Guild Wars 2

Hi all, I am looking for a good guardian build for WvW that uses Soldier’s (power/toughness/vitality) gear. When I hit lvl 80, I was a noob and got the AC set without thinking if this was gonna affect my build or anything like that. I want to put this set to use since it took so much time to get it, so I was looking for a build that would use this gear. I also have superior rune of the monk on it, which is the rune that comes in every piece of the set.

That is good gear! I Use it most often I think

Altruistic healing shout builds give nice support, solid damage and great stay ability for a variety of situations… I would start there

Soldier stats are probably the best for the Guardian. I second what Grazingcattle said. AH shout build with Soldier stats will take you far. Go to guildwars2guru and look up Strife025’s Guardian builds.

The Gear itself is very good. It allows you to be very tanky. What you need to focus on is what are you going to use with the gear? do you balance it with damage? or do you go full tank? etc etc

I find the soldiers Armour works well with any build for the guardian. Take your pick really. Just balance it with trinkets and runes to suit your style of play.

Grazingcattle.1627:

That is good gear! I Use it most often I think

Altruistic healing shout builds give nice support, solid damage and great stay ability for a variety of situations… I would start there

That build does very little to improve damage. If you’re using Soldier’s gear your damage is going to be bad.

I tried this yesterday to mixed results full invader set including Shield and Sword , Scepter + Focus on switch.

6 x Soldier Runes
Full Soldier accessories think I put Beryl Jewels in.

0/30/30/10/0 I think is what I ended up using

2,10,11
5,6,9
2

Think I used Truffle Ravioli and Superior Sharpening Stones

Signet Heal

SYG
HTL
Retreat

Renewed Focus

All in all it worked ok seems I won most random 1v1, 1v2 encounters around the map. Not sure about its longevity in terms of fun but for now its ok

pretty much every guardian build benefits from soldiers gear… there’s a reason it’s a stat combo you can’t craft (although I think it’s a stupid reason). It’s the most valuable stat combination and ANet has restricted it to some degree.

juno.1840:

pretty much every guardian build benefits from soldiers gear… there’s a reason it’s a stat combo you can’t craft (although I think it’s a stupid reason). It’s the most valuable stat combination and ANet has restricted it to some degree.

I guess Precision/Vitality/Healing or MF/Condition/Power (could there be any worse combo than that?) are also super powerful and not craftable for a reason…

like maybe they wanted to just make some items only available from specific sources so you have to go out in the world instead of sitting on your behind in LA.

Well it’s not every build. Builds that depend on crit procs will most likely fair better in knight’s at least.

I use retaliation builds with soldier’s gear myself.

You’ll have low damage with that kind of build since you won’t crit much.

0/0/30/30/10

don’t buy into the damage crap, you do plenty

You have to take note that a lot of a Guardian’s ability to tank comes from their ability to heal themselves. Going pure vitality + toughness will give you nice hp, but if you have +0 healing you are just going to be a mattress.

Balance what you feel is comfortable.

ComeAndSee.1356:

You have to take note that a lot of a Guardian’s ability to tank comes from their ability to heal themselves. Going pure vitality + toughness will give you nice hp, but if you have +0 healing you are just going to be a mattress.

Balance what you feel is comfortable.

Doesn’t healing power scale pretty badly anyway?

Farzo.8410:

ComeAndSee.1356:

You have to take note that a lot of a Guardian’s ability to tank comes from their ability to heal themselves. Going pure vitality + toughness will give you nice hp, but if you have +0 healing you are just going to be a mattress.

Balance what you feel is comfortable.

Doesn’t healing power scale pretty badly anyway?

It scales just fine. Here is an example.

Every +500 healing.

• Regen – 62.5 extra health per second. 4 seconds of regen = 250 healing.
• Writ (heal on symbol tick) is an extra 37.5 per tick. 4 seconds of writ = 150 healing.
• Altruistic healing is an extra 5 per tick. (assuming) 5 players x 5 extra health x 4 seconds of Symbol = 100 healing.

