Guild Wars 2

Anchoku.8142:

Necromancer’s scepter continues to disappoint in every situation besides 1v1 PvP. Damage ramp is too long and bleeds are capped quickly on bosses.

Agree with the cap problem & ramp up problem.

That being said if you combine scepter with signet of spite, dhuumfire & epidemic you end up with a combo that can easily melt up to 5 players.

Thaddeus.4891:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Staff is also lack luster.
If they would swap the orb and wave abilities around so the orb can be spammed (but not detonated) and put the wave on a 5 second CD (but with greater damage) then the staff would be great.

Staff is a huge part of the meta in WvW and tPvP since day one. There is nothing wrong with the weapons, its just not made for PvE.

Swapping the wave for the orb would be a terrible idea. The goal of the Staff is close range aoe to tag everything and do little dmg while using the support skills of the weapon. Staff have its specific identity, we don’t want a two-handed scepter.

Even if swapped the wave would not be on a long CD.
It would be 3 seconds, 20% less with 2 handed mastery + the damage could be increased.

Meanwhile we would not be able to detonate the orb, but it could be spammed.

This would mean you could still easily tag large groups of enemies but you would also have some actual ranged damage. (Albeit easy to avoid for anyone paying attention, but thats the case anyway.)

Crius.5487:

“Bunker” is an archetype build for multiple classes in sPvP and doesn’t belong anywhere in WvW.

The current WvW meta puts Necromancers at the top of the damage dealing. The job of the frontline is to immobilize the enemy so they are rooted in necro wells. The greatsword might have superior damage however the hammer has superior crowd control with a short cooldown blast finisher.

You need the immobilize to keep the enemy locked down and the blast finisher for healing. A majority of healing comes from using a blast finisher inside a water combo field.

While necromancers are quite nice I’d have to disagree with them being the best at AOE.

I’ve seen some insane damage pumped out by elementalists using the scepter or staff & they provide allot more support at the same time. Also as a plus they are extremely hard to catch let alone kill.

Aeolus.3615:

mace on wvw probably a bunker mace guardian group with the mace heals on nearby allies??? turtling anyone?

Might help increase your survivability in small WvW roaming groups but generally the damage you take will outpace the healing the mace provides.

Overall the mace is best used in PvP for bunkering & PvE pug runs to keep people alive..

Generally speaking in terms of WvW I’d say the best options would be

1: Greatsword (the cleave is great, retaliation helps allot & the leap can help)

2: Staff (Again the cleave Albeit is has extremely low damage but generally just enough to tag stuff. It also has might & AOE heals.
Last but not least it also has swiftness. While standing still in the symbol for 4+ seconds kind of negates the purpose of swiftness it can be placed ahead of you on the run & be placed in choke points for low consistent AOE damage.

So the staff definitely has its problems but is still good.

Personally I’d like to see an “Offhanded Mastery”

Just combine all the shield & focus traits. They suck anyway.

Lastly as far as the scepter goes.

The damage “POTENTIAL” is nice, however due to how slow the orbs move they often miss.
There is also the fact that smite is not a true AOE. It’s a ground targeted mark that does 15 single target attacks.

What I have proposed for over 2 years is that they

1: Make the scepter auto attack into a fast channeled beam that will penetrate enemies to hit its target (Ala mesmer greatsword, just keep the damage output around the same as is now)

2: Change smite into a symbol. (this might mean less single target damage, but greater AOE damage. It would also make it interact with symbol traits, thus more build options)

oxtred.7658:

Sword 3 isn’t a dps gain over auto attack. It’s main selling point is the longer reach and the projectile block.

The main problems with number 3 are three fold.

1: The projectiles are to slow, meaning any moving enemy will likely be missed allot.

2: It doesn’t actually block, it absorbs. This means it does not interact with the various traits/effects that trigger off of blocks.

3: The damage output is the same as or lower then the auto attack chain (even with the decent chance of sword wave missing on a moving target)

There is also the fact that the 3rd attack on the auto attack chain can often miss on moving targets & can be reflected even though its not listed as a projectile.
(really they should make it more akin to the warrior axe 3rd auto attack, then it would be fine & cleave)

Hmmm For guardian id have to say

Shield, (its extremely situational).
If they would get rid of the difference between PvE & PvP for the number 4 that would help. (would also be great if it was an AOE centered on the guardian)

Also if they would change the number 5 slightly. Get rid of the detonation, make it a drop & forget skill & make it apply 1 AEGIS (10 seconds) to allies within the radius on creation then it would be a great weapon.

