Guild Wars 2

Scepter is not only THE WORST RANGED WEAPON IN THE GAME, but it is also the most boring weapon you’ll ever use. Go ahead. Take the scepter challenge. Use it for extended periods of time and TELL me that the annoying repetitive whistling sound, useless projectile speed and constant misses don’t make you want to rip your hair out.

It’s just SO bad.

I’m going to go with a big fat NO.

Hilariously, I have had the best time with Tome of Wrath (the one I initially thought I would NOT like). In PvE, this burning, crippling, weakness spreading tome works ABSOLUTE WONDERS against big pulls of elite mobs. I’m telling you people, try it. You can also spread quickness AND might buffs to your team.. it’s great.

ToW is also pretty good for Wv3.

Courage is useless and NOT fun to use. The only skills that are worth using are 4→5. This dazes and full heals. Not good in dungeons either, especially when compared to spreading cripple + weakness + burning to multiple targets.

Renewed Focus is just a god awful ability and I’m not really sure who thought that would be an appropriate elite.

I do wish I would have went Warrior with the exception of the 1handed sword option (I absolutely love Guardian’s 1h sword abilities)

Warriors have more options in terms of weapons which is HUGE. I’ve learned that torch AND shield offhand are pretty useless options. The torch brings Zealot’s Flame to the table, which is the only good thing imo, and a channeled 600 range breath ability which is totally mediocre (I’d rather be autoing with my 1h sword).

Guardian’s 1h mace is severely disappointing – It doesn’t have any sort of debuff application (weakness, cripple, etc). It has a terrible channeled block mechanic (which was buffed so you could run with it, but it’s still terrible, let’s agree). Oh, and that tiny symbol in which no one ever stands.

We also lack ANY form of long range option (scepter is not included, sorry boys. You can run away from scepter autoattacks without any speed buffs from 600 range without taking any damage – means I have to be CLOSER than 600 to hit you, WITHOUT any speed buffs mind you) Which makes Wv3 a total bore. Added to the low quality of scepter projectile pathing, it also SOUNDS and LOOKS terrible to use. SO basically your only range option looks bad.

The only offhand option that is good is the Focus (and it’s really good.)

Many complain about the Warrior’s burst ability being a boring mechanic, but let me tell you, Guardian’s “special mechanics” aka Virtues are even MORE boring. You pretty much never activate 2 or 3, because removing the passive is not worth it. So you’re left with one activation (same as Warrior) that isn’t available as often, and isn’t an additional attack or fun option to use.

Warriors seem to have more fun swinging around what’s available to them. And after having a warrior in my party bring amazing buffs to the table via shouts (I don’t like banners nearly as much) I have to say they bring not only awesome damage but utility to the table.

P.S. Now that I think of it, our 2h hammer rocks too.

kousei.5914:

Nero.9741:

Anyone who says that shield is useless should learn how to play a guardian. #4 is huge, any damage reduction for your group mates is good. It is the role of the guardian, you are not soloing dungeons.

+1

We really need more players that are used to GW1 build creation, theorycrafting, etc. to start posting in these threads. People in GW2 have yet to get to the point that some people in GW1 were with knowledge of mechanics, swapping synergies, skill synergies, skill utility, etc. and it’s really showing in threads like this.

Knuckledust.5621:

Anyone who says the Shield is OK either doesn’t play with it or never used Focus.

You’re going to keep harping on this aren’t you? Focus is a useless weapon in most PvE situations and only really becomes very useful in WvW/sPvP. You like the block on Focus. Problem is 3 blocks aren’t useful in this game at all in PvE. 1 is all you need if you know what you’re doing and you aren’t trying to just stand there and tank. Stop trying to tank and start playing GW2…

Focus useless in most PvE situations? Wow.. I’ve truly never heard that one before. I never knew a bouncing regeneration + blind that even does damage at range could be considered useless. Oh that’s only skill 4, I almost forgot, skill 5 blocks 3 attacks (NO DAMAGE MAXIMUM) and if not? Does GREAT aoe damage upon exit. AND the shield is an instant cast and can be applied mid-attack or mid-heal, and is a fantastic option when you find yourself without endurance for a dodge.

Shield, on the other hand, has a 30 second cooldown MEASLY damage cone + buff.
And a 40 second AOE mini-knockback (doesn’t work on boss mobs) with minor heal. If you think the fact that it absorbs projectiles is it’s strong suit, you obviously have never used a wall of reflection. (Also a 40 second CD, lasts 10 seconds, REFLECTS projectiles for damage back to the enemy)

It’s absolutely terrible. Yes, while protection for up to (4, 5?) allies in a cone is GREAT, there are some serious issues.

1. You have to be facing your allies (usually required that you turn around to buff them, if you’re in melee, making the attack miss the enemy and you waste time)
2. Protection only lasts five seconds
3. Long cooldown

I think we should get a personal block iteration of the skill (somewhat similar to warriors, maybe more “magical”) or have the #4 apply aegis and protection to those (4, 5?) allies.

