Guild Wars 2

Question: Would grabbing 6 piece’s of giver’s armor (Toughness, Boon duration) be a good alternative to PVT? I figure I can make up for the vitality discrepancies in my trinkets but is an extra 6% boon duration (and a buncha toughness) worth shooting for?

SuPaSuPau.1904:

Question: Would grabbing 6 piece’s of giver’s armor (Toughness, Boon duration) be a good alternative to PVT? I figure I can make up for the vitality discrepancies in my trinkets but is an extra 6% boon duration (and a buncha toughness) worth shooting for?

Giver’s is absolutely not worth it, if anything go for Cleric’s.

Agreed with Danson—Giver’s armor provides absolutely horrible boon duration per stat point compared to other options. 6% boon duration does very little productive for you. I’d prefer a boon duration food and PVT armor, if it came to that.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

Agreed with Danson—Giver’s armor provides absolutely horrible boon duration per stat point compared to other options. 6% boon duration does very little productive for you. I’d prefer a boon duration food and PVT armor, if it came to that.

I wish they’d come out with a boon duration food that doesn’t have the magic find boost and something else in the stats instead.

Ok so I’ll sell the giver’s set I just crafted then. It does give a buttload of toughness though. That said, I do like the sound of Cleric’s armor but between that and PVT it kinda comes down to which stat is more valuable. Vitality from PVT or healing power from Cleric’s?

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|b.1k.h6.d.1k.h1j|9.1k.h6.e.1k.h1j|1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.71h.1c.71h.1c.7o.1c.7o|21l.0.21l.0.31l.0.21l.0.31l.0.8a.68|0.0.a5.u24b.u39a|1.7|v.19.16.0.1i|e

80% all boon duration boost/100% protection
2960 armor/16k health

*Regen/Heals:*
2441 - VoR Activated
150 hp/s - VoR group passive
215 hp/s - VoR self passive
8.75 sec - Symbol of Faith (regen)
531 health - Faithful Strike #3 auto attack
1518 health - Shield of Absorption Sequence (The shield will still persist for the two-second cast time, despite the graphical effect. So trigger it every time!)
1218 health - Selfless Daring
10.75 sec - HtL!
9 sec - Activate VoR (x2 if you use renewed focus)
5.5 sec - Ray of Judgement (up to 4 bounces, 3 can be allies)
320 hp/s - Sanctuary (6 second base, 10 seconds with Consecrated Ground trait)
18 sec - SY! (if you choose over Sanctuary)
18 sec - Protective Reviver

*Prot (Group):*
8 sec - HtL!
10 sec - Shield of Judgment
10 sec - Virtue of Courage (possible to trigger twice with Renewed Focus)
20 sec - Protective Reviver (requires downed ally + successful rally)

*Prot(Self):*
20 sec - SY!
8 sec - HtL!
10 sec - VoC (x2 with RF)
10 sec - Shield of Judgement
6 sec - Protector’s Strike (Mace #3)
20 sec - Protective Reviver (requires downed ally + successful rally)

*Retal:*
5.5 seconds per activation of a Virtue (16.5 if all three popped, x2 if you use renewed focus)
9 sec - SYG!
18 sec - SY!

*Stability:*
9 sec - SYG!
9 sec - VoC (x2 if you use Renewed Focus)

*Condition Removal:*
2 Passive condition removal(self)
PoV (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pure_of_Voice)
Ray of Judgment
Virtue of Resolve active removes 3 conditions to up to 5 players.

You won’t kill things fast solo but you’re an invaluable asset to your group and zerg.

Vigor and Energy sigils allow more dodge rolls for healing.

EDIT: Noticed that Vengeful will cap your retaliation boon duration at 100% if you choose it over Consecrated Ground.

That sounds very much like (if not identical to) the fairly popular Healway build, Artemis. It does around half of the damage of a good, well-geared Boonway.

SuPaSuPau, In general there’s a “sweet spot” of Vitality for a Guardian, granting somewhere between 14-16k health. More than that is generally unnecessary, and you’d be better off with healing power; less than that and you’re opening yourself up to a lot of attacks that can one-shot you in PvE (and to an extent WvW). Also, even with 9 condi removals, eventually there will be a time when you run out of all of them, and get some damaging conditions stacked on you. It’s nice to have a bit of health buffer for those to eat away on.

All that being said, the celestial trinkets very nearly hit the low end of a good target vitality by themselves. Power/toughness/healing power gear would definitely work well, provided you have at least 14k health—maybe one or two pieces of PVT armor would help, if you still need to round out your healthbar.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

That sounds very much like (if not identical to) the fairly popular Healway build, Artemis. It does around half of the damage of a good, well-geared Boonway.

