Guild Wars 2

I’m about to hit lvl 70 and have started to doubt my build a bit. I built it based on this link.

http://guildwars2grandmaster.com/builds/guardian-conditions-greatsword/

So right now I’m 30/29/0/0/0 (based on his section under traits Breakdown). I love the quick damage I can dish out (and levelling has been pretty quick) but I have to admit that I’m starting to become more aware of how often I’m healing myself. In fact I almost always use Tome of Courage for a lot of the Veteran fights. My last dungeon (SE) was a slaughter. I spent as much time running back from the waypoint point as I did actually fighting.

I first started playing as a mace and shield and didn’t realize how slow I was killing things until I read the Conditions/Greatsword link and jumped from lvl 20 to 69 in what seemed like a pretty short amount of time. At 70+, if I go back to Mace and shield, switching my traits to what I see as the common 0/0/30/30/10 (or something close to that), will I just be a guy chopping away at something for a few minutes before they go down? I’m afraid that making such a big change in gameplay could just leave me frustrated.

Has anyone else ever made this kind of switch?

Just to add. This is my current build minus 1 point in radiance (only goes in increments of 5).
http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/guardian#0.0.3.0-3.9.5.12.2-30.30.0.0.0-3.9.5.2.10.0

The biggest problem is that you’re in Zeal. Which is the worst trait-line imaginable.

If you want to quickly kill things, try putting points in Radiance and Valor and focus on crit-chance and crit-damage. Going in Valor will automatically increase your survivability, but if that proves insufficient, consider switch to the Focus (or Shield) as off-hand.

Thanks Ynna. The only reason I have so much in Zeal is to get Fiery Wrath, Shatetred Aegis and Greatsword Power. It compliments the Fire build but I’m assuming (as you mentioned) that there are better places to spend my point? I guess my question (which you kind of answered) is, are the above 3 traits really worth using Zeal? Is it not worth the 300 power and increased boon duration? (not debating, just asking for clarification).

In my opinion, there is hardly any reason to go into Zeal past 10 points, unless you’re going for a Spirit Weapon build. The stats the trait-lines give you are just bonuses and won’t make a very big impact, all things considering. I only look at the traits it gives me (but my focus is on PvP, where stats are lower overall).

As for the burning duration (that’s our only condition), I don’t think traiting for burning is worth it very much. Burning only stacks in duration, and I see it more as additional damage, rather than the focus of builds. This could be different in PvE, where mobs don’t really remove their conditions.

Thanks for the advice. I know a shield is going to be the best way to stay alive but would your recommendation still compliment a greatsword? I just really love swinging that thing around.

Shock The Monkey.8796:

Thanks for the advice. I know a shield is going to be the best way to stay alive but would your recommendation still compliment a Greatsword? I just really love swinging that thing around.

Shield of Focus. Both are fine and you’ll find people arguing between them. They both have their merit.
And as long as you don’t go out of your way to take traits like Powerful Blades or Right-Hand Strength, using a Greatsword won’t hinder any kind of build. That’s what I like about the traits (with Zeal as the exception). You can pretty much do what you want.

If your running a GS compliment that with a mace/focus off hand. Once your health drops below 50% swap.

Use your ability skills for defense. Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground, hold the Line, Signet of Judegment are all good choices. WoR makes a massive difference vs any ranged mob. SyG will make a huge difference vs any knockdown mob. Once I started using Wall many area became easy.

The bigger problem here is that you try to follow too many advices, and not trying to figure out what works best for you on your own.

I for example run GS / Hammer at WvW, my most favored play is 1 v 1 and rush into zergs and come out in one piece.

As for sPvP, I’d highly recommend the somewhat fragile yet very capable full spirit weapon build (Sheild, sword, Hammer), combined with GS / Scepter + Torch.
In most cases I get top player running that, but again – that’s me and you are you…
try to understand how things work on your own a little.

Ynna, Relentliss and Horheristo, I appreciate the input. Horheristo, while I understand the importance of figuring things out for yourself, a lot can be said for the advice of others. I have 2 kids, the oldest of which doesn’t go to bed until 8:30 so I only have about 2 hours to play before I need to go to bed myself. That being said, I don’t have as much time to experiment as I would like so hearing other peoples opinions lets me speed things up a bit and just dive right in. As far as I’m concerned this is just a game and I’m really only looking to have a good time a few hours a night (when my wife doesn’t mind me playing) so anything that helps me do that is a plus. And by the way, if I start playing PvP or WvW I’ll probably take your advice as well

I run with a GS/Hammer in solo play, with an Altruistic Healing build 0/15/30/20/5. AH is a bit ridiculous for self healing, even if you’re only on your own. So ignore that bit for now.
But i’d go 5 into virtues at least even with your build, it’s just too good to ignore with the synergy with Courage.

For most things I stick with my GS, but if I find a vet/champ/group in general I switch to the hammer, which provides the protection I need to stay alive longer.

When levelling I was GS/Scepter-Shield. I’d tend to blow the GS cooldowns, then switch to the secondary and do the same. It was a bit slow at times on vets but they died and I didn’t (hurrah?).

