Guild Wars 2

LastShot.4762:

ele/mesmer will be awful(light armor with low base hp)

Mesmer is medium tier health, but that’s beyond the point.

Effective power could be compared when dealing with raw physical damage (no conditions). Effective health can be compared as well in terms of how much additional “health” armor adds through damage reduction. If you reduce 20% of all incoming damage, you effectively have 25% more health.

Here’s your problems: you forget about healing and conditions. Conditions ignore armor and therefore your effective health is equivalent to health alone. Healing, on the other hand, is not usually an instantaneous effect. Most healing is or can be linked to healing over time. If a Guardian can heal 400 HP/s and a Warrior only 200 HP/s, does that make the Guardian better? It comes down to all other factors. If the two have the same “effective health” and effective power, yes, Guardian is better. However, that is never the case.

There’s argueably no easy way to compare survivability between the two classes. Guardian could theoretically heal 600 HP/s but have 50% of the health a Warrior does and the Warrior could not heal anything over time. That senario would depend on how much damage each class is doing. Can the Warrior deal damage to counter the Guardian’s healing fast enough or will the Guardian survive long enough to kill off the massive health bonus the Warrior has over the Guardian?

If you can give me a formula that doesn’t occupy 200 characters of text I’d love to see it. You would have to factor not just each character’s stats, but how much health a character would lose each second. Then factor how long the battle would last. Generally, Warriors and Guardians are only superior if the player does better and the character is built stronger than the other.

Except in ranged combat.

Warrior wins.

There is only one reason I would want Longbow for the Guardian: Azureflame.

Seriously, why is it that of the four spirit weapon skins, the bow is the only one the Guardian can’t use? As for your suggested attacks, bleed is unnecessary. I like that you’re trying to give Guardian a condition damage weapon, but Guardian doesn’t need it. Secondly, an arrow that applies protection is already a skill (Shield of Judgment). It needs something different. A symbol that applies fury sounds reasonable with the appropriate cooldown. The last skill is essentially the Bow of Truth’s active effect. I would rename it as it’s has a diety in its name. Only the humans worship the, erm, human gods. Charr do not worship any gods, period.

Other than the ability to carry Azureflame, I don’t really feel like the Guardian needs another ranged weapon. Just improve Scepter a bit with either homing or speed. It will probably need a damage or attack speed reduction to compensate.

Wall of Reflection give the Guardian and its entire group a moment to breathe. Any enemies that continue to rush toward the group will be seperated and overpowered. With traits, you can keep it active about 1/3 of the time. However, it can be easily used to kill the Guardian with retaliation as each reflected projectile counts as an attack for the Guardian. You can wind up murdering yourself if the enemy attackers have retaliation available. It’s not that overpowered as it’s easy to avoid. It’s a pause in combat. As long as it’s active and the enemies aren’t near your group, everyone (enemies included) can heal up for the next assault. I wouldn’t call it overpowered. I would just say that players will complain about anything that kills them without a noticeable degree of skill, especially when getting killed by Wall of Relfection is their fault.

Think about it. How many mechanics in the game are complained about on a regular basis (even content not yet available like boon hate)? How many of those mechanics have been changed? Everything in the game can be countered, removed, or avoided. Work accordingly.

Honestly, there’s a few changes I’ve noticed that are impacting as well. Virtues had shorter cooldowns. Above all, Virtue of Courage blocked every 5th attack. I like the thought of Virtue of Courage’s block being seperate from Aegis so you could effectively cue up blocks (if Aegis would stack). Retreat would become a nice option for a build. Martyr became Save Yourselves. Condition removal was nerfed, yes, but you have to admit that the amount of condition removal the Guardian had was rediculous.

I would have liked to have seen Greatsword maintain its heal on leap as it could pair well with the Zealous Blade trait, especially if Zealous Blade would affect allies as well. Blinding Blades auto-pulling when an enemy leaves range is a little overpowered. Oh, and apparently Scepter had worse range than it does now. Imagine that.

I’m pretty satisfied with Guardian in its current state. I’ve been experimenting with builds, so really the only complaint I have with Guardian is the market’s prices being fairly high to purchase new equipment everytime I try a new build. Other than that, Guardian feels like its worse attributes could be buffed to the same level as the widely used weapons and utilities.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Yeah, we wanted to do this. Just another limitation we can’t change. Can’t have F keys when the player is transformed.

I can understand this. By that logic, I’m assuming you undergo a transformed state in the Super Adventure Box although not distinctly apparent.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Without access to the entire range of items it’s hard to tell. We have them all planned out, but not all implemented. We may re-evaluate where the skills reside as needed.

I’m all in favor of seeing more appropriate keybinds. On a side-note for both this and the former, is it possible to still use the switch weapon key while transformed? I figure it’s unlikely, but one weapon set could easily be linked to your bauble-consuming skills while the other is directly combat skills.

Josh Foreman.8250:

On the one hand we like things to be streamlined. On the other, we don’t want to encourage farming with our mechanics. And I think as you upgrade your bauble wallet this will become less and less an issue.

I can see why you want to discourage farming with the massive demand for the skins.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Aw, I like that little bugger. It’s the first time where you’re not safe on the gate. And it’s easy to avoid by just waiting further back on the branch until everyone is together.

I’m sure the feeling will pass as more players become familiar with the mechanic.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Agreed. I will move it. Just a matter of pushing that stuff in at the last minute. We were debating whether or not to preview World 2. We felt it was important to the future of the product to communicate that there was more coming.

Well that’s good to hear. I’m glad you attempted to push some additional content out to show players of future content, but I honestly figured as much by the small visible areas of the world map. I’m assuming four worlds from the heart containers, but there appears to be five from the map.

Josh Foreman.8250:

How many times have you played it? A common feeling in platform and adventure games that I’ve experienced, is the first time you come into a new level, dungeon, or what-have-you, the strangeness of the new surrounds, new color palate, new sounds, new mechanics, etc. build up and form a gestalt impression of overwhelming difficulty. But you push through that, and become comfortable with all those elements, and eventually find out that it really was not as hard as you thought.

