Guild Wars 2

This trait looked really boring until i looked it up on the wiki and found out that it has no target limit.

Then i went to the skill’s discussion section and found out that this conclusion was based off one player’s experiment with insufficient data to ascertain the validity of this piece of information.

So here i am asking you, does the grandmaster trait “Communal Defenses” apply aegis to all allies within range or does it have a target limit?

Yes, it doesn’t appear to have a hard AoE limit ( or at least, not one that is easily measurable ).

I’ve seen it proc 20+ instances of shattered aegis damage and pure of heart healing.

Its main issue is that the excessive (20 sec) cooldown makes it hard to justify the trait investment

are you sure about that???, shattered aegis is an AOE, so 5 people with aegis from communal defenses multiplied by the 5 target limit of shattered aegis is 25 instances of damage.

RapidSausage.4620:

are you sure about that???, shattered aegis is an AOE, so 5 people with aegis from communal defenses multiplied by the 5 target limit of shattered aegis is 25 instances of damage.

Yes, but pure of heart isn’t – and you see waves of green numbers when it procs during events for instance.

The example you mentioned in the wiki discussion also has a screenshot 25+ shattered aegis strikes against a single mob ( Legendary Karka Queen ) – multiple AoE strikes don’t apply to a single target in most cases ( I’m looking at you binding blade! ) – I’ll attach the image here for clarity.

That being said – the last time I tested it was shortly after it was added, so it might have had stealth changes…

i ran a test and all the 8 participants received aegis, i wish i had more people to test with but that’s what i managed for now.

i edited the wiki page and its discussion to include the results of this test as well as a pic.

I can confirm Communal Defenses has no target limit. Just take it to tequatl during a burn phase. Block one of the poison ticks and I’ve counted over 160 counts of Shattered Aegis proccing for over 100k. There were enough procs that the combat log could not keep everything in history.

You have to find the right situations for it (like Tequatl), but when it works, it works beautifully.

I just want to add that on top the healing aegis they will also receive retaliation on block as well as burn on block if traited.

The question is, is an extra team wide aegis worth sacrificing Monk’s Focus or Altuistic Healing?

It doesn’t effect you, it can proc at any moment with or without an ally nearby and it also procs other guardian’s Communial Defense’s as well. It’s just another gimmick trait.

in coordinated large groups it can be quite strong.
Combine this with pure of heart it can be nearly as good as Altruistic healing but is more like bursty healing than over time continuous healing.

RapidSausage.4620:

in coordinated large groups it can be quite strong.
Combine this with pure of heart it can be nearly as good as Altruistic healing but is more like bursty healing than over time continuous healing.

Pure of Heart only effects the user who has the aegis. If you put aegis on 20 people with Communal Defenses, they get the heals, not you.

You don’t get anything from Communal Defenses other than offering a mass Aegis in your 360 radius vicinity. So it’s not better than AH.

you get healed for all instances of aegis you apply afaik.

Communal Defense is a great troll trait when in a well coordinate group of Guardians. Other than that, it’s not usually worth taking over the other 2 GMs.

RapidSausage.4620:

you get healed for all instances of aegis you apply afaik.

You do not get healed for all instances of aegis you apply. UNLESS you have Altruistic healing traited, of which takes up that grand master slot.

Pure of Heart heals the user who recieved an Aegis from a Guardian. The Guardian does not recieve healing for giving out such an aegis. Otherwise the Guardian would get a 3500 healing burst if he gave 5 people Aegis, which simply isn’t the case.

no aoe limit

in coordinated groups for wvw or a world boss it works just fine

only problem is the short range and the even shorter range on shattered aegis.

it is a tool for large zergs that is very effective in very very specific situations and wasted if that moment passes.