Guild Wars 2

Okay, so, a regular read one of my posts where I said that I had never run any dungeons because I don’t want to drag down a group carrying me while I learn everything from scratch. They whispered me in game and offered to walk me through AC and tutor me in the basics as they had done most of the game and found they really enjoyed helping other players.

I really appreciate this offer, but I am uncertain as to what to do to prepare, so I’m asking for some really basic preparation advice from this forum. Here is what I have to work with: I have a Warrior, Guardian, and Ranger all at level 80, but most have only been played through the leveling process and then very little one they hit 80. The gear and traits are mostly mishmash of whatever stuff seemed useful for leveling at the time, though I do have a full set of Soldier’s Armageddon exotic heavy armor and accessories for the Warrior or Guardian.

The biggest problem is me. I’m in my 40s, somewhat of an introvert, prone to tunnel vision/focus, and poor enough at reaction time gaming that I’ve almost never finished a console style game except for a couple on the lowest difficulty setting. Since I can’t do what I did before (plate armored tank healbot) I’ve mostly avoided dealing with preparing to group in this game, but now I want to figure out where to start.

I think I need to decide if I am going to focus on the Warrior or the Guardian, pick an appropriate build and weapon set, and learn the associated major skills for dealing damage, mitigating damage, and providing support in a group setting. However, I have no idea what profession/weapon combination will be the best for me to learn. I need to be able to stay alive, and I’m pretty sure focusing on learning to do a small number of things reliably is more likely to work that trying to learn to choose between a lot of options or juggle skills while also trying to watch cooldowns, boss tells, red circles, and time dodges.

Any suggestions on where to start?

Guardian stays alive like a charm; for the longest time my total-support Guardian was my dungeon runner (and thanks to AR is still my go to for Fractals teens and up). But I won’t PuG with her because her dps is often in the double digits and most PuGs will consider that leeching, no matter how much aegis, heal, stability, condition cleanse etc I do.

But I use her on guild runs because my guildies don’t care about speed, just fun. She’s primarily scepter/focus so I can stay further back from the scrimmage and has the heal tome elite (every 3 minutes I can channel for 5 seconds and restore everyone’s health to full if called for, so long as they don’t get downed during my channel).

Dealing damage: toss on a Chains (traited to cause Vulnerability) and drop scepter 2 under the foe. Hit F1 to make all my party’s attacks set the foe on fire for a bit. (Remember, I’m not actually doing much dps on this alt, I’m just sort of supplementing).

Mitigating damage: F2 to toss out a heal, F3 to give everyone aegis to block one attack. I have Purity of Voice so I like to run 3 shouts: Retreat, Hold the Line, and Save Yourselves (and I trait for rapid cd on shouts). Thus not only am I blocking/regenning/protecting/condition cleansing everyone (keep one eye on party portraits — if you see a lot of red debuffs, it’s a good time to cleanse), I’m doing extra condition cleanse on top of that. I can swap out to Wall of Reflect, Stand Your Ground, and such for specific fights.

Support: All of the above. Plus that elite heal. She’s geared to a lot of Vitality and Healing Power. Again, not optimum for hurting things, not likely to make you welcome to random strangers. But fairly simple to manage, relatively speaking.

Context: I also am in my forties (near the end of them), lack twitch reflexes, and can get tunnel vision at times though years of MMOs have taught me some situational awareness. That said, I revel in Mesmer these days, but you don’t have one of those to kit out.

Okay, I went searching for Guardian beginner dungeon information and found some stuff on dulfy that might be worth looking at in addition to what I assume would be Greatsword / Scepter Focus.

Greatsword/Sword Focus
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApQotCxXI8DRR8Ql7Y8iW/BtwGUVAgDA-ThRBABXt/o8DPdP5dRAA4JFQp6PmpEUQAlD-e

A variation of the core build for players that need some extra vigor to help with dodging. You still have access to instant condition removal and longer Consecrations. It’s suited for players that are still learning dodging, boss animations and are playing a lot of Fractals, Arah or other dungeons they don’t have enough experience with.

