Tomes are amazing. The reason I bought PoF and started playing Guardian.

But after creating another topic to get feedback on how to better use tome skills, I noticed I'm not alone thinking some skills are weird, not useful, or just plain convoluted, especially on Tome of Resolve and Tome of Courage. So I'd like to leave here my suggestions for tweaks on tome skills.

When I use a tome, my reaction is simple:"I have waited several seconds to be able to use it, and now I'm committing to its purpose (offense/healing/support), so I want to press all five buttons and stay as long as possible."

Trying to summarize the issues with tome skills...

--- THE ISSUES ---

• Justice: Great skill design overall. Not much to change here at all.
• Resolve: Too much given to skill 5. Some skills are not useful. Two skills competing for condition clear. Too much skill 1 spam. Ex: You use skill 5 to convert conditions and then can't get a heal from skill 2.
• Courage: Too much given to skill 5. Some skills are awkward. Too many situational skills. Too much skill 1 spam. Ex: You gain too much from skill 5, and then have little use for skill 4 and 2.

Trying to heighten the pattern shared by all tomes...

--- BASE PATTERN FOR TOME SKILLS ---

• Skill 1: Damaging skills, with also some extra effect (burn/heal/aegis).
• Skill 2: Instant small area skills on short cooldown.
• Skill 3: Targetable skills with a 5s effect (blind/regen/reflection), plus a hard cc (pull/daze/push) to help breaking bars.
• Skill 4: Pulsing large area skills, with five pulses over 4s. Combo fields.
• Skill 5: Unique buffs for 8s.

Now going to the actual suggestion...

--- TOME OF JUSTICE ---

• 1. Damage and burn enemies. (no change)
• 2. Damage, burn and apply weakness. 240 radius. (no change)
• 3. Pull enemies, and apply 5s blind. 900 range. 240 radius. (added blind)
• 4. Pulse five times over 4s. Fire field. 360 radius. Damage, burn and bleed per pulse. (no change)
• 5. Grant 3 stacks of burning buff for 8s. (just reduced duration to 8s for consistency)

--- TOME OF RESOLVE ---

• 1. Damage enemies, and heal allies. (added damage, but decreased heal to around 500)
• 2. Heal and remove 3 conditions. 240 radius. (flat heal around 1500, not depending on condition cleanse)
• 3. Daze enemies, and apply 5s regen to allies. 900 range. 240 radius. (added daze, and removed boons other than regen)
• 4. Pulse five times over 4s. Water field. 360 radius. Heal, convert a condition to boon, and apply 1s vigor per pulse. (heal can be around 350 per tick)
• 5. Grant 33% healing buff for 8s. (removed conditions conversion)

--- TOME OF COURAGE ---

• 1. Damage enemies and apply aegis to allies. (added damage, but removed boons other than aegis)
• 2. Apply 2s resistance and 1500 barrier. 240 radius. (removed damage and taunt, but added resistance and barrier instead)
• 3. Push back enemies, and create a reflecting shield for 5s. 900 range. 240 radius. (added push back)
• 4. Pulse five times over 4s. Light field. 360 radius. Apply 3s stability, 3s swiftness and 1s protection per pulse. (removed resistance, but added pulsing boons instead)
• 5. Grant 300 toughness buff for 8s. (removed all boons, but increased buff duration to 8s)

TL;DR: Tome skills are nice, but some effects/boons could be switched around to make all skillset more fluid. Also, Tome of Courage is asking for barrier.

The only change I want for tomes are skills #3 that must be BLAST FINISHERS! Everything else is fine.

Elite Mantra should give Protection for 3 sec too. And everything else is balanced.

@leasm.1279 said:--- TOME OF COURANGE ---

• 2. Apply 2s resistance and 1500 barrier. 240 radius. (removed damage and taunt, but added resistance and barrier instead)

Nope, I love my ToC damage bomb. FB needs more burst, not more dps (which is what your changes would add).

Some of your other changes are great though, hope a dev sees this post and seriously considers the changes. I especially hope they consider your ToR changes.

