Falseprophet.1502

Your perception is your reality, unfortunately, your perception is quite wrong. Any power Guardian spec is in a terrible spot, arguably in a spot pre-2017. You're just going to peddle hollow rhetoric just to argue on the forums. Please, go do something better with your time.

Don't bother responding to this post if you are a typical boring, pre-canned blue hate, "omg BuT FiReBrAnD" or "lol DH is viable or Power Willbender is sooooo good in open world!" regular who frequents the Guardian forum because they have nothing better to do. You're lacking substance, knowledge of the class, and aren't contributing to any meaningful conversation. I wish the developers (now cmc and his team need to take ownership for the poor balance, enough inaction) actually responded to some of the thoughtful feedback posted on this forum from people such as @cat.8975, @MagicBot.1570, @supporthero.4520, and others... Power Willbender desperately needs attention (see my dual attack post), Power DH needs some knob turning on some of its traits and longbow, core Guardian as a whole needs a redesign on stupid modifiers (Retribution, Unscathed Contender) that require ridiculous boons like Resolution and Aegis, and weapon redesigns (hammer ((the recent buffs were a JOKE)), scepter ((the pathing and damage)), and others). Until there is actual action, these balance lead changes mean nothing. Enjoy your two and a half months off, PvE Guardian mains!

Let me help you because you're not understanding. Detaching the symbol from the AA does not equal removing it from the weapon itself. The symbol needs to be either attached to Hammer 2 or another skill needs to reworked to include that symbol. There is literally no other weapon on Guardian with a symbol attached to its auto-attack. It's inconsistent and it cripples the weapon. Don't believe me? Go try benching with hammer right now. Use the standard raid set up with food. AA first. This should be around 22k-23k if you use core guard (radiance/zeal/virtues). Now, do a second test, same set up, then integrate hammer skills 2-4 into the rotation in between each auto-attack symbol drop (I averaged between 20k-21k). You actually lose DPS doing this. This is my point that you seemingly do not understand. Nothing will change the "hammer uniqueness" or the "strong defensive support" that you claim it brings (weird how hammer is literally not used anywhere nor is it used by support guardians). Moving the symbol away from the AA will allow you to integrate the other skills into a proper rotation and make the recent changes to the power coefficients worthwhile. This isn't turning hammer into GS 2.0.

I agree with the last two but we need more. I don't think the Hunter's Ward or 100 more ferocity would be substantial enough, especially if we want to improve pWB, too. We really need to move away from all these modifiers that rely on boons like Retribution or Unscathed Contender if we truly want this spec to feel good. I think weapon reworks > just modifier buffs. Power guard is in a really weird spot and I don't think the balance team understands it. Take hammer for example. They wrote that the buffs would bring hammer in line with other weapons. Anyone with a decent understanding of guard knows that hammer won't be worth a kitten until they detach symbol from the AA.

You made wrong statements, apologized for them, and I moved on 🙂

While I agree with you a lot of things, my point was strictly in correlation with movement (you cut out the end of it in that quote) in end game PvE fights whilst comparing the only difference Willbender brings to the table in comparison to our other two elite specs (movement). Also, FWIW, you can definitely take cFB on "power" bosses as it bring a ton of strike damage to the table. Axe coefficients are really good, along with torch. I'd argue the only fight that it is painful on is on fights that completely wipe condis like Xera/Samarog, but you can still be competitive due to how much strike damage and the small ramp up that cFB has.

That's a poor argument for two reasons: 1. Recently, the the whole design philosophy has "play your way, better together." Hard to achieve that when something is so categorically bad. 2. Elite Specializations are supposed to drastically change how the core class plays. When you cut offhand sword out, what sets pWB apart from core Guardian? Not a whole lot. (in before boring pre-canned OmG bUt iT HaS mObiLiTy argument -- DH (before it got wrecked) or Firebrand never suffered on boss fights for years and they have a lot less mobility in a PvE encounter) Offhand sword needs to be good or at least competitive in PvE.

This is a PvE thread...

Bumping this hoping a dev will see this as there is still time to squeeze this in the October balance patch! Help fix power Willbender without power creeping the condi variants!

After all of this -- I would rather get one auto core-Tyria map complete for turning ten. It's not really game changing. You can then work towards crafting a generation one legendary. If you don't have at least one map complete after ten years of gameplay, you most likely shelter yourself into one game mode. A map complete could at least get you into PvE, interacting with maps, and experience new things with the Steam release onwards.

Legendary armor for ten years is not a good idea. I'd much rather see something simple like an accessory or a second generation weapon choose box (to prevent tanking the market on sellable legendaries). But let's be honest, none of these are actually good ideas for a birthday reward.

Oof. I'm really curious, do you play end-game PVE? You're complaining about 700 less DPS than Condi FB in in ideal situations. You literally have easily interchangeable slots on WB where you can sub in Sanctuary/Roiling light for the signet or choose WHATEVER elite you want based off the encounter for a minimal loss because the spec relies so much on alacrity/restorative virtues. Want more healing on a pure DPS spec? Take Signet of Courage. Want to help provide more quickness/fury? Take Feel My Wrath. Want more CC? Take Heaven's Palm. Let's remind ourselves that Firebrand is forced to take Renewed Focus. On cWB, you can also take greatsword for the extra CC and essentially the same DPS as SW/T, too! I cannot believe these forums believe they live in a world where they do not think 35K+ dps is not competitive. I'm still waiting for this 33/34k parse you believe DH can get. Those are the same numbers a Radiance/Zeal pDH build hit for the past couple years before the changes in June.

