I saw the part of the stream where they were talking about it. One of the devs said that at 1000 vitality it should offer 10% extra healing effectiveness to allies, he even compared it to Aquatic Benevolence.
Outgoing healing is a percentage (or at least every other form of outgoing healing is). It’s not just healing power. See Aquatic Benevolence.
If it is just healing power for some reason, then FoW is still kind of bad.
The problem I have with spirit weapons now, is that they removed Wrathful Spirits (unless it’s been made baseline). Without that trait, SW damage isn’t all that impressive.
Healing breeze is basically a shout. Although the guardian doesn’t actually shout while breezing, it does fit thematically into the shout skill group. It’s a support skill just like the other shouts. Stand your ground gives stability to teammates, retreat gives swiftness+aegis and healing breeze should heal your allies.
I wouldn’t say Healing Breeze is basically a shout. That’s like saying Cleansing Flames is basically a shout. They may both be supportive, but there are big differences between Healing Breeze and Shouts.
Shouts and consecrations are both very supportive skill types, the difference between them is that consecrations (as well as healing breeze) are often better used with more distant positioning, whereas shouts are best used in the thick of the things.
I agree with Tomes becoming consecrations. I don’t think any other category fits Tomes as well.
I don’t think Spirit Weapons would suit them functionally, maybe it’d suit them somewhat thematically. If they were Spirit Weapons, tome users would have to spend an entire specialization on a offensive trait line (Zeal) in order to improve their tome with the spirit weapon cdr trait (additionally the burning/command CDR parts would have no effect), whereas the consecration CDR/duration trait is in a more versatile yet supportive line which appropriately suits the versatile yet supportive nature of tomes, and the trait would also effect both tomes’ durations. Consecrations are also high range, which tomes already fit into.
“((You have increase vitality. Healing effectiveness to other allies is increased on a percentage of your vitality))
((Percentage of Vitality contributing to outgoing healing)): 10%
Vitality: +300"
Is that a typo? I’m sure they meant “1%” or something, but if not, guardians could quite easily gain access to something like +200% outgoing healing to allies.
In order to balance the heals either shelter or healing breeze would need to be put into an existing category as we already have a (crap) medi heal. In that light, healing breeze makes more sense as a shout than shelter which works better as a consecration.
Shelter doesn’t fit consecrations or shouts. Healing Breeze fits consecrations functionally because it’s technically an over-a-duration heal, and it also fits consecrations thematically since it’s clearly a magical ability. Shouts are radial instant cast abilities that usually provide buffs, and I don’t think they have that much in common with healing breeze.
Even though it’d make far more sense for it to be a consecration, and it clashes with the new Force of Will when traiting, but anyway. I fail to see how someone blowing out a cone of healing is a “shout” in any sense of the word.
Edit: or at least it was implied that it was going to be a shout.
Isn’t the lore behind the Guardian class, that they historically emerged from the Paragons?
By that, the specialization is already set in stone…
I believe the lore behind guardians is that they use teachings and magic from monks, paragons, and ritualists. I don’t see ritualists being the guardian’s spec since revenants fulfill that niche thematically, so that leaves monks, paragons, or an unnamed spec. I don’t think it’d be an unnamed spec though, since the guardian’s spec was referred to as being a “crowd pleaser”.
Also, I personally hope it isn’t guardians who are getting six shouts. If that’s the case, I’ll just take the elite spec for the longbow and ditch any skills that come with it.
- I love the theme of light magic, and I really love using magic books as a weapon.
- My favourite role in all RPGs is supporting through buffs, healing, and other protective abilities like barriers. I find saving and helping my allies to be very satisfying, and it’s also the closest thing to a monk (considering that half of their abilities are named after monks).
- I enjoy caster supports, so I’m not really a fan of the generally close-ranged thing, but with the right build I can essentially use a caster support that isn’t close-ranged, so I don’t particularly mind.
tl;dr: I enjoy the magical heal-y light side of guardians.
I changed my previous statement to Target Enemy instead of Target Anyone for Merciful Intervention trait. Then I thought of what Hot was already bringing… a Taunt Condition would fit Merciful Intervention quite nicely. Especially if it was an AoE effect of around 240 radius.
I wouldn’t mind using Merciful Intervention if that was the case.
That wouldn’t really fit what the skill is supposed to be functionally or even thematically. When I use MI, it’s either to burst heal an ally, reposition during Empower, escape to a distant ally if I get cc’ed/bursted, or to teleport to an ally that’s about to get finished. In most of those cases, taunting the enemy probably wouldn’t even be a good thing. Personally, I know I certainly wouldn’t want melee enemies coming closer to and attacking the allies that I’m trying to help.
