Guild Wars 2

Tuntz.8953:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Well, isn’t it the same result either way?

If you look at all other forms of content in the game, all of them suffer from diminishing returns in some way or another. World bosses can only be done once per day per character for the chest, and once per account for the bonus. Dungeons can only be completed once per day for the full reward and after that suffer from diminishing returns. Fractals can only be completed once per day per level bracket for the full rewards. Even normal farming runs suffer from diminishing returns if you farm a place for too long.

The only content that does not suffer from these diminishing returns is champ farming, which is why champ trains are the most efficient method for acquiring income. My suggestions for the champ train changes were made with the idea of bringing them in line with the rest of the game, and make it so that players can choose what they want to do rather than feeling compelled to do something simply because it is more efficient than the alternatives. As it is right now, however, champ trains are unbalanced and significantly more rewarding than most other forms of game content, especially with respect to the challenge involved.

So why don’t you ask to kill the EOTM train as well ? Or the FG ? Also , you assume that people that do the train don’t do any of the other activities , when that is not true.
I do all the activities you mentioned and the train ( not the QD , but the FG and EOTM ). If they remove the train do you think that i and others will repeat the same activiy already done before ? We will simply log out and go do something else , and that is not what ANET wants( i think…)

I never made any assumptions. I’m just talking about the issues with the trains which is on topic with this discussion. This isn’t a thread about EOTM, etc, otherwise I would have commented on those, however if you think about it rationally, any changes to champ loot drops would affect some of the rewards in EOTM and other content as well.

In the end, I don’t see why ANet would nerf every other form of reward farming and leave Champ farming as the most viable. I think they should either nerf champ farming to bring it in line with everything else, or take away the diminishing returns from other forms of content so as to lessen the impact of champ trains.

Tuntz.8953:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Actually, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t really understand the logic of the reward system. Why do games reward repetitive, boring content, rather than rewarding fun, challenging content? It’s almost as if the devs are trying to say that they don’t want us to have fun and that they want us to grind if we want rewards. I’m not saying I don’t want others to be rewarded, but I want people to be rewarded for having fun because that’s what a game should be all about.

Is that a bad thing? Unless, of course, people find grinding the exact same champs, along the exact same path over and over and over again fun…

What’s boring to you might be fun for others , instead of asking to nerf an activity that you consider boring, ask the dev’s to increase the reward of what you think is fun and challenging.

Well, isn’t it the same result either way?

If you look at all other forms of content in the game, all of them suffer from diminishing returns in some way or another. World bosses can only be done once per day per character for the chest, and once per account for the bonus. Dungeons can only be completed once per day for the full reward and after that suffer from diminishing returns. Fractals can only be completed once per day per level bracket for the full rewards. Even normal farming runs suffer from diminishing returns if you farm a place for too long.

The only content that does not suffer from these diminishing returns is champ farming, which is why champ trains are the most efficient method for acquiring income. My suggestions for the champ train changes were made with the idea of bringing them in line with the rest of the game, and make it so that players can choose what they want to do rather than feeling compelled to do something simply because it is more efficient than the alternatives. As it is right now, however, champ trains are unbalanced and significantly more rewarding than most other forms of game content, especially with respect to the challenge involved. To me, that doesn’t make sense, especially when you have content that is far more challenging and also far less rewarding, which is a bummer.

Tuntz.8953:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

I think champ trains as a whole need to be killed off. To me, it’s far too rewarding for content that is so easy (and boring) to complete. The way I see it, ANet needs to rebalanced player rewards so that more difficult content becomes more rewarding, while easier content is less rewarding. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. O_o

I’d say they need to limit it so that champs only drop their loot bags once a day per character. That way killing a champ will still be rewarding if you happen to encounter one in an event, but farming them continuously will no longer be feasible. They could also implement a system where completing an event for the first time in a day yields greater rewards, but repeating that same event multiple times in a day yields less rewards with each subsequent completion. That way, you also can’t just use the trains for endless karma or exp farming.

Since this thread appears every week let me just copy/paste from the other threads the tl/dr of what you are saying

tl:dr – “You get something I want by doing something I don’t feel like doing and yet you get rewarded for it. I don’t want you to get rewarded by doing something I don’t feel like doing myself.”

Actually, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t really understand the logic of the reward system. Why do games reward repetitive, boring content, rather than rewarding fun, challenging content? It’s almost as if the devs are trying to say that they don’t want us to have fun and that they want us to grind if we want rewards. I’m not saying I don’t want others to be rewarded, but I want people to be rewarded for having fun because that’s what a game should be all about.

Is that a bad thing? Unless, of course, people find grinding the exact same champs, along the exact same path over and over and over again fun…

My question is, if Anet didn’t want healing to be a major focal point, why introduce a stat like healing power? The stat itself is largely pointless because investing too much into it would mean sacrificing your dps, which is the bread and butter of this game. Also, most healing skills perform fine without it and the scaling is really poor for the most part.

I’m all for destroying the typical MMO trinity, but to me it doesn’t make sense to have stats in a game that are useful for specific build roles, only to then make those roles ineffective and thus, the stats along with them.

I think champ trains as a whole need to be killed off. To me, it’s far too rewarding for content that is so easy (and boring) to complete. The way I see it, ANet needs to rebalanced player rewards so that more difficult content becomes more rewarding, while easier content is less rewarding. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. O_o

I’d say they need to limit it so that champs only drop their loot bags once a day per character. That way killing a champ will still be rewarding if you happen to encounter one in an event, but farming them continuously will no longer be feasible. They could also implement a system where completing an event for the first time in a day yields greater rewards, but repeating that same event multiple times in a day yields less rewards with each subsequent completion. That way, you also can’t just use the trains for endless karma or exp farming.

Many times while playing GW2, I’ve often though to myself “how cool would it look if I could use some of the sun glasses, or one of the face tattoos (which count as headgear), in conjunction with other headgear, such as the Thief’s Anonymity Hood?”

Considering many of those items are worn on the face, so to speak, wouldn’t it be better if Anet made a separate face item slot that was purely a cosmetic slot (no extra stat benefit)? I mean, it doesn’t make sense for a face tattoo or glowing eyes to take up a headgear slot, thus denying you the use of a helm, hood or hat along with a bit of face paint, glasses or eye effects for a cool aesthetic combination.

I’ve gotten three precursor drops since I started playing (which was basically since the release of the game). They were Spark, Howl and Tooth of Frostfang. My guildmates always go on about how lucky I am, but I’d say 3 drops after almost two years of playing is quite relative, nothing spectacular. I usually reply by saying it’s not me that is lucky, but rather that they are just very unlucky. I also think a precursor drop now and then is a due reward for someone who has put a lot of time into the game.

Still, despite my own “luck”, most of my other guildies (some of which have played as much as me) have never gotten a drop. I’ve also noticed that drop rates are very, very inconsistent, with some players never having a drop in years, while some get a drop within their first month of playing.

The first suggestion I’d make is to tie precursors to achievement reward tracks. Give a precursor at, say, every 5000 achievement points (debatable), which the player can choose from. This would at least give a consistent reward to long-term players that they can work towards.

