Guild Wars 2

So, I recently went ahead and deiced to rework my guardian’s build.
For the longest time I was running a support-based shout build, but I slowly started veering towards a more offensive set-up. Now that I’m finally at a place where I feel like my build is pretty decent, I was still wondering what the fine folks of the Guardian Sub-Forum have to say about it!

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUIQRAsd7elYgiDnGyOEf4Eh1jBeQ/VVIeXPgYEbIA-jwyAY/BRTQAIChmKAl9iY6bIrFuioxqrxUuJVFLIbzhkCQPhRA-e

Some things to keep in mind:

1. I’m contemplating switching out the Cavalier trinkets for Berserker, but I’m too nervous about the spike drop in armor. I’m not too confident in my abilities to avoid damage at this point in time…
2. My brain can’t seem to stand percentages that aren’t divisible by 5. I know I can up Critical Damage a bit more, but it’ll bother me too much to do anything that isn’t 100%. Same with my Critical Chance, which it why I’m thinking of getting Berserker rings and a Berserker amulet.
3. With Critical Chance in mind, I’m using Right Handed Strength in this build. With the upcoming change to meditation traits (We’re finally getting access to Fury~!!), I don’t see myself going for anything higher than 80% Critical Chance. It’s a bit counterproductive to have more than 100% Critical Chance at any given moment. At least in my opinion…

So yeah, what do you guys think? Is it any good? Is there anything I can improve on?
Tel meh pl0x~!!

Honestly, I’d pump up Power a bit dropping armor or crit damage.
Also, I don’t like sword/focus that much :P but it’s personal and I know most of guardians love it.
That said, you will get the job done anyway.

TriggerSad.2597:

So, I recently went ahead and deiced to rework my guardian’s build.
For the longest time I was running a support-based shout build, but I slowly started veering towards a more offensive set-up. Now that I’m finally at a place where I feel like my build is pretty decent, I was still wondering what the fine folks of the Guardian Sub-Forum have to say about it!

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUIQRAsd7elYgiDnGyOEf4Eh1jBeQ/VVIeXPgYEbIA-jwyAY/BRTQAIChmKAl9iY6bIrFuioxqrxUuJVFLIbzhkCQPhRA-e

Some things to keep in mind:

1. I’m contemplating switching out the Cavalier trinkets for Berserker, but I’m too nervous about the spike drop in armor. I’m not too confident in my abilities to avoid damage at this point in time…
2. My brain can’t seem to stand percentages that aren’t divisible by 5. I know I can up Critical Damage a bit more, but it’ll bother me too much to do anything that isn’t 100%. Same with my Critical Chance, which it why I’m thinking of getting Berserker rings and a Berserker amulet.
3. With Critical Chance in mind, I’m using Right Handed Strength in this build. With the upcoming change to meditation traits (We’re finally getting access to Fury~!!), I don’t see myself going for anything higher than 80% Critical Chance. It’s a bit counterproductive to have more than 100% Critical Chance at any given moment. At least in my opinion…

So yeah, what do you guys think? Is it any good? Is there anything I can improve on?
Tel meh pl0x~!!

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Kilandros.2098:

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Well, I was doing the math before, and with my current set-up I’ll have a 90% Crit Chance with Fury and RHS. It would be 100% if I switched to full Berserker Trinkets.

stemare.2578:

Honestly, I’d pump up Power a bit dropping armor or crit damage.
Also, I don’t like sword/focus that much :P but it’s personal and I know most of guardians love it.
That said, you will get the job done anyway.

Well, I mainly use stat-types that mainly focus on Power, the only exception being the Cavalier trinkets. I could switch those out with Soldier trinkets, but I don’t see a reason to do so tbh.

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Well, I was doing the math before, and with my current set-up I’ll have a 90% Crit Chance with Fury and RHS. It would be 100% if I switched to full Berserker Trinkets.

From my experience you start to see diminishing returns after 75% crit chance. If I could keep 75% up consistently, I wouldn’t bother pushing for anymore.

Kilandros.2098:

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Well, I was doing the math before, and with my current set-up I’ll have a 90% Crit Chance with Fury and RHS. It would be 100% if I switched to full Berserker Trinkets.

From my experience you start to see diminishing returns after 75% crit chance. If I could keep 75% up consistently, I wouldn’t bother pushing for anymore.

