Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer:

• This was a random idea I had recently and in no way should be considered as the only solution to amending the current iterations of either skill.

I figure Signet of Mercy’s effect was quite lackluster compared to other revival skills, and “Save Yourselves!” could use some method to lower Condition Duration. So, I swapped the two!

“Save Yourselves!” becomes “On Your Feet!”

• Heal nearby downed allies instantly for 20% + 2 * Healing Power.
• Trait alert!: Allies rallied by this skill trigger Protective Reviver’s Boons for them and yourself.
• Cooldown increased to 90 seconds
• Casting time increased to 0.25 seconds (from 0.0 seconds)
• No longer breaks stun

Successfully reviving five allies with this skill and Protective Reviver (also in the same specialization with the Shout trait) would apply a massive amount of Boons. Paired with Altruistic Healing, this skill can be a strong turning-point in battle for both you and your allies. Like other Shouts, it boasts group support without sacrifice. The casting time included is to prevent the Guardian from reviving allies while stunned as it would potentially be too powerful in PvP scenarios.

Signet of Mercy

• Passive: -20% Incoming Condition Duration
• Active: Draw all conditions from nearby allies to yourself. Gain multiple boons for a short duration. The duration of all Conditions after this effect are reduced by 66%.
• Cooldown decreased to 60 seconds
• Range reduced to 600 (from 1200)
• Instant cast
• Breaks Stun

As Signets are more solo-friendly than group-oriented, Signet of Mercy would need an additional effect that supports the Guardian in such cases. The lower Condition Duration (both passive and active) would add some additional Condition removal without limiting the Guardian into the few traits available for removal.

Bonus: “Retreat!” becomes “Double Time!”

• No change. Name changed to support a neutral increase in movement (instead of ingoing or outgoing).

Brutaly.6257:

Memory serves me wrong apparently, played ah/shoutbuilds since early access and i cant recall sys just giving two boons. I cant for my life recall that it ever given me stability. lol im getting old.
You learn something every day.

Viralseed.9362:

In fact, two Boons at launch weren’t included as part of the skill: Stability and Aegis.

Memory isn’t the problem here.

“Save Yourselves!” is definitely the worst of the Shout utilities, but if Resistance would have fixed the skill, I assume they would have done it already when they did the last wave of balancing (when the split was removed). I believe the developers have either tried adding Resistance, or are “more conservative about balance” to do so.

Brutaly.6257:

Just add resistance to the shout. There are multiple “new” boons that are missing and all of them should be added so the shout works as it was intended at launch. For every boon they dont add in the shout gets relatively weaker and just more dangerous to use.

Adding Resistance to an instant-cast stun break with the purpose of absorbing dozens of conditions doesn’t seem broken?

“Save Yourselves!” doesn’t need every Boon added to it. In fact, two Boons at launch weren’t included as part of the skill: Stability and Aegis. It doesn’t need every Boon, and the fact it is no long split in PvP (10 second duration up from 5) makes it a powerful burst of Boons. Adding four more Boons including one to shutdown Condition builds and another to add the longest, self-application of Quickness available wouldn’t fix the skill as much as it would ruin the balance.

emkelly.2371:

wait, don’t shouts convert condis into boons? I have never once killed myself with “save yourselves”. I believe that it first pulls condis to you and then the conversion takes effect, or am i wrong? i could be wrong.

wiki.guildwars2.com”

If a Guardian has Pure of Voice, conditions drawn from allies will not be converted into boons.

source

I assume the same applies to Superior Runes of the Trooper.

Conditions pulled from “Save Yourselves!” are normalized per affected target.

Normally, the transfer effect of “Save Yourselves!” often risks near-instant death. While methods to counter this do exist, each requires a second skill to be equipped and consumed in rapid succession. Conditions have become much more powerful and plentiful from several balance patches. Resistance may have been added as a means of negating the potency of Conditions, but adding it would ultimately break the skill’s balance.

The change I am proposing would pull Conditions from affected targets, but only apply a fixed, maximum number of stacks with a fixed duration. The number of stacks increases based on the affected targets (duration in the case of Conditions stacking in duration).

Examples:

• When “Save Yourselves!” affects a target with Bleeding, you remove all Bleeding stacks from that target. You gain three stacks of Bleeding that lasts 10 seconds. Four additional targets have Bleeding. Those four targets are cleansed of Bleeding, but you gain an additional 12 stacks of Bleeding (a total of 15 stacks).
• When “Save Yourselves!” affects a target with Weakened, you remove Weakened from that target. You gain five seconds of Weakened. Four additional targets have Weakened. Those four targets are cleansed of Weakened, but you gain an additional 20 seconds of Weakened (a total of 25 seconds).

Mechanically, the skill doesn’t change. It’s function is to empower the Guardian temporarily while cleansing nearby allies of lethal amounts of Conditions. The risk, however, is substantially lowered as the number of stacks the Guardian pulls in are (in most cases) decreased.

Asmodal.6489:

adding time:
Around 2.400 hp/sec is possible

The two things I want to point out both deal with Wings of Resolve’s HP/s. You include Regeneration as part of the calculation, but you also state the 100% upkeep from Symbol of Faith. Since Regeneration does not stack intensity, the HP/s of Wings of Resolve would be lower. In addition, you appear to have calculated Virtue of Resolve’s passive and Wing’s of Resolve’s active in the same total. If you are using Wing’s of Resolve, you are not receiving the passive healing of Virtue of Resolve. Your total healing should drop to around 2080HP/s.

Disclaimer: I main Guardian. I am the primary tank in my guild and usually an Elementalist healer when supporting other groups (more difficult to obtain a healer).

My Elementalist does not have the most Healing Power I can obtain. I do not have Ferocious Tuning Crystals, 25 stacks of Sigil of Life (not realistic in Raids), or full Ascended gear (actually, none).

• Water Blast heals allies near my target for ~1.1k every 1.35 seconds (835HP/s)
• Soothing Mist heals around me for ~680HP/s.
• Cleansing Wave on dodge every 10 seconds for ~5k (500HP/s)
• Geyser every 13.34 seconds for ~5k (375HP/s)
• Overload Water for ~8.9k over four seconds (523HP/s)
• Four auras heal for ~2.1k each with an average cooldown of 45 seconds (187HP/s)
• Regeneration at 100% upkeep for ~360HP/s
• Wash the Pain Away heals for ~10.6k (424HP/s)

Before I give the total, I need to factor the loss from auto-attacking for using any of these abilities. Approximately half of the time is spent using other abilities with cast times, so Water Blast’s healing is reduced by half.

The final result is approximately 3,467HP/s. Guardians are no where close it the best in healing. I will say this, however. Guardian healers will deal more damage than Elementalist healers. The question then becomes whether or not the damage makes up for the loss.

I originally was built using Nomad’s armor prior to raids being released. I’d say my guild attempted Vale Guardian maybe ten times before we realized more DPS was needed. I’m currently wearing about half Knight’s and half Marauder’s. I could probably tweak the numbers more for better damage, but it doesn’t feel necessary as our problem now is successfully evading all forms of attack (and it’s the only spare equipment I had in the bank).

I will say this for Nomad’s tanks: in the Guild arena (and WvW by extension), Nomad’s tanks are almost impossible to down in 1v1. I mitigate, cleanse, and heal anything that comes my way. These fights, however, can last between 5 and 10 minutes as you slowly wear out the enemy’s cooldowns.

Ultimately, it’s feels likes a lot of unnecessary defense. Having not fought either of the two remaining bosses, I can’t say how required it will be to go back to Nomad’s. Raid bosses don’t appear to pressure tanks enough, so tanks are capable of running with split DPS/tank builds.

While this would indeed be a QoL change, it cannot be done without exploits involved. Any skill that would have a benefit during the casting period of the skill would allow a player to interrupt said cast in order to receive the benefits at a higher frequency than intended. This would then require internal cooldowns to prevent such events from happening. These internal cooldowns may not properly sync with the original cooldown of the skill. Alternatively, Dragonhunter’s Virtues would have to become instant cast which defeats ArenaNet’s desire to have offense-oriented Virtues.

