Guild Wars 2

I’ve only been back to the guardian for a few weeks after a hiatus from the game and I always just assumed you HAD to take Empowering Might with AH. Now, I still LIKE doing so but sometimes I like to experiment with other builds and consider dropping that line to 20 points and would like to keep the ability to reduce 2 handed weapons by 20% which means dropping EM.

I’ve seen other people post similar builds and I guess I’m somewhat confused as to WHAT people get some much healing with without EM? Vigor is on a 5sec internal cooldown with similar issues with shouts and virtues on cooldowns.

So where does most of the healing come from with EH?

I use two handed sword and staff/scepter+focus (switches but usually staff)

5 points in virtues provides a lot of boons whenever you trigger a virtue. Even better (at least in PvE), grab 5 in virtues and 15 in radiance: you can now spam an AoE blind and hand out 3 stacks of might to 5 party members (5 boons, for a grand total of 1065 hp returned on every kill).

Kharel Arhew.1437:

5 points in virtues provides a lot of boons whenever you trigger a virtue. Even better (at least in PvE), grab 5 in virtues and 15 in radiance: you can now spam an AoE blind and hand out 3 stacks of might to 5 party members (5 boons, for a grand total of 1065 hp returned on every kill).

Wait a minute! What are you doing advocating the AH build I just switched from to try our your Boonway build

KA’s right though, AH with 5V/15R is GREAT in PVE. Spam F1 every time it’s off CD and watch the mobs catch fire (and go blind/stack vulnerability/grant might to the good guys). I don’t think I could run a build w/o the 5/15 in it, too much fun setting everything on blue fire.

DarkHeart.1760:

Kharel Arhew.1437:

5 points in virtues provides a lot of boons whenever you trigger a virtue. Even better (at least in PvE), grab 5 in virtues and 15 in radiance: you can now spam an AoE blind and hand out 3 stacks of might to 5 party members (5 boons, for a grand total of 1065 hp returned on every kill).

Wait a minute! What are you doing advocating the AH build I just switched from to try our your Boonway build

KA’s right though, AH with 5V/15R is GREAT in PVE. Spam F1 every time it’s off CD and watch the mobs catch fire (and go blind/stack vulnerability/grant might to the good guys). I don’t think I could run a build w/o the 5/15 in it, too much fun setting everything on blue fire.

Hahah! It does seem rather antithetical to give recommendations on an AH build when I generally recommend avoiding it, but in this scenario, with as specific of a question as was asked, I’m assuming the (to me, much preferable) idea of switching away from AH isn’t on the table. That being the case, I’m willing to give a few ideas on how to hand out more boons, even if it means fueling AH. I still prefer my build, but that doesn’t mean I can’t offer help with other builds!

So it is a decent loss in healing by skipping EM then or not too bad? Or is EM overhealing often?

Or, if you run GS with staff/scept+focus (pve wise mind you mostly. Maybe pvp eventually) do you suffer much by not picking up the ability to recharge 20% faster?

I guess that makes me curious between EM and Two handed mastery.

And I also just read your Boonway guide and might give that a go as well as curiosity gets to me (though I’m mostly knight and berserker gear now)

I’d rather skip 2h mastery than EM. For the greatsword, it is not really necessary and for the hammer it’s virtually useless in PvE. EM on the other hand is quite nice, both for yourself and the group.

Honestly I dont even notice EM healing me with AH. The sole reason I run AH is for staff heal on empower. Also if your not running knights/zerk EM makes no sense.

On a side note: I do run both traits, AH and EM. I surely dont run EM for the heals though.

I ran the AHEM build for a while…and have recently tried the 0/0/30/30/10 build with heals on symbols…and I must say I’m having a lot more fun although I’m not doing as much damage, surprisingly not that much less though. Survivability was increased a ton, and this build fits me great everywhere! PVE and WvWvW!
I’m finally loving my guardian for what I built it for: fight the front lines and the outnumbered fights!

Loxsus.3841:

So it is a decent loss in healing by skipping EM then or not too bad? Or is EM overhealing often?

Or, if you run GS with staff/scept+focus (pve wise mind you mostly. Maybe pvp eventually) do you suffer much by not picking up the ability to recharge 20% faster?

I guess that makes me curious between EM and Two handed mastery.

And I also just read your Boonway guide and might give that a go as well as curiosity gets to me (though I’m mostly knight and berserker gear now)

EM is great—if you have a high crit rate. Don’t consider it as part of your healing, though: when you really need healing, it’ll only be providing at most 330ish health every second or two, and that amount could drop down to as low as 71-72 if no one else is in range to pick up the might (which is entirely possible, since you can’t exactly control when the crits happen or who’s nearby when they do). When you don’t need it, it’s just overhealing and won’t necessarily provide much benefit.

Two-handed mastery gives you much better control over the healing you proc from Empower on the staff, the GS symbol, and any might-on-crit sigils you might run. It also increases your DPS directly: Whirling Wrath and Orb of Light provide a very significant portion of your overall damage, and reducing their cooldown thus increases your damage output. EM increases not only your damage, but your allies’ damage as well; but the tradeoff between EM and the extra might stacking you can do with the staff’s Empower given 20% cooldown reduction makes it pretty much a moot point. Pick whatever fits your playstyle, but definitely go with 2h mastery if you have a low crit chance.

By all means, have a crack at the Boonway build too! Keep in mind that it really does need the runes I’ve listed in the build for optimal play, but outside of that, the stats (and even what weapons you select) are relatively insignificant, and should be tailored towards your own personal needs and playstyle. Your existing gear will work fine, though do keep in mind that even though you’ll have a fairly lethal amount of damage, you’ll be quite squishy. Use condi removal and stability from Stand Your Ground judiciously to keep yourself mobile, since that and improved health regeneration is really all you’ll have in the way of defense.

JJBigs.8456:

Honestly I dont even notice EM healing me with AH. The sole reason I run AH is for staff heal on empower. Also if your not running knights/zerk EM makes no sense.

On a side note: I do run both traits, AH and EM. I surely dont run EM for the heals though.

Well, with a halfway decent crit rate, EM provides a wonderfully constant flow of small heals. Of course, that won’t heal you to full if you take a load of big hits (in PvE, you should not eat them anyways), but in too many cases, it is the many small hits that will wear you down eventually. For those, EM healing is a great counter.

A lot of good advice all over. Thanks for the headsup. As I said, I had assumed for awhile you had to get one to have the other but maybe not. I do worry about missing the EM pass might stacking. Switching to staff 4 is good for that but you’re also not doing damage when you’re doing that. DECISIONS!