Staff is also lack luster.
If they would swap the orb and wave abilities around so the orb can be spammed (but not detonated) and put the wave on a 5 second CD (but with greater damage) then the staff would be great.

For necro it would be the axe, if it would simply cleave enemies near the primary target then it would be good.
Or if they could bump the damage up up about 20% then it would be good.

Asmodal.6489:

I would be happy if they swapped shield and focus 5 skills. Focus would make so much sense in combo with scepter like Indure said.

The problem however is that the shield number 5 sucks & scales horribly.

Swapping it with scepter number 5 would just make allot of people grab the shield instead of the scepter.

Norjena.5172:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Really they should do 3 things

1: make the number 4 ability into a AOE centered on the guardian.
(this would make it better for front line use)

2: Get rid of the separation between PVE, WvW & Spvp for the number 4 ability.

3: Make the dome applied by the number 5 ability also apply 10 seconds of AEGIS.

After that shield would be fine.

1: yes
2: should be done by much more other skills
3.: will change nothing.
- u can get permaprot by using a hammer (hammer/mace rota not 100%, but there is not soo much need of more protection), so shield 4 can´t make the weapon viable alone.
- aoe knockback in pve usually sucks (pvp too, if u don´t want to cap a point)
-guards don´t need another skill to absorb/reflect projectiles. U can only make it extremly strong (like i thought), or let the guardian attack/use other skills while channeling. Or both.

U mean it nice, but it won´t help.

Look the mace for example. U lose abit mobility and a little bit of dmg. But u get heal/vul/block for it. That is a good trade. Shield vs focus….no comment.

Never said that 5 should apply protection.

Assuming they got rid of the difference between pvp & pve then number 4 would be good (great if it was an aoe centered on the guard)

What I said was that number 5 should be changed a bit.

First, make it something you drop and don’t have to maintain, but get rid of the detonate on it.
Second when used make it also grant 1 AEGIS to everyone in the radius effect for 10 seconds.

After that it would be much much better but not really imbalanced.

What if instead of increasing the scaling & reducing the stacks applied you instead reduced the duration of bleeds applied & increased the scaling.

For instance what if they reduced the duration of all bleeds by around say 30ish % but increased the scaling by the same amount so that damage stays the same.

This would reduce the amount of bleeds a small group can keep up on a target, but keep their damage potential the same.

I admit however it would make the ramp up of condition classes somewhat faster.

Really they should do 3 things

1: make the number 4 ability into a AOE centered on the guardian.
(this would make it better for front line use)

2: Get rid of the separation between PVE, WvW & Spvp for the number 4 ability.

3: Make the dome applied by the number 5 ability also apply 10 seconds of AEGIS.

After that shield would be fine.

All you guys hating on meditation guardians need to realize something

They have very long CD on their gap closing teleport. (Judge’s intervention, the 1h sword teleport has a crappy range)
No snares.
Only one chill (if using a hammer & traited for it).
Have Limited condition removal
Have no real stuns/dazes/fears etc…
And their ranged attacks move pitifully slow (can be avoided mostly by strafing side to side)

So use your ranged weapon, toss some conditions on them & burn them down from a distance. Then if they get close throw some CC on them and gain some distance to repeat the process.

Lygon.4896:

Please dont theyre so uber cheesy. But if you want the build is 2/0/6/0/6 .. full dire gear with krait runes. Pistol/Dagger.

They are one of the most OP builds in the game and is really easy to play because of high hp/armor/stealth/regen/ranged..

They are only cheesy until they run into someone with allot of condition removal or a necro with condition transfers.
At which point they become utter crap

Here’s an idea for necromancer

Army of the kitten e d : Summon 5 superior bone minions.
Unlike normal bone minions their attacks cause 4 seconds of bleeding & when they die they automatically explode into a toxic cloud (causing physical damage & poison for 4 seconds)

Agree that the hammer feels painfully slow.

I have shared numerous ideas on how it could be sped up over the last 2 + years.

The most popular was simply taking 1 pulse of symbol of protection & lowering the cast time of the last AA to 1/2 second.
After that it’s simply a matter of adjusting the damage done by the symbol.

