Guild Wars 2

As they’ve stated the recently revealed traits/specializations are not final and subject to change there are a few things that could be tweaked, though most of the guard changes as far as I can see are superb. Though here are a few other things you might consider doing.

-Purity of the body(Honor Grandmaster Minor) - This should honestly be combined with Battle Presence as it does feel a bit excessive to have another minor which gives vigor (Vigorous Precision) which basically does the same thing but better. Put Elusive power back into the minor grandmaster slot or swap it out for Pure of heart and stick Elusive Power into the master slot for those builds that want a bit more damage.

-Retaliatory Subconscious - This needs to be swapped out with something else , break stuns, or just be combined with another trait. Because 3s of retaliation on a 30s CD is a very underwhelming choice. Maybe it should be combined with Retribution?

-Inspired Virtues- This is just my thought but Inspired Virtues should become baseline as well since there are many builds which have slotted 1 point into virtues specifically for just this minor trait, to make their virtues feel like they’re actually useful in using Virtue for their actives. If this was changed you’d have to also replace this minor with something else.

-Supreme Justice + Permatrating Wrath - The way this is set up these two trait should be merged. Between the other two traits not many people are going to pick Supreme Justice over Absolute Resolution just because Condition Removal is practically essential and better passive regeneration is hard to pass up. By combining these two traits as well, you give a better options for going down that line if you want to improve your damage with better VoJ passive and effect, or you want to support with AoE VoJ Regen and Endurance Regen, or you want more support against CC, stunbreak and stability with VoC. Though the only thing with doing this change is you would have to find another trait to take Supreme justice’s place.

These are just my suggestions for better more meaningful trait improvement and selection everything else looks very good from my perspective.

I will chime in and say this. This class can indeed roam, there’s just a certain amount of investment you’ll have to put in, in order to achieve desired mobility. This problem was already answered with traveler runes, and our mobility isn’t bad with a GS + S/X combo. I don’t have many problems with my normal build against a large percentage of builds I find roaming (travelers, Gs/S+x) in T1 WvW. The players I will find challenging however are exceptional thief players that run a power based P/D set, exceptional medi guard players(that Meridia and Mino) the kite fest but engaging fights with Mace/Shield GS Warriors(Sanny,Balian), and then there’s the perplexity terrormancers(Choxie) and the Condi Ranger Ebola build(Glado). I can understand you’re flustered OP but to say Guardian is worthless for roaming is entirely untrue.

Also touch up about Burn Guard, I wouldn’t say it’s the best roaming build out there, though for some it just all comes down to preference of playstyle.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Nokaru.7831:

When are they nerfing Spectral Walk then? It does the same thing, except it can be used without a target. (Link)

Probably due to it being longer cooldown and a stunbreak. If you couldn’t activate a stunbreak while in the air, you couldn’t use it to break out of launches or knockbacks.

That, and the point of the Return skill is to help a necro escape a bad situation while the point of Flashing Blade is to engage.

Plus, the devs said a while ago it was cool and would be kept. This was back when Death Shroud was changed to overflow damage.

I will say a few things about what you’ve written. The return skill is meant to return you to your original position to either juke pursuers or leave them behind since it does give swiftness as well, the discovery to ignore fall damage was just a bonus discovery that was decided to be kept, but wasn’t really designed to be used to for that type of escape. With the logic you’re giving me as well Rush, Whirlwind Strike, Bull’s Charge, and pretty much every other skill that closes a gap is meant specifically for engaging, yet they’re used as escapes as well. I thought jumping off cliffs with a chance of surviving (if you had a target) depending on how skilled your timing is, it was a cool trick to utilize for WvW roaming. Spvp there’s nothing really that will instantly kill you with fall damage except skyhammer map, but it’s better to die to fall damage than to live through the fall. The change did nothing but take away the trick, and make it a little more clunky to use if you’re jumping over terrain.

Sorin.4310:

Taking the easy exploit out of abilities one at a time more like. Clearly you shouldn’t be able to just jump off a cliff no one can follow whenever you put yourself in a spot you can’t win.

Thing is it isn’t easy to do(I’ve even practiced it at my home borderland east of citadel cliff) , even more so when you have latency issues or internet hiccups . It requires a target to do it and if you use it too early or too late you’d just die either way, in actual sense it’s pretty much a all or nothing escape trick. Necro as well has a similar trick only it’s a lot more reliable. But either way it’s pretty much RIP for the FB trick now, unless you use JI.

Flashing Blade: This ability is no longer able to be used in midair.

Taking the fun out of abilities one step at a time. I don’t see why they made this change tbh it wasn’t exactly abusable. Funny enough JI still works.

edit- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6JUF4wU5wA RIP

I’ve ran a GS/ Axe Shield Burst Precision before on one of my other warriors. The thing with Burst Precision vs Sigil of Intelligence is consistency of landing those hard burst skills. Intelligence limits you to your next three attacks which can be better but makes it pretty predictable on what your build’s rotation is about and limits your guaranteed crit on your next three attacks. Burst Precision will always be there regardless when you use your burst skill, which is very good when you’re trying to bait out dodges or waiting until blocks are ended. Also cracking out 1 adrenaline bar Eviscerates feels a lot more useful.

