Guild Wars 2

I pug arah and fractals a lot and apart from the fact that I haven’t gotten a single warrior in the lfg tool who could actually kite mai trin I’m getting smooth runs 95% of the time when I join parties that require meta comp, gearcheck and everything. Not as fast as my guild parties but still smooth and relativly fast. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky so far but I think metazerk pugs are not as bad as most people think they are.

casius van.5186:

Because blind only affects the next attack, spending your big 4k hit utility with a 16s cd traited as a waste. This might a personal preference as I don’t just play pvp, but my smite conditions is better used for a root, chill, poison or burn stack than against a condition that is designed to only stop one attack and is often used by mesmers and thieves to prevent bursts.

Yeah it’s pretty obvious that you don’t play pvp a lot. Smite condi is an offensive skill. You should use it whenever you get the oportunity to hit somebody with it and have a condi on you. You got Absolute Resolution and Contemplation of Purity that you can actually use to cleanse dangerous condis which is usually more than enough.

casius van.5186:

Auto attack clears everytime without soending a utility

autoattack takes a 3/4 second and does no damage because of the blind. smite condi is instant and does up to 4k damage in pvp. I really don’t see your point.

If you would actually need something like a tank hammer would probably be the thing to go for. Permanent protection definetly beats the meh heals from mace.

I kinda doubt that you will need a tank anyways. Would kinda go against the idea behind the combat system.

casius van.5186:

I think, its the same time, instantaneously. So in your hypothetical situation, which is not the best way to clear blind mind you, it would clear and damage the target also.

How is smite condi not the best way to clear a blind? You don’t only get rid of the blind instantly, you also benefit from it.

Your sigils are terrible. Also I don’t see how hammer would help with killing npcs more than sword/focus (apart from the fact that hammer/gs is terrible against actual players and has like no synergy).

Yes, if blind is your only condition and you use smite condition it will hit and deal the extra damage for removing a condition.

Should I feel bad for letting all my pugs die on purpose on Lupi so I can solo it?

If you don’t feel like playing with other people just solo stuff. Almost everything in this game is soloable if you put the effort into it.

Varathiel.9128:

They said that these weren’t all the changes, they were just hitting a few for each class. Granted Guardian and Thief were the fewest.

They say that every time and every time the previewed changes were the only ones we got.

Anti.9156:

Hammer:
Hammer could be a good choice for a dps guard but it lacks the last bit of dmg. This comes mainly due to the loss of “glacial heart”. To battle this I would suggest to move glacial heart back into valor. With the above proposed changes it would perfectly fit into the master tier (top). This could already make Dps-Hammer-Guard a thing again.

Other Traits:
Valor and Virtues are a good choice for every build. Zeal got great traits for dps guard, Radiance good traits for condition, valor good traits for bunker. One thing I would love to see, is a dps focused variant for Radiance. I can imagine that people want to go dps with sword, so I would like to see “Retribution” and “Radiant Retalliation” to switch their place. Currently we have 2 condi GM and 1 utility(signet) GM. This way we would have a condi, one signet and a dps GM.

I would definetly love to see these happen. It really doesn’t make sense to me that radiance has multple traits for dps stuffed into adept and and master slots but then no decent option in the grandmaster slot.

While most people know that I never was a fan of hammer I would agree with glacial heart being in valor. It’s kind of the same as with radiance. In the adept and the grandmaster slot you have traits specificly made for dps med guard and the master slot offers nothing apart from communal defenses which only use is getting off more damage with shattered aegis (on a dps build anyways).

The other suggestions are alright but I don’t think they would really change a lot tbh.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I think it’s nice that ascended gear actually has a functional purpose, honestly.

Yeah I would feel pretty screwed over if I crafted 2 ascended armors for nothing but the 5% dps plus.

Aparently they only want meta classes like necro. :<

You can cast them on yourself like it used to be if you have your cursor on some UI stuff like your inventory or something.

The standard burn guard build has absolute resolution for 3 condis, contemplation of purity for fullcleanse, smiters boon for one condi, purging flames for 3 condis and ray of judgement for 2 condis.

The only cleanses you’re missing are pure of voice, the passive one from signet of resolve, smite condi and the spirit bow (heh) but running one those would make your build a lot weaker overall.

gin.7158:

How do you get infinite infused stone? just drop before throwing?

Use a bundle like birthday blaster or something while throwing.

