Guild Wars 2

Black Scoutsman.5830:

That may be true in your hands, but I can tell you I’ve beaten many condition engineers on my ranger. All I know is that when I play zerker ranger after the recent balance changes I feel way too strong. To the point that I want to play a bm build or condi build for a challenge. It just seems waaay to easy to bait out a dodge or two and then press 4, 2 lmaoezmode endgaged. And if it doesn’t work try again in a short CD.

If you’re being genuine then I think you’ve had a steady stream of good luck on your part.

Distance complaints is valid.

I don’t think you’d hear any complaints from the community either if you dropped SoS to a 5 second duration but also dropped the cooldown and maybe make it a stunbreaker too.

But like has been said, the evidence isn’t in your favor. The talk about short cooldown bursts go for a LOT of classes. I have better burst as my shatter mesmer then I do my ranger and more defensive skills to boot (stealth on torch and skill, sword evade, stealth on elite, blink). Heck if I can’t bait them to dodge the phantasms still cause them to have a pretty bad day.

Thieves have incredible, quick bursts and get to pick their fights.

And medi guardians are great for the same thing while also having aegis and gap closers and focus 5 shields and blind and etc.

I’m not saying power rangers are bad because we’re obviously not but definitely not OP.

Now if the argument is that it’s easy to play? I think it has a very easy entry point, yes. To be good at it it takes a bit more though. I think it could be argued that compared to the other classes it MIGHT have the easiest entry level and so it might be PERCEIVED as worse than it is. But that’s as far as it goes. Again, especially in sPVP and WvW, if something is stupid strong, everyone wants them as must haves.

Rangers are not must haves … sadly T_T

Hoping druid and expansion changes this

Wayland.3528:

The bug/change needs to be at least acknowledged.

It has been acknowledged.

WHEN it will get fixed compared to other things is up in there air.

I think Zealous blade could heal for double what it does and be safe.

I’d consider dropping shelter to 25 seconds (maybe 20) with sigil heal down to 30 or, if it stays that high, maybe letting it cure 2 conditions over 1? Right now no one ever considers taking it really over shelter.

But a big help really would be to increase the HP pool. Elementalists are fine with it since they can have a nice all around build and be durable while we’re a bit on our own.

Don’t nerf elly but bring others up a bit closer to them. Classes should be different but for a game touting “play how you want” then all classes should be able to, in some way, fill that desire. Heck since Aegis is so big for us, give us more of it somehow as an option? Honestily, Virtue of Courage could have its interval between Aegis’ cut in half and it not be broken. A free aegis every 20 seconds? Doesn’t sound busted to me.

Yeah there have been some quality changes like pets not aggroing which is nice but they still feel sloppy responsive wise and can’t keep up with moving targets very well in spvp. It has a long way to go ….

Sube Dai.8496:

The build for optimal GS is 4/5/0/5/0.

The 17% assumes Max might, vulnerability, fury, etc.

That being the case the gap would be slightly smaller thanks to the vuln from maul…but its not going to be much. Only a few percent.

Sword is still the best by far.

I don’t see fury uptime anywhere near 100% anyway so that works out too. If the damage difference is still like 12% I’m ok with that. Thanks for the info.

I’m aware of the data floating around that GS is 17% less dps then sword. My question is; if you are running with casuals/non hardcore people who don’t pre-might stack or run the optimal builds, does this change the damage difference between the two weapons? Lets so only ever like 10 vuln stacks too which is high from what I usually see?

I’m perfectly happy using GS but I was curious if that 17% came from optimal everything from all parties involved.

Also if using Greatsword, is going 5/5/0/4/0 better than going 6/5/0/3/0 for picking up the two handed training for 5% GS damage or is the extra 5 points for more power and the occasional increase in damage from when the enemy might have chill/cripple still better?

Thanks

Darsch.1705:

I am fairly certain druid was meant as descriptive speech for the type of skills the ranger will cast using a staff. Specilizations are just a new weapon afterall. Not like your getting completely new class skills or elite skills unless i have missed domething in the info released eo far.

