Guild Wars 2

Leveling I just went the Greatsword power/precision/condition route with lots of burns and crits. Now that I’m 80 I’m really stumped as to how I should be playing this class. Whenever I do dungeons with the greatsword, I feel like I’m far too squishy to be of use, and because of this am seriously considering going all support.

So I guess I have a few questions…

1) What’s the survivability and damage like with mace + shield?
2) What should my traits look like to maximize survivability but still be able kill enemies when I’m clearing locations for exploration?
3) What stats should I be looking for on my armor and sockets?

Thank you very much if you can answer.

Ive gone for GS using mainly gear with power, toughness, healing, Vit in and as much passive healing as possible from talents under the traits bit.

1) Slightly better survivability, slightly lower DPS. when i used shield it gave me a false sense of security and i died more…

I tend to save a little gold and buy a full yellow (rare) set and upgrades with the different stats on to try other things out and see if it feels better to play. try changing a couple of upgrades on your accessories to vit/healing/toughness type ones until you are happy with your squishyness or lack of. if you are happy with your point allocations the only thing you can do is change gear, the crest of the shaman upgrades give a nice bit of healing+vit and dont cost too much.

At the moment, I’m using the blinds and aegis combination to negate enemy attacks. Against multiple enemies I get completely destroyed, but it’s excellent against a single enemy. Unless it’s a warrior, in which case I get one-shotted. Or a ranger, you can’t do anything about being kited. Or a mesmer, you can’t stop all those attacks. Or a necro, they put up too many conditions to purge. Etc etc. Frankly, I’ve never solo’d anybody.

The aegis/blind concept means using for powers like “Retreat” (for a bonus aegis) mid-fight, and not just to run away.

The 1h sword has a blind on it’s second power and the third is a big damage dealer. I paired this up with the focus which has another blind and (imho) one of the best guardian powers: a triple block bubble. On my second weapon set I use sceptre for it’s range (first and second powers) and it’s immobilise (third power). Paired with this I have the torch, which has a PBAoE-come-range attack as power four and an awesome fifth power which delivers high short-range damage in a cone.
So that’s:
Sword & focus
+Sceptre & torch
My traits are wrong, (and I’m waiting to get to the next respec) so I can’t really give advice in that respect, suffice to say it should involve the one-handed weapon 15% crit, and whatever blinds and aegis powers you can find.

Where skills are concerned, I mix it up a lot. “Save Yourselves” and “Retreat” work remarkably well in WvW. Because I hate underwater combat, I use the spirit weapons and try to get them to fight for me.

It should be noted that no matter what spec you go with, in WvW you are a kitten and you just have to suck it up or reroll.

Dungeons are hard as melee in any respect, honestly. With bosses, at least. I find myself constantly on the move on the off-chance some of them ranged guys hurt, which they usually do. You also have to understand, dungeon-wise at least, that your utility choices and group helpfulness are both huge factors on your survival; ie., you can take Retreat! for open-world use, but in a dungeon it’s much less useful. To be honest, the most amazing utility I think is Wall of Reflection when it’s viable, as well as Shield of the Avenger – can’t imagine how amazing it would be traited into!

Personally my gear is statted toward power/precision/magic find as I try to gather a different set. I’m sitting at a 0/30/20/20/0 build. Dungeon survival really does depend on keeping up stuff like protection and weakness, knowing abilities of your enemies, when to block/repel ranged, and the like.

I’d advise some toughness or healing in builds, just because it makes things easier. The block heal can really be much more useful than the signet and it’s 10s condition removal if you’re traited for the removal already, as well as just be better overall.

I’d say play around with builds you think may work. I have like 5 set up, depending on weapon choice (like if I build symbols, Hammer may be more viable).

As per your mace/shield question – the mace’s third hit is a heal, so if you want to build healing it’s good – mace is alright for single target, but can’t dish out as much damage otherwise, and is mainly a support build. The shield is good, but hard to use effectively as people see it lacking against the focus.

