Hero Points & old characters: breach of trust
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089
In theory, I think this change makes skill challenges more rewarding.
In the current system, there comes a time where you gain so many skill points for free, that the whole skill point hunting becomes meaningless. Current skill challenges end up being pretty much a glorified version of points of interest.
Similarly, obtaining traits with the current system is either obscure and unintuitive, or pretty much a copycat of gear, runes and sigils, where you spend gold to buy power.
The distinction between obtaining traits and obtaining gear, and the distinction between collecting skill challenges and collecting points of interest, is currently blurred. Those changes will make it clearer and stand out more.
GW2’s map completion is generally boring and repetitive after a while. It needs more rewards, which we are going to get, it needs more unique things to hunt for, which this changes improve upon, and it needs more challenge, which I don’t have much faith that it’ll ever happen.
The real issue is how the new system interacts with WvW.
You have to grind hard so that the non-sellable junk that this game spam at you can be traded for junk that, you know, can actually be sold or salvaged for that precious +10 luck or 16 copper.
Four new traits for free = more power.
Some traits made baseline = more power.
Stronger traits = more power.
Yes, even meta/ picked traits are generally getting buffed, not merely the weakest ones.
That’s pretty much powercreep, but if it’ll have a negative impact or not is hard to say (it’ll probably not).
Meanwhile, some trait stats being made baseline might mean less focused power (all procs will get extra health/ toughness/ damage), but I’m not sure if they’ll be significant enough.
Fresh Air builds weren’t nerfed, they had their role changed. Less burst for more utility and speed.
It’s awful. The bow looks promising, but the traps are based on terrible mechanics and are just another source of area denial, which we absolutely did not need over mobile damage sources. The traitline has no synergy with any of our existing traits. What the hell is the point of giving us extra damage against crippled enemies when the only source of cripple we have is with the new bow? Why do we have a trait that increases our damage from > 600 range if the majority of our weapons are melee? And why do we have a trait that inflicts cripple on knockback if the only reliable way to proc it is from a different bow trait (or the use of the very underwhelming shield)?
The traits you listed are meant to enhance the elite spec itself, which is to be expected. I don’t see what’s wrong about that. Also, bow’s barrage can knockback on target’s movement. The shield being underwhelming is also not DH’s fault.
I think the bad name makes people subconciously think that the dragonhunter is worse than what it is.
I mean, let’s forget about the name. Guardian’s elite spec is pretty much a leaping angel, and sort of like a divine hunter entity. Elite specs are not only meant to be extentions of each prof’s themes, but also a dev interpretation of what a dual-classing theme would be like. And what is their interpretation of a Guardian/ Ranger spec? Bows that shoot symbols, arrows of bouncing light, shield arrows, Ray of Judgement traps, ward-ish version of traps, winged leaps and the like. That’s all awesome.
That being said, Chronomancer and Reaper are god-tier and surpringly better than what I expected from Anet. The theme is immediately appealing, the playstyle feels more unique, yet fits perfectly with the theme, the new death shroud animation is of a deadly beauty, and Robert’s way with puns kind of gives an extra charm to it all. Robert is quickly becoming my favourite prof designer at Anet with those two elite specs. I feel that he offers some fresh new ideas to the team (mesmer’s trait changes are also an example of that), and I find Reaper and Chrono to be at near-perfect status, be it for their playstyle, for how focused and immediately appealing their theme is, for their charming skill/ trait names, and especially for how well gameplay communicates the theme of the spec.
For DH to be on-par, he needs a better name and a more focused thematic quality. For example, their new virtues are really interesting, but they feel more like something you’d expect from a paragon. And then you have what generally seems to be a divine ranger, only to have a dragon-named elite that is clearly there just for the sake of the spec’s name to make sense (which it still doesn’t).
With a bit of a polish, DH can be easily on par with other specs. Change the name to something that invokes a divine-hunter-ish theme, make RoJ trap the elite trap instead of the dragon-themed one (IMO) – perhaps even go as far as remove anything dragon-ish from that skill (animation and name), and suddenly, everything will fit together very nicely. We’ll then have what the spec truly is – a holy ranger of light.
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It’s not only for the leveling player.
