Guild Wars 2

Hi, playing a Guardian as 2nd char but I’m not playing dungeons and I mainly do Open World PvE, sPvP and WvW. sPvP and WvW so far only with my main.

Since I leveled char slots 2-5 like this:
10 level with char 2, then 10 level with char 3, … until all have +10 levels
then again 10 level char 2, 10 level char 3

I never played the guardian that much without break. And only played PvE with greatsword spamming and power focused.

For WvW I want to make it real bunker or heal(if worth… I hear even Warrior is better healer? or Ele) and support. sPvP maybe the same.

What is recommended(traits, weapons, skills, armor and stuff)? I know I can look for builds in sticked threads but I thougt I’d just make another thread cause everyone is making new threads like this.

At the moment between 75-80 level and I want to map complete Orr and finish personal story – then moving and play WvW / sPvP and sometimes back to PvE to complete a few other maps(I want world completion with all 8 classes / chars – long term goal).

Also if possible I want to use armor from WvW vendor cause it is cheaper with coins + badges(I don’t play dungeons to farm money)… but I can afford to buy jewelry stuff from TP or craft it since I’m still saving a bit money from my main that is completele geared up(and there seems only Soldier stats at the WvW vendor for jewelry).

Weapon I heard staff is good for tagging a lot of enemies? (Also Line of Warding for WvW?) What other weapons? Is Sword possibe? (Got the AP reward weapon skin for 1h sword cause my main is engineer and I don’t like that rifle skins…)

Staff is, I think, the best weapon for zerg tagging in WvW. Line of Warding is great for disrupting oncoming zergs, blocking gates, and sealing off chokepoints/entryways. People with stability can avoid it but most of the time they either can’t keep it up or haven’t put it back up yet.

sPvP and WvW builds are usually quite different. For WvW healing/bunker I’d recommend this https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/WvW-The-Healway-Guardian/first#post2401771

Warrior heals might be a bit better but you bring long duration protection, group stability, and possibly some area denial (with staff/hammer), which no one else does. The boons warriors give usually are more offensive (like fury).

If you’ve got a tourney PvP team, then the 0/0/10/30/30 base works well as a bunker to hold a point (though you aren’t gonna be able to kill much, just stall).

Hm… thanks. I tried this a bit. I still don’t have full exo so that’s why I did not like it that much. Or could be that it needs time to get used when you playe a ranged guy and more glass cannon all the time in the past.

But I found it a bit boring the first few hours I played. Also I died more often than with my glasscannon main char.

I think rezzing while in AC-fire still is not possible with a guardian because of it’s low HP and he can’t move while rezzing? (Is this better with Warrior? I think warrior would be the best thank regarding survivability cause he has highest HP and can be made with lots of toughness?)

Also it seems to take a lot of time to get used to all the abilities and know when to use what…. and spamming staff seems a bit boring.

I think I might go for a ranged char again and try ranger next… seems WvW is more suited for ranged… not that fun to have 100 AoE and other melee guys attacking you while you yourself are in melee.

Also: Is Healing Power really that useful? (Like in that builds) Or can you just put more points(and use gear that gives + toughness + vitality) in toughness and vitality(to max your own survivability) and use the heal abilities without any Healing Power?

Seems harder to play than I thought… from PvE he was much easier(and other classes seemed harder PvE and easier in WvW). And I always thought guardian was “easy to learn” and for beginners.

that build that was linked i would say you do need to practice it, get used to it, but that’s the same with all builds, classes, etc. though more importantly, it has to suit your play style and that you enjoy it.

if you stack healing power (or vitality and toughness for that matter), it doesn’t mean you can just stand and take hits or outheal anything. we have one trait selfless daring (15 in honor) which AoE heals on a dodgeroll, and with high healing, you can get up to 2k, though realistically will be more like 1 – 1.5k per dodgeroll. there are also traits that spread your passive regen, and your ability to pass out protection, and regen helps yourself and the gruop sustain a lot. however it takes very active awareness of your surroundings.

