Avenger

• Damage/Heal Tank Archetype
• Heavy focus on Counter-attacking, Damage mitigation and non-boon Support
• Secondary focus on Power DPS, Might and Fury
• A tank that deals extreme DPS or HPS while focused by enemies, capable of upkeeping Might and Fury if constantly attacked.

Theme and Role: Vengeance long awaited

Having witnessed the devastation visited upon Tyria by everything from eldritch abominations to renegade gods to insane tyrants, some guardians have come to understand that simply being a shield for the innocent is no longer enough to keep them safe. A bastion, no matter how sturdy, will eventually crumble and fall if all it ever does is weather the siege without retaliating. One needs to find balance in all things, to level defending their wards with striking down those who seek to harm them. Forgiveness and complacency does not win battles, the one who strikes the hardest does. As the tides turn, the Avenger stands again at the frontlines, but not only as a defender. No, they lead the charge forwards, wether it be against gods, dragons or whatever enemy the machinations of fate throw at them.

The Avenger is a Damage Tank archetype, but not in the sense of a Bruiser. While they definitely have Bruiser-esque inspirations, their real strength lies in the devastating amount of Damage they can dish out as long as they're the target of enemy attacks. Their new Parry mechanic lets them stand their ground and defend in intervalls rather than bursts, and as the Avenger deflects enemy attacks they gain access to devastating or lifesaving counter-attacks in their new Reprisal Skills.The Avenger's design philosophy is that of champion whose true potential is unleashed when they're standing face-to-face with their enemy. Turning the enemy's power against them, the Avenger empowers both themselves and their allies as they launch their counter-offensive. They do not possess the massive Boon output or Burning that a Firebrand has, nor do they possess the range and AoE denial of a Dragonhunter, eschewing versatility to excel at the very core of their fighting style. They can maintain offensive boons such as Might, Fury and Retaliation, while their other Support options are high-impact but also low-frequency. An Avenger needs to possess good awareness and split-second decision-making, as long Cooldowns or Channels punish carelessness.

Mechanic: Channeled Parry and Reprisal Skills

Avengers do not cower in the face of any adversary. Their backs will not touch the ground and their gaze will never falter or turn away from their enemy. The Avenger does not hurl themself out of harms way, they plant their feet steady in the ground and respond with their steel and courage instead, deflecting any blows coming their way and telling the enemy "No, you move!"

Avengers replace their Dodge ability with a Channeled Parry ability. Initiating a Dodge no longer costs an instant 50 Endurance nor Moves the Avenger. Instead, initiating a Dodge causes them to channel a Parry, costing them 15 Endurance initially, followed by 50 Endurance per second while channeling (meaning they can Parry for a max of ~1.5s without canceling). Parry works as an Invulnerable effect that avoids any Attack that can normally be Dodged. However, attacks against a Parrying player are considered to be Blocked (However, Unblockable attacks will instead simply be considered to be Evaded as normal, to avoid confusion), triggering Traits, sigils and runes coming into effect when attacks are Blocked. Parry can be canceled by initiating a Dodge again, or by Activating any skill. Parry can still be used to Cancel any skill channel, same as Dodging, and cannot be activated mid-channel unlike Mirage Cloak. Parry carries an internal cooldown of ~1/2s in between canceling and reactivating it, so there is a window of vulnerability if timed wrong.

Additionally, If the Avenger is attacked while Parrying, the Avenger gains access to Reprisal Skills, which flips over their first Weapon Skill after they Parry an incoming Attack. Reprisal Skills are punishing counter-attacks that strike incredibly fast, catching careless enemies off-guard. Much like Ambush and Stealth skills, Reprisal Skills carry a short Cooldown between each use.

