Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’ve started playing again recently. I’m not very expert on the game and there’s a lot of information around to get quite confused.
I’ve been reading quite a lot about Guardians and Equipment. I don’t have a playstyle already defined, which is making things harder to decide.

I know some things:
- I enjoy running Dungeons/Fractals/All PvE content and WvW (a lot)
- I don’t like being squishy
- I enjoy being able to stand quite some hits
- I enjoy reviving people in WvW Zergs / Champions Kills
- I’d like to be able to stop a Zerg or to be an obstacle where people need to worry about me and not one shot me in 0.1 Sec
- If possible I’d like to survive some AoE, so far Catas are destroying me not matter what

Weapons:
Pretty familiar with GS, Hammer, Mace/Shield and Staff. Are these weapons useful for WvW?

I’ve already acquired the Ascended Amulet Thackery with Defensive Infusion (no slotted yet). Now I’m confused on what I should be looking forward.
Some investigation revealed that going for Rings/Accessories/Backpack from Fractals is the way to go or Guild Commendations+Gold as well.

But, I’ve seen lot of Armor for Guardian:
- Berserkers is for DPS Guardian. It’s Glass Cannon, I get. Probably useful in Dungeons and Fractals (I believe this is up to 40 Max, where Agony is too much ?)
- PVT (Soldier) I think this one is not really good from what I’ve seen. It would seem that the added Vitality is not really good considering our damage mitigation and heals.
- Knights seems a well-around decision, it provides Thoughness, Power and Precision for those nasty crit. It would seem that a mix of Knights+PVT is good to get a bit of extra HP since our HP pool isn’t that high.
- Clerics not sure about this one, but it would seems is also pretty good and popular?

As I’ve stated there are things that I enjoy more, maybe a Support/Tankish role while still doing decent damage (Maye Zerkers accesories here as many suggested). But my primary question is:
- In which order should I get these items to maximize stat efficiency? AND
- Which is the fastest/cheapest way to get them?

Thanks everyone for helping me out.

@Builds I don’t wanna still think about that, you can always reset Traits, but equipment is a bit harder to come by.

For PvE, run full berserker. If you want to be “tanky” you’re condemned to forever being bad since the game’s aggro mechanics suck and passive damage mitigation isn’t that important. Support, you can still provide in full berserker too.

Personally I would just go full glass and not look back, it forces you to learn how to dodge lethal hits which will take a giant chunk out of players even if in full defensive gear and it forces you to actually pay attention and not just brain afk.

For WvW, if you’re zerging and bombing with the commander then PVT is probably your best bet, mixing it maybe with a couple knights and zerk pieces the more comfortable you get with surviving in the heat of combat. Full glass on a zerging guardian I feel is a no-no however, you can’t inflict good DPS if you’re dodging every two seconds when you’re in the middle of 80 players clashing in to each other, whereas with a more defensive build you can get hits off and soak up the damage you’re taking.

It seems like a valid argument to learn to dodge and avoid big hits. I could get some tanky stats from traits anyways.
I’ll be seeing what I can do.

You’ll get steamrolled in WvW with Berserkers gear. You will want a second set for that, with more defensive stats.

So it’s getting some PVT/Knights first then the Zerker it seems

Well you want two separate sets of gear. PVT/knights for WvW and berserker for PvE. If the cost is a problem, you can run dungeons to get free gear with tokens.

i have 4 sets for Full dps/Tank dps with big condition removal/support/bunker so i can use what i need

GS, Staff, and Hammer are great WvW Weapons. Staff works great with both weapons and helps yourself and allies with the number 4 and the CC from 5. The hammer is great for it’s on command blast and protection. Also the CC’s it has are fantastic. GS also has decent CC, mobility, blind AoE, and the whirl is great for Condition removal for surrounding allies with your light field. My preference in WvW is GS and Hammer. I say if you really want to stop a zerg, either running to you or from you, you probably would prefer staff for it’s #5 and the hammer for it’s #3 and #5.

As far as armor I think a good Mix of PVT and Knights is great. It is not terrible with dmg but great for survivability. It will definitely be able to stand and take some trash hits. Regardless of full tank or glass cannon you should always learn to dodge the big attacks. Beserkers will most definitely make you squishy, without a doubt. Not knocking beserkers (as that’s what I use for general PvE and easy dungeons). But if being squishy is what you want to avoid, that’s the same thing as avoiding beserkers.

Your assumptions on armors are all pretty spot on. I’d definitely have multiple armor sets for WvW and PvE. Beserks for PvE as it’s pretty simple and playing smart will keep you from getting killed while dishing out big dmg. Do the PVT/Knight mix for WvW so you can have high dmg and toughness while keeping decent crit chance and vitality. That will help you be on the front lines and charge into zergs during the big fights.

For a build, Consecrations are great for Dungeons, Fractals, and WvW. pretty much everything on the guardian is fun for general PvE (I personally run Shouts which kind of work as well in dungeons with switching between hollowed ground or WoR).