Nemesis.6938:

i think it really depens on what you want to do – heal/tank/support id rather choose mace, shield, focus, hammer, staff
for damage i’d rather look into gs, sword, scepter, torch

He asked about dungeons and fractals so “heal/tank/support” is pretty irrelevant. Also mace outclasses sword in pretty much every situation.

laokoko.7403:

Painbow.6059:

laokoko.7403:

Kordash.2197:

laokoko.7403:

Kordash.2197:

laokoko.7403:

And the expectation that a pug can 1 bucket burn dredge boss? Seriously how often does that happen? Maybe 1 in 10 runs? that is too high expectation on a pug.

I’m doing it 9 times out of 10 runs (when we roll the dredge facility obviously) in pugs (meaning i’m alone, with no buddies/guildies/friends in the party). Asking for meta party and gear checking. Works well. I even teach that to whoever want to learn it.

It all comes down to personnal experience, so we could go on this topic for hours, that won’t be usefull

So you going to teach every pug you do? Kind of pointless. Did every pug you do run fractal in 30-40 minutes?

Average pug do it in 40-50 mintues anyway.

Average is 40 minutes, with the worst case being 55/1 hour. Strangely, i got my worst run times with guildies, but mostly because we’re running around like headless chickens doing kitten. And yes, if they’re listening and up to learn something new (for them), i’ll teach them. If it doesn’t work first try, the second always works. It’s not pointless, since it helps improving the global skill level (and it’s good for everyone).

Fractal pretty much become the new cof path 1. Anyone still doing it is usually quite experience.

Many people(guidie) play together for the social experience. They are not actually your experienced fractal player.

Elitism is actually quite annoying. I don’t mind elitist player which is good blaming people. Like someone says “oh why don’t you put your ice bow near me”.

But the elitist player who blame other people for their own death is really annoying. “Oh I die because you didn’t aegis or condition removal for me”. That is one of the most annoying thing I ever heard. You can pretty much do fractal solo or duo. How is your own death have anything to do with other people.

While I agree with you to an extent, examples can include guardian not using aegis when channeling icebow 5 as the imbued shaman unbubbles. No reflects from guard on end of harpy boss, no blinds from engi/thief ect. It’s not necessary but when you invite someone of a certain class into the party you expect them to know their class mechanics, and rely on them to a certain extent, otherwise why have them in the party to begin with, just duo and then sell more slots for gold

Obviously people have problem if they dont’ do what they suppose to do. That I agree.

I’m just saying people can talk **** about meta, they can trait for meta. And they may think they are some freaking elitist who is really just a terrible skilled player, who die to every single attack.

And I understand every class is different. But the combat system in GW2 is designed to be self sufficient, so all class have the capability to do different things, just to a different extend.

Take for example, why are warrior’s even asking guardian for condition removal. If I knew a fight require condition removal, I’ll bring condition removal. It doesn’t matter what class I play. For warrior, I just slap a warhorn, and trait for it.

Who in the right mind fight mai trin without condition removal. Unless that person is actually good and block everything. And if you are a warrior asking a guardian for condition removal “in a pug”. I’ll actually question your common sense.

Well or the guardian could just do his job and use the convinient cleanses that he got for his team like you should in a 5 man party so that the others don’t have to run obscure utilties/traits? Why would you even bring a guardian in the first place if he’s too selfish to use his cooldowns for his teammates?

Zenith.7301:

You gotta make your own party and enforce the rule, and even then what you find in PuGs is that it will take 20+ minutes to fill a fractal 50 LFG that says “no bugged mossman”.

So saying “leave the party and make your own” is nice and all, but the truth is that the vast majority of the pugging fractal 50 community has built an expectation of bugging mossman and WILL NOT do him properly, and you will have trouble finding people to join your group in a timely manner to do him proper.

The whole PvE scene in GW2 is about convenience anyways. What gets the average pug group faster and more reliable results is what will be used even if their method is still suboptimal compared to a real meta group.

To be honest, if they fixed the kitten throwing axes from stealth and the kitten axes not bouncing from ranger pets and mesmer illusions, I think Mossman would be more frequently done by PuGs on land.

I’m pugging fractals 50 and 40 almost every day and 9 out of 10 of my pug groups do it on land. That said I’m usually only joining LFGs that are pretty strict with gearcheck and everything so that might be a factor. :<

Well it’s not a channeled skill and it requires no target. It simply flies to whatever possible target is near and that includes stealthed targets.

