Guild Wars 2

Now I don’t know if this belongs in the Guardian section or here, but I’ll post here since my problem seems to be more with dungeons than the actual Guard — but the line is blurred so bear with me.

I am a new GW2 player, and I am loving the game. As of this writing I have run a grand total of two dungeons, both AC – once exp and once story. I am a level 80.

Man did I eat some floor in these dungeons. AoEs come so fast and I am dodging so much that sometimes I run out of endurance. Or I’ll try to get out of the way but am snared or something. Soooo, any tips would be greatly apreciated. Like for instance AoE puts that red circle on the ground, right? Well sometimes there is so much magic in the way that I can’t see the red circle… any tips for that?

Also, community, know this: I AM NOT COMPLAINING or upset in anyway. Understand, please, that I just facerolled through 7 years of WoW, so in a weird way I am happy to be dying and coming to forums like, “I need some help.” I am actually enjoying the challenge of this game all around.

Now what’s below makes me think I shoulda posted this in the Guard forums, but I’ll leave it here.

I educated myself about the Guardian here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Hammer-and-Altruistic-Healing-gameplay/first

Here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-PVE-Guardian-101-A-Beginner-s-Text/first

Here: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/66973-how-to-build-a-guardian-properly/

…and through various other sites, youtube vids, and talks with people in-game. I am good with keeping boons up, and try to make extensive use of my utility. I crush stuff when I am mapping, heck even in WvW when I happen across a straggling player I’ll most likely slay him or at least send him running – but dungeon mobs… they destroy me. Tips?

Just a FYI -The following picture if of my character’s traits – just taken a few mins ago. I would love some criticism. I am in Knight’s gear (with Berserker jewelry) and use the Hammer mostly and the shield and scepter when I need to range. I have no exotics atm, as I am saving for a set. I just dinged 80 like 3 days ago. Anyway, here:

full knight gear
use autistic healing
staff/gs over hammer/scepter-shield

scepter only if truely needed. a big chunk of your heals come from staff empower, and it makes up for lack of range. i only scepter for lets say like : TA Nightmare Tree, Arah, not much else. (alot in fotm)

Nuage.5230:

Man did I eat some floor in these dungeons. AoEs come so fast and I am dodging so much that sometimes I run out of endurance. Or I’ll try to get out of the way but am snared or something. Soooo, any tips would be greatly apreciated. Like for instance AoE puts that red circle on the ground, right? Well sometimes there is so much magic in the way that I can’t see the red circle… any tips for that?

Hard to say what’s giving you the most trouble.. but did find this kind of telling.

Try to use dodge sparingly. Often times, you can simply walk out of red circles. Don’t panic and hit the dodge. “Retreat”, and F3 are also alternatives to dodging. Shield 4 & 5 also can work (depending on the attack). Mace 3 can be another alternative. “Wall of Reflection” is also a very solid option. Focus 5 is also solid.

“Stand Your Ground” is your friend in AC if knock downs are giving you issues.

As a Guardian, snares shouldn’t be a concern. “Pure of Voice” is one option, or, once you get Exotics, full Soldier runes is another. With 2-3 shouts on your bar, you should be fine. Also helps support your party. “Save Yourselves” is viable, but has a longer cooldown.

I find Hammer, Scepter/(Shield or Focus) is fine, but as was pointed out, GS, Staff and Mace/Shield are also viable depending on your style and the encounter.

Anyway, just a couple of pointers. Don’t hesitate to change out skills and weapons for various encounters. Once you get more comfortable, you’ll find what works best for your style.

Good luck!

You could get a soldiers set of armor and knights trinkets to start out. It is much harder to play at with the hp you have. As you get better you can take off the training wheels and go with a mix of knight/zerker.

If you run a hammer swap Honor IX for VII. The main use of the hammer is auto attacking and never breaking the chain up to do the other attacks under normal circumstances. You really need that trait since it will keep protection up on you nearly 100% of the time if you keep auto attacking and dodge from time to time.

Use focus instead of shield. You can use focus 5 and swap to hammer when starting to attack mobs. Ranging with focus is better than shield too since it can get you out of a jam.

