Guild Wars 2

Dojo.1867:

I hate when people ask to nerf specs that aren’t even played in top lvl team queue because they aren’t good enough.

Quoted for truth.

It’s really just another learn to play issue.

lordkrall.7241:

The Holy Advenger.1758:

now theyre going to be reworking armors, runes, and sigils. This is something that shouldve happened before launch.

If they were going to hold off a game until it was at perfect balance they would never release anything at all.

Balancing takes time, and it changes with every release, so either they will have to spend years for balance and never add anything at all after the game is released, or they would have to use the current system.

Except what they’re doing has absolutely nothing to do with the actual balance. It’s a cheap attempt to “fix” poorly designed/implemented content, instead of improving the actual state of the content.

The “damage is over the top” was a poor excuse thrown at people who fail to see (or just don’t bother to) the bigger picture, and guess what? Most of them bought it – same people who think that berserker builds are the problem with PvE.

It’s hot-join, no one cares. It’s for lulz and people go there to kill, not play objectives. Think of it like random arenas of GW2.

I am particularly bothered by this unnecessary stat name change.

We already have ferocity in game, and it has an entirely different meaning.

Prowess however, sounds a lot better as a stat name and the stat as such has existed since the betas.

I’d really like to hear a developer’s response and reasoning behind this.

Seeing how they’re leaving things mostly as they are in sPvP not much will change there overall. As far as PvE and WvW, things will stay exactly the same as they are, not sure where you got your idea from.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

They have really good DPS, but they have to work at it a bit more than other classes like warrior or mesmer.

What. Let’s say they do.. it’s single target tho, kk.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

and focus on being supportive and holding aggro

I’m sorry, what? Ranger and support, does that combination even exist? It’s not something you need anyway in PvE. Holding aggro? Uh.. this is GW2, I think he mixed WoW for GW2.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

There are some very successful dungeon builds, but most of them aren’t DPS focused.

See, problem right there. You do not need anything else than DPS in dungeons or PvE in general. Period. This is a consequence of getting rid of the holy trinity. Anyone who is decent enough at their class can roll through most (or all) of the PvE content by wearing berserker’s.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

If we buff rangers just for dungeons, than they are too strong for the open world. Considering I can solo most content in the open world by letting my pet tank, I feel ranger is very powerful outside of dungeons.

Okay, but other classes still faceroll through mobs a lot easier and buffing pets to be able to take on more mobs would make the class too strong.. in fact, other classes would still have it better; I fail to see how giving them AoE reduction would make them too strong. Except that they wouldn’t be dying as soon as a boss drops it’s eyelash on them, in DEs and WvW as much.

The way I see it, the pure ‘archer’ archetype we know from other MMOs simply does not exist in GW2 world. Ranger doesn’t come close to it, since it’s a very pet-oriented class with a rather crappy longbow. It’s fine, the general idea at least, just implemented badly.

I will go even as far as saying a class that is heavily reliant on pet and it’s AI has absolutely nothing to do in a game that wants to have solid/competitive PvP, but that’s not something we’re discussing here. Inb4 someone brings WoW’s hunter into this – pets there were merely a utility (not to mention they tanked the kitten out of anything), and not something you were relying on in PvP nearly as much as you’re forced to in GW2.

I’ve always been an archer, it’s the class I started my MMO journey with and it’s probably the class I’ll stick with forever. I’ve always had most fun with it in just about any MMO I’ve played; GW1 being an exception, since I monked most of my time, but I had tons of fun PvPing with a ranger. I wish they just brought the class over, I know for a fact that it would be a lot more enjoyable.

haxi.9038:

paleeshi.1924:

-just many incorrect statements-

I’m tired of seeing posts like this.

Me too.

Silentstorm.7531:

This whole posts makes my head hurt do you guys even look at you tube lol? Guardians don’t struggle at anything. It’s just not as easy mode as it once was. Thus the giant QQ train. I’d be incline to agree something is wrong if I didn’t have oh 100 videos showing nothing is wrong……..It’s the player not the profession to be honest. You have more than enough examples on this very forum of why and how we are fine.

