Spirit Weapon Minions

[Kaze.2084]

Anet plz bring back spirit weapons to stay afloat around us again....not targetable but indication of skill set and my [Mistfire Wolf] lonely.....

PLEASE & THANK YOU.-Lone wolf

PS. Can Shield of Avenger have its stun break back and Bow of Truth remove condition within aoe ring? and boon strip would be nice to have back.....

[Jarl Petter Hinrik.1409]

Yes! I liked having a floating hammer and sword following me everywhere, like soldiers in a squad! It's lonely without them!

[Alga.6498]

Yeah, I agree. I just played with one of my Guardians who had Spirit weapon abilities and I was wondering why none of the Spirit weapons showed up…. :(I'd love to see it back!

[phokus.8934]

Oh god no. The AI pathing was terrible.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@phokus.8934 said:Oh god no. The AI pathing was terrible.

Not more terrible than any other AI in the game...Also that's not a very good reason to keep the current useless and themeless skills.

[phokus.8934]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@phokus.8934 said:Oh god no. The AI pathing was terrible.

Not more terrible than any other AI in the game...Also that's not a very good reason to keep the current useless and themeless skills.

They were actually worse. There's a reason why they spawn at the point rather than path to the target. They're infinitely times better than what they used to be.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@phokus.8934 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@phokus.8934 said:Oh god no. The AI pathing was terrible.

Not more terrible than any other AI in the game...Also that's not a very good reason to keep the current useless and themeless skills.

They were actually worse. There's a reason why they spawn at the point rather than path to the target. They're infinitely times better than what they used to be.

The reason why the spawn at point is that they're not an AI any more, just an active skill... They never had any issues going from point A to point B when activated, in fact i'm honestly questioning what you're talking about in terms of pathing, since i really never experienced any issues with spirit weapons. AND i've used them a lot and most of it during the early days when all AI was at it's most broken.And even if they had a serious pathing issue, that's fixable, so i'd rather have that fixed and return them to be actual spirit weapons, than just a useless line of Guardian skills.

[phokus.8934]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@phokus.8934 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@phokus.8934 said:Oh god no. The AI pathing was terrible.

Not more terrible than any other AI in the game...Also that's not a very good reason to keep the current useless and themeless skills.

They were actually worse. There's a reason why they spawn at the point rather than path to the target. They're infinitely times better than what they used to be.

The reason why the spawn at point is that they're not an AI any more, just an active skill... They never had any issues going from point A to point B when activated, in fact i'm honestly questioning what you're talking about in terms of pathing, since i really never experienced any issues with spirit weapons. AND i've used them

a lot

and most of it during the early days when all AI was at it's most broken.And even if they had a serious pathing issue, that's fixable, so i'd rather have that fixed and return them to be actual spirit weapons, than just a useless line of Guardian skills.

No one's questioning whether or not they can fix the pathing but it was absolutely terrible when they were considered AI - during beta it was atrocious on how they'd get stuck on ramps and any change in the terrain. That is really one of the biggest reasons why they spawn at the target and not zombie their way over to it.

Pathing issues with AI persists today and if you played Mesmer, you'd see how bad it really is.

[cat.8975]

They're much, much better now than they ever were when they were brainless AI followers. This game is not equipped to handle AI-based skills well enough to justify having them.

[Fashion Mage.3712]

They're not going back to the way they were, ANet couldn't be arsed to fix the issues they had before, and this community loves dumbing things down too much for that to happen too. uwu

[Arcaedus.7290]

@Kaze.2084 said:Anet plz bring back spirit weapons to stay afloat around us again....not targetable but indication of skill set and my [Mistfire Wolf] lonely.....

PLEASE & THANK YOU.-Lone wolf

PS. Can Shield of Avenger have its stun break back and Bow of Truth remove condition within aoe ring? and boon strip would be nice to have back.....

Even though no one used SoA in pvp, this is an example of the guardian class straight up losing access to a stunbreaker which isn't really fair. I've never heard of another class straight up losing a stunbreaker. SoA should be given back its stunbreaker and be instant cast.

[Aeolus.3615]

I think they can work how they are now, but the fact of one equipping the skill, should pop up the respective weapon floating nearby and following the guardian.

That and they need to be buffed :P

[JDub.1530]

I see no issue with having SW follow us, then teleport to target upon activation, with no pathing necessary. It should be able to work like Rev hammer Phase Smash.

[Azoqu.8917]

All Spirit Weapons needed to have done to them was make them last until killed like Necro minions. Before PoF, I had a burn build that used the sword and hammer with the trait and they did insane damage and I could easily pull over 25k with no buffs until they died. The weapons were never bad while up, just they were never up long enough either by needing to be permanent or have the cooldown start once summoned instead of on death.

[bearshaman.3421]

I am much happier with how they work now. They were unusable before.Not saying they can't be improved, but reverting back to what they were is not an improvement.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@bearshaman.3421 said:I am much happier with how they work now. They were unusable before.Not saying they can't be improved, but reverting back to what they were is not an improvement.

