Guild Wars 2

I know a lot of this is available, but I thought I’d put together my own thread so that I can ask more focused questions for me. I see a lot of debate about vitality vs toughness. In other games I typically went with a higher health pool and less mitigation and found that I was happy. In this game, I’m leaning more towards more mitigation and less health. I just haven’t found a reason to stack any vitality beyond what I receive from traits.

One of the arguments I see for stacking vitality is fighting conditions. The idea is that a low health pool generally is ok for most physical damage encounters, but when conditions come into play a low health pool can kill you. However, I’m not sure that stacking vitality is the best answer to this. I happen to have a Knights armor set with Melandru runes on it, which equates to 25% reduced condition duration and stun duration. These runes alone should, in theory, make me 25% less susceptible to conditions — the same feat that 25% more health would accomplish in regard to conditions.

Furthermore, there is a food item out there that reduces condition duration by 40%. This gives me 65% less condition duration. Are conditions a concern at this point? It seems like this is a pretty reliable and comprehensive counter to the drawbacks of low health pools. Aside from that, I have traits like Purity along with many utilities that make dealing with conditions a breeze. Am I missing something? There really seems to be no point in arguing that vitality is needed to survive conditions, because we have so much condition removal already.

Another argument I see is that there is no need for toughness, because we can get almost permanent protection boons. However, the logic here doesn’t make much sense to me. “Because I can reduce damage 33%, what’s the point of mitigating more damage?” seems like a silly question. If you’re reducing 33% without toughness, imagine how much I must be reducing damage WITH toughness. I’m further mitigating an already reduced amount of damage; why is that bad?

Basically I’m somewhat obsessive-compulsive about tweaking and improving my builds. I’ve been running an AH/Hammer 0/0/30/30/10 build for awhile and I’m pretty happy with it. When I’m soloing in PvE I use full Berserker’s gear for 94% critical damage and around 48% crit chance. I’ve been looking at ways to build a more durable Guardian, as there are obvious limitations in dungeons when running full zerkers. However, it seems like most of my preferred builds would exclude vitality as a stat, with the exception of the Honor line. I find a mix of Knights/Zerkers gives me a great crit % without sacrificing durability.

I am open to other ideas, as well, so I’d like to check my understanding and see if I’m missing something here. None of the equipment sets with vitality on them appeal to me, as I refuse to stack healing power (I’ve found it to be the least beneficial stat we have).

A third question: I’m not sure I like AH as much as most people. I do realize that in WvW and certain 5-man group situations, AH is amazing. However, I do a lot of solo and duo play, so for me I think Monk’s Focus is better suited. I get a 2.5k heal from each meditation I use, which means I have potentially a 2.5k heal every 16 seconds from Smite Condition, in addition to more condition removal, another heal plus boons and a stun break with Contemplation of Purity, and a teleport/stun break/heal/flame blast with Judge’s Intervention.

If I were to continue using the Hammer for constant protection/retaliation, I don’t see much difference. Again, I do realize that in large groups like WvW AH is unbeatable.

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but its sounds like you answered your own questions.

All the options you list for condition removal or damage mitigation are just that, options. It’s for you to decide the combination of skills, traits, gear, food and upgrades fitting your play style.

The classes in GW2 are designed to allow for flexible gameplay. Your blurb about AH compared to MF is a great example. If you’re going for a supporting role in a group AH (and I would add EM) are great choices. If your team doesn’t need another support Guardian or you’re soloing, MF synergizes with the damage you can do with mediations.

I may have; More than asking questions I was checking my understanding. If my logic regarding these builds doesn’t have any clear holes, that’s good news. I’ve just seen a lot of people with high HP, and I feel like there must be a reason for it. On the other hand, I can’t find one based on my own experience. I suppose a more direct, comprehensive question would be: In the case that I actively seek to reduce the damage I take via conditions, what is another benefit of vitality over toughness (or over any stat, for that matter)?

Good catch, I’m not sure what build I was running that gave me 2.5k. However, they definitely heal for close to that — 2090 with only 300 healing power. Still a significant heal, and in my opinion probably on par or better with the healing you get from AH when you aren’t surrounded by friends.

Is there a chart out there that outlines the mitigation each point of armor gets you? I’d like to be able to see the mathematical difference between 2,600, 3,000, and 3,400 armor.