Guild Wars 2

right on, thanks again!

Hey, build looks really fun, been running AH, but going to give this a go tonight. Love the idea of the long uptime on boons and not being tied to the staff for a decent travel speed (my Chardian feels sooooo slow w/o a 25% run speed signet and when Swiftness is down).

Question about the armor selection. You’re running all Soldier gear now right? Did you do that primarily for the high-end Factuals, or do you need all that vitality for regular dungeons too? Did you find your Crits going down significantly?

I was thinking going mostly Knights (4-piece), to help boost my Crit Chance (and maybe even the Rampager 2-piece from AC w/Monk Runes). Not doing factuals yet and really just working on my AC tears… but I also don’t want to buy/craft a bunch of Knights if it’s better in the long run to just go the Melendru temple and get Soldiers (if it wasn’t perma-bugged on TC).

I’d like an all-around set that will last me a while, as I finish clearing all the PVE Maps, tackle dungeons with friends and start doing some WVW.

To be entirely honest, I’ve been tinkering with the idea of running multiple armor sets with pure celestial trinkets. The concept seems to work well, but I have yet to acquire all of the armor sets I’m aiming for. That being the case, if you obtain celestial trinkets (the ones that give every stat), that provides enough base toughness and vitality to survive reasonably well, both in fractal encounters and WvW.

The PVT set works, and that very well, but I’ve considering getting a power/precision/crit damage armor set as well for significantly increased damage, since I now run celestial trinkets. A Knight’s set will work as a sort of hybrid of the two, increasing damage moderately and providing enough toughness to shrug off most hits. Given how much of a generalist this build is, gearing for multiple situations is certainly a good idea.

As far as my stats, in the end when running the Soldier’s set with celestial trinkets I end up with around 30% crit chance, boosted to 50% 1/3 of the time via Save Yourselves. Extra precision would certainly not hurt, especially with the amount of crit damage around. In general, though, I’d be very cautious about going below 14k-ish health. We have a lot of condition removal, and quite a bit of toughness depending on gear, but our low healthpool makes us prime fodder for one-shot attacks and condition-based enemies.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

As far as my stats, in the end when running the Soldier’s set with celestial trinkets I end up with around 30% crit chance, boosted to 50% 1/3 of the time via Save Yourselves. Extra precision would certainly not hurt, especially with the amount of crit damage around. In general, though, I’d be very cautious about going below 14k-ish health. We have a lot of condition removal, and quite a bit of toughness depending on gear, but our low healthpool makes us prime fodder for one-shot attacks and condition-based enemies.

Good call, I keep forgetting about the Fury from SY. That should make a huge difference. Hmmmm… decisions decisions… My health would be pretty low with knights, so maybe I’ll go with Soldiers to start off and when I get around to it Craft a Berserker set (or Knights…). That way I can play it safe when necessary (dungeons/WvW) and see lots of big red numbers when just running through maps. Thanks for the advice!

A really interesting build… I am definitely going to test it out. Where do you get the celestial trinkets? Can’t see any on TP

The celestial trinkets are only available through Ascended gear, an expensive mystic forge recipe for an exotic amulet, and the Ancient Karka Shell (a unique accessory), which is also quite expensive. Your best bet is to go straight for the Ascended stuff, in my opinion; it’s actually the easiest way to obtain the celestial stat set in PvE.

• Fractals for the rings (20 runs of even-numbered 10+ fractals will get you enough tokens for both rings).
• Guild missions + 10g for the accessories (you could get these with 40 laurels + 50 ectos apiece, but you’re probably better off finding and joining public guild missions until you get enough guild tokens to afford the accessories, then pony up the 10g.
• 30 laurels for the amulet at the laurel vendor.
• There is no celestial-stat backpiece, so I grabbed a power/precision/crit damage backpiece (1350 fractal relics, plus 500 to ascend it), and slotted it with an exquisite ruby jewel. You’re not going to get a ton of defense out of that slot, no matter what you put in it, and crit damage is a valuable stat given how much crit chance we have normally, plus our 1/3 uptime on fury.

Eugh! Ok – I’ve not done fractals before (I fear I’m very late to the party, not sure if anyone is still starting out). The rest of it I should manage – guild does missions and I’ll stop spunking my Laurels on gear boxes now! Will be a few weeks for sure.

