Justicar Guard is one of the oldest and most iconic sets in the game. In the modern meta it’s lagging behind both new sets and some old ones. Here are the reasons why.
1) Lack of consistency among bonuses across the set.
Gloves lack any % damage bonus and Chest lacks %Physical/IT bonus. This is seriously holding the set back. Most sets have %damage on each piece + 120% damage bonus in set bonuses.
Solution: Give chest piece %physical/it damage bonus and gloves physical/it + % fire/burn damage bonus.
2) Lack of physical resist
Super important stat even with high %armor. Set has ~5% average physical resist for 4 pieces.
Solution: Give helmet (so chest/shoulders combo is not abused) or full set bonus 4-7% physical resist.
3) Set bonuses to skills it supports are weak and uninspiring. Set lacks identity besides weak-ish Fire FW builds and just generic set for fire things
Fire FW fell out of meta, especially after recent nerfs to spam FW (why???). Blitz is a very weak skill that’s never worth the investment besides 1-2 points that absolutely can’t compete with skills like Shadow Strike or even Vire’s Might. Oathkeeper’s part of the set is just completely half-assed. It supports a skill with 5 seconds cooldown while not giving it any CDR bonuses. Something that one medal does better. Besides, it’s a heavy set that doesn’t suit casters too well (high physique requirments, no energy regeneration, no cdr).
And bonuses to Demolitionist are just generic + skills. Very dull compared to basically any other set.
Solution: rework bonuses to Judgement so the set adds CDR to it. Give Demolitionist side a skill it can support.
I’d say something like -1.5 seconds to Judgment as a set bonus would be really cool. As for Demo side I would propose support of Fire Strike line and radius to mines. Something like +1m Radius to Mines and 4% adtch to Fire Strike (because Fire Strike has bugged interaction with adtch as both Static Strike and Brimstone are not taking into account when adtch is calculated.)
Or it could be something creative like -20% physical resist to Mines (along with bonus of course) so Commando stops being a nut worst class in the game and some cool options like fully physical Fire Strike would become a reality (and it would work really well because it would be damage converted into physical thus bypassing the armor).
Do share your suggestions based on your experience building and playing with the set!
Surely, the set could use a buff like 10% phys resist for 4 pieces or thrown between pieces.
4-part bonus is just hilarious.
About FW - actually, only reverting the nerf and then BUFFING FW can help it to stand in line with skills like BA and PS. Maybe giving the set a total damage modifier for FW could help.
Blitz can also use some more CD reduction (like -1 sec) but the skill is super-dull and weak.
Btw, this is how spam FW feels now:
Also, average builds like melee FS Defiler (or melee fire Elementalist) struggle hard too. They’re slow (more than 8 mins) and weak, often unable to win vs Grava.
Sorry Madlee, I don’t think Justicar need any buff.
The set is tanky enough and adding more phys res to the set will make the set even more busted.
The set does not need any changes, the skills it supports are the problem.
FW is weak, blitz is weak.
About your suggestion on judgment, not sure about adding more CDR as justicar is not blocking any items giving that mod to judgment. I’d say it’s better to buff the judgment itself because the skill itself is quite underwhelming.
can’t say that having about 8-15% phys res on a melee char clad in heavy armor is “tanky enough”.
and btw, Shattered Realm set and Blood Knight have solid phys res and no one complains that they are OP.
My infernal Shieldbreaker is better in every single way (including tankiness) than Justicar + Mortars, because a bit of armor + good phys res is better then a ton of armor without phys res
I’m inclined to agree with jab on the tankside of things. Maybe 6% phys resist on the proc at most.
The damage bonus on pieces and the set lacking an identity I can fully agree with. I’m not sure if I’m on board for the suggested changes though. I think buffing the blitz side, and giving a strong mod to make fire shattering smash a thing could be thematic and strong if done correctly. (Maybe give it that cool Fx lokar uses) Then give it some strong mods for firestrike that require a shield.
and who will play 1h melee fs with a shield? in times when shields often cut off most of your damage.
Also, buffing a single wps is not a thing that can help, imo.
Some good suggestions, thanks. I would only add that you should be careful with buffing Fire Strike with a Shield as Stronghold/Justicar Purifier is already a super strong all around build with damage on par with Desolator (or close to it) with much better tankiness.
My view is this, the set itself is average and the skills it supports are just bad… Blitz and FW could do with some help wether be rework and give some type of thing like vire’s might, or give some type of damage boost that makes points invested are worth something? FW other than damage which would be good, maybe a cone?
Sorry, Medea, those builds are grossly outdated. Even back then they didn’t show any mind blowing results. As you can see from screenshots their speed was below average. And since then balance has changed drastically. It’s a different game in terms of balance. You can see how properly min-maxed FW Comando performs in the second post to this thread (spoiler: very poorly).
Lots of builds in the compendium are old, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t viable or fun to play. And speed isn’t everything you know. Not everyone wants to zoom around. Plus what’s wrong with having a generic set for fire? Not all sets have to be top tier.
this is the ONLY fire-dedicated set for both melee and ranged builds, and it performs well on a very small amount of them (like Desolator).
and with all respect again, watch the vids I’ve posted.
It’s neither fun nor safe to play FW now.
We are not even talking about speed here. As you can see in the videos above min-maxed Commando in a set that is meant for this class just crumbles in endgame. There is no fun in that.
And trust me, those builds you have linked are dated and less than viable. That’s just the nature of the game (fortunately or unfortunately). I am facelifting all of my 500 builds every patch basically.