All I see in this thread at the moment is. People basically saying they leveled to 80 and never learned the profession. So now they want it to be easier because I never learned the proper way to use it. The only thing guardian sucks at is ranged. But even with skill you can overcome that so cut the QQ out. Because you will get something else nerfed complaining about crap we don’t need fixed.

Videos prove nothing. You can make the same videos with just about any profession as long as it’s vs. people that happen to perform worse than you.

I find it ironic of you to make such a post. You click skills in your videos yet you talk about skill here. I’ve nothing else to add here.

Ramethzero.3785:

The reason why people complain so much about anything is because its cheap, easy, and most of the time requires absolutely no social responsibility. Basically, its just to hear themselves talk. Mark Twain said, “People who feel the need to complain, have the widest category of issues to choose from”.

It seems the volume of things pointing towards devs, “Fix me fix me!” Huh? I noticed not many folks are really interested in fixing it themselves. Overcome, or move on… either way, the person that chooses to do so has at least made some effort.

Not everyone complains the same way. In fact, saying people complain (not saying you did that) when they provide constructive criticism is plain dumb. Some people provided arguments and constructive criticism as to why certain things don’t work or don’t work well enough and could/should perform better.

Sorem.9157:

Symbols are fine the way they are.

They are really not. I won’t bother explaining why because it has been mentioned a dozen of times on forums. If you choose to stay ignorant that’s alright, but if you intend to come out big on forums please do get your facts straight.

Sorem.9157:

Guardian isn’t meant to be a ranged class, at this point it should be evident to everyone.

I see this in nearly every thread like this one. Seriously, where do people pick up lines like this?! Are you a profession designer at ANet? No? Then stop making up stuff like that.

If my memory still serves me right towards the end of the betas one of the devs made it clear that they had a viable ranged option in their minds but it didn’t make it live because they had to focus on release.

Sorem.9157:

Dealing with it is better than QQing at the forums about it.

Then deal with the fact that most of your claims simply don’t hold true (or that we are all wrong, which is what your posts suggest anyway) and continue playing while the rest of us who can see through the nice things at being a guardian actually try to improve the areas where guardians clearly lack.

EDIT: Errors.

Having mostly played the guardian profession through betas and release I entirely agree on the problem part of the original post. Solutions, however, while some of them are quite nice I don’t fully agree with all of them, though I won’t be trying to make any points regarding those as everyone has their own ideas that would work for them.

Since major changes are not something that we will be seeing that soon, as it is not quite an easy task to do, it is important that the developers are aware of the core issues of the profession and will possibly (hopefully) try to address them at one point in the best way possible for them (and us).

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

All the scepter needs is it’s projectiles to home in on targets, it doesn’t need anything else changed.

That would actually require a not-so-small damage nerf for #1, while #2 would still be very unreliable compared to a symbol.

Levian.6742:

There is a Master trait under Inspiration, trait X called Restorative Mantras the heals allies on activating a Mantra. I would assume it heals the caster as well.

Casting does not equal activation when it comes to mantras. They heal you and your allies on cast, not activation.

ComeAndSee.1356:

In other MMOs there are usually soft and hard caps in place to make sure that stacking one stat doesn’t get out of hand.

Something I’ve long been wishing for to happen in GW2. I feel it would add a lot more depth to trait and armor builds when most of the people go berserker’s with 100+ percent critical damage at this point, for example.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

Mantra of Pain will damage and heal at the same time.

That is not quite true. MoR aside, mantras do not heal on activation.

If you want more offensive range take the torch, otherwise focus.

Making it a symbol would be a nice change. The symbol can give swiftness and the staff gets and overhaul = win.

Draeka.5941:

SoA mainly because it bugs out and roots you in place if detonated.

The most annoying thing about our shield. Also, #4 needs to be replaced with something on a lower cooldown that is at least worth taking the shield for.

I’d trade Wave of Wrath for this anytime.

Guardian is a mix of monk and paragon with some spiritual stuff, that is nothing new, Heinel.

What dervish element is there in a guardian? Oh, right, a scythe.

Doomcaster.5084:

I mean, dont they say that we need a tank guard and not a ranged….

I honestly don’t know where you people keep hearing those lines. I don’t remember ever seeing anyone saying “we need a tank guardian” and I’ve been doing dungeons since pre-release..

