Guild Wars 2

JDjitsu.7895:

Rezzet.3614:

mrauls.6519:

1k (if it crits) per hit isn’t backstab level xD

its still a good 4.5-6k every full AA combo

For the chain, yeah. My power Necro does that in Zerk/Valk gear on dagger AA chain also. If you ever get hit with a full AA chain by someone running full Zerker or even Marauder(unless downed or something), you need more stun breaks, energy sigils or blocks or something. Just don’t do that. You’re gonna have a bad day…DH is prob 5th down the line of toons I play, and really only large scale WvW on it, so I’m not defending it out of bias.

I’ve only watched a handful of the pvp Qualifiers, but only saw maybe(Texbi I think?)roll witha DH. If it was OP there’d be 1 on most top teams. Though I haven’t watched them all like usual, so correct me if I’m wrong plz. I think there’s a couple builds that can replace Scrapper(boooo!), but nothing over the top I’ve seen myself. I’m glad DH mains have more choices. Pretty sick of rolling my eyes at these scrubby traps.

Wakkey has been using DH pretty often in Ranked but he’s not a DH main. He’s darn good though, we’ll see if he picks it up in Leagues.

Others aren’t DH main either otherwise they’d pick up the class.

It’s kind of an unfair double wammy.
Guards gets an awesome QoL update.
Lots of Eles jump ship because they don’t like their class.

Same thing happened post HoT when Thieves/War were bad but Guardians looked really cool. It’s just a class popularity contest and Guardians are easy to pick up.

Players complain about Traps when it wasn’t part of Guardian’s patch update lol. I doubt we’ll get any type of nerf bat. We’re in a good spot finally.

Ok I was told that multiple users can be Mods for a server now. Guess it was recently changed o_o..

sephiroth.4217:

Do dance parties count as Match Manipulation?

According to Anet, you can report him for Botting due to “unacceptable player behavior”. That goes for players who AFK and deliberately trolls.

Never heard of a single person getting kicked or banned through the Botting report though… i’m curious if it even works.

For those who don’t know, King of the Hill is a 1v1 dueling server where spectators have to click on the Join button, Red or Blue team, to enter the arena. The only two players on the map then duel till the death. The stomped out person leaves and another has to click in to join. These servers can get filled up quickly and if the map is full, many players can’t click fast enough. As of this post, there’s 1 moderator that can kick a player so another can join. If that 1 moderator isn’t on, it’s otherwise impossible for another player to join (unless someone is kind enough to help).

These are my suggestion to Anet to reduce player’s frustrations on these custom arenas.

• Increase spectators from 25 to 75.
  Even if the map is full, players can still spectate to watch other players.
• Give creators a Round Robin option so players in the game can enter the arena 1 by 1.
  As it happens, players who enter the arena die and enters spectate mode once they leave. Other players currently spectating naturally move up a position due to other players leaving and joining the map. I’m no coder but it seems easy enough to implement some kind of Round Robin function so players can join Blue or Red team. (in KotH, it doesn’t matter which team you join).
• Enable more than 1 person to have moderating powers other than editing options, so they could kick, ban, and force spectate other players.
  This helps all custom arenas during off-hours to further moderate custom arenas against abusive players.

Picture below shows map popularity. The person in chat was spamming to get in. There’s a lot more suggestions to add but i’ll just leave it at that for now.

Drussthelegend.2630:

I know we got some fixes but they hardly were to the extent that the population in spvp should jump 2x or 3x what it was. Bandwagoners that don’t even understand what was changed? A lot are DH that dont even use scepter or sword. All this is going to cause is people asking for nerfs that are totally unjustified using the specious logic of look at all those guardians they must be op! The class got a nice smallish boost and that’s if you use what was actually boosted. A bunch of bandwagon jumping numbnuts are going to cause a bunch of anti Guardian PR. It’s already happening. If you want to play the very strongest classes/builds there are still quite a few better then any build Guardian has.

It’s just popularity. The same thing happened post patch when we received Traps and a Bow. Guardian simply was “cooler” than everyone else. Then Anet answered the large crowd (at the time) and nerfed LB + Trap damages.

Same thing happened this come-round. We’re more popular due to the much needed QoL changes but because of the excess guardians, players are complaining about items that has nothing to do with our QoL changes.

Guardians stack horribly on point unless there’s nothing but Thieves on the other team. Necro/Rev/Druids stack twice better on a team than Guardians :/

ellesee.8297:

I caved and got overwatch. We play ok? I am esports Mcree.