In Radiance we add another point to get Right-Hand Strength (XI). This will increase the crit-chance with one-handed weapons by 15%. It will not increase your crit-chance in the Hero’s Panel, it only affects one-handed weapons attacks.

In Honor we add one point just to get the Vigorous Precision trait – gain 5 seconds of Vigor (6,25sec with 5 points in Virtues) whenever you deliver a critical hit (with a 10 second cooldown).

Hammer/Greatsword
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASRlsApQotCxXI8DRR8gk1Yb/8quAY+cLA-ThRBABXt/o8DPdN5dJAA4JFQp6PmpEUQAlD-e

This build is targeted at less experienced Guardian players or those who don’t really want to work hard to get smooth runs. This build sacrificed DPS for the utility of the hammer.

In Zeal we add one point to get Symbolic Exposure to get Vulnerability on symbols. The hammer offers permanent Symbol of Protection so this is one of the traits you want to have if your party is not stacking a lot of Vulnerability.

In Radiance we keep Blind Exposure (VI) as we are still using a greatsword rotation. However, we change Powerful Blades (X) to Radiant Fire (VII). This change is made because we do not gain anything from increasing Sword/Spear damage and there is really nothing else to take. We increase burning duration to keep our Radiant Power and Fiery Wrath (zeal II) damage modifiers up as the hammer autoattack is much slower.

In Honor we add 4 points. If we take the hammer for protection, let’s make most of it – if you don’t want protection just go back to a greatsword/sword focus build. Take Superior Aria (II) to lower the cooldown on Shouts and Writ of Persistence (VII) to permanently maintain Protection from Symbol of Protection – the last attack in the hammer autoattack chain. It is important to remember that if you play with hammer you really want to keep autoattacking and, if you need to use other skills, finish your autoattack chain first.

In Virtues we keep the 2 points in case you want to take Master of Consecrations (VI) or Unscathed Contender (I).

Do either of these look like a good starting point for learning? Also, I understand that Warriors have a larger base health pool. I assume the tradeoff is that it is harder to defend the larger health pool on a Warrior than it is to protect the smaller health pool on a Guardian?

look at these two options:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_GS_Sword/Focus
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Fractal_Hammer

Good luck!

Do either of these look like a good starting point for learning? Also, I understand that Warriors have a larger base health pool. I assume the tradeoff is that it is harder to defend the larger health pool on a Warrior than it is to protect the smaller health pool on a Guardian?

Both look fine, although I personally prefer using Signet of Resolve (bigger heal, occasional condition cleanse) and Runes of Strengths (even solo, it’s very easy for Guardians to have at least one stack of Might running).

Keep in mind that both builds maximise their potential through weapon swapping on a rotation. It’s great for learning slightly more advanced gameplay mechanics that applies to most classes, i.e. understanding the purpose of each weapon skill and be active with swapping to the appropriate weapon at the appropriate time.

While there are many tradeoffs between a Warrior and Guardian, if the question is solely about their health pools, then yes, it is indeed more difficult to maintain a Warrior’s health pool.

Slalom.3174:

look at these two options:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_GS_Sword/Focus
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Fractal_Hammer

Good luck!

Looking over those two, Fractal Hammer seems more doable given the following excerpts:

→ Try not to interrupt the auto attack chain of both weapons unless necessary. Interrupting the auto attack chain will result in a dps loss. The whole point of this build is the symbol from the 3rd hit of hammer autoattack.

→ Using other weapon abilities will result in a dps loss, use them only for their utility effects.

→ When appropriately traited, staying on hammer isn’t abysmal DPS. With Writ of Persistence Writ of Persistence , using only hammer auto attack is about 90-97% of the DPS of a proper GreatswordS+Hammer rotation with the same build.

Unless I’m misreading this, it sounds like falling back on traited Hammer autoattack for damage and concentrating mostly on damage mitigation for my active skill usage might be a viable learning strategy with this build.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the warrior as an option. When I research I see lots of references to warriors having great passive survivability while guardians require active defence, but then I see lots of references to warriors swapping weapons, using shouts, dropping banners, etc which make me wonder if there might be a lot more total skill juggling on the warrior making it easier to just learn defense on the guardian.

