cat.8975

This is wrong, cfb is currently ahead of cwb, AND it has some baked-in utility via the tomes. I'd only recommend cwb to people that enjoy the faster playstyle of it, as cfb tops it in every other way.

CFB is probably your best option out of those three at the moment. It also happens to share the exact same build as CWB (minus the weapons), so it's easy to learn both and swap between the two.

Don't use tooltip cast times, they're incredibly inaccurate. With quickness, Zealot's Defense has a cast time of ~1.4055s. While I don't know the exact number without quickness, we can roughly approximate it as ~2.1s. That would give it a coefficient/second value of 0.838, nowhere near the "3.520" in your post. I'd recommend gathering some accurate cast times and rerunning all of those numbers, assuming you care to.

There's a lore sub-heading on each elite spec page on the wiki.

(PvE) Pre-HoT you only brought a guard if you needed aegis or reflects. It was great in Arah and situationally helpful in a few other dungeon paths, but I definitely wouldn't call it The Best in those days. Between the release of specializations (mid-2015) and whenever they finally buffed radiance + greatsword + scepter, it was considered pretty worthless. The best sustained dps build was hammer dh until we got symbols on scepter and sword. The burst dps from traps was solid for dungeons, but dungeons were largely irrelevant at that point. As for Fractals, you weren't allowed to pug above scale 80, as the Boon Thieves instability would passively kill your party due to retal. (PvP) I've watched variations of support, bruiser, and dps builds come and go over the years. I wouldn't say it's been consistently The Best in PvP either, but instead just generally solid. I wonder if anyone has compiled a list of all of the historically "best" builds for throughout the years. You could probably make some cool graphs out of it.

I'd argue it's only been top-tier in WvW the entire time, and that's only because of its almost-exclusive access to aoe stability. There have been loads of PvP and PvE metas where it was mediocre (and a few times where it was outright garbage) relative to everything else.

If we're talking PvE, I wouldn't play a power build without a GS right now. Condi WB with sw/t + sc is solid though. And don't bother with hammer, staff, or mace for dps builds, that's just asking for trouble.

They did just that with the recent July 19th update.

While Guardian wasn't S-tier at the launch of the game, and had a pretty bad time during the 2015-2017 window (after the conversion of traits to specializations and before the buffs to zeal/radiance/symbols), it has been a solid pick in most PvE metas since then. Yes, pdh and pwb are bad right now, but so are most power builds (the loss of banners/spirits hit them harder than their condi counterparts, and I'm sure that'll be addressed at some point in the future). You could argue that Guard lost a little more than the other classes because it didn't get another 5% crit added to its traits, but that's still only 105 stats, or approximately ~800-900 dps. You can still play the power builds where it makes sense to (dungeons, raid bosses w/ lower toughness, open world, etc.). For other instanced content, just run cwb/cfb in the meantime while we wait for future tweaks. On a side note, gs cwb kinda scratches the power itch despite being a condi build, and I highly recommend it if you haven't tried it yet.

Hallowed Ground: I've found a handful of niche cases where the 12s base duration (traited) has helped to block back-to-back CC attacks in a way that SYG doesn't, or has a harder time doing so. While the cast time is not ideal, the skill does have its uses. Sanctuary: This is one of the strongest CC skills we have in our toolkit, and is frequently seen in 100 CM clears, along with plenty of raid and strike encounters. Judge's Intervention: Having a targeted blink is crucial for some skips (e.g., blinking to the boss on Cliffside, or skipping the first bit of Molten Duo) "Advance!": A low-cooldown, party-wide aegis is invaluable in some cases. Bow of Truth: Without healing power, this skill is solid. With healing power, this skill is absurd. Hammer of Wisdom: Great for Artsariiv, MAMA, and Samarog. Also a solid choice for keeping trash locked down (think of the krait immediately after MAMA). Anywhere that you need CC more frequently than the cooldown of Sanctuary or Bane Signet, this is a good choice. Shield of the Avenger: Admittedly very niche, but the low cooldown + ammo allows you to spam projectile hate in short encounters (Molten Furnace endboss) Light's Judgment: A great way to instantly rampup vuln, and quite strong in a condi DH build for cleaving trash. Test of Faith: Good for crippling/killing any trash that's chasing you, allowing you to break out of combat sooner. Flash Combo: Arguably a better version of JI. Great if you need to blink out to deal w/ a mechanic and then quickly return. Roiling Light: There is no better stunbreak on this class. This skill is hilariously overloaded in PvE and I'm surprised people haven't realized it yet (okay, not that surprised). Stun break, evade, mobility, blind, daze, leap finisher, on a 15s cd? Other classes would kill to have this skill LOL Signet of Courage: Solid on FB whenever you don't need more stab or quickness, and a relatively "free" source of panic stability on the other specs. You don't need to fully channel the skill to take advantage of the stability. Regarding my "lack of experience" with the class, I've logged 7.2k hours on Guardian since 2013. I've seen just about every PvE meta and I remember the pathetic state some of these utils used to be in.

There are definitely some stinkers in the Guardian traits, but that's not too different from what other classes have as well. Where Guardian really shines is in its selection of utility skills. Other classes would kill to have half-or-more of their utils being viable and/or BiS in a single gamemode. For PvE, I've managed to find different places for each of these utils where they were the best tool for the job: Hallowed Ground Purging Flames Sanctuary Wall of Reflection Judge' Intervention Merciful Intervention "Hold the Line!" "Advance!" "Stand Your Ground!" Bane Signet Signet of Mercy Signet of Wrath Bow of Truth Hammer of Wisdom Sword of Justice Shield of the Avenger And that's just the core class utils. For the three elite specs, I've found use cases for all of these: Light's Judgment Test of Faith Procession of Blades Mantra of Flame Mantra of Lore Mantra of Potence Flash Combo Whirling Light Roiling Light And then you have our selection of core elites, with all three of them being great: "Feel My Wrath!" Renewed Focus Signet of Courage

Thieves were used for stealth skips, blind spam, and CC spam to remove stacks of the old Defiance buff (e.g. for the abom in Arah). Mesmers were definitely very situational and rarely seen in pugs, but portal proved to be huge for some speedrun methods.

