Guild Wars 2

I’ve been levelling a Guardian, and though he’s low level, I feel kind of disappointed. It’s not that I dislike the role of a support character (which the Guardian nicely fits), but I feel like my options for questing are limited. I can put on a greatsword, or, I can autoattack mobs to death with another weapon.

Are there any other good weapons or weapon combinations that I’m missing, the primary purpose of which is to kill mobs, rather than to provide assistance to a party that I’m 99% of the time not with?

the greatsword IS great. i ran with that for a long time. (note, only lvl 38 now).
i’ve recently fallen in love with the hammer. you can check out the “HAMMERTIME” thread (has red tag next to it in the Guards threads).

it offers great CC, and support as well as dish out dmg. the 3 hit combo (although wind up from hit 2 to 3 is pretty slow) is nice cause it provides protection. 2 is good DPS and 3 is good for CC. 4 in combination with 5 and other skills is really nice.

1h sword and torch is the other set i run with. i just love playing with fire. i try to stack condition damage and mix it up with blinds as well.

the other are good to, but i’m loving running with the above two sets. you can try mace, but it’s definitely more supportive but offers good dmg as well.

and i switch back and forth between my weapon sets as well to maximize my build and skills available to me. hope this helps a bit! some feel the hammer is too slow, but i love it.

I’ve been remaking my guardian to change of Order. I’ve tried GS for most of my early 20. Other than the 3rd hit of auto and Whirlwind Wrath, not much of a fan about it. I like that the 3rd hit is aoe, unlike Mace and Sword.. As soon as I hit 20, I went back with the combo I’ve been using before(Sword/Focus).

What do you mean by questing? Do you mean hearts? You shouldn’t have any problem with hearts with Hammer, GS, Mace or Sword. Staff is more of a DE thingy, as you can tag a lot of things, while Scepter’s auto is pretty horrible.

good call on the staff for DE. agreed, esepcially at lower levels, all weps should suffice and just match one up to your personal playstyle : )))

and wow, what level was your previous Guardian? and what Order you going from and to? just curious.

My guardian just hit 53, and I doubt I’ve spent more than an hour of that time with the GS.

The Greatsword can pile on crazy damage and big numbers, but I feel like it’s kind of single-mindedly focused on piling a boatload of monsters around you and AoEing them hard. Personally, I feel like the Hammer has more than adequate AoE for DEs and the like just from its 1 and 2 skills, and the other 3 offer a bunch of versatile control options to supplement it.

I also run Purging Flames for the fire field in PvE, along with Sword/Focus for tougher fights, and the really short cooldown on Mighty Blow makes it a combo machine that I would hate to give up in PvE. Just with myself I can Purging Flames > Mighty Blow > Weapon Swap and Shield of Wrath and start a fight with 6 stacks of might, and then there’s all the AoE healing, stealth, and chaos armor with other classes around… I suppose it’s kind of support-y, but I want all those boons for myself just as much as I do for my team mates.

akamon.2769:

good call on the staff for DE. agreed, esepcially at lower levels, all weps should suffice and just match one up to your personal playstyle : )))

and wow, what level was your previous Guardian? and what Order you going from and to? just curious.

Only 48, so not much of a loss. I was in Whisper, going to Vigil, because Vigil has the stats I want on an armor, which is both Vitality and Toughness(Vigil Armors has Vit/Tough/Power).

I know there is different ways to get them, I heard from WvW and tokens from SE or another dungeon I’ve forgot name of, but that’s 50 runs to get a full set. Not sure about WvW, but anyway, I’d still have needed to make 2 alts for Vigil and Priory achievements.

I had a Ranger before, which I’ve chosen Whisper, but I didn’t like Rangers, so I took Whisper on my Guardian because I wanted to know more about the story, but apparently that was a bad choice.

Even if this is my 3rd time re-exploring everything below 45, I’m still having a blast. There isn’t many games like that.

Zyrhan.3180:

I also run Purging Flames for the fire field in PvE, along with Sword/Focus for tougher fights, and the really short cooldown on Mighty Blow makes it a combo machine that I would hate to give up in PvE. Just with myself I can Purging Flames > Mighty Blow > Weapon Swap and Shield of Wrath and start a fight with 6 stacks of might…

i love purging flames too! do you mind sharing your traits build? is the stacking might from traits i assume? i haven’t spent enough time learning my character yet! XDD

and glad to hear more support for the hammer. definitely very versatile and takes getting used to. but do try it out, OP!

