Guild Wars 2

Ok since we now know that Balthy had someone or something hurt him/drain him (“they dimmed my light”).

Could it be that, IF there is a correspondence between the human gods and the elder dragons, that taking zhaitan and mordry out of the equation affected the balance among the gods making them rampart (dissolving some god’s domain of magic)?
In that rampage SOMEHOW Lyssa and Balth were overthrown forcing them to come to the real word to absorb dragon magic and restore their divinity? (or wage war against the usurpers?)

Why Lyssa and Balth:
-Balth: we see it
-Lyssa: Granted Balth the mirror (Thus suggesting cooperativity with his plan) and we are all highly suspicious as to her being Jenna (the 2 faces of Lyssa appearing to be Annise and Jenna maybe?)

I second the option to exchange ascended salvage kits for something.
I’d be willing to trade them for 200 essence of luck if I could. The RNG gives me more salvage kits than rings and doing the CM daily doesn’t help either.

Guardians’ Aegis say hello…

Sword does indeed feel better than gs, both in open world and instances. and pvp.

However after making the dps tests myself post patch:

GS / Scepter + torch using Virtues instead of radiance offers a lot more DPS in sustained fights if you manage to keep unscathed contender which can be very hard in a “real life” situation (the comparison was done against the values listed by Qtfy in “unreal” conditions WITHOUT using FOOD).
Not using food means that I didn’t get the 10% damage benefit not the condition damage bonus so the DPS gap might have been even higher.

Sword instead of gs benefits a lot more from Radiance given the almost permanent torch 4 activation, plus the % crit increase which allows you to use power infusions for a slight dps buff, contrary to gs which i would suggest using precision infusions.
However as noted before, the dps was lower.

Note 1: to make gs do full damage you have to be inside the boss hitbox so all projectiles hit the boss.
Note 2: sword offers a lot more versatility given the fact that you can use 2 weapons. On top of that all the gs attacks are clunky and slow so….

Title speaks alone.
Even without destroyed platforms the skill will not hit the anomaly.

fix the torch 4 already, or at least stop breaking it.

This is a fractal and a class problem. Torch 4 (zealot Fire) doesn’t land on the anomaly even with a straight path.

The autoloot at the end of the fractal doesn’t work either.

posting it in the guard forum now as well.

yLoon.5289:

There is no class that is useless; only useless players. Any class if played properly by a pro is lethal. And you need a balance of team composition to win any match. Try look at things from eagle view. =x

I don’t get what you tried to add to the current conversation with your reply to be honest. We all know any class if played properly can be lethal but on the same level of expertise there are certain classes which excel in a particular role. Your comment added nothing of value to the conversation or I’m too dumb to get it

Liewec.2896:

the aim of conquest (GW2’s pvp mode) is to hold points.
dragon hunter was pretty much made for that imho!
traps are deadly and will punish anyone who dares assault your points.

I’d like to expand on that further if I’m allowed. I agree with you, DHs are really good at defending points 1 on 1. The problem lies in their mobility for that use.
For example: unless the enemy charged to the cap you’re in atm, to get in time to the cap before it’s taken you will most likely have used blinding flash and judge’s intervention so you arrive at a great disadvantage.
If the enemy charges planning a 2v2 battle there are classes which are far superiior to the guardian in small and big fights. The mesmer for example which can add incredible AoE pressure, or the warrior with single target pressure.
The DH per se isn’t as bursty as to land such pressure on a downed target for example and preventing it from being ressed by a druid or engi.
If the enemy charges onto a bigger fight we are back at the initial scenario a big group fight where most classes will offer whatever the DHs can offer and a bit more.

Basicaly you’re left with the option to defend 1 cap while being there which will cause a 4v5 scenario thus not contributing to the team or at least that’s my opinion on the issue at hand.

Rodzynald.5897:

I would rather like aegis not to block damage, but to absorb damage. It wouldn’t make you immune to CC, but for example one aegis could soak in about 5k of damage from all sources. This is like a few strong auto attacks or a good crit one shot out of a strong skill.
I think if aegis worked in that way, it would definitely work out better for some bunker builds.
Also I wonder why some players shout at guardian’s healing. Our passive healing is weak (from traits) and most of our stronger heals have to be activated manually. Though healing trap is strong, you still need someone to walk into it and in 1v1 situations when someone knows how it is, such person won’t get into close range when DH is damaged under 50% health.

P.S.
I honestly miss times before HoT. Mediguardian with GS and scepter/focus or shield was a real balanced beast, true risk reward. If you went in at the right moment and used CD’s right, you won. If you made a grevious mistake, you went down, simple as that.
Most of current pvp is too forgiving.

Agreed. If they were to modify aegis and work on trait placements the guardian would get a nice role contributing to its name. Making it a party damage mitigator would be an interesting thing to see. However as it does not exist now this is straying off from the topic.

Crinn.7864:

holychampion.7386:

Honestly, Revenant should never have been made and the time spent on it should have been used for making an additional elite spec per class. Revenant basically stole things that other classes did.

They needed to sell HoT, adding a new class was the cherry.

Maybe guardians can still share aegis (?) which should be something better considering that with the AoE spam 1 stack of aegis is pretty much worthless.

Guardians can share both aegis and retal, with intermittent sharing of regen and other boons.

tangent:
Diviner’s Retal share guard is the highest damage output build I’ve ever run in sPvP, especially once you count the fact that retal placed on other players doesn’t count towards the guard’s damage.

Place the build link if you want or elaborate on that aspect on the guardian.

However, that strays off from the topic, unless the hypothethical role of the guardian was to be a damage sponge while making enemies kill themselves.
The idea of retaliation always sounded clunky, specially since guardians are on the low hp classes. Then again, as a party bruiser I’d go for a necro or warrior which would most certainly be more effective and provide more party support.

