Guild Wars 2

This is just written down in 5 minutes and just my current thoughts so i will probably adjust some things myself later

1) What Anet should have done differently for the skills/traits they changed today

- Purification no healing nerf on the initial instant heal part
(it was only 2k initial heal —> instead nerf the 6.5k trap activation heal part to 5.5k for example)
- Shield of Courage duration stays at 5 seconds (instead of 4 now)
(It only really blocks attacks from the front 1/4th of your char and every good player just stops wasting burst skills on an enemy DH if he sees the Shield pop up and when DH uses it to rez you could go and cleave him from behind since he wont move then)

2) other Buffs i would like to see

- Renewed Focus is now a stunbreak
- Merciful Intervention is now a stunbreak
- Stability time on Shield of Courage increased by 1 second
(to match the 5 seconds of the block)
and stability actually gets applied instantly so you can’t be interrupted while casting it
(this has annoyed me a lot that some only random interrupts make this important skill go on cooldown without getting the use of it
I dont want to buff it to be just 0 casttime though since you shouldnt be able to activate it while rezzing/stomping)
- Hammer autoattack increased attackspeed
(maybe only for PvP)
- Ray of Judgement casttime reduced to 1/2 or 1/4 second

3) Nerfs i would have liked to see instead:

- DH Trap duration decreased from 5 minutes to ~30 seconds
(to prevent Trap spam ahead of fights and double heal from healtrap)
- Purification heal nerf to the trap activation heal part
(~1 k less heal from 6.5k to 5.5k … maybe buff healing power scaling instead)

4) Nerfs from Anet i’m happy with:

- The reduced Daze duration on Traps is good (1/4 second now)
(it is primary used as interrupt anyway and shouldnt lock down enemies too much)
- Nerf to Hunter’s Determination cooldown is good
(since it is just a passive stunbreak and even though guard needs stunbreaks i would rather have more active stunbreaks than passive ones)
- Casttime increase to Purification trap heal is okay
(even though it really hurts … but it allows for counterplay interrupts)

Not more nerfs to Traps needed actually…
i think since any guard who just uses all traps and spams them is easy to defeat and you can avoid the dmg in 1 vs 1s easily
They may get their useful moments in teamfights if you cant watch for every enemy but then they miss too much utility to be useful enough overall

I didnt look at the Signet / Spirit Weapon / Consecration skills now even though i think they definitly do need reworks/adjustments ofc but i would have to ponder about that a bit longer

I wanted Scepter range back.

I was hoping for changes to stuff that actually increased build diversity not improvement to more meditations.

My hopes were more like:
Superior aria removes two conditions
Superior aria heals allies for x amount and scales 1 to 1 with healing power
Cool down is reduced on most of the shouts and boon duration adjusted accordingly.
Altruistic healing now also heals allies
Third step of hammer auto has reduced casting time and one procc from SoP is removed to keep dps at the same level as previous.
Mighty blow is ground targeted and has increased range.
Banish and zealots embrace has increased damage so they now fit into a damage rotation in pve.
Ring of warding is now a firefield and the guardian can move while casting RoW
Skill 1 and 2 on staff has now switched places and both have 0s cool down. Wave of Wrath also can be charged by holding the mouse button pressed and the longer you keep it pressed the more damage it will make and the longer the cd. The increase is progressive so holding the button over time will increase overall dps.
Empower can be used while moving
Line of warding is now a firefield.
Glacial heart is moved to valor
The reduced cooldowns introduced on virtues is now moved from DH and made innate
All symbols can now be casted while moving.
Signet of Courage now heals every second and cool down is reduced by 100%. The skill also scales much better with healing power.
Perfect Inscription also grants the guardian the passives from signets even if the signet is on cool down.

Spiritweapons are now stances that grants allies a permanent buff depending on the weapon the guardian has activated it also grants a small extra buff when activated.
Using an other utility skill removes the buff from the spirit weapon and puts the spirit weapon on cool down.

The buffs are:
Increased power and condition damage (10%)
Regeneration (200hps)
Clears a condition on a set time intervall (one each 5 second)
Reduces incoming damage (10%)
All spirit weapons effects stack with signets passive effects.
Changing spirit weapon is instant and puts the stance on 12 sec cd
Expeditious Spirit reduces the cooldown and also makes activating spirit weapons stunbreakers and clears one condition.

These changes would open up a lot of build diversity but tbh i have stopped thinking anything but meditations in guardian will ever be viable/competitive.

I would have removed dependancy on that 1 big skill and gone for higher micromanagement priority.

As an example, there used to be a fun Staff + Spirit Weapon build where you had to not only activate your spirit weapons efficiently (constantly pressing your utilities) but also managing their health with Staff, while managing your health and positioning your cc items. It was by far one of the toughest builds in terms of keeping up with your cooldowns.

If you were to look at some of our skills, Purification’s 10k healing, Smite Condition, etc you’ll see theres room to spread these items out, reduce the cd and minimize their effectiveness. It’s one of the reasons why Thief, Mesmer, Ele, & Rev have a higher skill cap.

Personally i was really hoping for a speed trait/utility or somerhing…
Not for using it in raids or fractals but is quite usefull in open world to avoid those traveler runes.
Also those spirit weapons….God….