Imagine for a moment all of the runes in the game with the “when you use a heal skill” ability. These rune effects have a cooldown of 10-20 seconds, and the majority of healing skills in the game have a cooldown greater than 10 seconds. If players could interrupt the heal and still receive these benefits, it would create several balancing issues. Thus, ArenaNet would have to increase the internal cooldown on runes which would break the balance for professions with short-cooldown heals. The same could be said about the “when you use an elite skill” runes.

The above examples are the same reasons both Shelter and Renewed Focus lose their healing and recharge effects respectively when interrupted (either by self or by crowd-control effect). If the player receives a benefit, the skill should not receive the interrupt cooldown.

ghost.3208:

Well… fine I’ll say it I’ve been using this while farming CoF p1.

But auto-attack works for me just by placing something on top of the left click, the only time it got interrupted was when I got into reaper shroud. I just left the target on the center of the stack and placed something on top of the left click to go afk so no need to personally held it down.

This has no effect on regular play. Players should be using more than the first skill. If I were in the same position, I too could hold down left-click for the same results. The problem I have is that in regular play, left-click doesn’t operate to the same degree of success as pressing the hotkey for the first skill. It has a strange disconnect where it cannot possibly activate auto-attack on your target, but other attacks can. In fact, if you lock a target (with right-click) and attack another target with a skill (other than pressing left-click), you will auto-attack that secondary target and not your locked target. Left-click should operate as a copy of your first skill (albeit with auto-fire), but it’s simply missing the auto-attack function.

Left-click does not activate auto-attack.

Pressing left-click initiates your first weapon skill. This was announced, and I couldn’t be happier. The idea of freeing part of my keyboard by binding it to the mouse was probably the best highlight of the livestream for me. It does not, however, start the auto-attack for the weapon. Instead, you must hold down left-click to continuously attack.

This is an issue because several actions can be interrupted if you press (or did not release) left-click. What makes this interaction more odd is by pressing another weapon skill, you can activate the auto-attack even though pressing left-click cannot. For example, my Guardian’s Whirling Wrath can be interrupted if I did not release left-click in time after pressing the key for Whirling Wrath. At the same time, activating Whirling Wrath successfully activates the auto-attack without the need to hold left-click.

I feel the following change should be made (or added) to the system:

• If the player has auto-attack available and has a target locked, left-click initiates the auto-attack.
• If the player does not have auto-attack available or does not have a target locked, left-click must be held down to continuously attack.

Designing Challenging Content:

…and some encounters may even require a member of your group to dust off that toughness gear to bulk up and tank some heavy hits to protect the condition-build players in the back.

Now that we’ve seen the new potency of healing builds for the Ranger (Druid), Elementalist (Tempest) and Revenant (Ventari), Toughness could open up tanking builds. From experience as a Guardian in full Knight’s gear, Toughness appears to have varying degrees of success. It is almost always canceled by a solid DPS build. If Toughness already have an impact on aggression, I feel the potency is too low.

Additionally, the idea of temporary aggression through Taunt could be incredible as it is a form of aggression that doesn’t rely on the concept of “bonus threat” stats. After some minor testing, I’ve found the debuff to appear on Defiant creatures, but it doesn’t appear to affect creatures with Defiance stacks. It may, however, affect creates with Defiance bars. I’m not entirely sure if it was working as intended, but it could be amazing if it that were the case.

So when it comes to tanking…:

• Could tanking builds be created in the form of Toughness?
• Could Taunt have a strong factor for tanking?
• Could other Professions receive Taunt?

After playing around with Dragon Hunter, there were two things that really stood out for me.

The Virtues feel solid. The cooldown on Shield of Courage could be reduced somewhat, but the other two (even without traits) feel like solid choices between the active effects and passive effects. What bugs me the most about this is how good these Virtues feel to use over the core Virtues. Core Virtues require many traits to be worth losing the passive effects.

• Virtue of Justice can apply up to 5 stacks of Burning for 5 seconds with traits. This is the same as one stack lasting 25 seconds. During the cooldown period of 21.75s, a Guardian would have to hit 39 times to reach the same amount of burning with the same traits. As an example, the Greatsword auto-attack hits approximately once per second. With one enemy, this isn’t enough to match. With two enemies, the Guardian already surpasses the active. With one enemy and other skills (Whirling Wrath and Symbol of Wrath), the Guardian still surpasses the active. In fact, the Permeating Wrath trait nullifies the usefulness of the active effect except when also actively using Renewed Justice.

• With the Healing Power available during the Beta, Virtue of Resolve with Inspired Virtue and Absolute Resolution heals for approximately 4,000 on activation. Its passive, however, heals for approximately 8500 over the cooldown period. Compare that to Wings of Resolve with no traits and the same Healing Power for 5400 health and 4770 over the cooldown period. If one were to take both Virtues and Dragon Hunter, Wings of Resolve would heal for a massive 6,800 on activation and 5150 over the cooldown period.

• Virtue of Courage can apply Aegis on up to five allies (yourself plus four allies). When traited, the Guardian can gain 2.175 stacks of Aegis over the cooldown period. This is only case where the active is better than the passive. However, the cooldown on the active is a harsh 75 seconds base. Shield of Courage greatly surpasses its effects when used co-operatively. In addition, the latest Shield rebalance has Shield of Judgment apply Aegis on the same number of allies on a cooldown as little as 16 seconds. Retreat can also apply Aegis in the same manner as Virtue of Courage at a minimum interval of 32 seconds. Compared to those, the cooldown of Virtue of Courage hardly justifies itself.

The other thing that really stands out is Symbol of Energy. Here’s a quick overview of Symbols:

• Symbol of Judgment is linked to an auto-attack, and is cast at the target’s feet. 1s of Protection is applied per tick, and ticks 3 times.
• Symbol of Faith is cast at the Guardian’s feet, and the Guardian can move while casting it. 1s of Regeneration is applied per tick, and ticks 5 times.
• Symbol of Wrath is cast at the Guardian’s feet, and the Guardian is locked during its animation. 1s of Retaliation is applied per tick, and ticks 5 times.
• Symbol of Swiftness is ground-targeted, and has no addition effects. 3.5s of Swiftness is applied per tick, and ticks 5 times.
• Symbol of Energy is ground-targeted, and applies 2 stacks of Burning on contact in addition to its effects. 3.5s of Vigor is applied per tick, and ticks 5 times.

I’m curious as to what uniformity Symbols should have at this point as no two Symbol is identical to each other. It was originally stated that Symbol of Energy would lose its Burning, but instead was doubled. I don’t hate the change. I like the idea of giving Symbols a sort of burst at the beginning of the Symbol to help in PvP, but no other Symbol has it.

Additionally, the Vigor gained on Symbol of Energy is 3.5s per tick. Its cooldown is identical to Symbol of Swiftness which has 4s of Swiftness per tick. Symbol of Wrath has a 5 second longer cooldown, but only applies 1s of Retaliation per tick. Oddly enough, Zealot’s Speed has the same Symbol with 2s of Retaliation per tick.

Karl McLain.5604:

It’s a possibility that E.P. could be merged with H.C.. I’ve seen quite a few mentions of that so far and it’s something that we’ve talked about a bit internally. If that were the case, we would need another Master slot trait.

Karl McLain.5604:

H.C. was intended to be a generic anti-dps option (with ties to the spec’s stengths), so keeping it in that vein would be something we’d want to shoot for.

Karl McLain.5604:

Being that auras are fairly bountiful for the Tempest, it would likely be more beneficial to have something without an ICD (or really low) so that you’re not running into a wall by just using the tools you’ve got.

I took your comments to mind when trying to design traits. I wanted to maintain the earthen aspect of name of the trait along with the concept of anti-DPS and a means of pairing well with Latent Stamina. The trait I came up with is:

Earthen Proxy
- Apply weakness to nearby foes upon successfully evading an attack.
- Weakness (3s)
- Number of Targets: 5
- Radius: 240
- ICD (1s)

I like the idea of forming a strong pair with Latent Stamina (the anti-DPS trait from the adept tier) but not restricting its potential to another trait as Renewing Stamina and Soothing Disruption are also excellent ways of maintaining Vigor. While speaking of Latent Stamina, I would personally like to see it removed from a fixed attunement. Keeping the Tempest’s abilities in mind, I propose the following:

Latent Stamina
- When overload becomes available, apply vigor in a radius. Granting vigor to allies also restores a portion of endurance.
- Vigor (3s)
- Endurance Gained: 10
- Radius: 240
- ICD (10s)

After switching attunements, overload goes on a 5 second cooldown. After that 5 seconds is up, you’ll apply Vigor in an area. The 14-20 second cooldown (varies on traits) after using an overload will also apply this effect. The only part I am unsure of is how well a timed area Vigor would go rather than on a key press, but I want to encourage maintaining an attunement to build the various overloads.

