I think they did put an ICD on Radiant Fire unfortunately ( or it definitely fails to proc when torch#4 is on regular cooldown.
I don’t think I was using anything unconventional in my burning build – but I was using Feel My Wrath to get as many stacks as possible in a short space of time.
I’m going to experiment with burn duration runes/sigils later – I think they’ll have a larger impact than stacking lots of condi damage
It does feel to me like that Guards as a whole have been rebalanced around the potential damage modifiers of Draghunter traits and traps, rather than any consideration for the base class itself
I remember seeing the look of bemused shock on Karl’s face when he saw the Joshua nuke the mist’s chieftan in a couple of seconds – we probably got sweepingly nerfed straight after the livestream ;P
I definitely prefer it over DH, but I think, as others have mentioned that it’s best to lose any reference to dragons.
Lets be completely honest: That ship has sailed. There is ‘dragon’ wound all through this classes from icons, to armor/weapons, to skill FX. It’s gonna be “dragonsomething”.
Yes true. I guess the emphasis is important – something that spins you as a “someone who channels the power of dragons whilst he hunts” vs “someone who hunts dragon related flora and fauna” ( the former being how the class actually looks to me vs the latter – how anet want you to perceive the class )
I definitely prefer it over DH, but I think, as others have mentioned that it’s best to lose any reference to dragons.
Just Bane would be ok if hadn’t recently become popularly synonymous with batman.
As a concept I like something like “Nemesis” because of its dictionary definition as an agent or act of divine retributive justice – which fits both the angelic wings and the reason the speciality came into existence ( especially if the speculation about braham/eir are true ). Unfortunately it’s an awkward word that doesn’t roll off the tongue.
To be honest, offering specific names will probably make them less likely to be selected if Anet were to rethink the name in the future because of NIH (not invented here) syndrome – they’ll probably want to put their own spin on it and will avoid anything already suggested.
I don’t exactly know what a sunshield signet might be, but it would probably have been useful farming long hours in drytop without the need of copious amounts of Ambre Solaire
99% of the information isn’t actually redundant. The Guardian just hasn’t changed all that much. ( the same ideas apply, the same old bugs are there, the same builds still work, the pve content handled the same etc etc ).
For myself I’m quite happy that the Guardian forum has far more user-content than any other profession ( with Mesmers as a close second )
I guess after HoT a spring clean will be necesssary however. It might finally obsolete a lot of information in Evenstar’s excellent beginners guide which has been there practically since the first month of release.
I’m sure I’ll be plenty busy adding all the new bugs and skill fact errors to the old ones too
That 6-8k damage will be reduced quite a significant amount when 3k+ armor frontline run over them. We already have a version of that with power necro wells, which can do comparable damage to low armor targets….
Yup I take your points – but the spike trap has an 8 second duration when it triggers which is quite a time to wait before running through a breach and if they run blindly through they’ll hit the backline just fine.
I am hopefully it’ll prevent some mindless running and make commanders pause for thought a bit more.
As for the armour advantage on the frontline – that’s what the jesus beams are for ;-)
I’d be okay with it if taking the spec didn’t also make your virtues more close-ranged and/or less supportive. Would be nice if that was toggleable or something.
They could switch the minor adept with a major adept like piercing light so you can choose to activate it.
Unfortunately you would also have to move Wings of Resolve into a higher tier and it would render several other traits in DH useless because they depend on the the new virtue effects.
( the same would be true if you had a toggle in the virtue bar to switch between them )
to be honest I think the traps will be game breaking/changing for t1 WvW and will most like see some kind of nerf before release. Zergs already have a large composition of Guardians and if they’re all dropping traps left-right-and-centre it’ll be pretty insane. ( a dozen 6-8k dmg spike traps parked behind a gate? – you have to run through both edges ).
If we’re lucky it’ll stop mindless zerging and promote more careful tactics – forcing smaller suicide squads – if we’re unlucky it’ll be unmitigated chaos.
In other game modes they are fine however – and will probably see limited use.
I’m not sure it would be worth it even if you can. Although the base damage of the bow looks reasonable, you miss out on a ton of utility from not having DH traits applied:
For instance:
a) +10% dmg beyond 600 range ( this would I assume also apply to non-longbow skills like smite aswell )
b) Knockbacks when using bow in melee range ( or alternative trait is a straight +15% dmg using the tether )
c) Cripple on knockback
d) +10% dmg against crippled foes
e) Stability on true shot
f) tons of vulnerability application, although you can make use jesus beams regardless
As i mentioned in the tome thread – a speed passive on Signet of Courage might actually tempt folk to use it above Renewed Focus in some cases ( at the very least you can switch it quickly in and out if you need to hike somewhere ).
Really they could even apply it as +20% non-stacking as an AoE too to make it guardian-esque and worthy of elite-hood.
Yup – I wasn’t implying that a Virtue recharge reduction change should hinge on just one trait line – I definitely think there should be a sizeable base-line reduction regardless
The issue is that with the introduction of HoT you will be forced to invest in an entire traitline to reap the benefits. Or at least thats how i understand it. Am i wrong here?
This means that you cant invest just one point in a line (hey inspired virtues) which actually makes the virtues do anything worth bragging about.
That is my understanding too.
One thing I realise is a trapper DH will be obliged to spec Virtues to have any condi clear or stun breakers – which hardly promotes build diversity.
Even with Virtues spec’d, without your suggested cooldown reductions it just won’t provide enough cleansing/breakers to have any kind of sustain. ( So you’ll also be required to have Valor )
I’m assuming of course Absolute Resolution and Indomitable Courage will even apply to their DH counterparts, which was vaguely implied in the Ready Up.
