Guild Wars 2

PvE Guardian Builds

Just Getting Started Guardian for Dungeons
- Knight armour to give you the toughness to take standard hits, and give you a couple more Vitality than regular Dungeon Builds

- Flame legion runes are extremely cheap, almost 6 silver, easiest rune set to take, as a guardian, since you can keep burning up

- The expensive runes are Force but that only takes a couple of dungeons to earn

- Hammer will give you the protection to negate another 33% damage, at the same time providing invuln on target (7 silver sigil until replacement)

Dungeon/Fractal
- This build is standard, the traveler’s are a personal choice since I use this set for solo-roam (see below)

- Can swap traveler’s for flame legion, scholars, ruby orbs, strength (nerfed)

- The aim is to keep targets blinded, F1 has a Blind+Reset on Kill (so you can spam F1 if you are aoeing down), GS 3 has a blind, Sword has a blind, Focus has a blind, then top with aegis negation and you’re golden

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WvW Guardian Builds

WvW: Solo-Roam Guard
- This is what my solo-roam looks like; its buffs medi to give Cooldown reduction, fury, and 2k heals

- This can clear camps before swords appear, getting a good silent camp steal w/o being countered

- This WILL lose to GOOD HamBow warriors, PU Mesmers, and Engis

- This STALLS GOOD eles, you both will never win the fight unless one of you messes up, either avoid, or get a good initiation, or hope they don’t get reinforcements

- Don’t forget, Warg/Wurm/Harpies events in Borderlands are worth 200 WXP, avoid centaurs unless it’s already completed and a veteran one is running around

WvW: Small Group Hybrid
- Heal on Rolls + Aegis + Medis

- Keeps targets Immobilized for your party

- Shield bubble for revives, since you will be the last one to likely down

- 75% reduced condi duration on you

- This is a semi-Hybrid, both able to deal damage and sustain

- Alternatively you can drop the medis to run a shout build

WvW: ZergBall Bunker
- While this is lacking in damage, it focuses on staying alive to boon others and semi-heal

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sPvP Guardian Builds

sPvP: Spirit Weapon
- This is my Spirit Weapons build for sPvP, a personal favourite

- Hammer can crit for 6k and Sword can crit for 2.5k and Bird can crit for 1.5k

- This build also utilizes invuln stacking through immobilizing, stability won’t negate you here, as immbo IS your CC

- This can burst unsuspecting people because no one ever sees spirits get played

- This will LOSE against GOOD engis, necros, hambows

- You won’t get through a Guardian bunker with this either, a medi is manageable

sPvP: Bunker
- Permanently defend a cap, except from decap engis as stability doesn’t last long enough to stop multiple knockbacks

- Vamp rune? Yes, the 6th bonus removes CC and negates damage @ 2k HP on a 60s CD, it gives you time to refresh any shouts/heals/virtues

- This will LOSE against poison spam, even though you have a ton of condi removal it won’t stop condi re-applications, necros/thieves are known to run perma-poison

- This also does small spike damage from burn on block from shelter, mace, focus, aegis. If someone is using a multi spell like hundred blades, cast shelter to proc multiple burns (no internal cooldown on trait)

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If you have come to this section from my Twitch channel, you’re the best d-(‘-’ )z Thanks for your support!

I will come back and edit this as new changes/ideas come along, so I’ll keep in check.

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Not using the retreat for the swiftness, rather for a block + heal + Condi cleanse

it will also proc a burn dmg with valor II

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Sidenote:

Sigil of air = 900-1.1k dmg direct, per 3 sec (atleast twice/thrice during weapon swap)
Sigil of fire = 750 aoe (x5 targets), per 5 sec (atleast once during weapon swap)

So it’s up to you if you want that extra aoe damage or that stronger 1v1 potential. Which is why my PvE sword is fire (camp clear).

How effective is defender’s flame anyways? I can see it has no cooldown so it’d burn everyone that hits you when you block though the burn is kinda short and it’s a very common condition that flies around.