Unless I misheard, Shield of Judgment will be normalized at 4 seconds of Protection and will gain 4 seconds of Aegis. I was just complaining recently about how the Guardian has many traits relating to Aegis, but little application of it. This should help with a potential 16 second cooldown.

Shield of Absorption sounds much better now, but I’ll wait to see it in practice. Destroying projectiles while moving is a lot more interesting than being stationary. I still wish there was some sort of gain for doing so as it does not trigger on-block effects (small amount of health gained when destroying a projectile?), but I won’t complain on Shield receiving two amazing buffs.

Feel My Wrath’s cooldown increase is justified. 30 seconds was far too low for 5 seconds of Quickness. I use this on my PvE Guardian, and I won’t cry over the change.

Save Yourselves should help turn the tide in 1v1 fights, bit it still risks immediate death in group combat. I most likely will continue to not use it.

I’m hoping these aren’t the only changes. There are still a number of issues I can see with the usefulness of some of the utility skills. I continue to run Shouts in PvE and Mediations in PvP as I can’t find solid use for any others. I’m also unsure that some of the traits belong in the present positions. Some traits heavily conflict with each other in the same tiers where the two should be supporting. My fingers are crossed for the remaining changes on Tuesday.

I sat down in the mists and tested this because I too was curious. I tested switching between Death Perception and Dhuumfire. Only Reaper Shroud’s auto-attack was used on the invulnerable golems in the mist. Before timing, I achieved 25 stacks of both Might and Vulnerability. The following stat combinations were tested with approximate times (to half-seconds):

• Name: Dhuumfire (Death Perception if applicable)
• Berserker: 13 seconds
• Carrion: 17 seconds
• Celestial: 16 seconds (23 seconds)
• Rampager: 15.5 seconds
• Soldier: 18.5 seconds (22.5 seconds)
• Valkyrie: 16 seconds (17 seconds)

For the stat combinations I did not use Death Perception for, it would have been redundant. Either the critical hit chance would far exceed 100% or the amulet was tested for Condition Damage. I was using was Spite 3/2/2, Soul Reaping 1/2/X, and Reaper 2/3/3 with Runes of Strength, Sigil of Force, and full Bloodlust (as a handicap for the Condition Damage from Might). Since the Soul Reaping grandmasters are the traits in question here, Soul Reaping (and Reaper, of course) are mandatory. Spite is your primary method of stacking might which makes Burning’s damage worth it without Condition Damage gear, so I don’t see anyone dropping this out another specialization.

Ultimately, Berserker with Dhuumfire is unrivaled damage. You’ll have almost a full 100% critical hit chance and applying between 4 – 5 stacks of Burning. If you need the extra survivability, Valkyrie is a good choice as you’ll have almost 50% more health and Life Force, but you’ll deal approximately 19% less damage. As a bonus, I then tested Runes of the Flame Legion with Berserker and saved 0.5 seconds. This bonus, however, will mean less while not in Reaper Shroud.

TL;DR Dhuumfire is better than Death Perception as long as you have Decimate Defenses. As such, Berserker deals more damage than Valkyrie. The trade-off is health and Life Force which will affect the upkeep of your Reaper Shroud and overall DPS in longer fights. I will be running Valkyrie with Dhuumfire as losing Reaper Shroud lowers the abiltiy to stack Might, Vulnerability, and Burning (heavily affecting your damage).

Just a few questions in relation to tomorrow’s BWE2:

Will our Beta characters be wiped before tomorrow for BWE2?

• If yes, will our primary accounts be copied again so Beta characters can access our banks?
• If no, will we have access to new methods of acquiring runes and sigils that are not received by the included items?

I purchased the Standard edition of Heart of Thorns a little while back for $49.99 from the ArenaNet shop. Presently, I’m in a position to be capable of upgrading to the Ultimate edition, but I can’t find any option to do so. I’m aware the Deluxe edition is available for 2,400 gems, but I would much rather spend an additional $50.00 and upgrade directly to Ultimate. Is there a way to upgrade without losing the benefits I received from pre-purchasing the Standard edition (character slot, Beta access)?

I believe the hardest part about balancing the Symbol traits is because of Hammer. Symbol of Protection with Writ of Persistence has about a 114.3% upkeep (yes, it will overlap at times). Because of this, you will have an equivalent upkeep of Protection and will heal 122 health every second (0 Healing Power) to you and four additional allies in range. This is also likely the same reason Symbolic Exposure is a terrible trait in theory, when it actually averages at around 5 stacks of upkeep (a free 5% more damage). Tie this in with Fiery Wrath, Symbolic Avenger, and Symbolic Power for a ridiculous amount of Damage% (22%).

Writ of Persistence deserves to be a grandmaster in its current state. Otherwise, you would have to nerf the Symbol traits in Zeal or Hammer.

What I believe would improve the Ventari skills without changing functionality would be to make all skills (except for the elite) have no casting time. The Ventari’s tablet is essentially a pet. Unlike other pets (Guardian’s Spirit Weapons, Ranger’s pets and Spirits, Engineer’s Turrets, and Necromancer’s Minions), it requires the player to stop all weapon actions to move around. The idea of Ventari’s tablet is awesome, but taking a few seconds to interrupt your attacks just to move a tablet into a better location is a bit annoying.

As for the staff, I never really compared the damage with other weapons. The main upset I have with the staff is its second ability. Most chain skills don’t require you to be at risk for taking damage. Mesmer’s Illusionary Counter and Illusionary Riposte block an incoming attack preventing harmful effects while providing an excellent effect. The Revenant’s staff requires the opponent to be acting which more likely than not will result in you being in harms way. The follow up effect applies weakness for a few seconds, and the overall cooldown is quite low. However, I can’t help but feel the pay-off is mediocre when considering the risk the Revenant potentially in for an attack that doesn’t apply much damage or a prolonged effect. This, in my opinion, is the only skill on the staff needing a buff.

Clunky utilities.

Jalis

• Soothing Stone seems alright. The healing might be a little too low.
• Inspiring Reinforcement is amazing.
• Forced Engagement doesn’t seem to do much of anything. The cast time is too long to successfully interrupt opponents, and I’m not even sure Taunt can interrupt opponents. Most foes don’t even engage you when Taunted. I’m fairly certain bugs are involved, but the potency here is terrible.
• Vengeful Hammers is nice DPS I suppose. It’s just odd to think Jalis is paired with the Hammer, a ranged weapon, and a trait that reduces damage from opponents far away from you.
• Rite of the Great Dwarf’s cast time is extremely long for a 5 second buff. I could imagine the reduction would have to be pretty high, but I can’t help but feel this skill needs help somewhere.

Jalis’s abilities feel as though there should be a bunker-like role, but with Taunt not handling expectations and the confusion as to whether Jalis was intended to do better at range or melee still bothers me.

Mallyx

• Empowering Misery has amazing potential, which is great because playing as Mallyx rewards holding multiple conditions.
• Pain Absorption is equally impressive. You could stack up an easy 7 seconds of Resistance in groups.
• Banish Enchantment has good boon removal, and it can be an easy 4 stacks of Confusion as an opener.
• Unyielding Anguish is similar as well applying a potential of 6 stacks of Torment with a short leap, but you cripple yourself. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
• Embrace the Darkness is essentially Epidemic and Plague Signet’s love child (sorry, Necromancers) while boosting all stats.

Mallyx is amazing…. that’s all.

