Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing my Guardian since the 3 day jump start and absolutely love the class. I mostly play PvE but I’ve been trying to get into PvP too and it’s been an uphill battle.
In PvE;
- I feel tanky and useful in any given situation
- I can see/feel the impact of my supportive abilities
- Although I’m not a damage dealer I’m no pushover either

In PvP though it’s almost the complete opposite;
- I take massive amounts of damage even if I build full tank stacking Toughness and Vitality
- My supportive abilities rarely have a noticeable impact
- My damage is fairly easy to out-heal and almost any class can effortlessly kite me

Everyone says Guardians in PvP are super tanky and provide invaluable support but I just don’t see it when I play. I’m really trying to love my Guardian in PvP as much as I do in PvE but I just dont feel useful. I’ve tried everything from a focused support build to a tanky/damage build and the popular “bunker” build but nothing is working for me.

Something just happened in the EB JP today that left me speechless. I ran into an enemy Guardian, tried to 1v1 him, and suffered a humiliating defeat. On top of that, a few minutes later I watched as he won a 2v1 against another Thief and Guardian. This guy was so tanky and could still hit like a truck, so why cant I figure out how to do that too?

- He was using a GS + Sword/Focus.
- His utilities were (from what I could tell) Shelter, SYG!, SY!, and Renewed Focus.
- His food buff was +70 Vitality and health regeneration.

- My weapons, traits, utilities, runes, and sigils: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR7elUgqC33RPEf4ERWBRi9AjZE+XPooEZIA;TkAqsMZJyymlLLZWLPGFsJA
- My food buff was 5% Toughness -> Vitality with +160 Power below 50% HP, 4% Toughness -> Power, and 2% Vitality -> Power.
- My armor was all Power>Toughness/Vitality, my rings were Power>Toughness/Vitality, my back was Power>Toughness/Vitality, and my amulet and earrings were Toughness>Power/Precision.
- My GS and Scepter were Toughness>Power/Precision and my Shield was Power>Toughness/Vitality.
- 1929 Power, 1367 Precision, 2087 Toughness, 1880 Vitality, 3029 Attack, 25% Crit, 3298 Armor, 20445 Health (GS)
- 1933 Power, 1372 Pecision, 2178 Toughness, 1885 Vitality, 2892 Attack, 26% Crit, 3450 Armor, 20495 Health (Scepter + Shield)

This setup is what I usually use for PvP but I’ll sometimes switch the GS for a Hammer and the Scepter + Shield for a Staff, depending on the situation. I’ve also tried using Toughness>Power/Precision armor instead of the Power>Toughness/Vitality armor but I didn’t notice much of a damage increase.

I’ve been trying so hard to enjoy Guardian PvP but it just feels so bad in WvW and SPvP. I feel completely worthless at range because Scepter loses 90% of its damage against a moving target and if I get close enough to hit with Staff’s #1 I’m close enough to die. In melee I feel weak because my damage isn’t very impressive, I’m slow and easy to kite/avoid, and if I over commit or get into a bad situation I have no chance of escaping. I’ve actually been enjoying Ranger in PvP (especially WvW) more than Guardian even though the general consensus is that Rangers are awful in PvP (especially WvW) and Guardians are borderline OP in PvP. On my Ranger I can actually contribute to a fight without giving the enemy team a free kill, stick to and escape from people, and have noticeable utility and damage.

Too many defensive stat points, not enough offensive. Trade vitality and toughness for precision. Get your crit up to 40%~ or thereabouts, and keep your crit damage up around 60% or higher.

Sanctuary is pretty bad. If the radius were higher or the healing better it would be useful, but it’s not worth using. The heal in the tooltip looks powerful but the tooltip is wrong. It tics 6 times for 260 HP. It’s a slightly more powerful Regeneration. Swap it for wall of reflection in WvW or dungeons with lots of ranged mobs. Wall of reflection is amazing in WvW for combating zergs. Alternatively, just stick to all shouts, use Pure of Voice and only take 5 points in virtues with the other 5 in Radiance to give you more CC off Justice.

Having Empowering Might and only 25% crit chance is terrible. Despite what the rabble would have you think, it’s not 100% necessary, especially when your crit chance is substandard.

Get more condition removal. Seriously. It helps a lot.

