Guild Wars 2

Cygnus.6903:

I’ve tried it as well. Some things I found.

Bull’s Rush seems very suboptimal, although the added mobility is nice since you do lack GS.

The runeset, obviously, Perplexity is better. It is that confusion spike that allows you to fight outnumbered. You spike the confusion on one guy, then focus the lockdown on the other.

I went with a combination of Carrion armor and Celestial trinkets, combined with Sigil of Intelligence on Hammer. Along with Merciless Hammer and sigil of intelligence, you can pull of a decent 6-10k direct damage lockdown burst depending on your target.

Fun build, you can faceroll a lot of enemies in WvW thanks to the surprise effect of a warrior stacking 12-20 stacks of confusion whilst retaining decent direct damage.

Ah perplexity runes! I totally forgot those existed haha. Good suggestions overall though. Thanks for the feedback. Gonna play around some more with my stats especially with the new gear stats they added to the game.

I usually save my shadowstep for the taunt and if not, I try to Steal at the ranger to interrupt him from kitten me while I’m taunted. But yeah, if you have nothing to cleanse that taunt and the ranger takes advantage of it, it’s pretty much game over for you.

What if GS became our ranged condition option? Now wouldnt that be interesting?

Hello guys. I’ve been running GS on warrior for the longest time as I’m sure most of you have but recently, I decided to try and see if I could make an interrupt condi build work. I know Mace would probably be more ideal with this sort of build but I just really wanted to use Sword also as the final thrust is pretty awesome and the gap closer on Skill 2 is really nice to have for full melee.

Here are my results:
https://youtu.be/0NZWKFW48FM

Now I know I made some mistakes in some of these fights but that was entirely on me and not the build. Overall, the build does feel pretty solid and deadly. I will be the first to admit that it’s not the greatest for roaming though. I can’t count how many times I wished I had that sexy GS mobility when being chased down by zergs but it’s still good for 1v1’s and small group roaming. It is also REALLY good for PvP. I have had a ton of success with it in that game type as the combination of CC’s and conditions really punish enemies who dare try to 1v1 you on a point and stunlocking enemies for your team to burst down helps a lot too. Just call them targets out! Anyway, hope you guys enjoy. I’m not too amazing on Warrior but I think I did pretty good

Misguided.5139:

mistsim.2748:

Herald shiro is god-tier OP and I haven’t seen any notes for its nerfs prior to release. it will either get smacked down in the new patch notes, or we’ll see it in the top tier meta comps along with the chrono for the first pvp season.

Posting the same thing in multiple threads doesn’t make it any more true. Herald/Shiro is going to get wrecked by Reaper and others. The game isn’t balanced around 1v1s.

I did not lose to a single Reaper on my Herald/Shiro and I’m not even THAT good at it haha. I do think it will be top meta along with Chrono though. Even if it does get knocked down a bit. Still, it’s cool that a class I play will finally be considered top tier especially with the set I prefer to use on it. My S/D Thief has not seen much success against skilled premades.

Ragion.2831:

They could fix it by giving control of the kick to the player similar to revenants Duelists preparation (Sword 4). Basically turn the flip over skill into an active not passive.

Yeah it would be awesome if it was a flipover skill!

SlayerSixx.5763:

Well, you could always keep a SB handy in your inv for moving around out of combat. Ah well, as long as it does the job then ain’t no use fixing what isn’t broke, eh :P?

Warriors running stomp? That makes me sad. So very sad.

Yup! The one I fought at the very end of the video was using Stomp while his buddy was using Bulls Charge. So if you see me playing super defensively at some points, it’s because the CC’s were coming at me left and right.

SlayerSixx.5763:

The mobility is good for running or just map movement, but not many things (if any) could outrun a thief determined to catch them if they’ve been put in combat.

Also, idk if this is from my time spent as a guard, but I honestly find axe/shield warriors to be cake. Once you get used to the rate at which they build adrenaline, you KNOW that shield bash is coming and when its coming. If they have an alternate weapon set, its an even greater tell in my opinion. If its LB, you can tell they’re about to pull some funny business if they whip out the pin down (also with it’s own obvious animation) and swap to axe. If its GS, they’ll use their 4-5-3 combo to close the gap, cripple and deal damage in order to make landing the shield bash and evicerate easier, so you just KNOW to evade/get shadow step ready. If its hammer, they’ll usually attempt to land their backbreaker (since they don’t wanna burn adrenaline on Earthshakers). TBH, the weakness application doesn’t mean much if you know what to dodge (although it means a aloooooot vs other stealthers, but I don’t like fighting them because it just turns into a waiting game).

