Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,

so I’m leveling my guard, she’s 75 now and soon it will be time to gear her up for dungeons. My guild has experienced members, they dont really go for simple dungeon runs. But me being a newbie need a lot of dngeon farming to do, so I’m restricted to go with PUGs.

This being the case, I was thinking about what stats to go for. And I’ve read about the seemingly endless debate on berserker vs cleric/etc. And I completly understand the superiority of berserker in higher level content. This makes me kind of sad, as I was hoping to become a heavily supportive, helaer/protector type of character.

So my question is: Is berserker gear still superior to others when it comes to PUGs? Because berserker gear is optimal for skilled/geared groups, but what about unexperienced groups? Am I still gonna be more useful in berserker gear, or is this the only scenario where others stats can actually outperform berserker?

Ty

Depends on how bad you are and how bad your group is. If you know how to play the dungeons, then even a bad group won’t hurt you a lot. If you don’t and the group is bad, playing zerker can be a pain.

CptAurellian.9537:

Depends on how bad you are and how bad your group is. If you know how to play the dungeons, then even a bad group won’t hurt you a lot. If you don’t and the group is bad, playing zerker can be a pain.

My guildies say I’m ok, so I’ll probably be able to learn the guard to play. I can survive on my thief so I hope that means something when playing my guard.

Anyway… I got it then, go zerker…

Ty

If your looking to eventually catch up to your guild and join them then you should work toward berserker. The problem with zerker is that people run random stuff and slap berserker gear on and don’t do things they need to do or run the right utilities/traits/weapons for the content they are doing. If you do what is needed things would go a lot smoother. You should be spamming blinds, aegis, projectile defenses, stability when needed, grouping mobs with binding blades, ccing mobs if you have hammer/staff on, and utilizing your blocks instead of facetanking. Running full zerk is a learning process. If you want to run something tankier then run the hammer build. It does comparable dps while giving people around you perma prot and has a bit more support and hp. You can throw on some defensive pieces to mix in with your berserker gear too if need be. If you do this you will be adding more value to your group then running something like a clerics build and auto attacking with weak heals that aren’t carrying anyone or adding much value. You can look at the sticky to learn more.

Ty again, I think I’ve read everything that is reasonable to read before actually playing the guardian in exploreable dungeons and fractals. This mainly means reading your guide btw. So I’ll be ok, thanks.

L8r

I don’t think it’s a good idea to invest too much gold in a set that will most likely be obsolete. I suppose oranges are fine if you have some spare gold but certainly if you concern yourself with ascended, to of course stick with zerker. But zerker with a more defensive build is more idea. (hammer is good)

However, it helps if you have interest in WvW; because then you can just use the non-zerker set for that, and you’ll need two sets anyways.

Depends on the encounter as well. For example, Dredge fractal: I just can’t play a full zerk Guardian with full zerk traits in there. Blinds don’t work, you can’t even dodge sometimes, and there’s just so much crud flying around because 90% of Tyria’s dredge population must all live inside that building (or inside that truck), I just will get hit sometimes.

Another, different-by-reason example, is Collosus. The main focus of the fractal on a very high level isn’t really damage, at least until the boss fight, so I don’t feel there’s actually a point in going full zerker. Justice is Blind is a life-saver there though.

Psh, zerker will still be the go-to set after the next “feature” patch where they pointlessly lower full zerker damage by “10%”

I personally have no trouble doing anything PVE related in fullzerkermaxdeepztraits, hell, even on the kitten dredge in my frac 50’s I can usually keep my kitten alive.

Everything you need is here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first#post3204949

You’re probably going to need more than one set of armor especially if you pug and you’re still new to the game. It shouldn’t be hard if you’re running dungeons to obtain multiple sets of armor with different stats. I recommend a set of zerk, ( or knights, the training wheels of zerk), and soldiers for really annoying things like high level dredge fractals.

The thing is you’re not a healer, Guardians Guard they do not heal they prevent damage. Healing is part of the Holy Trinity which Anet is trying to avoid that’s why everyone has a heal skill.

You can however bring all kinds of support in the form of damage prevention, with projectile management, condi removal, blinds, and blocks. Guardian support is all about damage mitigation. This kind of support does not require any specific stat, its either traits or utilities.

If you’re uncertain about zerker armor and want something middle of the road I’d suggest Knights with zerk weapons and trinkets. If you want to go full tank and hey that’s your choice feel free to load up on cleric or soilders. To be the most effective in dungeons you need to learn your utility skills and traits first and then gradually move from the sphere of defense to the sphere of offense.