Qelris.6901:

Only 48, so not much of a loss. I was in Whisper, going to Vigil, because Vigil has the stats I want on an armor, which is both Vitality and Toughness(Vigil Armors has Vit/Tough/Power).

I know there is different ways to get them, I heard from WvW and tokens from SE or another dungeon I’ve forgot name of, but that’s 50 runs to get a full set. Not sure about WvW, but anyway, I’d still have needed to make 2 alts for Vigil and Priory achievements.

I had a Ranger before, which I’ve chosen Whisper, but I didn’t like Rangers, so I took Whisper on my Guardian because I wanted to know more about the story, but apparently that was a bad choice.

Even if this is my 3rd time re-exploring everything below 45, I’m still having a blast. There isn’t many games like that.

ahhhh haha really a bad choice?? i’m with Whispers right now >_> i wanted prec, tough and conditon on mine though so i went with them. my wife is a thief so it made more sense for her i guess (class vs lore-wise) but the armor was enticing.

true though for all the cheevos and what not. you liking Vigil so far? i thought you weren’t able to get the other Order sets if you weren’t in it? though going the other route to get the armor sets seem kind of too much lol.

and agree about the game. it’s SO. MUCH. FUN.

akamon.2769:

Qelris.6901:

Only 48, so not much of a loss. I was in Whisper, going to Vigil, because Vigil has the stats I want on an armor, which is both Vitality and Toughness(Vigil Armors has Vit/Tough/Power).

I know there is different ways to get them, I heard from WvW and tokens from SE or another dungeon I’ve forgot name of, but that’s 50 runs to get a full set. Not sure about WvW, but anyway, I’d still have needed to make 2 alts for Vigil and Priory achievements.

I had a Ranger before, which I’ve chosen Whisper, but I didn’t like Rangers, so I took Whisper on my Guardian because I wanted to know more about the story, but apparently that was a bad choice.

Even if this is my 3rd time re-exploring everything below 45, I’m still having a blast. There isn’t many games like that.

ahhhh haha really a bad choice?? i’m with Whispers right now >_> i wanted prec, tough and conditon on mine though so i went with them. my wife is a thief so it made more sense for her i guess (class vs lore-wise) but the armor was enticing.

true though for all the cheevos and what not. you liking Vigil so far? i thought you weren’t able to get the other Order sets if you weren’t in it? though going the other route to get the armor sets seem kind of too much lol.

and agree about the game. it’s SO. MUCH. FUN.

Personally, it was a bad choice, because it’s the only easy way of getting the stats I want on a set. I’m still curious about Whisper Story though. Oh well..

I’ve remade my char last night, so I’m not in Vigil yet. Yes, you can’t get the sets from other Orders, which is why I’m remaking, so I can join Vigil and get their set.

Greatsword is our best damage option, so of course it’s a natural fit for solo-PvE content. Doesn’t make it mandatory, though. As people have said, Hammer is a great option, which also gives you great utility, so you don’t have to swap weapons upon encountering a dynamic event.
Sword+Torch is also a good option.
I also heard of people using the Mace, but I personally can’t see the appeal, because for open world PvE content, I don’t need those defensive skills, only I’m fighting a Champion.

Theres two things i carry my GS for. Thing number on is skill 5. Being able to group up mobs is very nice. The other is for the condition purge combo when combined with save yourselfs. Nothing like pulling all condition onto yourself then just dumping them. Also a condition purge on a 10 second timer is very very nice.

I’ve been running mace+focus & staff since lvl 30. I got meditation+symbol traits, it’s more a heal/defense build and so far it’s been slow dps, but my survivability is through the roof.

Main damage comes from skill 1 with a constant skill 2 to heal me while damaging and doing some additional dmg in the area the symbol is. Skill 4 is for blind when the mob will do a heavy dmg attack + some heal, skill 3 and 5 are small and high defense, for mobs heavy attacks or multiple mobs.

Skill 7 & 8 are teleport burn meditation & either cure condition for more dmg or teleport to heal (depending if I’m running with a group or not), last one you can switch around depending on situation (if solo, I usually do the poison aoe or another burn). Elite for soloing for me is the 10 skillpoint golem (not the suit) that fights for you for extra dmg against groups.

