Guardian, FotM, and YOU (Me)
Lots of weapons are useful in higher level fractals. Staff for a quick buff before a battle, hammer for protection, sword for blinds, etc, etc. As far as higher level fractal guardian play, you should take a look at Obal’s guide with builds and video tutorials:
So I run pretty standard AH build on my Guard in Fractals. I usually go Scepter/Shield for ranged set and GS for melee, but I am going to transition back to Hammer for melee.
Is hammer useful in higher level fractals?
Certainly. I recommend you have one of every weapon minus say.. mace and torch really.
Here are some guardian weapons and their uses in high end fractals.
Hammer- Circle of warding. Use this ring on ascalon fractal. People will stack around corners and behind the walls and rubble before pulling one of those cluster-kitten mobs with the charging warriors. Just as they approach, put down your ring of warding, back up, use hammer 3 to immobilize them in a line just before ring runs out. After that you can switch to:
Staff- Line of warding. Line of ward them right after your immobi/ring runs out then bip everyone’s health and might up with empower. Hit your aegis options/reflects if there ranged attackers in that group. Switch back to hammer to get the protection going in melee. By this stage most of the warriors should be just about dead with a decent team.
Line of warding and circle of warding from these weapons can also be used well in Dredge fractal for obvious reasons. There are other places you can do this but those are the main ones :P
1H sword+ focus- Jade Maw fractal. This is an amazing weapon and here’s why. Number 2 skill is a blind. It also has high single target damage. Run this set with greatsword and you can melee down tentacles without issue. Everytime they use a knock down attack ( well telegraphed), use Sword 2 blind to prevent it, next attack, focus block, next attack, greatsword blind, next attack, stand your ground, next attack virtue of courage. You have a nice set of skills you can chain to never get hit by tenties and still be able to do your best damage in melee range.
I want to also mention that although hammer appears to be low dps, it has incredibly decent sustained dps whereas greatsword will do better burst damage, but hammer will maintain great over all damage so long as you are keeping the autoattack’s symbol up. I might also add that hammer 2 is a blast finisher which can be mighty useful on fire fields and water fields for might and healing. For alot of the fractals I have started just using GS as an aoe pull weapon. There’s plenty of places for this, but I prefer hammer for when pulls are not required.
Another point I would like to make, is that once you are fairly comfortable in fractals you may wish to consider not running AH. Not running AH opens up many options for you and will help you get the most out of your guardian for team support and if you are skilled enough/experienced enough, you really don’t need the AH healing to keep you going. I typically run for a 48 pug- full knights armor and full berserker trinkets, I recently switched to a no AH build and have had little issue, but I sure noticed the difference in support I could pump out for the team. At lower levels and guild 48 teams it’s full berserkers everything.
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
(edited by swiftpaw.6397)
So I run pretty standard AH build on my Guard in Fractals. I usually go Scepter/Shield for ranged set and GS for melee, but I am going to transition back to Hammer for melee.
Is hammer useful in higher level fractals?
Hammer is one of the guard’s greatest weapon, so yes.
Rather than the hammer, you should question your use of the shield. Its skills aren’t all that desirable in PVE. You’d be better off with focus.
For the hammer in fractals, the main things it provides are :
Ring of Warding, that you should use right after pulling mob to ensure that their first burst gets interrupted with them being knocked, like in Ascalon where all these mob rushing at you will lose their first burst which gives you time to use blinds etc on them at 48 without dying in one shot.
The auto attack symbol of protection, which negates a lot of damage for a melee group.
The damage! it’s not the highest dps weapon of the game, but for a weapon with so much utility, compared to other “utility” weapons of this game, it’s rather high. Even better if you pick up the trait for “Symbol last longer”.
The blast finisher is always nice to have.
The immobilize helps. It’s good to have for fights like the crazy long ettin room in uncategorized when you’re kiting the ettin around with hammer + scepter/focus while the group deals with the other mobs.
Banish has a couple uses but I can’t think of any in fractals though.
