Guild Wars 2

so this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNApeTl8AhShYtQwfHQQELPEl8vX8Lf27Nf1HWAMcdAA-TBiEQBE4IAKBLoyPAY+ZDaCIx+jegE8AAEwhAoeq/QKAZVGB-e

is my build for the raid that me and guild will be doing.
before every one traits zealously. let me explain why I’m using minstrel gear. the reason is I am the tank and a bunch of our guildlies don’t do a lot of pve. so our elementalist has to focus on healing more than me. so to help lighten his load. I decided to go with minstrel gear to keep my health up(without need of the elementalist) and to keep what ever boons I grant to me and my allies up for a good bit. the reason I use a bow is when I tried the raid last time. I notice if I didn’t hit the boss. the Revenant (using bezerker gear) hit the boss and it started going after him. but as soon as I hit the boss again it focused me.

So I’m asking as a fellow guardian for any feedback(specifically constructive) on the build. Thank you for your time.

My knowledge of raids are limited, but from what I understand there is very little to no conditions and you are not going to be dealing with CC. This makes Retaliatory Subconscious, Hunter’s Determination worthless. You have no traps in your build so Piercing Light is worthless. You also don’t gain much benefit from Indomitable Courage or Pure of Voice (except cooldown reduction). You don’t have the critical strike chance to justify Empowering Might.

You going to get a lot responses that tanks should still be DPS with just enough toughness and utilities to keep aggro and stay alive. I agree with this sentiment, but if you are going to carry on in minstrels its your call.

I would recommend trying out hammer for constant protection for melee group (need Writ of Persistence).

With your set-up, I wonder if staff would also work well. With Honorable Staff + 27% boon duration (minstrels) + Herald you could achieve ~100% boon duration and have the range you were talking about.

Helpful utilities to try out are Bane signet to give you a damage increase and its active is very effective against breakbars; and Merciful Intervention to instantly get back into position if you get teleported.

Thank you for incite. I also though about using hammer, I had previously used staff so that when I saw the circle of doom(which does a crap ton of dmg if (I believe 4 0r 5 people are not in it)), I could drop the symbol of swiftness so group can get to it quicker. and then switch back to mace shield. * interesting thing to note that the balls that boss sends can be pushed back with shield 5*

HP : It’s a good amount to survive peak damage, but not too much.

Toughness : A bit too much there if you ask me. You usually want to have between 1600 to 1800 toughness to survive. 2200 will be a lot safer but at the expense of support or dps.

Power : 1400 power is very very low. To be honest, it’s not a big deal that your Guardian tank doesn’t do much dps as long as you offer enough support in exchange. A tank just can’t only survive and tank, that’s just not enough, you need to bring something else to the table. Usually you want to have between 1900 and 2500 power as a tank.

Protection : You will keep around 75% uptime on you and 50% on your team. Either you plan on having a herald providing the protection and then you don’t need that much protection, or you don’t plan on having an herald providing protection and then you are lacking some. Perma protection for his team with the hammer and writ of persistence is one of the strength of the Tank Guardian at VG.

Piercing Light : You take that trait, which is good, but you don’t bring any trap. IMO blade procession is a good skill to have at that fight with that trait, but change that trait if you don’t bring any trap.

Hunter’s Determination, Indomitable Courage and Retaliatory Subcouscious. All off that is completely useless at VG because there is no cc. At gorseval there is some cc, but those won’t really help you because if you get cc that’s because you did a mistake so.

Healing : You don’t have that much healing skill for others, but you will still help your Elementalist by giving some heal.

CC : There you are just lacking. Hopefully, other will do the job for you in your team.

Overall, I think you pack way too much self survivability, not enough protection, nor enough CC. I also think that Minstrel is a waste. Your only good boons team wide is Protection (other boons should be taken care off by someone else who is better at that) and there is better ways to improve your protection uptime than Minstrel. Quickness on the other hand is very good, but you won’t need to take minstrel to improve just the one skill.

You should take a look at the Hammer + writ of persistance for protection uptime + CC. Bane Signet is also good for dps and CC. Change minstrel, you are wasting some stats there. After that, train and replace some of your defensive stuff as you get better because IMO you pack way too much of it and don’t help your team enough in other area. You shouldn’t down so don’t drop your defence too much, both extreme are bad.