Guild Wars 2

fluidmonolith.3584:

I like the general idea of a weapon master elite spec. Revenant is currently severely lacking weapon options (e.g. only one ranged weapon and only one condition weapon). Your idea would address a lot of these issues.

Not sure about the specific details of each weapon set. E.g. some of them seem to perform very similarly to an existing weapon (e.g. Mace vs. Axe/Axe). Also not sure that Jalis’ weapon autoattack should be ranged, as he is heavily themed as a melee fighter.

What determines which weapon you get? E.g. if I have Shiro and Jalis equipped, do I get the weapon for Shiro when I’m in Shiro stance and the weapon for Jalis when I’m in Jalis stance? Does it cost energy to conjure the weapon? What is the cooldown?

I think the added weapons add a lot of versatility here, so the new legend’s utility skills could be a little simpler. E.g. physical skills like Thief or Warrior have, but more mist-themed.

The weapon is the one you choose from the legends you have equiped. So if you run jalis/shiro you can have either jalis’ or shiro’s weapon no matter which legend you are channeling at the moment. So if you’re in combat and you are jalis while having chosen shiro’s weapon, pressing F2 would switch you to shiro legend and equip shiro weapon.

The weapon conjuring itself doesn’t cost energy. Instead the default generation of energy in combat gets reduced to half. As for the cooldown i think it should be at least 2/3 of the full length of time it is available. So if it would be 25 like i said above then the cooldown would be17ish secs.

Edit: forgot to say that some of the weapon skills were purposefully similar to existing ones so that they wouldn’t change gameplay of certain legends too drastically and allow for certain legend specific traits to effect them like they do the utility skills

Legend: Some renowned Weapon master

Weapon: Greatsword

• 1. Mist swing->Mist slash-> Mist Strike: Slash gives might and Strike causes bleeding
• 2. Agonizing Slash: Stab the ground and then slash upward knocking up the enemy and cause torment
• 3. Mist deflect: Block all incoming attacks with your weapon for 3 secs and reflect all projectiles to up to 500 range
• 4. Blood Price: Jump to target and absorb energy depending on how many stacks of bleed it has with the manimum at 3 or 4 bleeds.
• 5. Storm Slash: Swing wide and send an electrified slash that travels forward for 300 range and interrupts up to 3 targets. the rest get extra dmg

Mechanic: Weapon of Legend
At the F2 spot you get a weapon conjure of your choice from the legends you have equipped but only one. So for example if you have shiro and the new one you get to choose only between shiro’s and the new ones. You can have only one conjure equipped at a time. The conjure lasts for 25 secs or until energy runs out. When its conjured you cant switch legends or weapons and you are stuck at the weapon’s legend, plus energy generation gets halved

Weapons of Legend

Shiro: Jade shard sword: MH Sword that looks like a jade shard but has all 5 skill

• 1. Similar to regular sword auto attack but grants fury at last strike
• 2. Jade Stingers: Throw 3 jade stingers in succession causing bleed
• 3. Stab Rush: Stab your opponent several times so fast it looks like a single stab (think guardian’s third sword aa). causes 2 stacks of vulnerability
• 4. Battle Scars: Stance. For 5 seconds, your attacks gain life steal
• 5.Meditation of the Reaper: For 5 seconds, you meditate and absorb damage. Movement breaks the effect.

Jalis: Stone summit mace with rubicon tome at off hand

• 1. Stone essence: Throw stone essence from mace
• 2. Stone Prison: Set an aoe on the grund that slows those that enter it
• 3. Dwarven Battle stance: Gain armor and all attcaks have a chance to interrupt for the next 5 secs
• 4. Guardian scripture: Increase chance to block
• 5. Orison of healing: Send out a wave that heals allies and damages enemies. Heals you depending on how many enemies you hit with 5 healing you for maximum.

Mallyx: Claws of Mallyx, two axes

• 1. AA is similar to necro axe with torment and bleeding
• 2. Rip an Tear: attack twice and cause 2 stacks of torment and Bleeding
• 3. Sever Tendon: cause cripple
• 4. Salt the earth crate an aoe around you that causes weakness and torment
• 5. Corrupt: Turn one boon into a condition for up to 3 enemies around you

Ventari: Branch of the Pale tree

• 1. Waste nothing: send out a wave of power that heals allies and damages enemies
• 2. Hard ground makes stronger roots: Place an aoe that grants protection
• 3. The blossom is brother to the weed: Turns 3 conditions into boons For up to three allies around
• 4. Act with wisdom: Heal yourself and create a Barrier that absorbs the same amount of damage you just healed
• 5. Where life goes, so should you: Teleport both you and tablet to target

Weapon Master Legend: Greatsword with mist energy fluctuations

• 1Hard Slash-> Spin Slash-> Siphon Strike: Spin Slash applies vulnerability and Siphon stroke siphons health equal to 1/3 of dmg
• 2. Scourge: Applies Bleeding
• 3. Reprisal: Block all attacks for 5 secs. while blocking can activate early to attack that causes weakness
• 4. Unleash: Swing left and right as hard as you can healing yourself for 1/3 of dmg of every slash
• 5. Bloodied rush: Grants fury and quickness while rushing to target. Longer the rush the greater the duration of the boons

Utility: Well these would depend ore on who the legend is. But it would definately be smth warrior-ish like banners, rage, stances etc. Hell maybe even spirit weapons

Probably never gonna happen but liked coming up with it. what do you think?

well just the last one of the sequence then

Asgeir Dragonrender would be a good pick for connecting the revenant with the power of the spirits of the wild without actually getting a spirit as a Legend.