For ranged/kiting, I prefer the staff, but scepter+focus/shield is a good combo also. Point is, there is plenty of options for you! Check out http://www.gw2builds.org/browse?prof=guardian for plenty of cool builds. It’s all up to what kind of style you want to play. Scepter+torch and sword+focus with spirit weapon skills+traits yield pretty good dps although it’s a bit more glass-canon build

All those posts about this weapon being ‘support’ and that being for ‘tanking’ or whatever – forget about them. You’ll only need greatsword/sword+focus combo. And you will use sword/focus only to survive/run away. Greatsword has highest damage, huge AoE from auto-attack, AoE pull, AoE symbol and AoE blind.

It goes like this: run in the middle of 3-5 mobs, Pull them, Purging flames, leap, symbol, Virtue of Justice, whirl, 3 auto-attack hits, collect phat lootz, pull next mob pack.

teemoor.4397:

All those posts about this weapon being ‘support’ and that being for ‘tanking’ or whatever – forget about them. You’ll only need greatsword/sword+focus combo. And you will use sword/focus only to survive/run away. Greatsword has highest damage, huge AoE from auto-attack, AoE pull, AoE symbol and AoE blind.

It goes like this: run in the middle of 3-5 mobs, Pull them, Purging flames, leap, symbol, Virtue of Justice, whirl, 3 auto-attack hits, collect phat lootz, pull next mob pack.

I do the same thing. Except i use staff skill 4 to buff to 12 stacks of might then proceed to lay down the law. Fun times fun times.

I’ve been using my GS since somewhere around level 40 and I haven’t regretted it at all. Great damage, mass CC with Binding Blades (when you can get it to work) and the closest thing we have to an instant escape mechanism with Leap of Faith (again, assuming the targeting doesn’t go all wonky).

They say the best defense is a good offense, and my corollary to that is that the most well controlled mobs are the ones laying in various states of disassembly on the floor, and in that way the GS excels. When I’m doing one of the “zombie rush on a base” events in Orr I know that I can kill everything present that isn’t a vet or a brute within a few seconds thanks to my AoE. It’s the only weapon the profession has that makes me feel individually powerful.

shaidyn.4016:

I’ve been levelling a Guardian, and though he’s low level, I feel kind of disappointed. It’s not that I dislike the role of a support character (which the Guardian nicely fits), but I feel like my options for questing are limited. I can put on a greatsword, or, I can autoattack mobs to death with another weapon.

Are there any other good weapons or weapon combinations that I’m missing, the primary purpose of which is to kill mobs, rather than to provide assistance to a party that I’m 99% of the time not with?

I have a level 53 Guardian and I haven’t used Greatsword in… like forever! I unlocked the skills, had a good greatsword for 5 levels or so in mid 20s and after that… its mostly been the hammer. I change my second weapon a bit. I had a staff for a bit but just never seemed to be in a situation where it go used much. So I switched to sword and shield and recently it’s sceptre and focus. So now my weapons are Hammer as primary damage dealing weapons + sceptre and focus for ranged damage and other more defensive things. I think I have pretty much forgotten how to use a Greatsword to be honest, its been so long!

Personally I love the GS, with sword and focus combination – rotating between both sets you can very nearly keep constant aoe blind ( gs skill 4, sword 2, focus 4 ), block ( focus 5 ), aegis and evasion up to the point that 1v1 you rarely receive any damage at all, and a boat load of GS AoE damage + skill 5’s DoT ( which ends with a pull that can interrupt ) to dish out when facing groups.

I always end up missing that rotation if I switch to other weapons.

As others have said – find whatever suits your play style and stick with it ( but adapt when necessary )

GS is great, but it isn’t the end-all of everything. I tend to run either Sword/Sheild or Mace/Sheild and GS or Hammer, depending on what I’ve been able to get that’s best stat-wise. My only complaint about Hammer is the pause before the third auto-swing drives me insane and mucks up my skills timing constantly.

1H sword is the best single-target DPS, hands-down, especially paired with a Torch, though with a shield, it’s enormously survivable. Mace does less damage in favor of better survivability due to heals and blocks, and Hammer brings a good bit of damage with some great survival choices by giving you both breathing room, plus a good source of recurring protection buffs from the third swing.

Staff, as noted before, is great for DEs because of the width and depth of the cone, but I tend to prefer the GS or Hammer over the staff for its higher output, unless the DE is like 4 levels over my head.

