Guild Wars 2

Last night was the first time I’ve logged on GW2 since Jan 2013. I quit because I became bored with the lack of endgame content and this is after I leveled 3 characters to 80 and grinded them all out their gear.

As far as I can tell all they’ve really added is being able to craft ascended gear, added more items that still require grinding Fractals, and did map updates to WvW/Lion Arch. The new talent system change is kind of cool, but its not really any different than what it was before.

On a positive note though this game is -very- easy to get back into. I logged on and I already remembered how to play my characters in a few minutes because its so KISS. I can’t get back into WoW and SWTOR because I literally have to relearn 30 different key/mouse bindings.

This was the problem in SWTOR that caused major lag issues in Ilum. 50 players on your screen with thirty letter names + titles clogging up your screen.

You’re basically forced to use a focus in WvW if you want to move around. It’s either that or sacrifice runes. As long as you stick with the bigger groups your mobility is fine.

Unfortunately nothing compares to a thiefs’ mobility (have one). Guardian’s aren’t that bad either because you can get near 100% uptime on swiftness.

Just in general though my Mesmer has very good survivability with the staff. I hardly, if ever, die.

lol, Guardian’s charge into fights, not run away from them.

If you want to be good at running away, play a Thief.

AH and the staff is a bit ridiculous. It procs 60 times in a span of 2.5 seconds which is basically equivalent to having a second big heal.

Zosk.5609:

Danicco.3568:

I find this to be sorta sad…

I also thought before that Guardians weren’t as good in WvW because of the lack of ranged options and low mobility to avoid zergs, but after joining a WvW guild, I see I was the one playing it wrong.
If you’re having issues with your Guardian in WvW, I suggest finding a good WvW guild, you don’t have to join, you can just find when they’re playing and follow their commander tag (but if it’s a large guild look for the attacking commander tag) and see how your Guardian does in large scale battles. You don’t have to be afraid of rushing in because you know you’re in a team (just don’t be stupid to be the first one to charge if you don’t know if your team are engaging the enemies or not).

Everybody is better in groups, and even better still in organized groups or groups with experience and voice chat….

But it’s no reason to live in denial. Support and healing are underpowered and even more underappreciated (that second one is common in most games that don’t turn healers into supermen, however). The game is currently very 2-dimensional and all about kiting/escaping and DPS contests…. playing support is a challenge and not for everybody.

Tired of hearing this crap. Support Guardian’s are incredibly powerful in WvW, more so than being full DPS.

I want you to say healing is underpowered when you’re using a Sigil of Stamina in mass PvP and selfless daring non-stop healing everyone around you for 1500 with a full stamina bar every second.

I play with a lot of good guilds and they stack support Guardian’s. Chain line of wardings on choke points = win.

I always prefer the staff in WvW. It’s really the best balanced weapon in terms of survivability and offense in mass Zerg vs Zerg.

I use 0/10/30/30/0 in PvE and 0/0/30/30/10 in PvP.

The thing I don’t like about burning builds is you require heavy specialization in traits and gear to get it to work.

With the Greatsword you equip it, get the 20% reduced cooldown trait, and you’re good to go.

ODB.6891:

ComeAndSee.1356:

Quickness needed a nerf in PvP. Too easy to burst somebody down in less than 3 seconds.

While this is likely true, pvp is not the sum and total of this game. If the goal was to reduce the likelihood of players getting bursted within a few seconds, then that does not require them to keep the cool down on time warp so ridiculously long. The effect has been halved….the cool down should have been halved as well, in my opinion. Drastically reducing the cool down, in combination with reducing the effects, would still prevent players from getting bursted too quickly and therefore still achieve the desired effect. Having the cool down around 1.5 to 2 minutes is still a lifetime in pvp and a significant downtime in pve.

I’m starting to see what people are are saying about ANET and patching mesmers….has there actually been a patch where mesmers were not actually nerfed in some way? I’ve only been playing one for about 2-3 months and I’m hard pressed to recall anything but nerfs to my set up. Its getting pretty tiresome to see every nerf patch based on pvp whining. Even the “state of the game” videos they do are all about pvp….and the resultant pvp nerfs directly affect pve. Don’t get me wrong, I think TW probably deserved a nerf in the quickness department too, but the cool down needs to come down drastically if it is now half of what it used be in effectiveness.