Personally i would only change the AA and #4 on staff
AA i think should have 15 to 20% buff in dmg or decrease in intervals between attacks and 10 to 15% faster casting
4 should either get a healing buf or again lower casting time

sorry forgot to write that. I dont consider auto attack a weapon skill. Just an auto attack

Lightsbane.9012:

i’m very open to the idea of a spellsword class (elite spec for ele). i’m still going to advocate for this on the premise of curiosity, i want to see what an ele could do with a firearm.

Well take a gander at this then

If you haven’t seen the article with the leaks, it’s here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/53d21c/what_might_come_in_expansion_2//

Of course this is a “leak” so we can’t be sure how accurate it is or even if it will stay the same all the way to release (probably not). Nevertheless i think a simple discussion about it would be good.

My main concern with this is the weapon chosen for the specialization. Not the fact that it’s a dagger, but instead that it’s supposedly dagger/dagger. That could mean 2 things. One you will be able to equip dagger in either main hand or off hand or both if you so choose (which would be fine actually), or two you are only able to equip 2 daggers without the ability to switch for different builds (less likely).

The second option of course is obviously just wrong since that would go completely against what weapons are in Gw2.
The first one, the only objection i might have is the main hand dagger is cosmetic. Not at the fact that the character would be holding the dagger in the main hand and some other bigger weapon on the off hand no(the character could just be a lefty) but the fact that the auto attack would be with the dagger instead of the bigger weapon. That would just look awkward.

My suggestion would be to make dagger off hand and give it theifs dual wield mechanic. that way you get the 2 new skills in the off-hand slots and the 3rd depending on the main hand weapon. Since the warrior has only 3 main hand weapons, sword, axe and mace, it would only need three additional skills which is the same number as the skills that would need to be made for main hand dagger so it would be possible without too much work.

What are your ideas or concerns about this possible next elite spec for warrior?

sure why not, give warrior a trident and call him gladiator

Weapon: Staff
But like necromancers staff gets a scuthe animation when using it this one gets a spear point/blade on top made of white/blue fire

Weapon skills:
1: Swing left→Swing right→ Thrust forward: Thrust applies Torment
2: Brandish: Charge your Staff with fire and Light and quickly swing diagonally twice. Applies vilnerability
3:Endure→ Constant asault: With endure you keep your Staff forward blocking all attacs for 4 secs. If you block 3 you get Constant assault. When using Constant assault you thrust forwaard your weapon for 3 secs damaging enemies in front and applying 3 stacks of bleeding and torment While blocking you can move but only at 33% speed
4:Spear of Light→ Earthshatter: Throw a conjured spear of Light that impales an enemy causing one stack of bleeding and burning every 2 secs for 4 secs. Then it explodes and damages both the impaled enemy and the surrounding ones. The more stacks of bleeding and burning the target has the greater the dmg. Until it explodes you gain access to Earthshatter. With earthshatter the vanguard jumps in the air and then lands in the target affected by Spear of light shattering the earth and causing cripple and torment to up to 5 enemies
5: Vortex: swirl your halberd overhead damaging and causing slow and torment to all nearby while deflecting all projeciles back to attackers at range

A slight alteration to weapon

Disclaimer: none of these images are mine

please remove this. made it by mistake.
thank you

Name: Arcane Veteran/Warrior, Eldritch Knight, Dreadnought (pretty much any of those really

Lore: They are typically fighters who have learned to tap into the power of ambient magic through various means, thus emulating the way Elder Dragons feed. Though they lack the finnese and control over said Magic, Magic Proffessions have, they use this magic to improve themselves and their fighting abilities generally by imbueing themselves with it and/or producing different effects (mostly force and skock wave related) to damage their enemies. To become one, a character needs a reason as to why they have become linked to the ambient field of magic around them. This can be explained by an accident with a magical artifact, a deal with a fiend or other powerful being, or a magic imbued tattoo, take your pick.

Wepon: Staff (see images below)

Proffesion mechanic: Ambient Magic
An arcane warrior(?) has gained the ability to collect and store ambient magic within themselves. This allows them to improve their bodies and their fighting abilities with it.
The Adrenaline Bar is replaced with the Ambient Magic Bar. Ambient Magic unlike Adrenaline is restored constantly at a steady rate until it’s full but it still has three stages.
F1: Burst Skill
F2:Overcharge
When you activate overcharge, Ambient magic begins boiling in your blood and manifests as Red lightning coursing through your body. You gain quickness every 5secs and you equip a battle staff to channel said magic out of you. (Basically it is necromancers shroud, but Ambient Magic is not expended when using your Overcharge skills and cannot be generated). Burst Skill is replaced with Magic Bust Skill.

