Guild Wars 2

What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to WvW solo roam as a Guardian! Well, that might be a slight misquote, but it is the gist of this guide. Solo roaming in WvW is fun, pure and simple.

I decided to create this guide because one of the most frequent set of questions I see on this forum is, “How do I play WvW (more specifically, roam/solo) as a Guardian,” and one of the most frequent issues I see is, “Guardians are no good at WvW!” Well I may not be an expert or even the best player, but roaming solo in WvW is my favorite thing to do in GW2 and I happen to find my Guardian to be very effective at it (or at least better than other classes I play, including an 80 Warrior.) Please remember this entire guide is written within the framework of WvW solo roaming; I’m not here to talk about sieges, zerging, or group play.

TL;DR/Bottom line up front for this guide: In order for the game to be balanced, each profession must have both strengths and weaknesses. In order to achieve success, capitalize on your profession’s strength, while avoiding the weaknesses!

Points I will cover in this guide:
*General playstyle philosophy designed to make you an effective roaming Guardian, and avoiding frustration brought on by weaknesses of the profession
*Argue against some commonly stated “truths” about Guardian play that will actually make you a less effective player
*A build for WvW solo roaming based on the strengths of the profession along with SPECIFIC instructions for playing it to maximize your potential, along with comparisons to common similar builds
*How to reliably find 1v1/small scale fights in WvW

I. General WvW Solo Playstyle/Philosophy/Strength and Weaknesses/Don’t Follow Bad Advice!

I will caveat this section specifically by saying upfront everything contained within is my opinion. To follow along with the opinion train of thought, I will state the strengths and weakness of the Guardian profession as far as WvW goes, and I will be concentrating on this list for the rest of the guide:

Strengths:
*Reliable burst damage (yes, really — covered below)
*Combat mobility
*Built in survival abilities tuned for small group/solo play

Weaknesses:
*Ranged weapons
*Lack of escape abilities
*Slow travel

Solo roaming in WvW is a dangerous business for any class, and you will die. Probably a lot. This is, however, what makes it so fun and rewarding — with danger and unpredictable gameplay comes great fun and reward. The sooner you accept the fact that you will die some, the sooner you can get away from concentrating on the major weakness of the Guardian, which is lack of escape abilities, and instead concentrate on the innumerable strengths of the profession. Even the professions with the best escape abilities will be hard pressed to escape sticky situations while roaming solo. If the fight has gone so poorly that you’re reduced to RUNNING, then you’ve already LOST! And to get all Sun Tzu on you, I believe that building any character around escape abilities is to have already set yourself up for defeat before the fight begins. Solo play in PvP/WvW is kill or be killed!

So to boil solo WvW play down to its most basic essence, you must follow the mindset of killing before you are killed. To do this, you must be primarily be a high damage dealer, while having just enough defense mechanisms to survive the fight. Only bring weapons and skills that are useful in 100% of FIGHTS. Only bring weapons and skills that are useful in 100% of FIGHTS. Yes, I repeated that because it’s so important when building for solo WvW play. The naysayers who want you to believe that Guardians can’t do this will say, “But Guardians are a support class! They can’t be built for damage!” Wrong, wrong, wroooong, and I will get into this in the Build section of the guide. For now, however, I want to argue against commonly stated “truths” for Guardian WvW play that will make you a worse player:

“Always bring a staff for mobility, and have Wall of Reflection on your bar for defense” I see this advice so frequently on this forum I believe it should be the unofficial motto, and it really bothers me. Well I’m here to tell you that Wall of Reflection should only be used in siege situations, and staff should only (maybe?) be used in large groups and that is it. Never outside of those specific situations, and even then only use staff if you run an Altruistic Healing build. Why?

