Guild Wars 2

I’ve never tested it, but I think that it count only for 1 (+1 by retalation)

I’m a condi Guardian. I use Only burn to deal condition damage.
It’s good, very good. But frequently it’s not enough. There’s classes that counter is by nature like necro, ele and mesmer (mesmer why if you hit the copy you lost 3 stack of burn to kill a useless enemy, and to hit the copy with the skill 4 of the torch is easy. The mesmer dodge and you find a copy between you and your enemy).
Then there’s a large amount of active and passive skills and traits that clean conditions, give immunity or grant Resistance. In the theory I will never be able to kill a warrior, if the warrior chose to use all it’s anti-condition skills and traits.
Rangers have a large amount of condi-clean.
The only 2 classes that really have big problems against me can be thiefs and engi, that have really low ability to clean conditions. Expecially the thief.

The guardian have at the best 4 skills to give 3 stack of burn: torch skill 4 (twice by trait), judge’s intervention and purging flames. Out of that a guardian need to attack 3 times to inflict burn (if traited). And if you use the scepter auto attack you dealthe same condition damage than a ranger in auto attack with the shortbow (they inflict bleed with every hit and hit faster, while you inflict only 1 burn every 3 attacks).

Guardian Burn build is strong but it’s really hard countered by more or less 6/8 of the classes, expecially in team fight. If the enemy have a shout guardian or a shout warrior you can forget to deal damage with your burn.

Another word is ELEMENTALIST.
If a ele chose to focus on burn, he can inflict a Incredible and Costant amount of burn. Have a lot of skills that inflict burn and create firefields that inflict burnwith every pulse, traits that make you inflict burn and go in combo with burn, and utilities that help him inflict burn.
But the big problem if the Ele that use Burn is that he can stack Might. A guardian can stack might only if use the staff, but with the staff he can’t inflict burn why it attack and skill slower than every other weapons, with lesser hit x skill.
I’ve a friend that play as a condition ele and say that it’s really OP why he can reach 2400 of Condition Damage!!! He can deal something like 5k/sec with 10 stack of burn. And for a ele stack 10 burn is really easy.

Actually, the problem isn’t about Guardians or Burn.
It’s about Eles that use burn powered with tons of stack of Myght, that make Burn inflict a insane amount of damage.

In sPvP Meditation meta will never change. If you want to inflict damage, you Have to use meditation why you’r choice will be a direct or condition offensive amulet, that don’t give you enough defence (toughness, vitality or both) to fight a enemy.
With the LB you can chose at last to sacrifice Judge’s Intervention for a trap (there’s one that inflict a lot of damage summoning swords that inflict damage when a enemy cross over it, very good for a fight in the mid).
But there will never be a guardian in spvp witout meditation or without shouts that heal.

Guardian have not enough health to be able to chose utilities that don’t give him life.

Anyway, yes, I hope they will chose to give us more trap based traits. Actually all traits focus on virtues and longbow. Good, but we have already a entire traitline that focus on virtues, we don’t need another one.

Yes. Berserker is still the best for pve. Condition is good, sinister can make it really viable, but direct damage will always be better.
About runes, actually a large amount o berserker guardians use Flame Legion, that give Power and +7% damage against enemies with Burn. Scholar give a 10% bonus but you need to stay up 90% of hp. 7% against burning enemies can be better.
About sigils depend on the situation. I use strength to obtain might but if you’re in dungeon with a ele and a warrior you have no problem to cap the Might and you don’t need anything more than more damage and a extra attack.
If you do dungeons you can use sigil of night (i think that’s the name, but not shure) to obtain a 10% damage during night and in dungeon is always night (the proof is that my sylvari is always with it’s glowing effect).

Oh, I’m honored!
You’re really cute, Tao. You make me shy ^-^
:-p

Anyway, if the problem is that you die against a condition damage class with a warrior, there’s 3 reasons:
You have a build weak against condition class, your enemy is better than you, you’re not good enough.
Burn is one of the first conditions that you will clean when you active a condi-clean skill, then if you have healing signet, berserker stance, cleansing ire and brawler’s recovery you’re good enough to clean conditions on your enemy or be immune/resistant to them. Defence and Discipline traitlines can be use dy almost all builds that you want do, Healing Signet is the more used healing skill of warrior and more or less every warrior use Berserker Stance, that give you also 3 bars of adrenaline.

More or less, hte Warrior is the best class to clean conditions!
3 every 8-9 sec with the F1, 1 every 5 sec with the weapons swap, 8 sec of immunity to conditions and 6 sec of Resistante (not every warriors chose to active it, but if they do they have a very good chance to kill condition classes, expecially the one that “burst” with burn like the guardian, that take a little to be able to stack a lot of burn again).

If you want you can also became a tank and use shouts and warhorn, with the old shoutbow, but with the actual meta a gs/hammer is better for damage and CC support.

If you want to be a little more good against condiitons you can chose to use marauder instead of berserker or at last Barbarian, but you lose a lot of damage.

The warrior is the class that have more skills/traits of all to clean/immune/resist conditions.

If a burn ele kill you it’s why it’s a good player or why you’re with the wrong build.

I main a guardian and I can kill easy the ele burn with only 3 condition clean, with 16 cd that remove 1 condition, 20 sec that remove 2 condition and a choice between 28 sec x 3 condition or 48 sec for all condition converted into boon. When I play warrior i’ve not all that problems against a condition class why all of that condi clear skills.

Guardian and Warrior actually can deal more or less the same damage (guardian can do a little better sometimes, but if you mix well bullrush/earthshaker with 100Blades, whirl and rush you’r damage is very high.

Actually a good warrior can kill a large amount of classes and builds.

