Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to build my Guardian as a very well-rounded Supporter, however I’m having a bit of trouble making it feel… effective.

Here’s what my build is currently looking like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUMQNApeWlcgKD3FSPEm4ERmiRKSMFa8jXPS4EZIA

Any tips / hints are welcomed.

I have used both shout and meditation builds to great effect in pve/pvp. I’m not sold on consecrations because of the mobility issues (though I typically keep purging flames as an extra condition remover in my meditation build).

I do agree with your weapon choices at least, I run mace/shield and staff.

It looks like a solid build to me. It’s similar to what I’m going for with the consecrations, but I plan on going into the Zeal line rather than Valor to increase greatsword damage (I plan on running gs/staff with 2 handed mastery).

Is this for WvW, PvP, or PvE? Or all three?

I’m only level 42, so I haven’t been able to test my build out much:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUUQJARWlcgyDHGyMEm4ERWhRW9Ie3zeYP0YG/IA

I actually might like your build more. I feel like mine’s trying to do too much in trying to be effective at both support and damage.

Hi,

Could you clarify what you mean by having trouble making it feel effective? Otherwise, here’s some commentary for you.

Altruistic Healing is actually not going to heal a lot of HP. What it does do is synergize nicely with Mace and Staff, because your symbols apply boons to allies. Furthermore, it turns Empower into a stronger heal, because it’s going to pulse 4 times while you channel Empower. So that’s…maybe an extra 200 or 300 HP on top of Empower. Your other boons are going to come from Symbol of Swiftness and Symbol of Faith.

According to this, you’ve got about 200 Healing Power, but let’s pretend it’s 300 Healing Power. That means Writ of the Merciful should give you…

…about 120 health returned per symbol? And about 70 from Altruistic Healing. So some very rough napkin math yields:

An extra 180 health from Symbol of Faith, on top of its usual Regen.
An extra 180 health from Symbol of Swiftness.
An maybe a total of 2000 heal from Empower, over a 4 second channel.

See, that’s what I’m trying to illustrate. Your build is actually pretty strong. It heavily emphasizes symbol use and rewards boon application, and along with Healing Breeze and 20 in Virtues for Virtue of Resolve, provides solid support through healing. You’ve got Purging Flames for burning and condition removal, plus Sanctuary for emergency healing and immunity.

So this is a perfectly potent build and can perform very well. The question is—how are you playing it? You’re going to have to be aggressive with this build. You’ll need to stay in melee when you’re swinging your mace/focus in order to keep heals coming, drop symbols and use blocks. Even when you switch to staff, you’ll have to stay in the midline, between the 400 and 600 range to keep dealing damage and offering support. Between mace and staff’s weapon skills, you should have no real problem supporting your allies.

The issue, though, is that you cannot by any means play a passive game with this build. You need to stay aggressive and invest in enough power to actually deal at least a modest amount of damage while offering support. There are no healers in this game, so even a heal-centric build like yours will require an active and aggressive playstyle.

The only real criticism I can offer—and this isn’t criticism so much as a suggestion—is that you’re investing in three places: boon application, symbol use and consecrations. If you’re not getting as much mileage as you like out of Altruistic Healing, I recommend this build:

Click Here

This gives you another 100 healing power, plus Battle Presence. That’s about 90-100 health to all nearby allies every 3 seconds, more than what Altruistic Healing gives you per boon, and comparable to what Writ of the Merciful gives you per symbol.

You also have 20 points left to spend however you want. Consider:

Valor: 10 will get you Purity or faster Meditations.

Radiance: 15 will get you free Virtue of Justice every time an enemy dies, which means free 3-stack might for the entire party. You can take 20 for A Fire Inside to give Spirit Weapons burning, and also Improved Spirit Weapon Duration in Virtues for better Spirit Weapon support.

Zeal: Zeal will give you some more damage. 15 makes all your Symbols add a bit of vulnerability, which can be useful if stacked. The free symbol of Wrath can synergize well with your two Writ traits. Or take 20 for better Spirit Weapons.

TLDR: 30 Valor is a big investment if all you want is Altruistic Healing. Altruistic Healing really only helps you, and it’ll certainly improve survivability.

But I wouldn’t be too concerned of survivability with a build like this. If you want to be a well-rounded supporter, try 30 Honor and 20 Virtues, then do what you want with the other 20.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes!

=)

I’m looking to be effective in all three, but primarily focusing on WvW and PvP (the PvE is really for gathering materials / finishing up my Personal Quest).

I too had a similar problem in the beginning in where I wanted to be a “jack of all” in regards to doing damage and support. But I quickly found in WvW that “jack of all” kind of build just wasn’t really working out. And since I’m going to have other playable characters that are primarily focusing on damage, I decided to make the Guardian as supportive as possible without losing too much “able to stand on my own” ability.

I’ve been using the Greatsword in the past, and it’s a great weapon. I just don’t see it as a supportive type weapon.

The reason why I was looking towards the Consecration was for the ability to use the targeting with it. That way I can stay a bit in the back and still give the healing / support needed.

In my gear I plan on primarily focusing on boosting my Vit, Tough, and either Healing Power and / or Boon Duration. Then with the Runes still focusing on Toughness and a little bit of Power with either Healing and / or Boon Duration.

Ah, okay. I understand. To be honest, I don’t PVP or WvWvW much (looking to change that soon), so nearly all of my perspective is from PVE.

@EveningStar – Thank you for your suggestions and tips. From what it sounds then is really my play style with the Guardian Support.

When I hear the word Support, I mostly think of being somewhere towards the middle / back, and not necessarily right up there in the front lines. I was dying A LOT the last few rounds of WvW that I was in, and that could be because I wasn’t playing as aggressive as what I should have been.

I definitely don’t think you should be easy to kill, seeing as how you’re built for defense and healing. That kinda scares me since my build would be less defensive than yours, which means I’d die even more lol.

Again I think it could be my play style. Coming from MMO’s where you are a Supporter / Healer role (not necessarily a Tank per-se) I’m used to not jumping in to the front lines to support. So that could be a bit of the problem for me dying all over the place.

But back to the build – I’d like to know if people think that the Consecrations are better than the Shouts or Meditations. Anyone know of builds that can combine the different Utilities harmoniously?

NerdyMike.2695:

Again I think it could be my play style. Coming from MMO’s where you are a Supporter / Healer role (not necessarily a Tank per-se) I’m used to not jumping in to the front lines to support. So that could be a bit of the problem for me dying all over the place.

But back to the build – I’d like to know if people think that the Consecrations are better than the Shouts or Meditations. Anyone know of builds that can combine the different Utilities harmoniously?

While I don’t use Meditations, I interchange Shouts and Consecrations between each fight, assuming I know what to expect ahead. While Hold the Line! is a mainstay, I would make sure to pack Stand Your Ground! and Hallowed Ground should I expect stuns, knockdowns, fears, etc., when Poison or Burning are involved, Purging Flames and Save Yourselves! are a must, while Wall of Reflection is always useful against ranged enemies.

the build i usually use as a support:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.5.7.19.0.27.27.0.0.53.66.67.64.78.1.1.8.0.0.0.0.0.0.185.0.0.198.205.207.212.217.219.0.0.10.30.30

in WvW i change the staff to scepter and focus
and in PvE which isn’t a dungeon i change to Great Sword and Mace x Shield.

Mace x Shield is my main – and i use the cleric Mace for stronger healing