Guild Wars 2

There is no use for a Sentinel build outside of WvW, even in WvW you’re better off just going Soldier over Sentinel a majority of the time.

I’d love to see some statistics, but I’m guessing it would be a lot of work getting the numbers. Numbers don’t lie after all.

Most played map
Least played map
Map that averages the closest scores
Most played profession
Least played profession
Winningest profession
Losingest profession

When it comes to solo roaming you want to go medi, there are a couple variants of builds:

x/6/6/x/x- Highest damage possible.
2/5/6/x/x- Again high damage, and doesn’t rely on one handed weapons as much.
6/x/6/x/x- Hybrid ( direct damage/condi)
2/1/6/1/4- Balanced
x/x/6/6/x- Most sustain

There are a plethora of more but those are some of the popular ones.

Small group is a bit different, shouts can work better in these situations, however it really comes down to you teams comp:

0/0/2/6/6- Best support possible.
x/x/6/6/x- This is the AH variant, not the medi.
x/x/6/x/6- This is a medi build that brings a lot of utility.

And of course all the solo builds I mentioned can be used in small group, just depends on your group’s composition and what you’re looking for.

ArrDee.2573:

Teutos.8620:

People are just saying that. They’ll leave again after playing a week or even less.

Courtyard has a lot of LOS, you already got your map, and what happend after it was included in unranked and prior the test season start in ranked? Everyone qqed about it.

In EU people still prefer to 1vs1 on Nifhels beach, where there are less pillars to hide behind.

Courtyard is too big, has huge camera issues, and does not have arena gameplay in unranked queue! It’s poorly implemented deathmatch! What I am talking about is a tiny map with a few LoS boxes for 2v2/3v3 arenas! The beach in forest is a nice example of a good sized arena map!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Something like this. Wildstar had a lot of issues, however I was very fond of their arena map.

Matchmaking definitely needs some help. I generally don’t even bother with soloq anymore because it’s a nightmare. However, when I group que, it’s not that great either. A lot of the games are just stomps, and that’s not fun for either side.

I agree with Ken on this one, his argument is sound, and I know he plays bunker Guard at a high level, more so then everyone in this thread. However, there is one thing we all agree on, the radius should be larger.

There’s no reason to judge people how they spend their free time. As long as it doesn’t get into the way of important matters (family, school, career, and etc). Then who really cares? If they enjoy pvp and want to do it all day, then most power to them.

There’s no shame in it.

Cynz.9437:

i thought you quit game~

I personally still use Sanctuary in pvp, it’s the only mode where it really shines. It’s an incredible skill when used correctly. However, there are some slight tweaks I’d like to see with it.

It should be slightly larger. As of right now, players can get as close to the bubble and still hit you with melee attacks, this shouldn’t happen.

AoE and ground skills still can damage you. Players just spam AoE near you, and you can take a lot of damage from this. The only way players should be able to attack you, is if they have stab and come in the Sanctuary. Other than that, you shouldn’t be able to take damage.

When it comes to medi builds you definitely want zerker amulet. There’s also Assassin, theoretically it should give you higher damage, however you give up vitality, so it’s generally not worth it since Guardian already has the lowest hp pool.

None of the other amulets will give you enough damage to burst effectively. Solider ammy can work, but it requires you to go x/6/6/x/x, to make up the precision. You gain sustain, however, you lose damage due to the lack of ferocity and lower precision overall. You’ll have issues bursting really heavy targets down.

Keksmuffin.1450:

Meh I would rather see the other spirit weapons become useful in niche situations because of their effects like the shield is now than a “build” with three spirit weapons ever becoming a thing. Dunno why people actually want to play with AI. :<

I just find the concept and notion of Spirit Weapons to be cool, more so than turrets or minions, that’s fairly boring.

What I really like to see, but I know it’s never going to happen is. When you command a Spirit Weapon you take control of it, and you get all new weapon skills. Similar an Ele’s Conjure. This would make only running one or two spirits more viable and also open up some more options.

I was thinking of a new trait that would be pretty cool.

Vengeful Spirit (dat dota 2 reference)- Spirit Weapons immediately respawn after being destroyed.

Obviously it would have to have a fairly long CD to balance it.

I didn’t even know this existed! Definitely applied, I love helping out in the Guardian section, very passionate about the class.

verskore.4312:

oxtred.7658:

verskore.4312:

such negative comments wtf, the build is rlly good. looks like the guys giving negative comments are super pro…

I’m actually super pro. The build is a bad modification of the same meta build created around beta, and isn’t fitting for roaming nor pve dungeons. There’s better builds in every game mode minus zerg, where boonway is still superior and save yourselves is a dead sentence.

