Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I am looking for input regarding these two trait setups: 0/10/30/30/0 & 0/0/30/30/10

With the first setup I have more critical chance and can skill for a lower cooldown on signets. The increase in critical chance will mean I have a better chance at activating critical related skills and my dps will be a little higher. I can also provide an aoe blind.

With the second setup I can provide boons from virtue activation and my virtues now have lower cooldowns. All my boons will last longer too. This means that important boons like stability will benefit my group more.

I have been rocking the second setup for quite a bit, and was thinking of going back to the first. The first setup can be kind of selfish because its focusing more on me doing damage and surviving rather than giving the group longer lasting boons, but does it really make a difference?

I rock a 0/15/30/20/5 build. i only change it ever if i go to fractal lvl 30+ where i change it to a 0/10/30/20/10 or a 0/0/30/30/10 because i think the consecration abilitys are really nice at high fractals. otherwise the 0/15/30/20/5 build will be able to tank enough dmg in any dungon and the consecration trait isn’t as usefull.

the resets you get from minor trait II is actually pretty nice. and grants you some serious survive-ability because you grant everyone 3 stacks of might whenever you kill a foe basically. witch not only gives alot of dmg but also a lot of hp from AH.

as for the 2 trait set-ups you are choosing between. i’d say the 0/0/30/30/10 build is superior because it will grant your team alot of boons from the minor triat 1.

imo. go try the 0/15/30/20/5 build because i prefer the renewed justice over 2 handed mastery in 75% of the fights.

I can’t say I can offer a comparison, not as far as trying both. But both were in consideration plus 0-5-30-30-5 (called dreadnought at gw2builds dot org) which is another popular build. But I went with the signet build .. or signet dreadnought build or whatever (0-10-30-30-0) and haven’t had any impulse to change it from purely dungeon running.

Yes, more crit and more self heals. I also like to use flame legion runes adding even more damage (target burns a LOT + trait). Up power through most everything else including food buffs when needed.

If you want constant buffs, that’s what inviting a mesmer is for …unless it’s my GS mesmer haha. But upping your DPS is beneficial to a group as well, along with those mace heals and quick revives among other benefits. You are also benefiting shield, mace and 2h weapons to use the extra accuracy.

So bottom line is I went with a damage dealing (well enough) healing tank. Less buffs for party, but not as much needed if I can keep my targets attention. DPS plays into that. The 20% recharge for sig heal has proven useful in this.

Waraxx.4286:

I rock a 0/15/30/20/5 build. i only change it ever if i go to fractal lvl 30+ where i change it to a 0/10/30/20/10 or a 0/0/30/30/10 because i think the consecration abilitys are really nice at high fractals. otherwise the 0/15/30/20/5 build will be able to tank enough dmg in any dungon and the consecration trait isn’t as usefull.

the resets you get from minor trait II is actually pretty nice. and grants you some serious survive-ability because you grant everyone 3 stacks of might whenever you kill a foe basically. witch not only gives alot of dmg but also a lot of hp from AH.

as for the 2 trait set-ups you are choosing between. i’d say the 0/0/30/30/10 build is superior because it will grant your team alot of boons from the minor triat 1.

imo. go try the 0/15/30/20/5 build because i prefer the renewed justice over 2 handed mastery in 75% of the fights.

Are you using runes of the soldier?

mrauls.6519:

Are you using runes of the soldier?

no, why are you asking?

i’m using 4x pack and 2x monk

oh and, i’m a pve player. going 0/15/30/20/5 in pvp would just be stupid. as for pvp i cant speak. as i’ve played approx 0 min of pvp as a guardian.

mrauls.6519:

Hey guys,

I am looking for input regarding these two trait setups: 0/10/30/30/0 & 0/0/30/30/10

With the first setup I have more critical chance and can skill for a lower cooldown on signets. The increase in critical chance will mean I have a better chance at activating critical related skills and my dps will be a little higher. I can also provide an aoe blind.