People generally bring staff for its Symbol of Swiftness (Staff 2.) The swiftness boon isn’t the kind of “mobility” you want for PvP, it’s a quality of life boon for quick travel which is unnecessary. Mobility in PvP is having freedom of movement in a fight, which Staff doesn’t provide. But staff has other useful abilities too, you say? Empower (Staff 4) might as well be called “Suicide” for solo play. Rooting yourself for a large self heal (especially with an Altruistic Healing build) along with 12 Might sounds good in concept, but in practice you will NEVER be able to heal through your opponent damaging you in solo play as you sit there rooted, and then you end up using your Might with staff’s mediocre auto attack. A net loss every time. Line of Warding (Staff 5) can be great in certain circumstances, but remember that we want weapons and skills that are useful 100% of the time when fighting, not only in certain circumstances. This weapon is used for quick travel, which is already a weakness of the Guardian; take a weapon that concentrates on our strengths instead.

And now we come to Wall of Reflection. A great skill, but only great for sieges. It’s certainly funny to hop down from the battlements and drop your Reflect in front of an attacking force, but the idea that people roam with this skill is mind boggling. It’s only useful against ranged classes, and only useful then if someone is bad enough to sit still and shoot it. We’re only bringing weapons and skills that are useful in 100% of fights.

II. WvW Solo Roaming Build

This build isn’t groundbreaking, and I’m sure plenty of people run it. It’s a variation of the standard Meditation Burst Build, but with some important tweaks for ending a fight quickly.

Bunker builds are fine, but there’s a reason we call targets in dungeons, and that is because the most effective way to mitigate damage is to quickly eliminate the damage source. This build is designed for just that, and I will go into detail about exactly how to play with it in 1v1 and 1vX fights.

Link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAsdRlYgiDnGyKEf4Eh1DCeQ/VVIeXPgoDbIA;T4A5XCvkep+S5FVNmaE1YrxVjsmFIjCmQA (Copy and paste this link in to your URL bar if it doesn’t open properly on link)

Weapons: Sword with Sigil of Force/Focus with Sigil of Bloodlust + Greatsword with Sigil of Hydromancy (all Knight’s stats)

Armor/Accessories: Knight’s Armor with Valkyrie Accessories

Runes: 6x Beryl Orbs. This is something many people will disagree with, but I find it ideal with this build. 120 Power, 84 Vitality, and 12% Critical Damage. Ignoring the steep price of Runes of Divinity, I dont think the overall stat gain is worth losing 60 Power and 24 Vitality when compared to Beryl Orbs. Other rune sets are viable, but you can’t go wrong with Beryl Orbs (they also cost about 6s.)

Traits:
10 Zeal with Fiery Wrath (II)
30 Radiance with Signet Mastery (II), Powerful Blades (X), Right-hand Strength (XI)
30 Valor with Meditation Mastery (I), Purity (V), Monk’s Focus (XII)

With Knight’s Armor and Weapons, Valkyrie Accessories, and Beryl Orbs you will have about 50% Crit chance with Sword/Focus and 35% Crit chance with Greatsword, along with 74% Crit damage. Health will be 14.8K, and a good amount of toughness.

I’ve played many Guardian builds, including Crithammer/Shout/Spirit Weapons/etc., but I’ve found Meditation builds to be ideal for WvW roaming. I began playing with a traditional Sword/Focus + Scepter/Shield meditation burst build, which I enjoyed, but I felt it was missing something. The burst damage from Judge’s Intervention combined with Zealot’s Defense (Sword 3) was OK, but I wanted more, especially when opponents dodged out of Zealot’s Defense. If this happened I was reduced to auto attacking with sword. When I ran into an opponent who kited me, I was reduced to using the Scepter, which once again was OK, but left something to be desired in the type of open space fights frequent in WvW. I wanted to end fights quickly with better burst, so I switched to Greatsword. But Greatsword’s highest damaging skill (Whirling Wrath, #2) is widely known for being hard to use. It works best on a stationary target, so most Guardians use it in conjunction with Pull (Greatsword 5), but this is unreliable because Pull sometimes just doesn’t work well. So after some fiddling in sPvP, I settled on Sword/Focus and Greatsword with Hydromancy Sigil, which is as close to a perfect synergy of weapons and sigils as I’ve found.

