Guild Wars 2

Hiiii!!! Community!!!!!i just need help in which of those to have…i already have a gs..but i cant decide!!i really like the shield…but i can see that focus its more like for myself…mace its a teamplaying item..but sword..its like YOU ARE THE PROTECTORRRR!!!!!shield and sword!the classic Guardian…i just need help iin these!!!so plz help!!

Focus/Sword → Most vaulable
Shield → goes into trashcan
Mace → sPvP

Shield also has some use in PvP, like knocking thief out of their shadow refuge, knocking people down cliff in WvW, it’s a quick knockback.

can do the same with a hammer, dunno why people keep using that argument for shield… you’re using one weapon simply for one classes utility skill… much value.

Zealot’s Embrace is a channeled spell, it will follow the thief if casted before stealth, if you can get a fire sigil proc you can see his location, then banish him.

They use that argument because using a shield with the knockback function allows a player to choose a main hand weapon … using a hammer with that function does not.

Charak.9761:

can do the same with a hammer, dunno why people keep using that argument for shield… you’re using one weapon simply for one classes utility skill… much value.

Zealot’s Embrace is a channeled spell, it will follow the thief if casted before stealth, if you can get a fire sigil proc you can see his location, then banish him.

shield can used best with concentrate/cleric builds to create good pressure in choke points ( gates , bridges, walls in wvw ) or maybe from pug zerg commanders with the new tvh stats to create a safe for 5 seconds area for him and around him .

for me shield usage is ideal with mace and conc builds …. but i don’t like mace and cleric builds and i have send my asc shield to my warrior for ever

Charak.9761:

can do the same with a hammer, dunno why people keep using that argument for shield… you’re using one weapon simply for one classes utility skill… much value.

Zealot’s Embrace is a channeled spell, it will follow the thief if casted before stealth, if you can get a fire sigil proc you can see his location, then banish him.

Any decent thief will move away from your banish, I’m not saying shield is great I’m saying it can be useful when a thief is stealth res’ing or stealth stomping. Hammer in PvP is much worse, unless paired with judge intervention you will hardly hit anything.

Both mace and sword can shine in the right builds but they seem to be close in terms of damage when both are untraited. If its looked from the untraited perspective then what is left out is the comparison between the weapons’ utilities. If you are looking for projectile defense and some good blind (and a gap closer with it), pick the sword. If you are looking for a low cooldown block (and the burst that comes with it), sustainable heal and symbol synergy pick the mace. Its entirely personal preference. In my hammer setup for PvE mace is more favorable while in my PvP meditation build sword is much better.

Shields just look plane awesome and although I am not saying they are bad, the utility of shields are somewhat gimmick and in my opinion somewhat unpractical. Focus has this round.

Charak.9761:

can do the same with a hammer, dunno why people keep using that argument for shield… you’re using one weapon simply for one classes utility skill… much value.

Zealot’s Embrace is a channeled spell, it will follow the thief if casted before stealth, if you can get a fire sigil proc you can see his location, then banish him.

Zealot’s Embrace has a 1 sec cast time, Shield of Absorption cast time is almost instant. Its a big difference.

I don’t think shield is trash, I try to look at it from a game mechanic stand point. Shield is like having two utility skills on weapon slots. That’s not a bad deal depending on the situation.

Grumandel.3760:

Hiiii!!! Community!!!!!i just need help in which of those to have…i already have a gs..but i cant decide!!i really like the shield…but i can see that focus its more like for myself…mace its a teamplaying item..but sword..its like YOU ARE THE PROTECTORRRR!!!!!shield and sword!the classic Guardian…i just need help iin these!!!so plz help!!

It depends on what you’re doing…

Here’s a crash course breakdown of these weapons.

Sword
In PvE, this is a very high DPS weapon, which makes it inherently strong. Generally, you can max DPS by using your GS skills, then swap to 1h sword to autoattack until the GS skills are recharged. In PvP, this is a good all-around weapon for many builds and GS + Sword/Focus is generally the weaponset of choice for meditation DPS builds.

Mace
In PvE, this is a very low DPS weapon and the healing/defense that the weapon provides is really never needed if you play smart and/or know the content well. In PvP, this is a good weapon for bunker builds because of the defense it provides and it can give a decent amount of burst as well. I don’t think this is a particularly popular weapon for WvW, but some guardians do like it for sPvP. Personally, I prefer Scepter or Sword for 1h weapons when I bunker.

