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After playing a Barb to 80 and hearing all the comments about Guardians I decided to try one out, and what a shock. To say these guys are over powered is an understatement. Which really confuses me as to why the devs just gave them an additional damage feat in the last patch. Unless the devs have a totaly different internal build for this class, Guardians need a serious nerf. I will explain.
Frenzy
This stance is the main reason for the guardian being overpowered. It is very obvious from level 20 on. At 20 I could do damage with combos in the range of 300-500 in Conall's Valley. Pretty much a single combo would nearly kill anything I came across. Easily doubling the damage of my Barbarian at that level. The issue is that this stance does double the dps rating of any weapon that any soldier class with this stance can use.
At levels 50s-60s it is down right laughable the damage you can do with this stance. I went through all the quests in EM and never used a single combo. I could kill anything with a polearm and frenzy stance in 1-2 hits..and on a rare occasion it would take 3. With that speed in killing the extra damage you take from the stance is pointless. I did a lot of quests with a friend who is playing a Guardian as well the same level and we could "run and gun" everything only stopping long enough to let the mobs gather round before wiping them out by the dozen. Only thing that gave us trouble was a group rated boss mob..which we mistakenly attacked in our slaughter fest.
77dps Polearm + Frenzy @ lvl 55 = 800 to 1500 damage from normal attacks. My level 80 Barbarian cant begin to do that damage without combos, even when I attack level 55 mobs.
Now comes the funny part, Frenzy works with every weapon, xbows and throwing darts. I can do 300+ damage with a 26dps throwing dart. I can do damage between 2500 and 3200 with a 90 dps Xbow, non crits. 1 shot kills for mobs equal my level in most cases.
You can also toggle this stance as well as defensive stance on and off as needed. If I think I might have too many mobs or one too high level to engage right away. I did this to take down boss mobs in EM with ease. Engage the mob, wait till you get hit and start your combo. Hit the highlighted key combo, then turn on frenzy. Once the combo starts. Turn off frenzy. The combo hits for full effect from the frenzy. And you might take a single hit in return. Nearly completely negative the extra damage taken from this stance. Or simply do a knock down, turn on frenzy and wail away on the npc.
Why Frenzy for Guardians?
This I don't understand. Maybe I havent read fully up on guardians, but they are soldiers and soldiers are normaly disiplined warriors. So how does Frenzy fit with this Archetype at all? I would think Frenzy would fit the Barbarian far better. Maybe the Conquorer class but certanly not the Guardian.
Polearms
Big sweaping slashing attacks and knock downs? Who thought of this as a use for such a weapon? Nothing like what weapons like this were ever used for. Maybe they were stuck on giving a second weapon type to make the class different from others. I say either change the way these weapons are used or make them primarily for formations. I would rather see a mounted polearm/lance feat system instead in keeping with this soldier class.
Suggestions for Frenzy
First I would like to see Frenzy removed from soldiers, at the very least from Guardians. I dont see this fitting a soldier, an out of control fighter such as a Barbarian, sure but not a soldier. If not the damage this stance does needs to be greatly reduced. At this point there is no reason to play any other melee class. Why turn down double the hit points and damage than any other melee?
If kept with the soldiers, remove the toggle ability of Frenzy. Dont make this a stance but a feat that works with sword and shield only. When turned on it lasts for X amount of time and drains staminia.
Reduce the damage bonus to 125%... maybe 150% but that seems to much. Double is far too much.
Summary
Dont have too much other to add or say about the class. Other than the over powerings aspect of Frenzy and the odd use of poles arms like a 2h sword it is a decent class to play. If you play one, try turning off frenzy and fighting mobs to get down to what others can do, it makes it a bit more interesting.
