The whole point of solo cue, is that it allows new players to play the game, and watch their rank grow, before they start getting “serious” and join a dedicated team. That’s why solo and team cue has two different rank systems..
Actually, the crowd control in Guild Wars 2 is really weak, compared to other MMOs. I was pleasantly surprised about that when I first started playing.
They don’t really need to do anything complicated. Simply buffing the auto-attack damage on the longbow, greatsword, and main hand axe would go a long way.
Shared Anguish is strong because of PvP. For 10 points, you get a free stunbreaker, and in PvP, you’re pet really isn’t dead all that often, even with 0 investment into its survival. 90s is a fair tradeoff for being able to go into fights without having to use a utility slot on any of our even more underwhelming stun breakers (especially Signet of Renewal, which is much better used as a cleanse then a stun breaker).
Obviously the bigger a fight gets, the more likely the pet is to die, so the less useful SA becomes because of the need for more stunbreakers and a dead pet. But there isn’t any other class in the game, at least I don’t think there is and I don’t feel like checking, that gets a free stun breaker for 10 points.
Is it fair that it’s only strong in PvP? Well, yes and no. Yes because it’s hard to balance it across all game types, but not because ideally, in each trait slot option, there should be strong options for every game mode, and Shared Anguish is taking up a slot that could potentially be made more useful for other game content.
Considering the Ranger has some underwhelming stun breakers, and is suppose to be one of the most evasive professions in the game, I don’t think combining these two traits would make for too strong an adept trait.
The Engineer has a adept trait which gives 3 seconds of protection on disabled, and only with a 5 second recharge time. The Guardian also has an adept trait that gives 3 seconds of retaliation on disable, with a 30 second recharge time.
While Shared Anquish is nice in sPvP, it doesn’t really work that well in PvE or WvW, where your pet can be dead quite a lot. But if these two traits where combined, it would work both when your pet was dead and alive. If your pet is alive, you would get Shared Aquish’s effect with stealth on top, and if your pet was dead, you would get Hide in Plain Sight’s effect (you get stunned instead of the pet, but you still get the stealth). It would make for a trait that is overall more useful, and make room for a new master trait as well.
While I don’t disagree with the original posters outcry, I think a few people in this topic are a bit misguided. Players who play PvP, do it primarily because of the player to player combat. And players who play PvE, do it primarily because of the rewards. So the fact that it’s easier to get rewards in PvE then WvW, is not really that strange. It’s also meant as a way to spread the player-base out across all the content of Guild Wars 2. Just like you also have to play WvW, if you want 100% map completion.
I’m very sure that depends on which server you play on. Whenever I play WvW, I constantly see pets chasing players around. I see much less Engineers and Elementalists then Rangers. Even Mesmers I don’t see very often anymore.
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I just use a stun break with HiPS. For example, you won’t see me running longbow/remoresless/valkryie stealth without HiPs and traited lightening reflexes (3 stun breaks in the time shared anguish gives you 1 basically)
There are much weaker traits to focus on than hips/shared anguish, don’t you agree?
But Hide in Plain Sight isn’t a stun breaker, it’s just a stealth trigger. So you still only have one stun breaker. And if the damage from Lightning Reflexes hits, you also lose the stealth.
Honestly, the whole Ranger trait tree still needs an overhaul. But I don’t think it’s that difficult to remove Hide in Plain Sight, and then add stealth on top of Shared Anquish. It would also make room for a new master trait.
Am I the only one that finds Hide in Plain Sight underwhelming? I’d much rather see it reworked than have a stealth melded into a very strong PvP option (Shared Anguish).
Hide in Plain Sight is useful in other content though, particularly WvW, but I wouldn’t be opposed to having some options reworked into more condi damage improvement or condi removal.
How about this, instead of the merge, Hide in Plain Sight becomes: Stealth when you are immobilized(30 second cooldown). Remove 2 conditions whenever you enter stealth (10 second cooldown).
I made this topic because both these traits are underwhelming..
How is Shared Anquish very strong? It’s has a 90 second recharge time, meaning you probably aren’t going to use it more then once in a fight. And on top of that, it only works if your pet is alive. So if your pet is dead, it’s just a wasted trait.