SuPaSuPau, In general there’s a “sweet spot” of Vitality for a Guardian, granting somewhere between 14-16k health. More than that is generally unnecessary, and you’d be better off with healing power; less than that and you’re opening yourself up to a lot of attacks that can one-shot you in PvE (and to an extent WvW). Also, even with 9 condi removals, eventually there will be a time when you run out of all of them, and get some damaging conditions stacked on you. It’s nice to have a bit of health buffer for those to eat away on.

All that being said, the celestial trinkets very nearly hit the low end of a good target vitality by themselves. Power/toughness/healing power gear would definitely work well, provided you have at least 14k health—maybe one or two pieces of PVT armor would help, if you still need to round out your healthbar.

It is very similar to Chris’s Healway build except more oriented towards boons. He used a GS and Sw/Fc but with his build you killed things, even multiple people but at an incredibly slow rate. You outlasted your enemies was basically the jest of the build. Good for roaming and 1vX. I went for more group/zerg orientation.

You can also adjust for large symbols, healing symbols, and move the 10 in Valor to Zeal for two more symbol options. Drop the consecrate ground and pick up Retal Subconscious for another light field (not sure if this is a symbol or not).

Not sure how up to date your boonway build is or your photo from your first post but I checked and I can accomplish what you have by just swapping my weapons to berserker and trinkets to berserker and maintain comparable stats and 80% boon duration/100% protection compared to yours with exotics.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR7elYgyCHFyvDf4ES2jRCBTQsHYkF1RXFcIA-j0yAYLAKCMhBiyAk9KiGbtLsV3oVeDi6BTVSEV7NKiWtIAmFA-w

How are celestial trinkets working for you so far?

Thanks for the tips guys. I’ve finally hit 80 on my guardian and I’ve definitely found the right balance I think between knight/cleric/magi armor with a celestial trinket to balance things out.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|b.1k.h6.d.1k.h1j|9.1k.h6.e.1k.h1j|1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.71h.1c.71h.1c.7o.1c.7o|21l.0.21l.0.31l.0.21l.0.31l.0.8a.68|0.0.a5.u24b.u39a|1.7|v.19.16.0.1i|e

80% all boon duration boost/100% protection
2960 armor/16k health

-snip-

You won’t kill things fast solo but you’re an invaluable asset to your group and zerg.

Vigor and Energy sigils allow more dodge rolls for healing.

Scarily close to the build I’m running atm, 0/0/20/30/20, Cleric everything with Mace & shield / Hammer or Staff. Very tanky but you won’t be killing anything anytime soon :P. Have 60% boon duration which is JUST enough for perma-swiftness from SY and Retreat also have perma regen and almost on protection too, generally tend to take HtL instead of Retreat. Tempted to go with 10/0/10/30/20 for some more damage.

I play it the same way I did with Boonway but I find I have less damage but MUCH more staying power thanks to the higher healing power and toughness.

JustCurious.3457:

, Cleric everything with Mace & shield / Hammer or Staff. Very tanky but you won’t be killing anything anytime soon :P.

I just want to second, and third, and any order of magnitude number too because this is so true. Honestly Cleric’s gear with any weapon allows you to do some pretty crazy things in relationship to supporting a small or large group of players. Run in line of warding, shield bubble and push back, wall of reflection. I mean the list goes on and on what you can do using the build.

However, like it has been said good luck trying to kill anything. One reason why I’m looking for different builds without breaking the bank for new gear I have a full set of knights and cleric’s. Various weapons and only exotic accessories. I like sword/shield, mace/shield, sword/focus, staff, and greatsword.

I find in solo roaming WvW what typically happens against equally skilled players is that we both yield, party up, talk a bit, then go our own ways. When I face lessor skilled players I will eventually win. Against skilled players I’ll end up making a mistake and die or just get out played. End result is death.

I like GW2’s system. Not sure I fully understand it yet but there are options never the less.

How effective would this build be on a full Magi set of armor?

Not a bad little build and it was mighty fun to test. I perfer my little 0/15/30/20/5 build with soliders runes for condi removal mainly because I rely on eles for perma (sorta) swiftness in WvW and I find things die pretty fast or at least fast enough to make me mull over exactly how useful the 33% boon duration vs the reduced crit damage was. Still, I had an excellent time running your build and its always nice to have a few good spare builds in ones back pocket. Then again I’ve actually found the torch to be far more useful then people say so maybe I’m all sorts of messed up.

Hi Kharel!