The second is to make precursors craftable. If you do that, then not only would it give players an alternative way to acquire them, but it would also balance out and normalize the prices of precursors on the TP (Expensive precursors would become cheaper and cheaper precursors will gain more value). The prices would also be directly linked to the value of the mats needed to craft, and not based purely on player greed or extremist profit margins. I do recall Anet mentioning the idea of precursors becoming craftable. I just have no idea why it has yet to be implemented.

@Aedrion

Yeah, I was wondering about whether fury was the right boon for the staff symbol, but it’s really the only boon Guardian’s struggle to gain access to aside from swiftness.

Still, when I look at other class skills, some of them have easy access to group fury. Elementalists with the right traits can literally give a party unlimited fury through blast finishers on fire fields. Warriors have a low cooldown shout that gives 8 seconds of fury and 3 stacks of might and the battle standard can give over 65 seconds of fury, on top of might and swiftness. I don’t think it’s too unreasonable for a symbol to give fury as well, but I guess the duration would just have to be balanced relative to the cooldown of the symbol, so as to not make it OP. Still, any boon on a symbol is better than swiftness.

As for the torch, if their intention is for it to be a pure damage weapon, then they really need to reduce the channel time for cleansing flame. Four and a half seconds is just a ridiculously long channel time for so little damage and a utility benefit that’s almost impossible to implement properly. At least if it removes boons from enemies it would kinda justify the long channel time a bit more, but even then, that’s situational. I don’t think adding burning to it would be really beneficial either, because guards can already upkeep burning forever without much effort, especially in group situations with the virtue of justice.

Shield 4 knockback would be awesome. That alone would make the skill more worthwhile in my books. The only problem is we already have a knockback with shield of absorption, so I doubt they’d give us another. If anything, just reducing the cooldown of shield of justice would make it better.

And lastly, I know people don’t care about underwater weapons and if they never change it, it’s water under the bridge. Lol. Still, if they’re gonna balance stuff out, might as well squeeze it in as well. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing more underwater content for the game, if water combat was refined a bit and made more fun, but I reckon that would be a long time coming.

5: The spear

Damage wise, the spear is our best weapon underwater while the trident fills more of the support role. That’s perfectly fine, but what I don’t understand is why our main auto attack for the spear (spear of light) is a ranged, single-target projectile attack. Every other spear skill is either used in melee range, or, in the case of wrathful grasp, pulls enemies into melee range, so it makes no sense for us to have a weaker, ranged, single target attack for our auto when 90% of the time, we’re going to opt to go into melee range to use our other, harder hitting spear skills.

I’d change the spear auto to a melee, cleaving attack to better suit the rest of this weapon’s skillset. We already have the trident as a ranged alternative, so the spear should definitely be a pure melee weapon in my opinion.

6: The Mace

Honestly, it’s hard to put a finger on what the mace is doing wrong, because it fills its intended role as a weapon that offers a lot of healing and tankiness, very well. I think the main issue is that its role is unneeded as far as the mechanics for GW2 go. Even the hammer seems to be a better weapon choice for guards, because despite offering a good amount of tankiness, it also does decent damage as well, and offers crowd control skills and a low cooldown blast finisher on top of it. The mace just seems completely unneeded and in desperate need of a complete rework.

As a main guardian, I just wanted to present some ideas for some changes to some of their weapon skills that may help improve a few things and better balance them out overall. I can’t really comment with complete accuracy on how they compare to other classes that I am less experienced with, but I think overall guardians are in a decent position, and just need some polish (though the same can surely be said for some other classes as well). So, I’m just going to list some ideas.

P.S. If I haven’t listed a weapon, it’s because I think it doesn’t need any changes and is good as is.

1: Staff Changes

I think as a whole, the staff is a great weapon for guardians. It offers good support, reasonable damage for its purpose and it’s my go to weapon for mob tagging during events with lots of enemy spawns. The main change I’d recommend, however, is to rework the symbol of swiftness. As it is, it doesn’t make much sense for guards to have to stand still in order to move faster. The amount time you lose standing still actually negates the speed gained from swiftness in most cases.

I’d move the swiftness effect to the line of warding, so you gain, say for example, 15 seconds of swiftness when you run over the line. That makes the line of warding a better retreat skill, and makes it easier for guards to gain swiftness properly while moving. As for the symbol of swiftness, maybe change it to a symbol of fury that grants 2 seconds of fury for each pulse (just an idea, I’m open to alternatives).

2: Sword changes

Damage wise, I think the swords auto attack is in a good place. However, what irks me is that the third attack in the auto chain (Sword Wave) counts as a projectile. It’s annoying using a melee weapon and having your attacks redirected to you against an enemy with projectile reflect properties (like the crystal golems in fractals), and what makes it worse is that when the attack gets reflected in that manner, the guard tries to repeat it multiple times in succession after the first failure in an attempt to succeed, which really slows your dps significantly and compounds the reflection issue. I’d change it so Sword Wave just counts as a melee attack.

The only other change I think the sword needs is a rework of zealots defense. Make it block attacks instead of absorb projectiles. That way it opens up more synergies with gaurdian traits and makes the skill more worth using. Oh yes, and make flashing blade a leap finisher.

3: Torch changes

From what I’ve seen, torches are pretty mediocre weapons on most classes that use it, not just guardians. At least, that’s what I’m lead to believe because I rarely ever see anyone carrying a torch. Still, I think the guardian torch could become a much more viable weapon with just a few small tweaks.

First, make zealot’s flame remove one condition on use. It just gives the skill a bit more utility and makes it more worthwhile.

Secondly, I think cleansing flame needs to be reworked. The main issue with it is that it’s easy to hit enemies with, but very hard to hit allies with because of how it aims (unless your allies are sitting on top of your enemies in melee range), so the “remove conditions from allies” effect is rendered mostly useless. It’s damage is also far too mediocre to warrant using on that basis alone, so the utility side needs to be fixed to make it more viable. My recommendation is to change the “remove conditions from allies” effect to “remove boons from enemies”. Do that and suddenly, the torch becomes a much more compelling weapon that guards might actually consider using more actively.

Right now the torch has to compete with the shield and the far superior focus, so I think these changes are reasonable enough to help keep the torch competitive as an offhand alternative.

4: The shield

I personally don’t use the shield because I think the focus is better as a defensive weapon, but I’d personally change shield of absorption to block ranged projectiles rather than absorb them. It doesn’t make sense for the guardian to have trait synergies with blocking attacks and then have so many skills that absorb rather than block, thus rendering those synergies useless.

Nadha.6097:

I would not care about wings in particular, I do not find them very fitting, but agree to

1) more variety of back items
2) back items being dyeable to include them better in your style

As it is, once you have a new backitem they are so widespread, that they become an optical nuicance, cause at least 50% of population wears them.

This. Imagine how cool a dark fractal capacitor with a deep red glow would be. Hell, in addition to dye-able back items, I wish we could dye weapon skins. It’s annoying when I love the look of a skin but it’s colours completely contrast with what I’m going for. Also, being able to choose torch flame colours, etc, would be awesome as well.