Having to choose between “3 decent options” and between “3 strong options” can have different effects on your decision-making. It wouldn’t be fun if ALL traits were game-changing, like grandmaster traits usually are, so it’s cool that the new system will still maintain those situations where “here, I’ll decide which effect I want to enhance, and there, I’ll decide which effect can change my entire playstyle”. It’s also interesting when you take into account where the weapon traits are placed. For some builds, picking a weapon trait is a bonus that comes at the cost of an interesting but not necessary effect. For other builds, picking a weapon trait can be pretty playstyle-defining and come at the cost of other playstyle-defining traits. So each situation makes you think differently, and make different kind of decisions. If all traits were equally impactful, it would be kind of boring.
But there’s also a balance reason for that. Putting the stronger traits together can be a pretty good way to nerf them, without directly making them weaker/ less impactful/ less impressive. Sure, the stronger traits could all reside in the adept teir instead of grandmaster, but for the sake of coherence, consistency and easier player understanding, putting them all at the end of each line works better.
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Now that Jon Peters told us he plans to change one of the guardian tomes, namely one of the tome’s most powerful skill, Light of Deliverance, may become a signet, it just shows how they don’t care about elementalist elites…
It shows that in the stream, Karl unintentionally leaked the new elite icons, and JPeters then went on to explain them.
Tomes are probably being changed so they can fit in the currently existing skill types. We don’t know if elites like Tornado or others will get similar changes or not.
Perhaps we should wait until Tempest’s reveal to find out anything about it.
Was hoping saying it once was enough but I’ll say it again. This is a work in progress. Try to give feedback based on the utility and synergy of the trait instead of the numbers. Slow every 3rd critical hit could also be every 10th critical hit. It could be 8s of slow instead of two. Obviously these numbers are an attempt to be accurate otherwise we wouldn’t even give them but a lot of this stuff will go up and/or down before HoT is released.
Jon
I think there are many cases where the line between numbers and utility/ synergy is blurred. In those situations, it makes sense to discuss the numbers, as they might be tightly tied to functionality.
For example, the wells trait. What is the problem with the wells trait? Is it a problem with numbers? Sure, Anet can just up its cleansing from 1 to 2. Or is it a problem with functionality? Ultimately, people are not only discussing the numbers with this trait, but how worth the effect must be to justify waiting 2-3 seconds to get it. What if 1 cleanse is underpowered but two cleanses overpowered? How many wells can a mesmer stack at the cost (or not) of stun breakers and portal? Etc.
This is an example of ambiguity. At least, for me, it’s hard to discern if we’re talking merely about numbers, or if we’re talking about something else as well. Afterall, we are raising potential, problematic scenarios that go deeper than mere number crunching.
That being said, playing with numbers IS fun to some of us. :P
Outside of that, I already posted what I think might be my best contribution on the subject: some of those traits are really exciting, but they feel like they should belong to mesmer’s baseline trait lines/ specs, and not specifically to chronomancer. Chronophantasma and Illusionary Reversion are the two traits that fit that criteria. Chronophantasma, specifically, is like a better version of the new illusion’s trait Persistence of Memory.
I think that you should put at least one of those two traits in a baseline trait line instead (perhaps in illusions, but NOT in dueling, because that one already offers DE), and in its current place, add a shield trait to chonomancer. Illusionary Reversion would be my pick for such change, because it would offer a good alternative to DE for any shatter mesmer build (be it chronomancer or not), and because a chronomancer shield trait would make more sense in its place at master tier, than at grandmaster tier in chronophantasma’s place.
Changing last AA chain skill from boon stripping to boon stealing could be a cool effect for a trait too.
Wells could probably cleanse 1 condition at cast plus one at the last tick, or simply remove 2 at the last tick. I can understand that having 5 cleansing skills for a total of 10 conditions removed might seem overpowered, but with wells being time-driven and lacking a stun-break (which means players will probably not equip one of them), and it won’t be as strong as it seems out.
Alternatively, anet can always slap a generic 20 CDR to the trait, but if that doesn’t also works (perhaps due to the design intent to have chronomancers manage alacrity well), then an additional, simpler effect could probably justify it. Confusion at the last tick, maybe, for additional support for confusion builds.