They’ve said in interviews that each specialization will have a new class mechanic so it’s not just a new weapon and utility skills. They just apparently decided to keep the druids new mechanic involving pets.

And the REASON rangers want petless abilities isn’t because they hate pet class; it’s that they hate the bad AI attached to THIS game’s pets. They claim to have a new AI guy working on stuff but again, history has not been kind that we still have glaring problems this long after release.

Monoman.2068:

Wasted opportunities here. It pains me when a thief takes your pet hostage for free cloak and daggers and you can’t even tell it to stay put somewhere far away because that in itself is a utlity. Druids making use of pets still is the very reason I’m not too interested in the ranger specialization.

Pets are a reason a lot of people stay away from them that I’ve seen. The fact that druid was their perfect window to do something else and see it thrown away just makes me sad. And it may turn out to be a wonderful thing, who knows. But all we have to go on is history and currently, it’s not in Anet’s favor.

If the pets do minimal damage and are mostly just extra utility of some sort, it would be something at least. But rangers having SO MUCH of their damage baked into an AI like theirs is a weak spot for the class. Hopefully the druids won’t be so reliant.

Well that doesn’t fill me with a lot of hope. I understand the pets are BETTER then they were at launch but it doesn’t make them good or even decent. Their golden window to give rangers something else and they stick with pets …

I know we have no idea what exactly the mechanic is but I have to stay pessimistic for now given the history to this point. I hope I’m wrong. Love my ranger because I love nature based classes so of course druid is my auto go-to now. I’d rather just not have my kneecaps broken while I play it.

Not sure if it’s been said but are druids still stuck with pets in some manner? Because it’s the perfect chance to ditch them and I thought I heard them say every specialization gets new class skills?

It was in a spvp lobby. I had to drop group with my wife to keep him from spamming me with an invite. It’s annoying and seems like it should be blocked somehow as well

So someone was very rude early and told me I was an unhelpful “witch”

I reported them and then blocked them.

… but because I was in a group, they could spam invites into our group despite how many times we declined? My wife was with me and she also blocked but they kept doing it.

Aside from auto denying people, is this working as intended or am I missing something to keep this from happening?

I think the difference in cooldowns if a pet dies should just leave all together.

If it dies and you switch it out, it should be still a 20second cooldown timer over a minute long one. If you HAVE to add time then 30. The fact that the other classes aren’t punished as heavily for misuse should be applied to the ranger as well.

It makes sense with it being the only weapon we can’t use that we have a spirit weapon for.

If not this, I see axe.

This legit or …?

Yeah, of course you can avoid them. But then don’t cry about getting called scrub and kicked out of decent groups. Or wondering why the class reputation is so awesome.[/quote]

Let’s be reasonable. I doubt anyone will ever get kicked from a decent group for using a greatsword. Even a somewhat optimized one so long as you’re running spotter and frost spirit.

Full on hardcore might be an issue but it’s very easy to avoid those groups. The vast majority of players/groups won’t care. I’ve never been called a scrub or kicked when I decide to roll greatsword in a random pug.

To the OP, this is still a GAME. Play it to have fun and if you enjoy whatever weapon, use it. Avoid groups that don’t mesh with your style of play. Even when I run sword/x I never run in the “hardcore” groups because I loathe mentality. I’m just here for loot, a good time, and to be a cool looking plant guy

I do personally prefer the way the Greatsword functions over the sword/x and couldn’t care less about whatever dps difference exists. I don’t know if its factored into the touted numbers for SwordVSGreatsword but if you’re in a pug that can’t reach cap Vulnerabilities and you’re greatsword keeps 5 up on its on consistently, that’s a damage increase for the whole party.

Plus its a friggen BEAR avatar mauling the enemy. That’s just cool. … oh and I had Sunrise from my Guardian so … you know … that’s a bias >_>

If hybrid builds were really hit by like 20% overall damage then thats pretty bad. I tried the full zerker meta guardian build and it just wasn’t for me. So I went like 2 berserker armor pieces with 3 trinket slows and combo’d the rest with knight and soldier. I knew my damage wasn’t as high as it could be but I liked it better.

But if its down by like 20% I might have to rethink I guess or try out another class that uses a greatsword (stuck now that I have Sunrise. First world problems).

