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Base Guardian weapons...


Holgarf.6581

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Just a thought really. I don't expect or really mind if anything isn't done but after playing 4 and a bit years on and off, as a Guardian and of course playing as a Dragon Hunter and Firerband with various different stats, builds and so forth, returning to base Guardian is okay but there's really only few ways if you're doing PVE. I recently started using Mace and Shield and a Staff. Staff is pretty good but Mace is atrocious and Shield is... well, a shield. The biggest issue as many people have probably already pointed out is swing speed for the mace. It makes sense, it's a heavy one-handed hammer of sorts but the skills don't do it justice. Shield is okay but the retaliation on said shield is awful and that's even with 100% retaliation in boon uptime. Shouts are superior in almost every way to Consecrations, which is also tragic. The retaliation uptime is really high with shouts and downright awful with Consecrations given their cooldowns even with the appropriate build skills. It also clearly highlights that compared to other specialisations (D/H and FB) and a multitude of other classes, that Virtue of Justice is absolutely dreadful unless you're using a sword or a scepter. The might given from is incredibly short lived making staff the only viable option and again of course using shouts.

It's playable, but if you play a Guardian class without Precision or CD, you're going to be chipping away at a single enemy all day long. I don't expect the mace to be like a sword, or a scepter, but there is good reason why few people use mace (especially if they're already using the staff on swap).

Is it just a case of Guardian ageing really bad in the face of expansions and specialisations? I was really disappointed with how a base Engineer can easily dish out retaliation, might and protection at such an insane frequency compared to Guardian, even though you'd assume a Guardian is supposed to defend. I'd played Guardian for a long time and when I made my Engineer I was like... "really guys?".

I like helping people in PVE, so that's why I'm roleplaying a base Guardian now... healing people in combat but not being without power so I can dish out some damage. I'm actually using Wanderer's Stats on my armour and weapons and I'm still contemplating using Cleric trinkets.

Finally, anyone disappointed by just how bad the hammer skills are for Guardian?

I still enjoy Guardian, so please don't consider this a whiny post but I just felt the need to share my thoughts given how other classes have had reworks and Guardian hasn't (save staff skills a while back).

Shouldn't all classes be viable still? :)

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@"Holgarf.6581" said:

Is it just a case of Guardian ageing really bad in the face of expansions and specialisations? I was really disappointed with how a base Engineer can easily dish out retaliation, might and protection at such an insane frequency compared to Guardian, even though you'd assume a Guardian is supposed to defend. I'd played Guardian for a long time and when I made my Engineer I was like... "really guys?".Yes and no. Core Guardian as a sort of an iconic high-sustain, consistent damage over time defensive role as the name suggests (hammer, mace, shield, staff, shouts and/or consecrations, power, vitality and toughness) has really not aged well, but the core class is flexible enough to have adopted other roles. It's hanging in there. It would be nice to see it make a comeback in that original archetype with some sort of rework.

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While I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to some small buffs, I think you're selling basically everything short here.

When talking melee weapons, sword and greatsword are clearly the straightforward DPS weapons, but mace and hammer are still good weapons, they just require a bit of trait investment to really shine. Mace (mace/shield especially) benefits from traits that trigger off Aegis or blocking, especially in a team situation. Hammer becomes really strong for soloing things in PvE when combined with the Zeal and Honor lines to boost symbols, although this isn't the only situation where it's useful: a lot of people seem to hate on hammers in general because they have relatively few "push2-5 to do more damage" skills, but that's just not how hammers are designed.

When it comes to consecrations versus shouts:

This, I feel, is essentially a question of reactivity versus proactivity. Shouts are reactive: you can use them during or after something has happened in order to mitigate the situation. Consecrations, on the other hand, are proactive: they require a bit of thought about where you place them, remaining within a particular area afterwards, and while they can be used in reaction to a situation (Purging Flames and Shelter especially) they often work better when used in advance. This makes them harder to use, but the payoff is that they're often more powerful when they are used correctly (and Master of Consecrations is probably an "easier" trait to just toss into your build than Pure of Voice).

As for the Virtue of Justice active...

It really shines (you could even say literally) when combined with Radiance and (naturally) Virtues. Spear of Justice might be technically stronger (especially when running solo), and ToJ is incomparable, but both of those have activation times: VoJ you can just pop off any time. You seem to be judging VoJ as only being good with sword or scepter because you're thinking of passive procs, but in situations where enemies are falling quickly, you can trigger VoJ every time you get credit for an enemy dying to generate a lot of burning, blinding, retaliation, and might. In PvP situations you naturally won't be getting kills every few seconds (unless maybe you're in a really intensive zergfight), but you can still activate it mid-stomp and hopefully blind a counterstomp ability.

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I actually agree with you but VoJ might stacks are really bad and while I love my mace now, Shield of Absorption is a bit wasted because it should provide more than just knockback - maybe a touch of stability? Shield knockback doesn't work many a time. Also, I noticed Shield of Absorption doesn't block all projectiles such as Wurm rocks which is kinda disappointing.

It takes forever for me to kill single enemies as a Guardian with a Mace & Shield, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I find that going the healing route takes a little too much power from attacks but it's just something I'll have to live with. I do with that I could enable all players in open world to have health bars, so I can choose who to heal or group near in meta events without having to rely solely on parties / squads.

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