It is also important to explain the mechanics of Sigils. Any on-crit/on-swap sigil shares its cooldown with all other sigils, so if a specific on-crit/on-swap sigil is very important to a build, such as Hydromancy for this one, don’t take any other on-crit/on-swap sigils. That is why the Sword/Focus set has a passive sigil and an on-kill sigil — I want to ensure that Hydromany always activates when I need it to.

The build pumps out RELIABLE, quickly repeatable burst damage on par with Warrior’s Hundred blade attack, and doesn’t leave you being a “one trick pony” like a Hundred Blade Warrior is. It concentrates on the profession’s strengths while not trying to compensate for the weaknesses. Every skill and weapon is useful in 100% of fights; there is nothing situational included.

And since I’m a nice guy I’ve written out exactly how to play the build below:

1. Choose your target. Fighting a 1v1, your opener is largely irrelevant, but if fighting against a group, your primary goal should be to quickly eliminate a source of damage (that is, make an easy kill.) My preferred opening target is a Warrior. They are predictable and don’t have many mechanisms to escape your opening burst damage. When they’re down they’re easy to impale thanks to Stand Your Ground or Shield of Wrath (Focus 5). If a Warrior isn’t available, I will choose up-leveled targets (sorry lowbies), or frequently a Ranger. Guardians are a risky opening target; a poorly played enemy Guardian is easy prey to burst damage, but if they are good they can avoid the burst and you’ve just lost your initiative and may have to find another target to focus. Guardians are another easy Impale, though, which makes them tempting. Avoid Thieves and Mesmers because even if they go down in your initial burst, they are more difficult to Impale. Choose predictable targets. The longer a fight against multiple opponents last, the less chance you have of victory no matter what sort of build you use.

2. Initiate your burst rotation. Make sure you’re within 1200 range and then activate Zealot’s Defense (Sword 3), and then IMMEDIATELY activate Judge’s Intervention. This will ensure you are attacking with Zealot’s Defense the instant you teleport on top of your opponent, giving them less time to react. Activate Virture of Justice as soon as possible as well, so you will have applied over 8s of burning which increases all damage by 10% thanks to the Fiery Wrath trait. As soon as Zealot’s Defense completes, activate Flashing Blade (Sword 2) and then IMMEDIATELY switch to Greatsword and activate Whirling Wrath (Greatsword 2.) This tactic ensures that Hydromancy goes off on swap because you’ve teleported directly on top of your opponent, and because you’re directly on top of a now slowed enemy, you hit with all Whirling Wrath projectiles. So in about 5 seconds, you’ve done damage on par with Hundred Blades, lit your target on fire for nearly 9s which increases damage by 10% thanks to traits, blinded your target, chilled your target for 3s, AND it’s easy to accomplish with low cooldowns — there’s no silly Bull’s Rush/Frenzy combo like what our other melee brethren are reduced to using.

At this point in the process, thanks to many hours of highly scientific laboratory work, I have determined that fights go one of three ways:

25% of the time your target is dead, especially if squishy, in a 1v1, or up-leveled. Activate Stand Your Ground and impale them. Congratulations.
50% of the time you’ve dealt enough damage that they’ve used their heal/dodges/cooldowns and the fight is as good as won anyway if 1v1. Continue on with the process below.
25% of the time they’ve avoid your burst by activating damage mitigation, or some other mechanic. Continue with the process below.

