Guild Wars 2

I have been playing since the betas and I like to think up fun things to do in game.

I recently made a Guardian and since I have never really taken a liking to the class- I decided to go for a concept to keep myself entertained.

I wanted a very dainty- spellcaster, type character. I am using a scepter/focus and staff.

I noticed that she really tears through stuff so I started doing personal story and just didn’t stop when it out leveled me.
So now I hit lvl22 after joining an Order.

What I am wondering is how far can I push her?
Has anyone tied something similar?
Can you go for a greater than 10 level difference between you and mobs on a guardian?

I intend to go on until I hit a wall but I probably won’t do anymore tonight – so I thought I’d ask you guys.

Honestly atm it feels a bit like cheating playing her- and I have 5 level 80’s.
None of them felt quite like godmode

Pretty much every class has a period where they just steamroll the content in front of them.

I remember on my Ranger for example it was a bit of a bear into level 30 or so… then until level 70… I just couldn’t die. It didn’t matter what I was facing, how many of them… girl was unstoppable.

Then I hit Orr, and a Risen Abomination decided it was going to ignore my pet and turn me into an unpleasant smear on the bottom of its foot.

Yes sure that is true- I have seen it on my Ranger, Engi, 2 Mesmers and my especially my Necro.
I love playing all of them a lot and they are all 80.

For this Guardian I am on level 30 story now and heading to Ebonhawke for the next chapter since she joined the Vigil- I must admit taking her to Fields of Ruin at level 22 sends shivers of fear up my spine.
She can kill- but at that point if it hits me, I am dead.

My level 28 story mission with the risen and the abominations was pretty embarrassing and I had to do the walk of naked shame
Will see how it goes tomorrow- omg

I remember a friend and I started Frostgorge Sound at 65ish, capitalizing on being the first ones into that zone, we managed crap ton of exp per kill, however if you were to be caught with chill off the mob pack you would likely die.

However back then Guardians were truly god status. Not having an internal cooldown on vigorous precision was key.

Once you get dagger storm and signet of malice on a thief, you can drop caltrops, and spin up dagger storm and stay alive with like a dozen regular mobs wailing on you. After the dagger storm ends, you dodge out and spam #2 on the shortbow to finish off the few mobs that are left. With this you can take out as big of a group of regular mobs as you can gather together.

If you try to push your personal story i believe the most far you can get is that claw island quest, that waves of undead that dont give any xp will be a a pain.

Awe… don’t push me… I’m not all that bad…

Casmurro.9046:

If you try to push your personal story i believe the most far you can get is that claw island quest, that waves of undead that dont give any xp will be a a pain.

Yes I was thinking that Claw Island will be a major problem and I don’t even want to attempt it with out an Elite skill at least.
Since I am lvl22 now- and basically have a single stat- that is not something I think is possible.

going to try and finish up lvl30 story today but I think I might have to get some toughness or vitality food because at my current level mobs – 10-12 levels higher kills me in one
hit. Sure you can not get hit a lot on Guardian but it only takes one.

If I hit that wall today i will level up to 30 to get the Elite and see how far I can go from there

Edit: well the level 30 story went off with out a hitch so now on to lvl 33 story- hit level 23 at the end of lvl 30 story

OP, i too left the guardian until last and didnt really want to play one ever.

I did start one a few months ago and i found it the easiest profession to level.

I took her on a skill challenge spree and ended up running through mobs 10-15 levels higher and surviving (barely).

the many options for blocks and retaliation allow for severe gauntlet running.

You can push with knockback skills.

dostunuz.3982:

You can push with knockback skills.

End thread.

I have to admit, when I saw the topic line my first thought was “pretty far if you line him up with a cliff behind him…”

Necro 0-80 with 7 deaths. Absolute death machine.

GuzziHero.2467:

Necro 0-80 with 7 deaths. Absolute death machine.

Very impressive!
I agree and my Necro is probably my favourite character to play – I adore her.

I play axe/warhorn. scepter/dagger + wells on her and I love how when she twirls her little hand death happens

I am just trying this experiment on the Guardian baby- for kicks and giggles.
Basically this is the 3rd time I have tried Guardian and I have never really enjoyed it.
But I am running out of classes and I really don’t like warrior or thief play at all

It is purely for fun and a nice change of pace- plus the added bonus in learning how to play the class under a bit of pressure because her own level maps are just a complete faceroll

So I seem to have hit that wall at level 33 story, on a level 23 character.