If a taunt is added to the guardian, it should probably be placed elsewhere. As for it being a 1200 range teleport that doesn’t require an ally, that doesn’t belong on guardians for a variety of reasons.
Usually dungeons are so easy that berserker gear should be used just to speed through it. Fractals are a lot harder usually, so a healing build makes things much smoother there. If everyone in your group happens to be playing perfectly in a set of fractals, you should swap to berserker gear (unless you find yourself dying a lot too). If your allies are dying repeatedly, I recommend sticking to a healing build (using Zealot’s gear preferably, but that tends to be difficult to get a hold of).
Without healing power, a guardian’s allied healing is very weak with the exception of Healing Breeze and Tome of Courage’s Light of Deliverence. I don’t know why people always imply that all healing coefficients are bad and that healing power does nothing when its usually just self-heals that have bad scaling. There’s also % healing to allies gained from a variety of sources which scales healing regardless of its healing power scaling. The problem with healing builds isn’t that they don’t heal enough, it’s that they slow down the run a bit, but sometimes a smoother run is more appropriate.
Buy going full damage, you are supporting your group. Things die quickly before the group is wiped out.
No one is “supporting” their group by hitting harder, they’re just killing things so fast that those things don’t have enough time to do anything significant. It helps the group in the sense that the dungeon finishes faster, but it doesn’t actually directly help anyone like something that’s actually support.
- they aren’t just doing a few specializations and skill updates, they are actually giving each profession a major overhaul to fix all existing problems
Oh god, I would take back any complaints I’ve ever had about Anet if this were true.
Well, in the least, I think I recall one of the devs mentioning that there were gonna do more balance changes on base professions.
Did you read his post? That’s mostly for Fractal, that’s the one place where you need ascended gear.
I did, and I don’t think an extra 75 power, 43 precision, and 43 healing power are going to be life-changing. Did you read the part of his post where he said he doesn’t care about min-max’ing?
I was just about to mention that. If you make zealot gear, I recommend just sticking to exotic. A few extra points in stats isn’t enough to justify that 1000+ gold requirement to get all of those ascended zealot recipes.
And what does she wear? A light robe and not heavy armors :P
I doubt heavy armor would stop the devs from naming it that. The devs usually don’t let small abnormalities get in the way of things, fortunately (like with the mesmer’s ranged greatsword, the revenant’s ranged hammer, etc). Although, it’d be interesting if specializations let characters equip a different armor class.
We won’t see Monks back, thats so guaranteed, like that the sun goes up daily.
There has Cleric a much better chance then.
Monks are basically a Human only thing… thats why Cleric would definetely be the better choice.
That’s not guaranteed at all. Half of guardian abilities are already named after monk abilities, and considering the throwbacks they’re making to GW1 with the revenant, their specialization being called “monk” is certainly not out of the picture. The lore surrounding how “monks” work could also change, so they don’t necessarily need to rely on the human gods.
I doubt it’d be called “Cleric” since an amulet already uses that name (unless they’re naming professions after amulets). Clerics usually rely on divine power anyway, so…
So, I really like to play healing guard, especially in fractals as it makes them so easy for the group with a ton of healing and support, but I hate hitting like a wet noodle.
Well you already seem to have a better understanding of what a healing guardian does in PvE than most of the posters in this topic, so I don’t really think you need the advice much. It makes runs smoother and easier, but it slows them down. Zealot’s gear makes it so that you can keep things smooth while not slowing down the run as much.
Instead of a mace, consider a greatsword or a scepter.
If guardians got a “priest” specialization, it’d almost certainly be called “Monk”. Considering how many throwbacks they’re doing to Guild Wars 1 with the Revenant’s legends, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what the Guardian’s specialization is called.
Priests are not = Clerics. He has clearly written Priests and under a Priest I understand a Scholar that wears light robes, having a book or staff in his hands and praying to some gods or other divine entities.
Thats a Priest to me, and a priest is exactly that in the most MMO’s that I do know.
A suishy support class that uses books or staves/scepters and which supports its allies from the back line with healing and protective spells and smites foes with holy/light magic based spells.
A guardian is almost exactly that, especially certain guardian builds. In fact they’re the only class in the game that can use “books”. With the longbow they’ll also get a lot more backline support capability. So “priest”, or “monk” rather, would actually be fitting names for their specialization.
Anet did, during HoT’s announcement. Several weeks later, Roy replied to my question in-game, saying that they were aiming for 2-3 per week (if my memory isn’t wrong, it could have been 1-2 instead).
How lovely, thanks for sharing that info. I thought ANet would’ve done the 1 week per specialization route, which would’ve been kind of unfair to those whose professions’ specializations were discussed last.