Warrior can clean conditions with:
-Stance that completly make him Immune to conditions
-Signet that give Resistance
-F1 traited
- swap weapon (every 5 sec) trait
- shuts
-warhorn

and banner have a perfect trait that give you perma-regen.

Warrios is still a good class

L2P

Easy to win with, high damage with low risks, a chance to win in team and in 1vs1 fights…
You’re talink about mesmers!

If you play full zerk with a guardian you have more or less 12k hp, that’s nothing. The buidl is right. And if you use the mace you have always regen up, and that’s good.
The only thing you can do with a build like that is use wisely your block/blind skills and use Meditation skills to obtain a little help recharging your hp by 2k every meditation (and granting fury to the team, that’s good).

Anyway you’re a glasscannon with very low hp and low defensive skills (expecially if you play full offensive). It’s very easy die with a build like that.
And yes: if you’re a guardian in zerk you will never have a big health pool to stay alive.

I used to play my guardian with half zerk half knight (or valkyrie if you think you have enough critical rate or use traits to increase your critical rate and obtain frequently fury).

I win frequently against eles, expecially eles without Diamond Skin. They are hard to kill, but if you active your skills in the right moment you can kill them.

Anyway is frequently find guardians that inflict burn because it’s in our virtue, or guardians that use it to increase the damage by a lot, but guardians that really focus on the use of burn is hard to finds.

It have a high skill cap and I’m unable to kill a necro (why he re-transfer back to me all my burn and convert all my boons) and mesmers why they burst me down why I have no toughness or why I’0m not able to hit them with my skills that inflict burn. I can try to inflict aoe burn hitting the clones, but it don’t work against good mesmers.

Why I never find a guardian that use Burn besides me?

Seriously, I play burn guardian since the patch that allowed us to play condition builds and all the time I find enemies and Guardians that insult me why I use Burn, why it’s OP, why I’m only a noob to use a op build, that I have to learn to play and more. That happen at 99% of cases when I kill them in 1vs1.

In these days there was frequently the Guardian in the sPvP Daily Win. And it’s a lot of days that I find guardians that insult me why I kill them with my condition build.

The fact is that I’m one of the few (really few) guardians that use a Condition build. I rarely meet another guardian that use Burn, expecially in days with Guardian daily.

Then, if the CondiBurn Guardian Build (not other classes, only Guardian) is OP, why I see only Direct Damage Guardians??
Why I don’t see anywhere that OP guardians with condi build that kills plently of enemies at once as they say??

I’m Champion Paragon, I took the title long time ago, I’m really good to use my guardian (expecially in 1vs1). And I use a build that is basicly Weak against a high dps class like another Guardian with a Direct Damage build, able to clean my burn stacks easy, blind/block my burn skills, CC me and inflict a very high amount of direct damage (expecially why I use carrion, that don’t give me toughness).

If BurnGuardian is OP why I don’t find anyone in game? Expecially in the daily guardian day, a situation where everyone use Always the better build of the class to win more easy.
Is a fact that if there’s a build or a class that is better than another, in the time of 1-2 weeks, you find everyone that want to win easy play that build/class. Then, why there’s Only Direct Damage Guardians in the game? Is hard for me find another condition guardian in sPvP.
Sometimes I’ve fun to try Practice and see everyone use the same class and the same build to win easy for the daily. Then, in a daily with Guardian I Never find a Condition Guardian in Practice that try to win easy with that “OP” build.

Please Stop saying that Burn Guardian is OP why it’s not true!

Actually if you’re a good thief you can do very good things, but if you’re not you can’t win against 50% of the classes.
Guardian can kill you so easy that they don’t need to use they’re elite or they’re heal. (but as a guardian i’ve never had problems against thiefs)
Mesmers can simply burst you down with they’re insane ranged damage grom hide.

Actually the thief have some bad days. But it’s still a very good class, if you know how to use it.

Thief can deal a incredible burst damage, but to do it they need to be good and to have some way to escape or they will be dead in 1 sec.

Mesmers are OP, don’t watch at them, everyone is asking for a nerf because they can kill you with a insane direct damage from hide then teleport/hide and come back with another burst if you’re not already dead.

You need only to focus on a role that can fit your thief playstyle and pay attention to the high burst damage. A burst damage can fly from nowhere and kill you in a istant, now XD

They already do that XD
Seriously. Engi was able to 1shot everyone with Granade Barrage (a little bugged at this time, yes) and they fix/nerf it.

Actually if you become 1shotted by a engi you have a l2p issue

That’s the same thing happened to rangers spirits, engi turrets, guardian spirit weapons…..
Expecially for ranger’s spirits, that’s a bug that caused them to become really OP in spvp for long time.

A cooldown start when the skill end, not when the skill start. I use the guardian and it will be good if shelter recharg will start when I active it, why I will obtain 2 sec of recharge reduction. The same for other better skills on other classes.

It was good but it was a bug.

Guardian is a very good class but isn’t the best or the most played, expecially in spvp. Actually the most played is the mesmer why it’s very powerful (op?).
Guardian can be hard to kill and can deal high damage or is a good bunker. But it’s not the best class of all and don’t need to be nerfed.
If you can’t kill a guardian can be caused by your class (thief?) and/or build.

Burn is "brokend only if a ele use it why the ele can stack it very easy and obrain 20 stack of might easy by itself, making it very powerfull.
If you mean the Guardian burn damage it’s only a L2P issue, nothing more.

About mesmers… they’re a little OP atm, but all will be fixed in the futur. Wait and hope for the best!