Here’s the thing, I currently have 2 Guardain characters who are Deck’d out in full exotics, armor, and exotic, rare trinkets. Going down the the valor line is just for the tankiness. On my other Guard who i dedicated for DPS, doesn’t feel weak, in fact he hits pretty hard it feels to me(Damage dependant on target armor types, but autos crit for 2k a pop-3.5k) Whirling Wrath spikes from 4k-7k on targets. I stay away from valor line mostly though I go down it at most 10 points.

edit: Also I do more damage on burning enemies, 10% + 5% from Runes, and 10% extra for Endurance not being full, Utilities, vary but "Most of the time Bane Signet(knockdown is underated), Save yourselves, and hopping between Purging Flames/Hallowedground(for camp flips) and Judge’s Intervention. Also Switch out bane signet for Situational purposes.

You haven’t found the balance for guardian yet. You’ve gone down the wrong path that others like you have walked because you think a guardian must be defensive to Guard.

In PvP, you are worthless as a bunker. There is nothing for you to bunker to protect or hold except for walls or gates. Even then you will be fighting against a zergs so without help you will die anyway.

If you roam or do a lot of small group battles, the lack of damage really stands out. As a solo Guardian you need to be able to kill the opponent or at least do enough damage to pressure them. Building for defence but not being able to kill the enemy is only delaying the inevitable. Against other guardians you will just be fodder.

Guardians sweet spot for HP is around 15k-16k. Going 20k only delays you from being killed by 3 seconds which isn’t that great tbh. Higher numbers look good, but in the end you are trading off far too much to get it.

Learn to mitigate damage and CC. The initial 5-10 seconds of combat is when most people unload their skills on you. Use your mitigation skills to avoid the big damage and then when it is all gone, go on the offensive in relative safety. Remember to be able to do decent damage or else it is pointless.

Bunkers are only actually any good in sPvP and tPvP. Not in open combat. The amount of them that I kill is quite upsetting as I hate seeing the Guardian being played under its potential.

My advice is to either keep the armour set and replace trinkets with berserker items. Or keep the trinkets and go berserker armour. You can mix and balance depending on your play style. Find your happy medium.

Well your stats aren’t bad, but there I something I recommenced you to change.

First lets go over your utilities, you are running a AH shout build because of AH and your runes of soldier, so get Sanctuary out of here. TBH it’s not that great of an ability in PvP or WvW. Long CD and doesn’t last long, plus if they stability people can blow right through it. I recommend you use another shout, Smite Condition or Judge’s Intervention.

Next the important part is your gear, the reason your dmg is low because you have little crit dmg I see. You have the base from Valor, so 30 crit dmg. So less then 30% crit rate and 30 crit dmg, that’s why you’re not hitting hard. You need mix in some pieces of Berserker or Valkyrie.

I have similar stats to you. My dmg is good, not as high as a glass cannon build, but still good. Then my survivability is amazing. I run 0/5/30/30/5. Here’s my stats, keep in mind my crit dmg is at 50, with this build. I can also get it to 65 if I lose some toughness and use my berserker trinkets.

Also here’s a video I uploaded the other day of some WvW, so you can see how exactly it works.

If you have any other question feel free to ask.

Harbinger.8637:

Well your stats aren’t bad, but there I something I recommenced you to change.

First lets go over your utilities, you are running a AH shout build because of AH and your runes of soldier, so get Sanctuary out of here. TBH it’s not that great of an ability in PvP or WvW. Long CD and doesn’t last long, plus if they stability people can blow right through it. I recommend you use another shout, Smite Condition or Judge’s Intervention.

Next the important part is your gear, the reason your dmg is low because you have little crit dmg I see. You have the base from Valor, so 30 crit dmg. So less then 30% crit rate and 30 crit dmg, that’s why you’re not hitting hard. You need mix in some pieces of Berserker or Valkyrie.

I have similar stats to you. My dmg is good, not as high as a glass cannon build, but still good. Then my survivability is amazing. I run 0/5/30/30/5. Here’s my stats, keep in mind my crit dmg is at 50, with this build. I can also get it to 65 if I lose some toughness and use my berserker trinkets.

Also here’s a video I uploaded the other day of some WvW, so you can see how exactly it works.

If you have any other question feel free to ask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinrEGS5RU0

Would appreciate it if you could link your gear/gems choices please.

Also wondering if I should trade 10% crit chance for an additional 5k hp.

