Guild Wars 2

Just started playing a few days ago. Rolled a guardian. Since this is my first character i mainly want to solo explore the world. (keep this in mind) Was thinking about focusing on vitality toughness and healing. I prefer mace and shield for passive healing and defense. Was getting ready to buy healing gems when i decided to read about guardians with healing power. Alot of people say healing power is terrible. I normally dont pay attention cause everybody has different opinions. But so many people are saying healing power is the worst stat cause the developers dont want healing specs. But some agree out of all the classes healing power is most useful on guardians. Alot of the threads i was reading are old so im kinda wondering what current guardians think about healing power. Should i focus on vitality or healing power?

If you just want to explore the open world, it does not matter. No one else is negatively affected by it and both stats are more or less on the same level of ineffectiveness, so take what you want. However, one thing for you to think about: neither of the two stats helps you to kill all those harmless mobs outside any faster.

And if you plan to do some dungeons, it’s pretty simple: Vita and toughness are 99% useless, healing power is 90% useless (unless you are in an utterly bad group) and full offensive is the way to go.

CptAurellian.9537:

If you just want to explore the open world, it does not matter. No one else is negatively affected by it and both stats are more or less on the same level of ineffectiveness, so take what you want. However, one thing for you to think about: neither of the two stats helps you to kill all those harmless mobs outside any faster.

And if you plan to do some dungeons, it’s pretty simple: Vita and toughness are 99% useless, healing power is 90% useless (unless you are in an utterly bad group) and full offensive is the way to go.

This.

Not for leveling. For leveling you can run whatever armor you like, it won’t make a huge difference. Once you get to 80, there are several variations of healing builds that are great for WvW, but for PvE healing power is generally unneeded. That said, a balanced approach that doesn’t give up too much damage in favor of healing power can work just fine, you just won’t break any speed records.

I wanted to do a durable last man standing build. But so many people are saying the developers want everybody to spec for damage and healing power scales terribly. Seems kinda boring if everybody is a DPS spec. If i wanted to melee DPS i would play a warrior.

misterDEAN.3027:

I wanted to do a durable last man standing build. But so many people are saying the developers want everybody to spec for damage and healing power scales terribly. Seems kinda boring if everybody is a DPS spec. If i wanted to melee DPS i would play a warrior.

Everyone is DPS. The difference is what you bring to the group. We bring reflects/blocks/blinds/stability to the team. Warriors bring offensive buffs for the team. Two completely different roles in a dungeon group.

So replacing a guard with a warrior doesn’t make sense unless you have another class to make up for what you are losing in the guard’s lost utilities.

RECAP: Everyone in a dungeon group should bring dps. What makes the classes different, is what unique team utilities they bring that make the party better.(healing and being a wet boodle is not one of those things).

misterDEAN.3027:

I wanted to do a durable last man standing build. But so many people are saying the developers want everybody to spec for damage and healing power scales terribly. Seems kinda boring if everybody is a DPS spec. If i wanted to melee DPS i would play a warrior.

As you can see, there is no such thing as “last man standing” in a dungeon run. If your party wipes at a dungeon and you are the “last man standing”, then they are inexperienced(a.k.a noobs) or really bad players. Meaning you should leave that party immediately and get another.

This is the mentality of GW2 dungeon speed runners.

You go all out DPS, and if you do not survive you are bad and must be kicked. There is no point arguing about taking Toughess or Vitality with dungeon speed runners, or arguing about the need for a “last man standing(tank)” or “healer(support)” in the team, to them these just make the run slower.

Speed runners simply do not wipe. Even if they do, they will never admit to the possibility of wiping, because that would be like admitting they are bad players. Full DPS will always get you a perfect run.

It also does not matter how many times you have rezzed your party by being tanky to prevent them from wiping in a dungeon, they will simply tell you the run went slow, not because of them going down, but because of you not being full DPS. Afterall, if you went DPS, the boss would be dead, and they would not have downed. It is your fault.

So in conclusion, Rezzing does not exist for speed runners. It is a mechanic that has no place in a speed run. You will get a “ty” if you rez someone, but that does not mean “thank you”, it is simply a word that clears the fact that they wiped from their memory.

Proof: Does any good player know the name of the last person that rezzed them? Does any good player remember the last time they ended in downed/defeated state? 99% of the population will answer NO. And if you do answer this question with the name of the player who last rezzed you, I am sorry to tell you that you are not a good player.

Berserkers don’t need rezzes because they rally from their party’s kills.

misterDEAN.3027:

I wanted to do a durable last man standing build. But so many people are saying the developers want everybody to spec for damage and healing power scales terribly. Seems kinda boring if everybody is a DPS spec. If i wanted to melee DPS i would play a warrior.

PvE in this game has a low skill cap so you just blow kitten up and move on. Your durability isn’t generally tested in that game mode so just spec for damage.

This makes me sad. I loved being a tank in wow. Everybody being DPS makes me like this game a little less. It also makes me like my guardian less. I dont think the guardian is a good fit for this game. They portray them as “guardians” but they werent designed to be defensive or protect others. They are meant to be a DPS.