Staff Skills

1. Swipe->Thrash-> Force thrust: Swipes target. Jabs twice and causes vulnerability. Then thrusts sending a wave of “force” forward damaging and causing torment.
2. Energy orb -> Cush Orb: Send out an orb of enrgy to a target location. Once it’s there it explodes and damages enemies. Can crush it early.
3. Wild Strikes: Whirl your staff left and right hitting all enemie at your sides and reflecting all projectiles from in front.
4. Helm punt: Rush forward a maximum of 300 range and punt the target in the head causing confusion.
5. Expel force: Release a 360 wave of force knocking back enemies to 500 range.

Burst Skill: Quacke: Channel magic into the ground making it shake

Overcharge Skills

1. Force Swipe-> Force thrash->Force Smash: Swipes target. Jabs twice and causes vulnerability. Then slam the ground creating an aoe damage zone that applies torment. Last for like 1/2 to 1 sec.
2. Lash Out: Teleport to target area and release a cone of red lightning. Causes Weakness
3. Warding Sweep: Perform a sweep in front of you that knocks down up to three enemies and creates a barrier in front of you.
4. Cascading Blast: Send out a blast of force that stuns the target a nd damages all enemies in the way.
5. Attracting Force: Pull in up to five enemies around you Range 600.

Magic burst Skill: Protective Shell. Surround youself with a shell that blocks all attacks and reflects all projectiles. Last longer depending on how many stacks of Ambient magic are left. Consumes all Ambient Magic and removes overcharge.

Utility Skills: Maditations

*1 Healing: Ambient Siphon: Heals you and increases ambient magic. if in overcharge stops ambient magic from lowering for x secs

*Utility Skills

1. Maelfic Aura : Ambient magic surrounds you in an aura. Crakling red tendrils of the magic flit through the air around you as the magic begins attacking enemies by breaking apart armor as well as flesh.last x secs
   Toggle skill in overcharge mode, Rate of Ambient magic decay doubles.
2. Ambient enforcement: The ambient magic imbues your body and makes it faster and stronger, it seeps into you blood, seeking only to help by improving the body. Your movement speed is increased. With every succesful hit at an enemy for the next 3 secs gain fury.
3. Weapon charge: Charge you weeapon with ambient magic. Next 3 weapon atttacks deal more dmg.
4. Towering will: Removes three conditions from you and 3 allies near you.

• Ultimate
  Ambient Conduit: Take in as much Ambient Magic as you can afford all at once. Completely fill Ambient Magic and gain protection and aegis.

Every other profession has 4 utility skillls for each specialization. I think the rev shoud too. It’s not even too much, just one more skill per stance so 5 skills in total.

Revised vanguard thread HERE

So this is the revised Vanguard. Would have put it in the previous thread but it would be too long and noone would read it i think.

Tell me what you think

Ideas for Vanguard traitline
Minor Adept
Brilliance: The guardian trains his/her body and martial skills to such a degree that he can safely infuse his body with Holy Fire and create martial stances based on his/her virtues

Major Adept
Shining Armor:Last part of Spear Auto attack grants protection. Reduces cooldown on physical skills while BB is active
Awe Inspiring: Applies torment every 4secs to all nearby enemies when BB is active.
Flickering Flames: The less Health you have the greater the toughness you gain

Minor Master
Scorching rejuvenation: Gain health every time you block an attack. Additional health gained if BB active

Major Master
Cleanse: Every time you block you also turn a condition to a boon
Constant Vigilance: Every 2nd aegis you apply to either yourself or your allies you gain a stack of protection
Spear Mastery: Increases damage of Spear skills. When not using a Spear reduces the cooldown of weapon skills by 5%

Minor Grandmaster
Vanguard Tactics: Every cripple, taunt, slow you apply increases your concentration

Major Grandmaster
Defense Tactics: Increase toughness for every boon on you
Borrowed Brilliance: Every time someone other than you applies a boon on you, you gain Protection
Shared Brilliance: You Heal yourself and all others around every 4 secs when BB actve.

If you have any other ideas for traits, please post them. These aren’t exactly final draft or anything, just some that came to mind.

Like the title says this is a revision of my Vanguard elite spec, which you can find here

So here we go

Lore: Vanguards are the Guardians who wish to fuse the old(Paragons and Monks) with the new(modern Guardian). They retain their predecessors’ desire to protect and lead, while at the same time take a more practical approach to achieving it. That means that in order to protect others they dont limit themselves to just standing in front of enemies. They also help aid allies against Conditions, and smite enemies with a combination of divine fire and light and physical might.