Also, in zergs and group fights, nothing beats instantly churning out 9k unloads on a backliner and instantly ripping them out of the equation.

I like it more for running AWAY xD Specifically from zergs. On the topic of other stealthers too, the shortbow is great for finishing off other thieves who just refuged. Either way, it comes down to personal preference. Both P/P and SB have something good to offer for S/D sets.

Also Axe/Shield+GS warriors are pretty tough now that the Balanced Stance trait has been buffed. I’ve run into quite a few running Bulls Charge or Stomp now that they don’t need to run Balanced Stance. It makes it a bit harder on Thief since you have to dodge Two Burst skills, 2 cc’s, GS Whirl, and Rush. That’s why I like having Weakness available. It can save you quite often especially with the changes to Feline Grace.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Hard to catch is so good. I wish it wasn’t locked behind acro x.×.

BTW, personally, I find SB to be kinda useless in a fight. I’ve been running D/P + P/P lately and it has been working wooooooonders. I’m certain you could make it work with S/D even better (unload+basi venom > swap > sw2> slashslashslash while tossing in evades at your discretion > pull away from initial port point > use sw2 to return at 1200 range > swap back to P/P) I doubt any build could tank all of that damage and all of this, if done right, means you would’ve probably dodged everything without burning a single utility. I remember constantly sending a d/d ele and rifle/hammer warrior back to spawn constantly last night, but they managed to drop me once they brought their ranger buddy around (3v1 too stronk).

If Hard to Catch was combined with Thrill of the Crime, my god. That would be a dream come true. Then they could replace it in the Acro line with a Shortbow damage or range trait.

I have actually used a P/P+S/D build in the past and the pressure I could put on people was crazy! It was a good set but… I just love that Shortbow mobility plus utility. I mainly use the Shortbow defensively like when I fought that Warrior at the end. I managed to poison and apply weakness to him thanks to my Deadly Arts minor traits which saved me from an Eviscerate. Plus SB is nice to have in zergs and in group fights.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Sweet vid man. I’m just wondering why you didn’t erase those annoying NPCs while hopping in and out of stealth. Also, in this final fight, was that a champion mob? If so, why didn’t you just drag the warrior into it and let him die xD?

I thought about maybe doing that but I wanted to finish him off personally xD
I had actually fought these two guys a few minutes earlier and almost won much faster than the clip I showed except I had forgotten to equip Hard to Catch and one of them landed a Shield Bash on me as I had them low and that was it for me So I wanted to prove that I could beat them if I had Hard to Catch and so I did!

AlCojester.4316:

‘Bout time someone posted a S/D vid! Cheers for the video! Always nice to see another S/D teef in WvW. There were some occasions where you didn’t need to activate signet of agility as the extra crit chance is helpful for dps.

Glad you enjoyed it and glad to hear from a fellow S/D! And yes, I do pop Agility quite often as I like having the endurance back ahead of time and because Improvisation allows me to use my utilities aggressively and more often since I have a chance to recover them every time I steal. The tip’s still appreciated though as I sometimes forget that thing does contribute to my overall damage. Gotta use it a bit more intelligently!

Hello again my stealthy brethren. Went on a solo roaming session the other day and got a couple good fights so I decided to show them off a bit Got everything from a 2v1 to a 1+Campv1 and some pretty cool 1v1’s in between.

Included build link in the video description in case you are interested in running my set.

Here ya go, guys!
https://youtu.be/JtW0F0aPCYE

I apologize in advance for the occasional frame drop. I must have been downloading several gigs of adult content while recording or something. Jk jk.

Bezagron.7352:

Been thinking further about spirit weapons & the Spirit Weapon Judgment image in the OP.

This was one of my favourite images of guardian at release & was why I unlocked each spirit weapon as soon as available. But although visibly very amazing summons with each “Balance Change” they became worse & worse.

But spirit weapons functional (cast time, cooldown, movement, targeting) need massive changes. For any interested I’ve previously posted Spirit Weapons – A Crazy Idea a redesign of SWs. The only thing I want to take from this redesign relates back to the Judgment image with how the spirit weapons seem to be chained to the guardian.

