Guild Wars 2

I want to play a hammer guardian with Healing Circles.

What gear should I use? Cleric or Berserker? For Dungeons/mid-FoTM?

What is “Healing Circles”?

Oops. I meant to say Symbols. A Hammer build which heals allies inside symbols.

But is it justified to use Healing Power? Or should I go straight for Berserker?

There is no Hammer-specific skill that has a symbol that heals allies, unless you are talking about the Honor trait “Writ of the Merciful” which cause all your symbols to heal allies. In this case, when your Hammer skill 1 creates the Symbol of Protection at the 3rd strike, the symbol also heals.

Not a great way to rely on for healing support, but if you really want to do that (spam Hammer skill 1 to heal), then the Cleric gears will boost your healing instead of the Berserkers. Also, in order to survive better (so that you can continue to spam Hammer 1 to proc those healings), Cleric gear will be better than Berserker gears (with the Toughness stat).

But if I use cleric’s gear, wont I have a low crit rate?

I’m just trying to decide on a good setup for Guardian before I spend the gold. What do you use? (PvE, Dungeons, FoTM)

I run a tanky hammer staff build for web, and IMO you’ll need a decent crit rate to get the most of your slow auto attack and mighty blow.

lately been running a symbol build (namely having larger symbols and healing symbols (Honor III and X). it can be really nice but don’t rely on that as your MAIN source of healing if anything.

if you’re thinking of going more healing, my personal threshold is i don’t actively sacrifice other stats unless if i can hit 1k+ healing power. but that’s just me. if not, i feel it’s not as worth it to give up other stats you would be for the healing.

you can go with a mix of knight’s + other gear. symbols can hit pretty hard with the right setup. though i’ve also seen “healing” builds with over 1k healing, and still have 30% crit. you just have to mix and match.

for PvE and dungeons, symbols are not bad because most of the enemies won’t move out of them. : )) and even with the hammer the conditional symbol on the hammer chain is easy to get off.

Don’t for get about your dodge rolls that can heal. With high crit chance your vigor will be up a lot allowing you to dodge/negate attacks completely and give some healing. I highly recomend the hammer for this. Each foe the hammer hits has a chance to crit. However that symbol you smash down can hit up to five foes each time it pulses and each of those hits have a chance to crit as well. Perma vigor equals more dodging equals more healing.

Kain Francois.4328:

But if I use cleric’s gear, wont I have a low crit rate?

It really depends on your build. Do you need a good crit rate? Is crit rate important to you?

A healing build, which I assume you are trying to use, would sacrifice DPS for more healing and survivability. Since DPS is not the top priority, POWER would be more important than Crit rate and Crit damage, as your source of DPS. Cleric gear will give you the Power, Healing and toughness you need. Sure, you will not hit as hard as others, but you will survive longer, and support and heal others better. It is a trade off.

If you are really worry about crit rate, then perhaps mix and match might be the way to go – mixing Cleric and Berserker, or Cleric and Knight.

what the two above me said!

also, just to cover all bases, if you’re so inclined, some like to mix in Magi’s gear as well (Healing/Vit/Precision) to mix and match as well if you wanna focus on healing power.

do what i do go 0/0/30/30/10. with altruistic healing, writ of merciful, writ of exaltation, and battle presence.

with pure cleric’s gear u have passive aoe heals from writ of merciful and battle presence. also everyone in the symbol gets nearly permanent protection and every pulse on allies of the protection heals u with AH. Its the best support build i’ve found for party pve like dungeons. Nearly invincible and keeps party up like a champ

I’m going to go ahead and say this now. It’s a decent build, and you’ll pull a tremendous amount of aggression (I have yet to determine why). However, you will sacrifice a lot.

You can take one of two trait combinations:
Writ of Exaltation, Writ of the Merciful, Battle Presence
Writ of Exaltation, Writ of the Merciful, Writ of Persistence

With the first option, your symbols won’t last as long (less healing from symbols), and you won’t give your allies 100% protection upkeep (without boon duration), but you will be giving your allies additonal healing from Virtue of Resolve. With the second option, you will maintain 100% protection and healing your allies every second with a little less healing over time (which may be countered by the 100% protection). Writ of the Merciful is obviously necessisary (as it is what you desire). While Writ of Exaltation isn’t necessary, you may find it difficult healing allies (and yourself) in the small radius of Symbol of Protection.

For equipment, take a mix of Cleric and Magi. Just enough Magi to give you a decent critical hit rate (mine is around 25% without food, 35% with food). If you have Writ of Persistence, you’ll hit enemies at roughly 2 attacks a second making Vigor activate relatively often, and the extra boon duration I have ensures I can keep it active at nearly 100% upkeep.

Just keep in mind that this build is by no means a good healing build. Your allies will still need to dodge, and most ranged players will not bother to stand in your symbol. You’ll also be tempted to take Altruistic Healing as well, which is perfectly fine (and recommended).

Pros:
370+ healing per second to you and nearby allies (depending on build)
Additional healing from Altruistic Healing
Holding aggression like a true tank (results may vary)
Up to 100% protection and vigor upkeep

Cons:
Lack of self survivability (no Empowering Might and low crit rate for lifesteal items)
Your damage will fail (2485 attack, 25% crit rate, 30% crit damage)
Limited trait options
You will be hunted (again, results may vary)

It is by no means a professional build. As long as you know how to evade well, you’ll be able to be an amazing tank. I’ve been running Arah a lot lately. I rarely lose aggression from any of the bosses (with exception to their temporary target attacks). My armor is only 2885 and when running with Soldier Warriors, I highly doubt toughness has a lot to do with aggression anymore.