So last night I spent the entire
stress test seeing how my Gaurdian theorycrafting stood up to play. It was a
very useful exercise. I gained a few insights.
Heal Skill:
Our three heal skills are useful and
certianly have a role. My play style is support and that meant I spent most of
my time using healing Breeze as it heals my allies. Healing breeze also has the
advantage of being on the quickest cooldown, it is usable every 30 seconds.
However if I was concerned with taking condition damage I could have used
Signet of Resolve which synergises well with the trait Purity, Combined they
would remove two Conditions every 10 seconds. Perhaps if I was interested I
could have added in the trait Purity of Resolve which removes 3 Condtions when
The Virtue of resolve is activated. Our third heal is somewhat overlooked but I
can see a role for it in a dps build especially if it is used in Conjunction
with Defenders Flame.
I tried a few of these and I have some
favorites Picking the best ones will be difficult.
Signet of Mercy -Passive: Improves
healing. Active: Revive a nearby ally. While this is a powerful revive
returning a lot of health the coolddown is over long. I need to get a figure
for the increase on healing it gives but it synergises with a lot of other
aspects of the support Guardian. In addtion the trait Perfect Inscriptions can
be taken to improve the passive of the Signet. It would probably be a better
use of this trait if we were using more than one Signet.
Signet of Judgement - Passive:
Reduces incoming damage.Active: Grant retaliation to nearby allies. I enjoyed
this skill it buffs the guardian and upto 5 nearby allies. A single player
hiting a group buffed with this will find his health whittled down.
Wall of Reflection - Protect
target area with a wall of mystic power that reflects projectiles. Duration:
5 s with a 30 sec cooldown. I loved this, ranged classes nuked themselves down
against this. It can be dropped in the middle of a fight and it sometimes not
noticed. If you use the staff use Line of Warding to draw a line in front of
you that foes cannot cross. This way both melee and casting enemies are
hampered. One short coming is that it’s a wall rather than a shell so it is
less useful when taking a keep.
Hold the Line - Grant protection
and regeneration to allies. Is this essential for a support Guardian I suspect
that it is. If I were to take only one shout I would not trait it.
Retreat – A 2nd shout
that grants aegis and swiftness to up to five nearby allies. If I were to take
two shouts then I would also look into traiting them. A 20% reduction in
cooldown might be useful.
Merciful Intervention. Teleport to
the nearby ally with the lowest health and create a healing area around them.
45 second cooldown. Another direct heal. Teleports can end deliver you to
strange places, be warned.
Purging Flames - Create a ring of
fire that burns enemies and remove conditions from
allies.I ewnjoyed this as I was focused a lot and it allowed me to retaliate.
Sanctuary - Form a protective
shelter that prevents foes and projectiles from entering, and heals allies. Duration:
10 s Cool down of 120 seconds is a bit
long. If we were to pick up Wall of Reflection as well. It might be worth
traiting these skills. It is possible to make these Concecrations ground
targeted, recharge faster and last longer.
Bow of Truth: Summon an arcane bow
to remove conditions from you and your allies. I need to test the heal on this.
Some rules of thumb:
My Top three utility skills after
the stress test are:
Hold the line. Direct heal and
short cooldown.
Retreat. A good defensive buff and
speed.
Merciful Teleportation. Another
decent heal and also selects the player most in need. So should be moron
friendly. Also useful to get out of jail.
Don’t trait for a type of skill(Coecration,
Symbol, Meditation) Unless you have two of that type. Remember your downed bar
has a symbol!
Some Trait seem too good to pass
on. Justice is Blind, Altruistic Healing, Battle Presence and Resolute. I also like the heal from selfless
daring.
Altuistic Healing works well with
the shouts as does Might of the Virtuous.
This would be a good base for
traits with 35 points still to allocate.
So this is a possible revised
build for Warband support. It offers a lot of synergy with shouts. I am unsure
of Pure of Heart applies to every Aegis or just the one on the guardian.
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