Guild Wars 2

Light seems more like the guardian’s “thing”. I can see how they’d mention the guardian’s flames though.

I’ve been playing with a build like that recently. Kind of feels like spirit weapons (at least the offensive ones) are seriously underrated.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Guards already have enough of that & while not all of it works perfectly guards don’t need more of it.

Speak for yourself.

Obtena.7952:

You don’t get it … I’m not using my imagination because it’s not relevant. Bow is simply not based on the class concept that Anet has defined. It’s not relevant if people want it either. People wanted it 2 years ago and Anet came out with a definitive statement on why Guardians aren’t getting it.

Those example you provide fit those classes because Anet says they do, not because of preconceived notions of what players think. You’re examples actually reinforce my point; ANET decides, even if those decisions make you go “WUT?!”

Maybe Anet has changed their mind. I hope they don’t because giving Guardians bow would be as bad for the identity of the class now as it would have been last year when Anet explained why we shouldn’t get it.

No offense, but I don’t think you understand that this specialization =/= normal guardian. Your argument is applying the random thematic restrictions that ANet placed on normal guardians on the specialization.

Obtena.7952:

On the other hand, I feel axe or warhorn is interesting because it sticks with the concept of the class and reinforces it.

Warhorns suit guardians, but axes don’t suit guardians at all really. I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine what either of those would do on a guardian either. Warhorn skills would probably just be weapon equivalents of shouts (more of the same), and axe skills would be close-ranged DPS abilities (more of the same) or condition abilities (so guardians would get bleeding or something).

As far as I know, guardians don’t have strong ranged capabilities because a range restriction was placed upon them for thematic reasons. From the looks of things, that restriction is being removed by the specialization. Considering that guardians are based heavily on monks, I never agreed with that restriction either. I would imagine the new specialization is focusing more on the monk-y parts of the guardian.

creepmatic.9435:

@Fashion Mage

Assuming those skills are the ones that our LB will receive, just a try hard poor version IMO of what the other classes can already do without specializing LOL.

Staff ele, Necro, Ranger already covers our LB skills and then some.

I’m sorry, If you want LB on guard just for the sake of having range “support”. C’mmon?

Can’t wait to see LB guards in dungeons…

What makes it a “try hard poor version” of other weapons exactly? Is there any reason why guardians should be able to do what other classes can do without specialization?

I fail to see how the longbow listed here is similar to anything the necro can do and I fail to see how it’s even similar to the ranger’s longbow. If you’re comparing it to the necro’s staff, I’m not even going to bother wasting the energy arguing about that, because they’re not similar in the slightest. As for the ranger’s longbow, it’s a single-target long-ranged DPS weapon which pretty much offers 0 support. The guardian’s longbow listed here offers support even in its offensive stance.
I can agree that the support stance is somewhat like the water attunement on the staff, even though that attunement is usually just used for bunkering in sPvP, whereas the longbow listed here seems more focused on healing allies specifically and can only heal the user with one of its skills (Symbol of Energy). The support stance on this longbow also seems more focused on healing than even the water staff.

It’s certainly not the only reason I want it, but that reason really is enough. The range restrictions placed on guardians have always annoyed me and I’ve never agreed with them; I’ll gladly trade away whatever I need to in order to use this specialization and gain some ranged potency. If you think that reason is ridiculous, then what do you want, and what are your reasons?

Obtena.7952:

For me, the axe/warhorn combination is the most interesting option we could get. Rallying allies around you with the horn makes alot of sense conceptually.

So in other words, it’d just be more of the same: close-range with some support. Doesn’t sound interesting to me, especially considering that there are numerous other weapons which do that.
The point of the specialization isn’t to upgrade the class or provide more of the same. The point is to provide something a bit different yet still fit in thematically. A guardian spamming healing arrows, and directly supporting his/her allies (offensively or defensively) from a distance is just that.

Cleansing Flame is really strong when it’s used properly, but unfortunately the short-range usually makes it pretty clunky to use. Following your allies around while breathing down their necks for 4~ seconds makes the skill extremely clunky to use and also a bit situational. Personally I think they should either decrease the channel time or increase its range (probably the latter considering this weapon is supposed to be ranged).

MidnightSun.7964:

I’m not sold on the stances as our new F-key mechanic, but I guess it makes sense.

We don’t know anything about the specialization’s new F-key mechanic. We only know that the longbow will have a stance change mechanic (assuming the devs haven’t changed it since 2013).

YuiRS.8129:

I wasn’t aware he actually guessed something. Although, Engineer and Hammer were quite easy to guess, if you ask me, they go together well.

