Guild Wars 2

Ari Kagura.9182:

Brewbeer, after looking through the 6 karma vendors that sells Orr gear, anything with Condition Damage attached to it also includes Precision and Toughness. However, following your suggestion, Carrion would be a nice alternative since it has Conditions and Vitality.

In a min-max point of view, however, I have read around that power has little impact for some Necromancer condition builds. I don’t have a Necromancer character, but I would suspect that they have a Toughness conversion trait; similar to how Warriors can pick up a trait that gives power based on 5% of their toughness.

Necromancers don’t, however Mesmers do.

Problem with Necromancers and Power is that if you’re going for a Condition Build, Scepter is your weapon of choice along with Staff. The only weapon that scales remotely well with Power is the Dagger, Staff being somewhat ok with it. Axe is pretty crap all around and scaling is non existent with the Scepter (Bleed weapon).

If you were going for a condition build and are shooting for Rabid, Power is completely wasted stats wise.

And yes, it does suck for Necromancers. I went for a support healing build and thus shot for the stats similar to the Shaman’s Amulet (Condition, Healing, Toughness), however it only exists as rare drops (Tahlkora’s) and pumps Condition, Healing, Vitality in PvE. No karma vendor carries this spread nor does any crafting gear. The only silver lining was that Tahlkora’s wasn’t popular when I was first purchasing it but I believe it’s rising in price now.

I’m working on a Power/Vit/Tough set for my Guardian now which Melandru and the guy in front of Arah carries. But between all the vendors, you’re still going to short the helm which you will need to either get from WvW/Sorrow’s Embrace/Honor of the Waves.

Now if Melandru’s quest chain will stop bugging and actually give us the vendor…

Milennin.4825:

I actually like how the sets don’t offer the same stats on all pieces. It helps me to build a better balanced character. Got 5/6 of the Dwayna set so far.8)

Not trying to rain on your parade but that also means your character has mediocre stats and isn’t specialized in anyway.. Especially considering how certain abilities perform much much better when you heavily stack certain stats, it’s setting yourself up to be the jack of no trades.

Speedy Kits, Drop Stimulant. Easy sources of swiftness that aren’t hard at all to fit into ANY engineer build. You can also potentially have ridiculous uptime on Vigor with Invigorating Speed in Alchemy.

Overcharged Shot makes your Net Shot completely unavoidable when used in succession. He’s on the ground longer than you are.

Some other ones that haven’t been brought up.

Acid Bomb in Elixir Gun is a leap backwards, Elixir Gun is also one of the more solid kits Engineers can use.

Slick Shoes has a great active in that you can KD people by running them over, Tool Belt being Super Speed also has its uses.

The Engineer is really mobile actually, could be both a point defender and a roamer. Now Necros? Those guys have no mobility.

Seems that it’s already been classified, but Purging Flames not removing conditions is seriously hampering.

Temple of Melandru has been stuck on lighting the first beacon for Blackgate for quite a long time now. The escort section is stuck and won’t progress any further. Really a downer when the stat spread I need is from said temple.

Revenant.2691:

Also, the Gates of Arah karma vendor in Cursed Shore has power/tough/vit exotic armor.

Only chest and legs. Melandru temple has a lot more. However, between all the karma vendors, you’ll still be short a helm.

Sorrow’s Embrace also has Power/Vit/Tough

And yes, the way Badges of Honor work in WvW could be done better.

Gotten two. 140 hours between all chars.

I can’t even take the tokens I earned from another character out of storage on the one I want to use it on.

@Bluebizzer,

They do have that, sort of..just there’s no reason to really do it other than FARM FARM FARM. Straits has a few underwater events that no one ever does which is a chain where you have to defend submarine reinforcements that eventually give you a chance to settle on land, failing means retreating back to the water.

It’s just no one ever does it, to most people, there’s no reason to do so. The only events being done are the farm routes and the temple ones to buy their gear, that’s it.

