Guild Wars 2

Good day everyone,

I was hoping to get the advice of a more experienced guardian/player.

I am looking for a build for my guardian which heavily uses/relies on the mace mainhand. I have so many full zerker chars, Id like a change up, and really like the look of the mace on the guardian. The build would be mostly PvE, however a build that could be used in WvW group roaming aswell would be great. Offhand doesn’t matter, whichever works, though I believe focus or shield would probably be best.

My goal isn’t to throw out tons of damage, its more to support allies through boons/healing while still dealing a fair amount of damage.

Any advice or builds would be heavily appreciated.

Thanks!

First things first: It’s my understanding that in organized PvE content, focusing on Support isn’t all that beneficial. The incidental healing you get from Regeneration and other (small) sources isn’t enough to make a difference in the long run. (I’m told, I haven’t run organized PvE in a long while). In WvW zergs, I’m not yet convinced about the usefulness of a big focus on supporting said zerg. In smaller, roaming teams, I think it can have its place.

Okay, with that out of the way:

Off-hand: For PvE, I’d probably pick a Focus. The Shield isn’t useful enough and the Torch isn’t support-y enough. The Focus offers you a Blind (very useful) and another source of Regeneration. As well as the option of extra burst or personal survivability with the 5 skill

For WvW, I’d opt for a Shield. Shield of Absorption becomes a lot more relevant when you’re up against other players. Catching their arrows or knocking them of a bridge can change a fight.

For your secondary weapon, I’d probably go for the Greatsword in PvE and the Hammer in WvW. Both dish out a good amount of damage and offer a good number of options.

I’d also advice a Shout-based build, but mostly because that’s my personal favorite support-build. This build basically builds itself, requiring you to go all the way in Honor for Pure of Voice. Since you’re handing out boons like it’s Christmas, Altruistic Healing is a good option (which also allows you to pick up Mace of Justice and Retributive Armor, which gives you that little extra damage you are looking for).

I don’t exactly know what you want so I am just going through some good boon/healing options in traits. Hope it helps.

Honor:

Honor has many good traits for a supportive gamestyle. Superior Aira decreases the cooldown of your shouts therefore is a very good to slot if you ever want to use shouts, which to support allies you probably should. There is Writ of Exaltation, which expands the reach of your symbol on mace’s second skill to ensure that your allies stay within. There is Pure of Heart which heals allies when Aegis is removed. This trait works very well with Communal Defenses which I will talk about later. There is Writ of Persistence which increases the duration of your symbol on mace’s second skill. With around %10 boon duration and with this trait, all allies standing in your symbol should have regeneration on themselves at all times. There is Empowering Might, which gives 5 seconds of might to nearby allies on 1 second cooldown when you crit. If you want to provide boon support this is a very good trait to choose, and the trait only gets better with more crit chance and boon duration. There is Writ of the Merciful, which allows your symbols to heal every second, ideal for your second skill. There is Pure of Voice that allows your shouts to convert 1 condition off of your allies to a respective boon. If you use shouts and Superior Aria, this is a very supportive trait to have. There is Battle Presence which allows your Virtue of Resolve to passively heal others. Aside from major traits there are 2 minor traits you might want to look at: Vigorous Precision and Selfless Daring. With more Vigor you can dodge more and with more dodges you can heal others more. However, never use dodges solely to heal others as you would be endangering yourself. Dead people can’t support others.

Valor:

Valor is a complimentary tree for Honor if you want to go supportive with mace. There aren’t many good options in here though, so you won’t have trouble choosing.

There is Strength in Numbers which gives you and your allies +150 toughness. This may not seem like a lot, but the lower toughness you have the more effective additional toughness is. Therefore this trait can allow zerker allies to have damage mitigation around %10-%20. There is Mace of Justice which gives you 250 healing power and %5 more damage. For a supportive mace setup this trait is a cornerstone for obvious reasons. There is Retributive Armor which gives you some bonus precision with more toughness you have. If you slot Empowering Might, you might need as much as precisiob as you can get. There is Altruistic Healing which heals you each time you apply a boon to yourself and your allies. You are aiming to boon support your allies anyway, so this trait would be a good option always. Note that this trait doesn’t provide supoort by direct means, it only helps to keep you alive to provide more support. There is Communal Defenses, which gives allies (but not you) Aegis each time you block an attack every 20 seconds. Aegis every 20 seconds for all allies nearby (no target limit) is nothing to scoff at and it synergizes well with Pure of Heart.

Virtues:

Boon support equals to Virtues. It is always a good practise to go for Virtues for any build setup. For your potential build however you have only few points left, and I would suggest you to pick Master of Consecrations as it improves the support of your consecration skills by a lot. If you wish to go further there are many good options such as Absolute Resolution which improves your Virtue of Resolve’s passive and makes the active a condition cleanse, Indomitable Courage which makes Virtue of Courage passive to proc Aegis more frequently and active to give Stability to allies and Shielded Mind which makes your Virtue of Courage a stun break for all allies. Depending on situations, there are many powerful traits you can choose here.

For PvE don’t forget to use Master of Concecrations along with Shouts. Use this trait and use either Wall of Reflection, Purginf Flames or Hallowed Ground (This is what I use depending on the situation). These are even better than Shouts most of the time

Woah!

Thanks guys!

Plenty here for me to work from, I like the idea of consecrations, also makes for some nice blast finishes with Hallowed ground being fire.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Empowering-Wrath-8-DPS-Build-Stella-Alamarr/first