Guild Wars 2

Routine.6194:

I think Zojja actually explains that in one of the personal story lines – the Inquest may be everything you described: liars, murderers, thieves, but their inventions are genius, which is why the Arcane Council decided to keep them around. Even if a lot of the asura don’t tolerate the Inquest, well, I guess the Council still has the last word in this matter.

Much like the reason there’s a Svanir camp in Heolbrak. They may be evil jerks, but you can respect how well they fight. The inquest might be evil jerks, but you have to admit they pull off some serious progress.

Otiveht.5482:

Be Asura, and use the Attack Golem!

This is what I do. That or Mistfire wolf for that sweet, sweet AOE.

Sigh. No wind-up reduction on the third combo swing… was hoping I’d be pulling that hammer out of my bag tomorrow. That’s literally the ONLY problem I have with using Hammers for any length of time.

Ojimaru.8970:

MaximusAwesomus.1784:

OmegaDestroyer.4782:

I use it and really like it. My favorite memory of Save Yourselves was in Ascalon’s Tomb near a bridge and necromancers. Everyone got hit with fear so I used Save Yourselves. I then proceeded to walk right off a cliff…

Oh thank god I’m not the only one!

Ironically, “Save Yourselves” is a Stun Breaker…

Yeah, but it breaks before it shifts the conditions. So he broke stun, then stunned the HECK out of himself.

Amigo.5023:

Warriors are in a similar situation. Rifles are not really a damage dealing weapon. Rifles are good for kiting. Longbows in warrior’s hands are first of all AoE weapons and not all around DPS weapon.

Erm. My wife runs a GS/Rifle Warrior and her rifle is a single-target NIGHTMARE. So I’m finding it hard to credit this bit of your argument.

Shimond.2478:

And for the ‘change aegis’ guy, you don’t really know how it works. It completely blocks any attack (and any condition with that attack). Aegis is incredibly powerful, in truth. Giving it a damage absorb instead would be a nerf.

I am well aware how Aegis works, thanks. I’m also aware that it far and away is completely wasted on auto attacks and there are at LEAST 3 better ways to actively block attacks than active Aegis, which is the only way to use it effectively. Focus lets you block multiple times, The block heal (while not the best heal to slot) lets you block for a full two seconds, giving you a longer window, Sheild’s 5-skill interrupts and pushes back, giving you basically the same effect, Mace 3 both blocks and counters… arguably GS’s 4 and sword’s 2 both blind to the same effect.

Additionally, if you are taking advantage of Guardian’s advantages, you’re rarely engaging ONE opponent, and an autoattack from anything strips Aegis right back off.

Sure, you can come up with specific times when a well-timed block is lifesaving, like against a champion, and Aegis’ active does okay there. The point is that most of the time it’s not much of an advantage at all for something that’s supposed to be a major class mechanic.

tokyoshoe.6308:

“Pain Inverter” is stupid useful as a low-30’s Asura Guardian. Bought “Defensive Golem” and so far, I’m fairly underwhelmed by it. Doesn’t last long enough and the cooldown time on it is just killer. “Radiation Field” (for a Guardian) is a waste of points.

You’re a GUARDIAN (so am I). Defensive Golem does what guardians are REALLY good at— of course it’s underwhelming. I sometimes use if for a decoy, tho.

Female asura bits—

“Go ahead— hit me” is Retaliation.
“Armor enhanced” is Protection.
“leave a dumb corpse” seems to happen when I pick up an environmental weapon, most often.
“Structural integrity compromised” happens at half-health.
“Mobility Impaired” — crippled
“THERE’s the power” — Might

There’s some others I don’t remember offhand.

The only thing that bugs me about the size is how the weapons SHRINK when I put them away. Greatsword on my back is about 75% the size it is in my hand, and the same for everything else. I get that they’re concerned about clipping, but what’s wrong with Asura just carrying them at an angle across their back? Particularly dislike it on the Sheilds. I like the look of a little asura carrying big weapons or a sheild on their back, but it looks ridiculous the way it is, and it just pops between sizes when you draw/stow weapons. I’d rather clip through the ground than this (PS, most swords clip anyway). Stow weapons sideways/diagonal across the asura’s back at full size and pop the shield on at same. It would look awesome.

No to gender binary in armor. It makes zero sense for a race that has very little sexual dimorphism (same with the Charr). Personally, i think the fact that my Asura lady foes half-bare-chested just like the men in the Berzerker armor is great— it really underlines the fact that Asura Just. Aren’t. Human.

