Guild Wars 2

I used to trait for cons ground targeting! so I love that it’s baseline now. One thing nobody mentioned. I remember traits used to be 30/30/15 but you can go 15/15/15/15/15(not that I want to do this) if you wanted to… is this not an option anymore?

Hello I apologize if this is a stupid question. I just got back into the game after not playing it for over a year. And boy a lot of things have changed. I’m trying to figure out…are consecration skills now automatically ground target skills without being traited? If so that’s kinda awesome

I am loving the consolidation of symbol traits! I used to have to miss out on other traits if I wanted to have larger symbols, that lasts longer, and heals. Now it’s just the one! Thanks ANet!

Also are we not allowed to distribute traits across all 5 disciplines now anymore? It seems to only limit you to 3….(but all the way to grandmaster on all of them )

There’s so many patch notes I need to go through I bet. So because mainly I’m lazy….Are there any notable major things you guys love or hate? Just based on your personal experience with your guardians…

I used to LOVE the glitch that caused ground targeted sanctuary to be near instant cast. It’s not as fun to use now. As by the time I’m trying to save a glass canon teammate from harm he’d already be dead…..

foofad.5162:

You should have enough. Go to the mists, equip a sword, and run through the autoattack chain against a single golem. When you hit the last attack, you should see two burning ticks within a second of one another.

Thank you I will try this again…

I don’t care about what people say, scepter fulfills my playstyle best

here are reasons why I like it:
1. When I’m low on health and need to recover, I can still continue some form of dps against a single target boss while creating a little bit more distance. My offhand of course is the focus, to get those free blocks and blind.

2. When the enemy is positioned over a moat/trench or maybe high on a pedestal (still talking about PvE) and it is dangerous for you to move in by yourself.

3. When your teammates are ranged classes, it is easier to buff them/bubble/WoR near them.

4. Jumping puzzles sometimes have annoying enemies/traps that you can handle from a distance

I’m sure there are more reasons…. but my point is you have a second weapon set, in most situations you want to utilize this for a change of tactics in the game when a situation calls for it. I don’t know about dps, but I’m pretty sure even the highest melee dps will lose its momentum if you need to step back for a second to recover….

oh I’ve also solo’d a legendary boss while my teammates were dead with a scepter/focus it took a while though.

I am trying to do this burn build with minimum cost from my current build but I am having trouble trying to get my burn duration to get over that 100% threshold to get that second tic. Am I doing something wrong here?

rare veggie pizza 40%
20 in zeal 20%
radiant fire 20%
superior sigil of smoldering 10%
superior rune of lyssa x2 10%

I still don’t see my burn duration increased…. where did I go wrong?

Behellagh.1468:

Falunel.7645:

Warning: the following post may seem elitist.

Actually it’s just the opposite of elitist. Switching weapons sets or slot skills for team/dungeon is a lot less elitist than insisting on a specific trait load out or armor/weapon upgrades and type (re Berserker).

Exactly my thought, I am frustrated but not to the point of making other players change things that are troublesome to do like re-traiting or having a new armor set. Just the basic utility swap or major trait swap. The devs made this is swappable without re-traiting, why not take advantage of it.

I just did, because I felt the class wasn’t fun, I kept dying, the mechanics doesn’t ring well with my play style.

Another reason I did in the past was I thought I could fall in love with the look of my asura guard, but soon I realize I just want to be human. So I restarted my main, same class, different race.

I just need to vent. I have grouped with many of my friends in this game who traits/specs very glass-cannonish with utility skills that provide little to no effect on teammates. I have these kinds of builds when I solo/roam of course this is acceptable, but when we start doing dungeons and stuff I feel very irked by the fact that they don’t have a more team oriented build. And when I say something about it they just respond, oh we’re casual players we don’t feel like changing our specs constantly. Which PLEASE Anet, bring back our saving build feature please!

Just to put an example out there. Say it is a trait/skill that increases damage for all allies. Maybe this is something small compared to a utility/signet that increases damage for the player singularly. But when it affects ALL allies it is still 5 times the effect, which equals more damage output as a team!

even something as simple as healing skills, I see players that would rather use their solo heal as opposed to team heal. This just frustrates me as a player that always looks out for teammates! There is no “designated” healer in this game, it just simply doesn’t work trying to save everybody running around like headless chickens.

thankfully Anet has removed magic find from gear stats, because this is another piece of stat that I feel enables these selfish players. What is the point of having awesome gear if you are going to do dungeons for the most part with your magic find gear???