3. Continue fighting with Greatsword after the initial burst. When you’re close to being able to switch back to Sword/Focus, activate Leap of Faith (Greatsword 3) and then immediately activate Binding Blade (Greatsword 5). The leap helps ensure Binding Blade lands, as it is notoriously hard to use. Do not immediately active Greatsword 5 again, just let the DOT tick. Your next goal will be to land another Zealot’s Defense (Sword 3). This won’t happen if you panic, so just keep putting pressure on your target with Greatsword auto attacks. When you estimate that Zealot’s Defense is off cooldown (15 seconds), activate Pull (Greatsword 5) and then immediately switch to sword and hit them with Zealot’s Defense (Sword 3.) Thanks to the knockdown at the end of Greatsword’s Pull and the 600 range of Zealot’s Defense you will most likely land the attack.

This is where experience comes in, especially in 1vX fights. 99% of the time this is the phase of the fight where you utilize your Focus skills, Virtues, and Renewed Focus. Utilize Smite Condition as needed, or just spam whenever it’s off cooldown for a 2k heal. By activating your Focus skills and Aegis/Renewed Focus at the right time you can generally negate most damage being done to you by the opponent you aren’t focusing on. You will have most likely finished off your first opponent, so now you need to switch targets and begin setting up for another Whirling Wrath. Your Zealot’s Defense is most likely on cooldown so you will put pressure on your opponent with Sword’s auto attack until weapon swap is off cooldown, and then use the Flashing Blade/Hydromancy Freeze/Whirling Wrath combo once again.

So the combat style of this build can be summed up in three points:
*Judge’s Intervention to Zealot’s Defense
*Flashing Blade, to Hydromancy chill, to Whirling Wrath
*Use Binding Blade to land Zealot’s Defense, NOT Whirling Wrath

Why is this build preferable to other Guardian builds for solo play? As stated at the beginning of the guide, the best way to mitigate damage is to eliminate it. Using the burst rotation in this build, you will most likely be able to quickly down/eliminate one opponent in a fight. The Guardian has enough intrinsic defensive abilities such as Aegis/Blinds that you will be able to shrug off damage from opponents you aren’t focusing on when fighting against a group. The build also focuses on the strengths of the class, which is melee pressure and combat mobility. Between Flashing Blade, Hydromancy’s chill, Leap of Faith, Binding Blade, and Judge’s Intervention you have more gap closers than you can shake a stick at. All these gap closers eliminates the “need” for a ranged weapon on swap, which is a widely recognized weakness of the Guardian profession. A well played bunker Guardian can do great things, but I don’t want to be on the receiving end of a battle of attrition with no ways to quickly finish an opponent — the outcome is generally not good when solo.

As a final postscript to this build, if the lack of swiftness bothers you that much you can target distant monsters and activate Flashing Blade/Judge’s Intervention/Leap of Faith to get around more quickly, and in style! Also, I dont wish to focus on weaknesses of the class but if a zerg is approaching or you’re otherwise in a tight spot, the above combination is a nearly instant 2400 distance teleport and is quite useful for getting away even with your complete lack of swiftness.

III. How to Find Opponents

People also complain that it’s hard to find opponents outside of the zerg. What I like to do is set up a “spiderweb” that alerts me to when enemies are ripe for the killing. I go into enemy Borderlands, preferably ones in which my server doesn’t own anything, and head to the NE portion of the map. I capture the Sentry directly outside the east gate of the enemy base, and then move on to the centaur camp in the far NE. There’s a dynamic event chain here that involves killing 30 centaurs and then a Veteran. Move in and quickly kill a few centaurs and then move on; that way when someone else comes and completes the event, you will get the reward no matter where you are on the map. This is an alarm for you saying that someone else is there now, and will most likely be fighting the Veteran for a few minutes. That gives you enough time to move back to the camp and kill your human enemy after they’re finished with the Veteran. From there I go on a Dolyak killing circuit, carefully watching for the Sentry I’ve captured to come under attack, or for the centaur event to complete. This process works well for alerting you to enemy whereabouts without having to see them, and generally avoiding large enemy groups.

-Astolfo Rabicano, Guardian on Darkhaven

Post a video please. Also can you post a unbuffed stat pic ?