I’d say take a look at his video that he made of the build, doesnt look bad at all to me

It’s not a bad build. However, there are better alternatives for PvE and roaming in WvW.

Swish.2463:

tldr

I agree with this post! Anet really needs to make the viewing experience better.

Teutos.8620:

Just curious…

Are you talking about EU or NA ESL tourney?

Personally I prefer to watch the camera in the hand of ChroNickGamer who was streaming the EU tourney on the german guildnews channel this Sunday.

The last two matchups in the EU ESL 55HP vs TCG and TCG vs CM were exciting to watch.
Edit: and TCG played with three berserker professions (mesmer, thief and medidation-guard) and 55HP with two (mesmer&thief).

I also agree these games were much better to watch. TCG just has a very engaging and fun comp to watch.

Of course it’s was fake, this part made me laugh:

Amplified Wrath: Burning damage bonus of this trait decreased from 33% to 20%.
Too high of burn damage is gimmicky. Condition Guardian will be compensated in other ways.

Tricare.2946:

I disagree again with healing power being the main reason why the build works so much. Going 0/0/6/4/4 you would lose out on a condition being cleared with each shout, stability on F3, and that extra 10% boon duration.

Using boon duration food over -40% condition food is a very bad idea. When it comes to roaming condition classes are everywhere, they are all running +40% which will eat you alive without -40%.

Nobody in my roaming group uses -40% condition duration food, furthermore we have yet to lose to a condition heavy group in 5v5 or roaming. With boon duration food, plus the new sharpening stones you can get 30% boon duration. When it comes to professions like Guard and Ele that depend on it, it is more beneficial in roaming.

0/0/2/6/6 is a very boon and healing heavy spec there’s no denying that. You lack AH so you have to rely more on your healing power and boons. Yes, sure you can play it lacking these stats, but it’s only gimping the build.

Tricare.2946:

I disagree with the gear selection. Yes, going more dps means you are squishier. However, going full clerics means you will be hitting like a wet noodle and provide no dps help what so ever.

Healing is not the main reason this build works well. It’s the condition clears. 2 conditions cleared with each shout, the 3 removed on F2.

Boon duration helps yes, but there’s not much you can do about that anymore unless you drop trooper runes, you can’t do the 2/2/2 rune set for 45% duration anymore, and dropping trooper runes reduces the amount of conditions you can clear for the group.

Most roaming group do not target a guardian first, so being focused is usually never an issue. Even if I get targeted first I have plenty of ways to stay alive while the real dps is able to kill whoever is on me because they can free cast.

Healing power is the main reason why this build shine so much, neglecting it isn’t playing to its strengths. You could go a 0/0/6/4/4 build and have just as much condition clear and having greater sustain, while not having to worry about healing power. When it comes to boon duration you can easily get 20% more just by using food, that’s not even mentioning rune sets.

You don’t have to go full Cleric, but by neglecting healing power and or boon duration, you are not playing to the build’s strengths. The extra dps he was bringing in that video wasn’t even that substantial.

I tuned in because I was curious! What’s the first thing I see? Almost all engi and ele…

GW2 pvp is already not that great for viewing (fun to play though), watching stuff like this is just ugh.

Arken.3725:

Guard stuff!

I agree with a lot of those changes. Most are just small QoL things, and would help greatly. However, there are a few that I believe would cause overperformance issues:

Reducing the CD on RF isn’t really needed, also this would also put med build at a 60 second CD.

Merging Resolute Healer and Protective Reviver is a bit much. PR is a very strong trait, it’s base 10 seconds of aegis, protection, and regen (with no CD). The only reason you don’t see it that much is, the knockback from RH is generally a safer play. If they were to get merged, they would definitely need to reduce the boon duration on it.

Merging Indomitable Courage and Shielded Mind could cause issues. That’s essentially another SYG, but it would have a group stunbreak instead. That would definitely have to be a grandmaster trait if they merged them.

0/0/2/6/6 does work extremely well, it’s pretty much all I use when I do small group comp. However, it does needs a number of things to really shine. Healing power and or boon duration. If you don’t have these things the build isn’t really that great.

Your damage in the video was still fairly low and the support you bring isn’t going to be as effective because of low healing power and boon duration. This also compromises your own survivability. 0/0/2/6/6 are already very vulnerable to burst even with the right stats. If players would focus you more, you’d go down extremely fast.