Ventari

• Ventari’s Will has a cast time. What makes this skill absolutely horrible to use is interrupting your weapon skills to move the tablet into a better position. What is essentially a pet, you have to sacrifice your own offense to control. Rangers, Necromancers, and Engineers all have some form of pet with unique skills that do not interrupt the caster’s ability to fight.
• Protective Solace can be very handy in situations where projectiles are numerous. Strange. This skill has no cast time…
• Natural Harmony takes a few seconds to heal, but the healing amount is significant. It also lacks a cast time making combat flow while offering support.
• Purifying Essence cures up to three conditions and heals for a small amount for each cured. This ability has a casting time. I’m curious how the logic was determined to give some abilities casting times and other abilities instant.
• Energy Expulsion can knockback, but isn’t reliable as an interrupt. It feels as though the explosion is just “because it would make sense” instead of functionality. The healing fragments do heal for a considerable amount, however. This skill has a casting time.

Ventari feels like a great supportive legend, but I can’t help but cringe every time I have to stop attacking to move the tablet. It’s not skilled support if I have to stop everything I’m doing to move it into a better location.

With the latest update, we’ve experienced two conditions changed to stack intensity instead of duration. Damage aside, the change was ultimately for the better as Condition builds have improved significantly in PvE (among other modes). While Bunkers and Damage Dealers are both already successful, Healers still have a little room to expand which brings me to the point of this thread: would it be possible to make Regeneration stack intensity instead of duration? What prompted this idea was the number of methods available to trigger area Regeneration.

The following skills apply Regeneration on up to 5 allies:

Elementalist

• Healing Rain
• Water Trident

Engineer

• Healing Turret
• Regenerating Mist
• Toss Elixir H (randomly)
• Healing Mist
• Heal Resonator (on Heal Skill use)

Guardian

• Hold the Line!
• Symbol of Faith
• Inspired Virtue (when activating Virtue of Resolve)

Mesmer

• Bountiful Disillusionment (when using Distortion)
• Illusionary Inspiration (Phantasms apply on nearby allies)

Necromancer

• Mark of Blood

Ranger (and pets)

• Healing Spring
• Summon Druid Spirit (Druid Spirit applies on nearby allies)
• Resounding Timbre (Regeneration on Shout)
• Regenerate (Fern Hound)
• Healing Cloud (Jellyfish)

Warrior

• Compassionate Banner (Banner of Tactics)
• Inspiring Battle Standard (Banners apply area regeneration)

Racial Skills

• Blessing of Dwayna (Engineer F1)
• Healing Seed
• Howl (Become the Wolf)

Runes

• Superior Runes of Dwayna (on Heal Skill use)

The above list doesn’t include skills that can apply Regeneration to allies in restricted methods (ex: Ray of Judgment if it bounces to an ally) or applying Regeneration only to the casting profession. If multiple professions happen to be using skills that can apply Regeneration to allies, the total duration applied could last longer than the conflict (for better or worse). I feel better support could be created by having Regeneration stack intensity allowing for bursts of healing when the situation calls for it.

The hit from the hammer has a range of 180, and the radius of the symbol is 180. It would be rare not to hit an enemy with the symbol. In it’s present state, large enemies (such as world bosses) can have a hit-box large enough to receive hits from the hammer and creating the Symbol of Protection outside of the player’s range. I’ve noticed this most frequently at the final boss of Twilight Arbor’s first and second paths. This doesn’t affect DPS, of course, but it prevents the Guardian (as well as allies) from gaining the boon.

I suppose I should mention the hammer’s DPS is increased from Writ of Persistence by doubling the duration of the symbol. In the specialization update coming soon, Guardians desiring to maintain this DPS will take the new symbol trait (assuming the trait was not changed) which is the combination of all three symbol traits in Honor including a range increase (to 240). This would insure the symbol hits the enemy if cast at the Guardian’s position.

Another problem I am having with the hammer is something that occurs quite often with large groups of enemies. If the primary target was killed and the attack change began again, the symbol would be created floating above the enemies (and even under the ground). What’s odd is the target called for the symbol is set when Hammer Swing (the first hit) is connected and not the hit from Symbol of Protection. In these cases, the DPS of the Guardian drops. I believe creating the Symbol on the Guardian would be a better solution because the symbol would not have the potential to be created in a position where it cannot hit enemies nor buff allies.

Symbol of Protection only has one issue bugging me. Unlike Symbol of Wrath and Symbol of Faith, it is created at the position of your target or up to a fixed distance for large targets or in the event you hit an enemy closer than your target. This means you could potentially be out of range of standing in the symbol or have the Protection boon taken from you from your allies standing closer to the center of the symbol. Players can somewhat manipulate the position of the Symbol by fighting without a target, but the symbol can fail to create on the ground.

As Guardians offer somewhat of a beacon role having several outgoing effects from the Guardian’s position (such as shouts, Battle Presence, Empowering Might, etc.) it feels unnecessary to have one of the profession’s strongest weapon skills require you to constantly directly onto the enemy you are fighting where your allies are least likely to stand.

I recommend either one of two changes:

• The symbol created from Symbol of Protection is created at the position of the casting Guardian (like Symbol of Wrath or Symbol of Faith) rather than the Guardian’s target.
• All symbols (or all area skills for all professions depending on the code) prioritize the casting Guardian giving its respective boon to the Guardian before other players.

I personally don’t know which would be easier from a programming perspective, but I assume it would be changing the position of the symbol since the latter change would most likely affect all area skills and require a change to the coding to further prioritize the allied units receiving effects. The latter, however, would insure the Guardian receive the effects from ground-targeting symbols (Symbol of Swiftness and Symbol of Energy) without being in the center of the symbol. This change would better suit scenarios where a large number of players exist (WvW or world bosses).

All two-handed weapons have cooldown reduction in their own traits instead of a single trait

• Greatsword is in the Zeal specialization.
• Staff is in the Honor specialization.
• Hammer is in the Virtues specialization.

In addition, Sword and Mace have gained cooldown reductions. Scepter and Longbow have yet to receive a reduction.

ArenaNet wants players to specialize weapons in addition to utility skills. Besides underwater weapons, what professions have access to trait that include cooldown reductions for multiple weapons? Some professions don’t have cooldown reductions for as many weapons as we do.

Edit: After looking through the other professions (excluding elite specializations and the incomplete Engineer), only three professions have anomalies:

• Guardians do not have a cooldown reduction for Scepter skills.
• Necromancers do not have a cooldown reduction for Scepter skills.
• Rangers have a cooldown reduction for Torch and Dagger skills on the same trait.

All three are currently present in the game in a similar form.

I know this isn’t the first time someone has made a post about the unreleased traits from the specialization update, and mine certainly won’t be the last. Rather than offering suggestions, I’m asking questions. Below is a list of the traits I personally see problems with based on the information provided by ArenaNet over the past few weeks. I am aware nothing is finalized until the update is live, but it still provides unanswered questions I personally have with this traits as well as potential oversight from the developers.

Special note: Condition duration appears to be increased by around 10%, but I cannot seem to find a trait causing this. What is affecting it? Will anything affect boon duration in a similar way?

Toxsa.2701:

Some stages of FOTM and Aetherblade have the exact situation like these.
For example, dredges path, aetherblade path, Colosus path, molten faculty, Lava path.
Basically most fotm/ dungeon situation where there’re alot of mobs that do immense CC and quite powerful at the same time.

Fair enough. I still believe an internal cooldown could be used to prevent Stability spam through Renewed Justice but still allow weapons other than the Longbow to be used. It would come down to whether or not ArenaNet wants to have two Spear of Justice traits while other Virtues only have one.

Toxsa.2701:

In PVE, your F1 is refreshed instantly anytime you kill a foe, so basically you’d have infinite stability if they change to your proposed version.

I had completely forgot about Renewed Justice. Truthfully, I can’t recall any situation where you would be killing mobs rapidly and need Stability to do so. I believe there could be issues. A short, internal cooldown (around 5 seconds) could prevent this.

Ghotistyx.6942:

VoJ’s trait in the DH line is Big Game Hunter, so you’d be doubling up on traits for VoJ compared to others, and put it at contention with the VoC trait.

After reviewing the traits, yes, I do see the issue here. You could potentially take the Wings of Resolve, Shield of Courage, and Spear of Justice traits buffing your Virtues exclusively. Combined with the Virtues specialization, this could prove very potent.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Stab on True Shot is a lot more attractive, as you can almost keep it up indefinitely just through true shot. Much better than less than 1/4 uptime imo.