If he had just guessed that engis got hammers then I wouldn’t view it reliably either, but the auto-attack he described for the engi’s hammer sounds pretty much exactly like what was shown in the trailer:

http://youtu.be/IOUk2y0K2m8?t=1m40s

1. (A)Friction Swing – Swing your hammer and gather heat.
(B)Heated Swing – Swing your hammer again, gathering more heat.
©Blasting Cap – Smash the super heated hammer into the ground, detonating the blasting cap on its tip.
2. Nerve Sap – Spin and leech speed, crippling nearby foes. Gain swiftness for each foe hit.
3. Sonic Uppercut – Swing your hammer, launching a sonic wave in a line that launches foes back towards you.
4. Rocket Rush – Slide forward and collide with your target, leaving behind a line of fire that burns foes. Immobilizes on impact.
5. Surgical Strike – Point and drop an explosive rocket on the target area.

Just as long as GW2 is still runable with directX 9.

YuiRS.8129:

That leak is way too old to be considered relevant.

The same guy got the engi hammer auto-attack correct, so this seems like the most reliable source to go on. They may have changed it significantly, but it’s certainly better than baseless speculation.

https://archive.moe/vg/thread/37561461/#37655720
It’s fairly likely that the longbow is going to have those skills (with modifications, the leak is old after all). The leak is very convincing. In fact, you might wanna put it in the opening post Knighthonor.

creepmatic.9435:

I love that there’s always the wrong QQ that get’s to the Dev’s attention. Why the hell would you improve upon the weakness and not on the strength of a profession is mind blowing to me. Like there’s not enough LB warriors and rangers running around.

Because a specialization isn’t supposed to be an upgrade, it’s supposed to be an alternative. Currently, despite being the support profession, guardians lack a long-ranged support weapon (or any proper long-ranged weapon really).
Why would you assume that LB guardians are going to be anything like LB rangers or LB warriors? Judging by the leaked skills, it’s going to be nothing like the other longbows. At the moment there is no weapon in the game which primarily provides direct support to allies from a long range, nor is there a weapon as selfless as this (2 out of 3 of its heals don’t even affect the user). The fact that it switches between DPS/offensive support and healing/defensive support also appeals to a lot of different people, and allows one to build for the longbow in interesting ways. The new longbow is awesome and I was hoping ANet would make it exactly like this.

Yeah, even exotic zealot items are pretty pricy. I don’t see myself ever investing into ascended zealot items as they are now.

Judging from the skills that were leaked, it seems like the longbow would work really well with zealot stats (it almost seems made for zealot stats). So if those skills stick, I hope they release the zealot amulet in PvP.

Just for longbow. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the guardian specialization’s new profession mechanic has a similar theme.

CureForLiving.5360:

The guardian is mostly just guess work.

Actually, through careful analysis, a guardian can be seen using a longbow in the trailer. It’s really hard to spot, but there’s a topic on Reddit about it somewhere.

This leak was posted sometime around 2013 btw, and that engi hammer auto-attack sounds pretty spot-on, so I find it hard to deny.

Isarii.2804:

Khenzy.9348:

This may also be relevant to your insterests (also posted on reddit): https://archive.moe/vg/thread/37561461/#37655720

(Please check out the date of the post before any judgement calls! It’s been said the poster has been legit before)

While I’m highly skeptical, I would absolute love what he’s describing there.

Same, in fact I’ve been hoping that a longbow for guardians would be like that for quite awhile now. It’d fit everyone who wants a long-ranged support weapon, as well as everyone who wants a long-ranged damage weapon for the guardian.

The date of those posts are really old, but it’d be great if it was true.

Edit: Considering that he also guessed that engineers are getting hammers, and considering that the auto-attack he describes for hammer engis sounds identical to the one in the trailer, it kind of seems like he’s telling the truth.

I doubt he/she seriously meant he/she was the best guardian NA anyway. Just people with fragile egos overreacting as usual.

phokus.8934:

Or they could have read Khenzy’s as it clearly points it out in the beginning of the reddit post. Which is really more than enough than just regurgitating the same link with a close up of a horrifically pixelated animated gif.

I did read it, it was very informative, so thank you for the link Khenzy. :0
The post I linked helped show that it was a Charr guardian because the “horrifically pixelated animated gif” helped make the character’s tail (and attack animation) more noticeable. He then recorded his warrior(?) Charr doing an identical animation with a bow, thus reinforcing the fact that it was in fact a bow that the Charr guardian was using. If you realized this without the post I linked to, then good for you sweetie! On the other hand, I didn’t realize it immediately (I thought it was a human and I wasn’t sure which weapon he/she was using), and I only realized it when I saw that post.