50% faster attack/skill speed is still very good considering Time Warp effects 5 people total and its just one of our tools. We have friendly/enemy boon removals, a reflect, portal, a pull/push, Veil, and other goodies.

The reason they nerfed it in PvE as well is because you should bring players to a dungeon based on skill more than utility and you shouldn’t need it to beat certain fights.

PvP it was just dumb. I’ve been calling for a nerf on it months ago.

Quickness needed a nerf in PvP. Too easy to burst somebody down in less than 3 seconds.

Relax guys.

It’s obviously an unintended bug that is being used as an exploit. They will fix it.

So how exactly is this a nerf? You just won’t be able to chain stealth anymore.

Only affects mass PvP where you chain multiple veils.

Asglarek.8976:

Haziq.3907:

Wow even after all the transfers into BG , JQ is still winning. It must have alot of dedicated WvWers , or just too much players lol.

JQ was a solid T1 wv3 server since launch these other servers weren’t they are like average athletes that use steroids (transfers) to enhance their game play competitiveness but strip away the facade and all you have is a T5 or whatever server.

Except when the King (HoD) lost its crown everyone transferred to JQ because they were #2.

Several of the top WvW guilds REQUIRE their Guardians to be all support because of how powerful they are. They go overboard though — 2,000 +healing. lol, wow.

The staff has 600 range because it can splash 5 targets. The Scepter has 1200 range and can only hit 1 for example.

It’s definitely a secondary weapon at heart and considering what else we have to play with, it’s a good weapon.

Teamkiller.4315:

Not to mention it gives a TON of personal healing, as much as the empower + AH heal.

Really? I’m going to have to play around with that.

P/P is very initiative hungry and doesn’t put out the numbers comparable to meleeing (or the shortbow). The 900 range is really a handicap.

I only use it in PvE on boss fights that are single target and ranged only. Lupi is an example.

I run practically the same build (except 10 in Virtues instead of Radiance for Consecrated ground) and use the Mace+Shield / Staff and stack +healing. My load out is Wall of Reflection, Stand your Ground, and Sanctuary.

I’m not a fan of Shield of Avenger in WvW because it gets killed by AOE very fast. Sanctuary is the better option because it can block choke points or be used as a way to get players off you or help you res other players.

Battle Presence is kind of “meh” if you aren’t stacking +healing or really aren’t trying to make an honest effort to heal. You can run Pure of Voice instead and go Stand your Ground, Wall of Reflection, and Hold the Line instead.

You don’t need Signet Mastery either because the Staff + AH is just as powerful as your big heal.

Ring of Warding would just turn into another line of warding + sanctuary.

A hammer + staff Guardian can already block off chokepoints for 20s in WvW. :O

They mixed up the Mesmer’s downed state combat log attacks with Thiefs.

When you use #1 when in down state it shows up in the combat log as Trick Shot and your #3 is called Smoke Bomb.

You guys are nuts. I’ve done Fractal’s maybe 50-60 times, but 500.. wow.

I haven’t played my Mesmer in FOTM because of the character bound rewards (dumb), but I would think getting Shattered Concentration (boon removal on shatters) would be very important in Fractal’s because of the mobs/bosses that run around with perma-protection.

I haven’t had any problem with D/P thief’s on my Thief (D/D), but I obviously must of not faced any good ones.

The Mace is the only Guardian weapon where you can really squeeze healing numbers out. If you AH, Writ, and longer symbols trait it lasts 6 seconds. Each time it ticks a regen on somebody (once a second) it triggers AH and Writ.

The staff can trigger AH 60 times in its full duration if you have 5 people around so it’s just as powerful as your big heal.

So what happened to that enthusiasm last week from BG? They came in hard, riding JQ day and night without compassion and this week they’ve waned off a lot. There was a lack of guilds on the field yesterday during US prime time and I saw JQ with 400 score numerous times.

20% extra boon duration is a good benefit all around because it effects everything.

The Scepter is good for confusion builds. You can get 8-12 stacks of confusion up on people in a very short amount of time.

The problem is there’s no real definition of what a “support” role is.

A “support” role can be a DPS class who either takes more defensive or healing stats and or picks traits / skills desirable for group play.

