Guild Wars 2

Introducing The Traveling Guardian A Damage/Support build for WvW/PvE

This build is by no means supposed to be a max DPS kind of build suited for top guardian players, it is, however, a good starting/mid point that less experienced players can use to get used to the class, and can easily be transitioned into a more DPS orientated build one the player has more experience and a better feel of the class.

I would recommend this build for anyone who is less experienced/newer to guardian, or for casual players who have less time to learn the class perfectly, and want to do reasonable damage without sacrificing too much survivability and support.

Just a reminder, this build will be doing around 30% less DPS then the current meta damage builds, if you want max DPS, this build isn’t for you.

Here are the different variants I find myself using most often, I have the same armour and weapons for all of them, and I am constantly swapping out utilities depending on the dungeon.

General Dungeons/PvE content

WvW Roaming

WvW Zerging

I have tried many of the different guardian builds around over the last year, including the 10/25/0/10/25 and its variants and the 15/15/0/20/20 hammer build and its variants, however, most of the time I found them severely lacking in survivability, or just generally not fitting into my play style. I then endeavoured to create my own build, so to speak, that would give me similar damage whilst also being a lot more tanky, providing more support and generally easier to play.

A more detailed look into this build, its variants and the reasoning behind many of the choices I made gear/trinket/trait wise is included below. Everything is written in text, and I will most likely be putting some videos together over the next few weeks.

• Just remember, nothing is set in stone. I highly recommend changing around your utilities and weapons depending on what the content demands (if you need more stability, swap out something for it, if you need more reflects, swap out something for it, you know the drill) this is an excellent habit to get into and will enhance your play.

In case anyone is wondering, I named this build the “Traveling Guardian” as the build can travel between game modes with very little fuss and still be completely effective. It used Traveler runes.

General Dungeons/PvE Content:

Build Editor Link

Weapons:
All Berserker, I recommend having at least 1 of each weapon.

• Staff with a sigil of perception
• Greatsword with a sigil of blood
• Hammer with a sigil of blood
• Sceptre with a sigil of blood
• Sword with a sigil of blood
• Focus with a sigil of hydromancy
• Torch with a sigil of Hydromancy
• Shield with a sigil of hydromancy

Sigils of blood to increase DPS and survivability, can be replaced by sigils of choice.
Sigils of hydromancy to compensate for the lack of soft cc guardians have on the offhand weapons.

Traits:
0/0/30/20/20, also works with 0/0/30/30/10
Feel free to mix and match different traits to better suit yourself and your play style.

In Valor, “V”, “VI”, “XI”
Purity, Retributive Armour and Altruistic Healing

• I chose to take purity here, as it is a passive condition remover on a short cool down, meaning that for many of the conditions I get stuck with will fall off with its proc, so I won’t have to waste other sources of condition removal, and in most PvE circumstances, Purity alone will almost be all the condition removal you need.

• I chose to take Retributive Armour here, as my precision was hanging on the lower end of the scale, and with the higher amount of toughness that I have in my build, the extra 3-5% crit chance from this trait is certainly helpful.

• I chose to take Altruistic Healing here, it is very useful and will boost up your survivability quite a bit, coupled with your symbols, might proc’ing, shouts, all of these will contribute to keeping you alive, so you don’t have to think too hard or pay too much of a price for missing a dodge and taking a few attacks.

In Honor, “II”, “VIII”
Superior Aria, Empowering Might and Pure of Voice

• I chose to take Superior Aria here, because almost all the time, I have at least 1 shout on my bar, sometimes 2, and rarely 3, and with all these shouts, I decided that it would be beneficial to reduce their cool downs, giving us more access to our boons when we need them, and also aids us in a small way with Altruistic Healing as well.

• I chose to take Empowering Might here, because other than how it synergises with Altruistic healing perfectly, keeping a constant 4-5 stacks of might on your entire party significantly increases your overall damage output and helps end encounters sooner.

Just a side note, if you are mostly using a hammer in the dungeon or content, it might be worth taking “VII” Writ of Persistence to increase your symbol duration/protection.

In Virtues, “VI”, “IX”
Master of Concentrations

• I chose to take this trait, because it is probably the best trait guardians have access too, and reducing the Cd as well as extending the durations of our concentrations is brilliant, remember, Wall of Reflection/Hallowed Ground/Purging Flames/Sanctuary, at least 1-2 of these will be on your bar through every encounter, they are simply too good to miss out on.