Hammer on guardian is, by far, one of my favorite weapon of the game in terms of skill set. It’s not a weapon you use while spamming a rotation for bursts, it’s a weapon that brings lot of utility, and then dps on the autoattack.
It’s just too bad that most skins look bad.. sigh. Give us better hammers anet!
(edited by Nikaido.3457)
Banish has a couple uses but I can’t think of any in fractals though.
Jump on the other side of Dredge Strazars and knock them into the group if your GS5 is on cooldown. Same with any Ascalonians that stay at range during a non-perfect LoS pull.
So I run pretty standard AH build on my Guard in Fractals. I usually go Scepter/Shield for ranged set and GS for melee, but I am going to transition back to Hammer for melee.
Is hammer useful in higher level fractals?
Certainly. I recommend you have one of every weapon minus say.. mace and torch really.
Here are some guardian weapons and their uses in high end fractals.Hammer- Circle of warding. Use this ring on ascalon fractal. People will stack around corners and behind the walls and rubble before pulling one of those cluster-kitten mobs with the charging warriors. Just as they approach, put down your ring of warding, back up, use hammer 3 to immobilize them in a line just before ring runs out. After that you can switch to:
Staff- Line of warding. Line of ward them right after your immobi/ring runs out then bip everyone’s health and might up with empower. Hit your aegis options/reflects if there ranged attackers in that group. Switch back to hammer to get the protection going in melee. By this stage most of the warriors should be just about dead with a decent team.
Line of warding and circle of warding from these weapons can also be used well in Dredge fractal for obvious reasons. There are other places you can do this but those are the main ones :P
1H sword+ focus- Jade Maw fractal. This is an amazing weapon and here’s why. Number 2 skill is a blind. It also has high single target damage. Run this set with greatsword and you can melee down tentacles without issue. Everytime they use a knock down attack ( well telegraphed), use Sword 2 blind to prevent it, next attack, focus block, next attack, greatsword blind, next attack, stand your ground, next attack virtue of courage. You have a nice set of skills you can chain to never get hit by tenties and still be able to do your best damage in melee range.
I want to also mention that although hammer appears to be low dps, it has incredibly decent sustained dps whereas greatsword will do better burst damage, but hammer will maintain great over all damage so long as you are keeping the autoattack’s symbol up. I might also add that hammer 2 is a blast finisher which can be mighty useful on fire fields and water fields for might and healing. For alot of the fractals I have started just using GS as an aoe pull weapon. There’s plenty of places for this, but I prefer hammer for when pulls are not required.
Another point I would like to make, is that once you are fairly comfortable in fractals you may wish to consider not running AH. Not running AH opens up many options for you and will help you get the most out of your guardian for team support and if you are skilled enough/experienced enough, you really don’t need the AH healing to keep you going. I typically run for a 48 pug- full knights armor and full berserker trinkets, I recently switched to a no AH build and have had little issue, but I sure noticed the difference in support I could pump out for the team. At lower levels and guild 48 teams it’s full berserkers everything.
Can I ask what non-AH build you’re using?
0/15/0/30/25 Radience: VI , Honor: II, VIII, XI Virtues: VI, IX
Note the longer consecrations, this will enable you to get the most out of wall of reflection. As a note, if you are only guardian in group, I like to take shield over focus to fill in gaps in cooldowns between WoR and SoA for bosses that need longer amounts of reflect uptime.
You can spam virtue of justice on every kill which will, due to traits give AoE Blind and vulnerability, very nice on ascalon, kraits at jellyfish, and dredge if only for the might stacks since they cant be blinded.
Virtue of resolve (absolute resolution)- 3 condi removals right there from traits, or you can switch this out for indomitable courage for stability on aegis which is also very useful. Pure of voice, converts condis into boons- very nice. I like to run this with boon duration runes for a good effect or you can go the route of ruby orbs/scholar if you want more deeps, or even soldier if you feel you need even more condi rem.