I certainly did read the post right above mine. I was pointing out a specific post within that thread that had a more convincing argument/proof than the opening post (imo), but apparently you were so narrow-sighted that you didn’t notice the difference between the two links?

This post more or less confirms longbow guardians for me: http://en.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2vu3po/speculation_guardians_get_some_sort_of_bow/col6ysd

Tron.3471:

So i just watched it several times and the flash that looks like selfless daring actually appears to be a Human Guardian using MI to port to the asura.

That isn’t the graphic used for MI. MI has a more “cloudy” heal, Selfless Daring’s heal is more like a burst of light (as seen in your second image). Could be wrong though, I’ll have to look again later when I have more time.

Tome of Wrath deals quite a lot of damage in PvP, from my experiences. In particular it eats up players who spam stealth (thieves and mesmers). The user is fairly vulnerable when using it though; using it without some form of stability is always a terrible idea and typically results in dying. It’s meh in PvE imo, but it might increase DPS slightly via quickness, I guess.

creepmatic.9435:

Staff / LB guardian meta inc. More support at a even greater range now! GG

I’d gush so much if this was the case.

It’s hard to see how anybody could die in Tome of Courage unless they’re up against really bad odds (or unless the user has no healing power, in which case, don’t use ToC).

YuiRS.8129:

You will never be able to cast 4 and 5 even against bad teams. Against anybody with half a brain… no.

I pull off those skills all the time. It’s not hard either; just need a form of stability (SYG/Hallowed Ground/Elite Focus), and/or you can position sensibly. It’s not an easy mode skill like RF though, but it’s not terribly hard either.

The tomes aren’t trash at all; people just can’t live without their precious panic button.

Aggrostemma.1703:

Go for power/pack or strength runes and beat the crap out of somebody.

LetsGoGiants.4962:

I’m not looking for a high dps build

@Aggro, what you’re describing seems to be a glass staff ele rather than a water ele.

@OP, the biggest difference between them is their range. Support eles will stay at long range while support guardians will stay mid range or close range depending on their build (or long range with a tome, but that’s situational).
There are also a other differences of course. For example, guardians generally have more protective abilities (like reflection) while eles have more CC.

Zavik.9751:

Warriors are themed yellow, same as humans.

Warriors are themed an orange-y colour. Also, rangers and necros are both themed green. The colour association between professions is very likely a coincidence.

Would be nice, in fact a reverse glass cannon kind of thing is what I’m hoping the spec is. Although, if a “priest” specialization was made, then it’d almost certainly be labelled as “monk”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the would-be specialization’s mechanic or utilities are based off of the three monk prayer types (smiting, healing, protection), or perhaps it’d have something akin to ele attunements (Life Attunement?)

What Ynna said. It’d be really nice if ally targeting was added in the expansion though.

Being able to use Wings of Dwayna on a guardian would be wonderful.

Zoltreez.6435:

if its a longbow i will act like that part of the expansion does not even exist

im not playing a Guardian to be a freaking Hunter

gives us abilities that make us more durable more heals more soppurt abilities more capclosers etc

not a freaken bow.

There is no reason longbows can’t be supportive; just look at Bow of Truth. The niche of a 1200-range support weapon isn’t fulfilled on the guardian (and it’s barely fulfilled anywhere else in the game). However, if the guardian really does just get a ranger wannabe longbow (or shortbow), then I think that’ll be disappointed too.

Couldn’t care less about more gap closers and durability though, there are already weapons that provide those things. The point of the new specialization is to provide something somewhat new in terms of playstyle, not provide more of the same that current builds want.

silvermember.8941:

How would that work considering the Guardians abilities and mechanics are designed to be used next your teammate or opponents?

You mean like Healing Breeze, tomes, staff skills, spirit weapons, signets, Merciful Intervention, and traited consecrations? Oh wait. :0

Don’t exclude the new set of utilities and profession mechanic (even though virtues are long-ranged anyway) the specialization would be getting either.

If you’re using a tome and also using cleric gear and monk runes, I suggest using Tome of Courage because Heal Area is extremely powerful with healing power and percentage-increases to healing allies (gained from monk runes and benevolence sigils).

BrunoBRS.5178:

Scoobaniec.9561:

BrunoBRS.5178:

you want a sniper? roll a rifle warrior.

killshot is exactly that, except without stealth to make it OP.

Rifle warrior is dead and useless.

which is exactly what a sniper thief would be, because melee DPS > ranged DPS, especially single target.

