Guild Wars 2

Ok so.. I’m a level 80 gaurdian and I’ve been kinda playing like a selfish jerk the whole time lol.. So I’m trying to change this! What do you all think would be the best setup/build for a full on tank/support gaurdian? Help is very much appreciated!

For gear, I believe the most agreed on choice tends to be power/tough/vitality armor with………soldier runes I think.

power/tough/vit can be obtained from AC or hotw explorable.

For utility skills, I would take things such as shouts and wall of reflection, depending on the situation of course.

thats not really too support thow. is it?

I’m trying to find one that really makes me useful to the team support wise.

I think in the past 15 years in every single game forum, there is always people who get max lvl then go on the forums for advice on how to play their character. If you played till lvl 80 you should allready know what skills will support and help a group better. All you need to do is read the tooltips for the skills to see what they do.

What I think you are looking for is someone to come forward and give you a template you can adapt yourself to, along with a list of gear required to optimize it. Why not just pick your own stats and skills and make your own choices?

If you want to play a support role, check out my Guardian Support guide here:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/72582-ultra-guardian-support-guide-pve-wvwvw/

Wall of Reflection give you 10+ seconds of nigh immunity from ranged attacks, which is very useful in many situations. toss in two shouts and trait into “shouts remove conditions” and you’re now removing a condition from everyone every however many seconds, not to mention you can pull all party conditions to yourself, then remove them with the trait plus your own soldier runes. not to mention signet of resolve or purity (trait) also. Grab a staff and something like a mace/shield, hammer, or other weapon that has a bit of support.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.7.2.0.19.31.31.0.17.54.66.65.68.76.2.1.41.0.0.0.167.0.0.185.0.0.197.203.206.213.0.0.0.15.15.30.10

Something like this could give you a bit of mileage. Remember, test things out in the Mists, where you can mostly build for free. You don’t quite get the full stat customization as PvE, but you can see how things fit together before you start spending your life’s savings.

I’m not full support (yet – I don’t think there really is a “full” support build) but you could try 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/0/30/20/20 build. You will get tons of defense, tons of HP (well, still low HP pool, but yeah), and boons last longer.

For the gears, I would still recommend Pow/Tough/Vit gears since you will still need to do some damage – unless there is Tough/Vit/Healing something gears out there. :p

This build tanks a lot, buffs a lot (using shouts) and does some healing (Altruistic Heal trait).

It’s kinda in-theory yet but I am shifting to that build.

Cheers!

PS:

I wish Guardians have “Taunt” ability, so that mobs would aggro us instead of teammates.

In general building to survive tends to be monster support. In defending yourself a lot of those skill’s are group wide and do some really nice effects for them. Theres times that my skill’s save the party from wipes when we get chain hit by nasty skills and have no dodge left.

Banewrath.5107:

I think in the past 15 years in every single game forum, there is always people who get max lvl then go on the forums for advice on how to play their character. If you played till lvl 80 you should allready know what skills will support and help a group better. All you need to do is read the tooltips for the skills to see what they do.

What I think you are looking for is someone to come forward and give you a template you can adapt yourself to, along with a list of gear required to optimize it. Why not just pick your own stats and skills and make your own choices?

Actually I’m just trying to get a bunch of peoples ideas together. I know the general idea of what I want to go for. Taking my ideas and learning from the ideas from others is my way of being sure that I’m on the right track. Please don’t post something if all you are going to do is be a troll.

Coming from an offensive background, I wouldn’t recommend going full tank/support straight off the bat. Something like my current build might suit you better: 0/15/0/30/25, taking reduced signet and shout cooldown, might on crit to allies, shouts remove conditions, increased retaliation duration, and the VoR improvement trait (remove 3 conditions on active). I run with 3 shouts (HtL, Retreat, SY!) and Renewed Focus. Two superior Water runes, two superior Monk runes from AC, two superior Hoelbrak or Pirate runes. Hammer and scepter/focus are my preferred weaponsets, but I rotate frequently depending on what the fight calls for. Stats should focus on power, enough precision to get around 30% crit chance (high-uptime Fury from SY will boost you to 50% much of the time in-combat), with vitality and healing power filling up whatever stats are left. Near-permanent protection boon will replace stacking toughness quite nicely.

The intent is to stack unbelievable amounts of might on yourself and allies, provide constant healing and regeneration through shouts and VoR (trait VoR to apply to allies instead of shouts remove conditions if you don’t need the unbelievable amount of condition removal this provides), increase the defense of the group through protection, aegis procs, and constant blinds, and act as a front-line brawler to keep enemies from reaching your squishy backline.

