Guild Wars 2

I picked up the game near two weeks ago. Just hit my first 80. But really. What do I do now? Right now I want to be useful to my guild in PVE. So how should I go about doing this? Support? DPS? ( I know real real dps isnt there) But. What should my gear and build look like leading up being kitten and full geared? Where do I start?

I can recommend something, try every weapons even if you already try them, when you get level 80 certain weapon might be better because you have access to build and such, like hammer winch is kinda underrated

Real dps is there.

DPS. No one wants a support. Supports slow down dungeon runs and usually don’t help that much, unless said supports are elementalists. You are not an elementalist. Ergo, you do not run support.

I recommend the very first thing you do is get a bunch of level 80 green Berserker’s armor and accessories. Since they’re green they should be cheap, the whole thing shouldn’t run you much more than 10 silver or so. Then next you should get an exotic weapon of your choice (I recommend Berserker’s GS since it has the highest DPS) once you can afford it. Either do dungeon runs to save up the tokens or just drop the 2g or so to buy/craft it.

After that, start on exotic accessories. If for any reason you decide not to go with Berserker’s accessories, get some exquisite ruby jewels and socket those into whatever you do get. Berserker’s jewels are by far and away the best stat gain for any jewel, even if you’re not going for direct damage.

Armor is actually the least important of your gear stat-wise, so you can save that for last.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

DPS. No one wants a support. Supports slow down dungeon runs and usually don’t help that much, unless said supports are elementalists. You are not an elementalist. Ergo, you do not run support.

I recommend the very first thing you do is get a bunch of level 80 green Berserker’s armor and accessories. Since they’re green they should be cheap, the whole thing shouldn’t run you much more than 10 silver or so. Then next you should get an exotic weapon of your choice (I recommend Berserker’s GS since it has the highest DPS) once you can afford it. Either do dungeon runs to save up the tokens or just drop the 2g or so to buy/craft it.

After that, start on exotic accessories. If for any reason you decide not to go with Berserker’s accessories, get some exquisite ruby jewels and socket those into whatever you do get. Berserker’s jewels are by far and away the best stat gain for any jewel, even if you’re not going for direct damage.

Armor is actually the least important of your gear stat-wise, so you can save that for last.

Genuinely curious, because I am not very knowledgeable, what is your logic for Beserkers being the best stat gain for any jewel? What makes them better than Valkyries, for example?

DPS. No one wants a support. Supports slow down dungeon runs and usually don’t help that much, unless said supports are elementalists. You are not an elementalist. Ergo, you do not run support.
I recommend the very first thing you do is get a bunch of level 80 green Berserker’s armor and accessories. Since they’re green they should be cheap, the whole thing shouldn’t run you much more than 10 silver or so. Then next you should get an exotic weapon of your choice (I recommend Berserker’s GS since it has the highest DPS) once you can afford it. Either do dungeon runs to save up the tokens or just drop the 2g or so to buy/craft it.
After that, start on exotic accessories. If for any reason you decide not to go with Berserker’s accessories, get some exquisite ruby jewels and socket those into whatever you do get. Berserker’s jewels are by far and away the best stat gain for any jewel, even if you’re not going for direct damage.
Armor is actually the least important of your gear stat-wise, so you can save that for last.

I’d highly NOT recommend taking this advise unless you are very well experienced in all the dungeons and open world champion mechanics. Going full berserker leaves you no margin for any mistakes or dodgy boss mechanics. You’ll soon realise that you’re simply gonna end up griefing your own team by going down so often and you’re putting your party members in danger if they try to rally you.

Guang, I simply do not understand your logic sometimes. Full Berserker gear can be good in clearing outdoor trash but lacks buffer when playing in dungeons. There will be times where an enemy would lock onto you and you need atleast a respectable amount of toughness and vitality not to get ripped up in 3-4 shots. No amount of AH is going to save you thanks to the the amount of burst damage encountered in dungeons. There will be times where you’ll be forced to kite certain bosses and enemies like the lovers who you must separate. You’re gonna get hit. And going full berserker, you’re gonna go down real fast. More DPS is good. Too much death equals no DPS.

