Saiyan.1704

When I played FB back when it was meta for like... a week.. I chose it because you could immediately cast CC, F1 #3 and F3 #2. This was back when using FB was actually considered a decently higher skillcap class in comparison to an Engi simply because you can target people when immediately entering tombs (when cast times was shorter and quickness was higher so immediately casting F1 #3 felt rewarding to use). If we don't use Mantras and we wont, all we can do is cast Tomb CC every 10 seconds. Firebrand will still be incapable of self-sustaining itself better than Core....nerfing the FB Mantras was the biggest nail in the coffin for FB in sPvP.

I think Anet intented on Scepter's increased hit rate to be a "condi" weapon of it's own. They changed it to hit 8 random targets above symbol, then 5 hits of the symbol itself when...prior to the change... scepter #2 was just a simple symbol cast. Scepter/X + Sword/X has always been the superior F1 Burn Proc weapons of choice in WvW and PvP. To add.. DH has always been the most superior burn spec build available... Firebrand was/is a TERRIBLE burn build option. I can't recall FB ever being a burn build option actually... when it came to wvw or competitive sPvP. Edit: Sage amulet was a thing but a very niche thing.... come to think of it.

I haven't tested AH but you definitely get boons when these Aegis duration stacks end. So that's 2 boon gains every... idk 3 or so seconds, depending on the (not so obvious) aegis boon activations from F3. So technically yes BUT if you get hit just once, then your entire Aegis boon ends. The aegis F3 boon trigger will restart. The thing is, I absolutely LOVE this hidden mechanic. So much that it kind of adds a build diversity to WB when using Zeal. If you can maintain an upkeep of Fury + Resolution (60% crit) then we can alter our builds a bit further.... albeit sacrificing utility from Virtues... it's still an awesome option that Zeal can add, imo.

This has been out since EoD so no doubt many guards are aware of it... it was just finally bothering me enough for me to ask (I don't recall seeing a post about it) Trait: Wrathful Spirit in Zeal tree. "Aegis grants boons when it ends" - Fury and Resolution F3: Crashing Courage - "Every five hits gives Aegis" When you deal several F3 activations, you will have a long duration Aegis boon on you. BUT you low-key have stacks of Aegis boons, even though it doesn't actually show it. Resulting in Fury + Resolution procs from Wrathful Spirit every time an Aegis boon ends. Mechanically it's confusing... because no matter the stacked Aegis or duration, it just blocks a single hit and the Aegis boon ends. But when you are not hit, you gain multiple boons of the Wrathful Spirit trait because these boons of Aegis are ending due to their individual boon timers. (is there an official post about this??) Btw Anet... PLEASE make this a feature if it's a bug. Zeal treeline needs love.

Pros: Having to enter combat to immediately CC with F1:#3 and F3:#2 will be a nice QoL feel to it especially since both are on a 10s cooldown. This aspect of FB wont feel clunky. It will feel closer to the OG Firebrand build on release of PoF. (SPvP will benefit most from this change while PvE & WvW will get hit harder) Cons: Upon patch release page cast times and page consumption on certain skills will overall cripple FB in PvE & WvW instead of sPvP . The current ability of having 5+ pages available to cast in F3, then freely going to any other tomb to cast 5+ more pages, is what made FB strong. But a downtime of 8s+ of minimal page casting will really hurt a lot (if not all) FB builds in these two game modes. The change will certainly be a more skillful and reactive style of FB play that I approve of. Higher skillcap isn't a bad thing, but it's going to be a bumpy road for FB when the initial patch releases.... i'm all for the change in meta though :3

I'm calling it, we're getting a change to Torch. *crosses fingers*

Our other elite specs doesn't give you the opportunity to be vulnerable during it's channeling time. The chances of us dying while using this elite is too darn high (meme reference). As I said before, if it had a 1200 range instead of 600, then maybe it would be a snipe-worthy CC option instead of the defensive Renewed Focus option.

I want to actually land Torch#4 instead of seeing my Norn yeet it 100 kilometers in the opposite direction because he saw the person take a side step... it's the biggest meme lol. Let's fix what's really broken.

Then idk why there are not any threads about wanting Heaven's Palm changed. I just assumed people liked it in PvE so Anet said, "yeah it fine fam". Even in WvW players prefer a different elite. It would be a different story if the elite did excellent in 1v1 engagements but it doesn't even do that very well at all...Rev's Harold elite is iconic. It's a little sad WB's elite isn't.

Our "Report player" system doesn't have the same effect as it does in other games such as Overwatch. Even Overwatch has a 10m+ Dishonor system if you miss a single queue, which I originally thought was intense because gw2 dishonor is only 2.3 minutes in comparison, then only around 7m after a second offense. Players have had better experiences with the Submit Ticket system om this website where you can report a player yourself. Posting screenshots of that player's toxicity helps too. I have given a person dishonor before that way.