Since the first day with my guardian I’ve barely touched GS, mainly because that’s the weapon vast majority of guardians use and they don’t even bother switching. So my point, I guess, was to show other people how (amazingly) viable weapon sets other than GS can be. GS is there just for the damage and cool factor.

Qelris.6901:

Scepter’s auto is pretty horrible.

I actually use the Scepter for 2 things:

Hitting bugged targets, like some buildings and contraptions who won’t take a hit from my Mace. The ranged auto-attack wont miss(as much).

Trying to get some XP out of a overwhelmed event. If there’s 20 guys running around in the same event I’m participating, chances are, my Norn legs won’t even get in time to the fights. (like centaurs rebuilding a bridge) So I try to make myself usefull by hitting them from affar with the varius skills.

So for me Scepter can be used for very specific questing too.

teemoor.4397:

All those posts about this weapon being ‘support’ and that being for ‘tanking’ or whatever – forget about them. You’ll only need greatsword/sword+focus combo. And you will use sword/focus only to survive/run away. Greatsword has highest damage, huge AoE from auto-attack, AoE pull, AoE symbol and AoE blind.

It goes like this: run in the middle of 3-5 mobs, Pull them, Purging flames, leap, symbol, Virtue of Justice, whirl, 3 auto-attack hits, collect phat lootz, pull next mob pack.

Saying to forget about everything but GS really just isn’t playing the class to the best of it’s ability in my opinion. Personally I run GS but I also use Sword/Torch and Sword/Focus (when I want the extra blind and survivability instead of DPS) and constantly switch up in battle. I couldn’t imagine playing the class only using GS. If I wanted to use one weapon only, I would still be playing my Ranger. lol

Ashanor.5319:

teemoor.4397:

All those posts about this weapon being ‘support’ and that being for ‘tanking’ or whatever – forget about them. You’ll only need greatsword/sword+focus combo. And you will use sword/focus only to survive/run away. Greatsword has highest damage, huge AoE from auto-attack, AoE pull, AoE symbol and AoE blind.

It goes like this: run in the middle of 3-5 mobs, Pull them, Purging flames, leap, symbol, Virtue of Justice, whirl, 3 auto-attack hits, collect phat lootz, pull next mob pack.

Saying to forget about everything but GS really just isn’t playing the class to the best of it’s ability in my opinion. Personally I run GS but I also use Sword/Torch and Sword/Focus (when I want the extra blind and survivability instead of DPS) and constantly switch up in battle. I couldn’t imagine playing the class only using GS. If I wanted to use one weapon only, I would still be playing my Ranger. lol

A lot of people using only or mainly the greatsword i beleave pribally play more of the glass cannon builds. As such they have no need for the more support/control side of our class. A shame as thats where we really do shine.

I’ve fallen in love with the greatsword. Because of that weapon I’ve decided to spec my Guardian into more of a DPS (burning/blinding/vulnerability + 10% more dmg, etc.). I love running around with that huge claymore-ish thingy

The same as the GS is great for dishing out damage all around my swap weapon set is mace+torch. The mace gives a bit of regen, healing and some defensive blocking, and the torch is a nice addition to keep the foes burning and also do quite some damage with the Flame Breathing (if manoeuvered right – you can also damage many foes). So I use GS for initial attacks (and the whole fight, if it looks like a quickie) and change to mace+torch for a bit of healing and defense, before switching back to GS for some finishing touches

When I get to lvl 80 (lvl68 for now), I’ll probably check the WvWvW and maybe respec here or there for a more support role? Or go into a spirit weapon build? (with some traits these can dish out a nice damage output as well) There’s a couple nice things one can do with any of the classes… I’m all for discovering those

Sword/Torch will do as much or more damage than the greatsword. You do have options.

Razor.9132:

GS is there just for the damage and cool factor.

Uh huh hmmm hmmmm….. what else do you need ?

akamon.2769:

i love purging flames too! do you mind sharing your traits build? is the stacking might from traits i assume? i haven’t spent enough time learning my character yet! XDD

and glad to hear more support for the hammer. definitely very versatile and takes getting used to. but do try it out, OP!

Well, I’m planning on getting the might-on-crit major trait from Honor, but it’s mostly from combos. Purging Flames puts down a Fire field. When you hit that with a Blast finisher, it puts 3 stacks of might on everyone around you for a pretty long duration (I think 18 seconds?). So since Mighty Blow and Shield of Wrath are blast finishers, I can hit one, swap weapons, and hit the other and put up 6 stacks of might for me and everybody nearby. Which, IMO, still makes hammer feel really powerful as AoE damage. I usually run with an elementalist who loves her fire attunement too, which means even more Fire fields. Running around with 9-12 stacks of might isn’t terribly uncommon for me without even speccing for it.

