Guild Wars 2

Hello Guardians, first time posting in this section of the forums. Just got my Guardian to 80 yesterday, he’s my 5th 80 at just under 1,200 hours. I’ve been getting the hang of Guardian pretty quickly, especially medi guard, it feels like a mix between my warrior and thief, but I want some second opinions on the build i’ve put together for him.

Normally I run in WvW with a group of 3-5 running backline havoc, group consists of 1 ele, 1 warrior, 1 thief, and the other two slots rotate depending on who is playing, I would play the warrior but a few guild mates finally got geared on new characters so we have those positions filled now. I made a Guardian with the intention of running a medi GS / Hammer to provide some crowd control without losing most of my damage like what happens with a warrior. So this is my build, thoughts? I’m pretty set on the runes and sigils just because of how i’m playing, but if there’s a better power based CC rune, let me know.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQJARSl0ApcoVDxbI8DNR8QVVAgdSEFVx1/wTmDA-TBDBABCcIAq4CAc8RAIq9HOSJWOqLglyDJUCijKNA8AASRXwDm4IEQsRA-e

I welcome the try, but no plus speed rune is a non starter for me, specially so in wvw

Yeah I’m a bit annoyed with the lack of swiftness a guardian has without switching out a meditation or switching to staff (which is what i’ll do). The reason I took Ele runes over speed though is that with a warrior, ele, and thief always around, i’m at no shortage for swiftness… Solo roaming would be a pain though.

Interesting build

What I don´t get … why the Sigil of Impact? U only have the Kick on Hammer 4 and no other source for Stuns or Knock Downs or do you use the Impact Sigil because of the War and Ele-Stuns/Imobalizes?

Have u tried to swap the Ele-Rune to a Svarnir (the 6th bonus is a bit crappy)/Ice to push Chill a bit more

Yeah it’s because of updraft from the Ele and Bulls Charge from the Warrior for Impact. Svanir runes don’t have the power the build needs. It relies heavily on gear for getting over 2k power because the traits are all into vitality and toughness..

Cool build, few things you could try:

Maybe switch GS with staff. Staff #5 used right can have a huge impact on fights while #1 and #2 (don’t detonate) provide insane damage.

Also when running with a group I like to use resolute healer instead of two-handed mastery, but that’s more personal preference than anything.

Staff and either the GS or Hammer are interchangeable, it sits in my inventory for empower and swiftness mostly, but having the pulls from the GS and the Hammer death ring are pretty much necessity, although I could see the staff being a lot better in a larger fight, something along the lines of 10v10+. Normally i’m only fighitng as 3-5 vs 5-8…

I was tempted to take Resolute Healer but the thief runs smokescreen which really helps out with revives, along with Shadow Protector, he can drop a Shadow Refuge and it will revive people on its own, along with Warrior Warbanner. It is something good to keep in mind though if we’re ever short a Warrior..

All good suggestions so far, thanks for the feedback guys

Build Link

Embrace the Chilldian!

Also, don’t worry so much about Str Sigils if you’re running w/ an Ele man… Hammertime and everyone will lurv u. You’ll dish out crazy amounts of chill and might.

Dropped the 7% crit and added perception.

Healing Breeze

You had no condi cleanse.. at all, outside of a 1 time purge. Changed your food + rune set. Much better all around. This would even allow you to remove the condi purge (cop) and substitue MI – a MUCH better utility for a small grp play.

Reasons:
1) 1200 yard cap closer on enemy cuz you know your ele / war / thief can get to the target: IE RoW + MI = clutch.
2) Added Grp Heal burst – MI + VoJ + Healing Breeze.
3) Disengage tool.

Your ele can clear the evil condi bomb when rains down on you: torment / bleed / Confusion

PS: other guys here on the forum are much better at stat allocation than I am – I still wear green gear just because I’m too lazy to mo-ze on over to that pve zone and spend some of my 4.6k karma and get a backpack that’s not greenzzzz.

I have to say i’m generally quite confused by some of the things you mentioned… I should explain a few things, and also have some questions to ask.

I chose the Accuracy sigil because this is primarily a WvW build, and stacking sigils do not do well in WvW, ever. You never remain on a single map long enough as a small fighting group to accumulate and then efficiently use all 25 stacks from a sigil, even with 5 stacks per player kill. The stacks reset every time you change map, or go downed. I prefer to stick with the safe static bonus over one that needs to get up to speed, and then can be lost instantly…

As for the condi clears… I’m very confused. You claimed I have no condi removal, yet the passive effect of Signet of Resolve is to remove conditions. Unless the tooltip is wrong in Gw2 Skills, Healing Breeze offers no condi removal at all. Smite Condition removes a condition and deals damage, and Contemplation of Purity is a mass condition removal, which you then replaced with Merciful Intervention, providing me with less condi removal. I wear Elementalist runes mainly for the chill duration, but also because having 5 level 80’s, and owning the game for less than a year, I do not have that kind of money to throw at every single character I own. Hoelbrak runes would be great, and I will eventually run them, but for now, Elementalist runes make the cut. The food is variable of course, it changes depending on what i’m doing and the one I chose was just a generic placeholder, I do run Lemongrass Poultry in WvW.

Generally these fights are so quick that my Elementalist does not have the time to roll back onto me and heal me, as that both removes pressure from the people we are fighting, and breaks his skill rotation, generally he will provide the might passively by being an elementalist, and I would provide CC support to him.

