Guild Wars 2

I have played my Guardian rather ineffectively through PvE to lvl 80. I found her great fun but I don’t want to go into endgame like this, as I don’t want to be a burden to my group. So it is time for Baby Guardian to grow up and get a real build.
I tried to look around between builds but found it hard to differentiate. I enjoy playing sceptre/shield + GS (or staff). Atm I run knight gear but feel I should go more towards healing? What would you as seasoned guard-veterans recommend as builds for these weapons?

Long answer short, you can refer to the AH Build. It can potentially utilize all weapons at Guardian’s disposal. Of course it is centered with Hammer, but nonetheless, it has a lot of flexibility.

I don’t recommend going with +healing gear as a guardian, because of scaling issues and various other concerns. If you want to be a healer you can still get pretty far with normal gear and using mace/staff as your weapons. If you don’t use mace or staff, you’re not a healer.

Altruistic Healing is a good intro build to get your sea legs but you’ll eventually find that it’s something of a crutch build, and you’ll want to move on to something more specialized. It’s a good way to feel invulnerable in dungeons but the damage is not the best.

PTV is definitely the way to go in wvw. It’s a bit more complicated in pve. Do you usually run dungeons with uncoordinated pugs? Then stick with the ptv. Running with well planned guildies? Run with full zerker. Pretty much standard guardian AH build is 0/0/30/30/10. You test weapons out yourself and see which one works best with you. I use gs as primary and scepter/torch as secondary. Scepter is just incase you HAVE to attack ranged. You should always melee as a guard if given the chance. Guards range dps is garbage.

Thank you so much for the hints! I’ll definitely check out the recommended builds. =)
I plan on running dungeons with my guildies. I don’t like PUGs, rather have fun and support my friends
Do you think shield is viable in dungeons? I enjoyed it in open world PvE but it is probably very limited use in dungeons. So melee it is

Another baby Guardian needs advices =)
So, I have ele lvl 80 for PvE/WvW, and I wanted some PvE/PvP class,
Guardian is a best choice for me I guess. For now, I’m learning this class and mostly
focused to PvE. I want tanky/warrior-like build, and I’m stuck with weapon selection.
I like how hammer looks, but it completely sucks compared to greatsword, my lower lvl greatsword does 2-3 times more damage than hammer, it’s not usefull or I miss something?… As second weapon set, I’m pretty much sure with Mace+Shield, still some tips would be great. In traits I planned 10/0/30/30/0, but after closer look and forced to go with greatsword as main weapon, seems I’ll have to go 30/0/10/30/0. How good/bad is it? With utility skills I’m not sure yet, haven’t even half of them, and unable to test, so
this is outta discussions for now.

Senticon.3452:

Another baby Guardian needs advices =)
So, I have ele lvl 80 for PvE/WvW, and I wanted some PvE/PvP class,
Guardian is a best choice for me I guess. For now, I’m learning this class and mostly
focused to PvE. I want tanky/warrior-like build, and I’m stuck with weapon selection.
I like how hammer looks, but it completely sucks compared to greatsword, my lower lvl greatsword does 2-3 times more damage than hammer, it’s not usefull or I miss something?… As second weapon set, I’m pretty much sure with Mace+Shield, still some tips would be great. In traits I planned 10/0/30/30/0, but after closer look and forced to go with greatsword as main weapon, seems I’ll have to go 30/0/10/30/0. How good/bad is it? With utility skills I’m not sure yet, haven’t even half of them, and unable to test, so
this is outta discussions for now.

guardians shine with Altruistic Healing (AH) because it lets them heal tons of amounts. so standard build for that is 0/0/30/30/10. guardians generally dont invest in the zeal traitline since it doesnt give back as much as the rest do. almost all guardians hate hammer if theyre already used to greatsword. thing is you have to get used to its playstyle, which is completely different, and then you will be able to do more damage with it than with greatsword. hammer #2 and #4 can do massive amounts of damage. greatsword is better for mobility and 1v1 situations, whereas hammer is for CC and multiple targets. both of them work in both scenarios, but each one is more suited than the other.

foofad.5162:

I don’t recommend going with +healing gear as a guardian, because of scaling issues and various other concerns.

Definitely don’t go Healing Power as a Guardian, and especially not in WvW. Clerics Gear is terribad, only noobs run it.

kurtosis.9526:

foofad.5162:

I don’t recommend going with +healing gear as a guardian, because of scaling issues and various other concerns.

Definitely don’t go Healing Power as a Guardian, and especially not in WvW. Clerics Gear is terribad, only noobs run it.

There is actually a new build going around that uses clerics. its based on the healing on dodge trait. basically runes/traits/food give you full endurance at all times, and with clerics you can heal around 2k health per dodge. its still very experimental, but interesting.

Ran with another Baby Guard in Mini fractals (lvl6) yesterday. She in full clerics did indeed complain to have no survivability while I in P/V/T (according to your advice) felt much better. So thank you for guiding me, you were a great help.
Now I just need to figure out my weapons, since I’m really attached to my sceptre/shield combo that I will probably have to switch to staff (short range is short).