Drennon.7190:

Ragnarox.9601:

Chasing target : he/she is at 2000 range away, gs 3# target is 1600 range away. Oh well time for coffee.

You being chased by 3 ppl: Lock other target at 2000 range, push JI, nothing happens. Write /wave and wait until you die.

Works as intended.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Necro is definitely far less mobile than a guardian. And you’ll still be able to use your teleports; the targets will simply have to be in range.

And one should never expect compensation. You’re not owed anything just because they’re changing something.

Yes but as a ranged class does necro need to be mobile? With the huge amount of Soft Condition CC and Fear? Put it in a way like this too. Put Flesh Wurm port 600 range use. You can’t use the port unless you’re in range of the wurm. How bad does that mess up the use of the skill?

^ I’ve played medi guard for so long, with more than 5.5k+ hours on guard, this will destroy the fluid feel of the weapon set and pretty much its usefulness. Flashing Blade’s range is pretty short as it is. If we’re not able to use it when out of range, its pretty worthless unless you’re facing other people who want to be in your face. Though a single disengage from a mesmer warrior, and engi and you won’t be able to close that gap at all and will pretty much get kited to oblivion even more so. I really hope they change their mind about using teleport abilities only when in range because this is going to trash Sword Guardian users hard.

11,395 hours and 28 min over 917 days. 1 Precursor from the forge(40G worth of rare swords), 4 ascended chests.

Being as it is, dueling in PvE should be in game at some point, heck maybe HoT is going to have it but its not listed as a major feature, and even Colin said they’d like to have open world/PvE dueling at some point, in a past interview. SPvP game mode is mostly about conquest, and not in essence set up for duels, also their try at Esports. Spvp lacks a lot of customization for builds(Stat allocation/Runes/sigils) and alot of aspects of certain builds are either weaker or nerfed compared to their PvE/WvW counter part. Using Spvp for dueling is just a bandaid fix until the feature is actually made and it comes out.

As for people worrying about spam about challenges and being pestered, only allow allow the duel function to be available to people on your friends list who are friended with you. Another way too is you have to be in a guild to do it with Guildmates. Creating a extra barrier to go through to make it inconvenient to actually troll random players with duel challenges.

As someone who’s put much more hours into this game and stuck with it from near launch, I am pretty excited for the expack. You can say that some of this stuff should have been in game since day one, but it wasn’t. I was a little bit bummed out to hear we aren’t getting a new race, but there’s always a possibility in the future. Aside from that though This extension of the game has pretty much everything I could want. There’s probably even minor features/fixes in the ex-pack we haven’t even heard about I bet.

If you’re going to say that it’s just a patch with a tacked on Profession on it you’re leaving things out. For starters I’ll list what we do know is coming.

-Stability and Defiance Rework
-Better Designed Group Content
-A brand new Mastery System for PVE that will spread to old areas as well(Get gliders in Magumma too, and a new fix for the trait system)
- Specializations with new skills to old existing professions, also a weapon a new weapon that some classes could not use previously.
-New Boon and Conditions
-New WvW map
-New Spvp game mode (Stronghold)
-Precursor Hunt
-New Legendaries
-Challenges
-Guild Halls
-Updated Camera

There’s probably more to be announced but from the looks of it its a pretty juicy update from that alone. To me at least. Also it was also stated that this expansion was also about setting up frame work for future updates/expansions/Content.

Manuhell.2759:

Elmo Benchwarmer.3025:

I’d actually love to have a cast time and clear animation on Overcharged Shot. Something like Pin Down or more recently Point Blank Shot. Make your target waste dodges by stowing the weapon/swapping to a kit. Similar like Magnet. Something that rewards good micro.

Until they successfully reflect it and you find yourself self-knocked back and then launched. Heh, just even dodging would give a good advantage to the opponent, due to the self knockback alone. Would end up being far too risky to use.

That skill is balanced over having a self-knockback and being instant. Both of them. You can’t simply change just one of those without seeing the balance go downhill.

Regarding Gear Shield, i don’t even see the issue. Sure, it is strong. I would say that’s the best skill in the kit.
And what’s wrong with that? We aren’t supposed to have only skills weaker than other classes’ one, some must be stronger too if we want to have some balance, and i find gear shield perfectly fits in that category. Tool Kit has neither the aoe capabilities of a bomb kit, nor its offensive capabilities. In exchange it offers some control – given by magnet (that is also a terribly overrated skill, imho, just due of not having some proper comparison, it being the only single target pull in the game) and defensive capabilities, with that shield. I can only see it as a fair tradeoff.

You’re underrating Toolkit the rest of the toolkit abilities. Pry bar will easily hit for 3-4k in the right builds, and it applies 5 stacks of Confusion, so in conjunction with Magnet pull you can easily hit them. Magnet is actually a lot more reliable than things like Scorpion Wire, and Spectral Grasp, if you want to compare pull skills, it can also be stowed to make people blow dodges . The only AoE in Toolkit is Box o Nails for AoE bleeds and cripple so mostly true. Gear Shield is a 3s Block on a 20s CD and you don’t have to worry too much about swapping at the right time since kit swaps have a very low CD.

