Guild Wars 2

Hey. I am a level 80 guardian currently spec’d into power (30), Precision (10) and Toughness (30). I have 5 exotic pieces (Knight’s draconic set) of gear and the rest ‘rares’ and ‘Greens’. Main weapon used is a greatsword. My stats are as follow:

Power: 1,954
Precision: 1,715
Toughness: 1,418
Vitality: 916
Attack: 3,054
Critical chance: 42%
Armour: 2,586
Health: 10,805

And yet when farming in the cursed shore I can’t go into a fight without having to cast a heal, I feel way more squishy than I should, if I get attacked during an event I most certainly get downed. Is this normal? Or am I doing something wrong?

The one thing that stands out to me is: Health: 10,805. My Ranger has a little over 19,000 and I find that low with all the condition damage I see. Toughness is great against sword blows, but as far as I know, only a deep health pool will buffer you against condition damage.

Are you sure that health number is accurate? It seems incredibly low.

That is a screen shot of health + stats. Do you think I should respec into vitality rather than toughness?

I’m just a bit surprised is all. I know that Guardians have low health to start with, but I never imagined it was that low.

I’m no authority on high level Guardian gameplay, so I can’t actually recommend any strategies. But you might consider swapping in some vitality trinkets to see how that affects your performance. That’s a quick and dirty suggestion that won’t require a respec and doesn’t alter your armor or weapons. It just cost some silver or karma, depending on where you get them.

But honestly, neglecting vitality will usually result in some kind of glass cannon variant, even if you are sporting some nifty heavy metal. Armor defense will only carry you so far and like I mentioned earlier, that doesn’t give you any protection from condition damage. You’ll feel a few stacks of poison and bleed a lot faster than a clothie with a decent vitality investment. If that’s actually what’s happening, then you’ll need to start thinking about playing more like a glass cannon than a tank. That means damage avoidance and mobility is paramount. Oh, and have at least a couple of methods of cleansing conditions available because you can’t afford to let them stack up and tick for very long.

I’ve got a Guardian that I’m leveling now so I’m going to be on the look out for this issue as I progress. If there’s that much of a disparity in the health pools, it will be a real eye opener coming off of Ranger play.

Thanks for your advice I’m really shocked as to how low my health actually is

All classes have the same base stats at level 80, so starting stats don’t matter. Looking at your screenshot you literally have nothing in vitality. I am no expert, but if you want to be tanky at all, get some mods on your amour to get your vitality up, if the wiki is correct 1 vitality = 10 HP.

I don’t try and be tanky and I always make sure to have extra in vitality, it’s always nice to have a cushion.

baldsh.3896:

All classes have the same base stats at level 80, so starting stats don’t matter.

I don’t think this is true. I have read in multiple places that there are three tiers of base health for the different classes, and Guardians are in the bottom tier along with Elementalists.

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To the OP: I have found that the Honor line (Vitality/Healing Power) is vastly superior to the Valor line (Toughness/Expertise) in terms of survivability increases, both due to the stat bonuses and the traits themselves. I don’t think anything increased my survivability as much as the combination of high healing power and Selfless Daring, which heals me (and nearby allies) for several hundred HP every time I roll. Writ of the Merciful is also non-trivial, since that’s another 100+ HP heal every second while I’m standing in one of my symbols (which is basically all the time since I run GS/Hammer).

You, my fellow Guardian, is what is known as a “glass cannon” amongst our piers. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve with the following:

• Staff,
• Save Yourselves, and
• Judge’s Intervention

I would like you to consider packing a little more defensive utility. Namely Mace/Focus, Hammer, and/or Hold the Line. What you’re looking for is Protection and Regeneration Boons on short cooldowns, unlike Save Yourselves’ 60-second wait.

Also, Zealous Blade is a red herring. Its heals, especially at 80, is useless.

Ok so a few things here ill point out. I also am a guardian but im more of a defensive build. Currently in all rare armor and jewlery i have the following stats. 1st set of numbers is with my staff. 2nd set is with my greatsword. Currently have no runes.
Power: 1,594/1,599
Precision: 1,010/1,005
Toughness: 1,596/1,491
Vitality: 1,417/1,496
Attack: 2,508/2305
Critical chance: 8%/8%
Armour: 2,667/2,562
Health: 16,448/17,269
Healing Power: 847/700

I regen massive hp threw my fight i also dont take a ton of damage. Should i need to heal though i have my staff which in about 5 seconds i can heal around 5-6k with just it. I’ve found this game is unforgiving to your glass cannon play style. Especially on melee types.