I won’t comment on sPvP and Roaming build because i mainly use my engie and thief for that.

But for the PvE and WvW build, they are not really solid build.

Starting Dungeon build
- Any good Guardian dungeon build use 2/5/x/x/x as a minimum. Blind/Vulnerability F1 Spamming is one of the most powerful support skill of a dungeon guardian, while Radiant power is with Fiery Wrath the two most powerful DPS trait (UC is even more powerful, but limited).
- 6th points in Honor is useless in a PvE settings because of the limited need for a condi removal. Purging Flames is far superior than Pure of Voice in that setting and its way enough even for someone new in dungeon. You need to learn to dodge attacks, not tank them.
- 5th points in Honor is good, but there is better place to spend that point.
- 4 pts in Honor for Hammer or 5 pts in Virtue are both good choice, but you can’t really take both at the same time since like I said 2/5/x/x/x are the most powerful trait for the dungeon guardian.
- Bloodlust is not the best options for dungeon these days. Its one of the more powerful sigil in term of DPS, but the dungeon format don’t allow you to take advantage of the stacks until later in the dungeon. Right, even good player don’t use Bloodlust as much as before, so it will be even less attractive for ppl learning dungeon.
- Save Yourself is a solo play skill and have very limited role in dungeon. Its not bad, but a lot of better option out there (both offensively and defensively).
- Hold the Line is useless. You get hammer for protection and regen give you such little healing. Swap SY and Hold the line for Wall of reflection and Retreat for a block. New ppl in dungeon should learn ASAP how to use these 2 powerful skill in dungeon.
- Signet of Resolve is good for some situation, but in Dungeon Shelter will be superior because of the block. Its all about personal opinion, but still. Shelter give you more flexibility in active defence.

I don’t mind a Hammer build with knight armor for new ppl in dungeon. There is a lot of variation of the build that can work very well. Even Hammer camping is a good option. But the build is slightly off course. 5/5/0/4/0 or 3/5/0/4/2 will give you a lot more bang for your buck, while the gear setup you propose was enough survivability for any new or casual player. Flame Legion runes are a great and cheap options for guardian, it work perfectly.

Dungeon/Fractal Build.
A pretty standard dps/support build for dungeon. The 3 non-zerker trinket scream I want to do full Meta build but someone psychological block me. Those 3 trinket won’t change much for your own surviability, but whatever its not a bid deal.
- What I said about hold the line stay the same.
- I get that you keep traveler runes if your gear is the same for different setup, but why put that in a guide??? Traveller is not a good option for dungeon. Flame Legion would be good, Scholar would be better.
- Stand your ground is a situational skill and shouldn’t be on your standard utilities bar.

WvW Zerg build
- Retreat is good in PvE, not in WvW. It 1 block in the middle of a huge amount of small hit. Purging Flames, Signet of Bane, Wall of Reflection, Signet of Judgement, Judge intervention, all of those are better in this situation.
- Defender’s Flame i’m not sure. I pretty sure there is a Internal CD on it, but i’m not sure.
- Pure of heart is not that good since you can’t pump that much aegis and you can’t contol when it will triger. A bunch of time it will trigger on your initial aegis when you are full hp. At that point you have like 2-3 aegis per min so at max this gonna heal you of about 3k hp each 60sec.
- Writ of the Merciful won’t heal much since you’re suppose to be in movement in Zerging. In Honor for Zerging you have superior aria, empowering might or two-handed mastery that will be better.
- WvW is a place where bloodlust would be pretty good. Especially if you run a build as tanky as that one. You’ll survive for a long time, so you’ll keep your bloodlust for long period of time.

Spirit weapons for sPvP?

Rune of Vampirism instead of Rune of the Soldier on a shout bunker build?

wat???