It’s certainly a different kind of build you suggested, but a more expensive one that doesn’t quite fit into my groups synergy the way it needs to. I will however bookmark it to experiment with later on, thank you.

Amins.3710:

Build Link

Embrace the Chilldian!

Also, don’t worry so much about Str Sigils if you’re running w/ an Ele man… Hammertime and everyone will lurv u. You’ll dish out crazy amounts of chill and might.

Dropped the 7% crit and added perception.

Healing Breeze

You had no condi cleanse.. at all, outside of a 1 time purge. Changed your food + rune set. Much better all around. This would even allow you to remove the condi purge (cop) and substitue MI – a MUCH better utility for a small grp play.

Reasons:
1) 1200 yard cap closer on enemy cuz you know your ele / war / thief can get to the target: IE RoW + MI = clutch.
2) Added Grp Heal burst – MI + VoJ + Healing Breeze.
3) Disengage tool.

Your ele can clear the evil condi bomb when rains down on you: torment / bleed / Confusion

PS: other guys here on the forum are much better at stat allocation than I am – I still wear green gear just because I’m too lazy to mo-ze on over to that pve zone and spend some of my 4.6k karma and get a backpack that’s not greenzzzz.

When I’m running DPS I actually still use your 2/5/6/0/1 build believe it or not.

I think if I ran this build I’d try and add in Superior Sigil of Incapacitation. I think with the critical chance you would have a lot of cripple going on. I may have to try this just for fun.

Xytl.8659:

I have to say i’m generally quite confused by some of the things you mentioned… I should explain a few things, and also have some questions to ask.

I chose the Accuracy sigil because this is primarily a WvW build, and stacking sigils do not do well in WvW, ever.

Guess that depends on how often your group dies: Stratigic kiting to weed out the zerg that’s chasing you or just not engaging are invaluable tools

You never remain on a single map long enough as a small fighting group to accumulate and then efficiently use all 25 stacks from a sigil, even with 5 stacks per player kill.

Are you really saying you can’t kill 5 people with your havoc group in a timely fashion?

I prefer to stick with the safe static bonus over one that needs to get up to speed, and then can be lost instantly…

I prefer an extra 5% Crit chance and learn not to engage large groups unless we’re just having super fun and “to hell with it”: Difference in play-styles I guess – to each’s own

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As for the condi clears… I’m very confused. You claimed I have no condi removal, yet the passive effect of Signet of Resolve is to remove conditions.

The only thing I dropped was a 1 condi every 10s (keep CoP if you need it). But what you gain is SOOOO much more valuable than 1 condi clear every 10s: Group HEAL, and a good one at that. In fact, w/ the build I put forth, if you kept CoP, you’d have even MORE condi clear because a -60% condi duration significantly outweighs 1 condi every 10s – hands down

You then replaced with Merciful Intervention, providing me with less condi removal.

I provided less “burst” condi removal, but better condi removal overall: -60% Condi Damage. This really sounds like you need to help your group understand the value of pew pew’n into light fields or your warrior hitting #3 on his GS

I do not have that kind of money to throw at every single character I own. Hoelbrak runes would be great, and I will eventually run them.

fair enough =]

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Generally these fights are so quick that my Elementalist does not have the time to roll back onto me and heal me, as that both removes pressure from the people we are fighting, and breaks his skill rotation, generally he will provide the might passively by being an elementalist, and I would provide CC support to him.

I’m confused, why aren’t you on the target?

Moreover, if you’ve ventured off, you have a plethora of gap closer: just don’t chase the squirrel man… as hard as it is (trust me, I love squirrels!)… just don’t do it. lol

It’s certainly a different kind of build you suggested, but a more expensive one that doesn’t quite fit into my groups synergy the way it needs to. I will however bookmark it to experiment with later on, thank you.

Good Luck!

Side note Xytl – check out some of Amins videos. He has a current Guardian video which I’d like to say fits his “don’t chase the squirrel” comment.

You will notice in the video, hell, in all of his (outside the crazy 3×15 necro) videos that they know when to cut and run. I think that is important regardless of what class or comp you are playing.

Simply put to answer both of you:

No, I am not the first person on a target, that’s not because I’m chasing a different target, more that the ele and warrior are the strong openers. Both having long duration knockdowns to keep people unable to counter, the ele opens with a water>air>fire>earth rotation which provides both Updraft and Earthquake, while the warrior is running Bulls Charge and has a hammer for Earthshaker, so that’s already 4 knockdowns, not counting basilisk from the thief. My job then would generally be to group the next target we focus as a way of keeping pressure on during the cooldown for the rest of the group, this would mean a Ring of Warding / Judges Intervention opening to trap then knock people down, allowing the ele to open with a fire rotation that has lower cooldowns than earth and air. Basically it’s a heavy support build strictly for CC. Healing wasn’t taken into consideration because i’m moving from a Warrior into a Guardian to provide even heavier CC, but since the Warrior cannot provide heals (without shouthealing), we simply don’t need it, group sustainability is already high, which is why I moved over to a heavier damage + CC class, rather than a tankier CC class like Warrior. I know that sounds backwards, but considering WvW builds and being skilled enough to use zerker stat armor, the Guardian comes out on top for damage.

This difference in playstyle may be more the fact that my group runs a more European group composition than what you normally see on an NA server. That’s different gear, different rotations and class composition.