My usual playtime is after 6:30 PM CST, so if you want to run fractals, I have no problem giving you an introduction around that time. I should be on tonight and much of this weekend, though I’ll be mostly unavailable tomorrow night.

I’d recommend starting out by running level 10, as it’s extremely easy to find a group. Your reward level will increase each fractal, so long as the fractal you run is at or above your current reward level. You can run level 10 without any agony resist whatsoever so long as you’re careful, and in fact I’d recommend it, as running lower-level fractals makes it easy to pick up bad habits that will hurt you when the going gets tough later on. Just make sure that your group knows you have no AR and/or haven’t done specific fractals before—most groups should be fine with it and should help carry you through or explain fights.

Thus, after about 30 runs, you should have both the rings you want—you may even get them faster, if you get a lucky drop on runs 10-30!

That’s exceeding generous of you – before I drag you out I will check with the guild. I hope that people will be able to show me as to not waste your time.

One thing I was wondering, which would be very useful, would be any narrated game play videos you might have demonstrating this build: WvW 1v1’s, Zergs, Small Groups etc. Would this be something you would be interested doing?

I haven’t done any videos as of yet, but it’s not something I’d be opposed to doing. I’ll just have to find the time.

Changed my build, got 4 of the 6 necessary runes and ran two paths of AC yesterday (to work on getting my last two Monk runes). Gotta say, Had a blast and felt like a beast Didn’t have any trouble going toe to toe with the bosses.

Looking forward to Reset so I can run a couple more AC paths and get my last runes and really see this in action.

Hi Kharel. I just hit 80 and I have been gearing up this spec, just need my monk runes and pretty much set,

I should have my ascendance amulet in 3 days too so that will help,

Just wanted to confirm you are using PVT armor pieces, beserker/ascendance trinket pieces and a beserker based stat weapon.

Also how do you feel the new thief and warrior changes may effect this build. Thanks!

I’ve actually been tweaking my gear a bit and really liking the results, going for Celestial-stat trinkets to provide a reasonably high stat baseline for every stat, then picking armor up based on what I need to do (PVT is still probably the most solid armor set to start out with, since it works everywhere).

The thief and warrior changes don’t concern me too much, to be honest. Sword/dagger thief needed a bit of a boost and a better role in life, and the warrior anti-boon trait is 30 points deep in a tree that prevents warriors from taking some of their other most lethal trait combinations.

The thief skill that steals boons could be annoying, but you’ll quickly learn to read when the flanking strike attack is coming and dodge, blind, or block either it or the followup.

Likewise, the warrior change could hurt you a lot, but to be honest up until this patch I looked at warriors as a free loot bag: with protection up, they really had no way of breaking through your defenses, and you would inevitably chip your way through their defenses. Plus, they couldn’t really escape you with your permanent swiftness and leaps, nor could they chase you down easily. So, all-in-all, it just made more challenging (and thus fun) opponents for us, without really destroying the build—much of this hullabaloo is completely unwarranted.

ok would you recommend pvt weps and trinkets then? I have pretty much all the karma pvt armor cept no helm so got an exotic knights helm. Thanks!

The armor and weapons I’m still sticking with PVT. I’d stay with berserker or celestial trinkets (the ones that give you every stat in the game), though.

Hi Kharel. What is your armor currently at? I see a lot of people talking about 3k armor for wvwvw, how do you feel about that stat and how it works with this build. Thanks! Trying to nail down what approx stats I should be looking for to work best for this build. Thanks again!

You will be hard pressed to reach 3k armour without putting points into the Valor tree. I would say focus on ~2500, as I find that is enough to stave off most hard attacks and doesn’t sacrifice too much. (Though I don’t WvW much, mainly PvE)
I’m planning on going for celestial ascended amulet and earrings atm, with berserker rings and back. Currently though I’m still in Exotics so it’ll be a while yet, I currently have full PVT armour with berserker hammer and trinkets and it is working out for me.

