Guild Wars 2

Lorgus.6148:

Healing power is useless because it should be useless: anet stated many times that they don’t want parties to be unable to complete content due to lack of healer

Yes, they stated they don’t want parties to be unable to complete content due to lack of a healer, they never said that they’re going to make healers useless. I’d say they pretty much achieved that. Healers aren’t useless in this game, it’s just that they aren’t necessary at all in dungeons and mostly just slow down the run, but make it easier. In other modes they’re also completely fine. I don’t believe healing power is useless either, especially not in PvP.

SirWarriant.2319:

Not a greatsword or a torch for thief, would have preferred a rifle so we had the possibility of having a 1200 range weapons but we are stuck with kittening torches unfortunately.

Did I miss something? Where were thieves shown with torches?

Taking out its key feature and replacing it with an AoE knockdown would be editing it to your taste? :>

I just don’t want axes on guardians. It’s either gonna provide conditions so that it’d allow guardians to be condinecro wannabes, or it’s just gonna be greatsword: main-hand edition. Don’t want either.

I’d prefer elementalists get something new concerning their attunements, but if I had to pick a weapon I don’t want for them, I’d choose maces.

I’m happy with rifles on thieves, I enjoy the idea of sniping while warping around.

lordkrall.7241:

The game is not built around having specifically targeted healing skills. We do not have healers as such and thus having ally targeting is rather pointless.

Except there aren’t only healing skills that should be able to target allies.

Squee.7829:

We can target allies now. And I absolutely hate it. There are no skills that heal specific targets.

You can technically target your allies, but it doesn’t actually do anything. The guardian’s staff’s orb won’t track allies, a Necro’s life blast traited with renewing blast doesn’t track allies, an ele’s water blast doesn’t track allies, all skills that bounce between allies and enemies can’t target allies without bouncing from an enemy, and more unusual skills like mimic have no effect on allies. As I said in my opening post.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i was hoping this would be a thread that lets me turn off ally targeting with the press of a button for when i’m fighting.

nope, it’s a thread that wants a feature that makes no sense in GW2’s system.

K, go make your own thread then instead of derailing mine.

This should really be put in the expansion, it should’ve been in the game in the first place. It’s needed for aiming ally-healing skills, and I think it’d be great if skills that bounce between allies/enemies (for example, Ray of Judgment, Reaper’s Touch, etc) could be used on allies directly. Mimic would also be more interesting if it could target allies.

Staffs aren’t used in PvP?

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

I have been saying since launch they should do the following

1: Swap number 1 & 2 on the bar.

2: Put wave of wrath on a 4-5 second cool down but increase it’s damage by say 3 times.

#3: Remove the detonate from the orb & instead have it heal allies it passes nearby for a small/moderate amount.

#4: Add some type of vertical sense to the orb so it doesn’t glitch out.

After that staff becomes a somewhat decent ranged option while maintaining support (albeit slow like scepter) & the cleave tagging is still there so everyone is happy.

1. #1 shouldn’t even be swapped with #2, it should just get deleted and replaced with something else. I think the trident’s #1 skill would’ve been much more appropriate to the staff than that farming tool.

3. Consistently hitting the orb’s healing would be extremely difficult without detonation, it just travels too slowly and has too long of a cast time to be aimed without the detonation. ANet really needs to add in ally targeting in the expansion (even then it’d be difficult to hit without the detonation).

Dadnir.5038:

“Ranger lack support” Sorry I lol’ed and stop reading here.
The ranger it’s :
-2 fire fields on short cool down
-1 blast and 2 blast in combat from pets
-fury and might from WH + boons from pets granting you chose the right pet
-a water field that clean condition and grant regeneration
-trait on shout that grant regeneration
-trait “spotter”
-spirits
… etc.

Yeah yeah… ranger lack support, sure!

They might have support in the form of traits and utilities (mainly just from spirits really), but they lack a supportive weapon. Not that I consider a few supportive traits or fields/finishers to be anything significant in terms of support potential.

Dadnir.5038:

The only thing i’d like to say is that I’d be very sad if they came up with rifle thief… Thieve would gain like absolutely nothing from a rifle. So I’d say

Considering that they don’t have a 1200 range weapon, I wouldn’t say they gain nothing.