Can’t agree with you on the PvE part of the thread, sorry. Rune of the traveler is a sub par choice of a rune for dungeons and you say you use it for ‘solo roam’ but when do you solo roam in dungeons? + the 25% speed increase is totally useless as you’ll normally have swiftness when with an organised group, but as you say personal choice so no judgement. (and I know from reading the post that you do WvW and do not have a separate set so fair enough). Your suggestions on ruby orbs, scholar runes are great. I’m not sure why you’ve mixed in soldier’s and valkyrie for a dps build (assuming that was a mistake). Full Berserker or Assassin’s mix is your best choice for dungeons/fractals unless you’re learning (then use knight’s gear as suggested).

The best DPS build for hammer/greatsword is 5/5/0/4/0 if you don’t require reflects/support or 3/5/0/4/2 if you do require it you can also change fiery wrath in the zeal trait line for spirit weapon mastery for some fractals that require alot of reflect e.g. bloom-hunger, shaman, molten duo. If you really wanna keep absolute resolution for condition management however, go with 3/3/0/4/4. You will lose around 10-15% dps (can’t remember the exact %) but you have that access to conditional removal if you really feel like you need it. You do want to be at least 3 points into Radiance for pretty much all content due to the minor trait ‘renewed justice’ which allows you to spam f1 (burning, retaliation, might and blind when traited) when you’re against trash mobs (which you will find a lot of in some dungeons & pretty much all fractals).

If your hammer/gs build is coming from a pug perspective then I can somewhat understand but I still don’t think you should go so deep into valor and totally ignore radiance. You have vigor access from vigorous precision which should be enough but if someone was really struggling I would just suggest an energy sigil rather than traiting more defensively and losing dps. I’d rather negate damage completely through using my dodges, blocks, reflects and blinds than tank it you’re not gonna learn any mob and boss mechanics if you just take hits all day, and you’re gonna get rekt when you move over to berserker gear because you won’t know how to negate damage as you’ve been too reliant on ‘tanking’ everything.

I wouldn’t put 6 in honor.. pure of voice shouldn’t be required in a group even if you’re pugging. If you’re using absolute resolution and purging flames you can burst 6 condition removal and even 9 if you use renewed focus to recharge your virtues so you can use virtue of resolve again. If you’re not using it then purging flames should be enough for a majority of content. You can also combo in light fields to remove conditions. I wouldn’t use SoR for general PvE as Shelter is a much more viable choice due to the block (I cannot recall how many times that block has saved me) Yes the heal is bigger but if you’re gonna get one-shot it doesn’t matter how much it heals, you could’ve just blocked the attack with shelter whilst healing. If a Guardian was just starting out and REALLY struggling I would recommend using at least one of the builds (3/3/0/4/4 build would probably be best for a beginner, although not optimal dps it’s still decent and has all the support, blinds, vigor, protection you need) and just replace the Berserker gear with Knight’s gear as you have suggested.

I’d rather use sigil of force/night on my weapons instead of a sigil of fire/air because that is an RNG based dps increase whereas with force/night sigils you have constant DPS buff. 5 of the 8 dungeons are night time so you can swap out your weapons and sigils accordingly (e.g. I have a sword & greatsword with undead slaying specifically for arah).

Your GS and S/F build is on point.

However in regards to your utility choices I would also much rather have WoR available as most dungeons have mobs/bosses with attacks you can reflect. If no reflects are required use Retreat!, Bane Signet & an optional skill depending on the encounter (e.g. Save yourselves! for PoV buff, purging flames if you need condi removal, Stand Your Ground!, Hallowed Ground if you need stability, etc.) I would also apply this to the GS/Hammer build especially in fractals when WoR is pretty much required for most encounters. Hold the line is fairly pointless in PvE for me personally for both gs, s/f and hammer/gs build (hammer/gs build you’re gonna be pumping out permanent protection anyway and the regen is just meh).

continued…. GS and S/F you can also trait into a pure DPS build if you don’t require many reflects or support and can just steam roll everything. For this you can trait 4/6/2/0/2. 6 in radiance will give you access to either Right hand strength or perfect inscriptions if you’re using Bane Signet.