3k armor is great if you’re doing zerg combat in WvW. I’m rarely involved in fights with more than 5 people on either side (both due to server population and personal preference), so 3K armor is overkill for me. As JustCurious said, 2.5k is generally plenty, especially for small-group combat. Most thieves I’ve encountered in WvW couldn’t burst me down with that level of armor, even before the nerf to Mug. Really, the “best” stats are the ones that complement your playstyle and preferred weaponry—if you feel like you need more of any particular stat, by all means get more of it!

JustCurious.3457:

You will be hard pressed to reach 3k armour without putting points into the Valor tree. I would say focus on ~2500, as I find that is enough to stave off most hard attacks and doesn’t sacrifice too much. (Though I don’t WvW much, mainly PvE)
I’m planning on going for celestial ascended amulet and earrings atm, with berserker rings and back. Currently though I’m still in Exotics so it’ll be a while yet, I currently have full PVT armour with berserker hammer and trinkets and it is working out for me.

Ya I am getting my amulet today and I planned on the earings as well. I may Do the rest of the accessories celestial. I am also using beserker weps and right now im at around 2400 armor, I think that will be right about 2500 with the amulet or so. My current amulet is my last non exotic piece. I seems to be doing well in PVE explorable dungeons but I have yet to start fractcals which I plan on doing this weekend and wvw, been waiting on my last monk rune which I get today to finish the spec. Sounds like im right in line with what is typical for the spec.

I also see what Kharel is saying with twinking your gear for your play style. One thing I am finding I really enjoy about this game is there is no right or wrong way really, just play styles. Some like more offensive and some more defensive. both have their advantages. I am finding mine is somewhere in the middle. big part of the reason I like this spec and gear set up. Frankly I love the mobility and condition removal! I am expecting to really enjoy this in wvw. I was always more of a roamer in pvp games, Although I am sure I will jump in the zergs some too. Thanks again for the replies.

I’m fairly new here so please be patient. But my question is in the sPVP setup. I noticed two runes with +10% boon duration but I can’t seem to find a third available? Am I missing something? I can’t remember which two are there but I did see Monk. Aren’t there supposed to be these three +10% boon duration armor pieces available in sPvP as well?

Tyrion.4259:

I’m fairly new here so please be patient. But my question is in the sPVP setup. I noticed two runes with +10% boon duration but I can’t seem to find a third available? Am I missing something? I can’t remember which two are there but I did see Monk. Aren’t there supposed to be these three +10% boon duration armor pieces available in sPvP as well?

In sPvP there may not be another Boon Duration rune, as Superior Runes of Sanctuary currently give Chill Duration instead of Boon Duration like their Major and Minor variants suggest. Your best bet is to take 3 Monk and 3 Water, or one that gives Might Duration, idk whatever feels best for you. This is only a problem as you only have access to the Superior runes in sPvP.
In PvE this problem is avoided by using 2 Sup Monk, 2 Sup Water and 2 Major Water/Monk.

Thanks JustCurious for the breakdown.

JustCurious hit the nail on the head; this spec is not nearly as effective in sPvP for a few reasons. One, you can’t hit the type of boon duration in sPvP that you can in PvE/WvW—it’s simply not possible, for three main reasons:

• The superior boon duration runes only offer 10% extra boon duration, not 15%, giving only +20% total, rather than +30%.
• Major runes are unavailable entirely, and there are no other options for boon duration.
• Save Yourselves gives half the boon duration in sPvP that it normally provides in PvE/WvW.

Thus, you end up with more like 10-12% uptime on every boon in the game, as opposed to 33% in PvE/WvW, and you cannot maintain permanent swiftness (without carrying a staff, anyway).

Also, due to the relatively limited stat sets, it’s very hard to balance damage output and durability with this build in sPvP. You get some free vitality, but you miss out on the toughness/crit damage of an AH build, which is far more important when you’re so limited on your other available stats. About the best you could do is settle for the Celestial stat set, but chances are you’re still not going to be particularly effective with this build in sPvP.

Hi Kharel – Nice build! I am working on a variant for PvE/dungeons only, because I’d like to find a way to get a little more DPS out of it. How do you think a 0/25/0/20/25 build would work? It seems I would be trading some condition removal for increased DPS. I could run some meditations with condition removal instead of shouts to make up for the loss. Is there anything else I would loose by making this change?

Thanks!