So under ideal conditions with the mace you’re healing yourself for 100 extra health a second for each +100 points of +healing. If you have +1500 that’s +1500 health per second.

If you’re running around with just the Greatsword though than it is basically useless though.

Alarox.4590:

You’ll have low damage with that kind of build since you won’t crit much.

Using soldiers armor doesn’t preclude crits and damage ouput.

I run soldiers armor (slotted with ruby orbs), knight’s jewelry, and knights weapons. Combine that with a 0/15/30/20/5 build and crit rate is near 40%. Given the AoE nature of GS/Hammer/Staff autoattacks, that’s a lot of crits (especially for the staff — funny I know). In addition, power with that build is about 1600. It’s not as awesome as 2000 which other gear provides, but it would not be considered “low”.

The crit is important as it fuels vigor and might which are staples for an AH build. With this gear/build I always have vigor so my crit rate is definitely not “low”.

Soldier’s set is good but some knight’s armor along with it will go a long way to improving your damage while retaining tankiness.

Thing is when you have a lot of vitality & toughness, maintenance oils will give a good boost to precision. There’s also the trait which converts 5% of toughness into precision.

I run a build with 2000+ toughness and around 20,000 HP while still critting half the time with 50+% crit damage. Plenty tough and no joke when it comes to damage.

Power and toughness are identical between soldiers and knights gear. You are trading precision for vitality. Guards need some vitality (but arguably not as much as other professions need). If running AH you could get away with a bit less vit than not running AH.

So the only damage increase from knights over soldiers is going to come from the precision stat on the gear alone (again because toughness is the same which takes the 5% tough to prec trait out of the picture).

If your crit is already at 40% without knights armor, then will moving to knights armor to get 50% be worth it over the increased vit? Depends on how you want to roll. For me, the soldiers armor is my only source of vit on my gear so I roll that way (and my crit is already at 40% which seems sufficient to maintain vigor and might).

juno.1840:

Power and toughness are identical between soldiers and knights gear. You are trading precision for vitality. Guards need some vitality (but arguably not as much as other professions need). If running AH you could get away with a bit less vit than not running AH.

So the only damage increase from knights over soldiers is going to come from the precision stat on the gear alone (again because toughness is the same which takes the 5% tough to prec trait out of the picture).

If your crit is already at 40% without knights armor, then will moving to knights armor to get 50% be worth it over the increased vit? Depends on how you want to roll. For me, the soldiers armor is my only source of vit on my gear so I roll that way (and my crit is already at 40% which seems sufficient to maintain vigor and might).

Sure you can go full soldier set on armor if you switch it up a bit with the weapons and trinkets like you seem to have been doing. But a full soldier set of everything is not going to be quite as effective as having a bit of precision and crit damage on top of it. By this I mean all power, toughness and vitality with no precision to speak about.

As a guardian I hate to go down from high burst damage skills without being able to use my healing skills because of the low amount of base HP so I prefer having a decent amount of vitality.

I just bought a soldier’s set with soldier runes/1 crest after using cleric’s w/ dolyak runes exclusively since I hit 80 months ago and let me tell you the difference is mind blowing. I thought I’d really miss the healing stats but I haven’t noticed a thing. I was tired of having such a low crit chance (hovered 25-30) and with the new gear I lost no toughness (actually gained 50pts), gained base health (now around 16K up from 14.5K), and my crit is now 49%. I run berserker/soldier jewelry mix. I use a toughness/healing/power (I think. I’m not in the game right now to double check that last stat) mace and focus when I’m on the defensive and that’s all the extra healing I typically need in 1 fight. My hammer/GS is power/prec/toughness.

I’m on the fence about the healing spell to use. Resolve obviously heals for more, but the blocks and lower CD given with shelter has been interesting me more and more considering the obvious benefit to running it with the Mace/Focus. That’s like 8-10 blocks in a row then 3 secs of un-traited invulnerability if you time it right. I run typical trait stats; AH and the like. RF, SYS, contemplation of purity, and WoR/SYG/HtL depending on the situation.

