Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I stopped playing around February/March ahead of the big patch and plenty of changes. From a quick read through the forums, I take it the meta for Dungeons has not really changed? And it is still all Zerk gear (or however it’s called now) + Red Rubies or Scholar Runes?

And as for Guardian builds, I guess Sword/Focus with Greatsword or Hammer are still the go-to weapons?

Thanks in advance for any pointers to what might have changed since then.

Cheers,
Zel

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/page/5#post4066510

http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12646847-guardian-dps-build-theory-by-obal-dekeyz

Basically its the same. However in some cases for other professions (warrior and ele) strength runes are actually better than scholar

IMO the best place to find meta builds is on DnT’s official forums, for those that don’t know who they are, they’re a guild from the US that specialise in speed running dungeons and also finding/calculating all the best builds for the current meta, mainly focusing in on team play rather than solo content or w/e. A link to their forum can be found here: http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewforum/4280860

Here are the meta builds:

4/5/0/0/5
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQNAR8dlsApZo9CxfHEENR8QlbKOG2+BtQlBQDA-ThBBABYt/o8DgLCQe6GC4JAUp6PnpEMAwBwv/mv9N48zP/8zPvf/98fP/3SBonyI-e

Offense Rating: 4380.46

5/5/2/0/2
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQNAR8dlsApZo9CxfHEERR8gk1Yb/0q2ANu6IA-ThBBABYt/o8DgLCQe6GC4JAUp6PnpEMAwBwv/mv9N48zP/8zPvf/98fP/3SBonyI-e

Offense Rating: 4676.21

4/6/2/0/2
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQNAR8dlsApZo9CxfHEERR8gk1Yr/0aTlBac1RA-ThBBABYt/o8DgLCQe6GC4JAUp6PnpEMAwBwv/mv9N48zP/8zPvf/98fP/3SBonyI-e

Offense Rating 1: 4649.29
Offense Rating 2: 5097.78

6/6/0/0/2
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQNAR8dlsApZo9CxfHEENR8Ql1YY9H0CbQ1BQDslA-ThBBABYt/o8DgLCQe6GC4JAUp6PnpEMAwBwv/mv9N48zP/8zPvf/98fP/3SBonyI-e

Offense Rating: 4604.66
Offense Rating 2: 5041.69

6/6/2/0/0
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQNAR8dlsApZo9CxfHEENR8QZ9H0CbQ1BQDslXdEA-ThBBABYt/o8DgLCQe6GC4JAUp6PnpEMAwBwv/mv9N48zP/8zPvf/98fP/3SBonyI-e

Offense Rating 1: 4825.00
Offense Rating 2: 5290.44

Note among these five builds the higher offense rating does not strictly imply the build does more damage in general. I’ve sorted the builds by “potential” to do more damage than the listed number. The ones with lower offense rating have potential to be higher than even the highest one. For example, compare the 4/5/0/0/5 build with the 6/6/2/0/0

In 4/5/0/0/5 you would take UC and MoC, and PotV in Virtue while you don’t have that in 6/6/2/0/0. What is the trade off? In 4/5/0/0/5, MoC gives you less recharge time and longer duration on consecration skills. UC gives you +20% dmg while under aegis and PotV gives you a constant boost of about +2% dmg. So sometimes the power rating of 4/5/0/0/5 could be 4380.46 × 1.2 × 1.02 = 5361.68

The middle three builds 5/5/2/0/2, 4/6/2/0/2 , 6/6/0/0/2 give up PotV and one of UC or MoC in order to increase the base offense rating. So they have the highest potential dmg output if you take UC but then you don’t have MoC.

The difference between the 5/5/2/0/2 and 4/6/2/0/2 is the 4/6/2/0/2 gives up 50 power (and the GM Zeal trait which increase symbol dmg) while boost sword/focus crit chance by 15% (+315 precision) hence the split in the offense rating of the 4/6/2/0/2, and 6/6/0/0/2

The difference between 4/6/2/0/2 and 6/6/0/0/2 is that the 6/6/0/0/2 gains 100 power more than the 4/6/2/0/2 as well as the GM minor trait and the GM major to inscrease symbolic damage and condi dmg however, it gives up 100 points in ferocity (and conditional damage) as well as 0.07 x (916) = 64.12 points in precision from retributive armor

The three middle builds are roughly equivalent in term of damage with the later two 4/6/2/0/2 and 6/6/0/0/2 being slightly stronger than the 5/5/2/0/2

While the first one 4/5/0/0/5 build is more versatile and the last 6/6/2/0/0 having the highest base offense rating but less potential for more damage (relative to other four)

*Note: If you use the 4/6/2/0/2 and 6/6/0/0/2 be aware of your team composition as well as possible fury buffs as well as spotter and banners which will boost your crit chance to over 100% meaning points will be wasted. In that case use Peanut Squash Soup instead of Truffle Steak. Also the sigil of accuracy is for general roaming. If you do specific dungeon you should use Night+Slaying or Force+Slaying instead

Wonderful! Thanks for all the answers. Seems like I would not need much adaptation.