I second the two sets of armors especially for a guardian. I have a zerker and a knights. (Well actually I have four sets of armor but that’s more because of fashion rather than usefulness) You may want to start off with a knight and work your way towards a zerker. However, use zerker accessories and weapons. I think build is more important than your armor. Use Obal’s build stickied at top. If you are new and don’t know the dungeon encounters yet.. and pug in Zerker, you will find yourself dying a lot which will be frustrating. If I am in a pug with very low dps, I find myself in downed state more often in which then I will switch to knights. Just to mitigate the damage.

I am really surprised that your guild expects you to pug? I would find another guild.. the whole point of guild is to assist each other unless you are in a speed run group or something. Please feel free to add me in game if you are in a US server. I would be happy to take you along to any dungeon and fractals except Arah. There’s also a dungeon mentor group if you go to the dungeon forum stickied at top. The amazing mentors who would be happy to teach you as well.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Psh, zerker will still be the go-to set after the next “feature” patch where they pointlessly lower full zerker damage by “10%”

I personally have no trouble doing anything PVE related in fullzerkermaxdeepztraits, hell, even on the kitten dredge in my frac 50’s I can usually keep my kitten alive.

Everything you need is here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first#post3204949

You can but I just think it really isn’t worth it sometimes.

Especially in a PUG because for example, I can’t res people anywhere near as much if I go full zerk, because otherwise I’ll be dead as well. That lowers the group’s DPS significantly.

Even in a full guild organised run, there’s a lot of content which are just frustrating to do in full zerk. Frustrating in the sense that there’s a very high chance of you dying sometimes because either its… Dredge-like, or because the fight is just very unforgiving and offers you a lot of chances to screw up. When that happens, since I’m not like the proest player around so there’s a good chance that I might die, I start weighing up the benefits of going zerk or going more tanky, and it tips towards going more tanky because being dead means 0 DPS.

layzoe.6035:

I second the two sets of armors especially for a guardian. I have a zerker and a knights. (Well actually I have four sets of armor but that’s more because of fashion rather than usefulness) You may want to start off with a knight and work your way towards a zerker. However, use zerker accessories and weapons. I think build is more important than your armor. Use Obal’s build stickied at top. If you are new and don’t know the dungeon encounters yet.. and pug in Zerker, you will find yourself dying a lot which will be frustrating. If I am in a pug with very low dps, I find myself in downed state more often in which then I will switch to knights. Just to mitigate the damage.

I am really surprised that your guild expects you to pug? I would find another guild.. the whole point of guild is to assist each other unless you are in a speed run group or something. Please feel free to add me in game if you are in a US server. I would be happy to take you along to any dungeon and fractals except Arah. There’s also a dungeon mentor group if you go to the dungeon forum stickied at top. The amazing mentors who would be happy to teach you as well.

I really appreciate your offer, but I play on the EU servers.

Before I was accepted to the guild I was told what the situation was and I accepted it. I’d rather have a guild that does hardly any dungeons but goes to high level fractals, than the other way around. Dungeons can be done with PUGs, high level fractals… probably there are instances when they work, but usually its better to have TS and such. So everything is fine as it is for me, it just takes a while until I catch up to them.

And finally… I really did not want to drag eny kind of self evaluation here, but many of you made your advice dependent on my skill level so here it goes: I main a thief and with full zerker glass cannon spec I can survive quite well. In the few guild speed runs, I can totally keeps up with warriors and guards. Started playing mid december last year, got 2800ish achi points, rank 19 in arena, etc. Not a big deal, but its ok. Still got a lot to learn. So… thats the current skill level to which I’m looking for a matching gear set. I think I’ll give it a go, and go full zerker with a semi-defensive spec. Like the hammer-greatsword build…

Anyways, thank you for the helpful answers.

If you go to the dungeon forum, look at the sticky for Dungeon Mentor thread. I know there’s few EU mentors there. I had the experience running with few of the mentors and they were really great. I mean amazing.

Ah, I see.. that makes sense. Well if you main a thief, then I don’t see guardian being a problem for you as a thief is pretty squishy. Of course, you will have to learn different tactics to stay alive. I don’t see a problem of you going full berserker. For someone new to the game, knights is probably better but seems you have a pretty good handle on the game already. I think for high level fractals, hammer build is better so that may be what you should aim for.. for your guild anyways unless they are looking for a pure dps guard. As I get into higher level fractals, I will also be switching over to the hammer build. Good luck…