(edited by Zsymon.8457)
Virtue of Resolve and Virtue of Courage.
Why do you think this skills should be as useful as utility skills? Virtue of Resolve maybe don’t give much hp but with trait it give aoe condition removal (3 conditions) so in my opinion it’s extremely op, many other class don’t have something like that even in utility skills and we have that as default ability.
Next one Virtue of Courage, 12 sec aoe retaliation when they down, 3 sec stability or stun break?! You can have all at the same time. Many other class will kill for ability like that.
And our survivability doesn’t base on vitality, we have such many defensive abilities + best heal in the game (9k while most classes have 5-6k mean you have ~3k more effective hp than others).
(edited by Talek.1905)
First of: There’s reports of Battle Presence working even if the Virtue is on cooldown.
But yeah, those two Virtues are only really worth activating when traited or just before using Renewed Focus.
I do dislike you pushing the whole “Guardian survivability” into this issue, though.
“Come on, hit me!”
If you want to use Resolve and Courage actively, invest in the Virtue line. That’s what it’s there for.
They are incredible support skills once upgraded.
(edited by RamzaBehoulve.5640)
Traiting into them for the addition of regeneration and protection, then combining them with Renewed Focus makes them rather incredible for group fights. Especially as they seem to have no upper limit on how many people are helped by them.
If you have also self-healing on buff application to allies traited, you become a proper little monster when pushing for a WvW group. Combined with shouts and a staff I have healed myself up from almost nothing to full, a couple of times over, in the space of a few seconds.
I feel the active versions of these shine in WvW but are rather lackluster in sPvP unless you trait heavily into them. Which is fine. There are some things that are great in sPvP but terrible in WvW.
Cattlebruiser of SHC
or lower cooldown on the renewal elite wold do the trick.
The Virtues are really nice when passive. Used actively without traits, they’re situational at best. Giant boss spike incoming? Pop your aegis….ok, that’s it. But trait them and you bring a lot more support to your allies.
My problem isn’t that they aren’t good (cuz they are). Just that they’re not fun to use, considering most of the time (even when traited) you’ll leave them passive. I’d rather a profession-defining mechanic to be more interactive. In other words, give us some incentive to popping them.
Flixx Gatebuster, Orwynn Lightgrave, Seras Snapdragon
[TTBH] [HATE], Yak’s Bend(NA)
[TTBH] [HATE], Yak’s Bend(NA)
My complaint with these two abilities is mostly the complete uselessness of activating them. The heal on Virtue of Resolve is so incredibly tiny, that I don’t think anyone will ever activate this virtue, especially if you traited for Battle Presence, which makes the small regen of this virtue an aoe. Not only is the heal so incredibly tiny that it’s useless even on a short cooldown, but it causes you to lose regen for one whole minute.
I have run through quite a few Guardian builds since release, and all of them include putting 5 points into Virtues for the trait Inspired Virtue. I find the additional boons make up for any lost passive time on these traits quite well, and in a pinch they can really save your behind.
My complaint with Virtue of Courage is similar, the cooldown is 90 seconds, what value is there in a single block with a 90 second recharge? Some crossfire arrow takes the block and what use was that?
I ran an offensive condition damage build that included Spirit Weapons at one point which used Blinds, and Aegis as my only form of defense. It works surprizingly well. I could take on a Veteran level mob and never take a single point of damage utilizing blinds and aegis on cooldown, and using Renewed Focus once. The extra blocks from Virtue of Courage played a very large role in this.
1. The heal for Resolve needs to be increased dramatically, along with a shorter cooldown.
2. The cooldown for Courage needs to be dramatically shortened as well.
I agree that a shorter cooldown on Virtues would be beneficial to the Guardian class, but I fear it may be considered overpowered to those of us that run a purely defensive build. Prehaps they could add a trait deep into one of the more offensive lines that could reduce the cooldown on Virtues by like 20% or something.
In general though, I don’t understand how these virtues in any way offset the guardian’s lowest-possible health pool status. The moment you spec any other build than purely defensive, at which you will never be able to defeat any lone opponent, you die at the force of a sneeze.
As stated above, you can run a purely offensive build, and still focus on Blinds and a few extra Aegis boons and still get through some rather tough fights without taking more than a few scratches. The Guardian was built to be able to defend him/herself through skills, while a Warrior is more built towards just taking the hits and surviving by sheer numbers.
Even if you trait to give additional boons to activated virtues, these insanely long cooldowns just don’t make it worth it.
I find this untrue. The boons you can get from activating the Virtues can help immensly if you find yourself near death at the end of a fight. Also don’t forget that you also give those boons to your entire group when you activate your Virtues, which not only helps everyone, but can also heal you for quite a lot. This can also be used to give you a significant self-heal if you trait into Altruistic Healing. (3 boons x 5 people =15 boons, which is something like a 1500 point base heal)
What is the idea behind giving a soldier profession such a low health pool, especially since guardians have no ranged options?
No ranged options + lowest health pool + insane melee damage = bad idea.
Were defensive guardians too hard to kill with a warrior-type health pool? Why is that overpowered if they can’t kill anyone either then?
A guardian must place all possible stat points into vitality just to reach the warrior’s base health pool, while the warrior can place all those points in toughness or offensive stats.
The Warrior vs. Guardian health pool is a rather hot topic at the moment. Many (including yourself) feel that the Guardian health pool is far too low. I (and many others) feel that the defenses you can get even when you are running an offensive build can make up for the lack of health. As I stated above I ran a Spirit Weapon + Condition Damage build which did quite a lot of damage, but was also able to maintain a solid defense through the use of Blinds and Aegis.
(edited by Kindread.9481)
Courage is NOT useless. It has saved my butt so many times! Especially with Renewed focus. When you’re running dungeons or fighting champions, it can mean the difference of life and death. I use it constantly. Since there are no dedicated tanks or healers, you have to be creative in how to keep yourself alive. ESPECIALLY for guardians who have the least amount of health out of every profession in the game.
Blocking damage is the only way you can successfully stand against strong foes. It is what makes up for our admittedly terrible life pool (my Necro has twice the HP of my guardian and they are the same level).
Every 40 secs I get an aegis, with my spec I am healed each time it is broken. On top of that we’ve got the heal that blocks all damage while you heal, which is kind of like an aegis at that moment. You’ve also got Sanctuary which is another heal and block and can envelop allies as well. Then you’ve got Virtue of Courage, blocks another attack, Renewed Focus which makes you invuln for 3 secs (another block), and then Virtue of Courage is back up for another aegis (block). Then you’ve got two dodges for evades.
You should be able to avoid taking a LOT of damage that other classes with more health would be unable to. Health saved is health earned, amirite?
I won’t stop because I can’t stop.
It’s a medical condition, they say its terminal….
It’s a medical condition, they say its terminal….
Blocking damage is the only way you can successfully stand against strong foes.
Don’t forget about Blind. You can easily add in several blinds to help between Aegis cooldowns.
Sword skill #2 (Flashing Blade) adds a blind every 10 seconds, also you can put 5 points into the Radiance line to blind all nearby enemies everytime you activate Virtue of Justice, which is another reason to take Renewed Focus as your elite skill.