Stealth is not really useful in WvW, unless it allows you to move. The majority of players have found out that stealth doesn’t mean “invulnerable”, and will therefor keep swinging in the air, or place down AoE, whenever someone goes into stealth. And since Hide in Plain Sight doesn’t remove the disable, you are still very vulnerable. Especially against a zerg.
Well, if Hide in Plain Sight and Shared Anquish were to be merged, there would be room for a new master trait, which could be more condition removal.
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@ Kasama. It already is a problem which is why most rangers do not take HIPS.
I think that’s because Hide in Plain Sight doesn’t remove the disable. So when you get stunned, you’re stuck in stealth for at least 1 second, and then you still have to hit your opponent to get out of the stealth. But if the disable was removed instantly, you would be able to hit your opponent back right away, without wasting any seconds.
I don’t like that. If my pet’s dead, HIPS doesn’t proc. That’s the drawback to shared anguish. Don’t tie that in with HIPS. Just my thoughts.
Also, shared anguish isn’t always the best option, for example, liadri (pet’s dead so it doesn’t do anything useful). Shared anguish is also on a long CD, you can get in almost 3 LR’s in 90s with wilderness knowledge instead. The only benefit to shared anguish is that by transferring it to your pet, the stun never applies to you in the first place.
You are just pointing out their differences here. The point is, that Hide in Plain Sight is just not useful on its own, simply because it doesn’t remove the disable, and doesn’t prevent fear either. So while it might seem like Hide in Plain Sight has it uses on paper, playing the game with it is a different matter.
The biggest benefit to Shared Anguish is that it helps builds that need or benefit from 3 utility slots, by still allowing them access to a stun breaker. By combining the traits, it might shift the slot up, and it would make current builds less viable because there are already lots of useful traits in wilderness survivals second tier, and more sacrifices would have to be made than what current builds have to make.
I’d also prefer not to have Remorseless be a focus across so many skill trees. It’s nice that Marksmanship takes a heavy focus on the longbow, but making even more traits in different trees dedicated to that one mechanic is imo the wrong way to shift the class.
If anything, a nice vulnerability on crit trait in skirmishing would be nice, to help compliment other weaponsets in power builds, while buffering the ability to keep vulnerability up with remorseless even more.
But that’s just me. Sorry if I trailed off there. A smoke field would be nice too, but the first thing I’d like to see is more traits in Skirmishing being aimed at benefiting direct damage builds.
The fact that it might shift up a slot, would be my worry as well. But you can argue about how good these traits really are on their own. Shared Anquish has a 90 second recharge time, which is extremely long, and only works if your pet is alive. Hide in Plain Sight doesn’t seem like it’s a master trait at all, as it doesn’t actually remove the disable, or prevent fear (which is a big deal now that Necromancers have become popular again). So the basic question really is; would adding stealth in top of Shared Anquish make it too good of an adept trait? Personally, I don’t think it would.
No one is talking about creating any new traits here. We are just talking about merging two traits, to make one trait that is overall more useful for everyone.
Would be bad for tpvp. We want shared anguish but not hide in plain sight since we cannot hold a point capped while invis.
That is a good point. But all you would have to do, to remove the stealth, is attack the foe who just disabled you. I don’t think it would be a problem.
So you guys don’t mind the huge problem that a dead pet means no shared anguish? That means there’s many instances where HIPS does not actually activate if you combine it with shared anguish. You know your pet that’s always dead? Exactly. It won’t work.
Well you would still get the stealth, I imagine, seeing as the stealth is tied to the disable, and not to your pet. So if the pet is dead, you get the disable on you, and you still gain the stealth.
Does moving still takes you out of stealth from hide in plain site?
No it does not. Only attacking and hitting a foe will remove the stealth.
Hrm, 20 in Zeal with no AH, MF, PoV, or AR…
Could you elaborate on that? I’m not into the Guardian acronyms..
Hmmmmmm, build looks a little squsihy to me.