I don’t ever feel that guards are underpowered, I have played every class except for necro, and I keep getting drawn to play my guard again and again. The devs must be doing something right with them.

yeah I also don’t like symbols mechanic period, because it is very weapon dependent. For example, what if I want to use a 1H sword for flavor, then my traits pertaining symbols are a waste? or when I go for underwater fights, these trait lines for symbols are also a waste…..

Hey I just got back in the game after a few months break. I noticed writ of exaltation are noticeably larger. With that in mind is writ of the merciful a worthwhile trait to use over empowering might when grouping? (my crit chance is 43% if this affects it)

I used to invest all points into healing power when I first started. Now I invest into precision as well, this gives me more damage output as a whole. Vigorous precision and empowering might in the honor line can really benefit from this. I have healing trinkets/accessory, but precision on all armor set with rune of lyssa. 900 something healing power, and 43% crit chance I think it’s pretty well balanced for solo play as well as team play….

I just started playing a ranger, why do I feel like many of the trait lines include pets one way or another, there needs to be a non-pet emphasis trait line.

Daecollo.9578:

Okeano.5930:

Daecollo.9578:

Okeano.5930:

Daecollo.9578:

I don’t think you understand.

AH is the best PvE Trait in the entire game.

For lazy baddies, yes.

You’re using 60 points for a build, you think AH “stacks” and heal multiple party members. Just stop.

Your not reading what i’m saying, so I will just ignore you.

Holy crap are you blind? THEY DON’T STACK! YOU DON’T GET HEALED WHEN ANOTHER GUARD TRIGGERS HIS AH.

Let me spell it out for you since you obviously don’t understand.

When a Guardian uses Symbol of Protection, it gives Protection and does damage, which can critical and also give Might. (gasp)

Those are two boons which affect all allies, which means it could give another guardian who has AH those two boons (gasp) and also heal him!

I’m sure more people have responded to this as well. AH only procs when you cast the boons, not when you receive boons from other people. So, no what you’re describing above does not happen.

phokus.8934:

You’re always going to get that with Scepter as that’s how most of the ranged travel time abilities work. And it would be ridiculously overpowered if it homed in on players. The only change I can even remotely on the table is making it pass through players (one player, let’s say).

interesting idea…. keep it slow but make it pass through walls this will throw a really nice spin in things

nooooo they messed with my sanctuary ground targeting cast time!

Wolfbrand.6523:

All professions suffer from some lackluster traits that never see any use. Guardian is no exception. Maybe we can get some visibility for the upcoming patch that is bringing trait changes. Post your trait ideas here!

Radiant Fire
Torch skills recharge 20% faster. Zealot’s Flame no longer burns, but now explodes dealing area damage on up to three foes.

Scepter Power
Scepter damage is increased by 5%. Smites area of effect is increased by 50%.

Inner Fire
When you are set on fire or inflict burning you gain 2 seconds of fury.

Powerful Blades —> Harnessed Blades
Sword and spear damage is increased by 5%. Zealot’s Defense may be used while moving.

Mace of Justice
Mace damage is increased by 5%. Symbol of Faith is instant.

Unscathed Contender —> Fury of the Saints
Deal 15% more damage while under the effects of aegis. When aegis is removed, you gain fury for 6 seconds.

Please contribute your own submissions/suggestions for increasing the viability/fun of many of the Guardian traits!

They are awesome suggestions!

I did the same thing as you, only my first was an asura guardian, I later regretted it because it is difficult to appreciate their armor aesthetic since they are so small on the screen. I suggest human or sylvari. I ended up re-rolling a human and I have been content

Rin.1046:

I have a couple of questions regarding Santuary.

First, now that some attacks are unblockable, such as the Thief’s dual DP skill Shadow Shot, does this mean a Thief can teleport inside the bubble or will they get pushed back out again?

Second, now enemies can deal damage to players supposedly protected by a very long cooldown skill, does Anet plan on reducing the cooldown on Santuary to compensate?

Oh that would be so great if they reduced the recharge time. I would imagine if the thief gets in the bubble, he would get knocked out soon after. Not sure though…

thanks for the clarification!

has anyone notice a reduction in orichalcum ore prices due to the unlimited mining pick?