The only reason you lost to that guardian is because you have lesser healing power to keep up with the fight and died to retaliation. You don’t need that much Soldier gear which you basically spec your entire gear base on that, you have high hp but no upkeep. Its good for dungeon to survive spikes but not for pvp , especially 1v1 you need to have higher armor and dps (from knight gear), and healing power (from trinket).

I personally have tested it myself, the sweet spot is around 900-1k healing power, and u need at least 1 energy sigil for the extra endurance to dodge and heal back. For crit, you need at least 30% with food, so SY shout will bring you to 50% for the DPS you need. Once you have the healing power and endurance, no guardian can outdps you 1v1, it will just end up as a draw game.

So my advice that, you can start off by changing your trinkets to cleric and armor to knight(Or a mixture if you want). Runes is important too, you can read the AH hammer sticky, he basically listed all the possible and effective combination for a guardian. Find your own balance of dmg and armor/hp. My personal sweet spot of armor is always 3k with 15k+ health, crit dmg wise i use ascended rings so will normally be 40-60% . Healing power will be 900 and above. Crit chance will be 25-30% with food. Power will be 2.8k and above. oh and please dont use sanctuary in pvp its a waste of slot , ppl can even melee you near the edge of the barrier which is basically pretty crappy lol.

@Kiijj

Here you go:

Helm- Knight
Shoulder- Soldier
Chest- Soldier
Gloves- Soldier
Legging- Knight
Boots- Soldier
x6 runes of Soldier

My greatsword is Soldier and my hammer Valkyrie.

Backpiece, Amulet, and one ring is Soldier
Earrings, and the other ring is Knight
All of them use Exquisite Beryl Jewel

10% crit dmg or 5k hp. Depends on your play style tbh. What’s your current Crit dmg and hp?

Harbinger.8637:

@Kiijj

Here you go:

Helm- Knight
Shoulder- Soldier
Chest- Soldier
Gloves- Soldier
Legging- Knight
Boots – Knight’s
x6 runes of Soldier

My greatsword is Soldier and my hammer Valkyrie.

Backpiece, Amulet, and one ring is Soldier
Earrings, and the other ring is Knight
All of them use Exquisite Beryl Jewel

10% crit dmg or 5k hp. Depends on your play style tbh. What’s your current Crit dmg and hp?

Thank you!

My gear set up is quite similar to yours:

Helm – Knight’s
Shoulders – Soldier’s.
Chest – Soldier’s.
Gloves – Knight’s.
Leggings – Soldier’s
Boots – Knight’s.

GS & hammer – Berserker’s.

5x Beryl Orbs + 1 Emerald orb.

Accessories – Karka Shell, Knight’s everything else with Emerald jewels.

Current crit is 40% and crit dmg is 58%, hp is 16,195. Armor is roughly 3070 with around 2950 Attack.

16hp is more then enough, I’d say go for the crit dmg. My hp is bit overkill, it gets over 22k hp with WvW bonuses, but I tend to jump into the middle of zergs, and bad situations. So the more the better for me.

Harbinger.8637:

16hp is more then enough, I’d say go for the crit dmg. My hp is bit overkill, it gets over 22k hp with WvW bonuses, but I tend to jump into the middle of zergs, and bad situations. So the more the better for me.

Gotcha, thanks again for your help!

Kiijj.3594:

Harbinger.8637:

@Kiijj

Here you go:

Helm- Knight
Shoulder- Soldier
Chest- Soldier
Gloves- Soldier
Legging- Knight
Boots – Knight’s
x6 runes of Soldier

My greatsword is Soldier and my hammer Valkyrie.

Backpiece, Amulet, and one ring is Soldier
Earrings, and the other ring is Knight
All of them use Exquisite Beryl Jewel

10% crit dmg or 5k hp. Depends on your play style tbh. What’s your current Crit dmg and hp?

Thank you!

My gear set up is quite similar to yours:

Helm – Knight’s
Shoulders – Soldier’s.
Chest – Soldier’s.
Gloves – Knight’s.
Leggings – Soldier’s
Boots – Knight’s.

GS & hammer – Berserker’s.

5x Beryl Orbs + 1 Emerald orb.

Accessories – Karka Shell, Knight’s everything else with Emerald jewels.