I’ve find different times teams with at last 2 mesmers, sometimes more.
It can be easy to find expecially in a dai with Mesmer win daily because if you learn a little of how to use shatter skills or how to use a condition mesmer it’s easy to win in a team of all mesmers. The enemy will not be able to catch you.
Think about a condi mesmer. Then, think about 4 condi mesmer, all in mid, each with 3 clones. It’s like 4 enemies to kill and 16 possible targets (and the enemy can stealth and clone-swap).
It’s more or less impossible to win if you don’t have a large (Very large) amount of AoE to clean all they’re clones all the time XD

It’s a funny thing, I need to try it XD

Kharr.5746:

That’s 10+ stacks of burning instantly by just mashing #4. It’s only supposed to grant Zealot’s Flame passively. Please fix it.

Yeah, 10 stack…
Or do you mean 6?
Because if you’re not near the enemy all the time, timing perfectly with active and passive skills and traits, and you’re free to move and skill and the enemy don’t use any skill to dodge/evade/block/blind/immune, you can stack 10 burnwith that skill in more or less 7 secods.

You need 3 seconds to stack 1 bur/sec and 3/4 for active the skill (3 stack), then repeat when you critical hit. It’s 7.5 seconds for 12 stacks of burn.
Guy, it’s a very low burn damage ability, expecially compared with the Elementalist.

You can inflict at the best 13 stack of burning in 5 seconds, if the enemy don’t do anything to stop/evade you or don’t clean the conditions. Frequently you can’t stack more than 9 stack of burn with the inizial “burst”. Then the enemy clean all the burn and your damage is lowered to 0.

P.s. To evade the torch skill 4 active effect you can simply JUMP (it’s not a lie) and you evade the skill why the skill have that bad design that make the guardian unable to make that fire fly in the ari to hit a distant enemy and need to walk on the ground. That mak the guardina frequently unable to hit the enemy if the ground isn’t perfectly free or if there’s kitten in the ground between you and your enemy. It’s very easy to see and evade, sometimes just by moving or stop moving. And it can be reflected by a lot of skills why it’s a projectile (that walk on the ground and don’t fly in the air…).

The guardian is very good and burn deal very high damage (sometimes more than a condition can be supposed to do), but it’s easy to make the guardian unable to inflict high damage. And sometimes you’re able to don’t make a condi guardian deal damage at all (ele and warrior traits/skills)
There’s 3 skills + trait Zealot’s Flame that stack 3 burn each, then the guardian have only the auto-attack to inflict burn and some skills that hit multiple times to help.

I play the Guardian in carrion with Burn and yes, it’s very powerfull and if I find someone that don’t know how to face me I can melt him down easy. But if I find someone that know a little how to fight me and that he need only to evade/block/blind/reflect/jump my torch skill 4 and I lose 1/3 of my damage (why all the other burning skills have a very long coooldown) it’s not so hard fight me.

If you haven’t skills that clean conditions you’re deal, but the same can happen against every other classes with a condi build.
Thiefs can be killed easy with burn why they basicly have 1 skill to insta-clean conditions (teleport, that they use more to excape than to clean conditions) or they need 3 seconds in stealth to clean a condition (and in that case the condition will be 100% burn because is the first to be cleaned). And they have very low hp and frequently play in Berserker… no need to say that everyone can kill a berserker thief with 3 skills.

At the end, if you want to deal high damage with a guardian you don’t play with Burn.
Direct damage guardians deal so much more damage than a Condi Guardian.
If a berserker guardian hit you with GS skill 2 he van deal you 9k of damage in 1/2 sec. With a fast single skill and with a leap that help him to come to you, a CC skill that pull you to him and a meditation that teleport him to you if you try to run away.

If you look there’s only condi guardian in the game because they deal really high damage, because they’re really OP, because they… oh… wait… they use all marauder… and soldier… and they don’t use torch… oh….
Really, I play spvp frequently and I rarely find another condition guardian, expecially in ranked matches.
That’s why burn is very good, deal high damage, but if the enemy know a little how to fight you and have some condi clean skills or resistance/immunity skills you can’t win.

I’ve never lose against a burning guardian in 1vs1. Never. I’ve lose only in 2vs2 or more, but in a 1vs1 I’ve never lose against a guardian that focus all it’s damage on Burn. And I’ve only 2 skills to clean condititons (smite conditions and contemplation of puruty) and it’s really enough to have the time to kill him. If you clean it’s initial burst he’s barely unable to deal good damage for 12-30 seconds.

Burn is good, but if you want to find a class that can really melt you down with burn try to look at eles, that can deal you 8-10k /sec with burn why they have a large amount of skills and Traits that allow him to stack burn in active and passive ways and with all they’re might they reach 2500 of condition damage, reaching a Burn damage that is barely Insane.

Then, all I cna say to you is: Learn to play

Rift is well balanced. I’ve try it years ago and it was a really bad game. With some changes, actually it’s better than where I’ve try it.
The thing that there’s different format of pvp is the key that make rift a “balanced” game.
But there’s always 2 build that shine over all the others in every class.
There’s only 4 classes then is obvious that they’re all wanted and is very easy to make a class viable: make 2 subclass good to do something and, ehy, it’s a very good class!
But there’s always some subclass that no one use.
Back to the time I played it, no one was playing warlord, reaver and paragon why they’re underpowered and someone used it only as a filler in they’re build. Now the things can be changed (i’ve try if a little when it become free for a weekend and some subclasses was coming better than before), but there’s still subclasses that no one use as main and some that no one use at all. (or just for fun).

A game with 4 classes and the trinity system is very easy to balance.

GW2 isn’t like that. There’s not the trinity and there’s no roles.
That make GW2 moe balanced and unbalanced.

We all hope that ANet will add something for pvp like 10vs10, 3vs3, new kinds of pvp like steal the flagg (they will add the stronghold that’s a good map, I like it, add something new to the actual game).

Anyway spvp is funny and more or less balanced. There’s something to work on, but it’s better than a large amount of MMORPG games.