The way the game itemizes stats makes it so every piece of gear available in game has a DPS stat on it (power, precision, condition damage, or critical damage). There’s no vitality, toughness, and +healing sets for example and nobody with a brain would take the Giver set.

Like, I have a hard time classifying what my Guardian is. Support/Bunker/Healer/DPS — all the terms apply.

//

Also, dude. I have a full Berserker’s set for my Guardian and Guardian’s CANNOT put out as much DPS as a Warrior or Thief. They may out AOE DPS Warriors, but not a Thief’s short bow. My Thief is D/D and I backstab bosses for 6-8k every 3s and my auto-attack does more than your Greatsword swing. On my Thief I can spam AOE like its going out of style (3k cluster bomb crits on 5 mobs that I can basically shoot non-stop because of initiative returns on criticals).

The reason you do less DPS is because Guardians have WAY more support. Wall of Reflection and Shield of Avenger is enough to cheese half the fights in FOTM. I mean, 3 Guardians a run seems to be the norm 30+.

Xylith.4873:

ComeAndSee.1356:

Xylith.4873:

As stated above, Energy. Your dodge heals are really quite nice, and dodging is just the win. Switch, Dodge,(perhaps another dodge), 4, dodge, Line of Warding, switch.

You’re better off just using Sigil of Stamina instead. Full endurance bar every kill.

and what if you’re in a situation where you aren’t consistently killing things?

I have two staffs.

My main staff has Sigil of Life. (+10 healing, stacks 25 times) and #2 has Sigil of Stamina.

If and when I hit 25 stacks of healing I swap out to the Sigil of Stamina. Selfless Daring is rofl good with non-stop endurance!!

Xylith.4873:

As stated above, Energy. Your dodge heals are really quite nice, and dodging is just the win. Switch, Dodge,(perhaps another dodge), 4, dodge, Line of Warding, switch.

You’re better off just using Sigil of Stamina instead. Full endurance bar every kill.

What do you plan on doing with the staff? DPS, support only, WvW, PvE?

Star Ace.5207:

JJBigs.8456:

Healing is terrible. Everyone has a self heal. The reason your team needs heals, is your guardians low DPS leading to the monsters taking forever to kill and being able to DPS your teammates. Just being able to res them isnt enough contribution. If you play smart and use the right weapons, you can be just as tanky with 0 healing and support in other ways. Also, how do you plan to heal the ranged combat people, since most people use range in this game. Its like saying a 600 range warrior shout is good for the eles @ 1200 range.

I wonder why they have Healing Power, corresponding gear, and Runes that clearly emphasize such playstyle. Probably to mess with our heads, since Healing Power is “terrible” and useless… we need 0 Healing Power as only DPS matters! As the Skritt would say: “Quick! Kill it!”

Humans tend to forget that personal preference =/= “facts” for everybody else.

I want him to say healing is useless when you’re using a Sigil of Stamina in FOTM 40++ and non-stop spamming dodges into a wall on the Dredge packs selfless daring healing your group for 1500 a pop.

If you haven’t done it than you’re making FOTM 40++ a lot harder than it needs to be because in my group we can pull the HUGE dredge packs and everyone stays 100% HP because I’m dropping symbols on them, using Stand your ground + Hallowed ground (basically 100% up time on stability), wall of reflection, and spam dodge rolling into a wall (selfless daring 1500 a heal for the entire group each time because full endurance regained when a mob dies). They’ve straight up told me I made the Dredge dungeon 10x easier.

Also, to the person who says support is useless above 40 — yeah, okay buddy!

Blackgate put in some tough competition this week, but it looks like they hit the one thing they couldn’t defeat — the need to sleep!

I tried doing AC EM @ 35 when the game came out and it was like going through hell. I vowed to not do any dungeons until I hit 80.

I hit 80, AC become faceroll easy.

danbuter.2314:

Engineers are the highest skill-required class in the game, imo. If you like that kind of stuff, engineer is the way to go. (I love my engi).

Ah, I think they want group invites though!

Zosk.5609:

They didn’t just try to replace trinity with duo-inity (glass cannons and bunkers)…although to some degree they’ve failed and that’s what we’re getting. Hopefully they’ll be able to move towards more than just mashing attack patterns and kiting in this game as it grows…

No, they made it so you can build your class however you want.