25/0/20/25 would be a pretty strong variant. In any given dungeon group, an enemy is almost certainly going to have a load of conditions on them. That being the case, you’ll almost always be able to take advantage of that 10% consistent damage boost. You’ll lose out on a few boons from converting incoming conditions, but that’s of minimal importance so long as your normal dungeon groups pack enough condi removal of their own.

Now, as for the meditations, I actually would suggest that if you’re thinking of swapping out shouts, you look instead at the consecrations. Meditation traits are mostly in Valor, which you don’t have any points in. Consecrations, however, are in Virtues—and you already have 25 points there. Swapping Vengeful (Virtues II) to Master of Consecrations gives you longer consecration duration and 20% reduced cooldown, which is very strong. Wall of Reflection is a gamechanger in dungeons; I regularly swap to it instead of Retreat for dungeon and fractal content where speed is less of a necessity than not getting shot in the face. Hallowed Ground and Purging Flames are both long-duration fire fields, which can be blast-finished once or twice apiece for extra might.

I would definitely keep Save Yourselves on your skillbar in most scenarios, though, since it’s one of your primary sources of offensive boons; likewise Stand Your Ground is extremely strong anywhere there’s CC present, though since you’re focusing less on retaliation and mobility in dungeon content Hallowed Ground might be just as effective.

Hey Kharel, for WvWvW what weapon combos do you like. I have been reading a lot that many guardians prefer a staff for good aoe and utility if in a zerg with maybe hammer. Septer seems fairly broken.

when roaming I was thinking Hammer and GS

what do you recommend when roaming and then we in a zerg? Thanks!

• Also what upgrades to the weps do you recommend and why. Thanks!

I carry one of everything, and swap out based on the situation.

For roaming/dueling, I like both the GS/hammer combo and the GS/sword+focus combo. Both give you offensive and defensive options, and both provide very significant burst damage options. The hammer’s far better for fighting enemy groups, due to the sword having more single-target attacks and the focus’s shield going down quickly against multiple enemies.

However, the sword/focus + GS combo can deal nearly 18k in burst damage to a single target if all of it lands (5.5k focus 5 crit, 6k sword 3, 5k Whirling Wrath, plus whatever you do with retaliation, autoattacks, symbols, and leaps to get into range and stay there). That much damage output is usually enough to end a fight right then and there—and if it’s not, both the sword and greatsword autoattacks hit like a truck.

In multi-target situations, hammer and GS does have the upper hand, especially when soloing supply camps. The hammer’s burst is AoE, and you get better defenses against multiple enemies via permanent protection while using its autoattacks. The overall burst isn’t quite as high, but Mighty Blow is a force to be reckoned with, especially given its low cooldown, and hammer autoattacks hit very hard as well.

So, that’s my setup for roaming. In the event I have to participate in a zerg, however, I’ll still often take greatsword/hammer, for one main reason: the 5 skill on each weapon. GS leap->Binding Blade->pull->swap->Ring of Warding will nearly guarantee the death of 2-3 enemies, and it’s entirely possible to kill 5 enemies out of a zerg, assuming your zerg is coordinated in the slightest (communicating what you’re about to do is key here). Pulling that trick once or twice is often enough to break an enemy zerg entirely unless they’re receiving constant reinforcements. Once you’ve thrown down those skills, though, along with maybe a Mighty Blow for some good followup damage, it’s time to get the heck out of Dodge—the zerg does not like Guardians in their faces, and they will target you with everything they have if you start throwing CC around them. Pop every condition removal, block, invulnerability, stability, stunbreak, and evasion you have access to, and get out of there—you don’t have the healing to take a zergpounding to the face.

Outside of that, for general zerging I’ll bring a staff and greatsword. The greatsword’s CC, damage output, and mobility is amazing, while the staff provides a ton of might, some healing (with a 1:1 scaling ratio with healing power), a symbol of swiftness for the slower people in the zerg, some CC, and some nice AoE damage.