I’ve try pvp in other games and that’s the best and more balanced pvp I’ve ever try.
Try it on the old games like lineage 2, aion or wow, or in the new ones like archage, FFXIV and more.
There’s a large amount of broken classes that simply you can’t defeat and classes that simply you have to not use in pvp because they’re so bad in pvp that is a waste of time try to use them.

Actually isn’t perfectly balanced and mesmers have a very high survavibility compared with they’re damage and ANet have to reduce a little (only a little) them bot, for example by cance the trait that increase the damage of Shatter skills and reduce to 50% the duration of stealth increased by the trait PU.

Out of that I don’t see a large problem. Necros are very strong, warrior deal high damage, thiefs have hard days actually why it’s difficult deal damage without be insta-killed and there’s classes like guardian that they simply can’t defeat.

I play a condi-guardian and I can say that the meta is actually well balanced.

Only few things to tone down or to tone up and it’s perfect.

1
I really like it. It can make new builds viable, add a good support build and if you look there’s a very good damage under that overcharge skills.
It can be hard to play, adding new strategies and making the game a little harder, but it can be really good.
in PvP it can be very good, if you will be able to move and active the overcharge in the right moment.

Actually a good support ele can make the difference in a spvp situation, with a warhorn the ele can be the second better supporter of the game (the first is always guardian because can give a lot of might and good stability) and the frist supporter in PvE.

If they think that Now GW2 is unbalanced, why don’t they left before, when ele and engi will be able to win in 1vs3?

Yes, ele’s burn (guardian’s can’t stack burn so frequently out of the befgin of the battle and they can’t stack 20 might by itself, making burn deal really high damage) and mesmers are actually a little OP.

But all the other classes seems to be balanced, I’ve see fights really balanced.

And there will always be a “OP” class.

If ANet tone down a little (just a little) the damage and the hide duration of mesmers and reduce a little the ability of the ele to auto-stack might and the number of burn stacks that they’re skills and traits apply (why they have too many traits and skills to applyburn in active and passive ways and that recharge too fast) everything will be ok.

I think that actually is the more balanced and funny sPvP I’ve ever played on GW2.

I’m the only one that think that Tempes will be good?
I’m the only one happy about the warhorn? (not the expected weapon but it will have very good AoE effects and visual effects)

There’s a lot of situations. In www it’s useless in zerg but in roaming can 1-shot you by hide, making him “OP”.

in spvp it’s very hard to counter a good mesmer, sometimes impossible. But there’s situations where it’s not easy for a mesmer to fight. If there’s a close fight at the mid, for example, if the mesmer know how to take the distance and how to evade to be focused he can deal so much damage that he can make your team win easy. But if there’s a lot of AoE in the mid they’re illusions die before he can do anything.
In all the other situations, if the mesmer have a good build and know how to play it’s class yes, it’s OP.

I’m not a noob (I hope) and I’ve played with some friends (good players). Frequently I find mesmers that play that class only why with 3 buttons and a dodge you can deal an insane amount of damage (and that’s true), but they’re “easy” to kill because they don’t really know how to use all they’re mechanics and when use they’r stealth and teleport/cloneswap skills.
But sometimes I find good mesmers. And, really, they’re so hard to fight that sometimes you simply can’t kill them. One time I’ve find a mesmer with a hybrid build (if you want I’ve it’s build, I’ve asking him to give it to me XD) and that mesmer’s really unkillable. The better mesmer I’ve ever find. We’ve try to kill him in 2vs1. He killed us all the times. I’m a guardian and my friend a necro. He was so good to play that we’ve not been able to catch him! So many clones and phantasms, so many hide and teleports. He was really good, but to kill him we had to be 3, all the times.
He make his team win because we’ll be unable to kill him.

He’s a very pro player, with a incredible build and there’s not so much like him. But if you find a good mesmer, no matter what class you are: probably you die.

I’ve a friend that use mesmer from the release. I was never able to kill him in 1vs1. He can still win in 2vs1. If he’s in our team we win all the ranked we find because he’s able to deal so much damage and use it’s mesmer so good that the enemy isn’t able to kill him. And when I ask him if have problems against thiefs, he laugh to me and say “I’ve never had problems with thiefs”.

If you only try the mesmer you’ll be unable to use it well, you can kill someone but a skilled player can kill you. But if you’re a good mesmer, that know how to use the class, there’s nothing that you fear.
Expecally in 1vs1, where mesmers are actually unkillable.

GS will be very good in PvE, expecially in dungeons.
The skill 2 will recharge if you hit a enemy under 50% of hp, that will transform you into a spinning top that deal a very high damage (very very high) and do always a whirl finisher.

It can be thinked to be used in www, into a zerg, to hit a large number of enemies and deal high damage. But if you’re in frontline without RS you die quickly, if you’re not in a full soldier and the AA and the skill 2 and 4 don’t give LF, then you have only skill 3 and 5 to obtain LF. If you hit 3 enemies you recharge 36% of LF with skill 3, every 10 seconds, and that can be good, but into a zerg you can have to use only it and only to go back immediatly in RS to don’t die.

in spvp it all depends on what’s the situation. In mid it can be used if you’re 4vs4/5vs5 why you can find enemies near you and catch them. Chill cna also be good to help you in that.
But a slow weapon that telegraph to your enemy every skill, making him able to evade it… no, it’s not the best melee weapon that you can use.

It will be very goos in PvE (also hard dungeons like fractal and big bosses). But it will not be the best weapon for PvP.

But I want to try the Reaper!
A necro with a GS can be very cool.

Marauder with rune of strength/pack/X and sigil of fire+air, with GS + Scepter/Focus, will make you a very good dps class. Alomst all guarians actually play a dps build with gs and x/focus.
You can use a Zeal/Valor/Virtues build with full meditation utility. Heal and elite can be different if you prefer to have more defence or more damage.