With the second setup I can provide boons from virtue activation and my virtues now have lower cooldowns. All my boons will last longer too. This means that important boons like stability will benefit my group more.

I have been rocking the second setup for quite a bit, and was thinking of going back to the first. The first setup can be kind of selfish because its focusing more on me doing damage and surviving rather than giving the group longer lasting boons, but does it really make a difference?

What makes a difference is Master of Consecrations VS. cooldown reduction on your signet.

timecookie.8570:

What makes a difference is Master of Consecrations VS. cooldown reduction on your signet.

actually it’s

Master of Consecrations and boons on virtue activation VS. cooldown reduction on your signet

O_O this whole time I thought boon duration was a selfish thing as I thought it only applies to myself. Just found out it affects whoever I cast it to….!!! Awesome

Waraxx.4286:

actually it’s

Master of Consecrations and boons on virtue activation VS. cooldown reduction on your signet

Pretty much, + precision & condition duration.

10% duration may not seem like a big deal, but using flame legion runes adding +5 damage against the burning, more crits along with extra crit dmg from valor, well it adds up.

Add +5 mace trait and +10 night sigils (mace/shield – GS) and on burning foes, I can’t complain

Daywolf.2630:

Waraxx.4286:

actually it’s

Master of Consecrations and boons on virtue activation VS. cooldown reduction on your signet

Pretty much, + precision & condition duration.

10% duration may not seem like a big deal, but using flame legion runes adding +5 damage against the burning, more crits along with extra crit dmg from valor, well it adds up.

Add +5 mace trait and +10 night sigils (mace/shield – GS) and on burning foes, I can’t complain

radiance is precision&cond damage. Doesn’t this mean the burning inflicts more damage per tick, but doesn’t actually stay on longer….

Kangataz.6842:

radiance is precision&cond damage. Doesn’t this mean the burning inflicts more damage per tick, but doesn’t actually stay on longer….

buuurrrrrrrrn

get it? burn as in burning and burn as in humiliated.
ahhh… i’m hilarious.

Kangataz.6842:

Daywolf.2630:

Waraxx.4286:

actually it’s

Master of Consecrations and boons on virtue activation VS. cooldown reduction on your signet

Pretty much, + precision & condition duration.

10% duration may not seem like a big deal, but using flame legion runes adding +5 damage against the burning, more crits along with extra crit dmg from valor, well it adds up.

Add +5 mace trait and +10 night sigils (mace/shield – GS) and on burning foes, I can’t complain

radiance is precision&cond damage. Doesn’t this mean the burning inflicts more damage per tick, but doesn’t actually stay on longer….

Yeah one way or the other (duration vs damage) not sure which is better in and of itself. But in this case, more burning from runes plus 5% against burning foes, well the longer it burns, the better? Yeah burn baby burn! hah
But of course not everyone is wanting to adorn flame legion (e.g. legion hauberk of flame legion).

It’s hard to balance duration vs. damage for conditions. For burning specifically on Guardian, I set my self the following rule of thumb:

Duration is better than CD in PVE if you have Zeal 10 and you are active VOJ. If you don’t, I think the favour leans towards condition damage. You give up alot of potential CD gaining burn duration so you better make the most of that duration with Zeal 10.

Be mindful that if you decide to try to increase burning duration with active VOJ, you must set your increase targets in intervals of 20% because burning only ticks on whole second.

A little off topic but a reasonable aside. WRT the OP, I think Virtue 5 is too good to pass up. It’s meta-build stuff to me.

I always have at least 5 points in virtues. The extra might + regen + protection for the whole team is sweet. Going 10 into virtues is definitely useful for fractals since you’ll be using wall of reflect a lot. My main issue is that reflects are situational and there isn’t really a good substitute major trait for consecrations (unless you use spirit weapons, which I rarely do).

I’d either go 0/5/30/30/5, 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/15/30/20/5. Spamming justice is incredibly fun and can be very powerful sometimes (blind spam on worms in grawl fractal boss for example). That said there are also plenty of bosses where you can’t get kills to activate renewed justice and I love pure of voice too much to not put 30 into honor at the moment.