Mostly agree, although the theme of “not long-ranged” could (and likely will) be changed fairly easily with the specialization, whereas changing a theme like “support” is less of an alternative provided by a spec, and more of something along the lines of completely changing the class.

^It’s also nice for when people move out of range of Empower before it’s done. Merciful Intervention doesn’t interrupt it.

DroidDreamer.2861:

I too get lectured all the time about why I don’t copy and paste the latest meta build. Don’t listen; play how you like. Support/heals is very viable for Guardian, in WvW at least which is all I play.

From my experiences it’s very viable in PvP as well, my friends actually have a tendency to get bothered whenever I play anything else. More people need to think outside of the box in terms of the meta. Just because there’s a “meta” doesn’t mean there’s only one efficient set of builds.

DoOver.1643:

Just like they removed the magic chance (I think that was it) from gear and put it somewhere else in game for all players, seems like Healing needs to be removed from traits and gear, since it does little good in the grand scheme of things.

Just because it isn’t used in PvE doesn’t mean it should be removed from all gear. Healing power is still useful elsewhere, and especially in PvP. In PvE, a full healing build isn’t really “bad”, it’s just that the content is already easy enough that it can be sped through via zerk gear and aegis/blind/etc. So ultimately a full healing build will make things more reliable but slower, and since extra reliability isn’t needed, neither is a full healing build.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

oxtred.7658:

What traits relative to group healing are usable by guardian?

Selfless daring, battle presence, & writ of the merciful are the main ones.

Two-handed mastery could also be included if one is using a staff, I guess.

Sagat.3285:

There is content that could use LB or a good condition one,since words are just words don’t think guardian means holy knight Anet just decided what “theme” to attach with it.

The primary theme behind the guardian is “support” itself. Even their profession mechanic is primarily supportive. One can’t expect a profession themed after support to not be supportive, and in many cases this also applies to other classes. There is most definitely freedom of builds, but that freedom isn’t infinite. Ultimately I’m very glad not every class can do everything the other classes can do, because then this game would become a homogenized snorefest.

If the spotlight is ever on condition guardians, I believe it should stick to only involve burning, blinding (for example, a trait which causes blind to deal condition damage), and possibly retaliation. It should focus on what is uniquely the guardian’s; it shouldn’t try to be a wannabe condition necro.

In PvP, I use this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAW7dl8ApXotDxeI0ENBEBl9JWR8xODT4CXFAA-T5xDABKcACo4ABU8FAAryAPt/AEPBAAOIAAA

Not really the best at tanking/bunkering, but my allies rarely die as long as I haven’t. Glassy support I guess you could call it, and it has certainly worked for me so far.

Works nicely in PvP (with competent allies), wouldn’t do it in PvE (or at least use Zealot’s gear). Alternatively, you could just use Healing Breeze instead of something like Shelter in PvE.

At least, he perfectly described engi hammer’s auto-attack (unless I’m missing a video), which is certainly enough for me. So yeah, pretty much. The leak is quite reliable, there’s little reason to not believe what the leaker is saying. There’s only the question of what the devs might have changed over 2~ years.

Saiyan.1704:

Our Elite Focus is getting a 2s Resistance Boon.

Source?

AGGabriel.9230:

I pray for a longbow but… if it will be just a 800 range and crappy skills it can share the warehouse with the mace and shield (aka useless wep skills) + how the hell the guard will face the revenant long range(and condition apply we already have hard time with the necro) skills and the rest of professions because i am 80% sure all will get a new long range wep use putting the guard further in the range gap and easy target practice

The guy who leaked the longbow and hammer (in 2013) for guardians and engis respectively said that the longbow had 1200 range.

maddoctor.2738:

And even so, is that Revenant going to stand still for the mob to get to him to land an attack?

This just in: no mobs have ranged attacks or gap closers.