The game is fun but gets boring. I only play with my brother-in-law now. I could talk about how frustrating the game is but I don’t want to derail thread.

The same foes for Defender’s Dogma. The trait that refreshes F1 proc will cancel out an already activated F1 from attacks. It’s one of the reasons why burn DH sucks compared to core builds.

Evilek.5690:

This Amber players on forum make me day. I play MMO RPG +- 15 years, start on Ultima online and focus primary PvP (WoW 6x gladiator,Lineage 1,2,Age of Conan, etc)-
All this game have crying people on forum, beacose these players are so bad.

From this players. GW2 is most balanced MMORPG game the past 15 years. Problem for casual players like you is skill base core. What does that mean ? L2P.

+1 for competitive respect.

Sometimes the harsh truth is what needs to be said. GW2 PvP is still the most balanced on the MMO market but casuals will always have something to say.

For the record, Krait runes used to not work 100% of the time with Guardian’s “Feel my Wrath” kitten Elite skill. Haven’t tested it recently but i’m sure nothings changed.

This thread is worse than a political or religious debate. A dying game is subjective and can no way to be proven true or false by anyone in this thread.

The biggest thing hurting the game is age. Tech is getting better every year, newer games are coming out and I think SC will blow all MMO’s out of the water. It’s an expected technicality.

Can I haz ur spot?

Jokes asside though, I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. People are wanting to play with you. That alone speaks for itself! Cya around!

Those who have passion in the game never quits. They just play less than usual.

OP should change the question to,
“Why were these picked”?

Followed by,
“I’m not understanding the choices these two players made.”

That way you wont sound so ignorant, while learning something new about PvP in the process

He’s saying how utterly ridiculous people can play, that a Paladin’s amulet (symbolism of a poorer build) known for self sustains, bursted players to 100-0. I have to agree that, based on random soloQ players, that people are simply bad at this game.

It would be nice to have a limited-time Gamemode each week until the new Season starts. Here’s my top 3 ideas.

• Hardcore Conquest: Friendly fire is enabled so execution is crucial! stole idea from another thread
• 2v2 or 3v3 TDM: Lowest health or most downs loses the round, best of 3 rounds, 5m time limit per round.
• Chieftan Zombies (survival): Seperated from Red/Blue side, each team fights a horde of Chieftans. As time persists, more Chieftans start to appear eventually over-running the place. Death is inevitable but it’s a competition of survival and how many Chieftans can be defeated between the two teams.
• Royal Rumble (survival): Players of 10 fight each other on Courtyard. In the map edges are foyr channeling buffs: 30s Protection, 20s 15stack Might, 20s Stability, 8s Quickness. stole idea from another thread

Watches team get blown up before reaching point

Omg this would be hilarious lol. I see it as a limited arena feature, if gw2 ever gets one implemented.

Dr Patrik.3642:

Saiyan.1704:

Unless a certain ability, trait or equipment is bugged and waiting for a swift patch, we don’t need build restrictions in Tournaments.

Explain class stacking restrictions then with your logic

What does that have to do with build restrictions?

Guards are decent 1v1 class but not the best. Title goes to Ranger/Thieves, Revs. Now.. their 1v1 builds aren’t exactly efficient in TPvP so take that as you will.

Henrik.7560:

PvP is not as fun as it once was. Instead of reviewing their elite specializations and toning them down, they just buff them and remove old amulets.
Build diversity is lost.

- Guardian already had a strong sustain/DPS build but now it’s sustain is 5 times higher, as well as spammable CC and traps introduced, easy to use and succeed with, due to passive stability, CC and cleanse traits. Jump into fight, spam traps, and spam DPS while traits cover you. Jump out with F2F3 to survive.

Hard to take you seriously when this is far from truthful. Everyone knew DH couldn’t self sustain himself compared to other classes in S1, S2, & S3…

For the record it’s completely viable in soloQ. I was just speaking in context of league matches and what not. Tried it earlier and the build is really fun props to the person who posted it on metabattle.

Burtnik.5218:

You guys wasted 2 pages for nothing. Let me tell you why;

Something that is dead cant die

Dont even let me get started on “competitive” scene cus i will laugh in your face. Its nothing but a private grange for few people and nobody gives a kitten about whats happening there.
Goodnight.

I’m a bit confused. If you can create a team right this moment, compete and win money, how is it dead?

There may be a handful of teams who compete but the winnings is very much still there. That and I still see new people in pvp… the game is not dead.

