented, the Guardian profession will still be a highly immobile one with a focus on standing in a tiny spot(symbols) which is counterintuitive to this games design.

While I don’t disagree with you on Symbols (I wish you “tagged” people with Symbols and the area effect followed the tagged individual), the new Greatsword Power is very attractive. Don’t forget that it’s 25 health (or whatever) per hit, not per attack. And any damage multiplier is very welcome.

Also, 30% increase is huge. I think you’ll be surprised how much faster the orb travels.

I understand that but if say you compare it to the Elementalists healing skill, they get around 200 health each time a spell is cast. They don’t even have to hit their target. 25 is really small and of course, you have to hit something.

The orb speed increase will be a nice buff, I just don’t see it fixing the dodge strafing much.

You’re comparing their /healing spell/ to our /trait/. It’s apples and oranges. It does have a downside, too – If they pop the signet, they lose access to the 200/cast (unless they’re traited Earth). And anyway, you realize that Whirling Wrath can potentially heal you for something approaching 1000? That’s a lot more than 200.

We keep going over “potential damage” in this thread. So you’re saying you’ll constantly hit 5 people for the full 8 hits from Whirling Wrath giving you 1000 health? Good luck with that. It’s not entirely different, both provide a healing benefit under very similar circumstances.

Not to mention that all spells casted are ranged thus giving the Elementalist an advantage to stay out of melee range and benefitting from the healing. While as a Guardian utilizing Zealous blade, you’re knee deep in combat getting hit from all sides hoping this measly trait keeps you somewhat alive.

Edit: And there’s a solid difference in how you attain each trait/skill. One is given to you while the other MUST be specced. So one would think that to acquire something that something else must be given up, it should be stronger than a skill already given to you.

Of course you won’t always do it, but you can. And that’s when Zealous Blade would shine.

Also, if you’re staying out of melee and thus not taking as much damage, then once you heal to full you aren’t getting any benefit from the signet anymore. You can’t heal past full, it’s all wasted. Whereas if you’re in melee and taking hits, you’re actually benefiting from the trait more often.

Re: Your edit, one would think that… if you were talking about the same class. But we aren’t.

Don’t forget that you can stack Zealous Blade with Altruistic Healing, and even keep Empowering Might to boot if the changes are real. Guardians have no trouble at all surpassing Elementalist passive healing.

You’re going to be taking damage from all angles(ranged) and even less so from this point. The benefit of a 1k heal while potentially being hit by 3-5 people is severely outclassed by a skill cast at ranged, acquired without any commitment, and heals for more per use. Even if you were to hit all 5 people with your AA from the GS, you’d only be benefitting from 100 health and the effort is much more involved.

Except that in exchange they give up their decent heals in favor of a crappy signet heal, while we can keep using Shelter or our signet. There is a trade off.

Why is this even an issue? Why do you care what Eles get when everything we have in that department is better? We get our Virtue, AH, two direct heals off Staff, a heal off Mace autoattack, and Shelter is an awesome ability.

Anyway, Zealous Blade is basically a freebie anyhow since its on a damage multiplier trait that a lot of Greatsword users are picking up anyway.

Except it’s not a freebie since you have to spec into a less than desirable tree to obtain it. You get a 1.6k heal from resolve on a 60 second cool-down, AH which by itself, is terrible. Empower which is a 1.5k heal on a 2 1/2 second cast while you’re immobilized and susceptible to more damage than the healing you’ll receive and a very slow AA from mace granting you around 330 on the last hit.

I’m not stating these are terrible but they are less than desirable than others especially when you can obtain similar healing while being more mobile. These numbers aren’t huge in the grand scheme of things, especially when you’re looking at their cool downs. Going back to Mace, the amount of healing you’ll (potentially) receive from the AA is absolute crap to the damage you’ll receive on the other end.

Oh also, Shelter is a nice healing skill but can be interrupted causing it to go on full cd without any benefit.