• I chose to add another 10 points here for absolute resolution, as PoV is particularly lacklustre these days, and decided that having resolve clear 3 conditions for the party would be the better option.

Utilities

• Now, here’s where we get flexible. This is up to you completely depending on what you are doing and what you need. If you need stability, grab stand your ground/hallowed ground, if you need reflects grab your WoR, just keep changing them to what you need, I can’t give you a concrete lot to use, although I most commonly have Wall of Reflect, Purging Flames and Stand Your Ground on my bar. I usually take signet of resolve in PvE, it is our best burst heal, and it also has a nice condition removal every 10 seconds.

Armour
All Berserkers with runes of the Traveler.

Why Traveler runes you might ask? Well, not only do I use the same armour for PvE, I also use it for WvW, and by having the traveler runes, I don’t exactly have to worry about keeping up with any groups, or worry about swiftness. I also like the -10% condition duration and the boost to all stats, they are a well-rounded rune which suits me for almost all areas of the game.

Trinkets
Berserkers and some Cavaliers.

My Back and Amulet are Cavaliers for every situation as I found that giving up a bit of precision and pushing up my armour I was surviving better (I recommend having around 2,600 armour/1,400 Toughness at its lowest point, this amount will push up your survivability without losing too much in return.

My Rings and Ear rings are all berserkers, simply to push up my damage, and by taking cavaliers here I lose too much of my crit chance without perception stacks, and a lot of the time I prefer not to have to try and get them up.

WvW Roaming:

Build Editor Link

Weapons:
All Berserker, I recommend having at least 1 of each weapon.

• Staff with a sigil of perception
• Greatsword with a sigil of blood
• Hammer with a sigil of blood
• Sceptre with a sigil of blood
• Sword with a sigil of blood
• Focus with a sigil of hydromancy
• Torch with a sigil of Hydromancy
• Shield with a sigil of hydromancy

Sigils of blood to increase DPS and survivability, can be replaced by sigils of choice.
Sigils of hydromancy to compensate for the lack of soft cc guardians have on the offhand weapons.

Traits:
0/0/30/20/20 or 0/0/30/30/10
Personal preference here, I recommend having +10 in virtues for absolute resolution in the current condition meta, however if you don’t feel like a trait change, leaving the build with 10 in virtues will change very little.

In Valor, “I”,”VI”, “XII”
Meditation Mastery, Retributive Armour and Monks Focus

• I chose to take Meditation Mastery here as I use all 3 meditations while I am roaming around, and because of this, the logical choice was to reduce all their cool downs.

• I chose to take Retributive Armour here, as my precision was hanging on the lower end of the scale, and with the higher amount of toughness that I have in my build, the extra 3-5% crit chance from this trait is certainly helpful.

• I chose to take Monks Focus here, as I am using 3 meditations, the extra 2k heal for each meditation I use really helps to keep me alive, especially smite condition which is only on a 16 second cd.

In Honor, “III”, “VIII”
Large Symbols and Empowering Might

• I chose to take Larger Symbols here because, even though I only have 1 available symbol most of the time, increasing its radius helps to increase damage and keeps people inside the symbol longer. I change this one around depending on my mood a lot, Pure of Heart is also pretty nice for a 800 heal whenever you block with aegis.

• I chose to take Empowering Might here, because keeping a constant 4-5 stacks of might on your entire party or just yourself if you are alone significantly increases your overall damage output and helps end encounters sooner.

In Virtues, “I”,”IX”
Unscathed Contender and Absolute Resolution

• I chose to take Unscathed Contender for a rather unpredictable 20% damage boost, because none of the other traits down there appealed to me.

• I chose to take Absolute Resolution as it is by far the best trait in the virtues line, an AOE 3 condition remover is excellent, especially in this current condition-meta and really does help you out in a pinch.

Utilities

• While I’m roaming, I take Judges Intervention, Smite Condition and Contemplation of purity, which are our best meditations. JI helps to close gaps and escape, smite condition can do large amounts of damage and is a condition remover, and contemplation is great if you get hammered down by conditions and want to get rid of them all ( It is also a stun break ) as for your heal skill and elite, I like renewed focus in any situation and I like shelter best in WvW for the 2 second block which can be a life saver.