This seems to be referenced frequently as a good warrior starter setup.
http://intothemists.com/guides/2609-dps_dungeon_build_for_new_lvl_80_warriors_training_wheel_guide_before_you_go_full_zerker

DavidH.7380:

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the warrior as an option. When I research I see lots of references to warriors having great passive survivability while guardians require active defence, but then I see lots of references to warriors swapping weapons, using shouts, dropping banners, etc which make me wonder if there might be a lot more total skill juggling on the warrior making it easier to just learn defense on the guardian.

This seems to be referenced frequently as a good warrior starter setup.
http://intothemists.com/guides/2609-dps_dungeon_build_for_new_lvl_80_warriors_training_wheel_guide_before_you_go_full_zerker

Warriors are very forgiving because of two things. A big HP pool and healing signet. Although the other healing skills offer better burst heals, the constant tick of heals from healsig make it the heal skill of choice for sustained fighting.

Warriors are very good all rounders, your “jack of all trades” as it were.
If you want to start out in a more support oriented role, you can go with shout / cleanse, which involves investment into the Tactics line. Traits you would use are Lung Capacity and Quick breathing, and you’d be using Axe / Warhorn while your armour would have Trooper runes. Coupled with shouts like For Great Justice, Shake it off and On My mark or Fear me, you can keep a party permanently free of conditions. This is a common fit for WvW.

For damage oriented support, you could invest in Lung capacity or Inspiring banners, and Empower Allies. This requires a trait build along the lines of X/X/X/4/X.
A previously popular build is 4/6/0/6/0 or 6/4/0/6/0 which is the Phalanx Strength support warrior. In the tactics line, you would take Empowered, Empower Allies and Phalanx strength. This is then combo’d with a Deep Strike, Rending Strikes and Forceful greatsword to stack might or just Deep strike and Forceful Greatsword. You’d pack Banners of discipline and strength, if you’re the only warrior. The third utility slot for me is usually Shake it off, it’s the best stun breaker/cleanser skill.

Banners are very useful utilities and can be picked up to give fury, in the case of Discipline banner, or stack more vulnerability in the case of strength banner. Also, their no. 5 skill is a blast finisher and can be combo’d with longbow burst skill for more might stacking.

Azrael.4960:

Warriors are very forgiving because of two things. A big HP pool and healing signet. Although the other healing skills offer better burst heals, the constant tick of heals from healsig make it the heal skill of choice for sustained fighting.

Warriors are very good all rounders, your “jack of all trades” as it were.
If you want to start out in a more support oriented role, you can go with shout / cleanse, which involves investment into the Tactics line.

What I really want is to not end up dead on the floor 1/3 of the way through every fight because I missed a dodge, and then I was watching to see when my healing skill would come off cooldown, so I didn’t see the tell for the next big attack in time to realize I needed to swap weapons and use skill #4 to mitigate it.

Something along the lines of “autoattack, move out of red circles, monitor health & use #6 when low, watch the boss for tells and either dodge or use #4 to mitigate, use #2 when it comes off cooldown, and finally use #9 in an emergency if you get in trouble” is more my speed, but I have real trouble finding information and advice that doesn’t assume you are way past that point skill wise and much more actively in control of all your options. Obviously I would add more skills to my repertoire once that became more instinctive and less demanding to keep up with, but starting as simple as possible and staying alive is the first step.

DavidH.7380:

What I really want is to not end up dead on the floor 1/3 of the way through every fight because I missed a dodge, and then I was watching to see when my healing skill would come off cooldown, so I didn’t see the tell for the next big attack in time to realize I needed to swap weapons and use skill #4 to mitigate it.

Something along the lines of “autoattack, move out of red circles, monitor health & use #6 when low, watch the boss for tells and either dodge or use #4 to mitigate, use #2 when it comes off cooldown, and finally use #9 in an emergency if you get in trouble” is more my speed, but I have real trouble finding information and advice that doesn’t assume you are way past that point skill wise and much more actively in control of all your options. Obviously I would add more skills to my repertoire once that became more instinctive and less demanding to keep up with, but starting as simple as possible and staying alive is the first step.

