Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,

Kranox from More Guns Than Roses [GnR] here, after the patch there seemed to be alot of confusion as to how best build the guardian/dh.
Alot of people people have posted builds and alot of people apparently are still inisting on using traps (which except for the heal aren’t really good if u ask me) so I thought I’d share what has proved to be the most effective in a teamsetting so far.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJATSn8cCVDhlDBeDB8DhlEi6aZDgEQ+5j+sPL/+vAE-TZBFwAy3fgxRAAwFAgwDAYxhAAA
The build uses Paladins amulet which at the time of writing this is not available as a choice on the website.
Now about a few choices:

1. traveler runes: People might argue that these dont provide as much as other rune sets like pack and they certainly have point however with necros potentially being a thing in the meta I didn’t wanna rely on a boon from a randomproc to get some movement speed. It also helps with being able to rotate a bit better in case u do die and have to run back to ur teammates.

2. Soaring Devestation(adept DH trait):
This was a hard choice and some people might still prefer piercing light, as it provides lower heal and stab trap(trait) cooldown aswell as dazing, but soaring devestation proved vital as an additional tool for control and seemed more usefull to me in alot situations.

REMEMBER:
The patch hasn’t been out long so stuff might change.

As someone that mained guard since beta and hated having to play viper rev last season, I am quite happy with the current state of guardian.
I will try to update this as we progress into the new meta and stuff may prove to need some adjustment.

Interesting stuff! I’ve been thinking on some similar changes like pack→traveler and marauder→paladin/similar amulets, but i’ve been hesitant to try them because of the reduced dmg (maybe too greedy on my part hm).
(Amulet) Do you think the toughness over ferocity is worth it in the “current” meta where it still seems like condi’s are main dmg for some classes? I guess it would help deal with thiefs when you get thief+X+random stuff focusing you in teamfights.
Might give this a go myself tbh because i guess the crit dmg loss isnt the end of the world and dead people do no damage.

(Rune) Here i personally struggle a bit because i’ve also thought about the buffs being a potential downside vs necro corruption. But then i look at the alternatives and even something like traveler, the 25% movespeed seems very nice to play with but dont you drop too much damage? you only get a tiny boost in allstats which is nothing compared to the power/precision pack gave you. I’m thinking on average you’ll be facing against only 1 maybe 2 necro’s, will that pack buff really be more downside than upside?

Traps! I personally hadn’t rly put any thought to not using traps anymore, i still like the daze even tho its very small to simply interupt people, catch people mid-heal, while they are trying to ress/finish without stability. The dmg itself isn’t crazy bad either, although its not amazing. I’ll look into it myself and test it out.

Some very interesting stuff, i deff think this will be a top build but i suppose it all depends on what you want to achieve when playing dragonhunter. You’ve gone a very defensive route by taking nearly every tanky choise when it came to “more dmg or more tankyness”. Maybe that’ll pay off with thieves running around everywhere.

Don’t you think that maybe you’ll lack a bit of damage by chosing so many defensive options? Or do you think a more “glasscannon” dragonhunter will simply not survive long enough and in turn be a liability to the team.

I’ll deff keep some of these changes into consideration when testing and figuring stuff out myself.

Thanks for the post! Interesting read

I use the same build but the added toughness is useless for guardian with paladins amulet. Marauder amulet gets you much better damage for no tradeoff. If this becomes meta I will be very happy since hammer is my favorite and lately has been collecting cobwebs. Happy Guardin’ P.S. Daredevil runes give you garunteed crit after dodge do you can dodge, trueshot swap might blow, all for around 12k damage

Amulet:
The toughness is definetly needed in my eyes as aside from necros it feels like we are moving towards strong direct dmg mostly in terms of dmg sources.

Rune:
Dmg drop in practical use is roughly 4-5% from what I experienced which is worth the utility effect of traveler runes to me. (Also pack isnt perma uptime, leaving u really slow at rotations and disengaging when dont have that swiftness proc on u)

Traps:
The way I build my setup I’d have only the active daze on the heal(which already blinds the daze isnt really needed on that one) and 1 passive daze on the stab/aegis trap.
With the buffs Smite condition and contemplation of purity are no brainer picks and u sorta need judges intervention for movement.
Having only 2 possible short duration dazes isnt worth it compared to a 3s AOE IMMOB + about 2.5k dmg every 26 seconds u get from soaring devastation (even if ur heal has 6s more cd and ur passive trap has 9s more ICD).

Dmg didnt really feel lackluster(still managed up to 6k true shots) as it isn’t the main goal with that build, it is a CC bruiser that can 1v1 if u really really have to but ramps up in effectiveness once u start teamfighting.

