Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow Guardians. I first apologize for making a selfish thread about this, however my situation is fairly specific and my search for current information has been fruitless.

I have fallen in love, so to speak, with the Guardian class and I now want to gear myself out for every situation. My current project is The Fractal.

I know there are lots of Fractal builds out there, but I would like to insert a few personal preference that I seek help in working around. So while this build may not end up being ‘optimal’ it will suit my style of play.

In order to beat Liadri I crafted a full suit of Knights with Superior Rune of The Eagle. I had previously been running full Zerkers with Superior Scholar. So I have both sets however I just applied a new skin to the Knights in celebration to my victory so I would like to use the Knights for this build.

I most commonly use Great Sword. I have two, one with a Superior Sigil of Energy, and one with a Superior Sigil of Night. (For when it’s Night >.>)

I off-set is a Scepter and Focus, and more recently a Sword and Focus. All weapons are berserker.

I am open to off-set suggestions, however the Great Sword stays.

**What I need help with.

*My Amulet/Accessories/Rings/Back are a mess. I have only started Fractals. (Reward Level 15). I have no AR.

If someone could explain the most efficient way to build max AR and the best stats to seek in these slots I would greatly appreciate it. I will do the research myself If I have to but Fractal reward system seemed a little complicated to me with all the Mystic Forge crafting and such. If possible I’d like not to mess around with lower tiers of things, I just want to craft the best and put the Max AR in it.

**Traits and Utility Skills – I am used to running ‘Retreat’, ‘Stand Your Ground’ and ‘Wall of Reflection’.

I am really not great when it comes to putting together Traits, this is what I need the most help with.

My play style likes to get into the fray and control the fight. I like to run in and Great Sword 5, pull everything together for my team to dps down where possible.

Even though I am wearing Knights I usually prefer DPS over survival to a point. I believe I’m a skilled enough player to mitigate my damage through dodging and placement over building it into my character.

If I have totally missed anything it is because I am clueless to it and would appreciate help with that as well.

I know this has been long but I really wanted to communicate what I was looking for. I am actively researching and testing this on my own, but I would appreciate the insight of a greater pool of knowledge and creativity.

To anyone who has decided to help, I Thank You.

fractals is a matter of feeling the stages, just keep playing it and you’ll do better. your gear’s already set. i’ve tried and played from being a kitten to serious in fotm, toughness and damge is your friend (knights/berserker or your current setup).

i’m a gw2lfg fotm player; so been with the worst of them. just hope your team doesn’t do badly and you can carry the game.

check out dulfy’s website – really helped me get started.

most often i use staff and septer focus/ gs/ hammer depending if it’s boss fight or mobs.

and i use shelter / stand your ground/ wall and shield and book (healing) for utilities

or the usual save yourself stand your ground and that meditation thing converts all conditions to boons.

my favorite trait setup is 10/0/0/30/30 – focuses on team support with spirit weapons and concecration skills and shouts. just your normal dungeon build.

and i use knights valkyri (should have used berserker since vitalitty isn’t really important in fotm haah)

I think you chose a good class to do fractals with. I regularly do 40+ fractals on my guardian because they are one of the best and most desired fractal classes imo.

First off, I think you need to separate your thinking between 1-39 fractals and 40+ fractals because they are two completely different beasts.

For 1-39, group composition, gear, and builds will rarely ‘make or break’ you. Instead, I would focus more on learning the encounters and what skills to use for each boss. What skills you equip will be much more important than any gear/build choices at this level. For me, I only run zerker with scholar runes in anything under 40. If you know the encounters, know how to block, know how to dodge, and know when to cleanse conditoins. You really should not be getting hit that much as a guardian. However, I do understand that while learning the encounters, it may be better to run PVT or knights.

For 40+, group composition and builds come into play and become much more important than before. By this point, you should know all the encounters like the back of your hand and can dodge/block in your sleep. The mobs hit much harder in 40+ and many of the strategies that you used in 1-39 will not apply. You will have to play more defensive in certain areas and much more offensive in others. I usually use PVT/knights in ascalon/dredge (depends on how good the group is) and zerker in everything else. The old saying ‘the best defensive is a good offense’ generally applies to most encounters in 40+. The mobs just hit way too hard for you to sit there and tank anything without blocks, dodges, blinds, and reflects.

As far as AR and amulet/accessories/rings. I would get all zerker and not look back. There really isn’t anything better than all zerker for guardian in pve.

For fractals, I believe the most important traits are master of consecration and u want some form of grp condition removal via pure of voice or absolute resolution or soldier runes. The rest are flexible slot.