As you might have guessed Vanguard is a “Tank-spec”, if there is such a thing. However it is a combination of active tanking(casting protection, retaliation and other such boons on yourself), and passive tanking( debilitating enemies and buffing allies, to a smaller extent than support spec of course)

Weapon: Spear

Weapon skills:
1: Swing left->Swing right-> Thrust forward: Thrust applies Torment
2: Brandish: Charge your Spear with fire and Light and quickly swing diagonally twice. Applies vilnerability
3:Endure->Beatdown: With endure you keep your Spear forward blocking all attacs for 4 secs. If you block 3 you get three charges of beatdown. When using beatdown you slam your halberd on the ground causing dmg to all enemies in front. Applies torment While blocking you can move but onlky at 33% speed
4:Spear of Light-> Earthshatter: Throw a conjured spear of Light that impales an enemy causing one stack of bleeding and burning every 2 secs for 4 secs. Then it explodes and damages both the impaled enemy and the surrounding ones. The more stacks of bleeding and burning the target has the greater the dmg. Until it explodes you gain access to Earthshatter. With earthshatter the vanguard jumps in the air and then lands in the target affected by Spear of light shattering the earth and causing cripple and torment to up to 5 enemies
5: Vortex: swirl your halberd overhead damaging and causing slow and torment to all nearby while deflecting all projeciles back to attackers at range

Now for the juicy part

Mechanics: Stances and Brilliant Body (Virtues are replaced by stances.)

Brilliant Body: Brilliant body is an F4 ability that stands above the stances and adds effects to stances, weapon and spec-specific utility skills. It lasts x secsand has a cooldown of y secs. Every time you switch stances or use utility skills while BB is active it lowers it’s cooldown by z%. Cooldown cant go below 10 secs. (I don’t specify time duration because i believe that would be a balance issue.

Stances:

Stance of Justice (Dmg stance):
While in SoJ every 5th hit you take spreads retaliation to you and allies near you. When Briliant body is active it also gives quickness (to just yourself) and every time you activate a weapon skill spreads vulnerability to up to 5 enemies around.

Stance of Resolve(Support stance):
When in SoR every 5th hit you take spreads regento you and allies near you . While BB is active also gain resistance (to just yourself) and when you activate a weapon skill spreads blindness to up to 5 enemies around.

Stance of Courage(Pure Tank stance):
When in SoC every 5th hit you take spreads Aegis. When BB is active also gain stability (to just yourself) and when you activate weapon skill spreads weakness to up to 5 enemies around.

Utility Skills:Physical

Healing:Light Mantle: Surrounds the body with a cloack of light and heals.
While in:
SoJ gives might
SoR gives Swiftness
SoC gives Stability
If Brilliant body is active, next 3 secs all dmg taken gets healed back

Glory Charge:charge the enemy and strike with the shoulder. creates fire waves that also hits enemies behind target.
Soj: causes Burning to all enemies hit
SoR: interrupts target only
SoC: Knocks down target and slows enemies hit by fire waves

Firelight Bash: Bash your enemy with a Holy fire imbued punch stunning him for x secs.
When stun ends target explodes with holy fireand causes torment
SoJ: Exploding causes Vulnerability to all enemies nearby
SoR: Blinds all enemies nearby.
SoC: Causes weakness to all nearby enemies

Empowering Flash: Emit a flash of light and empower yourself and nearby allies
SoJ: Next 10 secs all hits taken grant retaliation
SoR:Next 10 secs all hits taken grant regen
Soc:Next 10 secs all hits taken grant protection

Heroic Roar: Enhance your voice to unleash a deafening roar that applies fear to all nearby. If BB active then apply Slow and torment

Ultimate: Brilliant Resurgance: Immediatelly finishes cooldown of BB. If BB active then produces a huge 360 wave of light and fire that causes
Burning and Vulnerability in SoJ
Blindness and cripple in SoR
Slow and weakness in SoC

Arcaedus.7290:

Yes, this is what I was trying to suggest! I think this would be an excellent direction for the devs to take guardian’s next elite spec in if nothing else. Really like the condition/boon you chose for each stance too.

As for the BB effects, I’m not sure about the taunt on Courage. I suppose if it was single target and had a range (maybe 600) it wouldn’t be over powered in pvp/wvw. How exactly were you expecting the additional effects due to BB to work; would they be single-time activation upon activating that stance, or would they periodically pulse?

The BB effects would be applied every spread so basically every 5th hit. as for taunt i thought it could be applied to the on actually performing the hit thoug i suppose applying it to target is also an option. Maybe both even.
And no i don’t think it would be op, especially if the boons/ condis only last 3 to 4 secs (with traits incresing the duration of course)

So new Mechanics would be

Mechanics: Stances and Brilliant Body
Virtues are replaced by stances.
The stances are,
Stance of Justice (The proverbial Dmg stance)
While in SoJ every 5th hit you take spreads Burning and might. When Briliant body is active it also gives quicknes

Stance of Resolve(Support stance)
When in SoR every 5th hit you take spreads blindness and regen. While BB is active also gain resistance

Stance of Courage(Pure Tank stance)
When in SoC every 5th hit you take spreads stability and aegis. When BB is active also spreads taunt

Weapon skills #4,5
4.Brilliant thrust: Thrust forward damaging enemies with a cone of fire and light.
SoJ: Pull and burn. While BB active also torment
SoR: Confuse and blind. While BB active also vulnerability
SoC: knockdown and weakness. While BB active also slow

5. SoJ: Fire eruption: Slam the ground and damage all enemies 360 around you causing cripple. While BB active create Aoe that causes burning
SoR: Firelight sweep: sweep 360 in front knocking down all enemies.While BB active also create symbol of regen
SoC: Vortex: swirl your halberd overhead lightly damaging and causing slow and torment to all nearby. While BB active also deflect all attacks and projeciles back to attackers.