I’ve never gone past 15 points to get refreshed Virtue of Courage (this is so good in solo play it’s untrue, Burning+blind+ vulnerability every time you kill a mob, and of course even better with a pack of them.)

Like others have said, I’m not sure a burning build really plays to the strengths of a Guardian. I find condition damage one of our worst stats, which in turn reflects on how long I rate our conditions (damage wise, blind ftw).

Also, how’s your dodging? Even without the trait to heal yourself and allies when you roll, it’s a key part of evading damage and buying you time.

Don’t go with Tome of Wrath for solo, it just disables your other skills and in my opinion doesn’t really help you half the time. Personally I run with Renewed Focus, it gives you 3 secs of Invulnerability, plus refreshes all your virtues (meaning you can pop anything remaining such as Resolve, and then bring them all back again).

Sorry for rambling, hope that all made sense. Keep at it, practice makes perfect

Storm that’s great advice. Thanks. And to be honest I’m not anywhere near as practiced at dodging as I should be. I’ve really only been aware that I wasn’t doing it since level 60 and have been trying to remember to do it ever since. Still needs work though.

Ynna.8769:

In my opinion, there is hardly any reason to go into Zeal past 10 points, unless you’re going for a Spirit Weapon build. The stats the trait-lines give you are just bonuses and won’t make a very big impact, all things considering. I only look at the traits it gives me (but my focus is on PvP, where stats are lower overall).

As for the burning duration (that’s our only condition), I don’t think traiting for burning is worth it very much. Burning only stacks in duration, and I see it more as additional damage, rather than the focus of builds. This could be different in PvE, where mobs don’t really remove their conditions.

Just to chime in as someone who stacked condition damage heavily for quite a while, burning isn’t worth it as a focus. I switched to a hybrid power/crit build with a focus on crit and crit damage instead of condition damage, and I’m finding myself much more effective. When 9/10 of my attacks are critical hits, burning tends to become a bit obsolete.

That’s not to say that burning is bad because it’s not. Most of your AoE causes burning in some capacity, and you should embrace that as a way to soften up targets that aren’t your current focus. You can mop them up much quicker if they’re at 2/3 health or less. Just don’t bother stacking condition damage specifically for a few burns. Get a couple hundred on some jewelry and you’re more than set.

If you decide to stack Power and Toughness instead, then consider Undead runes (con damage/toughness plus 5% of toughness stacks to your con damage). That’s more than enough if you have no other runes to make use of.

Reading the title and original post, it seems you’re making a mistake of associating Condition Damage with general survivability, i.e. you’re not dying more because you’re a Condition Damage build.

At about 70, especially when entering Orr, that’s when you’re faced with the first real gear check of Guild Wars 2. Not necessarily how high quality your gear is (although if you’re still wearing level 50 gear…), but the stat combinations on your items. If you’re a melee fighter without any additional bonuses to Vitality or Toughness, do expect to find yourself weaving in and out of melee just to stay alive; it’s doable to be a glass cannon melee, it just takes more skill.

I’m one of the people that think building around burning as a focus works very well. I don’t think the fact that it doesn’t stack is very relevant for a class that can be built to outlast an opponent to begin with, unless you are losing out from other burners too much. The traits and gear to stack condition damage and survival stats do not conflict. I have found a Guardian balance between offense and defense by focusing on condition damage from spamming Virtue and Rad 15. That isn’t to say their aren’t other points of balance that are as good or better that don’t support unfocused burning.

@Shock

Hey, I know how you feel bro

I did this in all MMORPGs → Brute power over everything else. The same here in GW2, I built my guardian as a straight up brute killing machine, and didn’t give a chance to other weapons/builds. It is only after some time that I got extremely bored of my look, play style, build, gear, weapons, utilities.

And yeah, if you like doing high damage, it’s a kick in the nuts for when you switch (I shed a tear when this happened), but it’s worth it

I must say, I followed Brutaly’s advice on AH Hammer build, and it has done wonders for me. So I’ve started experimenting, and been sporting a staff for the last 3 days and it’s friggin awesome

It opens a whole new world for you and your character, just suck it up and refund your traits :P

Oh yeah, about dodging. I’d say it’s like the top 3 things you need to know how to do in a fight. Saved me COUNTLESS! times, and if you time it right it serves as a pretty awesome defense system. A few examples I can think of when dodge saves your behind is:
- Colossus Rumblus → When it drops rocks from the ceiling, which knock you down.
- From the new dungeon the Oakheart boss that sends out shockwaves that 1-hit you.

Not to mention the dodge heal minor trait, which combined with heal gear can save lives

Just try out things, get all the weapons and play with every single one of them and get to know their skills.

I wish you good luck!

I struggled in Orr till I tried a mace/focus. It made a huge difference.