If instead of just summoning lemmings to AoE death, “DYNAMIC SCALING” worked as advertised where mobs behaved differently or different ones (more vets/champs) spawned OR different mechanics unlocked relative to player #s, then it’d be a different story.

But yea, right now, it’s lets see who can tag fastest and karma zerg zerg..

Equipment drops should be scaled to player levels, crafting mats should stay as is, otherwise it’d be impossible to get mid-tier crafting mats after awhile.

I was really stoked when they explained “whole game is end game” but still gave you hella incentive to only stay in Orr when doing the karma grind. I’m still going out to lower level zones to get 100%, but mainly 60-70 zones like Fireheart Rise as Orr just gets bit dull after awhile. I know it’s slower if I do it this way, at least it’s not as boring.

Still though, karma gained should scale with player level as no zone has as dense of DE webs as Orr does.

I support 1 + 2, I feel shaky about everything below that.

The only thing they need to do about DRs is fix how fast it kicks in for legitimate players. Also how it’s currently handling dungeon rewards.

I run Hammer + Scepter/Shield in explorable modes and find it really useful. I use it in conjunction with Scepter as there are a lot of scenarios where it’d be unwise to sit in melee range the whole time, scepter/shield is extremely effective at peeling for your teammates with both the immobilize and the knockback. With the luxury of range, it’s also not rocket science to hit your party with the cone protection.

People complain a lot about the CDs on shield, while it’s not short, it’s not by any means THAT long. Shield of Wrath is 45s, it’s even longer than SoA. Hell, even Reaper’s Mark is a 40s CD and all it does is a 1s fear.

In the end, a peel is a peel, using it a crucial moments is all it needs, no matter the distance, a knockback/interrupt serves its purpose. Can it better? I’d welcome it, but you shouldn’t dismiss shields entirely.

Condition related problems would be a non-issue if Purging Flames was not bugged.

Notes
Any hostile or neutral entities entering the field (or already present at activation time) are tagged with a single 5 second burn that does not refresh. Any time spent in the circle ensures full damage. The same applies for the condition removal, which removes all conditions.
Since damage source is a condition and not an environmental effect, Master of Consecrations does not change damage output.

It currently does NOT do that.

This is more of a gray area, but now that dungeon tokens are account bound as well. I see really no good “against” argument one can conjure up against this. If anything, karma is the ONLY currency in the game now that is soul bound.

Events with a massive attendance shouldn’t just spawn more and more mobs that die instantly in AoE. What happened to the advertised “Dynamic Scaling?”

In interviews it was said some mobs when facing great numbers will use different skills or behave differently. I honestly don’t see that.

Even if it isn’t that in-depth, at least spawn more veteran/champions instead of just AoE lemmings.

You are not alone..unfortunately it does not work.

Was really stoked to slowly grab my Exotic pieces from the Orr vendors on my Guardian yesterday and thus I popped a 50% karma booster I got from a Black Lion Box. Well, 351 Karma, that’s what I got BEFORE I popped it. That’s not right? Perhaps it’s because I popped it mid killing this risen giant. Next event, still 351 Karma. Alright, let’s try something else then, I activate the guild bonus 15% karma boost, that should help right? 351 Karma again.

Not only are DRs in place in some seriously bugged(LOL DUNGEONS) and ineffective form, now the boosts to increase karma gain are now totally borked.

Tis a sad day.

Phantasms properly specced do 3-5k each and some are ranged. Flesh golem is an ELITE and does 1-2k at best, most times lower. Phantasms also have lower CDs.

If your focus is WvW and PvP in general, go with a Mesmer. You have a lot more unique utility that you can bring to the table. (Portal, Time Warp etc). You also have the Necromancer’s best strengths in boon stripping with really good access to cleanses as well.

I started with a Necromancer at the headstart, it’s upsetting to know that all of which makes a Necro viable is completely outperformed when doing the same role on Mesmer. (Now playing a condition Mesmer in PvP)

It sounds like maybe you might want to take a step back and ask yourself, just what sort of playstyle are you searching for?

Also, don’t feel that you NEED altruistic healing to be a tanky Guardian, that is but one of the ways.