Brilliant Body: Brilliant Body continually consumes Holy Fire to keep itself activated . It gives the Vanguard 3 secs of Light aura every 4 secs.

Holy fire is a new resource kind of like adrenaline and used to power Brilliant Body. It generates from the use of utility skills and weapon skills (not Racial skills) but only when Brilliant body is active, so the more skills you use the longer you can keep Brilliant body activated. When BB is not activated Holy fire cannot be generated. When out of combat it fills to maximum automatically

As you can see this version has weapon swap and can generate Holy fire with pretty much all skills available to Guardian. Let me know what you think.

Also dont forget to suggest ideas for traits you might have in mind.
Thx for all the feed back, keep it coming

Arcaedus.7290:

Even with Brilliant Body, the stances don’t seem incredibly impactful (except for courage which dances the fine line of being op). Mechanically speaking, I don’t really like that I would have to press two buttons (switch to stance 1, AND activate BB) just to get a passive effect. I do like your idea of only one stance being active at a time (it’s a unique twist on virtues), but consider making the meat of their effects be independent of BB. Maybe add the corollary of: Having BB active when you you swap out of/into a stance will activate an additional powerful effect based on which stance was switched out of, but send BB into cooldown for a few seconds.

One thing I do like about your design though is the concept of charging ‘Holy Fire.’ This could be a very very interesting way for the new class function and traits to add flavor to the class and also have other traitlines synergize with it.

When you say make the meat of their effects be independant of BB do you mean making BB have only the light aura every 4 secs effect and add the spread of condis and boons directly on stance? if so then that is actually a great idea. I’ll do just that. As for weapon swap i’ll relent and make it available always but that means i will change the 4,5 skills of the Halberd.

Ideas for Vanguard traitline

Minor Adept
Brilliance: The guardian trains his/her body and martial skills to such a degree that he can safely infuse his body with Holy Fire and create martial stances based on his/her virtues

Major Adept
Shining Armor:Last part of halberd Auto attack grants protection. Reduces cooldown on physical skills while BB is active
Awe Inspiring: Applies torment every 4secs to all nearby enemies when BB is active.
Flickering Flames perseverance: The less Holy fire you have left the greater the toughness you gain

Minor Master
Scorching rejuvenation: Gain health every time you block an attack. Additional health gained if BB active

Major Master
Cleanse: Every time you block you also turn a condition to a boon
Constant Vigilance: Every 2nd aegis you apply to either yourself or your allies you gain a stack of protection
Halberd Mastery: Increases damage of stance skills of Halberd. When not using a Halberd reduces the cooldown of #4 and #5 skills

Minor Grandmaster
Vanguard Tactics: Every cripple, taunt, slow you apply increases your concentration

Major Grandmaster
Defense Tactics: Increase toughness for every boon on you
Borrowed Brilliance: Every time someone other than you applies a boon on you, you gain Holy Fire
Shared Brilliance: You Heal yourself and all others around every 4 secs when BB actve.

If you have any other ideas for traits, please post them. These aren’t exactly final draft or anything, just some that came to mind.

Virtues traits and their effect on Briliant Body:

Inspired Virtue:Virtues now also apply the following boons to allies when activated
Justice: might Resolve: regeneration Courage: protection,-> Adds the boons either as extra stacks or extra boons to the spread you gain every 5th hit

Virtue of Retribution Gain retaliation when you activate a virtue. Retaliation you apply lasts longer.-> You gain retaliation along with light aura every 4 secs when using BB. Retaliation you apply lasts longer.

Absolute Resolution Activating Virtue of Resolve removes conditions from nearby allies. Virtue of Resolve’s passive effect is stronger.-> Entering Stance of Resolve removes conditions from nearby allies, removes conditions from you as well if BB active

Power of the Virtuous Deal extra damage for each boon you have. Virtues recharge faster.-> Deal extra damage for each boon you have, Stances recharge faster

Battle Presence Nearby allies gain Virtue of Resolve’s passive effect.-> That actually stay the same

Indomitable Courage Activating virtue of courage breaks stun and grants stability to nearby allies. Virtue of courage’s passive effect triggers more frequently.-> Entering Stance of Courage breaks stun and grants stability to nearby allies.

Permeating Wrath Virtue of Justice’s passive effect no longer only burns your target, but also burns the area around your target each time it activates. Virtue of Justice causes burning more frequently.->When entering Stance of Justice apply 2 stacks of burning to all enemies around you.