Can anyone tell me how the regen boon works….I know the duration is dependant on the character applying the boon. What about the heal amount? Is this dependant on healing power of the applier or healing power of the receiver? Thanks

I love guardians so much in fact I have 2 guardians, 1 human and 1 asura :P

wow they also tipped the scale for warriors when fighting guards. Very obvious PvP based things countering guardians. Like unblockable attacks. Do we get to keep our aegis at least when the attack hits? And 3% increased damage per boon on target trait. These abilities/traits are almost useless in PvE…. but certainly made for guard countering…ugh so annoying

Danicco.3568:

I just hope the Guardian community grows up and stop this “AH build the best” egoistical hive mind and actually work in bringing the best for their groups.

^ this. I never played AH ever with my guard(my main). I don’t understand what the fuss is all about, when I read that it doesn’t heal teammates I was instantly turned off. I would rather explore trait trees that I can switch up between solo play/team play on the fly and the valor trait line lacks that.

GS/hammer weapon swap is nice for some serious enemy CC in PvE. Start with GS, pull them in with 5, switch to hammer, trap them in with 5.

Silver.4798:

Thanks for the replies guys this has been quite helpful!

Perhaps the problem here is that I’m not using my boons properly or appreciating them. Thieves don’t get a lot of boons to work with… so the only things that are familiar to me are might and swiftness. I have a general idea of what they each do but not the specifics.

So with hammer im constantly applying protection on the 3rd auto chain, and retalliation when i activate this chain from mighty blow.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I probably am, but the protection is just damage mitigation right? -33% I think from both ranged and melee? How is this being applied “near constant,” just from the autoattack? Does -33% really make a big difference? (Any damage mitigation is better than none obv, but how effective is this?)

Also, how effective is retaliation? How much damage do I reflect back and is it only vs melee or also vs ranged mobs? Once I activate the combo field, and I have to activate it rather quickly the symbol disappears fairly quickly, I don’t think retaliation lasts very long.

How do you guys go about dealing with mixed melee and ranged mobs? I’m running into a lot of situations with the dredge where I have 3 guys in front of me occasionally dazing me, 2 on the corners shooting things and 1 more guy about to get into position to start shooting me. My hammer AoE hits 2/3 melee-ing, and getting dazed every so often is annoying (but I can deal with that with hold the line). While this is happening I’m tanking damage from 3rd melee guy and the 2 guys ranging from the back, so I kill the 2 guys in my AoE, run to the first guy shooting, kill him (still taking damage the entire time), and then work my way around.

I can get away with this at level 43, I highly doubt I can get away with this in orr or the tougher fractals/dungeons. How do hammer guards deal in these situations?

aah the dredge is my least favorite enemy to fight as a guardian… You can throw your blinds out the window. The trick with symbols is you kinda let the symbols do its thing, don’t worry about dealing damage from your hits. This is why I trait longer symbols. And swap between 2 weapons that deal symbols. stack 2 active symbols together and laugh even as they try to daze you, you are still dealing damage. That’s how I do it at least…..( I play pre-dominantly PvE)

ever since they fixed the cone radius, it hits MUCH better

to be honest I run 0/10/0/30/30, I don’t have AH, the nice thing about hammers/mace/focus is you can facetank a champ pretty comfortably. It takes a bit of timing, but you can heal yourself back up given the right blind/block timing. I find that boon duration from virtues to be more beneficial to teammates vs AH. I can say with confidence you cannot have this synergy with GS. GS=good against mobs, not so much on bosses.

And just to add to the topic, the damage from symbols alone without traiting in Zeal is pretty good. I never realized this that just doubling up on the symbols means I am free to cast other skills because the symbols are continually doing the damage for me. Love symbols! Hmmm makes me want to try zeal….symbolic power….

from a technical standpoint I need a mouse to constantly lock my view to slightly behind/to the side of me. Auto attack with scepter, while pressing forward/strafe at the same time. Run in a circle booyah!

Lightrayne.7829:

If you’re going 30 in virtues mainly for the boon duration, you might want to use a boon duration rune set (in addition to/replacing your virtues investment):

• 2x Superior Rune of the Water (+15% boon duration)
• 2x Superior Rune of the Monk (+15% boon duration)
• 2x Major Rune of the Sanctuary (+10% boon duration)

wow do these runes stack?? that seems really cool in theory

I just recently played around with this set. This is soo awesome for PvE. I spec 0/10/0/30/30

I do a symbols build(larger, heals,longer).

What do people recommend with this….I am torn between 30 in virtue versus 30 in valor?
I would think AH build would make him even more unstoppable at face tanking. But on the other hand virtues is nice at giving that 30% boon duration…and VoR.