So Melee Functionality design using my redesign of SW’s, DH traps & old mobile Ranger Spirits:

• Cast Time – Reduced 0.5 sec (for the same casting experience BWE3 DH traps provided).
• Recharge – Commences once summoned. This could provide 99% summoned time for some SWs [minus recasting, eg. Sword, Bow] but also guaranteed downtime for the stronger SWs [eg. Hammer, Shield]. (again like how DH traps functioned in BWE3 allowing for pre-combat use without such a harsh punishment for being caught out near the end duration of a summon/s or ).
• Movement – No longer move about as their now chained to the guardian & travel where & how the guardian travels. So they teleport when the guardian teleports, leaps when they leap, travel at super speed when they travels at super speed. You could say movement wise they become like the old mobile spirits of Rangers (you no longer have to worry about that random SW wandering off).
• Attacking/Targeting – Only attacking foes nearby the guardian (unlike Ranger spirits they don’t directly buff the guardians auto attack but function similar to a mobile symbol).
• Command abilities – Still function the same way they currently do. This could mean Sword & Shield are more reliable positionally.
• Health – Still have health & can be killed. With increased timed summoned because of reduced cast time & recharge starting on summon this becomes a more important element of spirit weapon counter play.

I feel with this would provide a smoother experiences without SWs running all over the place & allow for easier focusing of SW’s damage applications & better control over SW’s support abilities.

What we loss is the ability for SWs to harass foes at range making this a larger negative change for ranged gameplay in this regard but could provide a positive as a large deterrent for closing into melee range helping keep foes at range while also guaranteeing benefit from SW support as their always near you.

Having SWs chained to the guardian is both a benefit & a weakness with regards to AoEs:

Weakness

• AoEs / Cleaves – First any AoE /Cleave hitting the guardian will also most likely be damaging the SWs as well.

Advantages

• Chained to Guardian – As they travel now with the guardian leaving the AoE should also remove SWs from said AoE. Now leaving in the hand of the player to remove them from AoEs not relying on an AI script.
• AoE / Cleaves Max Targets – In team / group fights SWs are going to counter towards AoE /Cleave target limits spreading the overall AoE damage over the affected targets plus SWs (Which with cast time & CD changes shouldn’t be as punishing if their killed).

This redesign is only looking at the function / gameplay & mechanics of SWs as a minion not their skill effects or benefits. As it’s not the skill effects or benefits I have problems with but how SWs function. Currently their gameplay mechanics are very awkward & clunky. They so bad that it’s too hard to tell if their skills effects & benefits need improving or not because of this.

Pretty good ideas. I was thinking of something similar in my last reply. Hopefully some devs see this and find some inspiration for a Spirit Weapon rework!

Mallis.4295:

Rain.9213:

Make a trait that enhances what each weapon is good at while also reducing their recharge.

Just leave the burning for the DPS weapons.

I suppose that could work too xD Just throwing some ideas out. I’d really love to see Spirit Weapons become viable though. It’s a shame such a cool concept of having weapons fighting alongside you was not executed well.

Another good idea would be to have the Spirit Weapons literally follow you everywhere as you move without AI and instead execute their effects in intervals while you are either attacking for the sword and hammer(like once every 2-3 attacks similar to Justice’s Passive) or just in combat for the longbow and Shield. Kind of like Signets but you have to summon them first and you can cast their actives as you see fit in battle. In a way, this would be more akin to facets on Revenant though but different as well as they only last for a set duration and then you have to resummon them.

I think the runes and sigils from legendary items should be returned to your inventory when you swap stats as well, however, in order to keep the market healthy for them, they should make all runes/sigils from legendary items become account bound if they were applied to a legendary item.

1. They need to be invulnerable to damage but not soft cc’s, hard cc’s, blinds, and weakness. This would give them more reliability in combat as well as offer counterplay to them.

2. This might be hard but have them target whatever you are targeting. This means that if you’re playing a support guard, you can have the longbow or shield target a friendly and help/protect them. If you’re playing DPS, you can have them focus whatever enemy you are fighting without having them running around all over the place like headless chickens.

3. Make a trait that enhances what each weapon is good at while also reducing their recharge. Sword gets increased damage and crit chance, hammer gets increased cc time and applies chill or something on auto attack, Shield applies stability in its bubble and now reflects projectiles instead of destroys them, lastly, Bow now cures 2 conditions and applies resistance when using its barrage skill.

4. All active Spirit weapon skills should be ground targeted as these are ALL aoe skills and positioning them should be key to the playstyle.

5. Finally, you should grant yourself and nearby allies a boon every time you use a Spirit Weapon’s active. Shield already gives Aegis. Now have Sword give fury, Hammer give might(this would be awesome with might stacking alongside eles as Hammer active is already a Blast), and have Bow give Regeneration or Protection.

These are some of the things I’d love to see. I think most, if not all, are reasonable suggestions.

Switching from Thief.

