Guild Wars 2

I have only played 250 hours on guardian out of 4500 total and spend 70 percent of time in WvW versus 30 percent PvE. I do not PvP at all and rarely run dungeouns.

I have found I am playing the Guardian more of late and while this build hardly unique I wish to solicit feedback on what I am looking to in my build.

1>I am using the new Rune of the Defender. As such I wish to ensure ample blocks available when required over and above that Aegis. As such the weapon skills I see with Blocks are the mace main hand and focus offhand, The theory is that mace 2 will act as a block as I heal from the Rune for some 4600 giving what is in essence another shelter . Focus 5 can also be used as a block which with its 3 blocks PLUS aegis added along with regens ensure more healing from AH and substantial damage.

2>I really like the ease at which the Guardian can use combo fields without them being wasted in game play. The thief as example has to be highly mobile and very often can not take advantage of a combo field. Rangers have lots of fields but are quite limited in finishers wherein the bulk of them are projectiles making it hard to ensure the target remains in said field.

With the Guardian one has access to blast/whirl and leap finishers and to Light and fire fields. I want access to both these fields and the finishers for each of the three types. The weapon set in that whatever the weapon choices I can use that ONE weapon to create a field and finish it.

With this in mind I have decided on a mace/focus combo one set and great sword for the other.

In my utilities I will take purging flame as a Condition clear and as my fire field wherein I can create might/burning bolts and Fire shield. This will be coupled with Hallowed ground which is a much longer lasting fire field allowing me to get off a blast leap and whirl finisher.

Current build. Note runes should be Runes of the defender.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNApdRl0ApZoFDxVI8DNhARYVA2nv5XHlVB-TlCEABZfCAg4RA8kSjW2f4O9BJq+zWKBZSJmWKDA4IAQKgvVGB-w

I have one stun break will that be enough?

I have taken the trait to set fire to an enemy on a block . There will be lots of blocks in this build so have also added the trait that removes a boon when enemy set on fire. In theory this will strip boons of an enemy quickly. is that the case?

Mace in my experience hits pretty kitten its third attack. Hydromancy is being used to chill the enemy to allow some form of CC. Weapon swapping happens with regularity.

Writ of persistence is used under the theory that my fields last longer so I am better able to get a combo off. The symbol from mace two will last 6 seconds and the cooldown is 8. This will pulse regen 6 times which will add to the AH heals. Is this correct? Would empowering might be a better choice?

Any feedback is welcome. I got a feeling I might be trying to do too many things with the build thus diluting it overall.

What purpose will you be using this for? Wvw zerg or roaming? For PvE it would be best to have a completely different build. A lot of answers to your questions depends on the purpose of the build, but I can answer a few.

About utilities: Purging Flames and Stand Your Ground are always good choices, but Hallowed Ground has very limited use outside of PvE

babazhook.6805

I have taken the trait to set fire to an enemy on a block . There will be lots of blocks in this build so have also added the trait that removes a boon when enemy set on fire. In theory this will strip boons of an enemy quickly. is that the case?

With your burning tick being 367 and 1 second long I am not sure of it will keep enough pressure on the enemy to make a difference, I’ll leave that as a personal choice but about Boon Removal, unfortunately Searing Flames has a 10 second cooldown and it will remove a completely random boon. At least on the Wiki it used to read that it always prioritized might – which made it usable – but that has been removed from there.

babazhook.6805

Mace in my experience hits pretty kitten its third attack. Hydromancy is being used to chill the enemy to allow some form of CC. Weapon swapping happens with regularity.

Yep, you got it all correct

babazhook.6805

Writ of persistence is used under the theory that my fields last longer so I am better able to get a combo off. The symbol from mace two will last 6 seconds and the cooldown is 8. This will pulse regen 6 times which will add to the AH heals. Is this correct? Would empowering might be a better choice?

These are all questions of personal playstyle, I’d not recommend taking Empowering Might because of the low application time and the 1 second CD

One thing I noticed is the lack of movement speed

The build is for WvW and intended to be flexible enough to use both roaming and in zergs. I am really not all that concerned about PvE as I find almost any build can be made to work there.

I was not aware that searing flames had a 10 second cooldown as this does not seem reflected on the tooltip or wiki. The intent was purely boon stripping over damage and if there indeed that cooldown I will take something else.

Hallowed ground might be replaced with retreat. This allows another aegis/block on demand and that needed speed. I had been trying it (hallowed ground) and liked the long lasting stability it afforded when trying to hold choke points in WvW . I was also finding it useful when wanting to keep my place when taking out siege at a castle wall often defended by fear chaining necroes.