The problem I see with that build is that it offers null offensive capabilities, and as you said, its healing is not on par with a druid/ele. Contrary to said classes this will suck in 1v1 as stated by you, either by succumbing to permanent DPS or CC. Given you chose a “shout” focus you are missing the healing from the symbol gm trait reducing even more the healing you could get. Plus the radius which “sharing traits” have in the guardian are minimal contrary to ele which can share boons on a 600 range.

Not trying to be mean as I main guard and want to see this class have its niche but I don’t see this build shining in pvp to be honest, less against organized peeps.. It offers nothing compared to what the druid and the ele can give.

Symbolic DH are the easiests to clean. They don’t have much access to stability, so CC them and they die.

Don’t fight them on a point they own. Make them camp and always force a 4v5 situation

Camping torch might be the worst idea too. As Aeolus said, you don’t have the upper hand. My advice would be to store the burning stacks and try to kite them, swapping torch for focus can help you survive the F1. Elite can work too, even if you have unused virtues.
IF warriors can’t land F1 they don’t heal much, yet they will resist all the duration of your condis.

Honestly, Revenant should never have been made and the time spent on it should have been used for making an additional elite spec per class. Revenant basically stole things that other classes did.

They needed to sell HoT, adding a new class was the cherry.

Maybe guardians can still share aegis (?) which should be something better considering that with the AoE spam 1 stack of aegis is pretty much worthless.

Aeolus.3615:

pspshadowman.2701:

Guardian
- Bunker/ bruiser , boon share, safe stomp, condi cleanse, point control, can be bursty.

lmao bunker that dies in 1 – 3 hits from my bzerker… if the bunker guard dont have a decent team.

Good bunkers are classes that can get HP up fast, guardian after burn its blocks cant do nothing, and unblockables are nasty, its a class that gets carried by teamates, i think there are far better options in the offensive field for the guardian.

That was my feeling and I think it’s the reason we never see them in high end pvp play.
The question stands the same then:
What does the guardian offer for pvp if, in any field you choose to “specialize” there’s another class that can do it better?

(Obviously in solo queue, having a good all around class can be good but it seems pointless to have a class which is underpoerforming in organized play)

pspshadowman.2701:

Guardian
- Bunker/ bruiser , boon share, safe stomp, condi cleanse, point control, can be bursty.

Bunker/bruiser: depends on the builds. Hybrid builds aren’t yet available/ do not shine.

Boon share: Which ones? I’m interested in this point. If you go “bunker” guard you have the shouts boons to share. If that’s the case then ele takes the upper hand.
The boons on the weapons’ symbols aren’t really used over allies, they are almost 100% of the time used to hurt enemies, thus the might and fury you get from sword scepter are more likely situational, specially in big caps like middle foefire.

Condi cleanse: I think landing Wings of resolve over an ally is one of the hardest things to do, I personally don’t see much ppl doing it. The fact that it is possible wasn’t the purpose of this post. Again an ele is much better at party cleansing, mainly because it has a non targetted AoE.

Safe stomp: agreed. Nonetheless a lot of other classes have it, for example mesmer F4.

Point control: meaning? Able to stay 1v1 a lot of time?

Can be bursty: agree and disagree.

Much of the benefits of this class are 1v1 only. On a team based game being good at 1v1 doesn’t always get results. Unless the niche is going yolo 1v1 which on organized teamplay doesn’t really happen too often, the most common scenario is 2v2.

The title pretty much sums it all. I’ve always wondered which was the niche of the guardian in pvp. I know that it can be a 1v1 bruiser and that played perfectly is a tough adversary but what does it offer now (season 5)?

Let’s childishly analyze all classes and their job and why they would be good to be taken into pvp.

Thief
- High mobility, stealth and high power dps spikes
Mesmer
- Considerable mobility, huge condi spikes, moa (4v5 for 6 seconds)
Warrior
- Condi bash, incredible survivability (a.k.a. a lot of inmune time) great for mid fights and single target focusing
Necromancer
- Condi spam, boon corrupt, great health pool but no damage mitigation
Engineer
- Great projectile hate, mass invis, AoE cc (thunderclap?), a lot of damage mitigation and boon share
Druid
- Heals, condi cleanse, bunkerish, cc depending on pet
Ele
- Healbot (sadly), boon share
Revenant
- Be all and do all (before patch of course, now i don’t know, they disappeared a.k.a nerfed to oblivion)

Now what would the guardian be.
My impression is that the guard abruptly went from huge power spike damages (pre HoT and HoT release) to permanent sustained damage (traps doing no damage unless you properly combo, offering almost no CC but having symbols in all weapons).

Before the traps changed daze for slow I felt my job was to create oportunities while CCing the whole enemy team, thus allowing resses/stomps. Now that they slow; and slow doesn’t affect stomping/ressing I feel that niche is gone.
In terms of raw party damage a lot of classes can deal considerably more AoE damage and offer more CC so WHY would i be there. Also the lack of runes choices I can take (traveler to become a fast slug instead of a slug) don’t offer much diversity either.

In my opinion the guardian has become a sort of “balanced all round”, doesn’t do much spiky damage anymore and beats the enemy by tiring them, has a considerable amount of defensive capabilities yet fails to offer something in high level pvp.
Maybe the damage is a direct correlation to the weapons’ skill. I feel atm no weapon per se has the capabilities to deal great damages as for example mesmer gs4 + 3 or as the longbow 2 used to hit (for example)

If I were to chose between a guardian and an engi while going against competent players I’d choose the engi just because I fail to see what the guardian could offer than the engi could not.

What do you guys feel about this, what are your opinions, any hints or insight as to where the guardian belongs?

The spear of Justice would be insanely overpowered if it could also taunt. Basicaly you’d be neglecting the chance for an enemy to put themselves in a safe position without using a stun breaker.
In temple of the storm it would be a free fall at stillness’ spawn place for example.