Novuake.2691:

Lucentfir.7430:

Yes though you forget the fact that it removes Immobilize, cripple and chill when used, and that high risk of using Overcharged Shot, because you can’t net shot them and then do OCS. Warriors kind of need stability, stances, and some sort of sustain because they’re melee class and most of their damage requires you to be in range of your target, melee combat?

I didn’t forget, nor am I saying that Warriors shouldn’t have those skills. I am proving a point. The one I made at the end of my previous post…
Are you saying that Engi should NOT have those same sustains?
Why should an Engi be defenseless in comparison to warrior? That is what you SEEM to be saying…
I am not hating on Warrior, just using it as an example.

Do not compare SKILLS to SKILLS without considering the WHOLE.

Example :
The shields of the Engi replaces ALL other classes damage mitigation skill AND CC immunity like Blur, Endure Pain, Stability, Magnetic Shield, ETC.

I’m not saying that but Engineer from all the play styles is a ranged centric class, until we get the specialization and hammer. its a ranged centric class with a lot of AoE., soft and hard control, with sustain. Not to mention pretty mobile, it would be really silly to have the same sort of sustain as a melee class like warrior who has to get in your face to do damage. It shouldn’t be the engineer is defenseless, they need things to make people back off/peel, but they have that already, in a lot of different ways to do that. I just agree though with shield getting a 1s Shave of a 20s shield cd, or keeping it 3s with a slight CD change around 25-30s, without breaking it. if it happens hey I think its a good change, if not same old same old.

Aomine.5012:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Rifle skills are so strong because we don’t have access to a secondary weapon set. It should be left alone, ideally.

Rifle skills are effective in control also because it’s made it that way.
It has the weakest auto attack among all rifle classes. (It is even weaker than warrior’s LB auto, mesmer’s GS in terms of damage)

I actually think the damage is pretty on par with Warrior’s Rifle AA. The build I run I see my damage bouncing between 1,2k to 1.7k on crit. Not only that but it pierces so you can’t really be body blocked. The only thing that I would say about rifle on Warrior that beats Engi’s rifle’s AA is the range.

Novuake.2691:

Henrik.7560:

TBH theres more,

- Overcharged shot; 3s CC on a very short cooldown,
- Magnet; the fact it functions at a 1500 range is bullkitten, even 1200 pull on a short cd is still too powerful,
- Gear Shield; CD can be reduced to 20 seconds, that’s rediculous, should be 30s like warriors get.
- Thumper Turret; way too much HP considering it also can launch twice every 30s,
- Invigorating speed, yep this is for sure rediculous, they can perma vigor quite easily.

Overcharged shot is a self CC. Keep that in mind. If you miss it, you dead… High risk, high reward.
Warriors have excessive amount of other damage mitigation AND stability, engineers have none of those except for shields. So they are not comparable, no QQ for dual Endure pain? No QQ for Berserker Stance? No QQ for like 4 stability skills? Nope…
Thumper sucks.
Perma vigor… You never played Engi before, have you?

Anyway, point is, stop comparing classes overlapping skills without considering the whole.

Yes though you forget the fact that it removes Immobilize, cripple and chill when used, and that high risk of using Overcharged Shot, because you can’t net shot them and then do OCS. Warriors kind of need stability, stances, and some sort of sustain because they’re melee class and most of their damage requires you to be in range of your target, melee combat?

Sorel.4870:

Henrik.7560:

TBH theres more,

- Overcharged shot; 3s CC on a very short cooldown,
- Magnet; the fact it functions at a 1500 range is bullkitten, even 1200 pull on a short cd is still too powerful,
- Gear Shield; CD can be reduced to 20 seconds, that’s rediculous, should be 30s like warriors get.
- Thumper Turret; way too much HP considering it also can launch twice every 30s,
- Invigorating speed, yep this is for sure rediculous, they can perma vigor quite easily.

Teach me how to have perma vigor, you’re obviously a better engineer that I am. There is a 10s ICD on the 2s vigor this trait gives, which is a lot less than what eles, warriors and thieves even can achiebe. The tool kit block could be 1s shorter to promote skillful play, I’ll give you that. Overcharged shot is strong, but it also cc the engineer, so even if it’s hard to predict (9 out of 10 times you just have to dodge when the engi switches to rifle though), you can still react by stun breaking rapidly and damaging the engi while he’s down. And reflects do wonder against that skill. Elesee is right, rifle wouldn’t be viable without it. Engineers only have 3 weapon sets, let’s keep them viable shall we?

Actually its 5s, and there’s a very short CD to kit swaps so you can easily gain perma swiftness and 50% vigor uptime which is done with a simple kit swap. The only class I think that truly has perma vigor are eles since the CD on their vigor on crit trait has duration that matches the ICD. Mix with traited cantrips. Its permanent. As for gear shield yea I can see that being a reasonable change too decreasing the duration by a second to keep it at 20s.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Wyrden.4713:

mallyx is way too risky to play with, and i would – and will probably hate fighting necros as revenant..

as for the tanky legend, the taunt uses half ur energy bar, but its pretty strong, and a nice way to set up a dmg spike

u use ur taunt skill , swap legend to get energy back, then u got 3 s to do whatever u want ! unless enemy stunbreaks~

also , the stability change is kind of like a buff to necro i guess? terrormancer.