In all honesty, I can only speak for my personal experiences. I am actually quite lazy when it comes to game aspects such as grinding. In fact, I loath farming or grinding of any kind because I hate doing repetitive actions over and over again, so I went into GW2 with the full believe that I would never get a legendary in the game, and I was fine with that because they are purely cosmetic and don’t affect the gameplay at all.

For the most part, I just hang with friends in my guild and we do whatever it is we feel like at the time, whether it’s a dungeon, wvw, world bosses, or literally just taking long walks through Tyria (we’ve literally just walked across entire maps, while admiring the scenery and chatting).

However, over the course of time I’ve been playing the game, I ultimately managed to craft two legendaries. I got lucky precursor drops and I had a lot of mats saved up purely from doing random stuff in the game as it suited me, so it didn’t take a lot of effort or grinding to complete the legendaries. In fact, most of the mats I just bought directly with the gold I had managed to save. Ultimately, I played the game how I wanted and still managed to get some of the best items in the game. I’d say you’d only have to really grind if you were in a rush to get a legendary, but if you just relax and play how you want, you can have fun and will likely end up getting one either way, it will just take longer. At least you’ll be having fun though, which is far more important than any cosmetic item.

I can also say with no lack of certainty that having a legendary is not all it’s hyped up to be. I have both Incinerator and Meteorlogicus and although it was really cool when I first got them, I got over it really fast. Besides, there are so many people running around with legendaries these days that they don’t even feel special or unique anymore. I don’t feel important for holding one so I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it if I were you.

Ultimately, I think my point is that you should just play how you want and not how you feel compelled to.

No. I never said I wanted to get rid of zerker stats. In fact, in my one post I even mentioned that I think nerfing zerker gear was a mistake. I was just offering possible alternatives to the way in which Anet nerfed Zerker gear.

Also, 4 out of my 5 most played classes are in full zerker gear, just for your information. I can handle the pressure. The only thing I can’t handle is people like you.

haviz.1340:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Because I honestly don’t play WvW or PvP as much as PvE, so I’m not as knowledgeable as others in that regard. There are others more qualified to talk about PvP balance than I.

Why don’t you make a thread about it if it matters to you so much?

There are literally tens of threads about zerkers popping out every day. It’s beating a dead horse way too much for my taste. On top of that, most, if not all of the people, that create those kind of threads start their thesis with complete false opinions and their way to fix the apparent problem always leads to even worse situation.

I was trying to come up with different solutions from the norm. Like the combining precision and ferocity into one stat. My only aim was to approach the subject from a different viewpoint to invite discussion and maybe get a different perspective on things. My goal was not to complain or flame, or anything of the sort.

What I don’t understand is why people in this community always adopt such a volatile reaction to people trying to discuss possible new ideas. You all seem to think that if it isn’t your way, it’s the highway and that if things aren’t to your liking, then they cannot be considered at all. I never once implied that my ideas were perfect or correct. They’re just ideas that I had hoped would invite healthy and constructive discussions. Instead, all I am getting is a lot of negativity and a lot of snide responses.

Honestly, if this is the state of the community on these forums, then I really don’t want anything to do with it anymore. I’ll just carry on playing the game while you all have your mud slinging contests, and beat each other down into the dirt.

CptAurellian.9537:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Is it wrong to want more build variety though? Is it wrong to want other stats to actually be important in the game? I have nothing against zerker gear, nor do I have anything against playing as a zerker. My only issue is that right now, it is the only viable way of playing.

You make it sound as if wanting variety is a bad thing. O_o

All of this is utter bullkitten.

First, there will always be one or two optimal builds per class in PvE and nothing more. If berserker falls, just another set will take its place.

Second, the exact opposite of what you claim about viability is actually true. Right now, everything is viable in PvE. You can complete anything with 5 healer-bunkers, which is about as different from the meta as possible. If you don’t believe it, search on youtube for rT’s or whoever’s no dodge Arah runs. It’s just not optimal – but by definition, there can’t be many optimal things.

Third, we already have full variety. Open a LFG, state “Everyone welcome” and have a look how quickly it fills. However, there’s nothing wrong if others want to complete the same old dungeons, which haven’t changed in 1.5 years, as quickly as reasonable possible.

I never said nothing else was viable. I also never said you can’t complete dungeons with other builds. I’m just saying that parties looking for players are going to insist on zerker gear in a lot of cases just because they want to finish content faster. I never said that was my opinion or my belief, but I have been a victim of ire when people complain that my build or my skills aren’t to their particular liking.

Maybe my experiences have just been negative and do not reflect the actual state of the game, who knows? Anyway, I don’t mean any harm by my posts. It just seems to be an overwhelming sentiment that zerker gear is still the most sought after for PvE.

haviz.1340:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

What kind of solution do you want to see? A buff? A nerf? A rework?

Also, lots of people care about PvE. Hence why a majority of players spend most of their time in PvE. O_o

Complete eviscerate of condies in pvp. Why don’t you make a thread about that?

Because I honestly don’t play WvW or PvP as much as PvE, so I’m not as knowledgeable as others in that regard. There are others more qualified to talk about PvP balance than I.

Why don’t you make a thread about it if it matters to you so much?

ferr.6403:

I’d like to see Condi meta solution in pvp better, who cares about pve?

What kind of solution do you want to see? A buff? A nerf? A rework?

Also, lots of people care about PvE. Hence why a majority of players spend most of their time in PvE. O_o

nGumball.1283:

People always forget that there is pvp to pay attention too and Zerker is one of the weaker sets there however damage output and dps is still a must to kill.

Otherwise, the issue with zerker isn’t the gear or the stats, it is the mechanics of the game like how the bosses attack, their attack damage and their mechanics. Right now, bosses kill with one shot and therefore there is no point of healin or supporting in general if we exclude buff-support. Just buff everyone, stack might and kill the boss as fast as possible so he can die with the least amount of attacks.

I don’t think this will change or Anet want to change it, and if they do, it may affect the pvp negativly.

I did actually consider PvP and WvW. I even mentioned that zerker gear isn’t as important in either of those.

In my opinion, the nerf to zerker gear was actually a mistake. At least before you didn’t have to have a full party of zerkers just to finish a fractal in good time. You could have a more mixed party and still do well. With nerfs to damage, parties are more inclined to only look for zerker players, that’s why I feel you need to either change how it works, or just go back to how it was before.

No, I just want variety so everyone can play how they want, without feeling pressured into one play style. That’s all.

Balsa.3951:

whats so bad on running zerker?

i dont get it

is it bad running a gear where u actully need to doge ?

do u want us spam 1 as we do in wvw already

just leave the meta its fun and fair since everybody can do it

Is it wrong to want more build variety though? Is it wrong to want other stats to actually be important in the game? I have nothing against zerker gear, nor do I have anything against playing as a zerker. My only issue is that right now, it is the only viable way of playing.

You make it sound as if wanting variety is a bad thing. O_o

Hey everyone.

