Guild Wars 2

Here’s the build I am thinking of:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUgyCHEyKEf4Eh1DAeQ/VVIeYPwI87IA-jwBBYLCyE1wUBBK5pIasFXFRjVVjIqWXDDA-e

UPDATED based on feedback!
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUgyCHEyKEf4EhNDAew6DxD7BGhfHB-jwBBYLCyE1wUBBK5pIasFXFRjVVjIqWXDDA-e

I’ve been running the anchor build (0/10/30/30/0) for a while now and it got a little stale, I wanted to try something different. I already had all the knight’s stuff and most of the celestial stuff, and since the guard (and maybe ele) are the 2 classes that literally uses every stat in the game, I wanted to see if I can put something around it.

Reason why I made my decisions

The Gunglai and Brazil high DPS guard build seems to be the rage these days but I really really REALLY hate the sword mainhand for the guard. The auto attack cleave feels too restricted in terms of range and the entire gameplay felt clunky to me, and not my style.

I get the argument, in PvE have just enough defense to survive and then go balls to the wall in DPS, I respect this mentality but I don’t agree with it. Every class has their “thing” that is unique about them, and I feel like the ability to heal and proc boons/support is the guards specialty. Going that DPS route feels like I’m trying to play my warrior or thief (both of who I feel does a lot better job at DPS).

The AH build was a little too much defense though and not enough DPS, and mostly I’ve been playing that build too long. I wanted to keep my healing and proc boons, but up my DPS a bit.

So I took 20 in zeal mainly for zealous blade, this will be my main “healing” source since I’m giving up AH, and of course increase my power/vuln/burn duration. 15 in Radiance to stack vuln/blind/renew VoJ (also 5 in virtues to proc might on VoJ), and the entire honor tree for the shout buffs.

Issues with Optimization
I think my trait choices make sense but there is a very valid argument about my gear choices, mainly, why not all berserker trinkets. I do think that will be the more optimal choice but I spent a lot of money getting the celestial ascended pieces, I want to use them =D. I’m also hoping the healing power and condition damage in celestial pieces make up for the DPS loss…

But in any case, feel free to fire away at this build and be as harsh as you like (I’m always responsive to creative criticism!) I’m posting this build to see if I can get some new ideas afterall!

For comparison’s sake, if I take all zerker gear with the same traits, and swap to a DPS oriented runes like scholar, my build is this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlUgyCHEyKEfIFRuA7DAsSR8uH2DMC/OC-jwxAYLAMGERAiKAk8KiGbxtIasKXioaA-e

I gain about 500 attack, 22% more crit damage, but loose 500 in toughness, 300 in healing, 2k in vitality, basically I become extremely glassy at the expense of some hefty DPS… I don’t know is this a better idea?

Could move inspired virtues to radiance for radiant fire (burning last longer) to proc fiery wrath more often. Personally I don’t really find 5 points in virtues alone worthwhile, 5 sec on these boons just doesn’t feel long enough at all.

If you want even more dps you can try 20/15/0/10/25, you keep your shout recharge, loose out on EM (another short duration might) and PoV (I don’t like holding on my shouts for condi removal o.o), but you can get consecration CD, Power of the Virtuous (much more reliable than elusive power imo), grab absolute resolution if you have problems with conditions. This is probably more dps oriented than you want though, as well as a slightly different playstyle.

why not all zerker over knights, and one handed weapons over staff with force/crit and bloodlust

Silver.4798:

For comparison’s sake, if I take all zerker gear with the same traits, and swap to a DPS oriented runes like scholar, my build is this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlUgyCHEyKEfIFRuA7DAsSR8uH2DMC/OC-jwxAYLAMGERAiKAk8KiGbxtIasKXioaA-e

I gain about 500 attack, 22% more crit damage, but loose 500 in toughness, 300 in healing, 2k in vitality, basically I become extremely glassy at the expense of some hefty DPS… I don’t know is this a better idea?

if you think you need the tanky stats to be comfortable, by all means go for it. You can always switch to berserkers when you feel tankier than necessary and want more dps.

@Devils, main reason why I didn’t go full zerker is because I happen to have all the knights gear and I’m too lazy to do CoF another 20 times for the zerker stuff haha!