I feel a lot tankier, I hit harder, and green numbers are flying everywhere. What’s not to love? I put a lot of faith into toughness and outlasting others though and that might not be everyone’s preference depending on what game mode you play.

juno.1840:

Alarox.4590:

You’ll have low damage with that kind of build since you won’t crit much.

Using soldiers armor doesn’t preclude crits and damage ouput.

I run soldiers armor (slotted with ruby orbs), knight’s jewelry, and knights weapons. Combine that with a 0/15/30/20/5 build and crit rate is near 40%. Given the AoE nature of GS/Hammer/Staff autoattacks, that’s a lot of crits (especially for the staff — funny I know). In addition, power with that build is about 1600. It’s not as awesome as 2000 which other gear provides, but it would not be considered “low”.

The crit is important as it fuels vigor and might which are staples for an AH build. With this gear/build I always have vigor so my crit rate is definitely not “low”.

In your build you have +150 Precision which the OP wouldn’t with that build. In addition, all the information any of us would have to go on is “Soldier’s gear” and 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/0/30/20/20 (based on the suggestions above) rather than knights on everything else like you have. With just those assumptions, the damage will be low because of low precision to take advantage of +30% crit damage, and lower than average Power.

Even looking at your stats, the damage will be low. Low compared to any damaging build of other Professions or damage focused Guardian builds.

SHAKA ZULU.3128:

I just bought a soldier’s set with soldier runes/1 crest after using cleric’s w/ dolyak runes exclusively since I hit 80 months ago and let me tell you the difference is mind blowing. I thought I’d really miss the healing stats but I haven’t noticed a thing. I was tired of having such a low crit chance (hovered 25-30) and with the new gear I lost no toughness (actually gained 50pts), gained base health (now around 16K up from 14.5K), and my crit is now 49%. I run berserker/soldier jewelry mix. I use a toughness/healing/power (I think. I’m not in the game right now to double check that last stat) mace and focus when I’m on the defensive and that’s all the extra healing I typically need in 1 fight. My hammer/GS is power/prec/toughness.

I’m on the fence about the healing spell to use. Resolve obviously heals for more, but the blocks and lower CD given with shelter has been interesting me more and more considering the obvious benefit to running it with the Mace/Focus. That’s like 8-10 blocks in a row then 3 secs of un-traited invulnerability if you time it right. I run typical trait stats; AH and the like. RF, SYS, contemplation of purity, and WoR/SYG/HtL depending on the situation.

I feel a lot tankier, I hit harder, and green numbers are flying everywhere. What’s not to love? I put a lot of faith into toughness and outlasting others though and that might not be everyone’s preference depending on what game mode you play.

How’s your power and crit damage?

Critial chance and damage is for assassins and rangers, I say drop all crit/condition and go full power, toughness, vitality, with 0/0/30/10/30 tank/shout boon with solider gear and off set the lack of damage with secondary weapons with blood lust.

Use moves like shelter, virtue of courage and retreat to keep blocking attacks while getting might from the valor traits. The constant boons will give you 5% extra damage from the virtues tree also.

Use sharpening stones too!
They give more power for every % of your vitality and toughness.

This build got me through COF path 3, SE path 1 and all the Arah paths.

Its also the best build for taking down and kiting lupi if you ask me.

Virtue healing is overrated, because everyone has to ball around the guardian and thats not a good idea, because the tank is where all the damage is gonna be focused.

Just hit enemys, kite, go to the your allys, shout and move away again, and repeat.
Its a perfect system.

The Blue Ace.2850:

Critial chance and damage is for assassins and rangers

Or anyone who wants to contribute towards the boss’s red bar greying out.

FYI from a lv fotm 35 guard , and my general experience. I woldn’t normally post becaue I dont think 35 is particularly high to where I should be saying anything, but hey it’s my thoughts.

I ran 0/10/30/30/0 fo a long time (AH & maxed symbols) to get whatever pug group I got through fractals.