I’ve actually completed World 2-1 aat least 10 times now. I realize that it’s not how I find the jumping puzzle aggravating, but rather how any mistake that throws you into the water. It’s frustrating to watch your character endlessly bounce around before sending your character over the falls. I’d much rather Moto take a page from the Sonic the Hedgehog playbook and kill your character on contact with the water like the rafting part. I’d feel much more comfortable climbing again instead of waiting for a lucky opportunity to jump back onto a rock or my inevitable death.

Josh Foreman.8250:

I can tell you’re a keen observer because most of these critiques are landing on content that was added late in the process and didn’t get as much iteration as I would have liked. I agree that the optimal experience is to find your keys on the way to a chest, not after the fact. Although I could cite plenty of examples where this is purposefully subverted, specifically in a lot of Zelda games. But overall I agree with you.

That means a lot to me coming from a professional developer. As I push for finding a career in the industry, it’s nice to know that I have the ability to spot key issues of content nearing a release which could ultimately aid in better design choices before given to the players.

Josh Foreman.8250:

This is something I’ve been looking into over the past week or so. It would be great to have as rewards, and/or as gemstore purchases. I would LOVE it if you could only unlock some incredible Mega Man or Sonic knock-off transform skin for beating various places on hard mode. It’s just a matter of figuring out how much time is involved. Might be a pipe dream.

I would love you see this, definitely. I just hope I have some insight before a release as I would hate not to have saved some extra cash aside (gold or currency) to purchase these potentially amazing skins. Besides, you need to give yourselves some credit. You’ve added an amazing game into an already amazing game that has captured my attention for longer than it should, and the Super Adventure Box has only been released for five days! Calling this a pipe dream is practically discrediting what you are capable of doing. I’m not saying I expect these skins in the next release, but rather I know you can do it.

First, I love the Super Adventure Box. When I first saw articles on it, I immediately signed onto the game. Having the intro theme converted into 8-bit was fantastic on its own, but the entire world brought so much nostalgia from the classic video games I use to play. This is easily my favorite update of the game so far, and I can’t want to see the expansions in the future.

Second, I appreciate you developers taking the time and commenting in the various threads here. It really brightens my mood to see such passion not just toward your product but for the fans that enjoy it.

While I am thrilled by the current Super Adventure Box, I do have some concerns about the current state and the potential future.

1. Keybinds

The slingshot and bomb upgrade are applied to the 2 and 3 keys. Both must be bound before activating. I understand (and read) your concerns with the potential of wasting baubles, especially if the cost will increase as the game continues. However, I feel it may be a better idea to add to the HUD the F-keys for alternate bundles. This would leave room for new combat-related items. The whip could remain as it directly applies to combat more than exploration. The candle, while useful in World 1-3, is an exploration upgrade like the shovel. The candle feels more appropriate to be in the 7 or 9 key. As it stands, combat is basic. That is by no means a bad thing, but the gameplay could be lacking in another world or two. Even just a few upgrades to mix up how you approach combat could drastically change the replayability of the game.

2. Hitting maximum baubles

Disclaimer: I do have the bauble purse upgrade. However, I constantly find myself wasting around 150 baubles per run with the massive amount of treasure spots in the game. I stock up on potions, lives, and the occasional key (when necessary), and I still reach the maximum relatively quick. Players are able to leave the instance, trade with Moto, and enter again without an issue. However, playing solo requires you to stay inside of the instance. I have a simple idea: allow us to purchase a bubble item. For a cost of X baubles, players could carry an item to actively convert the standard 250 baubles to a bauble bubble. While this would cost more than a simple conversion, it would make players less reliant on leaving the instance to prevent further loss of bauble accumulation.

3. Spots that I would like to see changed and avoided in the future

There are a few spots that annoy me in the game. World 1-3, while frustrating on its own, has a checkpoint (I believe it’s the second) where a monkey is just above the gate. I have walked through the area multiple times, and I have yet to see a way to dispatch this monkey. The slingshot and bomb upgrades cannot reach. I have seen a number of players die because we are unable to open the gate either due to lack of coordination or a bug where a button will not be properly pressed.

World 2-1, though apparent as a “preview level,” has a very tedious section or two where the player must jump, attack, jump, and attack repetitively to cross rocks and crocodiles. It becomes extremely frustrating to fail as the water constantly pushes you back to the bottom of the cliffs. Of the shortcuts, the first mushroom is redundant as it is nigh impossible to fail unlocking the second mushroom shortcut unless you stop moving on the bridges. Moving that first mushroom a little lower would make the climb less irritating. World 1 has a definite difficulty curve as each zone becomes progressively more difficult, but the jump from World 1-3 to World 2-1 is far too significant.

Above all is the second area in World 1-2. The five keys that drop each have a chance of dropping from an enemy that requires you to backtrack from the following area. I have actually found a key from the first monkey on the backtrack path after purchasing a key from the shop because our group believed to have lost the fifth key. Backtrack areas should not have enemies that can drop a key to that area. While it is not required to loot a chest for additional baubles, it feels like a burden to abandon a chest until the group is able to revisit the area from a different elevation.

Other than the three sections above, I do have one request that I feel would add additional nostalgia to the Super Adventure Box. Add in an item (or items) that allow players to change their armor into inspired gear from famous video game characters. A plumber’s outfit (that can be dyed), princess attire, a warrior’s tunic, and more would give players an opportunity to dress up for an appropriate occasion. These cosmetic items would have to be restricted to the Super Adventure Box (or even town clothing) as each set could potentially conflict with the appearance of characters in player vs. player environments.

I look forward to seeing more in the future, and I hope there is some hidden scheme to allow the Super Adventure Box to stay post-April 30th.

First, there is no cap. Secondaly assuming Giver’s armor and trinkets work now, it’s possible to make it well past 90%. I’m playing around with the build. In WvW, it’s amazing. I carry Stand Your Ground, Save Yourselves, and Symbol of Wrath for some massive Retaliation duration. Enemies drop like flies because of themselves. Wall of Reflection with ground targetting can make a huge difference when the enemy thinks the wall inside of their zerg is their own. On top of all that, you can sustain a large regeneration and protection duration as well with the right combination of weapons and utilities.