This is basically what I’m running right now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQNAS8dlYgKDHHyLEg4Eh9BCifgjXFgIA

And I’m building towards something more or less like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQNAS8dlYgKDHHyLEgIFRWBRa9ggA0fYK4I8vKARA

I crit all the time, and with Justice refreshing on enemy kill, I’m thinking that build should mean lots of AoE blinds, vulnerability, and might during big fights.

I think it ranks alongside the sword as our least party-centric weapon, whereas I’d say the hammer and staff are the greatest. The only area affect that you can use for the group is condition removal, and other than that you just have your blind. True, you do have a symbol, but the GS/S do not grant a good amount of bonuses to the group.

The mace/focus can give area retaliation w/ the #2 and #5 combo, and the hammer can give a mass boon depending on what field you’re standing inside. A chaos field gives armor, fire might, water healing, light retaliation, and dark poison (I think, can’t remember atm). This, on top of your symbol that grants protection. If you trait with Writ of Exaltation, Writ of Persistence, and 2-Handed Mastery (the full Honor line), you can have a perma-protection on nearby allies, have huge symbols, and can pop a mass boon every four seconds. If you roll with Writ of the Merciful over Persistence, and you are with an elementalist, then you can heal with your symbols and have them cast a water field for even more frontline healing.

The hammer is just fine solo, but like the staff it really shines when you’re in a group. So if you’re questing with a friend, I’d really suggest trying out a properly-traited hammer.

I’ve been running Sword and Mace since 35 and I haven’t looked back. And once I picked up Right-Hand Strength in 30 Radiance, I didn’t miss Greatsword at all.

Not a boast, but my Main is an 80 Guardian that I have been perfecting since day one. I knew before this game came out that I wanted to play a Guardian and I have not been disappointed. The reason I mention it is, because I have had a chance to really grind out every weapon combo for Guardian and spend time figuring out what works. Greatsword is by far the most efficient weapon build for grinding in the game hands down. That being said, sometimes you really need a ranged weapon to deal with certain fights. For this I have been using Scepter/Torch, or Scepter Focus. Spamming auto attack on scepter while dropping 2’s AOE attack is an effective way to keep a tight amount of damage going out, while dodging around to prevent incoming damage. It’s boring, but it gets the job done.
By comparison I tried out a Warrior alt and went Duel wield Axes. Holy cow that is a blast! I really wish Guardians had something similar. Even at 80 I still find myself going back to Greatsword. Unless something changes it is going to stay the premier weapon for the class.

I use greatsword and scepter/torch for weapons.

sword for melee, weapon swap to range mode.

enjoy.

It is not mandatory, I used the hammer for a long time, I like it a lot but it is too slow, so I prefer to use the GS, but for PvE I do not think the GS is a necessity.

SiNoS.2147:

Ashanor.5319:

teemoor.4397:

All those posts about this weapon being ‘support’ and that being for ‘tanking’ or whatever – forget about them. You’ll only need greatsword/sword+focus combo. And you will use sword/focus only to survive/run away. Greatsword has highest damage, huge AoE from auto-attack, AoE pull, AoE symbol and AoE blind.

It goes like this: run in the middle of 3-5 mobs, Pull them, Purging flames, leap, symbol, Virtue of Justice, whirl, 3 auto-attack hits, collect phat lootz, pull next mob pack.

Saying to forget about everything but GS really just isn’t playing the class to the best of it’s ability in my opinion. Personally I run GS but I also use Sword/Torch and Sword/Focus (when I want the extra blind and survivability instead of DPS) and constantly switch up in battle. I couldn’t imagine playing the class only using GS. If I wanted to use one weapon only, I would still be playing my Ranger. lol

A lot of people using only or mainly the greatsword i beleave pribally play more of the glass cannon builds. As such they have no need for the more support/control side of our class. A shame as thats where we really do shine.

This. I find the GS is great for glass cannon play, but as I’m getting up in the high 30’s I’ve found other weapons to be a better choice. Don’t get me wrong, GS is great, but I think lacks support options overall, it’s a tradeoff for the mobility on skill 4 and the pile on for 5 → 3.