And if I would I’d throw my useless Tome of Wrath into their head.

Benjamin.7893:

It should stay so why? Because you play mesmer and don’t want to loose the necessity of having one in every spvp team? Stop being selfish.

I’m a guardian and I’m against homogenizing. There are other ways around it, but keeping professions unique is the right way to go here.

However, since comments won’t change ANets opinion about the portals here’s something that would move a mesmer a bit forward:

Signet of Illusions’ passive could give 25% movement speed and boost illusions’ health pool outside of the signet.

Arkensoth.8139:

Or… What if projectiles that hit the wall hurt enemies on the other side instead of you and your allies?

Genius!

Nope, sorry.

GoggleHat.2547:

I can, however, see bow-wielding guardians that shoot magic arrows. That would also make it so that we can wield all of the foefire weapons.

This is what most of you seem to forget when making suggestions about our (viable) ranged weapon option. The answer has been there for a long time.

Yaki.9563:

Symbols just need to be bigger. They are puny to the point of uselessness in many cases.

This. Traited version of them should be default.

Metaphysicist.9427:

Except the massive healing and utility, and other weapons.. but I mean, those don’t matter, right?

Massive healing? Do we play the same game?

Massive healing is what monks have in GW.

WW and MB have absolutely 0 chance to get nerfed.

No AoEs to nerf on guardians, no worries.

Ramiel.4931:

They are going the WoW route, instead of balancing, they are homogenizing classes. Everyone will do everything.

This is what I fear the most..

Necromancers can teleport and thieves can as well.. why do we need other professions to have the ability? Mesmers are the only ones to mass teleport people at the moment and it should stay so.

Tweaking/overhauling skills and traits to cause more difference between professions > stupid ideas like this one is.

Brutaly.6257:

This would be great so great as skill one on the staff and then make skill 2 a 1200 ranged aoe, that would have great synergies with SoS.

And then change empower to an aoe as well so it could be placed over and area, ofc still channeled and while channeling might on the team, it also burns the area.

Then we would have a proper ranged alterantive in WvW and they just need to speed up 1 on scepter and the ranged options would be more then enough.

I’ve thought about staff having trident #1 a hundred times and I really think it would be better than Wave of Wrath.

Love the idea about Empower as well. I think they should make hammer immobilize the same; a ground-targeted ability (but normal AoE rather than linear) , it would still be dodgeable only a bit more reliable.

Scepter needs more than just #1 tweak, smite is pretty crap too. I think it would be a lot better if a large fist smashed targeted ground and did damage in one hit (maybe an additional effect even), rather than having the damage being spread over time and hits being very unreliable.

I have been really expecting to be finally able to run dungeons with friends from NA servers while my EU friends are asleep, but nah..

At this point I couldn’t care less if the guesting system exists or not.

First of all I felt the same:

Jay.3284:

I feel like you haven’t actually tried other builds with the guardian, and is just mainly theory crafting.

For a moment I even thought you were trolling when I read those two:

Nike.2631:

The recently introduced Sigil of Generosity is just so good on a high crit hit build that you really can ignore conditions

Nike.2631:

While your Signet of Resolve and Purging Flames give you some condition removal at a distance (or while fleeing – hey, it happens), while engaged you should have no difficulties with conditions – the Sigil of Generosity will move them off you and on to your target so fast you may never even notice you had them, proving it is indeed better to give than to receive.

For your information that sigil has 10 second cooldown.

As for shouts:

Nike.2631:

Everybody uses them in the heavy armor crowd, and it easy to get wrapped up in the lure of 6x runes of the soldier.

There is a reason everybody uses them. It’s because they do far more for you and your party than your utilities(purging flames, bane signet) ever will, not to mention 2 out of 4 shouts are stun breakers, which you don’t use + sword you use on both weapon sets(?!) means you are a dead meat to any half-decent ranged player, especially because you don’t have any sources of swiftness and only have one gap closer every 10 seconds.. not to mention condition builds will eat you alive, with ease.

You also have 70% critical chance? Overkill. A rather large chunk of that percentage should be invested into other stats, which would improve your character in general.

All in all you are just missing out on a guardian’s real potential.