Current crit is 40% and crit dmg is 58%, hp is 16,195. Armor is roughly 3070 with around 2950 Attack.

Is that with food?

If you’re off alone AH isn’t going to heal for much at all. Since the ah/vigor nerf you need to have people around you to have it work well. Try using monk’s focus for solo work instead.

I switched to Monk’s Focus. Seems to work better post nerf.

Aberrant.6749:

If you’re off alone AH isn’t going to heal for much at all. Since the ah/vigor nerf you need to have people around you to have it work well. Try using monk’s focus for solo work instead.

The only Meditation I ever use in PvP is Judge’s Intervention so I’d only get the heal once every 36 seconds (with Meditation Mastery in Valor). If I need condition removal I’d rather just take “SYG!” with Soldier runes and Superior Aria in Honor than take Smite Condition. Contemplation of Purity is awesome but I’m not a fan of its long CD and I rarely find myself stacked with multiple conditions anyway.

How did AH get nerfed? I only saw the change made to Vigorous Precision.

Aberrant.6749:

If you’re off alone AH isn’t going to heal for much at all. Since the ah/vigor nerf you need to have people around you to have it work well. Try using monk’s focus for solo work instead.

It doesn’t hurt to invest into healing power. Having high toughness and vitality doesn’t really seem to work on Guardian’s because your healthpool is balanced around your ability to have constant healing coming in.

Also, you can have all the toughness in the world, but it doesn’t do jack against Thiefs and Warriors who can hit you for huge numbers regardless. 10k kill shots, 6k backstabs, and 4k heart seekers flying all over the place.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Is that with food?

No food, those are my unbuffed stats. Just had a look at my stats last night and it’s 56% crit damage instead of 58% as previously mentioned.

Relentliss.2170:

I switched to Monk’s Focus. Seems to work better post nerf.

I switched to a Monk’s Focus 0/5/30/30/5 build with Smite Conditions, Save Yourself and Judge’s Intervention and I’m noticing a increase in my survivability on the battlefield. Healing for roughly 2100 every time I use a Meditation spell is awesome.

Kiijj.3594:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Is that with food?

No food, those are my unbuffed stats. Just had a look at my stats last night and it’s 56% crit damage instead of 58% as previously mentioned.

Relentliss.2170:

I switched to Monk’s Focus. Seems to work better post nerf.

I switched to a Monk’s Focus 0/5/30/30/5 build with Smite Conditions, Save Yourself and Judge’s Intervention and I’m noticing a increase in my survivability on the battlefield. Healing for roughly 2100 every time I use a Meditation spell is awesome.

Those are pretty nice stats.

To the OP, as others have said, AH if you’re with a group; Monk’s if your solo.

Somoe.3621:

How did AH get nerfed? I only saw the change made to Vigorous Precision.

AH procs everytime you get a boon. Before changes done to Vig Prec every time you crit it procs and lasts for 1 second, so technically you get more heals from AH each time you crit.

Now when you crit you get 5 secs of Vig due to changes to Vig Prec. So the frequency of your AH heals is less, but you get more stamina to dodge which heals if you spec into Selfless Daring.

It’s not a nerf per se, just that you’ll need to change your playstyle.

To be honest I prefer the new changes as it allows me to dodge more.

Harbinger.8637:

Well your stats aren’t bad, but there I something I recommenced you to change.

First lets go over your utilities, you are running a AH shout build because of AH and your runes of soldier, so get Sanctuary out of here. TBH it’s not that great of an ability in PvP or WvW. Long CD and doesn’t last long, plus if they stability people can blow right through it. I recommend you use another shout, Smite Condition or Judge’s Intervention.

Next the important part is your gear, the reason your dmg is low because you have little crit dmg I see. You have the base from Valor, so 30 crit dmg. So less then 30% crit rate and 30 crit dmg, that’s why you’re not hitting hard. You need mix in some pieces of Berserker or Valkyrie.

I have similar stats to you. My dmg is good, not as high as a glass cannon build, but still good. Then my survivability is amazing. I run 0/5/30/30/5. Here’s my stats, keep in mind my crit dmg is at 50, with this build. I can also get it to 65 if I lose some toughness and use my berserker trinkets.

Also here’s a video I uploaded the other day of some WvW, so you can see how exactly it works.

If you have any other question feel free to ask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinrEGS5RU0

Can i see your stats without Food/Oil plz?