Knight in spvp isn’t the best. it can be very good against direct damage classes, but there’s a large amount of condition builds and if you have only 11k of hp you die quickly. If you don’t want to play in marauder you can chose the amulet that give vit+pow+prec to be more defensive but also deal damage.

Anyway, guardian is one of the best classes of the moment, it will still be in the meta.
Fight against a mesmer or a necro can be hard, but you can fight and defeat a large amount of classes without so much problems.

If you want something different you can also try a Condi Medi build. radiance, Valor, Virtue, full traits to apply burn and full meditation, shelter and renewed focus (you can chose to use Purging Flames instead of Smite Condition to apply burn and clean conditions aoe). It’s not the best build of the moment, but it’s funny.

A ele in mid with high mobility, high AoE ability, high support/healing ability and high condition damage ability can be a very big problem for your enemies.

Ok, when they overcharge is hard to don’t see them, but if you see, the Empowering of the guardian have 2.5 sec of casting and they can do it.
The water overcharge will be very useful in spvp, expecially with the current meta, and you take 2.75 sec to execute it. If you have a guardian in team or chose a good moment to active the overcharge, it will do a good work. AoE condi clean, heal and a big waterfield to blast. In 4 seconds you will clean all the conditions and heal your allies by 50% by overcharge, shout heal and blasts. Not a bad thing, right?

And the warhorn will provide Moving Fields that provide AoE damage and boons! Come on guys, that is a bery big thing! Expecially in a situation where a single supporter can make the difference.

We don’t know what meta will come up when HoT will be released and we don’t know 5 of the class specializzations.

Actually I think that it will be very good to add something lesser selfigh and more AoE to the common D/D build to be more good in team fights

If you play condition, necro is the class you hope to never fight against.
If you play direct damage, a common shatter build, you have only to shatter him away.
You can shoce to use traits and skills that reflect projectiles, then when hego in DS you wait a moment that he use it’s AoE life force generator and damage, then he wil lstart to spam skill 1. If you reflect that skill with a dodge+reflect or a skill (traited) you can make him kill himself quickly

Wait untill they reveal the skills of the Tempest. It can be really OP!
And if you want you can chose to use Tempest without the Warhorn! Big Revelation!!!

I really like the idea of the warhorn. I’m waiting for a sword, but also a good warhorn can make us strongher.

Actually the Warhorn is prevalently used to support our allies (only necro use it to support itself and deal daze/damage). What if the warhorn become a good chance to deal damage by calling down storms of lightnings, ice, sand and fire?

I would like to see a big bad ele coming to me covered with a storm of fire! That will be Epic!!!

If you want to make a pure condition burning guardian, I can show you my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsd7flsAhyhYzQwbIwPEH+DVOJmwM0GAVQdeD3L4DA-TZRGwAAOCAZ2fgZZA0nEACPAAA

No support and stability but 2 breakstun , movement skills, blind and block skills, immobilize and some range damage and defensive skills.

Sword, scepter and torch can be the best weapons to stack burn (expecially torch with it’s skill 4 and also the skill 5, that pass through objects and hit AoE. Also clean a condition per pulse on allies.)

Anyway, there’s a thing that you absolitly Need while you play a guardian in sPvP: Survavibility. We have 12k hp (20k with Carrion, but no toughness), if we don’t use traits and skills to heal a little we fall quickly. That’s why I prefer Renewed Focus on Feel My Wrath, because recharge your virtues and give you immunity to everything for 3 sec, with 2k of heal by trait.

If you’re a dps use always meditation (you can chose how many and what meditation use) to obtain heal, fury, mobility and condi-clean.
Zeal can really help you to deal high direct damage, but without meditation you have only a healing skill to survive, that frequently is not enough.

Staff is good to stack might, but isn’t good to stack burn why haven’t skills that hit fast like torch skill 2 or sword skill 3, helping you to stack burn.
You can chose to use inner fire (like nyou actually do) and use the GS, that hit fast with the skill 2 and help to deal direct and conditio ndamage.

If you want to try a direct damage build, there’s one:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR7dlsAhyhY1QwbIQQEHxDVeMexYsGANQBc33YIHA-TZBFABCcRAEvMAK7P02RAAgHAAA

After all that, you can make a build by your own and find that it work very well for you. If you want to have stability use stand your ground, if you like the staff use it, if you think that you don’t need meditation’s heal and fury chose the traits that fits better your playstyle.

Play like you want to play. have fun is the only thing that matter in a game :-)

Actually if you play a full bunker class you fall down before your dps enemy.

The damage is very high and sometime a little too much, but it’s fast, reactive, dynamic. Just the spvp game that devs want to make.

Bunker builds will come up anyway.

And if you take down the damage everyone will turn back to play onlu celestial amulets and soldier.
If you keep this damage rate, if someone try to go in full bunker or midclass (that with some classes like ele and engi is still viable) die if not good to play it.
That’s why you don’t see axebow warriors but GS/Hammer(or LB) Warriors that point at dps more than be bunkers and wait for the moment to swap and hit with eviscerate.

The actual damage is high and isn’t easy play in that meta, but I think that it’s a very funny pvp.

If you prefer fight against a ele or a engi that make you take 5 minutes before he fall down (or more frequently you), that’s not your meta.

Actually there’s a good balance.
Mesmers damage and stealth need to be reduced a little, but just a little, to don’t make them hit like hell and unkillable (a good mesmer don’t make you find him easy, expecially with all that amount of stealth skills and duration).
And ele can stack a little too much might and burn.

Out of that, there’s a lot of good builds and good diversity in every class, the game is fast and dynamic.