Im personally running 10/30/0/5/25 and I believe it is the best built for dps. However u will be a glass cannon with only 11k hp in full zerk set, and at 38 fractals normaly u can only survive 2 hit from mobs with the built im using. ( have not been to 40+) The trait i miss most from my previous built is shouts cooldown 20%.

For a good guide on what utilities to bring, you can checkout Obal videos in http://www.youtube.com/user/obal100/videos and see what utility he uses. Im referring to his older videos and not his newer speedkill videos.

Chi.2943:

-snip-

The percentage difference between 38 and 48 is the same as between 28 and 38. Only spikes in difficulty are at levels 10 and 26 and those spikes are barely even spikes – twice the amount of difficulty increase of normal level increase, ie from lvl 10 -> 11.

Unless you’re strictly talking about agony which shouldn’t be an issue at all.

haviz.1340:

Chi.2943:

-snip-

The percentage difference between 38 and 48 is the same as between 28 and 38. Only spikes in difficulty are at levels 10 and 26 and those spikes are barely even spikes – twice the amount of difficulty increase of normal level increase, ie from lvl 10 -> 11.

Unless you’re strictly talking about agony which shouldn’t be an issue at all.

The difficulty spike in my experience from 38 to 48 is night and day. There is a larger allowable margin of error in 30 than 40+. Also, agony IS an issue in 48. Agony isn’t an issue at all 38 with 45AR – it just ticks 1%. However in 48 with 45 AR, you will still be hit for 18%. While you should be able to avoid agony on most bosses, maw agony cannot be avoided which is why guardians equip tome and/or you do 99 trick. I’m assuming you have done 48, however, just in case you haven’t and you’re just theorycrafting….maw agony in 48 will down most players with 45AR in one round unless guardians are running tomes or there is some ridiculous healing going on.

Chi.2943:

The difficulty spike in my experience from 38 to 48 is night and day. There is a larger allowable margin of error in 30 than 40+. Also, agony IS an issue in 48. Agony isn’t an issue at all 38 with 45AR – it just ticks 1%. However in 48 with 45 AR, you will still be hit for 18%. While you should be able to avoid agony on most bosses, maw agony cannot be avoided which is why guardians equip tome and/or you do 99 trick. I’m assuming you have done 48, however, just in case you haven’t and you’re just theorycrafting….maw agony in 48 will down most players with 45AR in one round unless guardians are running tomes or there is some ridiculous healing going on.

Difficulty scaling scales at least hp linearly. Every level it’s 1.25% or 2.5%. It’s been tested using skritt technology.

Personally, I have guardian at lvl 80 and ele at lvl 76, so it’s not just theory but practice. I’ve done levels 48 maw without any guardians, elementalist or rangers. It’s doable with 5 glass cannons – 4 warriors/1 mesmer. You need some coordination or just one human.

haviz.1340:

Chi.2943:

The difficulty spike in my experience from 38 to 48 is night and day. There is a larger allowable margin of error in 30 than 40+. Also, agony IS an issue in 48. Agony isn’t an issue at all 38 with 45AR – it just ticks 1%. However in 48 with 45 AR, you will still be hit for 18%. While you should be able to avoid agony on most bosses, maw agony cannot be avoided which is why guardians equip tome and/or you do 99 trick. I’m assuming you have done 48, however, just in case you haven’t and you’re just theorycrafting….maw agony in 48 will down most players with 45AR in one round unless guardians are running tomes or there is some ridiculous healing going on.

Difficulty scaling scales at least hp linearly. Every level it’s 1.25% or 2.5%. It’s been tested using skritt technology.

Personally, I have guardian at lvl 80 and ele at lvl 76, so it’s not just theory but practice. I’ve done levels 48 maw without any guardians, elementalist or rangers. It’s doable with 5 glass cannons – 4 warriors/1 mesmer. You need some coordination or just one human.

It’s okay, you don’t need tell me that you have a lvl 80 guard and lvl 76 ele for me to believe that you can do 48. 48 is very doable, I’m just saying to the OP that in my experience the jump from 38-48 is much more than any jump previous to that. In addition, of course you can do it without guardians. Nobody ever said you had to do it with guardians. However, I don’t think even you can deny that guardians make not only maw but the rest of the fractals much easier. Also, nobody was arguing about zerker equipment either. In fact, I said in my original reply that contray to popular belief, it actually makes more sense for everybody in the group to go ‘glass cannon’ due to how hard things hit in 40+.

If you disagree, that’s okay. The OP will have two opinions and can make up his own mind.

Sorry for aggressive tone. Zerker equipment was brought only to counter your

ridiculous healing

argument. I’ve done a lot of fractals without them to know how valuable they are (or rather how they trivialize whole thing).