Guild Wars 2

I think we have a good ranged burst option (LB), but we need a solid melee burst option. Both hammer & GS should be buffed. They need lower skill cast times or better effects and lower CDs. GS symbol 4 should give quickness… Why does it give retal? That doesn’t even fit GS…

Compared to Warrior, our regular weapons fell behind so much since HoT.

The HoT versions of all the Warrior’s F1 skills basically fixed all of them and made all of them better, making all of their old weapons and various fun combinations better and up-to-date with HoTs crazy power creep and mechanical options.

I hope our next elite specialisation really focuses on our core mechanics and brings everything up to date in a way that benefits all our core spec options, much in the same way Berserker just made Warrior better.

Problem with GS is that every attack is highly telegraphed so anyone who has some idea of the class will easily kite/dodge.

Hammer was a great weapon with lots of CC when we could trait Glacial Heart, but when the trait was was moved to Virtues traitline and you had to chose between Absolute Resolution and GH all hope was gone for hammer. I remember Hammer/scepter+Meditations being a very powerful build pre HoT. Awesome burst.

For melee, right now, we have Sword, the symbol added on #2 is a nice touch, this weapon will shine if you trait Radiance and RHS. It’s not much but it’s what we have til GS, Hammer and Mace get a buff/rework.

The GS isn’t bad, I fought some GS users. AoE damage, a good leap, a pull and a big symbol to make combo with. But it was swapped for the Longbow, that is a really good ranged weapon and grand us a lot of combos (expecially with some traps).
Then we had to chose between the GS and the Sword+Focus in a meta where everything hit you like a truk, forcing us to use all the defensive skills we have the chance to put our hands on. The main reason to make me drop the GS isn’t the Sword, is the Focus. Blind, clean conditions and grant us blocks or/and a really good hit, plus a Blast Finisher. The buffed Sword is only a good choice to pair with that strong offhand weapon.

We’ll find another Elite Specialization in our future and then we’ll lose the Longbow and the Traps, probably to obtain an Axe (main hand? offhand? no one know). We’ll see what kind of combos we’ll be able to do with that weapon. If we’ll be able to use Axe+Focus I’ll chose a GS or a Hammer as secondary weapon for shure (at last in sPvP or where i don’t need the range of the Scepter like in some fractals)

Silv.9207:

The GS isn’t bad, I fought some GS users. AoE damage, a good leap, a pull and a big symbol to make combo with. But it was swapped for the Longbow, that is a really good ranged weapon and grand us a lot of combos (expecially with some traps).
Then we had to chose between the GS and the Sword+Focus in a meta where everything hit you like a truk, forcing us to use all the defensive skills we have the chance to put our hands on. The main reason to make me drop the GS isn’t the Sword, is the Focus. Blind, clean conditions and grant us blocks or/and a really good hit, plus a Blast Finisher. The buffed Sword is only a good choice to pair with that strong offhand weapon.

We’ll find another Elite Specialization in our future and then we’ll lose the Longbow and the Traps, probably to obtain an Axe (main hand? offhand? no one know). We’ll see what kind of combos we’ll be able to do with that weapon. If we’ll be able to use Axe+Focus I’ll chose a GS or a Hammer as secondary weapon for shure (at last in sPvP or where i don’t need the range of the Scepter like in some fractals)

I am using Hammer + sw/shield combo cause it’s really great. I have problems only with DH with LB/sw-shield combos cause of range pressure they have.
I pretty much destroy all other classes. I hope future spec Axe has some sort of cc on it plus some leap.

I definitely enjoyed this season playing mainly Guardian. I think balance is actually in a pretty good state, but more work needs to be done to encourage build diversity.

That said, I found my success this season playing Core Guardian, believe it or not. Shout support focusing on condi removal and group damage mitigation/healing, using Scepter/Sword/Mace + Shield Offhand. It felt really good to play after the Core buffs at the start of the season. Definitely a step in the right direction for Core Guardian and I think in a way that further differentiates betweeen DH/Guard (Self focus vs. Group Focus).

General thoughts: 1h weapons all feel pretty good, but 2h weapons except LB are sorely in need of a look.
Hammer is fun, but just too slow and it’s associated trait being in virtues makes no sense. Very tough to justify speccing into virtues for Hammer, IMO.
Staff seems to lack impact. It sees almost no play in any build and really doesn’t offer much.
GS is alright, but can be inconsistent in dealing damage. All abilities are highly telegraphed and fairly easy to play around.

Some of our traits and utilities also need a major tune up. I’m specifically disappointed by all the “Interval: 10” stuff, like Signet of Courage, Signet of Resolve, and Strength of the Fallen. 10s interval healing/condi removal just isn’t good enough currently, given how fast classes can apply condition pressure/damage. Signet of Courage especially is so difficult to justify taking. Its passive radius is pathetically bad, given that you need your allies to just happen to be within 300 of you at the exact moment the passive procs. It’s cooldown is still insane, given how difficult it is to get the active cast off.

Did start the season playing the mm with a power meditrapper, standard lb s+f, with a 70% w/l ratio which put me in tier 2 gold. But I wanted to try new things so I played the next 4 weeks a burn DH; slowly lost w/l ratio down to 50% but still was able to remain in tier 1 gold in time to unlock all the ascended shards. Then I swaped to power Rev for the second month; fell to tier 1 silver then rise to tier 3; the change was hard but improved a lot and had fun.