Apparently twitch views determines whether or not a game is dead.

I looked at the Symbolic build in Metabattle. It’s a fan favorite no doubt but it has some clear weaknesses not listed on the site.

Lack of Stability from F3 & Heavy Light means you’ll lave less anti-cc uptime. That means it’s incredibly easier for you to get locked down for a potential 100-0 burst. In this meta, Guardian has too many windows-of-opportunity for players to take advantage of. This is a big weakness in higher tier pvp.

F3 is not an “all powerful” condi cleanse utility. It cleanses a condition 1s at a time if you get hit quicker than 60 millisecond intervals. That means if there’s any pauses between attacks or you’re not in melee range, you’ll take quite a bit of damaging ticks before your 1 second cleanses goes through the condi stacks. This is very evident in clutch scenarios where you can’t afford a single damaging tick from 16 stacks of bleeds/torment/poison/burns.

The build is another way to play and if people like it then great. I feel 1-handers w/ Virtues makes for a better team supporter, while also able to be in any scenario than just side points.

Unless a certain ability, trait or equipment is bugged and waiting for a swift patch, we don’t need build restrictions in Tournaments.

@brannigan Yea 2 handers are more difficult to make work. The hammer trait needs to be 100% proc rather than 50% and LB got nerfed too badly last patch + it has 0 defenses vs burst scenarios.

I swapped to 1-handers like most guards.

Rym.1469:

Jokes aside, but this could actually work. Overwatch’s Payload is well-done escort mode – You can’t harm the escorted thing nor heal it/affect in any way, it moves on pre-set line, it’s extremaly simple and provides “action point”.

It’ll be a lot more difficult to implement in GW2 because it’s not a moba. That said it’s still possible. It’s whether or not Anet wants to undertake the workload for another gamemode.

I rather have a best of 3 TDM of 2v2 or 3v3. Time limit 5m per round while measuring the lowest health amongst players to determine the round’s victory. #winning

Razor.9872:

Well, I mean, that depends on how one defines “happy.”

I am not content with Druid/Ranger, but I am happy with it.

I have fun playing it. I love tons of things about it.

But I also know it can be improved. Sword 2 can activate much faster. Vanilla pets can be buffed. etc…

But those things don’t stop me from loving the profession.

If that makes any sense…

Yup make perfect sense and that’s what I was going for. There may be a lot of items on Guardian that i’m not 100% content with but i’m generally happy with the class.

Here’s my list in terms of class unhappiness in PvP according to forum complaints.
Top is worse
1. Ele
2. Thief

That ends my list. Anyone else uncontent with their class? Who should be 3rd & 4th picks?

brannigan.9831:

You can’t really afford to have a slot that does zero damage at least at even skill level even if it supports well. Why would you play it over Druid spec that does better damage and also supports?

That’s the point. Players want that old-healway support feel rather than play a semi-heal, semi-dmg negating, Ranger with a pet. It’s not a team supporter compared to old Bunker Guard or the Cleric Ele that many players liked.

Anet turned everyone into damaging bruisers (we needed it imo) so that technically everyone has a chance to be a 5th pick, balances willing.

The only class that’s close to having 3 viable builds is Guardian.

JTGuevara.9018:

Every professions’ condi builds are just superior to their power builds.

That’s not true.

Power thief > condi teef
Power DH > condi dh
Power Ele > condi ele
Power Engi > condi engi
Power Ranger > condi ranger

Seyiwaji.4082:

Reaper Alim.4176:

Drafigo.4690:

Marsares.2053:

Quit a year ago to come back a month or so ago and to only find it in worse state than I left. The Meta wasn’t great back then (think HamBow) but at least it was more twitch based, compared to the brain-dead condi-spam and passive that seems to rule the roost now. Throw in the power-creep from HoT and you have a dull and unbalanced game-mode.

Sure, I can go condi bunker Mesmer as well and face-roll my keyboard, but it’s just a skill-less game play that does not interest me. Just quit my guild and will quit the game soon. I’m sure some people still find PvP fun, it’s just not for me and I now remember why I quite a year ago and didn’t miss it GW2 PvP.

Do you pvp and pve? What amount of time do you pvp? And what have you been playing?

I ask cause I have played alot of games and wounder what games you think the pvp is better then GW2? As a player myself I play 99% of my time is pvp and have yet to find a game with pvp as good as this games.

One game that starts with a S and end with a E.

