Guild Wars 2

Hey guardians,

I have a couple of questions about DPS-Support Guardians with Altruistic Healing.

1. Given the protection, regeneration, vigor, and activated heals of guardians with AH, could I go full berserker in PVE (dungeons in particular)?

2. What runes should I put into my armor? I’m thinking of either (a) two each of fire, hoelbrak, and strength in order to maximize might uptime (and DPS output) or (b) two each of the boon duration runes. Would you suggest other runes?

3. What sigil should I use on my GS and Staff? I’m thinking strength would work well with AH and maybe precision on staff.

4. Do I even use the 2 ability of the GS when the 1 ability does more damage (or am I looking at it the wrong way and as such should hit it whenever it is on CD).

5. What do you guys think of radiance? I see a lot of people going 0/0/30/30/10, what about 0/15/30/20/5? The additional precision brings the pre-buff crit chance to 45% from 40% and you get more DPS with vulnerability stacking with blinds. There’s also the minor (still nifty) bonus of refreshing F1 with every kill. Is the 20% reduction in 2h skills better than those?

I run 20 in radiance and love it, in PvE especially, and constantly available Justice is great – especially if you trait so that it applies vulnerability and AoE blind. I also run 30 in Honor and have 20% 2-handed rate slotted, so I get both… if I had to choose between the two, honestly, not sure. Both are great.

1. ability on the GS is awesome and you should use it all the time. First, it’s an AoE, second, the damage difference is really not that big that you should skip it. Also, if you drop #4 beforehand, you can combo with #2 and do some nice extra condition removal on nearby allies. Or you can combo it with Purging Flames for a fire whirl finisher, so it definitely has its uses.

1. i personally prefer knight’s gear over berserker. the reasons being: more toughness = more crit = more support plus, more toughness means you’re more likely to draw aggro, keeping the more squishing classes out of harm’s way. Although as a DPS/support, i went with knights armer and berserker accessories to balance damage with support.
2. I love might ad a buff so i went with the 2fire/2hoebrak/2strength. These runes also works really well with the great sword auto attack chain that gives you might as well as your might on crit trait and sigil should you take that route. Boon duration is also useful if you are running full shouts, but if you’re like me and often switch out shouts for other utilities depending on situations, the boon duration becomes less useful.
3. Strength sigil works really well with your build because you get decent damage boost from the might and it also heals you through AH. I would also experiment with blood or fire if you enjoy the on crit effects. As for staff, because it is ver weak as a damage weapon you do not want to be using it for long when you switch to it. Therefore, accuracy will loses its value. Because it is a weapon you switch to for situations where you might need to escape you can put in an energy sigil to give you some extra endurance when you swap. Or if you want more power a sigil of battle works as well. Just remember your staff is NOT a dips weapon.
4. All abilities are situational. Whirling wrath is great in that it hits more targets than your autoattack and combos nicely with fields. like gaudrath mentioned
5. 0/15/30/20/5 build is what I used to run and it is very good in terms of damage. The blind is very useful as a defence tool except against dredge and bosses. However I switched to the 0/0/30/30/10 build not for 2h mastery ( I use hammer so this skill is less important compared to a great sword) but for purity of voice for the condition removal which gives me the condition removal powers of a god. However it is personal taste, I just have a phobia of conditions. As for the 10 points at the end, they are for the cooldown on consecrations, more specifically wall of reflection (make sure you have this on your bar when faced with projectiles, is is arguably the guardian’s most useful utility) and sometimes hallowed ground, but these skills are still wonderful without it so it isn’t essential. I run high level fractals where reflection means life and death (my life, their death) so having the increased uptime on wall is important for me. Again, those points are up to what you want to do with your build.

Edit. I just like to stress that although staff is pathetic at dealing damage I believe it’s really useful as a support weapon but never use it for more than necessary. Swap staff, get out of harms way, heal up, empower, switch to great sword and get back in there is what I say. If you want a weapon to deal damage from a distance, use a sceptre. Just a note, make sure you have all possible weapons (especially a sceptre) in your bag to swap out depending on situations. Different fights will ultimately require a different set of skills and you have to adapt accordingly.

1. I wear berserker gear and weapons, cavalier back, 2 soldier rings, knights earrings and amulet

2. I use ruby orbs

3. I use ruby orbs, but I like strength or battle, currently saving gold so this is main reason for the orbs atm..

4. I spam it, use 4 symbol for retaliation and use 2 in the symbol for cleansing bolts, then use 3 for leap finisher retaliation

5. I am currently running 0/0/30/20/20 – I take purity so I can use the blocking healing skill, 2nd slot is a toss up between a couple of the traits depending on the fight, but I like the shield so the cd reduction is nice, then AH. In honor I take shout 20% recharge, and 2h 20% recharge. Virtue is a toss up as well, but I like the 10% dmg when have aegis and I like the stability with VoC or the VoR condition removing.

That being said, I do not claim to be a master of the guardian, I have been trying many builds, this is the profession I have the least playing time and craft leveld…I have a support ele so I didn’t really want to go that route just yet. I wanted to test the damage a guardian could put out so thats why the zerker gear. Like you said, with all the regen, protection, and other boons you constantly have, I felt that many people put too much into defensive stats so I went the opposite and have been really enjoying the playstyle. This profession has the lowest hp and toughness (I think, top of my head) of all my toons (warr,mes,ele,guard) and puts out damage close to my warr and mes with great survivability from the up time of boons. The shouts allow me to stay in melee in rough situations and when I absolutely need to disengage i’ve got my block heal AND that elite that recharges virtues that makes you invulnerable (on a short cd too..OP)

1. I like knight’s gear w/ ruby jewels.
2. Up to your preference really.
3. For dps, strength, battle or fire. For sustain, blood.
4. Depends on the situation. Against many enemies all around you 2 is good because it hits up to 5 enemies on all sides. Don’t use 2 against someone with retaliation.
5. Radiance is quality for pve. Not quite as good in wvw where you aren’t going to have kills rolling in constantly.