You would still get permanent AOE protection + it would attack a good deal faster (without the swings doing any less damage)

As for the shield. Most people agree it feels very lack luster & it feels very strange that the guardian shield doesn’t even “block” attacks.
There have been a ton of suggestions for fixing it, sadly none have been used.

Frankly at this point however I wouldn’t expect major changes to come to the guardian & I would expect the 20 or so traits that are useless to remain useless.
Unless of course they do a proper expansion & true overhaul of each of the classes.

At the OP.

Best reason I can think for your damage being low even in all zerker gear is that yes they likely do have increased armor.

But your critical chance is also a bit low (you have some fury, but not that much).

My suggestion would be to try some Omnomberry ghosts or omnombery pie & use oils instead of sharpening stones.
This will give you around 9% crit chance & health steal on crit (which further increases damage and helps your survive a bit)

DoomKnightMax.6592:

Is it possible to develop a build for necromancers just to hard counter P/D or even S/D thieves? If one exists, please let me know.

P/D thieves need to be punished.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAoYWjc0UTbrN22webCchCy3MAi8CKBqjjz4ZB-TJBFwACODAy3foaZAAPCAA

is what I’ve been using for a while now.

It has high burst damage.
Good survivability thanks to rapid life force generation, death shroud & protection.
A pull/chill on a moderate CD.
Multiple fears
Very good Melee cleave with some ranged cleave
&
Allot of ways to either transfer conditions from you to enemies or consume them for extra health. (note they use your stats when transferred but still, better they tick away at their original casters health then yours)

Mikau.6920:

LOL this post gets nrecro’d hard. Yep, this rune is useless (I already forgot that it even exist). Also, Blind >>>>>>>>> Aegis.

Traveler/Pack are the only viable for now in PvP wise. (or max runes of trooper, if u are shout support)

IDK, I have an off set with runes of the pack that work decently.

The extra swiftness uptime is nice not to mention the might/fury/swiftness proc.

It’s not worth it.

Mainly due to the fact that most guardian signet actives suck

Signet of resolve is alright, though very few will take it over shelter because preventing damage > healing up after its caused.

Judgment is good because it breaks stuns

The other signets however just suck.

Bane, the CD is far too long. The recent buff to the knock down is nice but would have been much better as a CD reduction.

Wrath, the immobilize is nice but who the heck runs a condition guardian outside Spvp ?

Mercy, well its just a joke. Healing power scales badly & it requires you to be on top of your single ally to revive, not to mention the long cast time means your better off just rezzing the regular way.

Your not alone.

I know allot of people that use the hammer due to how useful the protection is but pretty much everyone agrees. The hammer AA is painfully slow.

A suggestion I have been floating around for a while is quite simple & something I believe would help allot.

1: Reduce the cast time of the last swing to 1/2 second.
2: Take a pulse of of symbol of protection (Don’t worry it will still provide permanent protection)
3: Adjust the damage per pulse of symbol of protection so that our overall damage is the same.

You end up with the same damage potential, more or less the same protection uptime (Still have permanent protection uptime) but a much faster AA chain.

Really short of adding more damaging conditions to the guardian kitten nal there is no way to make kindled zeal as viable of a choice as amplified wrath.

I have made & heard many suggestions for how more damaging conditions could be added but short of using these lets look at what else could be done.

They could move kindled zeal to the radiance line & into the place of radiant retaliation (which face it should be a base effect for everyone if your condition damage is more then 2/3 your power)
They could then adjust the scaling.

Or they could change what stats the trait gives.
Personally I would love to see it grant either vitality & healing power or precision & healing power equal to X% (say around 10%) of your power.
That ^ would make it an intrusting option which would fit well with cleric or zealot gear.

Ragnarox.9601:

Why not give trait to increase speed of hammer third swing by 20% plus 5% more dmg as a grandmaster trait or something like giving 5# skill 20% less cd plus 20% more duration ( or make it a consecration)

Really they could speed up the hammer rather easily in a better way.

Simply reduce the swing time to 3/4 sec for the last AA attack, then take 1 pulse off of the hammer & reduce the damage per pulse of protection slightly.

This would keep the damage the same over all while making the hammer allot more fun to use due to faster AA

Asmodal.6489:

mastertrait: hellfire – 1 stack of 8s bleed, torment, confusion on every burn stack application. no CD.

Would be horribly OP.

Granted I think they could easily add/change 1 or 2 of the existing traits to add torment & confusion to the guardian kitten nal in a balanced way.

