Guild Wars 2

For the scepter build, isn’t gs better than focus? so Gs + Sc/F→T. I think the initial burst is higher with gs than focus. you can pre-use/swap focus into torch before fight also.

I can look into things myself now and that was next on my list. I’ve looked into gs and hammer so far and refined somethings but still have scepter and condi left. I’ll let you know soon.

Edit – I’m finding Scepter -> GS to be top dps for shorter fights in which bosses won’t really move much. This would would assume 10+ smite hits and I didn’t look into frostbow. I still need to look into mobbing more and get some new condi rotations added in and I’ll update the guide with everything I’ve looked into.

obal.3218:

I can look into things myself now and that was next on my list. I’ve looked into gs and hammer so far and refined somethings but still have scepter and condi left. I’ll let you know soon.

Edit – I’m finding Scepter -> GS to be top dps for shorter fights in which bosses won’t really move much. This would would assume 10+ smite hits and I didn’t look into frostbow. I still need to look into mobbing more and get some new condi rotations added in and I’ll update the guide with everything I’ve looked into.

Thx Obal, appreciate it.

I updated the guide a fair amount and made a new video guide and rotation video.

Have you given any thoughts to Dragon Hunter and how this will effect the Meta?

Oldirtbeard.9834:

Have you given any thoughts to Dragon Hunter and how this will effect the Meta?

I ran some calcs and it’s way too situational. They made the two damage multipliers work so that you can’t get both. You need to not use F1 to get one and spam F1 to get the other. For it to outdamage the current builds you need another person in your group to maintain cripple for most of the fight as well as take the damage trap (I used bane sig for both calcs as well). The only thing I think currently that will reliably give cripple is warrior using bladetrail, but it’s not a priority to use it especially off the start in their rotation. The bow was slightly also slightly worse dps over mace/torch.

The utility of it is bad. All virtues have cast times. Virtue of resolve is a leap which makes it annoying and a dps loss. Virtue of courage is not instant so it can screw you as you do block rotations and get the aegis too late. It also doesn’t do much or anything when people are stacking in melee since the block is too far away. It could be useful for raids though but you would have to stand back a bit and range stuff.

I’d drop radiance to take it. If you drop Virtues then Retribution wouldn’t be worthwhile and Radiant Fire would take a hit without Supreme Justice. You would also want your spear to recharge as quick as possible for bosses. This would make you lose blind spam for trash as a tradeoff.

Dragonhunter just isn’t looking worthwhile for the most part given how situation the dps is the way it’s set up, it’s clunky, the utility, and virtue activation times. Mesmer will be better in HoT and revenant is really good. Guardian remains basically the same so it will fall behind them for some content like dungeons by quite a bit. They are still great for fractals and probably will be for raids so they will still have a place.

Bummer guess I’ll have to roll a Rev

I updated the sticky for HoT. I also made a similar guide for Revenant in the Revenant section.

What should give the 100% cripple uptime, and if your group doesn’t have that, should you change the traits?

Other than that, what is a good (bow)spec than for global pve events

Engi and zerker rangers with swords keep cripple up almost all the time. The build would remain the same for both your questions.

Thx Obal for the build, really surprised seeing Bow replacing Mace+Torch in rotation but at same time happy to have a new useful and fun weapon to play in the meta build.

Wait, so Dragonhunter is a DPS loss? That’s disheartening.

Velimere.7685:

Wait, so Dragonhunter is a DPS loss? That’s disheartening.

I’m guessing you’re looking at Obal’s post a few replies above, but bear in mind that he made that post over a month ago, prior to the most recent round of DH buffs (such as the 7%/13% boost on Pure of Sight, the 20% boost + Fury for Procession of Blades, and so on). More recently, he’s edited the original posts with the DH “Bowbear Hunter” as the best general DPS spec for Guardian right now.

I made the post above before the changes were made to make it good. It is a dps gain. It’s also not an annoyance like retribution and radiant fire were. That’s a big plus. I have dps charts in the beginning of the video. The DH builds will go down a little though once I finalized them again since that was before the trap got a higher cd.