I think I prefer them being destroyable, they have more counterplay like that. I don’t even mind them being comparatively squishy compared to other pets, although I wouldn’t mind them being invincible as long as their command abilities aren’t nerfed as a result. I do have a problem with when their cooldown starts however, because if a SW-user doesn’t finish a fight before their SWs time out, they’re probably doomed or they have to run away due to the huge cooldown period.
AI builds are always poorly balanced skill wise. If anymore get introduced, the community will be in an uproar.
How about instead of rejecting an entire skill type, the devs should just design pet abilities that involve skill (some already do tbh).
A somewhat unusual example of this is Carl Clover from Blazblue and other “puppet-type” characters from fighting games. It’s a different genre but I’m sure the same idea could be applied to other games like GW2.
1. Cleansing Flame’s range increased to 600-900. Its maximum amount of targets is separate for the cleansing effect and the damage. Channel time decreased to 2 (1/4), still clears 9 conditions over this duration.
2. Merciful Intervention CD reduction.
3. Spirit Weapons go on cooldown as soon as they are summoned.
4. Expeditious Spirit CDR increased to 40%. Improved Spirit-Weapon Duration merged into Spirit-Weapon mastery.
5. Bow of Truth’s command doesn’t have a cast time.
6. Some trait gets added that’s like Aquatic Benevolence.
As far as I’m aware, I don’t believe ANet has stated anything on this matter, so the best you can get is that it’s quite unlikely they’ll be available without the expansion. I wouldn’t be surprised if specializations are obtained within HoT zones.
They have skills called “Monk’s focus” for a reason. Hence the word “Monk” which is generally a solo character doing considerable damage.
Actually that name is likely based on GW1 monks, which generally weren’t solo characters. Not that that matters in regards to what a guardian can do; just thought I should point that out.
Whats about current junk traits/abilities? Thats right, they will still remain as total junk.
Actually I think a dev said that they were gonna do additional balancing on non-specialized professions along with the expansion, exactly how much balancing they’re gonna do was vague though.
Pretty much what Ralanost said. They’ll probably run out of crap to talk about in like a month or two, and then they’ll have to speak about specializations (or revenants). :0
I don’t even think it’s good for hype. With anything that tries to keep me “in suspense” without any interesting info for over a month or so, my hype dies and I go follow something else that actually has something interesting to look at. I don’t feel like I’m alone in that either. So this marketing strategy seems like a lose-lose situation for ANet as well as the players.
It will be like a thief terrible at low level and seen as OP by noobs and OP at high level and will get nerfed to a specific style like thief now filling the decap and executioner role.
So thieves are seen as OP by noobs, and they’re seen as OP by people who aren’t noobs. Sounds legit.
Immagine a ranger vs a revenant ah ah There won t be any ranger around in the expansion i m 100% sure
Mesmers and guardians already have good forms of reflection or projectile defense (especially guardians). Although I suppose the revenant’s reflection may be a bigger threat.
Outfits are generally the best way to have a guardian that doesn’t look heavily armored. In terms of normal equipment that doesn’t look too bulky, you can try zodiac armor, certain pieces of vigil armor, carapace/luminescent armor, banded boots don’t look heavy, Body of Koda leg armor doesn’t look heavy, and there are also equipment skins available to all classes that don’t look heavy (scarfs, masks, earmuffs, the laurel, etc).
I think pistols could be okay. Pistols firing off light bullets has a nice ring to it. If guardians got another weapon though, it’d probably be an off-hand warhorn.
they are to easy to kite :I i bet less than half would hit target with speed trait or less…
That’s why you take hammer and scepter XD
There’s only so much room to move around on a PvP node before you let the spirit weapon guardian decap it.
Yep. Kiting spirit weapons isn’t really an easy thing to do when the guardian is fighting with them rather than afking like a turret engineer and expecting them to do everything. I mean, spirit weapons have problems, but kiting them isn’t really one of them assuming that you have the right build.
I’m annoyed by the fact Ranger’s Spirits are twice as better. They stick to the Ranger 100% and they only attack when the Ranger tells him to… which is almost always a hit because the spirits are always beside him!
But no… our spirit run around all crazy. The sSword stalls to hit sometimes! They’re just bad compared to everyone else’s AI.
I understand how their AI works and I wouldn’t say it’s that bad, just need to manipulate them. I somewhat enjoy how they don’t stick to their user. Letting spirit weapons attack while the user is at a long-range can be quite useful. There have also been times where I’ve saved an otherwise lost point by sending my spirit weapons to stick to that point while I go help at another. I can see how that might be bad though.
Revenant looks like it’s going to be what condition guardian should have been.
A demonic-themed build that inflicts conditions on itself and then manipulates and spreads them? Certainly doesn’t sound like what a condition guardian should be to me.
You’re talking about theme/lore related things, I’m talking about gameplay and combat mechanics.