I think weapon traits are a lot more interesting when they have creative effects. It reminds me of guardian’s boring shield trait, and how anet has listened to the fan’s suggestion to add aegis to it.
Here’s my suggestions for mesmer’s sword trait (to be coupled alongside the 20% CDR):
1. Sword’s skills apply twice the amount of vulnerability (affects clones).
2. Sword’s leap range is increased.
3. Sword’s leap applies quickness.
4. Combine the trait with that other one that gives reflection to blurred frenzy.
Seems like shatter builds and interrupt builds will all want to become chronomancers.
I think Illusionary Reversion, by being a good alternative to DE, should be moved to one of the baseline, non-dueling trait lines, and, in its place, chronomancers should get a shield trait instead. I think this would be a win-win scenario, because chronos are currently lacking a shield trait, while extra clones is something that the entire profession has a need for so it is not stuck with DE.
Just to let people know : revenants are be able to rip up to 4 boon within a 20-25s span for the moment, assuming things are left as they are and the boon ripping options come alongside confusion/torment/poison/burn spamm all in one build which will have access to resistance boon on top…the more you know
Mallyx Revenants also get a free boon removal minor trait in their corruption line, so make that 5 boons every 20s. Up to 6 if the boon-stealing sigil remains popular.
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Greatsword is popular for the simple reason that Anet clearly favorited that weapon type not only by making it mandatory in PvE but also by adding multiples legendaries ( and by the way they are all uninspired in my opinion), whereas other weapons get the short stick. Bad design if you ask me, if we did have a real choice like in Guild Wars 1 you would have seen things in a different way ( hint: diversity).
I enjoy greatswords for many reasons more, especially because they make the best use of GW2’s graphical engine and animations (other weapons are usually too thin or small, which make them hard to see in the middle of all particle effects and while we watch our character’s backs). Also, Twilight and Sunrise are some of the best looking skins in the entire game, for their simple and elegant use of particle effects. Over half of the legendaries in this game are either too silly or too busy with details. I’d rather have something “uninspired” that looks perfect, than something “original” that looks crappy.
That the profession is currently balanced around boons is one thing, but pidgeonholing it completely into boons is another. This will make the elementalist forever countered by anti-boon builds.
That was what happened in GW1, and no one liked it at all. As more anti-boon professions/ builds become possible (revenant’s mallyx legend, the buffs to bring shatter mesmers back to top meta, and who knows what else might come out of new elite specs), the worse a baseline EA ele will feel to play as. That might not be a problem now, when boon removal is still very niche, but it’s at risk of being very restricting in the future. That’s literally asking for the most disliked “feature” of GW1’s elementalist to come back. This also creates problems in PvE’s challenge-motes, like living story’s seaon 2, episode 4 challenge mote where you must fight without boons. Eles can currently opt to trait off boons, but with baseline EA, they wouldn’t any longer.
A much better idea is to seek non-boon solutions that still fit with the theme of the elementalist. Apparently, Anet agrees with that stance, because that’s what we’ve been getting and keep getting. Blind on burning, damage reduction on earth, condition immunity, critical immunity, passive aura procs, passive cantrip procs, superspeed, fresh air, evade on mh dagger. Even though some of those options complement boons well, they give us something else other than boons to push our power.
If an EA-effect were ever to become baseline, I’d rather have a non-boon version of it. But with earth line giving us a free, perma 20% damage reduction at nearby range, and with other defensive options getting buffed in other lines, it’s hard to say if eles will still absolutely need EA to not be broken.
Twilight is a perfect fit for the Revenant, and GS legendaries are some of the most popular. Revs not having GS for the sake of needlessly originality is a poor and selfish argument. I hope anet devs are a bit more reasonable on this.
A melee staff is cool, but it’ll be restricted by skin selection.
And the fact you think One with Air is a decent trait meant for any elementalist to take… means I’m done with this conversation. Clearly you either have not PvP’d in WvW or in sPvP in the current meta or IDK what. If it’s the opposite, then I apologize, but we will disagree endlessly.
I have never said that the current version of One with Air is decent.