So in short, 0/0/2/6/6 is a great build and services a role, however I don’t agree with the gear choice in the build.

My enthusiasm for pvp has dropped to an all time low since the patch. For me it was one step forward and two steps back. All they had to do was add the voting and ready system and I would have been happy.

That being said, this is just the test season, so I’m hoping things improve next season.

Skeletor.9360:

Why not come here and just sit in the starting zone…leaving your team 1 man short….
All the other things that punish the entire team….

Say I forget to set my skills up….
Etc so on…..

May I suggest…allowing a map filter.
May I suggest allowing people to exit.
May I suggest not disabling runes.
May I suggest not disabling skill changes….

All of these things punish your team….people who had nothing to do with it.

Firelysm.4967:

So actually flipping the market is alternative to PvE? Still better than going into PVE..

Not really. Playing the market actually requires a lot of work and dedication. It’s one reason why I don’t do it anymore. It felt more like a job than playing a game. However, if you are into this kind of stuff, I guess it can be enjoyable.

Rednik.3809:

Play on TP.
15 charrs

Pretty much this. I played a lot of TP earlier in the game’s life cycle and made a lot of gold that way. I don’t do it anymore because it’s a pain and not really fun, other than that a lot of PvE.

Turret engi is pretty easy to deal with. Just ignore them, let them sit on that point the whole match. It’ll be 5v4 and you should win the other points. If the turret engi joins the teamfights, he’s completely useless.

Problem is players dedicate so much time on that point and engi, it throws the match.

Tobeyeus.9376:

I thought the radius was 360

It is, which is extremely small. I’d like them to increase it to 600 (similar to shouts). However, they can limit it to five allies, currently it’s unlimited. 600 plus unlimited would be too much.

Foefire is definitely number one.

messiah.1908:

guys 20 sec cd on the trait ….

Plus a small radius. It could be a good trait, if they fixed these two things.

itti.4510:

Does everybody really think, “guardians are in a sweet spot”, or has the guardian simply been given up by the majority of players for being pretty useless in everything, because all other classes can do it better. Guardians have been neglected by the developers to a point, where your team is weakened, if you take one with you. Yeah, bunker guardians are great, but, only if his opponents don’t know how to chain interrupt him and finish him off in something under 3 seconds. The offensive guardian needs to be extremely well timed while playing and quickly loses a fight, if he makes a single mistake or gets interrupted. And if a guardian has to run, it happens now and then, he can’t go invisible, poop grenades, illusions, turrets, marks, traps, … he has to “sit in his silly staff-speed-buff” for 4 seconds, if it is to last a while. the guardians spirit weapons are close to useless, because skilling for them makes the overall build silly at best. perhaps, if the spirit weapons allowed for the same kind of healing mechanics as the meditations, the’d be viable again. guardians are also clearly lacking in mobility while also not being able to go into any invisibilty (god) mode.

if guardians are to be played as “first in and last out” they clearly need to be rebalanced and improved.

obviously i’m putting in a few words in here FOR the guardian.

cheers.

You’re beating a dead horse, most of the time I don’t even bother anymore because I sound like a broken record. The devs clearly have their minds made up about Guard and everything is fine!

creepmatic.9435:

Harbinger.8637:

I really like Torch, it just needs some slight tweaks to make it more viable.

Zealot’s Fire, It just needs better tracking.

Cleansing Flame, you can do a couple of things here:

A) Keep it the same, however let it remove conditions on the Guard also.
B) Reduce the cast time, keep damage the same.
C) Increase damage, but keep the same cast time.

I would go with option A) without a second tough, no doubt.

About the tracking of Zealot’s Fire, I didn’t found it to be troublesome, also the fact that is unblockable and it has crazy range, I find it pretty much spot on.

And if I can ask @Harbinger, what’s your tough on Zealot’s Flame also proccing inner fire and/or blinding? Do you think it would be too much for the cooldown that the skill has?

It definitely should proc Inner Fire, this has been something Guards have been asking for since release.

I’m not sure about blind because that would also proc vulnerability if traited. AoE blind is already very strong, so another could cause overperformance issues.

I really like Torch, it just needs some slight tweaks to make it more viable.

Zealot’s Fire, it just needs better tracking.

Cleansing Flame, you can do a couple of things here:

A) Keep it the same, however let it remove conditions on the Guard also.
B) Reduce the cast time, keep damage the same.
C) Increase damage, but keep the same cast time.

