Guild Wars 2

Hey guys and gals of the Guardian variety! I have a quick question for you as I hope to start dwelling more into Fractals.

I always preferred the support role but, mostly playing by myself, I needed some offence. So I fell in love with the current build I use for open world and early fractals with friends (lvl 1-19, so no agony yet):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR5el8Ah+dYrQwUIQQEHDEVuAXwG0GAVbbiPhtrGA-ThCBQB77IAAgHCwe0EgGlg5RHA/2fQLK/CwFAIfaECo6PAA-e

So far I’m loving the tankiness, healing and boons from the shouts while also nearing 100% crit chance with all my retaliation (basically 100% uptime too!) which makes me hit quite hard. (Also the Mace is Moot so I can change its stats, I love that legendary)

From what I’ve read on Fractals I’m afraid my current build leaves a lot to be desired as I try for higher Fractal levels (I have some Agony infusions, but they are in my Minstrels Amulets, both +9, as my friends and I delved into 20-23 Fractals and I was the support. But with friends you can get away with anything)

My question is: Should I create a full set of Valkerie gear to compliment the retal playstyle that I love? I also keep hearing Guard shouts aren’t very good but I find them very useful. My idea for a modified Fractal build is this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR5el8Ah+dYrQwIIQQEHDEFOD2uawGAVbbmLwFMGA-ThCBQB5TjgOU/ZfHBg9oJIAXAgas/wIV+BgHCQjUCmHdAAA-e

Still have tons of self retaliation for the crit, strength runes for the might I’ll be gaining myself through Righteous Instincts and passing out with Empowering Might and Hammer of Wisdom for some break bar contribution. I’d also help out with condi clearing! Battle Presence may not be too useful, maybe Indomitable Courage instead, but the endurance regen may be worth it to the party?

I just wanted to see what you guys thought of the build. It has potential in my eyes for strong offence but with some supportive capabilities (mostly offensive though). Do you guys/gals think it would be kitten on by higher scaling Fractals? Be honest!

Thanks all, I hope you have a great weekend and game on!

TBH a lot of people run the builds put out by [qt] as standard builds. Or at least a variation of it. They are tested to provide maximum efficiency in dps. Also, many people monitor the dps meters now apparently so if you’re not holding your weight you will risk being removed from group. With that said, more often than not you will be fine in whatever build you feel most comfortable in as long as you’re providing the group plenty of damage, keeping up with what is going on and not dying. As you move up in the fractal levels you will also realize most people wont need support as they have played the level so many times they will avoid dying on their own. I would challenge you to put more zerker gear on and consider traiting in Dragon Hunter to use the traps. Also, consider watching Videos of people running the levels to learn tips on how to get through them. Play with friends whenever possible as it will make your life much better

When PoF comes out, using condition stats may work better as it will allow you to also take on more healing/boon support role that you want. So keep an eye on the forums for build advice. Keep trying to add more dmg to your build and ease off on Toughness/Vitality as much as possible.

Other than that, I think your build seems fine for the “still learning them” phase with friends but swap soldiers with zerker trinkets asap. They only kitten you as they let you be lazy. Keep in mind you used Crusader armor and you still only have about 200healing…that really doesnt help your heals very much.

Since you asked for honest opinions, you’ll get one. With that build, you’d probably be one of the guardians I’d love to kick from T4 fractal groups if I cared a bit more. It’s one of those builds that try to do many different things, but are good at nothing.

There are two glaring things in your modified build. First, the Honor trait line is pretty pointless in that setup. Empowering might is, unfortunately, a joke and has always been one. Supplementing that joke with strength runes hardly helps, guardian simply isn’t good at keeping up might on a fractal party. I would recommend replacing Honor with DH and the strength runes with something more damage-oriented.

Second, shouts are bad. It’s unfortunate, but that’s their current state. I recommend replacing one with bane signet and the other one with procession of blades. The last utility slot is usually the one that should be adapted to the current fractal/situation.

With those changes, you’d probably be able to deal reasonable (though not great) damage, keep the weapons you apparently like and still be rather tanky and a bit more supportive than the standard build.

Oh, and some preventive advice: please learn when to bring what kind of utility in fractals. Few things are worse than all those wannabe guards out there who never change the content of their utility slots.

