Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, did another video on the state of the Guardian post June 23rd. Forgive my stuttering as I haven’t done a recording in a while. Enjoy!

Hi Arken!

I really appreciate your work!

But you seem a bit biased towards the extremes… If a build is not good in support OR not good in offence you downgrade it…

my examples:

Valor: -AH is still a very good trait in WvW or in pvp if you are a bunker
Honor: Writ of Persistence… you only need two trait lines to MAX out the area effect of the symbols… It will be a king in sPvP. Guardians had loads of area denial skills but these are no-brainer… If you want somebody out? Lay a symbol…
Virtues: I admit: absolute res is an excellent party support… But what about the far pushers? They can take Glacial or Supreme and be more effective.
Courage trait: sure! it is the best one for (again) support. If you are a DPS then Permeating Wrath all the way…

Sorry to say this but I think you have a kind of tunnel-vision… Not a problem, I have the same…

You are right that spirit weapons and retaliation traits won’t work…

…at all!!

Keep up the theorycrafting ’cos you do it well!

+1

You have to understand that Arken is a pretty high level spvp player and if something doesn’t work at that level he is not going to be all that positive about it. At lower levels of play and WvWvW all that stuff you said yes is true.

Oh crap…!!!

I did know that the name of Arken is familliar for me

I did not say anything that he is wrong… I said that some of the traits he clarified useless are actually good in a different environment.

And hey! Since he shares his knowledge with us why not give feedback – I thought..?

You are correct Aggrostemma, in WvW AH is pretty incredible. I apologize for not specifying that this video was an overview of spvp only.

AH: I think it’s too situational, not that this is a bad thing but rather you don’t see too many situational traits of this extreme for sustain.

Honor WoP: As it stands, it’s very difficult to keep any competent player within your symbol for very long. The honor tree’s revision doesn’t support any sort of dps/hybrid build. It really is just for support.

Virtues: The sustain gained from AR far exceeds any sort of small soft-cc you would otherwise have taken. Not to mention there’s no RNG aspect to it(like Glacial Heart). You use it intelligently, you get rewarded immensely.

Same with Courage, even before the merge of Shielded-mind with this it’s still infinitely better. Group support of this caliber is FAR superior to some miniscule bit of dmg bonus.

I do appreciate your input.

Also, thank you Brannigan.

Altruistic Healing works with Zealous Scepter, Not just Staff #4.

Also worth noting, you can reach 25 stacks of might with Zealous Scepter quite easily, especially with Torch equipped.

Supreme Justice + Mad King’s Elite = 17 Might Stacks
(if birds hit 3 people)

Altruistic Healing gives a steady heal similar to Staff #4 or Litany of Wrath.. only maybe more so and quicker (depending on F1 procs/hit rate/quickness).

For those theory crafting and thinking about it, I wasn’t impressed with Settler’s Amulet or Cele’s condi+heals but yall may make it work. I felt Healing power scaled terribly.

The only issue is, you may miss Mad King’s elite burst completely, ruining the entire build. Furthermore, in order to get AH effect, you would need to sacrifice useful traits to make this specific combo viable. I currently don’t use AH with Zealous Scepter but others may like the effect.
Made a Spirits/Burn/Aegis Retal/Healing build that utilizes this combo, it wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t use it in Tournament play.

I’m curious if burn Guard will be meta over utility/shout-team-cleansing/raw dps guards. Only time (and proper team synchronizations) will tell :P

Right but as I’ve stated, it discourages you from using your class skill. Terrible design in my opinion.

Altruistic healing is really only conducive with with staff #4. The significant healing only really comes from that.

The video seems (perhaps understandably) oriented towards sPvP. How would your recommendations differ for WvW or Open World PvE or Fractal/Dungeon PvE? What sample builds would you possibly supply for each?

WvW: Ah supportive builds work wonders but as it stands, roaming by yourself is incredibly difficult due to your speed.

PvE: I’m not much of an expert but I could see Sinister meditation builds work incredibly well in PvE due to the consistent burning and solid burst dmg.

I highly disagree with Strength of the Fallen being not bad. Not being able to die and respawn can and will cost you games.

shouts + AH

I roam in wvw and its really OP

T’was a hidden meta pre patch and still works wonderous

BUT, with the new meditation traits jammed into 1 line, this opens up lots of opportunities for more offensive and defensive play.

Pitman.9210:

I highly disagree with Strength of the Fallen being not bad. Not being able to die and respawn can and will cost you games.

I’m pretty sure I agreed with you on this unless you meant REALLY good. If that’s the case, i’m sticking by my earlier argument that it’s subpar in comparison to prot on focus or an additional bit of burst(and healing).

Edit to Khain: Again, this is from a purely spvp perspective.

So is condi our most viable build right now ? Or is it just as viable to run Marauder power? I was thinking with the new traits i would try marauder and run Radiance/Valor/Virtues with S/F + H. But your latest two videos kinda made me feel like we should only be running condi now?

Abissal.6975:

So is condi our most viable build right now ? Or is it just as viable to run Marauder power? I was thinking with the new traits i would try marauder and run Radiance/Valor/Virtues with S/F + H. But your latest two videos kinda made me feel like we should only be running condi now?

Condition Guardian puts out similar damage as a zerker a lot easier while being more sustainable so yes, i’d say it’s much better than power. I run Virtues/Valor/Radiance with my condition build. It works incredibly well with self-sustain(and party support) while still putting out significant condi pressure.

In terms of utility i’m guessing you’re using medi skills , and one of the weapon is the torch right ? But besides that what amulet/runes/sigils would you run with a condi build? I’ve only ever played power , so i’m not really sure what ot use to test out a condi guard.

Here’s the build: http://tinyurl.com/ozmgcek

Again, not only will you put out impressive burning but you’ll also have excellent support utility.