The other thing I was considering for speed was using a sigil of speed on one weapon set. What I was doing was using retreat to get around map quickly and then switching up just before engaging the enemy.

While of 4500 hours played well over half on the thief and the rest divided between all professions, I intend to adapt playstyle to the build at the tactical level. The Guardian will fight more with Zergs then I am used to but I roam with it as well.

(Edit I must be blind as there indeed that 10 second cooldown on searing flames . It will be removed and I am thinking of putting those points into virtues instead and taking master of consecrations.)

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_AH_Frontliner

If you don’t like the meta and you’re trying to play a class such as Guardian which is an integral part of the meta you will find yourself having a lot of trouble.

Altruistic Healing should only be used with a Staff. (AH procs should heal for about 3,500 for an empower.)

Shelter is the only heal skill you should use so you can block attacks while pulling off a hit or getting through chokes. The block from Shelter can negate more damage than the healing of Signet of Resolve. The condition removal from Signet of Resolve is not needed since you should have passive condition reduction and active condition cleansing. You also gain might when blocking attacks with Shelter.

Double energy sigils are a must for melee, they give you an extra dodge roll every time you weapon swap into and out of a hit.

Mace/Focus have no place in the current guardian meta; only use staff, greatsword, and hammer.

Consecrated Ground is one of those almost never used situational skills which should only be used if requested by your commander.

Hold The Line is crucial to help maintain Protection uptime in your party. The 33% damage reduction from Protection is important for sustain and staying alive.

Condition reduction runes are a must when playing frontline and there’s only two choices, Melandru and Hoelbrak. Hoelbrak is preferred because stun reduction isn’t needed with good stability uptime and the might duration makes your empowers last longer. Hoelbrak is also the choice for most of the top GvG guilds.

Condition reduction food is also a must, if Lemongrass is too expensive try Poultry and Leek Soup.

Condition reduction is still required even though most backline are in power builds. The reason is because of soft CC’s such as chill, cripple, and immobilize. It’s also common practice for Necromancers and Elementalists to use increased condition duration food as well even if they are in power builds.

Too much Crit Chance, 30% is optimal but any range between 28% to 32% would suffice. This is because you gain an extra 20% from shout warriors in your party and 50% crit chance is when precision starts to lose its value over other stats.

Healing Power is generally a wasted stat however Cleric’s staff is perfectly acceptable.

Crius:

what do you think about a 00266 healer build with Staff/Hammer, healing symols, condi-cleanse and stability on virtue. Gear: soldiers + clerics (around 800 healing power)

only in wvw zerg OFC…

in small scale I use medi GS+Hammer 00644 (AHEM)

just asking…

To be honest Babazhook, I actually really like your stats. The only thing I see is your HP is a little low for my personal tastes. I edited your build a tad to raise Vitality a bit more while not losing any damage. I also changed a few utilities and traits to mix a bit better. A lot of the changes are what others have already mentioned.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNApdRlsApVoNDxUI8DNRCRk1M2fZrXfFcA-T1CEABZfCAg4RAsoKFPp0ol9HuTfQiqr0kSMtUGAoSQAOCAkC4blRA-w

Ok just a couple of thoughts on my reasoning behind the choice of heals as it ties directly to the rune choice.

This is my issue with using Shelter as the heal. Now I used that heal prior to this runesets release and it was my preference BUT….

Shelter provides a block. The runeset will trigger a heal every 30 seconds on a block> I did not want to have that runeset trigger when I used shelter.

The reason is both heals could then trigger at the same time. This would mean one less Aegis as the heal from number 6 in fact counts as a heal skill and triggers the Aegis. What I would end with is a ~ 5000 (shelter) + 4600 (Rune set number 6 triggers) plus one Aegis (960 heal when it used) for around a 10000 heal (unless of course the heal on block from the runeset already on cooldown).

This as opposed to the Signet heal of ~9000 with that condition cleanse while ensuring that said heal does not trigger runeset # 6 heal . I would then be better able to control when that #6 triggers.

I can see the merits of both sides and recognize that heal 6 might trigger on an Aegis when I do not really need it.

I think I will try them both to see which works best. I do like the notion of the 2 condition cleanses every 10 seconds as there less pressure to use one of the active ones but that might well be overkill.

Thanks all for the input. I will make a few changes in the build including adding a bit more vitality and some changes to the traits/utilities as suggested.

The choice of heals between the shelter and signet is still up in the air and I will test that further.

