I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a problem with this, but if I am, or if you disagree, stop reading, I don’t mean to waste your time. The GFs phase shield is useful when in combat against one any ship due to it’s adaptability. When fighting a group of ships, however (about two-three), the phase shield is utterly useless in combat. Even with the shield on the corresponding tuning, it’s as if you never had a shield in the first place, especially against kinetic weapons. I think Guard Frigates could use a buff, just a small one. A buff just big enough to be noticeable, if not somewhat. Yes, they do better against missiles, and it’s kind of their purpose, but in close range dogfights people don’t use them and you’re basically screwed with the shield’s low resistance.
That is kind of the point - Guards are meant to be good at drawing fire and holding ground, but their counter is that when they are ganked by two or more ships with different damage types, they crumble. If you make it so a Guard can reliably handle two or more ships, then Frigate Balls become the norm and the only way to win is to bring a better Frigate Ball.
There are people who think Guard should lose Phase Shield altogether and have it replaced by something else - something that isn’t so hit and miss (a lot of inexperienced Guard pilots die stupidly fast because they leave their shield on Thermal while being hit with plasma or kinetic).
Oh, and fyi, Phase Shield is +150 Resist vs the chosen damage type. That means you are negating over half the damage that weapon should inflict, and it is actually very good vs kinetic weapons - it’s em that causes you grief. Even set to plasma resist, Mk IV singularities can and will pulp your ship.
That is kind of the point - Guards are meant to be good at drawing fire and holding ground, but their counter is that when they are ganked by two or more ships with different damage types, they crumble. If you make it so a Guard can reliably handle two or more ships, then Frigate Balls become the norm and the only way to win is to bring a better Frigate Ball.
True, but the problem is that the nerf was all across the board (big bad nerf on guards some months ago) affecting T1’s, T2’s, and T3’s (some T3’s could have been spared) while the main complain wasnt the lower tiers, but the immortality of T5 Jerry guards (Inq S) and some T4 guards being too OP because T5 battles were small enought for guards to be unbeatable (not enough ppl to gank with diferent dammages).
There are people who think Guard should lose Phase Shield altogether and have it replaced by something else - something that isn’t so hit and miss (a lot of inexperienced Guard pilots die stupidly fast because they leave their shield on Thermal while being hit with plasma or kinetic).
They could put a passive unique module to the guard that works like the phase shield but changes automatically depending on the higher dammage source, of course it would be worse than today, since it would only put to thermal once you have taken a huge sniper hit for example. I agree it should be made more newbfiendly cause many ppl see the Jericho tree, and go for the big badass guard thinking they will be tanks, and only then they realize the mistake they made. HEHHEHEHE
Oh, and fyi, Phase Shield is +150 Resist vs the chosen damage type. That means you are negating over half the damage that weapon should inflict, and it is actually very good vs kinetic weapons - it’s em that causes you grief. Even set to plasma resist, Mk IV singularities can and will pulp your ship.
Even thou it is +150 resists, one must remember that was if im not mistaken a -30 nerf to all resists, so basically it got much much worse than it was before, sure, if you have great awareness of the battlefield guards can be OP as Rakza doesnt get tired to say, but still fact is guards are not even a third of what they used to be.
I think they should be left like they were before the nerfhammer (atributewise) but without phase shield, and put something more interesting, maybe some reflect dammage for limited amount of time, that would counter strong alphas and buy precious time to wait for backup.
Guards are ok Imo, they can take a lot of damage and survive, ofc, if you plan to solo an entire team, you wont success, the point of Guards is to be with Engineers and make area supression with pulsar and inhibitor, take care of the torpedoes with the ams, and reduce enemies’ dmg in an area with signature masking.
They are usually fat and slow, so they need teammates (like most of the ships) to defend themselves against a group of enemies.
In Tier 3 and above they are powerful, in Tier 2 and 1 they are kinda bad.
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Those are the 2 most powerful guards in the game atm
As you can see, they can tank a lot of damage, without a proper Engineer on you side they’re a pain to kill.
Credit to the Guard master rakza
I do think the 2 most underwhelming special abilities in-game at the moment are the Guard’s and the Tackler’s personally.
Not sure what the Guard is missing for me though and haven’t enough experience to make a point I can justify… just the special ability seems “meh” I guess because you have to be taking damage to make any use of it. Perhaps offering alternative sets of special abilities to each class could make things interesting… so you aren’t pigeonholed into the classes one special?
Offensive and defensive? Of course it opens a whole new can of balance issues I guess but still, I think it would be interesting and add another layer to ship fitting.