Focus
This is generally considered the best all-around offhand for guardians. Contrary to what you may expect, it is more defensive than the shield because of the #5 block skill and it also brings blind and condition removal which can be a great help almost anywhere.

Shield
While this weapon isn’t completely useless, it’s sadly only really a strong weapon in sPvP and this is almost entirely due to it’s knockback. Use this to knock enemies off point to gain control or just to cheese Skyham. The scepter tends to pair well with this since you can knock someone off point, then immobilize them and keep DPSing them while standing on the point. The AoE protection is really negligible, particularly when you consider that the hammer gives more protection with the auto-attack and the projectile absorb of #5 is very short and doesn’t reflect

I’m sure we can all agree that Sword + Shield would be really fitting for Guardians from a stylistic perpsective, but sadly this pairing is rarely ideal. The one place these two weapons really do well together is in Battle of Khylo since you can teleport to an enemy in mid with the sword, then knock them off with shield.

@ Charak: Yes, you can do the same with the hammer, but the shield does an AoE knockback and doesn’t have a pre-cast animation that enemies can watch for so that they know when to dodge. Yes, the hammer does have a shorter cooldown, but there’s nothing wrong with just taking both hammer and shield. I ran Hammer + Scepter/Shield as a bunker for a long time when doing solo queue since it’s such a good combination for decapping points and rezzing allies.

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

maha.7902:

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

Charak.9761:

maha.7902:

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

Also same as mace :P, it’s mostly due to the fact it doesn’t have any burst. Greatsword burst isn’t as great as Warrior but it’s there.

Trice.4598:

Charak.9761:

maha.7902:

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

Also same as mace :P, it’s mostly due to the fact it doesn’t have any burst. Greatsword burst isn’t as great as Warrior but it’s there.

…really? People are comparing sword DPS to mace and staff?

@ Charak: My thoughts exactly.

I would dig up keyz/brobal’s numbers but I’m on my phone atm. The tldr is that camping sword is like only 400 dps better than staff, so it’s not really very high deeps at all

Mace might be comparable if you drop symbol of faith while auto attacking. Maybe even more comparable if you take symbol of persistence.

Also, mace will out dps sword in large zergs with communal defense and shattered aegis.

If sword had its 2nd and/or 3rd skill it could break the tie with mace/staff, but one must also remember how better is cleaving on staff, and even on mace. The third attack of the AA chain of sword isn’t widely spread and can miss other opponents if they are not in the cone of the target but for example right by its side. Even if no targets are missed, the 3rd skill of the chain can only hit 3 foes (well technically 9 foes but all foes have to be in the lame projectile line) and can easily be reflected through projectile defenses. Not to mention how it can miss environmental stuff. It doesn’t make much sense why a melee weapon uses projectiles in its auto attack. Mace on the other hand can hit up to 5 foes on its 3rd attack on chain, can not be reflected and can actually heal. With the symbol traits available, mace can also provide perma regeneration and more vulnurability than sword’s, while providing some burst through the shatter of the third skill.

Unless the added mobility of sword is needed, I often prefer mace since I’ve always got symbol traits. With mace #2 and then auto-attacks, I’ve got vuln stacking, healing, and a larger aoe damaging field than I’d get from sword aa. Plus, it’s got better burst imo.

If you also use a big norn for your Guardian, sword animation looks silly – as if you are trying to swat a fly buzzing over. Mace has more manly animations for my norn.

Charak.9761:

can do the same with a hammer, dunno why people keep using that argument for shield… you’re using one weapon simply for one classes utility skill… much value.

Because Hammer takes time compared to shield 5 being instant. Both have their places regardless and I wouldn’t say it is for one class or particular use. I do agree though that it isn’t great and situational.

Staff modifier is 0.6 of power
sword modifier is 0.8 → 0.8 →1.5 of power

OP doesn’t really specify what he wasn’t to do but camping sword in PVE … is poop. Guardians get big damage increases with GS/SW swap because of WW and symbol. Sw is just the down time on recharge because of it’s big auto damage coefficient. Otherwise, it’s not that good in of itself.

Yes, it’s part of that max DPS combo with GS but unless he’s running meta in specific content, swapping sword/GS to max damage is rather pointless anyways.

Frankly, without more specifics on how these weapons are to be used in what content, being versatile with GS and Scepter+Focus is my advice. OP doesn’t sound like he’s ready to rush in and OD us all with Meta full DPS build in dungeons.

As an interesting side note; what is the damage decrease swapping between GS/Mace instead of GS/Sword? I can’t imagine it’s that substantial. Mace would lay down the symbol and auto of course in that rotation, otherwise the answer is: alot.

