Guild Wars 2

Uncovered.3829:

well, not just only 7% but think of the boons that are granted to us(such as quickness) that also adds up

What Bash said. Quickness is not a boon.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Quickness

I do think the ideal would be more traits that interact with boons, or at least give us incentive to stack boons. Right now there’s AH, and that’s pretty much it (unless you want to go deep into Virtues, and then it’s not even that great). Seriously, I don’t get abilities like 10% damage to foes with conditions (I mean, I realize most classes have a trait like that, but still) as part of the “theme” in the OP.

It’s not like we’re totally broken, but if they want more of us to go non-cookie-cutter (i.e., AH plus usually 20+ Honor), they need to make some of the other trait lines more attractive…

The problem with the “feel powerful with boons on” idea is that boons have the same effect on every class – it’s not like we get some special benefit from them. If they really want us to feel that way, then the solution may be to make it easier to stack might/fury/regen/prot/whatever on ourselves while nerfing our base stats. Not sure I’d like that, tbh…

Yeah, I’m not understanding the terminology, either.

So on an Ele, you can cast Churning Earth, which “channels” an AoE cripple and then a big blast at the end. If you teleport in the middle of the channel, you keep channeling, so you can wait until there’s like 1/4 second left, teleport into a pack, then boom. Is that a “cancel” or an “interrupt” or a “linking” or what?

It’s the frequency of boons that matters, not the number of different boons. Although, I guess AH was intended to make you want to apply boons to allies…that’s a different discussion though

Farming seems a lot harder without Binding Blade to pull ranged mobs together, though – just my 2c

Also from the patch notes thread:

Guardian
The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.

Err, so nerfing one of our primary boons is in line with this…how?

brandon.6735:

BringBackMonks.7068:

I would like to know why Anet would put in a class that can tank a whole team of 5 for 2 to 3 minutes in a game that is supposed to be all balanced classes. Elementalists can’t do this. Warriors can’t do this. Why are Guardians the only one?

This ele would like to have a word with you.
Check out the other video’s on the channel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og8tnQ-rieI

Holy whoah…

StugLyfe.2134:

Here’s mine with the foods I run makes me a beast.

What food are you using? And what’s that armor?

Cempa.3645:

0/0/30/20/20 GS AH+Shouts build.
Gear: Power+Toughness+Precision (Knight) Exotic.

I have been using a GS since before level 10 and never used anything else other than the odd Hammer or Scepter just to try them out.

Today I decided to get a Sword and Focus and go test it out against the Krakas of all kind -normal and vets- what I discovered blew me away, not only does the sword kill just about as fast, I take less damage -if that was even possible lol

As a GS I’ll admit its faceroll, really takes little skill to play this build due to the OP self healing, but add a Sword+Focus and its the same damage, same healing but much more mitigation!

Btw, what are you taking with 20 Virtues? Just curious.

Sword doesn’t proc AH as much vs. multiple targets, but it’s good for single targets if your crit is decent. It attacks faster, and the third strike in the chain hits the same target 3 times.

I think mace actually provides more raw healing, but the damage is worse and you don’t have as many chances to crit.

Guardians can spec pretty well for anti-cc, anti-conditions, and mitigation. It usually makes our burst damage pretty bad, though. I’m guessing the guardian didn’t actually kill anyone?

Try playing a guardian specced that way – you’ll figure out counters pretty fast.

Sounds like someone killed his target and he rallied.

As for the buff, it might just have been the brief invulnerability you get when you rally:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Invulnerable

NeedCoffee.1402:

ComeAndSee.1356:

If I remember Altruistic Healing heals for like 50-70 for each boon proc.

more or less.

and + to healing doesn’t give AH much of a boost. (but it does boost regeneration nicely, and with all 6 runes of dwana the regeneration boon procs off AH)

Are you sure the Dwayna boon procs off AH? That would mean 50% regen uptime…

I thought it only procs off skill 6

AH scales pathetically with healing power. If you’re stacking healing power primarily for AH, then don’t.