In PvE, it’s pretty bad compared to Altruistic Healing. I switched off of Altruistic Healing for the purpose of some WvW play. I have become far more squishy even with protection at 100% upkeep. It’s a theoretical build. You can in fact maintain 100% upkeep for protection, regeneration, and retaliation at the same time using Hold the Line, Stand Your Ground, Save Yourselves, and switching periodically between Mace and Hammer. You will lack the constant healing from Altruistic Healing.

I’m considering switching the build a little bit again from 10/30/30 to 30/15/25. I’ll lose 5% Boon Duration and some healing power (which boosts regeneration and Selfless Daring), but I’ll keep my defense where I need it. It all depends on where you play the most. I’m considering a Soldier armor build soon with this for WvW. Imagine the raw defenses with 100% retaliation upkeep. It’s loads of fun. I’ve never had to loot so many bags in one sitting.

You’ll heal approximately 200HP every tick, yes. You’ll heal up to 5 allies, yes. However, there’s one key fact. You’ll usually heal the nearest five allies. The majority of people that will need healed are on the front lines. If you form a small group to turn camps or pick roamers, it can have some potential, especially with Staff. In raids/zergs, you’ll have to put yourself on the front lines to heal the people that need the healing. Even so, you won’t heal enough to make a large difference in survival and you’ll be relatively defenseless without Altruistic Healing or Monk’s Focus as a back-up heal. It all depends on where you and your allies are as well as how many allies you have near you.

Yeah, Altruistic Healing is probably the worst heal if you’re focusing a build around Healing Power. That isn’t to say Altruistic Healing fails; it’s quite powerful. My PvE build is 1,300 Healing Power. Yes, I do have Altuistic Healing, but I also use Hold The Line, Writ of the Merciful, Selfless Daring, and Empower for additional healing. I can facetank with Hammer easily as Writ of Persistance allows Symbol of Protection to last as long as the Hammer chain, and I get five ticks of healing from Altruistic Healing as well as the heal from the symbol. Paired with Virtue of Justice, I heal for around 425 health or so each second as a minimum. I will say this: I am a tank. I can hold the attention of enemies easily, but my damage is horrible. I don’t necessarily rely on allies to survive, but the enemy does go down faster. If you focus on Healing Power and want to deal considerable damage, make sure you split your gear among stats.

You have no worry in DPS builds as long as you have a decent critical hit rate. Make sure you are activating boons. Shouts alone will not suffice if your survivability is low. Take Empowering Might if you need an additional source of boons. Pair Omnomberry Pies and Sigils of Blood for additional chances to heal on critical hits. You’ll manage to sustain high damage and still constantly generate health. Use a symbol if available as well as each tick it causes has a chance to critically hit as well raising your chance to heal from all sources. You should have no problem keeping your DPS high.

Blazin Blunt.6908:

Did i miss something?

He wants a PvP primary build. Try and use Hammer’s symbol with great success in PvP. I don’t use Boon Duration equipment in PvE (just Writ of Persistence) and I maintain Protection 100% without Shouts. Even with increased Boon Duration, it will be hard to maintain Protection with Symbol of Protection, Hold The Line, and Save Yourselves. At +60%, you’ll have approximately 14.5 seconds from Shouts alone (Save Yourselves is halved in PvP). You can maintain protection for a short duration without Hammer leaving better options for attacks. If I’ve learned anything in PvP (or WvW) it’s that Hammer is not to be used as a tanking tool, but it does offer some very high damage with the right get.

I messed around with Retaliation recently in WvW. It’s an amazing counter when defending gates. Charge onto the other side of the gate, pop Retaliation (Symbol of Wrath, Stand Your Ground, Save Yourselves), maintain your health, and watch the enemy die on the other side without seeing you. Most AoE attackers (or attacks that bounce) will connect with you. You can even pop Wall of Reflection up to get attacks that won’t hit you. I was using a bad build for it too. I could have better survivability with Soldier armor and longer Boon Duration. I had a blast watching bag upon bag drop at my feet. I gained a little over 3 ranks yesterday primarily through Retaliation. Once I get some inventory space, I’ll definitely be visiting the Vigil and Keeper Jonez soon for an entire Soldier set just to test my theory a little better.

You have a keybind for “Nearest Target” available. You just have to set it in the options. I have a backup key for this. It will not cycle through targets, so it should not be your primary method of targeting an enemy. You cannot select the weakest target.

Oolune.4357:

That said, on the AH note… I see where AH can be beneficial in PvE. However, the fact that some people talk about using it in WvW kind of confuses me. I don’t feel like you can spread boons easily enough in WvW to make it worth using AH. I see reason to build for survival, sure, but a build based around AH in WvW just seems like it would be sub-par. So ignore people who bash on your build.

It can be possible with the right amount of precision, but the issue becomes how to constantly apply Empowering Might. You’ll have to move into melee range which fails in zergs. You become the primary target, and you’ll often lack nearby teammates to heal often. Even if you could get Empowering Might every second (internal cooldown) with four nearby allies, you would still only heal 350-450 health each second depending on healing power. Throw in Virtue of Resolve’s passivel healing and you can manage 425-625 health per second. Now put yourself in melee range of every enemy within the area. Its benefits diminish quickly. Most WvW build that include Altruistic Healing use it as a secondary means of survival focusing more on negating damage (through blinds or aegis) and dealing damage instead of tanking it.

I had an idea of a heavy retaliation build. Something along the lines of 30/0/0/10/30 or 0/0/30/10/30. Zeal for Zealous Blade or Valor for Altruistic Healing. You’ll need to heal someway, and without precision, Zealous Blade is looking comparable to Altruistic Healing. Basically, stack as much Boon Duration as you can. Without Giver’s/snowflake (since both are reported not to work), you can get a maximum of +115% retaliation duration. Use Symbol of Wrath, Stand Your Ground, and Save Yourselves for your primarly sources. Activation Virtues would offer another small amount as well. Basically, you’re becoming a juggernaut to absorb damage and punish anyone attacking you.

Just a thought. I’d love to try it out myself if I had the bag space to carry another full set of armor with me.