Like they're usable now, right?I did use them extensively, in several game modes... Hammer was a great stun in PvP, the Shield was awesome for a few bosses, especially the Boss of the Volcano Fractal, pretty much negating the burn projectile (which is also the source of agony, and if you played in the old days when you didn't get ascended items before you got Agony in fractals, you'll remember how good not getting hit with that was).Nowadays, they're actually useless, part of their utility is gone, their active effects are crap, and they really lost their flavour.If they removed them from the class, most people wouldn't even notice.

[otto.5684]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@bearshaman.3421 said:I am much happier with how they work now. They were unusable before.Not saying they can't be improved, but reverting back to what they were is not an improvement.

Like they're usable now, right?I did use them extensively, in several game modes... Hammer was a great stun in PvP, the Shield was awesome for a few bosses, especially the Boss of the Volcano Fractal, pretty much negating the burn projectile (which is also the source of agony, and if you played in the old days when you didn't get ascended items before you got Agony in fractals, you'll remember how good not getting hit with that was).Nowadays, they're actually useless, part of their utility is gone, their active effects are crap, and they really lost their flavour.If they removed them from the class, most people wouldn't even notice.

SoJ is meta for power builds in PvE, everywhere. I heard the bow is useable in wvw (not sure though). But even before the patch, SoJ was the one that mattered the most. It is better now that it was before.

That does not mean SWs are good, absolutely not. They still mostly useless.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@otto.5684 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@bearshaman.3421 said:I am much happier with how they work now. They were unusable before.Not saying they can't be improved, but reverting back to what they were is not an improvement.

Like they're usable now, right?I did use them extensively, in several game modes... Hammer was a great stun in PvP, the Shield was awesome for a few bosses, especially the Boss of the Volcano Fractal, pretty much negating the burn projectile (which is also the source of agony, and if you played in the old days when you didn't get ascended items before you got Agony in fractals, you'll remember how good not getting hit with that was).Nowadays, they're actually useless, part of their utility is gone, their active effects are crap, and they really lost their flavour.If they removed them from the class, most people wouldn't even notice.

SoJ is meta for power builds in PvE, everywhere. I heard the bow is useable in wvw (not sure though). But even before the patch, SoJ was the one that mattered the most. It is better now that it was before.

That does not mean SWs are good, absolutely not. They still mostly useless.SoJ is used simply because devs dumped a ton of vulnerability on it, that's it... 12% more damage from that vuln is nice, but that's why it's used, because incidentally they made it one of the highest vuln stacking skills in the game. Doesn't make spirit weapons any better, just that one skill has a high vulnerability stack, and would be meta with the old or the new system, as long as it had those 12 stacks. In fact old system would just improve the overal DPS since it would attack independently.

[Syronus.7605]

I prefer how they work now though some of them could use a small buff. For them to feel like they are present maybe Arena Net could implement something akin to how they have done the daredevil's Distracting Daggers or scrapper's function gyro. Each spirit weapon would need a unique area to appear, be scaled quite a ways down so they aren't visually intrusive, and they would disappear during recharge. Basically the same idea as Aeolus.3615 has above.

[otto.5684]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@bearshaman.3421 said:I am much happier with how they work now. They were unusable before.Not saying they can't be improved, but reverting back to what they were is not an improvement.

Like they're usable now, right?I did use them extensively, in several game modes... Hammer was a great stun in PvP, the Shield was awesome for a few bosses, especially the Boss of the Volcano Fractal, pretty much negating the burn projectile (which is also the source of agony, and if you played in the old days when you didn't get ascended items before you got Agony in fractals, you'll remember how good not getting hit with that was).Nowadays, they're actually useless, part of their utility is gone, their active effects are crap, and they really lost their flavour.If they removed them from the class, most people wouldn't even notice.

SoJ is meta for power builds in PvE, everywhere. I heard the bow is useable in wvw (not sure though). But even before the patch, SoJ was the one that mattered the most. It is better now that it was before.

That does not mean SWs are good, absolutely not. They still mostly useless.SoJ is used simply because devs dumped a ton of vulnerability on it, that's it... 12% more damage from that vuln is nice, but that's why it's used, because incidentally they made it one of the highest vuln stacking skills in the game. Doesn't make spirit weapons any better, just that one skill has a high vulnerability stack, and would be meta with the old or the new system, as long as it had those 12 stacks. In fact old system would just improve the overal DPS since it would attack independently.

I am certain that SoJ, even without the vulnerability, outdpses Test of Faith. This is why DH power builds use it in PvE. It is the best utility beside Precision Blades and signet power attribute bonus. I think SoJ under the new system works better. The issue is it does not work in PvP at all and none of the other SW work in any game mode. And honestly, they did not in the old system either.

