Guild Wars 2

Going to powerlevel by crafting and blah blah blah.

So what is a build that you consider fun on your Guardian? I was thinking of running Gs/Hammer, but I’ve also heard great things about Mace/Shield. Also what are some traits with some fun effects? Are spectral weapons a waste of a utility slot? What are your favorite utilites?

Last but not least, what race do you think has the best Guardian animations? I’m willing to run anything but a Sylvari for one (Can’t see it).

I’m not asking for what is viable, and what I would enjoy. I’m asking for what you like. I know its a lot of questions, but I would really like it if you helped me.

“Fun” is kinda relative… my fun is mostly getting things done, and I’ve been using this build: 30/0/0/30/0 + 10 in either Valor or Virtue.

And using mostly three setups:

1. Greatsword & Staff
Fiery Wrath, Greatsword Power, Zealous Blade
Writ of Exaltation, Writ of the Merciful, Two Handed Mastery
(Valor) Meditation Mastery / Purity / Retributive Armor
(Virtue) Master of Consecrations / Unscathed Contender

2. Sword and Shield & Scepter and Focus
Fiery Wrath, Scepter Power, Focus Mastery
Superior Aria, Empowering Might, Battle Presence
(Valor) Retributive Armor / Purity
(Virtue) Master of Consecrations / Unscathed Contender

3. Greatsword & Staff
Fiery Wrath, Spirit Weapon Mastery, Eternal Spirit
Writ of Exaltation, Writ of the Merciful, Two Handed Mastery
(Virtue) Improved Spirit Weapon Duration

I use the One Hander setup for dungeons, bosses and some champion events, and the Two Hander setup for event farming and general PvE farming.
I switch between the two Two Hander setups in WvW, but it’s usually the Spirit Weapon one if I’m running with a zerg.

What I find fun about it is being able to pull 5~10 mobs, dropping two symbols and Whirling Wrath, dealing great AoE damage (from Greatsword + Symbols + Retaliation) while healing myself from both Symbols’ and Zealous Blade.
There’s plenty of places where you can pull a bunch at once, and I’m always wandering around there… or soloing/figuring group events (there’s very few that can’t be done solo, but it takes some tricks).

As for animations… I enjoy both the Human and Norn Females, maybe because they resemble somehow the Valkyrie archetype from some old games I used to play…

i’ll say, symbol builds for the Guard are EXTREMELY strong. was brought to my attention by a good friend here. and 30 in Zeal is actually quite often looked over by many Guards. though i do feel it can still be improved.

OP, i would say go try out all the weapons, traits, utilities and see what suits your fancy and then try to build sth a long that. that’ll give you a MUCH greater understanding of the calss. but of course, do check out videos and see what people ahve to say here for some extra inspiration. i’ve learned mainly checking out WvW or PvP videos of Guardians. : ))

as it stood, i played mainly an AH Guard with hammer and staff or GS. and now i’ve branched into all weapon types, and builds that aren’t 30 deep into Valor. and constantly changing. i will say, playing a symbol build is extremely fun. relatively mobile (depending on weapon choice) and then utilities as well. semi-roamer/bunker as well.

i’ve been recently running 0/10/30/30/0 with Greatsword and Mace+Focus. sometimes i’ll run 10/0/30/30/0 as well. and even more recently 10/30/30/0/0 as i’ve gotten used to mitigating dmg more using the Guardian skills so i can forego a little vitality and using one hand weapons. extremely durable still with a LOT of crits. having your symbols hit for 1k+, while they heal you and your mace smashing peolpe for 2k, 3k crits is awesome for meD

sorry this is all over the place. ahha but my mind is as well. perhaps i’ll come in later and write something more organized.

and animations.. hmm, seemingly i’m focused on symbols now.. ehm. my Norn male, which is not the largest size… the larger symbols don’t look that large at all. Asura Guards i feel are rpetty awesome. the symbols would look HUGE on them lol and i like the way they carry their weapons, slung across their tiny shoulders. staff #4 empower is cool (on Norn females as well, or maybe human females also), and their dodges are fun, as well as mighty blow with the hammer – i think they do a little somersault!

I’m just going to touch on the animations, plenty of other people to talk about builds.

Human/Sylvari- Share the same animations. Balanced looking.

Charr- Power and reckless looking animations.

Asura- Small so it can be tough for opponents to know what you’re channeling. Some of the cooler looking ones.

Norn- Big and clumsy. The sound effects make it worse.

I’m a Charr guardian and I’ll go ahead and tell you that the GS animations are terrible! I even made a complaint thread in the Charr forum about it.

I run Human Guardian and I like it a lot.

I run AH build only on Dungeons but I mostly play Solo so I go
30/0/30/10/0

Taking extra damage to burning foes, more GS damage and GS attacks heal me.
More Toughness and CDR for Shields, toughness into precision and Altruistic Healing for me, mostly lol) Every little bit helps.
And take the Shout CDR

I run a lot of weapon sets but for roaming PvE and PVP I go either GreatSword/Staff or Greatsword/Sword and Shield

“Are there any fun guardian builds?”

you’re better off asking us to name all the fish in the sea

i imagine if you just typed “build” into this forum search, you would get a plethora of unique and fun builds. i’ve heard good things about everything from Paladin to Healway to Altruistic Hammer and everything in between. granted, there is a little bit of crap to wade through, but the good builds are very distinguished, and any question you have about any build can and will be answered by our illustrious team of guardian experts

personally, i’m running a 10/5/30/20/5 sword/focus build and having a blast in everything from PvE to WvW.

For fun and challenge try 10/30/30/0/0 Mace/Torch and Scepter/Focus. Quite good damage and a proactive play style. Use Protectors Strike and Symbol for DPS. Switch in Sword in situations that don’t have a lot of incoming damage.

Probably not great for higher level Fractals but with anything else this is fun.

Another more standard build for damage output is 10/25/0/25/0 with 10 pts to spare. This gives you 30% damage increase across the board if your target is burning and your energy isn’t full. Tailor this to the weapons you want to use.

GL
Blood~