But on a theorycrafting standpoint, guards have a really low health pool to begin with and to compound that with absolutely no toughness feels very unstable. I main a thief so I’m comfortable with timely dodging and using blinds but even then toughness so low feels… finicky…

@ Wukunlin, I don’t really like the 5 in virtues either, but since I’ll be popping VoJ every time I kill an enemy anyway, might as well get something out of it right? It’s an interesting idea though, I take it you want 25 in virtues for power of the virtuous. If I pop all my boons thats about 8% damage increase for 5s or so, that’s fairly significant. The main issue I have is, how do you deal with conditions though? Taking Absolute resolution removes 3 conditions on VoR activation but it’ll be on a 48s cooldown… The reason why I went into the PoV traits is because of the condi cleanse basically on demand with hold the line on 28s cooldown and stand your ground on a 24s cooldown.

Also lose selfless daring from the honor traitline, which is a significant amount of heal per dodge roll, and given i proc vigor on crit that’s a LOT of dodges and healing I’m missing out on

EDIT: I’m sure there are guys that run very low toughness/vit but I don’t know if you guys also run zealous blade. This is a very skill dependent question, but for you guys who run low tough/vit and rely on dodging and blinds, do you feel you have enough survivability to roll through fractals and such?

so yes i was only talking zerker on your armor/weapons and cel on trinkets.

I do run full zerker everything with 10/25/0/10/25, using the 3x blinds and dodge with vigor on crit from 5 in honor. I use this on my 38/48 dailies and everything else i do in PvE. Do i have a problem staying alive the answer to that is Yes sometimes, i find in parties that are not dps based ei us Gaurdians running support builds its much harder on me due to longer fights. but good dps ground np.

Silver.4798:

@ Wukunlin, I don’t really like the 5 in virtues either, but since I’ll be popping VoJ every time I kill an enemy anyway, might as well get something out of it right? It’s an interesting idea though, I take it you want 25 in virtues for power of the virtuous. If I pop all my boons thats about 8% damage increase for 5s or so, that’s fairly significant. The main issue I have is, how do you deal with conditions though? Taking Absolute resolution removes 3 conditions on VoR activation but it’ll be on a 48s cooldown… The reason why I went into the PoV traits is because of the condi cleanse basically on demand with hold the line on 28s cooldown and stand your ground on a 24s cooldown.

Also lose selfless daring from the honor traitline, which is a significant amount of heal per dodge roll, and given i proc vigor on crit that’s a LOT of dodges and healing I’m missing out on

EDIT: I’m sure there are guys that run very low toughness/vit but I don’t know if you guys also run zealous blade. This is a very skill dependent question, but for you guys who run low tough/vit and rely on dodging and blinds, do you feel you have enough survivability to roll through fractals and such?

if I am really having problems with conditions I also take purging flames, with these two that is mostly enough to get me through solo contents. For group contents I rotate them with a mesmer’s null field. Extreme cases where you get open world mobs that spam conditions like those vets in the aetherblade JP or Scarlet, I also take smite condition or even the human racial kormir skill but they cases are rare enough for me to neglect them in my general purpose builds. It really comes down to personal preference though, I have been finding curing a whole bunch of conditions at once more useful than cleansing them one at a time.
I have never paid much attention to heal on dodge but I can see why people stick to them.
As for squishy builds in fractals, my personal experience is at 38/48 even full PVT get downed in a few hits so might as well go full glass cannon and kill the mobs before they kill us. Blind spam, protection boon, and aegis is generally enough to keep people alive. Dem dredge with their blind immunity are super annoying though…

btw, about zealous blade, I don’t like GS for reasons even I don’t know (just doesn’t feel right…) so I have never built around them, I just use them when I have to: grawl shaman, AC p2 mobs, harpy fractal etc

Haha I have the opposite problem I can’t stand the 1H sword, I am an AoE freak I love my AoEs, GS for life!!!! (Unless I’m on my mesmer I hate GS on mesmer but thats another story lol)

I just tried out the 20/15/0/30/5 build today, in a mass mob situation like the clockwork chaos my God it is OP… only reason why I died a few times was because I got too reckless and literally went 1 on 20 with the aetherblades (and did not die easy!)

Damage tick weren’t as high as I’d like though WW only saw about 1200-1500, the trade off though was I rarely got condi-ed or CC-ed, I feel more tanky now than in the AH build for some reason…

Hi there, thought I’d throw some of my information in.