The interesting thing with this setup is that it gives you the staying power to get up in a mobs’ faces and beat them about the head with a hammer (and deal very high consistent damage in the process), the flexibility to drop back, pop focus 5, and ignore mobs while ressing a downed ally, heal allies with VoR passive/active or a staff should you be carrying one, constantly stack might thanks to popping VoJ every time you kill a mob (which gives an AoE blind, retaliation, and 3 stacks of might) and giving might to allies on every crit. Essentially, you do a fair bit of everything, and almost everything you do increases your allies’ effectiveness in some shape.

Essentially, you can play like an aggressive powerhouse, and support your allies tremendously in the process. Coming from a more “RAWRDAMAGE” background, this playstyle might suit you a bit better than that of a pure tank/support.

Why even bother posting and reading if there is no intent on ever helping.

Who cares how long people have played and what they have seen , here we have a guy that want some pointers and if your not interested in helping out dont kittening post.

Amazing, with that attitude we would have only whiners whining about minor issues and claiming the entire sky was falling down. Wait, we already have that!!

@OP send a PM and explain what you are looking for, tanky support is pretty much guardians to begin with but what do want to play and how do you want to play it?
spvp?
tpvp?
wvw?
pve?
dungeons?

I have no problems making my own character the way I want to play it. Everything in this game is pretty cut and dry and really no different then any other game when it comes to statbuilding.

You might get upset at all the posts of people who claim the sky is falling and that is you. I get irritated at all the people who are too clueless to figure out their own playstyle and just want an “I win” build linked to them so they can play it. Tend to your flock shepard, they need you.

Hi,

I was testing many different ways of playing Guardian as I’ve been leveling.
The builds I am using now is the most efficient to my playingstyle, thus I love it the most.

The core traits development would be 0 0 30 30 0.
The last 10 points you can spend any way you like, I am using currently 0 5 30 30 5.
I use two sets of armors, and going to make third soon, as some situations require different runes and stats, but the very default one would be this:
Precision + Vitality + Healing Power (I’m using TA armor for that)
You can choose between Superior Soldier runes, or Superior runes of the Guardian. Soldier’s are better for my build, in my opinion.
All trinkets are Cleric exotics.
Weapons I use:
- Staff – it’s a must, your best friend.
- Secondary weapon sets are either Sword + Focus, Greatsword, Mace + Focus.

The utility skills: “Hold your line”, “Retreat”, “Stand your ground” – shouts combo.

• depending on situation, it’s good to change 1 or 2 shouts to some more usable skills. Some enviromental effects or particular foes demand some drastic changes in this build, but it’s good idea to keep at least 1 shout with you, if not 2.

Healing skill: The signet is very good for your own healing, but as you gain experience, you might appreciate Healing Breeze more, as it also heals your allies, and that’s what you gonna do.

Elite: Renewed Focus. It’s awesome!
Traits
Valor (30 points)
Strength in Numbers | Master trait is optional, pick whatever you like | Altruistic Healing
Honor (30 points)
Superior Aria (Shouts recharge 20% faster) | Two-Handed Mastery (Two-handed weapon skills recharge 20% faster) | Pure of Voice (Allies affected by shouts convert one condition to a boon)

I use 5 points in radiance for Minor trait effect, as well kitten points in Virtues for the Minor traits effect as well (extra boons on each virtue usage, and you should use them a lot with Renewed Focus).

How does it work?

Your armor stats give you a lot of Healing Power, as well as Vitality. Your trinkets give you a lot of Healing Power, as well as Toughness. You are able to heal a lot, yet you have quite a lot of Toughness and Vitality to take a few hits that could kill other players. The Power and Precision bonuses aren’t that important, but they are there too. You are focusing on healing your group, and you’ve got amazingly high healing ratio with this armor and trinket set. I suggest Staff with Healing Power as well, and the Superior Sigil of Life.

Whenever your groups is engaged in battle, you should use your shouts to spread the boons that keep everyone alive and well protected. You spread Protection, Retaliation, Regen and Stability as well as Aegis and Swiftness. Each of your virtues also can give extra boon, if you spent at least 5 poitns into Virtues trait line. Also, I usually keep 1 or 2 shouts recharged and I wait for my allies to get some conditions. Then I use my shouts to change their conditions into boons + extra boons from the shout itself. It’s amazing how many boons you alone can spread, and it’s only begining of the fun.