EM is a terrible skill and does not need a nerf and also AN employees do not need to read this forum please or watch any Guardian videos.

Honestly, I think we’re one of the least “broken” professions right now, so it doesn’t surprise me.

The lack of decent ranged annoys me, too, but it’s not a game-breaker. You can sort of tell they wanted us to be “distinctive” in that way (every other class is either primarily ranged or can be built that way), and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. We signed up for that when we picked the profession, imo.

0/0/30/30/10 seems pretty popular these days. I.e., AH & Empowering Might. Knight’s gear works great with it – just need to have enough additional precision on your jewelry to get about 1 crit/sec. Groupmates love might

It feels paladin-y to me compared to the rest of the GW2 classes.

Of course, no class in GW2 feels quite like the “corresponding” class in other MMOs, so I’m not sure what that means.

I have a thief as secondary.

Thief = Hit & Run.

Guardian = Hit. But maybe not as hard. Also run sometimes, but not nearly as much.

Also, we actually have a lot of dirty tricks, but they have noble-sounding names instead of sneaky-sounding ones like with thieves.

I have also specced my Guardian at some times to be able to pull about 3 mobs and then AFK for a bit. Couldn’t ever do that with my thief, at least so far.

The only way I’ve found to reliably “tank” a mob is to be the only one attacking it for an extended amount of time. Are there other ways to keep aggro on you?

Totally agree. Glad to see this annoys someone else. Some encounters/dungeons (e.g., AC) have elevated objects on walls that you need to attack – right now scepter has the ONLY autoattack that is capable of hitting them, meaning we have to use scepters or be prepared to take a LONG time (using cooldown abilities). It’s so very, very annoying.

It would be close to right if regen ticks about 2x per second…I think?

How are these “leveling” builds if you’re using all your trait points?

“The name of the shout “Save Yourselves!” is very misleading. Its not that the Guardian is telling his allies to save themselves, its me telling my enemy to get the kitten back BECAUSE I’M ABOUT TO BEAT HIS kitten”

+1 million

I agree – anything with 30 Valor and 30 Honor gives you a lot of traits to choose from that have good synergies. Meditations, symbols, AH + passive boon procs. Not sure the same can be said if you go 30 into Zeal or Radiance.

Seems like there’s a lot of threads on weapons/traits, but not so many on combinations of skills that people use regularly. Does anyone have combos they like to use a lot?

I’ve heard with GS, using WW or leap with a Judge’s Intervention in the middle leads to fun.

I’ve found myself using the following a lot in PvE:

1. Body pull 3-5 mobs
2. GS 5 + pull to clump them around you
3. Purging Flames -> Symbol of Wrath -> leap attack (procs fire shield/retailiation/aoe blind)
4. Shelter if needed (I have the “burn foes when you block” trait)
5. Whirling Wrath

Everything generally is dead by then. I also use this with veterans w/adds (e.g., skill challenges), which clears out the adds, then switch to sword/focus to facetank the veteran.

Anyone have similar “techniques” they like to use?

I think the main issue is that AH is very popular right now, and hopefully that will lead AN to buff some of our other grandmasters instead of nerfing AH.

Re: Hammer, the downside to the DPS is the slow attacks, which means if any of them are interrupted or blocked, it’s a very large DPS loss. GS may be less DPS but “safer” in that way.

And GS has the “utility” advantages of being able to generate more crits (faster attacks & WW) for traits that depend on them, plus a Leap finisher and a “gather mobs up for AOE” ability, so it SHOULD be less DPS.

I stop playing my Guardian sometimes when I get annoyed with the slow DPS (it’s my own fault for not speccing/gearing for better DPS). I go play my Thief instead (whom I don’t play like a Guardian).

I think “this is awesome!” for a while, and then I make 1-2 mistakes and die, or I get too many conditions, or a Guardian shows up and buffs the snot out of me without even trying and it’s like, “I want to do that!” I always come back to the Guardian…feels like facetanking in comparison.