As you say – Guardians have always been extreme underpowered unless you invest in a few key traits – it would really free up the class if at least some of these were baked into the class by default.
The suggestion of greatly reduced virtue cooldowns in other threads would go some way improve condi cleanse and stun-break capabilities of a DH – but it does lock you into the Virtues line.
I think conflagrate will rock when combined with burn stacking and some of our other new traits and skills – this might be why they want to drop those skills
My guess is if you previously had all your points in damage trait lines, you won’t see any increase.
Those who were spec’d defensively should get a small dps boost from the base stat increase
If you previously had no viable condition spec and you suddly get access access to huge vuln/burning burst capability you’ll see a significant dps increase ;-)
Additionally to Brutaly’s suggestions which I agree with – if they do away with Virtue Recharge Rate ( which just seems to confuse people ) and just make it a flat cooldown reduction then we’d naturally gain a further 4-5% off current rates.
The trend with the new utilities and weapons ( aswell as new class mechanics like the Revenant ) is to have much lower cooldowns than previously – true, we don’t have to worry about energy management, but I think a reduction to the guardian class mechanic recharge isn’t unreasonable. This would help get us away from a “one use per fight” skill set
Additionally if they do away with Virtue Recharge Rate ( which just seems to confuse people ) and just make it a flat cooldown reduction then we’d naturally gain a further 4-5% off current cooldowns.
You also have to consider how much more effective Conflagrate might be with the new burning mechanics. We all saw the 3k+ burns in the video…
Adding a second more to the burn applied by tome of wrath#1 would probably make it feel like a real elite.
Before they nerfed the base-stat boost to the tomes a few months ago you could get 1k burn ticks from conflagrate, and it was pretty fun – although it required a niche build.
In HoT we could see some nice trap combos ( eg Ray of Judgement ), stacking vuln and burn to make the tome something to be feared.
I wonder how they’ll balance these for wvw – some of them look insanely powerful ( especially if the tomes also get the proposed rework ).
Test of faith for instance doing 2×3k of damage to everyone in a zerg as they run through the door of the keep
Jon: it will be cool if you can also look at the balance of the other signets, because it’s just not worth slotting any of them in most cases ( except bane for roaming ) – more so because they can no longer be traited to cure conditions
I like the tomes as a mechanic, however, I also fully support the idea of turning them into signets and bringing tomes back as a separate fleshed out elite specialization at a later date.
Edit: What I forgot to add with the Valor line was that it further pigeon-holes you into using shelter due to the changes to Might of the Protector thus making Litany of Wrath that much less appealing.
While it’s always hard to justify taking Shelter over anything else – Litany IS receiving a significant buff it would seem with Smiter’s Boon
( copy and paste from previous post ):
Not only would get healing from Litany’s base heal + Monk Proc, you’d also get an additional Monk Proc from Smite Condition + 25% of the damage done by SC as healing.
1640+1978+1978+(25% of SC’s dmg) – assuming there are targets to hit, quite easily 6k-8k of healing before you’ve even started a damage rotation.
SC might also have a small chance to clear poison or CC to make Litany more effective and you’ll get Fury for the full duration of the damage window.
I’m guessing it will be something visually like GW1’s Ray of Judgment, but instead of inflicting holy damage and burning on enemies it will deal a 33% chance to fix the skill facts on up to 5 friendly targets ( not including yourself )
I feel like the communal defenses trait bumped down to masters + virtues should offer plenty of sources of aegis for any guardian.
If i recall that makes u give aegis(triggers when atack is blocked by aegis ) to allies when u burn yours aegis and not any other block skill, and does not trigger on any block caused by others skills, besides the f3 and retreat i dont recall we have another Aegis skill.
Does someone using this can confirm?
Yes, Communal Defenses will apply Aegis to everyone close to you when you lose your Aegis ( and it won’t re-apply to yourself ). All the people that it does apply to will (currently) proc both Shattered Aegis and Pure of Heart when they then lose their Aegis.
You can also get Aegis from Protective Reviver, Valorous Defense ( when health goes below 50% ) and Pure of Voice ( when cleansing burn )
Smiter’s Boon might have interesting synergy with Litany of Wrath and Monk’s Focus
Not only would get healing from Litany’s base heal + Monk Proc, you’d also get an additional Monk Proc from Smite Condition + 25% of the damage done by SC as healing.
1640+1978+1978+(25% of SC’s dmg) – assuming there are targets to hit, quite easily 6k-8k of healing before you’ve even started a damage rotation.
SC might also have a small chance to clear poison or CC to make Litany more effective and you’ll get Fury for the full duration of the heal skill.
It has often been suggested that Healing Breeze’s cone should be flipped 180 degrees so it heals people behind you ( since Guardian’s are nearly always at the front of the battle ).
IMHO Healing Fart makes much more sense than Healing Shout
What bugs me is the quickness on 12s CD on dagger and the idea of melee staff. So much monk flavor ruined. Also it looks like even rev shield my turn out to be better than ours.
Yeah, I thought WTF when I saw the quickness too – although it is limited somewhat by the big cast time (2 1/4 secs).
I hope they get the energy pool tuned well so this class doesn’t become a skill-spam fest.
What bugs me more is the amount of CC baked into the standard weapon skills. Every weapon accept the shield has access to one or more of: Chill, Torment, Knockbacks, Pull, Cripple AND Taunt – and this is for a class that seems to have semi-decent ranged options.
I really hope Guard gets some love in this regard for HoT