Hope this helps

Yannir.4132:

I’m with Rodzynald and RabbitUp. As a concept I love this idea, but practically speaking you’ve gone too far.

-Taking away weapon swap unnecessarily limits this spec, although the idea probably wouldn’t really work with a weapon swap
-Completely changing the virtues makes the Virtues traitline obsolete, and frankly, all other traits that affect the passive virtues. This further limits the spec.
-That #3 weapon skill is too complicated and limiting. Flip skills are fine, but 2 flip skills? Too much. Even if we take that DD Elite skill which has 3 parts, they don’t have requirements, just a target limit of 1.
-I didn’t find a single block skill in all that. Guardians are kinda reliant on that with their low base health, and as this spec doesn’t offer much in the way of healing either…

+Halberd is cool! I want one. ^^ And unlike some people, I do believe that new weapons are bound to end up in the game at some point.
+"Holy Fire" as a resource is a nice touch. It does sound more like an energy bar than an adrenaline bar but that’s irrelevant mostly.
+This ended up having only a few actual positive sides, but I still like it in general.

And I’m sorry but your naming of skills kinda sucks. But that’s just a personal opinion. But really swinging as AA? I don’t want to play golf…

For the weapon swap i actually agree with you. I only removed it because i didn’t think it would work otherwise. The only solution i thought of was to remove weapon swap only when using Halberd and keeping it when not, and i’m not sure that’s feasible

Virtues i said before are replaced by Briliant Body and any traits that worked on them are inherited by it with it’s own twist (forgot to write that specificaly, my bad)

The #3 skill…….. honestly i just wanted a power i could name beatdown

Endure is supposed to be the main block skill that you use almost like an auto-attack. it would have low cooldown, 2-3 secs mostly and can be used almost constantly. (Also why i justified the 3 parts) Earthshatter i envisioned would mostly be a gapcloser towards ranged attackers and coupled with the cripple taunt and slow from other skills, is supposed to keep you as close to your enemies possible without actually giving you swiftness. Vortex would also have a higher but all in all low cooldown that can be used situationaly, mainly when surrounded to keep enemies close and on you while teammates can finish them off

For Holy fire i actually wanted to go with a combination of Warrior’s adrenaline and Revenant’s energy. Don’t know if i actually managed it but i really like how it turned out on “paper”, despite how i originally came up with it in my thoughts

Keep your opinions coming people. Good or Bad doesn’t matter, we can work things through

RabbitUp.8294:

All that requires I use the spear weapon. If I choose not to, Vanguard doesn’t really offer anything.

Why use a specialization then if you dont want to use it’s weapon? Especially a two handed weapon. Personally i dont see many dragonhunters, reapers or scrappers without their specialization weapons

Rodzynald.5897:

Oh boi, I don’t know how you did it but you managed.
This is the concept that I’ve been roleplaying for quite some time now and I love it, though there are a bunch of things that need tweaking but I can’t tell how (I’ll try to figure something out and contribute).
But anyway, polearms/halberds is something that we could use for a change and here is why I think so:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Polearm
This is a little bit of new stuff that a considerable ammount of players would like to see.
Also if you check out bank wardrobe in spears category, you can find a vendor quality polearm that looks like a whole different kind of weapon.
In the end of the day, thanks to recent bloodstone weapons I can immerse a little bit better into my character with a staff that has a spear shaped head.

By the way, Imperius with his spear is the real stuff. Best husbando

Wow i had no idea Halberds were actually part of the game in early develoment, that’s kind of neat!

RabbitUp.8294:

So, if I don’t want to use the new weapon, I lose both my weapon swap and my virtues?

For the weapon swap yes you do lose it.
You see normal guardians and dragonhunters have 10 weapon skills, 3 virtues, 1 healing, 3 utilities and 1 ultimate. So 18 powers in total.

Vanguards would have 9 weapon skills, 3 stances, 1 brilliant body, 1 healing, 3 utility and 1 ultimate. So again 18 powers.

If they also had weapon swap they would also have 5 more weapon skills and that would make them a bit too versatile for a specialization i think.

As for virtues you do lose the passive buffs yes but you compensate with the effects of Brilliant Body quite well. The active ones i suppose there could be a trait that allows for them to be used when entering the coresponding stances.
Or it could be a standard part of the mechanic, that works too i supppose

Some visual examples
(None of these images are mine)

They appear in every battlefield, always willing to be at the forefront of an army. They are fearless in combat and are delighted at the sight of stronger opponents. They are known as “Vanguards”. A befitting name for those who are always at the front of the lines.
If by any chance you meet a ”Vanguard” in battle, flee or surrender.
That’s the only way to survive at least against the ones who refuse to taint their Halberds with the blood of a coward.