If you use www.gw2lfg.com, which is fantastic, everyon eis a glass cannon, so you better hold it together or just wipe until it ‘s done. A lot of people are talking 15 radiance and then some virtues, but dredge are immune to blind and the svanir / ice eles aren’t likke a dime a dozen so recharging voj isn’t as sweet as thye’d have you belive. Anyone who’s ever tried to hold a panel in drudge can testify that you may get to the panel, but a few blinds (lol dredge) certainly arena’t making a didffferience.

Soldier’s runes are for condition removel in a shout build. If you need condition removal and you like shouts good fit. Otherwise, thik about buff duration or Dolyak (hi you basically give me Imp VoR a 20 talent trait). I don’t know what conditions, besides 25 vul stacks in Cliffside (LOL TAKES SO LONG SHORTEN THIS kitten UP GOOD MECHANIC IMO) would necessitate absolute resolution or any kind of I NEED CONDITION REMOVEL NOW particularly that protection (hammer) can’t cover.

Conclusion: in any kind of explorable dungeon (cof, ac, w/e), it really doesn’t matteer what you do. IN high end fractals, you need to figure out what works with that crew that you suually get (i.e. you always get a bunch of tanks? go dps). In something like Arah, who cares it’s a snooze fest that just takes a long time, don’t bring 3 low dps tanks. Anything else if your gropu is good you can play naked and who really care los scavengar lol their face glows kind of like malrone before they pounce, can dodge.

PS is otre Dame really that bad, boring game to watch sadface

PS virtues areant good or bad reallyl if you ru renewed virtue whch you should, and cleric gear as i do but a LOT of people do not (ok either way imo), then you can drop a 2kish heal on the group, maybe a hold the line (prot + regen) , and 2 dodges and bring someone whos ALMOST dead back to normal (they will never thank you fyi, they will chalk it up as “something weirdd happeend but hey who cares I’m good”) then that’s a good way to beat a fractal that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t do that. 1 Person die, 2nd rez then die (Hi mining suit bombs and everyone’s favoirte Imbued Shaman) and then you got 3/5 down cause 1 was a kitten and they gonna die anyway and then the 1 got downed and 2nd tried to save them. A few heals before we get to that place can help (PS hi cliffside, you hae a fun mechanic but you just take tooo long, eliminate the ankel seals altogether and put final fight to 3 phasses for real He dies after you break the seal when he’s on bone fiend mode).

The Blue Ace.2850:

Critial chance and damage is for assassins and rangers, I say drop all crit/condition and go full power, toughness, vitality, with 0/0/30/10/30 tank/shout boon with solider gear and off set the lack of damage with secondary weapons with blood lust.

Crit is for rangers and assassins (what’s that exactly?) ??

This build got me through COF path 3, SE path 1 and all the Arah paths.

Glass guardian build got me through them as well. Besides, what’s hard in those paths that you need to “tank”?

Its also the best build for taking down and kiting lupi if you ask me.

Why would you kite lupi? He wants a hug, give it back.

Virtue healing is overrated, because everyone has to ball around the guardian and thats not a good idea, because the tank is where all the damage is gonna be focused.

Tanks, right…. How’s your taunt?

Just hit enemys, kite, go to the your allys, shout and move away again, and repeat.
Its a perfect system.

Why kiting when you can … tank?

@Blue Ace, I disagree with most of your posting, save maybe the conditions comments and sharpening stones. Guardians don’t really need to be concerned about stacking condition damage, even though we spill out burn like it’s going out of style. But your point about having critical chance and the validity of virtue healing is just waaaay off. Just look around the forums for the reasons. I’m not going to spend all day and point out why.

@Xynn, I had a hard time following what you were posting….. I’m just saying.

Alarox.4590:

How’s your power and crit damage?

I think it’s respectable. I’m more of a survivor than a hard hitter though, I feel like I hit like a truck but ymmv.

Hi.
I wear AC’s Soldier’s armor too. Here is what I did:
*Knight’s weapons, Rings and Necklace (exotics);
*Soldier’s back and acessories (greens, meh. still working on it).

As you can see, I have DPS with survivability.