Guild Wars 2

Hey there, i’m about to hit 80 on my guardian and was wondering if anybody had a dps/support orientated build that’s decent in both PvE And WvW? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Pve builds don’t perform well in WwW, and WwW builds don’t perform well in pve. The support you’re providing is different in those two. Pve requires a lot of team oriented comps and active defense via consecrations and virtues, and WwW builds are often shout oriented. So, you could take a build for both, but you’ll be underperforming in those two gamemodes.

For WwW, the zerg meta is either x/x/x/6/6 or x/x/6/6/x. The first one is far more team oriented, but loose all the personal survivability from AH, so it’s not a noob friendly build. In solo roaming, meditations builds are good, anything with monk’s focus and the remaining traits are for you to decide.

For pve, the usual group spec is 4/5/0/0/5, it gives you a ton of support via blind spam, aegis, condi removal or stability on virtues, and consecrations. There’s a lot of different specs for solo/ group play to optimize your dps when you don’t need MoC or absolute resolution, but the one above is good pretty much everywhere. In fractals, you want an hammer spec.

Thanks for the helpful response Would you recommend GS/Staff in pve, Staff/Hammer in WvW?

GS/ sword focus for general pve, scepter for large hitbox bosses ( lupicus, ac endbosses, etc), hammer for fractal. You should carry all weapons on you to adapt, but those are the one you will be using the most. Staff is meh in pve because the might stacks are too short and overwrite longer might stacks, and you’re stuck with an awful weapon if you switch to it in combat. In www zergs, all 2 handed weapon are good choices, so either gs/hammer, gs/staff, or staff hammer. For roaming, greatsword+ sword focus are a solid choice for meditation but it can be swapped for something else.

PvE:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

WvW:
Solo/duo (and sometimes small group): Meditation build (take all the meditation traits in Valor) and roll with something like x(usually sword)/focus/gs. Monk’s focus keeps you alive via Smite Condition spam. Focused Mind gets you fury. Get 1 pt in honor so you proc vigor on crit for more dodges. Gear is typically damage gear such as berserker/knight/valk mix if you feel too flimsy, which is not unreasonable. Some brave folks use all zerker, which I guess I’m just not good enough for. Traveler runes recommended due to mobility issues (traveler gives 25% movement speed), or the cheaper speed runes if you can’t afford.

A sample trait spread would be 2/1/6/1/4

In bigger fights, it’s best to take altruistic healing, (6 in valor) and equip stand your ground (for group stability). The way AH works is that you get healed every time you give out a boon, so hammer autoattack with its symbol of protection gives out a lot. But even simple things like the staff’s symbol of swiftness will heal you if people run over it. In any case it’s one of the guardian’s best self-sustain abilities.

As for the rest of your build, get a good source of condition clear (either pure of voice trait which removes condis pure shout cast + trooper runes which do the same or purging flames).

Weapons tend to be staff for support and a choice between Greatsword and Hammer with some niche builds taking mace, but gs/hammer are far more popular and simpler to use.

I also recommend picking up the valor traits “Strength in Numbers” (more toughness for you and your group) and Purity (1 condition removed every 10s), combined with AH these make survivability a lot easier.

The most basic trait spread for zerging is 0/1/6/6/1

Gearing for large scale typically is dominated by soldier gear (Power toughness vitality) due to the guardian’s naturally low health pool and soldier gear’s stat efficiency. For more damage, I’d say mix in berserker trinkets or weapons. Maximize power (because that’s the best stat for damage) and toughness (because having each point of health count for more means your heals are more effective), while keeping a comfortable health level. A typical benchmark I aim for is about 2000 power, 3000 armor, 25% crit chance, 16k health. Those don’t have to be exact (my current build has only 2900 armor so I make up for it with Str in Numbers), but that’s what I try to aim for.

Most people have given you pretty good answers already about the concepts of builds in PvE and WvW, so I’ll tell you what I did.

You can’t have the same traits in PvE and WvW, but you can use the same armor. I combined a mix of Berzerker, Knights, and Cavaliers. By using Hammer, I can afford to trait 5/5/0/4/0 or 3/5/0/4/2 for PvE, and 0/0/6/6/2 for WvW. For WvW in particular I also take Force of Will, which means I don’t have to put any points into Vitality, thereby helping increase my damage when traited for PvE. Depending what you trait, you’ll have sufficient presence in both venues, while keep the same armor.

An example without traits: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAS7dlsApVoNDxXI8DBA-TFTBABUcBA2RVlHOCAUqSQXKzuRNCsUagimB80BsoSQi2fAgHAAA-w