Volkrin.9765:

the closest thing we have to an instant escape mechanism with Leap of Faith (again, assuming the targeting doesn’t go all wonky).

I’ve never had an issue with wonky targeting after turning off Melee Assisted and Auto Targeting options.

Draeka.5941:

I think it ranks alongside the sword as our least party-centric weapon, whereas I’d say the hammer and staff are the greatest. The only area affect that you can use for the group is condition removal, and other than that you just have your blind. True, you do have a symbol, but the GS/S do not grant a good amount of bonuses to the group.

Just want to add that depending on your playstyle the greatsword can be great group support. Its nice for grouping up mobs trying to run out of aoe or pull stuff away from party member. And as you said the condition purge is nice. I’ve saved parties due to that one skill. Had everyone group up and hit that combo. Its all about playstyle. If used in the right hands all our weapons can be great for support is what i beleave.

I said forget about weapons other then greatsword for leveling.
For example now that I’m lvl 80 for a long time I switched from 30/30/10/0/0 to 0/0/20/30/20, grabbed a staff/mace+shield, full Cleric set + runes of the Flock, healing jewelry. Ppl love my support in dungeons. I kinda solo-heal most of it

For good damage and survivability I roll with Mace + Touch. During PvE I don’t need weapons that allow me to chase down my target or yank them around. I just need something that defends me or hits them.

the mace has a good combo of both attack and defense. Every move helps you while hurting the enemy. The torch is just an amazing offhand that dishes out good constant dmg.

2 H hammers are nice but you will notice it takes skill and the CC moves it has youll rarely use.

Zyrhan.3180:

Well, I’m planning on getting the might-on-crit major trait from Honor, but it’s mostly from combos. Purging Flames puts down a Fire field. When you hit that with a Blast finisher, it puts 3 stacks of might on everyone around you for a pretty long duration (I think 18 seconds?). So since Mighty Blow and Shield of Wrath are blast finishers, I can hit one, swap weapons, and hit the other and put up 6 stacks of might for me and everybody nearby. Which, IMO, still makes hammer feel really powerful as AoE damage. I usually run with an elementalist who loves her fire attunement too, which means even more Fire fields. Running around with 9-12 stacks of might isn’t terribly uncommon for me without even speccing for it.

This is basically what I’m running right now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQNAS8dlYgKDHHyLEg4Eh9BCifgjXFgIA

And I’m building towards something more or less like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQNAS8dlYgKDHHyLEgIFRWBRa9ggA0fYK4I8vKARA

I crit all the time, and with Justice refreshing on enemy kill, I’m thinking that build should mean lots of AoE blinds, vulnerability, and might during big fights.

thanks for the specs! and o wow, haha, the direction i’m heading is actually eally similar to what you’re doing right now. but i didn’t think of the might-on-crit-hits though! that could be pretty useful. will keep that in mind.

and didn’t knwo that about applying might from the combo! will have to look into this more. haha learning every day. and i want to use the focus cause those skills are useful and you get another extra blind too. but i can’t seem to give up my torch at the moment. the extra blind would help with more vulnerability too though.

awesome stuff! thx again

what u need to consider is that u can have 2 weapons

u can swap between combos to maximize ur cds so there’s a lot of diff stuff u can do

I cant complain about my gs.

Aoe, combo that removes condition on me and everyone around, aoe pull that at least interrupt my enemies and a blind.

All that with great front cone damage.
It is awsome for pvp and pve.
My second weapon of choice is a sword paired with a focus.

I dont see hammer as a viable choice, even after tonights patch. Too slow and its damage isnt scaled accordinly.

Anyways, my point is, if you dont want to use such awsome weapon as a GS. Go ahead and do one hand sword plus focus or a mace and a shield.

I don’t understand might, really. Adds what 35-50 attack to your 3000? Meh.

Indeed which is why every guardian in the game is wielding one, compared to every other weapon its the holy grail of guardians, all 5 skills do damage, all 5 skills cause conditions, vs every other weapon only having some damage skills and some condition skills, makes wielding anything else besides the greatsword pointless.

Now I’m not asking for a greatsword nerf, oh god no that would make things worse, what they should do is fix those other weapons so their actually more fun to use, like the mace, all the mace skills are channeling and they keep breaking your chains, also the shield is no fun at all, that 5th skill that pushes enemies away only stops the battle cold, all it does is annoy everyone by pushing the mobs out of their attack range, its a real buzz kill.

