More on Guardian, but only as an example....

I think this is why I love this game. Of course, there's a lot of other reasons, but for today, this is it. This is thinking man's game. You don't HAVE to think, but it's hella fun and productive if you do. Here's the tale.

So my guardian is running a spec that I have never seen anywhere else (except today when I stumbled on it in youtube). Most peeps tell you to run 0/0/30/30/10 or whatever the other one is. But, I made my own up and it's killer. The key to this game is weapons, weapon swapping, and chaining your shit. Let me 'splain.

Gain Aegis when your health reaches 50%

Here in the valor chain is a nice operational trait: gain aegis when you reach 50% health. Aegis is a buff (or boon I think they call them in this game) that puts up a shield and thus blocks incoming dmg. Besides buying more time on your two health CDs, oh wait, your THREE health CDs...

Gain might when you block attacks

it also procs the next thing: Gain might when you block attacks. This sucker stacks; it's short-lived, but it adds a lot of dmg to your attack. I was checking it out and it adds about 1K when I do it right.

Sigil of bloodlust: Gain +5 power when you kill a foe

But wait, there's more. I start out with my 1H / OH combo of weaps. When the caster bad guy responds, I use zealot's defense, a sword skill that "blocks ranged attacks while casting magical projectiles." Also by starting out with this weap. I can put some DOTS, and then set up this:

Sigil of BL: 100% crit on swap to this weap in battle

I swap to the 2H great sword which activates the Sigil of Intelligence: 100% crit when you swap to this weapon in battle. So now, hopefully I've stacked might and =boom=  If I'm fighting more than one, which is usually the case, that stack of power on the Sigil of bl (just above) is pretty sweet too. That stacks to 25 and stays there till you die. +25 power, crits, might stacks. OOoooo yeah baby, rock 'n roll.












I should also add, because it's so OP, that I am pretty hard to kill. I have the usual self-heal that everyone has. I also have spec'd for these lovelies, which gives me two OH SHIT buttons for healing.

Invulnerable while insta-recharging the next two items

About to die? No problem. Punch the Oh Shit button, go invulnerable while you reset the next two buttons below...

Quick! Hit this for a shield and then,

Quickly, toss up that shield. Yeah, shield... Oh hey, I wonder if this also adds to the block stacking...hmmmm

Heal yourself (and allies) and back to fray!

Then punch this puppy for a self heal. Back to the fray (maybe punch that block attack at the top), and since I might still be below 50% health aegis is still proc'ing. bwahahahaha. Probably my full heal is cooled down now too. bwahahahahaha. Too bad I don't pvp.

Nothing to say here except BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Guardian, Revisited

So I rolled one. And then about lvl 20 I deleted it. Then, for some reason I rolled another, mostly as a joke to run with my kid in a lowbie zone. And then, about lvl 25 I started to dig it. Then, about lvl 49 I could not stop playing it. She's now lvl 68 and I'm taking her to 80.

I'm not sure I can tell you why I like her, but in GW2 there are no cookie cutter builds, no "the way to play this class..." It's super appealing that almost everything sensible you try to build is a good build if you understand the class mechanics you've built. The weapons radically change the moves, and the moves chain in interesting ways.  Then tonight I stumbled on this quote in a forum, and it summed it up for me, especially the vibe that comes through on the quote:

And while we may seem thematically similar to them, we are not Holy/Prot/Ret paladins for anyone coming from WoW. There is no tank spec. There is no healer spec. There is no DPS spec. There is only you, your allies at your back, and your enemies before you. That’s the role of the Guardian.

I've noticed that it's pretty hard to kill me. I have a lot of options to sustain myself, and ways to get back up.  Right now I'm digging the 1H sword and torch OH. I have some nasty attacks that are quick as well as DOTy. I may need to pick up all possible weaps. though since, as you might expect, at some point you encounter the bad guys running your spec. who are thus immune to your spec attack. You know, flame type guys against which flame attacks aren't very effective. And, because of the way the game's built, I can just have some fun noodling around with weaps in particular situations. I love the hammer for its CC and its awesome chains and well, I'm just in love with the 'mighty blow' which launches your foe as if you've taken a #3 wood to his gut. Fore!!!!!!!

[If James were playing GW2, this would be a possible good choice for him, though it would be hard to get him to walk away from the warrior, I bet. Heck, I have a lvl 80 warrior I love playing too.]

I think I'm turning Japanese I Really Think So...

Well, maybe it's more like Chinese, eh? Was playing along one evening and noticed that suddenly the tool tips were going bilingual, lol.