Sadly, Anet seems to lack the required competence to fix them. So... I dunno what is coming next, but probably nothing or some pointless crap.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@otto.5684 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@bearshaman.3421 said:I am much happier with how they work now. They were unusable before.Not saying they can't be improved, but reverting back to what they were is not an improvement.

Like they're usable now, right?I did use them extensively, in several game modes... Hammer was a great stun in PvP, the Shield was awesome for a few bosses, especially the Boss of the Volcano Fractal, pretty much negating the burn projectile (which is also the source of agony, and if you played in the old days when you didn't get ascended items before you got Agony in fractals, you'll remember how good not getting hit with that was).Nowadays, they're actually useless, part of their utility is gone, their active effects are crap, and they really lost their flavour.If they removed them from the class, most people wouldn't even notice.

SoJ is meta for power builds in PvE, everywhere. I heard the bow is useable in wvw (not sure though). But even before the patch, SoJ was the one that mattered the most. It is better now that it was before.

That does not mean SWs are good, absolutely not. They still mostly useless.SoJ is used simply because devs dumped a ton of vulnerability on it, that's it... 12% more damage from that vuln is nice, but that's why it's used, because incidentally they made it one of the highest vuln stacking skills in the game. Doesn't make spirit weapons any better, just that one skill has a high vulnerability stack, and would be meta with the old or the new system, as long as it had those 12 stacks. In fact old system would just improve the overal DPS since it would attack independently.

I am certain that SoJ, even without the vulnerability, outdpses Test of Faith. This is why DH power builds use it in PvE. It is the best utility beside Precision Blades and signet power attribute bonus. I think SoJ under the new system works better. The issue is it does not work in PvP at all and none of the other SW work in any game mode. And honestly, they did not in the old system either.

Sadly, Anet seems to lack the required competence to fix them. So... I dunno what is coming next, but probably nothing or some pointless crap.

First, it's not really that used by DH's...Yeah Test of Faith sux, always had... People used it because it was another trap, and DH was good with traps, but especially since the 50% crit rate on Righteous Instincts, it was always better to take stuff like Stand your Ground or other Retaliation utilities.

I Disagree with it working better under the new system... Old system you could have it attack bunch of times and use the active twice.So you could get much more DPS from it than you can on the new system (given equal stats).

But you're right. Arena Net's balance team has demonstrated they lack the imagination and the competence to rightly balance the game. This was clearly demonstrated with their approach to balancing scourge, which crippled the class completely in PvE and failed to address the problems with the class for PvP. In a way their solution actually increased the problems with the class, with it causing massive FPS drops in WvW.

[bearshaman.3421]

I feel like every class has one skiilset that doesn't get used much. Tbh, I feel like Meditations are at the bottom right now, with the exception of the elite. I do think the SWs need more if they are going to become meta, but its a simple fact that not everything is going to be meta. We have too many choices for that to be possible. So I would be happy if they are at least good enough to be enjoyable and effective when you aren't trying to eke out that last 0.01% increase on your dps.

[Klowdy.3126]

I like my meatgrinder spec. I drop my trap, stop my symbol, throw out a spirit sword, then start with GS2 and everything around me melts.

[cat.8975]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:First, it's not really that used by DH's...Yeah Test of Faith sux, always had... People used it because it was another trap, and DH was good with traps, but especially since the 50% crit rate on Righteous Instincts, it was always better to take stuff like Stand your Ground or other Retaliation utilities.

I Disagree with it working better under the new system... Old system you could have it attack bunch of times and use the active twice.So you could get much more DPS from it than you can on the new system (given equal stats).

Test of Faith was a fair DPS choice, but Sword of Justice is a slight increase over it now. Before the update, SoJ was dead in the water for PvE due to having a terrible damage output. The vuln rampup is also useful for burst DPS (valuable everywhere in PvE, even in raids).

You generally don't need a secondary source of retal anymore, unless your chrono is bad. The buff to the retal-on-heal trait is usually more than enough when combined with your GS4, GS4 passive trait proc, and a chrono sharing the retal back onto you.

The hammer is a good source of CC, though it could probably use a slight decrease in the CD (8s -> 6s would be a godsend).

Bow of Truth has incredible burst-healing potential, there just aren't a lot of places where that's required.

The shield sucks now, but mostly because of the dome bugging out and not spawning. If they gave it the aegis application and fixed the bug then it would be in a great spot.

If the sword started/finished its attack faster, and the hammer homed in on its target, they'd probably be perfect.

[Kaze.2084]

I just wanted to clarify, I am perfectly okay with the 'mechanics' of the skills.I just want them to show up floating around when in utility slots, like dagger throw for teefs, where daggers float around the wrist? but more stationary...So ppl know "oh snap its spirit weapon guard" or "pffft its a spirit weapon guard" and just decimate them....but also bring stun break on shield and condi cleanse on bow back plz anet...and maybe [Mistfire Wolf] in pvp lobby? I paid deluxe GDI!