Guild Wars 2

1) It really need to be ground targeted. However I do not want the skill to require manual targeting of an ally since supports skills don’t do that in GW2 (and I like it like that!). So only option I see is to make it ground targeted.

2) Symbols don’t hit hard because they also provide a boon to allies on it. So it is sort of a trade off. If you make then punish your opponent for stepping in them, then they just become like traps or marks. I like the symbols as they are. However, we really need more symbols! We can have only 1 symbol on a weapon, meaning only 2 symbols available at most with 2 weapons set. With so many traits that are based on it we need more skills with symbol. I would like utilities skills that are symbol and make a new weapon that focus on symbols. The necro got a bloody weapon with 4 marks on it, so why not us??

I agree with you on 3 and 4. Scepter need a buff.

5) The GS was nice with the SoW on skill 2. Nerfing the damage of the GS because of a retaliation problem was a mistake on Arena’s part in my opinion. They should just bring SoW on skill 2 like it was before and make the symbol grant might rather than retaliation. Might make more sense anyway for the GS since it is primarily a DPS weapon. I agree the range on skill 5 make it hard to use in PvP, but it’s a very good skill in PvE. Maybe make it range 900? But that might make it too good.

6) I don’t think Bane is supposed to be a interrupt skill. It’s the knockdown that make this skill good since we have so little CC.

7) Smite Condition alreay have a very low CD and the damage is AoE which is nice when surrounded. Compared to CoP it will remove 3 conditions and do it’s damage 3 time in a rotation of 60s so I think the skill is nice where it is.

8) Like many have comments before, we should have acces to our skills 6-9 when in a tome form. Not having our utilities while in a tome make them very hard to use effectively. I think I speak for any professions when I say that all elite that transform you should only switch your weapon bar and not touch your heal and utility bar. It is not fun making a build based on the skills you equip and not have access to them when using your elite skill. This make the elites not build friendly. Elites should not restraints our options!

9) I agree the healing on it is rather meh. However with only 5 points in Virtues it is already good. Combine it with Renewed Focus and it will provide 10s of regenration with ok healing instantly. If you have +healing gear it is even better. So it is hard to say if it need a boost or not. Since all guardians have the virtues, boosting it boost all guardian. Right now I think it’s not too bad as it is.

10) I agree the staff need more focus. Either make it more pure support but making skill 2 a AoE quick heal or make it a ranged weapon by improving skill 2 and putting a good AoE damage skill on skill 4. I don’t have problem with skill 1, 3 and 5 though.

I agree with 11 and 12 also.

13) The problem is that Arena doesn’t seems to want to split skills for PvP and PvE. Reviving defeated player is clearly a problem in PvP and WvW. However there is no excuse to not being able to revive defeated player in PvE. In PvP it should only revive downed player and have half the cooldown. In PvE make it revive a defeated player and keep the 240s CD. Being able to avoid a total wipe is worth a high CD, but 240s CD with a 3.75s of cast time to hope of reviving a downed player is useless. EDIT : Also when you use this skill and there is no downed player nearby the skill fail BUT will fall on it’s 240 CD. This need to be fixed as well!

14) The problem is the passive provide condition damage while we are probably the worst profession with conditions since burning is the only thing we can apply easily. Make it give Precision as a passive and you might actually see it used more. The active is really not bad.

15) Shelter not bad, might need a small boost in healing, but the damage it potentially block can be much better than the signet. Healing Breeze should be an AoE circle centered on the guardian, having to target the cone to heal others is not reliable and often you miss 1-2s out of the 3s of healing meaning you waste 33% to 66% of the healing you do to others. I would even add a remove 1 condition on healing breeze to make up for the small healing it provide to others.

In my opinion the guardian is not a profession with much burst capability. Yes we can “spike” our damage up with a rotation of key skills like others have demonstrated, but it will never be like some other professions where you can down someone in less than 3s (except in WvW vs low level people, but then any profession can down them easily). The 3 mains issues for guardian to burst effectively is :

1. Lack of gaining quickness realibly. We only have it on Tome of Wrath.
2. The fact that our best burst weapons are the melee ones, but we lack the CC need to be able to apply the full damage of our melee weapons. GS, 1h sword and Torch are good weapons to burst, but they don’t come with a CC on them, so you need to rely on your utility to provide the CC support. Alas, we only got like Signet of Bane and Signet of Wrath that provide CC. The Spirit Hammer is another, but I don’t find it very reliable on a moving target.
3. Our profession mechanics does not really encourage burs damage. Virtue of Justice is more for substained damage.

