Guild Wars 2

I’ve been tinkering with new builds in new fractals dungeons ankittenep going back to this build every-time.
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.7.0.18.25.34.0.34.53.65.66.67.77.5.5.21.0.0.0.0.0.0.185.186.191.197.203.206.212.0.0.0.0.30.30.10
The amount of healing this build is enough to outheal every boss in fractals and can pretty much tank any trash without even using heal(for example dredge spawns before destructible doors).
My gear isn’t perfect, it’s mostly masterwork with power/prec/mf with about 30% crit total, but I find myself pretty much immortal in dungeons. Whenever I need heal I can pop staff 4th skill and get 6k+heal (five party members getting 12 stacks, thats 60 stacks of might and AH heals for ~70 per stack) or pop all virtues for 8k+ heal, then I still have 3k burst heal from shouts. All of this on top of getting constant 300+ heals from empowering might and there’s still normal heal.

Comparing to immortal guardian build I saw on one of the websites, this one feels like a breeze without sacrificing any dps, even gaining dps from teammates that receive 5+ to 12+stacks of might and bursts of 12 stacks from staff. I was struggling with other builds and had to back off and wait for heal quite often, with this build I just pop 2nd skill on GS and get 1/3 of hp back.

Try Hammer+Staff, even stronger with Hammer giving you Protection every 3rd hit…

Doesn’t EM have an internal 1 sec cool down? (And I assume Vigorous Precision does too) How does 2 on the GS give more health than auto-attacks?

I run a similar build with a hammer and I seem to have good luck with it.

Vigorous Precision doesn’t have a hidden cooldown. It’s a great trait for DPS Guards.

Edelweiss.9815:

Vigorous Precision doesn’t have a hidden cooldown. It’s a great trait for DPS Guards.

I’m a newbie Guardian. How would VIGOR help DPS??

CharliePrince.2071:

Edelweiss.9815:

Vigorous Precision doesn’t have a hidden cooldown. It’s a great trait for DPS Guards.

I’m a newbie Guardian. How would VIGOR help DPS??

It doesn’t. It would proc AH more often and let you dodge more often, but doesn’t directly increase DPS.

CharliePrince.2071:

Edelweiss.9815:

Vigorous Precision doesn’t have a hidden cooldown. It’s a great trait for DPS Guards.

I’m a newbie Guardian. How would VIGOR help DPS??

You can dodge more, and stay in the fight longer because of it. A dead DPS is 0 DPS.

Yeah, you do need some defense to avoid being a Glass Cannon. Vigorous Precision is 5 trait points (which gives you +500 hp to boot) and makes you capable of dodging far more often, meaning you live longer, and all it takes is crits, which you’re getting a lot of anyway.

@OP: I would drop Pure of Voice for 2H Mastery. More frequent Empower is always, always a good thing. For me, Empower heals a total of ~6K (77 per boon * 3 stacks * 4 pulses + ~2K end heal), which is competitive with some #6 heal skills. Oh, and it’s giving out 12 stacks of Might to your party, to boot.

Bullfrog.1324:

CharliePrince.2071:

Edelweiss.9815:

Vigorous Precision doesn’t have a hidden cooldown. It’s a great trait for DPS Guards.

I’m a newbie Guardian. How would VIGOR help DPS??

It doesn’t. It would proc AH more often and let you dodge more often, but doesn’t directly increase DPS.

yeah that’s what i thought was thinking maybe i didnt know a mechanic or something i was like how the hell does vigor directly affect dps?!

:) thanks

Yeah, The build is insane, If you like the AH/Empower,
you should check out my Legendary Defender

If that link doesnt work, Click Here

CharliePrince.2071:

yeah that’s what i thought was thinking maybe i didnt know a mechanic or something i was like how the hell does vigor directly affect dps?!

:) thanks

Elusive Power. The less vigor you have, the more damage you deal.

That is pretty much the same build I use with a few exceptions. I don’t take Pure of Voice, instead I use Solider Runes for ally shout condition removal, and take 2 hand mastery for hammer and staff cool down reduction. The reduction will increase your DPS, and it’s really nice with Staff 4.

Also I don’t like retaliation in PVE. The mobs don’t attack fast enough for me to feel traiting for retaliation is worth it. In PvP retaliation is really nice.

I go 5 into Radiance instead of 10 into Valor for the AOE blind on VoJ. This is mostly because I’m doing a lot of dungeons at the moment.

Also, I guess technically Vigour adds DPS if you have the trait that adds damage for each Boon.

30 Valor
20 Honor
20 Virtue

Lots of options on that 20 Virtue.

i love the honor line though. too hard for me to choose just three major traits.
though i am exploring a boon duration build now, which i feel could be extremely good and fun as well so shall look into that ; )))

The main problem is that staff DPS is a little lacklustre (It’s “ok” against mobs, but normally in dungeons the key danger tends to be single champion targets), and often you need to have a sceptre with you anyway due to required range. But for support, yes staff is the go-to option. A GS/Hammer of course solves the issue of DPS, but that inversely means you don’t have a staff equipped for at least 10 seconds when you switch into it, and if you switch back to staff, you don’t have your DPS weapon equipped for 10 seconds. Planning your main DPS weapon to still allow support is probably a better option (via empowered might, symbols, combo finishers, etc)

Personally I took 10 radiance instead for more precision and faster sigils (healing to full every 30 seconds helps when you mistime a dodge). That and larger, longer symbols for my hammer instead of shout buffing, but then I’m less support and more tank/dps-ish.

For Single Target, Empower is just the way to go.
Those might stacks were just not for show.
Staff is simply there for empower.
Pre fight, I just empower > orb > symbol of swift on the target > swap > Leap of Faith > Symbol of wrath > binding blade > whirl > roll back > swap > orb > symbol > empower > repeat loop.

with some shouts in between, the amount of downtime is minimized when you have two handed mastery. It never feels like a waste running with staff. People love that 1.6 k heals. My group got so used to those 1.6k burst heals that they just stood there and dps as I regen them with Virtue & Shouts.

Guardians were never meant for full all out dps and burst…if you’re trying to top the dps charts as Guardians, you’re playing the wrong profession here.

For burst healing though, I find it easier if someone just throws down a water field somewhere. Mighty Blow works wonders on fields, and imho is more reliable than Empower. (since there’s such a long cast time, which can potentially be interrupted as well) And then there’s also those dodge heals which serves as an interim mini-aoe heal (as opposed to using an empower), and there’s minimal loss on DPS (or even improved!) when using a hammer with dodging in between.

mighty blow is definitely very strong! i especially love my Guardian on hammer with running with an ele. specially someone who you’ve been playing with.

i usually start off a fight with empower, symbol of swiftness, and then #2 then switch to hammer and starting bashing away. i usually only switch back staff when i need to back off for a bit (e.g. sometimes, when melee is just too dangerous against certain bosses) and then empower again when i know i’m safe or won’t be easily interrupted. the dodge heals make a big difference too. when i see allies around me dropping a bit, i’ll dodge their way and fill their HP and my own back up a bit just to keep things going. we get our endurance back quick enough.