This major trait in Radiance states that Passive effects of signets are “improved”. However when equipping my +power signet, there is no visual difference in +power when I have and do Not have the trait selected. I even tried unequipping the signet, then selecting the trait, and then reequipping the signet with no results.There is also a certain degree of vagueness, I believe it is bugged however am not 100% sure.

This major trait in Radiance states that Passive effects of signets are “improved”. However when equipping my +power signet, there is no visual difference in +power when I have and do Not have the trait selected. I even tried unequipping the signet, then selecting the trait, and then reequipping the signet with no results.There is also a certain degree of vagueness, I believe it is bugged however am not 100% sure.

No sir, the best way to move and cast abilities still relies on good hotkey mapping coupled with some muscle memory. My main binds include

Q, e, r, f, shift+r (elite)
Shift 1-4

I don’t have strafe buttons, I hold the right mouse button down while running with WAS, or run with both mouse buttons depressed

I played an engineer through the betas, and now I main my Guardian. Engineer’s underwater skills are atrocious, and I love the guardians. Let me say this – I have yet to lose an underwater battle in sPvP. The guardian has a wonderful array of skills at their disposal underwater. And spear is nowhere near melee range, it’s 600. I think guardian underwater skillset is fine, you just need to learn how to properly use the tools available.

I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with pretty much everything you said. I don’t want ANet to nerf the dungeons because you noobs can’t figure out how to dodge.

Me and my friend have had absolutely no problem completing ANY dungeon, explorable or not. The bigger problem in my eyes is the difficulties do not MATCH UP- for instance, explorable path 1 and 3 are on completely different levels of “hard”.

Maybe you need to take a step back, run out of the dungeon, and focus on dynamic events. Dungeons were meant to be hard, and you’re supposed to be good to do them.

I am not opposed at all to the idea that explorable dungeons are one of the main facets of end-game GW2. Some of the others being sPvP, W3, skin hunting, map completion etc.

I have noticed some significant problems, however, with the current state of explorable dungeons.

The precursor: After my first time running story-mode AC, I LOVED IT. The dungeon was hard, boss mechanics (especially the lovers) were awesome, and I had a great time with the entry level dungeon. I think this is what set the stage for noticing the problems with explorables to an even bigger level.

Explorable dungeons are NOT ON PAR with story mode dungeons, in my opinion. I’m not referring to difficulty level, i’m referring to

1. Mechanics
2. Epicness
3. POLISHING

Mechanics
Introducing new mechanics every single path of an explorable dungeon is obviously not very viable. However, I think at least one of the three should introduce a new way, a new thought process, a new method of killing or doing an event or boss. I say this first comparing to the lovers (story mode AC) separate the two, and kill them separately. Not a CRAZY concept (was used in other games) but still was a “whoa” moment. I’ve come across MANY explorable paths that didn’t have that “umph” factor to keep my interest.

Epicness
Let’s just be quite frank – some of these explorable mode dungeons suck. I say that because they were designed as an endgame. When I think of endgame, I think of the first time I saw Ragnaros in Molten Core – I almost !#$ myself. I'm not saying the game doesn't have these moments in general, in fact, GW2 has some AMAZING oh !#$ moments that I feel are very epic. But the fact that the explorable dungeons lack this on so many levels is a bit disheartening.

POLISHING
The biggest of the problems is the polishing. I can’t believe ANet offered token rewards and “endgame” gear for dungeons that weren’t thoroughly tested (it seems). People have been “speed running” CoF to get awesome gear, weapons, etc. This was in a way that was obviously NOT INTENDED – the worst part is, now I have to work my !@# off to get the SAME GEAR that these individuals got – except I have to spend 5x more time doing so.. for the same reward.

Moreso than the buggy reward system, is the polishing of the dungeons themselves. Here what I refer to is difficulty levels, bugginess, and overall feel of the encounters. I feel that many encounters have huge, pain in the !@# problems that a tester should be able to identify with like, 3 runs through the instance. It’s just a little shocking to me that ANet would even release the explorable in their current state.

I think some more work should have been done with explorables in general. My personal belief is that there should have been less available from the start, and the ones available to be polished and fun, to an extent (not looking for perfection). But I really think if explorables are going to be such a big part of the end, there needs to be more man-power and dedication towards improving and streamlining these instances.

Guardians are absolutely the weakest class in WvW – NO QUESTION.

Yeah, you can sit around and support your teammates…
Shouting, using staff Empower skill, throwing your ray of judgement from your scepter…

But guess what, you’re going to get a bronze contribution. Or even better, no contribution at all!!! The only way you can do ANY damage at range is going to be – you guessed it – with siege weapons. And not only do these cost precious GOLD, but half the time you won’t have enough supply to even set one up and use it properly.

I’ve played guardian pretty extensively in WvW, and although playing the support role can definitely help the team, the fact that you DONT GET REWARDED FOR SUPPORTING is absolutely terrible.

TLDR; Go DPS spec, and forget helping the team. Supporting doesn’t get YOU anything.