Glass builds and bunkers are just two extremes, but glass builds counter bunkers. A full glass cannon Thief can rip through a bunker Guardian or Warrior like they’re wearing a t-shirt.

AH is not a support ability, but for 1 trait it’s very powerful (practically mandatory). It effectively doubles the possible amount of healing you can put on yourself which makes you more survivable.

Incomingray.8075:

To me it’s about being versatile but having the ability to pretty much max out your damage so that things die fast when you need to.. I also find that killing mobs fast as possible is often what saves lives, against the 1shot type of things in dungeons I think it’s best to burn things down quickly to support your teammates.

I mean we can go back and forth debating all day. Mitigating damage + healing and killing things faster aren’t even on the same boat. Being versatile on my Guardian is just picking the right weapon, traits, and utilities for whatever I’m being thrown against. I don’t change gear because I’m comfortable with what I have. (see my sig)

Seriously though. If I want to DPS and kill things I have two real DPS classes to do; my thief and mesmer (which are far better than a Guardians). I pick whatever character I want to play based on their strengths, group desire, and whatever I feel like playing.

My Guardian = Tank/healer/support
My Thief = DPS / WvW scout
My Mesmer = DPS / specialized in Glamour so hybrid support/AOE DPS + confusions.

Shimond.2478:

ComeAndSee.1356:

Support guardian’s in WvW are incredibly powerful — group heals, wall of reflections, wall of lining+sanctuaries, swiftness, stabilities, and tomes.

And absolutely none of what you list here is unavailable to someone in full berserker’s gear. Your gear does not determine your traits or utilities.

You can’t heal with a Greatsword, Scepter, or Sword. The Mace can put out the highest amount of healing. The staff isn’t far behind. :O

Your gear and build determines what you’re good at and what you’re not good at.

PariahX.6970:

ComeAndSee.1356:

JQ needs to start up that recruitment train again!

For kittens sake, please don’t even joke about it . . . or at least wait until well after the March patch so we have some idea what the WvW population is going to shake down to. Know a lot of players and guilds on JQ sitting this round out waiting for culling and lag to take a dive. There’s too many players in tier 1 for the servers to handle as it is. We likely have the power to address lag ourselves if we would all just spread out a bit (across maps & worlds) but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Well, we got what we asked for. When the culling patch came out they lowered the map limit for a week and quietly increased it the next week.

As soon as all the possible zergs converge on one area the servers can’t handle it.

Barab.9016:

Whats up with all the taunting by BG players on a defeats ? Ive been laughed at, danced on, slept on, and on occasionally left their bleeding as the BG Invader emotes me till I die. It’s like BG amateur hour out there now and far more closer to the 1st time BG entered T1 than the more laid back BG that was here last time in t1.

People do it on all sides and it’s always pugs doing it.

Incomingray.8075:

KoRnStyleZ.7142:

Why should everyone in dngs use Full Dps berserks gear builds??? I know the faster you kill the boss the faster the dng will end, but again if i wanted to play a pure DPS char i would go for Warrior…. Oh i found the perfect solution. Lets remove all the Healing Power, Soldiers (tankish) items and attributes, and make all the proffessions being Pure High Damage Dealers…..

Slow down here, you have to realize I said to each his own, i’m just offering advice based on my experience, I also said that we have alot of support while in full dps mode, you can’t dispute the fact that some Guardians are making high dps builds work, if it doesn’t work for some people that’s fine, play whatever style you want, I just prefer to see high damage Guardians who don’t neglect their utility in my groups so that’s what I advise other Guardians to strive for because it has worked so well for me… and i’m stating reasons why.

I use healing power in PVP alot, I just don’t see a place for it in optimal dungeon running at this point.. I like fast runs, I want to get the dungeon finished and get back to pvping Oh yeah and I do switch in tough/vitality gear in dungeons when the situation calls for it, I don’t use full berserkers only, my build is dps slanted but has lots of utility.

Also want to add that being squishy sometimes makes a dungeon a bit more exciting and challenging for me, I love the unscathed defender trait, I love maximizing my damage by not getting hit by anything.