If you really want feminine armors and all that, 60% of the races are more to your liking. Stop trying to humanize everything.

Save Yourselves is AMAZING. 10.5s of nearly every boon in the game? Heck yes. Just be smart and pay attention to what conditions are landing on people nearby. If you’re fighting Krait and about to yank a dozen stacks of poison, make sure you’ve got something off cooldown to clean it off.

There’s a good reason people who use it call Save Yourselves an ’ I am become death incarnate’ choice.

For added giggles, combine Save Yourselves with the one that converts conditions to boons.

The only one I have any real problem with is Courage. Which is mostly because either it doesn’t grant aegis often enough or Aegis sucks in current form, take your pick. I’d be much happier if Aegis absorbed X% of damage to a maximum of Y damage and then ended. Right now the only thing Aegis is good for is proccing the trait that grants retaliation, IMO.

Resolve feels fine to me, though I’d be happy with faster regen. It does seem to be effected by healing power, tho (which I’m specced pretty heavily in).

Justice is alright, but the passive needs work. It doens’t make sense to leave it on passive. EVER. I can pick 1s every 5 (or four, if I go deep on Virtues, but then I’m missing something else!) or 5s every 45s or so (I forget the cooldown exactly). At best, sword hits 5 times per rotation and procs the passive… it STILL means I have to hit 25 times for the passive to have a better effect than the click. That’s if I’m alone. If just one person happens by to help, I now have to hit 50 times to reach the same effect the click does.

This gets way worse if you put 15 points into Radiance so Justice refreshes on kills, because you can easily use the active 3-4 times in a single cooldown period at that point.

I feel the crap range worst in WvW. While we are totally awesome out in the open feild where we can force a fight, much of WvW centers around the keep fights. We do have a role in those, but it is the completely thankless job of support. We don’t get kill credit, XP or loot for buffing our buddies or keeping Wall of Reflection up so the assault can advance, we don’t get rewarded for protecting the rangers and eles on the wall so they can rain death down…

Honestly, whenever a keep gets involved, I tell my team to SAVE THEMSELVES and run for a seige weapon so I can actually feel like I’m doing something worthwhile. There’s a problem there.

The only thing I hate about the hammer is that delay on the third swing. And I hate-hate-hate it. It messes up all my skill timings. The worst part about it is Warrior hammer doesn’t do the same thing (but I don’t care much for warrior).

I’d like to see some speed added to the Mace as well, but it’s not nearly as bad. I can tolerate the mace.

It’s been really disappointing, because my whole concept was a tiny Asura with a HUGE hammer. And most skills, especially Banish, TOTALLY rock for that, but that danged slow swing completely ruins it.

GS is great, but it isn’t the end-all of everything. I tend to run either Sword/Sheild or Mace/Sheild and GS or Hammer, depending on what I’ve been able to get that’s best stat-wise. My only complaint about Hammer is the pause before the third auto-swing drives me insane and mucks up my skills timing constantly.

1H sword is the best single-target DPS, hands-down, especially paired with a Torch, though with a shield, it’s enormously survivable. Mace does less damage in favor of better survivability due to heals and blocks, and Hammer brings a good bit of damage with some great survival choices by giving you both breathing room, plus a good source of recurring protection buffs from the third swing.

Staff, as noted before, is great for DEs because of the width and depth of the cone, but I tend to prefer the GS or Hammer over the staff for its higher output, unless the DE is like 4 levels over my head.

Myself and another two guardians arrived at a stalemate between our zerg and another server’s across a narrow bridge. I swapped myself over to Wall of Reflection, Sheild (for the 5 skill) and The spectral weapon sheild. Shortly after I started walking our Zerg across the bridge with them, the other two guardians joined in. We leapfrogged each other and got our ranged guys close enough to clean house, chased them into the keep which was then assaulted successfully. Good times. Not many kills or loot, but good times.

AHigh on my list was last week, when myself and another Greatsword guardian went at a group of attackers. It was about 10 vs 2, we used binding blade to suck them in and then AoE’d the snot out of them. Got seven kills in about 4 seconds and the other three guys ran.

On top of that, Guardian just really performs well in the open fields. I frequently chase people down with leaps and intervention, pull through 3vs1s, and generally make trouble for all sorts of people. It’s a great class.