Start with a S and end with a D. (Not E)

I’m riddled with what both could be o_o

Supreme.3164:

Saiyan.1704:

Chaith.8256:

Enjoying Capricorn, fast queue pops, queuing outside mists, and faster pace killing in casual play. Compared to last patch, the casual game is 200% more fun even without a ranked season.

If you wanna be negative, yeah, MMOs are dying from the minute they’ve launched but the timing on this post is weird

Quoted for truth.

I’ve played games that were slowly and blatantly “dying”. It’s overly dramatic to say GW2 is.

If you think GW2 is a success compared to those games..I think you played games that had like 100k players in total, for what supposed to be a mainstream triple A MMO,..it’s surely a great victory …-_-

Our definition of “success” is completely different and that’s ok. I think 100k players is huge but I came from a very small player base back in the early 90’s – late 2000s, so my experiences differs. You can look at any top 5 games that slowly died. They all have very poor management from Devs, mixed with a tremendous amount of bugs, and/or unbalances that eventually lead to poor player experience. Other games are slowly dying due to it being outdated. Such the case with GW1, hence GW2.

GW2 is not in the dying boat but it’s eventually going to get outdated, naturally. The rate of decay will vary depending on the type of games that emerge on the market. Right now, only very few MMO games are releasing and they’re not going to be the next best thing. That said, Star Citizen is a game that everyone and their mothers will jump ship to (pun intended) in the next year or so. That MMO is going to redefine the genre and not many games will top it. It’s not a hack-n-slash so players will still crave that medieval world such as GW2.

Again, it’s overly dramatic to say GW2 is dying. It’s really not; many players still play, it’s fun, and there’s still a lot of new players i’m seeing for the first time in pvp.

Ugh.. don’t have any streaming programs on this new pc but i’ve 1v2’d Guards and Mesmers on a single point.-PogChamp4lyfe

/kappa

Chaith.8256:

Enjoying Capricorn, fast queue pops, queuing outside mists, and faster pace killing in casual play. Compared to last patch, the casual game is 200% more fun even without a ranked season.

If you wanna be negative, yeah, MMOs are dying from the minute they’ve launched but the timing on this post is weird

Quoted for truth.

I’ve played games that were slowly and blatantly “dying”. It’s overly dramatic to say GW2 is.

I would add War to that comp only because your Mesmer and Necro would only strengthen him on point. That said, Guard is a good pick as well.

Engi can do ok on a competitive team but they’re more difficult to make work this go-round. I haven’t seen a single Engi 1v1 some one on point but they can sustain ‘ok’ in foefire’s mid.

Thief takes a very skilled player to make work competitively. Really good thieves can shut down a person in a +1 and backcap points indefinitely. A Thief with a Rev and Druid can be a very deadly single-target burst combo.

Zelulose.8695:

Guardian will probably get a nerf and hopefully a sustain nerf with follow across the board.

A sustain nerf across every class is 1 out of a handful of power creeps that separates HoT from Core. That’s not going to happen and DH is definitely not overpowering.

Not sure about latency but F1 Spear pull glitches now when before I can clearly see the class get yanked forward. I have to cast my skills ahead of time and assume he was pulled towards me.

It wasn’t like this prepatch that’s for sure. Must be a server thing, maybe they need a dust off.

It’s an option that other classes don’t have the luxury of having. I think that should be emphasized because we currently have the highest build diversity in the soloQ realm among all the classes.

It would definitely be a nice addition.

Also, a while back a Dev asked which skills should deserve an icd icon amongst players. The following are only Trait & Runes with ICD effects.

• Fear/Taunt on hit
• Immob/Root on hit
• Stability/Stunbreak on CC

Lets have just 3 small, static, icd icon boxes for the above items. If there’s two Fear on Hit icd items, they take up that 1 icon box only. So only one Fear proc will be up at any one time with the lowest icd timer shown from either 2. This would prevent clutter on the UI.

There’s other Runes that I would like to see the ICD activation for but I think these three are the most important.

Dr Patrik.3642:

To anyone reading this, if I am wrong about any of the points I am making, please let me know. This is so I can better my understanding as this post is my interpretation of Josh’s post and I want it to be as accurate as possible.

They changed Cele twice for the sake of helping the Balance team but alas, it was a frustrating experience trying to make 1 amulet either work too well, or no one used it. You could also say that Celestials were balanced on Engi, Ele and Warrior while unbalanced on other classes because these three were the first Bruiser classes at the time. Since the removal and addition of HoT, now everyone is a bruiser class. There’s no need for Cele.