If you are attacking stuff that you will melee for the majority of the fight use hammer/staff and just swap out staff for scepter/focus if you are going to range stuff for the majority of the fight. You have AH so use your heal and shouts. If you are still getting low with heal on cooldown use virtues → renewed focus → virtues. If for some reason heal is still on cooldown and everything is used up then dodge out and swap to staff and use skill 4. As soon as you can swap use hammer again and repeat this cycle since your skills will be mostly replenished.

My approach is similar to the posters’ above:

Armor: With Knight’s / Zerker’s you’re pretty much set, imo.
Runes: Runes of the Soldier for extra Vitality, Toughness, Condition Removal on shout
Weapon stats same as armor: Zerker’s.
Weapons: Greatsword, Staff, Scepter, Focus, Shield.
Sigil: Sigil of Blood if you have a high enough chance to land a critical hit, Sigil of Stamina or Sigil of Restoration for endurance gain on kill or heal on kill.

Endurance and endurance gain: Honor’s Adept Minor Trait grants vigor on critical hits every 5 seconds. With Knight’s/Zerker’s you should be under vigor almost constantly. Helps a lot.

Traits: I would recommend you putting 10 points from Honor into Radiance, since you aren’t using the Grandmaster Traits anyway. You can get trait II in Radiance (Signets recharge 20% faster) which goes well with Signet of Resolve. Also you get a free blind for Virtue of Justice which on top of Greatsword Sk#3 can keep you alive in melee encounters.

I don’t know anything about Guardians with Hammers, though, but this works well with Greatsword and the weapons mentioned above.

Cheers.

Thanks a ton people! I did 2 more runs after submitting the OP and they didn’t go so bad. I’ll do a bit of tweaking and see if I get even better. I guess, in the end, GW2 dungeon combat just takes a bit of practice — which is a good thing.

Builds aside, first few times in a dungeon are brutal. Dungeons in GW2 is simple practice, after a few times, you can breeze trough them quite easily.
Not only do you know what mobs will do, but you also get to know your class better.

The difference between open world pve and dungeons is very big. There is no content in open world that prepares you for dungeons. The dungeons themselves are not very hard once you get used to them, it’s just that the initial gap is very wide. It’s like throwing you into a zombie horde with just a pen :P.

Now, you just need to pay the repair costs, pay attention to the mobs/bosses and learn from it. And you can do any dungeon in no time.

I prefer Hammer/Mace/Shield as the main set of my guardian. I’ve got her outfitted with all knights gear on everything, boon duration runes and precision increase sigils to increase group might. Run Mace/Shield if the boss fight goes bad, because Mace 3 is a really good block on a short cooldown. Use it when you can’t mash F3 for aegis. In most fights, you should be perfectly fine to just autoattack on hammer, so your melee attackers can benefit from the protection symbol. Use Hammer 2 whenever you see a beneficial combo field go down, so as Time Warp or a fire field. Should be able to get it off twice in most mesmer fields at least.

While my personal weapon preference is all melee (forcing a tank in a game where there isn’t one), I carry a staff for more heals and utility, a focus for condition removal, and a scepter when the fight is a ranged fight regardless of class. I also carry a beserker set when we either need more deeps or I effin’ feel like :B

Trait build is 0/10/30/20/10 for Signet CDR, Consecration CDR, and Shout CDR, might on crit and altruistic healing. Guardian trait lines have something useful in all of them, so once you get the hang of dungeons you’ll figure out where you want to go with it. Hope this helps.

Trait Empowering Might (Honor VIII) instead of 2H Mastery if you play hammer. Also try to have a Greatsword to gather mobs most of the time.

Don’t hesitate to use your Virtues.

JJBigs.8456:

full knight gear
use autistic healing
staff/gs over hammer/scepter-shield

scepter only if truely needed. a big chunk of your heals come from staff empower, and it makes up for lack of range. i only scepter for lets say like : TA Nightmare Tree, Arah, not much else. (alot in fotm)

autistic healing HA! not sure if typo or intended.