Guild Wars 2

Hi all, my name is Sunva and im a Sylvari Guardian on the server Gandara.
I mainly run Explorable Dungeons because that is what I love
After my first encounter with explorable dungeons in AC I decided I wanted to be a bit more “tanky”.
Im not the greatest player so its also to help with any mistakes I might make during combat. (surviving an extra blow to the face is worth it)

So naturally I went with the 30/0/20/20/0 build. That has a focus around Power/tough/vitality. With the Greatsword cooldown reduction and Greatsword healing. So I could dish out decent damge but also be a little more tougher then others, atleast thats what I hoped

Now I Kinda feel weak because. I dont do much damage, Its not like I last WAYYY longer (I still die alot like the rest of the group). Only thing im good for is jumping in, throwing down some fields/shields and after they expire roll out and start staff ranging/empowering the group.

So how can I improve this?

PS: Im using Exotic power/tough/vit gear with Staff/GS, (staff for the empower,healing,speed buff) I use spirit shield/sanctuary/damage reduc as utility

Your current gear and knights accessories and a exotic GS or hammer from Ascalon catacombs with accuracy sigils and 5*superior rune of the ranger and 1*other crit rune in your gear:
0/15/30/20/5

Grab altruisitc healing, retributive armor, 2h mastery, lowered cd on signets and inspired virtues.

Start there and you will find survivability going up greatly and also increased dps.

In general, with a risk of being contradicted by very harsh words, zeal sucks for guardians and heal on GS is beyond bad.

The only reason to put points in zeal is if you go with spirit weapons. you dont trait for damage, you trait for certain functions and gear up for damage, a bit simplified but overall correct.

Try the above and watch what happens to incoming heals and compare that with your current specc.

Btw toughness is more important then health, and especially in pve.

You do not need more than 15k health on a guardian, especially if you take any kind of condition removal – put all the rest in toughness if you want survivability and get used to fighting at 25% health (where a lot of emergency traits activate, the difference here from other classes being that you don’t necessarily have to retreat from battle at this level)

Try running with spirit weapons (but don’t take wrathful spirits) and just doing binding blades → symbol of wrath → pull → sword command + whirling blades at same time → leap of faith for the blind you need to get out of there and heal up after your dodge escape with an emergency shout. You should be able to do some version of that fairly frequently, but without going 30 in either honor or valor, standing for any period of time in the middle of a mob is a no-no. Get out of there, put up a staff wall or shield barrier, and buy time with ranged till your spirit weapons/shouts/meditations recharge. Contemplation of purity alone is a sufficient get-out-of-jail-free card for any PvE or PvP situation.

As was said before, the zeal trait line is for people that want to use spirit weapon sometimes. If you need more rescue skills and can’t / won’t do spirit weapons, it’s helpful to have at least 20 zeal just so you always have that option in case a situation calls for them, like when you have to fight a same-level opponent ranged and still want to get tags / put out DPS.