I like the idea of the shield of courage though. It would make enemies attack you while you are protecting yourself from the front thus giving the guard a much needed party play.

Battle Presence: Nearby allies gain Virtue of Resolve’s passive effect. Activating Virtue of Resolve taunts enemies. I fail to see how this would work, you taunt enemies where you land with the wings, where you take off? core guard only option? I’d discard this one.

Then again I really liked the shield one.

Refloating this until they fix the skill

Now that I hope I have your atention, let me congratulate you on the progressive changes being done to fractals. The nightmare fractal is really nice, the music is awesome and it offer challenging 5 men content.

Now:
Keep reworking fractals so each one revisited becomes as challenging as the nightmare fractal or as the swamp fractal. It is nice to have hard content for 5 men parties but always keeping in mind that you should be able to do 3 of the fractals to complete the dailies and have enough time to do other stuff.
Personaly I’d like to see changes being made to the molten furnace, molten boss and solid ocean. Those 3 seem a bit boring and stale atm (not taking into account the underwater fractal).

Suggestions:
A) The harbinger’s challenge should be present in all fractals and it should be conected to the fractal lore or to some kind of special content
-Killing the harbinger in all fractals would allow for a special collection/collectable item to appear which could be used for unique non legendary skins
-Get to know who or what the harbinger is by beating its challenges in succesive fractals or collecting an item dropped from the end of every challenge until you have an X number of them.
-Getting access to lore for defeating him

B) Better rewards for more challenging content
-Not talking about the amount of drops but the quality of them. The daily chest drops are fine as they are now.
My point is: if you raid you have an objective: the legendary armor. Now what is the long term objective of fractals, what’s the point of going to lvl 100 if you need to complete less levels (after nightmare introduction) to get the legend backpiece.

C) Increase the number of fractals
-Add a tier 5 of fractals. Just as a way of giving harder content for those who want 5 men challenging content (or as a way to get legendary insights?). Let’s face it it’s much easier to pug 5 ppl than 10 ppl.
-Add new equipment which needs a higher tier of fractals completed to be achieved. A second legendary armor? New legend weapons? More backpacks? Legend ornaments?
-I always had the idea of a T1 fractal being shorter and more lore limited. As the tiers progressed you would get “deeper” into the fractal uncovering what truly happened. For example: Urban battlegrounds. Tier 1 would end at dulfy. Tier 4 would end where it is now.

D) Keep adding fractals.
The point here is not to request more fractals now but to remind you to never stop adding new ones.

Anyway, that’s all. Add suggestions/ feedback/ what would you do to improve fractals.

Fix Guardian Torch 4 targetting.

P.S: The hardest fractal by far is at the fractal lobby.
Place all fractal instabilities, agony field and summon all golems. Then try to solo.

Lalainnia.3598:

Leave the blue fire alone tho please I always loved the fact that guardian flames are blue.

Yes please! I love Blue Fire too.
But everyone who got the legendary torch now shoots something which is barely noticeable. Would be cool in pvp if the weapon was suitable for it.

Basically, you want Rodgort skin ok but forget to shoot the normal flame, because F you that’s why.

As to how to change it, make an explosion centered in the player or something radial projected out of you but that’s a suggestion. I don’t know HOW to fix it.
An idea should surge from here

This has been stated several times before and everyone had agreed back then.

The problem with torch, aside from torch 5 winning the uselessness award of 2016 is the targetting with torch 4.

As you know there are some foods which increase your damage while moving by 10%.

The problem with torch 4 and moving is that 3/15 times you cast torch 4 if the enemy moved 1 pixel to the right the skill will travel to hit something else on a different galaxy and I’m sure most ppl have noticed this aswell.

Want another problem with torch 4??

- Why is it that if you “Throw” a blue ball of flame, how cool does it sound uh? (or a lousy smoking brownish stick if you have the legendary torch, “turn off legendary effects coff coff”) it goes stuck to the ground?????
While fighting on platforms you basically lose the skill number 4. Best example is the Thaumanova Anomaly. Only way you can hit it with torch 4 is while being right next to it or finding a patch without holes.

Tell me what do you think.
Opinions are welcomed. Constructive criticism is more than welcomed too.

For high level fractals I always end up using GS – Sw/T. A bit less damage than Sw/T – Sc/T but I find the GS to have more viability, either in terms of CC skills like the 5 mob pull (which is the only reason I use GS at all) or short term higher damage & faster pulsing damage (GS #2). Found a good tradeoff between Big game Hunter and Radiance grandmaster trait. (Basically use F1 only when you are ready to drop procession of blades trap for the damage boost. Rest of the time hit AoE and watch enemies burn with auto F1 proc)

To be honest most fractal fights aren’t as long as to let the scepter outshine the greatsword in damage. Nonetheless if the fight requires you to use a range option go for scepter (more damage too). Play with what you like.

While raiding you usually face single bosses so I’d suggest not carrying GS. Either hammer or Sw & Sc / T is the best option so far. Way higher damage and well raid timers…

Play with whatever you want, as long as you make it work it’ll be fine. Who cares if the fight lasts 10 minutes instead of 5.

This didn’t happen before the last “balance” patch and I don’t know if it’s a bug but it’s very anoying.

Before patch if you were walking with Aegis boon on and blocked a random attack you wouldn’t enter combat mode.
Now (2-11-2016) if you block an attack you enter combat mode.

This has made ore gathering a tedious task. Not only is the guard the slowest class, blicking attacks now makes you even slower.

Anyone noticed ?

Ardid.7203:

All I can say is:
Taimi’s Game.

I had thought of that myself. It fits perfectly…
I would love to see this taking into the game by devs or at least have them look at this post.

Another add on would be having different set of levels focused on one type of mobs, for example:

lvls 1-50: zhaitan
lvl 51-100: mordremoth
101-150: primordius, etc etc.