The GS has good dps but you should not be relying on this alone. Hammer guardians have a protection buff built into their 3rd strike which can prevent other classes that do more burst from going down as quickly. Also since most pulls aren’t very big, the Hammer offers alot more to the table in terms of control and buffs which is a fair trade off from the GS.

I also cannot believe you think armor is the least important part of your gear. Every piece of gear you equip matters. The upgrades that you place on your armor are vital to your build. Soldiers clears a condition everytime you use a shout. Or Mel’s which drastically increases toughness and reduces condition duration.

I personally do run Berserker Jewels and weapons myself. But I’ve balanced this with soldier armour and an Altruistic build. The lesson here is that balance between support and damage will most likely give the best results. Red circles in dungeons are relentless and unless you play a flawless game which is less likely because enemies have an insane amount of health, you’re gonna find yourself running back from the waypoint more often and doing less damage because you died.

Also in relation to this thread, the OP is fresh to 80. While it is still your job to do a respectable amount of DPS, the guardian is still a support class and you should be doing everything in your power to give protection boons, lay light fields, remove conditions and also take a beating(not all of it though).

can i ask you to elaborate what you mean by being useful to your guild in PvE? do you mean doing farm runs, dungeons, or …

i remember when i first hit 80, i was like made it! now what as well. of course, i knew i was going to keep playing, as do you – so the main question is, what do we want to do and how? leveling up, i started learning and figuring out how i wanted to play. if you want, you can go to the Heart of the Mists and try out different weps, stats and traits/skills/builds. find something you like, set a reasonable goal for yourself. for me, after realizing i play what i like to believe to be a support/DPS build. perhaps not as specialized and won’t do as much raw dmg as others, but still definitely a formidable force. i picked out the stats i thought would be support and augment this playstyle of mine and then my first goal it was to get a set of rare armour first with the stats that i wanted. then exotic weapon sets for the weapons i use the most – hammer, GS, scepter and staff. then greenwork jewelry —> then to exotic jewelry. and havne’t go tmy jewelry all sorted yet but i plan to go for an exotic armour set. Point to note – at this stage and looking back,, like Guanglai pointed out, i woulda went for exotic weapons first as they make the most noticeable difference. and then you sort your jewelry and than armour. i’m kinda building all at the same time now and it worked(s) for me.

i’ve also built a rare MF set along the way too for farming in general. whereas my general set i use in dungeons.

and even now, i try to keep swithcing my weapons sets around, try different utilities and switch up my traits every so often. finding what works best in each situation.

if you’re curious, there are many great builds out there that people are sharing. i personally run something similar to the AH + Hammer build that’s stickied. and still am consatntly evolving and trying new things as well. and just FYI, i run with full knight’s gear. though now working on a more focused on DPS set. for weapons, i like running berserkers for hammer and GS, and then knight’s for my offhands, and healing on my staff.

no matter what i’m doing, i have at least two sets of full armour one me (equipped and in Inv). i envision to have at least 3 full sets. and i carry all weapons with me wheever i go. just so you can switch on the fly and be prepared for all occasions. i might also be working on maybe even multiple sets of the same weapon. but this is just me. : ))

Guanglai Kangyi.4318

DPS. No one wants a support. Supports slow down dungeon runs and usually don’t help that much, unless said supports are elementalists. You are not an elementalist. Ergo, you do not run support.

Correction: Nobody wants a pure support Guardian.
Losing their excellent damaging capacities in favour of doing a thing another profession may do better… not advisable. But that doesn’t make it impossible to invent a manner in which you are support heavy, and still deal good enough damage to not at all slow your team down.

Think of the many offensive trait options that can “strangely” be found in our more defensive looking trait lines.
A 20% decrease in cooldowns on two-handed weapons, in our Honor line.
Added burning effects and more retaliation triggers through our Virtues.

I personally run a rather support-heavy build, based around Altruistic Healing. I like being the one that’s able to run into the fray head first, to survive with relative ease while I buff my friends up with massive stacks of Might, hoisting about a greatsword to do my own share of ravaging.
Naturally, I will not deal as much damage as a pure Berserker, but in turn, I do get more opportunity to deal decent amounts of damage due to the simple fact that I do not have to roll out as fast or often as they do.

Ahem.
Tl;dr: Support is viable, but 100% Support is not. Hybrids are fine to an extent.