I’m gonna miss that Shortbow, doing smart vertical ports all over PvP.

Also gonna miss looking like a rogue. If only there were heavy armor Hoods….

I think Cleansing Water is fine, to be honest. I don’t even main Ele and I think it feels fine as it is. When you condi bomb an ele, they can’t apply nearly enough regen to negate it all. Plus if they start using Ether Renewal, all you have to do is interrupt them. It’s an L2P thing tbh.

Eles still have very good sustain and damage but without perma blind from burns and with fire line brought within reasonable levels, you should be able to fight them evenly now.

bliss.4305:

As long as Vault fails to be combo’d with Steal or teleports, its going to be useless no matter what’s done to it. So I think that’s the priorty here, not some minor adjustment.

That’s what Bound is for, buddy

Vault is very useful, you just gotta know how to use it. Now that it has evade frames to, I’m gonna have a great time smashing everything with it.

I was already loving that skill, now it’s even better.

Definitely really good for Fractals, especially for the Grawl fractal’s last boss. Not sure how well for regular dungeons but skill 5 could ruin a good stack. From the footage I’ve seen of Raids, it looks like it might be viable for that content too.

RevanCorana.8942:

Ragnarox.9601:

You are a ranger so

So what dummy?
You know that thing when you launch the game where you can select different characters?

-“Mighty blow is blast combo finisher and affects 5 targets.”
Yes but it has a tiny radius of 180 while True Shot pierce on 1200 range has -1 sec cooldown and nearly double damage.
Seriously what are you going to make with the blast finisher?
area retaliation? wow!
It’s not like you have fire/water fields at your disposal.

-“True shot affects 1 target , roots you and charge animation is easy to dodge.”
No it pierces up to 5
Yes it can be dodged, just like mighty blow, except it has a shorter cooldown.
Yes it roots you but that’s not a valid point, because so does mighty blow.
Except that, again, mighty blow requires you to be CLOSE to your target.

It’s NOT okay to have true shot deal double damage of mighty blow at range and have a shorter cooldown

@quaniesan You nailed it I got owned by a DH that spam every 4 sec an ability that crits for 8k from 1200 range.
Thanks for your valuable explanation Mr.mightyblowisagapcloser duh

Honestly, all you need to do is close the gap and pressure the guardian in melee range. True Shot is much tougher to pull off if your enemy is smashing your face in up close. I fought a ton of DH’s during the beta and rekt every single one by simply not letting them get free True Shots off.

Arkantos.7460:

“They’re deadly in one-on-one combat using their agility”

I remember earlier gw2 times where you could backstab nearly everything in pvp … ^^
not much skilled but effectiv
Now you cant even 1vs1 a class you have to 1+1vs1 to get good players down … I think the same thing will happen with revenant

I think everyone exaggerates with this concept of +1.
I mean… I play Sword/Dagger Thief and still constantly win 1v1’s in pvp against a wide spectrum of classes and builds, in ranked!

In fact, I usually only go down to either making a really bad play or getting 2+v1’d while fighting for a point.

I mean, I do agree core Thief needs some love but it’s in no way incapable of winning 1v1’s. Just wanting to point that out as people really downplay a Thief’s power right now like if it’s completely useless.

ARVY.3069:

Rain.9213:

ARVY.3069:

Your build is exactly what I ran, with some variants in Utilities. I absolutely loved the spec and felt that it had a good balance of burst vs sustain through Monk’s Focus. If DH ended up getting that 25% speed boost that everyone keeps asking for, would you suggest any alternative Runes?

“Runes of the Scholar, Runes of Rage(for the extra damage with fury), or even Runes of the Flame Legion”

As I mentioned in a previous reply

Scholar would be awesome for long range dps from the side in a group fight, Rage would let you burst a bit harder right after using a meditation, and Flame Legion would give you a total of 24% increased damage on an enemy if you land the spear of Justice as it would apply burning to them repeatedly and work in conjunction with Fiery Wrath in Zeal and Big Game Hunter in the DH traitline.

You can also run Runes of the Ogre for a 4% damage modifier and to be a wannabe Ranger with the Rock Dog spawn xD

or Runes of Lyssa if you feel like you’re having trouble with Condi builds.

Awesome, thanks for the info! Sorry, I must have overlooked the previous reply, but I appreciate the repeat answer I definitely look forward to trying these once HoT releases.

I’m curious: did any of you feel Sigil of Rage was beneficial on the LB? I kind of liked the spontaneous nearly-instant True Shot that comes with the random quickness. It was so satisfying to pull off, but I’m sure it’s not the best for consistent damage.