Recently Anet obviously introduced the new Ferocity stat in an effort to nerf the zerker meta and introduce more variety in terms of player builds and play styles. The main problem therein, as some players have pointed out, is that regardless of any nerfs, zerker gear will still be the highest damage combination and thus, people will still feel inclined to use it if they want to finish dungeons and fractals within reasonable time frames. Furthermore, parties will also be more inclined to only accept zerker players now, thanks to the damage nerf rather than having mixed parties, which means playing as anything else besides zerker might earn you the ire of your team mates.

If anything, this nerf may have very well killed build variety as far as PvE goes (WvWvW and PvP was never zerker gear reliant). An example of this is that with my guardian, I used to have a mix of zerker gear and other stats to get a more balanced build between survivability and damage. Now my damage has been nerfed to the point that I feel I need to have full zerker gear just to get it back in line.

So, I thought of some potential solutions to the problem.

1: Remove crit damage and precision from the game altogether.

I’m sure I’d get a few gasps of dismay with that kind of suggestion, but honestly, I think it would be a simple and effective solution if Power was the only primary physical damage stat in the game. That way, you wouldn’t have to get three specific stats on your gear just to get maximum physical damage output, which leaves two stat slots open for more build variety. You could combine power with healing, condition damage, toughness, vitality etc, without feeling like you’re gimping yourself or your team.

To balance the loss of crit damage, Anet could also implement a 20% – 30% health drop for enemies (not sure on the exact number, because overall damage loss would have to be calculated properly), which would balance out the damage loss and bring it in line so, overall, killing enemies takes the same amount of time as it would have if you had full zerker gear.

With this change, on crit effects would obviously have to be changed to have an on hit effect with a percentage-based chance to proc.

2: Combine Ferocity and Precision into one stat.

If you’re going to introduce a new ferocity stat, why not rework it so that ferocity determines both your crit chance AND crit damage? That way, you remove one stat out of the zerker gear combination and open up a third slot for (once again) more build variety. You could slightly nerf the amount of crit chance and damage it gives in compensation for combining the two stats, but at the very least this would open up a few more options for players without wrecking their damage potential (for example, power, ferocity condition damage builds, or power, ferocity, healing power builds, etc).

That’s all I can think of for now, but I think they’re reasonable solutions that would introduce build variety without completely breaking damage potential.

Silv.9207:

Ferocy wyll decrease the total amount of a berserker build critical damage by arount 10-15%, not all that chance. And they say that the celestiol equipment obtain increased stats to be more usefull.
Abount support, you’ve not a support build, then you don’t need to think abount that, right? live happy, you’re a “useless” guardian anyway :-D
You’r only support skill is the tome, useless in almost all the situations. You can use it in some dungeons or wvsw, but only sometime.

Abount tanking, the guardian is the best bunker/supporter class, and if some other classes gain the skills to support ally you can be happy about that: you’re no more the only idiot that fight to keep your ally alive while they play like mindless berserkers and make your life kittenly the Warrior can be a good alternative to the guardian, but a warrior don’t give the defensive support ability that guardian give.
And actually, the best healer is the mesmer, whit 3k hp every 3 sec. But you will never see a mesmer healer because no one want to use a build like that whit a mesmer XD

New Traits (for what we actually know, because new trait changes will be revealed) give to the guardian some ability but my build (supporter) don’t give nothing usefull by that trait changes. I’ve my build and that build don’t change whit that new traits. I don’t see more chances to be a good dps whit that new Grand Master traits and don’t see the chance to be a Condition Damage Dealer, because you can increase the burn damage by 33%, but you can’t inflict the damage of Necro, Ranger or other classes that inflict more than only one condition at time. Necro and Ranger inflict a very high CD because they give you burn, poison and XX stack of bleed in lesser than 2 sec. That make them inflict more than 1800 damage x second just by condition damage, reducing your healing and giving you conditions like crippling, chill and weakness. If you inflict 800 damage x second whit fire… yeah… good… you’re a useless condition damage build.

That new traits don’t give me nothing new to try.

Don’t worry, be happy, nothing big is changing for us, little poor guardians!

To be honest, players like you are the kind I dislike the most. Instead of giving your opinion in a constructive, helpful way, you choose to be condescending and resort to insults. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me and I don’t mind conceding to points that I feel are relevant and disprove my own assessments, but I will never respect someone who approaches this kind of discussion with such a childish demeanour.

Firstly, I’d like to point out that I’m not a mindless berserker. In fact, I think the term itself is inaccurate, because to play with a pure zerker class with low survivability, actually takes a lot of skill, far more than playing as a pure tank build where you can take more hits and where healing comes easily. Sure, you do get zerkers who die over and over again because they can’t handle the glassiness, but you also get skilled players who are a true boon to their allies. What matters most, is the player behind the build.

Secondly, just because I am not currently playing as a support build, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t played as one. In fact, I do have gear in my bank for such a build and I have used it from time to time. The only reason I stopped using it is because I found that at higher level fractals, support, especially of the defensive kind, becomes increasingly less helpful, especially when enemies start one-shotting players regardless of defensive buffs and where evasion, blinds and blocks are far more useful. Guardian offensive support is also not as good as some of the other classes. As for healing, I never actually mentioned that specifically, so I’m not sure why you had to bring up the whole “mesmers are the best healers” argument in the first place.

In saying all that, I don’t purely stick to meditations in dungeons or fractals, and do switch to wall of reflect or shield of the avenger when necessary. I’m not saying guardians are useless at support, just that I think a lot of their support options, especially shouts, are overrated and that other classes offer better alternatives.

In the end, I just feel that Anet is trying to force another variation on an already existing play style with these guardian updates. I never said players will actually adapt to that variation and I personally believe most guardians would be hard-pressed to give up other grandmaster traits like Altruistic healing, just to get more burn damage. But then, if all we’re getting are traits that no-one is going to use, while existing, underpowered weapons and traits are still being ignored rather than rebalanced, then really, what do I have to be happy about?

Obtena.7952:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

However, with the upcoming changes to guardians and crit damage as a whole, my build, especially with my current gear load out, will pretty much be rendered obsolete while bunker builds, which already seem to be a staple among guardians, are focused on even more by the devs, to the point where I feel like we’re being bottlenecked into using them in the same way eles are bottlenecked into going for water, arcane builds.

In addition to that, guardian support builds are becoming increasingly underwhelming compared to the support other classes will be able to offer after the new patch is released – in particular engineers, elementalists and warriors – and it’s really killing my desire to play it as a main.

I have to disagree:

On your obsolete build: The ferocity change will not impact your builds as much as you think. The added traits do not change the effectiveness of your current builds. I think you’re worried but with little reason.

Other class support: Guardian as a class will still be one of the most desired for teaming. ‘Sharing’ support roles with other classes not only means everyone has more access to roles (good for the game in general) but that YOU can also be supported by THEM more often.

While some of the specifics you mention might be relevant concerns, they aren’t related to the upcoming patch.

