Guild Wars 2

Hi Folks, I’ll just start off by saying I am a long time guardian player with 400ish hours of game time(Many more if you include bwe’s). (Original topic is here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/11tty0/guardian_guide_how_to_build_with_multiple_specs/)

Things to note before you proceed:

• Pure of voice is bugged. As is strength in numbers and quite a few other traits. They just don’t work as intended at present. Honestly I’d have a lot of pure of voice if it actually worked.

• Real damage does not come from 30 points in zeal alone. At level 80 300 power is not the biggest benefit in the world. Sure, a lot of damage can come from the TRAITS in the zeal tree, but with 0 points in zeal and the right build you can do far more damage in a group situation.

• You can’t dps when you are dead. This is the most important thing to understand. Every second that people have to revive you, or you have to run back into the fight is a massive dps loss. With the majority of these builds in dungeons you just won’t die if you play well. Your 100% Uptime on damage will far outweigh being down several times in a fight, not to mention your supporting utility boosts the entire team.

The Radiant Guardian: (Dungeons/PvP/Farming/Allrounder)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7elcgiCXFSLEm4Eh1jBKQ/hVAjXPcoEZIA

• Description:The Farm guardian has toughness, and supportive abilities, excellent for the karma zerg. Feel free to swap in a staff for tagging and additional buffing if doing straits. This build also allows you to do dungeons with no issue. You may also swap out mace for sword in pvp.

• Stats/runes: Toughness and Healing Power(With a few tough/vit pieces as well to balance your health pool). I personally like all monk. But its really up to you what you rune for.

• Trait Design: Radiance might seem like an odd choice, but it is actually more supportive in a group situation than honor. (This is only due to Pure of voice being bugged right now, and not working on the majority of shouts)
• Pros:Your own dps will be very high in a group situation, your constant shouting will keep yourself healed and give a lot of benefit to the group. Healing breeze is an absolute lifesaver(And gives you retaliation), not to mention virtue of justice being reset on every mob death, and blinding foes on use, and removing a boon every time you use it is just incredibly good in dungeons. This is a very active playstyle, most things will be off cool down at nearly all times. You also must have excellent situational awareness to help your group the most.
• Cons: Not as high a health pool as the Honor Guardian. Heal slightly less, but can be made up for with proper gearing. Lack of stun/daze/knockdown or cripple can be annoying in pvp/some dungeon fights.
• PVP: Works very well in PVP, scepter works well for destroying oil, you stay alive and basically don’t go down. Be sure to roll, and switch between weapons often.

The Bulwark Guardian: (Alternative to Radiant)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7elcgiCXFSLEmIFRuAbBYPwYF741DHKRGC

• Description: This is an alternate build to the Radiant that would be used if Pure of Voice actually worked. The majority of the information above is the same, except that your dps is lowered, your health pool is slightly larger, and your virtues give boons as well(Which in turn heal you more etc). You might wonder why the 5/5 instead of 10, its simply a preference choice to both give boons and blind foes with justice as a 10% increase on 5 seconds will be the same(With rounding up) as a 5% increase and the 10 point traits in virtues aren’t fantastic.

((More to come, Read down, as there is a character limit))

The Boon Guardian (Fun Build/Janky/Allrounder)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAW8dlcg67GFSLEf4ES2jVCBTQsCY01DHiiYIA;TQAquMeJ8y1F

• Description: This is a fun build for questing, exploring and much more. Its a silly build, but you should enjoy it anyway. It revolves around giving you as much boon up time as humanely possible, and ensuring you have swiftness and protection when you need it. You can have almost 100% swiftness uptime if you’re smart about it.

• Stats/Runes: Stats are mostly healing/vit/tough again, mix and match as appropriate, however when it comes to runes you’re going to have a strange hodge-podge. 2x Superior Water, 2x Superior Monk and 2x Major Water. Why? Well thats 40% Additional boon duration on top of your 30% from traits.