Please forgive the odd format and inability to quote or reference tid bits on which I have questions about, I’m currently on my phone! I’ll ask my questions outright! First of all I’ve read almost all of this thread, and I’m excited to say I want to use this because I’m not a huge fan of AH! Also if my questions have been answered already simply copy and paste and I won’t be offended, I’m currently at work and so reading all of this info has been a challenge my cousin and I just hit 80 yesterday, warrior/guardian! We both have absolutely no clue where to begin with end game content. I figured my best bet was to find a build I want to go for and go from there, acquiring the gear/weapons/trinkets etc that are needed for said build. The problem? I have NO idea where/how to acquire this gear lol. We’re completely new to 80 and end game and have no idea where to begin, I have roughly 150k karma and 13g, 1 laurel(I mistakingly spent some laurels on the chest that gives you “2 rare/exotic guardian gear omg”) yes, I’m a noob! Anywayyyy, how would one as poor as I begin to start gearing? Buy rares of the correct set off the TP in order to explore Orr and get to the karma vendor? Continue grinding karma to get the full exotic set from Orr? Can you run dungeons in full rare without gimping the group? I like the idea of running GS/Hammer with a Staff in my inventory for when I need it, would Hammer/Sword/focus be better? I’m going to go for PVT gear, but what can I use as far as trinkets until I can afford celestial? I honestly have no idea where to begin and I essentially need it written out in crayon because I feel like an idiot going to google and typing in “what’s a fractal? Gw2” “how to gear at 80, gw2” haha like I’ve never felt so ill prepared once I’ve reached max level and I have a lot to learn! How do you get sigils? All that pops up on TP is armor when I type in what sigil I want, I certainly hope that I’m not the only newbie to be asking these questions or possibly the only one with the balls to shed the incoming embarrassment from flamers and ask them anyway! Any and all help will be much appreciated!!

Just wanted to say I really enjoy using this build, but I made a few changes for running it in WvW. Inner Fire is actually a pretty decent choice in wvw zerg fights given how much burning can be tossed around and the amount of fury you get is pretty crazy. Although this depends on the zerg fights, but in bigger fights I get the burning application rather often.

Also I find that sometimes the regeneration from resolve doesn’t always keep me alive so I switched to sigils of restoration (+670 hp on kill, no ICD) on both my weapons; hammer and staff. My survival has gone way up switching to that and I sometimes use Hold the line rather than retreat due to the lower CD and more defensive boons, plus lower CD means I can convert a condition→generate boon more often.

Hi Mord,

As a new lvl 80 Guardian myself, I can share some of experience gearing up for this build. It took some planning while I was leveling, but I had full exotics armor and trinkets day 1 when I hit 80, and many exotic weapons as well, I spend around 15g to 20g, and the rest are karma gear.

The first thing to do is do the dailies and monthlies, and save the jugs of karma. Once you get enough, you will use the karma boost, and ice cream, and drink the jugs all at once.

You can get all PVT armor (5 pieces) except the helm. For trinkets you can get exotic Cavalier back, earring, and ring from the temple. That’s total of 8 pieces of karma gear (336k karma, 186k more than you have). Since each jug gives you 6975 karma with the boost, you will need 27 more jugs of karma.

You can find the location of temple karma armor and trinket here
http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/
http://dulfy.net/2013/01/28/gw2-new-orr-temple-exotics/

27 jugs sounds like a lot, but you will need 30 laurel for the celestial ammy anyways. If you have not done the monthly for June you should do that, that will give you 10 jugs + 10 laurel, when July rolls around, you can do the monthly again and net you 10 more jugs + few more days of dailies, you are set.

For the rest of the gear I just brought them from TP, each cost around 2 to 3 g:
Knights helm, 1 zerker ring, 1 zerker earing , 1 zerker great sword , 1 zerker hammer, 1 staff ( I went with Cleric), 2 rune of water, 4 Ruby Jewels (60s each)

Cursed shore in Orr is a great place to farm gold and karma.

You will need to be hitting Ascalonian Catacombs Explorable mode for the Rune of the monk. Each day do path 1 and 3 (around 1 hour total) to get 120 tears, you will only need 240 tears. Then Honor of the Waves for the Sancturary rune (personally I didn’t bother)

Use this site to find group
http://gw2lfg.com/

You should have the full exotic at this point. For celestial rings and trinkets, it will take sometime.

For the celestial rings, you can either do fractals (an end game dungeon that takes 1 hour+ to run with a good group) I believe 30 runs total, 10 to get to lvl 10, and 10 each at lvl 10 to get each rings. Or you can get it with 25 laurel + 250 badge each in WvW.

For trinkets, the best way is guild missions; it will take few weeks to get. If not they are 40 laurel + 10g a piece.

I hope this contains some useful info for you to consider.

Bigmonto, all extremely helpful information, you hit every question, now I can start making sense of everything! I feel like we just hit the game hard without planning ahead, him and I just wanted to hit max level and take place in end game content, we just cleared zones along with personal story and some crafting to hit 80, once we were actually there we were both dumbfounded at how little about the game we actually know! I’m not a big forum poster but I feel like I should become one in order to ask the questions that really trouble me instead of googling them and searching through questions that may or may not be relevant to what I need to know! While I’m here I may as well ask a few more: I’ve already completed the monthly for june, are there other means you can gain jugs of karma? Should we complete our personal story? How quickly could one “grind” karma through zone completion? Could we do dungeons in rare armor or is exotic a requirement? Should I just give up and go something simpler like AH or full support so I’m not gimping my group with lack of gear and lack of competence?