LostBalloon.6423:

-_- he calls GW2 thieves tanks, I think it says enough about his understanding of the trinity system… And he seems to exclude the fact that tanks are not gods even in trinity, they are heavily dependent on healers to keep their health up because they actually eat a lot of damage and not necessarily mitigate it…

Completely missing his point.

maddoctor.2738:

Also, for the particular Revenant skill “running towards” won’t work because they are also slowed. Those taunted mobs won’t hit the Revenant even once :P

You seriously think a mob taunted for 6 seconds won’t hit the taunter? Slow doesn’t decrease movement speed, it just decreases the rate at which abilities are used (presumably by 50%). In other words, reverse quickness, not reverse swiftness (cripple). Ultimately “slow” is just a very powerful damage reduction effect in PvE. As such, that revenant taunt/slow ability is most definitely a tank ability.

Attempting to list or record footage of the new specializations’ skills would be nice.

I don’t think the player always needs to be the “prophesied hero/center of attention”. It’s kind of cliched and boring really. I’m glad that Trahearne took on that role.

I don’t understand why one would want to play guardians if they seem to despise support so much. It’s like playing a ranger and saying “I hate pets!”.

Agile Sound.7516:

“YES I WILL DEFEAT MY OPPONENTS WITH LIFE!!!!”

SLASH

enemy player healed 20,000 hp

my reaction: uhhh….

Well, if necromancers can do it… ;p

The stability nerfs aren’t all bad. For example, people can’t just stand inside sanctuary anymore, and Hallowed Ground is more or less unaffected.

Mikau.6920:

You can swap some utilities/healing for arcane wave/arcane brillance for more blasts, but you lose sustain. You also can swap Rune of Altruism for Defender or other tanky rune (Melandru). The rune of monk is worst because you’ll only get 5% boon duration and the extra outgoing healing is worthless.

If you think the extra % outgoing healing is worthless (it isn’t at all imo, it’s the best way to scale healing), then why are you using Aquatic Benevolence and Rice Balls? >_>;

yanipheonu.5798:

I would have figured Guardian would fit it better, but hey, I like my support in my Ele.

I always had the theory of elemental specialization, sacrificing abilty to switch for more abilities in one element, and weapon swap presumably

Probably would fit the guardian better, but I felt like bringing up the possibility anyway.

I’ve been hoping the ele’s spec would be something like that. I can’t wait to see how ANet has handled their spec, there are so many possibilities.

I’d be like “hnnngggg”.

Asmodal.6489:

Snip

^This.

Pitman.9210:

Did I miss something?

He probably meant whenever the demo is happening at PAX.

Zomaarwat.3912:

“Post your reaction”
This is a what if-thread.

Call it whatever you want sweetie. :0

It’s almost certainly only something for the bow. It’d make little sense to have an ability on a bow which stance switched the bow as well as everything else you have.

The info is probably true (see his post on the engi’s hammer in the same thread), but it’s unlikely that skill set has stayed exactly the same over two years.

they get Life Attunement instead.

Cleric (or Zealot) staff eles make for nice backline supports in WvW, and in PvP they’re decent bunkers/supports.

Zoltreez.6435:

sooo those 2 stances work on ALL of our weapons or its only for the BOW ???

As of the leak that I posted, those two stances only work for the bow. The stance switch is on the bow itself.

https://archive.moe/vg/thread/37561461/#37655720

The DPS stance should be exactly what you’re looking for. In fact, it should appeal to a lot of people minus those who just want the specialization to be an upgrade. Which it will never be, fortunately.

There are definitely more builds than those two, but they aren’t considered “meta”.

I think the Silverwastes was designed pretty nicely for build diversity, I hope the expansion PvE content is more like that.

Dondagora.9645:

If the player doesn’t manage their energy well, they could very well run out of fuel for their resistance and be overwhelmed by conditions.

The way you put it makes it sound kind of cool. :p

Shanks.2907:

These aren’t baseless assumptions if the leaked skills are true, like you’ve claimed them to be. It’s valid to base our speculation on this because if that leak is untrue, then this whole conversation is null and void. It’s not ridiculous in the least.

You say even if the specialization is garbage, guardian will be fine because the core will be unaffected. While it may be somewhat true, it would also put us further behind classes that get something actually good.

They’re completely baseless. There are no known statistics on the longbow, only what the skills generally do. We have no idea how much the arrows heal for, or how big their hitbox is. For all we know the hitbox is enormous and easy to hit allies with.