• Sword: Avenging Cross - Strike your target, forming a cross of light if you hit them that continuously Damage nearby enemies, granting you Might (1 stack, 8s) each time an enemy is struck by it. Pulses: 6. Strike Interval: 1/4s. Range: 240. Radius: 180. Targets: 3. Acts as a Leap Finisher.
• Mace: Merciful Blow - Perform a Swift strike that Blinds (5s) enemies with a Resplendent Light which cascades outwards to Heal surrounding Allies. Healing: 756 (x1.2). Radius: 300. Targets: 5.
• Scepter: Flames of Reckoning - Raise your Scepter and call down a pillar of Fire on your target that follows after them, stacking Burning (1 stack, 3s) with each strike. Range: 1200. Pulses: 3. Duration: 3s. Targets: 1.
• Greatsword: Great Divide - Release a shockwave of light against enemies, Destroying Projectiles and Immobilizing (1s) enemies struck. Range: 300. Targets: 3.
• Hammer: Righteous Wave - Strike the ground, sending out a wave of Light that Pulls enemies in a cone towards you and Slows (2s) them. Acts as a Blast Finisher. Range: 450. Targets: 3.
• Staff: Inquisition - Channeled Skill. Fire a beam of light at the target enemy, pulsing Weakness (1/2s) to them and Might (1 stack, 3s) to Allies around them. Pulses: 9. Channel: 2s. Radius: 300. Targets: 1. Allied targets: 5.
• Spear: Lance Barrage - Conjure a barrage of light spears that fly forwards, piercing through and Damaging enemies in front of you. Grants Might (1 stack, 8s) with each pulse. Number of Strikes: 6. Range: 1200.
• Trident: Purging Wave - Fire off a Wave of light that Heals allies, while Burning (2 stacks, 3s) and Blinding (5s) enemies. Healing: 1.135 (x0.6). Range: 600. Targets: 5.

Weapon: Off-hand Sword

Avengers do not always feel the need for a shield to protect them. A dead enemy is no threat, and so they stride into battle with a second blade at their hips, trusting in their plate to protect them as they swing their dual weapons to strike down several enemies at once.

The Off-hand Sword is a powerful AoE weapon focused around Damage, Offensive Boons and CC. Both weapon skills chain into another skill, giving the weapon great versatility in return for longer cooldowns. The fourth weapon skill’s Chain skill grows stronger the longer you channel it, allowing the Avenger to choose between swift or decisive punishment.

• Coruscating Wrath - Channeled Skill. Create a massive ball of fire that grows in size each pulse, pulsing Damage to nearby enemies and Retaliation (2s) to yourself. Channel: 2 1/2s. Pulses: 3. Min Radius: 240. Max Radius: 360. Cooldown: 25s.
  • Castigation - Chains from Coruscating Wrath when it has been channeled for less than 1 second. Release the ball of fire on the target area, dealing heavy damage and Burning (1 stack, 6s) enemies within. Acts as a Blast Finisher. Range: 600. Radius: 240. Targets: 5.
  • Judgment - Chains from Coruscating Wrath when it has been channeled for 1 second. Release the greater ball of fire on the target area, dealing heavy damage, Burning (2 stacks, 6s) enemies within and granting Might (3 stacks, 12s) to Allies. Range: 600. Radius: 300. Targets: 5.
  • Condemnation - Chains from Coruscating Wrath when it has been channeled for 2 seconds or more. Release the massive ball of fire on the target area, dealing Massive Damage, Burning (3 stacks, 6s) enemies within and granting Might (6 stacks, 12s) to Allies. Range: 600. Radius: 360. Targets: 10.
• Scar of Light - Cross your weapons and Immobilize (1 1/2s) enemies at the target area with a crashing pillar of light from the heavens, leaving behind a Light Field that pulses Damage and Vulnerability (2 stacks, 5s) to enemies within. Range: 600. Radius: 240. Duration: 5s. Cooldown: 30s.
  • Rapture - Detonate your scar of light, Pulling enemies towards its position. Pull Radius: 600.

Utility Skills: Stances

Even heroes need a champion: A figurehead to rally towards, who will lead the charge into battle without fear or hesitation. As the Avenger stands their ground and raises their blade to the sky, they take up this mantle and call the courageous to arms.

Avenger Stances are much shorter in duration when compared to Warrior stances or even Soulbeast stances, however by default these Stances also affect nearby allies. They are not combat forms or animal imagery, instead they transform the Avenger into a champion of their allies for a short time. Stances generally only last between 3-4s and have lengthy cooldowns compared to many other Utility Skills, but in return the effects they pulse can completely turn the tide of a battle. When traited, Stances can affect up to 10 nearby allies, allowing the Avenger to lead entire troops to victory.

