Guild Wars 2

Because ANet completely destroyed my wonderful and unique Spirit Weapon Guardian because Spirit Weapons and their related Traits are now completely worthless, I guess there’s nothing left for me except changing my build completely.

As I used ‘Hold The Line’ a lot during our guild runs through dungeons and fractals, I guess going full shout might be the best option that’s of any use to me and my team.

However, I would really like to hear from you guys what you think of this build:

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/guardian#7|0|3527|3410|3408|1311|3411|0|0|0|0|5|0|0|0|30|1394|2281|1395|30|866|1400|890|5|0|0|0|6|17|3|28017|28044|49966|49966|49966|49966|49966|26062|21082|0|0|0|0|

Is it a good Shout/Support build, or would you recommend certain changes? The current build uses Greatsword/Scepter+Focus.

Thanks!!

It’s absolutely viable. I run the same build points-wise but some of my traits are different. In the Valor tree, instead of Strength in numbers (I don’t think 70 toughness makes much of a difference) I use Retributive Armor to help raise my precision and in the Honor tree, instead of Battle Presence I use Empowering Might so that I grant might to my party on crit (1-2 sec internal CD if I remember right). I also use greatsword and scepter/shield/focus but can swap to a hammer if I feel like that would work better depending on what we’re doing. It works great for any dungeon and in fractals as well. It’s a pretty standard AH build and is used by many many guardians I’d say.

It’s a pretty standard shouts build.

The biggest thing I would say is – for Fractals specifically – don’t be afraid to swap out some utilities based on context. In high-level runs, many players expect guardians to be popping Wall of Reflection in Uncategorized, for example.

So yeah, I’d use it as a go-to build but emphasize the importance of being able to skillfully use anything in your arsenal when appropriate. Well, you know, except for spirit weapons.

Exactly. I swap 1-2 of my utilities in fractals quite a bit depending on which one I’m in. I hope the spirit shield isn’t crap in fractals now because that was very useful and the only SW I used…

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate it!!

Yeah, against Harpies on platforms I was already swapping skills for WoR and such and have every single skill available to me.

One question that has been mulling through my mind though is what runes would be best for my gear?

At present time I have 6/6 Superior Rune of the Earth, but can I just keep those or would something like Soldier or Dolyak be better?

Despite being a shout-centric guardian, I personally opted for Earth over Soldier. I have a considerable amount of condition removal already, both tied intrinsically to my build and obtained via my static group (physical projectile finishers through our light fields). I had already ruled out Dolyak on the basis that my static group contains a water-traited elementalist whose passive and active heals are quite sufficient for my needs. Earth gives me some more specific bunker-ish functionality at the cost of vitality.

I would say that the specific choice of rune within the choices you mentioned really just comes down to personal preference. Earth is a great set, though!