Guardian feels like it has the potential to use anything and be successful at it. Well, except maybe a condition damage build, but you can focus heavily in applying burning. It still feels like other classes are better in some categories. A greatsword Warrior deals considerable more damage. A water Elementalist has better group healing capabilities. And, well, most agile and ranged classes can build a better bunker setup. I think we have a nice balance of everything, and ArenaNET recently commented the same as well. They feel Guardian is well balanced, and Necromancer has the most versatility. It’s probably difficult for a company to consider nerfing any classes to reach a balanced level another class has to offer. Imagine how many players would be upset if suddenly their burst damage was nerfed, or how many players would quit because their bunker suddenly became squishy.

I play a bunker in PvE, and it’s easy to facetank a lot of bosses. Other bunkers would have trouble without dodging. When I hop on WvW, I do absolutely nothing for the team. I’m nothing more than an assisting character that can pop a few good heals every once and a while. I would have to switch my entire build; traits, armor, weapons, etc. I wish the game offered a second build option for WvW or PvE in general that you could switch (while out of combat) to change traits and armor in an instant.

I see what you’re going for. You have a fair amount of power, precision, and vitality. You lack toughness, but your build is centered around dealing high damage and dealing an additional 20% against enemies you’re setting on fire. It is a nice build, and from the looks of it you’re relying heavily on Virtue of Justice to cause burning. It would be rather difficult to focus on sustaining that 20% damage boost without activating it, and even harder when it doesn’t refresh after killing an enemy. Perhaps you could switch out the Sigils of Air for Sigils of Fire for added burning if you haven’t tried that already and test those results.

More or less, if someone mocks your build, just forget it. Altruistic Healing is primarily for survival, not DPS. What you have works for you and your playstyle. Who really cares if someone thinks your build that earns you kills isn’t good? It gets the job done. I have Altruistic Healing, and I fail hardcore at WvW because I’m centered on PvE. In reality, I’d be more than happy to switch builds between PvE and WvW if I had some extra bag space to carry another set of armor. At least your build satisfies both modes of the game.

Yeah, I would definitely consider Sigil of Energy for your weapons. You may find it difficult to have Vigor at 100% upkeep without a fair critical hit rate (or mobs of enemies), so the added endurance recovery will help. On top of that, full Cleric gear will put you at about 1,500 health recovered for you and all nearby allies. If or any reason you have a main-hand and off-hand set equipped, use a Sigil of Life in one hand and Sigil of Energy in the other. Once you kill your way to 25 kills, your dodges will heal an addition 250 health each roll as well as boosting all of your other healing sources. Two Sigils of Energy will not stack. If you’re in need of a quick dodge or heal, switch weapons and roll.

Without knowing your traits, it’s hard to give you a definite answer. I would look into the Sigil of Energy if you have 15 in Honor. Switching weapons will give you 50% endurance recovered which translates to one dodge and one heal (with Selfless Daring). Without a decent critical hit rate, any on-critical effects are worthless. Using a Crest on a weapon, especially with so many passive options, is usually a waste too.

Why is Power always linked to Condition Duration? I’ll never understand. Boon Duration and Virtues makes sense if you look at the tree as a whole. Critical Damage doesn’t make that much sense with Toughness, but what makes even less sense is Healing Power with Vitality. Generally, Healing Power is to support a high Toughness build. If you raise Vitality, you raise your maximum health pool. This means your healing abilities don’t heal for the same percentage of health and instead heal for less. If you raise Healing Power instead of Vitality, you increase the percentage of health you heal with abilities. The two often contradict each other.

In fact, I don’t even know why Pure of Voice is a grandmaster trait in the Vitality tree. Condition removal also supports Toughness over Vitality. There’s somewhat of a combat “square” element to this game. Power (and other damage boosting stats) beats high Vitality. Condition Damage beats high Toughness. Likewise, high Vitality beats Condition Damage and Toughness beats Power. Healing Power and Condition Removal offer great benefits to a Toughness build over a Vitality build under most circumstances. While Guardians have access to a much wider variety of Condition Removal effects than most classes, it’s usually available to counter the lower heath pool the Guardian has. Other classes often are as good if not better at creating bunker builds, but that’s for a different thread.

I’m all in favor of a trait rework for the Guardian. It feels like an organization issue over a distinct lack of good traits. I find myself constantly switching out the Honor traits between an Empowering Might build for Greatsword and boosting Symbols for Hammer to adjust my Altruistic Healing input. I don’t find a large need to switch around the Valor traits nor invest into another category. Altruistic Healing is amazing, but most of its prior traits are lacking. The Honor tree has 9/12 traits that I use on a regular basis when necessary. I should feel a similar need to do the same in other trees.

It’s more dependant on your armor than that I would say. For example, a decent critical hit rate using Knight’s/Berserker’s would benefit Altruistic Healing more than a low one with Cleric’s/Soldier’s. Looking at your weapon choices, I’m guessing you’re pushing for a more healing focused build, but at the same time you’re only taking 2-handed cooldown reduction for the staff. I think we’ll need a little more information on the equipment you’re using to give you a solid answer.

Arken.3725:

Nigh invincible? I’ve seen Bunker engineers, Rangers and Elementalists last longer without sacrificing mobility and still put pressure on their attackers. A bunker guardian is absolutely no threat to the opposing team in terms of pressure.

And how many of those are using a melee weapon? My point is not how defensive a Guardian can be, but how well a Guardian can survive in melee. Bunker is defined as absorbing or avoiding as much damage as possible (recently stated by the developers as well). The Guardian can be a viable melee bunker if the player is skilled enough to use it. If you give a bunker Guardian a ranged weapon, especially one that can immobilize, what kind of results would you expect? I’d expect it too would be harder to kill as the Guardian will be able to avoid combat just as easily as any profession using a rifle, bow, or staff. Scepter doesn’t need a speed or homing buff without a nerf. The Guardian feels much better suited to a melee role, but it should still have a ranged weapon for bosses and enemies that are far too difficult to encounter in melee.

Dynnen.6405:

1) Scepter 1

Guardian doesn’t really need a ranged weapon specifically for DPS. We’re already nigh invincibile. That’s not to say it doesn’t need a buff in the department of hitting moving targets, but it should get a penalty as well. Give it some slight homing capabilities or a faster movement speed, but add a damage fall-off (deals less damage over distance).