Having near-permanent Stability would be a huge issue, especially since each enemy adds a stack. Without any Boon Duration, a Dragonhunter could maintain Stability 63% of the time (cooldown + casting time) assuming the targets do not evade or block the attack. As Toxsa mentioned, even Stability on Spear of Justice could create problems with Renewed Justice having near-permanent Stability as well. An internal cooldown could deny either from having permanence. Besides, with the changes to runes (and Vigor-related traits), ArenaNet somewhat denied Guardians from having permanent upkeep for a number of Boons without heavily building for it.

I’ve been looking over the new Guardian traits for a while for theory-crafting some builds. While I’m not very excited for a lot of what Dragonhunter has to offer, I do like how the traits are laid out… mostly.

Each trait choice feels really heavy toward builds, which can be a good thing. Each of the adept-tier traits heavily change the way you approach your build. While the master-tier and grandmaster-tier are similar, I (personally) see two problem traits: Hunter’s Determination and Hunter’s Fortification. The latter, Hunter’s Fortification, has already been mentioned by the developers as being redundant with other traits (Virtues’ first trait adds Protection on Virtue of Courage). I don’t personally have a suggestion for it.

Needless to say, Hunter’s Determination is my concern. Guardians already have access to a Longbow trait, Heavy Light. We’ve already seen traits merged together before, and even more will be merged when the specializations update arrives. Hunter’s Determination is not only a Longbow trait, but a very specific Longbow trait useful only with a single ability in only a handful of situations (usually dealing with groups of enemies/players).

• True Shot grants Stability for each enemy struck. (presumably up to 5 targets)

I propose a somewhat simple suggestion:

• Spear of Justice grants Stability for each enemy struck.

Spear of Justice, like True Shot, is a piercing attack only hitting (again, presumably) up to 5 enemies in a line. Yes, players will have what is essentially four times the cooldown in comparison(observed to be 16.25 seconds… why?), but it be used with any weapon including Longbow. It also plays a similar role of the Virtues tree offering empowerment to a single Virtue by sacrificing empowering a different Virtue (see: Permeating Wrath/Battle Presence/Indomitable Courage).

I’m going to be honest. I’m hoping this is the case. I don’t feel Guardians need a Longbow let alone a ranged weapon. What makes the idea frightening is what the specialization would offer in order to maintain the concept of the Guardian while giving access to a ranged weapon. The idea of conjuring and brandishing Spirit Weapons seems much more appealing, and it wouldn’t necessarily create a new play-style that doesn’t fill the role Guardians are intended to have.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like the case. Looking at the Chronomancer as reference for how Elite Specializations work, the Guardian would have to receive two additional Spirit Weapons: a healing weapon and an elite weapon.

Edit: Looking at older footage at what is assumed to be a Guardian using a Pearl Stinger (Longbow), this is most definitely not the case.

Well, with the addition of a certain new condition, I’d rather see this:

• Gain additional Toughness while wielding a shield. (+180)
• Shield ability recharge is reduced. (-20%)
• Shield abilities Taunt enemies on hit.

This way, enemies hit by Shield of Judgment are forced to attack you (while giving yourself Protection in preparation for the attack). Shield of Absorption’s knockback effect not only pushes away nearby opponents, but inflicts Taunt as well forcing the opponent back into range. Paired with a Mace, this could be a very tanky combination.

Mikkel.8427:

Anet really just needs to remove the clone from the third hit of the AA chain and speed up that third hit a bit. Then add the clone to counterspell so we can proc a clone through scepter #2 either with the block or blind depending on the situation.

I actually like the fact that Counterspell does not create a Clone. Mesmers have Blinding Befuddlement in the Illusions specialization (along with other Phantasm-related traits) which would support a Phantasm build quickly popping Counterspell (to avoid a Clone) and maintaining its utility. Adding a Clone to both Illusionary Counter and Counterspell defeats the purpose of removing the Clone from Ether Clone. If a Phantasm Mesmer cannot use the basic chain without creating a Clone, why would a Phantasm Mesmer ever use Illusionary Counter if it still creates a Clone on Counterspell?

After playing my Phantasm Mesmer, I’ve noticed the only change I want is a solid, ranged, main-hand weapon for a Phantasm build. The off-hand Phantasms are incredibly useful: a fast attacker with a leap finisher on every attack, a rapid, ranged DPS, a reflecting, powerful AoE, and a ranged, condition/boon applicator. But as it stands, only one of the two present main-hand weapons are viable for Phantasm builds: Sword.

Scepter has a huge problem with Phantasm builds. Its basic combo ends with Ether Clone, a skill that forces a Clone to spawn. If a Mesmer has all three Illusions as Phantasms, Ether Clone (and Clones in general) will replace a Phantasm with a Clone. A Phantasm build wants to have Phantasms, but the basic attack chain ruins this. Even if a player were to interrupt the third hit of the attack chain with another skill, the Scepter’s chain operates differently from other weapons as it does not reset the chain to the first attack when interrupted making it impossible to avoid unless the player chooses not to attack (and defeating the purpose of combat).

I have three solutions in mind, and each will have its own drawbacks (as any change would):

1. Ether Clone no longer creates a Clone if all three active Illusions are Phantasms.

• The Scepter is a solid weapon on non-Phantasm skills. Even removing the Clone effect from Ether Clone leaves this weapon as a pretty solid condition weapon when factoring the Phantasm traits in HoT (Bleed on crits, Confusion on crits). While unlikely a player would have three Phantasms and still want Clones over Phantasms, it is possible this change would affect a number of Mesmer players.

2. A Phantasm trait gains a new effect: Phantasms cannot be replaced by Clones.

• While this wouldn’t affect non-Phantasm builds, it could break existing Clone skills. Illusionary Leap -> Swap wouldn’t have the swapping effect (although I assume Immobilize would still occur). I’m not sure how this change would affect Clone skills overall, but this would restrict the effect to Phantasm Mesmers. This effect would most likely be added onto a trait in the Inspiration specialization as it offers the most Phantasm bonuses.

3. Mesmers gain a new main-hand weapon.

• I don’t really see this happening either. With recent artwork, Mesmers appear to be receiving the Shield as a new weapon. From what I understand, professions will not be able to use these Elite Specialization weapons outside of the specialization anyway. Adding a new weapon (other than the specialization weapon) would show favor to Mesmers over other professions begging the question why other professions do not receive an additional weapon as well. If I were to choose a weapon, I would vote either Pistol or Axe (because of the Phantasmal Duelist and Warden respectively).

I would personally lean toward the first option. It does change the Scepter if a Mesmer would happen to have three Phantasms out, and having Clones shouldn’t be the intention of anyone with three Phantasms active. The second option risks breaking a number of skills, but restricts the change to Phantasm builds. The third option would pull favor toward Mesmers, but would not break any existing skills. I’m sure Thieves would love to snipe with a Rifle and Warriors want to swing a Staff around.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I can answer your question by asking one of my own: Why is Gift of Exploration an exclusive reward for those who complete 100% of their map?

And for what is Gift of Exploration used? One item: Gift of Mastery. An item used to make a Legendary weapon which is available for trade in the auction house. Players aren’t required to explore 100% of the map to earn a Legendary weapon anymore. Players can simply purchase the end result from another player. Why should equipment with unique stat combinations be any different?

It’s been a while since I’ve played Guild Wars 2. The last stat combination I recall being added was Sentinel. While Sentinel armor is primarily acquired through crafting, each piece can still be traded though the auction house. Now after returning, I’ve noticed new stat combinations: Celestial, Nomad, Sinister, and Zealot. All four combinations can only be obtained through crafting.

Yes, crafting is available for everyone. Yes, everyone can learn (and master) all crafting professions. So, why is crafting mandatory to have access to elements which directly affect gameplay? Unlike other stat combinations, these four cannot be purchased from other players. I don’t have a problem purchasing equipment from other players; it’s how I’ve acquired most of my equipment on three level 80 characters. Even Legendary Weapons, items which require a lot of time and investment, can be purchased. And yet, players who have the time and desire to craft have access to equipment which offer stat combinations other players cannot acquire.

I do not have interest in crafting much like players may not have interest in PvE, PvP, or WvW. However, I feel required to spend time mastering Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, Artificer, and Jeweler just to have access to four exclusive stat combinations.

