Guild Wars 2

Hey friends.

There are currently two dps builds worth mentioning: traditional medi gs + sword(scepter)/focus and second hammer/gs. At the moment I’m using gs/hammer with full zerker set with scholar runes. I’m thinking of changing my playstyle a little bit. I wanted to change my weapons to gs + mace/focus(shield, but I believe shield is worst weap for guardian).

Do you know any build for guardian in which I can use gs + mace? I don’t want to be a bunker guardian, I can change my scholar runes or zerker gear, if another would be more useful. I’d also like to highlight that it should be dps guardian. I know it won’t be as high dps as those two builds mentioned at the beggining of this post, but still, I want to test something different.

Thanks in advance!

Mace dps is pretty close to Sword dps and can exceed it too. If your Vulnurability is not capped, Mace brings more Vulnurability than Sword. If you are able to blow your Mace 3 efficiently in rotation that is also another improvement. Finally, Mace can hit objects much more reliably than Sword (Sword AA third chain can miss, typical example is graveling burrows in AC). So I think its fair to say that in pugs Mace has the potential to outdps Sword as the bosses live long enough to land hits (Mace 3) and the Vulnurability is often not capped.

I think you can use Mace the same manner you use Sword in your build, just make sure you slot Radiant Fire or an alternative in Radiance master major trait instead of Powerful Blades. If you need more info just check obal’s sticky.

Thanks for reply. I always thought that mace=bunker while sword=dps. Time to use a mace then.

I try to work Writ of Persistence in when I use m/f. Extra sustain with 6s of regen on symbol with an 8s cooldown. Something like a 2/1/6/4/1 or maybe 0/0/6/4/4. Works good on point and gives a bit of support in team fights.

1. How do you get Vulnerability from the mace?

2. The AA-chain of mace takes quite a bit longer to complete than the AA-chains of GS or sword, while the modifiers aren’t that much higher plus GS AA grants Might and sword AA 3rd skill has a higher modifier than mace 3d skill of the chain and also hits multiple times.

To me, it looks like a mace would only be kinda useful for a bunker Guardian, and certainly not in PvE.

I know there is a dps loss if we replace sword with mace, but is it viable, so I have more like hybrid guard(dps+support) instead of full dps. What do you think?

Saturn.6591:

1. How do you get Vulnerability from the mace?

2. The AA-chain of mace takes quite a bit longer to complete than the AA-chains of GS or sword, while the modifiers aren’t that much higher plus GS AA grants Might and sword AA 3rd skill has a higher modifier than mace 3d skill of the chain and also hits multiple times.

To me, it looks like a mace would only be kinda useful for a bunker Guardian, and certainly not in PvE.

Symbolic Exposure, symbols apply vulnerability.

In PVE mace is quality.

A little bit of healing on top of respectable damage that is actually more bursty than sword with being able to precast that mace2 symbol then go into the GS rotation. I find it really solid in COF for example, it’s not enough to negate damage but it’s something and noticeable.

Personally my rule of thumb is Sword if it’s just single target damage I need that sword actually lands on, or of I want blinds or a little projectile defense. Mace if there is any damage i’m likely to take or if it’s something I can burst down in a couple seconds , unless there are Ele’s mighting me up that I don’t want to block. And of course scepter on large targets.

Hattoni.8597:

I know there is a dps loss if we replace sword with mace, but is it viable, so I have more like hybrid guard(dps+support) instead of full dps. What do you think?

Well. I’ve had success with m/f meditation dps guardian in pvp. You’d be better off with hammer if you want to go for more support in pve though.

Saturn.6591:

1. How do you get Vulnerability from the mace?

2. The AA-chain of mace takes quite a bit longer to complete than the AA-chains of GS or sword, while the modifiers aren’t that much higher plus GS AA grants Might and sword AA 3rd skill has a higher modifier than mace 3d skill of the chain and also hits multiple times.

To me, it looks like a mace would only be kinda useful for a bunker Guardian, and certainly not in PvE.

1. Vulnurability is from the Symbolic Exposure.

2. Greatsword granting might is irrelevant as I didn’t suggest OP to drop Greatsword. It doesn’t matter if mace auto is slow or it doesn’t have quite as much the modifiers, the dps is still quite close to sword. Check obal’s sticky for the calculations. He also did these calculations without considering Symbolic Exposure and Mace 3 as they are not very reliable factors to work with.

To me, it looks like mace is as good as sword in PvE, if not better in some cases.

@OP, yes its viable. The dps is very close, just check the sticky for calculations that I am referring to. People still think its a “bunker only” weapon but its proven to be viable – and its on the forum sticky for all to see.

In WvW – Mace / Focus has our biggest AoE burst potential. Hands Down.

SoW (4-5k) + Symbol (2-3k) -> JI (1-2k) + Protectors Strike (4-5k) + Smite (3-5k) / WPNSwp -> Mighty Blow or GS / WW.

If ranged and moving sub Symbol for Ray.

Couple that combo w/ an Engi / Ele / Mes and it’s GG.