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed something like that before. I’ll keep my eyes open, and make any changes if there is.

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Well, I was doing the math before, and with my current set-up I’ll have a 90% Crit Chance with Fury and RHS. It would be 100% if I switched to full Berserker Trinkets.

From my experience you start to see diminishing returns after 75% crit chance. If I could keep 75% up consistently, I wouldn’t bother pushing for anymore.

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed something like that before. I’ll keep my eyes open, and make any changes if there is.

I suppose what I meant to say by diminishing returns is this: I crit a lot at 75% cc. Pretty much every hit is a crit. I don’t crit that much more at 90%, and I certainly don’t see a huge improvement in the number of crits. For me that’s diminishing returns.

I would rather sit at 75% cc where I crit nearly every hit anyway and invest traits in something else than push for 90%.

Kilandros.2098:

I suppose what I meant to say by diminishing returns is this: I crit a lot at 75% cc. Pretty much every hit is a crit. I don’t crit that much more at 90%, and I certainly don’t see a huge improvement in the number of crits. For me that’s diminishing returns.

I would rather sit at 75% cc where I crit nearly every hit anyway and invest traits in something else than push for 90%.

Ah! That makes more sense. I can agree with you that the higher you get with Crit Chance, the less you feel the need to get to 100%. Still, I like knowing that I’m going to consistently hit a Crit while fighting, which is why I was contemplating going with full Berserker Trinkets so I could have all my hits Crit while fighting when under the effect of Fury.
Still, I doubt that the change to Focues Mind would, give us perma Fury, and I like having 28k Armor. At the end of the day, I think keeping 70% Crit Chance (90% with Fury) is fine… Though 100% is really tempting~!! (>_<) ’ ’ ’

Kilandros.2098:

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Well, I was doing the math before, and with my current set-up I’ll have a 90% Crit Chance with Fury and RHS. It would be 100% if I switched to full Berserker Trinkets.

From my experience you start to see diminishing returns after 75% crit chance. If I could keep 75% up consistently, I wouldn’t bother pushing for anymore.

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed something like that before. I’ll keep my eyes open, and make any changes if there is.

I suppose what I meant to say by diminishing returns is this: I crit a lot at 75% cc. Pretty much every hit is a crit. I don’t crit that much more at 90%, and I certainly don’t see a huge improvement in the number of crits. For me that’s diminishing returns.

I would rather sit at 75% cc where I crit nearly every hit anyway and invest traits in something else than push for 90%.

This is not how math works. =(

Ludus Rex.1562:

Kilandros.2098:

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

TriggerSad.2597:

Kilandros.2098:

Yeah it’s a good build, but it remains to be seen how effective the Fury boon from meditations becomes. If it gets a good boost and we can keep Fury up with some consistency, R-Hand Strength might become overkill.

Well, I was doing the math before, and with my current set-up I’ll have a 90% Crit Chance with Fury and RHS. It would be 100% if I switched to full Berserker Trinkets.

From my experience you start to see diminishing returns after 75% crit chance. If I could keep 75% up consistently, I wouldn’t bother pushing for anymore.

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed something like that before. I’ll keep my eyes open, and make any changes if there is.

I suppose what I meant to say by diminishing returns is this: I crit a lot at 75% cc. Pretty much every hit is a crit. I don’t crit that much more at 90%, and I certainly don’t see a huge improvement in the number of crits. For me that’s diminishing returns.

I would rather sit at 75% cc where I crit nearly every hit anyway and invest traits in something else than push for 90%.

This is not how math works. =(

I recognize that statistically 90% cc is superior to 75% cc. What I’m saying is that I don’t notice the statistical difference that much. I never claimed that there was a mathematical advantage to having a lower cc, and frankly I’m not sure how you interpreted it that way. What I’m saying is that in actual application, 90%cc doesn’t feel that much better than 75%cc, and it certainly doesn’t feel that much better that I would sacrifice trait points to get it.

I hope that clears things up. I never suggested that I was approaching this from a mathematical perspective. I think it’s quite clear I was talking about practical application over mathematical statistics.

Definitely drop Healer’s Retribution. Not worth it at all, and you have some many better choices to use. Inner Fire, Blind Exposure, Signet Mastery, or Searing Flames are all better.