It’s been just over a year since the last release of the Super Adventure Box. I’ve been watching the updates and patch notes for a while, but still haven’t seen any signs of World 3. Has anyone spoken to Moto lately? Has any hints been dropped? I’d love to pick up right where we left off. It’s always a welcome change of pace when a Super Adventure Box update releases. I’m hoping we’ll hear more of it soon.

Veydar.5017:

I run a full on glass cannon build in tPvP.

And that’s awesome. I tried it and can’t manage, but I’m probably just overlooking something.

Veydar.5017:

What I can’t understand is why you’re complaining about guardians in pve. Okay, we only have one viable build which is obals meta DPS but it’s so much fun to play!

…

All in all I think you should stop running that face tanking build if you’re bored of the class. Who cares about build diversity in pve if our meta build is actually interesting and dynamic.

But this is the problem. We have 65 traits, 4 healing skills, 20 utilities, and 3 elite skills. We also have access to dozens of runes and armor stat combinations. There shouldn’t be one viable build. PvE feels so watered down because of build diversity that it effectively removes the ability to have diverse builds. ArenaNet needed to ensure that Berserker builds had enough survivability to play in PvP that they ultimately made the game too easy to play. I play an Altruistic Healing bunker because, give the best scenario, any skill I use becomes a counter to something in combat. Knocked down? Use Signet of Judgment. Group CC? Stand Your Ground! The build I have works, and I can enjoy it if my allies know how it works. I just can’t help but feel that there could be so many more enjoyable builds if the game actually favored build variety as much as it was anticipated pre-launch.

Veydar.5017:

In tPvP there’s actually a number of builds although I think that’s true for every class. At least from a guardians perspective it requires nailing every one of your utilities and weapon skills or you will melt under the condos.

This is what I like. There is a strategy to builds in PvP. ArenaNet is doing a good job at this aspect, but I find it near impossible to last against specific builds if I don’t heavily specialize into countering it. Players should feel as if fighting such a character is a challenge and that the skill of the individuals is more important than the number of utilities they have to counter it.

xFireize.6318:

It looks like conditions bother you a lot They bother me as well. My solutions are 3 shouts with PoV, Melandru Runes and -40% condi duration food, Absolute Resolution trait, Generosity and Purity sigil.

If you want to practice blinds and blocks, don’t use meditation build. Use the shouts instead. The stability, protection, and vigor will give you more opportunities to learn. Med build melts faster.

Yeah, I’ve played a few round of PvP as a Healway, and I did a far better job than a burst Meditation build. Granted, I don’t have access to food items (so I had to deal with Runes of the Soldier instead), but it was much easier. I could bunker fairly well against multiple opponents, but I would run into one or two that could burst me down if I wasn’t careful. I felt as if I could do better as a player and not that the profession could be better, so that’s good. I may play around with it a bit more and try to find something that I can enjoy playing. I think I need a better secondary weapon set and quite possibly better sigils, but I can safely say I’m enjoying PvP more.

Amins.3710:

Guardian Damage is not the issue you need to overcome: WvW Med Video

It’s staying on target and using blinds properly.

And that vid is just to show damage… and is in all exotics, no Leg/Asc outside of my GS…. cuz i h8 pve.

Well you, sir, definitely make it look easy. I’m not going to blame the fact that I was in structured PvP at the time and the statistics there vary from other areas of the game. It’s more like that I just suck. It just feels like my Blinds and Blocks don’t do much of anything and that a few conditions just eat away at what little health I have. I can stay on target relatively easy except Mesmers that cloak. I always lose them. I watch my cooldowns and make proper use of my Meditations to insure that I can get health back when necessary.

I still feel like ArenaNet has a funny sense of humor about what kind of defense the Guardian possesses without traits to combat the low health pool. I really wish that Guardians had at least one bunker build comparable to other professions. I wonder if Healway would suit those needs… I at least have the armor set lying around somewhere.

Again, impressive work. I could only hope to do as well as you.

While Boon Duration runes took a hit, I still manage +50% Boon Duration on a 0/0/6/6/2 build. Take Superior Runes of the Water for +20%, 10 in Virtues for +10%, and 5x Platinum Doubloons for an additional +20%. You don’t sacrifice too much from doing that (I lost 125 Precision, and 75 Toughness/Power, not going to cry about it).

While it is a huge middle finger to professions and builds that rely heavily on Boons (ex. Guardian), we can still manage. If anything, they could just buff the duration of pre-existing Boons instead of offering more items that increase the duration.

foofad.5162:

Try this:
It doesn’t change much for the patch. I demolish warriors, rangers, and basically everyone else that can’t burst me down in the first few seconds.

I’ll give it a shot I guess. Perhaps I’m just not playing offensive enough.

Jerus.4350:

You’re using AH and calling PVE boring, well… yeah… you’re using the easiest build. I mean that sincerely and don’t mean any disrespect by it. My point is if you’re almost impossible to kill (which with that build you are) then of course the game is going to get dull as you’re just slowly going through the content with very little risk other than dying of boredom.

I’m not playing an Altruistic Healing build and keeping it because it’s boring. I’m Using it because it offers (part of) the type of gameplay I enjoy. I like being able to face-tank enemies with the occassion avoiding maneuvers. The problem I have with the build is that it solely focuses on Hammer #1 and occasionally the few utilities I have. I rarely have to pop my healing or elite skill, I don’t touch my Virtues or my secondary weapon, and I never use Hammer #3-5 because there’s no function in PvE that is worth wasting the casting time when I could be applying Protection and Might faster.

I suppose what I’m getting at is that there should be a reason to use every ability in combat. I can never really find Virtues useful without going far enough into the appropriate trait line. None of the Virtues feel like there’s a huge benefit for the cooldowns each offers. Hammer #3-5 skills are all about control, and control means nothing in PvE. All bosses have stacks of Defiant making it impossible to play a controller/disabler. I don’t mind standing still and taking all of the hits so my team doesn’t have to, and doing in a game where aggression means nothing. That’s the gameplay I enjoy. What bothers me is the lack of variety in my build. I can switch my utilities for when the situation calls for it, but it never impacts my build enough to rely on those utilities.

EDIT: Gave that Meditation build a shot. No change. It doesn’t matter how many blinds, blocks, and teleports I have, Guardian just seems to melt under waves of conditions or can’t dish out enough damage to take down any competent bunker.

foofad.5162:

You’re restricting yourself. Have you tried a burst roaming meds build in WvW? That’s a lot of fun. There are other options too, like condition hybrids or spirit weapons. Spirit Weapons work pretty well in PvP, not so much WvW.

I have tried a Meditation build. I always find that I can’t out-heal the damage I take or remove the conditions the enemy applies. I’ve gone against Engineers and Rangers that regenerate faster than I can. I tried a condition build, and I found my survivabilty tank to a point where I couldn’t stand in combat for more than 8 seconds. I’ve tried to manage a variety of the basic builds, but I just find it too difficult to take down any opponents.

Guardian feels like a very difficult class to play in a competitive environment, and not because my opponents are the challenging part. With a low health pool, we melt under conditions, so we need to adapt for condition removal. Adapting for condition removal restricts our traits so heavily that we can’t trait for offense. Guardians can’t output the same power of conditions because we have one condition to apply. Meanwhile, other professions can gain condition removal, self-healing, and still apply tons of conditions on the opponent.

To any Guardian that can manage their own in PvP, I salute you, sincerely.

Painbow.6059:

I recommend you try the DPS meta guardian build, it is great, check the top of the forums for Obal’s guide on it. AH is very poor for pve as it lacks damage and support. You cannot be a viable healer in pve and a viable tank, that is something you need to adapt your play style to

I don’t really want to do solid DPS, that’s the point. I’d like to think there is more to building a character besides the meta. As for my Altruistic Healing build, I can face-tank most dungeons only by dodging the strongest attacks. With a constant wave of Symbol of Protection (and 6 seconds of Protection per symbol), Empowering Might, Sigils of Blood/Restoration/Water, Virtue of Resolve, and Omnomberry Creams, I can out-heal anything thrown at me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the tanking aspect, but I find that there are a lot of skills that offer nothing in the build. It’s quite literally “press #1 to win.”

After seeing about the huge balance update, I was interested in what the developers could accomplish. I jumped on yesterday and tried experimenting in the three areas of the game: PvE, PvP, and WvW.