Is that why rangers are so popular right now?

Melee DPS > Ranged DPS is only sometimes the case when a team is incapable of doing anything to protect their squishy ranged DPS’er (ie. the team has no coordination or proper team comp).

I want the ultimate support class. :0

Aomine.5012:

Like I said, it’s nothing to do with OP or not. The point is what a class can do and cant do. Necro does not has as many boons as Guardian , so to compensate that, they have good access to boon strip.

You pretty much called it OP in your last post.

Aomine.5012:

If Guardian can become this strong, then all the other classes will have to get as many boons and as many boon strips as Guardian to compensate, which is alot of balance required.

Having a unique combination of capabilities =/= broken or unfair. The fact that torch guardians would have both strong boon application and boon strip (on an underused) weapon is irrelevant. The combination of those two things don’t randomly make it OP.

Personally I’d like a range increase on it so that it can properly do what it was intended to do (cleanse conditions from allies), but I think the idea of boon stripping is interesting too.

Aomine.5012:

Boon strip will just make this class OP in everything.

Considering what one is giving up to use the torch, I doubt that’d be OP (and if it is, then just reduce the number of boon strips). It’d also be far more interesting than just removing conditions from the user. Not every single support skill has to affect the user after all.

The stats on a SW build are somewhat flexible due to SWs not scaling with the user’s stats (besides Bow of Truth’s active, which scales with healing power). I’m not entirely sure what you would use, but I suppose it would depend on the kind of SW build? I’m guessing berserker stats would work for most offensive SW builds. Zealot stats would work well, but sadly there are no zealot amulets in PvP.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Snip

^This. It’d be ridiculous to not have the specializations available in every game mode. If they were only usable in PvE, my hype train would crash and burn.

I think it’d be a great skill, providing it’s properly balanced of course. Traited with Writ of Persistence, a CDR trait, and Pure of Heart would probably make it pretty broken, but increasing the cooldown or placing the skill on something like a conjured weapon would probably negate abuse. Alternatively, if it provides too much bunker potential, then the symbol could just not affect the user (à la monk runes).

Nash.2681:

New lazy man’s meta confirmed- 3 shield guards + 2 “whatever is top dps at that moment”.

Three guardians traited for that skill on one team would be a pretty bad idea even with permanent aegis on one point. After all, there’s more than one point/objective in a match. I can see how it might be abusable though, I guess.

I agree with Shadelang. It’s for the same reason that I think Healing Breeze might actually be a good healing skill to take with SW builds.

Looks like you counted them anyway. XD

I counted roughly 31~ semi-circles, 7~ fancy semi-circles (38 semi-circles total), and 58~ non-semi-circle foci. So about 60% of foci are not semi-circles. I didn’t know what to classify the ascended “artifact” foci as though, so I just left them out (they look like weird guantlet things to me).

Foci range from “semi-circles” to books to wands to scrolls to musical instruments to keys, and so on. The newest one added is an hourglass. There is no weapon type in the game that are as varied as foci. So I wouldn’t call them “boring”.

Asmodal.6489:

sorry, that sounds extremely dull.

At least it’s actually supportive, and not some ranger/condi-necro wannabe longbow. It could use some more imagination (and shorter cooldowns) though, I suppose.

Personally I think a longbow is more likely, and I don’t think it’d compete with the scepter due to the scepter being primarily a DPS weapon, and I would guess that the longbow would primarily be a supportive weapon (or a hybrid support/DPS weapon).

Utility tomes. One for offensive support, one for defensive support, one for healing, and maybe a debuffing/conditions tome?

Not that I care much about guardian condition builds, but I just thought I should mention that Binding Blade scales pretty well with condition damage.

Guardian – Monk – Longbow

The build works, but I recommend getting Consecrated Ground and possibly replacing Purging Flames and/or Signet of Mercy (with Bow of Truth, and maybe Merciful Intervention, or possibly a shout). Normally I’d say keep Purging Flames, but the skill is glitched with Consecrated Ground (it only removes one condition with the trait), which you’ll need to deploy Wall of Reflection. The build is somewhat glassy-ish, so do note that positioning is quite important. Proper use of Tome of Courage is also essential, but its downtime is a big weakness.
Probably replace the mace with a scepter too. The healing the mace offers is insignificant and difficult to direct onto allies who need it, and the build is more fragile than normal WvW builds, so melee range should usually be avoided.

Crius.5487:

Snip

You mean different builds offer different things!? Insane!
Also, one healer guardian can outheal many water blast finishers. That argument has always been nonsense as far as I’m aware of.