Thanks in advance!
Mord

Mord.9237:

Bigmonto, all extremely helpful information, you hit every question, now I can start making sense of everything! I feel like we just hit the game hard without planning ahead, him and I just wanted to hit max level and take place in end game content, we just cleared zones along with personal story and some crafting to hit 80, once we were actually there we were both dumbfounded at how little about the game we actually know! I’m not a big forum poster but I feel like I should become one in order to ask the questions that really trouble me instead of googling them and searching through questions that may or may not be relevant to what I need to know! While I’m here I may as well ask a few more: I’ve already completed the monthly for june, are there other means you can gain jugs of karma? Should we complete our personal story? How quickly could one “grind” karma through zone completion? Could we do dungeons in rare armor or is exotic a requirement? Should I just give up and go something simpler like AH or full support so I’m not gimping my group with lack of gear and lack of competence?

Thanks in advance!
Mord

You can also just buy PVT exotic armor pieces from the AC token vendor in LA. They come pre-equipped with a Monk Rune. A whole set costs ~1400 tokens, so it will take a few days, but you certainly don’t need exotic armor to get through path 1 and 3 of AC once you learn it. You could piece together your gear with some karma pieces, some AC dungeon pieces, and fill the rest out on the TP and you wont have to bust your butt farming too much.

If you haven’t done map completion in the 70+ zones, I recommend it. You get 2 lvl 70+ exotics (equipped with runes/sigils that may sell for 5g+ if you’re lucky) and 40 of a T6 crafting mat. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time, and doesn’t require much in the way of gear for most parts. Good luck.

Hi Mord,

You can gain karma everywhere, just do lots of events. You can do these in cursed shore and WvW. However, you should still keep doing the dailies and monthlies, since the pink Ammy you get with 30 laurel is so good. The karma just come with it.

You can certainly get PVT armors from AC path 1 and path 3. These are easy to do and fast. You are not gimpping your group either, just check out youtube to see how to do them first. However, don’t restrict yourself to PVT armors, you can mix and match with knight (for helm, chest and pants) and Zerker (for glove, boot and shoulder) Both the knight and zerker armors you can buy from TP. In fact I would recommand using zerker gloves and boots instead of PVT anyways.

Awesome so could I run this build without the runes until I can build my set? And so it is possible to run some dungeons without full exotic!? Good to know! Would I be better off running Strife’s AH build or some other variation in order to acquire gear all the while working towards gear/runes for this build?(I inevitably want to use this build).

AC isn’t a tough dungeon. As long as you aren’t asleep and have decent DPS, you will be fine. I ran this build when I turned 80 with greens and I was fine in AC dungeon until I got all my exotics, you should be good.

If you want to go with a mix of zerker armor, CoF dungeon path 1 is extremely easy and fast (10min per run) and you get berserker’s armor from the token vendor. This is also by far the fastest way to earn gold (6g per hour easy).

Any updates/comments since patch?

Not really anything drastically new post-patch. I would say, if you want a slightly more defensive/group defensive support build, it’s now possible to drop 5 radiance and 5 virtues to pick up 10 in Valor for the +150 toughness to allies. This will drop your damage a bit (50 less precision, no bonus damage from boons [losing a max of 9% damage], 5% lower boon duration, slightly slower recharge rate on virtues, no might stacking on PvE mob kills), but in return you’ll gain 250 toughness (150 of which applies to allies), 10% crit damage, and aegis when your health drops below 50%.

End result of the traits would be 0/10/10/30/20, taking signet mastery, strength in numbers, superior aria, empowering might, pure of voice, vengeful, and absolute resolution. I can see this variation being very strong in WvW, especially in small-group roaming. The Renewed Justice trait, while amazing in PvE, loses a lot of its usefulness in WvW small group roaming(the ideal place for this build) , where it often won’t trigger at a useful time (I.E. the “when you kill an enemy”, is often not at a time you’d want to use the AoE blind or might-stacking, and the extra retaliation is unnecessary to maintain perma-retal).

Also, the greatsword got a pretty significant buff to its autoattack, making it particularly attractive with this build since the enhanced boon duration lets the autoattack stack even more might. It’s now pretty easy to maintain 4 stacks of might while attacking a single target, and 9-12 while attacking 3 targets—and that’s without empowering might, might-on-crit/swap sigils, blast finishers in fire fields, and virtue of justice. With all of that factored in, 15-20 stacks of personal might isn’t that unreasonable to expect.