Guild Wars 2

I’m looking to try a WvW support Guardian at as long a range as possible, but not sure how to shore it up.

The gist of it is using Scepter + Focus with Staff on swap, Consecrated Ground (VrtII) which gives Consecrations 1200 range ground targeting, and at least Writ of Exaltation (III) from the Honor traits to increase symbols reach.

I prefer small group activities, but to tend to get pulled into larger actions. I’m looking for suggestions on how to fill this out. Some ideas are to go further with symbols, take faster skill refresh traits, or just concentrate on making my guardian less squishy.

Thanks in advance.

I do that a bit but it’s mostly 600 range due to the poor tracking and ability to hit of scepter skills so adjust your expectations— this will usually only be best in bigger fights. I’m not sure why you’d want Writ of Exaltation when your only symbol is going to be the speed one. Though you’re free to toss a hammer into this…

So a very simple one is 0/30/0/20/20, which takes right handed strength and absolute resolution because you absolutely need condition removal somewhere and it doesn’t seem like you want many shouts. Personally, I like doing Stand your ground+ Hallowed Ground for mass stability which has kept me alive more than anything else ever has. Though I’ve always been stuck to soldier runes, so I must have a shout somewhere at least. :p It helps us so much in dealing with condition removal and the large bonus to vitality when we have such tiny health pools is invaluable. And if you feel too squishy, might want to do 0/30/10/10/20 and get strength in numbers + signet of judgement. Or just take 15 radiance but I don’t think that’s necessary if you’re not frontlining; something like 0/15/30 (AH obviously)/5/20 would be pretty solid.

You’re mostly centered around pressing f1 a lot, since that offers you blind, vulnerability, and might. Renewed Focus + Inspired Virtues mashing should be something frequently abused too.

In larger fights, I’d think shield is better. Shield is typically inferior in most situations but in big fights 3 blocks won’t mean very much and protection/knockback helps a lot.

I hadn’t realized Virtues had a range of 1200. Perhaps that was from knowing the small radius (240) of Justice is Blind or thinking they had the same reach as Shouts (600.) I’ll try activating Virtues more often, now.

Focus has the 1200 range Blind / Condition Removal, however, testing Ray of Judgment, the travel speed seems absurdly slow. Shield of Wrath also provides a Blast finisher, useful for gaining Retaliation or combining with an Elementalist’s Lightning field for Swiftness.

You recommend Right-Hand Strength; should I be looking in to On-Critical Hit sigils?

Can’t say I knew either, lol.

And yes, I can’t really imagine trying to fire that slow ray of judgement in the middle of a fight. You could keep focus until you reach a large group. Also, shield gives like 60 toughness which really doesn’t matter, but more toughness is always welcome.

Although I didn’t realize Shield of Wrath was blast finisher. (wait really?) Why did shield get a crappy light field? >.>

RHS is mostly so that scepter damage isn’t utter crap— you usually don’t want zerker in wvw zerging since you’d die quite quickly in a big fight and that means your crit rate isn’t that high. You’ll have about 55-60% crit rate with RHS and neighboring fury will take you up 20% more which isn’t bad at all. This would be a good idea to somehow fit Empowering Might in your build though certainly not mandatory. (0/30/0/30/10 Pure of Voice, or something)

As for on crit sigils, you should note that all sigils that have an effect share the same cooldown so they aren’t that hot at times. I use an energy sigil on swap for staff, though that might be overkill since we have vigorous precision.

A correction on my part:
Consecrated Ground has 900 range.
I’m not sure where I had read 1200.

I’ve been running with CG and Master of Consecrations. Primarily I’ve used Wall of Reflection and Sanctuary, the latter being a good impromptu “ward” if on a lengthy cooldown. The former is great to throw up against archers when besieging forts (much better than protecting a small area, in my opinion.)

Two-Handed mastery, along with already having 20 points in Virtues, helps with running, but I still need to close the gap. It’s starting to look like maxing Virtues and using some Swiftness runes.

Overall it is still squishy and needs condition removal badly, but I’m still trying to come up with the best way to use 30 points. I’m not sure Right Hand Strength is worth it.

Care to post your stats and what you ended up using?

You certainly don’t have to take RHS, I’m just comfortable enough to know that I won’t die too much unless I play badly. I don’t really like sanctuary though; it’s just not reliable enough. I would take purging flames to remove conditions.

I think you should take either consecration cooldown or ground target. Taking them both means that you don’t have absolute resolution and your condition removal is very poor.

How about something like 10/0/20/20/20? or 0/0/30/20/20 if you really feel that squishy? Strength in Numbers, Purity, and Altruistic Healing should all help you live longer.

My stats, none from weapons, but including those from Traits and armor:
1347 Pwr; 2112 Atk
1084 Prc; 12% CtC
1126 Tgh; 2016 Amr
118 CDmg; 5% CDur
20% BDur; 498 HPwr
I’m just wearing a mish-mash of looted gear at this point.

