I’d wait to see how it plays in the next beta after these changes. Might have to reevaluate what it needs.
I play burn guard in unranked and it does indeed bring absolute devastation on the enemy team. Haven’t had much success in ranked arena though. People there seem to know how to counter it, so i just bring my shout guard to ranked arenas (which incidentally, is also a hard counter to burn guard).
Just killed a thief in spvp using my burn guard. Started talking kitten in chat afterwards.
Guess that’s what this thread is about.
What guard is doing 1v1 bunker on point in this meta though? I was under the impression shout guard bunker is meant to be in group fights due to altruistic healing and aoe condi cleanses.
Seems kind of stupid to complain about a burn condi guard spec when it isn’t even considered meta for pvp and its damage is lower than a phys guard spec for pve.
The only thing burn guard really excels at is its ability to wreck an enemy team that stacks on you and doesn’t have cleanses. In pve it seems to excel at taking down trash.
Lol standard d/d cele is the only roaming ele build people run , nobody runs focus because it’s such a situational close combat weapon it’s better for node battles on point though you sacrifice burning damage (hint hint) and dmg for defensive utility and some cc. Condi burn d/d duelist builds are insane, but again this game isn’t balanced around 1on1s so it’s irrelevant. Let’s also not forget going full condi just doesn’t work in PvP. You need cele or greater direct dmg amulets to compete now as sustain needed for full condi to actually work is non-existent with the burst damage available now.
Eles aren’t focusing on burns when going cele it just happens.. Most of the burn damage is passive icing on the cake to the survivability and direct damage at 20+ might lol. Burn ele DOES focus on burn while trying to run a build that has no sustain , namely carrion – but in WvW yes ele burn build with dire is really strong.
This is for the d/d cele meta buildin PvP:
3 Reasons why ele is insanely strong offensive wise now and also make it good defensively are very obvious.
1. Burn damage, cele with 20+ might which is the easiest thing to do in a fight is absolutely broken with the survivability you get and coupled with BS / DB you get high dmg output with burn dmg close to that of a carrion amulet user.
The burn application from almost everything on ele is 3 stacks of burning minimum. This needs to be brought down to 1-2 stacks. Especially for passive kitten like CF trait and things like ring of fire because it’s cooldown is low. Either do or double the cooldown of ring of fire and drop CF trait burn duration to a much lower duration than it currently is.
SOMETHING needs to be done with the burn application stacks of elementalist though before doing anything to it’s survivability.
2. Blinding Ashes – You say it’s weak, but it’s actually really not and is probably one of the best traits ele has for 1on1s now (Phanta far pushes). Good timed blinds while in fire allow you to be very offensive and wreck offensive flow of other players and BA is also on a low ICD that it actually is quite good when you pair it with CF trait / CF utility / fire attunement skills.
3. 3 trait lines now. Fire completely replaced air. Why? The entire line is built around might stacking, burn damage and blinding people and a 33% reduction on those very burning skills like RoF and Drake’s breath.
Anybody who is defending burn dmg on elementalist right now is just completely oblivious and very obviously dodging an obvious nerf to their build / class that is very needed. It’s simply out of control right now.
You either do 2 things:
1. Nerf burn damage across the board
2. Nerf elementalist application across the board by stacks and/or duration
Burn guardians have next to no survivability and only work when nuking you with burns and like I said, focus on burns.
Elementalist get it added in as icing on the cake of their survivability and direct damage with Cele. You have to remember their dmg coefficients are higher than guardians on dagger skills so it goes perfectly with , yet again, getting 20+ might and using those very skills.
This post pretty much nails it.
The burn itself isn’t the problem. It’s the burn added on top of a build that already had immensely high sustainability to begin with.
Don’t forget a moa from engis with elixer x toolkit counters the rampage.
I agree with saiyan. People in this forum mostly complain about d/d eles and pu mesmers and also burning, but when you ask them about the classes they think need a nerf burn guards and burn engis rarely make the top of the list. They only seem to put d/d eles at the top of the list along with mesmers. The issue seems to be that d/d ele already had high sustain before the patch and after the update it got a damage boost with the burn upgrade. Making d/d ele high sustain and high condi damage. If that is the problem, then the solution is simply to reduce burn stacks on d/d ele skills.
Hell, burn guards are not even the meta for that class, so it’s weird to ask for a nerf when its damage is considered lower than a phys dps medi guard. For engi, i’m not sure what the meta is but i rarely hear people complain about them despite their access to burns.
Concurring with what’s been said: a burn guard absolutely stomps wars, mes, thf, rng, engi and will make them curse you. It wont work on a shout guard, d/d cele ele or a necro with loads of cleanse. I am most amazed at how fast a burn guard can do in a war.
How are you not able to dominate in a 1vs1? It’s not like every guy you’re fighting is a d/d ele or a PU mes and is also a top 100 in the rankings. For example, you should never be losing in a 1vs1 to a thief, and that doesn’t mean thief is worse than guard, it just means guard hard counters thief.
One thing i’d like to note with these lists is that, despite people complaining about burn being over powered, the only burn utilizing class being placed as rank S or being classified as OP is ele, and not engi or guard, two classes than can also stack burns. The impression i’m getting is that the problem with the current burn mechanic has more to do either with ele’s already impressive flexibility being amplified by burn, or because ele might have more chances to stack burns than either guard or engi.
Perhaps a solution to that would be reducing the number of burn stacks ele skills can apply? Although i suspect people might still complain that ele is too strong even with a precisely aimed burn nerf.