ArrDee.2573:

Vee Wee suggested literally almost all of these changes 8 months ago! Nobody listened then! Nobody will listen now! Good luck my frand!

PS Happy New Year frands!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

lol sad but true

Bunker Guard is in a good spot, the only why it got pushed out of the meta is because of cele ele. Bunker Guard is exactly how a bunker class should be. Great support and sustain, with little to no damage. Also excels at teamfights rather than 1vX situation. However, there’s really no reason for this since ele can do it all plus damage to boot.

DPS guard on the other hand is still underwhelming. Yes, it works great at low and mid tiers, but lets face it, anything can work there. However, at higher tier there is no reason to take a dps guard. It lacks mobility, has some of the most predictable and easiest to read burst, and it’s a melee heavy class that lacks soft CCs. Only thing nice about dps Guard is it has better sustain than most dps builds.

Megastorm.6219:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRApf7dlsApMotCxOI8DNh8QlZd0iW2BXQ1TQA8AA-TJxHwADeCAn3fAwJBoYZAA

The evolution continues, and it seems to actually be worth doing still for whatever reason. It’s getting to be an actual build that’s fun and reliable for the most part in small group fights, or 1vs2 fights.

Feel free to try it out, and give some feedback, good or bad. Realize..that I’m not trying to crack a code here, or break anyone’s precious meta. Just something different and usable. Still mainly for capping points.

Why are you using Wrathful Spirits and A Fire in Inside, if you’re using the Bow and Shield, that is pointless since neither does damage. Well, the command on the Shield has a slight damage aspect but still, those trait points are better spent else where.

Shadelang.3012:

I…could be wrong…but I think he wants it instnat cast WITh two seconds of invuln…..holy kittening kitten no.

Oh, so he wants it similar to Obsidian Flesh. I don’t think that’s really needed.

Guild Wars 2: Beyond the Point of No Return

At least they got the title right. Not expecting much, hopefully I’m wrong.

This would actually be a nerf, since the invulnerability is quite useful.

Yeah buff Spirit Weapons too! Please don't, AI is bad.

Josh Davis.6015:

Hey all,

I just wanted to let you guys know that your comments and discussions haven’t gone unnoticed or unread. The team keeps pretty good tabs on the forums, even if we’re not making a lot of regular posts over the holiday break. We had a number of conversations regarding the feedback found in this thread and others.

I don’t think we’re ready to talk about specifics right now (and I certainly can’t make that call on my own with everyone out of the office), but I figured you guys would like a little reassurance that we’re aware of your thoughts on the matter.

Josh

Bigsexy.8302:

Amroth.2170:

Wait, you’re saying medi guard is OP?

Wat?

^ Bad player spotted.

(when a skill on 8s cd can burst 2.6k armor target – yes, it’s op. Also so many blocks.)

This is why I avoid general discussion, so many misinformed players. I’m assuming you’re talking about Whirling Wrath (Two-Handed Mastery traited, because that’s the only thing that even comes close to what you’re saying). WW is one of the easiest and most predictable skill to dodge in the game. If you eat a full WW, you deserve it, because you just got extremely out played.

Sorry if you’re complaining about med Guard and turret Engi in pvp, this is definitely a learn to play issue. Neither one of those builds are seen in high levels of play because they are extremely easy to counter. Also nobody runs pu Mesmer in pvp because they are next to useless, since they cannot contest points.

Overall this just seems like an angry rant, and you should come back when you calm down.

Score is garbage in generally, just remove it.

uberkingkong.8041:

Ya theres, The Elder Scrolls Online.

They even have World vs World too!

There’s really no right or wrong answer to this. Guardians have been using much less hp before this. Guard stacks didn’t always exist, neither did gear such as Sentinel, nor did traits like Force of Will. So you really can’t put an exact number on it. I recommend experimenting and finding what you’re comfortable with.

Also you have to factor in toughness and healing power, when it comes to survivability.

That’s why I stuck with GW2 because there’s no mmo like it atm. I’m hoping Camelot Unchained or EverQuest Next are great in the pvp department, so I can leave this game.

Those laurels!

15professions

Well-thought-out post. I agree on all points., sadly it probably won’t change anything.

What future? This is a causal PvE game, people should just accept it.

Hambow is much better in pvp than a med Guard. More sustain, CC, utility, and sustain dps. Med Guard is decent if you want to bring burst. However, when it comes to overall usefulness, War is much better than a med Guard.