To a Guardian player, it is :P
But seriously, the only weakness I’ve found the build to have, is against Necromancers. They can very effectively down you with the small amount of vitality, and little healing, the build has. If I know I’m going to fight against a Necromancer, I’ll switch Judge’s Intervention out with Purging Flames.
Against anything ells, the build holds up very well. But it is easy to make mistakes with it. For instance, if you use “Save Yourselves!” and Contemplation of Purity too early in a fight, you’re going to feel very exposed. It’s also not a build that holds up very well 1v3. 1v2 it can handle, if you manage to focus fire one player down fast enough, and then reset using boons and staff.
The build shines the best as damage support, though. Being able to buff allies with 12 stacks of might, heal allies, remove all conditions from allies, give 150 toughness, give quickness/fury/might with Tome of Wrath, buff with virtues, and at the same time deal a ton of damage, is very powerful.
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Someone may need to explain to me why Maul being a blast finisher would be overpowered. Compare it to the Guardian Hammer #2. Same 5 second cooldown with better damage on a full 360 AOE and short gap-closer.
If you would say Maul has too much synergy with Healing Spring, I would answer Mighty Blow has just as much synergy with the light-field created on the third strike of Guardian Hammer’s auto chain.
Why the disparity? Both are defensive AOE weapons. Ranger Greatsword evades on auto, Guardian hammer does aoe protection on auto. Ranger Greatsword blocks, Guardian Hammer does a circle wall. Ranger Greatsword interrupts, Gaurdian Hammer Banishes. Why then is a 5 second blast finisher fine for one and not the other I wonder?
All a light combo field does, is add retaliation. Other then that, the Guardian has two fire fields with long recharge times.
The Ranger has a water field with Healing Spring, that lasts 15 seconds. A fire field every 15 second with Fire Trap, and every 25 second with Bonfire. An ice field with Ice Trap every 30 second. And poison fields with various pets every 30 seconds. Basically, the Ranger has way too many useful combo fields to have a blast finisher with only a 6 second recharge time. And all of this isn’t even considering traits that reduce recharge times.
The point of combo skills is to make players work together with each other.
kitten … thats basically exactly what i wrote in the other thread but you went into more detail xD
… but i dont think the point of combos are meant to make people work together specifically… sure working together amplifies their usefulness (i love rangers who put healing spring under my hammer guardian… so so so much) but classes like ele and engi show that they are also designed to be taken advantage of in solo play.
Great minds think alike :P
Teamwork is, or at least was, the idea behind combos. The trailers also show this, when the Elementalist lays down a fire field, and the Ranger shoots through it. It’s really just that most players are too lazy to take advantage of it, as it’s just that; an advantage. You can play just as fine without using combos, so that’s what players do. Choice is really a big problem with a lot of things in Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet gave us players too much freedom, so most don’t bother to do anything more then what they have to, or anything ells beyond what gives themselves an advantage. Combos are a good example of this. Another one is only fighting bosses that drops rares, instead of exploring the world and play the dynamic quests. But I’m getting off topic now.
All professions have a way of triggering combo fields on their own, even the Ranger. The reason why the Elementalist and Engineer has more, is simply because they were made to be the “advanced” professions. So they get more options, but with the downside of being more complicated to play, at first.
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Someone may need to explain to me why Maul being a blast finisher would be overpowered. Compare it to the Guardian Hammer #2. Same 5 second cooldown with better damage on a full 360 AOE and short gap-closer.
If you would say Maul has too much synergy with Healing Spring, I would answer Mighty Blow has just as much synergy with the light-field created on the third strike of Guardian Hammer’s auto chain.
Why the disparity? Both are defensive AOE weapons. Ranger Greatsword evades on auto, Guardian hammer does aoe protection on auto. Ranger Greatsword blocks, Guardian Hammer does a circle wall. Ranger Greatsword interrupts, Gaurdian Hammer Banishes. Why then is a 5 second blast finisher fine for one and not the other I wonder?
All a light combo field does, is add retaliation. Other then that, the Guardian has two fire fields with long recharge times.