• Beacon of Hope - Healing Skill. Heal yourself and gain Vigor (6s). For 4s, Blocking or Parrying attacks causes Bursts of energy around you that Heal nearby allies, this can only happen once every 1s. Initial Self-healing: 3.267 (x0.7). Burst Healing: 859 (x1.1). Number of Targets: 5. Radius: 240. Cooldown: 25s.
• Avenger’s Charge - Breaks Stun. For 3s, Pulse Stability (1 stacks, 3s), Swiftness (3s) and Fury (3s) to yourself and nearby Allies, removing Movement-impairing Conditions every Pulse. If no ally is within range, End the Stance prematuraly to gain personal Stability (3 stacks, 6s), Retaliation (6s), Swiftness (6s) and Fury (6s). Number of Targets: 5. Radius: 300. Cooldown: 40s.
• Inspiring Presence - For 4s, grant Might (1 stack, 12s) to yourself and nearby Allies when you strike an enemy. One instance of Any Boon you grant yourself while in this Stance is applied to nearby Allies. Base Duration of copied Boons: 3s; Might/Swiftness: 12s. Number of targets: 5. Radius: 300. ICD on Might per strike: 1/2s. Cooldown: 30s.
• Protector’s Stance - For 3s, Block all attacks against nearby allies while you channel Parry. Parry costs less Endurance while this Stance is active, and if your Endurance reaches below the Threshold while this stance is active, end the Stance prematurely to restore Endurance to yourself. Cost reduction: 50% (25% in PvP/WvW). Endurance Threshold: 10. Endurance Restored: 50. Radius: 240. Cooldown: 45s.
• Heroic Vow - For 3s, Conditions applied to Allies are instead transferred to yourself. If you take lethal damage while this Stance is active, end the stance prematurely to Cleanse Conditions on yourself and Heal for each Condition removed. Conditions Cleansed on lethal damage: 13. Healing per condition: 754 (x0.4). Number of targets: 5. Radius: 240. Cooldown: 50s.
• Aura of the Champion - Elite Skill. For 4s, become a Mobile Light Field that reduces all Damage and Condition Damage on nearby Allies by 50%, while making their Boons unable to be Removed, Stolen or Corrupted. Number of targets: 5. Radius: 240. Cooldown: 60s.

Specialization Line

The Avenger does not turn their back on the core virtues they valued in their time as a Guardian. Instead, they take inspiration from those teachings in order to turn them into a new weapon to slay the wicked and protect the innocent.

The Avenger's Specialization line is themed after the three Virtues of a Guardian and the "flavor" of righteoussness they possess. The upper line is themed after Virtue of Justice and focuses heavily on punishing counter-offense and CC, the middle line is themed after Virtue of Resolve and focuses on aiding or supporting Allies with the Avenger's newfound powers, while the last line is themed after Virtue of Courage, focusing heavily on Damage mitigation and sustaining the Avenger no matter what fearsome monster they're facing.

• Minor Adept: Avenger’s Promise - Your Dodge ability is replaced with a Channelled Parry and you gain access to Reprisal Skills.
  • Judge’s Challenge - Taunt (1 1/2s) nearby enemies when you activate Virtue of Justice. Radius: 240. Number of Targets: 5. ICD: 25s (PvP/WvW only).
  • Vigorous Resolve - Grant Vigor (5s) to allies you heal with Virtue of Resolve's Active Effect.
  • Beacon of Courage - Cast Lesser Protector’s Stance for 3s when you activate Virtue of Courage. ICD: 60s.
• Minor Master: Defensive Champion - Reprisal Skills grant Fury (4s) to yourself and nearby Allies when they strike an enemy, and restores Endurance to you. Endurance restored: 15. Radius: 300. ICD: 10s
  • The Best Defense - You gain +180 Ferocity while wielding a Main-hand weapon in your Off-hand. Gain 5% of your Vitality and Toughness as Ferocity.
  • Savior’s Creed - Reprisal Skills now become available for a short time after an Aegis or Weapon Skill you applied Blocks an attack. Reprisal Skills grants Swiftness (3s).
  • Enduring Vengefulness - You take 33% less Damage from Conditions while under the effects of Retaliation.
• Minor Grandmaster: Furious Vengeance - Fury applied to you is more effective. Gain Vigor (3s) when you gain Fury. Fury Effectiveness: 33%. ICD on Vigor: 12s.
  • Indignance - Reflect Projectiles while you channel Parry. Reprisal Skills become Unblockable and unaffected by Blind or Weakness.
  • First among Equals - Stance Skills have increased Radius, now affect up to 10 Allies and increases the Duration of All Boons you apply by 33% while active. Radius Increase: 50%.
  • Ironclad Initiation - You cannot be Critically struck while above the Health Threshold. Threshold: 90%.

