Guild Wars 2

Let me start off by saying …" Hey all, long time listener, first time caller"
I’ve been playing since launch (minus a 6-9 month leave) and have been a PvE pro. Told myself, which I hear alot from others too, once i get my legendary I’ll start to WvW.
That turned into : after I get my second…..
Since WvW season 1 started, I cant go back to PvE. I wont let it turn into: once i get my third.
I do alright with my PvE builds and gear, but it seems like I get stomped when my buddies aren’t around. I’ve read and read but cant find any really good builds or they leave out gear and/or weapons.

I would appreciate any info and/or links you can provide
Right know I have:
GEAR Zerk set scholar runes, Soldier set trav runes, can make celest set
WEAPONS twilight,juggernaut, all zerk ascended weapons
ASESSORIES zerk soldier celest ascended sets
(believe me, I’m not bragging …….I got no room to brag in WvW)

What I want to do….??? Not die so freakin much lol

Well you can learn time your dodge, blinds, block and stuff better, but squishy spec is squishy spec.

I’m your polar opposite; PvE noob veteran of the Mists.

Easy ways not to die:
- Don’t chase squirrels. Eg. if you’re with a zerg and see one or a few enemies nearby, don’t chase them down. In a lot of cases, that means they’re running back to their own zerg and you’ll turn the corner and come face to face with another 50 people.
- Listen to the commander and pay attention to their actions.
- Save havoc or roaming until you’re more experienced. For now, you want to stay with the group and learn routes and methods inside and out. Once you get how zergs flow through the map you’ll have a better idea of how to avoid them when you’re solo.
- Honestly, I don’t have any legendary gear and I’ve gone in to WvW with multiple characters and leveled them from 1 to 80 100% in WvW. Gear does make a difference, but as long as you’re staying close to the zerg you can still get lots of kills and suffer few deaths. You’re not exceptionally squishy whether you have good or bad gear so it doesn’t play a huge role. I say this just so you know that no matter how good your layout is it doesn’t mean you’re going to be any better.
- If you ever see a thief… Maybe this is just me, but I seriously recommend staying on full alert. More often than not they’re just a wuss stealthing and sneaking around not providing their server with much support. But some times they’re a force to be reckoned with and if you lag behind the group or you’re roaming solo they’ll end your life pretty fast… So if you see someone vanish don’t disregard it until at a least a few minutes pass.
- And lastly, don’t get over-confident. This was my number one biggest mistake when I discovered WvW. I was always at the front of the group, always going PvD crazy when we were attacking towers and chasing every enemy I saw into the fray. AoE’s can stack pretty fast and usually if you see an enemy solo there are others not far. Even if it isn’t a zerg it might be a havoc and they’ll appear at the worst time. So remember to stay defensive and keep your head on your shoulders until it becomes reflex. I don’t command but I know full well what I’m doing now and I die very rarely. I actually make it my duty to stay alive so I can res the downed. And if I’m solo I always make sure to look both ways when crossing a road. You’d be surprised at how many people, havoc, zerg or roamer, will stick pretty tightly to roads. So when I’m alone I try to avoid them to the best of my ability and it serves me pretty well.

I’m sure someone will quote this and tell me how everything I’ve said is wrong but I hope this helps and good luck. Friend or foe the more people in WvW the better.

Time to change from zerk… WvW you need more health, and toughness.

some damage is fine, but if you are running in a zerg, having those numbers makes individual damage less powerful.

I’m currently running Boonway guardian. although I’m going to start leveling my Mesmer as i prefer the class.

Depends what type of WvW you’re doing. Large scale or small scale.

In large scale a well rounded build would be:
Greatsword or hammer(Pvt/Knight’s)/Staff with soldier gear with melandru/soldier runes.
Celestial trinkets. 0, 0, 30(VI, IV, XI), 30(II, IX, XI), 10(II or III)
with Stand You’re ground, Hold the Line then a cooldown you can switch as you like.
Zerker set or Celest set with the Soldier trinkets could also work.
This build is built for surviving large organised while buffing teammates and having reasonable damage.

For small scale the world is your oyster really depending how much damage you want to put out. Jax’s Meditation build on the guardian forums is pretty good.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first
Weapons Greatsword/ (Sword or scepter) and Focus or Hammer.
If you don’t want to swap your armour to much you could use the same general armour but do your talents 0, 0 (or 10), 0( or 10), 30 , 30
Valor or Radiance Trait of your choice, same honour talents and (II, IX, X) in virtues. The extra boon duration, heal over time and extra access to stability are quite nice.

If you like some semi-offensive gameplay style, you may try sth like this - It provides good group support via shouts and has nice damage mitigation due to blinds, blocks and condition remove (light field + whirl finishers <3), and it will just cost you some badges of honor for an additional soldier’s gear, some coin for runes of the soldier, and some laurels / FotM tokens for more defensive rings.
3k armor and ~18k HP is absolutely fine for starters in most situations, even for a full melee player. You might also try a combination of GS and Sword/Focus for some more situational self-protection (blinds, projectile block and melee block) before switching to the almighty GS/H.

Just imagine your enemies in 1vs1 or small group fights to be like boss fights with more dynamics. Learn key skills and common behaviour (most builds and players play pretty obvious and have some kind of spike-rotation which can be easily countered by dodging, blocking and blinding, as well as CC skills).
Guardians are not that great at escaping if they don’t slot teleports and leaps, so just run in smaller groups to have someone backing you up (e.g. thieves and mesmers are nice for target resets) while getting used to all this stuff. Don’t hammer out your skills, but use them for what they are good at and get used to kiting and dodging; Learn to use line of sight and range to your advantage; Dodge through enemies to break their skill activation (many spells won’t cast then / hit you) instead of moving away from them.
Also a hint to counter thieves: Most builds lose at least 50% of their effectiveness if you face them. Don’t get them in your back, and their damage drops significantly. Most necros and some mesmer builds are very hard to counter – It is up to you to figure out if you want to fight or kite. Many Eles can be handled by using CC and blocks against them. Some warrior builds are out of hands atm… Rangers with LB → stay close, rangers with condition builds: face them, dodge their pets; Engineers: kite, kite, kite, prepare your burst and CC – if you get an OD on conditions, just back out – condition spam is pretty common nowadays, no need to waste your small HP pool on easy-mode gameplay.

I was running Thief/Warrior for the last 5-4 Months in WvW and now switched to my Guardian who’s running Modified Cleric Build (3000 ATT/3000 Armor/960 Heal(With Zerker sword or 1190 with Cleric Staff/30% Crit Chance and 50% Crit damage), an easily solo camps or roam. I’m having trouble with Warriors while roaming, but that’s about it.