It seems like you want to be more offensively oriented than you can be right now, perhaps this fixation does not work entirely too well with the Guardian. Not saying it can’t be done but the Guardian does fall more along the lines of “slow and steady wins the race” than it does RAM THIS kitten UNTIL IT DIES.

This change will make Guardians a lot more mobile and have a flash skill much like the Elementalist’s Lightning Flash or the Mesmer’s Blink though on a longer cool down. That might not be what they want to give Guardians.

Though rather to whoever is lowest, they can just make it target ally(your 2nd option). It makes a lot more sense this way.

Why are you using Scepter with full power? I went for “Tahlkora’s” which is Vitality, Healing and Condition damage in PvE.

Monk has a great 6pc bonus and a lot of support specs run that or a mix with Water for some extra fat boon duration.

Seeing as we completely lack in the boons department focusing mainly on the negative side of things (conditions), I went for Rune of the Flock hoping the blind from the bird would work with Chilling Darkness. It of course, does not but nevertheless is still a solid rune set for +Healing.

The moment an Engineer with grenades come running, you become absolutely a detriment to your group in a dungeon setting. Grenades can be tossed from a safer distance, stack vulnerability faster and is AoE without needing to pick up Well of Suffering or Epidemic. It also applies other conditions such as blind, poison, chill and what not alongside this.

Axe used to be decent until they completely gut the damage aspect of it. It’s only use now is a weapon you can use outside of staff to get a better chance at better contribution on zergy long boss fight events.

Soldier’s Amulet (Power, Toughness, Vitality) is the best imho. It doesn’t exist as accessories from crafting so I fill those slots with cleric. You can get this spread all but helmet from Karma Orr vendors, Sorrow’s Embrace or Honor of the Waves.

I find Healing pointless to stack above 1k, 500-700 is more than enough(reachable with traits + accessories) as the difference becomes minimal. With full Cleric’s you have really really low HP, meaning you’re very easy bait for condition damage. Guardians do have a lot of ways to drop conditions, but when all those are on CD, the only thing that can save you is more HP. Plus, Tome of Courage full heals you no matter what, sacrificing that much just for a fatter regen or resolve isn’t worth it in my eyes

Also, most other classes that run condition builds have Bleeding AND Burning or Poison, in the case of Engineer and Rangers, all three. Guardians only really have access to Burning and no bleeding outside of Sigil of Earth, makes for akitten poor candidate for condition builds.

Oma Overdose.2069:

I think Guardians are balanced. Here is why.

We have the lowest base hp, 10k. This is naturally offset by armor and we can use skills to blind, retaliate and block. However conditions like bleeding, poison and burning can eat through our hp quickly.

We have minimal range. Scepter gives us some weak range and stuns but it’s not going to kill anyone. With sword we have a teleport but it is short ranged. Good ele, ranger and engi have all been able to outrange me and pew pew me down.

In summary against guardians use conditions from afar. Or if you are a thief get behind us and press 2

Use a soldier’s amulet, suddenly your Guardian will become that much more tankier.
Conditions are still the bane of Guardians though.

Useful because you can’t find upgrade slots for some of the stat spreads that are way more useful than crafting prefixes.

Not getting any badges outside of running siege as a support is getting old. Though that also has a lot to do with non damage focused specs getting shafted in rewards in general.

Dynamic Events and everything in this game favors tunnel vision DPS when calculating rewards, why?

I already know condition damage and contribution is being looked into, can you at least acknowledge this issue for characters more geared for support too? All it does is really discourage people from playing beneficial specs that isn’t all about the CRAZY CRITS.

Make Badges of Honor a currency you get automatically like Karma from completing events. It sucks that my Necromancer in full Shaman gear can get Gold contribution in taking a keep but absolutely no Badges of Honor(outside of manning sieges) while the group I’ve been keeping up with wells and transfusion rakes in them by the handful.

