Guild Wars 2

My utility bar is Smite, Judge’s and Contemplation. Got tired of being dependent entirely on ToF’s “combos” and its niche style of play in general. Not to mention the trap Slow absolutely sucks. Platinum is getting more ridiculous, this improvised build is a refreshing.

“But #5 best gerdien in werld, you just loss your 2k – 4k hit-or-miss damages?”

My child, that’s why I take F2’s upgraded trait, Soaring Devastation. Hits for 2k crit or 5k with might stacks. The niche value lessens compared to ToF, you gain greater support vs condi classes with medi utilities and overall more sustains in a fight.

Current Build

It’s a play style in a different direction that utilizes a higher value of CC with an additional F2 immob, Scepter and Shield#5. Here’s a small gist for players who are overly defendant on traps and are not knowing how to use scepter+X with LB from the get go.

Favorite combo would be LB#4 aoe symbol, swap to Scept#2 then Scept#3 to immobilize in aoe. Use the combo after a successful land of LB#5 in a group setting.

-My bursts usually consists of:
F3 (to prevent CC),
F2 aoe dps (land Smite Condition before you land,
LB#3 push, LB#2 trueshot.
-Swap to scepter to gain a dodge and a hydromancy for when they don’t get knocked back, immob and keeping your distance. Survive long enough to get cd’s back or simply Renewed Focus for another F2 immob bomb. Most don’t expect this burst type, leaving themselves vulnerable when they think you’re easy to burst down.

Don’t get caught getting your F2 interrupted.
If there’s heavy AoE going on you’re probably best using F3 in conjunction with F2. So don’t just use F2 in a mid fight thinking you can just enter with a bomb. If you do, try to not land on top of targets but rather right next to them. This prevents any LoS CC that target may be doing.

Critics welcome, Enjoy.

I hate tof but I don’t see guardian weapons alone bringing someone down. The coefficients are just terrible. Dps thresholds are too high now, engi/ele I don’t think would be bothered much. Necros would probably be your best matchup.

FYI the damage and immobilize AoE has a range of 600 and lands behind you if you use it at max range.

This is reflected in the blue animation also landing behind you.

It’s a bug that was never fixed when they extended the range of the leap from 600-800 during beta, just disorganized skill updating methods =/

I’ve been running Soaring Devastation with hammer, but I still keep ToF to force dodges & its synergies with hammer 4 and 5.

Worth mentioning the Soaring’s damage is calculated with the weapon strength of your active weapon, so a longbow is 5% higher than your one-hands, and a hammer/staff/greatsword is 10% higher. The coefficient is 1.5, putting it at 85.7% of Hammer 2’s damage. Pretty strong.

Having your F2 leap proc glacial heart + sigils when used in conjunction with SC and SC-on-heal trait can give you some surprising and disgusting burst damage. Then you have to remember that you’re also AoE healing, self cleansing, and immobing for 3s. It’s a fun trait.

Some feedback for that build and assessment of ToF (pvp perspective):

• ToF: I understand why you dislike ToF. Any time I find myself having to switch builds due to the opposition I feel quite constrained by having to keep ToF on the bar and your build works around that problem nicely. Plus it’s nice being able to have a more active and aggressive playstyle rather than baiting someone into the trap or waiting for cooldowns to align so you can pull off a cheesy combo.

That being said, I think ToF is an excellent skill and mastering it gives you an extremely useful tool across most situations:
-It’s one of the most effective anti-thief tools we have.
-In conjunction with shield it provides excellent protection up-time (not to be underestimated).
-ToF makes shield worthwhile and makes a decent opponent more wary of you using a shield. ToF essentially turns shield into an offensive weapon since shield 5 is impossible to react to reflexively.
-It is a HUGE damage spike if you do land the combo.
-You don’t even have to use it for the wombo combo; often times ToF is useful purely as a defensive tool (positioning advantage + protection boon). ex: I often times use ToF for the protection to soak up hits from warriors who just popped might signet (since I can’t blind them or block them at this point).
-While it can no longer interrupt, the new Piercing Light (trap trait) may actually be a hidden blessing – your traps no longer trigger on-CC traits on your opponents and slow can mess up rotations/healing pretty well.

• Your build: Gwaihir is right; weapon skills alone won’t be enough to down certain opponents, the same opponents you would be able to down if you can semi-regularly land even a single pull/push across ToF every time you use it. Soaring devestation is definitely a decent alternative to pick up since you’re dropping ToF but it really just doesn’t cut it in as many situations. It definitely is a fun utility trait though so here are some suggestions that may help you with that build:

-Try focus instead of shield. Main reason: Focus 5 rather than f3. I don’t think using f3 just to land f2 is justified. You’re throwing away two utilities for an effect that has a very high chance of not being effective (allies move out of range, opponents dodge or immediately cleanse and move away from your follow-up burst). Also, scepter/shield isn’t the greatest 1h/offhand combo; you only have a single block on 16-20s cd for sustain.

-Consider trying sword instead of scepter. Having two ranged weapons makes you somewhat vulnerable. You won’t be able to whittle down those with a lot of reflects or deflects and opponents who apply a lot of pressure in melee range (revenant, thief, war) will force you to spend more time kiting and not dishing out damage. Also, this weapon-combo will not allow you to chase down opponents as well or rotate points in pvp since you will lack mobility. Also cmonnnnnnn, a longbow and a scepter? That’s not guardian-like at ALL! :p

-Soaring devestation actually comboes very well with ToF: f2 —> ToF —> LB 3 —> f1 pull. This is a great combo because if the initial hit is dodged there is a good chance your combo hasn’t gone to hell yet. But if the initial hit lands, there’s a good chance that the meat of the combo will be executed unless your opponent has amazing reflexes or knows the combo well/you’re predictable.