In that regard, Warriors are definitely your thing. Especially with a Greatsword as you get an extra dodge with the number 3 skill Whirlwind attack. Even if you go with full berserker gear, you’ll still have a very high HP pool. I run the fairly standard berserker kit for most fights. My usual approach to most fights is

1. Set approach and drop Banners of Discipline and Strength.
2. Throw greatsword with skill4 to hit as many targets as possible to trigger aggro
3. Run into range and trigger whirlwind attack. Auto attack then Hundred blades, Arcing slice on occasion.
4. Keep an eye on conditions and health. Back away or dodge out when low and switch to longbow. Pop Shake it off on dangerous conditions like large stacks of bleed or if in need of stun breaker.
5. When health is back up, switch back to greatsword and repeat 1-3.
6. Drop banners again if off cool down and fight looks long.

The beauty of banner builds is that you have a 90 second cool down on them so you don’t have to worry about them once you’ve cast them. Once you’ve gotten the hang of them, you can use skill 5 on banners to blast things like water and fire fields.

If OP plans to go warrior, please do yourself a favor and read this guide: http://dulfy.net/2014/06/28/gw2-comprehensive-warrior-pve-guide-by-element/ You cannot get a better guide than it.

Warriors have 18,472 base HP at level 80, highest tied with necro. Guardians have 10,905, lowest tied with thief and elementalist.

In terms of survivability, I think that is a consideration.

Okay, I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading and researching looking for options that balance damage, survival, and simplicity to play. I think I may have found base templates suitable to copy or modify for both the warrior and guardian. Most recommendations seem to lean in favor staying with berzerker stats for weapons and accessories and using knights armor and/or runes to buff up toughness and vitality as needed.

Pure Greatsword Warrior
“The rotations in this build are pretty simple: Hundred Blades -> Rush (if it is off cooldown) -> Whirlwind Attack -> autoattack chain until Hundred Blades is back up. Interrupting Hundred Blades is a large DPS loss, so use your judgement and don’t start a Hundred Blades when you anticipate needing to dodge half a second after.”

Solo/DPS: Same as the Standard Build, but takes 2 points in Arms instead of picking up Empower Allies.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNBhYDbkpjKP77w2DORD8DImDMox5Rr2kqJA-TxRBABXt/o8DPdDacEAA4iAk3DAgS1fMTJooAiI-e

Pure Hammer Guardan
Based off the Fractal Hammer guardian build. “Try not to interrupt the auto attack chain. The whole point of this build is the symbol from the 3rd hit of hammer autoattack. Using other weapon abilities will result in a dps loss, so use them only for their utility effects. When appropriately traited, staying on hammer isn’t abysmal DPS. With Writ of Persistence Writ of Persistence , using only hammer auto attack is about 90-97% of the DPS of a proper GreatswordS+Hammer rotation with the same build.”

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Fractal_Hammer

I don’t know if knights armor with soldier runes or runes of the trooper would add enough vitality to make this work or not, but it seems like the most promising dungeon guardian build variant for what I need.

If you really want to gear for “survivability”, then I’d always recommend prioritising Toughness over Vitality any day. Higher Toughness increases the efficiency of your heals (active and passive), whereas Vitality only increases your health pool marginally.

Also, if you’re still unsure about armour sets, remember that you can always give each stat combination a try by buying Masterwork or Rare qualities before investing into Exotics.

Ojimaru.8970:

If you really want to gear for “survivability”, then I’d always recommend prioritising Toughness over Vitality any day. Higher Toughness increases the efficiency of your heals (active and passive), whereas Vitality only increases your health pool marginally.

Also, if you’re still unsure about armour sets, remember that you can always give each stat combination a try by buying Masterwork or Rare qualities before investing into Exotics.

Good point. Knight → Berserker seems to be the armor path for the warrior, which seems like the one I’ll probably try first.