Perfect! This is the kind of advice I was looking for

Would Zerker gear still be good even when using the Retaliation trait? Or I feel the Precision would be wasted, hence the Valk gear. Though changing up the Utilities would make my retal time not 100% so that may be why zerk is chosen.

I do have a set of ascended Zerk jewellery (When I played my Ranger) so I can use that stuff no issue. Will have to go buy the zerk gear! (Don’t have ascended armor… yet Hahaha)

Never really “Cared” for the zerker meta, but I guess it’s meta for a reason! Open world I’ll stick to what I use (It’s pretty easy and works) but I’ll make sure to practice my “make things go boom” set too.

Last question: (Thanks again, really appreciated!) would it ever be wise to switch up the elite trap for the elite shout for the Fury/Quickness? Or Scepter for Hammer (for the CC)? I guess that may fit into the “learn when to bring what kind of utility”…

Thanks so much for the info though. Excited to be a “productive” member of the Fractal community!

Game on!

With regard to the valk gear, it depends on what you want to achieve. I didn’t address that issue since valk probably isn’t bad as_some kind of “training wheels” (or lazyness buffer) and I assume you should still have some reasonable reta uptime in order to get your crit chance. Berserker gear, for obvious reasons, makes you independent of reta and is the better choice for damage, especially when you play well enough not to need valk’s extra vitality. It’s been my first ascended set on my guard, so I never entertained the thought of using valk. You still have quite some way to go until you hit F100, so just adapt on the run.

To your last question(s), the elite trap offers some nice CC, but for group damage the shout is better unless you have a competent chrono (that’s a very rare species). Adapt :P

If you don’t feel overly attached to mace and/or GS, I’d recommend to always have scepter in one weapon set. It’s good at damage and there’s quite a bunch of fractal bosses you don’t want to melee all the time, at least not in a typical fractal PUG. Offhand doesn’t really matter, they all have their advantages and disadvantages in fractals. Choose what you like. The other weapon set can be chosen freely, hammer and GS are certainly good candidates. Hammer damage is just ok, but it offers probably the best utility among all guardian weapons. When you take it, Honor is a must-have due to the symbol GM trait. For that reason, hammer probably doesn’t fit really well with valk gear, since you’ll now lack reta uptime.

Awesome information Thank you for your time in writing it! Again, it’s really appreciated!

Not really attached to any weapon (Made all the ascended weapons, so I can switch it up no problem. And Moot was just cause I had the material and that mace is just hilarious) so switching it up is easy. (All zerk too! Sweet!)

And great example of why valk would be wasted for zerk! Never though of potentially using Hammer instead of GS (And yes, Hammer use REQUIRES Writ of Persistence) so then Radiance would need to be switched (since Symbolic Avenger is too good of a synergy to give up!)

Thinking Scepter/Torch and GS is going to be my start. But I’ll be sure to keep what boss/mobs I am fighting in mind to maybe switch the GS around!

As a last question: Would Flame legion runes be better for me than Scholar when learning? I have a feeling I won’t be at 90%+ hp while learning the ropes. Or is getting Scholar early a good “Git gud scrub!” (Dark Souls trained me!) incentive?

Thanks again!

Good question, I don’t know whether there’s a definitive answer. When you get your ascended armor, I’d go directly for scholar. If you still have exotics, maybe it’s not a bad idea to think economically. Do you have some spare black lion salvage thingies to get your scholars out? Use scholar. Otherwise, maybe use the cheaper rune.

But, you know, the most important thing is that you seem to be capable of thinking for yourself. Go on like that and you’ll probably be one of the rather few valuable guard players in T4.

Well, I’m glad you think so! Hahaha

Grabbed my Zerker jewellery (and backback), bought my exotic zerker gear (yay for all the Karma I had banked!) and bought the Scholar runes! I’m ready to go!

Thanks again for all the help Feeling much better about getting my feet wet! Also appreciate the honesty Sadly people seem to fear that these days.

Hoboboots.2137:

Also appreciate the honesty Sadly people seem to fear that these days.

At least in this forum, there are some comprehensible reasons for that behaviour. Unfortunately.

You should slowly climb your fractal level to learn the mechanics so it is easier to learn what to do.

I recomend NEVER doing a fractal that you do not have enough AR (agony resistance). I insta kick anyone that dies from agony, I prefer a bearbow in my group than someone without enough AR because they are literally a dead weight.

Like others said, you should aim to DPS and avoid stats like vitality / toughness / healing. If they change the Firebrand enough from preview, then the class might become viable to use as support (along side DPS).

