Guardian stealth nerf: talent completely removed on test; no mention in 1.2 pnotes

lol @ the 'victimization' happening in this thread. There is no 'stealth nerf'. A stealth nerf is something not easily discernible that makes it into live.

What we have here is simply an oversight on the part of those compiling patch notes. Why an oversight? Because it is extremely obvious that the talent was removed. That's not stealth at all. In fact, you'd be more likely to notice it gone on your talent tree, than to notice it missing from the patch notes.

lol.

The hybrid also has Vigilance (the skill), which makes the Blade Barrier come up every 9s if Storm is used on CD. So BB is actually 25% stronger in theory in a hybrid's hands compared to a full Defense build.

While I am sad to see Protector go, I can understand why they did it. I don't agree with why they did it, but I understand it. As it stands, the Vigilance tree was just too good for tanking. Defense is a rather pathetic tree all around, whether for tanking or dpsing.

So, they took out probably Vigilance's best tanking talent and rearranged things to kill the current 14/27/00 that a lot of people are running. A better way to do it, imo, would be to buff the trees and make each tree, you know, attractive for people wanting to tank or dps, but they didn't go that way.

As for Protector's removal not being in the patch notes, I'm sure it's a typo. Although I do think they need to make sure it gets fixed. Otherwise the "stealth nerf" claim would have some basis to it...

I think that a major focus of the changes to the Guardian Skill trees was to balance the skill trees within themselves. Unfortunately for the people who run hybrid specs, balancing the skill trees within themselves doesn't necessarily lend well to hybrids. That said, I played 31 points minimally in the vigilance skill tree. I tried hybrids before and found that I personally do better by sinking all my points into a single tree instead of trying to mix and match. What I've found so far is that the cross skill tree abilities at the bottom of each skill tree that people commonly took are more accessible now than before, but the abilities that people tried to take as hybrids higher up have either been moved up, over or completely removed. Personally this doesn't affect me too much. I hope this doesn't discourage former hybrid players from continuing to play. The newly balanced full skill trees are actually completely worth trying.

Defense still really isn't and is remains lackluster compared to the other tanky classes.. It wasn't balanced before and nothing really changed other than the massive nerf to aoe taunt... which will have a negative effect in pvp and pve.

You're all mindlessly arguing over the wrong things, which is normal for the internet I suppose.

Just answer me this: when you think of changes made to a tree, or to a class, there is a goal, or objective, driving these changes. They should all be pointing to a common goal. Aside from focus doing overall less damage (flat reduction in damage, remove of CD reductions), can anyone pick out what the intentions for the class are?

They nerfed damage, moved talents, nerfed survivability for a joke of a "survivability" talent (yes, because a focus dump in order to live will totally help me kill something beating on me.. I'll use my meaty auto-attack for great justice).

1.2 is a prime example of what TORs real problem is: Bioware has NO direction for any class aside from making haphazard and totally random tuning adjustments that don't seem based on any actual or perceived need.

Good point and 200% true.

Do we still get protector's effect of giving us teh effect of Guardian Leap? i really loved that threat drop / multitarget dmg reduc (my target and myself) for my vig dps build. Was a unique and interesting mechanic being a dpser who can manage my threat and a nearby ally's while generating focus for myself. I know they hated the def/vig hybrids using that as a tanking ability, but move it up the tree, dont take it away from vig dps

They at least need to replace the endurance Talent that was taken away and make it accessable to all guardians (lower in a tree). My suggestion on another post I created was to change accuracy to a endurance talent, either 1/2/3 or 2/4/6.

Your "maths" isn't maths, it's a few numbers followed up by an opinion and a claim there is no arguing, you don't actually calculate anything and then present a personal viewpoint not an actual fact.

Focused defence lasts longer, returns a 3% heal per tick adding more DR that you fail to mention, DOESN'T cost 4 focus in the Vigilance tree, is used off GCD and can be used while we're stunned.

At no point does +20% DR for 6 seconds counter all of that in a simple sentence "it r totally teh better" from someone who's done nothing but qq without presenting any actual evidence that those extra items you conveniently left off have no effect on our survivability that makes 6 seconds of 20% so much better, Protector has a shorter cool down which helps but requires a friendly target to use, and doesn't last as long as Focused Defence AND we can now add Blade Barrier to a build if we wanted.

You haven't actually tested it, have no actual maths and have no way of backing up a qq sentence that's basically just there so that others will join in your self pity.

I'M not making a statement of fact regarding my opinion.