Too many mobs- I and simply cannot put out enough damage yet. And one hit kills me if it hits

Will be interested to see what she can do once she actually has an elite skill and some traits

Morrigan.2809:

Very impressive!
I agree and my Necro is probably my favourite character to play – I adore her.

I play axe/warhorn. scepter/dagger + wells on her and I love how when she twirls her little hand death happens

I play a little against the grain, axe/dagger and staff, or axe/dagger and sceptre dagger. I weaken with axe and my little army goes marching in. Managed to kill all the final mobs in the Reaper of Grenth mission without aggroing the boss using them, so I could deal with him without adds! And I love the staff, when the shadow scythe appears on it.

If I was ever going to try for a 0-80 with no deaths challenge, I’d take a necro without question.

I once tried to Fraps myself defeating Retribution on an lvl 50 with all 50 Rare gear, but forgot that you only get a couple of minutes record time on the free version.

I remember mowing through mobs with my guardian at lower level. It was a blast. Then I started doing living story and haven’t played my guardian in a couple of months.

Out of curiosity, what does your trait build look like at the moment? I’m using scepter/focus and staff also, and I’ve hit a point at the early 50s where I feel like I’m barely hurting the mobs. Then again, I probably need to upgrade my weapons some.

I too am leveling a guard…rolled 57 last night. My build is a balanced power build (As opposed to zerker) and is pretty tough. If I want to use conditions, I’ll just use my necro which is a pure conditimancer build and I love it, but am looking for something more effective in dungeons and world bosses. For a weapon, I’ve chosen the GS as my main and have scepter/torch for an alternate. I do like the hammer as well, albeit a little slow and the staff, but I’ve read it’s a little too situational, so I’ll have to experiment. My focus has been on leveling, so I’m still learning some of the skills and weapons. Currently I have “strong” gear with “wurm” runes and trinkets to add toughness/survivability. My remaining 8 upgrade slots are Seal of the Soldier (x6) and Seal of the Assassin (x2). I believe seals are the only 3-attribute upgrades you can get at level 50 and ultra cheap for what you get. All gear is of rare quality. Once I hit 80, I’ll probably stick with great sword as a main and at the time experiment more with other weapon sets.

Morrigan.2809:

So I seem to have hit that wall at level 33 story, on a level 23 character.

Too many mobs- I and simply cannot put out enough damage yet. And one hit kills me if it hits

Will be interested to see what she can do once she actually has an elite skill and some traits

Your traits will often times do more for you than an elite skill, for instance once you hit 60 altruistic healing will greatly increase your survivability. Work towards selfless daring till then.

The biggest gap I’ve attempted was 10 levels (with a Guardian). That was a 70 guard versus L80 mobs in FGS. Since I had survival rather than DPS gear at the time, the fights were a draw. As long as I played well, they couldn’t kill me — but I didn’t have the damage to kill them before my ADD kicked in.

tinymurder.5791:

I remember mowing through mobs with my guardian at lower level. It was a blast. Then I started doing living story and haven’t played my guardian in a couple of months.

Out of curiosity, what does your trait build look like at the moment? I’m using scepter/focus and staff also, and I’ve hit a point at the early 50s where I feel like I’m barely hurting the mobs. Then again, I probably need to upgrade my weapons some.

Well being level 23, I don’t really have much of a build yet
as Judge Banks said traits will do a lot for you.

Atm I have 5/5/3/0/0 -though that will likely change a lot
utilities: signet of Judgement, Purging flames, Hold the line

running lvl 20 green mighty gear

I am tempted to move her traits around a bit and try again but since my damage output is too low already for that kind of gap I don’t think that will actually work.

She needs some more traits that is for sure- elite skill wont hurt either

I’m finding with a guard that too many of the master and grandmaster traits are too closely ties to specific weapons, greatly limiting the build. At the master level for valor, only 1 is not tied to a weapon, the others are tied to mace, hammer and shield. None of which I currently, or plan to use, and my current build does not use meditations, so I find myself using an adept level trait in my master slot.

I found guard to be the easiest class to level so far. Pure DPS gear. Get Virtue of Justice blinds, blinds cause vuln, and justice refreshes on kill and go ham on groups. Empower (swap to gs) 5,5,4,3,2,1,1,1,1,1,1 <- spam f1 while doing this. Grats, you’re 80.