Overall I want to say I love the thematic approach you have here. You tie together mechanics with story/lore and that's something I hope Anet does for every elite spec here on out! This theme in particular is one of the better ones I've seen for "justifying" guardian getting off-hand sword. The reprisal skills are a really cool mechanic that I hope gets incorporated in some fashion to guardian regardless of elite spec/weapon in the future!

You put a lot of time into this so I'll try to give some good feedback here. Main focus is on the balance of the mechanics/skills/traits just to keep things short.

• Parry should be classified as an evade rather than a block. This would mainly be to prevent confusion over "blocking" an unblockable attack.
• 2s knockdown and a 600 range pull on sword offhand is very strong in pvp. I would recommend one of the CCs be removed/changed.
• I really like the Reprisal skills all being offence-based. For the sake of thematics and balance though, I think all of them should be around 1/4 to 1/2s cast time since you didn't specify.
• Ending the stances early (like Heroic Vow) to gain a very different effect than what you're already benefiting from in stance is a pretty neat idea. Every stance could stand to benefit from this and would help differentiate guardian stances from warrior/soulbeast stances.
• Really like what you did with the adept traits! Since virtues aren't the focus of the elite spec, having their beneficiary traits being adepts is totally appropriate.
• Elite spec needs some way (beside offhand sword) to apply retal, preferrably through one of the stances or traits. Right now, we're relegated to the virtues traitline, or taking very specific utility skills in order to get adequate amounts of retal.
• I like Ironclad Initiation. This is the correct way to do a passive trait that can prevent one-shots, howeover I think it's a bit misplaced on the guardian class.
• There should be at least one way to gain endurance besides vigor uptime. The vigor up time is very nice but in a pvp scenario, that's something that can be stripped/corrupted.
• There should be either swiftness, superspeed or passive movement speed bonus for this spec. It really doesn't seem like it would be great at staying on target unless you're taking a somewhat specialized build.

@"Arcaedus.7290" Hey, thanks for the input, mate. Really appreciated. Lemme respond to your points, they were pretty good and brought up some concerns I hadn't noticed before.

1. Parry should definitely not "Block" unblockable attacks now that I think about it. I simply added that Unblockable Attacks will be considered evaded instead of Blocked for now, but you raise a good point about Parry's interactions.
2. I'd imagine this could be balanced by giving the initial attack a lengthy cast time. Alternately, the Knockdown could be replaced with a short Immobilize or simply removed.
3. I didn't specify Cast Times, primarily because those are very important when balancing skills and impact (Same as with Damage values/scaling). But overall yes, Reprisal Skills are quick to pull off or they'd not serve their purpose well as counter-attacks, so a ball-park between 1/4-1/2s should be assumed.
4. Hadn't considered this before, but it's a very interesting way to differentiate them from other stances. Would require some rethinking about each stance and what "triggers" each one, as if they got Flip-over skills they'd feel less like stances and more like a whole new Utility skillset.
5. Aye, I tried to approach this ESpec in a way that Guardian hadn't been approached before, which is why I decided to move focus away from Virtues and onto something else instead.
6. Bear in mind that Guardian, and especially Avenger, benefits massively from Retaliation to the point where keeping it up 100% on yourself (Between Righteouss Instincts and Enduring Vengefulness) so adding more ways to apply it in a greater extent might become too powerful when mixed with Radiance and/or Virtues lines, where they might end up able to upkeep it permanently on their own which would be beyond crazy broken.
7. The Avenger was designed to be quite sturdy and a good Duelist, and I believe Ironclad Initiation will play a key role there. It might be abit over the top on the Guardian, but Guardian's low total HP pool I think weighs up against it. That trait would probably crazy powerful on Revenant, and broken on Warrior, for instance.
8. There is the Endurance return on Reprisal Skills with the Minor Master trait. Beyond that, Core Guardian comes with so many ways to sustain themselves that I'd hesitate to give them another reliable way to do so with a Full or half Endurance restoration. The Healing Skill could possibly be changed to grant a flat amount of Endurance instead of Vigor, however.
9. Every ESpec needs some weakness, and perhaps mobility should be it for Avenger. At the very least, out-of-combat mobility. Dragonhunter was given a mobility trait, and I'd hesitate to encroach upon that territory because frankly, Dragonhunter does not need competition (The poor thing barely hangs on as it is). But in-combat mobility do need a boost, and I'll fix that by adding Swiftness to Saviour's Creed and Avenger's Charge.