Armour
All Berserkers with runes of the Traveler.

Why Traveler runes you might ask? Well, not only do I use the same armour for PvE, I also use it for WvW, and by having the traveler runes, I don’t exactly have to worry about keeping up with any groups, or worry about swiftness. I also like the -10% condition duration and the boost to all stats, they are a well-rounded rune which suits me for almost all areas of the game.

Trinkets
Berserkers and some Cavaliers.

My Back and Amulet are Cavaliers for every situation as I found that giving up a bit of precision and pushing up my armour I was surviving better (I recommend having around 2,600 armour/1,400 Toughness at its lowest point, this amount will push up your survivability without losing too much in return.

My Rings and Ear rings are all berserkers, simply to push up my damage, and by taking cavaliers here I lose too much of my crit chance without perception stacks, and a lot of the time I prefer not to have to try and get them up.

WvW Zerging has been removed pending a re-write up of any/all changes to the build for this section

Reserved for videos

Reserved for future posts

IMO Your health pool and armor is way to low for zerging. With only PoV for remove conditions with that health pool you will dead in seconds in a serious or hard/outnumbered zerg fight.

You dont need that increase speed from runes in a zerg, there is a lot of speed buff active and the majority of time you run with staff. I know you are trying to use the same armor for all, but is better spend some karma (and a couple of BoH) and buy a PTV set.

How does the Roaming build hold up with soloing a camp?

i used all celestial gear , all worked well, quite nice wvw build

Agreed with urieldhynne.2743

Health is too low for zerging. YOu will need a set of PTV armor and soldier or boon duration runes. In a zerg with staff equipped mobility is a non issue.

When roaming, I feel your build is too squishy, unless you have 5 stacks of defense vs guard buff and even then, you will be facing warriors and necros with upwards to 30k health. So you might wanna sub in some PTV in there or some valk.

WvW build:
The build itself is fine, it’s pretty much using the standard trait setup (that or 0/0/10/30/30). As others suggested, PVT gear really is the way to go. Using zerker gear in a zerg will only provide a free rally to the enemy team. The spearhead of your zerg ball has enough damage to knock down most people who get caught up in it, you don’t need a zerker as well. A lot of good GvG fights are decided upon who gets downed and finished off first in order to provide free rallies to the other team. This would be a zerker guardian and would likely only hinder your own team.

Roaming build: Won’t comment as I use a mesmer for this. Usually phantasm or something very similar to your blackwater build actually

PvE: Deleted. I know how you feel about people who recommend against running AH, and I doubt I will change your mind.

fadeaway.2807:

PVT gear really is the way to go. Using zerker gear in a zerg will only provide a free rally to the enemy team.

Oddly enough this single point is overlooked by most players in WvW. I run three different builds and armor sets when I’m playing out in WvW depending on what my mood dictates. Standard, and safer play of the healaway, full dps, or burning. Of the three the healaway is safer and zerg friendly.

The other two, not so much. Upon reading your comment it sort of hit me in that a downed player is fair game to rally and can turn the tide So don’t be that guy/gal

Thanks for all the tips and pieces of advice so far everyone.

I am well aware that Pvt would be a better set for a zerg environment for a less experienced player, and I do plan to attain a set in the near future, but usually I find that, even with the lower health pool (making my heals more effective) and the 3k armour to be enough to keep myself alive and well through most fights and push out more damage. I also realise that the condition removal is somewhat lacking, and more then half the time I take purging flame, or contemplation to compensate.

@Most, It works just as well for soloing camps as it does fighting players. I’ll set up fraps and get some quick videos of me taking some camps and upload them when I have the time.

@Hunter, Not so much “need” but more so “you would do better” I think.

@Crap, My other guardian has only 1 set which is my take on the healway, and I do particularly enjoy using it.

@ Fade, Yeah, I know AH isn’t exactly optimal for, well, anything to that point, and its not so much against the people “recommending” not running it, but the fact that from all that I have seen (most noticeably from a previous post where I endeavoured to share my build a month ago with a player looking for something just like it)is that most of the people put it like this: “Ah is bad, you are bad for running it, you can only be good by using these 1/2 builds” and they refuse to accept anything else.