Great suggestion guys and I appreciate the comments. In terms of scept/shield, I guess I liked the extra cc but it may not be justified. I’ll be mixing up builds a bit to see what my preference are.

Ezrael.6859:

FYI the damage and immobilize AoE has a range of 600 and lands behind you if you use it at max range.

This is reflected in the blue animation also landing behind you.

It’s a bug that was never fixed when they extended the range of the leap from 600-800 during beta, just disorganized skill updating methods =/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zahYISHWjuY

cat.8975:

I’ve been running Soaring Devastation with hammer, but I still keep ToF to force dodges & its synergies with hammer 4 and 5.

Worth mentioning the Soaring’s damage is calculated with the weapon strength of your active weapon, so a longbow is 5% higher than your one-hands, and a hammer/staff/greatsword is 10% higher. The coefficient is 1.5, putting it at 85.7% of Hammer 2’s damage. Pretty strong.

Having your F2 leap proc glacial heart + sigils when used in conjunction with SC and SC-on-heal trait can give you some surprising and disgusting burst damage. Then you have to remember that you’re also AoE healing, self cleansing, and immobing for 3s. It’s a fun trait.

@Ezreal
Rarely used the trait, had no idea! They definitely need to patch that bug.

@Cat
Good to know thanks bro.

wow this actually looks like a thread you would see in the warriors forums. lol. good advice for the OP guys.

Ezrael.6859:

FYI the damage and immobilize AoE has a range of 600 and lands behind you if you use it at max range.

This is reflected in the blue animation also landing behind you.

It’s a bug that was never fixed when they extended the range of the leap from 600-800 during beta, just disorganized skill updating methods =/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zahYISHWjuY

I don’t think, that’s accurate. Tested it in HOTM on a Golem. I can hit targets with Soaring Devastation, which are 900 and more untis away (scepter autoattack can’t reach). This shouldn’t be possible, if the range was still 600 and the radius 24o.

But, and that is what i discovered, the landing mark doesn’t show exactly the damge area of the skill, the max. range of the damage is not what it is supposed to be. If your target is located 1040 units away from you, you should be able to hit it. But you can not.

If u jump further then ur target is, u can hit it even though it is located a little ouside the landing mark.

If you land beside the target, the landing circle shows up the target area correctly.

I don’t know why this happens. Perhaps the damage is dealt a tiny bit earlier than landing? I think, that could have this effect.

Ok, thats what i found out. Try it by yourself or trust me. ;-) I don’t have the tools and the time to make a video of this, perhaps anyone else can. I would appreciate this very much.

I’m back to using scepter/FOCUS and sword/SHIELD. I had the offhand weapons reversed for a great duration this season, but I like s/f and s/sh more. Shield allows you to tank a lot more in melee range and focus really helps you kite with scepter… It’s just my preference

Gwaihir.1745:

I hate tof but I don’t see guardian weapons alone bringing someone down. The coefficients are just terrible. Dps thresholds are too high now, engi/ele I don’t think would be bothered much. Necros would probably be your best matchup.

I’ve actually been testing out a similar build since I’ve come back to the game and can comment on this. Engineers can stall out and not die, but they’re pretty much forced to play defensively for the most part, elementalist can sustain themselves well unless you really get crafty with interrupts and skill timings.

Over all its not a bad build, and plays similar to old rifle engineer builds were you’re timing a bunch of small skills together to get the kills. The pressure is good, the sustain is good and it catches people off guard. If your team needs a brawler its not a bad choice.

Not to sound like this thread was made prematurely but I found a build that’s more to my preference, still utilizing ToF but with Soaring Devistation like how Arcaedus put it.

Current Build

Eagle runes for added crit with 6% dmg modifier since I don’t need speed or runes with Swiftness. Dmg modifiers totals to 43%, assuming I have Aegis on, and not counting 1% per boon I may have or target with vulnerabilities.

It’s always heartbreaking when LB#2 doesn’t crit, so using accuracy sigs for that reason (otherwise opt for blood sigs).

I’m not as frustrated with ToF anymore if everything else hits like a truck

mrauls.6519:

I’m back to using scepter/FOCUS and sword/SHIELD. I had the offhand weapons reversed for a great duration this season, but I like s/f and s/sh more. Shield allows you to tank a lot more in melee range and focus really helps you kite with scepter… It’s just my preference

scepter / shield is way too powerful of a decapping combo to not pair together imo.

shield 5 and scepter 3 on a mender’s symbolic build = you’ll decap anyone 1v1 100%.

Darknicrofia.2604:

mrauls.6519:

I’m back to using scepter/FOCUS and sword/SHIELD. I had the offhand weapons reversed for a great duration this season, but I like s/f and s/sh more. Shield allows you to tank a lot more in melee range and focus really helps you kite with scepter… It’s just my preference

scepter / shield is way too powerful of a decapping combo to not pair together imo.

shield 5 and scepter 3 on a mender’s symbolic build = you’ll decap anyone 1v1 100%.

Maybe, but Sc/Sh also stacks too many of your blinds/blocks on Sw/F leaving only one block for Sc/Sh.

when you’re decapping, you don’t really need that many blocks on scepter shield.

JI in, shield 5, scepter 3, drop symbol, swap to sword set, easy peasy.

I agree with Dark, Sce/Shield is a better set than Sce/Focus for the sake of Shield#5 + Scept#3’s immob combo to bunk some one off point. If Mes is doing well with Sce/Focus, more power to him.

Sw/Shield is nice for that teleport bubble knockback combo but it’s really only useful in a few situations.