Superior aria and empowering might- self explanitory
utilities- full bar of shouts. WoR and SoA when required, always have retreat on bar. Renewed focus- Use this and all your virtues often. I see many people hardly touch this. cooldown is low and having those 3 virtues up to use again is powerful stuff. Tome of courage for maw ( of course)
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
(edited by swiftpaw.6397)
0/15/0/30/25 Radience: VI , Honor: II, VIII, XI Virtues: VI, IX
Note the longer consecrations, this will enable you to get the most out of wall of reflection. As a note, if you are only guardian in group, I like to take shield over focus to fill in gaps in cooldowns between WoR and SoA for bosses that need longer amounts of reflect uptime.
You can spam virtue of justice on every kill which will, due to traits give AoE Blind and vulnerability, very nice on ascalon, kraits at jellyfish, and dredge if only for the might stacks since they cant be blinded.
Virtue of resolve (absolute resolution)- 3 condi removals right there from traits, or you can switch this out for indomitable courage for stability on aegis which is also very useful. Pure of voice, converts condis into boons- very nice. I like to run this with boon duration runes for a good effect or you can go the route of ruby orbs/scholar if you want more deeps, or even soldier if you feel you need even more condi rem.
Superior aria and empowering might- self explanitory
utilities- full bar of shouts. WoR and SoA when required, always have retreat on bar. Renewed focus- Use this and all your virtues often. I see many people hardly touch this. cooldown is low and having those 3 virtues up to use again is powerful stuff. Tome of courage for maw ( of course)
If this is a build strictly for fractals, you have too many condition removals. Direct damage is much more threatening than condition damage, especially on higher levels.
Pure of voice is actually rather meh in fractals (and in any other dungeon where you run with ele and a fire field bar) since you don’t really use a lot of shout there. Particularly when you have both SoA and wall on things like the dredge fractal pure of voice is just completely useless.
Almost all of the harsher parts of fractals will make you replace two shouts.
I used to run PoV but you get used to running without it after a while and you don’t really need it in a good group even in a dungeon like TA if your group doesn’t try to outrun your guard while you use staff on the nasty blossoms. Although after a recent TA run where I’ve had people try too hard to outrun me (remember that you run slower while in combat mode and you will be in combat mode while staffing stuff so the people behind can easily outrun you before they get hit by mobs/trigger blossoms) pure of voice can be an almost indispensable crutch and I found myself wishing I had this three shout bar..
Pure of voice is actually rather meh in fractals (and in any other dungeon where you run with ele and a fire field bar) since you don’t really use a lot of shout there. Particularly when you have both SoA and wall on things like the dredge fractal pure of voice is just completely useless.
Almost all of the harsher parts of fractals will make you replace two shouts.I used to run PoV but you get used to running without it after a while and you don’t really need it in a good group even in a dungeon like TA if your group doesn’t try to outrun your guard while you use staff on the nasty blossoms. Although after a recent TA run where I’ve had people try too hard to outrun me (remember that you run slower while in combat mode and you will be in combat mode while staffing stuff so the people behind can easily outrun you before they get hit by mobs/trigger blossoms) pure of voice can be an almost indispensable crutch and I found myself wishing I had this three shout bar..
I agree with this, I usually run in pugs for the high lvl fotms so I like to take the extra insurance. Most pugs are’nt packing a blast finishing ele If Im lucky enough to get an ele majority of them are on staff -_-
It’s why I have two guardians now XD One for fotm pugging and the other for everything else/guild stuff :P
Oh and for dredge I usually just have WoR, SYG and retreat, once we hit clown car I take both wor and soa. For most parts that req reflections I just take the one Wall, given there’s usually a mesmer with feedbacks and etc and things are dead before another reflect is required. I think bloomhunger/fire shaman is (one of) the most annoying parts, def need both reflects for that. I have considered taking out PoV and trying out the zealous line for Fiery Wrath (10% vs burning, would go well with the justice spam) or adding to virtues line.
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
(edited by swiftpaw.6397)
0/15/0/30/25 Radience: VI , Honor: II, VIII, XI Virtues: VI, IX
Note the longer consecrations, this will enable you to get the most out of wall of reflection. As a note, if you are only guardian in group, I like to take shield over focus to fill in gaps in cooldowns between WoR and SoA for bosses that need longer amounts of reflect uptime.
