Guild Wars 2

Julie Yann.5379:

Harbinger.8637:

That’s a very solid build for roaming and solo group. The only thing I’d really recommend is changing out Retributive Armor for Focused Mind. RA will only give you another 6% CC, while FM will give 20% CC. You’re running three meds so it would be more beneficial to run FM. If you deicide to run AH, then you can always switch back to RA.

Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that one. I wanted to max out the procs from the strength sigil and empowering might and didn’t know if I could keep them up during the Fury downtime. I’ll run with FM for a while and see what kind of numbers I get. Thanks for the input.

When it comes to procs, 35% and 41% isn’t that much of a difference. You really wouldn’t see that much of an improvement.

Any suggested changes to builds for a frontline zerg Guardian?

Manuelito.6081:

Any suggested changes to builds for a frontline zerg Guardian?

Nothing really changed that much. However Tome of Courage is very viable with the new Elite Focus and is a great alternative to Renewed Focus.

Just an FYI and also a question, I noticed that a lot of the roaming builds use a Sigil of Blood. That sigil doesn’t seem to be working, it doesn’t proc for me on my GS. Has anyone else in this thread noticed or been affected by this?

This is a great guide, thank you for taking the time to put everything all together. I wanted to ask your opinion on a few things.

Recently in WvW I have noticed this shift where in roaming groups (at least in my tier) there is now this expectation that all guardians are running staff for Empower and Symbol of Swiftness, and that every guardian should have Stand Your Ground and Purging Flames. Personally I feel that in a small group Purging Flames is a waste since in order to get the full use from it everyone needs to be bunched together which almost never happens. I am also not a fan of seeing guardians being stacked in roaming groups for the sole purpose of providing group stability and swiftness symbols, it just seems like its pigeon-holing the class. I’m fine with popping in a staff before a fight for Empower then popping it out, but leaving it on and depriving yourself of a good weapon swap seems like a handicap that isn’t doing us any favors if you’re not using a support build that actually benefits from the staff. Again, this is over roaming not large group combat, staff has a good place there.

Dramen Maidria.1034:

This is a great guide, thank you for taking the time to put everything all together. I wanted to ask your opinion on a few things.

Recently in WvW I have noticed this shift where in roaming groups (at least in my tier) there is now this expectation that all guardians are running staff for Empower and Symbol of Swiftness, and that every guardian should have Stand Your Ground and Purging Flames. Personally I feel that in a small group Purging Flames is a waste since in order to get the full use from it everyone needs to be bunched together which almost never happens. I am also not a fan of seeing guardians being stacked in roaming groups for the sole purpose of providing group stability and swiftness symbols, it just seems like its pigeon-holing the class. I’m fine with popping in a staff before a fight for Empower then popping it out, but leaving it on and depriving yourself of a good weapon swap seems like a handicap that isn’t doing us any favors if you’re not using a support build that actually benefits from the staff. Again, this is over roaming not large group combat, staff has a good place there.

Purging Flames is generally better for larger fights when stacking is much more prevalent, for small group roaming you’re better off just going PoV with solider runes and three shouts. This makes it much easier to stay mobile and still help deal with conditions.

Also I agree that most Guard really don’t know how to use staff effectively. Most just spam WoW, and you’re really not helping at all. However, putting Sigil of Water on staff is a great way to add support. Since WoW has a large cone, it’s easy to get procs with it for extra heals for you and your squad. Also like you stated only time you really should be running staff, if you’re actually playing a support build. You could use it in a dps or hybrid build, but then it’s really not going to be as effective, and you and your team would be better off if you were using a different weapon.

Greetings. I have a 35 Guardian that I want to level up in WvW rather than PvE. Any advice on which traits and wraps to go for early on to help leveling process?

I’ll be following the zerg of course. I’m assuming that I’ll want to try to max my survivability and being able to tag enemies and get the hell out of the way.

Oneira.1495:

Greetings. I have a 35 Guardian that I want to level up in WvW rather than PvE. Any advice on which traits and wraps to go for early on to help leveling process?

I’ll be following the zerg of course. I’m assuming that I’ll want to try to max my survivability and being able to tag enemies and get the hell out of the way.

I haven’t had to level a lowbie since the new trait changes, so I’m not exactly sure how many trait points you have to spend. However, you can put one into Radiance for Justice is Blind, very helpful trait that will help with damage mitigation. Also one into both Virtues and Honor, then you can put two into Valor for Strength in Numbers.

Hey Harbinger I love all of the work you have done for this thread and for guardians! I was wondering if there are any stat combinations that would work well with Nomad stats or if Nomads is even viable at all with a guardian, preferably in WvW? I was thinking of trying to make a build with them but everyone seems to hate them and finds them useless/bad.

FEAR THE FRO.2357:

Hey Harbinger I love all of the work you have done for this thread and for guardians! I was wondering if there are any stat combinations that would work well with Nomad stats or if Nomads is even viable at all with a guardian, preferably in WvW? I was thinking of trying to make a build with them but everyone seems to hate them and finds them useless/bad.

