Saiyan.1704

Except you have to be hit multiple times while also attempting to land hits yourself, while IN your Willbender flames.... too much effort for the stars to align in order to make a simple trait combo work. Likewise, aegis heal on block works too IF you do the same combo but the sad part about it all is that it doesn't bunk or support better than Core guard with avatar runes. In other words, it's a one-trick poney that is only meant for bunker builds, but doesn't self sustain as well as core or dh.

I wont get into every trait and abilities of Willbender because top players already have and I agree with their ideas for the most part. In general: Pros: I like the idea of teleporting and sticking to a player similar to rev/thief - multiple top 100 Guards like Naru and Arken find shadowstep skills like Flash Combo conceptually fun. Ideally, Guards has always had issues "glueing" themselves to a target for constant, consistent damage so the concept of shadowstep is overall loveable. Cons: Everything - seriously. I understand it's beta but I didn't expect Willbender to be so underwhelmingly awful. It doesn't feel more mobile than DH with trapper runes. It doesn't do more damage than Core or DH on Zerks. It doesn't support/bunker better than Core or DH on Avatars. I honestly don't mind the lack of condi clears Willbender has. Heck, I even don't mind the lack of Stability, Stunbreaks or stealth from trapper runes.... but the trade off just isn't there. Willbender overall needs a substantial boost to damage to feel worthwhile. Willbender performed so underwhelmingly that I had to walk away from my computer because I was just so disappointed lol... perhaps overly dramatic here but dang... feelsbadman.

Though my experiences has mainly been from PvP mostly, I feel that OFFLINE either shouldn't be able to message, or can be able to message Friends on their list. It just feels a bit counter intuitive to be able to message people while appearing offline (people can't message back). This is especially confusing when in sPvP where you are not sure if players 'blocked' you or if they are just Offline. Though it's more related to PvP, I feel some QoL fix would benefit all of GW2 chat. Thanks!

You haven't seen a whole lot of Firebrands in PvP because FB spec is straight up garbage ever since they nerfed quickness uptime and the self-heals it had. Anet pigeonholed FB to be a support-only spec but Core Bunker Guard self-sustains a whole lot better in comparison. FB and DH isn't a fair comparison... as for Traps, evade/block/invuln/stunbreak/shadowstep. There's quite a lot of classes that counter DH actually. If you like you can post your class so I can tell you how to play it against a DH

Been unable to Unranked/Ranked queue for a few hours... have attempted to relog and even restarted the computer but I am still unable to Queue for anything.Any ideas?

Permeating Wrath traited, base duration is now 2 seconds worth of burn ticks. Without the trait it goes up to 4 seconds base duration.(burn duration tooltips are not updated in the game with the Permeating Wrath nerf so this can be confusing for some) @Lan Deathrider.5910 It's not about the people who already melt from conditions, it's about the players who don't. The players who generally don't have issues with conditions will cleanse their condis off in 2 to 3 second after condis are applied but I know of plenty of situations where a thief/rev/engi runs off with stacks of conditions on themselves, downing them right before the burn duration ends. A bit bitter about the nerf but in all honesty this should have been applied a long time ago.... I would have gladly taken this nerf instead of them nerfing Amplified Wrath damage. Still not happy about that lol.

I somehow misread Games Played... I feel silly lol. Thanks guys.

"Lets retreat! Unless of course we are engaging, then lets advance!" A little long but we can use it in any situation now :3

Just as title says. I have the minimum game requirements but I am not showing up on the leaderboards. Is this a known glitch or am I missing something?(thought the leaderboards wasn't updated but it has been this way for a week)(img) https://ibb.co/gSvGNvW

Similar to the above comment, I swap between Core burns and DH power trapper builds. Singling out targets with F1 + Elite trap can be strong, especially against some Necro classes who don't expect high burst power damages.

