Guild Wars 2

This topic comes to the guardian community after a rather poor experience in CM explorable. We were doing path 3, the butler path. Now all the bad guys hit hard, that’s to be expected, but the bandit cutpurses deliver 12 stacks of bleed with a single attack. That’s way too much for me to handle even 1 on 1, much less 2 or 3 of them using it.

Now my understanding has always been that armor doesn’t effect condition damage. It’s never been a problem so far because guardians have so many abilities that negate conditions, but in this case, the bleeds were so powerful and were placed so easily that it felt like a hopeless struggle. So…my question to you all is…am I missing something? I heal constantly with altruistic healing along with two hp regens, in addition to condition removal.

My stat build is shown below, there is a superior sigil of accuracy in my hammer, so the crit rate is actually 42%.

Thank you in advance.

This usually works for me, so you can try this:
When you use your light field, put it into the direction of your mates who might cast a good number of projectiles. With this, you will remove your conditions really fast, since the projectile pass through the light field giving you condition removal. Besides, you have your 4th Focus skill, one virtue that removes conditions if traited, blocks and Smite that is awesome for this cases.

Running a very similar build to yours, and I think it’s inevitable on almost any profession to drop if those stacks are left for more than a few seconds.

Schnitter’s suggestion is a very good one. Wall of Reflection is my personal favourite choice for Combo Field Light, especially in CM, because it keeps riflemen in the distance occupied a bit while you deal with the cutpurses/scouts.

Another thing is to memorise at which points you run into cutpurses the most, and then if able, quickly stash both condition removals you have into your skillbar.
Also, timing is key. If you see two running up to you, don’t pop your smite the moment one poked you. Odds are, the other will just put the bleeds right back. If able, always try to time it to remove the full load in one go. Easier said than done, but not impossible.

Wall of Reflection is an interesting idea…rifleman aside, I never thought of using that SPECIFICALLY for the combo field. The rest of what is said is good as well, but those are more a matter of practice. I’ll try to focus harder on the timing. If anyone else has more to add please feel free. And thank you for the advice so far.

Hammer and mace/shield have 2 semi-spammable combo fields each.

When my teammates get 5-10 bleeds each, I use Save Yourselves, which gives me all in total of 25 bleed stacks. My signet removes the stacks after a few seconds, and I use Empower on staff together with Altruistic Healing, and I survive.

If conditions is a serious problem, use signet of resolve, purity(from traits), contemplation of purity and purging flames.

Spectre.6452:

When my teammates get 5-10 bleeds each, I use Save Yourselves, which gives me all in total of 25 bleed stacks. My signet removes the stacks after a few seconds, and I use Empower on staff together with Altruistic Healing, and I survive.

If conditions is a serious problem, use signet of resolve, purity(from traits), contemplation of purity and purging flames.

Speaking of bleed in general, it isn’t USUALLY an issue, it’s just that in this dungeon it’s too much too fast for me to handle so far. I haven’t been back online yet to put any of this advice to use, but when I do I will post how I fared. I use signet of resolve, and I use the purity trait…the problem with both of those is the hint of luck involved. Sometimes they work at the perfect moment but sometimes they fail miserably. Instead of removing a condition instantly and then having a 10 second cooldown, it applies the removal (at the same time) once every 10 seconds. So if the removal timer ticks, and then you get the bleed right after, you’re stuck with it.
As for contemplation of purity and purging flames, I don’t typically use those but I will give them a try as well. I currently use signet of resolve, traited to remove a condition when activated, the purity trait to remove another condition once every 10 seconds, and smite condition. Hope this info furthers the conversation as well, always looking to improve myself. Again I appreciate all the input so far.

You haven’t mentioned what Utility Skills you’re using.

Yes, the Cutpurses are big hitters, especially when they do their Leaping Deathblossom. A pair of the beauties will down anybody when they instantly stack 25 Bleeds + Poison on a target. No amount of Regeneration or Altruistic Healing will save you if you don’t pack any Condition removals. Fortunately Guardians have great options in this department. Even if you have some way to not find space for one in your Utility Slots, you can pack a Greatsword, lay down Symbol of Wrath, and spin-2-win.

hey Kaii when i run CM, hehe, WoR is definitely my top choice utility! what with all the ranged and as a few have mentioned, it acts as a light field as well. if not, what Ojimaru mentioned, switched to greatsword and you have another condition removal option.

just to add – i personally run with superior soldier rune x6, so everyone time i shout, conditions on myself + allies are removed if they’re in range as well so this adds to our arsenal of condition removal too.

Schnitter.9857:

This usually works for me, so you can try this:
When you use your light field, put it into the direction of your mates who might cast a good number of projectiles. With this, you will remove your conditions really fast, since the projectile pass through the light field giving you condition removal. Besides, you have your 4th Focus skill, one virtue that removes conditions if traited, blocks and Smite that is awesome for this cases.

^this
If you have a good group that know how to use combo fields effectively, you can remove alot of conditions. The Guardian offers quite many light fields to use with projectiles and whirl finishers. GS #4 skill, WoR, third strike on hammer chain, hammer #5 skill, sanctuary, staff #3 and #5 skill, mace #2 skill and shield #2 skill.