However I do prefer to have it most of the time just as an added safety net, and keeps a bit of the pressure off. Also, I think its beneficial for less experienced players to at least try AH out for a while themselves and make a decision weather they like it and want to keep using it or not.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Yeah I know Pvt would be a better set, hehe, I’m just too lazy to farm ac for it,

You can buy it for karma, in melandru and grenth temples, 5 pieces, the helmet is not available.

You have 4 in melandru temple, with melandru runes, you only need to buy 2 melandru runes, 1 more piece from grenth temple and the helmet from BoH in wvw. And you have a full ptv with melandru runes very cheap.

@Urie, Thank you for that reminder, I have no idea how it had slipped my mind before.

Just an update,

• I have removed the WvW Zerging section for now, pending changed and a re-write up, as, although using berserkers gear worked fine for me, it was asking too much of other players who may be less experienced, and unable to cope with using damage gear in a large scale situation. I have a feeling I will not be putting it back up, however I will leave the section as “Pending” for now.

• I have also gone over each of the other 2 sections and the introduction with a fine “er” tooth comb, removed bits and pieces and re-wrote several sections. This was to display the build clearer, making it a bit easier on the eyes to read, and also to remove a lot of the derogatory pieces.

I am not sure what kind of foes you are facing in WvW but athere are times when the 2 zergs hit that I get hit for 15000+. Despite trying to gave an aegis up. If I had beserker gear I’d be dead more often than not. Not sure what experience or divine wisdom is keeping you alive. I am guessing you are running with a more experienced group and your foes do not mele all that well.

Natsu, of course you can go with that build in a zerg, but is purely situational. I play in Sorrow furnance, a low tier server, in EB where the towers and keeps flips constantly and there are huge zergs wiping each others in seconds you can go with this, a lot of times i play in these zergs with my roaming build. But in a serious fight, trying to take a T3 keep in a BL when the enemy has more ppl and a lot of AC, and you need to keep staking and there is no place to go because you are surrounded and the commander push trough the enemy zerg one time and another… you wouldn’t survive with that.

@Urie, I agree, its partly why I have removed that section for now and I’m not entirely sure if it would be worth putting back up as most people would already be aware of the good WvW builds for zerging and it wouldn’t be anything new to offer.

I think you are missing the symbol duration trait in the pve build. When using a hammer this trait is incredible. I also rate virtue 20 over honor 30 for condition removal in the current consecration fashion.

@Fade, the symbol duration trait is very nice, I will update the write up and mention that if the player is using hammer, it might be worth taking the extra symbol duration over Pov/Em, depending on their preference.

Absolute resolution is great, but most of the time, especially in a party I find that Pov is usually enough, when coupled with the other players condition removal, I am definitely thinking about changing the PvE to 0/0/30/20/20 to match the roaming build, but in the end its personal preference again, some people may prefer to have the extra health/healing and settle for Pov.

I know I’m probably not going to convert you.. but if I compare one of my favourite builds (20/30/0/10/10) against 0/0/30/30/10, there’s a ~30% dps difference when using a greatsword and over 35% dps difference when using 1h sword. I know you use a hammer here but the point remains valid.

All that damage plus the super useful radiance blind + vulnerability spam in exchange for might on crit, heal on dodge, condi→boon on shout, 300 toughness and AH. Just doesn’t seem like a fair deal. You can get so much more out of those 30 points in Valor.

@Fade, I am well aware that this build does around 30% less DPS then the current meta DPS builds, but that isn’t the intention of this build. I created this build with the idea of giving players a stepping stone into a DPS build that also keeps them alive easier without putting too much pressure on their knowledge and ability, whilst also giving them a viable build that will seamlessly transition into a roaming build with just as much viability. Generally, the build does better while roaming then PvE, where the trade of DPS for survivability/utility is a better choice in my opinion.

Just some food for thought, I am actually using a 10/30/0/5/25 build right now and doing reasonably well, I think that I have recently improved as a player, as when I tried to run this build before I didn’t do nearly as well.

Update;

• Changed the PvE build from 0//0/30/30/10 to 0/0/30/20/20 for absolute resolution, as PoV just wasn’t doing well enough and I felt that putting the 10 points into virtues would be a better option.