Guild Wars 2

I am just trying to get up to 40 so I can unlock the second tier in my traits. I am sure it will be all downhill from there. But until then, what should I do to cure my blues? Right now I am just a Guardian that is specced for 10 Zeal, 10 Radiance and Armor stats are all over the place trying to fill in the gaps a bit.

I am definitely not giving up at all, but if anyone has any suggestions to make things feel a little easier, please share them!

10 Honor, shouts -20% recharge. Fill your bar with shouts and go to town with Greatsword/Sword/Focus.

Join more events. You’ll reach 40 in no time. Plus, you’ll have some loots.

I levelled up to 40 with Toughness and Vitality. lol. 0 Zeal. O_O

I’m using GS and have had fun spinning and tagging mobs for loots.

What are your issues?

I’m almost up to 40 now and after a slow start am enjoying the guardian very much.
The key is to be flexible. Swap weapons, a lot. Swap skills before you rush into a DE or a cave full of baddies.

I find sword + focus to be nice for exploration, you have so many blinds and blocks you can kill even veterans without getting hit yourself, letting you dictate what happens. A spirit weapon for distracting extra mobs is nice, but I do fine without. “Save yourselves!” is a great shout for solo play, giving you lots of buffs while getting no conditions.

The greatsword is my favorite for DEs, jumping in the middle of the spawned groups and unleashing hell just feels awesome. Shouts and consecrations are very nice here too.

For champion fights, I usually switch back to sword + focus, dishing out lots of blinds helps. If the boss hates melee too much, I switch to scepter, though only if I really have to. Also, “Retreat!” is a nice shout to use just before a big AoE, you can save lots of people from being one-shot, even if the swiftness is wasted.

In fact, “Retreat!” is the utility that always finds a spot on my bar, it’s just too useful when out in the world.

Not sure what issues you are having with Guardian. It’s probably the easiest (and most fun!) class to play PvE, PvP is a whole different story. Stickied at the top is a fantastic Guadian guide. I can’t recommend it enough to give a read-through.

From my experience doing PvE, rock the Greatsword. It owns everything. You can close distance and AoE. Single target I actually enjoy the sword/torch combo.

Lumines.3916:

10 Honor, shouts -20% recharge. Fill your bar with shouts and go to town with Greatsword/Sword/Focus.

I agree with this. And by shouts, I strongly suggest Save Yourselves! and Hold the Line!.

Pretty much as others said but I used:
5 Radiance for blinds → 10 for Vulnerability
10 Honor for Shouts recharge
5 Virtues for boons → 10 for Master of Consecrations

Skills were Purging Flames for DPS and fire combos, Save Yourselves! and Retreat!, elite Renewed Focus. GreatSword and Sword/Torch, I didn’t use focus since I never really needed survivability and I like Torch #4 and #5 is uber cool

The main tip would probably be to hit Trading Post every 5 levels or so and buy full green gear for few silvers, if you can’t afford buyout then use buy order. Most of the time you can buy green gear for a little bit more than you will get back from vendoring it For accessories I also suggest to buy blues and you can resell them later. Buy minor sigil of bloodlust and put it into GS. This will speed up leveling so much …

Beyond what’s already been said . . .

Make sure your armor is level appropriate. In any given town, the armorsmith vendor will be selling armor that’s appropriate for your level, and the next level armor (which goes in increments of 5). Even if you craft your armor or buy it on the trading post, that’s a good place to at least check to see if your armor levels are up to par.

Make use of the upgrade slots in your armor. You can buy upgrades in the trading post, or salvage them off of armor drops that you don’t otherwise want to or can use.

Make sure your weapons are up to par as well (weaponsmith vendors in towns work the same as armorsmith vendors, i.e. they scale with your level).

And finally, make sure your jewelery slots are being used, and remember that jewelry has upgrade slots too!

Sairenkao.6485:

Lumines.3916:

10 Honor, shouts -20% recharge. Fill your bar with shouts and go to town with Greatsword/Sword/Focus.

I agree with this. And by shouts, I strongly suggest Save Yourselves! and Hold the Line!.

“Retreat!” is where it’s at.

+1 to having “Retreat!”. keep mixing up your skills. i’ve tend to stick to a few, as well as weapon sets but you’ll find what works for you soon : )))

surprisingly, i never really upgraded my armor (and don’t plan to focus too much on it until i hit 80). haven’t ventured into dungeons or PvP yet. some WvW only. so for PvE there really isn’t a WHOLE lot you need and can use whatever wep you find most fun!D

though on a few occassions, vs bosses or when i solo champs, etc, i’d have to switch up my build specifically. other than that though, the guardian IS very fun to play with : ))

good luck and hope you get over this slump soon enouh ; )))

akamon.2769:

+1 to having “Retreat!”. keep mixing up your skills. i’ve tend to stick to a few, as well as weapon sets but you’ll find what works for you soon : ))))

My bar is pretty much always:

Utility 1: Judge’s Intervention
Utility 2: “Retreat!”