• Pros: Using retreat gives you 34 seconds of swiftness. Save yourselves gives you a good 17 seconds of nearly every buff! Hold the line will give you plenty of extra protection and regen, not to mention every time you use your virtues you get additional boons.(Might/regen/protection, tonnes of retaliation and stability! Lots of condition removal, and your dps? Surprisingly huge. The 25 points in virtues increases your damage significantly. Not to mention the long term Fury, and using staff’s empower will give you a lot of might. Hell, using the symbol of swiftness almost has a 100% Swiftness uptime. (Please note that the symbol does not stack, to get the most benefit you have to run through it and THEN use retreat/saveyourself)
• Cons: It is a really janky build. Its all about optimising your own buff uptime. It can be semi useful in a group situation, but what you do really relies upon your weapon choice. This is a fun build, don’t expect the world with it, though it can be hellishly fun in dungeons with a hammer/staff.
• Weapon Choice: This is an odd build because you can really mix and match for the best results. Staff is pretty much a must, after that pick what makes you happy/choose for whatever you are doing. Greatsword means lots of retaliation is up, not to mention lots of damage and maneoverability. Hammer for lots of protection(The auto attack is a great source of (Now) long lasting protection). Mace/Shield for lots of protection/regen. Find what suits you.

The Tranquil Guardian (Newbie Friendly/sPvP/Selfish dungeoning)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7dlcgaDXGSNEm4EhVhBi9gjecjXPgYEbIA;TYAqdM7I2xujbH5OA

• Description: This build focuses on meditations. Its pretty basic, and easy for newbies to learn how to use all their skills off cooldown. Most guardians probably run this build at some point because it looks so good on paper. I don’t recommend it for most because it is incredibly -selfish-. All of your abilities do good things for you, but not much for your team.
• Stats/Runes: Toughness, healing mostly. Thats the important part. Also all earth runes. Some tough/vit to round it out.

• Pros: Incredibly easy to keep yourself alive, you’ll feel pretty invincible, especially in sPvP. Lots of self heals, lots of condition removal. Decent damage. This works well in PvP as well it is an EXCELLENT capper build. Stand on the capping point and it takes upwards of 3 people to take you down.

• Cons: Incredibly easy to get stuck into this role and think you are doing Well. Yes, you are doing well, you’re just not doing good.(Think superman). You don’t offer much to the team. (Except as a capper in pvp)

Well thats it for now. if you want more I can share more. Please stop building 30zeal/30radiance builds and try something new. You can really help your team and be a fantastic asset. I will add more if people are interested, and I am happy to discuss things with people.

Regards,
Bastion

Thank you Bastion. Unfortunately, the Boon Guardian and Tranquil Guardian links are bad links. Please edit the links. I would love to see your builds.

Hi Frothy! unfortunately I can’t seem to edit the links. Please refer to my link on reddit for those two builds. Sorry, I would love to fix them. Not sure why they broke.

Why do you seem to have a love affair with altruistic healing? It doesn’t appear to heal for very much (70hp?)

@Ens.9854 I more have a love affair with the crit and toughness. And Altruistic is very good in group situations. The more boons, the more people the better the heal. It might not be a huge bonus, but it is a bonus. And it does help alot in dungeons(Especially lower level ones).

What would you suggest for runes and sigils? I’ve been wanting to try a better Guardian build. This is the GS/Staff build I am using, but it’s starting to falter and I’m kind of lost on how to gear for it http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARWlYg67GHSKEfIFRuA7DEs6x8un9wUgxMC;TwAA2yoEQJhSFlCKKZMyIkxKjTGpMA

No GS/Hammer builds?

10 points in Zeal and 25 points in Radiance is the basis for any DPS build (PvE wise). Any other build without those two simply will not put out close to the same number.

Good guide, but I honesly would change your “bulwark” build a tad.

I’m 0/10/30/30/0 (yours is 0/5/30/30/5 wich is good), but I cant let go the faster signet healing and I wouldnt get pure of voice at the 30 talent.

I’d replace it with Runes of Soldier to keep the cleasing off and swap it for Empowering Might.

It is almost pornographic the amount of stacks you get with a proper base crit and to add it’s healing is always ticking with altruistic healing.

On the down side, you wont get the replace debuff with a buff moto (and thus gainning an extra heal), but still, the amount of crits you do, specially under fury is amazing, and mainting a 10-14 might stacks is easy that way.

Of course, I do have 30%ish crit (5% toughtness to precision does wonders if you consider all runes gives you vit/tough and all my gear is power/vit/tough).

i’m strong, can take quite a beat, I buff my team with might, my symbols heals, I “cleanse” and of course, WANT to keep buffs up.

Not to mention it does wonders paired with a staff. it’s like having a second signet on short CD.