The Ranger has a water field with Healing Spring, that lasts 15 seconds. A fire field every 15 second with Fire Trap, and every 25 second with Bonfire. An ice field with Ice Trap every 30 second. And poison fields with various pets every 30 seconds. Basically, the Ranger has way too many useful combo fields to have a blast finisher with only a 6 second recharge time. And all of this isn’t even considering traits that reduce recharge times.
The point of combo skills is to make players work together with each other.
It’s not the direction that I personally want to see the greatsword go in. I also think it would be a bit too powerful. With just Fire Trap and Bonfire, you would be able to get 12+ stacks of might pretty easily. And it would make Healing Spring ridiculously strong, seeing as it has a duration of 15 seconds.
There are some things that helps:
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I’d like to see WXP and WvW traits being account wide, but rank remaining character bound.
If you are forced into fighting a Thief, make the Thief realise that he can’t win, and he will simply run away. Either play aggressively and stay up in his face, or make a bunker build so he will get bored from trying to take you down. Generally, Thief players don’t have a lot of patience, and they very rarely risk fighting with someone they might lose to. Alternatively, get more players to run with you.
No, because if points were only given for taking a tower or keep, no one would leave an attack to go defend. WvW would simply become a race of who can take the most, in the shortest amount of time. It’s already hard enough to get people to defend, as the game is now. If anything, defending needs to have a higher reward structure.
Vary your playtime. You’re burned out because you do the same thing over and over again. So don’t. There are other things to do in WvW then just commanding and running with a zerg.
I never understood why aegis has to be this obvious, yet the only cue other boons get, is an orange icon next to the players health bar, or a nice little effect when that boon activates. Why should aegis be any different?
Obviously, players weren’t ready for this MMO change yet, but someone had to do it first. Therefor, the majority of players are still going to be the reward focused crowd. If anything, the blame should be on ArenaNet, for having their heads too much up in the clouds, instead of realizing what was actually possible, giving the current state of MMOs in 2012. They simply gave players too much freedom, and therefor, most players simply chose to neglect what they didn’t find interesting. Meaning, anything that doesn’t end with a valuable reward.
The game would have been a lot more successful, had it been more linear and helpful, in relation to content. For instance, the story should have been one long cohesive “quest”, and not a series of very small chapters that required you to level up. Dynamic story events should have been pointed out on the map, so more players could take part in them, instead of being one giant guessing game. They should have had some form of reward sentiment, as well, encouraging players to go to the next part of the dynamic event chain. When an NPC comes and asks you to help them, players should have been able to see exactly what kind of rewards it would give them, thereby encouraging them to take the quest. The map should have had a lot more ques, telling players exactly what’s happening on the entire map, and even suggesting them where to go next. But instead, the game is mostly just a lot of guesswork.
I’d like to see a damage increase on the auto-attack of the greatsword. 203-203-240 damage is really low, even with the pet. Not to mention the 1/4 activation time on the third hit, which just makes the dps even worse. Increasing the damage to around 240-240-283 would be fair, and would help separate the greatsword from the sword, making it more of a burst weapon, while the sword would remain a control weapon.
Build update =)
Playing against good Thieves and Mesmers, is a damage game. If you can’t burst them down fast enough, then don’t bother. The Thief will just reset in stealth, and the Mesmer will create clones too fast for you to keep up.
There are some general tricks to playing against these professions, though. The most important one being; play aggressively. Both Thieves and Mesmers have an easy time taking you down if you just run away, so you have to turn the tables, and make them run away from you. This will give you some space, allowing you to run away from them. If you want to take them out, then you have to be right up in their face, and burst them down as fast as you can. Don’t give them any breathing room, even if you’re at low health. Use your boons, and keep pushing. If you do this well, then the Thief will mostly go down while attempting to stealth away, and the Mesmers clones will die so fast, that the Mesmer will be exposed and vulnerable to attacks.
The Thief will always go for the Backstab, or try to take you out with a shortbow from range. It’s very rare that you will come across a Thief that plays anything ells then this. So when he goes into stealth, be aware of the time it takes before he Backstabs you. Then remember this on your next encounter, and you will slowly learn to dodge it. If you play aggressively and deal enough damage, the Thief will mostly just run away, and not risk fighting you again. Thieves are very “safe players”, in that they only follow through on encounters, that they know they will win.