Revenant is a class that brings a lot of similar utilities, such as reflection, group stability, blast finishers, group condition removal and control/CC. It literally fits all the roles a guardian would in a party while being condition focused. In terms of role in a group it’s taking what a condition guardian would if condition guardian actually existed (it doesn’t).
The idea of a burn/condition focused guardian will look even more ridiculous once this expac hits the market.
I’m talking about both. Revenants’ reflection is gained from their hammer, which condition revenants won’t be using (since it’s a purely power-based weapon). Stability and control are gained from Jalis, which isn’t necessarily what condition revenants will be using either, and blast finishers aren’t unique to guardians (compared to engis and eles, they’re not even that good at blasting either). I have to admit that Pain Absorption is fairly guardian-like, however, directly harming themselves and then spreading their own conditions to enemies doesn’t sound guardian-like in the slightest.
If you’re talking about a revenant using Jalis/Mallyx with a hammer, that sounds much more like a primary tank, secondary control/support than a condition-user. In such a build, Mallyx would likely be used mainly for cleansing or tanking against conditions rather than applying them.
Revenant looks like it’s going to be what condition guardian should have been.
A demonic-themed build that inflicts conditions on itself and then manipulates and spreads them? Certainly doesn’t sound like what a condition guardian should be to me.
If Radiant Retaliation had better scaling (and actually worked), I think it could be interesting for a possible condition guardian build.
If guard is getting Longbow, i wonder what is the justification? How is using a Longbow guarding someone? But they think hammer is a ranged weapon, so i’m not holding my breath for some reasonable justification. What happened at anet? did they get some new people or something, because they are really screwing this game up.
Instead of making hammer ranged, they should’ve done something cool, like make staff melee.
1. Half of the leaked longbow skills involve healing or protecting people, and over half of the skills are supportive either offensively or defensively. In fact it’s actually far more protective and selfless than many of the current guardian weapons (scepter, greatsword, sword).
2. Throwing hammers isn’t a rare theme (see Thor) nor does it constitute “screwing this game up”.
3. They did make the revenant’s staff melee.
Aren’t useless at all, just apparently too difficult for most people to use effectively. They handicap the user just about as much as any other transform skill does.
What makes you think 1500 range is unique to ranger or is even the max range? Traited grenade engineer has 1500 range and the grenades explode in a 120 radius AOE. So 1620 AOE for them.
Elementalist arcane blast is 1500 range, and is a guaranteed crit.
Fire staff elementalist autoattack has 1200 range and 180 splash radius. So would be superior to ranger if we accepted your 1300 range longbow nerf. And elementalists put out a heckuva lot more DPS than rangers.
Warrior Kill Shot is 1500 range. No traits needed.
The entire design of longbow is to hurt the target if he tries to to run away, but turns into a wet noodle if he closes with the ranger. If you were positioning yourself so it was difficult for your opponents to close with you (either due to terrain or a big blob of zerg in the way), then your wins were due to good tactical positioning, not due to the skills or range being OP. Try the same thing in a smaller engagement where the opponent realistically has the option to close and engage. If it still works then, then you can talk about it being OP.
The engi’s grenades also have to be traited, they have to use a utility slot, and the grenades move very slowly as opposed to lightning-fast arrows. They also require a grandmaster trait rather than a master trait.
Arcane blast is a single utility skill on a 20 second cooldown, as opposed to an entire 1500 range weapon set.
Ele’s staff abilities are either far slower or are easily avoidable AoEs, and the only splash ability which noticeably increases its “range” is fire #1.
Kill shot is a single skill which requires adrenaline and has a large start up time.
Positioning is important for LB rangers, but they’re probably still one of the easiest builds in the game to play, and it’s not solely due to 1500 range either. Try playing a glass staff ele in PvP and tell me how easy it is compared to LB rangers.
Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think they’re OP, but I do think they’re easy.
The core of our problems stem from PVP< and its where they need to start looking. Based on the skill descriptions, LB on guard is going to be a long range slow weapon with some support thrown in, which sounds awesome in PVE but worthless in PVP.
It’s not “some” support, literally more than half of the leaked longbow is support. Support is probably valued a lot more in PvP as well.
I’m willing to bet that the weapon isn’t going to have much rapid attack abilities, but the only skills described as slow were the symbols, which seem mostly supportive anyway.
… And of course because they have no idea what they are doing with the class. The problem with the guardian is that in sPVP its balanced around 6 points in Valor and 4 in virtues. and any deviation from core spec is considerably bad.
the only fix is to change the stand your ground to at least 12 seconds and halloween ground to 3 seconds per pulse and at least wall of reflection should reflect every enemy skill .
There won t be any ranger around in the expansion i m 100% sure