Never once did I claim Mesmers have better mobility than thieves, nor did I say they did more burst than them. Relative to most other professions though, they do have many ways to distance themselves and have really high sustain once the ball gets rolling. When Phase Retreat works properly + Blink, you can cover quite a bit. Stealth is always a good way to displace yourself too.

Also, just because you may not have the huge passive movespeed thieves or rangers have does not mean you don’t have presence on the map. Portal is actually really useful on Foefire and not only Kyhlo. You can use it to quickly snap back to Quarry/Waterfall (depending on team) from the keep gate. When the point is clear, you’re free to wear down the gate to the keep lord while instantly being able to port back and defend.

I never stated that Mesmers are the perfect roaming profession in tPvP, all I did was list out my reasons as to why it pack the best utilities. You however are going off on a completely different tangent and seem to want your Mesmer to be more thief than caster. Damage was far from the focus of my original post. The intrigue is the Mesmer’s greatest weapon, and theirs far outshines other classes (perhaps a bit much) for a tPvP environment.

Dig the new spectral walk, still find it hard to fit in my WvW Wells support though. Epidemic is a must have, Well of Power is needed as cleric support while Well of Darkness is one of the best skills we have.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Dont move and dont use any attack other then auto attack

Thats about all you can do

Basically this, play like a bad and act like your clones. Your clones aren’t smart enough to feel like a player but you can act like AI. Barrel rolling left and right gives you away instantly, so does excessive fidgeting of your feet.

Of course, this doesn’t apply if they obviously are going straight for you.

Can’t believe I’d see a response like this. I actually will take a look at this skill now cause it can serve as both mobility, escape and stun break. It’s way better than its previous iteration and your complaint is it’s not “creative” enough for you?

/facepalm

You can’t say I’m trolling when you’re trying to convince me Well of Power is better than Null Field.

I’ve been playing a conditionmancer for the longest time and switched to Mesmers in tPvP because they’re better in every way.

Feedback forces them to eat it right then and there or they better move out. They can choose not to shoot at the area Wall of Reflection is. This is why Feedback blows up siege right away in WvW and Wall is only useful for bridges and other choke points.

Arcane Thievery may be capped, but it is both a defensive and an offensive cool down meaning it’s more flexible and has more usage in different situations.

Decoy doubles as a stun break, with an impressively low CD at that. Like all other Mesmer skills, it’s both offensive and defensive at the same time, not everyone’s utilities can match that. Another illusion means another source to stack bleeds from, if they choose to pop it, they’re handing you a precious second in an engagement while dumping yet another condition on them.

Well of Power along with all other Necromancer wells pulses once per second over 5 seconds. It only washes off one per second meaning you also must stay it in longer with multiple conditions thus becoming AoE bait. Null Field strips both boons/conditions instantly the moment it comes out, how can you even argue this? It’s ground target by default and is on a 45s CD. Necromancers have to heavily trait for Wells (20 pts in Curses, 20 in Blood Magic) to even slightly compare.

It’s true Guardians have more flexibility when it comes to when they want to pull, however they can still only use Binding blade to peel for others, not themselves. Mesmers can do both with Temporal Curtain so yea, functionally it IS better.

I know how Mesmers work, I theorycrafted them with my guildie who plays one as his main, I also have extensive first hand experience with one. You are kidding yourself if you do not see how Mesmers easily outclass others in utility. Point being, the Mesmer’s iteration of all these utilities are more flexible and less one dimensional than its counterparts. If you can’t see that well..

Problem with Mesmers, they have all the best utilities from multiple classes on shorter cool downs and in better forms.

Feedback > Wall of Reflection
Blink > Lightning Flash
Decoy > Thief Stealths
Arcane Thievery > Plague Signet + Corrupt Boon
Null Field > Well of Power/Corruption/Purging Flames
Temporal Curtain > Binding Blade
Time Warp > All Quickness (it’s elite yea i guess)
Chaos Armor > All other forms of Protection (Can be used twice, Phase Retreat into Chaos Storm)

Seeing the trend here? Their damage and mobility aside (which is heaps better than most), they pack all the good stuff on much much lower cool downs, and they get all of it to pick from.