2) Sword 3

I haven’t played around with Zealot’s Defense much. I’m assuming some sort of collision bug where the projectiles will hit the terrain. In all honestly, the skill sounds more like it should be called “Zealot’s Irony” as it destroys projectiles by casting projectiles that can be destroyed or reflected as well. Other than that, I’m not sure what’s wrong with a well timed projectile counter.

3) Shield CD compared to other shield classes.

The Guardian’s shield also affects allies. The Guardian’s shield has the same cooldowns as the Engineer’s shield. There’s nothing wrong with the shield’s cooldowns. The only issue I have with the shield is the healing sub-ability on Shield of Absorption. You have 1.5 seconds to detonate a shield that lasts 4 seconds. I feel that should be adjusted, but that’s all.

4) Zeal/Radiance tree traits/stat allocations (especially the GM traits)

Zeal is lackluster, but Radiance is decent. I find it odd that Zeal focuses heavily on both Spirit Weapons and Symbols. Some kind of change to traits should happen (especially to remove the mediocre traits), but it’s primarily Zeal.

5) 4 second daze that thieves can steal from us

I have to agree with this one. We don’t even have access to a daze let alone 4 seconds. This is more like a method to counter a Guardian instead. Thieves can steal an axe from a warrior for a whirlwind attack. Why do we get the short end?

6) Hammer 2 needs to be adjusted just like Greatsword 3.

Adjusted? You mean the range of Leap of Faith? If so, it doesn’t. Mighty Blow is a blast finisher. It doesn’t need range. It already applies some of the most powerful effects to you and your allies with the right combo fields, and it does it every 5 seconds (4 seconds with traits). It also causes significantly more damage than Leap of Faith. It doesn’t need a change. Hell, I will go as far as to say that the three two-handed weapons the Guardian has are balanced. I find myself using each on different occasions by tweaking my major traits slightly.

It destroys projectiles.
Wiki

Burning is stronger than 6-7 stacks of Bleed depending on the amount of Condition Damage your character has. The problem is that Bleed can be easily applied by most classes to the point where it passes Burning or completely destroys it. On the other hand, Burning is a single condition that constantly applies additional duration rather than more damage, so one condition removal would affect Burning much less than Bleed. Burning feels more of a secondary means for the Guardian to deal damage rather than something to invest in. With 10 in Zeal and 25 in Radiance, however, you can deal +20% damage to any target that is Burning making it a viable condition to focus on solely for application, not damage. That more or less may be what the developers are talking about as they mention having specs or traits for “heavy burning damage.”

I watched the video. From the sounds of things, Boon Hate is primarly to allow Thieves to damage bunker build characters without requiring a large amount of raw damage for the attack. Basically, ANet is planning a nerf to the Thief’s raw damage to make burst damage less of a gimmick. That’s not to say the Thief won’t have burst damage, but it ultimately impacts bunker builds more and DPS builds less. Characters that focus in damage over health or armor will survive longer against a Thief than before, and resistant characters will die a little quicker. It also appears they are planning this for the Elementalist and Warrior.

Thieves are also getting a mobility boost soon as the developers agreed with the interviewers that the Shortbow is the best form of mobility. However, they will receive a huge nerf. When Stealth ends, the Thief will get the Revealed debuff. It doesn’t matter how it ends, even naturally, the Thief will get the debuff. Thieves will no longer be able to spam Stealth making it much more difficult to hide from combat, but Thieves will be able to move and evade combat much easier. We can rejoice over this at least. Thieves will be much easier to target than before.

I don’t think Boon Hate is a bad thing. Consider it much more similar to armor ignoring effects but instead boosts damage to get around boons like Protection. As long as the Thief doesn’t get something rediculous like a 10 point skill that adds 3% damage against the target for each boon the target has I’ll be alright with the change.

Are you sure you’re using Hold the Line? The base regeneration is 6 seconds, and while conversion from poison should add onto the base duration, it just strikes me as odd that you are seeing a 4.25 second duration on Hold the Line’s regeneration.

Otherwise, I did notice some bugs when testing this months back. I found no noticeable problems when using a shout to convert a condition into a boon that the shout did not offer. Hold the Line could convert cripple to swiftness with no problem. It was converting poison to regeneration that failed to work (or vulnerability to protection). It may have a similar issue.

Vaquero.8273:

Sigil of blood apparently has a 5 sec internal cooldown (wiki says the tooltip is wrong), so I don’t see why a 2 sec cooldown on sigil of strength would put you off. Sigil of strength is one of the best damage boosting sigils in the game.

It does indeed stack with Empowering Might and I believe you will get AH triggering from it. That said stick with what you prefer, blood is still a great sigil and doesn’t break the bank like strength does. Personally I use one of each.

It really depends on the build. One stack of might with AH would heal the Guardian around 69-84 health (depending on healing power). You could maintain 5 stacks of might with enough luck. In 10 seconds, you can see 345-420 health from AH. Sigil of Blood has a longer cooldown, but it heals a minimum of 453 (scaling toward 1800 with a high healing power). In half of the time you will see more health in return. While 5 stacks of might (again, with luck) will add 175 power, Sigil of Blood deals a fixed 452 damage to the enemy which is not reduced by toughness. It all depends the situation and the equipment. I’d much rather press my luck with a 12% (40% crit chance over 30% sigil chance) to damage the enemy and heal myself than the same chance to raise my power by 35 for 10 seconds, but that’s because I use a split of Magi and Cleric armor.

DreamOfACure.4382:

Viralseed.9362:

First, there are no Magi accessories (except a guild backpack)

watidonteven.

What are those rare-tier magi trinkets I’ve been using on my Guardian this entire time?

There are even exotic Magi-stat trinkets. They’re just harder to find because they don’t have “magi” in their name.

I found them in the auction house yesterday, but haven’t bothered to change my post. I don’t know how long ago the items were added into the game, but I don’t recall seeing any prior to Wintersday (the last time I checked). There still aren’t any exotic Magi jewels nor any (decent) Ascended healing power gear. Besides, I feel more confortable with Cleric accessories and Magi armor. I find it a good balance of toughness and vitality while maintaining a good critical hit rate.