Personally I prefer perfect inscriptions as it makes Bane Signet’s passive effect (power) 20% more effective than it’s base and right handed strength can be overkill if you are using consumables that increase your critical chance or you have access to fury, spotter, banner of discipline etc.

You can put 2 into valor for retributive armor which converts 7% of your toughness into precision for more dps. In virtues you obviously have the choice of either MoC or UC, but as it’s a pure dps build your first choice would be UC. I would only recommend using this build in dungeons like AC, CoE, CoF, etc. where you don’t need much utility so you can just trait into pure dps.

I also wouldn’t suggest using those consumables you selected for PvE as they don’t increase your dps. I would suggest if you’re on a budget to go with either minotaur steaks, dragon’s breath buns, candied dragon roll. If you’re not on a budget I would suggest foods such as sweet and spicy butternut squash soup (though they are insanely priced and probably only necessary in speed runs), curry butternut squash soup, truffle steak, etc.

I would also suggest using powerful potions of XX slaying specific to the dungeon you’re doing rather than sharpening stones, or skale venom for fractals.

Sorry for the insane critque, but it’s just my (hopefully constructive) opinion. Your WvW & sPvP builds I haven’t looked at but I am curious about that spirit weapon build, could be funny.

If i’ve missed anything or said anything people don’t agree with I apologise.

sPvP weapons are very viable, untraited they are very weak but fully traited they become powerhouses… and a very unsuspecting on at that. I stream this build regularly on my Twitch channel if you ever want to check how it’s played.

I’ve changed my starter build, I agree it was very lacking, focusing too much going deep into honor for the vitality boosts. A 3/5/0/4/2 is a better viable option. Sword is stronger than GS in this build by about ~1k more dps, so swapped gs out. You lose the GS #5 pull, so switch between the two during trash pulls.

- Valk/Zerker are personal preference, trading 36 precision (1.7% crit) for 360 HP and 2x offensive infusions for +10 power.

- Solider amulet is also personal (recommended zerker), but this with valk nets +1210 HP, pushing it above the mark of 2-shots; some mobs avg ~6k hits.

[quote=4169338;Charak.9761:
I’ve changed my starter build, I agree it was very lacking, focusing too much going deep into honor for the vitality boosts. A 3/5/0/4/2 is a better viable option. Sword is stronger than GS in this build by about ~1k more dps, so swapped gs out. You lose the GS #5 pull, so switch between the two during trash pulls.[/quote]

Ya I think you missed something. Sword is good because of the Auto-Attack, Hammer is good because of the Auto-Attack, Greatsword is good because of burst dmg from skill 2 ot 5.

You want a GS to burst, then switch to an auto-attack while your CD finish on your GS. That’s why you see GS + H or GS + S/F build.

S/F + H don’t make sense, since you will be auto-attacking with both weapons.

Incase anyone missed it last night, here’s where solider/valk saves me

Highlight
http://www.twitch.tv/maxwilso/c/4594749
http://www.twitch.tv/maxwilso/c/4594795

Nil.4320:

Charak.9761:

Incase anyone missed it last night, here’s where solider/valk saves me

Highlight
http://www.twitch.tv/maxwilso/c/4594749
http://www.twitch.tv/maxwilso/c/4594795

Very nice and dramatic fights! Really good job!

What do you mean by “soldier/valk” saves me"? Were you wearing armour with soldier stats and valk trinks?

WvW: Solo-Roam Guard

How you loose to hambow warriors and engies is beyond me. Drop 3 points from Radiance and move it to Virtues for Absolute Resolution and PU mesmers will stop being any problem.

And more zerker….always more zerker

Good warriors will negate your blinds, outregen you, and has an escape option if you manage to get them.

Good engis will kite and outregen you.

PU mesmers camp stealth and wittle you down.

It’s not a matter of why, it’s a matter of how the class has the kits to stop you if played well.

guard should not lose to warr idk what ur talking about

^^ what he said, if you are loosing to hambows you are doing something very wrong.