When facing a Mesmer, be aware of movement patterns. The Mesmer will usually be the one who’s standing the furthest away from you, so if his clones go down, he still has distance to you. Clones can’t dodge, so if you see someone dodge, that is the Mesmer. Clones generally also stand still a lot, and always move forward towards you, while the Mesmer player will be moving away from you, or from side to side. This is also why playing aggressively against a Mesmer is important; you force him to move. Only very few Mesmers will continue to stand still, even if you stand right next to them.
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Pistol/pistol is more of a utility weapon set, that is useful for single uses, but not really as a weapon set alone. I play shortbow-pistol/pistol myself, and what I do is stack conditions with Choking Gas and Cluster Bomb, then switch to pistol/pistol and use it depending on the situation. If I have allies around I stack some vulnerability, if my opponent is low on health I use Unload to try and finish him, if he tries to heal I use Headshot, and if he’s an aggressive melee player then Black Powder is great for defense.
I use rampager gear, as it has both precision, condition damage, and power stats, which is what you want for pistol/pistol.
Direct damage builds have become better, but they aren’t quite there yet. It’s the same for support builds. Condition damage builds and bunker builds, are still what the Ranger does best.
The Thief doesn’t need 1200 range, because it has superior movement and speed to any other profession in the game. It’s as simple as that.
Having said that, though, I did love my 1200 range Cluster Bomb. It use to be so fun to shot over walls…
People enjoy games for different reasons. Some like completing a game, others like to just play casually. You should focus on talking with people that share the same views as you. You have the ability to change things around you, so don’t spend so much energy expecting others to change for you.
Other niches are:
- Being able to rally multiple allies at the same time, using “Search and Rescue” or Spirit of Nature
- Using the pet as a short termed tank against a boss, to take pressure off your allies
- Being able to stack a ton of AoE snare skills, to keep foes in AoE circles
- Short termed stealth for greater movement
- Healing Spring, which is one of the best healing skills in the game
- Great invulnerability with “Protect Me” and traited Signet of Stone
- Curing conditions from allies, with Healing Spring, Signet of Renewal, Spirit of Nature, and the Brown Bear
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Here is my variant of a Guardian burst build. It’s power/condition damage focused, using sword/torch for burst damage, and staff for the 12 stacks of might and the defense. Against burning foes you deal +25% damage, and you can have up to +75% burn duration. The build also has good survivability, mostly thanks to boons.
Power – 2224
Critical Chance – 44% (using sword/torch)
Condition Damage – 597
Toughness – 1585
Health – 16945
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Personally, I like the change of pace.
Also, WvW is still a casual PvP mode, so I’m not sure what it is you’re expecting? Numbers will always be varied, depending on what ells is happening in the game.
It seems a bit gimmicky to add the shortbow. I mean, if you just want it to be fun, that’s fine. But you would have a much more balanced build with a greatsword instead, as it fits the build a lot more, since it would give you both burst and escape options. It doesn’t seem like the shortbow really does anything for you, other then stack more bleed. Which isn’t really that good, considering you only have 100 condition damage, and plenty of other ways to add bleeding..
What is this need people have to drag down others with them? If you don’t like the game, then just stop playing. This isn’t politics, it’s entertainment. If you aren’t entertained by Guild Wars 2 anymore, then there’s nothing to keep you here. Learn to let go…
The main issue, is that there is POTENTIAL… it COULD be a fantastic MMO and possibly one of if not the best out there…..but they just can never seem to get it quite right….so right now, their is a large amount of people who have stopped playing, some people who have been playing since Beta, like myself, who still enjoy aspects of the game and in that group of people that stopped playing (some went to other games), but some….are hanging around HOPING the ANET gets their collective heads out of their kitten (not likely) to truly make this MMO what it should be…at least until someone else comes out and does it better…
So what exactly are you saying? “Hanging around” doesn’t change anything. You are just wasting your own time, thinking that you’re something more then just another player. You’re not. You’re only setting yourself up for more disappointment. If you don’t like a movie, do you go in a watch it three more times, in the hopes that it will somehow become better? No, of curse not. You stop thinking about it and move on.