Utility 3 is on rotation, but is usually either “Hold the Line!” or Purging Flames, depending on the scenario.

10/15/0/0/5 + Greatsword = plowing through stuffs in solo PvE. A good offense is the best defense, ie: kill it so fast that they can barely land any hit on you.

Trungalung.7850:

10/15/0/0/5 + Greatsword = plowing through stuffs in solo PvE. A good offense is the best defense, ie: kill it so fast that they can barely land any hit on you.

That’s only 100 power and 150 precision, not a whole lot by that level. Plus, sub-40, you can’t put 15 points in anything, it’s capped at 10. That ten points in Vitality would give you 1000 HP, and you could take some toughness to boot and improve your survivability by a long stride. I’m pretty sure that at below level 40, 100 power will probably be around 10-15% of your attack power, but 1000 HP is probably a 20% or more boost to your health pool.

I agree with you on 5 in virtues though, that’s a must for just about any build. Even the 10 in power for the burning aegis is good, I just don’t agree on the points in precision.

Tomkatt.1684:

Trungalung.7850:

10/15/0/0/5 + Greatsword = plowing through stuffs in solo PvE. A good offense is the best defense, ie: kill it so fast that they can barely land any hit on you.

That’s only 100 power and 150 precision, not a whole lot by that level. Plus, sub-40, you can’t put 15 points in anything, it’s capped at 10. That ten points in Vitality would give you 1000 HP, and you could take some toughness to boot and improve your survivability by a long stride. I’m pretty sure that at below level 40, 100 power will probably be around 10-15% of your attack power, but 1000 HP is probably a 20% or more boost to your health pool.

I agree with you on 5 in virtues though, that’s a must for just about any build. Even the 10 in power for the burning aegis is good, I just don’t agree on the points in precision.

It’s not the stats. It’s the synergy. Renewed Justice will allows you to refresh VoJ every kills thus stacking Might with Inspired Virtues and Justice is Blind’s AoE blind(and also Vulnerability if you have Blind Exposure). Also, since VoJ will almost always be up (unless you fight only one mob for a long time, ie. dungeon bosses with no adds), that will guarantee you to have burn up for Fiery Wrath.

You’re not wrong about Renewed justice, but AFAIK, you can’t take that trait prior to level 40, due to being locked at 10 points per trait.

Well, I thought he is 40 (or about to hit 40). If anything below 40, it’s just picking up 5 in Virtues and filling stuffs out til 40. 20% off in shout may be good during this time as well as 10% more damage against burn targets.

greatsword ..greatsword….greatsword… and then any trait build you want. It’s that simple for pve. I cant believe you have problems that early on with a guardian, it’s kind of sad.

Sword/Focus + Scepter/Torch
10 in Radiance to pick up [Blind Exposure].
Then 10 in Zeal for [Fiery Wrath] and the added Power.
Then I’d say go 5 in Virtues for [Inspired Virtue].

Sword/Focus makes you pretty much invincible early on.
You have three blinds in [Flashing Blade], [Ray of Judgement], and [Virtue of Justice].
You have an activated block in [Shield of Wrath].
Then even if you run out of blind cooldowns you can just dodge backwards, switch to scepter, and lock them in place with [Chains of Light] and hit them with [Cleansing Flame] while your blinds recharge.

If you get into events where you need to tag waves of enemies, [Cleansing Flame] and [Smite] work incredibly well.

I know lots of people will extol the virtues of using Greatsword early on, but I found that you weren’t really fighting big groups early in the game, so a lot of potential GS damage was wasted.
The 1h setup lets you plow through 1 enemy at a time at a faster pace than with GS because you can [Flashing Blade] to the next enemy every 10 seconds rather than the 20 seconds waiting for [Leap of Faith] or running to the next enemy. It’s also MUCH MUCH safer than GS against veterans and champions, which you will find yourself wanting to solo pretty often in the early levels.

Personally, I think 1h weapons are just flat out better for most of the game.
At least until 60 when you can finally set up some interesting trait combos such as Hammer+[Altruistic Healing]+[Empowering Might].
Or if you’re playing mostly in a group where you can utilize the short cooldown Combo finishers of the 2h weapons, then they really shine as well.