I’m not saying the ferocity change as a whole has killed my build, but rather, how it changes my gear in particular. To put things in perspective, you need to consider that as crit stats currently are, trinkets offer more crit damage relative to their other stats, than armor or weapons do. However, once ferocity is brought in line with the other stats, trinkets will lose a lot more crit damage than other gear types.

Similarly, Celestial armor also had much higher crit values relative to its other stats, than other types of armor did, even higher than zerker armor in fact. So, by using celestial armor and zerker trinkets, I’m suffering a much higher crit damage loss than I would have, had my gear loadout been different (e.g. If I had zerker armor, and celestial or soldier’s trinkets).

So yes, my current build based on my gear loadout, is kitten, because other gear loadouts can achieve better results. I write that off to poor initial balance on Anet’s part.

As for my concerns about actual build variety, they still stand, because rather than buffing weaker build or weapon options, Anet is instead focusing on buffing already popular play styles (like guardian bunker builds), thus causing what I see to be a bottleneck as far as build play variety goes. Because of the nerf to crit damage, sword guardians (as an example) will look even less desirable now, because the sword is purely a damage based weapon and damage as a whole is being nerfed, while the greatsword, on the other hand, still offers enough support and sustainability, to remain viable despite the damage nerfs.

The easiest way to solve this would be to give weapons like the sword, scepter or torch more utility to offset the loss in damage, or, at the very least, more synergies with traits.

BUILD VARIETY

Here are the upcoming grand master traits that will be available to guardians in the next patch.

Zeal: Amplified Wrath- Burning damage is increased by 33%
Radiance: Radiant Retaliation – Retaliation Damage scales from condition damage instead of power
Valor: Communal Defenses – Grant 5s of aegis to allies in 360 range when you block an attack. 20s cooldown.
Honor: Force of Will – Gain up to 300 vitality, based on your level. (around 3k HP at level 80)
Virtues: Purity of Body – Resolve’s passive effects increase endurance regeneration by 15%

So far as I can see, every single one of these changes favors a guardian bunker build and does little to improve the severely neglected weapons or potential builds that many guardians have long since given up on. It’s almost certain we’ll see more guardians stacking toughness, vitality and condition damage gear, especially in wvw or sPvP, while using a greatsword or hammer to stack retaliation/protection to use in conjunction with burning to outlast and defeat their enemies.

Sure, it’s nice to see potential burning builds finally getting some attention, but in my opinion, these traits only offer more variations to bunker builds, which seems to be the only thing the guardian might be good for anymore. No attention was given to the largely ignored spirit weapons, or to the virtually abandoned guardian weapon classes, such as the mace or sword.

Of course, guardians aren’t the only class suffering from this issue. I also feel that thieves are also being bottlenecked into stealth builds even more with their new traits, but I’m sure there will be plenty of thief players (or even their victims), who’d be more than willing to cover that particular detail.

IN CLOSING

With the severe crit nerf to Celestial gear and zerker trinkets in particular, my particular gear and trait combination will see me losing a very large amount of crit damage, to the point of being obscene (with celestial armor and zerker/valkyrie trinkets losing around half of their crit damage, while traits lose about a third).

Considering how my build relies very much on a high crit rate and damage value for my dps, this nerf will essentially render my build, and my current gear load-out, next to useless, while offering little compensation. Right now, I’d probably be much better off with soldier’s, dire or carrion gear. Then again, I’d probably just be better off switching to another class now.

I feel really sorry for other players who, like me, have tried hard to come up with other viable guardians builds outside the norms only to be shot down for their efforts.

I also really hope Anet gives us a one-time gear stat change option, because I’ve spent months crafting ascended celestial armor, my legendary (meteorlogicus) and getting all ascended trinkets (including a fully upgraded Fractal Capacitor), so these changes really irk me beyond belief. More than that, they’ve somewhat destroyed my build and left me feeling really disheartened about playing, knowing I’ll have to spend even more time gearing for a new build, either on my guardian or on another class. What would be better, of course, would be for other build and weapon options to become more viable, but as things are, things are looking rather one-dimensional for guardians.

1: SUPPORT

I think a lot of people have considered guardians to be one of the best support classes for a very long time, and I don’t think it was far-fetched to assume that any guardian in your party should, at the very least, be carrying a staff or be using shouts or consecrations. However, with how the game has steered towards a zerker meta in PvE, with players favoring damage over defense, I actually find guardian support abilities to be close to useless in most situations. With the upcoming patch, the gap is being widened even further with the warriors new trait that allows them to give might to allies whenever they themselves gain might.

“Tactics: Phalanx Strength – When you grant yourself might, grant it to nearby allies as well. 6s of might is granted each time this trait triggers. (It works with blast finishers)”

With a warriors inherent ability to easily attain a 100% crit rate, and with traits that give them might on crit with a greatsword, it’s not hard to imagine that a greatsword warrior would easily be able to sustain up to 25 stacks of might for an entire party on his own. That coupled with banners that have a large aoe (1200 range), a long duration and that are easy to maneuver around for parties, will, in my opinion, make warriors a far more desirable support class than guardians.

Guardian shouts, on the other hand, suffer from long cooldowns, short durations and a small aoe (600 range), which often means you fail to buff allies in battles where your party tends to spread out more, which happens a lot in fractals. Even their staff skill, empower, suffers from a similarly short range.

NO LOVE FOR ONE-HANDED WEAPONS

As my time in Tyria has marched on, I’ve noticed an increasingly smaller amount of guardians playing with one-handed weapons, especially the sword, torch, shield and mace. I think most new guardians tend to try them out and in theory, they look like good weapons on paper, but after using them practically, most tend to deviate to the staff, hammer and greatsword, with maybe a scepter/focus as an alt purely for the sake of ranged damage and defense when needed.

It’s easy to understand why though, when you consider the staff, greatsword and hammer offer combo fields and finishers, group buffs, control, healing and have a lot more synergy with guardian traits.

Hey everyone.

First off, I want to make it clear that I main a guardian (though perhaps not for much longer), so what I write in this post might seem a bit biased or even one-sided, but I’m making every effort to be objective and consider how upcoming changes not only affect guardians, but also other classes as well. In saying that, I welcome any contrasting views to my own that might help me see the situation in a different or better light. I also want to make note of the fact that my guardian’s build would probably be considered very unconventional relative to the perceived norms, and this forms part of the reason I feel frustrated with the upcoming changes.

First, I’ll post my guardians build here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vUAQNArfcnkIS1Q2NEuDBNRmIseAwD6vqCx76BEjYDB-zwBB4fCikFgEBBKRtIastBFRjVXDT7iIqGA-e

Basically, the build is a meditation build that focuses on a high crit rate and damage with one handed weapons, namely the sword and scepter. The meditations themselves are useful for their heals and condition removal, in addition to the fact that they give fury when used, which helped out the damage a bit. With right handed strength and fury, I could get up to a 78% crit chance (not including any food used). I also found litany of wrath benefits nicely from fury, because it makes the heals fromm damage that much better and, if timed right, it wasn’t hard to get my health up to max from near death just with that skill alone (provided I made the most of the time needed to damage enemies, it also works better on grouped enemies).