It’s also hard to argue while taking the current meta into account, when the meta is at risk of changing completely with the celestial nerfs, trait changes, elite specs and new game modes. We don’t know what kind of new builds will emerge and dominate the meta, nor which builds will be the best to counterplay those.
We’re talking only about possibilities here. With fresh air builds changing their role, arcana builds losing one trait, and other trait lines getting buffed, we have no idea how eles will fit the new meta, but we do have enough information to know that new builds might come out of it.
@Raif,
I agree that fresh air builds will lose their burst potential. Air training was “changed” from +10% damage to +150 ferocity. That’s 10% extra damage for criticals only, which is certainly a damage nerf. However, it now comes with air cooldown reduction for free. In addition to that, One with Air’s superspeed duration was doubled, and that trait always worked best with Fresh Air. Those changes are very clear at telling us one thing: Anet intends to move Fresh Air builds away from its cheesy instant-bursting, and more into super-mobile, utility builds. New fresh air builds will be uncatchable when they can maintain 66% superspeed duration, with swiftness inbetween.
It’s also worth noting that Final Shielding fits a burst build well. It gives to the squishy ele that much-needed window to execute its combo before it gets killed, and if the opponent tries to rush in, arcane shield will then contribute to the burst rotation itself.
For alternative burst builds, we will have to check out if we can get something out of non-arcana sets. You can probably make a cantrip burst build with fire-earth-water, where you’ll have plenty of self-cleansing, self-mightstacking, blind, decent amount of other boons and defense from earth to sustain yourself, while rolling berserker amulet. Alternatively, air over earth or fire will give us a deadly CC-burst rotation, but then cooldowns will be our enemy. You’ll only be able to rely on lightning flash, earthquake and updraft every 40 seconds or so. Nonetheless, it’s still be a buffed version of its current, unviable version.
But to be honest, I don’t think burst builds will ever work with the base elementalist profession. Eles are designed as jack-of-all-trades, so making a bust build out of them will be very hard to achieve without giving them overpowered defense/ sustain. Anet probably acknowledges this. For a burst ele to ever work, it’ll need not only the tools for bursting (which it already does), but strong, innate defense to justify using berserker gear, without having that defense strong enough to make bruiser/ bunker builds overpowered (aka, not having it stack much with defensive stats). Anet can’t simply do that with the current ele’s skillset.
But there’s always hope for the Tempest elite spec. With a MH Sword and an aggressive, stormy name, perhaps Anet will give us an ele that is designed both for offensive use as well as having enough baseline sustain to survive at melee range (which is to say: to survive at any range) and thus execute its burst sequence without being instant-killed.
How wanna bet that’s what the Tempest will be about?
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The whole trait preview is a big IF. Most of the buffs done to other classes were followed by “numbers are being adjusted, they’ll probably be lower” comments.
Numbers are not functionality.
But they’re equally important at defining what is meta and what is not.
If they would change powerful auras.
The whole trait preview is a big IF. Most of the buffs done to other classes were followed by “numbers are being adjusted, they’ll probably be lower” comments.
Just to offer an example, here’s a possible build for air-earth-water:
Zephyr’s Boon (party-wide fury and swiftness);
Tempest Defense (party-wide fury, swiftness, protection and shocking aura when CC’d);
Lightning Rod (applies weakness to those who attack you under S.Aura, and to two of your weapon skills);
Elemental Shielding (party-wide protection);
Rock Solid (party-wide stability);
Stone Heart/ Diamond Skin;
Soothing Ice (free frost aura);
Cleansing Wave (party-wide cleansing);
Powerful Aura;
I’m not promising that this build will overtake the old one, but I see a lot of potential in it.
For current d/d celestial bruisers, 3-sec blind spamming with fire-water-arcana might become a thing, and make up for the loss of evasive arcana.
And if we still take a look at more selfish builds, fire-earth-water cantrip traits will offer endless condition cleansing, vigor, regen, might and blind, decent protection/ stability, and probably make ether renewal/ churning earth a thing.
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Again, people need to realize the situation ele is in at the moment.
Now d/d ele is a viable semi-tanky build for its support for allies. However, ele is competing with shoutbow who already does a better job. The only reason ele is still used in teams is exactly the protection, which soutbow cannot give (yet).
