Changing to a support build, help?

Changing to a support build, help?

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Posted by: Piecekeeper.4361

Piecekeeper.4361

Hi. I’ve been playing as a Guardian pretty much the whole time I’ve been playing this game, and always with a focus on damage, only looking at other stats for survival issues.

Well, I’m ready to try something new it seems, but I could use a little advice.

I want to do something supporty, PvE and dungeons primarily, with maybe a little bit of WvW to switch things up.

I’m thinking trying to do something where I don’t touch my traits (other than to switch the major ones, but keeping the same points in each line) but having a support armor set and a damage armor set, with all accessories being celestial.

What I most want help with is what trait lines to focus on, what stats to look for on my support side armor set. I’m already figuring I’ll probably want to go GS/Staff for weapons.

Changing to a support build, help?

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Posted by: foofad.5162

foofad.5162

Well for starters, don’t use celestial trinkets. They are terrible. You’re better off with dedicated stuff. Leave your accessories as berserker and use whatever rings you need in order to get the stats you want.

Anyhow, that aside, if you’re interested in support in PvE dungeons then that pretty much means boons. Use a staff and Empower with boon duration for a net DPS increase for your party. Healing is only good in cases where your group is unfamiliar with the content and needs the breathing room.

WvW is a little different. Support in WvW means Might to some extent, but mostly Stability. Hallowed Ground, Stand your Ground, Wall of Reflection, and to a lesser extent Sanctuary are what you want to think about. So that means twenty points in Virtues for sure. The rest is basically up to you. If you want to be able to deal damage still you can pop 30 in Radiance for RHS, or stick with 15 and put the rest in Honor and Valor as you need it. Healing power works somewhat better in WvW – look at Chris’s Healway build. It can be tweaked for higher group utility.

Eilir Eirasdottir, Guardian, Tarnished Coast
Painbow.6059: Ignore what anyone else who doesn’t agree with me has said because its wrong.

Changing to a support build, help?

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Posted by: akamon.2769

akamon.2769

for a while i ran mainly cleric’s + boon duration with a build of 0/15/0/30/25. armor will be slightly lower, but if you’ve been playing namely DPS, i assume that shouldn’t pose too big of a problem. i did for the benefits of what the Honor and Virtues line can offer for support in gw2, as well as the blinds from the GS and vuln stacks.

you can go with high healing, find a ratio that suits you. i personally try to aim for 1k plus if i’m going to invest in healing power, although i’ve seen other builds/players go with less and still be abel to achieve what they set out to do.

Pure of Voice is nice to have (Honor Grandmaster) and you can use shouts, which will benefit from your boon duration.

like foofad mentioned, a bunch of different conesecrations are quite useful so you can spec for master of consecrations or the ground targeting one (nice with sanctuary) in the virtues line. and take Absolute Resolution or Indomitable COurage depending on if more condition removal or stability is needed.

also a neat little trick is using Absolute Resolution with Battle Presence (the other Grandmaster in Honor) which boosts your passive F2 and your allies around you get the same benefits. if you activate it, you’ll AoE cleanse conditions, though you won’t get the passive effect of healing anymore, your allies should still get it (unless if that’s been fixed).

if you have both GS and Staff, not a bad idea to buff symbols as well if you like using them. may be more useful for PvE/dungeons, but i find them beneficial in WvW as well. i usually take larger and healing, though longer lasting can be very stong as well (though i will agree it shines more with the hammer).

another few build options in terms of traits just off top:
- 0/0/30/20/20
- 0/0/20/30/20 —>
- 0/0/10/30/30 —> though these last two probably won’t suit your DPS gear as well.

and of course, there can be more combinations. i even played a 25/10/0/30/5 as a hybrid. worked in WvW decently, may not be best for PvE though. and again, Virtues line is very strong if you want to focus more on support.

Akaimon | Jolly Good Guardian
Akaigi | Warrior Made of Wood
[CDS] – Sanctum of Rall