Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

Very simple, just looking for some feedback on my current WvW/ PvE setup. Just getting back into the game and I’ve had trouble finding info on builds that don’t involve ascended gear and lots o’ shinnies! Which some people don’t have yet. Take a look and let me know if you see a more economical approach. I’m trying to write somewhat of a guide for players like me that came on-board late. This is the ‘exotic’ version and I plan to include a similar ‘rare’ version. Name of the game is economical in the current meta; make them shinnies go further! Thanks!

:http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUQQJAWSlYgqCnFyvDfIFRuAbBYPwYG741DK6QGC-jEyA4tAlADaWMRpxMWPLiGraBTpSEV7TKiWtQAi2CA-w

For wvw I don’t know. For pve a joke

It looks..meh for wvw. The trait set up suggests roaming shouts, but the gear looks more suited for zerging.

For pve, like the guy above me said, it’s a joke

Ouch! Thanks for the input guys, any idea on how it can be improved in an economical way? Could you explain your reasoning? I was going for all around build. I was attempting to model my stats off the ‘Achievement’/‘Best’ Guard build based on ascended celestial armor which many people can’t readily acquire quickly. (:http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUgqCnFyvDf4ESmiVCBxegRZUHdpQhoIA-j0DB4hAoNRm+IwUBQJfDRLRFNLCsqpIasqZAqaRVZDT9CW/CxceIaG0pWKA9UGB-w). In other words as close to the stats while maintaining balance, ~3k attack, ~3k tough, 17.5k health, 30% crit chance, 60% crit dmg, 1k healing. Obviously my stats are lower in most categories with lesser gear but I tried to keep proportions. Is this approach outdated?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUQQJAWSlUgqCnFyvDfIFRuAbBYPwYG741DKmQGC-j0xAorARRASgFRjtCWENWFDm+kIq2bUEtaZAW2CA-w

Your trait is pretty much OK.
Change healing to shelter, it’s better than untraited signet. Switch SYS to other utility when needed.
For gears: An economical approach —
Trinkets: go temple of Balthazar to spend your karma to get karma sets, invest a little bit for jews (affordable).
Armor go full kights, not expensive too no matter buy or craft.
Runes go for hoelbrak, it’s fairly cheap and with food you are ok for conditions.
Do a couble of AC runs then you will have your solder weapon set and invest a little bit to get a sigil of perception, your damage is bumped up too.

Utilities are something to be changed, I’ll disagree with the guys above because I think Healing Signet is superior to Shelter in PvE and vice versa in WvW, but whatevs.
30 points in Valor is usually a bad idea for PvE/WvW, even more
so because you use such horrible traits as Purity, Altruistic Healing and Retributive Armor.
You need more power, less precision and critical damage(Or actually more of everything because… well.. inferior gear?) to balance your damage output. As a temporary band-aid, replace magi pieces with Soldier’s(karma ez) to get better damage and around same survivability.
And don’t ever dare to get Knight’s gear on guardian as a guy above suggests. Despite the prefix, stacking toughness on a low health guardian is not the best idea – it’s usually better to get vitality and healing power. 1-3 pieces are fine, though, I guess.

Evalia.7103:

30 points in Valor is usually a bad idea for PvE/WvW, even more
so because you use such horrible traits as Purity, Altruistic Healing and Retributive Armor.

Huh? Please explain. As far as I know, the Guardian-meta for zergs has 30 points in Valor and uses AH, and the meta for roaming has 30 points in Valor and uses Monk’s Focus. Now since you’re saying that’s horrible… I’d really like to see your reasoning behind this statement.

Saturn.6591:

Evalia.7103:

30 points in Valor is usually a bad idea for PvE/WvW, even more
so because you use such horrible traits as Purity, Altruistic Healing and Retributive Armor.

