Guild Wars 2

I want to make my cleric guard into a dps one.

My question is after looking through many builds and the gear that come with them I wanted to ask if Cavalier is also a viable option for a dps guard?

A guard in my mind at least should be able to soak up dmg, e.g. a tank of sort.
With zerk gear of course being a tank is out. So why not use Cavalier gear?
By investing a minimum of 4 points in the valor trait line the guard can take the trait that converts 7% of toughness to precision, and by that effectively turning a defensive stat into an offensive stat as well given the guard has enough toughness to make up the loss of precision from no using zerk(or sin) gear. of course by using Cavalier the guard will lose some dmg because the power stat is a minor and not major, but atl east the guard will be able o soak up more dmg.

In short, should I use cavalier gear if I want my guard to be able to deal more dmg then a tank and still be able to tank some hits? or should I stick with zerk gear for pure dmg?

An example of stats for a guard with full cavalier gear(don’t mind the utility skills):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAsdRl0Apfn9CxSI8DNR8gY9pWbqMQjLjdE-TBCBABxs/gi6DSTJ4nq/4lyPAOFAB8AA2+IAAA-e

Your crit chance is too low, I’d say go knight or zealot if you want some tankiness, and switch to berserker when you’re confident enough. Just say before the run that you’re running a more selfish gear because you’re learning, most people won’t have a problem with that.

WOAH!! xD if you must have your armour SO! high please at least use some soldiers armour instead of cav armour, besides cav armour isnt easy to come by, youll get one shot by a venom condi burst thief with that health

Well, for PvE, I’d recommend zerker or knight’s. Crit dmg isn’t very useful if you don’t have the precision to back it up.

Now, if you do solo/small group roaming in WvW, I’d say valk armor is your best bet, because you can run fury meditations and go 6 in radiance for RHS, which will give you enough crit chance to be effective.

You can also go zerker but take defensive traits for durability. Our trees that provide sustain in deeps also usually have a damage modifier or two so you would still deal decent damage. Or you can try the other way around, having knights and offensive build setup. Whatever that makes you safe while allows you to have decent dps.

Thanks for the help!

Guess I will stick to zerk as I did with most of my chars

You only need 2700 for cap.

my guard has 2708.

Charak.9761:

You only need 2700 for cap.

my guard has 2708.

2700 is the cap? Where’s your source of info for that?

It’s a soft cap, after that stacking toughness is less effective.

oxtred.7658:

It’s a soft cap, after that stacking toughness is less effective.

Oh I know there’s a softcap of sorts, personally I think Charak should’ve stated that. But regardless, where’s the source that states that?

Also, there’s a very real difference between +3k armor and 2.7k armor.

If you are looking for a good balance between DPS and survivability you could go zerk armor and weapons, a mix of zerk and knights trinkets (to you desired toughness) and trinklets are easier to swap out once you get used to the build and want to add more zzerk. Slap some runes of exuberance on for some extra vitality(plus a little extra power and precision. I find it works great with my 0-0-6-6-2
GS/Staff build (retributive armor, AH, empowering might, two hand mastery)

Gives 16k+ Health, 193%crit damage, 50%crit chance (60% with precision stacksfrom perception sigil on staff) and 2800 armor. Add some strength sigils to your weapons and you can easily maintain 10 stacks of might with auto-attacks and virtue of justice.
I would play around with the gw2skills.net build editor until you got numbers that you like then try it out with some exotics bought from the TP. That way you can always recover the runes and sell them back if you don’t like it and minimize the damage to my wallet.

Or you can go 0 armor and be just as good pokes vid

Charak.9761:

Or you can go 0 armor and be just as good pokes vid

lol on the naked guardian vid

Charak.9761:

Or you can go 0 armor and be just as good pokes vid

Not sure what a poke video is, but try doing 0 armor in WvW and see just how good you are.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Charak.9761:

Or you can go 0 armor and be just as good pokes vid

Not sure what a poke video is, but try doing 0 armor in WvW and see just how good you are.

-pokes sig-

Charak.9761:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Charak.9761:

Or you can go 0 armor and be just as good pokes vid

Not sure what a poke video is, but try doing 0 armor in WvW and see just how good you are.

-pokes sig-

lol, somehow I missed that. /selfforeheadslap

Still though. I only saw one fight you actually won in that video.