You don’t have to give up your offensive build for a defensive build 100%. You can keep your greatsword, but have your mace/focus standing by. I agree with Ynna on a lot of things. 30 Zeal won’t give you the best options as far as traits go. I went deep into Radiance & Valor and haven’t had to sacrifice any damage potential. Burning stacks duration so, while it deals more damage than a stack of bleed or poison could, it’s more a supplement in my opinion. I keep burning rolling, but find I do better damage not stacking +cond dmg. I run sword/torch (90% offensive) but my utilities are where I get my defense. I can maintain my main weapon attacks while using some very beneficial shouts. If all else fails I swap to mace/focus and I have so many blocks it’s not funny.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I changed out my traits. Now running 0/30/30/17/0 and am having a great time. I switch between GS, Hammer and Mace+shield depending on the situation and have found that I’m lasting much longer and can still dish out a decent amount of damage. Figuring out when to dodge while 4 other players are lighting up a boss is a bit tough (when all I can see are basically a bunch of flashes going off and things are nuts it’s tough to visually see the next attack coming) but that’s getting better as well.

Ynna.8769:

The biggest problem is that you’re in Zeal. Which is the worst trait-line imaginable.

If you want to quickly kill things, try putting points in Radiance and Valor and focus on crit-chance and crit-damage. Going in Valor will automatically increase your survivability, but if that proves insufficient, consider switch to the Focus (or Shield) as off-hand.

Hey! that’s horribly wrong! Considering 15 points or 20 points in Zeal (only with GS) is very good. But the 25 and 30 traits are terrible indeed.

I agree that Zeal is the worst trait for guardian unless you go for spirit weapon build

I became a bit frustrated with the change to GS and decided to try something new. Having a lot of fun with this so far, very nice self-healing and you are using the utility skills all the time.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Selfish-Monk-build/first#post588892

I might change the staff though and try something else as secondary weapon set.

Rouven, does Monk’s focus actually heal you completely or is it just a percentage? Looking over your build has me thinking that I may make a few changes.

Shock The Monkey.8796:

Rouven, does Monk’s focus actually heal you completely or is it just a percentage? Looking over your build has me thinking that I may make a few changes.

Just to avoid confusion – I’m not taking credit for the build, the OP in that thread came up with that.

No, it’s just a percentage – but I’m using the mediations now all the time anyways whereas before I used them more situational. Sorry, I’m not a number crunsher – if I had to guess I would say the heals are within 10-15% which keeps me topped up pretty good.

Good luck and have fun.

Shock The Monkey.8796:

So right now I’m 30/29/0/0/0

My build uses 30 Zeal, too. It may not be the best build in the world, but I enjoy playing it. The stats are:

Zeal 30

• Create a Symbol of Wrath when your health drops below 25%
• When an aegis you applied is removed, it burns nearby foes.
• Symbols apply vulnerability to foes.
• Greatsword damage is increased by 5%.
• Greatsword attacks heal you.

Radiance 15

• When activating Virtue of Justice, nearby foes are blinded.
• Applying blind also applies vulnerability.
• Virtue of Justice is renewed when you kill a foe.

Honor 20

• Gain 1 second of vigor when you critical hit.
• Symbols are larger.
• The end of your dodge roll heals nearby allies.
• All symbols heal allies.

Virtues 5

• Virtues now also apply the following boons: Justice → Might, Resolve → Regeneration, Courage → Protection

With a Greatsword and Scepter/Focus, plus Shelter for healing, Retreat! as an utility skill, and Renewed Focus as the elite (the other utility slots are variable, depending of what I’m doing). I use full Power (toughness and vitality) gear.

This build has:

Support

• All Virtues apply boons: Might, Protection, Regeneration.
• The Greatsword skill 1 applies Might.
• Retreat! offers Aegis and Swiftness.
• Shelter blocks attacks.
• Renewed Focus not only recharges the Virtues but also offers invulnerability.
• Symbol of Wrath, which is larger than usual, applies Retaliation and heals.
• Greatsword attacks heal; the healing is very small, but when using Whirling Wrath and similar skills the healing from multiple strikes adds up.

Control

• Justice applies Blind and Vulnerability, plus recharges whenever I kill an enemy.
• Leap of Faith applies Blind and Vulnerability.
• The scepter skill 3 applies Immobilize and Vulnerability.
• The focus skill 4 applies Blind and Vulnerability.
• Thanks to Zeal, all those conditions last longer than usual.

Damage

• This build has the biggest possible Power for a Guardian.
• Multiple sources of Burning and Vulnerability (both with boosted durations) help to do damage.
• Two sources of Might also increase damage.
• Symbol of Wrath is also bigger and does more damage than usual.
• Virtues and Retreat! are instantly cast, so using them doesn’t reduce DPS.

When fighting against a single, slow hitting oponent that does a lot of damage per strike:

• Attack 1 is blocked by the passive effect of Courage
• Attack 2 misses due to Blind inflicted by Leap of Faith
• Attack 3 is blocked by the Aegis given by Retreat!
• Attack 4 misses due to the Blind inflicted by Justice
• Attack 5 is blocked by Renewed Focus
• Attack 6 misses due to the Blind inflicted by Ray of Judgment
• Attack 7 is blocked by Shield of Wrath
• Attack 8 is blocked by Shelter
• If the enemy is still alive, repeat. No need to even dodge.

This build’s weaknesses are a huge number of oponents, since this kind of defense cannot overcome multiple attacks from outside melee range, and a single oponent with very fast attacks.