Dahkeus.8243:

Trice.4598:

Charak.9761:

maha.7902:

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

Also same as mace :P, it’s mostly due to the fact it doesn’t have any burst. Greatsword burst isn’t as great as Warrior but it’s there.

…really? People are comparing sword DPS to mace and staff?

@ Charak: My thoughts exactly.

5/5/0/4/0-GS-Hammer – 11029
6/6/0/0/2-GS-Scepter – 10871
4/6/2/0/2-GS-Sword – 10797
4/5/0/0/5-GS-Sword – 10515
3/5/0/4/2-GS-Hammer – 10146
5/5/2/0/2-GS Camping – 9417
3/5/0/4/2-Hammer Camping– 9338
4/6/2/0/2-Sword/Focus Camping – 7530
3/5/0/6/0-Staff Camping – 7391

obal.3218:

Dahkeus.8243:

Trice.4598:

Charak.9761:

maha.7902:

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

Also same as mace :P, it’s mostly due to the fact it doesn’t have any burst. Greatsword burst isn’t as great as Warrior but it’s there.

…really? People are comparing sword DPS to mace and staff?

@ Charak: My thoughts exactly.

5/5/0/4/0-GS-Hammer – 11029
6/6/0/0/2-GS-Scepter – 10871
4/6/2/0/2-GS-Sword – 10797
4/5/0/0/5-GS-Sword – 10515
3/5/0/4/2-GS-Hammer – 10146
5/5/2/0/2-GS Camping – 9417
3/5/0/4/2-Hammer Camping– 9338
4/6/2/0/2-Sword/Focus Camping – 7530
3/5/0/6/0-Staff Camping – 7391

do you by curiousity have the number for mace camping? It was around 3% difference last time I saw numbers.

Obal do you by any chance have the numbers of 5/5/0/4/0 Hammer camping? I am assuming these numbers are calculated without Unscathed Contender, is that right?

It’s without unscathed. We never looked into mace but it would seem less but comparable to sword. We might look into later. I still find sword utility of more blind, vuln, projectile defense is more useful though.

5/5/0/4/0-Hammer Camping– 10013

So..what are you guys saying…sword/focus with traits on Zeal…or mace/focus with traits on Virtue? i use gs as secondary…

I do the mace archivment ATM and must admit is not bad dps . Is also very relaxt to fight with. Just so slow it makes me feel my guardian lift something very heavy.

About shield anet can we have the warrior shield skills ? I love having a weapon for skips like that

With something like this build for max damage, mace would deal great damage, with its symbol and autoattack hitting a large area. Might not be as much as sword, but it’s got better aoe for non-single target or mobile enemies. Plus, you get the added group survivability from mace that just comes from attacking.

So with atleast %10ish uptime of Unscathed Contender can have 3/5/0/4/2 hammer camping superior to that of 5/5/0/0/2? That is nice.

I am using 3/0/0/6/5 for pug runs with my hammer with sigil of perception until 25 stacks then swap to sigil of night. It enables me to effectively stack might as pugs usually don’t, opportunity to slot some utility along with UC or Master of Consecrations like AR, Stability on VoC activation or additional projectile defense through increased spirit weapon duration. If the situation demands, I drop 1 point off Zeal and get more utility from Virtues. Though it has lower precision than 3/5/0/4/2, with Evasive Power and Power of the Virtues, how would the build compare especially on unoptimized setups?

3/3/0/4/4 hammer camping is probably less than 1k dps difference than staff camping so I don’t see 3/0/0/6/5 being much or any better. Your also missing blind spam which is important. Your losing out on vuln as well.

maha.7902:

Sword dps is actually almost equal to staff

Wut????

I basically used the 3 points in Radiance to get the damage multipliers in both Virtues and Honor, with the addition of 2 handed mastery when I use my GS along with hammer or Empowering Might for Hammer camping. Is the %10 damage multiplier along with crit chance in Radiance that better than Evasive Power and Power of the Virtuous given that I run pugs so I have to dodge a lot (I usually have atleast 4 boons on me too). It is true that I am missing the blind spam and might and vulnurability along with it, but I find that kills of trash mobs on pugs are either too widely spread or too fast in order for the 3 points in Radiance to matter.

I’ve never been good with video game math. Given the choice, which gives better dps using a GS+sword/focus build: Zealous Blade (incl. +50 power, +5% cond duration) or Right-Hand Strength (incl. +50 precision, +50 cond dmg)?