Guild Wars 2

For awhile now I’ve been running a Knight/Zerker mix on my Guardian. I’d like to think I’m pretty good at the game, and can dodge, and I seem to be relatively good at that. I’ve often heard the argument in this game about whether or not Knight’s is useful. I was recently talking with someone and he made a really good point about Guardians. They have enough survivability by default that the Toughness bonus on Knight’s gear becomes redundant.
Currently I’ve been practically living in dungeons, and using an all Knight w/ soldier runes and zerker trinkets with a GS and Scepter/Shield combo. I’ve recently begun crafting to 500 (450 something now) and with all the effort required to craft an ascended weapon, I want to make sure it’s not a mistake to make it a Knight’s.

In pve mode, i feel that zerker is the way to go.

I used knight’s gear for a while until I grasped the guardian better and learned my encounters well enough that I didn’t need the extra toughness to cover me. Gear with survivability is something you might want to use until you feel comfortable surviving without it.

I eventually learned that survivability in dungeons will come from your ability to dodge and using your skills and/or traits to reduce/negate damage. Because of that, survivability stats are unnecessary, and you can trade your survivability stats for more damage.

@Lightrayne Do you have a recommended rune set? I feel I can dodge well (I 1 and a half manned the SE final boss on my first try) and that if it increases my value to my pug, it’ll be worth grinding the new set. And recommended builds are also appreciated.

If u want damage, scholar runes are the best followed by ruby orbs.

For hammer, I recommend 15/15/0/20/20 for good support utility , damage and survivability.
For sword, i recommend 10/30/0/5/25 or 10/30/0/10/20 for good damage and support.
For gs/scepter shield combo, I am not too sure as i dun use shield hence im not sure if the shield cd reduction is good or not.
But a good gs built will be 20/25/0/5/20.
I normally run sword/focus+gs or sword/focus+scepter/focus so i use the built 10/30/0/5/25.
I consider consecrations cooldown and some sort of grp condition removal to be important for guardians in dungeons. The grp condition removal can come from pure of voice or purging flames+absolute resolution.

^This advice is probably better for pugs.

I run with a static team, but, if you want to know, I run 15/25/0/20/10 full zerk equipment with soldier runes. My typical responsibilies (outside of DPS) include, but is not limited to, condi removal, consistent might stacking, reflects, minor vuln stack assistance, shielding against key single hit attacks (aegis), and countering incoming cc (stability).

I prefer to get my damage through % bonuses, and I consistently hit 5 digit numbers when I burst with GS or sword (due to team damage coordination). I use every guardian weapon except torch and mace (rarely shield) based on what the team profession comp and current situation calls for.

It’s probably not the most optimal setup, but I enjoy the all-rounder feel, and it works for my dungeon team, anyways.

I’ve been running fractals and pug explorers on my Guardian for a few weeks now, and one thing I’ve learned is that there’s little point in running a utility focused build when you’re running with randoms.

Nobody uses blast finishers in your fire fields, and most of the time the other players will kite the boss out of your symbols/fields/wall of reflect.
I ran a Hammer utility build for a while, but decided to switch back to a full glass cannon DPS build with sword + focus instead.
I still use Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger when appropriate, but my trait build is pretty much for pure personal DPS.

For organized groups in higher fractals, it could definitely be an idea to run with a Hammer utility spec with a few pieces of Knight armor (for aggro on Archdiviner/Ettin, so the rest of your group can wail at them safely). You’ll still do pretty decent DPS.

@SgtSarcasm.1653

I feel that utilities are actually more important in pugs where things take even longer to kill.

For example in volcanic fractals, against the legendary imbued shaman , the increased duration and reduced cooldown for WoR is actually quite important or could be a lifesaver at times while trying to resurrect people. In snow fractals, the added duration for hallowed ground is quite good for dpsing the ice structure as well.

Can u please show us the DPS built u are running?

Maybe I didn’t phrase it correctly.

I’m currently running a 10/30/0/20/10 build for all the personal DPS goodies in Zeal and Radiance. The last 30 points that I split in Honor and Virtues are simply due to lack of anything good to put points in. Sure, I could go 30 in Valor for 30% more crit damage, but I rarely use any meditations, and the other traits in Valor are not particularly useful.

Vigorous Precision is just too good to pass up when you’re playing glass cannon. The rest of the traits are also useful, but yeah, there’s just nothing else to take, really.

I still switch up my utilities for various encounters, as I said, but my main focus on the build is to do a lot of damage. I’ve been forced to solo or 2-3man bosses a lot in pugs, and a lot of the time when I drop fire fields/reflects/absorbs, people just run away from it anyway. If I ever find me a solid group to do dungeons/fractals with on a regular basis I’ll switch to hammer build for more group utility and start swapping out a few zerk pieces for knight to toughness tank some bosses, but for pugs it’s just a waste of time.

are you in eu or na

i’m looking for more competent people for my contacts list :p

I’m on EU.

/15letters

SgtSarcasm.1653:

Maybe I didn’t phrase it correctly.

I’m currently running a 10/30/0/20/10 build for all the personal DPS goodies in Zeal and Radiance. The last 30 points that I split in Honor and Virtues are simply due to lack of anything good to put points in. Sure, I could go 30 in Valor for 30% more crit damage, but I rarely use any meditations, and the other traits in Valor are not particularly useful.

Vigorous Precision is just too good to pass up when you’re playing glass cannon. The rest of the traits are also useful, but yeah, there’s just nothing else to take, really.

I still switch up my utilities for various encounters, as I said, but my main focus on the build is to do a lot of damage. I’ve been forced to solo or 2-3man bosses a lot in pugs, and a lot of the time when I drop fire fields/reflects/absorbs, people just run away from it anyway. If I ever find me a solid group to do dungeons/fractals with on a regular basis I’ll switch to hammer build for more group utility and start swapping out a few zerk pieces for knight to toughness tank some bosses, but for pugs it’s just a waste of time.

That’s pretty much all you have to know for starting up as guard in DGs.

I’m still running a middle-way build, very close to the one you described.

The only couple of things that differs are manly due to the way my (old) DG team play, so i had to carry cond removal for everybody most of the time and act as “anchor” or tanky guy saving your back anyway – thus zerk trinkets and weapons, x/30/0/30/x0 or 10/30/0/20/10 trait spread, S/F fixed in bar with alternate set being swapped as needed, but Knight Armor with Soldier Runes on top of that.

I have a zerk/scholar rune armor set, but i found it working good only if your party is a full DPS DG running team. Lately i’m mostly pugging, and as said my usual DG team doesn’t run with full zerk chars (we found it kinda boring, tbh), that’s why i prefer to stick with a more safe gear/rune choice for now.

To make it short, in speedrunners terms, is like slapping the DPS guard trait build on the Anchor equip.