Merciful Intervention is also really bad. It teleports you to the closest ally regardless of health. Just go with CoP for condition removing.

Harbinger.8637:

Definitely drop Healer’s Retribution. Not worth it at all, and you have some many better choices to use. Inner Fire, Blind Exposure, Signet Mastery, or Searing Flames are all better.

Merciful Intervention is also really bad. It teleports you to the closest ally regardless of health. Just go with CoP for condition removing.

Whoops! That was supposed to be Blind Exposure, and not Healer’s Retribution.
I personally like using Merciful Intervention as a second heal skill for when things go south. Though I guess more Condition cleansing is a better option.

TriggerSad.2597:

Harbinger.8637:

Definitely drop Healer’s Retribution. Not worth it at all, and you have some many better choices to use. Inner Fire, Blind Exposure, Signet Mastery, or Searing Flames are all better.

Merciful Intervention is also really bad. It teleports you to the closest ally regardless of health. Just go with CoP for condition removing.

Whoops! That was supposed to be Blind Exposure, and not Healer’s Retribution.
I personally like using Merciful Intervention as a second heal skill for when things go south. Though I guess more Condition cleansing is a better option.

I don’t know if you’re using this more for WvW/PvP or PvE.

If it’s WvW/PvP I would go with Inner Fire. It gives you three seconds of fury every time burning is applied to you. This is probably one of the most underrated traits atm in WvW/PvP. Almost every class now has access to burning, beside thief. You’ll have no problem keeping fury up. CoP is a must with the condition heavy meta atm.

If it’s more PvE. Then Blind Exposure is a better choice, and Merciful Intervention is also fine since conditions aren’t that big of a deal.

Harbinger.8637:

I don’t know if you’re using this more for WvW/PvP or PvE.

If it’s WvW/PvP I would go with Inner Fire. It gives you three seconds of fury every time burning is applied to you. This is probably one of the most underrated traits atm in WvW/PvP. Almost every class now has access to burning, beside thief. You’ll have no problem keeping fury up. CoP is a must with the condition heavy meta atm.

If it’s more PvE. Then Blind Exposure is a better choice, and Merciful Intervention is also fine since conditions isn’t that big of a deal.

Well, I don’t think the gear setup is possible for PvP, as armor doesn’t use stats.
Either way, I am using this for PvE only. I like WvW, but I doubt I’d be able to last long in a zerg with this build. Too low health, and not enough cleansing.
But yeah, I love Blind Exposure for the Vuln spam you can get going with Renewed Justice!

TriggerSad.2597:

Harbinger.8637:

I don’t know if you’re using this more for WvW/PvP or PvE.

If it’s WvW/PvP I would go with Inner Fire. It gives you three seconds of fury every time burning is applied to you. This is probably one of the most underrated traits atm in WvW/PvP. Almost every class now has access to burning, beside thief. You’ll have no problem keeping fury up. CoP is a must with the condition heavy meta atm.

If it’s more PvE. Then Blind Exposure is a better choice, and Merciful Intervention is also fine since conditions isn’t that big of a deal.

Well, I don’t think the gear setup is possible for PvP, as armor doesn’t use stats.
Either way, I am using this for PvE only. I like WvW, but I doubt I’d be able to last long in a zerg with this build. Too low health, and not enough cleansing.
But yeah, I love Blind Exposure for the Vuln spam you can get going with Renewed Justice!

The build can work fine for WvW if you want it too. I’ve ran pretty much every med dps build possible in WvW. I used them in solo/small groups and in zergs.

10/30/30/0/0
10/25/30/x/x
0/30/30/5/5

You just have to play a bit differently then you’d normally would with shouts. And of course you can’t get these exact stats in PvP because of the gear differences. However you can get some thing similar base on PvP stats.

I am a support-based guardian who is also wanting to go more on the offensive side. I have been trawling these forums for days, wondering what gear and build I should go for. I really REALLY dont want to go full beserker, I want something different, something fun to play and that feels “guardiany”. I have been tossing the idea of Celestial gear around in my head. But I’m still not sure about that. I think I’m going to give your build a try, looks really fun

wait the 15 october patch for a meditation build

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1234-october-15th-balance-skills-updates-preview/

Guardian
We increased the power of many support skills which weren’t seeing much play. We reworked Purging Flames: it now removes three conditions from allies in an area effect around the guardian on cast while still burning enemies (enemies that enter or exit the flames are still burned). Once the skill has been cast, it then reduces condition duration for allies who remain in the consecration’s area. It’s hawt. Literally. All meditation utility skills are now instant, and monks focus now grants fury on meditation use.