This tower/basement would offer so much versatility in terms of builds and content. Hope the devs see this

Ok more details here:

A) Playing Style
We could have categories
-solo run
-5 run
-10 run
-random run (if you decide to 2 man you get encaged in the 5 men categorie, if you decide to go in 7 you get caged in 10).

B) Progression
Once you clear a lvl 2 portals will open, one where you can go forward and one where you could go back to town.
The idea would be to make it reset every time in order to get the rewards. You’d have to do all 50 floors again for the item.
We could add some checkpoints for example every 50 levels. Once you clear lvl 50. Next time you enter you could start from level 50.
However rewards would have to be in based in the amount of floors you clear yet it would have to take into account that crossing from 51-100 is not the same as going from 1-50.

C) are there more rewards for doing it solo?
It would have to be discussed. Probably not. You could get rewards on your own but you’d go slower and it would promote teamplay. It would have to be discussed though.

D)2) What determines failure? Is it you die, you get kicked? Or only when the party wipes? Can people get revived in between floors? Is the healing mysteriously turned off in between battles? Maybe the next wave spawns as soon as the previous one is defeated.
Failure is achieved when the full party wipes. If someone dies he can get ressed. Ppl can get revived inbetween floors since after a wave has been cleared you’d enter a “mini checkpoint where you can breathe”.
Healing works fine. But in order to not abuse it I suggested a soft timer as not to have 1 kiting the last mob indifinetly while the others heal the tanker.
The idea is not a wave after wave after wave, but a paused progression.
The Rampart idea would be cool for a hardcore mode where there’s no rest and the theme is more of a Survival. It would give more rewards.

E)3) As Black Iris Flowers asked, how is progress recorded? Does it have to be all done in one go? Maybe it’s incremental like fractals, where you can later choose to resume at checkpoints but only get rewarded if you reach a new milestone.

It would have to be further analyzed. The idea would be having to do it in one go but I know a lot of people myself included have time limitations so a progress save after an X amount of levels would be nice. I wouldn’t want it to be like fractals, at least not 1 by 1. Maybe a checkpoint after 50 levels, maybe 100.

F)4) How frequent a cooldown were you initially thinking? Once a day? A set hour reset? Once a week, even?

You can enter as many times as you want, like fractals. Rewards would be daily or max 3 times per week (similar to raids if a legendary insight would be in play). Then again further analysis and the impact on the economy would have to be made.

Hello this is an idea I’ve been munching in my head for a while. While it has been placed in different games such as Final Fantasy and other online games like Rusty Hearts I wondered if it could be placed in here.

The idea is:
You start at Floor 1. You face a certain amount of mobs. You clear them all and you go to Floor 2.
Floor 2 is harder than floor 1. Clear them all and go to Floor 3 which is harder than floor 2.
Every 10 floors there’s a boss and after clearing it a basic merchant appears so at to clear inv space from loot.

And so on and on and on and on…. (either to lvl 100 or to level infinite which would be the best choice)

After an X amount of levels you get an item (An example could be after clearing lvl 50, you get an ascended crafting mat).
It would also have some leaderboards so as to promote competition and see which team got the furthest.
Maybe after a big amount of floors you could get a Legendary Insight so as to allow ppl who don’t go to raids to get a chance at the legendary armor (time gated obtention of course) (I did raids, don’t hate on me because of that).

To prevent easy farming a soft timer should be applied to every floor or to boss floors (NOT THE RAID TIMER which only makes it possible if everyone is wearing MAX dps gear). In that way we would prevent teams of bunkers from going slowly but till the end. Though diminishing build choices, it’s still better than making everyone go full zerker/maruder.

The idea of making this would be to create another 5 ppl party options aside from fractals (which thank you Anet have become slightly harder now) with difficult content. If your party is awesome you’ll get to deeper floors and get access to better items/more rewards.

Let’s be honest. 10 ppl parties are cool but raids created a hard to aproach content for a lot of ppl. Not mentioning you have to have a commander in there too and that’s 300g.

All in all what I’m requesting is:
Bring harder content with 5 ppl parties (for more accesibility). I want something difficult with rewards compensating that difficulty and that allows for different compositions (for example being able to clear it without a druid or a mesmer).

Anyway, say if you agree/disgagree (and why you disagree). Maybe this could lead to something good.

P.S: Obsiously titles should be included:
100th floor legend
200 stairs taken
300 steps and counting
400 magnanimous stepclimber
half a thousand slayer
etc

Torch analysis and skills modifications have been posted before on the forum (Torch post)
The comunity reached the conclusion that to improve 5 its concept had to change.

You would no longer clear condis on allies but instead you’d clear BOONS from enemies thus keeping the concept of cleansing flame and granting torch more grace.

Guys I’ve been wondering:

Sigil of nullification: 60% to remove a boon on a 5 seconds cooldown

Experimental Model: Enemy with 25 might, fury and Regen
Removing 1 boon meaning:

A) removes 1 might from a stack of 25 leaving: 24 might, fury and regen
B) removes might leaving: fury and regen

Anyone tried it?

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

Hey Everyone,

• Have treb take damage from condi’s and crits: YES
• Rotation speed increase: YES
• Remove Treb completely: NO
• Faster fire rate: NO
• Different treb amno that supports allies on points:NO
• Teleport skill drop the siege bundle:YES

Now some additional questions:

• If you could add one ammo type to the treb (poison shot, healy shot, etc.) what would it be?
  -I wouldn’t. Having the treb shoot supportive items would render mid fights useless if there is a druid + ele.
• How long (in seconds) do you think it should take the treb to turn from Home to Far?
  -The seconds it takes at the moment x 0.66
• How long (in seconds) do you think a damage dealer (either physical or condi) should take to kill a treb?
  -No idea

Thank you all for participating in the discussion and keeping is constructive.