No one cares about the selfish defensive traits ele will get, because that’s not why dd ele is viable at the moment. There’s literally no reason to take a selfish dd ele on your team, it offers absolutely nothing.
Aurashare builds have a lot of potential. You’ll be able to offer fury, (swiftness), protection and stun/ chill/ 10% damage reduction a lot more often, with the changes in air and water traits. That’s free frost auras, shock auras, weakness and damage. If we scrap air for arcana, that will translate to less offensive support for EA or for evasive arcana.
The old builds with massive cleansing will lose evasive arcana, but they’ll have enough protection (with EA + elemental contigency) to scrap the 10 points earth for the “selfish” aura prot they currently pick, which will allow them to invest on, say, fire for massive fury or blind support.
The selfish grandmaster traits in earth are just a bonus, but let’s also not forget that we’ll get rock solid out of it.
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There’s also a regen that removes 1 additional condition while swapping to water.
No matter how good that effect is, you don’t absolutely need it to make the entire profession viable.
The reason why elementalists baseline defense is broken, is because we are the squishiest profession in the game while lacking active defenses that are not driven by stats. While mesmers and thieves have plenty of stealth, extra health/ armor, and free evasion, which allow them to go berserker without worrying about it, elementalists rely on defensive stats to power up their defenses (healing power for heals, toughness+vitality for auras). This means that, in order for an offensively-traited ele to ever be viable, a defensively-traited ele will need to be overpowered. And, in order to nerf a defensively-traited ele, they’ll have to make an offensively-traited ele unviable.
That is when Elemental Attunement comes with its near perma-protection effect. It pretty much defines how viable the elementalist is, because every single ele build is balanced around the assumption that they’ll have almost perma 33% damage reduction.
Elementalist doesn’t needs EA baseline. No one cares about 1 stack of might and swiftness, and although regen and cleansing are fine, they’re fine as trait effects. What everyone wants is protection, or alternatively, another form of innate defense.
With stone heart/ diamond skin becoming free, with earth gaining free 20% damage reduction from melee bursts, with air punishing squishy bursts much harder than before, and with fire gaining free auras and blinds every 3 seconds, elementalists will finally get what they need the most and what EA usually offers the most: higher innate defense in other trait lines.
If these effects are strong enough or not, only time will tell.
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Tempest defense + Lightning rod require getting CC’d and then hit No thanks.
Edited due to no coffee.
It also blows them out and weakens them, while you gain protection and fury. That’s a massive window of opportunity for you to unload your burst on the poor squishy, before going back to earth and gaining 20% damage reduction and immunity from critical hits. You can then go fire for a lot of blind and fire auras, or water for aura-sharing and frost auras, or arcana for EA and elemental contigency.
Has it been confirmed that there will be a nerf and nothing else added? If so its really disappointing, if not, well, I guess we will have to wait.
They also said they wanted to make conjures more useful.
It just so happens that when a profession player hears the word “nerf”, they gain a memory loss debuff. :P
/Forum stealth post bug fix (and quoting my last post)./
People only want Elemental Attunement to be baseline because of its high protection duration, which single-handely makes elementalists viable (in pvp). Everything else about it is good, but not necessary-good to justify being baseline.
Considering that our new grandmaster minor trait at earth is going to give us 20% damage reduction while in earth, plus a free stone heart/ diamond skin, players will no longer require EA to be viable. Also, the buff to blinding ashes, one with air and the tempest defense + lightning rod combo will help cover the elementalist’s defensive needs.
EA will no longer be necessary to put our baseline defense at a viable level.
That being said, EA is still avery interesting trait, better designed than Elemental Contigency, and I’d rather have a nerfed version of EA at master tier than its pseudo-tank variation.
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People only want Elemental Attunement to be baseline because of its high protection duration, which single-handely makes elementalists viable (in pvp). Everything else about it is good, but not necessary-good to justify being baseline.
Considering that our new grandmaster minor trait at earth is going to give us 20% damage reduction while in earth, plus a free stone heart/ diamond skin, players will no longer require EA to be viable. Also, the buff to blinding ashes, one with air and the tempest defense + lightning rod combo will help cover the elementalist’s defensive needs.
