Guild Wars 2

i’m a big fan of the staff on the guardian, but if there was just one small change i would make to it i would like for the second part the the number 2 skill [orb of light] to disappear.

does anyone ever make regular use of the detonate part of [orb of light]?

I don’t, because I think the cooldown is not worth it. But I don’t run a healing guardian, so those who do might have a different opinion. It doesn’t hurt to keep it.

You often have to, because it bugs out and thinks the orb is still active even when it has long since passed. Which is really annoying. In healing builds, if I have a staff, I detonate it all the time because it’s yet another four digit heal.

yes i use it all the time for aoe healing

I’ve actually started using it more recently, because if you time it properly, you can detonate the orb after it passes through a target for an extra spike of damage. The detonation doesn’t do as much as the initial hit, but I like to detonate it if I’m about to swap weapons, since in that case, I won’t be able to take advantage of the lower cooldown on the first half of the skill anyways. The combined damage from the two halves of the skill is actually a decent spike, which can matter in a PvP or WvW context.

For a healing-based Guardian, the skill can heal for roughly 1500 HP per target, which isn’t bad at all. The easiest way to use it is to run near any allies who need healing and detonate the orb immediately after casting it. This will provide a point-blank AoE heal, and if you can catch the maximum of 5 allies in it (most likely in a WvW zerg), that’s 7500 healing every 10 seconds. Not a game-changer, but still a pretty decent effect.

It’s a 1.5k heal at least for me and 5 allies, a 2k heal if I’m running full life stacks and some kralkachocolate, comparing with my 15k health pool? Hell yeah I use it! My dodges are all 2k as well when optimised, I think of the thing as another heal that doesn’t require endurance, very helpful when you’re running low and need a pick-me-up.

Full cleric’s, if you’re wondering.

i run a more direct damage orientated build with lots of toughness, power and precision.
currently sitting at around 50% crit damage

the orb of light is a pretty decent single target nuke for me, usually hitting just under 3k on targets in WvW. my problem is it is the only higher hitting skill on the staff, having to closely monitor when the detonate disappears so it can go on cooldown and not go on a 8 second cooldown is a little annoying for me.

i thought it would be nice to be able to just chuck orbs at will without having to worry about cooldown management, the skill glitching or missing a detonation.

I use it all the time! I quite like it. A little bit of extra damage and a nice AoE heal. I run a pretty heavy support build though. Great for when I’m about to swap weapons too, I would have died hundreds of times in spvp without that detonate.

I really wish it burned enemies like that Trident ability… Alas.

I’m learning to use it. It’s a little extra burst, which helps a lot for staff. They just need to add some kind of timeout for the orb so it resets the chain when the orb flies off into nowhere.

I always dbl tap it for the 1k aoe heal

I use it; mostly for the AOE Heal, not damage. If during combat I wish to stack the might (Skill #4 “Empower”). I’ll swap to staff; hit #2, #3, detonate #2(depends on distance, may detonate before #3), #4, swap weapon.

I use staff on city, becouse looks cool with my armor, more tan that would be needed a nerf, now seriouly staff on guardian is a situational weapon for zerglin just pressing 1,1,1,1 to aoe targeting, swiftness and might with boon duration runes, other than that since only comon mobs dont have stability in 90%+ of the situations i cast “you shall not pass”, and everyone can pass.

Well orb of light is another bad story how game is being handled (or feels like) when i have a target, if not in same X position orb will be shooted into the ground.

Yes, I use the detonate just as much as the normal skill. Sometimes you want more health, other times you want more damage. Apart from the projectile bug, it’s a great skill.

Staff is just a weapon I swap in, out of— mostly for empower, so I don’t care about cooldowns mostly. So yes, I will detonate the thing as needed.

Staff is such an under estimated weapon. #1 hits decently hard, #2 hits fairly hard when detonated and gives great heals, the symbol of swiftness does 1.5k dmg easy per tick, gives swiftness, AND everyone ignores it. Empower is glorious, and line of warding is amazing.

I’m actually building around Orb as a main damage source for zvz. I like the “jousty” feel it has and I don’t actually need a target (just aim and shoot).
- It has no target cap since anything it passes is hit.
- It has a really low 3 (2.5 traited) sec cd

I’ve already seen it crit for 4.5k (not upleveled) with only half exotic zerk armor and blue knights trinkets.