And the staff doesn’t seem that great, everything is in melee range or at least close to it, it should of been a full on ranged weapon, every other class gets a 2h ranged weapon, why can’t guardians?

I encourage you to keep an open mind and try to look at these weapons objectively. Also, try using mace for a while before dismissing it. Greatsword is an excellent weapon but hardly mandatory. I’ve been leveling almost exclusively with sword and mace, and my combination of Traits and abilities make both weapons highly effective, dangerous and survivable.

all 5 skills do damage, all 5 skills cause conditions, vs every other weapon only having some damage skills and some condition skills, makes wielding anything else besides the greatsword pointless.

This is a pretty big fallacy that we need to discourage. Just because all five skills deal damage doesn’t mean you ought to be using them all the time.

It’s not about how many damage-dealing attacks you have. It’s about how you use them.

Greatsword is aggressive. It has a distance closer, a PBAoE, a Retaliation symbol, and a pull that punishes escaping enemies or keeps mobs close to you.

But what about sword/torch? Zealot’s Defense is powerful spike damage. It has a teleport and a blind, comparable to Greatsword (but on a faster cooldown). Torch has two direct damage dealing abilities, both of which affect a big range of enemies.

How about Mace and Focus? Mace hits slow but hits hard. Every third swing of its chain heals you. It’s symbol is on a fast recharge and adds a few more heals. And its block ability is just fantastic. Use it to counter and negate any given attack from any angle—and the counter damage it deals is very high. Pair that with Focus’s block and counter, and blind abilities, and you have a very sturdy weapon set that’ll bust through 3-4 enemies and leave you alive to talk about it.

Even Scepter has solid use in PVE. Open with the auto-attack, drop Smite when they’re in melee and immediately switch to a melee weapon. The smite will continue stacking damage on top of whatever else you do.

Greatsword is a fine weapon. But it is not mandatory. It only feels mandatory if you’re going to say dismissive things like:

makes wielding anything else besides the greatsword pointless

Mightylink.3816:

Indeed which is why every guardian in the game is wielding one, compared to every other weapon its the holy grail of guardians, all 5 skills do damage, all 5 skills cause conditions, vs every other weapon only having some damage skills and some condition skills, makes wielding anything else besides the greatsword pointless.

What in the world are you talking about?

All 5 skills on the greatsword do NOT cause conditions. By itself, in fact, the greatsword causes LESS conditions than the sword (because the sword #1 hits faster which means more burning, and has blind on #2). Also sword/torch does damage with all 5 moves as well.

Sounds to me like you’re blind to what this class has beyond greatsword. It’s mandatory…TO YOU.

I played around with the Greatsword for a little while, then I found the Sword/Torch combo.

You get a teleport, Zealot’s Defense (a 600 range sword attack that does very substantial damage), and Cleansing Flame (a cone AoE attack that also does amazing damage. There is also Zealot’s Flame which puts the Burn condition on enemies around you, and you can throw it for more spiky damage.

All in all, the Sword/Torch combo just feels like it does more damage, and with the teleport, I do not miss the Greatswords Leap of Faith ability.

Kindread.9481:

I played around with the Greatsword for a little while, then I found the Sword/Torch combo.

You get a teleport, Zealot’s Defense (a 600 range sword attack that does very substantial damage), and Cleansing Flame (a cone AoE attack that also does amazing damage. There is also Zealot’s Flame which puts the Burn condition on enemies around you, and you can throw it for more spiky damage.

All in all, the Sword/Torch combo just feels like it does more damage, and with the teleport, I do not miss the Greatswords Leap of Faith ability.

I found Leap of Faith to be more reliable as an out-of-combat run boost. I recall with Flashing Blades, you were not able to boost distance without having a hostile target. I may be wrong though, I’ve put GW2 aside as college has started, though I am level 80, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time playing in the interim.

I’ve personally been running with GS/Sceptor + Shield in PvE and Staff/Sceptor + Shield (though mace + shield is good too) in PvP.

Shimond.2478:

Mightylink.3816:

Indeed which is why every guardian in the game is wielding one, compared to every other weapon its the holy grail of guardians, all 5 skills do damage, all 5 skills cause conditions, vs every other weapon only having some damage skills and some condition skills, makes wielding anything else besides the greatsword pointless.

What in the world are you talking about?