Guardian is fine in the sense that has a few viable builds (meditrapper, burn core Guardian and DH, symbolic…) but all thew 2 handed weapons (except longbow) needs enhancements: sword focus do beat greatsword in any department of the game, so my finely crafted Eternity is covered by dust; the hammer is ok in PvE (albeit there are more consistent ways to achieve permanent damage reduction) but I would like to see how Ragnarox goes vs staff Thief or ranged condition based builds like Mesmers and Thieves: they have broad access to stealth and disengages, and blind counters hammer attacks so hard…

Staff is such a weak weapon: I do like more the Rev staff after the nerfs than Guardian staff. I finished the Staff Master achievement last week and did use Rev’s staff + Impossible Odds to do it instead of Guard’s staff.

Staff, GS, hammer, torch and mace need good changes

I think elite specs were a mistake, and core specs of all classes need worthless traits to be fixed. E.g. Retributive armor.

King Cephalopod.7942:

I think elite specs were a mistake, and core specs of all classes need worthless traits to be fixed. E.g. Retributive armor.

Nothing is more worthless than Radiant Retaliation. Elite specs are probably going to be balanced around having other E-specs, unlike having the only one we have now. The specs ruined and better’d the game at the same time. On one hand we have power creep, in the other we’d be complaining how there’s no new utilities or traits, and stuck with the same stuff for x amount of years. Adding more available tools to the mix will always complicate things and other tools will grow obsolete.

Playing as a guardian/DH this season, I had fun and performed very well but didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I really felt pinholed into just a few builds with very little variation to any of them.

• Medi power trapper is nice, performs fairly well in soloq, but you are funneled into Sw/Sh + either LB or Sc/F if you want to perform well against competant players. Also, not a lot of build variety (traits/ammy/sigil/runes) for power-based DH here.

• Symbolic DH: Tried it. Pretty boring bunkery build and imo scrapper can do the job better while retaining more mobility.

• Burn guard: pretty fun and also entertaining to see the enxperienced go down to the burn burst. When played well, this build has sustain comparable to power-DH which is awesome! May work well for casual playing/soloq but not top-tier material by any stretch of the imagination.

Thoughts going forward: I think the few builds that do work for DH are in a fairly good spot and fill their intended roles pretty well.

Nerfs: I would like to see very minor nerfs – sustain nerfs, particularly to the healing trap, Purification. Damage and utility nerfs are absolutely not needed. That being said, I’m going to be very disappointed if guardian’s sustain receives a nerf, but other huge offenders don’t receive anaologous nerfs (adrenal health for warr, Channeled Vigor for daredevil, CA form heals for druid are all over the top too).

Buffs: Oh, plenty to do here. I think the most fun, easy-to-implement and important buffs going forward should be to guardian weapon-skills. Many on here have made these arguments before, but some of our weapon-skills just don’t cut it in today’s meta. These buffs would be good for build diversity and healthy for the pvp scene imo. From most important to least:

• Greatsword: Cool downs are too high, not enough utility or sustain, damaging/key skills are too hard to land and don’t offer very much reward. Literally every skill on it could stand to receive some minor buffs to bring it up to the times: Reduce all CDs by a bit, let GS 2 retain full mobility while casting, let GS 4 be mobile, increase projectile speed of GS 5 and reduce cast time of the pull.

• Staff: The buff to the warding line was nice but we need some buffs/changes to the other skills too, particularly staff 2 and staff 4. They are both very mediocre skills that may shine only situationally.

• Torch: Torch 5. Pls.

• Mace: Auto attack chain is quite poor, cast time is far too long on mace 2.

• Hammer: Could use a few buffs. Hammer 5 should be a mobile skill (reduced movement speed while casting, perhaps?). Hammer auto attack chain is still too slow (decrease cast times, decrease damage seems to be the best tradeoff imo), hammer 4 has too long of a cast time to only affects one target (please change one of these two parameters).

• Scepter: Please add the first tick when laying the symbol down initially. This is more of a fix than a buff.

• Sword: Great mainhand weapon. Sword 3 is still lacking. Considering its cooldown (which is fair) and damage (which is mediocre), I think it could stand to be a mobile skill, perhaps reduced movement speed while casting (would really help both power and burn guards, wouldn’t upset balance too much).

• Focus: Reduce the CDs by a bit (to 15 and 30 respectively). This always has been and still is an outstanding offhand though!

• Shield: Honestly, it’s in a great spot. Only thing I would change is what the trait does (because it’s redundant).

I concur with a lot that’s been said.

Pre-HoT, I have grown to love the hammer but because of its sluggishness, you’ll do incredibly worse vs a dodging Thief and evading Rev.

• Hammer Damage – Hammer should do more damage in general, across the weapon set (pvp only).
  * Glacial Heart – Needs to be 100% chance to land, not half the time during clutch moments. A 50% chance of GH proccing, on a 70% crit chance (with fury) is not good odds.

Defender’s Dogma – I still feel the trait needs to stack, so that the F1 maximum charges don’t overlap each other. A 3 stack would be great, but a 2 stack would still be good and very much needed. Core Burn guardian still outperforms DH burns builds by a lot. Except for maybe 1v1 scenarios.

I think they need to put diminishing returns on traps of the same type placed within a small time window and boost some other non-dh builds some more for spvp. Im sorry but 2 or 3 per side DH matches are not fun because of the brain dead trap stacking. Either that or we need smarter matchmaking that only allows multiple trappers on one side as a last resort. But in general they need to boost non DH specs more. I still don’t find the trapping style of play compelling at all and refuse to play it.