It’s a double-edged sword when it comes to balancing the game with multiple amulets because like you said, PvE and WvW effectiveness is also taken into consideration.

Then you have “unhealthy” gameplay like invincible bunkers in S1 or the zerker burst meta ages ago. They flipped two extremes so that every class could be one and the same. From what i’ve seen from Marauders this post patch, Clerics, Soldiers, Sentinel, with Rune of Mercy would indeed be an unhealthy addition to PvP so i’m glad they removed them.

TL;DR
The possitive side is the Balance Team, through PvP Team’s suggestions, are now able to balance the classes who were effected by the amulet removal without it having a transverse effect on some other item. If everyone is a bruiser class, then no one would be missing out. In theory. Build diversity is a different story.

After reaching it in S2 & S3, i’m going to reach Legendary on my Guardian again in S4. Then i’ll play DH on my gf’s account and hit Legendary on that Amber class as she has never been into pvp before. (Proving mmr hell doesn’t exist)

This is going to be the best Season yet but i’m sure their will be many complaints from non-competitive casuals.

GW2 is an MMO game that was built around a PVE storyline. PvP always was a by-product of it. It’s not a game that was made 100% for PvP like a Moba, Streetfighter, or some FPS game.

I personally think GW2 has the best PvP combat across all the MMOs to date. You should compare it to other MMOs instead of Halo or else you’ll be utterly dissapointed.

Kageseigi.2150:

Can we at least give the Thief an immunity to a trap IF it successfully evades the initial activation? It gets frustrating to avoid a stack of traps only to be sucked back into them because your evade/dodge didn’t take you outside of the pull range.

You realize a successful steal gank burst from a Thief can essentially down a DH with limited cds right? The better Thieves literally wait out our cds outside a skirmish fight to +1 burst and down a DH quite easily. Same goes for Revs. Both have enough evades to avoid ToF all together.

Bad Thieves are really trying to nerf DH to place them on their Amber level when really all it’ll do is cripple our competitive viability in the higher leagues.

kitten.5862:

Xillllix.3485:

There is no point trying to convince people that DH is overpowered. People do not understand that damage should be proportional to how easy or difficult it is to play a class.

The simple fact that in most games there is more DH than any other classes proves it. It’s the easiest and most rewarding class to play.

and there’s no point trying to convince people on these forums that all they have to do is learn to play or play a build that’s more faceroll. The fact is that DH isn’t the easiest class in the game, not even close. People probably thought that until they had to actually play it because it’s viable now, but I really doubt people think it’s easier than a scrapper spamming skills off cd or a revenant who has to press 3 2 F1 ~ 5 for 25k+ damage and just random dodge every 5s for passive perma stab. Then you have druids and warrs… literally just spam stuff off cd. DH is probably one of the most calculated builds in the meta right now. Get over it if youre at such a low tier that the ones who press every button on their bar in 3 seconds can kill you. l2p

/thread

Granted, the OP was talking about more players playing Guard (probably due to no ez ele builds) so there’s a surplus of guards stacking traps on a given team.

Now here’s why it’s not an issue OP… stacking guards is not nearly as efficient as stacked Rangers, or Revs, or even Necros. The skill factor comes quickly later in the divisions where anything more than purification and ToF becomes gimicky. They’re Amber killers, noobstompers, a noneissue except for maybe Thief QQ threads… and this thread.. a post that’s completely irrelevant to the balance patch but was brought up.

Xillllix.3485:

A solution takes 10 minutes to implement:
- bring celestial back
- unnerf CD trait and lava font for pvp
- unnerf the fire line nerfs

Instead of all this useless talk about how broken the class is just revert us back to a meta that worked and provided variety.

To an Ele, this may be a distraught to them; the worse meta ever.

For everyone else, well, they’re not Eles and absolutely don’t want Cele back in the game.

I’ve noticed that playing sides on the map were also a good strategy. Particularly when you know your team lack the aoe damages & sustains to take mid efficiently.

Rangers & Revs are such a pain on this map too. If they have two Rangers, a necro + x in mid and a roaming Rev then you’re in for trouble. Especially if the Rangers are any good.

Many players get caught up in the mid fights because it’s so close, that they forget about sides or the Bell. Likewise, the Bell plays a huge roll on this particular map because if you wipe a team there, you’ll inevitably take sides by default.

I’m loving the map because it forces you to rethink Conquest.

dustydawg.3105:

They didn’t fix guardian for high level play.

It lacks mobility, and any coordinated team isn’t going to stand in the traps, or fail to provide stability for one another, will pick it apart.