@Kita
There is nothing wrong with maxing virtues if y want to provide full support. AH is a nice trait, but it is a tanking trait, not a supportive one. Just saying you don’t have to necessary run AH, it all depend on your playstyle. Of course if Radiodread playstyle is all about being a front-liner, ground-pounding infantryman then I would agree running AH is better for this style of play.

@Danicco
You talk about the the importance of condition removal, but did you check the OP’s build? It got 3 shouts + Pure of Voice + solider’s rune, signet of resolve + purity and absolute resolution. He is stacking an enormous amount of condition removals (maybe even too much imho). Condition removal doesn’t always come from meditations skills. Otherwise you provided some sound and good advises.

@Radiodread
Your build is not bad at all. However, it is not a front-liner build, like others have said you do not have much offense and you lack in self-healing. If you really want to be a front-liner Kita and Danicco have provided you some good advise (like going 30 in Valor and getting either Ah or MF).

Now you want to keep your build here is some advise I can give you :
1. You got with cleric equipment which give lots of healing, but you only got HtL and your healing skill that use it. I would think about going with a Mace + Focus weapon set to have 2 extra ways to apply regenration to maximize your healing stat.

2. So you go with absolute resolution with a high healing stat, I feel Battle Presence would be better than Pure of Voice. You already got soldier’s runes to remove condition and you got plenty of condition removal already.

3. I feel 3 shouts is too much in WvW. 2 is engouh and you free a slot so you can put something like Wall of Reflecting (great against ranged enemies), Signet of Judgement (greatly improve your survavibilty) or Bane Signet (provide you with a CC).

The description clearly state that it activate when YOU apply burning to a target, not for allies. So I am sure it doesn’t work for others when you active VoJ since the virtue itself doesn’t apply burning (it create a boon that make the next attack inflict burning.) But I have no idea how the trait select which boon to remove.

However, this trait is on a 20s internal cooldown which I personnally think make this trait really weak because :

1. If your target have more than 1 boon then you have to wait 20s for each boon after the first one if you want to remove all theirs boons. Ironically boon normally doesn’t last 20+ seconds therefor by the time you can active this trait again chances are your target’s boons are over.

2. If you are using a build that focus heavily on applying burning, you only get the effect from this trait once per rotation of your skills which mean this skill doesn’t really help burning builds much.

I would like if the trait actually encouraged applying more burning to your target. Something like : “Your target lose 1 boon for every 5s of burning that you applied. Timer reset when burning ends or is removed.” This would make the trait more interesing without having to actually count in your head when your trait is ready to proc. I simply hate internal cooldowns on traits, because you have no indicator on your UI that tells you when they are ready to active. (exception being those with like 1s of internal CD which is there to avoid abuse with AoE skills)

The zeal line is mostly good with symbols or with spirits weapons. However you are not running spirits weapons and you have only your GS that as a symbol, so I feel it’s a waste to spend 30 in Zeal just to boost your GS (and Zealous Blade is very bad, it heal only for 25 per hit). I would only put 10 in there to keep Fiery Wrath which is a good trait in any offensive build. It is the same with your major traits choice in Honor, they are only helping your GS which I feel is kinda limiting yourself.

5 points in both Valor and Virtue are a must in any guardians build imho. You get a free aegis on 50% HP and boons on your virtues for merely 10 traits points. Also you have no conditions removal in your build. If you go in PvP without condition removal you will get beaten up pretty badly I can tell you that!

However, looking at all your stats allocation on your items you seem to lack a specific focus on your build. Offensively you got pretty much only power without precision. Defensively you are getting a good amount of Vitality and Toughness with your equipment but you have no defensive traits taken. And like I was saying you don’t have much synergies between your skills choices and your traits. It would be helpful if you could tell us what is your play-style and if you want a build that is more focused on PvP or PvE.