Voted for Pistols because it would be nice to have another range damage option that doubles as a utility. Offhand Swords would be my close 2nd pick but I am not convinced that Guardians can be an effective Melee bruiser that's better than a Rev or Engi. Especially considering our lack of "stick to target" type skills. Perhaps #4 Sword teleport Slice that's on a 3s CD and #5 being an AoE multi-blade defensive attack? One can dream :3

Speaking strictly Solo Queue Ranked.. I'm currently Plat top 50, but to be fair Guardian in solo is really a low Tier1 Plat kind of class at the moment. Right now Trap Burn DH feels a lot stronger than any Core build. A lot of it has to do with DH ability to remove itself from combat with Wings F2 and Trap's stealth. The same goes for Trap DH power variants. I use burn because I never liked Power DH... like, at all lol. That and burn burst builds have the potential to carry soloQ a lot easier than Power builds.The build I currently use: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABs2x7lNwaYOsO2IeMXbtMA-zZx8MSQFkpUQhDA You really need to be at the right place and at the right time with this build because it doesn't have a whole lot of stability or stunbreakers... so if you know a burst is coming, trap and fly away like a bird with F2. Renewed Focus is a must... I don't like the randomness of Dragon's Maw and renewing Virtues is a big woop.

Anet always do ridiculous nerfs and/or skill changes prior to a huge expansion so I'm sure there's a rhyme for their madness. As for everyone saying Symbols was toxic on node play, it was one of the few things we had going for us Guardians on node contests. You are right in that it was somewhat ridiculous covering an entire node with a single symbol but our sluggish mobility needed that large symbol (albiet minor) sustains and damages in most team-fight situations. The large symbols balanced out our lack of mobility to an extent... I'm all for the symbol nerf as long as we get that needed "OOMPH" in the coming balance patches.

The one thing that bothers me from reading everyone's comments...Zeal > Radiance This is 100% true. Zeal is better than Radiance in almost every trait tree with the exception of Radiance 3rd grandmaster trait. Zealous Scepter's might stacking + Kindled Zeal's combination is second to none when we are comparing damages between Zeal to Radiance. The only thing Radiance is good for is slightly more crit and slightly more burn applications. Amplified Wrath's 15% increase to burn damage (and only burn damage) is nothing to brag about and Guardian doesn't need more burn duration. There's a reason why Zeal is used in burn builds as well as Mender's builds. Team wide Retal + Fury on a FB Mender Aegis build's can be a game changer. Also Carrion or Rabid amulet is trash... stick to Sage. There's a reason why Sage is used.As for Core Burn Guardian being meta... I mean, it's incredible when the stars align just right but it can also get hard countered vs certain classes, rendering the build useless. I've hit Plat with Core Sage burn builds but I wouldn't use the build in AT's unless my random team are running meme builds.

Dude I've been struggling to understand why there was a swap delay... so Axe#2 is the culprit. Hope Anet is aware of this issue, even if it is not a bug... it absolutely needs to be fixed for QoL reasons. I almost don't want to use Axe at all on my FB build.

It's my personal preference but Flock runes is for survivability. It gives 1,092 heals every 10 seconds, which matches our 9s cd on our Mantra healing. The extra 1k heals is very noticeable in a fight. The build focuses more on bunkering a point while also dishing out damage, along with the usual FB team support role. When i am needing to rotate, I find that I am using F2#3 or F3#1 to run to a distant point like Far. The CD usually comes back up if I need these virtues in a fight or i can just Renewed Focus if things get heavy. I've gotten used to not using speed runes but you can for sure swap Flock for more mobility.

Same, good write up @Buran.3796 A few things I will say about SPvP:[About Honor vs Radiance]... I really really like Radiance treeline but the reason why most Guardians use Honor is because of its overall sustainability, not just for yourself but for the team too. Sage/Menders will give you an Aegis heal of 800+ for you and your allies. Add Flock runes 800+ healing every 10 seconds (10s cd) and you have a very strong Mantra heal... it's the only reason why Mantra and Honor is still used actually. (we are all bitter about the healing nerf lol). That, coupled with dodge heals and Symbol support, it really adds up in a team fight which FB is meant for. FB has always been a Support class as oppose to being a selfish roam burst class which most Guards try to replicate for Firebrand... me included. I personally like Honor for the symbol duration and radius. Hitting more people in an area is really helpful to proc F1. The thing that most people don't realize about FB Menders/Sage support builds is we offer so much support in the initial team fight that even if we go down, our team is at least 20% (or more) healed up. I've been a plat player for a few seasons so I know a thing or two about team plays. Carrion burst builds or similiar, it gets more difficult to be efficient. I find Swashbuckle amulet over Carrion more efficient because you don't have all of your eggs in one basket... if you run into a heavy condi team then you can at least deal some raw damage. With Sage, if I get countered with a heavy cleanse comp then I can at least support my team a little. The biggest difference between a burst burn FB (or core) and a Menders/Sage build is the survivability/team support. Burst burn builds has always been a one-trick-poney. Meta builds, especially teams with Ele/Rev/Necro/FB would demolish a burn guard in a team fight. We just can't keep a good number of burn stacks on these classes due to their cleanses and interrupts within a fight... so we are always forced into heavy bunker support roles. It sucks but that is unfortunately the current meta. Sage build FB is a middleground for most Guardians and what most competitive teams would accept because you can potentially deal extra damage within a team fight. I love burn guard, I was burn guard before it was cool but I'm Sage all the way... (or menders during 2v2 PvP) the longer you can survive even if it's a little, the more you can support and overall help your team :) (Virtues/Honor/FB) That's just my 2cents brother.