The first thing I’d like to point out is that Zealous Blade does NOT scale with Healing Power. It is always a heal of 25 per connected hit, as long as you use greatsword. However your healing power DOES affect Selfless Daring (very nicely at that, it heals for 129 + Healing Power).

So in an AOE fight, Zealous Blade (and especially WW) can do some decent sustained healing, and dodges can give a small burst. The amount of healing you mostly depends on dodging and positioning.

Your trait choices aren’t bad IMO and will make for a pretty solid build.

On your sigil I’d like to point a few things out, but it’s mostly personal preference.

On your GS you use Sigil of Force, straight-forward 5% damage. A fully-stacked Sigil of Bloodlust will give you 250 power, because power scales linearly the damage increase would be the following.

(3075 + 250) / 3075 = ~1.08

So lets just call that 8%, not a huge difference but if you think you can stack it up, worth taking. Also if you do a lot of night time or specific dungeons, you can take a Sigil of the Night or a specific sigil for a dungeon for 10% more damage.

Now for your staff you have sigil of accuracy, but I don’t think you’ll sit around in staff alot, at level 80 you need 21 precision to gain 1% crit chance, a fully stacked Sigil of Perception will give you 250 precision, so that’s ~11.9 crit chance, but I believe it gets rounded down, not entirely sure though. As you may have noticed (lol), it’s not only significantly higher, but ALSO applies to your greatsword. With your celestial and knights gear I doubt you’ll get downed alot so in my opinion, although yours might differ, stacking sigils are superior.

Then as a final suggestion, you will obviously need a Scepter for when you need ranged, and I’d like to suggest taking a Sigil of Energy on your Scepter, and maybe event your staff to get another free dodge (which can negate massive damage) and a free heal (Selfless Daring).

About condition removal, your current isn’t bad with Pure of Voice being bugged and removing 2 conditions instead of one, however I’d like to give a few suggestions if you feel you need more.

- Runes of the Soldier will give you another condition removal on your shouts
- Putting down Symbol of Wrath and then using Whirling Wrath and/or Blinding Blades will trigger the Cleansing Bolts combo, doing AoE condition removal.

Also when traveling I suggest you swap out Bane Signet for “Retreat!” for some extra swiftness uptime.

Hope this helps you

This was very helpful thank you!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARblYgqCnFyLEfIFRuA7DAsSR8uH2DMC/OC-jwyAYLI8FAZBI7Bm+QSgDatyWENW9CmqUQWdmUvRR0qlC4iFAA-e

This is what i use in PvE (for now) until i get my full zerker set. this does a lot of damage with vuln and might stacks

This is a good build you have in mind, and i can see it does more dps than mine, so awesome that you have celestial gear

also the utils are up to you but you need 2 shouts, 3rd up to you

Wukunlin.8461:

As for squishy builds in fractals, my personal experience is at 38/48 even full PVT get downed in a few hits so might as well go full glass cannon and kill the mobs before they kill us.

This is incorrect, but of course, must be the PvE meta thinking behind justifying the logic of using all zerker gear or going full glass cannon – kill first or be killed mentality. Accordingly, if you have PvE peeps/guardians running around in PVT gear and getting downed in a few hits, they need to either re-roll a new profession or L2P their current profession and build (and get some agony resistance to boot). I run full PVT in WvW and even getting focus-fired, do not go down in a “few hits.”

Rigel.3092:

Wukunlin.8461:

As for squishy builds in fractals, my personal experience is at 38/48 even full PVT get downed in a few hits so might as well go full glass cannon and kill the mobs before they kill us.

This is incorrect, but of course, must be the PvE meta thinking behind justifying the logic of using all zerker gear or going full glass cannon – kill first or be killed mentality. Accordingly, if you have PvE peeps/guardians running around in PVT gear and getting downed in a few hits, they need to either re-roll a new profession or L2P their current profession and build (and get some agony resistance to boot). I run full PVT in WvW and even getting focus-fired, do not go down in a “few hits.”

This logic that Zerker/glass isn’t the best in PvE is incorrect. You are right that people in pvt that down fast really do need to improve. But playing in any dungeon/fractals with a DPS/zerker based melee party its not only fun as hell but quicker. If you played your guardian as glass and got a exp glass party you would understand. I use the elite focus trait atm with Tome of wrath and don’t even bother with asking for mesmers.