Edit: Also to those talking about condition damage a guardian can purge condition every 10 seconds with a greatsword.

If he’s going for knight’s armor he’s not going glass cannon, he’s just focusing more on armor than health. That is generally good on a Guardian, because most of our survivability comes from healing and regeneration combined with a lot of attack negation (wall of reflection, multiple ways to give aegis, block attacks, and give protection). So all of your regen and healing is more worthwhile with more armor (each point of health you have is worth more than someone with lower armor).

That being said having base vit is still way too low. A lot of things like Signet of Resolve become hard to use when their heal is almost your whole health bar, you end up wasting abilites with overhealing. I have 2852 armor and 14565 hp with greatsword (13435 with staff) equipped and feel reasonably tanky while keeping 1819 power and 1865 precision.

Hassohappa.9278:

If he’s going for knight’s armor he’s not going glass cannon, he’s just focusing more on armor than health. That is generally good on a Guardian, because most of our survivability comes from healing and regeneration combined with a lot of attack negation (wall of reflection, multiple ways to give aegis, block attacks, and give protection). So all of your regen and healing is more worthwhile with more armor (each point of health you have is worth more than someone with lower armor).

That being said having base vit is still way too low. A lot of things like Signet of Resolve become hard to use when their heal is almost your whole health bar, you end up wasting abilites with overhealing. I have 2852 armor and 14565 hp with greatsword (13435 with staff) equipped and feel reasonably tanky while keeping 1819 power and 1865 precision.

Soldier gear with knight jewelery?

SiNoS.2147:

Soldier gear with knight jewelery?

Knight’s armor, soldier greatsword, cleric’s staff, knight’s earrings/amulet with a valkyrie ring and berserker’s ring and back.

15/25/5/20/5 spec

I’d say go vitality. I went 30 Zeal, 10 Radiance, and 30 Honor, and I don’t need to use my self heal unless I’m fighting more than 3 or so enemies. You can throw around a lot of healing with Honor traits, which easily increases survivability. Hell, I just have random armor from drops, and I don’t have problems unless I’m just acting like an idiot.

I’m Specced 25(power/30(precision)/10(toughness)/5(honour)
I dont have any good armor basically using all Masterwork stuff and i think my stats are something like 12.7k hp, 35% crit and like 2.8-3k armor. I use the GS and mace+focus, usually i can handle 2-3 normal mobs no problem, Veteran + 1 mob is also fine most of the time, so it’s quite surprising to see why you are so fragile. I do have some vit gear though, trinkets and stuff.

Knight’s armor, soldier greatsword, cleric’s staff, knight’s earrings/amulet with a valkyrie ring and berserker’s ring and back.

15/25/5/20/5 spec

Where did you find a back piece at? I’ve been stuck with the personal quest on for a while now.

You can get a masterwork back piece later in the personal quest. You can get a rare back piece with 2 more of its primary stat and 1 more of its secondary stats for 5 gold from your guild armorer.

I have found changing my jewellery and putting 30 points into vitality rather than toughness has given me a lot more survivability Around 16k health now. What I find strange is I died more times on my guardian than my level 15 elementalist in WvW :/

you need to spec more into getting health either through your traits or through gear. i’m currently fully geared out with these stats ( of the top of my head):
17k hp
41% crit chance
80% crit damage
2.2k attack
2.2k armor
I don’t use heals except in dungeons, mostly usage of dodges and blinds/aegis.
your defense isn’t high enough that you can discount vitality.
And to whomever said something about base stats, yah we have the same base vitality as everyone else, but the class scaling differs.

Blacklight.2871:

I’m just a bit surprised is all. I know that Guardians have low health to start with, but I never imagined it was that low.

It’s rather interesting how they distributed health to professions, at level 80, without any traits or gear, they are:
Warrior, Necromancer – 18’372
Ranger, Engineer, Mesmer – 15’082
Elementalist, Guardian, Thief – 10’805

That said, you can add nearly 20k HP by traiting into vitality and getting vitality-based gear.