The shame about PvE is that I have kept the (roughly) the same build I have made since I first hit level 80. Sure, it’s the standard in Altruistic Healing builds, but I try to use different utilities than most players use. It gives me a play-style I can appreciate and it creates nothing more than an endless, healing bunker. This update has only changed one thing: I now have a second sigil slot for additional healing. My utility rotation hasn’t changed, my traits haven’t moved, and I still managed to sum up +50% Boon duration (Platinum Doubloons for anyone that hasn’t upgraded to Ascended). In short, I have no motivation to play any PvE.

I tried PvP for the first time, mainly because I couldn’t find a build before that interested me. With the new traits, I found Communal Defense. I thought I was doing well. After four matches, I quickly realized it didn’t apply to me. I backed out and tried some of the other traits. Condition Damage Guardians are just plain awful. You can’t have decent damage and survivability. For the best Burning application, you need at least 20 in Virtues and either 30 in Zeal or Radiance (+33% damage or +300 Condition Damage). That leaves you with 20 points. That 20 points cannot give you any decent survivability trait. After that, it felt like any build I tried was just nuked under conditions. It didn’t matter how many cleanses I have, I would just drop under the pressure. Sure, Guardians can have decent removal, but we (again) sacrifice survivability. I can’t bother with PvP knowing that all I can do is be a meat shield long enough to distract the enemy team so my allies can capture the points.

WvW doesn’t get anything from me either. Sure, I can alter my build somewhat with the new traits, but I still find myself stuck to a zerg. Roaming is a pain since it seems every other roamer is specialized in nuking you as quickly as possibly and/or stealthing away to do the same thing again. I had some decent fun in a small group, but a small group is a target for any enemy zerg, and the results aren’t pretty.

In short, Guardian (to me) feels restricted. Guardians feel like a kitten-all-trades profession where any build can make a difference, but not a single build has a peak worthy enough of being compared to a similar build of another profession. I can’t deal with it anymore. I shouldn’t have to feel like I need to level another character to 80, spend hours farming gold to purchase exotic gear, runes, and sigils, and then (and only then) can I find builds to switch between so I can enjoy every area of the game.

If ArenaNet truly believes the Guardian is in the best position of balance compared to every other profession, then I can’t say I agree at all.

Einlanzer.1627:

Guys, guys – my point was that they need to do a review pass on #1’s for all weapons in the game, not to argue that x weapon is more broken than y weapon, although some are definitely in worse shape than others.

While I can see how you thought I was arguing X weapon needed to be looked at first before Y weapon, that’s not what I was implying. As an experienced PvE Guardian, the #1 chain of the Hammer is completely overpowered in comparison to the rest of the weapon. Sure, Mighty Blow is probably the best Blast Finisher in the game, but the other three abilities are so conditional in PvE and PvP that I can’t be bothered to press 3-5 during 99% of encounters.

You are right, there are a lot of #1 skills I would like to be looked at again. One of the big issues I’ve seen is the benefit placed onto the third hit of a chain of said skill. If the benefit is great, there isn’t much of a reason to use another ability at the risk you break the chain and lose that effect. I’d much rather not break infinite Protection upkeep just to knockback a single foe with Banish. If the ability is lackluster or only conditionally useful, players will seek using other weapons. As a Mesmer, I use main-hand Sword exclusively (with various off-hands) since I cannot be bothered with the awkward Clone upkeep of the Scepter.

I would love to see the developers take a balance pass at the #1 abilities, at least for me to consider some of the lesser used weapons.

Aberrant.6749:

I’ll just leave this here…

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Explosive_Shot

: /

I see your Explosive Shot and raise you Symbol of Protection.

Solid damage and Protection every second. All for spamming Hammer #1. Tack on Boon Duration and Writ of Persistence and you wind up with permanent, group Protection and great area damage.

Seriously, the only time I ever use any other Hammer ability is the Blast Finisher on #2 when an appropriate field is near me. The other three are just lack-luster in comparison in PvE, and rarely will the same three do anything substantial in PvP.

EDIT: Sorry, wrong symbol linked… and trait apparently. I haven’t played in quite some time.

Some of these seem too good to be true. Zeal VIII bouncing twice for an additional blind and up to five blocks with Shield of Wrath? That’s just a crazy buff considering no other profession gets a trait that increases the number of times a skill bounces by more than one. Impervious Spirits sounds cool at least. Spirit Weapons having some invulnerability is great. However, removing the Power-to-CondDmg trait kind of feels like they still aren’t ready for a Cond-build Guardian yet. Cripple on Symbols? We’ve all been asking for it, and this seems far too good to be true. If it is, I can finally feel comfortable in PvP.

Glacial Heart having a lower cooldown seems necessary, and I don’t see too much disbelief in that change. Vigorous Precision was mentioned before, and Selfless Daring getting buffed in PvP feels like it’s trying to make up for the loss of Vigor. No issues here.

I may be an Altruistic Healing scrub in PvE, but it works with my friends, and that’s all that matters to me. Removing the cooldown on Empowering Might? I permanently place Symbol of Protection. The auto-chain of Hammer is already amazing, but now I’ll be getting full use of every hit. Assuming no cooldown means all hits can apply a stack of Might, this is incredibly broken. Unless a boss is critical-immune, I don’t see how I wouldn’t be overhealing with every attack. This is the biggest red flag to me.

If, and I really stretch “if” here, these leaked notes are correct, the Guardian feels like it can finally lock an enemy down in PvP, have access to some amazing Spirit Weapon builds, increase the already usefulness of the Focus, and above all, utterly break face-tanking bosses with Altruistic Healing, especially with dual-Sigil slots on two-handed weapons. I expect at least 1/3rd of these changes being reverted on release. If not, I may actually start playing again. We’ll see.

I run my Guardian more than any other profession. It’s really the only profession I can comment on the changes without having to look up every trait or skill.

Zeal V – Shattered Aegis. Damage instead of Burning.

I don’t see how this can hurt as Burning does get overlapped in groups. The only issue I see is that Aegis is relatively hard to apply in bursts. It isn’t practical in PvE content, and it becomes extremely difficult to use any on-Aegis traits successfully in PvP. I think the issue is that Aegis is too difficult to apply for the mediocre benefit.

Zeal VII – Zealous Blade. This trait now scales with Healing power (2%.)

I fear this will only make the new bunker for Guardian 20/0/30/20/0 with Cleric/Magi or Celestial gear. A Guardian with around 1,000 Healing Power and a moderate critical hit rate will receive 79 Health for every Boon applied and 45 Health for every enemy hit. On the limit of three enemies (auto-attack), the Guardian will regenerate 135 Health per attack and an additional 237 Health (372 total) on the last hit. Factoring Empowering Might, the Guardian becomes a heavier bunker with Might activating faster than an Elementalist with One with Air. I don’t believe this helps the Guardian with a DPS build more than a bunker build.

Zeal XII – Kindled Zeal. Increased conversion from 10% to 13%.

Guardians rarely use Condition Damage. Burning is a decent condition. It has good damage and easy application, but Condition Damage is usually a stat that hinders a Guardian more than it helps. I don’t believe an extra 3% more Condition Damage will help, especially since Condition Damage is located in the Radiance tree.

Radiance V – Searing Flames. Reduced cooldown from 20s to 10s.

I see nothing wrong with this. We’ve all been asking for some steady Boon removal to be on par with other professions.

Radiance X – Powerful blades. Increased damage from 5% to 10%.

I feel Sword could use some better stability when it comes to attacks connecting with enemies before this, but it’s a good start.

Valor V – Retributive Armor. Increased conversion rate from 5% to 7%.

Your cookie-cutter bunker uses this trait. Hell, I’ve used it before I found Smite Condition to be a good addition to my Utilities. In its place, I’ve used Monk’s Focus for the instant cast time on Smite Condition. With the last balance, you removed that need, so I can easily take Retributive Armor again and with a greater benefit.

Honor VI – Pure of Heart. Increased scaling with Healing power from 25% to 40%.

It will help the Guardian get some additional self-healing without too much of a heavy investment, but for the most of the problem I have, see: Shattered Aegis.

Virtues VIII – Supreme Justice. Number of attacks going from 4 to 3.