If this is a GS build does no one like the Honor IX (2H Mastery) trait to recharge 2H weapons skills 20% faster? I didn’t see it suggested anywhere, but granted that this can keep you on GS for a greater % of time, especially if you’re leaning on it to heal from Zealous Blade, it seems like a lucrative trait to pick. I ask because I’ve been working on a GS build myself with both Zealous Blade and 2H mastery and I’d like to know if it’s still a waste of traits to take them if I primarily play GS.

@Dav, I swap to 2H mastery when I am solo-ing (no point in being generous when there’s only me!), and I have empowered when I’m in a group setting. To be honest, the 2H mastery is more in line with the build and feels a little better to play when things cool down faster, but even without 2H mastery (by taking empowering might) it doesn’t feel too clunky and works fine.

@ Devils, I understand the full zerker GC eliticism but it doesn’t necessarily make GC more “correct” or better suited for more skilled players. When I was running the anchor AH build, I took immense joy jumping in the middle of a full mob and tanking everything, watching people die from my retal (check thief forums, dealing with retal when running full GC thief is a total kitten). There is “fun” in this kind of build too, it is just a different playstyle.

My personal reasoning for not going GC on a guard is that I already have a zerker warrior and thief, what’s the point of making a third GC character? It is my personal opinion that I can rack up an insane amount of DPS on my warrior and thief, much more so than a full GC guard, but my guard can do things that a thief and warrior simply cant (spam boons, support party without sacrificing DPS – which to be fair my warr can do just as well – and tank like a mofo while outhealing damage that I take. Very different to any of my other toons and quite fun!

Yeah i was only talking Pve bro none of this WvW or PvP, I understand my PvE ideas would get me rolled when roaming(at least with my knowledge of other classes). I also agree playing Anchor builds etc are fun i never stated otherwise. Sorry if you wanted WvW or roaming build. The Build link saying “PvE Mode” made me assume.

I made this build in my quest for finding a guardian build thats a happy blend of pretty respectable DPS (higher than anchor guard but not as high as a full GC) while having pretty good group utility and survivability

@ Devils, nah dude you had it right I was speaking mostly in terms of PvE I’m just learning the ropes of WvW, I just cited an example of owning people without attacking. I do know what you mean (I don’t think there’s anyone who will disagree that seeing giant bright red numbers flashing and things dying left and right isn’t fun. Comeon now that’s the epitome of screaming I am MAN hear me ROARRRRRR!!!!) I disagree that full GC is the best way to play PvE, is all, especially when you have a class as well designed as a guard who can be so effective in so many ways.

People will jump on me for saying this I think but I really believe a guard DPS can’t compare with a warrior or thief, and if they could then the designers messed up, those 2 classes were meant to have unrivaled DPS. A guard on the other hand can have pretty high DPS WHILE being able to survive longer AND supporting teammates increase their DPS/survivability. I think going full GC on guard sacrifices too much survivability and support utility and basically I’m trying to play like a warrior. That hurts my soul, know what I mean?

Rigel.3092:

This is incorrect, but of course, must be the PvE meta thinking behind justifying the logic of using all zerker gear or going full glass cannon – kill first or be killed mentality. Accordingly, if you have PvE peeps/guardians running around in PVT gear and getting downed in a few hits, they need to either re-roll a new profession or L2P their current profession and build (and get some agony resistance to boot). I run full PVT in WvW and even getting focus-fired, do not go down in a “few hits.”

Maybe because enemy players don’t deal 25k with their skills.

Silver.4798:

People will jump on me for saying this I think but I really believe a guard DPS can’t compare with a warrior or thief, and if they could then the designers messed up, those 2 classes were meant to have unrivaled DPS. A guard on the other hand can have pretty high DPS WHILE being able to survive longer AND supporting teammates increase their DPS/survivability. I think going full GC on guard sacrifices too much survivability and support utility and basically I’m trying to play like a warrior. That hurts my soul, know what I mean?

So what support utility do you have with this build that full gc doesn’t have? I’m not going to tell you to be gc, however I am curious about your reasoning.

haviz.1340:

Maybe because enemy players don’t deal 25k with their skills.