@leasm.1279 said:--- TOME OF RESOLVE ---

• 4. Pulse five times over 4s. Water field. 360 radius. Heal, convert a condition to boon, and apply 1s vigor per pulse. (heal can be around 300 per tick)Interesting for a pulse change, I could see that.

--- TOME OF COURANGE ---

• 1. Damage enemies and apply aegis to allies. (added damage, but removed boons other than aegis)I don't agree with removing the other buffs.
• 2. Apply 2s resistance and 1500 barrier. 240 radius. (removed damage and taunt, but added resistance and barrier instead)Interesting, that could be a good change. I personally think the taunt is kinda useless, even in pvp. Such a short duration that I'd rather not have it.
• 3. Push back enemies, and create a reflecting shield for 5s. 900 range. 240 radius. (added push back)A push back would be awesome but then it would replace one of the consecration utilites if it constantly pushed back. Maybe a 1 time knock back would be great, we do need more options for CC.
• 4. Pulse five times over 4s. Light field. 360 radius. Apply 3s stability, 3s swiftness and 1s protection per pulse. (removed resistance, but added pulsing boons instead)I don't agree with this change at all. Removing resistance would be a horrible idea sorry.
• 5. Grant 300 toughness buff for 8s. (removed all boons, but increased buff duration to 8s)Granting 300 toughness alone would make this skill useless. No one would waste a page on this change.

You have some interesting ideas that I could see working for some stuff but others are just a flat out nerf for something that doesn't deserve it.

@Incarne.4927 said:You have some interesting ideas that I could see working for some stuff but others are just a flat out nerf for something that doesn't deserve it.

I tried to switch places instead of nerfing skills, this way making all 5 skills appealing. But of course this is here exactly for discussion. I still believe 300 toughness to five allies for 8s seconds is good enough for a page, but another option would be changing it to something like a plain 15%-30% damage reduction instead of toughness.

@Arcaedus.7290 said:Some of your other changes are great though, hope a dev sees this post and seriously considers the changes. I especially hope they consider your ToR changes.

Also hope the Devs consider this. Tomes are amazing, but IMO just need some tweaks.

My only problem with Firebrand are the Stoic Demeanor trait that is useless and the mantras channel are too high.

Also, the # 3 of Tome of Resolve should at least be a blast finisher, this skill is pointless other than giving swiftness.

I love most of this and am simply ok with some of it but I do have a few hangups that I'd like to mention as from a pve point of view they kinda suck.

--- TOME OF JUSTICE ---Fine with all the changes here as all the modifications are pretty minor.

--- TOME OF RESOLVE ---

2 Heal and remove 3 conditions. 240 radius. (flat heal around 1500, not depending on condition cleanse)

This one seems pretty great. FB is really missing any sense of a burst heal in order to react to sudden pressure and that's one thing the DH has been holding over it. I've even read that DH can do more healing than FB over a longer time span as well.

3 Daze enemies, and apply 5s regen to allies. 900 range. 240 radius. (added daze, and removed boons other than regen)

Sure, more cc is great by me. Helps address another FB weakness.

--- TOME OF COURAGE ---

1 Damage enemies and apply aegis to allies. (added damage, but removed boons other than aegis)

Don't be taking my swiftness stacking away from me! The heck is this! Guardian has long been missing a good swiftness source and you just wanna up and remove it?! For shame!

2 Apply 2s resistance and 1500 barrier. 240 radius. (removed damage and taunt, but added resistance and barrier instead)

Still hesitant on how much I give a crap about barrier but hell, why not? I read another person mentioning it being a damage bomb but I can't say as I've ever noticed it doing much in the way of damage??

3 Push back enemies, and create a reflecting shield for 5s. 900 range. 240 radius. (added push back)

This one sucks from a pve perspective. On mobs I love to initiate by damaging a group of mobs, line of sight them, whack a bubble over them once stacked and go ham (followed by wall of reflection if needed.) The push back element would suck a fat one in my mind. How about a knockdown or daze instead if you feel like it needs cc?

Also I mean... all this is a lot... this is probably never gonna happen as FB would probably be too OP at this point. Class has gotta have a weakness somewhere, right (and yes I know blast finishers aren't addressed before anyone thinks that in an angry manner. Yes you, person! I know you're there!)