Guild Wars 2

I’ve only been in the game a week so go easy on my noobness!

In wow I played a ret pally, two handed sword, huge burst damage with added solo survivability via dodge… I know dodge isn’t gonna happen but we do have Retaliation which is basically invulnerability + reflect damage.

It seems 10/25/././. Seems to be the stable starting point for dps. Is the heal and 5% damage worth the 10 points in Zeal?

The damage from purging flames seems very small compared to symbol of wrath.. So is it really even worth having as without it saves atleast 5 points in traits…

How is retaliation in pve, I’ve seen some mention it’s useless but how when it can be up nearly 100% of the time so that your nearly invincible right?

I’ve seen posts saying meditation is solo and shouts are teaming but the meditation does look very weak compared to shouts… Only judges looks useful… Your thoughts?

I would like to make a a build I can solo roam pve and has enough burst damage to kill quickly before I’m killed, any ideas or links to builds? (Not fussed about gear ATM as leveling still)

Was thinking something like:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR7flYg67GHSKEfIFR+hVazAgIsqQ8wUgxMC-jECBYfCyUEwEBBK1sIaslhFRjVXDT5aIyqYoSBExwI-w

Combo sigil and virtue of resolve together for bug heal and retaliation.

Combo judges and virtue of courage together for reduced damage and retaliation at the start of fights.

Spam your virtue of justice every kill and go to town on them.

Honestly, the closest thing to ret pally is a warrior. They get decent heals, group buffs, and do retaliation better imo. Also just fyi, retaliation does not prevent any damage. Have fun out there.

First off, how is dodge not gunna happen? Guard can have perma vigor with 5 pts in radiance, add in energy sigils and you got an kitten ton of dodging, plus you can get heals on dodge if you spec for it.

@Deathmonger
How is war better retal? Guard has “decent heals, group buffs” as well, probably better all around group buffs actually, and you can get perm retal on guard, heck perm group retal if you want.

Retal builds are great in wvw, but dont work well in pve, because anything that takes longer than a few seconds to kill, you dont want touching you in any way, let alone hitting you enough times for retal to be useful

If I went with power toughness and vitality with added condition damage I could kill fast still and last long enough to take some punches maybe?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQFARlUg67mFyMEf4ESWBRq6R8cPeI2DMKjgPA-jwBBofAEEApmFRjtuqIasKbYqXER12bFRrGA-e

Pve isnt about taking hits, its about avoiding them, making them miss, and redirecting them. As much power as you get with full valor line and soldier runes, its not good for pve to have such low crit dmg and chance, and losing it for toughness and vit isnt a great idea. Anything worth doing in pve will basically 1hit you regardless of toughness, vit can help sometimes, but isnt worth putting in that much. The exception would be world bosses, because some of them do so much you cant really stand close for more than a second or 2 with low guard vit.

To sum it up, guards have amazing skills and utilities that help keep them from getting hit, so focus on high damage, while using supportive utilities and traits that will keep you from being hit.

Fistful Of Bacon.3046:

Pve isnt about taking hits, its about avoiding them, making them miss, and redirecting them. As much power as you get with full valor line and soldier runes, its not good for pve to have such low crit dmg and chance, and losing it for toughness and vit isnt a great idea. Anything worth doing in pve will basically 1hit you regardless of toughness, vit can help sometimes, but isnt worth putting in that much. The exception would be world bosses, because some of them do so much you cant really stand close for more than a second or 2 with low guard vit.

To sum it up, guards have amazing skills and utilities that help keep them from getting hit, so focus on high damage, while using supportive utilities and traits that will keep you from being hit.

this is actually perfect, guardian is about avoiding damage through blocks, aegis, reflects and reducing it through protection, I run fractals any level and at about 36-38+ anything is going to 1 hit you anyway. The rest of pve is a breeze with full zerker, fractals is too with a good team

Talking about damage/resistance, IMHO meditation guardian is more solid than warrior.
Both have on-par healing (500 HPS, but guardian’s works better against spikes), but guardian has some protecion uptime, vigor and different blocks.

What guard lacks is cc, mobility (that’s the main reason why med guard isn’t played competively, IMHO: you are very slow for a roamer) and stability.

I’d say ret pally is mroe similar to meditation guardian, offering a mix of everything, and has to avoid ranged fights.

Unless you talk about Hambow, but that’s an abomination.

So how would you design a ret pally guardian for general pve (non dungeon specific)?