Firebrand all the way, climbed from Silver to Platinum (as usual... matchmaking placements always places me in silver/gold -_-)http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABc6t3lRwwYisO2ImWXfvaA-z5YfKJIC6WCkvQIjFgOGA It's your standard Sage Virtues Burn build but with a twist. The heart of the build is procing Glacial Heart with heavy CC. Purging Flames + Sanctuary bubble, then troll with Axe#3 pull, Shield#4 push, & F1#3 pull again ^_^ Taunt from F3#2 also procs Glacial Heart too.What is everyone's Plat builds?

Also if you want to improve the impact of dying on the outcome, don't reduce the respawn timer to 5 seconds. That totally goes against your stated goal. So what would you suggest?

DH has never been fun for me tbh, it's why I gravitated towards FB so quickly. I've never gotten used to the run strat (DH F2) and trolled a point as if you're a war or engi but some guards like that playstyle. FB offers so much in a team fight that it's incomparable to DH and Core, regardless if you are Menders or Sage burn build. Axe #2 and #3 CC, F1 CC and dps, F2 offers stability, reflects and condi resistance. FB survivability is greater than Core and it offers more than a DH can give to a team. FB will always be better than Core and DH but I understand why guards choose DH or Core. Core is definitely a more fun build to use. It's just too bad that it's squishy.

Maybe a teammate could have snuck in and stealth ressed you when you self-stomped. Bleeding players offpoint has always been lame.Well, that's not a trade off. If you don t use it and a mate res you, you re winning. If no one rez you then you die faster and can come back faster -> you loose less. So no matter what you choose it benefits you.A kind of trade off would be you respawn with half your health bar for the next 45sec. Or you will have perma slow for the next 45-60 secs.A slow buff would be annoying to be honest.Self-suicide button would just be abused and there's no real tradeoff there. What if we had a death counter to monitor for our team on the scoreboard? As of now there's no way to see how many times a person has died, nor is there a stat to see how long a person's been alive on the field.

First death respawning 5 secondsSecond death, 8 secondsThird death, 10s Deaths needs to feel more important! :3

I do miss the burn on block before the 1s icd. Rangers and pistol thieves melted themselves.

Yeah this has been a debate since DH. It makes more sense for it to activate on activation. You have my vote.

It's taken because of the synergy with Pure of Heart from Honor trait line which heals on every Aegis proc - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pure_of_Heart Really? For some reason I was assuming this was with regards to PvE. PVE is all roses and butterflies where healing and boons are still insanely high so it's even more relevant there I guess. Anyway, usually you don't run a healer FBbut if you must, I'd go with something like Seraph. In that case you take the bottom trait that gives might on crit.As for spvp/wvw, after anet gutted FB in competitive modes, don't quote me on that. But yes, even after the nerfs the mantra heal is THE best heal because of that trait synergy. I agree... it is unfortunate that they nerfed Guardian's Restoring Reprieve but it is still the best heal that we have in PvP and often WvW as well. It is ONLY good because we still have Honor's Aegis that heals for 869 (at 1175 healing power) and Rune of the Flock which heals for 1,342 (at 1175 healing power) every 10 seconds, assuming you chose Weighty Terms to reduce your Mantra CD. The #1 reason why I don't like the heal mantra nerf change is because it further pigeonhole's our FB builds. There's a night and day survivability difference between my Sage FB build and my Mender's FB build in PvP.... Mender's is now meta simply because I can survive a whole lot longer than Sage builds, or any other power/condi FB build :(!