Huh? Please explain. As far as I know, the Guardian-meta for zergs has 30 points in Valor and uses AH, and the meta for roaming has 30 points in Valor and uses Monk’s Focus. Now since you’re saying that’s horrible… I’d really like to see your reasoning behind this statement.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough, but I think it’s quite obvious to see why Purity(completely unreliable way to remove conditions) and Retributive Armor(Impractical to get such amounts of toughness, and even if you get 2k it’s still just 140 precision) are horrible… Altruistic Healing might not be in that bad of a spot, but it’s still pretty weak in my opinion.
It’s fine I guess if you swap out Purity and Retributive Armor for defender’s flame(burn on block, can be pretty huge) and strength in numbers(150-750 toughness).
And as I’ve checked your build example you have 3.2k armor with 15k HP and 300 healing power, completely unforgivable waste of defensive stats – getting 2.7k armor and 20k HP would tremendously boost your survivability, so to say.

Saturn.6591:

Evalia.7103:

30 points in Valor is usually a bad idea for PvE/WvW, even more
so because you use such horrible traits as Purity, Altruistic Healing and Retributive Armor.

Huh? Please explain. As far as I know, the Guardian-meta for zergs has 30 points in Valor and uses AH, and the meta for roaming has 30 points in Valor and uses Monk’s Focus. Now since you’re saying that’s horrible… I’d really like to see your reasoning behind this statement.

Wvw zerg meta is NOT 30 in Valor. It’s 0/0/10/30/30. Altruistic Healing is a purely self-sustaining trait, whereas traiting into Virtues provides more overall support for your team.

For general pugging when your pugs are unreliable, AH can be fine to keep yourself alive (Dat AH Empower tho)

Evalia.7103:

And as I’ve checked your build example

Well not mine, as I’m not the OP. I just jumped in to ask that question. I’m a curious person at times. ^^

K U T M.4539:

Wvw zerg meta is NOT 30 in Valor. It’s 0/0/10/30/30. Altruistic Healing is a purely self-sustaining trait, whereas traiting into Virtues provides more overall support for your team.

For general pugging when your pugs are unreliable, AH can be fine to keep yourself alive (Dat AH Empower tho)

Oh, right. Makes sense. Though I don’t know; do you have enough sustain without AH outside of guild-groups who blast waterfields?

ok, two things:

in my opinion,

1)if you go for justice is blind, you must reach renewed justice in order for it to be useful. i would go for 0/0/30/30/10 since virtues 10 gives you so much utility for the points. master of consecrations for WoR, vengeful for 1 vs 1, subconscious for WWW, and unscratched contender for easy content.
if you go for 15 in radiance you have to chose only one between AH and Pure of Voice.

2) don’t invest in cavalier pieces the raw % crit damage soon to be normalized to rate of the other stats which will almost halve its potency.

Evalia.7103:

Saturn.6591:

Evalia.7103:

30 points in Valor is usually a bad idea for PvE/WvW, even more
so because you use such horrible traits as Purity, Altruistic Healing and Retributive Armor.

Huh? Please explain. As far as I know, the Guardian-meta for zergs has 30 points in Valor and uses AH, and the meta for roaming has 30 points in Valor and uses Monk’s Focus. Now since you’re saying that’s horrible… I’d really like to see your reasoning behind this statement.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough, but I think it’s quite obvious to see why Purity(completely unreliable way to remove conditions) and Retributive Armor(Impractical to get such amounts of toughness, and even if you get 2k it’s still just 140 precision) are horrible… Altruistic Healing might not be in that bad of a spot, but it’s still pretty weak in my opinion.
It’s fine I guess if you swap out Purity and Retributive Armor for defender’s flame(burn on block, can be pretty huge) and strength in numbers(150-750 toughness).
And as I’ve checked your build example you have 3.2k armor with 15k HP and 300 healing power, completely unforgivable waste of defensive stats – getting 2.7k armor and 20k HP would tremendously boost your survivability, so to say.

