Guild Wars 2

My guardian is lvl 80 full cleric exotic gear – 0/0/20/30/20.

But still i get kitten d in dungeons sometimes, like CoF path 1. I’m new to dungeons and i have done just AC SM and EM and CoF path 1 and 2.

I use sceptre/shield + staff, i try mace/shield sometimes, but the enemies are so kittening powerful that is impossible to melee them.

I use 2 superior runes of the water, 2 superior runes of the monk and 1 superior rune of the guardian and 1 major rune of the monk. I’m using the guardian and the major monk just temporary, i’m looking for the sanctuary ones, but i need to do HoW dungeon. I focus on shouts and i always use food to get 14% boon duration. I have like 64% boon duration and 3200 of armor. Only 15k HP though.

But i still feel weak and i see warrios full DPS or glass canon, taking more damage then me and surviving.

Is my build broken? Did i kittened up my char? Also, it is wise to use 2×2×2 runes or should i go for 3×3?

Try 0/0/30/20/20 with Altruistic Healing instead. You’re basically set up for it anyway. Empower will basically heal you to full in a party.

The problem with Cleric gear is that your damage is going to be really terrible. You’re probably doing a quarter to a third of the damage of those Berserker warriors in your group, and your added utility isn’t spectacular.

As an experiment, save up a few gold to buy a full suite of rares in Berserker/Valkyrie, and find yourself a DPS build on the forums here (There are lots – look for anything that’s 10/30/x/x/x or x/25/x/25/x or similar) and just try it out. You can also try backing off of your Cleric armor in favor of something else like Berserker and modifying your build slightly to have more damage options. Gw2buildcraft is your friend.

It seems to me that you die cos you propably stand too long in AoE, don’t use dodge often enough and try to facetank everything. I had the same problem when I started doing dungeons because I was used to typical tank role like in WoW or first Guild Wars, when with the correct build you could stand in almost anything and just press keys from 1 to 5. Your Hp and armor are fine and it is true, full glass cannon guardian should be ok in any dungeons when he knows what to do. + aggro in GW2 is determined by armor so in fact you could lover it a bit to 3k and maybe let some othar guardian do the tanking while you learn the ropes. Don’t stand too long in one place, learn enemies and learn when to dodge. Positioning and mobility is key in this game. Altruistic Healing build is a good idea but even then you wont be able to stand in flames for more than 2 seconds.

Good luck and don’t worry, you’ll get better.

Clerics is alright for survivability/utility, but it would not be my first choice for gear. I think you may want to try using mostly “Knights Gear” if you want to “Tank”, as it will keep your damage fairly high, while still allowing you to absorb direct damage. You could also mix in some “Valkyrie Gear” as well to increase your HP and Crit, some “Soldiers Gear” if you want to be really “Tanky”, or some “Zerker Gear” to increase your overall damage.

But i think your main issue is actually your weapon choices. Try running a 0/0/30/20/20 as Foofad suggested, but use a Hammer instead of your current setup. With your increased boon time you should have near perma-protection. Which will reduce the damage you take by 33%, as well as triggering AH to heal you. It will also give you some CC skills and a self-combo for AoE Retaliation.

Also your utility skills play a big role in your survivability and group utility, make sure you are picking them and using the wisely, as well as timing your dodges and heals carefully.

foofad.5162:

Try 0/0/30/20/20 with Altruistic Healing instead. You’re basically set up for it anyway. Empower will basically heal you to full in a party.

The problem with Cleric gear is that your damage is going to be really terrible. You’re probably doing a quarter to a third of the damage of those Berserker warriors in your group, and your added utility isn’t spectacular.

Problem with cleric and AH is the lack of crit chance and the subsequent lack of all crit-dependent boon-proccs. So I’m not really sure whether he will be so happy with it. If AH, then knight or zerker should definitely accompany it.

Besides, the main problem appears to be what PokerTuna mentioned at the beginning of his post – trying to facetank everything. That almost never works in this game, so the TE should first learn to use active mitigation and avoidance in order to cope with enemy damage. Because in theory and practice, a cleric healway is an extremely durable build, too.

The only thing that procs off crit is EM, and that vigor trait that had a 5 second cooleown – and while EM is nice, AH without EM still works. I mean, to be clear, I’m not a huge fan of AH to begin with but it would be better than Battle Presence or PoV for him.

Try adding a melee weapon to your setup as well.

foofad.5162:

The only thing that procs off crit is EM, and that vigor trait that had a 5 second cooleown – and while EM is nice, AH without EM still works. I mean, to be clear, I’m not a huge fan of AH to begin with but it would be better than Battle Presence or PoV for him.

Yeah, I know. Nevertheless, EM is one of the best things for AH, imo.

foofad.5162:

The only thing that procs off crit is EM, and that vigor trait that had a 5 second cooleown – and while EM is nice, AH without EM still works. I mean, to be clear, I’m not a huge fan of AH to begin with but it would be better than Battle Presence or PoV for him.