I did the same trait setup (well almost the same) as the OP did. I used to play a semi condi/heal support build I made myself (which I must say didn’t go too well ><), but I yearned for some decent DPS. I had a few doubts about lowering my toughness at first, but its not so bad around 2.6k armor. I PvE and WvW mostly and this build feels pretty decent.

but I’m still feeling my build may require further tweaking.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQNAsfWlUgSDHHyNEf4Eh1DAeQ/VVIeXPgIFbIA-jADBYLCiEIgUBAJPKrpPCiFXFRjVtATdKpKXBSDD2cWQ2bQZFA-e

I’m on the same page with Stemare, the Sword/Focus combo is great and all but its also matter of taste I guess.

I just really like Torch for its Hadouken like skill 4. Its skill 5 is good in its own way, not perfect but its to my preference, plus breathing fire to cure Burning on people is just awesome :P

Might swap out Retributive Armor for Focused Mind if the update gives it a nice long duration of much appreciated fury

Is this build any good ? Any adjustments I should make ?

Thoughts ? It’ll be much appreciated :o

No point in wasting time theorycrafting a meditation build right now. Big meditation changes coming in Tuesday, assuming that the leaked patch notes were at least somewhat legit.

Judging by the fury addition, the new meditation meta will probably involve getting crit damage as high as possible. Trying to run something like a 60+% crit chance counting fury along with 75% crit damage or something like that.

TriggerSad.2597:

stemare.2578:

Honestly, I’d pump up Power a bit dropping armor or crit damage.
Also, I don’t like sword/focus that much :P but it’s personal and I know most of guardians love it.
That said, you will get the job done anyway.

Well, I mainly use stat-types that mainly focus on Power, the only exception being the Cavalier trinkets. I could switch those out with Soldier trinkets, but I don’t see a reason to do so tbh.

You can always drop some valkyrie pieces for berserk and put soldier trinket instead of cavalier.
Also, scholar runes instead of eagle ones.

Keep in mind Merciful Intervention procs the meditation heal twice. Makes it a pretty good skill. Essentially frees up a space on your utility bar.

Harbinger.8637:

TriggerSad.2597:

Harbinger.8637:

I don’t know if you’re using this more for WvW/PvP or PvE.

If it’s WvW/PvP I would go with Inner Fire. It gives you three seconds of fury every time burning is applied to you. This is probably one of the most underrated traits atm in WvW/PvP. Almost every class now has access to burning, beside thief. You’ll have no problem keeping fury up. CoP is a must with the condition heavy meta atm.

If it’s more PvE. Then Blind Exposure is a better choice, and Merciful Intervention is also fine since conditions isn’t that big of a deal.

Well, I don’t think the gear setup is possible for PvP, as armor doesn’t use stats.
Either way, I am using this for PvE only. I like WvW, but I doubt I’d be able to last long in a zerg with this build. Too low health, and not enough cleansing.
But yeah, I love Blind Exposure for the Vuln spam you can get going with Renewed Justice!

The build can work fine for WvW if you want it too. I’ve ran pretty much every med dps build possible in WvW. I used them in solo/small groups and in zergs.

10/30/30/0/0
10/25/30/x/x
0/30/30/5/5

You just have to play a bit differently then you’d normally would with shouts. And of course you can’t get these exact stats in PvP because of the gear differences. However you can get some thing similar base on PvP stats.

I mostly agree with this, but I do find the lack of stability on most meditation builds to be a real problem in big WvW fights.

The ability to teleport past a nasty mess of red circles is really, really nice though.

Shukay.3728:

wait the 15 october patch for a meditation build

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1234-october-15th-balance-skills-updates-preview/

Guardian
We increased the power of many support skills which weren’t seeing much play. We reworked Purging Flames: it now removes three conditions from allies in an area effect around the guardian on cast while still burning enemies (enemies that enter or exit the flames are still burned). Once the skill has been cast, it then reduces condition duration for allies who remain in the consecration’s area. It’s hawt. Literally. All meditation utility skills are now instant, and monks focus now grants fury on meditation use.

