Guild Wars 2

Hi, i really want to start playing guard however i can’t stand the playstyle of full clerics and was wondering if there where some high damage semi tanky builds i could have a go with, i like using hammer/gs and usually roam in groups of 3-5 taking on groups double our size, any input would be great!

This guy is a great roamer someone posted the other day. It uses one handed weapons but it’s sturdy and fast. I ran it for the first time and was utterly melting people 1v1 yesterday.

en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRArd8elUgSDHHyNEf4Eh1DAeQ/VVIeXPgYEbIA-jUCBYfDim+IwEIRM1UQM3UZtYqIas6aYKXAqYLqWGA9xA-w

Thieves are still a problem but thieves are thieves.

It sounds like you’d enjoy playing a mediguard. There are many different variations on the build but (you guessed it!) they all have 30 in Valor for all 3 meditation traits. I really like these builds because they reward you for your skill and you can pull some cool things off with them.

I think the best environment for a mediguard is dueling situations, 10/30/30/0/0 sword/focus scepter/torch, full berserker and you have no reason to lose any 1v1 if you are skilled with it.

That build will go down very fast to aoe or focus in teamfight situations, making it less than ideal for what you’re looking to do. In situations like that you need to boost your low hp pool to survive bursts from glass thieves and such so you wont die in one backstab(you will want 15k hp at least) you’ll also need toughness for the same reason and also to add sustain so you don’t end up as a rally for your opponents. Another thing to consider would be what can you bring to your group that isn’t just the occasional aegis. I really love the playstyle of medi guard and wanted to roam effectively with it so I came up with this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAsdSlUgaDnGSOEfYFRuAbBVFiHmCOmxrHQMiNE-j0CBYfCikFgUBBK9hIjNBCqMsIasKbYqXo6XQaYJWFDQKA9UGB-w

I know some of the pieces could probably be switched out for something else but this is what I’m running, and also I’m running sw/f but you can easily put a GS on instead(Although I would urge you to look at how much more sw/f does than GS). I’m ensuring decent survivability through a mix of valkyrie and knights while keeping my power at a respectable level (I also stack bloodlust but didn’t put it on the editor) with decent crit damage from trav runes, valkyrie gear and cavalier amulet. You make up for the low crit chance with the fury from meditations.

Trait wise I have a 10% modifier while opponents are on fire, an additional blind, boons on virtues and additional sustain through selfless daring and vigor on crit.

I used to run with runes of speed for the vit and the speed bonus (essential when group roaming IMO) but switched to trav runes and haven’t regretted it. I take resolute healer and protective reviver when I’m in a group but switch them out when I’m solo.

What this brings to your group is very decent damage, reliable survivability, excellent control through smart use of the hammer(hammer is your teams best friend) reliable stomps through blinds and judges intervention, very reliable resses with resolute healer and protective reviver.

The weakness of the build is in 1v1s, it’s not terrible but come up against anything with sustain and you wont be able to kill them.

Another thing to note is a lot of people will like to run a similar build just with 20 in virtues instead of honor for absolute resolution/indomitable courage which is also a very good choice. Some people will like to run PVT armour and zerk trinkets or something involving celestial which I’m sure is good too.

I miss the raw burst from full beserker 10/30/30 but I’ve had a lot of fun playing this.

A good hint is learn how to combo weapon skills with judges intervention, for example you can begin the cast of ring of warding then use judges intervention so you will teleport to your target and then finish the cast, essentially making it a 1200 range attack and 90% ensuring a kill or baiting out early stability/port and 100% of the time confusing the kitten out of your foe, it’s quite funny watching people walk against the ring several times. You can do the same thing with banish if you notice someone is standing a little too close to a ledge. You can also judges intervention to stomp, say you are stomping a thief, he ports away but you are still channeling the stomp, press JI then you’ll tele to him and connect the stomp, you can also start using banish on someone who’s downed, spam F so you start channeling the stomp right after they are banished then JI to them to finish the stomp (you can do this on eles, guards and rangers so they dont have a chance to interrupt or mist form away).

If anyone has any suggestions or criticisms I’d like to hear them.