I find that building for condition damage (and obviously survival) is the way to go. Conditions aren’t mitigated by armor or toughness and you can dish em out and then kite away while they eat away at your enemies.

Leveled my thief with conditions and it was EZ-mode using dodge-trops, caltrops, and D/D #3. Just mad stacks of bleeds and stealth away.

Obviously, different mechanics for guardian; never got mine past 45 due to boredom. But I’d think that if you can keep burns rolling you’ve got a shot. Maybe swap scepter to mace?

hehe not really looking for an easy way to level- I happen to like leveling and as I said I find Guardian very easy to start with.
(Leveling that is- compared to say Mesmer, even though I have 2 80 Mesmers)

I do find the build suggestions very helpful because I have no experience playing a guardian and it always helps to hear advise, so thanks all

this was just an experiment to see if I can go really far in my personal story while being low level myself.
And to hear if some of you have done similar things- which clearly you have.

Since this character is a concept character and I want to make her a spellcaster type
- think heavy mage class as opposed to the more typical sword saint,
I would welcome some suggestions on that.

Just wanted to say keep on with the updates! I’m really enjoying this thread, and also picking up useful builds for my Guardian, who has been sitting at 17 for a while now (like you, I tried a couple of times but never “got” it).

I, too, have a newfound appreciation for condition stacking (even though Necromancer is my main and favourite class, for some reason, condition did always seem never to pan out how I wanted it to when I built for it so ended up going mostly power, which seemed stupid). Started a condition Ranger last weekend and have her up to level 28 and breezing through most content. So am re-equipping my Necromancer to enhance her already impressive condi abilities, and may just take that route with the Guardian and spec for fire damage.

Bring on conditions!

CrossedHorse.4261:

Just wanted to say keep on with the updates! I’m really enjoying this thread, and also picking up useful builds for my Guardian, who has been sitting at 17 for a while now (like you, I tried a couple of times but never “got” it).

I, too, have a newfound appreciation for condition stacking (even though Necromancer is my main and favourite class, for some reason, condition did always seem never to pan out how I wanted it to when I built for it so ended up going mostly power, which seemed stupid). Started a condition Ranger last weekend and have her up to level 28 and breezing through most content. So am re-equipping my Necromancer to enhance her already impressive condi abilities, and may just take that route with the Guardian and spec for fire damage.

Bring on conditions!

thank you
About conditions- I have a checkered history with it since my very first character is a full condi Mesmer, and while she is virtually immortal she kills like a granny.

So with my other classes that are fairly condition heavy- well Ranger and Engi- I went Rampager- and that works very well for them.

Funnily my Necro which is by far my favorite is more power based and I have a hybrid build and mix of Beserker, Assasin , and I think Rampager’s on her

Might change it up some because I lost my high crit somewhere when I made some different weapons for her

The day they remove condition cap in PvE is the day I do a naked conga in LA

Yeah, I specced my Necro out in a hybrid of Rampager and Beserker (mostly Beserker), which does okay for damage, but she feels very squishy now (despite having a second health bar when she goes into Shroud). I’d love to see then remove the condition cap as well – or at least raise it to double or treble what it currently stands at. It pains me to see another Necro at a group event or similar and know that we’re basically going to be useless now.

Once I get my Ranger to a level where I start bothering what she’s wearing, I’ll be going Rampager’s for sure, but I had never considered building any conditions considerations into a Guardian. It’s something that I’m definitely going to take a look at, maybe this weekend.

Something to keep in mind… A condition build, regardless of the profession, is extremely powerful PvE solo (Or small groups), also in WvW and PvP, but due to the condition cap and nature of conditions are much less effective in PvE large groups, dungeons and world bosses. Marks also don’t affect world bosses. Stronger enemies, such as world bosses and many of those found in dungeons also typically shed conditions like water on wax paper or have some immunities. While I run a pure condition build necro (Dire/Undead), I still use 3 minions, which are not ideal for the build, but they allow me to be more effective in PvE groups due to the cap. I love my necro, but am building the GS guard to be more effective in PvE groups and a more viable player in dungeons. My necro will be retooled to be a minionless WvW condition beast once my guard is ready. My hope is that one day they will remove/raise/retool the PvE condition cap so that condition users are more effective in PvE.

Guardian.5142:

Awe… don’t push me… I’m not all that bad…

You made me laugh.