That makes it all worth it!

That was me who suggested it on your youtube vid…:)

Nice…in terms of trait lines this was exactly what I was planning for 80. Wondered if it would be viable with all DPS-oriented gear, and glad to see it probably is.

One good thing is that you can adapt this build to be a lot more defensive if you switch some trait choices around and change weapon sets (i.e., without having to respec). For example, you can change symbol healing to Pure of Voice and go with shouts, or change AH for meditation healing if you want to go with meditations, or switch to Empowering Might if you decide not to go 2-handed. It looks very versatile. Good to see it works!

Well, if you talk to DPS-oriented Guardians, it sounds like a lot of them are happy.

I think the point is that we CAN support really well, unlike a lot of other classes, so we’re kind of expected to. The soloing/DPS experience is better with a lot of other classes, so it sort of doesn’t make sense to play a Guardian if you don’t want to support, imo.

I’m just happy that we don’t utterly suck at solo and DPS, which is a refreshing change from a lot of other MMOs.

If you pair scepter with focus you can also work in a Purging Flames + blast finisher for might before switching to GS, hit 4 and 2. If you’re fast you can also get burning bolts from GS 2. Unfortunately there’s a CD issue…

FYI, here’s some math on the change:

You activate the signet: Your base damage for the first hit afterwards is h, and the sum of damage for the next four hits is H. In order for the change to nerf you, we need

1.5h + H > 1.15h + 1.15H
0.35h > 0.15H
2.33h > H

So it would have to be the case that the base damage from your first post-signet strike is 7/3 times the total of your next four strikes, or over 9 times the average damage of your next four strikes. Is that common? I’ve never played a burst build, so I don’t know…

I generally feel like Thieves could use some PvE love, but I mean support/dungeon when I say that, not solo or DE. Honestly, I can’t really see, mathematically, how you could even come up with a build that was so dependent on the +50% from the signet that it’s utterly broken now.

There’s something to be said for maintaining “viability” for different playstyles, which is fine. There’s probably always going to be an “optimal” build/style for every situation. If only one style is “optimal” for almost all situations and all other builds are “not viable,” then you get everyone using a cookie-cutter spec, and that’s something the designers obviously don’t want.

I just don’t see how the signet change (I’m honestly not even sure it’s a nerf, except in PvP) could tip a BS build from “viable” to “not viable.”

Haven’t read the patch notes in detail but it seems like Thieves should be compensated with some kind of buff to non-burst direct damage…that, or some kind of fix to bleed-overwriting…just thinking PvE here

Of course, a bleed that long only works on mobs who don’t happen to have any condition curing, and definitely not players…still kinda cool though.

Just in general, too, if I mess up and get downed on a large pull, I often find I auto-rally just because one of the mobs I’m bleeding dies. Such a nice change from my Guardian!

This: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tooth_Stab

[Edit] I did also ask in /y if someone had ganked her, but no response…not that that means nobody actually did, but the zone was pretty empty at that hour

Since you’re leveling, I assume in PvE, I’ve found D/D and condition damage to be efficient. You can pull 3-4 mobs that are 2-3 levels above you and bleed them to death while taking no damage.

It’s not totally ideal for single, tough enemies, esp. if they have strong ranged. On the other hand, my encounter with Klakka the Brain (skill challenge), who was 5 levels above me, went like this:

DB, DB, DB
Pop Steal ability I had saved, which was a long bleed
Mob gets stuck, attacks me from range, I die
Repair, give up, head to next WP
“Event Succeeded!”

Yeah, she died from that 1-minute bleed I applied to her…

I don’t think AH is OP. It’s very very nice, but it’s expensive, and if you “maximize” it you’re giving up a ton of other stuff, like your own DPS.

I think the “standard” way is to pair it with Empowering Might and gear for precision. And use shouts.

I was thinking about something like this to exploit AH in combination with the automatic Symbol of Protection from hammer. The symbol is slow, though, and the radius isn’t exactly great. But any build with 2H mastery is pretty diverse.