Guild Wars 2

Am I missing something or does the block on it never actually function but once in blue moon?

It blocks projectiles. Or more specifically it absorbs them.

It’s an omnidirectional projectile block which lasts through the duration of the animation. The only times I actively use it to block projectiles is against Kill Shots from warriors, and it works great for that.

Behold the horrendous freak of nature, the misshapen monstrosity, the devil’s spawn which is Guardian’s Sword 3!

What is its purpose you ask? Guardians thick of skull and dim of wit will proclaim that it is for burst damage, unable to understand that even though the final number looks large on a training dummy, it is actually less damage per second than our sword 1 auto attack sequence.

Some optimistic fools will claim that it gives us a ranged attack option. Perhaps these poor misguided souls have not contemplated the fact that you must remain stationary to use this ability, which in turn grants any prey that you would need to use a ranged attack against the opportunity to slip even further out of your grasp. Perhaps they think the block useful, despite the fact that it is not a block at all, and triggers none of our “on block” abilities!

Yet others will stubbornly claim it a fantastic tool for that very specific corner case in which a ranged player is attacking you from a distance of less than 600, while not moving to evade any of your garish projectiles or gaining additional distance. In this instance, truly Guardian’s Sword 3 is a triumphant ability! …of course, if you should find yourself engaged in mortal combat with just such a foe, rolling your face on the keyboard should serve to defeat them equally as well.

Now dear friend, I leave you with this haunting question: “If Guardian Sword 3 is truly so dismal an ability, why has there been neither remedy, nor even outcry by the Guardian community?” And when you realize the answer is “Because it’s so low on our list of worries and woes, compared to the more glaring issues”, true and proper despair can set in.

Ludus Rex.1562:

Behold the horrendous freak of nature, the misshapen monstrosity, the devil’s spawn which is Guardian’s Sword 3!

What is its purpose you ask? Guardians thick of skull and dim of wit will proclaim that it is for burst damage, unable to understand that even though the final number looks large on a training dummy, it is actually less damage per second than our sword 1 auto attack sequence.

Some optimistic fools will claim that it gives us a ranged attack option. Perhaps these poor misguided souls have not contemplated the fact that you must remain stationary to use this ability, which in turn grants any prey that you would need to use a ranged attack against the opportunity to slip even further out of your grasp. Perhaps they think the block useful, despite the fact that it is not a block at all, and triggers none of our “on block” abilities!

Yet others will stubbornly claim it a fantastic tool for that very specific corner case in which a ranged player is attacking you from a distance of less than 600, while not moving to evade any of your garish projectiles or gaining additional distance. In this instance, truly Guardian’s Sword 3 is a triumphant ability! …of course, if you should find yourself engaged in mortal combat with just such a foe, rolling your face on the keyboard should serve to defeat them equally as well.

Now dear friend, I leave you with this haunting question: “If Guardian Sword 3 is truly so dismal an ability, why has there been neither remedy, nor even outcry by the Guardian community?” And when you realize the answer is “Because it’s so low on our list of worries and woes, compared to the more glaring issues”, true and proper despair can set in.

This post was sooooo full of awesome that deserves a sticky :p

I think they should make it so we can move while using it.

Ludus Rex.1562:

What is its purpose you ask? Guardians thick of skull and dim of wit will proclaim that it is for burst damage, unable to understand that even though the final number looks large on a training dummy, it is actually less damage per second than our sword 1 auto attack sequence.

This is not true, as GuanglaiKangyi explains in this post:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83701-the-perfect-dps-guardian-build/#entry2211977

The sword #3 is just junk – does not do anything what it should do: Is a crappy ranged; Is a crappy damage and is a crappy projectile block (or actually removes, becouse it does not blocks). You also root!

Daerian.6523:

Ludus Rex.1562:

What is its purpose you ask? Guardians thick of skull and dim of wit will proclaim that it is for burst damage, unable to understand that even though the final number looks large on a training dummy, it is actually less damage per second than our sword 1 auto attack sequence.

This is not true, as GuanglaiKangyi explains in this post:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83701-the-perfect-dps-guardian-build/#entry2211977

That’s a fairly liberal use of the word “explains”. I do see Guanglai making that assertion without providing any numbers. He may be correct, but I’d be a little surprised and I’d be curious to see his math.

The damage the abilities do is listed on the tooltip, and we know that the sword attack chain takes 2.5 seconds to complete. In order for Zealot’s Defense to match a sword attack chain in terms of DPS, it’d have to take about 2.13 seconds to complete, based on the numbers. If it was this much closer to 2 seconds than 3 seconds, why does the tooltip indicate 3 seconds worth of blocking? Is it really that far off?

I’m still highly skeptical about the DPS assertion, but IF it were true, it still wouldn’t answer the other glaring problems with the ability.

Either way, can we get more outrage here? I need my sword to be a highly efficient weapon of justice; not full of clunky, poorly thought out abilities that are only beneficial in super narrow situations. Just remove the self rooting component already. It’s rubbish.

You’re late to the outrage train. We’ve been over Sword 3 in detail in the past. There really are more important things to be mad at at the moment.