If we were to head into a condi heavier meta I’d have a slightly different build for that (which I might post if the need arises).

If there are others questions or suggestions I’ll try to answer in time (might be with a delay since I am currently writing a paper for university so my time is limited)

@Timston
Yes and no. Marauder does provide more dmg yeah but when u are against a good organized team the extra toughness is really really worth it it does however also depend on your role in the team (the build was made with my teams comp and the role I fill in mind).

Take Marauder for ur generic dps role (27-28% more dmg than paladin if u have perma fury so likely more around 22-23% increase).
Take Paladin for high pressure situations (28% less direct dmg compared to marauder)

I’ll give traveler/paladins a shot tonight when i have some time to play!

About Contemplation of purity, i’ve been thinking about that one a bit and from my personal playstyle i’ve always kinda felt like i simply dont need it. Maybe its my playstyle where i will go for 1v1’s a bit more frequently than other DH’s maybe. In 1v1 situations you pretty much dont need it, smite conditions/jump condi clear/heal clear is quite sufficient in keeping condi’s away or at a bare minimum. (I guess a O-kitten button always helps here too incase stuff happens, still i’d rather have more offensive power to simply take my enemies down quicker, or even make sure i am capable of killing my enemy at all, since that can sometimes be tricky with druid/engineer’s who can still be a pain in the kitten to kill). The only real situation i can think of is bigger teamfights where it all gets a bit messy and after using several cooldowns a necro manages to get spite signet or some boon-corrupts on me and i actually get kittened by several condi’s that i can’t clear. So i suppose in those situations CoP will help a lot.

Still i find it hard to drop traps for what seems to me like a “just in case” ability. Thanks for the update tho, interesting stuff.

Dragonhunter is deff gonna be competitive & fun, looking forward to season 2.

have you given the combination of Scrapper runes and Hunter’s Fortification a try yet?

In my testing, I’ve been using a build that is pretty similar to yours, but LB/GS for higher damage (as a counter to thieves, GS2 is still king). The combination of Paladin’s amulet, scrapper runes and Hunter’s fortification has turned the mediguard into a more than competent bruiser with the inflated sustain.

I use a similar set up right now, except instead of hammer/longbow, i use GS/mace/focus. I also use marauder and use hunter’s fortification over heavy light. Jiyu, would you mind explaining what your attack rotation with your set up is? I’m currently use the classical focus 5>judge’s+WW.

I will give your amulet a try though. I have been considering changing from maurader, due to the fact that even with all the healing i can put out, there’s way too much burst running around. Particularly from gunzerkers who can one shot you. I can concur on soaring devastation being a good choice over piercing light for this spec. It follows the same style of medi guard: using your damage utilities to deal damage and heal at the same time. It’s very good cc too.

I use sigils of generosity + hunter’s fortification and i’ve found it’s helped me mostly ignore condis. It’s the direct damage burst that i worry about right now.

This is a very good build! Thank you for sharing and +1…

I’m a very casual PvP-er now so I might swap the CoP for something else… Either a trap or my favourite PurgingFlames… Yes it is not a Meditation so I will loose a bit of healing but it practically does the same as CoP (you can argue here!) talking about condi-defence but deals damage and it’s a fire field so it’s better for 1v1… I rather trade a sigil slot for better condi-management if I can skip using CoP (I think it’s a straight boring utility to have…)

… well I think…

Thank you again!

Is sigil of energy still good after the change?

Indure.5410:

Is sigil of energy still good after the change?

not at all, just another boon fodder for the necros to corrupt, you’re better off using another on swap or on crit sigils.

Just wondering why he had it on his hammer. Thought I was missing something.

this is essentially the exac same build ive been running, only i went with bulwark and hunters fortification using shelter as my heal for the extra condi clense. Ive been finding that hammer is nice for the teams fights but in 1v1 GS carries

I wouldn’t run shelter anymore, between shock aura, necros, thief venoms, you run the risk of getting your heal interrupted too much.

Purification is better by far.

yea ive been kinda learning that the hard way haha

shield of courage and wings gets interrupted alot too which drives me insane

And there’s very little way of preventing it too, unless you take stand your ground or focus 5.

even then necros can still get you lol

Also i kind of liked Rune of Leadership better then Travelers because of the 4 condi cleanse on RF, but if your team isnt providing you swiftness you’re kind of kittened lol

sorry 2 condi cleanse* not 4

but for real

rune of the scrapper.

3k armor on top of 7% less damage taken (on top of 10% from hunter’s fortification)

give it a try.

Tested a nearly similar build pretty much immeadatly as i got my hands on palladins amulet.