Unbuffed stat picture. My helm, gauntlets, and boots are rare not exotic. Everything else is exotic.

I’ll work on the video, never recorded on my computer before. Looking it up now.

khefka.2804:

This is the only build I’ve used for any real period of time since hitting 80 and it does hit hard, only thing I’m questioning here is the sigils. If your sigil of fire procs within 5 seconds of switching to Greatsword then hydromancy is not going to work. Also you are probably better off using force or accuracy instead of bloodlust, just get a weapon with bloodlust and build it up on some mobs then switch.

I appreciate the input, khefka. I completely agree with you and I would question that if it was my choice as well Maybe you saw a typo that I didn’t catch, but all I see in the text and build editor is Force/Bloodlust and Hydromancy for precisely the reason you posted.

As far as your suggestion for switching Bloodlust out for something else, I was under the impression that you couldn’t stack Force and Accuracy in the same weapon set. So Bloodlust was really the only option, since I can’t have another on-crit interfering with Hydromancy. Anyone know the answer to the sigil question?

Thanks for the write up, I was slowly morphing into this build(using same weapon set up and Monk’s focus/meditations), and you filled in all the missing pieces!

Your overall roaming WvW philosophy is spot on. Great job putting it in words.

I have been looking for a guardian build with this play style for a while now. This build is a lot of fun even if not running solo.

Thanks for the post, I’m really enjoying it!

Tanis.4091:

I have been looking for a guardian build with this play style for a while now. This build is a lot of fun even if not running solo.

Thanks for the post, I’m really enjoying it!

Ya I didn’t mention in the guide, but this is the build I use for everything except dungeons. For open world PvE I just switch out Stand Your Ground for Retreat!. The combination of swiftness with the various teleport abilities makes travelling very quick, especially when there’s high density of monsters like in Orr since it makes distant targeting easier.

I just want to say thanks for the post. This helped me greatly. I was using a bunker build and it just wasn’t working out for my play style in WvW.

Thank you so much for taking the time to create this guide. The carefully reasoned explanations also made it easy to digest. Your guide has inspire me to give my Guard another go. +1 to you good sir.

I’ve been playing with this build for the last few weeks and I love it, thank you. It fits my more aggressive play style really well. Occasionally with longer fights I find myself running out of options with everything on cooldown. I suspect I need to develop some better situational awareness and dodging skills.

Would reallly love to see a video of this build in action! Very cool build!

Another +1 here. Strange that I was in the process of creating almost an exact copy of this build and trying to figure out the Whirling Hit vs moving apponents problem. You solved it all!!
Real good guide, thanks!
I’ll put it all to the test tonight. I’m just wondering if Judge’s Intervention does not…errr… intervene with Zealot’s Defence?
I just hope I can get out of the habit of not using GS (2) right after GS (5) but rather switch to sword first and get Zealot’s Defence goin after GS (5).

Is lack of on demand condition removal ever a problem for you? Is Smite Condition enough?

Hello all, I’m glad you’re enjoying the guide. There were a few requests for videos which unfortunately I don’t see coming in the near future, as I experimented with Fraps and my computer didn’t deal with it very well. BUT I’ll try to do the next best thing and find other videos that show what you’re looking for:

First off, this guide and video shows the core of the build and is really well done:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/58213-guardian-zealot-spike-guide-for-spvp-and-tournaments/

As I stated in the guide, my build is a variation of the popular triple meditation build for sPvP, which the above posted guide from JaxSilven covers very well. All the normal “tactics” for this type of build are shown.

But I also feel that people are curious about how the play between Sword and Greatsword w/ Hydromancy looks, so check out this video from KrisHQ:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Zaphiel-Faires-WvW-Roaming-1-Guardian

His build is much more tanky than the one I posted, but he plays with Sword/Focus + Greatsword of Hydromancy, and it really shows the synergy between those weapon sets and the Sigil of Hydromancy.

neithan.9750:

Is lack of on demand condition removal ever a problem for you? Is Smite Condition enough?