Apparently, you do not play WvW, eh? No players, as in a single player, do not do 25K, but in a WvW environment, you can get 25K++++ damage amassed on you in a quick tenth of a minute. Come join us, cause WvW is so much frakin’ fun over the same ole PvE farm happy kittens.

Minute? I’m talking about seconds. 150k damage from 6 mobs, tanky gear won’t help you at all.

Sorry, but I prefer more balanced environment, even when it’s pos like currently, though zvz-er slowly catch up.

I understand the full zerker GC eliticism but it doesn’t necessarily make GC more “correct” or better suited for more skilled players

If you’re more skilled it means you know how to mitigate mob/boss damage through dodging, blocks, reflects and protection. Due to this, you have no need for any other passive mitigation so it would be more correct for a skilled player to run glass cannon since they can handle themselves.

Whether you like GC or not is an entirely different thing, but just because you’re bored of it doesn’t make it any less correct.

I will move 10 points from Zeal to Radiance for radiant power because it gives a 10% boost to all damage unlike zealous blade which is a 5% increase for one weapon only and some low miserable heal per hit. For the minor trait, u could take signet -20% cd or radiant fire for longer burning duration to trigger fiery wraith and radiant power.

I think u will have sufficient heals with dodge rolls and not really need zealous blade for hp recovery.

Personally i feel that consecrations are important in fractals especially for volcanic/uncategorized/dredge/snowfield fractals etc so i will try to take at least 10 points in virtue for that but then u will have to give up points from somewhere to put there…maybe put on soldier runes and discard the divinity runes.

Runes of divinity are not worth it in my opinion, u might as well go for a dps rune like scholar or ruby orbs. Boon duration runes also worth it as it increases all the duration of boons u get from shouts and inspired virtue

@ Haviz, the short answer to your question of why I think my build has the extra support over a DPS GC build is that most of the GC builds uses a1H sword mainhand, mine uses GS, which has built in support capabilities lacking in 1H sword. Below is a more long winded explanation:

GS has built in symbol in the 4 skill to give AoE retal, AoE condi cleanse if u activate WW or BB on the symbol (although this can be a hit or miss if allies are too far away). Lastly, WW’s AoE has a high chance of hitting multiple opponents, thus a higher chance to crit and higher chance to trigger the on crit buffs guards have like empowering might, vigor on crit, etc – this is a relative advantage, 1H sword builds have very high crit % as well so they should crit quite often. However, they can’t hit as many opponents at once, so more enemies hit means more chances to proc a crit, although empowering might has a 1s internal cool down I believe so meh.

There are certain DPS builds that actually has very similar support utility like the one I have. For example, the 0/30/0/30/10 build, the 30 in honor is exactly like my setup. The issue is going 30 in radiance focuses on sword damage – sword damage increase 5%, critical hit chance increases 15% with 1H weapon. As stated above, I really don’t like the sword cleave range and AoE capabilities, even though the 2 skill is an AoE blind and the third hit in autoattack is a 3 way cone attack. It doesn’t compare with GS AoE where every skill has a wide AoE cleave, and the 5,5,4,2 GS combo a very potent melee AoE combo, probably one of the best in the guard’s arsenal.

@ Colesy, if you’re more skilled this also means you know when to hit your blocks, blinds, dodges, proc protection/retal/reflect, meaning if you’re using a build that gives you more of these things you will be even more effective. Protection/retal/regen aren’t very effective if your base stats in toughness are poor to begin with. We are speaking in terms of PvE so there’s the “pssh protect/retal/reflect/regen? You don’t need skills for that crap!” mentality. To this I say check out the top PvP guardian rankings and their builds, you’ll see skills!

GC builds are using both gs and sword.

@ Sutcliffe, that’s a very interesting point, I’ll give it a shot! My only hesitation is what major trait do I take if I take another 10 in zeal? I don’t use a signet in this build so the 20% signet cooldown seems pointless… unless I take signet of resolve as my heal, that still brings my cooldown to 32s (to 30s of shelter – and shelter procs almost immediately and blocks everything while it is casting, this saved my butt so many times I lost count).

