Guild Wars 2

Hello! I am a new player coming from DAOC and Warhammer Online ( 2001 – 2012… ) and am very excited to get out on the battlefield and experience gw2 PvP. Currently I’m on the Jade Quarry server with my brother, a mesmer/warrior.

There seems to be A LOT of great information, especially in the stickies, but I cannot tell if they really answer my questions. I would like to ask a bit more directly and if anyone has the time to respond to my questions it would be much appreciated.

Now I’ll cut to the chase:

Guardian Questions:

1) There seems to be 2 builds that look very appealing to me. I have definitely settled on a hammer/greatsword build. Once I get the gear I will probably spend about 75% of the time in PvP, however most the time in PvP will be duo with my brother unless we find a competitive PvP guild. We tend to roam more then actively attack keeps and such which means most of what we do is hit small groups en route or gank. I am looking for a recommendation on which of the following 2 builds would fit my duo/potential group play.

As a minor, a build that would allow me to not have to respec often for PvP/PvE is preferable, but only if it does NOT influence PvP effectiveness.

-Altruistic Healing (sticky). Seems most like this

-20/15/0/30/5 (Incomingray video)
w/ 2x retalation buff + teleport utility for PvP. I never see any threads on this build.. is it considered a bit exotic?

I would love to say I want to deal tons of damage and never die, but I understand that to take a little I must give a little.

2) Level 39 at the moment. As far as PvE is concerned I am surprised how much damage I take. Thinking my armor drops weren’t coming fast enough I spent Wednesday this week making $$ and leveling up to 400 armorsmithing. I crafted level 35 gear with crit damage/power on the whole set. I hit hard but, I can feel the punches. I can try vit/heal gear but my gut is telling me damage will suffer. Without altruistic healing, is there a trick to taking less damage at my level? Obviously, the best mitigation is to not get hit… Any suggestions on how I can stand against higher level mobs or more then 3-4 mobs my level with a greatsword/hammer are welcome. How did ya’ll streamline your leveling?

3) I see lots of comments regarding accessory sets. In the altruistic thread it says to get the knight set first.. etc. Is there a resource on these item sets? I would like to have a plan so I can be geared the day I hit 80, but at the moment don’t know if I should be saving karma, my gold, leveling another crafting skill, or doing a particular dungeon. Where do these sets come from?

4) As far as gear is concerned in PvP and PvE, will I have to be swapping depending on which I am doing in this game?

5) As stated above, I leveled armorsmithing to 400. Does the best 80 gear come from crafting or drops? I was hoping it would be crafting, however it doesn’t appear people use crafted sets (from the threads I have read). If this is true, what is the motivation to level armorsmithing/weaponsmithing to 400? I understand to craft legendaries it is necessary … but it is too early to tell if that is a realistic goal for myself.

6) As far as choosing level 80 armor for PvP/PvE, where do I start? My understanding is that I want to be thinking about exotic gear purchased from karma merchants. Where are these karma merchants located?

7) What gear is good for Orr? I read in some thread the first real gear check here. Would my armorsmithing be sufficient to gear me up for this dungeon?

8) As far as stats go, what I have gathered is that after I am totally geared and venture out into PvP, I want to be sitting at 15k health, 3k armor, 40-50% crit chance. Is this an accurate assessment?

Thanks again to anyone that reads and responds constructively. I am welcome to any other resources that address direct ideas without thread after thread of debating. As a new player it is hard to extract what I should or shouldn’t be paying attention to.

i will try to answer everything well. likely someone else will do better soon though.

1) that build “20/15/0/30/5” – zeal is not very good for guardians unless you are running a torch or spirit weapon build. its not a bad trait line, but others are better.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUIQJASRlYgKCHESLEmIFSuA7DEEmCMKjueQRYIDB
edit: ignore the slot skills. just check the traits

example of a fairly solid build and quite common also. stacks of toughness and it boosts your critical damage.
it will serve well in PvE, PvP, WvW and dungeons. it also has flexability. can swap out the 20% reduced 2-handed cool down for applying might on crit. and other things to help fit what you are doing without having to respec.

for WvW though i would recommend a staff. swiftness and a short range cone attack and a wall that helps stop people running. they can dodge through it though.

though its all down to personal preference and play style

2) toughness is necessary, else you are a bit too squishy. most damage can be mitigated through dodging and positioning. but this game is designed to kill you. especially in dungeons. as reviving downed allies is part of the game mechanic.

see your crafting profession vendor and google on how to craft exotics. vendor has the recipies and google has the info. but you can craft top tier gear

3) http://www.bob-guild.net/gw/extras/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?19284

knights armour is good. power/precision/toughness. on my guardian i have knights armour, vitality runes and trinkets are Valkyrie and a few berserker’s. cant login right now. but i have about 2900 attack, 40% crit chance, 70% crit damage, 2800 armour and 17k health. i primarily play WvW.

4) maybe. there is magic find gear for farming. but i hate to have to swap gear and spec all the time. its possible to do everything in the same gear.

5) save your karma. some set stat combinations are karma only. but crafted gear is just as good and some set stats i belive are from crafted gear only.

6) merchants for karma gear are in Orr. there are also exotic dungeon gear which you buy with dungeon tokens from the relevant dungeons. vendors are in lions arch.

7) yes.

8) yes.

i hope that helps a little at least.