when i first started WvW as a Guard, i felt it was all about ranged too. but the more you get familiar with the class, the more you get comfortable with playnig melee, and i love being in the thcik of the battles now. you can use CC to stop your enemies in their trakcs, AoE blind to mitigate dmg, as well as use protection, aegis and retaliation to your advantage. stability is great to have as well. this helps engate all the enemies CCs agaisnt you when you first clash. stunbreaks. condition cleansing.

i think any class in PvE can be “easy” once you know how the class performs, know the mechanics and also how the PvE encounters. it’s more.. “static” if you will. and for WvW, you’re playing against actual players who learn and grow and improve. Guardian is definitely NOT easy mode as many people make them out to be. it takes practice and understanding of the class to be good at. they’re definitely a balanced class right now and are very strong at a few things, while lacking in other departments – the way it should be. there’s a lot we can offer in WvW and i love playing my Guardian there.

if you think you may enjoy it, stick with it for a while, watch some WvW videos of other Guardians and see if you liked hwo they played, what they did. though in the end, if you don’t enjoy it, then there’ll be another class for ya. ; ))

p.s. i think ressing someone from 0 in constant AC fire is a feat for any class. again, high HP and high armor/toughness = / = high survivability. i have certain builds where my health and armor are a LOT lower, but can survive much longer due to the right utilities being used, the right runes, the right sigils, higher healing power.

it’s all give and take, there’s no one build that can do everything ebtter than anything else out there.

hope this helps a bit. keep asking if you have more questions as well and hopefully we can chime in and answer them.

Thanks for your answer. I think I will try a bit more in WvW. sPvP I did not like that build above…

I don’t know if I’ll continue the guardian in WvW(might switch to the next class I want to try – with more ranged again or a mix of ranged and melee and guardian seems only ranged with scepter which is boring).

I’ll definitely try to play sPvP more… but for sPvP I think I want to try another build. I think it might be better not to focus in team supporting and healing skills? (Cause in tournament max 5 people in 1 team and maybe if you go to 2 points in groups 3 / 2 you have max 2 other people near you).

For sPvP I think I want after all to try a bit more focused on damage – if this is possible. I know when I had Guardians as enemy that there are some people that can still do a good amount of damage while being able to stay alive(while using the supportive stuff like the aegis and blocking stuff). This seems interesting to me… and it might be easier than in a huge zerg fight cause if you fight only 1 or 2 enemies it seems easier to detect where the damage is incoming from and when to use the defensive skills.

Is Greatsword always recommened? I thought it was more of “damage dealing weapon” but that above healing build also has greatsword mentioned? … and I often used it in PvE already. I thought maybe there would be a use for something like hammer or other 1h-weapons + offhand. (Like always one 2handed weapon and as other set one 1h-weapon + offhand).

here’s a good starting ground for various builds for s/tPvP:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first

yea, WvW and sPvP play very differently i feel. in WvW, the 0/0/10/30/30 build is more about sustain and outlasting your opponents, while being able to offer a lot of AoE support as well so it shines in both solo and group play. in sPvP, it can do the same but it’s more known as “bunkering”. beacuse of the difference of objectives in WvW vs PvP, in PvP, many will choose to play hammer paired with scepter/shield as standard and others mix it up.

GS is not for everything, but it certainly has its uses. i’d recommend just trying all the weapons out and play with that you think is fun. when i first started, i hated staff. then i learned to love it. i thought i would never touch the mace, and it’s one of my primary weapons now. at the same time, i keep switching back to hammer, GS, sword, focus, torch.. essentially all of the weapons avialable to the Guardian. : )) also to note, many will say one weapon is good for this, so don’t use it for that. i beg to differ. sure yuo can build a build around weapons. at the same time, you can build weapons around a build. example, the mace is extremely good for support. at the same time, it can be used in a burst build. i guess i just want you to not get narroed down in terms of what you think a certain weapon should be for what situation. of course, some will shine more in specific areas than others, but that won’t be all they’re limited to. re: yoru GS question though, that’s the thing about the “healing” build. it doesn’t ONLY heal/support, it still does good damage and able to maneuver around your enemies with strong combat mobility, which the GS and sword offer. they’re both fast hitting as well, so it helps proc “vigor” even with a low crit chance, which also gives more sustain for the build.