Sigil of Rage is too unreliable imo. Though it could have some viability with quickness builds on Thief and Warrior, maybe Revenant. All my experience with Sigil of Rage has been negative though but maybe I just don’t know how to use it right.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I /facepalmed myself nearly through most of that video. The quality of players he fought against was quite horrid. I thought this was supposed to be about 1vs4…. I only saw 1 vs 0….

Also, here’s a hint at how to stop a Rev in his tracks: Conditions.

You can play around conditions though.

For example, running sigils of cleansing along with invocation can remove 2 conditions on weapon or legend swap and Runes of the Hoelbrak would let you live a lot of condi bursts with the Glint Heal.

I mean, if I can run 0 condi cleanse on my Warrior aside from weapon swap, I’m pretty sure a Revenant can do it too.

Vennyhedgie.5369:

Rain.9213:

You can also run Runes of the Ogre for a 4% damage modifier and to be a wannabe Ranger with the Rock Dog spawn xD

This is genius. I’m gonna get a kick out of this xD

Yeah and after some calcs, it seems like Ogre might be the best for this spec as you get a flat 4% damage boost, 2% increased crit damage, and a dog to help dps While Rage and Flame Legion runes are situational.

ARVY.3069:

Your build is exactly what I ran, with some variants in Utilities. I absolutely loved the spec and felt that it had a good balance of burst vs sustain through Monk’s Focus. If DH ended up getting that 25% speed boost that everyone keeps asking for, would you suggest any alternative Runes?

“Runes of the Scholar, Runes of Rage(for the extra damage with fury), or even Runes of the Flame Legion”

As I mentioned in a previous reply

Scholar would be awesome for long range dps from the side in a group fight, Rage would let you burst a bit harder right after using a meditation, and Flame Legion would give you a total of 24% increased damage on an enemy if you land the spear of Justice as it would apply burning to them repeatedly and work in conjunction with Fiery Wrath in Zeal and Big Game Hunter in the DH traitline.

You can also run Runes of the Ogre for a 4% damage modifier and to be a wannabe Ranger with the Rock Dog spawn xD

or Runes of Lyssa if you feel like you’re having trouble with Condi builds.

Sarif.1827:

Hunter.4783:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17A9qzvgyw

because it seems to me like it does

Casual 1v4 in WvW
Casual 1v3 in sPVP (5 30 mark)

Im sorry but this class needs to be seriously looked at between now and launch unless you want to turn this into the new cancer. Nerf the skills in sPVP only if you must but currently Revenant is OVERPOWERED.

2x Stability stack on dodge? Multiple blocks, evades AND invulnerability on the same class.

First off, Try playing the Revenant first before making judgements.

Second, Wand is a god kitten monster that lives in WvW. He keeps MLGers up at night.

Third, Wand has been playing Revenant every BWE and has become quite skilled in both the class and people reactions to the class which is a large part of the Revenant power right now, being that it’s new.

Forth, Clearly, he is fighting people that are not… let’s say “Top Tier.”

Fifth, With the massive influx from F2P accounts, there are people running all over WvW that assume numbers automatically mean winning, but as Wand has clearly shown here, this is not the case. I can count about 4 times in that first fight alone where someone I would considered “skilled” in the classes of Mesmer or Engineer could have done considerable damage, but didn’t and my guess is because they aren’t on the same experience and skill level that Wand is.

And last but not least, Using montage videos, no matter who’s, as a reference point for balancing a video game is a horrible idea. It’s like using Facebook to compare how one person’s life is to another. All you see are the positive clips, all the Glory moments. You don’t see the other four hours of getting killed, wandering, and getting ganked that is a part of the unedited version of the video.

Now consider all his experience with the game and Revenant and the fact that he himself agreed that it’s a little too strong right now. Shouldn’t he have credibility behind his thoughts on the matter? It’s something that everyone who’s disagreed with Wand, seems to cast aside.

Wandelaar.3746:

Aw, never thought I would get this much hate in terms of dislike and stuff… :/

People feel their OPness being threatened and therefore want to defend it no matter what because they don’t want to become like the class they left for Revenant. So don’t feel too bad.

I agree with you that in it’s current state, winning a fight with Revenant doesn’t feel too satisfying as certain aspects of it are very strong.

Wandelaar.3746:

Hunter.4783:

Please fast forward to 5 30 where he is 1v3 what you would now call sPVP scrubs

Oh my! I didn’t know all you guys became so great at this game after playing a new class for about 20 hours as opposed to others with over 3k hours under their belt

Get real please, this is getting nerfed.