AH is actually very strong with both EM and hammer symbol proccing in a melee group. AH is not very effective without EM and without a group that stays in melee range. Even more so as it’s likely that many party members won’t be in range for your shouts/virtues either.

While AH is not necessary in most dungeons with a good group (I’d still take it for stuff like high lvl FOTM) for a guardian who’s still kinda new to dungeons it’s the best “almost tanking” ability of the game. I don’t think there’s another build or class that can take as much of a beating as a well built AH guardian. PVT and range negates the point of AH. You want to go melee and have some precision.
The extra vitality from PVT is useless if you can’t heal the health you’re losing.

Cleric gear is even worse than PVT though. Healing power barely affects AH so you’re losing precision or vitality for a stat that is nearly useless.

Nah, don’t focus purely on AH in that case. Healing dodge rolls etc. are something where cleric would shine even in an AH build. Even though I’d never use cleric, it’s probably still better than PVT if you don’t focus on short term survival.

Nikaido.3457:

foofad.5162:

The only thing that procs off crit is EM, and that vigor trait that had a 5 second cooleown – and while EM is nice, AH without EM still works. I mean, to be clear, I’m not a huge fan of AH to begin with but it would be better than Battle Presence or PoV for him.

AH is actually very strong with both EM and hammer symbol proccing in a melee group. AH is not very effective without EM and without a group that stays in melee range. Even more so as it’s likely that many party members won’t be in range for your shouts/virtues either.

While AH is not necessary in most dungeons with a good group (I’d still take it for stuff like high lvl FOTM) for a guardian who’s still kinda new to dungeons it’s the best “almost tanking” ability of the game. I don’t think there’s another build or class that can take as much of a beating as a well built AH guardian. PVT and range negates the point of AH. You want to go melee and have some precision.
The extra vitality from PVT is useless if you can’t heal the health you’re losing.

Cleric gear is even worse than PVT though. Healing power barely affects AH so you’re losing precision or vitality for a stat that is nearly useless.

So, healing power and all my gear is useless???

Depends. A well played healway guardian is quite a good thing for most groups that don’t play on a high skill level. Obviously, you still need a lot of practice if you die a lot with such a build. However, healing gear becomes pretty useless once your group knows what to do. In fact, virtually anything except zerker becomes useless at that point.

CptAurellian.9537:

Nah, don’t focus purely on AH in that case. Healing dodge rolls etc. are something where cleric would shine even in an AH build. Even though I’d never use cleric, it’s probably still better than PVT if you don’t focus on short term survival.

Well, dodge rolls and virtue of resolve will bring some group heal but if your group is decent what you want in an anchor guardian is staying power for himself, not the rest of the group, and AH brings a lot of sustainability (plus you don’t really want to waste dodge rolls just for the sake of healing during a boss fight, do you? having endu left for dodging the stuff that matters is better. The healing from the roll is just icing on the cake imho in PVE.), sustainability that you won’t get with full cleric and using virtue+dodge roll.
At level 48 fractal I can facetank the ettin while the rest of the group, in full zerker, melee him from behind. Just by using Knight armor, weapon and zerker trinkets. Having the guard facetank him and not moving around too much allows the rest to go full damage without interrupting skills like hundred blades unless they need to dodge the AoE, which makes for a more efficient kill.

AH is imho about the strongest you can get for sustainability while not moving around too much when you are doing this kind of thing. The hammer symbol auto attack chain brings a very strong sustained heal in a melee group, couple that with EM and having everyone inside your shout/virtue range and it’s godly.

Cleric guardian is a bit like shout heal war when it comes to PVE. It’s losing way too much efficiency for the sake of a few heals that are almost never worth it.

aophts.9862:

So, healing power and all my gear is useless???

Keep your gear. If you enjoy wvwvw it’s decently good for roaming guardians. In PVE ? Not really. If you do like wvwvw rest assured, you didn’t waste gold on that gear. And.. you never know when the meta might change. Anet already made a few tweaks on some skills/heals affected by healing power, it’s not a bad thing to own all type of armor sets. Since guardian is my main I worked on getting all type of various armor stats just for the sake of having it in case something changes.

The globs (particularly at their current price) you’d get from salvaging an armor set are not worth what you might get in the future just by keeping your set in your bank.

aophts.9862:

My guardian is lvl 80 full cleric exotic gear – 0/0/20/30/20.

But still i get kitten d in dungeons sometimes, like CoF path 1. I’m new to dungeons and i have done just AC SM and EM and CoF path 1 and 2.

I use sceptre/shield + staff, i try mace/shield sometimes, but the enemies are so kittening powerful that is impossible to melee them.

I use 2 superior runes of the water, 2 superior runes of the monk and 1 superior rune of the guardian and 1 major rune of the monk. I’m using the guardian and the major monk just temporary, i’m looking for the sanctuary ones, but i need to do HoW dungeon. I focus on shouts and i always use food to get 14% boon duration. I have like 64% boon duration and 3200 of armor. Only 15k HP though.

But i still feel weak and i see warrios full DPS or glass canon, taking more damage then me and surviving.