I also use burning (with traits for 20% extra damage to burning foes) and vulnerability from blinds to supplement the damage, with blinds also being refreshed after kills for more defense and vulnerability.

All-in-all, it felt like a decent build with good damage and good survivability, and I was using it in fractals and dungeons without too many issues. I know people generally look down on builds that don’t use shouts or consecrations exclusively, but I don’t like the idea of being bottle-necked into one kind of build just because of narrow public perceptions. I’ve often been berated for not having shouts when I’m in a party, even though I personally feel they’re highly overrated, especially in higher level fractals, but I guess that’s just how things are.

However, with the upcoming changes to guardians and crit damage as a whole, my build, especially with my current gear load out, will pretty much be rendered obsolete while bunker builds, which already seem to be a staple among guardians, are focused on even more by the devs, to the point where I feel like we’re being bottlenecked into using them in the same way eles are bottlenecked into going for water, arcane builds.

In addition to that, guardian support builds are becoming increasingly underwhelming compared to the support other classes will be able to offer after the new patch is released – in particular engineers, elementalists and warriors – and it’s really killing my desire to play it as a main.

I’ll list some of the issues I have in a more concise manner.

kokiman.2364:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Another possible solution (if no-one wants these bosses to be changed) would be for Anet to simply introduce an in-game event organizer that allows players to post dates and times for large community events that other players can visit a notice board to see, so that at the very least, planning for these boss events will become easier and less intimidating.

The servers already organize themselves pretty well. Our servers does daily karka, daily tequatl and daily special farms in PvE besides that we have a lot of WvW-related events. No need to implement a new feature when there is no need for it.

I know you have community sites, server sites and forums, etc, where you can find news on organized events, but much like the lfg feature, I think it would be more convenient and user friendly if they implemented in-game systems that achieved the same result, but that were more easily accessible. Finding dungeon groups became much more streamlined once the lfg feature was implemented in-game, so I don’t see why an in-game event board wouldn’t have a similarly positive result for mass event organization.

Greetings all. I wasn’t sure where else this topic should be posted, so I decided to put it under general discussions. There’s something I wanted to bring up, mostly because of Anets recent direction regarding the introduction of new world bosses, and the balancing of old ones, and that is an issue regarding the overall coordination required for some boss events, such as Tequatl, the new Great Jungle Wurm in Bloodtide Coast and the Twisted Marionette event.

Twisted Marionette:

Personally, I actually like the idea of this boss and I think the event is quite fun, but the main issue I have with it is the fact that most of the time, it fails not because of the performance of the entire group doing it, but rather, because of a few select players who might not know how to fight the champs during phase 2. There’s nothing more annoying than watching four groups out of five successfully defeat their respective champs, only to watch the fifth wipe and fail the entire group.

What’s even worse is that a lot of achievements are tied to the success of an entire group, which I feel is wrong because if I fail an achievement, I want it to be because I made a mistake, not because someone stranger I don’t know stuffed up.

Tequatl The Sunless:

This world boss event even further illustrates the issue I’m trying to address, and that is the ludicrous amount of coordination some bosses require just to complete. Since Tequatl was patched to be more of a challenge, the frequency at which players participate in the event and complete it has dropped quite drastically. It went from a boss that you could complete as much as once a day, to one that you’re lucky if you get to complete once a month with a well organized group. Some servers, in fact, have abandoned the boss altogether.

Great Jungle Wurm:

As a new boss event, it’s obvious that a lot of players are going to give this event a bash in an attempt to get the most out of it while they can, but much like Tequatl, it takes a significant amount of group coordination to complete (timing the destruction of all three heads to such an acute degree seems a bit much), and also much like Tequatl, I believe that after a month or two, the amount of organized groups doing this event will plummet in a similar fashion and the boss will eventually be abandoned for the most part.

The Bottom Line:

In the end, I think the point I’m trying to get here is that I feel that world bosses should be challenging, but they should not demand as much coordination as the likes of Tequatl, The Marionette or The Great Jungle Wurm require, where the performance of a minority, can so negatively affect the majority. If Anet wants to introduce challenging battles that require a significant amount of coordination, they should rather limit it to instances or dungeons where you play with smaller, more controlled groups. After all, it’s much easier to organize a group of five players, than 100+ players.

World bosses themselves should still be challenging, yes, but they should lighten up on the coordination a bit so that they can still be completed with random pug zergs. A good example of what I feel is a well balanced world boss is the Fire Elemental in Metrica Province, which is deadly enough to swiftly punish any player mistakes, but that still allows completion without an excessive amount of coordination.

Another possible solution (if no-one wants these bosses to be changed) would be for Anet to simply introduce an in-game event organizer that allows players to post dates and times for large community events that other players can visit a notice board to see, so that at the very least, planning for these boss events will become easier and less intimidating.

Harper.4173:

Axe – a 1handed weapon deals more damage than GS – a two handed weapon for warrior.
Pro-tip – that’s the case for MOST classes.

Two handed weapons are actually the ones dealing overall damage – look into it.
You’re insufficiently informed.

When I was talking about weapon damage, I’m talking about the actually attack/damage values on the weapon itself. In other words, a level 80 two-handed weapon will have a higher attack value than a one-handed level 80 weapon of the same quality. There’s nothing misinformed about that, it’s all facts and numbers.

Now while the damage of the actual weapon skills themselves will differ from class to class (e.g. a guardian’s greatsword will out-dps the sword, but a ranger’s sword will out-dps its greatsword), those attack values also affect slot skills (which are affected by your overall attack value) so there is an advantage to having a two handed weapon over one-handed in that regard. If you add a second sigil, that advantage will seem greater (though not spectacular). I just think one-handed weapons should see an attack value buff to offset two-handed weapons gaining an extra sigil, that’s all.

As for popularity, I was going by the sentiment that I generally see more people running around with two-handed weapons than one-handed. It was my impression, not based on fact. Lol. >_>

I just wanted to bring this topic up because I haven’t seen another thread for it yet, but does anyone else think that adding a second sigil slot to two-handed weapons is a really bad idea?

I think it is and I’ll explain why.

1: It’s easier to craft one two-handed weapon than two one-handed weapons (it costs less resources, takes less time and you get all the same stat benefits). This sentiment is further amplified with ascended gear, which is time gated, and legendary weapons, which would cost double the resources getting two one-handed legendaries as opposed to just crafting one two-handed one.

2: Two-handed weapons already have a weapon damage advantage over one-handed weapons, which also affects slot skills.

I don’t know, the way I see it, one-handed weapons already feel neglected compared to their two-handed counterparts and the one benefit that closed the gap a bit and made one-handed weapons more appealing (at least to me) was that you could get a second sigil slot, which kinda made up for the lower weapon damage and longer crafting times, etc. Even for me personally, I always feel like I was gimping myself when I use a one-handed weapon over two-handed and for a few classes, the two-handed weapons feel far superior to their one-handed counterparts.