Now, for sigils, I’ve been liking the following:

• GS: Sigil of Strength (combined with GS autoattack, rapid hits from Whirling Wrath, might-on-crit food, and Empowering Might, you end up with a crazy amount of might, which helps you land even more painful Retaliation damage and hit even harder with your weapons)
• Hammer: Sigil of Bloodlust (there’s plenty of mobs and guards to kill in WvW, and the hammer is your best tool for fighting them without taking much damage after your initial GS burst; an extra 250 power at max stacks will easily tip most fights in your favor, especially with the might from the GS still on you)
• Staff: Sigil of Fire or Sigil of Blood (both take advantage of the staff’s high AoE and your decent crit rate; Blood will keep you healed up better while you’re supporting allies, while Fire will cause more AoE damage)
• Scepter: Sigil of Water (let’s face it: when we’re using the scepter, we’re in “DON’T DIE AAAAUGH RUNAWAYRUNAWAY” mode, or at the very least trying to keep some distance from a melee enemy to heal ourselves up; some extra healing while we’re using it will come in handy)
• Sword: Sigil of Air (when we’re using the sword, our goal is to kill one thing really, really fast; Sigil of Air promotes this)
• Mace: Sigil of Water (when we’re using the mace, we’re most likely doing healing support in a small group; in this case we really want to heal our allies as much as possible)
• Focus: Sigil of Force (we’ll use the focus with both scepter and the sword, and in both of these cases hitting harder is a good thing—plus, since we’re using on-crit sigils on both, so having anything on-crit is a no-go, and we may or may not already have stacks of Bloodlust from the hammer, so another stacking sigil would just conflict with that)
• Shield: Sigil of Energy (shield goes well with the mace, since you can trigger the shield bubble for an additional heal; adding a Sigil of Energy gives us yet another heal when we swap to this set by allowing us an extra dodgeroll)
• Torch: Sigil of Smoldering (there’s not much reason to run torch, honestly, but if I was forced to do so I’d take this to enhance our burns even further)

awesome info thanks!

Thank you for the information Kharel!

How much of a difference does having the Monk/Water/Sanctuary runes make?

I played the with the new spec (0/25/0/20/25) over the last day or so and didn’t really see much difference in boon effect from my previous DPS spec (10/25/0/30/5). I did, however, notice the loss of DPS. I didn’t want to commit to buying the runes before trying out the build, so I don’t have them yet.

Is the reason that I am not noticing the improved boons is the lack of proper runes or the 10 pts I put into radiance from honor from the recommended spec of 0/15/0/30/25?

The runes are critical; they’re one of the most important parts of the build (debatably even more so than the trait spec).

Thanks Kharel! Off to get some runes.

Finally doing some wvwvw, what a great set up. Being able to have 100% swiftness and then still having the great self healing and condition removal with solid dps. It is a blast to play. Thank you again kharel.

So I’ve got something similar to this going on. I’m currently running 0/0/10/30/30 build

I’m heavy cleric in all my slots to try and be a bit more support and healing instead of going soldier’s or knight’s. So far I like it a lot but I notice a bit of an issue with purging conditions. I can pick up pure of voice but I kind of like have Virtue of Resolve on all party members in heavy cleric gear as it heals for a decent amount. More team healing is fun

So my question is, instead of runes like monk or water in my armor, do you think its viable to pick up runes of soldiers instead to make shouts cleans? Or should I just suck it up and use Pure of Voice over group resolve? (In the bottom tree I chose the ability to make resolve’s passive stronger which makes me want it to be group wide even more)

If you’re running cleric’s gear, I’d say keeping Battle Presence on is more important than Pure of Voice in most scenarios. The only exception I’d make is WvW—in WvW, there are times when you have to remove a condition, and you have to remove it NOW (at least in solo/small-group roaming). In this scenario, being able to pop a shout to remove the condition is often crucial, especially if Renewed Focus and Virtue of Resolve are both on cooldown.

That being said, if you’re running in a 5-man or larger with your build, keep Battle Presence. The extra heals you’ll be constantly pumping out are more crucial than condi removal, and if your allies’ builds don’t include at the very least self-condi removal (or more preferably, group condi removal), there’s something wrong with them. That being the case, there’s more than likely plenty of condi removal around, and Battle Presence will be of more overall utility to the group than some extra condi removal that may or may not be necessary.