Yes. No. Depends. This is sort of a long answer and I might get off track rambling on general playstyle differences between DPS and Tanky Guardians….

Short answer, after some experimentation with changes to the build, No the lack of on demand condition removal isn’t a problem. Longer answer below.

The build posted in this guide has a single purpose… pumping out as much damage as possible as a Guardian in order to quickly down opponents. To win 1v2 or 1v3 fights you HAVE to stake an enemy quickly, and in order to do that you need Stability — SYG is too good not to have on the bar. I tried Conptemplation of Purity because on paper it looks so good --- turns ALL conditions into boons, wiping the slate clean AND it’s another heal. But in practice it just, well, wasn’t as good as SYG.

And why is this? Being a DPS Guardian, if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t kill your opponents fast enough to “out race” the conditions they apply, you’re probably screwed anyway and Contemplation of Purity just seemed to prolong the screwing Whereas SYG gives you a good window of opportunity to stay on your feet and keep the damage pressure up and even at 5 seconds, don’t underestimate Retaliation from SYG. It doesn’t shine in this build, but overall Retal is such a strong, strong buff it’s crazy.

On the far end of the Guardian spectrum, I also have a full set of Cleric’s gear and I’ve been playing around with the “Healway” build posted in this forum and it rocks — super powerful. I’ve won a couple 1v3 and one 1v4 that there’s no way my build could have survived because Healway has amazing powers to outlast. Running Healway, it’s almost impossible to die to less than 2 opponents. BUT, the lack of damage in the Healway build has also caused me to lose some 1v1 and 1v2 fights because the kill speed is so much slower that it gives time for more enemies to show up and help.

I guess the point I’m trying to make with this post is to keep your builds pure — let DPS builds DPS and let Tank builds Tank. I’ve never had success with hybrid builds that try to do it all. Just my opinion.

Scleameth.6809:

I’m just wondering if Judge’s Intervention does not…errr… intervene with Zealot’s Defence?

Sorry to make a double reply but I couldn’t figure out how to edit my earlier post to include this quote.

If you hit Zealot’s Defense and immediately, like one button after the other, hit Judge’s Intervention you’ll appear at your enemy’s feet as your start swinging for Zealot’s Defense. Try it out in the mists some on golems or watch JaxSilven’s video that I posted above.

But some times if there’s too great a vertical interval (+1 for any FA people who get that phrase) / change in elevation between you and your target, the Judge’s Intervention won’t teleport you anywhere — you’ll just show back up at your original spot. I can’t count the number of times this bug has blown the teleport and caused me to shoot Zealot’s Defense in to blank air. All I can say is be careful and try to engage on flat ground =\ it’s infuriating, but is a problem with JI in general, not just using it in this way.

A decently played S-P/Staff mes will decimate this build. But it’s still quite nice.

SteepledHat.1345:

A decently played S-P/Staff mes will decimate this build. But it’s still quite nice.

Most likely true — I find mesmers to be the most difficult opponent in PvP for all professions I’ve played and on top of that I find them much easier to face as a defensively set up Guardian. Any tips for beating them?

UncleDolan.9430:

SteepledHat.1345:

A decently played S-P/Staff mes will decimate this build. But it’s still quite nice.

Most likely true — I find mesmers to be the most difficult opponent in PvP for all professions I’ve played and on top of that I find them much easier to face as a defensively set up Guardian. Any tips for beating them?

Interrupt their cloning, destroy their clones, dodge roll when you see the clones coming.