My biggest dilemma is when/how to use virtues effectively, as I always feel like their passive outweigh the actives – though, using Renewed Focus as an elite may help alleviate that. I see that more for PvP though – D-Golem (Asura) is too awesome imo (it’s a tank and shield of the avenger in one!).

Daboris.6730:

You also have to understand, dungeon-wise at least, that your utility choices and group helpfulness are both huge factors on your survival; ie., you can take Retreat! for open-world use, but in a dungeon it’s much less useful.

While I agree that skills and traits tend to have situational usefulness, I disagree with the example you give. The extra aegis on retreat is very nice when tanking a single opponent.

Retreat! can prevent 50k damage per pull from your team.
Less useful huh?

1) What’s the survivability and damage like with mace + shield?

WEAK

2) What should my traits look like to maximize survivability but still be able kill enemies when I’m clearing locations for exploration?

I don’t know yet.

3) What stats should I be looking for on my armor and sockets?

I go with toughness and vitality. The default values are abysmal. Can’t compare with warriors, for example.

Red Falcon.8257:

Retreat! can prevent 50k damage per pull from your team.
Less useful huh?

From what I’ve seen, it’s been less useful. Take the last boss of CoE Storymode – you can block his 3 flame waves (3+3+8ish) AND reflect them back. So you do lots of damage, take none, and have it back up fairly quickly.

Retreat! is good if you’re zerg-rushing from far away, but in a fight, from my experience, it’s been less useful than other utilities.

An extra Aegis is nice, especially when there’s a speed boost involved and it’s team-wide, but it’s been shown to prove less useful from what I’ve seen. Just my 2 cents.

Svarty.8019:

My traits are wrong, (and I’m waiting to get to the next respec) so I can’t really give advice in that respect, suffice to say it should involve the one-handed weapon 15% crit, and whatever blinds and aegis powers you can find.

I see this all over the place. It’s wrong. You don’t have to wait for a respec. You can talk to the trainer and respec your traits at any time. DON’T BUY A MANUAL FOR THIS! Choose the other option. It’ll cost you a silver or two.

I respec my traits a few times a week, just to try different things out.

I’m only in my 50s, so I’ll refrain from commenting on how to play at 80.

Retreat is very nice but the cooldown makes it a bit iffy. In a sense, it has the same issue as the Shield’s current abilities (where the cooldowns are too long for the effects they offer). In retreat’s case, it takes up an entire utility slot and it’s not like it has a stun break either.

Retreat doesn’t suffer the same issue as shield. An AoE Aegis with a long duration swiftness with 48s CD traited is better than either shield skill imo. I’d rather have Retreat on a shield than Shield of Judgement(Not a fan of its frontal cone).

PinCushion.7390

Svarty.8019

My traits are wrong, (and I’m waiting to get to the next respec) so I can’t really give advice in that respect, suffice to say it should involve the one-handed weapon 15% crit, and whatever blinds and aegis powers you can find.

I see this all over the place. It’s wrong. You don’t have to wait for a respec. You can talk to the trainer and respec your traits at any time. DON’T BUY A MANUAL FOR THIS! Choose the other option. It’ll cost you a silver or two.

If I weren’t level 59½ when I read this I would be more grateful, but thank you very much. Great to know

I did the same thing, GS to 75, but the instance runs were sucking my will to live. It was awful, and I felt as though I was responsible for the countless deaths to the group. I finally sucked it up and respected a week or so ago. I switched to mace/shield, stacked toughness on all my gear, and respecced into Valor/Honor. My HP went up by a 3rd, but that’s nothing compared to the support tools I gained.

Sure, I missed the damage, it’s fun to beat the crap out of stuff, and soloing just got seriously slower, but it was worth the trade off. I’m constantly spamming heals, All but one or two of my abilities has a heal or protection component. Instances went from 30-40 silver a run in repairs to a single death or two. WvW is nice as you can really push that font line and take the heat. I looked like a porcupine yesterday out there I was so stuck with arrows.

I know that there are no “tanks”, but I’m close. It’s enabled my buddies to move to complete DPS roles at least. I’d love some threat management, but I’m content with not dying for the time being.

Good luck.