I’m just worried that adding a second sigil slot to two-handed weapons would make one-handed weapons feel more obsolete given all these factors involved. At the very least, they need to balance it out so that one-handed weapon damage is increased to similar levels as their two-handed counterparts.

I’m not sure if anyone else feels the same way?

Stx.4857:

If they add a new Necro weapon, I would want it to have a cleave auto attack, and fit the theme of attrition/anti mobility. I want a Scythe, but since they probably wont add that, a Greatsword would suffice.

1) Auto Chain, last strike has a longer cast with a lifesteal.
2) Whirl attack, grants lifeforce.
3) Ground targetted frontal attack, rips boons and applies poison.
4) Pull attack, single target, cripples.
5) Channeled AE attack, roots the Necro, damages and applies blind and weakness with every pulse.

I like the idea of a scythe for a necromancer. In fact, an interesting idea would be to introduce class unique weapons (maybe one for each class).

- Mesmer: A rapier (not just a lookalike weapon skin, but an actual weapon class).
- Thief: A whip or claws (like fist weapons).
- Engineer: A shotgun (close range spread damage weapon).
- Guardian: A spear or lance.
- Warrior: A quarterstaff or greataxe.
- Necromancer: The scythe.
- Ranger: Sniper rifle (longer range than a longbow or rifle, but with slow but hard hitting attacks). That would really make them the kings of ranged attack. Lol…
- Elementalist: Maybe an orb, kinda like that idea of the two handed focus?

The only issue with that idea, of course, would be the large amount of itemization involved to create all the new weapon skins, so even if it did happen one day, it wouldn’t be any time in the near future. Maybe with an expansion or something.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Can we NOT base our opinion on a (false) perceived advantage. Yes, Elementalists get 4x the skills from one weapon set as compared to another profession. No, they do not get 4x weapon skills the skills of another profession – unless they go full Conjures, which would be exceedingly bad.

Firstly, they are not falsely perceived advantages. It’s a fact that for every weapon an elementalist has, they get 4x the weapon skills for that particular weapon that any other class would get. Secondly, I did not say that they had 4x the weapon skills of any other class, I just said they had more weapon skills than any other class right now, which is a fact, and that is NOT taking into consideration their conjurations. I’m not sure why you’re putting words in my mouth that weren’t there just to supplement your argument.

Secondly, I don’t see why it can’t be argued that certain weapons are more suited for a class than others. Even though the idea is to be able to play any class the way you want to, at the end of the day there is still lore involved with regards to each class, and lore wise, it makes no sense of a thief to wield a greatsword (for example). In saying that, it is certainly possible to still fulfill a variety of roles with different weapons while still keeping with a classes theme and nature. For example, an axe can be made to fill a similar role as a sword, a scepter, staff or rifle can be made to fill a similar role to a bow or longbow, etc, so you can still give a class a variety of play style options without simply dumping every single weapon type on them (dual swords for a thief, for example, could fill a similar role to a greatsword on a warrior without actually giving the thief a greatsword).

To me, the idea of simply giving every class every weapon type is just a lazy way of trying to introduce a variety of play styles to a class. I’d rather see new weapons eventually introduced in the long run to supplement all classes weapon skill options, rather than just see them all eventually get access to every currently existing weapon. I also don’t see any problem in me giving my own opinion in this regard or why you seem to act as if I am somehow committing a sin by doing so simply because the topic is largely subjective. The whole point of creating a thread like this is to discuss and engage and yes, to even sometimes disagree but you seem to be against the idea of discussing because discussion involves subjective opinions. In either case, I never said your opinion was exclusively wrong or unthinkable, I just said I personally disagree with it, which is my prerogative.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Honestly, I think it should be more like:

Guardians lack a condition weapon. Give them a bleed-stacking MH Axe (melee). Also add in Warhorn and one or more true ranged 2h weapons (shortbow, longbow, and/or rifle). Dagger could also make for a nice mid-ranged throwing weapon

I honestly don’t think daggers or bows would suit a guardian’s theme. A sword offhand would be interesting though and axes could work. I just think scepter should rather be reworked as a ranged weapon rather than introducing a new one which doesn’t really fit with the guardian’s feel as a class.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Ranger

Most ranger weapons do need an overhaul for PvE/WvW. They’re amazing in more solo-oriented activities (sPvP/tPvP and solo PvE) but profoundly lacking in group or large scale scenarios. They need more support capabilities.

Consider Rifle, MH/OH Pistol, MH Dagger, OH Sword, and (Druidic Support) Staff for new weapons.

I like the idea of the staff for a ranger, to give them a more druidic feel build option. Nice!

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Thief

Thieves are lacking in terms of a single-target ranged burst weapon. Rifle would fill this void nicely.

Pushing the magical (shadow arts) part of the Thief forward would also be nice: Staff, Scepter, and Focus could all work as utility, support, and/or manipulation weapons.

Thieves already have a ranged burst damage option with dual pistols (unload). Considering you can spam it, they don’t need anything else with regards to that. As for shadow magic or arts, there’s nothing to suggest that thieves can or do use magic. Their entire premise is about traps, tricks and subterfuge. Even the skill shadowstep implies a fast, stealthy movement rather than the use of magic.

I also don’t think we should add any large two handed weapons to their repertoire because it makes sense for the thief to wield smaller weapons that are easy to conceal. Even my suggestion for the longbow was off. The sword offhand would make sense though and would synergize nicely with their dual wielding by opening up more options.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Elementalist

Elementalist could benefit from simply having more weapons available. Anything will do, but MH/OH Sword (single target melee burst and mobility), Torch (OH conditions and control), and some form of bow or rifle (2h ranged single target burst) would probably be the most effective additions.

I disagree with this. As it is, elementalists already have the most weapon skills in the game. You need to keep in mind that because of their elemental attunements, one weapon gives them 4x the amount of weapon skills that they’d give any other class so even adding just one new two-handed weapon would effectively give 20 new weapon skills. This is why eles have the fewest weapon options (aside form engineers) and rightly so.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Necromancer

Necromancers need a mobility option as well as strong non-condition builds. I suggest GS (mobility, single target burst), OH Axe, Rifle (Mobility, cooldown-based non-condition burst), and OH Torch (for the condition lovers).

I don’t see rifles or greatswords working for necros. It just doesn’t strike me as something that would fall in with the occultist theme. I do see torches and offhand axes working.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Mesmer

Mesmer weapons are pretty strong overall. I say that they should prioritize new offhands and two-handed weapons to create new and interesting phantasms. Warhorn, Shield, Rifle, SB and/or LB, and, of course, MH Pistol would all be welcome.

The whole theme of a mesmer is that they’re illusionary duelists, so their weapons should fit with the theme of dueling, or illusions. Shields, rifles and bows certainly don’t seem to fit either theme, whereas pistols, swords or even daggers make much more sense.

As for new weapons, considering it took Anet a year just to add one new heal skill for each class, I don’t expect they’ll add new weapons just yet, because that would involve a lot of itemization on top of adding new skills. It’s more likely to see existing weapons become available for new classes long before that.