With some little mitigation (not big nerfs like usually) the game can be very balanced.

Nice work, ANet

S:
Mesmer
Ele

A:
Guardian
Necromancer
Thief
Warrior

B:
Engineer
Ranger

—You mean nerf them into the ground once and for all. I think you would be surprised how much ele relies on that stupid trait along with evasive arcana…—

That’s why they need to chose one or the other. Why they really can be fullbuffed ALL THE TIME. And that make them OP in a large amount of situations!
And ehi, it’s not a big nerf, ele can still use all the other things he have to survive and fight. A single trait isn’t the only thing that keep the ele alive.

—Can you imagine if Mesmers could only pick between the ability to summon Clones OR Phantasms? Not both. Or if Thieves had to choose between Stealth or Steal?
Both EA’s are absolutely core to the Elementalist and has been since BWE1. In fact, over time, I think they’ve actually come to become even MORE reliant on these traits for 90% of builds in PvP.—

Mesmer’s Phantoms isnt’ a trait but a weapon/utility skill that make them. If they become Clones they will stil deal they’r work.
But to speak better, it’s like you steal they’re trait to make a clone when they dodge. it’s a hard punch for them, but there’s a lot of builds that don’t even play with that trait and work very well and they can still be able to kill you without that trait.

And you’re Still Able to chose Evasive Arcana, but you’re forced to chose it instead of another good trait, like all the other class that have a lot of goods traits and the chance to chose only one: Mesmer’s Power block and Mental Anguish – Warrior’s Last stand and cleansing ire or Brawler’s recovery and destruction of the empowered – Ranger’s Empatic Bond or Wilderness Knowledge [They cry a lot for that forged choice, but no one listened them] – Guardian’s Pure of Voice and Wirt of Persistance and Permeating Wrath or Indomitable Courage and other situations.

Every class lose something of important, making them forced to a choice.

Ele don’t lose nothing from that new trait situation. Nothing really important.

Chose between that 2 traits will not kill the ele, will only make them competitive, not Op and needing to lear to play it better, like everyone had been forced to do.

Actually Diamond Skin is OP.

That’s not why Diamond Skin can make the ele immune to damage conditions, but it’s why it can make the ele Immune to Every Single Condition of the Game!
That make every class unable to engage a ele with immobilize, blind, daze, cripple, chill, making a large amount of strategies useless and making that trait OP why the ele is free to hit the enemy and run around all the time untouched.

That’s my idea:
Increase the HP Range of diamond skin to 85% but make it protect the ele only from Damaging Conditions.
It will protect the ele from Burn, Bleed, Poison, Torment, Confusion and Vulnerability (why it’s a condition that will work to increase the damage dealt to the ele), keeping that trait very strong. But will make the ele still susceptible to cripple, immobilize, daze, weakness, slow, fear and chill.
(fear can deal damage but only with a necro and chill will do damage but only with the reaper, then they’re not considered damage conditions)

That will make all classes able to start a fight against a ele but still unable to deal condition damage why diamond skin is active and protect the ele.

Diamond Skin will still be a very strong trait but not OP why the enemy will be able to catch him.
With the cantrip build (or similar) is still hard catch a ele when it’s under 90% hp, then that will auto-balance the loss of condition immunity.

The problem of burn is only about ele.
That’s why:
1) ele can stack a insane amount of might by itself while fight a enemy, till 20-25 stack of might (I’ve a friend that reach 25 stack of might and with 2400 condi damage he’s able to deal 40k of burn with 12 stack in 5 seconds, more or less 8-9k of burn /sec).
2. He can stack easy 16 stack of burn. The enemy melt down in a second) ele can make a lot of firefields and have a lot of blasts to stack might and inflict burn, with other skills ot inflict burn, and it’s everything AoE, hard to fight and hard to evade.

If you look at the guardian you can see that it’s not really OP.

I’m a condi guardian and for experience I can say that Burn is very strong on guardian but not OP. A good player with a little of condi clear can kill me, expecially necro, mesmer, warrior and some eles with that ******* diamond skin.

As a guardian I can deal a very high amount of damage and stack a good amount of burn, but especially with 3 skills: Judge’s intervention (32 sec CD if traited), Purging Flames (28 sec CD if traited) and torch skill 4 (12 sec CD if traited) and everyone of that skills inflict 3 stack of burn. At the begin of a fight I can inflict quickly 12 stack of burn with a good “burst” damage. If the enemy dodge/block/blind/active aimmunity boon/skill or have diamond skin all my burst fall down, making me able to inflict only 1 stack of burn every 3 hit (a ranger with SB can deal more or less the same damage with it’s auto attack stacking bleed). I help myself with scepter skill 2, but it’s very easy to evade.
Then I need a lot of time to be able again to deal my full condition damage. In that time the enemy can kill me easy why I’m not able to deal good damage.

The only class I’ve see able to kill everything with burn is the ele, that stack might with every fire skill, blast and when active a aura. And inflict burn with skills, crits, dodge, the cantrip that clean conditions and common attacks with the gliph active.

That’s a little too much.

Basicly: it’s not the Burn that is OP, it’s the amount of burn that a ele can stack, with a insane amount of might auto-stacked, that make burn OP.

About eles, they had planned a “nerf”: they put Evasive Arcana and Elemental Attunement on the same tier of Arcane magic, forcing them to chose only one of them.

BUT
Eles cry so much for that “nerf” (that only point to make eles unale to be fullbuffed all the time like before the patch and like now, making them OP) that ANet was forced to make Elemental Attunement a minor trait.

If they restore that old fix idea, they will fix the eles once for all.

I nplay spvp frequently, expecially with that meta. And I’ve to wait for a match more or less 1-2 minutes, no more. The time to relax a moment between a match and another.