I’m not saying it is not op, because I also think it is.
But I have about 120 hours of playtime on revenant .
(I’m the guy who’s in the video)

Finally! Another fellow Revenant admitting that we’re a bit too strong atm.

Either way, fantastic video. You were using all your skills quite cunningly and were juking+outplaying very nicely.

Despite the fact that not everyone you fought was very experienced, it still takes a good amount of skill to outmaneuver groups like that. I agree that the glint heal needs a tell but I also feel like the shield+shield trait could use some rework and the hammer MAYBE hits a bit too hard. Just from my experience playing Revenant. I could be wrong.

Those were some pretty impressive videos dude!

I think True Shot is fine, to be honest. It takes a pretty good amount of skill to land it successfully as you have to bait your enemies into it or catch them off guard and even then, it needs to crit to do anything significant.

Furthermore, it roots you so using it in the heat of battle often is risky. You have to find the right opportunity.

Vennyhedgie.5369:

So glad I’m seeing a few more DH vids this time around! Great vid.
On a completely unrelated note, I loved the song, but I couldn’t stop thinking how similar it sounded to another song from a game I love, you be the judge :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAeeCdCSMQg

There are definitely a lot of similarities to both songs. I didn’t know Bayonetta had such a fantastic soundtrack though! I’m gonna have to look into it

Also, while I can understand some of the hate Dragonhunter is getting, I have to admit I’m kinda more excited about it than I am excited about Reaper. While I do think Dragonhunter does need a bit more tweaking, for me it did add a new playstyle to Guardian that wasn’t there before.

Ragnarox.9601:

Rain.9213:

Ragnarox.9601:

Its fun but its no that good, you see you are on the verge of dying everytime, it’s blind luck for you to survive and lack of their skill to kill you.

Pretty sure I had a major advantage against both eles I fought 1v1 and even with the warrior, I still had my elite up and only went down to 5k thanks to his dodge roll+retaliation from finishing him off.

Against the necro+condi ranger 2v2, I would have killed the necro much sooner had the ranger not respawned, despite being condi bombed, I still managed to recover, down the necro, then go and finish him off. I only took that last major damage thanks to wanting to stomp him.

And in the Revenant+Ele 2v2, I made the mistake of letting the Revenant get his unrelenting assault off on me, when I should have dodged. That was an error on my part, not on the build’s In fact, every time I took a major hit, it was because I made a mistake. The build is pretty solid and running the aegis trap trait would probably make it even better as it would synergize with shattered aegis and cause more damage+give you more blocks.

Thing is though, this build doesn’t allow room for a lot of mistakes but if you play it well, it can do a lot! It’s not as forgiving as an Interrupt Mesmer or Shield Revenant.

I will say though that I wish the auto attack on Longbow was stronger…. It sadly doesnt hit very hard

I fought with some kitten good revenants…they were pain in the butt. I liked DH too but it feels like I need to put 50% more effort and skill than my vanilla guardian. It needs few tweaks and buffs and It could be very good. especially if they give 25% movement speed for wearing LB.

Man, if they give 25% movement speed to Dragonhunter… oh boy, it’s gonna really shine. I could take out those annoying Traveler Runes and run some Runes of the Scholar, Runes of Rage(for the extra damage with fury), or even Runes of the Flame Legion for the extra 7% damage to burning enemies.

Please, Karl? I’ve been a good boy this year.

V Man.8512:

I’m really quite fond of the stab animation being the first sword auto – it feels different and unique to the Revenant – I wouldn’t want it changed myself.

Yeah plus the name “Preparation Thrust” lets me make some innuendos in chat ;D

Yeah definitely! I sometimes like to unrelenting assault defensively if I’m low on energy and swap legends while the skill is going to build up energy early before continuing the fight after UA is over, too.

Ragnarox.9601:

Its fun but its no that good, you see you are on the verge of dying everytime, it’s blind luck for you to survive and lack of their skill to kill you.

Pretty sure I had a major advantage against both eles I fought 1v1 and even with the warrior, I still had my elite up and only went down to 5k thanks to his dodge roll+retaliation from finishing him off.

Against the necro+condi ranger 2v2, I would have killed the necro much sooner had the ranger not respawned, despite being condi bombed, I still managed to recover, down the necro, then go and finish him off. I only took that last major damage thanks to wanting to stomp him.

And in the Revenant+Ele 2v2, I made the mistake of letting the Revenant get his unrelenting assault off on me, when I should have dodged. That was an error on my part, not on the build’s In fact, every time I took a major hit, it was because I made a mistake. The build is pretty solid and running the aegis trap trait would probably make it even better as it would synergize with shattered aegis and cause more damage+give you more blocks.