If you ask me, just play around with your traits and some cheaper gear till you find what you like playing as best.

My friend runs a full support shout guardian with cleric gear and of his 4 80’s I always prefer he brings the guardian, I run my shout heal warrior as a hybrid dps then we bring 3 zerker players, eles rangers etc. Dungeons are fun there are very few deaths.

Ive done runs with full zerker groups and everyone dying all the time makes things alot slower

When all 5 players are at the very peak of their game, yeah, 5 zerkers are fast and efficient. Keyword is when, which is 95% of the time not true.

In my opinion, some of the better builds for dungeons are hybrids. Pure tanks and supports slows down the fights way too much to be a benefit. Damage is always good, but if you die/down too much, then you are a burden. I can’t count how many times i died because i tried to rez someone against my better judgement.

Polle.6908:

Defensive gear isn’t as important as you think it is. A full set of knight’s gear will increase your toughness about 1k. This adds up to around 25% damage reduction, if i remember the curve correctly. This sounds like a lot but keep in mind that maxed toughness (full defensive from traits, armor, and gear) is only about 35%. Just traits alone already gives you around 10% and you can take off another 10% by equipping Signet of Judgment. It is also a diminishing returns curve so you are actually better off with less toughness in terms of minmaxing stats. This means that your maximum damage reduction is around 45% from a full Knight’s set, which is only 25% more damage reduction versus full Berserkers. This is relative to the base, too, so in effect you will actually only see about a 20% reduction in damage if you’re running with 30 Valor and the signet. The boost in DPS from Berserkers is a lot bigger than this, although I can’t quote you the numbers off the top of my head.

Also, dungeon runs get HARDER when bosses live longer. Most decent players usually have the capability to last a few minutes against a boss before health bars start to deplete faster than they can be kept up (either people start getting sloppy and get hit by obvious/unlucky stuff, or they just run out of defensive options), so the less damage you’re dealing, the higher the odds of a wipe.

You move fast grashopper. When I first read the post I was like, are you seriously asking what to do? Then I re-read it, and I’m still not sure and asking the same question. You have only had the game for 2 maybe 3 weeks and you are asking this question

I only hit 80 1 month ago and I played during the head start On one hand there is a good video post as to what to do once you hit 80 by a chap named ‘Woodenpotatoes’. Google that and take a look. Also there is another post tagged 80 things to do at 80 that may be of interest.

If you are looking at what role to play then you need to take a step back and check what game you are playing because it can be anything you want and more. If in the end it isn’t the playstyle and class then you need to try some of the others. As many already said the game isn’t cut and dry as to group composition. It is, on the other hand, possible to swap things around to do a little of both. Guardians can do a bit of everything and use just about every weapon combination available.

In the end it comes down to you and what you want to do.

Thank everyone for their Input

-Yes I noticed dying a lot while being in Berserk gear.

After making this post and trying everything I could think that may be fun. I went with.

0/30/30/10/0

Not relying on burn or anything like that. Using, but not the main force in my DPS.

[Berserker’s Hammer of Accuracy] An lvl 71 exotic.
[Knight’s Krait Machete of Accuracy][Knight’s Krait Shell] Rares.
[Knight’s Gladiator Boots of the Eagle] Legs and Boots, Rares.
[Knight’s Gladiator Helm of the Fighter] Helm, Chest, Shoulder and Gloves., Rares.
+Power +Precision +Toughness Upgraded the same.

Full knights Accessories, with Knight upgrades. [Emerald Mithril Earring of the Knight]

Sword and shield stats. (shorter here and there,but 241 shorter on Toughness with Hammer used.)

Power 1531
Precision 1931
Toughness 2119
Vitality 1020.
Atk 2,376
Crit 52%
armor 3244
HP 11845

1v1 My sword crits for 900 ish 7/10 swings. Is 900 on a basic attack crit good though?

Using the Hammer for AOE and CC
And Sword Shield with the 15% crit on 1 hand trait for my single target destruction.

With the +toughness through my gear and in traits. I find myself alive much more and not placing added burden on my group.

So that’s where i’m built now. But will this idea work once I pick up the “Best of the Best” Gear. I don’t know.