Don’t forget a path from base to the treb. The spiral way up to the treb really makes it unworthy of usage after initial exit. Guadians and necros should be able to get fast access to the treb.

Shooting balls of fire from a treb is good enough. IMO different types of ammo shouldn’t be added.

I personally enjoy the Treb. However I think a closer access from Home Base should be installed (like a side exit). That way teleporters wouldn’t have the upper hand

Giving fast access from home would allow ppl to use the Treb after respawn, maybe turning the tides up on a location that has been outmanned.
It could also be useful to help on far when pushing forwards and someone dies or defending home after someone dies.

Rotation speed on the treb has to be increased thus allowing more interplay.

Has to be condition killable (Never played any condi class but it didn’t seem fair that ondi doesn’t do much damage to it)

It has to be more relevant to the map BUT NOT INDISPENSABLE

Nostradus.2187:

Pvp is not really a thing for me since I play with 250-300Ms latency
The only thing I want is have fun in wvw (the big zergs and maybe small 5 grp)
My focus is more to enjoy the pve content fully

I’m from South America. My ping is always >200 and I can pvp just fine, even got to legendary and manage to get teamed up with high lvl pvpers. You should try to pv if you like it.

Reve es better in all terms compared to guardian imo. But guard is fine, it’s still the class I enjoy the most.

Dragonhunter:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_of_Courage
75secs cooldown
5 seconds block

Warrior
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance
25 seconds cooldown
3 seconds block + reflect projectile

Mesmer
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Echo_of_Memory
30 seconds total cooldown
2 blocks
internal cooldown of 10 seconds. + alacrity

Revenant
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystal_Hibernation
25 seconds cooldown
3 seconds block

Let’s analyze it further:
Warrior: Projectile Reflect while blocking. In 75 seconds you will have BLOCKED and REFLECTED 9 seconds total
Revenant: Autoprock Shield + Cast Shield. That means a net worth of 12 seconds worth of blocking in 75 seconds
Mesmer: Double block on a 30 second cooldown. That’s aprox 9 seconds of block in 75seconds + the alacrity

Renewed focus gives me another 5 seconds of block?!!
OH MY GOD UNFAIRNESS, 10 seconds of block total on a 75 second cooldown is too powerful!!!!.
Please tell me how other classes don’t use elite skills.
If any of the DH elite skills were to become viable I would gladly swap Renewed Focus for it. But I’d have only 5 seconds of block uptime and I would carry that burden willingly.

If we had to spend 5 times blocking and unable to attack with a virtue which is the class mechanic I would’ve quit the game long ago.

DH lose offensive capabilities to carry renwed focus which is pro support.
Less QQ more Pew Pew.

If you see a white wave in front of the guard let me tell you a secret… go to its back, it doesn’t block from behind, learn to play, adapt, develope strategies.

Hello everyone this is an idea I’ve been hesitating to post for some time. It’s not an idea I own as I first experienced it in the game Rusty Hearts.

The idea is a tag team match (TTM sounds cool enough).
Each team has 5 players.

The order of the players is randomized and you get a spot on the team
-player 1
-player 2
-player 3
-player 4
-player 5

Player 1 of each team fights on a randomly generated Arena with diverse landscapes on a previously set or fixed timer.
Having a random map generator tool would be pretty useful for you Anet.

Whoever wins the match stays in the arena and player 2 of the losing team enters the fray.

However player 1 now has the HP and the cooldowns it had after fighting player 1 from enemy team. Maybe add a 0,1 or 0,2% recovery factor.

The funny thing is you can also apply this to:
2v2 (on a 6 player team)
3v3 (on a 6 player team)
etc.

In the current state of pvp it would require some major tweaks since the druid would be the one and only class to choose (unless it’s not the 1v1 mode).
However I think having aditional playing modes will help develop different builds thus contributing to variability in this game.

For example: the symbolic guardian would be useless since there is no cap and can be ranged. Nonetheless the arena should be small enough as to avoid kiting the slowest class.

As everything there is and has been. This is the idea!
Further polish has to be given if it gets accepted.

I’ve used double melee builds. They can be effective because the guardian has a gap closer in both sets. They also have Judge’s to really stick to the target.

The problem is that most ppl will see it and just kite you out. Engineers for example will just leave and return at full health and full cooldown.

Another problem i see with carrying double melee nowadays is the obscene AoE display there is. If you used all our gap closers or your party is AoE bombed you’re pretty much doomed since you won’t be able to enter melee range to do damage without getting CC and damage bombed.

One last thing. If you ever pick radiance trait you have to carry torch, that’s what I’d do.
Anyway, you can have fun with it in unranked. Don’t think it would turn the tides in a serious match though.

I have more than 1k games on DH/guard and around 300 on thief.
If you want to pressure DH as a thief you have to main options:

The first and and most obvious is P/P, starting with a head shot is not a wise idea as you will lose initiative and will only remove guardians’ basal aegis. Then again, you won’t ever come close to fight in melee range. Make them pop their defenses while being far away and they will melt eventualy. Beware of the DH as they will not stand iddle as you melt them (at lest that’s what I do as a DH).

The second option I’ve found to work is, if you are carrying D/P + SB, to have basi venom + immobilize venom. Most DHs key spam and don’t analyze their oponent so if use immobilize on them they will pop their wings just to get rid of that condi or any other condi cleanse ability they have. You force them to enter cooldowns. If you are able to pop the traps while dodging DH will be defenseless as you can now activate basi venom and burst them to death. If you can’t kill them in the burst you should go back to ranged and finish them with the bow.

IMHO, the symbolic DH is just terrible since they lack stability options. If you see their symbols are larger than usual you can interrupt their skills with “Steal”. You should use it not as an opening strike but as a way of continuous damage while your venoms are on recharge or the DH popping symbols to heal itself.
If they are carrying longbow you will kill them while interrupting them. Longbow 5 has a really long casting time, you can headshot. Longbow 2 has a shorter casting time, you interrupt with steal.

