Guild Wars 2

SoA was very decent, these changes are garbage.

Baldrick.8967:

Quite happy with this change. I never understood why guards were given a spam aoe that could tag everything in sight and counted as a tag in one hit. Shorter range means less tag, less loot if you just carry on spamming one and don’t use your other skills or (OMG) swap weapons during combat.

Now you need to be where you should have been to start with, next to the comm pushing through (still plenty of tagging) rather than hanging back waving your stick and being useless to the core.

no you just switch to ele or necro now and spam the aoe there, also you can still aoe spam siege as ele which guard could never do, where is the 300 range on staff ele change?

it’s an extremely lazy change if the reason was hitting through walls, making it worthless in all game modes (ok, in pvp it was worthless before that already)

same when they “fixed” teleports and made them shadowsteps, when they “fixed” superspeed dashes and made all dashes clunky because of that

it’s always lazy

LAZY

never change something fundamental, like making stuff auto a projectile, just break something into pieces until you have something new you can pretend to work on

“Guardian was too good at something in this game. We fixed that. Please switch to Shortbow Thief, Flamethrower Engi or Staff Necro now. Guard is back at his supposed spot (garbage).”

They only revert changes when the Ele community cries. Don’t even try. Abandon the game if you want to continue maining Guard or switch classes. I will abandon.

symbolic is useless imo you are just a kittenty tank

medi is ok till platinum, after that you just get outsustained/outroamed

Vitali.5039:

Adrenalin.5719:

of HoT-Guardian:

• It makes Guardian top dps (35k, above Ele) with condi damage gear and traits (axe burning).

To me firebrand will be a quickness bot like condi PS warrior it’s a might bot and the burning guardian (Zeal, Radiance, Virtues) will deal more damage than firebrand while not bringing utility, like the burnzerker with condi PS.

Why? Ele can be a might bot or best dps, just change some talents, weapon and rotation. I want that for Guard as well. If not, I’m not buying PoF. Simple as that. Only other scenario would be if they destroy Ele dps, making it trash tier.

tagging → loot

Only thing that is superior on Guard compared to any other class, if they change staff to not be a lootstick anymore it would be more than pathetic and just another kick in the chest of all Guardian players.

Aegis is a broken mechanic to the core. Imagine if you dodge you only avoid the very first attack coming at you but not all attacks for the whole dodge duration. That’s how terrible aegis is and it has become worse and worse with enemies doing overblown powercreep multihit attacks.

Just replace it with barrier. Much more predictable for both opponent and user, just more healthy to the game in general.

Or fix aegies to block for 0.5 seconds after activation.

How about @all these fanboys, we don’t victim blame the community for trying to play the decent classes and actually demand good balance instead? Outrageous, I know, xd.

At the end of the day an Ele does 15% more damage than a Guard. Multiply that by 4 for the 4 dps slots and you have 20k more damage in total. And now blame the guys for playing only “meta” (in other words trying to adjust to terrible balance) and not Anet for not fixing this mess over a whole expansion. Classic.

Not even taking into account the superior utility Ele provides with range cleave and mobility.

If you calculate the difference for hammer Guard (I did for max dps Guard instead) it’s even more extreme.

Malthurius.6870:

Adrenalin.5719:

Dude it’s not about the channel it’s about the numbers of attacks that can be blocked with one aegis.

One aegis, one block, just like one blind, one miss. Changing aegis to block multiple attacks would not go over well in PvP or WvW game types. A 1/4 second long block that can be granted to a zerg or an entire team is insanely powerful. As it stands now, aegis and blind are used to avoid large single hit attacks and are countered by multiple smaller attacks. This is fine, as guardian survivability does not revolve around aegis alone, it revolves around having heavy armor and many sources of healing as well has aegis in combination with blind.

Adrenalin.5719:

Aegis doesn’t need to be like DH f3, it just needs to be like dodges to combat the powercreep in this game that also happened to enemy’s attacks (and aegis was already problematic in vanilla as well, but it didn’t matter because back then we had as much health as a Warrior).