So i just found this build and must say that I really like it with a few exceptions. First, I went
30 Radiance (Blind Exposure [VI]/Powerful Blades [X]/Right Hand Strength [XI])
30 Valor (same as original post)
10 Virtues (Vengeful [II])

With Leap of Faith (GS), Flashing Blade (sword), and Ray of Judgement (focus) all applying blind, PLUS the natural trait in Radiance (justice is Blind) picking Blind Expsoure seems more beneficial. I can quickly rack up 15 stacks of vulnerability in a matter of seconds. This adds to the damage much better than working off burn condition. Throw in the fact that Renewed Justice resets Virtue of Justice and you are able to keep vulnerability up a very long time across multiple mobs.

Then the points in valor play off retaliation benefits.

Overall though this just became my favorite build. Thanks for the info OP!

Ghostbear.5106:

So i just found this build and must say that I really like it with a few exceptions. First, I went
30 Radiance (Blind Exposure [VI]/Powerful Blades [X]/Right Hand Strength [XI])
30 Valor (same as original post)
10 Virtues (Vengeful [II])

With Leap of Faith (GS), Flashing Blade (sword), and Ray of Judgement (focus) all applying blind, PLUS the natural trait in Radiance (justice is Blind) picking Blind Expsoure seems more beneficial. I can quickly rack up 15 stacks of vulnerability in a matter of seconds. This adds to the damage much better than working off burn condition. Throw in the fact that Renewed Justice resets Virtue of Justice and you are able to keep vulnerability up a very long time across multiple mobs.

Then the points in valor play off retaliation benefits.

Overall though this just became my favorite build. Thanks for the info OP!

I really like Blind Exposure too Unfortunately I wrote the guide before it got buffed or I would have mentioned it, but ah well.

I actually played around with stacking the 3x blinds from Sword, VoC, and Focus 4 integrated into the opening JI/ZD burst then using Hammer swap with Sigil of Intelligence for a 100% crit Mighty Blow with the 9 stacks of vuln. A decent set up, but the Sigil didn’t seem to work all the time so I swapped back to GS. If the Sigil of Intell worked all the time it would be nasty with hammer.

I am inspired!

/15chars

This hasn’t gotten any attention in the past couple of days, so I thought I’d chime in and say that it’s a solid and fun build to use. Up until now I’ve been running a very CC-heavy build in WvW that relies on the hammer and scepter to trap an enemy while I take him down, but laying down a ton of damage quickly like this is sometimes the more effective way to go.

Spelling out the steps of the combo really highlights how effective the build can be. One thing I would point out, though, is that a lot of people will dodge once you do the Flashing Blade > Hydromancy combo, so it could be good to wait just a moment before initiating Whirling Wrath. If they dodge, then I dodge to keep up with them, and unless they still have their second dodge or are quick on the condition removal, it ensures a better chance of success with Whirling Wrath.

norman.7026:

Spelling out the steps of the combo really highlights how effective the build can be. One thing I would point out, though, is that a lot of people will dodge once you do the Flashing Blade > Hydromancy combo, so it could be good to wait just a moment before initiating Whirling Wrath. If they dodge, then I dodge to keep up with them, and unless they still have their second dodge or are quick on the condition removal, it ensures a better chance of success with Whirling Wrath.

Great point and thanks for the addition. Flexibility is key because like you said people will frequently dodge and with a build like this that front loads so much of its damage, having someone dodge ~40% of it can really mess you up.

What are your utility skills? I cant open the build link

You have to copy/paste link from that website. Kind of a known problem with the forums, here.

Before stumbling upon your build, I’ve slotted my Knight’s armor mostly with Scholar runes. Given what your build is attempting, I -think- I can get away with staying on that path without sacrificing a ton of survivability, but what are your thoughts?

Is this guide/build very viable. Just curious before I read it all. I’m new to guardian but have been messing around with the AH Hammer build. I’m interested in this style too (for when I’m feeling more selfish and not so supportive) but I notice this guide is 3 months old and there was never many comments on it.

The truths spilled in the OP of this thread hurts me as it is exactly what I was thinking when WvWing on my Guard.