IF Arenanet wants to get zerker builds under control, honestly I think the easiest way to fix that is to make Berserker Stat’d armor just not exist. Take it out of the equation. Sure people will still minmax to the next step but I doubt it would be nearly as bad.

No notes about them beefing up pets or anything at all to help them survive against heavy aoe whether it be WvW or PVE bosses.

The only “super awesome” pet change was the F2 ability and the pet not standing around upon summoning.

That’s really it. Did I miss it some where? I’ll be stoked if I did or if they revamped them some other way that’s not in the notes?

Honestly these forums initially sound like “just people whining and complaining” but I just don’t see it that way anymore.

So yes, I started a Warrior up and I’m on my way to level it up. I like Greatsword best so it sucks that really only 2 abilities are great in melee (3 if you need a free evade from whirl ability) but the damage is solid, the HP is nuts, and the abilities they get won’t make me miss much. I always like my melee warriors with magical powers aesthetically but I’ll get over it.

All I can do is hope that others who feel the same do the same until they start seeing Guardian numbers fall off and decide to look at the “good spot Guardian”.

I’m on board with allowing Legendaries to be used as skins. I worked for Sunrise, I think it would be awesome to have my new characters or other 80s with the skin.

I understand some people created copies of one either for multiple characters or for dual wielding but no one’s taking away YOUR legendaries. You still have those. The stats stay the same where you can change them on the fly. No one’s a special snow flake in this game visually. Our clones are out there somewhere. They still worked for the one they have and if they want to dual wield it, have at it I say.

Its all opinions but I do hope that A-NET doesn’t let the minority kill such a fun idea for everyone.

If they deem these people deserve some compensation then fine, but don’t take away the idea all together.

And as far as it driving down prices of Legendaries, I somewhat wonder if it won’t drive them up. If people know now if they get this Legendary for one character, they also forever unlock the skin? It might make people want it MORE. Because if this DOES happen I know I do. I’ll work on my second for sure.

Bash.7291:

….. no, it sounds horrible, 15% is nothing when vigor is 100%, and other classes get things like 25% or more for lower tier traits.

Lower tiers that ALSO don’t go away when you activate something. Rangers get like a passive 25% in their first tier that stays on. If we pop our virtue, our TINY 15% is gone

But hey, its grandmaster so it HAS to be awesome …

All disappointing to me too. But we’re guardians so we can’t have nice things. (We don’t need OP things … we just want neater things than this. FUN ideas)

I know the Guardian has Aegis to soak up some damage and the Virtue but I still think it’s a bit rough to keep the guardians in the lowest HP bracket. Middle, sure, but not lowest.

And I have to agree about the talent. I don’t love it at all and wouldn’t take it, not for a GRANDMASTER anyway. MAYBE Master but not GM.

Flip side to Pure of Voice to be fair though? PoV handles conditions much better. However it does require shouts. This does not.

Still was wishing for something better. But I’m trying to remain hopeful that they’ll fix Valor up a bit with the adept and master traits so its not seen kitten selfish when people run Altruistic Healing. Or whatever they add TO the Valor’s GM line

I am curious about that. For those advertising the Meta build, who viable is it if you are grouped with mostly only ever PUGs and lets just assume that each member of all PUGs is running the LEAST optimal build? Does the Meta build have enough sustain to survive through much longer fights or will they eventually run out of steam?

sirsquishy.8531:

TRON.1085:

sirsquishy.8531:

TRON.1085:

My trace route.

http://imageshack.com/a/img268/8063/kfqm.jpg

FRA23, that’s the hop that is causing you Lag. and France is under a heavy DoS attack the last i checked. Nothing to do but call your ISP open a ticket and tell them to trace it down to France and work the issue out with them.

You are at the mercy of whoever is doing the DoS.

These issues only started when the new patch hit a few days ago.

Co incidence? I don’t think so.

yes, exactly. its coincidence.

Software patch being the cause would affect the entire player base. And its not. This is a network issue, and I have giving you guys in EU the data you need to prove it.