Thing is though, this build doesn’t allow room for a lot of mistakes but if you play it well, it can do a lot! It’s not as forgiving as an Interrupt Mesmer or Shield Revenant.

I will say though that I wish the auto attack on Longbow was stronger…. It sadly doesnt hit very hard

You can pop the Fury and Might Facets before or right after casting Unrelenting Assault and boost your damage through roof! You can also swap legends after casting Unrelenting Assault to get fury or useOne with Nature.

You can use Shiro’s Heal and block with Staff and actually get like 2 ticks of Enchanting Daggers off.

Comboing Offhand Sword immob with Elemental Blast(Facet of Element’s active) is awesome for getting some good damage off plus applying chill, weakness, and burning.

Lastly, you can combo Offhand sword 5 into Staff 5 to completely annihilate anyone without any stunbreaks or invulns left. As the pull will set them up right into your Surge of the Mists’ path.

Hell no! I use Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast on my Staff ele build and its amazing. Does respectable damage and one has a blast that is useful in so many situations while the other lets me apply even more burning to an enemy to kill them faster. I’ve had moments where I switch to air, lightning hits, my skill 2 hits, then I use Arcane Blast at the same time and they lose a big chunk of their health as well as get conditions from the Arcane trait+fire or chill field.

Yeah basically. I consider it a much more fun and cool version of Longbow/Greatsword ranger, tbh xD

I personally had a ton of fun with it though. It’s the range capabilities I always wanted on Guardian.

Hey guys! I’ve been doing a lot of theorycrafting with Dragonhunter before and during the BWE and I came up with this build.

https://youtu.be/0cBoqivJ8Tc

Here’s the video showing off some awesome kills, sadly I couldn’t get more 1v1’s as I was running out of time on Sunday to record and these were the best kills I manage to nab but I think it stills shows off the power of this build pretty well as the bad guys were dropping like flies!

Did you like the video? I hope so. Here is the build I was running.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJATRlsAhqhYrQwbIwPELxD21+KGkDqCANgCg8/r/tAB-TJBFABiXGQu9HW4SAAwTAAA

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Wtf, he’s not even using Virtues”

And while I didn’t want to drop that line, in the end I figured it was possible to drop it as I had plenty of condition removal, I didn’t need judge’s intervention since I had range and could just use Stand Your Ground instead, and if I used my Virtues and my Elite right, I wouldn’t feel the lack of reduced recharge on virtues as much. So this is what I got.

It has very nice damage output, good mobility for a guardian with 2 leaps and Traveler runes, and some pretty decent survivability as you still have access to stability, and good condition removal with Smite Condition, Smite on Heal, and CoP and dual energy sigils.

The Zeal and Dragonhunter lines give me some fantastic damage modifiers, however, you can probably run Hunter’s Determination instead of Zealot’s Aggression and get some extra access to Aegis as you won’t have your enemy crippled too often. Either one would be fine, I think but for the BWE, I chose to go with Zealot’s Aggression instead.

Basics to this build are basically to lasso your enemy with Spear of Justice and bait them into your True Shots as well as Immob them with your Wings of Virtue to get off some nasty Whirling Wrath’s but you can obviously mix things up and immob them into your symbol of energy or symbol of wrath as they cause burning which activate your 7% damage modifier on burning enemies.

Anyway, I know it seems a little unconventional but it works. I honestly didn’t feel the lack of virtues too much and this was the most fun I’ve had on Guardian in a looooong time. I might try to come up with a Longbow Burn guardian as well but maybe after HoT launches.

Stealth has always been boring for me. Which is why I’ve always played evasive S/D Thief and now Staff Daredevil.

Revenant is easily the most fun I’ve ever had in GW2.

The combination of micro managing your energy and cooldowns at the same time make it quite active and challenging while the skills and effects are all really freakin cool.

I’ll be uploading mine sometime tomorrow hopefully. Keep an eye out for it!

alicatrawz.9567:

dark field.
leeching and blinds, personally think it would compliment DD.

A dark field would be cool also. Blinds enemies inside it but you can use it to combo so nice lifesteal with the whirls provided from Staff.