I would like to know what times you’re most active? I’m all the way in GMT +8 and that’s the only issue. Otherwise, this guild intrigues me.

I like the Necromancer, just everything that was supposed to make it unique is either broken or performing extremely sub par. It’s condition management and minon skills are either bugged or working worse than Mesmer’s (closest class in playstyle).

I feel really strongly about this and feel just one “Guilds” section isn’t enough, especially with the scope of the game as big as this one.

I don’t understand the negativity surrounding inspection. The same people that use it to judge you are the same people that you shouldn’t group with. They will group with other “jerks” while you can group with your friends.

Plus if you have a well thought out build and know your class well, you would be okay even IF they inspect you. What matters is your knowledge and ability with the class and part of that IS your gear choice. The only thing this would do is encourage and help people with gearing choices.

I for one am pretty tired of dealing with Greatsword Heros in full Berserkers gear that CAN’T PULL IT OFF I’m not saying you can’t be successful with it. But in explorable modes where mistakes are more unforgiving, I don’t want to be ressing a plate every pull because he has less toughness than our Elementalist. Doesn’t matter if you have “CRAZY CRITS” if you’re dying left and right.

What’s causing even more of a headache along with this issue is the inconsistency of prefix on their sPvP amulets and their PvE counterparts.

For example, Knight’s Amulet is Power/Precision/Vitality. The same prefix in PvE is Power/Precision/Toughness.

Shaman’s Amulet is Condition Damage/Healing/Toughness. In PvE it’s Condition Damage/Healing/Vitality. Crest of the Shaman (upgrade slot) is Power/Healing/Vitality.

What gives? All it does is make itemization more confusing.

I know there is a current Guild section on the bottom but it’s also quite messy.
Have a sub-section that only lists out all the home servers once you click into it. This way people have a way to mass communicate outside of the game for within their home server.

I can see this being great for WvW organization. Big guilds can also use this as a way to perhaps promote events they want more people to be aware of. All in all, this would be a huge quality of life improvement in building server communities.

Wells even with two major traits invested still pale in comparison to a Mesmer just picking up Null Field.

Plague Signet is bugged..the rest of them are well..not very useful. And yes, Staves are one of the best weapons Necros have and is a must on any set. However the Putrid Mark while transfers the Necro’s conditions at any distance, its allies need to be close to the Mark’s AoE when it triggers to receive any sort of benefit from them.

What control? Death Shroud fear is 1200 single target, Reaper’s Mark I guess? That’s..one skill. Spectral Grasp has terrain obstructured/LoS issues and is often unreliable. You know why Guardian/Engineers are used most as point defenders? It’s because they can knock people off and immobilize soon after doing so. Necromancers? Not going to happen. By AoE control if you mean snaring, wow that’s amazing, totally going to pick my Necro JUST for that.

And that’s great that he can auto attack for 4k in Lich Form, that’s every 3 minutes if he’s not immediately focused down and forced out to heal (utilities locked out) or just straight up turned into a bird. Outside of that, direct damage with Axe is terrible with Daggers requiring huge amount of set up to be even remotely useful. Phantasms better be LoS’d/destroyed or they’d be taking 3-5k from them and they’re on such low cool downs. Elite flesh golem? hits for 1-2k AND is melee.

Mesmer’s? Ontop of their tide-turning elites (OMFG TIME WARP), they strip boons better, Null Field does it all the moment it comes out vs Wells ticking one per second. Arcane Thievery has the same issues as Corrupt Boon not hitting at times but it’s also a lot more flexible in function.

If anyone is foolish enough to linger in a Chaos Storm, they’re going to have a bad time. Focus Temporal Curtain > Into the Void, AoE pull? Oh my. iWarden, I don’t even know why people aren’t using focus more yet.

Have you tried CCing a Mesmer? Doesn’t work too well, their stun breaks are all under a minute and EVEN if you catch them without it. Phase Retreat is usable when controlled, so is distortion. Just CCing a Mesmer doesn’t stop their damage output, Phantasms will still be shooting while ones with Sharper Images will still be stacking bleeds. Necros? Unless you go 30 into SR, have fun eating stuns, your only other choice is popping Plague Signet which HAPPENS to be your best support ability on a 60s cd.