*1 I support you, that will be a good thing!

I’ve try to compare my guardian max dps with burn and max dps with direct damage.
There’s nothing to say: direct damage deal much more damage. condition damage deal more or less 2/3 of direct damage, cometimes lesser, and can be afflicted by common defensive skills like immunity (like total immunity -engi, ele, guardian-), dodge, aegis, block and blind.
Direct damage is reduced by toughness and protection but also condition damage can be mitigate just by clean the stacks of the conditions.
I play as a condition guardian and really like the burn version why add a new competitive way to deal with my enemy. And I can say that it’s not OP. Not on guardian. On ele it can be because they can stack 25 might easy and reach 2500 condition damage, making them inflict 10k/sec with 15 stack of burn. But it’s a ele “problem”, not a general burn problem.

And condition damage is “high” only to make players able to play with not only direct damage but also with condition damage. Try to reduce the condition damage and you will see only direct damage builds in spvp. Who want to play a build that don’t deal damage and can only protect a little adding toughness or vitality.

There’s a reason why there’s Soldier and Sentinel amulets in spvp but there’s not a Condi-vit-tough amulet. Anet isn’t the best to balance but balance is very hard and that is one of the things that they have done right to make conditions viable and not OP in spvp. There’s not a very bunker condition class, in spvp.

Then, if they want to reduce condition build’s power they can simply reduce a little the condition damage and add a amulet that grant condi damage, precision and condi duration, making all who want to focus on condition damage with no defence.

The reason why they don’t do that is simply: condition damage is high but it don’t burst you down (unless you’re a thief with 10k hp, but everything can burst you down if you’re a thief). Conditions need time to deal they’re damage. If I look at one of my best skills I can read: 3 stack of burn = 5500 damage. It’s very high! But then I can see: 5.5 sec duration. I need 5 seconds to deal that damage. If no one clean my burn before it deal all it’s damage or immediatly when I apply it.

And now there’s a lot of traits and skills that reduce conditio ndamage (necro), make you immune for a X duration (war) or until you don’t drop under a % of hp (ele) (and that ele trait is very OP. I will change it on you can’t be afflicted by damaging conditions, but making him still susceptible to immunity, blind, cripple, chill and daze). And now there’s a new boon that protect you from all the conditions effect (not only they’re damage): Resistance.

Actually a good direct damage team can win against every condition damage team.

See you next time!
Have fun.
Bye

Actually the mesmer is one of the best class to play in spvp (or The best class for spvp).
But only if you learn how to play it.
High mobility, condition remove, very direct and/or condition damage, high survavibility. Mesmer have everything. But only if you learn how to play.
That’s why I can kill easy a lot of mesmers bu sometimes I find mesmers that can not be killed.

My main is a guardian and just today I’ve find myself fighting against a mesmer that is very powerfull. Really, we have to be 3 to kill him and frequently I can kill (or hit hard) a mesmer by myself. I’ve lose some 2vs1 against him because we have not been able to catch him.
He was a very good player, it’s the first that I find able to do something like that, but frequently to syn is the team with the better mesmer. And they win something like 500-200 and it’s not very easy kill me and my friends.
But ehi, that one was able to kill us in 1vs2 and survive in 1vs3.
Rampager build with sword/torch and GS, sigil air and fire, traits chaos, illusions and inspiration. Really hard to fight.

I’ve try a 1vs1. I’m good in 1vs1 with my guardian but I’m suvived for more or less 15 seconds, no more.

Actually a good mesmer can make his team win in spvp.
A team with 2 good mesmers can be really hard to defeat, sometimes impossible.

I’m sad to say that to you, but actually the mesmer is really the powerfull class in spvp.
Not the only class that can do great things, but the one that can do it better.

An auto attack that strip boon, a powerfull damage skill that make you invulnerable, a clone+swap skill to help you to catch the enemy with damage…
Yeah, sword is a very bad weapon fos pvp. No one use it.

The only thing true is that the swordphantom can spown near the enemy, but it alsodo a leap to catch the enemy. A sword need a low range, that’s why you have to not be distant 600 or less from the enemy to use it.

Mesmer have a lot of good movement skills, teleport. more skills to flee from a fight than to enter in, but that phantom leap to the enemy and inflict cripple + swap, to catch a enemy is better than the 50% of leap skills in the game.

About sword skill 2, Blur is still a very powerfull skill and skills that grant immunity )a complete immunity) can be only defensive skills like they actuall are.
You hit a enemy while no one ncan do anything to stop you. That’s one of the best skill on the game! (a enemy can evade, but every skills can be avaded).

I don’t think that the sword need to be powered up. Not for pvp.

I’m a condi guardian and I really like this meta! First because I can finally use my guardian in a condition way and it’s not OP. It’s strong, but there’s a lot of classes and builds that can defeat me. strong but not overpowered.
Mesmers can deal a little too much damage, If you cancel the trait that increae they’re shatter damage burst (30% against a not-skilling enemy is a little too much why they can easly do that dazing you with the mantra) they will be fine.

Yes, the burst is the best thing you can do in this meta and it’s no longer good for who want to play a full bunker class, but a bunker can still do it’s work without be unkillable (pre-patch I’ve see guardians and engis hold a point for minutes against 2-3 enemies, that will no more happen).
My build is a condition build and I can’t deal the same damage of a direct damage medi guard, but it’s not a problem because vitality and toughness still do something to keep you alive and every class have at last one or two skills to stay alive a little longer.

That mets force you to a fast, synergic, dynamic game. And that’s really funny.

Pre patch if you’ve faced a engi or a ele they will never fall down… never. To a fight that will last for 5 minutes I prefer a fight that end in 40 seconds.

There’s stil something to adjust and tone down, but it’s a very good meta for who want a more skilled, fast and dynamic game, like ANet had try to make from the release of the game.