You can spam virtue of justice on every kill which will, due to traits give AoE Blind and vulnerability, very nice on ascalon, kraits at jellyfish, and dredge if only for the might stacks since they cant be blinded.
Virtue of resolve (absolute resolution)- 3 condi removals right there from traits, or you can switch this out for indomitable courage for stability on aegis which is also very useful. Pure of voice, converts condis into boons- very nice. I like to run this with boon duration runes for a good effect or you can go the route of ruby orbs/scholar if you want more deeps, or even soldier if you feel you need even more condi rem.
Superior aria and empowering might- self explanitory
utilities- full bar of shouts. WoR and SoA when required, always have retreat on bar. Renewed focus- Use this and all your virtues often. I see many people hardly touch this. cooldown is low and having those 3 virtues up to use again is powerful stuff. Tome of courage for maw ( of course)
If this is a build strictly for fractals, you have too many condition removals. Direct damage is much more threatening than condition damage, especially on higher levels.
Of course, I prefer to only have PoV as only condi rem, and its more that I prefer to boons it gives I suppose.
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
Banish has a couple uses but I can’t think of any in fractals though.
It’s just too bad that most skins look bad.. sigh. Give us better hammers anet!
I use banish a lot in high level snow fractals to smack the aggro’ed elementals near our fire.
I agree on the skins, as a hammer skin collecter: why the hell are most hammer heads smaller than (or appears to be) mace heads!? I want big chunks of stuff to slam into people’s faces.
Hammer heads need to be larger for the most part and the handles should be like 20% longer. As it stands now they all look like a $20 6-pound sledge you pick up from Home Depot.
I don’t know why they veered more towards realism for hammers while greatswords get to be so ridiculous.
I use banish a lot in high level snow fractals to smack the aggro’ed elementals near our fire.
I prefer the greatsword pull for that kind of situation. In most cases you’ll want to group more than one mob for cleaving, and even when there’s only one mob, it’s highly likely then that you wouldn’t want to stray too far into their territory lest you pull more and more of these guys.
Hammer heads need to be larger for the most part and the handles should be like 20% longer. As it stands now they all look like a $20 6-pound sledge you pick up from Home Depot.
I don’t know why they veered more towards realism for hammers while greatswords get to be so ridiculous.
Funny thing is that when you look at the animation and type of skills associated to both weapons it should really be the reverse. Greatsword skills are faster and more graceful, hammers are slow as hell and pack a lot of punch. And yet the greatswords are the biggest weapons of the game (fractal, zenith skin wut) while hammers look a bit too puny considering their skill set (F1 burst on war or skill 2 on guardian).
Most hammers do not really fit moves like Earthshaker and Mighty Blow. For a fantasy setting like this where hammers can do such moves the skins should fit the job a bit more than they do at the moment.
(edited by Nikaido.3457)
I too find hammers unsightly I have the jade dragon one and the hotw skin one atm. Legendary is ok too but meh. I think the new AP zenith skin one is ok too I guess.
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
I too find hammers unsightly
I have the jade dragon one and the hotw skin one atm. Legendary is ok too but meh. I think the new AP zenith skin one is ok too I guess.
Zenith hammer is the answer. More visible than the leggie. The animation is so dull in combat…
I too find hammers unsightly
I have the jade dragon one and the hotw skin one atm. Legendary is ok too but meh. I think the new AP zenith skin one is ok too I guess.
Zenith hammer is the answer. More visible than the leggie. The animation is so dull in combat…
Yeh might get that one next. It’s either that or the zenith greatsword for my other guardian. Decisions T_T
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
I too find hammers unsightly
I have the jade dragon one and the hotw skin one atm. Legendary is ok too but meh. I think the new AP zenith skin one is ok too I guess.
Zenith hammer is the answer. More visible than the leggie. The animation is so dull in combat…
Yeh might get that one next. It’s either that or the zenith greatsword for my other guardian. Decisions T_T
Inorite. Can’t decide between hammer first or staff. Anyway hammer overall is awsum for fractuls.