I prefer to see it as an indirect buff to Well of Corruption. All of the stacks will still be converted, but since it’s likely there will be more skills that pulse stability…

What you can do with that is drop Well of Corruption on the pulsing Stability Skill and just give everyone fear

Lol most of the necros that are saying they’re going to jump ship for Revenant, only say that because its new. What these people fail to realize is that there’s hardly any cleanse, and long durations of whatever conditions you apply will definitely outlast the boon. Not only that but if they sit in Mallyx the entire time they they don’t have any stunbreaks aside from Legends swap, so Fear/Terror them when Resistance is down and you’ll eat them up easily. Necro will have much better condition handling just based off of what I saw in stream video for Revenant. Transfers and consume condition with any sort of boon corrupts will make Revs hate you.

Gryph.8237:

even if it blocks one cc, it is still 100000 times better than a class with no or limited access to stability. a one button/rapidly refreshed, and stacked push cc cancel. it is op.

You expend a dodge in order to get 2.5s of stab , 1 stack, . If you’re rapidly dodging and expending damage mitigation that’s kind of dumb. You’ll be out of dodges to avoid whatever comes after it. With the rebalance, skills like Foot in the grave for necro, and SYG on Guard, Balanced Stance on warrior, Earth Armor on ele, are going to get touched so they provide 3-5 stacks at least. With this new Stability Rework, offhand pistol thieves are going to be pretty useful.

As much as I want it, I don’t want SY being borken. Though If they do add it to SY the most resistance you can expect at most 3s seconds. Just enough to give you a few good seconds of fight to not die to every soft CC condi, and damage condi you pulled from your allies.

Just remember people, If regen and vamprisim traits were to heal through DS, it would be stackable with Unholy Sanctuary. So its practically double the regen, mixed with life steal procs, it can get ridiculous amounts of healing in DS.

LetoII.3782:

Lucentfir.7430:

Black Box.9312:

LetoII.3782:

Pretty much every build has to make this choice. Going 100% damage in every build decision will naturally allow builds that do not a way to avoid you.

Try 4 in virtues and swap out contemplation of purity.

I take it you’ve never played a meditation guardian before? Taking a shout or staff on a meditation build is a terrible idea, and so is swapping out CoP.

As for OP, I agree wholeheartedly. Guardian is getting left in the dust, both figuratively and literally, because our only truly viable build left is very easily kited through range and CC.

I take a shout with with my meditation build? :[

Amongst other things Swapping out CoP would be ideal if the classes you face in roaming weren’t so heavy condi based. You can certainly swap CoP in duels, but roaming wise CoP is a must.

Yes, you take a shout with your meditations. Shouts builds take a consecration sometimes too. Open world doesn’t have one setup to rule them all… And if there were one, it really really wouldn’t be a duelling build like meta meditations.
Have neither of you tried a virtues build? 4 in virtues gives you access to a better condition remove than CoP, better because you can use it twice. How many scenarios do you really run into where more than 3 condis need clearing half as often? You also get unscathed contender, a 20% damage buff you can pop during other actions like a nitro boost. You get 20% additional boon duration as well, so all those boons hang around a while longer. Opening a utility slot is just one option though, for sure. Most people are gonna laugh if you argue mediguard needs a buff.. Jus sayin

I’ve always ran a shout with my roaming medi build, before medi guard even became popular. So i know it isn’t really at all a bad idea or terrible.

When you say use VoR clear two times, you forget the part where you’re going to have to pop Renewed Focus which means you’ve blown the oh kitten button to cleanse another 3 conditions. If you’ve roamed a lot you would be familiar with the the amount of Condis a good Terrormancer, Condi Engi, P/D Condi Thief, and a Condi Ranger can output, where you’ll need CoP. If you can manage it just fine without CoP more power to you.

Unschated Conteder is good for inital initiation burst, but after that it’s not really noticeable afterwards. Also far as buffs go I’m not asking for them, the people that ask for them are on the Spvp side of things. What I want to see really is just some QoL things like shield being fixed or at least being alot more useful than what it is now.

Black Box.9312:

LetoII.3782:

Pretty much every build has to make this choice. Going 100% damage in every build decision will naturally allow builds that do not a way to avoid you.

Try 4 in virtues and swap out contemplation of purity.

I take it you’ve never played a meditation guardian before? Taking a shout or staff on a meditation build is a terrible idea, and so is swapping out CoP.

As for OP, I agree wholeheartedly. Guardian is getting left in the dust, both figuratively and literally, because our only truly viable build left is very easily kited through range and CC.

I take a shout with with my meditation build? :[

Amongst other things Swapping out CoP would be ideal if the classes you face in roaming weren’t so heavy condi based. You can certainly swap CoP in duels, but roaming wise CoP is a must. Until there’s a 25% movement speed trait, or weapon skill that isn’t staff, Travelers and Pack Runes are the go to. Travelers are better for moving around. Also if you ever need to get away from any mob of people, and you’re near a cliff of death, you can always you the FB/JI trick. Though that’s a pretty all or nothing escape.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Lucentfir.7430:

Gear Shield – Seems like a reasonable nerf since almost all the multiblock skills in the game (Shield Stance Warrior, and Shelter Guardian) have a 30s CD.