As you might have guessed Vanguard is a “Tank-spec” but can dish out some dmg if Specked right

Weapon: Spear/Staff (Well i say staff/spear but the skills and appearance of the spec weapon will be more those of a Halberd, that can happen only by using spear on land or giving Staff a whole new set of skills when using the Vanguard spec)

Weapon skills:
1: Swing left->Swing right-> Swing down: appropriate conditions applied, i’m thinking weakness torment and burning mostly
2: Brandish: Charge your Halberd(Staff/Spear) with fire and Light and quickly swing diagonally twice. Applies vilnerability
3:Endure->Beatdown->Earthshatter:With endure you keep your Halberd forward blocking all attacs for 4 secs. If you block at least 3 you get three charges of beatdown. When using beatdown you slam your halberd on the ground causing dmg to all enemies in front. If you use all 3charges within 3 secs then you get Earthshatter. With earthshatter the vanguard jumps in the air and then lands in the target location shattering the earth and causing cripple,taunt and torment.
4:depends on stance
5:depends on stance

Mechanics: Stances and Brilliant Body (also no weapon swap)

Virtues are replaced by stances that change the Halberds’s 4 and 5 skills. The stances are,

Stance of Justice (The proverbial Dmg stance)
4:Fireswirl thrust: thrust forward creating a swirl of fire that pulls and burns enemies
5:Spear of Light: throw a conjured spear of Light that impales an enemy causing one stack of bleeding and burning every 2 secs for 4 secs. Then it explodes and damages both the impaled enemy and the surrounding ones. The more stacks of bleeding and burning the target has the greater the dmg.

Stance of Resolve(Support stance)
4:Ground Sweep: Sweeps the ground 360 degrees around self, knocking down up to 5 enemies. Creates consecrated ground.
5:Symbol of retaliation: slams the ground and creates a symbol that gives retaliation to all who stand on it.

Stance of Courage(Pure Tank stance)
4:Light Eruption->Brilliance blast: stab the ground causing light to spring from it causing slow and blindness to those in front and then use Brilliance blast to detonate it and knock them down
5: Vortex: swirl your halberd overhead damaging and causing slow and torment to all nearby while deflecting all projeciles back to attackers at range.

Brilliant Body: Brilliant Body continually consumes Holy Fire to keep itself activated . It gives the Vanguard 3 secs of Light aura every 4 secs and when hit spreads conditions or boons depending on stance. Justice spreads Burning and might, Resolve spreads blindness and regen, Courage spreads Taunt and aegis, effect can only activate once every 5 attacks taken.

Holy fire is a new resource kind of like adrenaline. When out of combat it fills to maximum. It generates from the use of Vanguards utility skills and Halberd(staff/spear) weapon skills but only when Brilliant body is active, so the more skills you use the longer you can keep Brilliant body activated. When BB is not activated and you’re in combat it takes 35 secs for the Holy fire bar to completely refill.

Utility Skills:Physical(pertaining to nbrilliant body)

Healing:Light Mantle: Surrounds the body with a cloack of light and heals while giving protection. If Brilliant body is active, next 3 secs all dmg taken gets healed back

Glory Charge:charge the enemy and strike with the shoulder. creates fire waves that also hits enemies behind target.

Holly fire strike: Punch your enemy with a Holy fire imbued fist stunning him for x secs.
If Brilliant body is active when stun ends target explodes with holy fire burning itself and up to 3 nearby enemies

Brilliant weapon: Transfer some of the essence of fire and light in your weapon giving each hit you make for the next 10 secs apply weakness. If BB active then also blindness

Heroic Roar: Enhance your voice to unleash a deafening roar that applies fear to all nearby. If BB active then apply taunt and torment

Ultimate: Brilliant Resurgance: Immediatelly finishes cooldown of BB. If BB active then produces a 360 wave of light and fire that causes blindness and weakness

As you can see main focus is using as many skills as possible to constantly maintain Brilliant Body for dmg mitigation. Rest is just extra dmg and cc that can be specced into with the right traits (Which i’m not about to think of, i’m not making the game) but never the main point

So what do you think?

Weapon: off-hand sword
Utility skill: Meditations
Profession mechanic: Wandblade stance

Weapon Skills

Fire attunement
4. Fire riposte*: Block your foe and apply burning
-Lava throw: throw Lava with your sworswing and apply 2 extra stacks of Burning to targets in range
5. Scorch: send out a wave of fire around you that blinds and burns

Water attunement
4.Water riposte: Block your foe and apply regen to yourself
-Frozen weapon: using the leftover water essence on your enemies weapon, freeze it to cause mild chill and weakness
5. Wellspring: create a healing well at your feet for 5 seconds

Wind attunement
4.Wind riposte: Block your foe and apply swiftness to yourself
-Lightning lunge: Lunge target and cause blindness
5.3 Lightning stabs: stab you foe with your sword and follow up with 2 blades of lightning. Causes 3 stacks of Bleeding

Earth attunement
4.Earth riposte: Block youe foe and apply stability to yourself
-Metal shards: Throw metal spikes at enemy and cause bleeding
5. Magneticaly controlled sword: Control your sword from afar and strike 5 times. Causes weakness and bleeding