As to a staff I found in battle I could rarely get off more then that first empower as I tend to fight in larger zergs infrequently being on later at night and it just too hard to pull off mid stream. The damage is also low and a find the mace/focus combo can not only pump out considerable damage but is able to apply a whole lot of healing for a group. (by my calculations a theoretical 50k healing in 20 seconds the time it takes empower on staff to come off cooldown). I will pack a staff for when I am in those larger battles.

One question does occur to me. I understand the ability to pump out long boon durations changed some time back but in theory with foods and platinum doubloons one can get boon durations close to 100 percent. Is it even worth considering going this route?

[written from a zerg perspective]

In zergs, shelter is clearly the superior heal. SoR does nothing to stop you from getting focused down, and the extra health and even the aegis heal does nothing in that situation. In general, the more players there are fighting, the more trivial it is to interrupt SoR, while shelter is harder to.

You should take inspired virtues over 2 in radiance. You miss out on a lot of might by not taking it.

IMO, the build needs more focus. You have offensive gear and are taking an offensive gear combination (mace/focus/gs), yet the damage isn’t too special because of the investment into healing power. You have a healing set, yet aren’t using staff to get even more heals (self heals via empower, group heals by double tapping orb of light). You are trying to blast finish and invest in boon duration, but you don’t have the best weapon to blast finish with (hammer); and also runes of the defender is a pretty selfish set, so the boon duration is wasted. You have good sustain because of the blocks proccing but the armor is low, and you have little condition mitigation (either from -condi duration or condi removal). The low hp means you’ll be bursted down when things head south.

I could see this build being good in pvp where you have to hold a point but sadly I don’t think it’s available there yet.

What I would suggest is to pick what you really want to be and focus. I would strongly recommend hammer instead of mace/focus, because the two extra blocks aren’t going to mean much in the long run, as opposed to what you can do with the group. A hammer can blast 6 stacks of might when you cast purging flames on your own.

Support example:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApUoNDxVI8DNBDRlZLsfYmBbw1RQGGAA-TlCEABL8AAaZ/hoUaslSQmUipo6PapMoNdBAcIAe4KAQKglUGB-w

This uses hammer/staff. Indomitable Courage (faster aegis) and retreat are used to get more aegis. Good damage (about 5% less overall damage), more cleanses thanks to cooldown reduction, -condi food, far better support (2x stab + frequent blasts) and overall healing

More offensively oriented build with mace/focus
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNApdRlsApZolCxVI8DNBDBl58zPmZYCXHhDEAA-TlCEABPp0ol9HcSZQiq/slSQmUiZwDAAgDBwDnBA30HQKglUGB-w

This is not a frontline build (mace never really is). Find a way to get the jump on distracted opponents with your shield of wrath/protector’s strike. Your heals will last just long enough for you to get out of the way. Does more damage than the original build, and more burst (via unscathed contender and defender’s aegis procs— pretty much the only combo that can work like this), at the sacrifice of healing.

Edit: Forum is taking a dump, some of these links may be inaccurate within 1 hour of the original posting >.>

Anyhow, good luck with this. My honest opinion is that this these runes are better for other classes without frequent aegis, but maybe you can carve out a new role.

I was actually somewhat impressed with his stats. The power hasn’t taken too much of a hit, he still has a good amount of crit and ferocity, and toughness is in the right spot. With just a smidgen of valkyrie, even the vitality looks acceptable, particularly with guard stacks (the build editor is always slightly low on what it reports HP to be).

Now, once you start trying to build toward boon duration is where things start to fall off. You would need to sacrifice too much to make the extra duration worthwhile, and keep everything else golden. If you wanted a boon duration style build, you’d need very different stats and style.

I can understand not wanting to go with shelter, but like Archon said, Shelter prevents you from getting focused down, and can be a real lifesaver. Its better to over heal 5k and still be alive, than to not overheal and be dead. Plus, between Shelter, runeset #2 (regen + AH procs, and might even from Valor 5), the aegis, and aegis heal, should it all proc together, you’re pretty much guaranteed to heal back to full from almost any amount of health lost. One complaint people have about Shelter is that it doesn’t heal for as much as the others, but now you’ve made it heal probably much more than SoR, and you’ve prevented all this other potential damage. I honestly believe Defender runes, AH, and Shelter make one of the best heals you could ask for (plus all the other goodies you have, like pure of voice and Valor 5).

Anyway, food for thought.

I really was not too keen on the boon duration bit. I was just curious as to whether many Guardians went that route.

