Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I just started playing guildwars 2 and started out with several classes in order to see what fits my playstyle.

I tried every class and i downgraded it to two classes, elementalist and guardian. Cus of the magic potential and the unique playstyle it gives me.

But today i want to talk about my guardian, it’s a Sylvari and i love it. (Somehow, maybe like most people, i’m drawn to sylvari). Also, it’s just level 15, but i want to prepair for the world of Tyria.

Anyways, i looked up several guides in order to see what fits. I found a build that focusses on Radiance, the use of one handed sword in combination with focus and as offset a greatsword. Works fine. But as a seasoned RPG player, i’m always tempted to try everything.

Currently i’m working with a Scepter/Shield and Mace/Focus. It works really awesome! Currently invested all my 5 points in Valor, giving me decent defense. For example, i solo’d a group event for killing a boss that was ment for more players, but there weren’t any around. So i desided i’m going to try and solo it, which i did and i won!.

Anyways, i’m just happy to share my story so far and also i’d like some tips/advice on how to work further with a guardian focussing mainly on PvE/WvW. Also, spending points in traits … first of all i can spend up to 10 per trait line? Or 10 devided among my choosing?

Well anyways, happy to introduce myself and i hope you guys can give me tips how to level up in a fun way, which is a bit different from the usual, cus i like to experiment a lot.

Welcome. guardian is an awesome class to play.

When you say ‘Pve’ are we talking dungeons here?

Because for dungeons you will probably wanna change that weapon set up a bit.

You can divide your trait points to your choosing and can spend up to 30 points total in one trait line. Each advance in a trait line is 5 points.

I love my Guardian – it’s the only one that really “works” for me. I typically use a greatsword or hammer for my main set, and then sword/focus or mace/focus. I am always switching depending on what I am doing. Greatsword and sceptor/focus are a great all around pve set. This gives you 3 blinds, 4 if you put 5 trait points into radiance. thats 4 blinds (3 that are aoe blinds) – how about that for damage mitigation.

mace/shield or mace/focus is great for when your health is getting low. I use this weapon set when I know I have a difficult fight. It will kill slower, but it does a great job at keeping your health up.

hammer is great to use with the altruistic (spelling?) healing build. this is great to use in dungeons because it is great damage and great support. It’s also great to use around in regular pve too – I use it when I am doing events for karma. Just follow the AH build that is stickied on the guardian forum.

Like swiftpaw said, you can spend 30 points per trait line (you will have 70 points to spend once you reach level 80). As you level you can buy more books from trainers to open up the next tier of traits. I think it’s level 30 for the second tier and level 60 for the third.

When deciding what trait lines to go into, go by the major traits that interest you and fit your play style the most, then go by the minor traits. Don’t worry about the stats – you can buff any stats with your gear. I buy all new gear about every 7 or 8 levels or so of the auction house – other than what I get as awards from doing my personal story.

Have fun with it and keep switching your weapons around – helps you find what fits best for different scenarios. Welcome to Tyria.

You might want to try using scepter/torch in melee range – it’s a little counter intuitive, since scepter is our only decent long range weapon, but using it in melee means you can get enemies to stay in the Smite field for substantial damage, and setting yourself on fire with torch adds burning to that. Mace/Shield in your weapon swap gives you a more defensive stance in case you start taking heavy damage.

Mostly I recommend taking some time to try all the weapons as you level, as they all lend themselves to difference situations and play styles; the weapons I use most now, hammer and staff, were my least favorite when I was playing early on (to be fair, Staff is significantly improved compared to my early guardian days).

Well cheers guys! It’s nice to see to hear the opinions about weapon sets. And also … i love hammer, i mean … me smash much? So far i’ve learned every weapon skill and i can just buy off whatever i want to just play allong with whatever i feel like playing. And it works for me.

Planning to do dungeons eventually yes.

The best advice, and it goes for all characters (not just Guardian), is that it’s good to be flexible. It sounds like you don’t have an issue with this but I’ll still explain why it’s useful.

Different situations and different enemy types require different tactics. While you are out of combat, you can switch up your major traits, utility skills, and weapon sets to best fit the situation.

Enemies using lots of bleeding and poison? Throw in some traits or utility skills that have condition removal. Doing an event with a lot of other players? Throw a Staff in your weapon set and use #4 to give everybody HUGE stacks of might.

Also, Gary (a few posts above) nailed it on trait selecting – the stats are important now while you are low level, but by the time you are more advanced, you’ll be using gear to mold your stat distribution. Look at the stats as a bonus and pick by the traits that are the most interesting to you.

Good luck =D