Guild Wars 2

Level 60 Guardian and so far I’ve played all the way through with a Greatsword. I’ve enjoyed it while leveling. I stack a lot of precision/condition damage and I still burn through things while doing quests and what not.

However while doing dungeons I suffer quite a bit. I feel like I’m dishing decent damage, but I die almost all the time on bosses. I’m going to be doing more PvE at 70-80, lots of dungeons for exotic armor, and my question is, would it be better to go mostly toughness/vitality with a sword and shield for these things?

If it means not dying and playing a real support role, I’d gladly do the switch.

Sword+shield is better for 1v1 fights. What you are using is great for PvE because of the AoE, hammer would also be great for this. You shouldn’t focus just on damage or survivability, have a little of both and make sure you give enough support to keep your team in good condition. This type of guardian I’d gladly invite to a team=]
If it is really frustrating you, aim for +toughness and see how you do then.
Also, don’t forget to dodge! Very important part of survivability.

I’ve refined myself a little tonight. I had all power/precision/condition gear/sockets with just my rings having vit/toughness. I went for a great sword with healing, vitality and some precision and decided to look for two more pieces with some vitality/toughness/healing to mix it up a little and get myself to 10k hp.

I have an issue with dodging… I seem to not know when to dodge in some encounters. I find it harder to predict what enemies will do, and even not knowing when some enemies are prepping an attack that I should dodge. Perhaps I’m just not so used to the mechanics, but dodging has been a bit messy for me so far.

I may try going complete tank/support in the future, but for now I love all my burns/conditions. It hasn’t failed me yet.

Play what you like. Decide for yourself if you want to do damage or support or a little mix of both. I suggest to have all weapons in your bag to swap them accordingly to the situation. I can survive great if not better than others (to my experience) even though I wear full berserkers (no hp whatsoever, 10.8k at 80).

Are you using both weapon sets? You should be switching weapon sets as needed (I think the default button is ~, below the ESC key in USA keyboards).

This means you can have a offensive weapon set and a defensive weapon set. Or an offensive and a controlling set, which is what I liked on my guardian (hammer & greatsword, which I swapped to and from during easy or difficult combat.

During each and every battle you should switch weapon sets constantly, as needed.

I also have touble with dodging, in part because I can’t remember the visual effects for each profession. So an easy general rule to remember is: if the enemy seems to be “channeling” something, a heal or bit attack is probably incoming. The heal should be interrupted, the attack dodged or otherwise protected against.

Try to keep your eyes on he enemy instead of the skill bar. Maybe fight the NPC enemies in the Mists, so you can practice without having to pay armor repair. I’d you pay attention you’ll usually see things you should avoid. Chains coming your way, the enemy winding up to charge you, or a pull.

Greatsword will do gobs of damage in PvE on its own, so there’s no real reason not to spec your gear for toughness and/or vitality, especially for dungeons. Bosses don’t have enrage timers, you don’t have any tanks to fall back on, and melee weapons get big passive damage bonuses compared to ranged to compensate for how much more often you’re liable to be hit.

That said, if you’re looking for a defensive secondary set, I’d recommend any one-hander and the Focus. Sword and Mace both have good supportive options with damage and blocks; sword is a bit more aggressive, while mace is a bit more defensive. Scepter is nice and relatively safe for the range. Focus is great for personal survival, since it gives you an instant 3-hit-block shield and a bouncing blind, while Shield is more of a group-defensive weapon. Which makes it a strong choice for parties too, but like you said, more support-oriented.

HeatSeeker.9735:

Sword+shield is better for 1v1 fights. What you are using is great for PvE because of the AoE, hammer would also be great for this. You shouldn’t focus just on damage or survivability, have a little of both and make sure you give enough support to keep your team in good condition. This type of guardian I’d gladly invite to a team=]
If it is really frustrating you, aim for +toughness and see how you do then.
Also, don’t forget to dodge! Very important part of survivability.

I find the shield is quite useless, in 1v1. The focus seems to be better. Actually the focus seems to be better in all scenarios.

The key to the bosses is not to take the big hits. There’s a bunch of ways to accomplish it. You can not get by treating dungeon encounters like dynamic events in the open world.

The way I see it; most people go for damage, but die very fast. As a Guardian and your plethora of support utilities, if you stay alive, others will too. And guess what: you do more damage alive than dead Honestly, we have a lot of stuff to utilize. You can probably save the day with half of your skills, and then a few more times with some weapons for yourself.

The key to most fights is staying alive, staying alive, mm mm mm mm staying alive, staying alive. Guardians dish out a lot of damage regardless of your trait build, honestly.

You can’t tank in this game. The agro system in this game isn’t of a traditional MMO.

You can make a build to be a good DPS, but I think it is easier to think as tank… our habilities are more focused on that. If you really want to be a hardcore DPS try the Warrior or Thief.

Nah, I want to be a true support role. Thanks for the replies, btw.

Can any other great sword guardians link their builds?

Also, what is the best swap while using great sword for dungeons? Scepter/focus?

If you want to be a “true” support role, may as well stash your greatsword and use Mace/Focus with Scepter/Shield or Hammer on switch. Then spec for symbol/shout/virtue build.

With Guardian you can be a holy warrior or something more like a cleric. Personally, I find heal spam quite useless in PvE, outside of maybe dungeons. In WvW or Spvp its a much bigger deal, but the content in PvE just doesn’t really challenge a group of players enough for heal support to be warranted. So if I were going support, i’d definitely focus on the shielding and blocking, with boons and conditions to boot.

Cezton.2415:

Nah, I want to be a true support role. Thanks for the replies, btw.

Can any other great sword guardians link their builds?

Also, what is the best swap while using great sword for dungeons? Scepter/focus?

I’m experimenting with this GS build currently.

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/guardian#0.0.0.0-0.0.0.0.0-25.30.10.0.5-9.3.12.2.9.2

So far at cursed shore i can handle 3 normal melee mobs without needing to heal, most of the time anyway. Veteran +1~2 normals with some running and dodging.
I dont have any good stuff mostly karma armor and masterwork weapons.

I always laugh at people seeing themselves sill as “tanks” or “DPS”, as if one thing should exclude the other.

We Guardians have a nice complement of all abilities in the game. We can heal, we can dps, we can get a rough beating.. what people don’t get is we should do ALL OF THESE THINGS, together with the other classes.

I have chosen Valor and Radiance, and i often find myself “tanking” in dungeons.. when it does happens, i spam my Aegis abilities and kite. Yes, Kite. Oh, this isn’t a tank behavior? You’re right. Why should i get a beating when i can go around, burning all mobs, dpsing them, throwing fields for my friends to combo with, heal myself and my friends and throwing boons all around, and having a blasted good time instead of trying to spec/gear as a “tank” and try to resist the hits of the mobs..

Try playing the game as it is thought, instead of adapting them to a trinity that it’s actively discouraged here… you will be surprised of how adaptable our class is, and how funny it is to be a “fighter” instead of a meat shield…

Build for a bit more damage mitigation and then slowly weave yourself off of it. You ought to find the right balance of survival/damage for you.