in regards to building for damage as a Guardian. absolutely. check out the thread and there are a bunch of builds that are focused on pure DPS, some are more hybrid, and used for roaming, but they all offer survivabiltiy via, like you said, blocks, blinds, timing your dodges right, etc. the Guardian is intrinsically sustainable so long you know when to use what. a popular build is 0/30/30/5/5 or variations of it but that’s not the only damage dealing build as well. you’re spot on about knowign to detect where the damage is coming from. also learn when to engage, when to disengage, what to avoid, what you can afford to be hit with, etc etc.

experiment and have fun!

Okay thanks. I will read some more other thread and about other builds. I also saw the mace while checking the skills and was thinking about using it(I think it has a heal symbol at one skill). But if I remember correctly there is one trait for mace which is in another trait line where I need to put trait points a bit different.

Healing and buffing seems a bit boring too me. I noticed this when I played a bit WvW… rezzing someone is fun… you see how he gets up and starts moving again and says “thanks”. But for healing and buffing others you won’t notice it…(especially with not UI if you are not playing in a party in WvW and only giving the boons to random people in zerg).

I think I’ll try chose the stuff that benefits me most(and if it also affects others I’ll take that as nice side effects)….

and just staying also with the greatsword cause I already liked it PvE. (it also has a “symbol” maybe I can use gs and mace and use symbol traits)?

Spirit Weapons I don’t want to use(also never used turrets as engineer).

What about signets? They give passive effects which is nice and seems “easy”(if you just use passive effects most of the time not using the active effect…) but the active effects seem boring and other stuff seems more useful.

Need to check the Wiki and Trait and skill list again later and trying something totally different since it probably is not that good to use much healing power if I think healing others and giving boons to them is boring(and probably I don’t need much healing power to only heal myself).

Edit: the linked PvP guide seems interesting. He mentions symbols and meditations stuff. Reading this later and trying something in sPvP.

Edit2: I just saw that guardians have a lot of signet traits… so I might try signets after all which leaves some room for not using stuff like that trait which makes shouts curing conditions.

Okay. I think I will play it more without healing power – in sPvP(since there are small groups and usually you are by yourself or with 1 or 2 otherr only). I tried a bit with signets, greatsword and mace(and focus). Was okay. I’m staying a bit alive longer but still dying more often than other guardians(probably because I don’t use shield and stuff and the signets are using slots that I could use for other defensive stuff).

But it is a bit more fun. Can also use one signet to knockdown(and I keep 1 shout for stability to finish). Seems okay for sPvP to play like that and experiment a bit with other builds since it is free to change builds and gears.

But I don’t think I’ll continue to play WvW. Just staying with my engineer which is so much more fun and better at ranged and all the game is about ranged… even sPvP they try to kite me and I sometimes want to bring the scepter…

that greatsword 3 or some immobilize is okay to get closer to kiters and prevent them from running but if they are good they still can stay out of range most of the time which is annoying cause they damage me and I can do nothing and just wait until all the defensive skills are used and on CD and the health is getting low.

I will play more ranged classes in WvW instead that stay ranged most of the time(and can go a bit in melee to rezz if needed) – melee most of the time or standing at a door doesn’t seem that fun.

Okay. After a bit more trying I found one of the linked sPvP builds okay – with Hammer(for CC) and scepter+ shield for a bit ranged. But don’t like the guardian for sPvP that much(cause I play main engineer and prefer that tons of CC we can use where I even can knockback/launch guardians if I wait until stability runs out and hit first autoattack to remove aegis)). Just not that much fun to bunker at points and I don’t want to play it focused on damage(better playing another class then).

I’m back at WvW then. And in the german forums I got some recommende builds that all use hammer + staff. First I did not like the hammer but when I tried it a bit in sPvP I started to like it.

Is it possible to use Altruistic Healing in WvW? In german forums some of the pros from the top tiered servers said AH was only for PvE and recommended something like 0/0/10/30/30 or 0/0/20/30/20.