Warrior has the best sustain in the game, and guardian has aegis and consecrations. It’s not really fair to compare—especially when both those classes have significantly better access to stability and/or stun breaks. Even with a traited Gear Shield, if an engineer gets focused they get dropped like a rock far faster compared to guard/war, if not every other class in the game.

The only classes squishier than engineer are mesmer and thief, and they have far better escapes and stealth access than we do.

Idk, I’ve seen some really tanky engineer before, and warrior’s passive sustain is not really hard to match and drops when you apply poison. Engi can have a lesser version with backpack regenerator, and regen boon. And a 15-20s Burst heal. I will agree though that Warriors have a lot better access to Stability and stunbreakers. Guardian has Aegis and blocks to make up for the lowest health pool. As far as focus goes, that’s only if that engi is in a bad position, even then the class has loads of peels from Crate, to nade chills, to immoblizes, to slick shoes depending on your build, they can get away and distance yourself. The only thing I’ve seen that can really tear apart a good engineer is a terror condi necro with corrupt boon. They really drop like flies.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Lucentfir.7430:

Sword 3 at least provides burst if it hits. Field of mists is more like WoR, but instead of reflecting, it absorbs, and it isn’t bound to on location, it moves with your character. I’m a lot more interested in that delicious new boon.

Key word being if it hits.

This new wall skill will also make the sword AA number 3 useless against them.

ofc while its up, but i’m guessing it might be on a medium length CD at least so you can just bait it out and then ZD them.

Sword 3 at least provides burst if it hits. Field of mists is more like WoR, but instead of reflecting, it absorbs, and it isn’t bound to on location, it moves with your character. I’m a lot more interested in that delicious new boon.

Aomine.5012:

Thiefz.3695:

The reason you will see so much Engi defense is that people who have mained engineers since Beta have had to deal with a lot of crap. At the beginning, it was not a worthwhile class. We had HGH, that got nerfed and you will see that Oeggs was leading the charge that it was OP. Many have said that IP is OP just like when Necro’s first got it. The problem is that after the last 4-5 months of these threads, I think the community is burnt out of hearing about Engi’s every week.

Now when I read this thread, I see it talk about specifics without looking at the whole. The issue with engi’s has been that there is no trade offs or that they are few. Might stacking/celestial allow the engi to boost power and other stats so that the CC/Damage ability is high. Take away the damage and the CC becomes less OP because my ability to Down you is lessened. Everyone says the counter to Engi is conditions because there is no clear. That’s true, period.

The real question is, are engi’s balanced against their High CC with deficits in other catagories (power, toughness, vit)? That’s probably a better question to answer than comparing skills of other classes to say what is “OP”. Using burst to down an opponent to hold the point is the same has using CC to keep them off. You just shouldn’t have both.

While you guys shout about all the OP stuffs, the most used class in Top Tier PvP is zerk mediation Guardian, Shoutbow War, Hambow War, and Staff Ele…

And I already made a list of “to-nerf” in earlier post.
Keep on being hypocritical. * I’d say those classes have no right to have high damage while having good sustain*, having some of the best cleanses, and getting so many layers of might.

Zerker Medi Guard – Low health pool, slow without a sacrifice of rune slot or utility skill, lacking soft cc. Take away the sustain, clears and damage so a melee centric based class can’t do what it’s supposed to do. Ofc though maybe its supposed to do high damage because it’s zerker. The thing with medi guards its alot about CD management, and your damage and survivability are tied together.

Shoutbow – Brings a lot of group and self healing to the table but most 1vX they don’t do so hot on point. Damage is low imo.

Hambow – Its seen because it brings control, it brings area denial, and F1 is a guaranteed condi removal. Provides might, and is very ideal for group fights and all.

Staff Ele – Any ele that does great damage is probably Berserker. Only thing you really have to do is close the attack range gap and pass the CCs and they’re pretty much dead.

Proposed nerfs the OP suggested.

Slick Shoes probably, they’re only countered by stability and invuln. If you’ve been trapped in a circle of it stunbreaks aren’t going to work unless they port you outside of the black puddle prison. No idea how to nerf this but I’d say just leave it.

.Gear Shield – Seems like a reasonable nerf since almost all the multiblock skills in the game (Shield Stance Warrior, and Shelter Guardian) have a 30s CD.

IP – As much as I hate the passive proc, I think the most it would need to be balanced would be a icon indicator that its active, and/or function like thief venom, if it misses charge is expended, gain another charge when the 10s ICD comes off CD, if not probably a 15-20s CD. Leaning on the 15s though since 20s seems a bit harsh.

Invigorating Speed – Perma swiftness, I don’t think it needs to be touched, it makes kit swapping feel fluid.

Superspeed – Is fine where it is.

xD I was lucky enough to get it recorded.

Yeah! Good fights with you as well. It’s been a while since I’ve dueled some really good medi guard players,, and I had a blast with those fights :] . Also yeah just the usual OPP thing. I’ve been on that end more than once so i don’t mind. As for trait set up goes, that’s my exact setup. It took a lot of experimentations with traits until i found it. I feel right as home when running it.

New video is posted in the OP! Enjoy.

Well I will say it looks like a fun SW build, though as far as your copycat comment goes, it really isn’t hard to dissect what it is. 6/4/0/0/4. Weapons have geomancy and doom on them, along with runes being Krait. Probably full carrion based on the Health Pool or at least some pieces Dire.