If you brought them for PvE, it was for the aegis, stability, blinds, reflects, or protection. Very nice to have one for Arah, and a few other dungeon paths where they were a solid addition to the party. Ranger/Necro were almost never seen back then, due to their lack of utility/damage at the time. Thief/Mes were definitely more common, just for their stealth/blink/portal/blind/reflect/etc. utils. https://www.youtube.com/user/obal100 <- If you're interested in old PvE Guardian stuff

While I haven't updated my sheet in a while, the standard "tome rotation" of 25412 did more than twice the dps of auto-attacking. Even with my admittedly extreme proposition to halve the burns, tome would *still* be worth using.

In instanced PvE content, you only brought a guard for a handful of encounters (aegis/reflects/blinds) until the specializations update in 2015. It was then kinda garbage-tier until the buffs to greatsword, scepter, and the Radiance line in 2016-2017. It's always been meta in WvW because WvW without stability would be terrible to play and I guess the devs still want guards to be the best at applying that boon. The rest of the party support they bring is nice, but there are plenty of other great support builds on other classes. Guard has had its ups and downs in PvP, just like every other class.

Did condi core guard need a nerf? No. Did cDH need a nerf? No. Did cWB need a nerf? No. Did cFB need a nerf? No. Did cQB need a nerf? Yes. Do you see the problem here? Now to be a little more productive with the post, here are some ideas: Amplified Wrath: revert the nerf, putting it back to 15% in PvE F1 Tome: Halve the current burn durations Legendary Lore: Increase the bonus burn duration from 20% to 100% Mantra of Flame: Increase base burn duration to 10s (from 4s) Stalwart Speed: Add Protection to the list of boons that proc this trait Justification: Pure DPS cfb should feel a little more "forced" to take the flame mantra over other utilities. This creates a more meaningful choice for the player, as they will have to decide between damage and party support. Cutting the tome burns in half and buffing Legendary Lore creates a clear distinction between the damage builds and support builds. While buffing flame mantra will still buff cqb, this is easily offset by the significant reduction to tome burns. The Stalwart Speed change is just to maybe fix its current uselessness. All of the hb/qb builds are currently running Weighty Terms now because aegis/stab are too difficult to apply after the Mantra of Solace change. Additional wacky idea: Rework Quickfire OR Stoic Demeanor into something that buffs mantras in cool/meaningful ways. This could be a way to give aegis back to the heal, along with any other neat effects/boons/condis for the other mantras. This will also directly compete with Loremaster for the cqb and cfb builds, but hb would have a much easier time justifying it. While one could argue that aegis trivializes some mechanics, running a HB already means you're trying to cheese encounters in most cases (plus the HB would still lose out on permanent f2 passive whenever they pop into the tome).

The current design is pretty good, actually. Damage on the alac builds (both power and hybrid) is quite good right now, and I'd even argue that the base alac duration should be bumped back down from 1.5s to 1.25s. Also, the power builds can still use Crashing Courage. With the cd on the f2, there are plenty of windows to cast f1 and f3.

When Searing Pact is selected, the duration of outgoing boons is reduced by 50%.

When Searing Pact is selected, the duration of boons you apply to allies is still reduced by 50%. I wouldn't recommend playing any sort of support build with this trait until this is fixed.

I think quickness and alacrity are fine as they are at the moment. They're much more impactful on *how* you play compared to most other boons (e.g., might, fury, swiftness), making them much more interesting for gameplay. The complaints about them making a rigid meta are nonsense imo, as the current meta is more flexible than it's ever been. Each 5-player group will want: might, alacrity, quickness, healing, and access to other auxiliary boons (swiftness, fury, prot). The number of ways you can achieve this now is kind of nuts, but it's usually done by compressing the healer and might roles into the quick or alac ones. I'm eager to see what happens to group comps once banners and spirits get reworked. If you've tried putting together a pug group for strikes/raids since EoD, you'd know what I'm talking about w/ the diversity. It used to be brainless to ask for the same single class for each role, but now you practically need a notepad to keep track of who is supplying what because it's not so cut-and-dry anymore.

Mind naming them? I'd reckon a majority of the traits are working just fine with Willbender, with only a couple exceptions.

With Litany, Roiling Light, and careful use of your Virtues, you shouldn't have many issues with sustain in most encounters. Outside of fights with heavy melee-hate or excessively strong ranged pressure, you should be able to juggle your cooldowns and tiptoe around most/all of the damage. The Zen Daijun maze is a great place to practice, as the three champions within it have a good balance of danger and predictability. As for CC, you just didn't look hard enough. The flipover skill on RL (Quick Retribution) is a 3s daze. The elite is a 4s knockdown. Binding Blade is a 150 pull. If you need more than that, you can always take Sanctuary, or Bane Signet. I'd argue WB has some of the best CC options available to any damage spec in the game right now.

The alac share is working just fine for me, mind recording a video of the issue you're having?

You can get around this bug by selecting the "clear stored configuration" menu option after applying boons.

This is the way. If you're still running a passive stat signet anywhere that isn't instanced group content, you're doing it wrong. If I had to pick between having 180 condition damage and having access to aegis OR stability OR cc OR a stun break OR reflects OR vuln OR ... you get the idea.