My point was that whether the specialization is balanced or not is irrelevant to the argument for/against longbows in terms of play style. If it really is trash then yes, that’d suck, but it doesn’t actually provide anything to the debate.

pandas.9450:

Healing is nothing special in the game and expecting it to be anything good is silly.

You can think the guardian’s healing is weak if you want I guess. Not going to bother convincing you otherwise.

creepmatic.9435:

People are enthusiastic about LB because they’re either rangers at heart or they don’t fell safe in melee and need an excuse to “Support” from afar. Please consider rerolling then.

QQ more. I’m done bothering to argue about this.

Who needs condition removal when you’re immune to conditions most of the time anyway? Additionally, the more conditions they have on them, the more they heal themselves.

Seems like the ultimate tank/bunker to me. Jalis is an overall very effective tank legend, and the Mallyx legend is very effective at tanking and controlling conditions.

Personally I can’t think of anything else that’s so specialized in tanking/bunkering. What does everyone else think?

Loving how people are pretending there are no diversity issues in PvE.

Jaxom.7310:

said it above about heals, same about support in general for gw2. the games meta is basically zerk, zerk, zerk and whatever spread out boons u can to a group. thats why he put it in quotes. cause support in gw2 is basically moar dps

I agree somewhat, but the game’s meta is zerk exclusively in PvE. Using zerk with most builds in any other mode won’t get you anywhere. Supposedly, ANet is making the PvE content in the expansion a lot harder, but whether or not this increases build diversity past zerker is really up to how well of a job ANet does.

pandas.9450:

facepalm yes destroy one of the best supports the game has by moving them behind zergs and “supporting” the safer ranging groups. You don’t need to be tester or w/e to know the healing is going to be crap,

Yes you do, now please take your ridiculous and baseless assumptions elsewhere. Even if the specialization is garbage, the guardian will be perfectly fine because the specialization is an alternative, not an upgrade (so normal guards are unaffected). Which most people seem to disregard for some reason. Either way, if the weapon is underpowered, then it must be balanced, but this is irrelevant to the overall argument for/against bows in terms of play style.

I don’t get why you put “supporting” in apostrophes as if it’s not true, since that’s exactly what the bow would be doing (in literally every sense of the word) with the skill set listed here. It heals, it debuffs, it buffs offensively/defensively, and it has offensive/defensive CC.

Or it could just be aimed like how anyone using Orb of Light properly uses it. Would be nice to have ally targeting added in the expansion though.

pandas.9450:

^ the range support I keep hearing sounds extremely bad, minimal healing from bow that will provide benefits for fleas, away from the front where walls and fire fields\condi cleanse are needed.

How do you know that the healing provided by the longbow would be “minimal healing” (even though healing isn’t the only thing it does in the slightest)? Are you a tester?
Is there something stopping guardians from using walls, fields, and cleansing from a distance?

Shanks.2907:

From what I read of the “leaked” longbow, I’m not impressed. Healing your team by shooting arrows through them at distance is terrible. It’s not effective at all and, though I hate saying this, is not very guardian like at all. I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Obtena but the guardian’s place is not behind the team shooting arrows to heal them. Besides, it would be repetitive as the staff already has a skill like that which isn’t very effective unless blown up.

How is firing off healing/light arrows not guardian-like? They can already do so indirectly with Bow of Truth. Taking a quick look at the longbow’s skills: 1/2 are damaging/healing light arrows, 3 is a burning/healing symbol of battle/energy, 4 is some light arrow thing attached with chains of light, 5 is the stance change. Light/healing arrows are guardian-like, don’t know why I even need to bother arguing that. Symbols are guardian-like. Chains of light are guardian-like. The whole bow being a very selfless weapon is guardian-like.

As for how effective it’ll be. Once again, are you a tester? Do you know how effective the healing arrows will be at healing? Do you know the damage/healing hitbox for the arrows? Do you know how much damage they do?
The guardian’s specialization’s place is wherever ANet wants it to be. Not that I believe normal guardians are only frontliners.

^What he said. I don’t know if I’d even bother with the expansion if the specializations were that limited. Fortunately, I’m pretty certain they aren’t that limited.