As for runes, as I’ve mentioned before they’re very important to the build; possibly one of the most critical parts. Permanent personal swiftness is absolutely huge. Soldier runes are nice and all, but they’re inferior to Pure of Voice in that they don’t give a boon when a condition is removed. Also, Absolute Resolution makes VoR just as much of a condi removal factor as your shouts—potentially even more so if you pop Renewed Focus to refresh it—and Battle Presence has the nice side benefit of remaining active, even when VoR is on cooldown. Put another way, I would most certainly not sacrifice 40% extra boon duration for the sake of two condi removals on a 48s cooldown and one on a 20-30s cooldown (depending on shout). There are better ways of getting condi removal.

And this is why I ask instead of wasting gold on testing sometimes. Solid advice and it makes perfect sense to hear from another source instead of debating things in my head.

Thanks for being generally, all around helpful Kharel.

I must be missing something. I have 55% boon duration bonus but “Retreat” only gives me 31 seconds swiftness on a 48 second cooldown… is this right? How do I reach perma swiftness?

Edit: Ahhh, I wasn’t running “Save Yourselves” at the moment, had assumed this was going to boost “Retreat” enough but obviously not.

Ah, yes—you definitely do need both SY and Retreat.

Alternately, if you’re not opposed to carrying a staff, you can use that with Retreat for permanent swiftness. Do be aware, however, that if you walk into the staff field and already have swiftness, you won’t get the swiftness listed on the symbol’s tooltip—it’ll just add one second to the duration of already-existing swiftness. Due to this oddity, and the difficulty of managing this with the staff symbol’s cooldown, I much prefer to use Retreat and SY to manage swiftness.

Can I tempt you into using a different calculator? That one refuses to load no matter what I try or which browser I use.

I find that this build works but I am reluctant to spend effort gearing up for it because I find that it becomes ineffective in zergs, and at the moment, zerging determines who is winning.

I might gather up the gear for those times when I want to defend something or take some camps.

Here’s a link to the buildcraft calculator, Kanto (including the gear updates I’ve made since my original post):

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.5|1.1g.h1b|b.1g.h1f.d.1g.h1|1c.71g.1g.71g.1c.71h.1g.71h.1c.b1g.1g.b1g|411.0.211.0.311.0.211.0.311.0.3s.0|0.f2.0.u28b.p29|40.1|v.19.17.18.0|e

Timid, this is most definitely not a zerging build. Right now, my server is sitting in T7, and is unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon. While you can survive in a zerg, and even be useful with the staff due to high boon duration (those might stacks from Empower last a long, long time, and you can hand out nearly permanent swiftness just through the staff symbol, completely ignoring your shouts), it simply does not have the durability with the gear I’ve listed to deal with more than a few people focusing you at once.

However, I disagree that being part of the zerg is the sole identifier of “who wins”. Many servers, even higher-tier ones (I have been active in a T1 server in the past) don’t guard yaks properly. Yaks grant 3 points apiece. They have long routes, with a very large number of potential ambush points, and are very vulnerable and slow. Even if you can’t solo-cap a camp (you can with this build, and that quite easily, but sometimes there’s simply no option to do so due to overwhelming population of enemy servers and/or players guarding the camp) you can still jump on these yaks with a greatsword/sword+focus weaponset, lay down enough burst to nearly instantly murder the yak, polish it off with a few autoattacks, and make off with permanent swiftness and the GS leap before enemies have a chance to retaliate (keep in mind, you’ll be throwing out 3-4 AoE blinds while doing this).

In this manner, if you’re good at it, a single player has the potential to gain more points per tick for the server than via any other method out there.

Some feedback – got the runes and it does help tremendously! Nice build. I’ve been trying out this build vs the more standard AH build, and a DPS oriented build, and it holds up well against them. All the builds are strong and viable for PvE, but all play differently.

Thanks again Kharel!

Upon first look I see you took signet mastery, and while it’s nice to have that 1 healing signet refresh quicker, Blind exposure might be better. Activating Virtue of justice blinds nearby enemy, with Blind exposure that blind also becomes 3 stacks of Vulnerability, stack that with Blind from a leap of faith is another Vuln. With each kill your Virtue of justice resets. If the kills abound near a group you can stack up Vuln on surrounding enemies quite a bit.

That’s quite true, and it is a reasonable alternative. I will say that since the build lacks access to AH, every bit of healing helps; however if you find yourself not having healing issues the vulnerability would certainly be a nice way of boosting team-wide damage output.