EA will no longer be necessary to put our baseline defense at a viable level.
That being said, EA is still avery interesting trait, better designed than Elemental Contigency, and I’d rather have a nerfed version of EA at master tier than its pseudo-tank variation.
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but wouldnt a charge time on it give enemies time to get out the trap before it pops? that would be a nerf…
Not if in exchange things like damage and cooldown time are buffed.
again thats meaningless if people can just walk out of it…
You can’t have strong skills without any counterplay at all, that’s just asking for them to be nerfed and made useless.
By adding more counterplay mechanics, Anet can then increase their power at a lower risk of making them OP.
The changes make sense. It’s still a decent trait for offensive builds, but it now gives an offensive option in radiance master.
? what,,, why would you want something nerfed over the name of it?
Forget about balance entirely.
This trap feels more like what an elite skill should be, animation and effect-wise, than any other trap shown. It just screams epic.
The reason why a name like witch hunter works and a name like dragonhunter doesn’t, in this context, is that a witch hunter has a more specific and religion-driven goal, making it both less generic and more guardian-ish, while a dragon hunter, in GW2’s universe, pretty much stands for what everyone is doing already, against an enemy that is nature-themed and not religious-themed in the first place.
I do not mind a dragon-themed elite spec, but in GW2, that won’t work unless if has dragon-themed mechanics as well. Hardened drake scales, fire breathing, flying, dragon fang/ claw skills, dragon transformations, etc. That, or the elite spec would need mechanics that read “this skill deals more damage against dragon-type enemies”, which just doesn’t works in GW2’s general game design. Without any kind of those mechanics, and taking into account what dragons are in GW2, the name dragonhunter will simply feel random and out-of-place.
Maybe, someday, you can add a truly dragon-themed guardian (or revenant) spec to us, and I would be all for it. Give him wings too, give him a dragon transformation, have him breath fire, gain massive armor/ defense and pierce through your opponent’s armor. But this holy-hunter resembles more an angelic ranger than anything dragon-ish.
You could name it “lich hunter”, “demonhunter”, “whitehunter”, “orrseeker”, whatever, and it would be a better fit.
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Water elementalists aren’t even that good at healing outside of WvW, and in PvP they’re better at bunkering than supporting their allies. I don’t want to wait 2-3 years for the next expansion to be able to use Tomes again.
It seems they intend to add new elite specs at a much faster pace than that. It might have taken them 2-3 years to add elite specs, but now that the foundation is there, it’ll probably come faster.
It’s not blackmail, it’s my favourite skill in the game that is also the closest thing to playing my favourite profession from guild wars 1. It’s bad enough that this game doesn’t have monks, now this happens too? If ANet isn’t interested in supporting a selfless healer playstyle, then I’m not interested in playing Guild Wars 2. Just a personal thing really, and I doubt ANet cares that one less person is playing their game, but some respect to people who like monks would be nice.
The change is good for the game.
To be perfectely honest, the closest thing to a healing monk in this game is the water elementalist and not the guardian. Guardian is more of a prot monk.
Dragonhunters seem to focus more on ground control than heal support. Immobilizes, leaps, knockdowns, traps, cripples, pull-backs. I’d say it’s a good trade-off.
Damage or control guardians will love the leap (plus the damage + immob trait).
I really think a KD consecration is more fitting to a guardian than a fury-quickness shout.
However, as an alternative, wrath’s shout could scale based on allies health. Something like, “for each affected ally with health lower than the threshold (<50%), the duration is increased by 1 second” (downed allies count), while still retaining a decent base duration, say, 5s base. This would make it feel more guardian-ish. “You hurt my comrades, so you’ll pay for it!”
Also, the biggest drawback behind those changes, is that all other players’ professions will envy them. coughelementalistscough
Judgment
Consecration
Knocks down all foes on ground area. Creates a fire/ light field in that area that applies X (burning? weakness? damage?) to all foes and Y (fury? might? retaliation? healing?) to ally allies.
It could be something like burning + damage and retaliation + healing; or just burning and fury.