Where to start, Lemme find my old list.

Traits

1: Protectors Impact (pretty much useless, what if instead it triggered the same type of heal as selfless daring trait ?)

2: Shattered AEGIS (again useless, unless your abusing the lack of target limit in WvW when combined with communal defenses. What if instead it granted something useful like say dazing, blinding or even confusing the attacker when one of your AEGIS’s is broken)

3: Revenge of the Fallen (pretty bad trait, what if it was combined with strength of the fallen?)

4: Improved Spirit Weapon Duration (great trait but it should be in zeal)

5: Spirit Weapon Mastery (If spirit weapon duration is moved to zeal then move this to the master tier & tack on "Increases the health of spirit weapons by 100%)

6: Symbolic Exposure (extremely weak as is. What if it’s duration was increased to 5-6 seconds ?)

7: Scepter Power (The damage boost is nice but nobody really uses it. What if it also gave Some type of proc effect, or stat boost?)

8: Zealous Blade (As others have said its pretty bad. I agree with others who have called for its healing to be 3-5 ish % of damage done in a AOE around the guardian)

9: Focus Mastery (Again very lame duck with just having a CD reduction.)

10: Kindled Zeal (unless arena.net plans on giving the guardian 2-3 more damaging conditions there is just no point in using this. What if it gave Precision or Vitality equal to 10% of your power ?)

11: Searing Flames (The CD is quite long given other classes can spam steal, convert or swap boons. What if it had a 10second CD per target & procced damage when it removed a boon ?)

12: Signet Mastery (Kinda meh. Given so many other classses have the same trait with extra bonuses. What if you Combined it with Inscribed Removal ? Then you would be able to create a new trait say “Inscribed Healing” Heal yourself when activating a signet)

13: Shimmering Defense (Given the effect & the CD its very under par. What if instead it made the guardian apply confusion when blinding an enemy? Say 1 stack, 5 seconds, 5 sec CD ?)

14: Inner Fire (Only really ever used in 1 path of COF. What if instead it granted fury when you activate a virtue ?)

15: Powerful Blades (Its alright but kinda bland. What if instead it went back to the old +5% and also caused critical hits with swords to apply 4 seconds of torment ?)

16: Radiant Retaliation (Should be a base effect for all classes if their condition damage is more then 3/5 their power)

17: Perfect Inscriptions (Very meh given what most of the signets do. Lower the scaling slightly then give it a nice proc effect and it would be great. Say AOE fury when using a signet or AOE might stacks ?)

18: Glacial Heart (Make it a guaranteed proc chance)

19: Resolute Healer (IDK, maybe lower the CD to 30 sec.)

20: Wrathful Spirit (given how short the retaliation is maybe add another boon or 2 onto it. Say fury & might?)

21: Empowering Might (Nice as is, but would be much much better if base duration was a bit longer. Say 7 seconds ?)

22: Unscathed Contender (The uptime of this trait’s effect is very low in any serious battle. What if instead it gave +8% while effected by protection ?)

23: Retaliatory Subconscious (given the CD and the availability of retaliation it would be much better off giving protection during the CC, might or fury after the CC)

24: Purity of Body (Should be an adept trait)

There are also plenty of weapon skills, utilities & elite skills that could stand to be reworked.

Eh the only problems I see with mace are

1: The last auto attack’s healing scales horribly. (Should start very low and scale better with healing power)

2: The melee block on number 3 can be triggered by ranged attacks (its the only one that can be in game)

3: The pulses/duration of the symbol should be halved while the damage per pulse & boon applied per pulse should be doubled (true of all symbols except perhaps protection & wrath)

Saiyan.1704:

Well it makes sense in that placing burn traits in a condition tree would make us inbalanced. So i understand why they mix and match traits the way they do. It promotes different builds as well.

What gets me, is why put an overall condition trait when the only condition we offer is burns? I have found no usage for Kindled Zeal when Amplified Wrath is 5x better for a Guardian when we burn on every 5th (or 3rd) hit.

The only time Kindled Zeal overtakes Amplified Wrath is if you use a condi signet, Rune of krait, doom and geomancy. Only by using all of those together will you see a better damage output in said 9 seconds of applied condition damage vs 9 seconds of applied burns.

Make Guardians Chill be effected by power And condition damage. Maybe we’ll see different power/condi hammer builds similar to a warrior’s hambow build.

Eh heck with that.