Helaing Power is not bad. but it does command a certain play style. you WILL hit considerably softer.. and the main the idea is to outlast opponents. definitely shines more in PvP / WvW.

PTV is good to start with. once you start getting comfortable with it though, perfecting the Guardian mechanics, learning when and what to dodge / blind / block, etc etc.. i would suggest trying to mix in some knight’s, valkyrie’s and berserkers gear. : )) when i first started out i ran strictly knight’s as it was easier to get all of the same type, and it worked out.. but now that i spend more time, i’m able to maximize towards how you want to play : ))

if you like scepter/shield, stick with it! though definitely carry every single weapon available to your Baby Guardian. ; )) you may never know when you have to switch it up! i’m constantly switching up weapons, for encounters, as well as for fun.

are you mainly going to be focusing on fractals? or will you do abit of everything?

I have now P/V/T gear, Berserker weapons and Knight trinkets (precision for crit proc). Have a few weapons lying around (yay for invisible bags), but thanks for thinking I can stick with sceptre/shield.
I plan on going fractals/dungeons, but still need to go slow because the machanics of group play are so different to soloing PvE and I enjoy the support I give to the group.
Your input is very appreciated! Baby guard no longer needs diapers. Now to loose the pacifier XD

Maiden England.3491:

kurtosis.9526:

foofad.5162:

I don’t recommend going with +healing gear as a guardian, because of scaling issues and various other concerns.

Definitely don’t go Healing Power as a Guardian, and especially not in WvW. Clerics Gear is terribad, only noobs run it.

There is actually a new build going around that uses clerics. its based on the healing on dodge trait. basically runes/traits/food give you full endurance at all times, and with clerics you can heal around 2k health per dodge. its still very experimental, but interesting.

I was being sarcastic. That build you’re referring to isn’t new, has been known and used almost since launch, it’s just that nobody talks about it for two reasons:

1. It’s optimal for Zerg vs Zerg, not so much for other stuff. It’s probably the best ZvZ guardian build available, but there are better builds for dungeons, sPvP, even organized GvG that are also almost as good for ZvZ. Most players go with one of those for more general-purpose all-around play.

2. Those hardcore WvW’ers running it in ZvZ don’t want to see it coming at them in enemy zergs, so they keep quiet about it.

There’s also a roaming/1v1 version called Healway you can see in action if you search for it on Youtube.

But yeah, HP, particularly Cleric’s gear, is strong on Guardians and a perfectly viable gearing option.

kurtosis.9526:

Maiden England.3491:

kurtosis.9526:

foofad.5162:

I don’t recommend going with +healing gear as a guardian, because of scaling issues and various other concerns.

Definitely don’t go Healing Power as a Guardian, and especially not in WvW. Clerics Gear is terribad, only noobs run it.

There is actually a new build going around that uses clerics. its based on the healing on dodge trait. basically runes/traits/food give you full endurance at all times, and with clerics you can heal around 2k health per dodge. its still very experimental, but interesting.

I was being sarcastic. That build you’re referring to isn’t new, has been known and used almost since launch, it’s just that nobody talks about it for two reasons:

1. It’s optimal for Zerg vs Zerg, not so much for other stuff. It’s probably the best ZvZ guardian build available, but there are better builds for dungeons, sPvP, even organized GvG that are also almost as good for ZvZ. Most players go with one of those for more general-purpose all-around play.

2. Those hardcore WvW’ers running it in ZvZ don’t want to see it coming at them in enemy zergs, so they keep quiet about it.

There’s also a roaming/1v1 version called Healway you can see in action if you search for it on Youtube.

But yeah, HP, particularly Cleric’s gear, is strong on Guardians and a perfectly viable gearing option.

also i might add thakittens not as versatile as other builds. you can use ptv effectively for pretty much anything, not the same for clerics

It is difficult to recommend anything since you do not specify what the build is for (ie. open world, WvW, dungeons). The only thing that I can probably say is do not invest any points into condition damage since the formula for it is terrible for burning since it stacks duration. As for healing power, it scales badly. I do not run an AH build, but I hear that healing power is good for it; otherwise, do not touch healing power.

Also, you might not want to limit yourself to certain weapons. A lot of weapons are good for certain tasks. For an example, I carry on me GS, hammer, scepter, staff, shield and focus. The staff is nice for tagging mobs and WvW. Scepter is good in high level FoTM but terrible in PvP for obvious reasons cough projectile speed cough. The hammer also works really well with the GS in PvP.

Maiden England.3491:

also i might add thakittens not as versatile as other builds. you can use ptv effectively for pretty much anything, not the same for clerics

I disagree. Cleric’s is much more useful in most situations than the PVT junk.

Oh and tinboy, you are wrong. Cleric’s scales especially bad with AH (0.01), so AH builds generally avoid it. Healway builds are usually the way to go with cleric.