Guild Wars 2

Hello, I am currently leveling a guardian. I have formerly primarily played pvp so it was unexpeted to read when opening up to PvE that it was dps-only. This raised the question for me, what does this apply to? Am I limited in gear or also my traits? Thank you.

Only the gear is offensive. Most of the time, you’ll take supportive traits instead of pure dps oriented traits. There’s also quite a lot of diversity in the different meta builds, and guardians make use of every weapon minus shield.

Gear is not limited by the meta. The meta is limited by a non trinity combat system.

U need defensive stats only if u are not able to survive with more offensive stats.

Like it, or like it not. I will never change.

U can make clerics viable. If u and 4 others wants the most easiest way to clear dungeons, time doesn´t matter. Cleric´s will be the best for u, berserker useless.
Just look for people who want to play like u.

Traits are the same. Alot (or most) traits in the game are just bad or weaker then some others. Who needs burn duration when burn is up 100% of the time?
Who needs 10% of heal to power when u don´t have healpower?

Only gear. Small minded people may think not stacking toughness or vitality translates to “all dps” but that just displays a fundamental misunderstanding of game mechanics.

Its interesting. Damage is actually one of the lowest priorities when doing PvE. Blocks, blinds, reflects, stuns, immobilizes, etc will take priority from damage all the time.

However, when you aren’t blocking, blinding, reflecting, etc… what else are you going to do? Every character deals damage. They often deal damage while they do their more important tasks. Even if you’re in full clerics, why wouldn’t you try to get more damage once you’ve finished getting everything else you need?

All this being said, Oxtred made a good point. There’s quite a bit of variety for weapons, traits, and even some armor for “Meta” builds. Just find some weapons you like and go for it. Obal wrote down a good snapshot of what variety we have.

My reason for asking is not necessarily about trying to force a play style into PvE but to get information to decide if I want to persue playing as a Guardian in PvE and to a lesser extent if I want to persue PvE. I am pleased to read that there are a variety of weapon options.

The point of the pve meta is to take the maximum support available without loosing too much dps. Since healing isn’t worth it and there’s no other stat to up your support, you just take the most damaging option as it’s a form of support ( more team dps> less mistakes / more survivability> less team dps). Guardian is a bit special as it’s pretty bad for offensive support, except for vuln stacking and fire fields. They are king of defensive support along with mesmers, making them the archetype of the “tank” or “healer” in other mmos. The fact you’re playing full berserker/assassin has no influence on your build. The goal is still to keep everyone alive.

For gear in PvE, use full Berserkers or Assassins gear with Scholar runes or Ranger runes. Those are the meta options. Anything else will be a loss of DPS, which is not good because in PvE you want as much DPS as you can. As a guardian your role in the group will be that of a supporter who keeps everyone alive, but if you think of support as a tank or healer you’re wrong, that’s now how guardians work in GW2 PvE. Your support capabilities will come from your traits, virtues, weapon skills and utility skills. You’ll constantly be negating incoming damage for yourself and your team by applying blindness to the enemies while applying boons such as aegis, protection and regeneration to your team. You’ll also be the main source of condition-removal for your team with the trait ‘Absolute Resolution’ and the focus 4 skill.

Traits and weapons are flexible and can be changed depending on your preferences, playstyle and most importantly your team composition.

The general rule of thumb is that greatsword deals the most burst damage, 1h sword deals the most sustained DPS and hammer gives the best support in fights where you stack together. Staff is great in random LFG teams and gives a lot of extra support while scepter is the best choice for ranged DPS. For off-hand always go focus. I personally really like the sword/focus combo and it’s one of the most popular weapon combos for the guardian in both WvW, PvP and PvE. it offers a lot of blinds, blocks, a teleport, condi-cleanse and a projectile reflect. It’s really super good.

basically you want to slot absolute resolution trait and wall of reflection and you will be set for most support roles except those where no reflection is needed.

other than that you can play what you like. people argue that this “should” translate to dps because everything else has a to marginal effect in a pve group and you are better off avoiding all damage to begin with instead of healing it or soaking it up.

Main argument of dps promoters: Going dps is basically beneficial for all as long as everyone does the same. full dps only works when the whole group is set up this way. Dead enmies do not cause dangerous situations or power attacks that you can not survive or heal off anyways.

As long as you pack zerker and some damage multipliers you can not do a lot of wrong as a guard. Except when you die because of it … thats always bad.