Guild Wars 2

So i’ve taken a break from the game for about a year, and i’ve decided to come back and try things out a bit. Back when I was still playing, the “Anchor” build was pretty popular for guardians, but it seems those “AH” builds have generally fallen out of favour for more DPS-centric builds (at least in PVE anyways).

So I got to work on some theory crafting for a good hybrid build, and I came up with a couple of variations. I don’t really intend on doing high level fractals or anything, I just want to enjoy all levels of content as best as I can.

So here are the variants:

An exotic version: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQFARlsApVo1CxfH8DNRCBl1+x+DPPFXHgLcAA-TxSBwAUeAAFV6sT9HtKDUYCJiSQU6Aou/ACTXHVCB4CAEAABgbGAA-e

And the Celestial counterpart: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARSlsApVo1CxfH8DNRCBl1+x+DPPFXHgLcAA-TRSBABU8EA0SZwVKhwSpziKBpa/B80Fgp6PAcJACAgAczbmNvZgje0je0je0u5Nv5Nv5NDA-e.

Both of those builds sacrifice some HP in order to have a base crit-chance of 44% which allows me to squeeze in a Superior Sigil of Force for +5% damage. For all intents and purposes, you could call this the “DPS-centric” variant of the build.

Now, I wanted to see if I could rearrange some of the gear to give me higher stats elsewhere. This is what I came up with:

The exotic version: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQFARlsApVo1CxfH8DNRCBl1+x+DPPFXHgLcAA-ThCBwAVeAAGV6xT9ntKDWpDQiSQAXAgq7PkwkXbTBBAQA4mBA-e

And the Ascended counterpart: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARSlsApVo1CxfH8DNRCBl1+x+DPPFXHgLcAA-TRCBABV8EA2TXwWKDwSJEAXCgsU6woSwq2fIT1fCAgAczbmNvZgje0je0je0u5Nv5Nv5ODA-e

These builds sacrifices the Sigil of Force (5% extra damage) and utilizes the Sigil of Accuracy in its place (7% extra crit-chance). Furthermore, I was able to squeeze out +1k Health while keeping the same stats as the first build.

So on paper, the net result amounts to:
-1k HP/+5% damage for the first build
+1k HP/-5% damage for the second build

So what do you guys think? Is it worth having that higher HP pool? Or is the 5% damage better? Empowering Might is also a thing, so the healing I get from Empowering Might + Sigil of Strength stacks + Altruistic Healing might be enough to offset a lower Health Pool.

Thanks Guys!

You bring limited support, have really bad dps, but you will have high survivability.

It’s a variation of a two years old build when nobody knew how to play the game well and that everybody saw as bad for PvE. It looks more like a WvW build than a PvE one.

Its ok, I use a similar build once. We probably all did. Now a lot of stuff was learned about the game mechanics and its time to evolve.
http://dulfy.net/2014/08/25/gw2-guardian-pve-class-guide-by-bordy/
http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

Hmmm, so does that mean there is no room for a Hybrid build in the current meta? Is it all just DPS>>>everything else? What are decent stats to shoot for? When I played a year ago, there was a lot of hybrid builds going around. Have those just fallen out of favor completely?

Side note: I play by-myself, so I will be pugging for groups and stuff like that. So I generally won’t find myself in highly organized groups that need highly optimized builds. That being said, how “bad” is the build I posted as far as hybrid builds go? I’ve got might stacks going, shouts, high precision and crit-damage, and a base power of 1800-1900. Is that still not good in the context of the current meta?

Thanks in advance.

Well its not just all dps, especially with the guardian. You have a limited dps (even if you go all dps) as a guardian. You will be ranked 6th in term of dps. The main reason to bring a guardian in a dungeon is for the support it bring. The meta currently focus on blind, aegis, reflection and condition removal. In harder situation it can provide perma protection, that’s 33% less incoming dmg. That’s about equal to 950 toughness for all the team at only the cost of 5-10% less dps only for the guardian. That’s the strength of the guardian.

Meta guardian have 2500 power, 50-60% crit chance (65-75% with their sword) and 210-220% crit dmg.

Hybrid was a view on the game 2 years ago. Ppl needed some survivability and didn’t really know what was best. As we knew more about the game we realized that active defense was the best defense and that’s what the guardian is all about. Skill like retreat that was view as simply a running skill, is not the most important skill of a guardian. Time it well and you can save a hit to your whole team that could have take out thousand of hp to everyone, far superior than healing them after or anything. The meta give you access to 5 blinds and 3 aegis all allow you to deny all incoming dmg for a shot duration or block all big attack on your team for a longer period.