Strength in Numbers will only give you and Allies 150 toughness at level 80, it doesn’t stack; it doesn’t add up, it is just a straight 150 while in combat.

another thing to note toughness doesn’t protect against condition damage (nothing in our stats does) so yes I’d look at raising your hitpoints more so that your natural or traited condi-clears have a chance to kick in.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUQQNAR8dlUgiCXGyLEf4ESODRCBtZAQHUli45eA-j0BBYfCykfBiKAOzsIasFXFRjVXDT5iIqWKgIGWB-w this is the best guardian build outside fractals, if you struggle to play full zerker in pve as a guardian i really don’t know what to say…

Just to note this is dungeons, not world bosses

Painbow.6059:

outside fractals, if you struggle to play full zerker in pve as a guardian i really don’t know what to say…

It’s this arrogance that turns people off with full zerker. You don’t do anything but discourage those who die often when switching to zerker gear. Instead of encouraging people to fight through growing pains, you falsely assert that zerker guard is EZ mode. Having 11k hp, means you have to know how to play your class well. In High fractals or even arah, you can be dropped in a blink of an eye from certain mobs if you are too slow to an aegis or blind. It is definitely easier than say Ele, but still not “easy”.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Painbow.6059:

outside fractals, if you struggle to play full zerker in pve as a guardian i really don’t know what to say…

It’s this arrogance that turns people off with full zerker. You don’t do anything but discourage those who die often when switching to zerker gear. Instead of encouraging people to fight through growing pains, you falsely assert that zerker guard is EZ mode. Having 11k hp, means you have to know how to play your class well. In High fractals or even arah, you can be dropped in a blink of an eye from certain mobs if you are too slow to an aegis or blind. It is definitely easier than say Ele, but still not “easy”.

Providing you know the encounter it is easy, yeah there are a few encounters in pve which aren’t easy but most of them are

Painbow.6059:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUQQNAR8dlUgiCXGyLEf4ESODRCBtZAQHUli45eA-j0BBYfCykfBiKAOzsIasFXFRjVXDT5iIqWKgIGWB-w this is the best guardian build outside fractals, if you struggle to play full zerker in pve as a guardian i really don’t know what to say…

Just to note this is dungeons, not world bosses

Drop your guard even for a second, and you’re downed. That’s how low your hit points are, some bosses will kill you even when they strike through aegis(multiple hits instantly); getting downed, though, makes you and your party lose DPS, and it’s also inferior to soldier’s/cleric’s gear on world bosses(as you can’t crit them)…
It’s fine if you can survive in PvE. It’s not fine in WvW. So it’s pretty kitten situational, Just as your comment slicky notes “not for world bosses, not for fractals, not for WvW”
what the heck is that even for then? Just for dungeons?

Evalia.7103:

Drop your guard even for a second, and you’re downed. That’s how low your hit points are, some bosses will kill you even when they strike through aegis(multiple hits instantly); getting downed, though, makes you and your party lose DPS, and it’s also inferior to soldier’s/cleric’s gear on world bosses(as you can’t crit them)…
It’s fine if you can survive in PvE. It’s not fine in WvW. So it’s pretty kitten situational, Just as your comment slicky notes “not for world bosses, not for fractals, not for WvW”
what the heck is that even for then? Just for dungeons?

Painbow is only incorrect in his arrogant attitude. Zerker is the best for dungeons and fractals. The build he linked is the meta dungeon zerker build.

This is the fractal specialized zerker build.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfUAQJASRlUgiC3FSHEfIFRWBRazAgIs%2BQ8wUgRPC-jwBBYfDRjKYIaZmKr5pCiFXFRjVXDT5iIqWKgIGGB-e

seem good for team support.. though i would prefer great sword over hammer…. imo great sword dish out more dps aoe..

decease.3215:

seem good for team support.. though i would prefer great sword over hammer…. imo great sword dish out more dps aoe..

Hammer is used in Fractal for the perma protection. Not because of the DPS. Its no slouch in the damage department, but its main purpose is to make your team way more durable.

Even though sword is still viable, I sometimes go 10,30,0,5,25 there in 49 because in high levels vigor makes a difference