Glacial Heart needs a buff

(copying my post from old forums)

With the release of specializations two years ago, Glacial Heart was moved from Valor to Virtues, and as a result it currently competes with Absolute Resolution. Even with this change, hammer guard was still at least a somewhat viable build, but the removal of air/fire sigils in PvP utterly trashed it.

I have a couple proposals, any number of them would immensely help:

• Increase Glacial Heart's damage in PvP by ~80%. This number is a rough approximation of how much damage the burst lost when air/fire were removed. Even 50% would be acceptable. (Though it's understandable that buffing passive spikes is a very dangerous game.)

• Switch Glacial Heart with Unscathed Contender or put it back to Valor as a Major trait.

• Change the proc chance from 50% on crit to 100% on crit. This would make it feel much more consistent (removing RNG from passive effects is always good IMO).

• Optional: Allow glacial to proc with any 2h weapon, not just the hammer. The cooldown reduction would still remain hammer only (similar to Right-Hand Strength), but the trait wouldn't feel so incredibly specialized and useless in every other build.

I really miss playing hammer guard in PvP and I wish the trait wasn't utterly useless in PvE. It's in a really awkward spot at the moment and could certainly use some love.

are you joking? hammer radiance guards are already OP and should be toned down

You guys are downvoting the second poster, but he is right. RadGuard is pretty strong right now. Glacial Heart isn't that powerful by itself, but it's still a decent trait for bursting and the way Guard is now, taking that trait is totally worth it. Buffing it might make Hammer Guard a bit crazy. Having said that, making it a 100% proc chance on crit makes sense and wouldn't even be a big buff, but rather make it more reliable when setting up bursts.

I would agree that Glacial Heart is actually decent as it is, it just has some tough competition for trait choices. I don't see this as a bad thing. You shouldn't have an obvious must-pick for traits...ideally you should have a tough time deciding. This indicates that the traits are balanced against each other effectively.

In regards to the downvotes...I would guess he got downvoted because he has been bouncing around making this claim for a few days now. I know I am not alone in getting tired of seeing people rush to the forums to complain every time a new spec kills them, when they should be learning what the specs strengths and weaknesses are so they can do better moving forward.

@Kerivek.5740 said:You shouldn't have an obvious must-pick for traits...ideally you should have a tough time deciding. This indicates that the traits are balanced against each other effectively.

This is actually why I want some sort of buff or for the trait to be moved. For PvE, there IS no real option so you just end up defaulting to the f2 buff trait.

when they should be learning what the specs strengths and weaknesses are so they can do better moving forward.

It actually cracks me up that this new hammer build is so effective atm, considering it doesn't have any sustained blocks built into it. If you put ANY team focus on a core guardian they'll be dead the instant RF is gone. And unlike other classes (cough, warrior, ranger, cough), they can't pressure you during the RF channel.