Guild Wars 2

Hi there, I’m a new player and Guardian is my first character, right now lvl 62. I recentley put 30 points on Honor and 21 points to virtues.

Build link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeWlYgyDXFSLEfoESmCRCBxegRZUHB

Honor major: Reduce shout CD, reduce 2H weapon CD & shouts remove conditions.

Virtues major: Reduce concentration CD and improve their duration & Absolute Resolution (activating virtue of resolve removes 3 conditions from nearby allies).

Heal: Signet of resolve (every 10 sec remove condition)
Utilities: Sanctuary, Stand your ground & Hold the Line
Elite: Renewed Focus
Weapon sets: Mace & Shield & Staff.

I like playing dungeons

I use staff #4 to buff party for might (and at the end of the channel gives healing too). Use orb of light to detonate for area healing if needed, but mainly stick to mace & shield and only swap back to staff if we run out of might or need some healing.

Even though I’m new in GW2, situational awerness isn’t a problem, played too much SWTOR you see So not only do I focus on the fight, I monitor allies health and do they have conditions on them and react on that.

Mace & Shield I keep the heal AoE symbol from mace on the ground all the time and block attacks from enemies, use shield #4 to buff allies for protection and use shield #5 when our group needs desperatley some space or take bunch of projectiles. My shouts are pretty much all the time on cooldown.

So the reason why I started to question this build was on Ascalonian catacombs and at the boss fight (2 ghosts) we got wiped on the first try. It was a mess, when I revived one party member, other one got down. Eventually they started to get down at the same time so they started to die and when I finally got downed to last stand the last party member didn’t stand a chance.

So I think I was doing strong, I was doing everything I could do, damage the boss, heal allies, remove conditions from allies, keep the 2 bosses appart, reviving party members, buffing party members via shouts and staff. But after the 1st wipe the 2 other players said ‘’we need a tank’‘. At that point I got REALLY confused. GW2 does not have roles like tank, heal or dps….every profession is doing more or less all of those things, right ? And I think my build is pretty tanky, after all I was the one who was staying alive the longest while actually trying to help the party to survive….I don’t even want to mention our groups thiefs performance. He was also the one who suggested me to be a ’’tank’’ and getting rid of the staff.

So they told me to ‘’get rid of the staff kitten’‘. So I need now here on the forums some insight for this. Like I said I’m a noob and don’t know much about the game. Should I be running with hammer & greatsword or what ?

Signed by Guardian player willing to adapt and improve.

Well, let’s get one thing clear: You’re never going to outheal a boss’s damage. Don’t even try. Support is a secondary gameplay aspect which you use to augment your damage dealing. In terms of traits, you’re not making any huge mistakes, but Sanctuary is garbage. Too long a cooldown. Bring Purging Flames instead.

Ultimately you’re going to need to supplement your build with damage in order to get the boss down quickly enough that you don’t have to worry about consistently outhealing it, only maintaining the party long enough to get the job done. It’s not like other MMOs like SWOTOR where the goal is to have enough heals that you can keep the party alive indefinitely. In GW2 it’s always a race. You won’t win the race without dealing damage.

Also, you were probably running with not great players if they were asking for a tank.

Ultimately, you’ll need to adjust your playstyle and choices to accentuate your damage. Staff is good but only in support of a weapon set and other choices meant to increase your damage. Mace/shield isn’t really what you would consider a damage combo. You’d probably do just as well if not better by using a Hammer instead. Hammer with Writ of Persistence (swap out two handed mastery for the writ) gives you permanent Protection, which is 33% less damage taken for the entire party, effectively forever. That will mitigate more damage than your staff can heal. At that point you don’t even need Hold the Line anymore. Mace Regen + Hammer Protection will make it obsolete. Plus, Hammer with Persistence will outdamage Staff any day of the week.

Give that a shot.

Dont play support in this game, is pretty boring. All are AoE effects, auto effects or persistent auras. I used play support role in every game, i love to play support, this game is not for support players, is for “all dps” classes.

urieldhynne.2743:

Dont play support in this game, is pretty boring. All are AoE effects, auto effects or persistent auras. I used play support role in every game, i love to play support, this game is not for support players, is for “all dps” classes.