The mobility it lacks gets hit pretty hard when they try to contest a side node, because it’s easy for the class to run out of cooldowns very quickly, and not be prepared for a 1v2 scenario. Without that mobility, it has a harder time running away.

Only thing I agree is the ability to run out of cds fast. But if moderated, we can really perform well in team fights.

F2 & F3 changes absolutely help our survivability in competitive play. We can now quickly counterplay a burst when before, these two virtues hilariously got put on cd too easily.

Guards sustain quite well on side nodes. I’m talking long enough where if it’s not their node, there’s no point in assaulting it. Also, Shield#5, Hammer’s Banish, Hammer#5, LB#3 knockback, all have the potential to turn a node to neutral. It’s almost a definite vs Rangers, Engi, Ele, & Necro on point.

Mobility, that has always been more of a QoL issue in SPvP. WvW though, that’s a different story.

mrauls.6519:

Hmm, interesting point. I’ll try out other traps and see how well it goes. Honestly, even though I can’t reliably push/pull enemies through ToF, it still serves its purpose of keeping enemies out or inside of it. Also, the protection and initial dmg/daze is still handy. I’ll let you know how it goes

In larger fights the protection from focus skills really shines. You most likely will only be blinding one enemy out of x, and your shield probably won’t last very long if multiple people are focusing you. It also helps by contributing a boon to the % dmg modifier that relies on boons. The main thing about it is the lower focus CDs. It lets me do more

I would still use ToF. It serves its purpose on point and if ever stacked together, it can be a real game changer for anyone who gets caught between the two traps. It can still synergize well in a team fight.

(heavy criticism below!)
I tried your build on Metabattle and had to swap builds mid game. The 8s extra protection uptime does not beat a 2k heal, 2 cleanse, 2k+ dmg Smite Condition on a Heal. There’s times where I absolutely need a Smite Condition to cleanse and Purification saves me during condi burst situations.

Hunter’s Fortification’s condi block is terrible for what its meant to do. It only helps you marginally during an F3 activation but during a condi burst, you’re still forced to use a condi cleanse because 1 second is waayy too long to cleanse a condition burst 1 by 1. If it was a constant 1s cleanse throughout a fight then that would be something to consider.

Josh Davis.6015:

Our shrine at the office.

The dev we don’t deserve, but need right now.

Jourdelune.7456:

Saiyan.1704:

brannigan.9831:

I have to give A-net a lot of credit they made a bunch of changes to guardian and moved the ball forward a yard for them when it came to spvp viability. That kind of ineptitude is hard to find. If someone thinks Im wrong I’d like to see the builds I missing with these changes that are significantly better then what I could make a few days ago.

Hammer builds are significantly better than what it was a few days ago. Let alone the QoL changes as a whole.

I’d be surprised if we weren’t viable in higher tier pvp now.

The problem with that, is that higher tier pvp players that played Guard are either on REV or Thief roamer dps or was on Tempest Ele.

Main guardian players in ESL team, are not main guard anymore.

Even if the burst would be better than thief and rev (which is not, the burst is better in aoe for sure), the mobility is still holding the dps build.

Bunker or support mender can’t do much in -1 situation except if they are pair with scrapper or druids… both of which can do 2v3 with any other classes that bring more DPS.

Unfortunately, with 5k games as Guardian, Scissors spots are for high mobility, high dps and paper spots for bruisers like condi bursters…

Rock got killed with Cleric removal.

My Heart would wish to get Guard viable. And to do so, we need a way to build for mobility on equal footing with thieves, rev (or mesmer).

When Medi DPS was META (october 2014 to january 2015), kitten (lol the player kitten got filtered), Ementon and Vallun played that a lot. Their role was to keep home and 1v1 on it versus thief backcapper.

At least, if one team would comp for a Medi DPS DH, it would be because he is better than druid, scrapper, warrior or mesmer to hold “HOME” while the other have the mobility to go on FAR too.

I saw Wakkey on Guard the other day… and kitten did he play the class well!

Guards haven’t been great 1v1 (node defenders/assaulters) in a really long time. Even now, we’re not the best as it. I’d argue that Mesmers, Wars, & Rangers do a better job. That said Guards have gotten lots better, able to sustain a hair longer for an adequate +1 now.

That role asside, our mid fight support with DH virtues and overall aoe damages may be more sought after than people realize. Especially now that Ele supports are out of meta. Our “support bruiser” archetype has a chance to take that 5th spot now.