If you see the DH pop his heal in the middle of the cap, don’t ever go to melee range. Bear in mind that the trap if not triggered only heals for 2k. That’s a shortbow autoattack. Play smart and keep your distance. If they use JI + heal trap they are forced out of their traps, so you melee melt them given that case.

Staff builds work pretty good too but i’m not proficient on thief as to use it effectively. You should consult in the Thief’s forum for that.

I still fail to see the big issue here.
You guys are all basically complaining about DHs atributes which were already present since HoT.
The nerf other classes suffered in previous patch allowed DH to now have a chance against engies for example. So now, instead of a known win, you can now win or lose depending on how you play. I really don’t see the problem.
Yes the healing trap heals A LOT. Basically if triggered it will heal ca. 90% of the DHs hp (if using zerker amulet). On the other hand if it does not get triggered it will only heal ca. 15%. The mechanic is cheesy I admit it and personally I’d have prefered a different one but it is what we got. This mechanics demands the opponent to be aware of the placement of the traps.

The blocks last for too long. Yes they do, same as any other classes’ blocks. Revenant hybernation + shield block. Mesmer double shield block. Warrior shield block + Reflect. Engies block. Every class has access to blocks.

I also kinda do agree with ppl who said that being an exclusively offensive option, their defensive capabilities may be above average, maybe. But for example take the revenant. Their sustain is lower but their offensive capabilities are higher. It’s a trade off. The DHs do pbAoE contrary to other classes whose attacks chase you.

In terms of traps I will never agree though. I do not think thay they are overpowered at all, basically because of their mechanic. And you see it yourself, DHs in higher tiers of pvp do not use other than ToF or Aegis trap instead.

Last but not least: Removing amulets won’t solve the pvp crysis. Instead it’s creating new ones because it’s limiting the amount of builds one can wear. The problem is that some classes excel at using a certain amulet and balancing that across all classes is a work that Anet is not willing to do.

Didn’t know it had an internal cooldown. Thanks for replies!

I’m making this post in order to carify the situation of DHs in the current meta game and how to avoid them/how to counter them.

Before we begin we need to take a look at the notes from balance patch. The most important things that pop up are:

-Traps didn’t get buffed
-Longbow didn’t get buffed, it requires more skill now with #3 with knockback.
-HP pool didn’t get buffed
-Symbols were added to scepter 2 and sword 2
-Shield of courage can’t be interrupted (if traited)
-Wings always heal a minimum of 2 conditions (+3 if traited)

Most complains I’ve seen are focused on the traps. But don’t you find it weird that traps are the same as previous season yet previous season no one complained about traps? What changed?
The answer is nothing. Traps are the same, deal the same damage. The problem is that due to the abundance of ppl playing DH, unaware people who get 1 shot by traps increased. I know they can get a bit tedious in teamfights if a team manages to pop 2 sets of traps (let’s say Test of Faith and Proccesion of Blades (ToF and PoB from now onwards)), yet last season some teams did that yet they acomplished nothing.

What’s wrong then? Why all the complains?
Ppl are arguiing now that the DH are unbeatable now. We need to analyze this statement and I’m going to make some comparisons with warrior from Season 3 (S3 from now onwards).
What changed?
-Blocking time remained the same
-Healings remained the same
-Slug movement remained the same
-Condi cleanse increased: Now DHs are able to cleanse 2 condis with wings of resolve. This means that DHs can relieve a lot more pressure than they could before. If we pop Wings + Smite conditions we can get rid of 4 conditions at once (2 more if we pop our healing trap). This heavily increased our survival in the heavy condition environment that was S3. What else? Now we can’t get our main shield/stunbreaker interrupted which is, imho, logic.
-Overall damage increased due to symbols: The adition of symbols to sword and scepter allowed DHs to actually stand their ground when fighting a point. The ability to permanently pop symbols if you manage to work the rotations properly allowed DHs to stand in the middle of a point while fending attackers. This can be specially nasty against low armor enemies.

So what do we have now… NONE of the skills received a %dmg increase. It’s just that sword went from having no useful skills to have 3 viable skills (symbol, zealot and autoattack (AA from now on)). Scepter went from being complete trash to being somewhat viable due to the increase in AA projectile speed and the placement of a symbol.

The problem now lies in the fact that thanks to symbol uptime + traps uptime the DHs are able to contest a point while deploying overtime AoE attacks. However none of that skills per se are able to deal sufficient damage alone for them being extremely easy to dodge. If they pop everything at once, stand aside.. then contest again and fight an oponent with all their skills on cooldown
When I mentioned that I was going to make comparisons with warrior from S3 I meant to say that a class that was trash tier received a change in its mechanics. Warriors received a great deffensive and offensive upgrade (they were later nerfed though). DHs in this season received only an offensive upgrade since the condi cleanse doesn’t grant increased healing nor can it be the key skill in determining wether a fight is a win or lose (generaly speaking. In highers levels of pvp it will be).