Necromancers

The torch. Because now that green-flamed torches are available, a necro would look awesome as hell holding a torch, whether it’s in the mainhand or offhand. It would also be a great way of introducing a better source of on command burning damage for necros. Need I say more?

Rangers

I honestly think all of the rangers weapons need a serious overhaul, because as a class they’re quite lacking from my experience, but aside from that, they do have a decent mix of melee and ranged options. Even their support is decent with a warhorn. They’re just not “great” at anything. The only thing I can think of that would suit them as a new weapon option would be a dagger main hand, maybe as a nice dps focused melee weapon option, and I can definitely see how a dagger would fit in with the classes feel and theme.

Elementalist

As far as I am concerned, the main thing the elementalist is missing is a pure ranged dps option. Right now, elementalists have good dps, but not great dps and most of their weapons seem to fill more of a “jack of all trades” role as opposed to being more specialized. I also see the staff as more of a support weapon than as a good source of dps, because let’s face it, it’s dps is really sub-par.

So, why not give the elementalist a greatsword that is capable of ranged attacks (much like the mesmer’s greatsword)? This would give them a more DPS specialized weapon option that isn’t trying to do too many things at once.

Warriors

Warriors are probably the hardest class to think of new weapon options for, because as it is they already have access to the greatest variety, and can fill just about every use imaginable. I honestly can’t think of a new weapon idea for warriors out of the existing set that wouldn’t interrupt their theme or image or that they don’t already have, so maybe someone else can think of something.

Seeing as how there are plenty of discussions already about class balance, the overuse of zerker gear, etc, I thought maybe a bit more of a fun and yet still interesting topic was in order. As I’m sure many of us know, Anet intends to add more skills to existing classes as time moves on in the lifespan of GW2 and we’ve already seen new, unique healing skills for each class, which have all, in some way or another, added new play style mechanics to each of them.

Along with the slots skills, however, there also lies the prospect of new weapon skills. But, of course, in order to gain new weapon skills for each class, new weapons need to be introduced to them as well, so what I wanted to ask everyone was what they feel would be a good addition to each class as far as new weapons are concerned. I’ve decided to put my own ideas below.

Guardians:

Guardians are a bit of a tough one, because they’re already quite a versatile class with a variety of weapons that fill different roles. They do decent ranged damage with the scepter, have good support with the staff, tankiness and support with the shield, focus, hammer and mace and good melee dps and mobility with the sword/greatsword.

What they’re really missing is a weapon that’s dedicated more towards condition damage. Guardians are basically the only class that don’t seem to have a viable condition build available to them – simply because they only have access to one damage condition (burning) – so it would be cool if that void was filled. The only question is, what weapon could they add that keeps in the theme of a guardian?

One idea would be to add bleeding to the main attack of the scepter (seeing as how scepters in general are usually associated with condition damage) and then adding the warhorn offhand as another means to add aoe condition damage (maybe give a skill called voice of judgment, which causes torment and weakness to enemies within 600 yards, etc). Torment would also synergize well with the scepter because it would punish movement, and thus give guardians more incentive to use smite. The opponent would be torn between moving and taking more condition damage from torment, or standing still and taking the brunt of smite, etc. I also think the warhorn would suit a guardian in terms of the classes feel and theme.

Mesmers

Whenever I play as a mesmer, the one thing that always grates me a bit is the fact that the pistol offhand offers such great ranged dps options, but in order to make the most of it, you have to pair it with either a sword, which is a melee weapon and thus kills the whole ranged damage idea, or a scepter, which is really poor as far as ranged dps is concerned and geared more towards condition builds.

I reckon a great new weapon skill option for the mesmer would be to add the ability to use the pistol in the main hand as well, which would be focused more on physical ranged dps than on condition damage.

Engineers

For me, the main issue with engineers is a complete lack of melee damage options. Almost all of their kit and weapon options are geared to ranged damage or support, with only the toolkit as melee option that is seldom used.

I think engineers need a melee weapon that isn’t based on a kit, and I think either a mace (which would be great with their shield) or a hammer would suit them as a class and open up melee attack options a bit more for them.

Thieves

I reckon the one weapon option that would be a suitable addition to thieves would be to add the sword offhand, maybe with more of a focus on aoe melee damage and control seeing as how daggers are already the kings of single target melee dps. Because thieves have dual wielding skills, adding a sword offhand would actually open up quite a few new weapon skills for them so adding anything else would be overkill. Aside from that, another option would be adding the longbow as more of a long ranged weapon option, seeing as how both of the thieves current ranged weapons can only achieve up to 900 range. Still, having a thief with the ability to stealth regularly and attack at significantly longer ranges might be OP.

Poor game design has nothing to do with the voters. If you have a gripe, take it up with Anet for not doing a better job.

To be honest, I’m kinda disappointed that swords for guardians are still being completely ignored. Their damage is so minuscule that even a guardian scepter (a ranged weapon) completely out-dps’s it. What’s worse is they don’t even give you any control or utility that’s worth the trade for lower damage output.

I’m actually sorely disappointed with these changes. They’re making already viable builds/classes even stronger and making less viable builds even less viable.

For example, with the guardian we get nice buffs to the greatsword, which is arguably already the most popular guardian weapon, but they don’t bother to buff the torch or sword, which you barely ever see being used. Sure you could count the 20% burning duration increase, but you could already keep burning up 100% of the time with a torch even without that buff, so it’s not even worth considering as an improvement.

As it is, I hardly ever see any sword torch guardians. When I do I look outside my window to check whether there’s a blue moon out. Now we’ll see even less of them thanks to the greatsword buff, which makes the weapon even more desirable now and basically kicks the sword straight to the curb. The only up for guardians that I that I think is truly worth praising is that spirit weapons are becoming somewhat more viable again.

And what the hell is up with rangers? Most of their pets get damage nerfs but they don’t get any feasable damage buffs to offset the nerf. As it is, Rangers were already weak in the damage department, but now it’s almost as if Anet wants the class to be completely unplayable. And where’s the buff to spirits? Those things are kitten -poor and yet they’re still completely ignored to this day.

And then, to throw salt in the wounds, warriors get more buffs and basically no nerfs worth mentioning. Hell, I was at least expecting a nerf to forceful greatswords, which in my opinion, is the most OP trait in the entire game. I mean come on, a master trait that gives a 20% cooldown to swords and spears and causes you to gain might on crits with both weapons, with no internal cooldown? That’s just ridiculous. You can easily gain 25 stacks of might with that trait in the first few seconds of battle using 100 blades and even then, you still get 20% cooldowns on top of it. It should at least be a grandmaster trait and even then I’d nerf it to only have a 40% chance to give might on crits. It would still be better than most grandmaster traits even with that kind of nerf.

All ranting aside, power to thieves, Mesmer and Necros. Your buffs are the only ones that really make sense to me. >_>

(On a side note, air spells for mesmer are still to weak and completely non-viable next to fire. Also, it would have been nice if they made summoned weapons more viable as well because most eles won’t want to trade a skill slot for a temporary weapon that has so few charges).

Takes deep breath and meditates to calm down.