What they need to do is give guardian access to more types of conditions instead of just making the ones they already have even more powerful.

For instance.

Shimmering Defense, what if they changed it so it applied confusion whenever you blind a foe.
Powerful Blades, what if it also caused critical hits with swords to apply torment.

Both of these changes would give the guardian a decent option for condition builds & fit well with the idea of not having cripples (punishes enemies for running away) and defensive offense (punish enemies for attacking)

As Kek said no.

Mainly because support beyond the base amount you get from a few utility skills or from the hammer is not needed in any dungeon unless your team mates are complete idiots, in which case its better to get new team mates then respec.

Damage potential comes in far more handy.

DrDivine.5378:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

The main weakpoint of guardians is the lack of real ranged potential & lack of cripples, chills etc to help stay on target.
(dont say scepter because any target beyond 600 range can strafe to avoid orbs)

Medi guard also has a weakness in that it has a low amount of condition removal compared to a shout build.

Best option would be to use longbow in your off set & doom sigil on each weapon set to keep poison up.
This will limit their healing potential & keep extra damage ticks up on them.
Also I would suggest using the trait that allows you to stack vulnerability on crit.
(that will allow you to cover your bleeds & poison and make them waste more condition cleanses)

Would you replace sigil of battle, energy or geomancy for doom?

Geomancy most likely.

The main weakpoint of guardians is the lack of real ranged potential & lack of cripples, chills etc to help stay on target.
(dont say scepter because any target beyond 600 range can strafe to avoid orbs)

Medi guard also has a weakness in that it has a low amount of condition removal compared to a shout build.

Best option would be to use longbow in your off set & doom sigil on each weapon set to keep poison up.
This will limit their healing potential & keep extra damage ticks up on them.
Also I would suggest using the trait that allows you to stack vulnerability on crit.
(that will allow you to cover your bleeds & poison and make them waste more condition cleanses)

The only way I can see rangers getting the “rifle” is if they made it behave like a shotgun.

IE short range, lots of AOE & a mixture of power & condition abilities.

Really, may as well just stick with rampager.

Why don’t they come up with completely new stat combo’s ?

It’s been over 2 years and we have yet to see a power >, precision, vitality set.

Really they just need to have some people sit down and look at all the traits & where they are.

As is the guardian has a good 20ish traits that are under powered, in a line that doesn’t make sense or just plain stupidly made.

Other classes each also have some problems with their traits (notably necromancer) & really they should all be addressed.

While it would be nice if healing power for some abilities/traits/spells scaled better, merging healing power with boon duration would not be an ideal way to do it.

What I wonder is

What if they allowed some traits/spells/abilities that heal to critically heal ?

Alright I can understand why some would be against increasing the damage of Zealot’s defense.

Though I often see more single target damage with whirling wrath (And it also does AOE)

What if they increased the speed of the projectiles by 40ish %, shortened the block duration to 2 seconds & made it block ALL attacks. (not just absorb ranged as it does now)

That would help more of the projectiles hit & the fact it actually blocks would work great with traits.

As for the AA chain, I’d make the number 3 into an actual melee attack with a slightly larger cone & make it cripple any enemy hit for 1 second.

Eh my solution for the auto attack would be to simply change the number 3 auto attack into a pure melee attack with a bit wider cone.

Then have it apply a 1 second cripple to any target it hits.

Then for the number 3 ability I would change it so it actually counts as a ranged block, increase the projectile speed by about 50%, then lastly up the damage by around 25%.

Eh IDk if you should be able to move while casting it.

Though i would do the following

1: Greatly increase the projectiles speed
2: Make it count as an actual block not an absorb, so that block traits/effects trigger off of it.
3: Make it easier to cancel (as is you usually have to dodge roll to cancel it mid cast)

Eh the main problem I & most ppl I know have with then number 3 on the 1h sword on guardian is

1: The block is not an actual block, its an absorb (this means it will not actually trigger on block effects)

2: The damage is so low compared to auto attack its never worth using unless your getting hammered with ranged attacks

3: If a target is strafing many of the projectiles can miss.

Other problems many have with the sword include

1: The last attack on the auto chain is considered a projectile & can be reflected. Yet it does not count as a projectile finisher. (make it one or make it count as a melee)

2: (Applies to greatsword as well) While teleports & leaps are alright the guardian could really use some CC (Cripples, stuns, dazes, chills etc…) so that they can stay on target. (Guardians are extremely easy to kite vs any other melee specced class).
It would be fantastic if flashing blade & leap of faith applied a short duration (say 3 seconds) cripple to enemies they damage.