In retrospect I might well go with Shelter as the heal.

What is overlooked i think from that runeset is the regens. Coupled with the Symbol from mace one is pretty well seeing 100 percent uptime on regen.

You can then get that 500+ heal every 2 seconds thereabouts from the autoattack chain. Throw in the AH heals and on aegis removal and the like and you have a lot of sustain.

I really like the blind/regen and condition cleanse on focus 4 as well. It is much handier then anything I can find on the staff set.

Archonwing. ..Unscathed Contender trait as exampled in your second build.

I was curious as to what the uptime of that 20 percent bonus is? I would think you would get all of one swing out of it before the Aegis went down. is the intent just to get that first big hit in?

It’s mostly for burst— successfully connecting with protector’s strike is highly damaging. As dps it’s not reliable, but this build has the most control over aegis because of retreat with its 32s cooldown. — on standard builds it would not work. That’s just my own personal preference though. Consecration mastery is a more conventional choice, I admit but I think the build was needing more of bursts as it isn’t particularly squishy anymore with absolute resolution giving more cleanses and also we’re getting 150 hp/s by default.

Mace healing isn’t bad but its static nature doesn’t make it that effective in practice and the light field can interfere with water fields. That being said, I think a mace guardian could protect squishier allies from being sniped pretty effectively. If you choose to eschew staff, that’s certainly your choice, but I just think the massive heals from AH-empower and light of orb spam is just really good for keeping myself up. You do have a point with the focus laser though.

The good thing is , you can simply activate protector’s strike in people’s faces and guarantee an instant hit (and then put aegis) with the high damage, and if you are lucky enough to get shield of wrath (less likely) you are going to hurt them really badly. But the thing is you have so much backup for aegis here that you are more likely to get severeal hits in.

LOL, I never heard of this rune before, why they never put every thing on patch notes? Like I accidentally found the sisgil of incapacitation.

@edit
Just found a new sigil -.-": http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Blight

So I guess, whenever they add a new crafting componet, will be a new sigil and rune to search. Those runes and sigils not listed in any sigil/rune list :/

Mikau.6920:

LOL, I never heard of this rune before, why they never put every thing on patch notes? Like I accidentally found the sisgil of incapacitation.

@edit
Just found a new sigil -.-": http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Blight

So I guess, whenever they add a new crafting componet, will be a new sigil and rune to search. Those runes and sigils not listed in any sigil/rune list :/

Keep an eye on that_shaman, he datamines all this stuff and posts it on reddit/youtube, these runes were dug up around November I think

Vikkela.7261:

Mikau.6920:

LOL, I never heard of this rune before, why they never put every thing on patch notes? Like I accidentally found the sisgil of incapacitation.

@edit
Just found a new sigil -.-": http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Blight

So I guess, whenever they add a new crafting componet, will be a new sigil and rune to search. Those runes and sigils not listed in any sigil/rune list :/

Keep an eye on that_shaman, he datamines all this stuff and posts it on reddit/youtube, these runes were dug up around November I think

Thanks

I have been testing the build with changes as others suggested and it quite fun and has great sustain.. With the heals I found the signet superior to the shelter in small scale battles. Once the battles get larger with lots of AOES the blocks from shelter preferable.

The weakness in the build is trying to catch those people with superior mobility. There no ranged attacks and the only real gap closer is Leap of Faith. I really do not see an alternative but to use the hydromancy sigil ..

What do other guardians use here? The binding blades I find very hard to pull off as it so telegraphed. Would a sigil of incapacitation work or is this just something the Guardian has to deal with?

Guardian PoV in WvW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy-AdTa27JA

Example Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApVo1CxZI8DNBDRlZLsfYmBbw1RQGGAA-T1yDAB3s/APK9cR9HUVC+jyAAM/dwDAwDdABcEA4UTAEXCASBwkyI-w

This build is not the most optimized but it’s a good starter for people just getting into playing a frontline guard in WvW. The alternative, and actually more preferred rune set, is Hoelbrak. However, Melandru is cheaper and more defensive which is why I recommend it to new players.

Ensure at least one guardian in your party is using Strength In Numbers instead of Glacial Heart.

It’s important to maintain at least 28 percent crit but no more than 32 percent. You should always have at least one shout warrior in your melee party to give you fury. The most optimal amount of critical strike chance before precision starts to lose its value over other stats is 50 percent.

A combination of both condition reduction and condition removal is important to survive. Both Hoelbrak and Melandru rune sets combined with Lemongrass food give you 60 to 65 percent condition reduction. Purging Flames is used for condition removal and further adds to passive condition reduction while standing in its AoE field.