The focal points of the build come from the Spirit Weapons themselves and the burning. They hurt since every hit is at least pass 1k damage with burning. Popping VoJ also beefs up the burning something fierce since they go on Spirit Weapons as well on top of “Fire Inside”. Overall interesting fights, some of them.

PVE, when comparing it to focus, focus brings much more with the blind, blocks and bubble burst if not broken, not to mention you don’t need burning from torch when you pop VoJ. Spvp Focus brings more to the table still just because of the blocks and blind. Good for safe stomping and negating key attacks. WvW and roaming it’s pretty good there. Reliable burst on Zealots Flame, burning, and the 5s usable for the few seconds you’re out of sword striking range. When people talk of optimal its more referred to the PVE scene,

Leo G.4501:

Lucentfir.7430:

As a RPer. i will say this. There are different levels of RPers.

If those are the 3 levels of rp’ers then I guess I’m not an rp’er since I prefer to observe the active rp’ers and do most of my RPing outside the game via writing and art.

Nah, the first 2 types you listed simply aren’t rp’ers, all the same you wouldn’t call everyone who can write words a writer or everyone who can apply a bandaid a physician.

It was to explain the three types of players in this game(not three types of RPers), though i should of organized/worded it better. Gamer is a gamer,, and troll is a troll. A roleplayer is a roleplayer but there are different types of Roleplayers. Immersive RPers will RP their own tales and such, while following along the lore and making sure things fit appropriately. Then there are the RPers that don’t give a crap about the lore or do not take the time to read into it and create some really lore bendy things. Following along the PS is also considered , as you are taking the role of a X character that becomes the pact commander and such, but at the same time its considered playing the game, as a gamer, and it really restricts your options..

As a RPer. i will say this. There are different levels of RPers. Normally though there are three general categories players fall into. You have the Gamer, who just plays the game, to chill and relax do content, also gives characters names like “I forgot my shoe” . Then there’s troll who is out just to ruin other players experience, any group of players. Then you have the Immersive roleplayer who makes stories/situations with other roleplayers and acts them out, as the character they currently play as who fit into the world(Mostly back stories and all, but can also can be fleshed out during the process of RP abiding by the lore), with proper naming fitting to the lore or at least a proper name to go by). Basically I’d label this Immersive Roleplay.

Now you roleplay your character when you do the personal story, however the personal story is a set role made by the game devs. Basically filling that role makes you a dragon slaying demigod, pact commander. Everyone shares that Personal story so the immersion isn’t really there, you’re stuffed into that role with no other options but the one presented to you to choose from. That’s basic story game roleplay. Anyone can become a Rper, it just falls down to the type of roleplayer you are. Some don’t want to abide by lore, that’s fine. If they have someone who’ll tag along with the idea more power to them.

Gamers and Roleplayers normally don’t conflit or mind eachother at all in game, and just let each other do their thing. The only one that really brings in conflits are the trolls.

Oldyoung.6109:

I think leveling in GW2 is somewhat necessary since alot of people will start the game with the personal story and be hungry for more if they had instant access to the whole thing they would blow through it in a few days then sit around not bothering to enjoy the rest of the game and eventually leave.
Whereas having the PS gated with leveling will force players to stop and try the actual game so they can find out they like it enough to play for a long time.
I would say it’s more that the devs are confident in their content but safeguarding against people who would only do one thing then leave without trying anything else and complain there’s nothing to do; and I KNOW you know someone like that don’t pretend you don’t.

That said Anet could stand to update some lower lvl content in a meaningful way living story season 1 did an amazing job with that breathing new life into some older areas giving us a great experience.
Then it was all gone and everything went back to relative normality.

HoT looks amazing and I’m really looking forward to it but it’s geared towards max lvl which is fine the story has to advance and putting it at a lower level wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever.
But it reinforces the “endgame mentality” of rushing to lvl 80 and ignoring lower lvl content.

For the longevity of the game lower lvl areas/content should be updated in a lasting way to increase the considerably substantial replay value alot of it already has and more low to mid lvl accessible content has to be added.
For it to be truly lasting in my opinion it should be removed (not completely) from the living story going forward but given more consideration for it’s own merit.

IIRC they are expanding the mastery system to all other zones, not just the new areas within magumma, and they are going to fix a few minor things about leveling and such. The content at end game will be there, and there are going to be many reasons to go back to low level areas. Collections is one, another is going to be a Legendary, with the precursor scavenger hunt, and then world completion(also part of legendary making), guild missions etc.

Aggrostemma.1703:

Speed and Traveller are selfish rune sets. They give you constant speed with zero support and offensive stats.

In a group where even little source of swiftness is available the Pack outshines the Speed and the Traveller.

Pack Runes do indeed outshine Travelers and Speed Runes by a wide margin, in most game modes. Though Traveler’s and speed are mainly put on WvW roaming builds, so you don’t feel like a turtle moving from point A to B or keeping up with other players trying to kite you. Sure Pack Runes give you swiftness, though its stripable and requires you to get hit. Traveler’s does not have that problem and is active 100% of the time.