As long as Signet of Courage’s passive is not too strong, and its usefulness lies more on its active effect than its passive effect, I think there won’t be any worries about stacking. But, of course, the passive should still be relevant enough to be exciting.
About the shout, I agree about the lack of counterplay. And, as I have said already, and as others have said as well, fury+quickness is more fitting of a warrior or revenant than a guardian.
So, instead of the shout suggestion, I recommend a consecration that would apply the tome’s 5th skill, the aoe knockdown, on activation, plus something else with the field (have it tick fury on allies, without the quickness, plus burning on enemies?).
I agree that tomes would be a good idea for a future spec (be it for guardian, or for any other prof where a scholary theme might fit).
I love both elite changes.
Signet of Courage is very appealing to support guardians, being kind of like an elite version of Healing Signet. Guardians deserve something like that as much, if not more, than Warriors, and being PBAoE is perfectly fitting and distinct from HS.
“Feel My Wrath” will be the default pve dps pick, while the current meditation elite should still be the best at filling the self-survival role. They are all simple to understand, and immediately appealing.
I don’t have much more to say, but perhaps I could make the following question: do quickness and fury fit the guardian’s theme? Wouldn’t this kind of effect make more sense to more aggressive professions like warrior, ranger or revenant? Perhaps there might be some kind of theme overlapping here? But it’s a very exciting effect nonetheless, and I’d rather have it over something sucky.
The effect and animation are the most epic of them all, and the burst potential is just godly. That’s the kind of skill that I’d wish all elite skills in GW2 were like, and it’s not even an elite!
I think Anet should make it the elite trap of Dragonhunter, instead of the dragon-named one. Just nerf the dragon-named trap by taking the slow, increasing the cooldown, whatever, and swap each other’s place.
I think some of us can agree that any skill that’s stationary in nature would be considered boring. However, I can say that leading your opponent into these skills feels rewarding but not enough to justify a slot. What will probably happen is that Guardian’s will run one MAYBE two trap skills.
Lets not forget that more than likely, the DH trait line will have traits that will be useful outside of traps so if those are enticing enough, it’ll be worth going down that line regardless.
My hope is that guardians get one taunt bow skill or trait, and that traps are strong enough to justify playing around them.
Traps are the most useless, most boring utility skills in the whole game… As far as I know there’s thieves and rangers who have traps right now, but I never see a trap thief (like I haven’t seen one in the last 2 years most likely), and trap rangers are useless since they just drop condis, then have to run because all their traps are on cooldown, gg.
Regardless of how underwhelming thieves’ and ranger’s traps are, signets are generally more boring utility skills than traps. :P
Traps require CC, taunt or pulls to work best.
Guardian has wards, pulls, and all they need to have now is a taunt bow attack.
Traps will fit the guardian almost perfectly, as long as guardians get a taunt skill.
Keep in mind that elite specs are meant to feel like a new experience. They’re almost like entire new professions, but within already existing professions.
A guardian might be a holy knight, but for their elite spec, they’ll be a holy hunter instead.
I find the name to be horrendously applied to a prof. that has very little to do with “hunting” anything. Guardians are described as:
Guardians are devoted fighters who protect their allies and smite their enemies by drawing from the power of their virtues. True guardians are brilliant tacticians and selfless defenders who know when to sacrifice their own defenses to empower their allies to achieve victory.
Guardians are guardians, dragonhunters are dragonhunters. Elite specs are meant to feel like something new, while still being losely based on the base class.
That being said, the name is mediocre.
Dragonhunter would only make sense if it specialized at killing dragons. But Anet would never design a profession that is inherently superior than others at fighting key story bosses in GW2.
Whitescout
Whitehunter
Skyhunter
Archunter
Artemis
Oh geez it would have been ABSURD to call it a Paragon.
Paragons were
A. trained in Elona
B. They’re an entire profession, specializations are just a variant of existing professions
C. Fight with actual spears not magical ones or bows
D. lore-wise it’s nonsensical. what did a Paragon and Guardian fall into a vat of chemicals and make a mutant? Come on.The community just wanted to add extra hype but you got it wrong. Not a big deal.
I can definitely see a Paragon elite spec with spears and chants for the Guardian in the future.