Life is full of bad investments. But if you enjoyed something, it can never really have been a waste of your time.
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pretty nice build! and can more than appreciate the constructive and positive (but not blindly) posts in here. here, here , Guardians!
i took a build similar (trait wise) to this into WvW when the big “balance” patch first dropped. took Scepter power for 20 in Zeal instead since i was running sword + scepter. tbh, i was kind of lost how to approach the Valor line lol since usually it’s all of nothing for me. i think i went with strength in numbers instead since i was running in a small group.
definitely a LOT of damage and really fun. though i was hanging back a lot more with scepter and used sword to cut into stragglers or people that were low. surprisingly sustainable since i didn’t really spec or gear or have consumables for any type of sustain lol. it was more of a test run and i might go back to it one of these days.
The reason the build is 20 in valor, is mostly for the extra toughness. I would like to have gone 30 into zeal, but playing with under 1500 toughness just feels on the low side, considering you are fighting in melee for 90% of the time. I might try it out at some point, though, as it does give the build more overall damage, but I like the balance of the build as it is right now.
Hanging back is part of the playstyle in a build like this. You look for a target, then you teleport in, and let hell lose on him. Then you charge the next foe. It’s actually a lot like playing a melee Thief, except instead of having stealth to keep you going, you have a ton of boons.
Edit:
Just changed the build to 30/30/10/0/0.
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Honestly, I think it’s silly to change a couple of weapon skills, that otherwise works fine. The weapon skills you’re suggesting here aren’t really better, they’re just different from what we have now.
While your spirit idea is interesting, I think it’s too powerful. It would also force the Ranger into a support role, as all you would have to do was stow your pet, to gain these abilities. That’s a bit too easy. It would also make the supportive aspects of other professions, such as the Guardian, look weak in comparison.
I don’t like the Necromancer staff design at all, so I don’t think I would like this either. I’d much rather see some staff skills that focuses on boon support, which is something the Ranger is still lacking.
I really like the idea of Preparations, but I think they should be about direct damage, and not condition damage. We already have traps to help condition builds, direct damage builds need something sustainable as well, other the just signets.
Although a bit similar to what we already have, I like your utility ideas. More stealth, more condition removal, and more support options, are all good.
I agree with most of your trait changes. But I think shortbow should have it’s own identity, that’s more about skirmishing then range. Something like “critical hits with shortbow grant 1 second of vigor” would be nice I think. Healer’s Celerity and Vigorous Renewal have way too different effects to simply be merged. The same goes for Natural healing and Nature’s Voice.
What is this need people have to drag down others with them? If you don’t like the game, then just stop playing. This isn’t politics, it’s entertainment. If you aren’t entertained by Guild Wars 2 anymore, then there’s nothing to keep you here. Learn to let go…
Yes, I use the detonate just as much as the normal skill. Sometimes you want more health, other times you want more damage. Apart from the projectile bug, it’s a great skill.
I think that no matter what ArenaNet does to the Ranger, at this point, players will continue to say “it’s not viable”. Sure the Ranger is not the best overall profession right now, but it’s defiantly not bottom tier. Condition and bunker builds have always been great with the Ranger, and recently, direct damage and spirit builds have become viable again. The Ranger is actually in a really good spot right now.
Add “you and your pet gain 5 seconds of stability” to it. That will give Heal As One it’s own identity.
I have a build in another topic. Feel free to check it out:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Burn-MF-Burn-Burst-Build
Stats (with nourishments)
2,427 power
51% critical chance (using sword/torch)
648 condition damage
1,596 toughness
16,505 health
Burst comes from sword/torch and burning, and you can recover by using staff and boons.
Burst damage seems to be overall underrated for the Guardian. The Guardian can throw some big damage numbers out very quickly, and without sacrificing too much survivability. Being able to get 12 stacks of might in 2,5 seconds, and inflict almost constant burning, should not be disregarded.