Give up on having a build without an elite be as powerful as one with, that’s clearly not their goal for balance. And guardians never had as much health as a warrior… are you high? Guardians, as well as thieves and elementalists, have always had the lowest health pools in the game.

Adrenalin.5719:

They should fix/buff core Guard to bring it to HoT standards. Since I know they don’t touch core traits because that does not print money I said at least Firebrand should have these changes.

I’d like to remind you that in preparation for the launch of HoT, the entire trait system got reworked. Remember when trait lines had stats on them and you picked your traits from a list of about 8 or 10 per line and you had to spend trait points to unlock further down the lines 30/20/20/0/0… that kind of thing? Yeah, this was done while the elite specializations were being worked on, not to mention all the changes that were made during HoT. Not to mention, we know there’s a large balance patch coming out before Path of Fire that’ll add new mechanics to the core classes… like the new barrier mechanic and charges to existing utility skills. Guardians could very well get barrier as a mechanic on some of their core abilities and traits before the expansion launches.

Core professions have not been neglected; but like I said before, 3 core trait lines is never going to be as strong as 2 core and 1 elite, that’s just how this is being balanced.

You got no clue lol, Guard had max health pool in vanilla. Besides blinds being kittenty doesn’t make aegis being kittenty better. Both are underpowered compared to dodge spamming and facetanking.

I mean there has to be a cashgrab somewhere to sell a bad game.

Kuya.6495:

Adrenalin.5719:

Kuya.6495:

It’s amusing to me that for like 2 years nobody thought guard was bad because it lacked channeled blocks, then all of a sudden hot hits and the entire guard forum loses it collective mind because the new elite spec isn’t a carbon copy of dh but just with hot sauce

Dude it’s not about the channel it’s about the numbers of attacks that can be blocked with one aegis. Aegis doesn’t need to be like DH f3, it just needs to be like dodges to combat the powercreep in this game that also happened to enemy’s attacks (and aegis was already problematic in vanilla as well, but it didn’t matter because back then we had as much health as a Warrior).

They should fix/buff core Guard to bring it to HoT standards. Since I know they don’t touch core traits because that does not print money I said at least Firebrand should have these changes. It has absolutely nothing to do with DH being a prime example and therefore somewhat revealed as a good spec. It’s just that they didn’t fix core Guard because that does not print money. Also DH did not fix aegis just because of f3 since f3 was not about aegis for DH.

Wasn’t replying to your suggestion.

So you are having a monologue with your own

entire guard forum

Funny.

the ui would be fine if it had any costumization options, the look itself is great tho already

Kuya.6495:

It’s amusing to me that for like 2 years nobody thought guard was bad because it lacked channeled blocks, then all of a sudden hot hits and the entire guard forum loses it collective mind because the new elite spec isn’t a carbon copy of dh but just with hot sauce

Dude it’s not about the channel it’s about the numbers of attacks that can be blocked with one aegis. Aegis doesn’t need to be like DH f3, it just needs to be like dodges to combat the powercreep in this game that also happened to enemy’s attacks (and aegis was already problematic in vanilla as well, but it didn’t matter because back then we had as much health as a Warrior).

They should fix/buff core Guard to bring it to HoT standards. Since I know they don’t touch core traits because that does not print money I said at least Firebrand should have these changes. It has absolutely nothing to do with DH being a prime example and therefore somewhat revealed as a good spec. It’s just that they didn’t fix core Guard because that does not print money. Also DH did not fix aegis just because of f3 since f3 was not about aegis for DH.

I mean people crying here about having wasted money because of these changes is all quite cool, but please get to the core of this issue then.

If you design a game without a treadmill and with weird attribute gear you can’t basically balance/change the game without making people rage and probably quit the game as a whole in a lot of cases.

In the beginning of the game everyone was just zerk and there was no need to ever change away from zerk so it worked fine. Then you realized it’s quite boring when everyone is zerk and you started changing.

In this situation you should have realized that all ascended gear should have been stat-
and rune-/sigil-swappable from the start and that legendaries are only about looks.