Instanced 10-15-20 man raids could be quite nice for guilds & larger groups of friends.

It could also incorporate the commander system.

That being said any progression should rely on agony resist not other stats.

Apolo.5942:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Aeolus.3615:

Spirit skills still need rework, as much i would love to use SoA on combat is not that efective at all.

This ^ really.

As is you have to invest far to many traits to make spirit weapons do viable damage & even after that they die extremely easily.

+ there is the fact that investing to make spirit weapons viable leaves you personally much weaker, especially to conditions & bursty damage.

I have talked to allot of friends & most have said they would like psirit weapons changed in 1 of 3 ways.

1: Consolidate the traits down to a maximum of 3, & make one of said traits double the spirit weapons base health while making them do their command upon death (similar to ranger spirit traits)

2: Make spirit weapons more like bundles/conjured weapons. (they last for a set amount of time & give you 5 new weapon abilities while active)

3: Make them a bit more like banners, albeit ones that could be commanded for a special effect (they would be stationary, give every ally in a set radius a positive effect & every enemy in the area a negative effect, they could be commanded for a special effect)

3: Absolutely not, the last thing this game needs and guardians even more so, are fixed static skills that dont work in WvW.

1 and 2: suffer the same problem that Necro and current spirit weapons suffers, which is at its core a design flaw in the skill categorization. What i mean is, currently the game is designed (or at least wanted to be) around your weapon giving you your combat/offensive skills and your 5 pickable skills giving your your heal, 3 utility skills and 1 elite. That is what they wanted to do, in reality what ended up happening is that almost every class out there breaks this rule, being summons the Major offenders.
For the guardian in particular, most builds rely on your utilities to double as your healing skills due to the lack of sustain and base “toughness”. Lets take a look at spirit weapons. Sword and Hammer flat out do not work as utility skills, they work as extra damage and a combat move in the case of the hammer. Shield works more like a defensive combat skill with the option to do burst damage, than a real utility skill. The bow is the only one that actually works as a utility skill but also doubles as a healing.
In general what happens is you end up using utility skills as combat moves or double tasking, which breaks the basic design of the game, on top of that 3 out of 4 of your spirits work as combat skills instead of utility skills, and the remaining one is weak at best. Yet on top of that you have to invest an insane amount of points, basically going all or nothing into to it to make it worth it, and given the nature of their long cooldown and the traits points investment you can not mix and match other skills either.

As i said, this happens with all classes, what was intended to be particular for the engi, ends up happening with every class out there, it just happens that this breaking with design at every corner, crashes the loudest on the guardian.

I kind of agree with you on some things. Whatever they do there will be problems though because no build should ever be “perfect”

As far as my suggestions go

Number 3, could actually be nice in PvP & PvE where area control is much more of a thing.

Suggestion number 1, it would actually alleviate allot of the problems & make the spirit weapons better.
Your right though it would not get rid of their problems completely. Only a completely redesign of them from the ground up could do that.

Personally I would like my second suggestion though, as it would get rid of the problem of when a spirit weapon dies it becomes useless (and they die quite easily) & it would put much more control in the players hands instead of being reliant on AI.

Aeolus.3615:

Spirit skills still need rework, as much i would love to use SoA on combat is not that efective at all.

This ^ really.

As is you have to invest far to many traits to make spirit weapons do viable damage & even after that they die extremely easily.

+ there is the fact that investing to make spirit weapons viable leaves you personally much weaker, especially to conditions & bursty damage.

I have talked to allot of friends & most have said they would like psirit weapons changed in 1 of 3 ways.

1: Consolidate the traits down to a maximum of 3, & make one of said traits double the spirit weapons base health while making them do their command upon death (similar to ranger spirit traits)

2: Make spirit weapons more like bundles/conjured weapons. (they last for a set amount of time & give you 5 new weapon abilities while active)

3: Make them a bit more like banners, albeit ones that could be commanded for a special effect (they would be stationary, give every ally in a set radius a positive effect & every enemy in the area a negative effect, they could be commanded for a special effect)

Eh personally I think they should increase the healing but make it heal per attack, not per enemy you hit.

Somewhat similar to the elementalist signet heal.

You know another difference between guardians and warriors.

