Support Guardians and Rewards

[Raye]

So I always hear this, and it drives me crazy. That when a Guardian switches to a ranged weapon and provides support to the party more than doing damage to the foes, that they get less rewards. And they cry and whine about it non-stop.

I don't know if I just simply have my expectations skewed or something, but whenever I get a chest at the end of a boss fight, my reaction is "oh loot yay!" I seldom care about it, I just sell it off immediately unless I can use it and go carrying on with my merry life.

Could it be that ArenaNet actually fixed this after the first few complaints on it? and that now people are just whining for the sake of whining? or am I just really not getting that great look and simply haven't even noticed? I'm not sure I hear this particular complaint about other professions, say a water ele. Thoughts?

[Fluffball]

If you don't damage a certain percentage of a monster's health for whatever reason you won't get loot/exp/event credit. It's really, really hard to make a character so inept that they can't do enough damage to get that credit though, unless you're way too low level. It usually comes from people spending an entire event reviving and putting up bubbles. That type of character is not needed, so I'm fine with them not getting credit.

[BrettM]

If all a player is doing is reviving and putting up bubbles, he shouldn't even say he's doing support. Real support means doing things that usually both aid allies and damage foes at the same time, such as symbols and consecrations, activating virtues, etc. If enough allies are going down that you can be kept busy with revivals, the event is doomed to failure anyway.

[Raye]

I guess I got the impression that maybe some support guardians were getting greens while everyone else was getting rares or exotics. I mean, if they're not actually doing anything but ressing people I can understand they don't get anything. But suppose I'm only using support spells and yells and virtues and consecrations and stuff, without direct damage to the boss or whatever. Do I get the same rewards as everyone who's beating the boss while getting buffed by me?

[shawn]

You only get stuff if you do enough damage to something to "tag" it. Doing more damage doesn't mean you have a better shot at getting rares or exotics, that's dependent on the RNG. What you might be confusing this with is earlier in the game during an event like the centaur champion in kessex, anyone who didn't output a ton of damage continually throughout the whole fight would wind up with bronze. That's been fixed for quite some time.

[BrettM]

It's true that a guardian isn't getting any credit for damage done by allies operating under the influence of his virtues, firing through his light fields, etc. However, it's hard to see this as an issue. Throw a consecration somewhere where it will hit the boss while buffing melee in its vicinity and you've done direct damage. Fling an occasional orb in the boss's direction and detonate it so it will both damage the boss and heal allies in the vicinity. It isn't hard for a guardian to do some direct damage even when focused on support, given all the skills he has that do both damage and support at the same time. The melee are the ones most likely to need most of your support, and they happen to be the ones standing toe-to-toe with the boss.

This is probably what I love most about the guardian. Even if you focus your efforts entirely on DPS, you're STILL shedding some goodness on everyone around you. You just can't help it.

[Raye]

This is probably what I love most about the guardian. Even if you focus your efforts entirely on DPS, you're STILL shedding some goodness on everyone around you. You just can't help it.

Haha that's funny, I mostly think of it the other way around. I focus on support and then I can still do acceptable damage without really trying too hard. guardians might be OP >__>

[RabidCoqui]

I dunno about OP but I commonly see guardians just standing there whacking mobs and the guardians health doesn't go down. While on my warrior, I'm going to come out with at least a little health off even with dodging and staying mobile.

But, I've seen Eles and thieves do that too...

[Fluffball]

Guardians have like 15 "oh ****!" buttons. All those support skills work just as well on themselves as on a group. For what it's worth, I played the 3 primarily melee classes to 80 (or 78 or something on my warrior) and I found the guardian to be the easiest in the end-game.

Edit: I was just thinking about it, my guardian is still wearing several pieces of like, level 65 masterwork armor and she does EM dungeons and is very at home in Orr fighting the dense mobs. My thief is in full exotic armor with 4 exotic weapons equipped and the guardian is still easier. That says something!

[Raye]

I generally notice a difference between my guardian and my thief, but that said, their spec is pretty much at complete opposite ends of the spectrum (lol get it? specs in the spectrum. I know, I'm not funny >___>). My guardian wears full cleric and is all supporty and generally sturdy, and my thief is a total glass cannon. So I can seldom compare their performance. My thief just dies more often, it's part of the whole glass cannon thing.