Best support guardian (PVE)
Avoiding AH is still a good idea. You can get the same or better HP/s from Hammer and Writ of the Merciful. I think any Hammer build with a little bit of healing power gear thrown in would be adequate. That hybrid build I posted, or any 30 Virtues build would be fine.
Painbow.6059: Ignore what anyone else who doesn’t agree with me has said because its wrong.
I don’t know what the “best” support build is but this is one that I use on one of my guards
Blessed Guard 4.0
I believe some thing on the lines of 0/25/0/25/20, would be decent for a support build.
Heavens Rage
Well I have 2 full berserk damage purpose characters (a thief and a ranger) and I definitly wanted a more tanky, supportive character aswell, that can carry less experienced people and assist the party as a whole on both pub and higher levels. I’m kind of few to guardians (~150 hours spent with it, leveled with instant 20 scroll, craft and WvW), and focusing on PvE, nowadays planning to move WvW.
Here is my current build:
*Armor
*Full Soldier Set (POWER, vitality, toughness)
*Armor Runes: Superior Runes of the Dolyak (vitality and toughness for each set level bonus, +30 health / sec regen for 6/6).
*Trinkets: Knight rings (power, precision, TOUGHNESS) and amulet, not sure if I should go for the same with earrings. I’ll propably go for soldiers here, currently using green knight stuff, the rest is already ascended.
*Weapons
*I think guardians really need to swich their weapon sets often, as depending on the situation some weapons may be more useful than the other. Here is the 3 I use: Hammer, Greatsword (combo fields synergy between these two, party buffing, healing, protection) and a staff (might stacking, burst heal, WvW crowd control).
I don’t know for sure what stats I should go for, so I went for a soldier hammer (as this is my main weapon, and the most supportive), bought a genesis mainly for the looks but kept as it is, sometimes I change between these two hammers, if I can offer more dps and there is no need for support at all. GS is just a random Cobalt, not sure what stats I should go for, staff is just a random rare Cleric.
*Traits
*0/10/30/30
*Zeal: 0
*Radiance: 10 (II) for heal signet recharge 40->32s cooldown)
*Valor: 30 (I)(VI)(XI)For condition removal, higher precision, self heal for buffing allies (synergy with hammer autoattack, staff almost everything, greatsword combo fields. GS combo fields also synergy well with hammer).
*Honor: 30 (II or VI) (VIII) (X). II or VI is up to you, one helps you a lot in tough situations, the other helps you “somewhat okay” and your allies. Buffs you’d get from shouts will be on you anyway almost permanently with a party, plus you provide a LOT of them by autoattacks and combofields anyway. VIII is the most important here: every critical strike you land (and this is why we have Knight gear with high toughness and precision) you give 5 seconds of might to the entire party (1s cooldown). This is extremely good dps buff for the whole party, plus add the staff. Of course you can go for this with berserker gear aswell, but even without it’s an extremely good dps buff (IMO) to everyone, making you very useful in “dps need” situations even if you are built to be a tank. X is there to heal yourself plus your allies.
*Virtues: 0
How you play with this build?
Rush in, land combo fields with hammer autoattack to give almost permanent protection boon to nearby allies, plus heal them and yourself, plus heal yourself for giving boons to them, plus get regenartion from Guardian F2, plus from armor runes, plus using regeneration (boon). You can provide AoE blind pretty often, condition removal by combo fields and shouts. Constantly switch between GS and Hammer to use a combo field with all possible combos (leap, splash). Depending on if the party needs more defense or dps, try to main a GS or the hammer, and feel free to use a staff if you want instead of one above.
You can also use those 2 Radiance points and 10 Honor points to go for 20 Virtues, and get more boon duration, faster virtues recharge (F1-2-3), bonus stats on virtue activation (might, regen, protection), do more dps with (I) if you are not targeted and have the passive aegis up for a long time, and (IX) for a 3 times stronger passive self heal from F2. However you lose the AoE heal for allies (heal on you is around the same, but except ~123/sec you get 362/ 3sec).
Oh the typos up there, so many. Why can’t I edit posts. Like… few*new.
Best support : Reflects, blinds, aoe vulnerability, virtues, stability.
I consider anything with 0 power on the gear to be unacceptably low damage.
Starting to thing that builds which hit the key points (15/15/0/20/20, 10/30/0/5/25) and just take selfish survivability gear (PVT) are probably the best bet for new/bad players.
Best support : Reflects, blinds, aoe vulnerability, virtues, stability.
I consider anything with 0 power on the gear to be unacceptably low damage.
Pretty much this.
I’m guessing that as a newer player, they are more likely to be in poorer groups too.
For most dungeons, probably just start up with Obal’s hammer build with knights armor then ease into zerk through accessories or what have you. I find that build pretty faceroll and still decent for the team till the player gets out of training wheels stage. Off set can be staff or something so they have something to fall back on for range till they know what’s going on.
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
(edited by swiftpaw.6397)
I agree with swiftpaw. Some variation of obal’s hammer is probably the best thing beginners can do. Maybe even a bit more defensively something like 0/15/0/30/25 – that one would sacrifice a bit of damage, but gains a larger HP cushion for error and still more support flexibility. As gear, okittennight or more offensive.
There is no loyalty without betrayal. -Ann Smiley
Best support : Reflects, blinds, aoe vulnerability, virtues, stability.
I consider anything with 0 power on the gear to be unacceptably low damage.
Starting to thing that builds which hit the key points (15/15/0/20/20, 10/30/0/5/25) and just take selfish survivability gear (PVT) are probably the best bet for new/bad players.
I believe also that a Hammer build is fairly simple and solid for new players. Auto-attack and Mighty Blow every 2 rotations is simple enough to focus more on dodging, etc.
Desolation