Admittedly with zealous blade I’ve been really reckless, I literally jumped into 1 v 10+ aetherblade mob situations in the clockwork chaos just to see if I can (and until they start spamming CCs and control effects on me I do fine, but once my shouts are on cooldown that was a little too much for me to handle). I didn’t REALLY see too much of the healing proc from zealous blade even though I’m sure I’m hitting at least 3+ mobs at all times, but then again I don’t have all of the gear I want either (missing the ascended allstat rings and backpiece, using exotic zerker instead, missing divinity runes because those things cost as much as my kidney and half my liver, so using scholar instead)

if you’re more skilled this also means you know when to hit your blocks, blinds, dodges, proc protection/retal/reflect, meaning if you’re using a build that gives you more of these things you will be even more effective.

Well… no, because you don’t need more of it. You cycle reflects and blocks and blinds and by the time you’ve finished a full rotation, either the mob/boss is dead or things will be coming off cooldown so you repeat it.

Protection/retal/regen aren’t very effective if your base stats in toughness are poor to begin with

I thought damage reduction scaled well with lower levels of toughness? I remember reading Signet of Judgement would have more of an effect on players with low armour where it didn’t do as much for players with say, 3.2k+ armour.

We are speaking in terms of PvE so there’s the “pssh protect/retal/reflect/regen? You don’t need skills for that crap!” mentality. To this I say check out the top PvP guardian rankings and their builds, you’ll see skills!

Except PvE and PvP are completely different, so I don’t give a kitten if the best PvP guard in the game told me how awesome retaliation is when compared to other sources of damage it’s complete trash in PvE/dungeons.

@Haviz, the GC builds that I am familiar with will want to stay with sword as long as possible (wouldn’t make sense otherwise when you’re buffing sword damage and crit % in the radiance traitline). Please let me know if it is possible to swap back and forth between sword/GS seamlessly in a combo or something, because I would be REALLLLLLYYYY interested in that!

@ Colesy, you’re right I messed up I didn’t say what I meant to say, my fault. Let me try that again.

Protection will reduce damage 33% regardless of your toughness, but I meant that if your toughness/vitality are low to begin with the 33% reduction won’t really help too much, i.e. if you’re HP is 10k and your toughness is 2k a big hit will bring you to really low health if not kill you, 33% reduction or not. Retal hits back damage based on your power. So if you’re in PVT gear it maximizes the effectiveness of protection and retal, is what I should’ve said.

In regards to your argument of dungeons and such with GC, basically running GC allows you to kill things faster assuming you make very few mistakes and you’re in a team that knows what they are doing and knows what to avoid, we agree there. What I disagree with is killing things faster is necessarily better, especially since I run dungeons with pugs so there is a high degree of variance in skill level. Very tough for GC’s to be effective when other members arent pulling their weight.

And really, is it that big a deal finishing CoF in 8 mins vs 18? If PvE is all about zerker DPS then everyone is making a mistake if they arent playing GC warrior/thief/ranger/mesmer

You take points in radiance for radiant power and additional precision. Sword traits are picked just because there’s nothing else to pick excluding very narrow usage of certain traits.

You don’t stay in sword and autoattack. Since gs is quite bursty but with cooldowns, typical way to use them both is to just use your gs skills and then swap for sword. It would be the easiest explanation and it’s very similiar to gs/axe+mace warriors in pve use (100b and whirlwind attack then swap to axe/mace). You can also use sword for mobility and against projectiles (requires some knowledge and proactive gameplay).

Basically, you take points in radiance instead of zeal because after 10 points in zeal you only have 2 decent traits.

Well the GS/Axe/Mace for a warrior is very seamless because of fast hands, by the time you’re done with HB → WW → Weapon swap → axe 2 → mace 4 → one axe auto attack chain → weapon swap, HB and WW are off cooldown.

This isn’t the same with the guard since there is no fast hands, thus weapon swap is 10s as opposed to 5. Also, suppose I’m done with my GS burst and swap to sword, now what do I do while I wait for GS to cool down?

In regards to your argument of dungeons and such with GC, basically running GC allows you to kill things faster assuming you make very few mistakes and you’re in a team that knows what they are doing and knows what to avoid, we agree there. What I disagree with is killing things faster is necessarily better, especially since I run dungeons with pugs so there is a high degree of variance in skill level. Very tough for GC’s to be effective when other members arent pulling their weight.