Obtena.7952:

on whole second.

Yep, one whole second.

Trait slot = 100% burn on block, no cool down. (imo nice with mace#3)
Trait stat +10% duration
—
Additionally one can:
rune: +15% burn duration
5% burn for one second upon being hit (5 sec cooldown)
5% damage vs burning
(rune also includes power)
—
Then of course one can add burning sigils, but I prefer +5, +10’s, or blood/bloodlust most of the time including +5 mace damage trait and/or 2h mastery for nice burst damage with GS. There is food too I think, but targets are usually crispy as is, usually rather add in more power or boost health regen.

60 seconds in a minute

I’m sure you had a point but you certainly lost me on what it is. I’m simply identifying something that isn’t completely obvious to most people. It’s important that people don’t associate percent increases in duration directly to percent increases in damage from conditions. It’s even that much more important to Guardians because of the short burning times you get with passive and active VoJ.

I’m not advocating such a build BUT, if you are so inclined you can get an extra second from passive VoJ:

+40% from rare veggie Pizza
+10% sigil of smoldering
+30% (2 rune of flame Legion, 2 rune of Balthazar)
+20% in Zeal 20

That same would give you 10 seconds for active VoJ but make no mistake, if you aren’t hitting the 20% increases, you are missing out on that extra second for active VoJ. The warning is simply to be aware that achieving burn durations that don’t fall on the 20% marks are actually inefficient.

Obtena.7952:

I’m not advocating such a build BUT, if you are so inclined you can get an extra second from passive VoJ:

+40% from rare veggie Pizza
+10% sigil of smoldering
+30% (2 rune of flame Legion, 2 rune of Balthazar)
+20% in Zeal 20

hmmm.. that’s a different direction. Obviously you would want CD on your equipment etc. Sure it’s a short duration, some 1.25 seconds, but it procs often enough to land bonus damage blows while also benefiting from some +400 power that you would loose on other runes, sigils and food buffs etc. I don’t know, if that’s what rings your bell then more power to you, but it seems power is often the catalyst for greater dps. My guard is purely built for dungeons, at least there it seems pwr is the best rout, then bonus attacks, finally CD. Add group buffs and you see some good performance. Not to mention that if you are heavy on flames and conditions, it can be wasted if you are not the only one using it. If someone else is there using fire, or even perma-burn, I’m still getting my +5 per swing from runes

I use 0/10/30/30/0 in PvE and 0/0/30/30/10 in PvP.

I like 0/0/30/30/10 with Master of Consecrations. Wall of Reflection is just too good against anything with projectile attacks. I run Hammer and Zerker gear with this and I am able to stay in melee n smash stuff for quite a long time. This is my fallback build for running PvE with inexperienced groups and pugs. Damage output isn’t too bad and you have a ton of survivability.

GL out there

Blood~

Flax.4980:

…Spamming justice is incredibly fun and can be very powerful sometimes (blind spam on worms in grawl fractal boss for example)…

Did they change something? I stopped doing fractals months ago, but I tried this exact strategy and the grub kills did not recharge VoJ.

Flax.4980:

I always have at least 5 points in virtues. The extra might + regen + protection for the whole team is sweet. Going 10 into virtues is definitely useful for fractals since you’ll be using wall of reflect a lot. My main issue is that reflects are situational and there isn’t really a good substitute major trait for consecrations (unless you use spirit weapons, which I rarely do).

I’d either go 0/5/30/30/5, 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/15/30/20/5. Spamming justice is incredibly fun and can be very powerful sometimes (blind spam on worms in grawl fractal boss for example). That said there are also plenty of bosses where you can’t get kills to activate renewed justice and I love pure of voice too much to not put 30 into honor at the moment.

I never understand why renewed justice procs on some enemies but not others. I have never gotten it to proc on worms

For WvW I rock 0/15/30/15/10. It works great.