You can still protect others as a DPS in pve. Protection, aegis, reflection, none of those are effected by healing power. In PvP/wvw you SHOULD gear up as a tank, its a role we are pretty good at there.

Of all the classes I have played, this is the class MOST designed to be defensive and protect others. There are ways to do that other than holding agg and being a meatshield like olders games tend to do.

If all you want to do is solo explore the world then by all means tank up and get what ever stats you want. Run with what ever gear you like. Healing power doesn’t scale all that great so if I had to choose between vit and heal i’d go with vit.

However.

If you decide you want to do higher level PVE content like Dungeons then you’ll need to reconsider your set up. Just know that the best guardians can do excellent DPS and still protect their team. Guardians are meant to prevent damage not repair it.

To do this you’ll need to understand your traits, utilities, and profession mechanics – Virtues. You’ll be blinding your enemies with Virtue of Justice, sword, GS and focus skills. You’ll be preventing projectiles from hitting you and your allies with Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger. Lastly you can provide party wide blocks with Virtue of Courage and Retreat!. This is the basics to playing an excellent Guardian. None of these skills require any form of stat, specifically healing, because you’re actually preventing damage done you don’t need to repair as much either. This frees you up to do damage by increasing your power and crits. This is to say that you can’t provide nearly 100% Protection up time and a decent stack of Vulnerability if traited properly with the hammer’s auto attack while still doing serious damage.

So in a sense you can have your cake and eat it too.

I agree, out of all the classes guardian is most defensive. But it doesnt feel like a whole hearted attempt to be a defensive class. More like half kitten attempt at a DPS class with a touch of defensive abilites. For example, shields are classified as weapons. Anybody with half a brain can look at that and know arenanet is racist against defense and infatuated with damage. The popup shows shields have a damage rating. So im assuming the shield gets calculated to my damage rating. I know im not the only one who thinks this is messed up. Its a shield. Its meant to be a defensive item. Not a weapon. Does the shield even block attacks? Not sure yet. Probably not. Would not be surprised if the only block was with aegis or if weapons in general have a block chance.

Also, the shields moves itself are very under powered compared to other “weapons”. Shield of judgement damage is a joke. The buff is only 3 seconds. The cooldown is 30 seconds. Shield of absorption heal is also a joke. It only absorbs projectiles. You cant move or perform other abilities when active. You have a better chance of surviving bursting down your target than trying to heal or block projectiles. Its sad.

Meanwhile, the torch is amazing. Its an instant cast aoe burn with 10 second cool down. You can even cast in while knocked down or performing other actions. I want to use the shield so bad but its such a kitten poor option compared to the torch.

I dont feel like arenanet knows what a “guardian” really is or should be. The lore and substance of a guardian doesnt really fit with their idea of everybody is a DPS class. The class feels like a alternative warrior than a true guardian.

misterDEAN.3027:

I agree, out of all the classes guardian is most defensive. But it doesnt feel like a whole hearted attempt to be a defensive class.

Your perception is correct. It doesn’t feel like that because the impact that being defensive has in PVE is less tangible than being offensive. I don’t think it’s half-hearted; It seems that the aim of the devs was achieved when planning out the class and it’s tools; it feels like a good balance for the class itself.

I do agree it falls a little flat because PVE is focused on killing stuff and every class has enough of their own support/heals to be able to play without reliance on ours. I think where the Guardian really shines with their toolset is if you are engineering your PVE teams so all aspects of defense and offense are covered in the whole team make up. In that case, Guardian can bring many things that free up other classes skill bars/traits with better goodies. That still leaves us short on DPS in some cases but … that’s how the class is defined.

The Guardian has been designed as a mageknight whit defensive ability.
A large amount of it’s skills and it’s Trait give you defensive buffs and healing, expecially healing.
Guardian has been designed as a Healer/Supporter in heavy armor. Low hp (like ele and thief) but high healing ability.
At the top you can heal by 1500+hp at second whitout the main healing skill.
You heal whit passive Virtue (you can increase it’s healing power), you heal whit regen, rune of dolyak, by sigils and by giving buffs to ally. That’s the main bunker spec.

BUT no one want you in PvE or Dungeon if you’re a bunker. Exept for some dungeons or high levels of Fractal, the bunker build in PvE il useless.
Not enough support to compensate the lack of damage. Is good if you survive longer, and sometimes a good bunker can save the situation, but actually there’s not all that number of dungeons or situations where you need a bunker.

In PvE is better a dps, or a hybrid.

In PvP (sPvP or WvsWvsW) is different.
in PvP you fight to hold bases, to survive longer than your enemy and to keep your ally alive under an arrow rain.
Whit a bunker spec you can stand under the door of a fortress and use the ram whitout problem. When your heal drop, leave the ram, spam 2 shout, use the skill 2 of the mace to obtain regen and healing and you’re ready to use the ram again.
In TsPvP a bunker is very appreciate, expecially if you’re the only one in the team. You can hold the point and support your ally whit a large amount of useful skills.

At the end:
Healing power is very good for PvP and for some situations in PvE. But for normal PvE or common dungeons is better hit hard.

you can try the Meditation build, that grant you healing when you need and let you be a dps whitout problems in Trait and build.

(p.s. sorry for my bad english)