I love pugging (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Pugging-Guards-Perspective) with my guard in FoTM. and I found this very easy to run and as a way of giving back to the community, ill share my secret build to you. It can sustain a 4 man (1 guard, 3 dps) or a 5 man single guardian teams (of course 2 guard team is very easy with this). I haven’t tried this in level 30+ though (not that hardcore @ lvl 28 currently) but it should be fine.
Zeal – 10
Radiance – 0
Valor – 10
Honor – 30
Virtues – 20
Why the setup? Because at 10 Zeal, we could get VI Spirit Weapon Mastery (Spirit weapon skills recharge 20% faster. ) I found Shield of the Avenger very useful in all the maps and this trait must be a must. And in times that you would only face easy bosses, you can swap in your bar the Sword and the Hammer spirit weapons for additional DPS. This is coupled with V Improved Spirit Weapon Duration (Spirit weapons last 50% longer.), which we got covered by putting 20 in our Virtues.
Spirit weapons are versatile. I like the Bow spirit weapon for additional AoE heal if mobs get heavy and DPSing your entire team while your Regen boon is on cooldown.
Valor – 10
The reason for this is Strength in Numbers. + 70 toughness x 5 can’t be thrown out to the bin. And it compensates for the lack of Armor since you only got 10 in this trait. in my case, I got base3000 armor when on shield and 2900+ armor when on staff, which is not that bad and the +70 toughness raises these, again which is not that bad.
Honor – 30
Here we got II Superior Aria, which is useful when you use Stand your Ground and Hold the Line. “Retreat!” also in the Cliffside map. In maps wherein there are a lots of KDs, Stand your Ground is very useful
And IX Two-Handed Mastery (Two-handed weapon skills recharge 20% faster. ) Very useful when you’re wielding the staff for Empower. Empower is +15 might(with virtue of justice) each for 5 people which, if combined, is a huge dps boost and probably better than the dps of an average guardian [yeah + 15 might on 4 people plus + 15 might on your weak kitten staff. imagine that +15 might on a zerker specced warrior and if they are 2 then boom]. It’s also useful to give you that emergency heal. Forget Altruistic Healing. No AH is more bad kitten That’s the main reason why i use Two Handed Mastery
XII Battle Presence. I found that the constant Regen can’t be beat. Poison? Bleeding? Eat it. Battle Presence and Boon Regen. But there are certain parts in some maps that are condition heavy.. and with this you can swap to Pure of Voice. Cool! But i dont use Pure of Voice. I’m more of a Battle Presence officionado. And for Condition Removal, I swap between the Bow spirit weapon or Save Yourselves. But it’s up to you. It’s available for you to swap. And if you’re in a 2 guard team and you see “Immune” pop up every some seconds, that means most likely he’s also using Battle Presence. If you’re that tactful, you could switch to Pure of Voice or you could talk about who’s using what based on the healing power that you both have.
Virtues – 20
The only reason to just have virtues at 20 is to have Absolute Resolution, Elite Focus, Improved Spirit Weapon Duration, and Consecrated Ground available to you to swap.
You can swap spirit weapons, tome of courage, Sanctuary/Wall of reflection and have that extra Healing when you use that healing virtue. So at 20 virtues, you can have a versatile build that suits for the different objective in different map. Lack DPS and need Shield of the Avenger? Covered. Need wall of reflection? Covered. Dont wanna die in Maw? Covered. That absolute resolution adds extra healing and has a placebo that your battle presence is healing at higher ticks (which should be fixed by A.NET) imo.
So that’s basically the rationale
Weapons used
Cleric’s Staff with Sigil of life, Cleric’s Scepter With Sigil of Life/Shield with Sigil of Energy
Cleric’s Spear/Trident with Sigil of Life
optional: Cleric’s GS with Sigil of Life just for the Tentacles
Superior Sigil of Life so youll get that + 250 healing
Armor: Rurik’s Armor (Cleric’s) Runes 3 Water/3 Monk
Trinkets
Backpiece and Rings: (P)VT to have + 25(+ 30) AR (healing power reduxed to 1,222 base but is compensated by sigil of life and nourishment)
Earrings and Amulet: Clerics
Food: Peach Pie (+ 80 healing, + 60 vitality) (You can do omnom berry version if you have cash) I needed the + healing to have that clutch regen and the +60 vitality for the reason that we all know.
This is basically a a build that seats on a Static Spec(10/0/10/30/20) that is versatile and can adapt to different map objectives by modification of traits and skillbar.
Enjoy,
Assembly Language
Guardian.