Thanks for the feedback. For the upleveled scene I actually debated about taking it out, though in the end I kept it in because it was a fun fight, there were 2 level 80’ present, they had a vet generator ice elemental for chills and knockbacks to help them, there was a decent amount of them.almost died at a point. So yeah, but i can understand the ideal of upleveled kills being unsatisfying to view in a video like that.

Now touch ups about the tips. I use Cleansing Flame only when i know I won’t be in range to hit them with sword since mid range its best used against running foes that are not like Greatsword Warriors. Also dealing some damage is better than no damage at all within those seconds of combat. It’s also able to proc Air sigil so its not completely Cleansing Flame isn’t really that useless. For the reasoning of using Flashing blade and then Zealot’s fire, the initial activation inflicts burn which gives me my 10% damage mod for for the time I’m to burst. Then the second application of burning if the Zealot’s Fire nuke hits.(I would include a the real 2nd burn application which is near the end of Zealot Fire’s duration, but it’s somewhat hard to get all 3 procs applied consistently in real fights. )

As for VoJ active, I use it when i feel that i need that little bit of Oomph with might stacks or Zealot’s fire is on CD. I don’t have a single point in Radiance so no blind on active for me to abuse :P. Also since I already apply burning through torch and my weapons are fast attacking, it helps add just a little bit more time to already applied burns left by torch. Your words are appreciated nonetheless!

Put out a new video , link is in the OP if you wanna watch.

Its a improvement but there needs to be, at least 3 of 5 things to be done in order for it to be used more.

-Projectile Absorption duration bug fix(too short, only lasts half the duration it appears.)
-Remove the nerf on Shield 4 in Spvp (It really isn’t needed)
-Damage Buff on Shield 4
-Additional effect with Shield 4 like Aegis application, or weakness on foes.
-Shield Trait moved from Master’s tier to Adept.

You know the people here posting on the forums are going to buy it regardless of what they say. Its a extension of the game. They’re going to buy it play it, depending on the player either be satisfied and want more, or be unsatisfied complain about it on the forums and just not pick it up until something major comes up again.

I know I’m going to pre-order as soon as I have the funds and when it’s actually available for pre-order.

No worries :P. I just speak out of experience from the class. It’s mostly something you’ll have to experience yourself in order to be convinced. I do agree mace is a great weapon! Main weapon for when I bunk in Solo Queue.

Its decent within a niche theme build with at least 4 in blood magic. Combine with life leech food, blood sigils, and regen boon, and vamprism on hit/crit traits you can heal truck loads, not to mention flat damage increase from 50-100 per hit, take into mind that if you were doing a 1000, with every hit of your dagger that amounts to a 5%-10% damage boost, and it even procs off Locus swarm. Mix of Zealots gear and your choice of clerics or w.e. Here’s a hint too, try it with a power varriant build using Unholy Sanctuary. You can use Death Shroud as a damage sponge with CC utility.Dagger Life Siphon as will will heal quite a decent amount as well with everything combined. Active of SoV will heal nicely as well, for around 700 every proc after the initial burst heal.

With Consume condition, yes its nearly a must have heal skill but if you have consistent minor removal and condi transfers, you can do decently without it.

Tron.3471:

Tbh it has its place in Spvp with bunker builds, and with the CD reduction dropping from 40s to 30s, that’s a really nice improvement. Torch is mainly used for either burst builds or burn builds. The 5 can be situationally usefull as well, if using sword and you’re just out of reach from someone kiting you, it works, the added condi removal on allies within the cone is also nice. Focus is the general offhand that will generally do well with most builds because blocks and blinds are a great source of survivability.

Looking at shield, its pretty much our only offhand with a near instant interrupt knockback and projectile absorption is useful in a number of ranged situations on point. The 4 could use some improvement though. Either a good damage buff, or give it something like aegis application so it compliments some of our traits. The shield trait should really be brought down from master tier to adept tier as well.

If its PVE though and you’re trying to be optimal, yes focus will always be the best choice over our other offhand choices.

I would still argue that focus would provide better sustainability for a bunker build with focus 5. Especially if you traited for heals on block. The knockback and absorption are just to meager. I do appreciate the knockback for point control, but you dont even need stability to pass through the bubble if you miss the target then you are rooted in place. Theres just too many cons to outweigh the pros for shield 5.

I still haven’t seen or read anything that would make the shield a viable offhand over focus (In any game mode). I do agree with you on torch and I am curious to see what the results are after the CD penalty is removed.

Guardian does not have a heal on block trait, the only trait that heals on block is Pure of Heart and that only procs off blocks with Aegis. If you mean AH with MotD 200-300 Health gained total is not not much better, in fact shield popping will give you at least 3 to 4 times more healing. 3 blocks from Focus 5 is generally good for alot of things but against more than one person in Spvp it loses power, granted its not traited 3 blocks on a kitten CD easily disposed of with trash AA’s or multi hit skills from range. Shield will shine there with the projectile absorption(they need to fix the length cause atm its 2s instead of 4), with the possibility of mitigating more damage from projectiles than the 3 of block anything would(absorbing nade spam and blocking a ranger’s rapid fire targeting a ally.).

Ideally the best set to use shield with, is mace, due to the fact the skills compliment each other. Especially if you use Writ of the Merciful for symbol heals that would already provide regen from Mace 2. So Regen, and protection from shield 4 mixed with selfless daring rolls. You’ll also have a block with mace 3 on a pretty low CD, and a projectile absorption bubble.

