Guild Wars 2

I’ll start by saying: yes, I know there are better grandmaster trait choices.

That said, I’m curious about how well these traits perform in a frontline wvw zerg situation. I understand it has no target limit but communal defenses doesn’t apply to the caster?

Sounds like a sizable group of guardians all spec’d for this who stayed packed tight on the commander’s tag and blocked in coordinated rotation would be obscenely OP, but otherwise… not very significant.

Anyone tried that kind of coordinated group?

It works, but only in super tight fights like on walls, or lords rooms hills, etc because the range us short and shatter aegis range is even shorter. it is super situational. Also as there is no aoe limit you get smashed by retal.

the problem with using it is that it is comparatively ineffective in open field, so you should be running another build, Then you have to know when to use it, communicate to other guards to switch, and then have time to get OOC and switch traits. This last part often requires time you dont have.

That being said, 5 guards who switch when trying to assault/hold hills lords room choke can turn the tide.

Shattered aegis deals utter crap damage. Also, I’m not sure if it even works on allies, paired with communal defenses.

It might be good for blocking those hammerstuns on the first push, but other than that, I don’t think it works, with all the AOE + pbAOE flying around.

Feel free to correct me, I’m just as curious as you are.

The idea shines best in something like Teq or Wurm. If you have 1-2 Communal Defense Guards per person in the zerg, you can do some pretty cheap damage and healing. Shattered Aegis and Pure of Heart combine nicely when you can afford to pack together so easily. I do want to mention that CD’s radius is the same as a Cannon.

It works and can result in very funny outcomes when the enemy explodes but is really niche and sometimes impractical. But that’s not the problem. The problem is taking terrible traits like shattered aegis to make it work and going into zeal which means you just give up on so much. You’d be murdering your own dps and survival by going into zeal and having no fiery wrath, for a unreliable burst. It can serve as a shock kind of tactic against randoms but it won’t really help you win protracted battles against more organized people.

The chain effect thing is cool but the main problem is that if you get hit it may prematurely go off. The thing is that even if you manage to blow up, their frontline can often take it and the thing that really kills it is retaliation. If you were to somehow bite into their backline with a bunch of people then it’d be something but this is very difficult and actaully be better if you went into battle with aegis already depleted and have either courage or retreat ready.

It may also work with mace, but that’s already sort of obscure too.

Still, a crack squad of suicidal guardians may be able to do this, in theory at least. I dunno… http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNApdRlsApcodDxVI8DNx8QVVAgdRsER617QP8oA-TVCEAB2s/QiqqslSQmU+ZwJAoN9BAcIAaUtiHeCAkBYZLA-w