How to handle DHs:
You need to analyse a bit what your opponent is using before you engage in a fight.
Given the sluggish movement of guardians you know for sure they will have Judge’s Intervention. That leaves 2 utilities. One of them for sure is going to be ToF. 1 Reamining now: 2 possible alternatives for the last utilities which can be either Smite Conditions or PoB.
If you see them popping PoB you can infer that their condi cleanse will be subpar so you can condi focus on them. If they don’t have PoB you now know that their “cap” pressure is going to be lower yet their condi cleanse higher.
Advice Here: If they pop ToF on your head, stand iddle in the center of the trap. The damage it does overtime is irrisory

So now what’s the situation: either a big trapper or a a decent condi cleanser.
How do you avoid them?
Keep in mind that the guardian is by far the slowest class in the game and in the curreny meta has only 2 gap closers (sword 2 and Judge’s Intervention). If you remember S3 guardians were meat for ranged attacks because they couldn’t sustain permanent ranged pressure.
As DHs sustain didn’t change they are still vulnerable to that. So a word of advice. If you see there are several DH on a team don’t try to blindly enter the fray as you will get trapped x2 or x3 + symbols and yes, you will get damaged.
If you’re fighting 1 on 1 against a DH but you’re a Revenant, Druid, Engi or p/p Thief you already won (on equal skill level and map awareness). There’s no need advice. For the rest of the classes keep in mind that even though scepter has it’s AA speed increased it can still be dodged by walking sideways.
The key to handling DHs is kiting them. THEY ARE SLUGS they won’t chase you. The healing trap has a downside. It only heals a lot if you step on it. DHs depend on the enemy to heal. Force them to pop their heal traps on a place where you will never walk again while maintaining ranged pressure and the DH will fall.

In group fights the dynamic should still be the same. Only step inside the cap which is usually bigger than the trap radius to avoid the enemy capping. Bear in mind that Renewed Focus doesn’t contribute to point capping thus relieving your capping pressure.

Regarding DHs shield of courage
This skill offers a 5sec frontal block. This doesn’t mean by any chance that DHs become invulnerable as they are able to be attacked from the rear. The key again is to force DHs to move.
As in any fight you aim to hit to your opponents’ weak points.
If you complain about DHs frontal blocks you have to complain of warriors endure pain, Reves glint heal, Druids 0 damage signet, Thieves block, Engi AA block, etc.

Now that we have somehow “revised” the current state of the DH, it’s time to make the final comparison with warriors from S3. Just because a class was “an easy win” in a previous season and now isn’t will for sure trigger players who still want an easy win. The same thing happened with warriors and engis.
I don’t mean by this that the guardian doesn’t have to be toned down. Maybe a slight damage reduction to the symbols can work. Yet as it always happens, you need to learn how to fight new opponents.

Hope I could give you some insight on the class and maybe help a bit with your struggles. I personally like the changes they made to guardian. The class feels more unique now as guardian is now a synonym fro symbols and aegis (kinda).
I do feel however that dying to traps is more of an awareness problem than the traps itself dealing a lot of damage. But DHs are not unbeatable trust me. Bear in mind that there isn’t a preset on how to fight a DH. As against any other players the DH will try to kill you and won’t deply the skills in the same way. The more you play the more comfortable you’ll feel against them.

As a DH myself I’m struggling A LOT and I mean A LOT against druids. Yet before complaining I’m trying to see in which ways I can improve.

I noticed the same thing while trying to destroy a ranger. It is actually a bug.
Enemies taken in with scorpions’ rope and pushed back with the shield knockback should be damaged twice.
Only the pull in works

Traps weren’t buffed in the previous patch. Guardians main buffs were in core skills and weapon mechanics.

Bow didn’t get buffed
Traps didn’t get buffed
DH tratis weren’t buffed

Your statement implies that the class is top tier because of those 2 (first 2) factors.
I humbly ask you:
*How many games do you have
*Against who are you fighting
*What amulet are you using

Considering there has always been much debate regarding the class because of its mechanic (being useless in top tier pvp and over the top in lowest tier) I really don’t have much to say except for the fact that I think you’re low tier and fighting low tier enemies. And yes, against unsuspecting enemies which are the ones you usually find in low tier pvp you will have the upper hand.

P.S: Keep playing until you are at 4k games and get matched against ppl who usually make it into late Legendary season. If you manage to keep stating at that point that traps are OP I will be glad to see your videos.

The problem I see with this is that carrying 2 or 3 of this modified utility skills would sinergyze so greatly with symbols that it would leave no other option viable.
You would be throwing pbAoE skills on top of a cap (in pvp) which, when traited occupy almost all the cap dealing huge amounts of passive cc and damage (mainly the spirit hammer passive skill you proposed). It wouldn’t leave much to imagination.
Also, the idea of a skill pulsing boons when on cooldown is ridiculously overpowering, at least imo.

The main modifications I’d propose for spirit weapons (SW from now on) would be:
Modifying the grandmaster trait: SW now are not time gated and can only be destroyed by pew pewing them, apply burning and add 1 extra boon depending on which SW you have summoned (sword: might/fury, hammer: chill/might), bow: resistance/regen, shield: aegis/protect)

Increasing SW artifical intelligence
Increase SW mobility
Increase SW active skill
Tweaking active skills either in terms of damage, functionality, both or adding a different mechanic.

1) Retaliation rework
2) Aegis rework
3) Spirit weapons rework
4) Allow better trait sinergy (though they modified traits meaning they looked at them and decided not to make major changes)
5) Torch adjustment (Torch analysis and modifications)

They are fun again indeed. I no longer have the need to stay at 1200 range pew pewing with the bow. Permanent symbol uptime + healing & might from them enabled me to fight engies again (and the sword 4 year bug fix).

Guards can pretty much stay on melee 1v1 indefinitely now. The problem with necros is if they manage to get 10 of three damaging condis on you and you’re out of condi cleanses.
I personally prefer shield over focus. Focus skills have a really long cooldown and the attack dynamics are slow, though superior in terms of viability. I’d rather use torch but without radiance and a slight rework to the weapon it won’t happen (symbol + torch would make a really interesting aoe fire damage if you’re willing to never use F1)

Would love to see spirit weapons and signets reworks. The build diversity would go from 1 viable build to maybe 2 or 3!!!!!. One can only hope

Elite specs are instantly unlocked once you enter pvp room. There shouldn’t be a problem there. So you could stick to the “meta” build.

My suggestion though is to keep playing, keep practicing. There’s no such thing as a guidebook on how to play properly (Though it seems we’re heading that way -sad face- ).
Practice makes the master.