1: Warriors have very good potential for staying on a target that tries to kite due to multiple abilities that knock down, stun, cripple & immobilize. (guardians have 1 knowck down on a long CD and a couple immobilizes all on moderate CD’s)

2: Warriors have almost twice the base health. (this forces guardians to gear for more health in PvP or be downed extremely fast)

3: Many warrior attacks scale much much better with power

4: Warriors have a very effective condition based build (guardian burn builds stack damage fast but are very easy to counter with cleanses)

5: Warriors have decent ranged potential on moving targets (try using guardian scepter on a target 600+ units away while they strafe back and forth)

You want your gap closers to be faster ? All right.

The guardian community would like some of these issues looked at.

Number 4 would be quite nice, especially in PvP because for some reason they have never given guardian any cripples (which hurts the ability to stay on target, since immobilize requires a moderate-long CD in order to be balanced)

As far as number 5 goes. I don’t think the bubble should follow the guardian, however I believe it should be able to just be dropped allowing the guardian to get on with whatever he/she wants to do with either a heal or AEGIS coming at the end.
(having to sit there and channel it makes you a sitting duck to ground targeted attacks & melee.)

Eh even with the knock down increase I doubt bane signet will be worth using as anything other then a power boost.

The cool down is just too long on the skill.

They would have been much better off lowering the CD or making it a conal knock down similar to warrior mace off hand.

Where the change to retreat is concerned, the extra swiftness up time will be nice.
Personally I would have liked to see them make the CD 30 seconds with a base effect duration of 15 seconds.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAoYWjc0UTbrN22webCchCy3MAi8CKBqPj44ZB-TpBFwACOCAQOBAy3fo9hAoaZAAPAAA

IS what I generally use. Im sure if you wanted you could swap zerker for knights if you wanted.

Personally I love the build because it can transfer allot of conditions from yourself to enemies making the current condi meta a pain in the kitten for those who follow it.

Sublimatio.6981:

I’d rather have some vigor on critical hit, really

This ^ really.

That or make it give might (5 seconds) when you attack an enemy that is below 50% health.

Either of those would be great, as is now its useless.

Swamurabi.7890:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Might is, IIRC, 10 seconds of Weakness when corrupted. Whether it’s 1 stack or 25.

Too bad that for most of the corrupt skills, Might and Retaliation are low priority.

This ^.

Might should be prioritized right under protection given the current meta.
Should be as follows

1: Stability
2: Protection
3: Might
4: Fury
5: Regeneration
6: Vigor
7: AEGIS

jcbroe.4329:

I’m honestly not really sure why necros don’t get to heal in Death Shroud. I mean, the traits mentioned are already low singular heal values with pretty difficult to work with scaling, and the class itself has very poor mobility and and defensive capabilities outside of deathshroud (imo).

You would think that the least that could be done is make the siphon traits not so situational.

Anyhow, that’s my viewpoint from a non-necro main perspective. I don’t see how this could even be harmful to the balance spectrum.

This ^ more or less.

Life siphons, health steals etc…(from traits, sigils & runes) should heal your base health pool while in death shroud.

Other heals are highly debatable, I would doubt they should work.

Also where the vampiric rituals trait is concerned, I think that given its a grand master trait it should be better.
What if it caused all attacks to stealth heal & share said health with nearby allies?
That would give the necro some decent support via healing over time.

Relentliss.2170:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNArdWlsApIotCxKI8DRx+gk14qCg5wbX35zIA-TJBHwAAOFAGeCAr2fwZZAA

My friend runs something like this. The basic premise is to buff the spirt weapons up with might and immobilise your foe for the kill with your scepter. With 15 stacks of might they do a lot of damage.

You can run with any runes you want and the 3rd skill is up to you. Basically Spirit Hammer and Spirt Sword are the basis of your utilities but the Shield is nice vs ranged opponents and JI vs mobile ones. Hold the Line is also nice for the 3rd skill.

I like running runes of mercy with this so while my hammer and sword are pestering people I rez my team mates back up and get them into the fight.

Empower as it gives might to both allies and spirit weapons acts as a nice heal using AH.

The base idea behind this build is alright however it has some problems.
1: Very little condition removal.
2: Most of your damage is linked to spirit weapons & if they die (which can happen very easily) your screwed.

1. is a weakness of spirit weapon builds, number one can be fixed rather easily via traits, sigil & utility if you so choose.