Bakitten291:

The issue is that toughness causes Healing power to be more effective. Only giving you straight vitality causes your health pool to become huge, while not mitigating as much damage. The healing power wont keep making up for the difference as say a glass cannon hits you for 6k, you can dodge heal twice to get back 4k, your still 2k down. With a 3k+ armor from added tougness that hit might only do 3k, where as your heal is going to still heal for 4k, netting you actual over healing. Increasing toughness is far better for healing power than increasing vitality.

True, toughness and healing power are better than vitality and healing power. The issue here is that Cleric armor features power while Magi armor features precision. In burst heals alone, Cleric would easily be better over Magi. Meditation builds would better benefit from Cleric armor. However, Empowering Might/Altruistic Healing builds are better with a higher critical hit chance (more crits, more boons, more heals), thus Magi armor would be better. With Magi equipment (and Cleric accessories), I have 25% more health (3,500) and nearly triple the critical hit rate (27%) than only Cleric equipment. This doesn’t factor food items. I only lose 400 armor and 300 power.

While healing power is exponentially better with more toughness, the lack of health makes you more susceptible to conditions. Yes, Guardians have several methods of removing conditions. However, the more condition removals you use, the less room you have for other utilities. Having critical hit rate over power boosts Altruistic Healing and other healing methods (Sigil of Blood and Omnomberry Pie’s life steal). The amount of healing gained by having some extra precision can heavy counter the slight armor loss.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

It would leave you with little to no base damage or toughness.

Little power? Agreed. You’ll notice a damage drop, but it also depends on your critical hit rate. A decent critical hit rate can make up for a loss of power (not entirely mind you), though if you run Knight gear, you’ll have both precision and power. Little toughness? I can’t say I agree. Sure, you’ll miss out on some toughness, but the additional healing far exceeds what you’ll lose.

First, there are no Magi accessories (except a guild backpack), so you’ll have to use another type (Knight or Cleric). With Cleric accessories, you’ll still have some additional toughness giving you a decent balance between toughness and vitality. With Knight gear, you’ll sacrifice some healing for additional critical hit rate.

I run dungeons with Magi gear and compared to total Cleric gear, my survivability jumps. Sure, the build was better when Vigorous Precision could activate on every critical hit, but Empowering Might still makes it worthwhile. The only thing I can’t say for certain is the survivability against the general Altruistic Healing/Hammer build as Knight armor is still rising in price (and I can’t be bothered to farm gold for it).

With Magi gear, you’ll be able to (nearly) ensure that Vigor is active for maximum dodge uses. With Healing Power, this can be around 1,600 health every few seconds. If you intend to use this set, run it will a fast weapon set like greatsword or sword. It also allows you to use the Sigil of Blood better than other builds (and even more with precision food items) as it will heal around 1,700 health with healing power gear. The extra damage (from the leech) makes up for some of the loss in damage.

Ultimately, if you are willing to spend the time farming 1,700+ tokens (or buy Priory armor) and purchase some additional healing accessories, try this build out and experiment with accessories and weapons. You’ll definitely notice a large increase in healing, but the increase of precision (over power) will almost require you to avoid hammer.

First, I agree Altruistic Healing prevents diverse builds as it is the primary means of survivability for the Guardian, but it costs too many trait points as investment. However, You run into another problem by making it a Virtue. Using a Virtue gives up the passive effect. If any Guardian is caught off-guard with Virtue of Altruism popped, their defenses are down. While Fury is a good trade-off (gain distance on an enemy and strike it down quickly), it creates a senario where players will dump only 5 points into the Virtues tree to get a boon that is relatively easy to apply (every 20 seconds, 14 seconds when traited). With added boon duration, it would be relatively easy to get 8 seconds of Fury (since Inspired Virtues last 5 seconds). The cooldown would have to be increased, but then no one will want to risk being vulnerable for a long period of time unless there is only one opponent and a good burst will finish it. It’s a good idea, but you may need to look into a different active ability for the Virtue.

I’m all for trait changes/merges. It is definitely a problem of the Guardian. Just keep in mind that there isn’t a cooldown reduction on one-handed weapons. Retaliation and Aegis stacking would make both worthwhile as long as all senarios are thought out. Virtue of Courage cannot stack anymore. You could have a duration of 20 hours (or more) of Aegis because it stacked duration. While that isn’t necessarily a problem, it cannot stack intensity now or each Aegis from Virtue of Courage must end in 40 seconds (30 when traited).

After some previous testing, I’ve noticed that certain boons do not stack when gaining the effect from Pure of Voice. For example, Hold the Line! gives the regeneration boon, but removing poison does not stack the regeneration boon. However, the protection boon did stack. I’m not sure what the conditions are, but I’ve always removed the conditions. Converting is the main issue. As for Save Yourselves!, you should still remove two conditions, but those two conditions must have previously been on the Guardian. It will not give your allies’ conditions to you and then remove two.

I’m not a big fan of the tomes. I found no real success in Tome of Wrath, and I only use Tome of Courage as a quick, full heal in the event I’m near death. Personally, I’d much rather see the tome concept removed. Instead, each “tome” casts the most powerful effect it has to offer (massive damage/knockdown or area heal).

When you start casting it, you get X stacks of defiant to help (but not prevent) from being interrupted and the buff that came standard with the tome (retaliation or protection) for 10 seconds. The cooldowns should be reduced to compensate (90-120 seconds). Judgment would need a buff. Its damage is mediocre as Whirling Wrath deals about 12.5% less damage, but has a cooldown of 10 seconds (far too short for an elite skill). Judgment would need more targets, damage, additional burning, or a combination. Light of Deliverance should be fine as it is. A full heal for you and your party would be amazing.

As for Renewed Focus, I see no real problem with it. It’s 3 seconds of invulnerability which, if timed well, can be used to block a burst attack. On top of that, it recovers all of your virtues. If you focus around a virtues build (or need a burst counter), it’s perfect. For other senarios (like the common Altruistic Healing builds), it would seem more useful to take a fourth utility skill instead of an elite skill.

EDIT: changed to not be a wall of text.

Well, according to the wiki, Perfect Inscriptions raises the passive effects of Signets by 20%. I don’t really see a reason it wouldn’t be 12%. Besides, if you notice little difference, changes are it is only a 2% increases. It wouldn’t hurt for someone to test as Signet of Resolve’s passive increases from 1 condition/10 seconds to 2 conditions/10 seconds.