As far as AoE from carts. Without dumping WvW points into the defensive line from sieges, only more toughness and vitality will help you take the hit… Honestly you’re just going to have to try and stay out of the red circles. If it’s an upgraded AC with someone speced into it there’s really no help any armor can bring, so instead of seeing if they are upgraded or speced into it, always just try to avoid it if you can. If you’re at a wall and trying to ram or trying to protect the rammers, best thing you can do is just bring a hammer and blast those waterfields.

IDK if that helps but that’s just another opinion to think about =) Hope I helped a little.

I’ve been running Knight’s armor with Berserker’s trinkets, and that’s been working out very well for me so far. It’s a nice balance of power, precision, crit damage, and toughness that’s applicable to a wide variety of situations. Pure zerk will certainly do more damage, but having a little more resilience has been quite nice for me.

For WvW, if you want to be more support-y, a healway-style set of cleric’s gear could be a good time as well.

Thanks airic, what was quite a nice post. Thanks beriah as well.

I just need to start gathering the tokens through dungeons and fractals. Even though I like PvE I think is best to start with PVT and Knights since I like WvW and you can’t enjoy it that much if you die in 2 hits.

I still need to learn about the combo and stuffs though, I know how mines work a bit, but now how they interact with other’s classes.

Farming farming for me for the next month!

Good luck and have fun

Zorish.2940:

Thanks airic, what was quite a nice post. Thanks beriah as well.

I just need to start gathering the tokens through dungeons and fractals. Even though I like PvE I think is best to start with PVT and Knights since I like WvW and you can’t enjoy it that much if you die in 2 hits.

I still need to learn about the combo and stuffs though, I know how mines work a bit, but now how they interact with other’s classes.

Farming farming for me for the next month!

Just don’t try joining groups advertising speed clears, if you don’t have full berserker you’ll probably get booted.

Regarding combo fields:

lightning + blast = swiftness
light + blast = retaliation
fire + blast = might
water + blast = burst heal (about 2k-ish or something I think)

Then you’ve got ethereal, dark, smoke, ice, poison which when blasted will give AOE chaos armour, blind, stealth, frost armour or weakness. Full list here:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo

Another good combo, especially for guard is light + whirl for condition cleanse.

colesy.8490:

Just don’t try joining groups advertising speed clears, if you don’t have full berserker you’ll probably get booted.

I can’t wait for the day when that’s not the case. It’s literally one of the only reasons I got Beserker gear (and also I feel taking more dmg in lower level zones makes it a bit more fun haha). IDK maybe that will always be the case for speed clears.

You don’t need to wait … you can join non-speed clearing group and realize you didn’t actually loose any time clearing the dungeon.

Speed clears are meant to be fast. The faster the bosses die, the faster the run. Therefore it will never change. If someone isn’t interested in running zerker all the time, they just have to look for non-SC. That’s what I do.

I can’t wait for the day when that’s not the case. It’s literally one of the only reasons I got Beserker gear (and also I feel taking more dmg in lower level zones makes it a bit more fun haha). IDK maybe that will always be the case for speed clears.

You can’t wait for the day that speed clearers take on people that aren’t using the gear that lets them clear speedily. I hope you’re a patient person.

You don’t need to wait … you can join non-speed clearing group and realize you didn’t actually loose any time clearing the dungeon.

Right, because speed clear groups are actually just a codeword for “elitist circle jerk groups”, they don’t actually clear content faster at all, the speed clearers doing Arah p4 in 30 minutes aren’t doing it faster than the 2 hour PUG.

Come on guys, try a little harder.

Looks like I wasn’t clear enough (though I’m not surprised you wanted to use this as a platform for your position on DPS Guardians again). I wasn’t referring to the speed of a group with a specific makeup of players. The point is: His baseline isn’t speed clearing. He’s not going to notice any particular dungeon runs wasn’t as fast as a speed clearing group.

His or your perception of how long it takes is irrelevant, the fact is that a speed clear group will clear a dungeon quicker than a non-speed clear group. In essence:

you can join non-speed clearing group and realize you didn’t actually loose any time clearing the dungeon.

Is wrong. But you’re just using this thread as another platform for your anti-good player attitude, so I’m not sure why I’m even wasting my time arguing common sense issues with you.

I don’t see how his perception isn’t relevant. Making a build, testing it, changing it … that’s all related to how a player THINKS it’s working or even how convinced of the things they read on forums, guild chat, ingame OOC, etc… . Is that not perception?

I don’t think many people give enough consideration to how playing the game actually works when they post to these ‘what should I do’ threads. It’s not simply “I tell you what to do, You do it”. Anyone with that approach isn’t likely to help people reach their full potential and capability.

Whether or not he COULD run something he doesn’t want to in order to join a specialized group to clear something faster when he doesn’t care about doing that is irrelevant to his enjoyment of the game and its content. That is what matters to the individual player.

Well, I never replied because I thought the thread died, but I DO understand speed clear. Everyone has his/her right to have the best dps build possible to run/kill instances faster.
I’m working towards a zerker equipment mostly because of that, because I want to be able to do lots of damage and increase damage of my party as well.
I also believe that if you’re very squishy you will learn better how to dodge and avoid unnecessary damage. It just takes some dungeons to farm the gear, and it’s quite good looking as well.
As long as I’m having fun I don’t mind my build. Not everyone is an expert and can finish content in 30 min, some people actually like dying and figuring things out ^^