Guild Wars 2

So i started a Guardian a few days ago and i intend to follow this build, http://intothemists.com/guides/3793-max_utility_dps_hammer_guardian (all credits go to Obal, the creator of this build).

My question is, i wanted to switch the GS for a staff (if that´s a good thing) and if i did that should i change any traits, also, would switching the skills to the signets that give 10% damage reduction and improved power “damage” the build?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: This would be mainly for open world and dungeons.

You probably won’t benefit a lot from the Staff. What are the reasons you’d like to switch to it?

Signet of Judgment is also something you won’t get a lot of benefit from. If you are dying as a Guardian on open-world content, there’s little a 10% damage reduction will do for you.

It’s been a while since I leveled up my Guardian and I’m pretty sure I used the worst build you could imagine (I probably dumped everything in support traits), but the traits look really weird to me. They don’t focus in any particular direction and this just makes you worse at everything.

It was mainly for the Empower ability.

you should probably use gw2skills.net for theorycrafting, intothemists hasn’t been updated in a while.

FAMISIL.1579:

It was mainly for the Empower ability.

Not worth it. You lose out on a lot of damage potential if you drop the Greatsword for the Staff. The Empower won’t make up for that. In the sort of content you plan to run, the heal from Empower shouldn’t matter.

Empower is pretty bad for 3 main reasons: it stucks you in a bad weaponset if you’re switching to staff just for empower, the might stacks duration is short and will overwrite longer stacks from fire field+blast, and the cast time hurts your personal dps by a lot.
In solo, you can use it prefight to burst open world mobs, but it’s not really needed ( just fun to see higher numbers). SIgnets are usually a bad choice for dungeons since you want to use the right utilities to mitigate damage and not a passive boost, not that helpful. THe increased power signet is decent if you have nothing to take instead, in solo i usually run save yourselves/ retreat/ signet.

Keys theorycrafted about the damage of several Guardian builds:
http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12646847-guardian-dps-build-theory-by-obal-dekeyz#

According to said chart the damage of a 5/5/0/4/0 Hammer+Greatsword compared to a 5/5/0/4/0 Hammer only is is 10331 respectively 10016, so about 3%. The damage difference if you use a 3/5/0/4/2 build should be also about said margin.

In open PvE Staff is imo more useful. Staff #3 gives you Swiftness, and Staff #1 is an AoE attack which is perfect for events to farm loot.
In dungeons you should switch your second weapon set according to the situation. I use Greatsword if I need a pull, I use Staff for skipping mobs, and Scepter/Focus if I may need a ranged weapon during the next fight.