Bunker is boring, dps is funny!

It can work. I don’t like mace in spvp why it’s slow attack and no mobility, but if you can really make a synergy with symbols, it can be good.
Low condiiton removal skills, but good dps and well focused on it.
To heal you absolutly need to have the GS in hand, if you’re with the mace you will not be able to heal why the enemy can easy stay at range.
That build can work very good against a direct damage melee class, lesser good against a ranged class or a condi class. That make that build really good against 1/4 of your enemy.
But it’s all to see because in the match because frequently in mid you’r enemy stay close to make combo or to hold the point.

Nice build.

Necromancer have one of the hardest F1 skill to balance.
If yo start a fight with LF full, you deal high damage, your survavibility is very high and when you end the LF you start with your health, fighting an recharging the LF, obtaining another time in DS.
That’s not easy to fight.

If you start with no LF you’re easy to kill, you have to charge your LF before go in DS and that make you in trouble from the start of the match.

Frequently you’re witl more or less no LF or with more or less full LF.
If ANet give you immunity he make you really OP when you have a full LF bar. But if they don’t give you immunity they make you “defenceless” if you have no LF.

If you want a immunity skill, they have to cut down your amount of LF, granting you problems when you go in DS, with big problems with all the builds that work entirely on DS (like in www and frequently in spvp).

Necromancer is a very hard thing to balance. Warrior can be modiefied how fast he build adrenaline or the damage he do with F1 skills. Thef F1 and stealth can be modified easy. Guardian hano not so much to change but if it’s too powerfull he can be changed easy. Necromancer isn’t so easy to manage.

There’s a lot of runes or traits that reduce condition duration (sometimes making you unable to be affected by, like diamond skin trait of ele -OP against a condition class-) or Berserker Stance, there’s different ways to protect you with the new Resistance, condi clean and the old-but-gold dodge, block, blind, etc.

With the actual meta, ANet can add that toughness also reduce condition damage, but there’s already a lot of things that reduce/clean condition damage.

Out of the common ways to defend (blind, block, evade), there’s boons like protect and traits that add damage reduction to the Toughness stat, helping to reduce incoming damage, but you always will take it. in a similar way, condi clean skills highly reduce the condition damage. Iìm a guardian condition and if I stack 9 burn on you and you clean them all with a single skill I will do more or less 1-2k of damage to you before clean them, reducing my damage by more or less 10k. That is a damage reduction of 80%, guy.

reduce the duration of a condition = reduce the damage of a condition, because the condition deal damage over time. If you reduce to 0 that time, they don’t even deal damage.

And now there’s a new boon to protect you from conditions: Resistance (I hope that it will be more easy to use with HoT specializzation and skills)

Actually the condition damage is good, but only against berserker builds. Anyway, direct damage is still the best way to deal damage.

I’ve played necros pre-patch and now I’ve try it post patch and faced it with other classes, in sPvP.
I think that Necro’s actually in a good place. Seriously. In the actual meta that everyone point to burst you down, a necro is a good class to survive a lot (expecially in 1vs1/2vs2, not in a group fight).
DS can be the worst thing ever, but Frequently I find harder kill a necro than kill a engi or a guardian.
I play guardian condi and the Only class that I really fear is the Necro. The only one. i can kill easy a thief, a engi, a ranger, a warrior (taking only a lot of tine, but I can kill them frequently, also when they use rampage to try so save themself from death), I’ve trouble with other guardians (same class, more or less same skills), ele, I can kill a mesmer if I catch him but it’s really hard. The only class that frequently kill me down is the necro.

Very high damage (axe skill 2 or dagger and DS AA deal very very high damage) and a “insane” amount of health. They also can eat my conditions, convert my boons and spam a large amount of conditions.
And when they fall down I have to run to a safe place if I’ve not more than 2/3 hp because they’re downed state attack deal so much damage that it’s really OP. frequently if I down a necro I die why it’s downed attack is very powerfull.

Actually the necro isn’t the best class of all, but if you face one that know how to play it’s class it’s avery big problem to take down (if you do).

I play the guardian in a condition damage way, with Burning, and the sword is a very good wepon to proc virtue of justice, making it one of the best condition damage weapons of the guardian. With the AA that hit 5 times and the skill 3 that hit 8 times, that weapon is my favourite to deal condition damage.
Scepter also is very good for condition damage, but I prefer the sword.

In direct damage, the sword isn’t the best weapon but it’s good.

If you like the sword, play the sword. if they ask you to change your weapon, say them that you like to play your guardian witht the sword and that you don’t want to use the mace.
You lose damage? It’s ok, no problem, you obtain a blind with teleport and a skill to block projectiles.

Play what make you happy, don’t listen to the “meta”.

Actually I love the pvp. pre-patch a single fight will last for minutes, you’re surrounded by bunkers that point on survive than kill. That make the spvp boring and some classes really OP. (ele, engi)
Now there’s a lot of classes that can cooperate to make the bigger burst they can.
Now a fight in 1vs1 can be won in 10 seconds (lesser if you play mesmer or thief) but sometimes they still need 1 minutes to end.
Yes, now a good amount of defensive skills can do better than high vitality or high toughness, but you still need to have a defensive class in team to survive to high burst damage (guardian shout or warrior CC for example).

And now a stun class like a warrior with hammer can really change a little the way of the fight and not only be used to stack might and deal damage, with a little of CC.

Now the pvp is fast, you need to play and think fast, react wuickly to the enemy attack, dodge, block, use your healing skill only when needed, don’t wast your skills, don’t miss your best attack.

Actually spvp can be a really competitive player versus player (more competitive than 2 bunker facing and fighting for minutes before someone stop them and ent it in a tie XD)