Sure you can convert but it’s a pain in the ass especially when you have to rebuy expensive runes and sigils.

You actually made me start getting into WoW because a treadmill is one thing, but advertising your game to be without one and then either intentionally acting against it to generate cashgemsgold or just being clueless is on another level. Think about it.

roll an ele the loved class you will always be op always

Vanilla blocks suck because of all this multihitting. FB needs a trait like if an aegis activates it blocks for 0.5 seconds all incoming attacks. So blocks become similar useful to dodges.

Criticise pre-release: “You can’t know already cause you didn’t play it, yet.”
Criticise on release: “Try figuring out the spec before you trash it.”
Criticise post-release: “Too bad it sucks, but now it’s too late to change anything, come earlier next time.”

Hicci.8761:

Ragnarox.9601:

Aeolus.3615:

Ragnarox.9601, for what it looked, virtues traited to castfire on a target zone plus new stuff to add more burn, ANet ismaking a gimmick trough what is op to carry the players nothing more, still its a very unmobile combat… easilly killed.

core guard falled extremelly^2 behind due new specs condi spam, and firetrash might be dangerous while supporting players ganking coreclasses… LOL

Actually I might farm those firebrands in next xpac so they might buff it somehow. I love guardians playing it from the start in 2012 but dont like the road it goes. Core need lot of attention but they made another useless support spec. Cant wait for a farmsfest in pvp and wvw.

I don’t think firebrand was ever intended to be a pvp class. We got DH for that.

As already said, but I want to emphasize it, DH is trash in pvp after you hit Platinum. It’s ok against noobs who are too terrible to use their defensives and don’t walk out of traps, but any competent diamond player will outsustain a DH and render him useless. The reason for this is that DH’s damage and mobility is pretty low.

The old tomes were only elite spells and they replaced all of your weapon skills. They were pretty terrible because Anet never felt like buffing them to make them useful. Thankfully, they at least removed and replaced them with something more useful.

To put things into perspective, the tome predecessor of “Feel my wrath!” was the only thing useful of these tomes and also in a pretty gimmicky application: Activate tome, use quickness tome spell, throw away.

This is also probably the reason why they moved away from these manifestated tomes as they couldn’t balance them.

Yeah, me too. But I want to outdps these decent eles.

I mean it just feels kittenty when you get downed as a Guard, even if it was a stupid mistake and you deserve the down, since you know right from the start that the downed state is just an extended death.

I mean a thief does like 4 times the damage with his 1 spell to finish something off and a ranger’s 3 spell gives you a guaranteed second life.

It may be not that crucial but it adds up to other points.

Seera.5916:

People thought X was going to be disappointing before trying it. After they tried it, they found it was actually pretty great.

Yeah, but Dragonhunter was the same until it turned out to be definitely a terrible spec.

I mean, solo fighting group mobs is what I define as being good in openworld but I guess there could be different standings.

Btw I forgot to mention that Guard has one of the worst, if not the worst downed spells. The 1 spell does NO damage and the 3 spell is also quite terrible. Can be annoying when you solo big stuff.

I mean it’s just like when they removed feline grace on thief and then gave 3 dodges with daredevil. And daredevil was also quite poorly made. These decisions usually show that the elite/class is of low/no priority.

This is more like a glorified ending with a shimmer of hope.

I mean, let’s say you are solo fighting a beefy overworld mob that is designed to be done as a group. You open with F3, once that times out you facetank a bit (if you don’t get onehit because of your low health) and then heal, facetank even less, f2, then you renewed focus and f3 again, facetank a bit, F2, facetank a bit, heal, now you die and the mob is probably not dead already because you can’t give yourself much offensive buffs.

Yeah, you could also use retreat but the one block really doesn’t do much with all these multihitter abilities. Blinds don’t work against big mobs. Did I mention that solo breaking bars is also not that easy when you don’t use the elite trap?