There is nothing wrong with the phase shield. I’ve played guard a decent amount and I think its one of the very best abilities or any class once you learn the damage types. In any 1v1 situation, a guard frig can set its phase shield to its enemies damage type, rendering their main gun nearly useless. A competent guard (especially a fed guard) can and will win any 1v1 engagement against any other class.
In a 1v2 engagement, guards are still a force to be reckoned with. Just set your phase shield to the damage type of the for who has the strongest gun. you already have the highest HP pool of any class, and are only recieving an effective amount of damage from 1 enemy. Kill the weaker (easiest to kill) of the two, then you should have more than enough HP to win the resulting 1v1.
In a 1v3 engagement, well, nobody is expected to win a 1v3 engagement. a guard can occasionally pull it off if 2 of them use the same damage type.
I hope that they do not remove the phase shield, I love it, its a special ability that actually requires skill to use properly, and rewards skillful usage accordingly.
but if they did want to go back to 100 resist phase shield, normal shield resistance, I wont complain.
Let’s be honest, though, deathsquads make quick work of any guard frigate. They are nearly the first target of any smart team…
Let’s be honest, though, deathsquads make quick work of any guard frigate. They are nearly the first target of any smart team…
a death squad can make quick work of whatever they want. but guards still take longer to kill. Working as intended.
Meanwhile in my Jericho Guard…
all i see is interceptors and tacklers , gunships voting yes.
After playing for some time with my Zealot AE (Rank 6) and Alligator (Rank5), I feel that Guard frigs should focus on Shield resist builds, for at least EM and Thermal (Kinetic is already weaker VS shields.
I put both hull and shields resist implants, the EM and Thermal resists, a Shields resist boost Active module (shield modulator If I recall the name well).
Without the Phase shield, I get decent damage reduction against all types of damage, plus an emergency boost in case of gank…
I found myself being really tanky, the only threats being a group of Intys ganking me when I was alone, or a smart recon uncloaking behind me to absorb all my shield…
You also have to be able to quickly change your Phase shield attribute to be efficient.
Hmmmm, try to step out of cover on T3, a guard gets melted in seconds, an engeneer gets melted in seconds, everything melts in seconds. And guards are suposed to be tanky. Well, they are harder to destroy in the hands of a pro, but in a commoner’s hands he is completely unnewbfriendly, doesnt forgive a single flaw in phase shield changing and build.
Some guard pilots can disrupt entire teams on their own, while others just melt.
The main problem with Guards before nerf was that if they equiped several times the item that give you + 35% shiled hp, you could get an insane durability.
The nerf just consisted of ruining the shield resistances of the tanky ship from the faction focused on shield, that was just ridiculous.
A good way to get balanced Guar ships would be to restore their former shield resistances and limite this specific item to only one per ship.
Hmmmm, try to step out of cover on T3, a guard gets melted in seconds, an engeneer gets melted in seconds, everything melts in seconds. And guards are suposed to be tanky. Well, they are harder to destroy in the hands of a pro, but in a commoner’s hands he is completely unnewbfriendly, doesnt forgive a single flaw in phase shield changing and build.
Not really. I’m not having problems surviving with a Crusader in the front lines. You just need to be aware of your position, and always watch your back. Team up with another guard or an engineer and be the anchor for the team. The guards are the biggest area denial ships in the game. But of course if you charge into the beacon with the pulsar flaring, then you will die in 8 secs.
Also, recons can tank the whole pulsar with the parasitic and just kill the guard afterwards.
I posted this on the game chat and i will repeat here maybe it wil be taken into account.
- Guard frigates are easily anoying. WHy ?
When you think of a guard you think it is big, slow , and can tank and if it gets you in close range you are dead.
Instead we have :
What we have now is a big slow ship with no tank and damage even at close range.
An Engineer can guard positions better then a Guard.
You are in a guard and want to reach position x , you are slow , it takes so long to get there… and when you finally arrive all actions moves to another place :D.
Or maybe you are lucky and reach the battle, but what a surprise, you die instantly because 2 interceptros or 2 fighters …
Also in your way to battle you shurly encounter some of the LRFs missiles or Desintegrators falling on your shields …
Guards are the most anoying ships to fly — slow, don;t make damage, can;t take more then 1 fighter or interceptro at a time,
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their active module is useles against small fast ships that can get out of its range fast…
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the phase shield is useles when tanking 2 ships… guards are efficient only on 1 vs 1
*Look at this thread*
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*Go back to his guard while Laughing*
*Look at this thread*
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*Go back to his Reaper while Laughing*
fixed for you
Fed guard: fast enough to get there, tanky enough to fight
Fed guard: fast enough to get there, tanky enough to fight
Instead of a guard i prefer command to fight… guards are not meant to fight they need to guard , and they do not seem to do this…
Instad of having mines on LRF they should be on Guards also… Mines are close combat defensive… put it on guards 