Hopefully Karl has been reading some of these suggestions because as of right now, Staff 4 is kind of a waste of initiative. The cast time is way too long to be used defensively and the range is so short that by the time you’re done casting it, the enemy is already next to you .

kaikalii.4198:

While this would be really nice, I played a lot of staff DD during BWE3, and I actually used Dust Strike far more than the #3 skill. When you have dash, who needs a tiny rollback that clenses immob? I realize it’s helpful when using bound or the spin dodge, but I still wouldn’t imagine myself using for anything other than immob cleanse when I just have so many dodges.

True, if you have Dash, you can close gaps super easy but Bound users are kinda screwed when it comes to range haha.

Christonya.3856:

Or slap a smoke field on it. Giving DDs the ability to lay down a constantly pulsing defensive field as well as the ability to bound / vault in it for for stealth to set up burst via stealth 1… and you can weakning charge in it for a whirl, or lotus, ect.

The problem with this is that it just becomes Dagger/Pistol, though. Staff is supposed to be the evasive weapon set with no easy access to stealth.

Malchior.5732:

I think to myself: “Maybe this trait is actually pretty good”, but that means I have to drop my almost-permanent Stab with Enhanced Bulwark and have the game take control away from me every time I hit 25% health, potentially getting me killed in team fights or interrupting important skills.
If there really is a problem with this, maybe just change the trait altogether. I personally really hate health-based auto-procs.

I always thought it was gonna be annoying from the moment they announced it. Both for people using it and people fighting it. However, if you’re using it against a power build, chances are that there will be no drawback aside from interrupting you for 3 seconds. Personally, I’d prefer to keep the 20s Shield 5 cooldown and instead change the trait to maybe auto proc 1 to 2 seconds of glint’s heal effect when you hit 20% hp every 40 seconds. This would be good for both user and those fighting them as you can anticipate the effect and stop your attacks before you heal them or if you’re the user, you can bounce back from death just enough to maybe recover. This would also have a longer cooldown than the current trait meaning that, like the Engineer’s elixir S, you won’t have to deal with it multiple times in a single fight if you can pressure them enough. Whereas it currently stands, 20s CD is just too short on what is a mutually annoying trait.

You want to use it preemptively though. Like if you see them about to land some hard hits, use it. You don’t want to use it after you’ve been conditioned, of course. Even with poison though, you can still get back about 5000 hp if you manage to get both the trait and shield 5 off, which is still like having a 3rd healing skill.

Also, when I was playing with it, I had legend swap ready almost every time my shield trait popped, so I just simply swapped legends, then hit 5.

It’s not that uncommon and a good Revenant rarely runs out of energy too. You can also move out of the shield animation and end it early so the root isn’t as big an issue. At least it wasn’t for me.

You know how Skill 3 Deflecting Shot on Longbow for Dragonhunter shoots out a wall of energy that destroys projectiles?

Slap that bad boy on Staff 4 with a blind on every enemy that it passes through and keep the damage the same as current Dust Strike.

There you go. Now you have a fast moving defensive utility that is useful for both defense against melee and defense against ranged. Now it’s worth the 4 initiative and if it’s too spammable, make it 5. At least now the skill will be incredibly useful and worth the initiative.

The animation could be like some awesome faster cast version of Hammer 5 on Warrior that shoots out a wall of dust blinding and stopping projectiles. Not only would this look awesome but would really help Staff a lot seeing as it does not have a safe way of gap closing. I believe this would really round out the set defensively and make it very useful in many situations.

Thoughts?

Personally, I prefer using Shadowstep, RFI, and Signet of Agility because it offers amazing condi removal and survivability. However, using Brawler’s Tenacity alongside Impact Strike would be pretty good too as you can get back a bit of endurance and have reduced recharge on your elite. I feel like Bandit’s Defense would be better in an interrupt or just regular power build. With the changes after BWE3 though, you can run Havoc Master instead of Weakening Strikes to get 7% damage boost when an enemy is close to you. Either way, I think both Weakening Strikes and Brawler’s Tenacity would do fine. For me personally though, I just like having more condition output even if it is minimal chance to be applied.

Ragion.2831:

Rain.9213:

Demented Yak.6105:

It’s 3900 health over 3 seconds. It’s not a reset button.

Let’s try not to exaggerate in this supposedly, ‘Objective’ discussion.

I personally found crystal hibernation very underwhelming. It really decimated my offensive momentum and anyone who isn’t part-orangutan can figure out how to take advantage of a 3 second downtime if they don’t have unblockables.

Let the trait proc, then cast shield 5. Bam, over 7000 hp. Now cast either of your heals and you’re back at a hefty amount of hp.

He has a point…But rain that really depends on how well you do without using shield 5. If you use it before the trait then, it isnt really a game changer on its own.

On a 20s CD, trust me, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to use it.