Thanks again for the input, gave me something to ponder!

theme is similar to dragon hunter, just a bit edgier also the norn aspect is kinda pointless.

edit: instead of norn and dragons why not say that guardians whom followed balt developed it and that it's more agressive and self Reliant because they felt such betrayal.

Imo, in case of immersion/class philosophy guardian could use a little bit of a more edgy feeling, even if the lore of the class sounds like it was written by a 12 YO wannabe emo kid. guardian was kinda allways the stereotypical paladin, "selfless, chosen child of destiny written by the gods on a holy papyrus, lost in the depts of jokos library that is hidden in the mists guarded by the blablabla..." somewhat boring like oh a guardian, ok move along. this E-Spec gives it a deeper feeling of a personality.So overall i really hope a-net will do a E-spec for guardian that goes in this direction (even if the chances are low that someone on their team will read this)

@"Lucas.3718" said:Imo, in case of immersion/class philosophy guardian could use a little bit of a more edgy feeling, even if the lore of the class sounds like it was written by a 12 YO wannabe emo kid. guardian was kinda allways the stereotypical paladin, "selfless, chosen child of destiny written by the gods on a holy papyrus, lost in the depts of jokos library that is hidden in the mists guarded by the blablabla..." somewhat boring like oh a guardian, ok move along. this E-Spec gives it a deeper feeling of a personality.So overall i really hope a-net will do a E-spec for guardian that goes in this direction (even if the chances are low that someone on their team will read this)

i feel like you were adressing me so:it's not the edge i have an issue with, it's the similarities with dragon hunter (the "dragons grrr" part)

@derd.6413 You make a good point about the theme practically being Dragonhunter, as well. I hadn't considered it while creating the profession, as typically theme is the last thing I develop and honestly I kinda shoehorned something in here for this concept. It could probably be developed better, that's for sure. But yeah, thematics always come in second in my book, whereas mechanics are the stuff that interests me more.

Maybe thematicly it could be changed, but as i said guardian could realy use something that makes it more "on his own" "edgy" theme, rather then being just a everyday paladin stereotype. gameplaywise its on point though :)

@TheSwede.9512 said:@derd.6413 You make a good point about the theme practically being Dragonhunter, as well. I hadn't considered it while creating the profession, as typically theme is the last thing I develop and honestly I kinda shoehorned something in here for this concept. It could probably be developed better, that's for sure. But yeah, thematics always come in second in my book, whereas mechanics are the stuff that interests me more.

no probs mate, you could Always just have ppl suggest themes in the comments if you're not really interested in comming up with one.

also i don't comment on mechanics because i'm just kinda bad at it

I like the idea for the majority of the skills, especially weapon skills and the overall thematic design.For off-hand sword I'd say the 2s knockdown would be enough CC and would pair well with main-hand sword.

For the utility though I think the stances should be more powerful and personal only.Guardian has long suffered from having some very poor performing utility skill options for solo play as they are all balanced around 5 people receiving them - Shouts, Mantras and Consecrations.

Meditations have been the go to utility set for a solo Guardian since the original Beta Weekends, it would be nice to see something introduced that could create a spec that moves away from Valor + Monk's Focus.

Taking some of the critique into mind, I've gone in and done a few changes.

• Changed the theme away from Dragons and focused more on a general response to how the world of Tyria seems intent on messing things up for the people living in it, while also trying to take some of the edge off. I decided against involving Balth or any of the human gods to a greater extent, because we've already got 8 human-centric elite specs with PoF so I wanted to avoid creating another one.
• Added some end effects to Avenger's Charge and Protector's Stance to make them benefit a lone Avenger a bit more, to give them more power as duelists. I'm still not looking to make this an entirely selfish profession, as Dragonhunter is supposed to be the primary "Lone Guardian" kinda deal with their Longbow and Traps.
• Removed Knockdown from the Off-hand sword and replaced it with Immobilize. I feel that having the Pull over Knockdown as Hard CC is necessary to mesh with its focus on AoE, allowing in-kit synergy by means of Immobilizing enemies with Scar of Light, then channel Coruscating Wrath and use the Pull if enemies try to scatter or escape. Immobilize might even be a bit more powerful, so I reduced the base duration to 1 1/2s.

Oh My God!You had the same idea as me.I was thinking about parry but with a instant skill.I thought about being something like a Bladedancer.I just thought about the weapon and the mechanic, you did a great job.