We were talking about modifying a weapon’s mechanics, don’t stray off the thread subject please.

In my opinion there are contradictory approaches in your build. You’re carrying defensive traits, yet you used all offensive stats and scholar runes. In PvE toughness won’t do that much compared to pvp and the base HP of the guardian makes it so that no matter your toughness, you get 1 hit and the damage modifier from the rune won’t work.
Your skill choice is weird too. Given the offensive approach you chose to carry Test of Faith. I would switch Light’s Judgement for Bane signet which gives an incredible DPS boost.
In terms of traits you’re not sinergysing them at all. You need to stay always at 90%+ health yet you choose the ressing trait instead of the increased healing power with mace.
Regarding DH traits, auto stab and aegis won’t do much good since you rarely kite a boss or get CC by PVE. On top of that you’re giving away the 10% damage increase to crippled foes while having traps traited and you’re also carrying Test of Faith which cripples foes and has a decent cooldown.
For a tanky build, the choice of sigils is also weird since you want to deal more damage but will have it really hard in staying over the 90% hp line. You’re either wasting a rune or wasting sigils.

I wouldn’t use this build since imo it’s a hybrid which can neither tank properly unless you got a healer on your toes nor deal enough damage so as to kill enemies fast.
In T4 fractals it might work because they are easy and a coordinated team will get them.
I’d polish it a bit more, be more honest in the role you want to play and fully commit to it.

Thank you very much!

Can you guys add an option to turn off Legendary effects?
Meaning for example: I’ve got a guard with Rodgort. When I use Torch #4 I would like to throw the blue flame instead of a Rodgort Torch.

Another example: Dragonhunter virtue F1. While equipped with Dawn, I would like to still throw a spear, not a mini Dawn towards the enemy.

Anything that can be done? Maybe add an option in the “in game” menu?

P.S: Similar complains
—> Legendary Shortbow sound

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Skill 4 – Zealot’s flame/fire

This skill is fine for the most part. But It would be cool if the zealot’s flame part of the skill (where you get set on fire) removed a condition from the user and nearby allies for each second the flame is active on you. This to me would be better suited as the condition remover skill and it would be easier to affect allies with it just by standing near them rather than trying to aim with Cleansing Flame.

Skill 5 – Cleansing Flame

Personally, I’d remove the condition removal from this skill. Instead, I’d change it so that Cleansing Flame removes boons from enemies with each tick and then applies a stack of burning for each boon removed.

This way the skill would still fit the theme of “cleansing” but you’re just cleansing the enemy of boons instead. I also think it makes more sense because the skill is much easier to aim on enemies than allies. The duration doesn’t need to change because the utility and burn these changes would add would make up for low physical dps and long cast time.

I don’t agree on number 4 to be honest. It would become too powerful as it would be the main condi cleanse of the guard ( 3 sec duration of the fire x2 if radiance traited) + it would still be a big damaging skill and would still lack effectiveness because of the targetting problem.
However your 5 suggestion was impecable. I really liked it and I liked the concept as well. So +1 for the n° 5 suggestion.

I had no idea where to post this. This placed looked like the most suitable.

Can you guys add an option to turn off Legendary effects?
Meaning for example: I’ve got a guard with Rodgort. When I use Torch #4 I would like to throw the blue flame instead of a Rodgort Torch.

Another example: Dragonhunter virtue F1. While equipped with Dawn, I would like to still throw a spear, not a mini Dawn towards the enemy.

Anything that can be done? Maybe add an option in the “in game” menu?

Guys I’ve thought about a modification for guardian torch skills which could make the weapon more viable, at least in pvp. So I’d like to hear your suggestions/critics/etc.

-Torch 4-
Opinion: This is a great skill with great protential if traited in radiance. BIG damage and a low cooldown. Why if it sounds so great it’s not used?
Problem: A) Strafing. It will almost never hit a target that is moving due to the big fail in the targeting + its projectile speed (similar to the Scepter AA)
B) Same as a lot of other guard’s weapon skills it’s a projectile meaning it can get reflected and as told before, like scepter AA it will probably not hit or hit 1/10 of the times (at least in higher pvp levels).

-Torch 5-
Opinion: Cool concept and cool animation (the blue fire on guardian is amazing).
Problems: A) Lasts for too long and obvious animation (CC fest for any class since Anet decided to go the easy spam, mistake forgiving way which I do not share at all)
B) The cleansing doesn’t work on the caster
C) Some ppl may say the damage is bad though I do not agree, the concept was to cleanse, not to deal big damage WHILE cleansing
D) You breathe fire yet you don’t burn enemies
E) Cleansing moving allies can get difficult, same as landing Wings of Resolve on your allies.

Ok that’s a summary of my opinion regarding guardian torch skills. Now the solution

I suggest changing the dynamic of 4 OR 5. I had thought of making any of the torch skills similar to the fire attack of Captain Ashym (Urban Battlegrounds Fractal) (see Attached figure). Shortly: there’s a fire explosion centered in the caster.
By making the skill an AoE explosion you would get rid of the projetile hate and allow the guardian to stay on melee range which would once again bring the guard to the concept of “King of Melee” which happened when GW2 was released.

If torch 4 was modified the AoE burning would allow hybrid condi power builds to become available, you’d affect multiple enemies withing the explosion radius granting a burning AoE, hence granting on point pressure (it would require to reduce the damage or the burn stacking though)

If torch 5 was modified the AoE skill would allow an AoE condi cleanse which would be easier to land in the midst of a battle. The bad thing is, it would only cleanse 1 condi per ally (and caster) on the radius, thus a slight damage improve OR burning stack would be cool to be added.

Anyway that’s all.. tell me your opinions. I would like to discuss more on the concept rather than the OPness or not. The attributed should be discused later, just want to debate the idea.