I started from t1, then t2, then t3 and finally I’m able to t4 without the feeling that I’m not doing enough for my group. This is a good way to learn the mechanics without the need to use tanky stats to keep up.

I do not believe that retaliation related traits are good enough because it is too hard / too high the investiment to keep retaliation up, unless the party is full of Guardians or you do not have HoT (don’t have access to DH, so you can pick Virtues instead of DH that helps keeping you up with Virtue of Retribution trait).

This is my current setup:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNArfRn0ABddiVdCGCBkdil4BzaDcvSBy7vA4CsKA0AqXA-TlRBABXt/o87hTBAAPBAzUCSp6P4pPgQAjGDA-w

This might not be optimized. You may change Bane Signet or Test of Faith for Signet of Wrath if your party is full or nearly condition that add up 216 extra condition damage to the party (100% duration intead of 50% with Wrath of Justice trait). Also, you can use Zealot Agression instead of Hunters Determination on DH line to increase the DPS (I only use this trait because I hate being stunned, also, some Fractals do not have stuns, so there is no need for this trait).

I farm T4 fractals with…

Honor/Valor/Virtues, full minstrel, leadership runes, mace+shield and staff.

Definitely not fractal meta, and I don’t care. Not only have I never been booted, my party usually breezes through. Note: if a Druid is present, i do switch to a different character. Lol

- Sele

Selendile.9106:

I farm T4 fractals with…

Honor/Valor/Virtues, full minstrel, leadership runes, mace+shield and staff.

Definitely not fractal meta, and I don’t care. Not only have I never been booted, my party usually breezes through. Note: if a Druid is present, i do switch to a different character. Lol

- Sele

Oh yeah? That does sound like my cup of tea. As I said at the beginning I do love support! I definitely see the benefits of the Zerker gear (Dead things don’t hurt you) but the thought of being the unbreakable object that protects the group calls to me!

Mind letting me know what Utilities you generally run with? Might start off trying the Zerker thing (Blowing stuff up is fun for sure) but hearing that you play the support build I play with friends (Who are pretty casual so the healing is good for them, not to mention aegis) gives me hope for a guarding guardian!

I love how you can switch playstyles so easily in this game! I was mostly worried that support was seen as a “leech” of sorts in Fractals. Though watching WoodenPotatoes’ healing aura-tempest in Fractal 100 gave me hope for my guardian (And I love my guardian, don’t want to switch)

Thanks everyone for the input!

Hoboboots.2137:

Selendile.9106:

I farm T4 fractals with…

Honor/Valor/Virtues, full minstrel, leadership runes, mace+shield and staff.

Definitely not fractal meta, and I don’t care. Not only have I never been booted, my party usually breezes through. Note: if a Druid is present, i do switch to a different character. Lol

- Sele

Oh yeah? That does sound like my cup of tea. As I said at the beginning I do love support! I definitely see the benefits of the Zerker gear (Dead things don’t hurt you) but the thought of being the unbreakable object that protects the group calls to me!

Mind letting me know what Utilities you generally run with? Might start off trying the Zerker thing (Blowing stuff up is fun for sure) but hearing that you play the support build I play with friends (Who are pretty casual so the healing is good for them, not to mention aegis) gives me hope for a guarding guardian!

I love how you can switch playstyles so easily in this game! I was mostly worried that support was seen as a “leech” of sorts in Fractals. Though watching WoodenPotatoes’ healing aura-tempest in Fractal 100 gave me hope for my guardian (And I love my guardian, don’t want to switch)

Thanks everyone for the input!

Full minstrel, leadership (or durability runes, if it’s the best you can do), sigil of concentration and renewal. Staff and Mace+Shield.

Virtues: 2, 2, 2.
Honor: 1, 1, 2. (Despite using shouts, I personally like writs of persistence).
Valor: 2, 2 (sometimes 1), 2.

Of course, I change traits when the situation calls for it. Superior Aria is sometimes an unavoidably better choice than writs of persistence, for example. I just happen to prefer the play style of WoP.

Abilities: healing shout, smite condition, merciful intervention (or stand your ground), hold the line. Elite: renewed focus.

Once again, this isn’t meta (in fact, it looks like a WvW build). But you’ll be kitten near unkillable and this build pretty much Maxs out your support potential.

- Sele