All 5 skills on the greatsword do NOT cause conditions. By itself, in fact, the greatsword causes LESS conditions than the sword (because the sword #1 hits faster which means more burning, and has blind on #2). Also sword/torch does damage with all 5 moves as well.

Sounds to me like you’re blind to what this class has beyond greatsword. It’s mandatory…TO YOU.

With the right traits you can cause way more stacks of burn and vulnerability with the greatsword then any other weapon, you just can’t get that with the sword, all you get with the sword is a short blind and thats it, I don’t think you been playing your class as much as you claim to be.

At 80 I’ve played it more than any other class, thanks. You seriously don’t understand sword at all. The third hit of #1 hits 3 times. This means every cycle of #1 causes a burn unlike the greatsword. Sure the greatsword can whirl burn…if you drop purging flames (but then we’re not talking about just the greatsword are we).

Sword/Torch stacks burning more than any other combination in the guardian’s arsenal. Greatsword is decent with power, but it is NOT a condition weapon.

Considering the sword is probably our best 1v1 weapon, I’d say the sword/torch combo could conceivably obtain the same level of area conditions that the GS can. You lose the symbol to cause vulnerability, but if you’re fast enough I think you can effectively utilize the Radiance line’s justice traits. To me, the GS is just the AoE version of the 1handed sword, with a bit more power in sacrifice of utility. If you look at the guardian weapon skills, that’s what all of our tradeoffs are about: utility and damage.

A hammer has much, much more utility than the GS due to synergies with other skills, but won’t kill as fast (depending on how strong the enemy is). However, with a large group you will kill it faster due to spamming area retaliation/might. The extreme of this, of course, is mace/focus and staff, though the latter is ridiculously awesome when in a large group. Each of our weapons does fairly well if played right, though there are some inconsistencies and missed opportunities in the skills. I’d love it if the guardian had more symbols and another type of field, for instance.

Also, anyone ever go with a zerging mob, hit empower, and then immediately cast your buffed justice? Rather hilarious to see everything in sight catch fire. =D

Hey all fellow guardians! This is an interesting thread so I’ve decided to post. I just hit lvl 80 with my guardian 2 days back. What I’ve noticed all around is that 9 out of 10 guardians I met use Greatsword. It’s like the standard thing to use I guess? I tried the GS personally and do agree that its a good dps wep.

However, throughout my levels I’ve used the less common wep choice, mace and torch. It really goes down to what you prefer, in other words your personal play style. Don’t follow others’ choices just because its popular or whatnot. The mace and torch combo is an excellent balance between offense and defense, also providing great survivability. I have no problem not moving/dodging during fights except the toughest of all.

Personally I don’t find the 4th and 5th skill of GS to be of much use, whereas I will use all the skills available with the mace/torch set.I must state that I only do PvM and haven tried PvP and WvW thou, maybe the GS is good there? Might give them a try soon.

Oh yes for trait build wise I run on 30 radiance, 20 valor and honor. This is a high-crit tank-ish build that works really well. I’m on 67% crit chance (with right-hand strength) and 81% bonus crit dmg with my offensive gear. Adding bloodlust stacks and might buffs (trait skill), my dmg wont lack behind the GS.

Secondary wep is staff for DEs and big mobs (it owns). This build also allows me to use another great wep set which is the sword/torch. Basically I’m good with all 1h guardian wep combos with this build.

I hope this will help fellow Guardians make an informed choice regarding their builds. Just my 2 cents from a fellow Guardian

I’m really happy this thread got such feedback, because it’s shown me a lot about the class.

I guess my original thinking about the greatsword was that it sacrifices defence for damage. Every other weapon or combo focuses more on either buffing you, healing you, or defending you. And that can be great. But so far while questing my experience has been that you don’t NEED any defences. The mobs hit like kittens (I actually typed kittens, I wasn’t swearing. ). So I can forgo all the bells and whistles of the other weapons, slap on a greatsword, and cleave my way through the game. It’s just the best choice for getting to 80.

Inside dungeons and during events, it’s a totally different story, and I certainly wasn’t going to comment on that until I have more experience.

Again, thanks for all the input!

Everybody talks about surviving lol… Surviving WHAT? Open world content can be afk facerolled, greatsword just makes it so much faster. When you do heart quests and need to kill mobs – #5 skill pull 5 of them, AOE them down in 4 seconds, repeat. 1 minute later – the heart is done. Next.