This is all not considering the abyssal difference the two classes have in mobility.

If you’re playing a Minion Master, aside from the Horrid AI, you’re also giving up valuable utility slots. Phantasm Mesmers don’t have to put up with that and can still bring their shinies while still popping out Illusions that actually damage their targets on lower CDs.

Seriously, to all these Necromancers who are succeeding, major props. I was once like you, extremely proud and willing to defend the class. Go play a Mesmer a couple matches with the same build/idea you have on the Necromancer. Tell me how it goes because after doing so, it totally shattered Necros for me.

Been playing my Guardian more and more now, Mesmers are so strong to the point it feels so cheese so I stopped.

Pretty similar story to Thryfing. 80 Full Tahlkora’s asura necromancer just benched because it’s no longer fun for me when I log on to it. It’s amazing when you go from Necromancer to another class that actually has variety in both utility and traits to shoot for (and they also function).

As a Guardian I actually have 4-5 boons on my bar all the time! Instead of being locked out of my utilities to absorb hits, I can choose to negate it through blocks, blinds and aegis all without having to create a pause in my damage output (bleed stacking). I’m no longer limited to just debuffing others to decrease their damage output, why not do that AND give protection/boons to both myself and allies?

My control effects are actually meaningful, instead of just interrupting a skill, I can actually knock people off points and neutralize them and then keep them off in tPvP!

It’s a scene that can only bring smile to your face when you see what kind of numbers you can get with a well placed Wall of Reflection in WvW. Not to mention, you can grant near permanent AoE swiftness for fast supply runs as a squad, I even have mobility on this class. Some people have problems with Guardians in WvW, but those are mostly coming from people who aren’t very flexible in adapting different playstyles for different scenarios.

Plague form is a pretty good elite in team fights, but it doesn’t do jack when people start scattering and you can only choose one to chain blind. It’s nice for once to know you have a tide-turning elite that can come through in the clutch.

What’s this? I can actually break stuns routinely and grant stability in a 600 radius on a 30s CD? I get to do all of this, all this while still getting away with 3k armor, 21k hp, and 2.8k power? Yea, keep at it with the DS, that Fear and hits you can take with it is totally worth the hassle..

Shukran.4851:

why so much hate for necros? they are the best supporter/control character in the game. maybe their skill cap is higher than other classes because they don’t put all thier ability in the damage output. but necro is a great class if well used

- a random thief

Because Mesmer has all of the Necromancer’s best tools in better iterations, is harder to put down, has more presence around the map AND does a lot more damage!

Funfact: they also have more ways to go than just conditions.

Totally not a legitimate complaint when the Guardian actually has more viable ways to play relative to most other professions! I may sound biased as I came from a Necromancer where you WERE completely pigeon holed.

It’s only crap if you think it’s crap and unwilling and have an allergic reaction to it. Not saying it can’t be improved but renewed focus IS what you’d run for an offensive oriented Guardian that doesn’t want to run Tome of Wrath. All those QQ about melee unfriendly mechanics such as hugekitten PBAoE stomps? Your blocks and aegis on top of renewed focus helps you sit in melee. tPvP is a different story as running anything outside of Tome of Courage is kittening yourself, you have a legitimate complaint THERE.

It’s the same scenario with WoW-kiddies trying to play Thieves like Rogues and failing then QQing. Just because it’s different doesn’t necessary fit your playstyle 100% doesn’t make it automatically terrible. It’s a different game, perhaps if more people can see past the scope what they always want the class to be, they can enjoy it more.

I get that not everyone is is cool with melee being the under dog when it comes to massive battles, but when was this NOT the case? If anything, they improved on past situations by giving traditional melee classes ranged options (albeit limited for the Guardian).