Shield has its place among guardian bunker builds in Spvp and even some groups in WvW. It just doesn’t shine well with solo play and and DPS builds. Now as far as torch goes, it’ll be much better now, more chances to throw, and or bait out dodges. It won’t be anything too major though aside from more frequent nuking,

Tron.3471:

Aeolus.3615:

Farzo.8410:

Hunter.4783:

20 and 24 respectively

That’s what I guessed.

A little bit better at least.

It is a really awesome cooldown at least for shield 5, absorsion is really a very underrated defense mechanicsby players, good call Anet didnt change the shield 5 skill.

Sigh… absorption/reflects are not underrated, especially by guardians. Projectile defense is one of the main reasons guardian is so valueable in dungeons. That being said, shield is a terrible weapon compared to our other offhands. First guardians have 3 main methods of projectile defense: Wall, shield of the avenger, and Sword 3 which are far superior to shield 5’s long CD and ridiculously short duration. These should be more than enough for any encounter.

So there isnt much incentive to use shield over focus, especially in dungeons since focus provides a multiple blind and regain plus a powerful block/aoe/blast finisher. So long story short, there is no incentive to bring shield, its just NOT viable. And reducing the CD does not make it usable/viable/worth it.

As I have said in my other posts, there needs to be useful abilities on shield in order for it to be used. Without comparison the shield does indeed sound nice, its when you actually compare it to our other offhands is when shield becomes terrible.

I really want shield to be great, but we aren’t going to get there if we praise the current implementation of shield and the cooldown reduction is not a buff since it still doesn’t make shield very good.

TL:DR
There is still no incentive to bring shield over focus or torch. The shield skills do not provide anything unique or better than what we already have from utilities and other weapons. We can get constant protection from hammer and way better damage and we can get way better reflects/absorbs from utilities.

Tbh it has its place in Spvp with bunker builds, and with the CD reduction dropping from 40s to 30s, that’s a really nice improvement. Torch is mainly used for either burst builds or burn builds. The 5 can be situationally usefull as well, if using sword and you’re just out of reach from someone kiting you, it works, the added condi removal on allies within the cone is also nice. Focus is the general offhand that will generally do well with most builds because blocks and blinds are a great source of survivability.

Looking at shield, its pretty much our only offhand with a near instant interrupt knockback and projectile absorption is useful in a number of ranged situations on point. The 4 could use some improvement though. Either a good damage buff, or give it something like aegis application so it compliments some of our traits. The shield trait should really be brought down from master tier to adept tier as well.

If its PVE though and you’re trying to be optimal, yes focus will always be the best choice over our other offhand choices.

Lazaar.9123:

Lucentfir.7430:

For those saying Charr have 6 nips, should go play CoF story again and/or go look at Gaheron. He only has two. Also keep the unisex armor for charr at least.

Well yeah… they’re male. xD

and male cats irl have only 2 nips? Isn’t there that one rule where the fetus always starts off as female?

For those saying Charr have 6 nips, should go play CoF story again and/or go look at Gaheron. He only has two. Also keep the unisex armor for charr at least.

Good choices for renaming “Retreat!” would be things things like “Double Time!”, “Move it!” or what Dirame said “Make Haste!”. For multiple purpose meanings such as chasing, fleeing, or just speeding up in general.

As a active player I will say this. Upon seeing the post that the next episode is being pushed back into next year it really got me down and very disappointed. The latest episode was just hanging off a thread cliff hanger about finding out what was behind the door. Episode 6 and 7 length were a bit short for my tastes(Though I did like the missions they were good.) though my general thought about that was episode 8 was going to have a good chunk of meat(story conclusions)we can sink our teeth into to make up for the noticeable shortness of those episodes that raised many questions as well as Wintersday celebration coming up, this way taking a month long break there’s a feeling of completeness for the year, and lots of things to do over break time.

One thing that really helped contribute with my disappointment were the teaser images, leading back weeks ago, that bear no relevance to the current episode. I can understand people at Anet are people, not soulless machines there for the soul purpose to pump out content for the player base. Though it just feels really off to have a important part/Finale of the story being left on a cliffhanger for a month near the end of the year.

If I have to wait I can just hope the next episode will be worth the wait, with a lot more length of story with conclusions, another area or boss unlock etc, just enough to make the wait to feel satisfying.

Though for now I guess have a good Wintersday/Christmas everyone.

From the feel of D/D ele since I’ve been playing it extensively now, D/D eles cannot function well without at least 4 in Arcana and/or 4 in Water. Without that protection and healing, I’ve felt the bitterness of getting rolled. Also D/D didn’t become a problem because of frozen burst blast and such. A major contributing factor of their sustain is because they removed the 33% nerf on SoR.

aspirine.6852:

Cheap one shot mechanics, no thanks.

You do realize that if there wasn’t a one shot mechanic then everyone would just zerg and collect chest, without worry of being downed when they see a Lurcher come around? The way the Lab is designed is great, because it makes you adapt and use the implemented mechanics, instead of overcoming the enemies with just sheer numbers. I feel the rewards are great and that Waypoint fee is very fair if you were to die in the Lab. Assuming you collected a lot of chest before you died, you can make that money back by selling the junk you get from them.