But without AH I feel like I’m dying too fast(even with all the dodgeroll heal, blocking and aegis skills). So first I did not want to use shouts… and they said “shout aoe condition remove is a must have”. So okay… I say I want to use 0/0/30/30/10 then…

where I can use shout condition remove and AH. Runes + food for boon duration(to make up for only having 10 in the last trait line).

But then they said it was not a good idea to put only 10 in last line because apparently also 15 points there for more retaliation is a must have? (they used “retratet” shout and I just thought I change this with save yourselfs which also gives me a long retaliation).

So is this okay to play with only 10 in the last trait line? At the moment for me at least it feels “okay”(I still did not have any real zerg fights… either we were too strong or the others so I could not really test). And I think I need AH to stay alive.

“For WvW I want to make it real bunker or heal(if worth… I hear even Warrior is better healer? or Ele) and support. sPvP maybe the same.”

Healway Guardian Build…I don´t think there is a better bunker/heal build than this one

^^^ do check out the Healway Guardian build. it’s one of the threads on the first page now. ; ))

hmm, i want to say it really depends on how you want to play and what you want to achieve in WvW. a 0/0/10/30/30 or 0/0/20/30/20 build with high healing and strong boon duration can function very well in both solo play as well as group play. though understand you will be doing sustained damage overtime and most likely won’t see any big numbers. a lot of damage will also come via retaliation or burn on blocks if you go for that trait.

at the same time, i wouldn’t say AH isn’t viable. i personally feel hammer is EXTREMELY strong in WvW. regardless of solo or group. though AH definitely shines when in at least a full group. with high enough healing power though, you don’t need AH to help you survive. you can get cloe to 2k dodgerolls, equip energy sigils on both weapon sets and that alone is HUGE sustain. again, use blinds, dodges, blocks all at the right time.

re: retaliation. it’s definitely strong in WvW but you CAN get by without speccing heavily into it. i would say , try both builds (though you may need different armor sets to reach “max” potential of either build, imho) and see which you prefer. not everyone’s going to love one style over another. and you may not like both. then it’s about finding what you enjoy yourself.

one of the benefits of having 30 in Valor (x/x/30/x/x) is that you can switch to use meditations with Monk’s Focus (Valor XII) if you’re going solo. and then switch to shouts and Altrustic healing if you’re in a small group and you feelthat’s more beneficial.

but i will say the Healway or variations of it are extremely fun to play in WvW. : ))

Hello. Thanks for the answers. For WvW I think I have found a “fun build”. I ended up with 0/0/10/30/30 after all – just needed time to get used to it. I think running with AH a bit until I got used to the hammer and staff skills(cause I only used greatswort PvE all the time and was bit slow with using skills at hammer cause not used to it) was a good idea.

Now I’m using it like the 2nd build at the first linked thread here… only hammer + staff(not greatsword + staff they use). And using 2 shouts + hallowed ground(for additional stability and a fire field). Also I like the long boon duration and have +30 from traits and the rundes to give +40(and can also use food for boon duration since I’m fine now and don’t need additional vita or toughness from food).

Starting to have fun with the hammer traited and every 4 second blast finisher and almost 40 seconds might(from base duration 20 with fire field + blast and -70-90 percent boon duration depending on the food). Gear is cleric + soldier(with +healing orbs) at trinkets(only using exotics there).

Healing Power about 1000 and with staff +sigil that can stack more healing power each kill…. at hammer the other sigil for more endurance at swapping. That was a good idea an makes sense to have the sigil that stacks healing power at staff cause you are supposed to “tag” a lot of enemies with the staff(and get credit for the kill = more sigil healing power stacks).

Maybe not 2k healing dodgereoll(at least not per 1 dodgeroll) but still good and as long as I don’t overestimate the guardian(that’s what I did all the time) it is fine… I just try to stand at the front if possible but let the high vity/high toughness guys like warrior stay there all the time and dodge around a bit and move back sometimes to prevent dying(and then throwing some staff 2 that also heals a bit and staff 4 if needed… and rezzing downed).