You're being really generous. I would say ideally DH parses around 29-30k after a grind. 33k-34k is literally the levels they were at a year or two ago. DH received nothing but nerfs these past two years. I'd love to see a 33k parse for DH right now. Also, condi WB is fine. It's competitive.

You have a good point but, they did talk about exploring ways to improve LB later down the road (50% movement reduction to True Shot rather than a root), but it went back to the drawing board. DH probably will see a bit more than a 800 dps increase due to the modifiers of the spec. Hammer may be decent on DH to align with the burst window. But, Willbender won't likely benefit much from these changes because of how dependent it is on Restorative Virtues. We're heading back to the pre-2017 days, boys.

Yes, you really are. Your post is just pure misinformation. Scepter was nerfed years ago and Arenanet specifically came out saying that "scepter SHOULD NOT be a top melee weapon." It hasn't been buffed since. This is the same patched that buffed Zealot's Defense to put Sword ahead of Scepter. You can even run longbow/greatsword and get better numbers than scepter/focus/greatsword. Prove me wrong. Show me your logs of a scepter/focus parsing better than a sword/focus. Show me these "top players" you play with!

Power Willbender needs some love and it is a shame that it has been excluded from this. Offhand sword is terrible. The power build is already worse than Dragonhunter and is SOLELY built around Restorative Virtues. If you don't spec that trait, it's even worse. Close this gap by making offhand sword create dual skills with your main hand three skill. It will allow you to tweak numbers without powercreeping Condi Willbender.

Uhhh? Power Willbender is in just as bad of shape as Dragonhunter and got absolutely no acknowledgement. What about Scepter? Maybe we just have to hope for the October balance patch for these things to get addressed?

You are simply wrong. It's the other way around. Scepter is not used in any power build. Scepter is significantly worse than sword. Power WB is junk and for them to completely neglect it on 8/23 is really alarming.

The purpose of me bringing this up for conversation is to create a clear dichotomy between each Guardian elite specialization. Willbender's only flavor is movement. Core Guardian is antithetical to this, leaving a lot of the core kit to be desired when playing Willbender, Zealot's Defense is being one of them. I'm not asking to for the root to be removed. I'm asking for the skill to be completely redesigned for the Willbender spec. It's hard to argue, even when you're not a Guardian main, that Chains of Light, Protector's Strike, or Zealot's Defense actually contribute to this specialization in a positive or fun way. Leaving these weapons as is, further discourages build diversity and the differentiation between Willbender and core Guardian. What I would like to see with an offhand sword equipped - these are incredibly rough ideas. This is strictly my opinion on how to make Willbender more fun and engaging in all game modes. Zealot's Defense becomes a dual whirl attack, three stacks of vulnerability if both attacks hit. Projectile block is now removed. Chains of Light becomes a channeled beam skill with a 1 1/2 cast, 900 range, 6x attacks, burn is applied if all six attacks hit. Immobilization is removed. -or- this can operate as another flip skill, a 600-900 range port in, a strike, then the second flip can teleport back to original position. The theory would to port in, dump sword skills, get a couple scepter AA autos in (lol @ scepter auto attack pathing) and port out. Protector's Strike becomes a flip skill. Aegis and Protection upon successful block is removed, instead, the first skill is a single strike hits the target and applies vulnerability. The second activation of the second skill dazes if the target is above the vulnerability threshold, quickness if the target is not above the vulnerability threshold.

I still really believe in this idea and deserves consideration. If thoughtfully designed, it would: Bring up Zealot's Defense to today's design standards Introduce scepter and mace into the kit and make offhand sword a little more desirable in PvE. Allow for a better flow and synergy with the overall elite spec

About a year to year and a half, DH had a really cohesive rotation where cool downs lined up well with spear, Procession of Blades, or could easily swap to signet share. Within that year or so, we saw that rotation just become so much less fluid and just awful to play due to the following changes: What happened? Scepter has been gutted for power (because Arenanet stated that previously that a ranged weapon should be the best weapon up close, this now seems contradictory in this patch). Procession of Blades received cooldown and damage tweaks throwing off the alignment of other CDs Greatsword symbol received cooldown and damage tweaks throwing off the alignment of other CDs Defender's Dogma nerfed (this wasn't too bad but it helped when you could game it during certain encounters to bring F1 off CD) Signet share was changed to no longer be stackable and now removed Two side notes: "But Unscathed Contender????" To rely on 100% aegis is ridiculous and unrealistic for mostly everything in this game. A spec shouldn't be competitive based off the design of a gimmicky trait. Power Willbender feels like it suffers from similar issues, too. Good luck using offhand sword and be competitive. As someone who could always get to 90th percentile of SC benches, I can't even break 27k with my DH now. I'm pretty concerned that the next balance patch is three months away and I am not very optimistic that DH or several guardian weapons will be overhauled to the like of engineer's rifle. Doubly concerned because there will be droves of people along with their blue class pitchforks, too.

Or you can familiarize yourself with the skills Guardian has... Symbol of Blades, queue up Advancing Strike right before Judge's Intervention, easy 2500 range...

Nerfing this rune won't make people flock to Willbender. Let's use some common sense and deductive reasoning as to why Willbender isn't good in competitive areas. Also, let's talk about how one spec is contingent upon one rune, that's good design, huh?

Another patch, another day where core guard is completely contradictory to Willbender's design.