I actually use Nomad when I run with my havoc group, and I’m playing support. I pair it with Cleric and Knight trinkets and use a 0/0/2/6/6 build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApWotCxfH8DNRCRldR8fBI2fwJkCXFAA-TVyDABMcEA6V9HpUSdlylBVCCwFAAPdBKt/AEPCASB81yI-w

Harbinger.8637:

FEAR THE FRO.2357:

Hey Harbinger I love all of the work you have done for this thread and for guardians! I was wondering if there are any stat combinations that would work well with Nomad stats or if Nomads is even viable at all with a guardian, preferably in WvW? I was thinking of trying to make a build with them but everyone seems to hate them and finds them useless/bad.

I actually use Nomad when I run with my havoc group, and I’m playing support. I pair it with Cleric and Knight trinkets and use a 0/0/2/6/6 build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApWotCxfH8DNRCRldR8fBI2fwJkCXFAA-TVyDABMcEA6V9HpUSdlylBVCCwFAAPdBKt/AEPCASB81yI-w

imo Nomad gear is stupid and ‘healing power’ scales horribly.

Just to give you an idea how horrible the ‘healing power’ stat is. Replace all your Nomad and Cleric gear with Soldier. Now look at the difference of how much ‘shelter’, your main healing skill, heals you. With your Nomad+Cleric setup, ‘shelter’ heals for 5,3k. Now with all those pieces replaced by Soldier, it heals for 4,7k. That’s only a 500 HP difference, on your MAIN healing skill, whooptie-fokkin-doo…

If you want some extra healing just use mango pies, water sigils, renewal sigils and/or leeching sigils, that will give you plenty of extra healing so you can use better gear with more useful stats making you a more useful part of the team.

Seriously, screw the horrible ‘healing power’ stat and screw all gear with ‘healing power’.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Harbinger.8637:

FEAR THE FRO.2357:

Hey Harbinger I love all of the work you have done for this thread and for guardians! I was wondering if there are any stat combinations that would work well with Nomad stats or if Nomads is even viable at all with a guardian, preferably in WvW? I was thinking of trying to make a build with them but everyone seems to hate them and finds them useless/bad.

I actually use Nomad when I run with my havoc group, and I’m playing support. I pair it with Cleric and Knight trinkets and use a 0/0/2/6/6 build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApWotCxfH8DNRCRldR8fBI2fwJkCXFAA-TVyDABMcEA6V9HpUSdlylBVCCwFAAPdBKt/AEPCASB81yI-w

imo Nomad gear is stupid and ‘healing power’ scales horribly.

Just to give you an idea how horrible the ‘healing power’ stat is. Replace all your Nomad and Cleric gear with Soldier. Now look at the difference of how much ‘shelter’, your main healing skill, heals you. With your Nomad+Cleric setup, ‘shelter’ heals for 5,3k. Now with all those pieces replaced by Soldier, it heals for 4,7k. That’s only a 500 HP difference, on your MAIN healing skill, whooptie-fokkin-doo…

If you want some extra healing just use mango pies, water sigils, renewal sigils and/or leeching sigils, that will give you plenty of extra healing so you can use better gear with more useful stats making you a more useful part of the team.

Seriously, screw the horrible ‘healing power’ stat and screw all gear with ‘healing power’.

The main benefits from healing power doesn’t come from your healing skill, but from traits such as Selfless Daring and skills like Empower. Selfless Daring with a Solider set is only around 430 healing, however with the build I posted SD heals for almost 1200. That’s a huge increase. Same goes for Empower, an 1800 heal compared to almost 2600. Yes, healing power doesn’t scale that well with the actual “heal” skills, but it’s more about how it affects your traits, other skills, Virtue of Resolve (active/passive), and also regen.

Due to me having more free time and avidly playing WvW again, I gave this thread a much needed update. Added new traits and also any balance changes. I’ll continue with the rune section I left off with, and will continue to add new builds, videos, and sections.

I apologize the update took so long.

New video:

Ego Roaming- Small group comp gameplay.

Update Jan 5, 2015- Added precision rune section.

Update Jan 8, 2015- Added a few builds. Also made slight tweaks to all existing builds for further optimization.

Update Jan 11, 2015- New video, and it’s a long one! Ego

Update Jan 23, 2015- Added toughness rune section.

Update Feb 07, 2015- Five man roaming group, List

As a brand new player to GW2 and choosing to do a guardian as first character, this post has been invaluable. Thank you Harbinger.

I’d like to submit a Solo WvW build, if you deem it worthy.

As always, the thread can be found in my signature Condi Guard Roaming Guide. Build inquiries are always welcomed. Will completely revamp the thread with new builds once HoT releases.

EDIT
Well this build is outdated :p I’ll post an updated build sometime soon, if no one else beats me to it.

So, I haven’t played in a while was taking a break, but I plan on starting again. Last time I played was when they changed stab into stacks, so as you can tell its been a few months and I’m out of the loop. I’ll start updating the guide once I’m comfortable with the current meta.

Thanks. Looking forward for your thoughts about large scale WvW Guard these days…

Great guide, big thanks.
Too bad it seems to be abandoned.

Very outdated since the release of HoT.

RIP Harbinger. You were the man