Both shouts should be on a rotation within your party, this requires at least one other guardian to be in a party with you. Proper stability rotations using Stand Your Ground and Virtue of Courage should give you ample stability up time during a fight.

Landing the third hit of the hammer auto-attack chain, rotating through Hold the Line and Virtue of Courage should give you near permanent up time on Protection.

The build linked previously is known as the Double Stability AH build. Just about everything you do with this build also affects your party. Virtues, shouts, purging, landing hammer auto-attack symbols, blasting waters, detonating staff orbs, and empowers.

When all guardians crit 4-5k mighty blows inside a water field that’s on top of the enemy, you both deal massive burst damage and healing at the same time. You do not need healing power on gear with the exception to your staff.

Remember, frontline guard isn’t about you, it’s how you work together as a team to survive and kill the enemy.

Don’t spose the op’er has tried the defender runes? Assuming you (or “someone”) has, was it better than Altruism? (For solo AH s/f w/ mace/focus offhand)

Don’t spose the op’er has tried the defender runes? Assuming you (or “someone”) has, was it better than Altruism? (For solo AH s/f w/ mace/focus offhand)

Kichiyou.2934:

Don’t spose the op’er has tried the defender runes? Assuming you (or “someone”) has, was it better than Altruism? (For solo AH s/f w/ mace/focus offhand)

I’m actually about to make my 6th defender rune later today! Was planning on posting here with feedback on it after I take it for a spin.

Also, solo AH is a thing? Are we talking pve or wvw? I have seen my fair share of guard roamers in wvw, and not once have I seen one that didn’t utilize gs, or hammer with x/focus offhand unless s/he was running some sort of condi damage build.

I feel like I should probably play around with this build some more before I post back here, but just an initial impression:

The build I used: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVUQNAR5dlsApbolDxaI8DRRDRlTNYHBjQXe9BUABAA-TlzHABB8AACRFChUWwkSweUCZiaD1eQAGSJSHqi4jShq3fwBNDepjAgrAQAAEgbezAgde0duzjuzCBUeMA-w

How It’s supposed to work: The idea is to make use of the Mace of Justice trait, and do most of the dodge rolling/healing while on mace to maximize healing done. Also, this trait saves you from having to invest more in cleric’s gear, so you can maintain at least some semblance of med guard dps. This build didn’t end up having a lot of burst damage, and honestly it didn’t need it! I aimed at keeping crit chance around 33%, just enough to get an occasional crit, and proc vigorous precision. The food I chose was based on my stockpile of current food that I use for my regular zerker roaming build, so I don’t doubt that there is a better food choice out there.

I wasn’t on for long, so I didn’t get that many great encounters, but my impression from the few 1v1s, and 1v2s I did have:

This build is very effective against most power based builds in a 1v1 setting. Seconds after switching to mace, my health would practically be at full again due to the regen on block, selfless daring heals, and 4k heal on block. The build does fall out against heavy condition pressure, so I’ll bet that trapper rangers, and p/d perplexity rune thieves would be especially hard matchups.

If anyone has any suggestions (especially cheap foods that work better than life steal on crit), or changes to traits they’d like me to try out, I’d be happy to take the runes for another spin, and let everyone know how it worked out!

Personally, I love the defender runes! It’s a departure from the typical zerk builds. At one point, a typical med zerk sustains itself just as well as this build does, but as the fight lasts longer, and meditations are on cool down, the regen, 4k heal on block, and selfless daring heals really start to shine! Healing power works great on this build, especially with Pure of Heart and Selfless Daring. I would daresay this build would work fairly well in a 2v2, and maybe 3v3 situation. This situation is fairly rare in wvw though. I would not recommend this rune for someone who likes running havoc squads. If you’re purely a guardian roamer, and expect only small scale battles, then consider trying this rune out with a meditation build! It may work well with a shout build as well, I have yet to try this though.

Yes I continue to use these runes in my build for WvW. I continue to use mace/focus as my main weapon set and will switch equally to an off hand of GS or Hammer.

I tend not to fight in those larger zergs but find these runes offer great sustain and healing to my teamates even in those fights. The sustain is very noticeable when fighting a Siegegrazer. There very few times I have to leave melee so as to heal and the mace pumps out plenty of damage.

Sometimes that 4k heal kicks in at the wrong time which can not be helped and then goes on its cooldown but in longer battles you will notice a significant increase in your healing either complementing a AH build or a Mediguard build.