Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,

This is my first post so forgive me if something is not right ^^
I’ve been playing this game for about a month now, got my HOT expansion and so far its great, I want to play a profession that uses the Greatsword I tried both Guardian and Warrior and I enjoyed both but found Guardian to be more enjoyable as a Greatsword carrier however from what I’ve seen people prefer Guardian Hammer or Scepter/Torch/Focus, I know while leveling it doesn’t really matter what you use everything will get the job done but is Dragonhunter Greatsword that bad compared to the other options especially for fractals/dungeons.

Finally I watched a guy on YouTube that uses Greatsword and Longbow I liked the Melee/Range options there, could that be an acceptable combination ?

Thank you very much.

Anything is “viable”, but neither greatsword nor longbow are anywhere near good. Unfortunately. The alternatives (hammer, sword+x, scepter+x) have both better damage and stronger utility, so there’s little reason to take GS (or bow).

If you’re looking at open world pve, GS/LB is fine, but typically in raids and fractals people want the most dps and/or utility. Those weapons no longer offer it. Warrior does have a GS meta build, though, if you want to try it.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Berserker_-_Phalanx_Strength

For pvp, I would say GS/LB is definitely viable in a meditrapper build.

CptAurellian.9537:

Anything is “viable”, but neither greatsword nor longbow are anywhere near good. Unfortunately. The alternatives (hammer, sword+x, scepter+x) have both better damage and stronger utility, so there’s little reason to take GS (or bow).

Yeah I see why people would consider what’s optimal especially for group content.

Moonsinn.5382:

If you’re looking at open world pve, GS/LB is fine, but typically in raids and fractals people want the most dps and/or utility. Those weapons no longer offer it. Warrior does have a GS meta build, though, if you want to try it.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Berserker_-_Phalanx_Strength

For pvp, I would say GS/LB is definitely viable in a meditrapper build.

I see, well I enjoyed Warrior so I think I’ll go with that meta build for its great group support.

Don’t worry about trying to be optimal unless you’re pushing into high level fractals or raids. Play whatever you enjoy the most.

Ares Teh God.9768:

Don’t worry about trying to be optimal unless you’re pushing into high level fractals or raids. Play whatever you enjoy the most.

Yeah you’re right thanks

I use GS on guardian for general PvE and for Fractals. It’s actually key to my condi-dps hybrid build, which works on maximising the Justice procs. GS has 3 excellent skills for this. A 5-mob pull for yanking things close to you (or if they are already close, throw it and leave it on so it can pulse), Symbol of Wrath which will also pulse a number of times on 5 mobs, and Whirling Wrath (with 5 mobs and the relevant trait) will proc Justice 11 times just on its own. To put in perspective, when pulling off the full combo so I get my might stacks, my Whirling Wrath will apply 15.4K of AoE burning damage all on its own on each of the 5 mobs. Full combo with 5 mobs (if they even live through it) will apply 91K of burning damage over a period of about 6 seconds, and that’s not counting the massive spike of direct damage as well.

It’s not as good on single target sustained fights as the current meta builds with hammer etc, but against clusters of 3 or more, with some smart weapon-swapping to scepter/torch when you’re at 1-2 mobs, to quote a friend I showed the build to “Oh gosh the numbers”

I love it for fractals and PVE, even if I would never use it for raids (not that I use Guard for raids). Nuking a ball of veterans/elites and literally watching them go up in flames in a few seconds never gets old >:D

For fractals/dungeons and open PvE, GS is good for guard. The pull on gs5 is really nice at stacking mobs and the dmg is good (though not quite sword/scepter+torch). If your fractal group dont have a mesmer (chrono), it will often be your job to pull mobs so DD/tempist can effectively blind and then nuke down them.

The reason its not used in raids is the longer fight time, where a boss fight easy take several minutes and here both hammer and sword/scepter/torch pull away in damage. But the shorter fights of fractals/dungeons/open world make the burst from gs competiple. With the added support from a pull. GS + either sword/torch or scepter/torch is often a good choice

For high level fractals I always end up using GS – Sw/T. A bit less damage than Sw/T – Sc/T but I find the GS to have more viability, either in terms of CC skills like the 5 mob pull (which is the only reason I use GS at all) or short term higher damage & faster pulsing damage (GS #2). Found a good tradeoff between Big game Hunter and Radiance grandmaster trait. (Basically use F1 only when you are ready to drop procession of blades trap for the damage boost. Rest of the time hit AoE and watch enemies burn with auto F1 proc)

To be honest most fractal fights aren’t as long as to let the scepter outshine the greatsword in damage. Nonetheless if the fight requires you to use a range option go for scepter (more damage too). Play with what you like.

While raiding you usually face single bosses so I’d suggest not carrying GS. Either hammer or Sw & Sc / T is the best option so far. Way higher damage and well raid timers…

Play with whatever you want, as long as you make it work it’ll be fine. Who cares if the fight lasts 10 minutes instead of 5.