>it doesn’t work. necro’s still solo u very quickly

>The 2.9 k toughness on paper had me drooling as well on paper. but in reality it will be quite a let down. there is still thiefs with thier increase auto attack is hell. U can definately have extended fights with scrappers tough. but any interupt mesmer on their opposing team and u will see that in skirmishes u won’t last much longer then a normal marauder DH.

>The lack of protection and regenration and very importantly AH are the main culprits here. It’s why u won’t see a massive difference in surviability between standard medi trapper marauder dh and this variant. 2.9 k toughness without some boons and regenrative abilities is absolutely useless. U are better of going standard ah bunker guard. but then the lack of burst heals which the mediations offer and healing power. still won’t make you an effective bunker.

What needs to happen to make this viable in mid to high level play is some support via boons. and more healing over time. Burst heals won’t do much.

I also tested out Paladin’s amulet and played with these 2 builds:

One tanky decap build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5en8cCVDhdDBGdC8DhlGiCrAigRQe4T+n/aYXgAA-TJBFABCcBAuf/BAOIAE8EAAA

And one tanky aggressive build which can burst hard and keep opponents close with constant cripple application (GS 5 and F1 pull both count as knockbacks for the 4s cripple proc):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR8en8cCVDhdDBmDB8Dhl4BTuA2/OgX7rhQOoKA0AKAA-TJBFgACXAg69HAeIAEHBAA

There’s like 3 different threads in the pvp forum asking for DH nerfs (again), so heads up.

Jiyu.8310:

If we were to head into a condi heavier meta I’d have a slightly different build for that (which I might post if the need arises).

The two builds that have been very effective have been the ham/lb you posted and similarly dropping Valor for Honor and picking up pure of voice and running soldiers runes with 2-3 shouts.

Pyriall.1683:

Jiyu.8310:

If we were to head into a condi heavier meta I’d have a slightly different build for that (which I might post if the need arises).

The two builds that have been very effective have been the ham/lb you posted and similarly dropping Valor for Honor and picking up pure of voice and running soldiers runes with 2-3 shouts.

Is there a link to the PoV build?

why drop valor when smite condi (and by extension, the traited heals) were just buffed by 100%?

shouts are pretty terrible w/o AH, they’re also more boon fodder for necros to corrupt.

Traveler’s runes definitely aren’t a bad choice, but I don’t feel like pack runes lag behind just because the boons they offer aren’t up always. The damage difference is blatantly obvious, but so is the movement speed difference between the two runes.

It comes down to what you perform better with. I’ll keep trying out traveler’s runes, but I definitely feel like pack runes aid in helping our burst significant enough to where being slow isn’t the worst thing on Earth.

I feel that hammer is too slow of a weapon… it does offer great utility, but longbow 5 is literally better than hammer 5 in most situations… Sigil of blood on longbow is definitely a good choice, and air/fire still work on that weaponset as well. The hp regen from sigil of blood is noticeable.

The thing w Soaring Devistation is that you really don’t want to use F2 to deal damage… it’s much better as being used to kite, heal allies, and sometimes gap close, but to sacrifice the hp regen F2 gives for dmg is rarely ideal… Piercing light will help 3 potential utilities you’d carry for PvP (ToF, Purification, and Hunter’s Determination)… those utilities having a cd reduction is beautiful, and way better than Soaring Devistation

Caveat: I’m not much of a guardian player in terms of skill but i love the DH setup.

Question: Why don’t i see more builds for pvp with “Retreat!” in them, with UC you have a guaranteed 20% damage boost at will, for when you turn a fight?

because retreat is a terrible skill on a way too long of a cooldown?

just because it gives 20 secs of aegis doesn’t mean you have a guaranteed 20% damage boost “at will”.

I’d much rather retreat be on a 10 sec CD while giving only 4 secs of aegis and swiftness.

Darknicrofia.2604:

because retreat is a terrible skill on a way too long of a cooldown?

just because it gives 20 secs of aegis doesn’t mean you have a guaranteed 20% damage boost “at will”.

I’d much rather retreat be on a 10 sec CD while giving only 4 secs of aegis and swiftness.

Wouldn’t we all…sounds a little OP though just because of the synergy with PoV and shattered Aegis. Maybe a 20s cooldown (16s traited) would work?

Darknicrofia.2604:

because retreat is a terrible skill on a way too long of a cooldown?

just because it gives 20 secs of aegis doesn’t mean you have a guaranteed 20% damage boost “at will”.

I’d much rather retreat be on a 10 sec CD while giving only 4 secs of aegis and swiftness.

I’m aware of that but thanks for the answer.

Why virtue trait? Honor is more powerful trait there… Reached diamond with solo DH..

did you just say honor is more powerful than virtues trait?