Altruistic Healing activates whenever you apply a Boon to yourself or an ally. My assumption is Yes, Yes, No.

I’ll probably get yelled at by Professor Oak (this is not the time or the place), but one of the reasons I find most FPSs these days terrible is because no matter have much of a team-based game it should be, there’s no reason to work as a team. One man with enough skill can mow down an entire team.

With no definitive roles, Guild Wars 2 is subject to the same. I was hoping that some classes would at least have the option to fall into the trinity if they choose. Soldiers can tank if developed in that way, but only if the enemy continues to focus on the Soldier (which doesn’t always last long). Guardians and Elementalists have a large number of area heals, but neither can hold the team together for very long. I was hoping the game retained this role system, but didn’t force players to take a role in a group. I would like to be able to tank and/or heal all the same, but there’s no real benefit to take up either. You’ll be stuck as a damage dealer primarily focusing on your life instead of the party.

I play an Altruistic Healing Guardian whose primary focus is to have allies in the area (which personally should not have to happen for survivability). If my allies die, the amount of health I recover drops. This means if an ally is foolish, I cannot heal that ally with regeneration, or I lose aggression from the enemy, my own survivability drops. It would be nice to have some way of ensuring the enemy stays focused on me.

Save Yourselves! may not be glitched either. I don’t see why Save Yourselves! should give you all conditions from nearby allies and then remove a condition. It would probably operate the other way first. It may remove any conditions you had prior to the skill, but it won’t remove any gained from the skill. Again though, if Boons fail to stack with pre-existing Boons, Save Yourselves! is a good example of this occuring. I did some testing last night, and Hold the Line!, Stand Your Ground!, and Retreat! always removed two conditions. From what I could tell, Swiftness and Regeneration (if gained) did not stack with the Shout that was giving it. Protection, on the other hand, did appear to stack. I guess the problem may be related more to the Boons stacking than the Shout condition removal failing. Again, if you are looking for pure condition removal, I don’t see any reason Pure of Voice and Runes of the Soldier cannot stack. Yes, you may not always gain a Boon if it doesn’t stack, but it will remove two conditions. From what I can tell, Pure of Voice always triggers first. If you have one condition, you will convert it, and Runes of the Soldier will only work if you (or an ally) have two or more conditions. Here’s what I used:

Runes of the Soldier
Pure of Voice
Hold the Line!, Stand Your Ground!, Retreat! (so I could test various Boons)
No Signet of Resolve or Purity (to ensure I was removing the conditions)
No condition removing Sigils
Mace and Shield (to survive in combat without gaining a Boon in the attack chain)

Generally anything that says it benefits allies benefits you as well. The only thing I am aware of that doesn’t state this is Soldier runes which says it removes a condition. Soldier runes affect allies as well. As for all the Pure of Voice talk, I’m not sure it’s entirely bugged. Everytime I used it, it removed a condition. I’ve noticed it doesn’t always give a condition in return, but I’ve found that it may be because the Shout you use has the Boon it would grant you. For example if you cure poison using Hold the Line, you should gain regeneration. However, Hold the Line gives you regeneration already. The two do not stack (though it should). Using Stand Your Ground to remove poison always gave me regeneration, and it could stack with any regeneration already active. I would have to test it some more, but this seems to be the extent of the bug.

Star Ace.5207:

Ironically, I use a lot a 25 Zeal 30 Honor symbol build, even now-it works WONDERS for dumb PvE mobs, but I can see how many would despise it for WvW since most players won’t sit on your symbols like zombies mindlessly do. Developers probably believe that symbols are one of the Guardian’s tools for area control; having that area move with you would go against their theoretical view of the Guardian (which of course you can agree/disagree with.) Perma-heal auras that move with you would also, IMHO, be OP. In my particular case, Aura style “symbol” would actually weaken my build a big deal (even though it’s in theory better for PvP), since I depend on symbol damage a lot for my PvE build.

Having Symbols follow the Guardian would only improve crowd-control. It would allow the Guardian to move through a group of enemies forcing the enemies to seperate or retreat. It helps enforce the crowd-control aspect of the Guardian as well as the Boon management aspect. I don’t see it really hurting your build at all. It would be easier to damage enemies, apply Vulnerability, and heal yourself. Worse comes to worse, the idea of Symbols following the Guardian could be a grandmaster trait should ArenaNet decide to start merging some of the bad traits together (creating space for new ones).

Yeah, I don’t think we should mess with the Combo Fields. With Symbol of Wrath giving Retailiation, you can move into Leap of Faith for an additional 5 seconds of Retaliation or use Whirling Wrath/Binding Blade for an AoE conditional removal. With Symbol of Protection, Mightly Blow can give all allies Retaliation. I’m not too excited about Fire Fields as it really only benefits the +10% damage to burning enemies trait. A Guardian can do without Burning Bolts, 3 stacks of might, and Fire Armor. I wish we had a Water Field or two for added healing abilities. Greatsword on a timed Water Field can dish out two waves of Healing Bolts to all nearby allies. With a cooldown of 40 seconds (like Purging Flames), it’s more of a last-second save than a viable source of healing. I suppose it depends on how powerful the heal is.

EDIT:

To be honest, the Aura concept would make symbols vastly OP, and many would go for such builds. Nobody would touch a sword, for instance, if symbols were so boosted (not that many touch it even now, even though it’s a nice weapon).

If it’s a matter of the damage Symbols would cause (especially with the Zeal trait Symbolic Power), the damage can be nerfed to compensate. In PvE, there would barely be a change. The change is more or less focused on PvP to make Symbol build more viable. Really, the only Symbol that would need any kind of change if Symbols functioned like an Aura would be Symbol of Protection. With the ability to cast it every 3 seconds, it could be greatly overpowered. It would be a matter of testing as anyone can visually see the third hit of the Hammer chain and avoid the attack.

I personally wanted to try out Sword prior to the update but with Vigorous Precision nerfed, I can’t really build around the weapon without completely changing my build. Look at the bright side, to get the greatest effect of Symbols, the Guardian will need to invest heavily into Zeal and Honor. We’d possibly see less Altruistic Healing builds.