If you dont want to listen, thats fine. But your going to be hitting your head against a brick wall about it in the mean time.

Notice everyone you talk to since these recent problems, you claim its on their end?

This is somewhat similar to what I am going through which for some reason just got moved/merged with the Latency thread. I didn’t build a new machine though. Last week (Like last tuesday or something) I started dropping FPS from like 30 or so to 10 or sometimes lower.

I thought my video card was finally just going out so I bought a new one, a Geforce 760. Same thing except now it goes from 60 FPS down to 10. Happens all the time though not a guaranteed 10 seconds like you have. I’ll work great for like 30 second and then hit 10-20 seconds of the 10 or so FPS. Doesn’t matter what resolution I use or what settings (i’ve tried turning everything as low or bad as it can go).

I’ve tried every resolution in game and on my desktop.

No other game does it.

So my question is, have you tried going back to your old PC and see if THATS doing it too?

When did you get the new computer and when was the last time you played that it DIDN’T do this?

sirsquishy.8531:

Loxsus.3841:

sirsquishy.8531:

Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 975 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz

^ that is why. AMD does not do well enough in single threaded performance to keep up with the games demands when there are a lot of players on the screen. 10FPS for your Low sounds about right with 25+ Players on the screen in full on combat.

Also, you did not mention what resolution and refresh rates you run the game at, as those 2 settings will also effect your visual performance.

Again, this only started to happen AFTER last week’s patch. Before then, everything ran fine and it happens whether there are people around or not. I’ve been in the Grove alone in a corner and it runs beautifully at first but eventually it will just start to chop up and FPS drops.

I have gone through all available Screen Resolutions to the same issue and my monitor is at 60 refresh rate. The game used to run just fine without FPS drops though before this card, I was usually around 30 or so instead of the new 60 with the new card, but BOTH cards experience this.

If its my CPU that means something with the patch screwed with me and my setup because I used to be perfectly playable …

The Patch added a LS component, which brings alot of players back to GW2. You also didnt answer my question about your resolution/refresh rate.

its probably just you are having alot more players around now, then before the patch.

Apparently I did.

Its probably just that something got updated that didn’t go well. Again … NO other people around except NPCs that would be causing it.

sirsquishy.8531:

Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 975 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz

^ that is why. AMD does not do well enough in single threaded performance to keep up with the games demands when there are a lot of players on the screen. 10FPS for your Low sounds about right with 25+ Players on the screen in full on combat.

Also, you did not mention what resolution and refresh rates you run the game at, as those 2 settings will also effect your visual performance.

Again, this only started to happen AFTER last week’s patch. Before then, everything ran fine and it happens whether there are people around or not. I’ve been in the Grove alone in a corner and it runs beautifully at first but eventually it will just start to chop up and FPS drops.

I have gone through all available Screen Resolutions to the same issue and my monitor is at 60 refresh rate. The game used to run just fine without FPS drops though before this card, I was usually around 30 or so instead of the new 60 with the new card, but BOTH cards experience this.

If its my CPU that means something with the patch screwed with me and my setup because I used to be perfectly playable …

As a note, I’ve turned down all my settings in both Guild Wars 2 and NVIDIA Control Panel to test and see if that helps anything and it does not. I still got these terrible FPS drop spikes.

Confirmed sometimes it just happens when I’m standing in an unoccupied city with nothing going on just like it does in dungeons so it’s not the spell effects.

Not doing this in any of my other games.

Please help, this in insufferable and unplayable. If this is something already known, I just want to know.

dxdiag:

System Information
—————————
Time of this report: 2/6/2014, 22:56:58
Machine name:
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.130104-1437)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 12/13/10 17:18:23 Ver: 02.17
Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 975 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 8190MB RAM
Page File: 1768MB used, 14838MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 32bit Unicode

DxDiag Notes
——————
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

DirectX Debug Levels
——————————
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

Display Devices
———————-
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 760
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1187&SUBSYS_27633842&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4038 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1990 MB
Shared Memory: 2048 MB
Current Mode: 1920 × 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver Version: 9.18.0013.3467 (English)
DDI Version: 11
BGRA Supported: Yes
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 1/15/2014 17:13:01, 17714760 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-52C7-11CF-7956-6E071CC2C435}

I’m not sure if this is what others are talking about or if this is something different but since the patch, on occasion during heavy effect fights (and sometimes even light effects) my FPS will drop from 50-60 to like 10 or lower. It’ll chop up terribly and I can barely see whats going on.