Every halfway decent build counters trap ranger.

I recently discovered that dazes get removed when you dodge. It’s not been like that in the past so I think it’s unintended. Makes guard vs thief matchup even more onesided.

Symbol radius already got buffed in the past tho.

So uh… yeah… as you can see by the fact that I’m posting here I’m kinda getting desperate at this point.

I played guard since launch, mainly dps med guard and I don’t really plan on playing anything else. I have a ton of experience and won a bunch of 1v1, 2v2 and 5v5 ESL weeklies in the past as you can see here:

http://play.eslgaming.com/player/8036968/

I’m looking for a team that is willing to tryhard and has a decent shot at winning at least some gems.

.

The new team with the name that has yet to be decided consisting of Thijsken, Arzsi, Qouve, Tom and Bullet Punch is searching for other teams that want to scrim against us since TeamQ kinda doesn’t exist anymore and we want to practice and test out different things.

Just contact me ingame if you have a decent team.

Also please don’t moverino this thread. Thanks.

I like the 2nd one. Kinda stupid that the master slot doesn’t really offer you anything on a meditation build apart from a pretty meh toughness increase even though the adept and the grandmaster trait slots have traits dedicated to meditations.

Arken.3725:

Keksmuffin.1450:

Did everybody forget about the quickness shout already? :<

No, just it’s the same issue with litany, their counterparts are still far superior. (Rf and shelter)

In dungeons it’s obviously far better and less selfish than renewed focus in 90% of the situations. In the record runs that have guardians in it people are already using the tome which has like 6 times the cooldown and is clunky as hell. It’s quite a big buff for guardians in PvE imo.

Will be sick for dungeons, underwhelming everywhere else because Renewed Focus is way too important on meditation builds in PvP.

Did everybody forget about the quickness shout already? :<

.

I’m really bored so I might aswell… what do you think what’s gonna be the new meta for guard in PvP and why?

That being said I think everybody who has been following the past meta and the recent news can agree on the utility bar of shelter, judges intervention, smite condi, contemplation and renewed focus still being the meta after the patch no matter what.

I also think virtues is basicly a must have for a PvP build since you get a ridicolous ammount of utility and some decent defense from it (aegis on cc, cleanse on f2, stunbreak on f3, stab on f3 and what people tend to forget about… retal).

So far I would go with Valor, Virtues, Dragonhunter, sword/focus and longbow. In dragonhunter I would pick the damage on f2 thingy for sure, not sure about the rest.

Inb4 hybrid guard
Inb4 silly gimmick builds

Try to surprise me or discuss the stuff I brought up. Just be constructive I guess

You just play against the wrong thieves. Good thieves on vampire runes panic strike have a decent chance against med guards, in 1v1s offpoint anyways.

If you don’t want to give up on the defensive stuff from focus you could still go sword/focus + longbow. Kinda weird how nobody considers that a thing.

When you sit in queue and you’re bored from staring at your char doing nothing you might aswell draw it. Would be funny if others would try aswell imo.

Mrbig.8019:

2. Hammer guard proccing air/fire/hammer chill with Justice’s intervention

While I agree on sigils being stupid I kinda feel like pointing out that every decent hammer guard uses intel and not air+fire on hammer.

Seriously though if they would just delete sigils and buff everybodies damage a bit (no buffs on autos though) to compensate this game would be a lot more fun imo.

Exedore.6320:

Dragonhunter works in PvE since it’s just piling on more damage and you don’t really lose much support-wise. For any PvE encounter where you need something from the virtues line, you just spec into Virtues for the fight and swap back afterwards.

In PvP, I don’t think Dragonhunter will work out so well. The changes DH imposes on virtues hamper the group support you would get from the Virtues trait line. The DH design is about being more offensive, but the traps are for area control, which favor staying put. Then you have traits which want you to keep enemies at range. But you don’t have a reliable ranged snare nor burst from range, so enemies can easily kite or just run away. If you use longbow and ignore traps, I don’t see it being any more useful than scepter. Traps are too easy to defeat by triggering them and backing away until the effect ends – the same way you deal with a trap ranger – except DH ones have much longer cooldowns.

Judging from the tooltips we saw longbow will hit harder and more reliable than scepter and also has more aoe and stuff for teamfights. I wouldn’t say DH meditation guard won’t be a thing. At least not before I tried it.