Now that work as well when you play solo. I know its hard to make the transition, you freak out at having 11k hp and limited armor. I know because I was freaking out too. But as you get better with the build you will realized that you survive more because you block incoming dmg, you can get hit by them. It is also way more fun because its an active gameplay, you rely on your own skill and knowledge of the game to survive, not just some passive stats.

Hybrid still work even if they are not ideal. I suggest that you try the trait, weapons and skills of the meta but keep your current armor. You will learn how to use your active defence, while still having the safety net of your knight armor. As you get better with those active defense, you can slowly change your knight armor to a zerker armor. Don’t rush, do it at your rhythm. In the end, it will help you a lot because Knight armor give you a lot of aggro.

Guardians aren’t lacking in dealing damage. The bigger change, is that your average player has become skilled enough to not need the more defensive stats, relying on boons, utilities, and team combos to stay alive. So naturally, a tanky character is no longer needed. There is some use for non-zerker sets, as they’ll usually perform better if everyone else also isn’t running zerker. Being the lone zerker is an easy way to die when the rest of the party can tank some damage instead of avoiding it. However, your average speedrun style party will be full zerker because they have enough skill to make it through together.

(plus, I’m compelled to mention, Hybrid refers to power and condition damage, with tanky referencing good damage and defense, with bunker having mostly defense)

OP, hybrid builds are builds that combine power and condition damage.

These are not hybrid builds.

@ Black Box, i didn’t know “hybrid” meant power+condition. I just assumed it meant being a jack of all trades kind of thing.

Anyways, I’ve taken the time to look at Obal’s guide and some other videos/guides that I’ve seen online, and yeah, having more DPS and pro-active gameplay is a much better set-up. I’m really digging the GS/Sword+Focus gameplay so far.

This is the new build that I want to go with down the road: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApUo9CxOI8DRBARkjdBYGPf9UaGA-TBSBABQv/AWK/WUJIe6Gm4CAgp6PacQAA4JAEAAB4m3Mb2mBH9oH9oH9otzduzduzdGA-e

I tried to keep it as DPS as possible, and stopped trying to worry about how high my HP would be. I’m staying with the Knight’s Armour because I’m just not comfortable with the full Zerker set-up. I suck at dodging, and I don’t have pre-made groups to run content with me, so I need to give myself a bit of a safety net. I chose Valkyrie trinkets over Berserker trinkets because the tradeoff is just a little bit less Precision for a BUNCH more Health. And I’m still sitting at over 50% crit-chance unbuffed.

So here’s the thing. This is a build that uses the 4/5/0/0/5 Trait-setup in conjunction with my gear set-up from the first build. This is a trait-setup I intend to switch to when I want more DPS.

And here’s the other thing:

The only “loss” that occurs from switching to 4/5/0/0/5 is going from 204% Crit-Damage down to 184% Crit-Damage. Everything else stays exactly the same. I go from 204% to 184% due to my decision to stick with Knight’s Armor. If I opt in to the 4/5/0/0/5 build, how much of a DPS-loss is 184% crit-damage relative to the increase in other stats+modifiers that I will be picking up in those trait lines?

I will be gaining +200 Power, +250 condi Damage, +5% GS damage, +10% Sword Damage, +10% damage against burning foes, +10% damage against conditioned foes, Perma-Vulnerability to foes, and +1% damage for every Boon I have.

Does all of that stuff offset dropping down to 184% crit-damage?

Thanks so much for all your input guys.

AH builds more for a group where ultimate deepz isn’t a big thing or more than comfortably surviving the dungeon with a friendly run (usually non-hardcore guilds). So they are not quite ‘out of favour’.

The most successful ‘hybrid’ at the moment is the following;

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Fractal_Hammer

cletiscake.9173:

Does all of that stuff offset dropping down to 184% crit-damage?

Yes it does. You will bring more support and more dps to your group. The thing is that damage modifier do not add to each other they multiply. The more you have the more powerful they will all be. You already got a couple from your trait (one you switch), Rune of Scolar give you another, sigils should give you 2 more and slaying potion give you another one. All these little buff end up boosting your dmg by a lot.