This only started happening POST patch.

I needed a new video card anyway from my older one and thought maybe the patch made it more GPU intensive so I bought a NVIDIA 760. Sure, the game is more beautiful now but the EXACT same thing happens with this card that my other one had.

It’ll stay at like 10 or less FPS for 10-15 seconds and (if I’m alive) it jumps back up to 50 or so FPS and runs beautifully, even if its STILL super heavy AOE/Spell effects everywhere.

… help please? Because this is unbearable.

Korossive.7085:

Why did you do Fractals without opening the instance yourself?

I got grief-kicked once a long time ago. Didn’t know the term grief-kicking back then, my bad. Since? I am the opener. Just try it.

This is their game design.

Sorry. It’s your fault.

Actually it’s still their fault …

I might have been naive but that still doesn’t make it my “fault”.

(This part directed to the other user) And yes, 3/5 is the majority. That actually seems … I don’t know … more fair? I’m glad you wouldn’t want it any other way but I would and am saying as such just as you are.

EDIT – Oh and I did report them but we’ll see what good it does.

Is this for real because if so, this seems like a grievous oversight. I joined a fractal in which we got half way through the entire thing (almost finished with the second fractal) when one of the party members mouths off. They got kicked.

… then another member got kicked without me accepting the option meaning the two people did the kicking.

Then I got kicked. Not having said a word. Not having died or what have you to warrant it. At least needing 3/5 to agree … but only needing 2 people to kick every member of a group just because one person said something mean spirited? And thus wasting our time?

/vent off.

The phantasm build above is actually the one I had been running and having issues with the phantasms (aka my damage) dying. I feel like shattering is much less effective in this build but still do when I can.

Ok so I have 3 80s. One is a ranger who was shelfed mostly for now except pvp stuff. My Guardian had been my mains for awhile as I loved support and helping the group while doing my thing. Throwing out boons (especially stability) on short cooldowns and reflects when needed was nice while face tanking and healing through stuff.

Well my wife had been a mesmer and when she gave it up, I took up the role. I LOVED the idea from the start but so did she so I let her have it. Finally getting to play it myself I found myself loving it.

However I’ve also found some issues with it I’m trying to get past … or seeing if they are even issues that I CAN get past. I like being mostly melee but its nice having ranged options with decent ranged attached to them.

I’m having trouble with some builds and what I bring to the table compared to my Guardian though. I know I have time warp but I’d like to be more than that. Reflect I can do a fair amount IF I trait into that line which I can back and forth on.

I’ve tried to run a phantasm heavy build of 20/20/0/25/5 but I feel phantasms die fairly easy and they feel like my only source of damage. When I saw obvious tells I’d mind wrack to get some use out of the pops.

In duelist I have picked up phantasms have fury and blade training .. went back and forth between that and evasive clones.

I’ve also tried various shatter builds which I might actually like more as I feel better with popping phantasms so long as they get one rotation off if I need to and phantasmal persona.

Plus shattering feels more interactive then just popping phantasms and hope they surive. I can’t tell which does more damage either … though I feel strong phantasm build probably does, especially if two iWardens get going …

However I also want to do something for our group that isnt just Time Warp. I’ve though about staff over GS for defensive plus chaos storm boons and clone sta kitten bouncing boons …

Anyone that does pve and fractals have much luck with shattering? Or using staff over GS?

Our group comp is currently
1 Damage warrior
1 Necro
2 Ellies
1 – Whatever I choose to play of Guardian or Mesmer.

Thanks if you read all of this.

