GS + Sword/Focus combo. Any other good choices? PVE
Mace is a support/healer weapon. It’s not something I would bother equipping if you have 0 points in Honor, personally.
Hammer is a good option for PvE, but since you don’t want Greatsword I’ll assume Hammer isn’t on the list either. Scepter is a pretty good PvE weapon, but pretty boring.
Shield is viable, by the way.
“Come on, hit me!”
I have the very same dilemma with the exact same build. My solution was to buy and carry Hammer, GS, Sword, Scepter, Staff, Shield, Focus (almost everything except torch).
My sword and focus would always be equipped but depending on the situation I would really quickly press H and drag the appropriate wep into my secondary slot ASAP before each encounter.
Sword/Focus & Scepter/Shield is great but only for 1 on 1 encounters… otherwise you won’t be able to tag everything in events or effectively wipe entire crowds.
For me, I use Staff a lot in the secondary slot since it’s just more versatile and provides constant ranged AoE (this provides many benefits like being able to hit through trees/walls/pillars and never having to worry about ‘obstructed’ or ‘misses’ with its large arc). The swiftness is also great for travel
Greatsword can be useful too but sometimes I feel like it can’t keep up with some events that move too fast or kill too fast. Staff fixes that issue and any other weapon can’t compare.
(edited by Xethos.3179)
I use mace/focus and GS. I love mace and i get high numbers on mace 3
MysticoN – 80 Necro
Draci – 80 Guardian ( on hold)
-Far Silverpeak-
Draci – 80 Guardian ( on hold)
-Far Silverpeak-
Shield is not as terrible as you make it out to be. The cool downs are a bit long but it’s still one of the interrupts a Guardian can pull out. Mace/Shield is a popular defensive set up that a lot of bunker guardians currently run in junction with Hammer in tPvP.
Also if you’re looking for general PvE/AoE tagging in Orr. Nothing really beats whirling wrath or Staff auto-attack
Shield is interesting indeed Lumines.
The problem is not only it’s long CDs but how focus is vastly superior.
Shield 4# isnt that good as usually we are in front of everyone else, so it wont really get others but yourself (for a very short time and for a very long CD).
Shield #5 is really cool, however, it’s long CD and the fact that enemies can walk right in again makes it sorta moot.
If 5# would push back and gives us some sort of “line of warding” effect, that would be good.
If I could change shield, I’d give it #4 a 3 block like focus and #5 a line of warding effect added to it’s push back.
Anyways, mace is ok, but I don’t really see a point to #3. Hardly I wont be getting hit and standing still is usually not an option.
However, I do like the AoE healing it bring.
10/30/30/0/0 is one-handed oriented so you probably have to give up using the GS. Going scepter/shield is my usual choice since having range, an interrupt, and projectile absorb is really good. The knockback can also be used to increase the gap for kiting. Or you can just use sword/torch for straight up damage and scepter/focus for defense/kiting.
I personally use 10/25/30/0/5 for more versatility so I am able to use any weapon. On single target, a 10/30/30/0/0 will probably beat my build out on damage with sword/torch.
I’d like to also point out just because your build is 10/30/30, it does not mean you CAN’T use GS ;] Although from a pvp perspective, it’s just better to use scepter shield
OHH I know, that’s why I didnt go 10/30/30
I do recognize that 10/30/30 is vastly better for 1 hander Well even my current build 15/25/30 is.
That’s why I’m considering mace/focus + sword/torch.
On a completly change of playstyle, I may try GS + Hammer.
It would probably go 20 / 15 / 0 /30/0 (with 5 points extra to go anywhere)
umm how can you say focus is more superiour to shie;ld with my build i have alot of healing power and increased bonn duration by 60% and increeased protection by 80% so with my shouts and the prtection buff from shield i can keep protection up on me and everyone around me up all the time. also the shield imnterupts and has a aoe heal.
with those kind of traits you cant really give up the focus because its #5 is gonna give you might as it blocks (hopefully youre using shelter for heals too i love that thing blocking tons of attacks and giving me 25 might haha)
which makes sense why youre disappointed with the shield.
if youre looking for a 1 hander replacement to GS its going to have to be scepter. If you dont like scepters at the very least torch can do multi hits with its #5 and the aoe burn of #4 helps trigger what i assume is your zeal 10 trait (10% more damage to burning enemies)
I can’t relate to the sentiment that Shield 4 is hard to use, it’s not the same as just hitting a shout but a 600 AoE Cone isn’t that hard to hit.
If you’re running Mace/Shield, chances are in the dungeon you’re sitting on the mobs letting them swing at you instead of your thief and caster. If you’re trying to do a good job, you’d be facing the mobs away from them and strafing when needed. This means you can easily find the time to shoot it off as you’re facing your group. What happens if the Crusher in Arah is facing your group when he swings his cone? Everyone dies..The same tactics apply to Sword/Shield which is a slightly more offensive and mobile iteration of the set up.
