Infernal Guardian: worth it?

Minalan

I give up 150 or so spell damage or 1000 max magicka for it. What I get back is 3 mortar shots that do 2-3k each on an enemy, every six seconds when refreshing a shield.

I'm not really sure it's worth it.

1. The mortars stutter and stunt what is usually smooth combat when they go off. Combat doesn't feel as smooth because you stop for a fraction of a second to fire those animations. Maybe it's just lag? But it didn't *feel* right, it made it harder to dodge easy telegraphed attacks or streak off under fire.

2. It targets mobs half of the time that you don't want. I was fighting a 3vMe, killed one. Almost had the second and I ended up aggroing a whole lion den that was far off behind me.

3. The damage is about one force pulse crit. It's good, but a bigger frag and curse might be better.

I think this one might be better left for a dual wield build. Comments? Experience? Or am I crazy and this is the best thing ever?

Biro123

I really like it. They should fix that it targets stealthed enemies though. Ppl gonna get called abusers for spamming it when they know a stealthier is around.. but guess what? If I know a stealthier is around, I'm gonna spam shields regardless - infernal guardian or not.

1, I haven't noticed any stuttering

2. It can turn an all out defence to offence - where you end up in a situation where you are almost constantly shield spamming just to stay alive, it can sometimes be enough to turn that tide - causing the opponent(s) to dodge/move out of the area, stop attacking for a sec to heal etc.. and that respite can be enough for you to go on the attack instead.

3. In big, zergy fights - it can do a surprising amount of damage. Although most of it is incidental, its nice to at least 'tag' a bunch of enemies so you get a share of the AP when they die.. It also adds that 'fear factor'.. ppl see red circles on the ground and almost instinctively back off from them. Can make ppl more hesitant to swarm you.

4. Used it once to target an enemy who ran up a tower and was out of sight of me ( but fighting an ally).. spammed shields a couple of times while chasing and hit with a few mortar shots.. lol.

5. But I use 1h+shield so can have a 2-piece and 2 5-piece bonuses - so don't really lose anything by having it.

Asardes

Why waste 2 slots with Infernal Guardian when you can just slot Ilambris, Nerien'eth, Grothdarr, Valkyn Skoria or even Iceheart?

DannyLV702

Asardes wrote: »

Why waste 2 slots with Infernal Guardian when you can just slot Ilambris, Nerien'eth, Grothdarr, Valkyn Skoria or even Iceheart?

Those are pretty useless for a mag sorc in pvp. I would live to use ilambris if enemies would stay in place. Infernal Guardial keeps pressure on your enemy to stay dodge rolling at times and it can make you offensive in a defensive situation.

Joy_Division

Asardes wrote: »

Why waste 2 slots with Infernal Guardian when you can just slot Ilambris, Nerien'eth, Grothdarr, Valkyn Skoria or even Iceheart?

Because doing damage when using defensive actions is a strong feature of any build.

Ilambris is solid. Neriene'eth is way too slow. Grothdarr is better suited on tanky temp or DK. Valkyn is good but sorcs dont have a lot of DoTs. Iceheart is ok, but you will kill more people with a damage set than its shield will save your life.

Kutsuu

IMO the issue with Infernal Guardian is that you can't choose who it targets. Half the time your mortar will just fly off to hit someone in a different fight, while not helping you in your current fight. Also, the mortars will only target stealthers while you are already in combat. If you are not in combat and a stealther is standing right next to you, you can spam shields and it won't fire anything at them. So basically it's nice to reveal someone who's about to gank you while you're already fighting... but gankers don't mess with shielded targets unless they are letting their shields drop and leaving an opening.

AzuraKin

different fight dude? its *** pvp, its all one big massive fight. and it serves several purposes, it hits solid, its on top of your other abilities its ranged, its aoe and it hits the back of the enemies you are pushing against. meaning they either gotta go into your group (take damage) or fall back (take damage). that said sorcs and dk's make teh best use of the set. and i would disagree that grothdarr best for templars, as templars are the best for healing in pvp which wont trigger grothdar. i would say dk's and nbs are best to use grothdarr.

Sandman929

The mortars are pretty erratic, at least half the time they land where the enemy used to be. Against a group you're pretty much guaranteed to always hit someone , but maybe not who you wanted to hit. Good damage though.

Waffennacht

Love it!

Mathematically, theoretically (but does consistently in PvE) pull higher dps than ilambris. In PvP all these sets have the same "can be dodged" type draw back so that's a wash. Turns a pure dps loss (casting ward) into an attack (dps gain)

Really high proc rate (practically guaranteed every 6 secs) causes stam loss and or disruption from constant red circles.

Imo I don't necessarily count it like I would Skoria,

Skoria is great in burst and as a finisher, IG is more constant pressure and defensive dps. You can't let your opponent feel comfortable and IG does that.

In solo PvE it's wonderful too! For example, vCoA is far easier to solo with IG, you focus on boss and IG kills all the adds for you

It's gaining in popularity, the dueling circles I visit always tend to get a few converts once I leave

It's also potentially great paired with mines, shattering prison, and familiar AoE stun.

Lexxypwns

Waffennacht wrote: »

Love it!

Mathematically, theoretically (but does consistently in PvE) pull higher dps than ilambris. In PvP all these sets have the same "can be dodged" type draw back so that's a wash. Turns a pure dps loss (casting ward) into an attack (dps gain)

Really high proc rate (practically guaranteed every 6 secs) causes stam loss and or disruption from constant red circles.

Imo I don't necessarily count it like I would Skoria,

Skoria is great in burst and as a finisher, IG is more constant pressure and defensive dps. You can't let your opponent feel comfortable and IG does that.

In solo PvE it's wonderful too! For example, vCoA is far easier to solo with IG, you focus on boss and IG kills all the adds for you

It's gaining in popularity, the dueling circles I visit always tend to get a few converts once I leave

It's also potentially great paired with mines, shattering prison, and familiar AoE stun.

Honestly, its a gimmicky set for duels, you can literally just walk out of it, there's too long of a telegraph. The first few times I fought good players with it I had a good bit of trouble, though. And it can be frustrating open world, particularly for healers, suddenly their well though out placement to heal the group while avoiding los with enemies as much as possible is irrelevant because they're getting bombed.

Basically the more potential targets around you the better it becomes, you can pressure the healer in the back just long enough to get the kill off on the proctard. You can chase the lethal arrow spammer off for a second and go on the offensive against his squishy build.

Sandman929

It's actually pretty good in duels. On a mag sorc anyway. I've got a high magicka, mine camping, pets using sorc that's a pretty tough nut to crack. The closer people get the less likely they are to dodge the mortars, especially if they're the only target.
It's like Dark Flare, easy to dodge at range, but with no travel time it's painful.

Father_X_Zombie

It's awesome to use in VMA, very useful

Koolio

I love this set. VMSA works great. Pvp keeps the no inpen wearing snipers/jesus/not paying attention in check. Great way to keep pressure on people in zergs. Needs some LOS checks and stealth checks but other than that my favorite by far.