I know, I mentioned it in the OP, but thanks anyway!
Though irregardless of the changes that Meditations are getting in a few days, this was the build I’m to use anyway. I just like the play-style too much. The addition of Fury is just a bonus at this point, which is awesome!

Harbinger.8637:

The build can work fine for WvW if you want it too. I’ve ran pretty much every med dps build possible in WvW. I used them in solo/small groups and in zergs.

10/30/30/0/0
10/25/30/x/x
0/30/30/5/5

You just have to play a bit differently then you’d normally would with shouts. And of course you can’t get these exact stats in PvP because of the gear differences. However you can get some thing similar base on PvP stats.

Well, I’ll admit that I have used this build in WvW, and it was a lot of fun.
Still, I get too nervous with how many conditions can get thrown around during zerg-play. I guess I could use this for smaller skirmishing. I don’t tend to do that while in WvW, so I haven’t had the chance to actually test it out there.

stemare.2578:

TriggerSad.2597:

stemare.2578:

Honestly, I’d pump up Power a bit dropping armor or crit damage.
Also, I don’t like sword/focus that much :P but it’s personal and I know most of guardians love it.
That said, you will get the job done anyway.

Well, I mainly use stat-types that mainly focus on Power, the only exception being the Cavalier trinkets. I could switch those out with Soldier trinkets, but I don’t see a reason to do so tbh.

You can always drop some valkyrie pieces for berserk and put soldier trinket instead of cavalier.
Also, scholar runes instead of eagle ones.

I personally find Eagle runes more reliable in terms of its damage multiplier. In essence I know I can have the +10% damage bonus from Scholar a lot longer, and that I can have it deal more damage to multiple sources. Still, as I said before, I’m still not an expert at avoidance, so I do see myself at around half health constantly, meaning I wouldn’t have Scholar up that frequently.

TriggerSad.2597:

stemare.2578:

TriggerSad.2597:

stemare.2578:

Honestly, I’d pump up Power a bit dropping armor or crit damage.
Also, I don’t like sword/focus that much :P but it’s personal and I know most of guardians love it.
That said, you will get the job done anyway.

Well, I mainly use stat-types that mainly focus on Power, the only exception being the Cavalier trinkets. I could switch those out with Soldier trinkets, but I don’t see a reason to do so tbh.

You can always drop some valkyrie pieces for berserk and put soldier trinket instead of cavalier.
Also, scholar runes instead of eagle ones.

I personally find Eagle runes more reliable in terms of its damage multiplier. In essence I know I can have the +10% damage bonus from Scholar a lot longer, and that I can have it deal more damage to multiple sources. Still, as I said before, I’m still not an expert at avoidance, so I do see myself at around half health constantly, meaning I wouldn’t have Scholar up that frequently.

Your crit chance is already pretty high, if you ar not confident with scholar runes, i’d suggest you to go with runes of the ogre or just ruby orbs.

stemare.2578:

TriggerSad.2597:

stemare.2578:

TriggerSad.2597:

stemare.2578:

Honestly, I’d pump up Power a bit dropping armor or crit damage.
Also, I don’t like sword/focus that much :P but it’s personal and I know most of guardians love it.
That said, you will get the job done anyway.

Well, I mainly use stat-types that mainly focus on Power, the only exception being the Cavalier trinkets. I could switch those out with Soldier trinkets, but I don’t see a reason to do so tbh.

You can always drop some valkyrie pieces for berserk and put soldier trinket instead of cavalier.
Also, scholar runes instead of eagle ones.

I personally find Eagle runes more reliable in terms of its damage multiplier. In essence I know I can have the +10% damage bonus from Scholar a lot longer, and that I can have it deal more damage to multiple sources. Still, as I said before, I’m still not an expert at avoidance, so I do see myself at around half health constantly, meaning I wouldn’t have Scholar up that frequently.

Your crit chance is already pretty high, if you ar not confident with scholar runes, i’d suggest you to go with runes of the ogre or just ruby orbs.

But that’s the point of the build… I want a consistent amount of Crits, and 90% crit chance would give me that. Unless I’m incredibly unlucky.