And to those who say “ascended” gear isn’t making or breaking builds… /rollseyes

And to those who say “ascended” gear isn’t making or breaking builds… /rollseyes

I ran this build long before ascended gear became available. I just did it with straight ’zerker trinkets and straight PVT armor/weaponry, and ignored healing power entirely aside from the 300 from traits. Ascended has certainly tweaked how I play somewhat, but I met with just as much success using this build before ascended gear was introduced.

I am considering this build for my guardian, however I am also looking at Strife’s build
(AH with 0/0/30/30/10). [Link: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70142-after-100s-of-hours-my-final-guardian-build/]
He also uses different sorts of weapons and mainly runs dungeon.

Now I have to say the 15 points in radiance works beautiful in PvE, however looking at the end game and mainly focusing on WvW. Do you think your build can work in WvW big battles and how does it compare towards Strife’s build?

Kharel Arhew.1437:

I ran this build long before ascended gear became available. I just did it with straight ’zerker trinkets and straight PVT armor/weaponry, and ignored healing power entirely aside from the 300 from traits. Ascended has certainly tweaked how I play somewhat, but I met with just as much success using this build before ascended gear was introduced.

I know, I didn’t mean in any way that it you a better player. It was honestly nothing more than a off handed comment regarding ascended gear in every build on the forums now. More so a dig at the player base who said don’t worry about the gear it doesn’t change anything but it does.

It isn’t a big deal because in the next few weeks we will be hearing about the WvW of it. Which many of us can’t wait because some, maybe not many, can’t stand the PvE aspect of these games.

JonSnow.5610:

I am considering this build for my guardian, however I am also looking at Strife’s build
(AH with 0/0/30/30/10). [Link: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70142-after-100s-of-hours-my-final-guardian-build/]
He also uses different sorts of weapons and mainly runs dungeon.

Now I have to say the 15 points in radiance works beautiful in PvE, however looking at the end game and mainly focusing on WvW. Do you think your build can work in WvW big battles and how does it compare towards Strife’s build?

While the 15 in Radiance is definitely tuned towards the PvE side of the game, I find it allows a lot of clutch plays and unique abilities in WvW as well. Since I’m sitting in T7, I don’t have to deal with zergs a lot, and thus the “ideal” build for me is primarily a small-group/solo roaming build. That being the case, the ability to solo cap a supply camp that normally takes 2-5 people to take is a large benefit. The 15 points in Radiance makes this easy: every NPC you kill at the camp gives you 3 stacks of might, and lets you AoE blind all the other NPCs you’ve pulled. This contributes in no small way to your kill speed and survivability while soloing a camp.

If you prefer zerg combat, chances are you’ll be using a staff. If you’re using a staff, chances are you’ll be tagging lots of enemies. If you’re tagging lots of enemies in zerg combat, chances are some of them will die in the near future. When they do, you get a free 3 stacks of might, 25 seconds of burning between yourself and 4 nearby allies on your next attack, and an AoE blind (the blind is less useful, since you probably shouldn’t be on the front lines of zerg combat with this build, but the ability to throw out up to 25 might stacks in an AoE with just your staff shouldn’t be discounted).

As for how this build compares to Strife’s, the main thing you’ll notice in my build is mobility. Strife’s build is great in zergs, since it’s very durable, offers quite a bit of support (though arguably not as much as mine), and still deals respectable damage. My build, by contrast, trades some of Strife’s durability for a ton of mobility, while still dealing respectable damage. In dungeons, I find that having mobility (and using it) increases your survivability significantly. In the end, if either build feels more “natural” to you and works well with your playstyle, I’d say use it.

Crapgame.6519:

I know, I didn’t mean in any way that it you a better player. It was honestly nothing more than a off handed comment regarding ascended gear in every build on the forums now. More so a dig at the player base who said don’t worry about the gear it doesn’t change anything but it does.

It isn’t a big deal because in the next few weeks we will be hearing about the WvW of it. Which many of us can’t wait because some, maybe not many, can’t stand the PvE aspect of these games.

I hear you there—I do enjoy PvE just as much as WvW, so I have fairly easy access to ascended gear. That access does make gearing out alts with the highest quality gear available relatively cheap and simple… I’d hate to even try leveling an alt solely through WvW.