Is my build broken? Did i kittened up my char? Also, it is wise to use 2×2×2 runes or should i go for 3×3?

Well it depends on what exotic gear you have.

If the stats are scattered all over the place then you will need to consider redoing your gear with more focus on certain key stats. (clerics for full support, knights/soldiers for offense/tank, zerk for dps)

It sounds to me based on your weapon and rune choices that you are trying to be a support/boon guardian.

The problem is you only have 20 in valor, and that’s the line with altruistic healing grandmaster trait that you won’t have.

So you essentially look like you have an altruistic healing build without the altruistic healing, which practically doubles your survivability at the minimal.

Make sure to have at least x x 30 × 5 if you want a support build. Where x is whatever points you want.

Most people go 0 0 30 30 10 or 0 0 30 20 20 or 0 5 30 30 5. That trait combo can be used with any gear combo I mentioned above.

So, i just ignore healing power? I go PTV or PPT or a mix of both??

solo play – dps. group play – support. cleric’s guardian’s natural place is in wvwvw, not pve.

so welcome to wvwvw i guess.

aophts.9862:

So, i just ignore healing power? I go PTV or PPT or a mix of both??

If your goal is to do dungeons, Berserker and Valkyrie gives you enough health to not get demolished by conditions and loads of damage. That’s what you want. Then your build can decide what your actual role is.

Your Cleric set is not useless. It’s just too much. Cleric armor with more DPS-heavy trinkets like Valkyrie or Berserker will make for a more useful hybrid as opposed to the terrible damage you’re dealing with all Cleric.

The logic behind it, Healing Power doesnt scale well with any class, or AH.

Guardians can still be support without healing power, toughness/vit/dps is better than Heals.

Cleric’s is doable, and can work wonders in WvW/PvP, especially if you’re going for self-sustain or group support. and they CAN be specced for decent damage as well. of course, you won’t be killing super fast.

though for dungeons, most will usually opt for damage over full support. and as JJBigs mentioned, with the Guardian’s innate abilities and the way we were designed, we can still offer a ton of support even if specced for damage.

though argubly, this can depends on your group as well if they need the support, or rather prefer to go for more damage and quicker work of mobs.

aophts.9862:

So, i just ignore healing power? I go PTV or PPT or a mix of both??

It depends.

Here’s the breakdown.

WvW: Cleric Gear (healing) or PVT/Knights mix.

Dungeons: Cleric Gear, PVT/Knight Mix, or Zerk gear.

As long as your traits setup is good you can do well in dungeons with any of these setups. But never mix gears from different setups, it will just make your build weaker. If you are going one direction, go all the way. (With exception of the pvt/knight mix, as that combination combines into one setup)

With cleric’s gear, I haven’t felt like I /need/ AH in anything but WvW. You can hit 50% crit without fury in full clerics by grabbing Right-Hand Strength, and a few other bits.

With 1k healing power, signet of resolve heals close to 10k, dodging 6 times (~100% vigor uptime) in the time-frame of the heal’s traited CD gives you 1200 hp a dodge, all the while Virtue of Resolve is ticking away dropping another 4500 (~150hp/s). This totals to like 20k, more health than most guardians run, healed in a thirty second time frame, without much effort.

DeathPanel.8362:

WvW: Cleric Gear (healing) or PVT/Knights mix.

Dungeons: Cleric Gear, PVT/Knight Mix, or Zerk gear.

As long as your traits setup is good you can do well in dungeons with any of these setups. But never mix gears from different setups, it will just make your build weaker. If you are going one direction, go all the way. (With exception of the pvt/knight mix, as that combination combines into one setup)

PVT/Knight mix as the only good mix? knight armor/weapon + zerker trinkets makes much more sense, you’ll deal better damage, proc a lot of AH and guardians with that set up are already extremely good at surviving in 48 fractals.
I run the same build when I play anchor, otherwise full zerker when the other guard runs anchor.

Ray.3780:

With cleric’s gear, I haven’t felt like I /need/ AH in anything but WvW. You can hit 50% crit without fury in full clerics by grabbing Right-Hand Strength, and a few other bits. 

And lose the group utility like perma protection from hammer, greatsword pull for mob etc? uhm, no. And 50% crit chance without any crit damage..
Right Hand Strength is solely for a dps focused guardian who’s not actually helping his group much by using single handed weapons. For fractals you definitively want ring of warding, protection etc.

1H weapons are mostly selfish, yes, and I know alot of people don’t like mace, but I do, and that weapon is anything but selfish. Trait for symbol radius and the heal, plus Battle Presence and that’s 500hps for people in a 600 radius which you can apply to your group as you see fit. Auto-attack is throwing out another 500 every 3s and you still get a significant amount of protection by using a Shield off-hand, and a shout, which happily hit ranged players.

This is all support which /complements/ that 2h guardian next to you, given alot of fractals groups love taking two guardians, it’s nice to not have overlapping roles, not that having two of everything a 2h guardian brings is necessarily a bad thing.