Playing support Guardian in dungeons is about tanking the mobs that the squishies can’t take, providing boons/utilities to make the encounters easier, bringing healing (mace, selfless daring, battle presence, etc) while still being able to do reasonable damage.

DPS is just one thing, raw numbers. It’s about bringing the boss from 100% to 0% as fast as possible, but support is about keeping your allies alive to make it easier for them to kill things.

It’s the difference between being selfless and selfish. Guardian’s full potential really doesn’t show in DPS builds, especially in WvW.

Support guardian’s in WvW are incredibly powerful — group heals, wall of reflections, wall of lining+sanctuaries, swiftness, stabilities, and tomes.

Thief and Guardian are both fun, but it depends on your playstyle.

If I level anything next it’ll probably be an Elementalist.

Golems are melee ranged, fragile, slow, and you have to defend them. They get destroyed by siege weapons.

Game breaking would be the horrendous lag on T1 maps where you can’t cast any skills for 10 seconds.

JQ needs to start up that recruitment train again! Primetime US it’s coming down to three guilds having to play firemen.

I have three classes and the down states are all good. Nothing is as OP as the Elementalist one though.

Thief — Teleport is short ranged and only useful if you have allies nearby you or nobodies attacking you. You can’t teleport through doors or off cliffs. The #3 stealths you for 2s which is basically useless in PvE and PvP.

Guardian — Knockback is great for trolling people or using it to give your allies some breathing room to res you. #3 is an AOE heal which can heal downed people as well and usually heals you for about 25% of your bar.

Mesmer — #2 creating a clone is better than Thief #3 because it puts you in stealth for about 3 seconds and can be used immediately. It’s basically a dice roll where you get teleported. #3 creating a DPS clone is ehhh in PvP, but helps rally you in PvE.

Shimond.2478:

DeathPanel.8362:

Shimond.2478:

You’ll never be a true healer or tank really, so in my opinion going full support is just going to slow your group down unnecessarily (since you won’t do as much damage, thus boss fights take even longer). A balanced build is superior, enough that you can help the group out (it’s what guardians do) but still hit hard enough to matter on the damage end.

That’s not true. Guardians will never compare to any of the dps classes in dmg anyway so there’s no point in speccing for damage. Guards are useful for their boons and condition removal abilities as well as utility skills(reflection, retaliation, stability, regeneration etc.), not for their actual direct combat dmg.

The extra damage squeezed out with a full zerker spec (and I’ve tested it with a full zerker set) doesn’t outweigh the lost utility in support and survivability.

Nobody here is advocating running around in a full zerker set nor saying that a full dps guardian is the way to go.

I’d appreciate if you read what I said instead of try to put words in my mouth and argue those.

By full support what I meant was focusing on healing/tanking ONLY and ignoring damage entirely – this is a bad idea. A balanced build is where you really shine. As good a healer as you can possibly be, people will die if they make stupid mistakes nor can you “hold agro” – you will never prop up a party’s shortcomings in that fashion like you would in other games. You need to bring SOME damage to the table or you’re just as much a liability by extending boss fights.

You can’t “ignore” damage because every possible tank (and cleric) piece possible has power or precision snuck into it. It’s just a simple fact that Guardian DPS isn’t AS good as other classes. My Thief (and Mesmer — not as good as my Thief though) can put out double the damage my Guardian can dish out even in a full DPS build.

However, my two other classes don’t have the level of support abilities a Guardian has.

KoRnStyleZ.7142:

Hello Everyone. I’m leveling my Guardian right now and i want to ask a question. IS Full Support Spec( Boon “Buffer”, Heal, abit “Tankish”) Guardian viable for Dungeons?? I really like the way guardian works with boon etc but i am not sure if it will work well. Also if it is, whats your opinion about Weapons etc?

Yes, “Support” Guardians are very viable in Dungeons and people love having you in their parties! You can Tank, use support skills that make encounters a lot easier, and heal your party very well.

However, you aren’t a real Tank, DPS, OR healer. You’re a hybrid. You tank by being able to self-heal yourself with the mace and you heal with your mace skills, but they have long cooldowns so don’t think you can sit the back and be a healer!

You definitely should run Null field instead. It’s just so much better in terms of support/PvP capabilities.

I play a bunker Guardian and I laugh at Thiefs. :O