First of all, thanks. Recent changes made this sort of spec worth a look again. My interest in it is more PvE oriented, but i intend to play with it in PvP as well.
My variation on it started a lot like yours…but in my testing I had NO trouble with 100% uptime, so I started dropping things like Radiant Fire. You could instead use powerful blades for 5% sword damage.
Also Shattered Aegis. It seems redundant. You can’t stack burning on top of burning to any useful effect…so you don’t need all that, imo.
This isn’t me trying to undermine the build…quite the contrary. But if you take out what’s extraneous, you have room for something else complimenting the build.
I’m still testing myself, but my own work revolves around sword crit. Right hand strength and its crit feeds the lovely empowering might and vigorous precision in the Honor tree. I went for shouts, capping my 30 honor with Pure of Voice.
Like I said, I’m still testing. I’m current at 10/30/0/30/0.
I guess my question for you is…if it only takes Zealot’s Fire and Virtue of Justice to keep burning up…why not branch away from skills/traits which simply refresh that same burning?
I love where you’re going, and you gave me a few ideas I hadn’t considered.
Carry on, sir.
You always have to keep in mind, that opponents can remove the burn, or just have aegis up. A Thief, for instance, can simply go into stealth to remove the burn. Also, you’ll want some extra burning for when you engage your next target. That +25% damage makes a difference, so it’s important to make sure you have burn on your target, when using your burst skills. I originally had more burn traits in the build too, but toned it down to what it is now.
Radiant Fire is mostly important for the shorter recharge time of torch. Zealot’s Flame has the hardest hitting burn damage, and Zealot’s Fire is the hardest hitting, single hit, skill, in the build.
Shattered Aegis is for when a foe attacks you first. It applies 2 seconds burning, and sets up your foe so he will take that +25% extra damage. A lot of players likes to attack once they think you’ve used all your abilities, and this is just a nice surprise to have. The build also has four sources of gaining aegis; Virtue of Courage passive, Virtue of Courage active, at 50% health, and when you rally. But mostly, I just like the idea of foes basically setting themselves on fire, just by touching you. You’d be surprised at how many players think they can chase you down as a Guardian, only to find out the hard way, that you’re actually playing a burst build. It’s good fun.
You could remove 10 trait points from Zeal, and put them into Valor, Honor, or Virtues, but that would just be taking away from the damage of the build, to gain more defense. Which is good if you wanted a more balanced build. But this build is aimed mostly towards damage, and so, it’s hard to justify taking away that power and condition duration from Zeal. If I didn’t need the extra toughness, and the precision from Retributive Armor, the build would actually be 30/30/10/0/0 instead, just to get as high damage stats as possible. When playing, I feel like having 2400 power is also a good place to be, damage wise. And I don’t I need more survivability either. I’m usually the one who pushes forward, by running strait into foes, and taking a lot of the damage (mostly thanks to all the boons). That’s not to say you can just mindlessly run into an enemy zerg with this build, though. It will have weaker durability then a “normal” Guardian build, but you can defiantly survive long enough to shatter an enemy zerg. Mostly because, for some reason, when players are on fire they tend to run away…
Glad to be of help ^^
(edited by Kasama.8941)
Edit deleted last post. You know what, build looks cool. I hope you enjoy it.
I’ve recently realized that no amount of theory crafting, or math crafting can replace actual experience. I encourage others here to do the same from now on. Just tell people, looks good and let them go. Experience is the best teacher in PvP.
Well, I’ve been playing it for the last two weeks now, and I do enjoy it very much. My hope is that others will too =)
Any feedback is welcome, theory or practice, so long as it’s constructive. But yes, theory crafting can only take you so far..
The only problem I have with that is the rarity of only fighting one guy in any competitive format, or having sufficient recovery time between each engagement.
It might just be my play style bias, but that’s my opinion. I figure you’d want to focus on direct damage for bursting someone down quickly enough for it to “not matter” as a Guardian though. Every second of Burning we rely on is just another second for someone else to show up that we can’t sustain ourselves against while we finish the first guy.