Edit: Also, AH is essentially useful for only one weapon, Staff. A grandmaster traits only real use for one skill is awful.

If changes like this continue, where our builds will eventually be based mostly on dilemmas between two good alternatives instead of poor trait vs poor trait (or good trait vs poor trait), I might really start playing this game again.

For me, creativity is one of the biggest parts of a game, especially MMOs. Not having the variety is a decision maker for me. If these notes are true, it’s looking good from here on.

Arken.3725:

Except it’s not a freebie since you have to spec into a less than desirable tree to obtain it.

If the leaked notes are true, then it is a freebie. With Fiery Wrath and the new Zealous Blade, greatsword users have two very good major traits which are worth the 20 points. It could still be combined with AH and EM, so there is even no big downside taking it.

I don`t see any good changes.
Spirit weapons buff but only for PvE and sPvP(at WwWwW it will be die instantly)
Zeal traits buff for GS but GS now the most Guardian DPS weapon already.
More Heal from Shouts build – lol shouts build only one for teamplay if you are guardian.
Any really good change for Radiance and Virtues…
I am very upset…

What most surprises me is that there hasn’t been any consolidation between the symbol traits – looked like the most obvious way to tidy up the trait lines and perhaps get some more value to that aspect of the zeal tree (not to mention honor). Would also have freed up some more slots for additional trait choices.

Whilst thinking about the zeal tree, I don’t quite understand the new GM trait “Kindled Zeal” – 10% of power converts to condition damage. As guardians really only have burning, and that only stacks in duration rather than intensity, I can’t see the mileage in focussing on condition damage for burning….especially if teamed with an ele or engineer.

Maybe they’re planning on eventually making some kind of condition setup viable for guardians (?)

Kindled zeal would make perfect sense if guardians received torment.

Also.. i realise i got more from scepter changes then i was hoping but i`d really like a reason to wear scepter when i zerg v zerg in wvw.

(if all this is true and not some cruel cruel joke)

I understand Sandra but again, if the values on Zealous Blade remain unchanged, a mere 5% dmg bonus attached to it won’t really make it worth it.

5% isn’t exactly what I’d call ‘mere’. Do you play damage builds?

Of course I do, my main spec is support/dps. It’s a small boost in my opinion.

R.I.P Warrior.
“MESMER LF4 ZERK GUARDS COF1 FARM $$$$$ PING GEAR!”

Just a word to people considering new Spirit Weapon builds: Battle Presence affects the spirit weapons and can keep them in the fight quite a bit longer than otherwise.

Spirit weapons actually seem to benefit from all your party buffs. You have a LOT of options for enhancing spirit weapon builds .

I think it would be cool to add a fire glow effect to the weapons when VOJ has been activated. Then pressing VOJ again, you can shoot that fire with a 600 range.

Nike.2631:

Just a word to people considering new Spirit Weapon builds: Battle Presence affects the spirit weapons and can keep them in the fight quite a bit longer than otherwise.

Spirit weapons actually seem to benefit from all your party buffs. You have a LOT of options for enhancing spirit weapon builds .

I agree completely, the only problem I see is that the spirit weapon traits are scattered throughout multiple trees.

Arken.3725:

Nike.2631:

Just a word to people considering new Spirit Weapon builds: Battle Presence affects the spirit weapons and can keep them in the fight quite a bit longer than otherwise.

Spirit weapons actually seem to benefit from all your party buffs. You have a LOT of options for enhancing spirit weapon builds .

I agree completely, the only problem I see is that the spirit weapon traits are scattered throughout multiple trees.

Yeah. really annoying, and also its still going to be almost impossible to keep them up in WvW unless you are roaming, even then it depends.

If they move either the new condition damage trait down to master or permeating wrath down to master, I think I could come up with a moderately entertaining burn build that could be viable for more than just screwing around. With them both in grandmaster I probably won’t even bother.