Well actually it’s not, because in mob pulls (which you can do yourself even with binding blade), you can spam blinds which lets you burst just as much as you could in a group full of other zerker players. I’ve run glass cannon guard and mesmer in PUGs and I can do fine with it, in fact GC mesmer feels like EZ mode.

And really, is it that big a deal finishing CoF in 8 mins vs 18?

Yes, it is. I get enjoyment from succeeding at clearing content and the reward, not sitting in a dungeon 3x longer than I normally would because my team is full of bads who can’t dodge and are in rampager.

If PvE is all about zerker DPS then everyone is making a mistake if they arent playing GC warrior/thief/ranger/mesmer

The only class that could be considered a mistake to play is necro because of their lack of group utility in dungeons, but even then they excel in WvW and PvP.

UPDATED THE BUILD!
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8dlUgyCHEyKEf4Eh1DAeQ/VVIeYPwI87IA-jwBBYLCyE1wUBBK5pIasFXFRjVVjIqWXDDA-e

Based on some field testing and the suggestions posted on this tread (thank you everyone for your critique!) I tweaked the build to the above.

The synergy of the build, (in theory anyway)
I guess the idea is to always stay above 90% health and make sure there is a condition on opponents at all times. This way:

• 10% damage inc from scholar rune kicks in when my health is above 90% health, which should be do-able with my defensive boons from shouts.
• 10% increased damage from fiery wrath when target is burning
• 10% increased damage from radiant power, deal more damage to foes that have a condition.
• The allstat trinkets are there instead of zerker for increased condition damage from my burns, increased defense and healing power so that it’s easier to stay above 90% health.

Stuff That I tweaked

• Got rid of divinity runes. If I did run divinity my attack would decrease slightly (~60 pts or so) but my crit damage would increase 4%, as would my healing, condition damage, vit/tough. However, 6 scholar runes cost ~17 gold, with the added 10% damage. 6 divinity runes will cost ~65 last I checked. I think divinity works better with this build but is divinity worth almost 50 gold better than scholar? Too rich for me sadly…
• Took 5 away from valor, 1 stack of might doesn’t make sense when I can have radiant power instead from radiance.
• Went with zerker gear rather than knight, although losing 100 power isn’t that big a deal, the crit damage loss from knight is pretty severe (I’d be at 51% crit damage rather than 67) at the expense of ~300 toughness. Zerker in this case is better, I have to say.

How is this version? Better?

I’m still skeptical about the sword MH I don’t really know how to use it properly, if you guys can give me some advice how I can use it in this build I’d appreciate it very much!

And again, thank you for your feedback!

If you finish something faster it doesn’t equate to being better dude… what you enjoy doesn’t mean everyone else has to as well, its the quality of play that matters. I enjoy finishing dungeons without getting downed even once. This isn’t too difficult in tried and true dungeons like CoF and SE, etc, but for dungeons like arah and high level fractals GC toons get punished very hard for mistakes. Sacrificing some DPS to widen the margin of error is worth it in my eyes, and you will probably finish a dungeon faster if you have less downs…

What other gauge do we have to determine player skill than the speed they clear content? I saw a horror story of somebody taking eight hours in Arah p4 while a strong speed clear group can clear it in, IIRC, 30 minutes. Obviously the speed clearers are better. Like you said as well, quality of play matters. Using bad gear as a crutch doesn’t improve the quality of your play either, it just means that you know you’ll still be alive if you make a mistake. And to be perfectly honest, CoF is pretty punishing on errors too, even though it was a faceroll, if players started wailing on the slave driver with their greatswords, didn’t swap to axe/mace, didn’t stack vuln and the mesmer didn’t signet, chances are the party would drop. Again with the effigy, if the party were relying on mesmer reflects and they miss and everybody eats knockdown, then the effigy casts that other knockdown attack, they get hit again, and then he casts his channeled burning attack (and I’m not eaggerating, this actually happened to me when I casted a feedback on the wrong attack and had no reflect on cooldown for when he actually did his pbaoe knockdown).

Sacrificing DPS to improve the margin for error is never worth it unless you know you will never be able to complete the content in glass gear within a million years, whereas I’m pretty sure in most cases it’s just using dodges too early or dodging the wrong attack, or dodging too late which is easy to rectify.