Having played Thief and Warrior in WvW, playing a Guardian is a big letdown.
The good thing of… basically any other class beside the Guard is that if you’re dying you still have a chance to escape, Guardian doesn’t and it won’t really make up for it in tankiness.
I mean if you’re killing 1-2 guys and other enemies approach you, you’re dead period.

Plus the complete lack of swiftness, I mean.. why are Guardians so handicapped from this perspective?
Even Necros, the so called “slower class of attrition”, do get infinite Swiftness and they absorb damage through DS so they can somewhat make an escape, they even get the 25% speed passive with a signet.
They have good gap closers too like the pull and plenty of chill/immob, they remove conditions better and burst just as good (or can do a complete weardown od enemies with conditions).

I was starting to love Guardian as it does better in PvE than my Warrior (at least on a support/staying power perspective), but in WvW I’m completely depressed.
Add the fact next patch we’ll be losing tankiness due to boon hate and what reason do I have to WvW again on this class?
Anet in the last video said we’re fine and don’t need any change and that is a deal sealer for me.

Brilliant and so true about soloing.
Just one thing though: you say "Only bring weapons and skills that are useful in 100% of FIGHTS. " you should change this to 99.9999%. i mean no disrespect but after fighting good confusion heavy mesmers (and especially if they’re teamed with a thief), i’ve learnt that the best option is to run lol. (perma confusion that does 2-3 k damage from Own skill use + thief/clone damage- it doesnt take long for health pool to get within heartseeker optimization)Which has lead me to putting 20 points in virtues. virtue of resolve is one (of only two(in the whole game)) that removes confusion Without taking damage from skill use.
I’m a great lover of the sword + focus / greatsword combo
I find i miss wall of reflection for its light field(condition remove+retal) (also the mesmer not firing at the wall is the one to target lol)
Excellent guide and spot on about kill or be killed- solo roaming in a tanky build only delays the inevitable with no kills for it

If you guys are out there “Solo – Roaming” w/o heavy condition removal, it’s no wonder you’re having a difficult time.

As to the whole… I’m taking on a 1vs3 and wining, you should not have a problem if 2 more stream in as you’re downing the first group.

That’s the beauty of this class: We go until we get overwhelmed and then we break. But if you learn to mititgate and ~not~ blow all your cooldowns, but rather spred them out, you should not have any problem running solo in WvW.

What you probably are complaining about is that you’re a “Bunker” trying to roam. That just doesn’t work too well. You have to be able to dps your enemy down, otherwise you’re just “holding a point”, which doesn’t work.

Thanks for posting this.. with the addition of WvW ranks, I’ve been torn about taking my guardian into WvW solo/roaming and your guide is a great! (I appreciate you including your thoughts behind the process)

I’m looking forward to trying this out.

Great guide. Really like the build idea, looking forward to test it.

I love WvW roaming but never tried with my guardian.
I have a ele and a thief that I’ve used, but the thief is lacking so much on pve that I have been putting it aside unless I want to stealth across the JP for a daily chest.
I also have a riffle/support warrior for when there is nothing to do but follow the zerg.

After going back to my guardian I was amazed by how many different builds and roles you can effectively play with it. Even more compared to the poor variations thief and ele have.

I just hope other classes will see so many build variations as guards do…
Untill then, I’ll enjoy my guardian… And heck, the armor looks much better than those longcoats.

[edit] One thing I’d change on the tatics though. I wouldnt activate VoJ just after JI for longer burn duration. By doing so, you risk your oponent cleansing both your burns with one cleanse. Wait untill the burn is gone and you are ready to put presure again and then use VoJ. This way you can keep the burn on more strategic moments, not having it cleansed so easy and keep the passive burn from VoJ.

First of all I want to thank you for this thoughtful guide.

And I have just two questions for you:
1. Can you kill a condition messmer, who has the same level of playing, as you .

2. Don’t you think, that glasscannon thieves or messmers have more efficient skills to do that task, that you want to do with your guardian?

Please, make a detailed response, like you always do.

Thank you.