Tupac.5782:

Thank everyone for their Input

-Yes I noticed dying a lot while being in Berserk gear.

After making this post and trying everything I could think that may be fun. I went with.

0/30/30/10/0

Not relying on burn or anything like that. Using, but not the main force in my DPS.

[Berserker’s Hammer of Accuracy] An lvl 71 exotic.
[Knight’s Krait Machete of Accuracy][Knight’s Krait Shell] Rares.
[Knight’s Gladiator Boots of the Eagle] Legs and Boots, Rares.
[Knight’s Gladiator Helm of the Fighter] Helm, Chest, Shoulder and Gloves., Rares.
+Power +Precision +Toughness Upgraded the same.

Full knights Accessories, with Knight upgrades. [Emerald Mithril Earring of the Knight]

Sword and shield stats. (shorter here and there,but 241 shorter on Toughness with Hammer used.)

Power 1531
Precision 1931
Toughness 2119
Vitality 1020.
Atk 2,376
Crit 52%
armor 3244
HP 11845

1v1 My sword crits for 900 ish 7/10 swings. Is 900 on a basic attack crit good though?

Using the Hammer for AOE and CC
And Sword Shield with the 15% crit on 1 hand trait for my single target destruction.

With the +toughness through my gear and in traits. I find myself alive much more and not placing added burden on my group.

So that’s where i’m built now. But will this idea work once I pick up the “Best of the Best” Gear. I don’t know.

900 is actually really bad on a sword auto. You SHOULD be hitting for at least 3k on a crit, at least with the last hit. I would attribute that to your sword not being maxed, though.

The 100% absolute thing you must do immediately, regardless of how much it costs you, is to get an exotic level 80 weapon. I recommend you get a greatsword since it’s a 2H weapon and made for DPS, so you only need to invest in one. I don’t recommend getting an exotic hammer till you have everything else since the point of getting exotics is to raise your DPS, and hammer has bad DPS no matter the stats so you’ll get by fine with just your 71 exotic. Alternately, you can get an exotic mace or scepter, but if you do that you’ll need to get an exotic offhand too since the damage stat is averaged between the two. I’m not a big fan of the sword (I’m still using a level 70 rare one) since it’s basically a pure PvP weapon.

Also, drop the knight’s jewels and get berserker’s ones. You can get cheap ones if you don’t have the cash, it’ll still give you +2% crit damage each. That’s a total of +12% minimum crit damage, versus the toughness you get from the jewel, which is worth like 2% damage reduction.

to OP:

I’d recommend going full berserker’s for gear, and going 10/0/30/30/0. For your weapons, have a scepter+focus for range, and carry both a greatsword and hammer for melee. Switch between the greatsword and hammer as you see fit.

The build provides you with AH to offset the lack of toughness on your armor, and good support for your teammates via honor traits. The best support you can give would be hammer using the symbols are larger+last longer trait, which can give near permanent protection for you and any nearby allies.

As you improve, you’ll want to get rid of the valor traits. Once you can do CoE with no issues, try a build like 15/25/0/30/0 or 20/25/0/20/5. This provides you with more damage at the cost of a decent amount of survivability, but you should not need that crutch by the time you switch to that build. Also, if it’s your first time doing Arah explorable, you may want to use 10/25/5/30/0 instead. The extra aegis may save you during the fight with giganticus lupicus.

Well if the game is just about getting to the max level for you, I’d say; roll an alt power-level them to 80 and rinse and repeat until you fill your character slots, then go play another game. Clearly that’s all that matters to you.

If you actually took the time to play the game as it was intended you’d never ever ask this question.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

DPS. No one wants a support. Supports slow down dungeon runs and usually don’t help that much, unless said supports are elementalists. You are not an elementalist. Ergo, you do not run support.

I recommend the very first thing you do is get a bunch of level 80 green Berserker’s armor and accessories. Since they’re green they should be cheap, the whole thing shouldn’t run you much more than 10 silver or so. Then next you should get an exotic weapon of your choice (I recommend Berserker’s GS since it has the highest DPS) once you can afford it. Either do dungeon runs to save up the tokens or just drop the 2g or so to buy/craft it.