Playing symbols is nice! Eles can practically crowd around me against champs and be alright

I thought the dev’s original intention for burns(correct me if I’m wrong) is that it has the highest damage per tick as it is compared to bleed or poison in a single stack. So they felt it would be highly OP if it had any other perks added on top.

Something like Soulcalibur V voice customization would be cool!

I like this…idea

Dristig, I dunno if you’re a human guard, but last night I was just messing around with utility skills and stumbled across “prayer to lyssa”. This skill might synergize well with your extra damage on enemies with conditions….

I am using it mainly for the random boon every 12 secs. I know people knock on racial abilities as being lackluster, but we’ll see It’s either that or stand your ground( 2boons) with 24 sec CD(traited) oh I guess it is lackluster since it only affects you, not party, but if you’re soloing hey why not….

Is it just me or I feel like Flame and Frost enemies are like made to be the counter to guardians….

First, there is the dredge who are immune to blind. Then there’s the destroyers who are immune to burns, also they create these lava mound things that prevent us from being stationary(if we rely on symbols/consecrations we’re screwed).

sigh the price we pay for being awesome…..

yup, stability for example is a very situational buff, I would not be using that utility skill unless I sense it coming right before battle, and i don’t think it will be OP since once you engage in battle you can no longer switch.

As a person that played GW1, when will we get to see this feature brought back? I can’t see this being that difficult to program. Yes you may only switch when out of combat still. I appreciate the fact that major trait slots are something you can change easily without the need to respec(which is easy/cheap enough as it is). But it’ll be nice when preparing for combat against certain enemy types, to be able to switch in between battles, like for example: boss fights I tend to equip my character differently than regular trash mobs…and I am always constantly experimenting with different weapons and utility skills, as well as my major trait options.

People talk a lot about burn sustainability like it ONLY comes from VoJ. There are other means to cause burns…like using a #4 torch, Judge’s Intervention, Purging Flames. With these I generally don’t run out of burns for a good while.

yup I feel the same way, in fact I levelled 2 toons one asura and one human, both guards

I have a lvl 80 warrior, as well. I just don’t understand how being a heavy armor class, the warrior can’t stay alive as well as a guardian…..I remember always dying when I get too many add-on mobs. As a guardian I think I may have even unlocked an achievement of never dying past 500k exp. I’m sure that is not the highest tier though…as I wasn’t even aware such an achievement exists.

Here is my take though why a lvl 80 guard feels so right. Our main enemies at lvl 80 in PvE at least are very much reliant on inflicting conditions with low/moderate atk power(the risen). So since I have PoV trait as a guardian, it was the perfect counter to these kinds of enemies. It would be interesting as they introduce more game content to see if this is gonna feel the same to guardians if the enemy type were not condition reliant. I know karkas are an example of where I would not be as comfortable.

do u think the devs cripple us in the ranged abilities cuz we would be OP otherwise? Honestly I have no issue with scepters in PvE since enemy npcs are generally either slower or stationary enough. But hey if they are gonna buff us guards even more who’s complaining!

I used to run GS/scepter+focus, then that last patch where they buff staff happened, now I don’t mind staff. But still for boss fights I still rely heavily on scepters…( mainly cuz of the focus skills I guess)

ValkoorSC.9178:

Just change the Staff 1 skill. Instead of an short range AOE make it 1,200 Range single target skill.

nooo then you can’t zerg tag things anymore!

Alvik.4207:

If they would fix scepter #1 orb to follow targets and make #2 smite a real AoE I would use it all the time, even with offensive builds.

how is #2 not a real AoE?

Please make scepter 2 a symbol already…..This would balance out that lack lusterness of scepters. It looks like a symbol, why is it not a symbol!!!!

Daywolf.2630:

Waraxx.4286:

actually it’s

Master of Consecrations and boons on virtue activation VS. cooldown reduction on your signet

Pretty much, + precision & condition duration.

10% duration may not seem like a big deal, but using flame legion runes adding +5 damage against the burning, more crits along with extra crit dmg from valor, well it adds up.

Add +5 mace trait and +10 night sigils (mace/shield – GS) and on burning foes, I can’t complain

radiance is precision&cond damage. Doesn’t this mean the burning inflicts more damage per tick, but doesn’t actually stay on longer….

O_O this whole time I thought boon duration was a selfish thing as I thought it only applies to myself. Just found out it affects whoever I cast it to….!!! Awesome

I must say sanctuary’s weakness lies in location based skills…like the kind those eles cast