*Character can move during all ripostes

Utility skills

Healling
Elemental body: For a certain duration all damage recieved is halved and 3/4 of the original damage gets absorbed as health

Utility
Elemental empowerment: Grant boons depending on attunement. Can pulse those boons to nearby allies three time after initial cast
Fire:Might,Fury
Water:Regen,Vigor
Wind:Quickness,Swiftness
Earth:Protection,Stability
Fire purification: Turns all conditions to regen
Embrace of mother earth: Teleport to ally and give stability and regen
Sky’s the limit: Teleport away after striking with lightning and causing cripple and vulnerability

Elite
Contemplate the abyss: For 10 or 15 seconds all skills have no cooldowns

Profession mechanic

now here is where it gets interesting

Wandblade stance is activated with the weapon swap button.
When entering wandblade stance the elementalist’s main hand weapon is switched for the wand blade (whose skin would most likely be the elite spec weapon skin with some particle effects mixed in) and the main hand weapon becomes the off hand (that includes two-handed staff, so gandalf staff-sword wannabes should be happy, i know i am). Wandblade stance has no time limit, but once you come out of it there will be a cooldown twice as long as weapon swap to get back in it

The weapon skills in the wandblade stance are as follows

1.sword wave-> sword wave-> Flying sword stab: wide projectiles that fly until they either hit 3 targets or at max range (Which is higher than scepter but slightly lower than staff). Fire: waves cause weakness
stab causes 2 bleed 1 burn in mellee, 1bleed 1burn in mid, 1bleed 2burn in max range
Water: waves heals self and any friendly they pass but dont count as targets
Stab causes chill
Wind: waves causes vulnerability
stab cause torment and bleed
Earth: waves cause slow
stab cause cripple and bleed

2. trillion swings: swing wildly causing a torrent of sword waves
Fire: Plasma bolt: swings gather in front of caster and create a ball of heat fire and plasma that is later unleashed at single target. causes burn and vulverability
Water: Splash water: swings are 360 all around healing allies and damaging foes, creates wellspring on your feet that heals for 5 secs
Wind: Wind blades: swings turn to wind blades that cause bleed
Earth: Shock wave torrent: Single target causes small knockback with every hit

3. Elemental Strike: Highly powered sword slash that carries through.
Fire: Fire claw strike: wide swing that creates claws of fire that pull up to 5 enemies to you
Water: Ice Sword manifestation: Stab in front and Let fly a big sword of ice that causes chill to all it hits. Can change its trajectory with second activation
Wind: Dimension cut: High damage high crit cut that creates a rip in space at the targets position. Space then explodes dealing damage and knocking enemies away from the spot
Earth: Diamond dust stab: Gather diamond dust in your sword and then slash to unleash it at the target, causing bleed and vulnerability

Now as for off-hand skills if the original main hand is:

Dagger then:
4. Bolts: fire a series of bolts from your dagger
Firebolts: Medium casting time then unleash at once. cause Burn
Icebolts:Fire while casting. Cause bleed and last one chills
Lightningbolts: Instant. Cause confuse
Sandbolts:start casting then unleash while keep on casting. causes cripple
5. Dancing blades: Twirl elegantly while swinging your sword and dagger conjuring elementall blades around you that damage all within and deflect projectiles
Fire: cause weakness to those inside and burns those who enter it
Water: cause regen to you and allies within
Wind: knockback all who try to come close, cause bleed to all within
Earth: Enemies cant get in, you and allies within gain stability

Scepter then

4. Elemntal armor: Creates armor around the character that can be exploded outward gives toughness and
Fire: retaliation, Exploding outward causes burning
Water: Regen, Pulses healing to nearby allies 2 time instead of exploding
Wind: Swiftness, exploding knocks back enemies
Earth: stability, exploding causes bleeding

5. Fire: Plasma sear: fires a plasma beam in a line. Targets hit by plasma beam get double burn from sword wave
Water: Ice sword missiles: 5 Ice swords that follow the target and hit up to 5 people in the way. Each hit disappears one sword
Wind: Heaven spear rain: Conjure three giant spears of lightning above your target that hit all within a certain range of it
Earth: Earth spikes: cause a spikes to sprout knocking back all affected

Staff then:

4. Warmage assault: Lunge at target creating a small aoe burst
Fire: target gets burned and all else around get vulnerability
Water: You get regen and all around get chil
Wind: target and enemies around get bleed
Earth: You get stability, enemies around get knocked back and crippled

5. Elemental symbol: Slam a symbol on the ground with your staff.
Fire: Burn, might
Water: Regen,Vigor
Wind:Swiftness, Blind
Earth:Stability, Cripple

As you can see i inverted the range for staff and dagger and kept scepter as mid. That way if you get to be able to do both range and mellee with them depending on wether you are in wand blade stance or not.
As for traits, i haven’t thought much but i do have two.
1.Main trait: The greater the range the lesser the damage
2. main or secondary: decrease all damge out by 5% but also decrease all damage taken by 5%

Well that’s it…….. kind of long i know.
Tell me what you think