Now warrior: stand still, when low kite away till the signet made you like 3/4 health, rinse and repeat the mindlessness. You are probably also faster because of better solo might application. And you can kite easily with the mobility. And you don’t have to wait for cds between pulls.

lmaogg.7325:

In fact they have to nerf base guard/DH’s burn potential if they intend to make Firebrand the “burn guard”. It’s already ridiculous in it’s current HoT meta.

Howso? It’s ok in PvP till like Plat but except that burn DH is trash.

Now you crossed a line. I’m the 121st son of Caesar, pure blood patrician. My family built Rome and you are the pleb just leeching off our achievements. 287 BCE was such a mistake.

Syktek.7912:

Adrenalin.5719:

Well, at least stay correct then. Guard only reaches 30k with virtues unscathered. This can only really be done on Gorse, one boss of like 20. Quit the kitten plz.

‘can only be done’ – I said can, I didn’t get specific you salty child. It can be done and still is done. But you know, continue hating yourself and kittenting on the forums.

I’ll be over here being excited for more additions to an already super awesome class.

It’s called a cheesy straw man argument, Gorse does not equal raiding as a whole, keep trolling mate.

I wonder if you also comment in the Rev forum saying Rev is fine for raiding because he kites hands on Deimos.

Well, at least stay correct then. Guard only reaches 30k with virtues unscathered. This can only really be done on Gorse, one boss of like 20. Quit the kitten plz.

morrolan.9608:

Adrenalin.5719:

LetoII.3782:

RabbitUp.8294:

Ragnarox.9601:

RabbitUp.8294:

Ragnarox.9601:

Adrenalin.5719:

wvw does not matter at all tho, lol

raiding matters

Guardians does not raid. We watch how other specs raid,. Thats our good spot.

But I thought guardians are best support..

We are best support but with lack of dps and heal.

So best at what?

Stability bot.
“support” lol

protection bot
too bad no one really needs protection lol

Protection is vastly useful, on my ele I can get close to 100% protection uptime and survive zerg vs zerg at melee range.

I’m talking about raiding where you don’t need a Guard for protection because protection is either not needed or covered by other better classes just fine.

Guild Wars 3 maybe.

The bleeding seems to be out of place.

LetoII.3782:

RabbitUp.8294:

Ragnarox.9601:

RabbitUp.8294:

Ragnarox.9601:

Adrenalin.5719:

wvw does not matter at all tho, lol

raiding matters

Guardians does not raid. We watch how other specs raid,. Thats our good spot.

But I thought guardians are best support..

We are best support but with lack of dps and heal.

So best at what?

Stability bot.
“support” lol

protection bot
too bad no one really needs protection lol

Guardian is not that great in open world and never has (except for mindless zerging with lootstick).

The reasons are the slow movement Guard has + the low health. Guard has as much health as an Ele. Sure, there are blocks, but miss one block and you can be dead already. A Warrior can just facetank with the highest health pool + healing signet and does not have to be preactive like a Guard with his blocks. That said blocks also have long cooldowns while War’s health and heal signet is perma passive. Assuming ofc that everyone is full berserk.

Sure, you could go marauder or even celestial but who the kitten makes armor for open world these days?

Please don’t comment on raiding as a WvWler, do us all a favor.

Yes we know that it has quickness stacking. Thing is tho, chrono will probably just do it better and make us absolutely worthless.

Why do you compare Firebrand to Warrior and Ele and not Dragonhunter? Pretty cheesy manipulation strategy.

Na, I just play WoW then. “Bring the player, not the class.”

jheryn.8390:

How can you claim it is underwhelming before you even play it?

That’s a trap.

Meta? You know that meta is simply a term for bad balance, at least I hope you do. Meta is a term of moba’s where heroes/champions/classes are intentionally made worse or better than others to shake up the game by forcing you to switch heroes/champions/classes so you don’t become bored.

In MMOs metas don’t need to exist because you are not supposed to change your class outside of twinking. A meta in an MMO just means that the balance is terrible, that is all, and that it needs fixing.

Just trying to get some feedback from other classes outside of the Guardian sub forum.

Our new spec is really underwhelming compared to like the Holosmith or Weaver and Dragonhunter was already one of the weak, if not the worst, elite spec introduced into this game.

