Guild Wars 2

So, maybe a disconnect between title and reality, but there is a separation between the two topics. I gots two semi-related questions for you forum people.

Guardian DPS. What is optimal here, do Guardians tend to do passive DPS and build to survive to do it? What are the weapons most used for this? The trait lines? The glyphs? I’m nearing 80 on mine and want to jump in dishing out a decent amount of hurt. To specify, this is looking at PvE damage in dungeons and such.

Armor Sets. Not exclusively dungeon armor, but in general, what’s good to start out with / build towards (with the aforementioned intent of DPS). Admittedly entirely based on appearance, I love the Flame Legion dungeon armor. It looks insane, but are the stats good for my intent? How does Balthazaarian armor stack up (the karma set)? What armor should I be looking at if not those?

Right then. Go!

Guardian damage isn’t excitingly high but very consistent. The Greatsword and Hammer are both great for dealing multiple enemies while the scepter is good for single targets/ structures.

Most guardians go for Power/precision/crit dmg because Burn damage doesn’t stack in damage but only duration making condition very unpopular. Valor and Honor are actually the most popular traits to put in for most builds as these 2 trees offer the most improvements to utilities, cooldowns and survivability.

Armor sets are completely cosmetic. Karma sets are always a good stepping stone before you do dungeons but you can always change the stats by using transmutation stones anytime. Heck you can wear rags and still have the stats you want.

So what would you recommend for armor sets, or rather what is the norm taken? I see a lot of references to knight’s armor. Does this translate to the crafted sets? Or is there a higher tier I don’t know about?

Knight sets refer to pieces of armor that give you the Pow/Pre/Tgh stat mix, which are not available through dungeons or karma sets, I believe, making them available only through crafting or buying and trading from someone who can. It’s a very popular stat build as it has defence, power and crit chance all in the same package.

Righto. Is that what people generally strive for in terms of a PvE DPS set? Or, as is the case with most pieces in this game, is that largely subject to personal preference?

i want to say the latter is correct. as it highly depends on how you want to play and spec out your Guardian. : )) what sort of build have you been playing so far?

a lot of Guards will spec deep into Valor and Honor. most specifically Valor (300 toughness AND 30% crit dmg to boot). and either grandmaster trait allows for high survivability.

in general Guardians last long, and deliver strong sustained dmg over time. though, of course you can build to be “bursty”, note, as a Guard. and i’ve seen some do it VERY well.

so also depends on what content you’re going to play. general PvE? dungeons? WvW? PvP?

i personally think Knight’s is a great starting point. a lot of Guards (or players in general) like Soldier’s as well (Power/Toughness/Vitality). a few threads i urge you to check out:

Brutaly’s Hammer and Altruistic Healing Guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Hammer-and-Altruistic-Healing-gameplay/first

Chris’ Healway Guardian:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/WvW-PvE-The-Healway-Guardian/first

A few threads of Guardians i LOVE watching (strictly WvW but awesome and variety of builds):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/MOVIES-Hammer-Guardian-in-Roaming-WvW/first

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/PVP-Videos-GS-Hammer-in-group-WvW-with-no-AH/first#post1303162

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/New-1-23-Videos-WvW-DPS-builds/first#post1282315

Berserker. Or Knights. Depends on the group/dungeon but anything else is sub-optimal. Given how much depends on crits and how little actual survivability you need in this game if played well.

As far as I know Knights is available for Arah tokens

LITF.2576:

As far as I know Knights is available for Arah tokens

And Sorrow’s Embrace.