This paired with Kindled Zeal could be an excellent combo if it wasn’t for the fact that both requires 50 points. Burning is already fairly easy to apply, and this trait only boosts 1v1 encounters. For every additional enemy, it becomes easier to apply Burning to each. Add another 10 points in Virtues to add Permeating Wrath for massive area Burning. Suddenly, you’re applying too much Burning and it gets wasted. Burning doesn’t stack intensity, and it shouldn’t. However, your average Necromancer (among other professions) hits intensity caps easily wasting precious damage. Guardians don’t necessarily need more Conditions, but rather a way of using Burning to our advantage (other than a maximum of 20% bonus damage to targets with Burning through traits).

Symbol of Swiftness: This skill now applies 4 seconds of swiftness per pulse, rather than 8 seconds if you have no swiftness and 1 second if you have swiftness.

This solves the issue of the application of this Boon, but it also fails to handle others. This is one of the primary methods of getting group Swiftness is WvW. If this is intentional, ignore this issue. The bigger issue is that allies hate standing in your Symbols more than your enemies. This is why Symbols are a terrible mechanic. You know where your Symbol is going and what Boons you’ll receive. Besides a minor graphic change in the center of the Symbol, allies are often safer away from enemies by using the numerous Cripples, Chills, and Knockdowns/backs their professions have to offer. We don’t have very much Crowd Control, nor do we need a lot more.

We do, however, need a way of applying Symbols in a way that benefits an ally without putting anyone in (or out of) harms way. Doing something as simple as passing off the Symbol’s benefits to nearby allies while the Guardian is inside is a start. Have Symbols follow the Guardian (and prevent Symbol of Wrath from rooting the Guardian). Something needs to be handled better to have allies want to be inside of the Symbol.

Deathmond.7328:

Please write all your idea about guardian here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guardian-Collaborative-Development/first#post3020796

While there is a thread for ideas, the point of my post is not to give ideas to ArenaNet. I have my own ideas for rebalance as do any other Guardian here. The point is that ArenaNet seems to believe Guardians are either perfectly fine as they are or that Guardians are the least of their concern (or the least tested) in a rebalance update. I’m asking what the Guardian is suppose to be anymore because it doesn’t have a role that any other profession does better. Every Guardian that plays on a regular basis knows the problems compared to other professions, and they make those balance suggestions here or in your thread (thanks for advertising, by the way).

I know there’s no dedicated tanks, healers, or DPS professions, but the Guardian can’t gain any ground on the other professions with each passing update. We’ve all seen how Warriors can bunker down without even trying to avoid attacks using passive regeneration alone. A greatsword Warrior can cause such massive damage if the attacks connect as well as a solid Eviscerate or Kill Shot. Guardians can’t manage to break those kind of numbers. Warriors have solid Cripples, Knockdowns, and Stuns at their disposal. Guardians have a few Immobilizes, slow-casting Knockdowns, and Wards which rarely allows players to roll through. Each of the above are all on longer cooldowns in comparison.

That is just against Warriors. Even Elementalists and Engineers can bunker down more easily. Mesmers can deal far more damage than Guardians and from afar. Every profession can dish out better Condition damage. Our strongest asset, Boons, requires heavy Boon Duration investment just to maintain Boons for a considerable duration. Even so, the best method for applying Boons, Symbols, have such a short radius that most ranged allies will not stand inside of the area at the risk of taking a hit. Guardians primary survival is based on applying Boons, and the best method is standing in that tiny circle which rarely happens.

Anyone can sit down, test each profession (especially the profession specific skills) and realize what each profession is capable of. The Guardian doesn’t feel like a solid profession anymore. Virtues lack power without a heavy investment, and none of the three really put out a strong enough effect in comparison to others. I just want to see Guardian go in a direction. Will it require more Boon maintenance while receiving better Boon application? Will it receive a boost in passive healing and maximum Health? Will our virtuous power allow us to truly lock down foes that get too close? I’d like to see ArenaNet finally decide on what the profession is meant to do.

I haven’t actively played the game in about 7 weeks. When I first caught glimpse of the upcoming rebalance patch, I was thrilled, though I knew I had to wait another month. I play a 0/10/30/30/0. When I first started it, I was focused on the group support aspect of the Guardian Over time, I switched to the standard full Knight armor build focusing in Altruistic Healing and on-crit lifesteal effects with Hammer as my primary weapon. That being said, I spam Hammer #1 for 90% of any encounter because it works (and that should not be the case).

Guardians are a solid concept profession. We have access to unique styles of play that I find more appealing than any other profession (not to say that I don’t play any other professions), but Guardian is also getting the short end of the stick in every balance patch. “Guardian got buffed,” they say, and it’s true. But the buffs a Guardian receives are lack-luster to the buffs other professions receive with every patch.

A Guardian aiming at any role will be less effective than at least one other profession in multiple categories. About half are better bunkers, most are better damage, most are better snares, a few are better healers, some are better at Boon application, and every, single one is better at Conditions. At this point, I would take a jack-of-all-trades profession over the Guardian’s current state. It costs too much of an investment to make a solid build, and there’s always a profession that makes the said build look like we’re wearing masterwork gear.

So now, if I may ask, what is the Guardian to you (ArenaNet and its players)? To me, it was every reason to log in and enjoy the events. It was a fun profession and I felt I could aid anyone in any group. Now, each profession is surpassing Guardian. Each class has solid builds in PvE, PvP, and WvW that triumph over the Guardian’s potential. You don’t seem excited to deal with their issues, or perhaps you are still unaware. Whatever the reason, I wish to know what (or if) you intend to do to improve us.

Note: Truthfully, I was going to make this longer, but I feel the majority of issues have been addressed here (Guardian sub-section) many times before.

Focused Mind now gives Fury? Mediations are now instant? I suppose these are both cool as I used Focus Mind specifically to use Smite Condition without interrupting my attacks. However, I do have a major concern. The “increase to support skills” had better be a major boost as there are plenty of skills that have little use.

Hallowed Ground may apply 10 seconds of Stability (+100% of SYG!), but it has a +166% longer cooldown of Stand Your Ground! It requires your allies to remain in the field, applies a single second per tick, and does not break stuns. Sanctuary is a tiny bubble with a long cooldown and a low heal that isn’t compariable to anything the class already has to offer. Judge’s Intervention could still use a cooldown reduction as it not only requires a target, but its cooldown is longer than any other teleport skill in the game. And Spirit Weapons, well, let’s just say there isn’t much of a reason to summon a floating sword that dies about as quick as a Phantasm with a much longer cooldown.

Shouts are still a go-to utility, and Signets to a lesser degree (I have been falling in love with Signet of Judgment recently). Tomes and Spirit Weapons generally fail. Mediations have varying success without traits and can have good support with heavy investment. Consecrations have mixed results, but generally improve with a smaller investment.

As for weapons, well, nothing was mentioned. I’d assume any fixes and a few number changes instead of real changes. Two-handed weapons reign over the others, off-handed weapons generally have mixed utility, and the main-handed weapons require a large trait investment usually giving poor results compared to the two-handed weapons. Sword needs general improvement (missing attacks with ease), Mace needs its support raised (blocks one attack if an ally trips) , and Scepter just needs to be reliable (Smite spreading damage). I’m not saying the other weapons are perfect. I have my concerns with each, especially Symbols in general, but I would much rather build another two-handed Guardian than feel disappointed with a one-handed build.

To be honestly, I’m quite done trying to suggest anything. There are dozens (if not nearing 100+) good suggestions for the Guardian on this board that get overlooked with each patch. Sure, ArenaNet can doll up Purging Flames to be a viable group Condition removal skill, but it still doesn’t bother to address some of the core issues the class has. All I hear from developer interviews is that the Guardian is a solid class when in reality, there are far more active classes in competitive environments than Guardian. Guardian may hold a firm grasp on one of the top-three classes in PvE, but that usually relies on the same gimmick for every build. I’m still holding myself away from sPvP until Guardian builds diversify enough for me to enjoy my primary profession.

There’s still a month before the update. I honestly hope it turns out better than the last big rebalance.

This is an excellent question. I would believe that because neither can be crafted with a different stat combination (unlike Pearl weapons for example), the two will be automatically converted to the new Dire stat combination (CD/T/V).