Nike.2631:

being able to change traits and utilities in the field is a strength of the game not to be ignored

and gear. Why would you need 4 guardians then?

Nothing wrong with not liking the staff as it is not as helpful as it looks on paper(in it’s current state). I don’t personally use it (most of my time, anyway) because I don’t like gimping myself.

You are really better off by supporting your team through other options. Healing is not among the best support and those might stacks are meh at best, because all that time you’re using staff you are losing out on too much DPS to make it worthwhile.

I suggest you read the stickied threads about guardians.

alcopaul.2156:

Razor.9132:

alcopaul.2156:

Add up the damage of 5 people with +15 stacks of might versus a single chop from a Twilight. and imagine that 2 of the 5 people are zerker warriors with maxed stack of might, thanks to the +15 stacks of might from the support guardian.

Yes, zerker warriors being the only crucial words here.

How about 4 zerker warriors and a support guardian? Over 9000 dps?

coz giving +15 stacks of might to 4 zerker warriors will surely produce higher damage output than you specced on Berserk depending on your GS adding damage.

Theoretically.

It’s still zerker warriors doing imba damage, no matter if you give them the stacks or not. Let’s take 4 balanced mesmers for example – I think a guardian with GS + those 4 mesmers would do a lot more overall damage than 4 mesmers with 15 stacks of might and a guardian without damage.

Also what swiftpaw said.

Staff is just not worth taking it’s current state most of the time.

I miss having one gear tier through my 6-year GW career.

ASB.4295:

Good news, everyone! We’ll have our complete ascended gear(12+2/12+4) and ascended infusion(another 12) by the end of the year, which means pretty much one new ascended gear piece per month, plus infusions. That’s definitely going to tide players over until 2013, when they will once again “consider” getting more gear into the game.

Welcome to GW2: Gear Gating.

alcopaul.2156:

Add up the damage of 5 people with +15 stacks of might versus a single chop from a Twilight. and imagine that 2 of the 5 people are zerker warriors with maxed stack of might, thanks to the +15 stacks of might from the support guardian.

Yes, zerker warriors being the only crucial words here.

Ynna.8769:

The Staff has been a problematic weapon since Beta and it only ever gotten minor tweaks that didn’t address the main problems.

The first problem is that the Staff has no internal theme, like the other weapons have. Other weapons have a clear niche (Aoe-Damage, Control, Defense…) but the Staff’s abilities don’t work together, at all. It has AoE-damage, control, defensive support, offensive support and all those different abilities have no internal synergy whatsoever.

The second problem is that the niche the Staff is supposed to fill is rather useless most of the time. The Staff is a support weapon, but going heavily into support isn’t really that good (sometimes it is, but most of the time it isn’t).

How would I change things? I have no idea, really. Redevelop it from scratch, maybe? Keep what works and change or replace what doesn’t and make sure the weapon has some internal synergy (giving it a projectile finisher might work).
The problem with doing an overhaul is that some players will have gotten used at the skills of the Staff and build a strategy out of it, and those are going to be annoyed.

QFT.

I have my hopes high for staff and scepter total overhauls or tweaks with additional viable weapon added to this amazing profession.

You can’t make such statements without actually playing the profession, OP.

Many things in the game sound overpowered or perfect on paper while reality is really different.

Rennoko.5731:

Yes, clicking isn’t optimal (I use ZXC for my utilities for instance), but it isn’t going to make or break him in PVP.

It does just that, it breaks you in PvP. Having proper keybinds not only speeds up your reaction time, but also allows for more flexibility with movement while using abilities.

Rennoko.5731:

Backpeddling is fine as long as you are using the mouse to turn frequently enough to avoid serving your back up as the primary target. I dodge backwards frequently, so losing the back button would be difficult for me personally.

No, because http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_speed
I’ll give you the dodge roll, though, it does have it’s uses in GW2.

The heals thing I believe in his case is more of a bait than anything. He removes a few conditions, tops himself off, and says “BURST ME”, and as evidenced in the video, everyone tries to do that, where he pops into DS to absorb most of it, or baits into wells.