I usually run Scepter/Shield with my hammer as I find it a great way to peel for others in dungeons. Seeing as it’s a range weapon, you have a lot of wiggling room and the luxury of not having to be near mobs to use it means you can both use SoA to project the party from projectiles, knock stuff off them. If you aren’t restricted by range, rotating your mouse quickitteno shoot off protection isn’t that demanding.
“If I knock them back they just walk back!” Don’t sit and hold the bubble if no projectiles are coming at you, use the knockback to give breathing room then detonate right away and immobilize, blind or block depending on which 1h you are. They only get right back onto you or your teammates if they don’t move, which is what everyone should be doing more of as the combat in this game is more movement based than others.
The only unattractive aspect about shield is possibly the cool downs, but mechanically it performs extremely well as an off-hand.
I see the appeal in focus and I love it when I solo or am in a more offensive role, but for group settings I see it the Shield has having the superior skillset when it comes down to being able to come through for them in the clutch. The bouncing blind is great, but does not help that much against multiple fast attacks. With the shield you either prevent the damage from being too extreme or interrupt the most threatening blow at the right moment and that to me is more valuable.
(edited by Lumines.3916)
I can’t relate to the sentiment that Shield 4 is hard to use, it’s not the same as just hitting a shout but a 600 AoE Cone isn’t that hard to hit.
If you’re running Mace/Shield, chances are in the dungeon you’re sitting on the mobs letting them swing at you instead of your thief and caster. If you’re trying to do a good job, you’d be facing the mobs away from them and strafing when needed. This means you can easily find the time to shoot it off as you’re facing your group. What happens if the Crusher in Arah is facing your group when he swings his cone? Everyone dies..The same tactics apply to Sword/Shield which is a slightly more offensive and mobile iteration of the set up.
I usually run Scepter/Shield with my hammer as I find it a great way to peel for others in dungeons. Seeing as it’s a range weapon, you have a lot of wiggling room and the luxury of not having to be near mobs to use it means you can both use SoA to project the party from projectiles, knock stuff off them. If you aren’t restricted by range, rotating your mouse quickitteno shoot off protection isn’t that demanding.
“If I knock them back they just walk back!” Don’t sit and hold the bubble if no projectiles are coming at you, use the knockback to give breathing room then detonate right away and immobilize, blind or block depending on which 1h you are. They only get right back onto you or your teammates if they don’t move, which is what everyone should be doing more of as the combat in this game is more movement based than others.
The only unattractive aspect about shield is possibly the cool downs, but mechanically it performs extremely well as an off-hand.
I see the appeal in focus and I love it when I solo or am in a more offensive role, but for group settings I see it the Shield has having the superior skillset when it comes down to being able to come through for them in the clutch. The bouncing blind is great, but does not help that much against multiple fast attacks. With the shield you either prevent the damage from being too extreme or interrupt the most threatening blow at the right moment and that to me is more valuable.
I understand that the shield’s skills can be effective but the cooldowns are far too long to justify for its effects. For example, engineer’s #4 shield ability is 30s long and also has projectile REFLECT and knockback. Since ours is more group orientated and absorbs, our cooldown is 1.5x longer than theirs?
Anyways, I really do not suggest using a sword/offhand + mace-shield combo using 10/30/30 build or any variant close to it unless you have symbol-boosting abilities. Since PvE is mentioned in the thread title, I’m going to assume for dungeons and dynamic events you’ll want a ranged weapon? Or maybe atleast an AoE weapon that covers the faults of 1h sword. Try to choose a weapon that covers what you can’t do well with sword in the most dire of situations. One that changes the difference between life and death when you have your sword out
(edited by Xethos.3179)
10/30/30 is scepter/torch. Why so many people don’t use torch is beyond me. 20 in radiance has torch CD recharge, and let’s face it, torch has the lowest overall CD of any off hand weapon Guardian gets. ADDED to that, scepter is a weapon you can kite with while doing damage, getting a root on a 20s CD (which is rather OP), if you bait out the opponent’s endurance properly and lock them down, torch #4 will annihilate their health. I’ve seen it crit for upwards of 7k before with the proper build, which is usually zerker amulet, zerker jewel, rock dog runes and 10/30/30.
The brilliant part about this setup is how high you can raise your crit rate with RHS.
the lower the original cooldown for the skills, the less “worth” the percent cooldown reductions become, especially since the trait does 15% instead of 20%
Torch is good but I never take that trait, it barely does anything for me
Hi. Level 80 for a few weeks and loving Guardian still. After running through several config I’ve settled on Greatsword + Scepter/Focus (with spirits I should add. Spirits give you range DPS as well). Triats are configured to maximize spirits, PM me if you want the build. IMO if your class supports equipping a range weapon of any sort you should strongly consider it for your swap/alt. Guardian is designed to do melee and to fall back when needed.
Scepter is a better choice than a staff (unless your intent is support) because you get range and damage similar to a staff but you have the off-hand slot.
Build I’m running works for me and I believe it’s one of the most optimal Guardian builds available. ArenaNet’s done a great job so you can configure and play this profession several different ways, each configuration you try is going to take some practice to get good with.