What you’re saying here is just the natural risk of any burst build. As mentioned, this build also has very strong ranged AoE damage capabilities. Tome of Wrath can easily critical for over 2000 damage per hit, while dealing around 500 burn damage per second. This is the kind of build that players tend to run away from. At least from my experience in WvW. I usually don’t bother to stomp players either, but simply just start chasing the next one to down him, while I let allies do the stomping. This is very much an “in your face” kind of build.
(edited by Kasama.8941)
I can probably imagine playing this in PvE, but for WvW or sPvP you seem to be missing any real amount of sustain. No MF (Monk’s Focus) for medi heals, no reduced shout cooldown for SY (not as big of a deal), and only one form of condition removal with the option to trait into a second passive instead of Retributive Armor.
I’m sure the damage is great, but the only things keeping you alive—at best—are two passive condition removals and the vitality and toughness from gear.
Edit: My bad, you also have CoP. Two passives and one direct condi removal. It just doesn’t seem like enough to me in the current, condition-heavy meta.
It’s a burst build, not a sustain build. The point is to kill your opponent, before he can get any grounding. Teleporting into his face, and use a combination of burning and burst skills to take him down in a few seconds. So worrying about staying alive is the wrong state of mind. The advantage of the build is that you can deal great burst damage, yet have more survivability then most other burst builds.
Hrm, 20 in Zeal with no AH, MF, PoV, or AR…
Could you elaborate on that? I’m not into the Guardian acronyms..
I think the fact that we have to hit a target for the stealth to trigger, is an okay sacrifice. We aren’t Thieves after all..
3 seconds of stealth is more then enough. If you aren’t moving around all the time, you’re doing it wrong. You should be moving, while using Hunter’s Shot. Not use it, and then start to move.
I agree with this. But it’s a general bug with stealth, after the changes. Mobs seem to be not only tracking, but also continue to deal damage, even seconds after having triggered a stealth skill. But it doesn’t happen all the time, though.
But what about the trait Remorseless then? It would become useless (again).
Build Updated (aug 18):
Switched the sword out for the scepter. I found out that Chain of Light+Smite can deal the same amount of burst damage, as Flashing Blade+Zealot’s Defense, but with the added benefit of being a ranged attack. This also means that the swiftness from “Save Yourselves!” is not needed when attacking.
Added Renewed Focus as a permanent slot, for more survivability, since the ranged damage from Tome of Wrath is less needed now. Although it’s still great for this build, and should be used in some situations.
Switched out Shattered Aegis with Scepter Power for more damage.
Added Sigil of Ice for the chance to snare foes for a longer duration, when using Smite.
sPvP version:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAW7flYg672GSOEf4Ei1DCCh8nqHxj+4hXFSIA-TsAA1CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MKYRw+CA
A lot of DPS builds are being thrown around the Guardian forum lately, so I thought I’d throw mine in the mix. I think it has a great mixture of burst damage and survivability, that a lot of Guardian players seem to be looking for.
Stats (with nourishments):
2,487 power
50% critical chance (using sword/torch)
661 condition damage
1,746 toughness (in combat)
16,505 health
sPvP version Stats:
2,304 power
42% critical chance (using sword/torch)
530 condition damage
1,735 toughness (in combat)
16,945 health
Highlights
Tactics
Tips
That’s pretty much it. Let me know what you think. Oh, and in case any kids are wondering; the MF stands for Magic Find :P
(edited by Kasama.8941)
Well, anything is better then the current version, which just teleports you to the nearest ally. Meaning you are just wasting the skill, considering the nearest ally might be a player standing right next to you, at full health…
I love it as it is. I can go Flashing Blade>Judge’s Intervention and instantly teleport 1,800 range to a foe, trying to run away. I wouldn’t be able to do that if Judge’s Intervention was a ground target skill. In WvW, it also works on critters, so if you keep aware of nearby mobs, it is possible to also use Judge’s Intervention for escaping.
One of the things that the Ranger does better then other professions, is AoE snare stacking. So if you want to be a real benefit in a zerg, you need to equip skills like Muddy Terrain, Entangle, Frost Trap, and so on.
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