Calazor.8364:

Also intel sigil is arguably the most balanced sigil in the game

I agree on that. Intel rewards you for actually hitting important skills instead of rewarding you for hitting anything or doing some instant on swap stuff. One of the very few sigils that I would consider good game design.

Calazor.8364:

Blackjack.5621:

Would be nice if you finally started to balance classes around their own abilities. If your spec is viable right now depends on your sigil and rune synergie. Warrior gets 2 weapon swap sigil every 5 secs, good synergie. Zerkers get air/fire proc every few seconds. I´m just tired of dealing with pasive procs, like you run up to an engi with 3 stacks intelligence, doom, leeching and his first hit passively deals 6sec burn, 6 sec poison, crits you 100% and leeches 1k hp.

I really hope that sigils in the future become more of a tweak towards what you face instead of defining builds. Good example here is nullification sigil. Obviously same goes for runes. Having a viable short cd heal is a huge advantage in terms if sigil synergie. The active effect of some sigils like vampirism are just broken.

If mesmers autoattack wouldnt hit 3 times, this broken synergie you can see in this picture would never occure
http://fs1.directupload.net/images/150513/j9nypy6v.jpg

Fun Facts by Texbi representing TCG :
-> this is the guy who made a posts complaining about pirate rune nerf.
-> this is the person who was in the team called “Cheese Mode” and ran 3 warriors when it was insanely broken. And made ZERO forum posts about this. (hmm i wonder why)

Speculations why he would suddenly make a forum post about this :

-> I am not broken anymore other specs are just as strong as my celestial , need to fix fast

Also removing fire air means that we will have a meta where nothing kills anything , a very low risk low reward meta wich is really fun. (sarcasm super funny joke)

But i do agree that if theres a way to remove fire air and prevent us from going into this meta(making zerkers unviable) i fully agree.

Rumors are that Zapdos equiped a zerker amulet once. Nobody has ever seen it though.

Drennon.7190:

Keksmuffin.1450:

I haven’t really kept up with the news cuz I was busy irl past months. Did they say anything about you having to trait for dragonhunter to equip longbow or can the “normal” guardian with for example radiance, valor and virtues use longbow aswell?

I’m going to take a second to fanboy. I’m glad to see you back. By far my favorite guardian to watch during tournaments.

Thank you ^-^

Also thanks for the replies. I personally think it’s a good idea since I really want DH to be viable. The wings seem really fun, especially with the trait that they do damage.

To be honest some posts up there just don’t deserve a sticky or are outdated. I was pretty happy when the burning thingy got removed from there.

Black Box.9312:

Gosh, I wish. Nope, you’ll have to trait into the elite spec in order to use the bow, sadly.

Did they confirm that? Can anyone link or quote anything regarding that? :<

Vizardlorde.8243:

Agent Bon.6248:

fadeaway.2807:

…1200 range 3 condi clear insta heal…

The 3 condi removal is via the Absolute Resolution trait in Virtues, which you can still take even if you go DH (though it might be awkward taking both specializations in one build). I’m actually curious how that effect would work with DH.

Absolute resolution does not have a range which means it uses the range of the virtue which is reduced to a 240 radius with the wings of resolve.

It actually says 1200 radius in the tooltip while battle presence has 600 range which makes me hope that the cleanse will still be instant and 1,2k range.

I haven’t really kept up with the news cuz I was busy irl past months. Did they say anything about you having to trait for dragonhunter to equip longbow or can the “normal” guardian with for example radiance, valor and virtues use longbow aswell?

Chill of Death weeeeeeeeeee

AH Guardian giving everybody arround him 25 stacks of stability would heal him for like 10k HP. c:

Did you guys get a different patch than I did? There are like 3 times as many portsports in PvP now and JI and FB still port you to stuff that is out of your range. :T

Saiyan.1704:

It would be too OP.

Technically you could hit a Mesmer with 5 binding blades if all his clones were out and you Judge’s Intervention him + Binding Blade. That alone would yield 1k damage per second… since Binding Blade scales better with burn builds, the damage will reach 2k per second.

Everyone would break their keynoards.

Implying you could do that reliably and implying a mesmer wouldn’t get 1 shotted by a zerker guard if he gets hit by 5 binding blades.

ye

Well then let it put me that way: Many teams play with guard, many people think they are pretty good and more than viable in this meta. If you don’t think so either you are right and all the top teams using guards are wrong or guard is just not the right class for you.