You can heal allies in amazingly many ways. Remember, your Healing Power is very high (you should have around 1400 Healing Power), so each your outgoing heal will be noticed by your allies, and appreciated.

Each time you dodge roll, and end up near your allies – they get healed by around 10% of their health (glasses can get even 15-20%). You can do it twice. If you keep spamming auto attack from staff, you should do plenty of critical hits with the precision bonus, which grants you Vigor from your Minor traits. Vigor increases stamina recharge, so you can dodge more and use more healing on allies. It’s awesome.

You can use Empowering skill on your staff, and you should do it almost on recharge (your staff skills going to recharge 20% faster thanks to traits). You should use it while you stand in a middle of all your allies, or right in front of foes. It’s the best Guardian skill in my opinion. I can tank many bosses with this single skill, if my allies are around.
The Altruistic Healing gives you a lot of health with each second if there are allies around you. It’s actually around 10% of your HP per tick. In the end, it will heal all your allies (including yourself) by around 20% of your healthbar. It’s a lot. Not to mention the might boon for the ones who keep doing damage.

The Virtue of Resolve – use it whenever you see your allies going low on health, it should heal nearby allies by around 20% HP. Never use it for your own selfish regen, Altruistic Healing gives you much more health than anything else. You are spreading boons with each sneeze. You can use shouts to convert conditions into boons, your shouts also spread 2 boons each, you can use symbols to spread more boons, you can use Empowering, and your virtues. Almost every single thing you do, it gives you back some health. The numbers might seem small, but as they all accumulate – I rarely use the 6th slot healing skill for my own good.

Staff also gives you 2nd skill for a little bit of healing. Don’t understimate it, it helps too. Everything helps. Don’t forget about the light combo symbol you can put with staff. It can grant retaliation, swiftness, remove conditions – depending on what your allies use as combo finishers.

With this high Healing Power, and all your healing abilities, I am able to bring Glass Warrior, who is the best DPS dealer I’ve ever seen, back to 100% health when he was already at his 10% – within a few seconds. I dodge roll at his direction, use Virtues, use my shotus with regen and protection, then empowering, staff skill 2, one more dodge roll, light combo under his feet… and then you can switch weapons for more fun.

Sword + Focus are my best tanking skills for crowded places.
Mace + Focus allow me to tank single target, be it boss or champion.
Check their skills and abilites, you will understand why. I’m using 5 poitns in radiance to gain aoe blind with my Virtue of Justice. Along with the Sword teleport skill which also spreads aoe blind, it’s great crowd control. Focus both skills are simply awesome.

I probably couldn’t tell you all about this build, as there is so much fun in it, but if you ever get interested in testing it, I will be happy to help with advices, if you need any still. I am not doing much damage really (that is why I keep alternative armor set with pure DPS stats, just in case we encounter something that requires more damage), but that’s what Warriros are for. My friend is doing more damage on his own, than other 3 party members we are with. I keep him alive and booned, he does more than enough damage for both of us. It’s wonderful how well we work together.

This build Im using since very begining in all dungeons. I mean all dungeons, I’ve done all of them, and I found this build was useful everywhere. The way you use your shouts, as you learn your oponents is very important. Some encounters require good timing on stability, others require aegis, and some else require you to use the shouts as condition removals. I’m in love with the way my guardian can handle every situation and keep everyone alive, so I thought I would share There are probably plenty of guides around that have some deeper thoughts put on similar, or identical builds even, so you can do some more research if you like.

@ Ultramatum

I checked your build, it sounds interesting.
I’m glad you use that rune set, it’s exactly the same which I’m going to put on my 3rd armor set. I can’t give up Altruistic Healing easily, so I will use consumables for extra 20% boon duration, which will make 60% extra duration on ALL boons, and the build I’m using spreads so many boons, that it should be great addition for everyone.

The most important way to support your team is being able to stay alive so your allies don’t have to hamper themselves to rezz you.
[Vigorous Precision] (Honor 5 points) gives you 1 second of Vigor (and thus more dodges) for every critical hit, so some Precision for a steady crit chance is a good way to make yourself more durable. [Selfless Daring] (Honor 15 points) heals yourself and nearby allies for some health on each dodge.
[Altruistic Healing] (Valor 30 points) heals yourself for giving yourself or your allies boons, which fits greatly both into the keep yourself alive and supporting allies agenda.

Someone made a very extensive guide about a Guardian build relying on those traits:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/A-Guide-to-Hammer-and-Altruistic-Healing-gameplay/first#post536189

You can try the 2.0 Paladin build I put up in the other thread. Kill everything and be useful to those around you