Hows your support/healing side? My wife has been thinking about going more support with a staff elementalist and get out of her set of almost all berserker and go into something more sturdy as she has issues with dying in our fractals and stuff. This looks like a promising setup (though we might go 10 air for either 20% signet reduction or 20% more damage on below 33% health.)

jportell.2197:

The fact of the matter is… it is behaving inconsistently where before February 26th. it behaved consistently all the time everytime… Anet has not figured out how to fix it yet -_-

Oh no I completely agree. And if you watch the video even the damage the zerker does isn’t consistant. I just posted it to remind that it is possible though what causes it to go up and down I have no idea. So the dev when he posted his note about it working properly might have seen it doing just that.

And as we’ve seen, sometimes things aren’t tested as much as they should be tested before the changes go live. I’m hardly trying to play defense either. An ANET dev did say they would bring back proof of it working and did kind of fall off the face of the planet in this area.

To add to above, I guess it’s just random depending on when the little sucker hits?

jportell.2197:

FinalPatriot.8034:

Am I missing something because mine has been doing an average crit of over 5K?

Post a pic please… Doing tests on dummy golems in the mists with a full phantasm damage build nets me 1-2k AT THE MOST.

This was taken from https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OP-Phantasm-Mesmer-Build-Fractal-Dungeon/first by Skoteinos

Maybe because the target is bigger or something but he’s getting almost 6k with crits when his berserker goes through the boss.

Spirits to have no HP and just be like banners. Can’t be killed … they just exist for the time they say.

As a 0/0/30/30/10 who mainly just dungeons on the guy, I use it on cooldown. The more might the better. A bit of healing to go with it is just icing.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong

8/10 because I love names that sound like real characters and not a play on words. But I’m an RP fanboy so whatever.

Loxsus Soul for my human male Guardian. (Pronounced Locks-us if there was any confusion) and Kastion Soul for my thief.

PVE and dungeons exclusively.

Can the 0/10/0/30/30 in berserker (or some other dps gear) work for a scepter dagger elementalist fairly well? Or are those points waisted?

Also what about leveling to make it an easy climb?

Other weapon suggestions welcomed as well outside of d/d.

I think between staff, save yourself, and retreat, we’re fine. Personal opinion.

What happens when they swap pets? Does it attack the new pet or POOF

Puandro.3245:

What server do you play? Maybe we can settle this so you can stop posting bad information on the forums.

I want to see this.
Fight Club O_O

… except we already talked about it so first rule is broken.

MrSmiley.1543:

Honestly this is killing my drive to play, ranger is my favorite class and I don’t feel like leveling another entire class just for dungeons. I get so many comments just on my class as soon as I enter a group even if they don’t do anything about it, it gets annoying and demotivating. Notably I have never been criticized after a group starts, but I am sick of getting talk just for not being a certain class.

Also, if they judge instantly off of buffs then they are pretty stupid, solo/group utilities are not always the same for any class…

Chalk it up to a streak of bad luck and keep trying good sir. As many have said in this thread, its somewhat uncommon actually to be blacklisted just for being a ranger or running a certain build/traits.

The ones who do usually advertise ahead of time what they’re looking for (IE Berserker warriors and mesmers only).

I’ve been using gw2lfg.com for every run on my ranger that I don’t do with my guild and I’ve not ONCE had anyone discriminate against my class. Heck, we’ve run dungeons with 3 rangers and did just fine. Fastest? Maybe not but still a lot of fun.

So PoV DOES kick in before Soldier runes so that the players get a boon? I was worried because it felt like I’d use my shouts and the conditions would cleanse but the only boons were the ones the shout placed on them.

What happens when one of the converted boons is one of the boons granted by the shout? Does the affect stack?

Pukknub.7368:

It is because staff is the best weapon for a wvw guardian.

Kind of this. I feel like it is anyway. You don’t have the best range but it’s a bit safer than melee. Also if you’re running AH, Empower is a second heal. Plus, for large fights, you’re tagging everything with the huge cone attack. 3 gives you a ranged damage move to throw in the center of a group or as a world roaming tool with your zerg and wall of “sit your kitten down” is great fun.

I’ll switch to GS sometimes but usually if I’m running with the swarm, it’s staff forever. The only place it just falls short on is keep sieges mostly since your character doesn’t seem to know how to up the staff up. But I’m pretty sure it gets hot in all that plate armor so I try not to make fun of my little trooper.