I like both Traits for Consecrations, but I found ground targeting to be far more useful. After playing around for a while, I agree that Sanctuary isn’t easy to use, especially in chaotic fights. Then again, almost everything that stays still works poorly in WvW.

Not sure what 10 points in Zeal would be for.
30 points in Valor; why is Altruistic Healing so hard to move away from when it is inherently so greedy. Worse is being stuck in place with a stay-put, channeled skill. The low radius of Empower doesn’t work so well with this build, either.

A question about Absolute Resolution; it states it removes three conditions; is that the total between all affected allies?

Ah, it seems to be an issue of gear having to do with lack of survival. You’ll need a lot more armor (toughness).

AH is very hard to move away since guardians can make it so that all your actions heal yourself— and you can’t do anything if you’re dead so if you’re trying out something new it’s not a bad place to start. Fact, is it turns staff 4 into a burst heal almost. A heavy virtues guardian also recovers just by using the virtues as well.

I suggested 10 points for fiery wrath, as it’s very easy to get burning on an enemy (especially if you get purging flames) while not being so costly as a trip into radiance while being tanky as possible.

Absolute Resolution removes 3 conditons each from you and everyone around you; it’s that good and critical if you don’t have Pure of Voice in wvw. I also take the Poultry and Leek Soup to reduce condition duration. Well, there’s also the better and more expensive lemongtass as well.

Update:
I got two copies of Superior Rune of the Water and some Snowflake upgrades for Boon Duration (currently +47% total.) That allowed me to swap out “Retreat!” for Signet of Judgment.
Virtue traits are now maxed, adding Indomitable Courage and changing out Master of Consecrations for Absolute Resolution.
Those alterations created a huge boost in effectiveness, from travel time to survivability.

Sanctuary just isn’t flexible or fast enough to make a difference under my playstyle. I’m still trying to decide on what to exchange it for.

It doesn’t seem like investing all 20 remaining trait points in a single line is worthwhile. My thoughts on ten point each in Zeal, Radiance, and Valor:
Zeal – Protector’s Impace (III); lots of tall cliffs to jump off of in WvW.
Radiance – Signet Mastery (II); I’m running with two Signets already, both rather useful to have more frequently. Justice is Blind can shore up defense when I can’t maintain long range.
Valor – Strength in Numbers (IV); a very small investment for a lot of Toughness, unlikely to overlap with another Guardian. Valorous Defense can mean the difference in whether or not I’m Defeated in many situations.

You can try Scepter & Torch (for Torch 4 double tap at range), along with a Consecration build. Fighting through a Wall at 1200 is fun

I switched to Torch to try it out, but I’m going to need some time before I make any critique. Another skill that I hadn’t realized had 1200 range.

Right now I’m using three signets. They seem to work well for group play and useful enough for brief soloing.

Lastly, I experimented with someone else’s Spirit Weapon build in Heart of the Mists. (30/30/0/0/10) They’re decent 1200 range skills when Commanded, but overall the build is rather self-centered. I think I should go back and try 20/20/0/0/30, though it means a lack of Swiftness uptime.

I haven’t seriously tested Torch out any further.

Spirit Weapon builds of 20/20/0/0/30 and 20/20/0/20/10 still proved underwhelming.

Currently I’m running 0/0/10/30/30, having added Strength in Numbers and Battle Presence traits. I’m starting to think 0/15/5/20/30 with Signet Mastery may work better, but theorizing on survivability is difficult. I’ll just have to try it.

A quick bit of other news; I went and collected all the Range and Radius information from the individual pages of each skill. Here’s a brief rundown:

Virtues are all 1200 range as are the related traits Absolute Resolution and Indomitable Courage.
Justice is Blind only has a radius of 240.

Spirit Weapons have nearly limitless range, training on your last target. You can command them from any distance.

Staff Reaches 1200 range with Orb of Light, Symbol of Swiftness, and Line of Warding. Wave of Wrath, the auto-attack, is 600 range, and Empower has 600 radius.

Scepter Orb of Wrath (auto-attack) and Smite have 1200 range. Chains of Light is a more modest 900.

Focus Ray of Judgment is 1200 range and tracks, hitting up to four enemies or other allies. The radius of Shield of Wrath is 240.

(Shield Shield of Judgment is 600 range and affects yourself as well as up to five allies and up to five enemies. Shield of Absorption allegedly has 320 knockback. I only mention it since it can be paired with Scepter.)

Torch Zealot’s Fire (#4 seq.) has 1200 range which does not seem to track. Cleansing fire is limited to 400.

Trident Has 1200 range on all five of its skills except for Refraction (estimated at 600.)

Consecrations With the trait Consecrated Ground have 900 range.

Meditations Judge’s Intervention and Merciful Intervention have 1200 range.

Shouts All are 600 range.

Signets Bane Signet and Signet of Wrath have 1200 range activation uses. Signet or Mercy has 900 and Signet of Judgment 600.

Tomes Tome of Courage skills are either 1200 range or radius. Tome of Wrath is the same with the exception of Judgment at 600 radius.