Soryuju.8164:

Velimere.7685:

Wait, so Dragonhunter is a DPS loss? That’s disheartening.

I’m guessing you’re looking at Obal’s post a few replies above, but bear in mind that he made that post over a month ago, prior to the most recent round of DH buffs (such as the 7%/13% boost on Pure of Sight, the 20% boost + Fury for Procession of Blades, and so on). More recently, he’s edited the original posts with the DH “Bowbear Hunter” as the best general DPS spec for Guardian right now.

obal.3218:

I made the post above before the changes were made to make it good. It is a dps gain. It’s also not an annoyance like retribution and radiant fire were. That’s a big plus. I have dps charts in the beginning of the video. The DH builds will go down a little though once I finalized them again since that was before the trap got a higher cd.

Thanks for the clarification!

Since now nothing really 1 shots you in fractals anymore, not even on level 100 and sustain seems more important than extra blocks what do you think about using the trap heal over shelter?

Your probably better off going condi from the little I’ve seen instead. I haven’t done much past 60 except for swamp though. It’s a struggle for me to find 5 guildies or friends to go let alone do something other than farm swamp for the daily. Given the rewards and a chore they made them into I can’t say I blame people for not wanting to bother.

How much worse is mace compared to lbow? Could you give me a percentage? :<

They are about the same over the course of a minute. You can look at the chart in the video to see how they compare over time. The charts are from before the trap cd nerf though but I don’t think it would change much. The mace numbers also assume you always break the auto chain after the 2nd attack since auto 3 is terrible so your dps will be less than that shown if you don’t normally do that.

thanks m8

I updated the condi part of the guide for HoT.

So I just reached 80 on my Guardian (no HoT for the time being) and was wondering which build between Zerker and Condi would be safer to play if you are not completely good at dodging? I have been using Zerker GS + Mace/Torch most of the time and it feels that – depending on the zones or personal story – I may sometimes have suddenly a harder time than usual (against blind immune enemies like dredges that’s understandable), especially if I get “swarmed” by mobs. That’s mostly for solo PvE, mind you. Thanks.

Both are glass. Zerker is better in general. With zerker you can use mace and focus for blocks for a loss that isn’t abysmal. That’s not really an option with condi so there is less potential for defense.

So, obal, opinions on the optimal raid dps guardian build? I’ve been running pretty much the standard meta PvE DH, but I’m finding Aegis nearly impossible to keep up with any sort of consistency due to all the stray hits that the Seekers cause. I really would like to see a different 20% modifier than wasn’t so reliant on Aegis. That is a different, more speculative conversation, though.

Obviously, Revenant and Engineer stacking are probably optimal in terms of comp. On Vale Guardian, I’ve had middling success with DH LB/GS, but I keep getting relegated to circles which hinders dps pretty significantly. I actually have ran a few pugs with the ascended viper/sinister burning build and found it to be pretty effective (it’s no Condi Engi, though.)

I am still trying to find a solid static group, though, as pugging has not been fruitful thus far… and, of course, I haven’t seen past the first boss, limiting my perspective. Fortunately, at the end of the day, if DPS is a problem, I can always switch to my revenant.

We have been using the regular dps hammer build with mace shield on swap for break bars taking the heal trap, bane signet, retreat, procession of blades, and feel my wrath. The prot and symbol heals help the groups with squishier people or the ones that take the most hate. Ring of warding helps keep seekers off the melee team for the first boss. The traps help for the adds for the other two bosses. Stability is important for the third boss so you don’t get kicked into the 1 shot flame thrower attack. I see guardians role to be there to make it easier for the group. Running that you help with break bars, pressure, heals, adds, and give some group might and quickness that make it less of a loss. It does 14-15k dps depending on how much time you have bane signet passive when just pressing 1 with hammer and f1 + trap which isn’t bad. If you were to bring a guardian with a gs + longbow or condi to maximize dps then you mine as well just bring something else instead.

Has the latest patch changed anything for PvE?

No.