After that, start on exotic accessories. If for any reason you decide not to go with Berserker’s accessories, get some exquisite ruby jewels and socket those into whatever you do get. Berserker’s jewels are by far and away the best stat gain for any jewel, even if you’re not going for direct damage.

Armor is actually the least important of your gear stat-wise, so you can save that for last.

Anyone looking to actually play guardian fully ignore this person’s post as its nothing but trolling. Ask the top guardian’s here and most will be rolling a support/tank type of setup because its balance very well between the different play styles and will out survive about any other build out there. The advice he gave you here will have you dead on the ground while mobs are not even able to over come a true guardian’s natural hp regen.

Tarn.1374:

Well if the game is just about getting to the max level for you, I’d say; roll an alt power-level them to 80 and rinse and repeat until you fill your character slots, then go play another game. Clearly that’s all that matters to you.

If you actually took the time to play the game as it was intended you’d never ever ask this question.

Dude, he is asking for advice about how to build his level 80 in terms of gear and traits, not what is there to do after hitting lvl 80. No need to get narky on him.

SiNoS.2147:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

DPS. No one wants a support. Supports slow down dungeon runs and usually don’t help that much, unless said supports are elementalists. You are not an elementalist. Ergo, you do not run support.

I recommend the very first thing you do is get a bunch of level 80 green Berserker’s armor and accessories. Since they’re green they should be cheap, the whole thing shouldn’t run you much more than 10 silver or so. Then next you should get an exotic weapon of your choice (I recommend Berserker’s GS since it has the highest DPS) once you can afford it. Either do dungeon runs to save up the tokens or just drop the 2g or so to buy/craft it.

After that, start on exotic accessories. If for any reason you decide not to go with Berserker’s accessories, get some exquisite ruby jewels and socket those into whatever you do get. Berserker’s jewels are by far and away the best stat gain for any jewel, even if you’re not going for direct damage.

Armor is actually the least important of your gear stat-wise, so you can save that for last.

Anyone looking to actually play guardian fully ignore this person’s post as its nothing but trolling. Ask the top guardian’s here and most will be rolling a support/tank type of setup because its balance very well between the different play styles and will out survive about any other build out there. The advice he gave you here will have you dead on the ground while mobs are not even able to over come a true guardian’s natural hp regen.

Lol, if you want to run support you roll ele, not guardian. Guardian does get some support advantages but none of them really benefit from having defensive stats; consecrations, shouts, and symbols are all basically unaffected by toughness or healing power, which is what you seem to be suggesting. Eles get skills that are actually affected by healing power and can maintain defensive boons much more easily, without having to sacrifice DPS.

And honestly, if you need more than the huge defensive buff granted by AH and the 10% damage reduction you get from being in Valor line just to stay alive, you’re probably not a “true” guardian anyway.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

You are wildly over exaggerating the survivability of a Guardian. Yea a Guardian can roll in full glasscannon spec and survive Arah without going down. I could properly run naked and with a bit of luck do the same. The guy is new to the guardian, no reason to tell him to run the hardest spec we have, when you can run a hybrid shout-AH-dps spec in knight/dungeon power-vita-tgh armour and do just fine dps wise.

Next thing: not everyone runs with a ele, a support guardian is a viable and pretty good build – even with a ele in the party.

On the topic of weapons:
1) yes get lvl 80 exotic weapons.
2) If you are running dungeons the GS is good, but hammer is better. Why? one skill: Mighty Blow. MB+two-handed mastery = loads of might, healing, blinds…

Lots of good ideas here for the OP

However if you want a good understanding of your role in groups for pve wvwvw or spvp

This is the best thread you will ever read

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Crithammer-one-way-of-playing-with-it

enjoy

Tarn.1374:

Well if the game is just about getting to the max level for you, I’d say; roll an alt power-level them to 80 and rinse and repeat until you fill your character slots, then go play another game. Clearly that’s all that matters to you.

If you actually took the time to play the game as it was intended you’d never ever ask this question.

As well have your ol’ lady call me more than once a day please.

Dark.6250:

Lots of good ideas here for the OP

However if you want a good understanding of your role in groups for pve wvwvw or spvp

This is the best thread you will ever read

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Crithammer-one-way-of-playing-with-it

enjoy

Awesome, everyone else thank you. Really helping me along my way in understanding my path and roll.