The problem with waiting until the optimal time to use a heal, is that you open yourself up to a strong interrupt chain, which you would have to absorb in DS, now leaving you with little to no DS, little to no HP, and a heal that is off cooldown, but impossible to get to without asking for another stun/fear/interrupt. Pre-emptive healing gives him the best chance to have that spell off cooldown when he really needs it later on in the fight, while getting rid of the opening salvo attrition.

While the optimal time to use a heal really varies, you shouldn’t overheal just like that, because skilled people will use that to their advantage.

The whole “bait” argument is weak here as people on the video are just not experienced. I mean who jumps into a mark/well bomb just like that, really? That does not happen vs. good players. In his case it did work, yes, but how do you know how skillful your opponent really is to waste a heal that early? You don’t.

Few things you should (at least consider to) change if you are into PvP:

*Backpedaling – I suggest you unbind it (maybe even bind a skill to that button) and strafe (A and D) instead.

*Clicking – just not the way to go, your mouse is used for camera. Bind the right side of your skill bar to buttons like S, Q, E, R, F, etc., basically buttons that are close to your movement keys; maybe even use shift, alt and ctrl in combo with those, but don’t click.

*Wasting heals – in some cases you use your heal skill too early while you’re not even in danger resulting in an overheal and opening up a window for your target (who now knows you won’t heal for the next 25 seconds) to burst.

There are more things, of course, those three were just noticeable right away, props for making a video, though.

Oh look, people actually believe in the signet and condition build on a guardian.

Just like Alarox said, I’m pretty sure it’s a filler and there’s more skills/signets like this in the game that should be tweaked. We can’t expect major overhauls of skills/traits before first expansion, in my opinion.

Nay.

/15chars

So much fun.

/15char

Skill points can be used from the very start, what you’re referring to are probably traits and trait points. To be able to allocate them you need to buy the trait manual first from a ranger guide (NPC), though I suggest you buy it on trading post, because it’s cheaper that way.

There are different species when it comes to animal companions and they have different skills and different stats. If you want a tanky pet I suggest getting a black bear and remember to swap between them before they die.

Rats, rabbits, and the like do not count, you will be able to crit them for a few 100k damage later on but those aren’t there to be fought on a regular basis as they drop no loot and give 0 experience.

You can quite easily solo a group of mobs 5 levels higher than you again from the very start with the use of say axes and traps + your pet, you will figure it out as you get more familiar with the combat system.

Imps.

/15 chars

While seeing rifles on rangers would be somewhat nice I can’t support the idea, because, as many have said, it wouldn’t bring anything new.

If anything, I’d ask for an offhand sword with more offensive oriented skills or even a staff (nature(spiritual) magic, anyone?)

Joey.3928:

Do it. Greatsword rocks on Ranger. Don’t let the whiners tell you otherwise. If they do, tell them to find me. As I will be waiting for them with my greatsword

So you will tickle us with it, eh?

If I were you, I’d go with Kudzu instead. Legendary greatswords get old really fast, plus Kudzu fits a ranger perfectly.

Also I, personally, can’t imagine liking current legendary greatswords on a ranger.

That helmet is pretty dang awesome, yet it glows at night. What’s there not to like? It’s a perfectly fine, sylvari-themed headpiece. It’s one of the very few heavy armor headpieces in game I’d leave on at all times.

Tarsius.3170:

..otherwise we could just park ourselves somewhere with shields and regen up and blast away at things all day long.

Yeah, so? I don’t see this as a problem. It’s not like our ranged weapon would be powerful like warriors let’s say.

Asmodal.6489:

New 2h Weapon: The Crossbow

Skill setup is overpowered.

Silver.8023:

I say, fix the broken weapons we have now before adding new ones

Staff will never get a rework and neither will the scepter, minor tweaks at most is what we can expect.

We will get a ranged option somewhere down the road, whether people like it or not. As far as I remember, even ANet mentioned they had it in mind but had not enough time to bring it to life.

As for balance, there’s a thousand options to make a ranged weapon work on us without overpowering the profession.

I personally vote for a longbow, although I’ve had few ideas such as dual wielding a shield (#1 attack being a ricochet maybe) or even better – dual wielding a focus (there is a monk inside of us after all) with some guardian magic and range.

In my case it was neither of those. It was either his target dying 500 meters away from him or a bug.