That’s not entirely accurate. Support is fine in this game, it’s just rarely worth making the primary aspect of a build. Every build, even full DPS builds, should bring some support along for the ride. Consecrations especially are incredibly useful. Wall of Reflection isn’t a DPS ability, but it’s on any Guardian’s hotbar who’s worth his salt in particular fractals and dungeons.

What’s not good is support supplanting damage. At the moment it’s just not possible to be such a large force multiplier that what you give up makes up for what you add.

Support build is pretty good if you’re new to the game or when you often team with pugs. Personally, I think using a hammer will give better support and damage than mace + shield. The hammer auto-attack gives a permanent symbol of protection providing the team with protection and retaliation. The symbol also gives condition removal whenever a projectile finisher goes over it (common with any ranged like mesmer/ele/thief). It’s not that bad to use staff as off-hand but you have to consider that you won’t get as much damage as a greatsword, sword or scepter, unless you have many enemies scattered around you.

You seem to focus a lot on condition removal which is nice but I’m not sure if you need that much in most situations. You could drop 10 points in honor and use those trait points to get more damage or another kind of support.

foofad.5162:

urieldhynne.2743:

Dont play support in this game, is pretty boring. All are AoE effects, auto effects or persistent auras. I used play support role in every game, i love to play support, this game is not for support players, is for “all dps” classes.

That’s not entirely accurate. Support is fine in this game, it’s just rarely worth making the primary aspect of a build. Every build, even full DPS builds, should bring some support along for the ride. Consecrations especially are incredibly useful. Wall of Reflection isn’t a DPS ability, but it’s on any Guardian’s hotbar who’s worth his salt in particular fractals and dungeons.

What’s not good is support supplanting damage. At the moment it’s just not possible to be such a large force multiplier that what you give up makes up for what you add.

I am not saying support is useless, actually is really useful, but is pretty boring comparing it with others game, i am talking of pure support role, you dont need to target your allies or take complex fast decisions like others games where play support is more fun and complex and you can play as PURE support.

Thanks for the replies so far. I will probably switch the mace & shield and try hammer and see how that one goes.

I’m not sure does my party members even notice how much conditions I’m cleaning for them Some people do mistakes and take a dive at those condition AoE’s some enemies are putting up on ascalonian catacombs. Poison, chill, vurnability, weakness, criple and whatnot. ‘’Gimme you’re conditions, nomnomnomnom’’.

There are 3 kinds of support in this game. Dealing damage, avoiding incoming damage, spamming boons and vulnerability.

I dunno how dungeon gameplay ist below lvl 80 full exo chars, so a non lvl 80 Group has a lack of damage in any Dungeon. Problem: damage ist the most important support in this game.

You can avoid damage simply by dodging (learn the mechanics of the bosses) and with your traits.
Guardian is probably the best class to avoid incoming damage.
You got the wall of reflect, so use it on ANY mob with uses projectiles. Reflecting projectiles is avoiding dmg.
You got your Ghost Weapond shield which blocks projectiles. YOu got 3 times aegis which blocks ANY incoming hit and you got some blinds depending on your weapon.
get rid of mace shield and use sword Focus.
sword 2 blind, fokus 4 blind fokus 5 block. Don´t use the heal sign. Use the one that blocks. YOu heal while blocking ANY attack.
And because a not lvl 80 Berserker gear Group has a lack of damage….dodge dodge dodge and dodge

Staff4 is great to buff might but you will still have lack of dps. Staff is more a speedrun weapon. U can use it anyways to buff might, or use Greatsword, cause GS3 is a blind, too.
Use 15 Points to Radiance, at least (20 for 10% dmg boost to sword. I use 30 for right Hand strength) cause F1 is a blind then, too. And refreshes when an enemy dies. Use at least 5 Points in honor to get vigor when critical hit….dodge dodge dodge.

Using hammer gives a symbol that spends protection, but the better Support is to avoid damage.

Don´t ever run into dungeons with conditon damage classes cause condition damage sucks at all in pve.

You can condition remove from your Group with shouts or with purging flames, or F2 when you spend 20 Points into virtues. Purgins flames is pretty mightfull. I use it.

Guradian Support ist dealing damage, avoiding incoming damage and buffing might. For Speedruns later Staff 3 for speed