I can't imagine Heaven's Palm being more useful in WvW than sPvP.. so i included that in the title... The elite is so bad it's difficult to know where to start.... You are vulnerable while in the air, receiving damage while susceptible to CC during that 1.25s duration The range of 600 radius means you're not surprising anyone especially with the casting time involved... it's almost always used in melee range (see below) The knockdown hit radius is only 240, so there's a high chance of falling short of the 600 radius range hitting no one because there's no range measurement (like Scepter#2) The only thing Good about the elite is the 20s cast time... which leads to believe that it's meant as a gap closer while also supplying CC throughout combat... except the CC never lands due to the knockback proc radius and while also being so darn vulnerable during its channel. If Renewed Focus offers a 3s invulnerability downtime during its channel to restore Virtues.. then Heaven's Palm should... at the very least... offer 1.25 seconds worth of evade/invulnerability. If that's not an option then its hit radius should be improved OR its range should be increased. Let's compare the elite to another non-meta elite that's better than Heaven's Palm.... Dragon Hunter's Dragon's Maw elite. Traited correctly (trap runes) it gives Stealth + Superspeed when casted. This alone is enough to get away from battle for a few seconds (while kiting) thanks to Superspeed. Even if you don't gain value with its CC potential, at least you can run away if needed. You don't have that option with Heaven's Palm. It is a hit-or-miss that does not offer ANY self-sustain opportunities at all especially during channeling time. The only other elite to compare Heaven's Palm to is Rev's Chaotic Release elite that gives a knockback proc of 450 radius, almost doubling that of Heaven's Palm....and with a cast time of 3/4s. The odds of hitting a single person with it is so much greater than Heaven's Palm.

If Firebrand was bad in WvW then Anet would finally give it buffs in sPvP instead of the craptastic state it has been in since HoT. Every single WvW nerf has effected FB in sPvP, even when the spec was already considered trash tier... it's laughable.

I'll agree that WB is (what's lower than trash tier?) pretty bad in sPvP but DH isn't outclassed by almost everyone... for starters condi DH soft counters engi while so many other classes have issues engaging engi. I only play condi or condi hybrid DH and I do pretty decently as a solo player. Nearly Plat every season which isn't bad considering I am mostly a soloQ player.

(agree) I've been curious about medi vs AH... I tried both a few days ago and found AH having better sustains, especially in 1v1 fights compared to medi. But all that said, it's worse in teamfights. Burst healing vs healing over time with AH is apparent when you don't have to rely on Virtues or Staff/Elite to heal up. And facetanking damage while using Staff#4 or Signet of Courage is certainly a bad idea-- AH has greater failure in teamfights when being focused down compared to medis. I really love Signet of Resolve, it's actually one of our best heals when it's traited. 8.1k heal on a 28s cd while always cleansing 1 condi every 4s is nuts but like you said, it's hard to pass up a free 40% crit trait. And with a higher chance of facetanking our AH healing abilities I can see why you and many other guards would lean towards medi's. EDIT: actually i'm gonna play with your medi build but with Litany of Wrath heal... it'll probably be rubbish but I want to see something.

I don't have an issue with people who quit... but I have a Huge issue with people who quit after the first mid wipe, and/or when the enemy team has 100 more points than you. It's simply exhilarating making a comeback in Conquest when the enemy team think they're about to win.. It's why I NEVER quit during a ranked match... Even if it's a for sure loss, I'm there to hit things. It is too boring to just stand around.

To the above build: I need to see how it does vs a competent GG team who has 3 burst+cc classes focusing it down. It's going to depend on whether the build can last long enough to give value to my team in mid engagements (ranked sPvP, not AT's). It can already hold its own on side-nodes but I haven't faced good cata's nor good spellbreakers yet... it doesn't die to rangers/bs/dh. @Hogwarts Zebra.8597let me know what you think of it if you get a chance to play with the build.

I wasn't about to make a 3rd thread buuuut I have another fun build for people to mess with. WB AH Bruiser I've seen a few guards run thish sigil self-sustain build before (even using staff like how I am) and tbh I was offered a similiar build a couple months ago. This build feels a whole lot stronger. I may even post a video of it later when I get a chance and i'll explain more. (EDIT: fixed link to show Amulet and Runes)

WB still sucks.

Not to be rude.... but what does that have to do with what I just said? If nothing else, it supports my comment. You simply Do Not go after beast until you are sure it is a 100% guarantee kill.

WHY did you go BEAST not knowing where people are on the map??? This is 80% the reason why top players/streamers tell people to never immediately go after Beast. Try thinking about where people are on the map. Kill 1/2 people THEN think about immediately go after beast while they're on respawn....

Our "meta DH/Burn" days were so short lived that people didn't even count the few weeks we were a legit 5th pick lol. We got nerfed so quickly that people forgot how op the damage was.

Tbh I rather talk about how boons are applied, as opposed to the kind of boons applied. Considering Anet nerfed our symbol's radius eons ago, we shouldn't need to stay in our symbols to receive the full boon effect. I think our symbolic boons should be quicker applied (imo).

I feel a lot Guards are sleeping on Condi DH in sPvP. I have been using this build pretty much since the start of PoF and I always have a blast on it... not to mention i'm always high G3 - P1 in every season with this build alone. You'll hit some roadblocks vs condi cleanse classes like BS/Ele/Core Guard but overall it's a fun build.

I have more issues with Engi's Static Shield... nothing like placing a symbol right when he pops it. I'm basically catatonic until that duration ends lol.

Still no real reason a Zerk DH Longbow would choose Hunter's Determination over a free 10% damage buff that Zealot's Aggression gives. Any melee builds (and condi builds) would find HD more useful than ZA. Especially if you're already a guard that uses FmW (what others have already stated). Not overly hyped about it but I'm glad Anet has this out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to a trait rework.