Not everyone wants to run around with a Scepter and I get that, but foolishly thinking you should always be able to run into the thick of things with a greatsword and coming out the victor when it comes to SIEGE WAFARE is just too much of a stretch.

That being said, I don’t get heavily attached to HAVE to use this weapon or so forth all the time. I see how they made the game as an encouragement to bring the correct weapon for the engagement. Scepter/Shield + Staff is great when you need to keep your battlements healthy on the walls but you’d bekittensure I’m switching to Sword/Focus + Hammer when we’re bum rushing the keep.

The Guardian has a lot of neat utilities that are invaluable. You’re the ONLY class that can become a full time healer (by popping tome) for a short while. You also have the most access to retaliation AND AoE Stability. Wards speak for themselves and the amount of hard control effects in junction with all of this makes for a solid class all around in any engagement.

If you HAVE to always melee, then perhaps go for more melee friendly scenarios? Don’t frustrate yourself by standing on keep walls and go assault or defend a supply camp somewhere, you’re not helping anyone standing with a greatsword while everyone shoots balls of lightning and what not at each other. Otherwise, man akittensiege weapon!

They gave you options to adapt to numerous scenarios, its YOUR fault if you aren’t willing to utilize it. The only complain you should have is that WvW and PvE in general shafts less damaging specs in general.

shedim.8504:

I didn’t roll a heavy armored melee class to hang back and cast stuff. I can see their use and I’m glad you enjoy them, but I simply don’t. They do neither match my way of playing the Guardian nor do they really help me. Quite honestly, I’d rather swap them for an additional utility ability.

The 2 tomes are just way too similar and renewed focus is simply lackluster. I hardly use the virtues’ active effects and I don’t see a reason why I should want to immobilize myself for 3 seconds, ever.

I mean no offense, but I see no logic in your reasoning. Way before the game was released, the Wiki containing details of all the skills were regularly updated with each new build and so you did kind of know what kind of playstyle you were getting into.

ANet wants us to play how we want to play, but they still want to make THEIR vision of the class and not YOURS. You can shape the mold to better fit your tastes but in the end, the Guardian is the Guardian and it’s their take on it. A lot of weird complaints regarding classes stems from this weird notion that it HAS to play how I want to play it. GW2 made the classes flexible enough already, what more do you need?

Sounds like you should play a Warrior?

First world problem at its finest. If you don’t understand just how stupid what you’re suggesting is, then nothing is going to reach over.

What you should be upset about? The snow-balling mechanics and people flying. Guess what, all this does is give you more objectives to capture when your day begins. In my last match up, Zerg Desert would have pretty much all the territories come late night. But guess what, when the numbers are even? Blackgate can actually be the dominant one in terms of how much territory it controls. The fact that they only lead in numbers because of numbers and not actual skill fills me with pride.

Perhaps you should direct some of this angst in another direction.

If you’re trying to save your allies, you should be using Tome of Courage yes?

Renewed Focus while not without its downsides serves the Guardian well as a elite you can pop frequently and get extremely good mileage out of when soloing. That’s what I use it for at least. The minors that increase the utility of virtues add on to this as well.

Conceptually it’s the class that intrigues me the most. Tanky caster with a nack for turning a negative situation into a positive one. However, it’s just not enjoyable when extremely key skills revolving the playstyle are bugged and not functioning as intended.

If I didn’t like it, it wouldn’t have been my first choice.

Can’t relate to the negative sentiment on tomes. Tome of Courage is still one of the best elites in the game, you can’t argue with that.

I find Renewed Focus has a place too, it might not be flashy but mechanically it serves pretty well as my go-to elite when I’m out in the world soloing. I have 20 pts in Virtues along with 10 in Radiance, the minors that buff said virtues make Renewed Focus a pretty potent elite. This is also the one you can use the most frequently almost like an utility.

It’s like the mail pigeon, it flies in blinds and leaves.

To give your foes a target to rally from as Necromancers simply are too powerful and it wouldn’t be fair otherwise!

10 Honor, shouts -20% recharge. Fill your bar with shouts and go to town with Greatsword/Sword/Focus.