I’m really thinking Anet does not care about Guard anymore.

Will probably not buy.

Thoughts?

wvw does not matter at all tho, lol

raiding matters

Nick.6972:

https://youtu.be/nflQFIFnpVo?t=23 Video without the actual skill descriptions.

That is devastating. Our skills are a JOKE compared to other classes. Didn’t think it was this bad. And as well all know it’s not like that we had the best spec last expansion and it gets toned down now, no, we get two times in a row the worst spec, definitely visually wise and probably again number wise. If you support them with your money as a Guardian main I don’t know why tbh.

The fact is that you can only progress raid on classes that are top dps/heal/tank or at least second tier without major downsides.

No one wakes up and says to himself: “Man I’m kittened how low dps my Guard is, like I only do world events and it doesn’t matter but I’m still kittened.”

What instead is the case when you go to bed: “Man, I wanted to progress raid this evening and crush the new bosses, but there is just no point to take me over a ele/cranger/chrono/druid/cps. At least I won’t waste money on the next expansion.”

HoT was their first expansion and so I can forgive them their balance mistakes one time, after all WoW also had similar problems at the start. But there is no second chance. Fix it with PoF by making every single class or at least Guard viable (I honestly don’t care about the other classes) or I’m simply not buying and spreading bad mouth propaganda to make other people not buy it too.

I’m actually pretty stunned that you demand unique mechanics, cool new features from Guard after HoT. Let’s not make our expectations unrealistic from the start. The Guard elite will always be the lazy one that was rushed, if you want something cool, something fluid, diverse and unique, switch to Ele.

What we can hope for is top dps. And maybe even this is unrealistic looking at HoT.

Obtena.7952:

Basically, little changes. We already have access to good damage and condition builds. It’s beyond me why anyone would possibly want more of them. let’s be honest here … we play a game where meta has meaning … there is almost no value in giving a class access to more than 1 or 2 damage builds … so what’s left? From where I sit, we are getting the ’what’s left’.

Wrong. In PvE our damage sucks, power is already bad and condi is a meme, a joke. In PvP both power and condi is pretty terrible for everything above plat 5.

That said, Anet will probably not fix the problem with the new elite that is there since HoT: Making us top (condi) dps. We probably will end up with a hybrid low dps low support role like hammer guard that is not useful anywhere bar low fractals and noob raid groups.

of HoT-Guardian:

• It makes Guardian top dps (35k, above Ele) with condi damage gear and traits (axe burning).
• It makes Guardian best heal (better than Druid) with heal gear and traits (tome healing).
• It makes Guardian best tank with either tank gear because bosses require actual tanks this expansion or by giving perma quickness and still being a better tank than chrono.
• It makes Guardian useful for high end pvp because you can’t be interrupted using your long cast tome spells when traited.

So you can choose your role and be competitive with it. Traits offer actual variety. We become desired in pvp and raids+fractals. Not like only one hybrid build that is useless for everything bar being used with or against noobs.

And what will probably happen instead:

• HurrDurr hybrid 10k dps with perma quickness, still worse than chrono and without any tanking abilities.
• Worst pure dps.
• “Because the axe did too much damage in pvp, we nerfed it in pve as well. We don’t care btw.”
• Ele top heal, top dps.
• Chrono top tank.
• Guardian raid role: get kicked or carry those noobs who don’t find anyone else and want your experience that you gathered on a raiding alt before, no role for progressing btw, cause Guardian is the noob class.
• Guardian fractal role: It’s great until level 75, afterwards please switch to ele or chrono.

ded game

Don’t buy until Anet proved to change (by checking dps meters at least before purchasing).

Atm I’m much more hyped about Argus because I know Blizz won’t make my class completely worthless and actually fix imbalances. Path of Fire, no, probably no real balance at all. HoT proved it.

these type of people are responsible for true shot nerfs although dh was never ever ever a meta class

just revert the nerfs, as we see nothing can fix stupid, not even gigantic nerfs purely for the silver and bronze trash