I think u made a mistake , inspired virtue gives 3 stacks of might for F1(5s) and not 1 stack. So I think 5 in virtue is better than 15 points in zeal as the only symbol u apply is symbol of wraith..and the vulnerability only last 3s pulsing per second, so probably 3 stacks of vulnerability for a few seconds. Of course another option is to dump those 5 points into radiance for right hand strength if u dun mind trying out sword. No point traiting in zeal for power and condition duration.

The correct way to use gs/sword rotation from what I read is whirling wraith/symbol/auto attack till whirling wraith off cool down/whirling wraith then swap to sword and auto attack and then go back to gs once weapon swap is off cool down. So basically 14s in greatsword and 10s in sword. By the way, if u disable melee assist and stand in the monster model while using whirling wraiths, it hits a lot harder then being out of the monster model.

As for your armour choice, in a perfect world where u made no mistakes and such, of course zerker is the best choice. But sometimes we do make mistakes or the party u are in isn’t that good, then maybe berserker armour is not the best. I see even good players like obal use knights gear in fractals for some encounters as u can see from his thread for fractal 48 guide. So I will just suggest that use what u are comfortable with, or u can swap out some berserker pieces for knights starting from the lower portion of the list in the post I posted : http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/18q7oe/not_all_slots_are_created_equal_dos_and_donts_of/

Those with the higher points trade off per critical damage. Eg for helm u are giving up 16 trait point for 1% critical damage

@ Colesy, we will agree to disagree I guess, I don’t think anything you said is wrong its just a difference in preference/style, which is cool.

(Btw why are you bothering with feedback and reflects with the effigy? Just dodge it, he telegraphs everything. I have literally been the only melee toon with 4 ranged guys 2 of which are CoF virgins, didn’t get hit once… the fight ofc took like 6 mins but that’s another story… I honestly have more trouble with slave driver in pugs who are doing CoF their first time than with effigy).

@ Sutcliffe, you’re right I am retraiting 5 from zeal to 30 in radiance, it makes the most sense for this build. Updated the build links to reflect that, thank you!

I’m still having trouble using sword MH esp with the GS synergy… if anyone uses a sword MH would you mind telling me how to best use it (besides spamming auto attack, which is basically what I do at this pt lol)

Silver.4798:

@ Colesy, we will agree to disagree I guess, I don’t think anything you said is wrong its just a difference in preference/style, which is cool.

(Btw why are you bothering with feedback and reflects with the effigy? Just dodge it, he telegraphs everything. I have literally been the only melee toon with 4 ranged guys 2 of which are CoF virgins, didn’t get hit once… the fight ofc took like 6 mins but that’s another story… I honestly have more trouble with slave driver in pugs who are doing CoF their first time than with effigy).

@ Sutcliffe, you’re right I am retraiting 5 from zeal to 30 in radiance, it makes the most sense for this build. Updated the build links to reflect that, thank you!

I’m still having trouble using sword MH esp with the GS synergy… if anyone uses a sword MH would you mind telling me how to best use it (besides spamming auto attack, which is basically what I do at this pt lol)

I have already posted the rotation u should use, whirling wraith/ symbol / normal attack/ whirling wraith / weapon swap / autoattack+ focus #5 if u need/ weapon swap…

The power of the sword lies in its high auto attack damage not in ths skills. Zealot’s defense is only marginally better than the sword auto attack chain and just take note that the bulk of the damage of auto attack lies in the last hit, so u probably want to always complete the chain if possible

Rigel.3092:

Wukunlin.8461:

As for squishy builds in fractals, my personal experience is at 38/48 even full PVT get downed in a few hits so might as well go full glass cannon and kill the mobs before they kill us.

This is incorrect, but of course, must be the PvE meta thinking behind justifying the logic of using all zerker gear or going full glass cannon – kill first or be killed mentality. Accordingly, if you have PvE peeps/guardians running around in PVT gear and getting downed in a few hits, they need to either re-roll a new profession or L2P their current profession and build (and get some agony resistance to boot). I run full PVT in WvW and even getting focus-fired, do not go down in a “few hits.”

L2Read

Btw why are you bothering with feedback and reflects with the effigy

Reflecting his knockback attack deals him about 40k+ damage.

colesy.8490:

Reflecting his knockback attack deals him about 40k+ damage.

I did not know that, guess i’ll try wall of reflect next time im in CoF with my guard! Thanks