All four are in the game. Foefire’s Essense is the Sword of Justice, Foefire’s Power is the Hammer of Wisdom, Azureflame is the Bow of Truth, and Eidolon is the Sheild of the Avenger. All are exotic weapons made through the Mystic Forge. You can also find players selling any in the auction house.

The only change I really want to see: Symbols are now Auras. Auras are cast at the feet of the Guardian (including Symbol of Swiftness). Auras move with the Guardian for the duration. Allies (and self) still receive the appropriate boon for each tick. Enemies still take damage each second. This way, Symbols are better for PvP. It is easier to hit a moving target with a Symbol and you won’t be a sitting duck if you try and get the boon to stack.

Other than that, a Spirit Weapon revamp would be nice. Spirit Weapons are basically boring summons.

Just a few notes when I tested the sigils.

1. Sigil of Water procs only on crits (unstated).
2. Sigil of Water heals less on yourself than Sigil of Blood (only 80 less) and less often (2 seconds compared to 10).
3. Sigil of Water and Sigil of Blood are both affected by healing power (uncertain if the extra healing affects the damage the enemy takes).

For a crit/solo build, take Sigil of Blood over water as you’ll heal for a higher amount and more often. Sigil of Water could be useful, but I would still favor Sigil of Blood as it not only heals, but damages the enemy (and appears to ignore armor). If you are trying to support your allies, you could always use the Sigil of Water. Personally, surviving longer means you can support your teammates longer.

I don’t feel weak when my boons are gone, and I sure don’t feel any more powerful with boons. That point the developer states is far from the intention. I don’t feel I’m always in control. Guardians have plenty of reflects and bubbles, no doubt. However, the only real control I have over the enemy is Binding Blade. With Altruistic Healing, I feel I can withstand enough of a beating in melee range just like a warrior. Without it, I feel as weak as any other class. As for condition removal, that’s about the only trait the Guardian has. When applied, a Guardian can lose 2 conditions every 10 seconds. The Guardian can also remove all conditions from all nearby allies and convert them into boons. Including the Soldier set and Pure of Voice, it’s very easy to lose conditions.

Based on your list and the developer’s comments, no. The Guardian is far from where it should be. A Guardian without Altruistic Healing or Wall of Reflection isn’t feared by anyone. There’s no survivability or damage capability left since boons hardly affect the Guardian’s output (damage, survivability, etc.). Really, the only boon worthwhile is Protection which has the potential of 100% upkeep only if the target is standing still. A Guardian has a lot of regeneration skills, but regeneration doesn’t stack in intensity making it extremely difficult to heal enough to mitigate enough damage to be worthwhile (even with Virtue of Resolve).

I’d much rather see the Guardian retain it’s defenses and fill a “beacon role” in a group where all allies will want to stick near the Guardian for survival. Battle Presense (if it worked properly) is a fantastic idea. Allies heal just by standing near you. If a Guardian could help heal or lower the damage an ally takes just by being in a group, it would make Guardians a top priority as both a party member and a target of the enemy team. There’s a number or ways it could go.

It doesn’t seem worth it. The full set is +6% boon duration. It’s Toughness main, healing secondary. The main problem is the weapons. Giver weapons aren’t +boon duration, but rather +condition duration 10%. 6% isn’t nearly enough to benefit any build. It’s a new approach for builds, but it’s far from a good set.

This biggest problem I have with the Guardian is Altruistic Healing. I’m not saying it need nerfed but rather everything else needs buffed. Look at the number of builds that use this as a focus point. It argueably makes the Guardian last far longer in combat than any other potential build. However, it only marginally makes the Guardian survive longer than any other class. Our massive HP nerf impacts this. It’s already been said that we have around 5-6k less health than any other class, and we can often feel it. In fact, the only other trees that are worthwhile as a full investment are Honor and Virtues. Guardians, contrary to their name, better traits to support other builds so that Altruistic Healing doesn’t feel like the only option. ArenaNet should sit down and think about what traits can be buffed, merged (like the 9/14/12 patch), and added (as replacement).

On a side note, do any other classes have less health than other classes?

Star Ace.5207:

IME, it does heal allies, and does so well. I have never understood what’s this supposed bug is all about since I read the wiki, to be honest with you.

Here’s the short version. Virtue of Resolve does not stack with itself. Virtue of Resolve applies itself every 3 seconds and ticks each second. Because it does not stack, the third second (when it should apply itself again) results in the “immune” status and fails to reapply. This leaves your party without the effects for another 3 seconds. In other words, it is applied only 50% of the time.

Now, I’m not sure if this is to prevent multiple Guardians from taking the trait and, therefore, stacking a rediculous amount of regeneration. It should be more than a simple fix by allowing the duration to stack up to, say, 10 seconds (similar to the water Elementalist trait) but not allowing it to stack intensity or with another Guardian’s Virtue of Resolve.

There does appear to be a lot of dumb bugs with Guardian skills and traits. They’re mostly playable otherwise…. mostly.

I kind of have to agree with the topic. I went for a 0/10/30/30/0 build focusing on AH with full Cleric’s Gear (to maximize output) and found myself dying extremely fast in melee combat when I take too much aggression.. I’ll be focusing over the next few weeks on grinding dungeons for tokens or Jalis’s armor to get the Healing/Vitality/Precision armor and give that a chance. Maybe the extra crit chance will make the crit-reliant traits better as long as losing nearly 1,000 toughness won’t be noticeable. I feel like compared to the first Guild Wars, this one requires a lot more time and effort into finding your perfect build. Before, you only needed one armor set. All that changed was your atrribute points and skill bar (which you may had to unlock the skill). Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying this game far more than the previous. I’m just not keen on equipment grinding games.

I’m not going to get scientific about it or anything. Without much research, it would be safe to say that sylvari do have nipples since their bodies are based on humans. However, male sylvari do not have nipples in the character creation (while humans and norn do) which would suggest otherwise.

However, there is one piece of armor (there may be more) that indicates visible nipples in the texture. You can compare the other races for yourself on the same website. The details on the sylvari are very close (if not identical) to the human and norn.