Guild Wars 2

I’m just wondering, I’ve been running the famous meditation build that most people either run or have tried. I run two meditations and stand your ground, works really well.
My spec is 10/30/30/0/0 for optimal dmg. however I’ve been thinking if there might be a build that actually does more damage than what I am running?

I love the greatsword/1h Sword/focus. When I run in wvw I usually switch out the greatsword with scepter/torch to be able to immobilize.

I’ve been watching the forums, and youtube for inspiration, Aryaswag has come up with a great build that I’ve not yet tried but looks good. The downside is, zero points in radiance which means lower dps (at least in my little mind, since fewer crits).

I’ve considered a few things, fx to move points to 20/20/30/0/0 to get spirit weapons not being destroyed when commanded, but I’m really unsure if it will beef my dps.

I’m also having a very difficult time of letting go of the meditation line, well just look at it, 2 meditations healing me, one curing me of conditions and one teleporting me and burning in a small ae… it’s just awesome, AND the line gives 30% crit dmg… so yeah I love it. But again, would there be something that I’ve not thought of, that would actually beef my dps more?

So what I am asking is just for advice to beef my dps. Before anyone has the insatiable urge to say, guardians are for support, or “you picked guardian for dps?!?” or w/e, just drop it! I picked the guardian to do DPS yes! I picked it over warrior cause they are more fun and cause they can do more tricks than just bam bam bam. But I still wanna optimize my bam bam bam along with my tricky tricky.

So any advice on how/if the dps of the meditation build can actually be improved, or if the build is actually the maximum dps build guardians can put out? And if I could be so bold as to ask for explanations, as supposed to saying x/x/x/x/x does way more dmg! Explain why.

One thing, I have considered is the fact that I switch out GS sometimes, since activating whirl slows you a bit and people can just run away from you, having the spirit hammer or bane signet might improve dps, as you can put out a full whirl.

I have to add that I love to solo in wvw, so the build should reflect the ability to take on any opponent in 1v1.

In PvP the stuns from Spirit hammer is too much to pass up imo, so I would go for Spirit Weapons not being destroyed on command. The damage window within a stun will far outweigh the loss in stats. Your opponent can’t dodge or activate any skills outside of a stun breaker. Also the traits in Radiance are horrible. Condition damage is near useless to Guardian, unless you do a high burning build. The actual trait slots aren’t that good as well, when you consider your other options. The only benefit is the Precision, but that could be made up in gear. The potential Trait/Trait slots you forego by going heavy Radiance isn’t worh it imo, so i wouldn’t stack Radiance too high. 5 in Virtues is heavily recommended with any build you run.

So, this would mean 20/15/30/0/5
That would grab hammer not being destroyed on command. Virtue of justice being renewed on kill. meditations as well kitten in virtues for improved virtue activations. Would this be better dps then? To take 15 points from radiance and divert them into the first and last lines.

I would do 10 in Radiance and put the extra 5 into Honor. In PvP, the dodge roll is key, and since you mentioned you are heavy damage oriented I am assuming you are maximizing Precision on your gear. Also the 50 Vitality / Healing would go a long way to survivability. Vitality because Guardians have low base HP to start with, and Healing because it scales well with meditation heal and F2 Virtue.

But this is going into more of a Balanced build I guess. If it is your preference to maximize DPS in PvP situations, 20/15/30/0/5 would probably best for you.

I run this, and I dominate, I go full glass cannon with a 10/30/30 and I use smite conditions/judges intervention/save yourselves. When mastered this build becomes the master of 1v1 and nearly unbeatable in duels. I will say that I use sigil of air on sword and sigil of hydromancy on focus and GS so when I swap I freeze and lets me smack away for a few secs or whirl before they get to far. As far as other guardian builds doing the same damage, not many, only a high powered spirit weapon build could keep up damage wise. Possibly a 30/10/30 build or something of the sort might do similar damage.

Meditation build is perfect for my playstyle, nigh unbeatable 1v1, great survivability allowing me to go glass cannon with little downside, and able to kill quickly. Ive only had trouble with 2 builds, a evasion tank melee ranger, and an evasion bleed thief, thief was more of a 70/30 win/loss rate, ranger beat me every time. But as far as all the other op 1v1 classes like mesmer or thief, I dominate them like a bubba does his prison kitten.

For spike damage, you won’t beat out 10/30/30/0/0. You could probably be a semi spirit weapon build, but you will not have the same spike. Your damage will also be inconsistent between spirit weapons cool down. Unlike a specialized spirit weapon build, you probably will only have one spirit weapon up (since you’re still a meditation focus build). You will get more control out of the spirit hammer though, but your damage increase is only minimal. I prefer to keep SYG to stomp those pests on the ground.

Also, you will lose about 20% crit (5% from Radiance passive, 15% from Right-Handed Strength) which is equal to about 10.6% damage assuming that you’re using Runes of Divinity and Knight’s Amulet with Berserker jewel. On top of that, you also lose 10% damage from Radiance Power (25 Radiance minor trait). With 20/20/30/0/0, you gain 100 power, Symbolic Exposure (which is useless if you’re running sword with scepter on switch), and Eternal Spirit. I hope that losing 20.6% AND a utility slot for spirit weapon is worth it for the “extra” damage.

Whatever your build it’s almost a requirement to have 10 points in Honor. Simply put “Wrathful Spirit” is simply too good not to take. Once your aegis goes down you gain 25 secs of retaliation (not sure if this has been nerfed, but it used to be 40 secs, which mean you had perma-retaliation)

Even so I want to say it’s 25 secs, and with 10 more points in Virtues you can get the 25% longer retaliation times to make it extremely mean.

Retaliation is power-based so with no power amulets you’ll hit for around 266, with 3k+ power you’ll be hitting for close to 400 dmg every time you are hit, it is simply too much damage to ignore at this point.

Carrioncrow.6872:

Whatever your build it’s almost a requirement to have 10 points in Honor. Simply put “Wrathful Spirit” is simply too good not to take. Once your aegis goes down you gain 25 secs of retaliation (not sure if this has been nerfed, but it used to be 40 secs, which mean you had perma-retaliation)

Even so I want to say it’s 25 secs, and with 10 more points in Virtues you can get the 25% longer retaliation times to make it extremely mean.

Retaliation is power-based so with no power amulets you’ll hit for around 266, with 3k+ power you’ll be hitting for close to 400 dmg every time you are hit, it is simply too much damage to ignore at this point.

It’s 13.5 seconds with the 25% retaliation from Virtues. It’s quite useless for an offensive meditation build due to the fact that you cannot afford to draw out the fight. Those 10 points can be spent to get 20% crit and 10% damage from Radiance (Radiance Power and Right-Handed Strength plus the passive) or into Zeal for 10% damage (Fiery Wrath) and 100 power. Monk’s Focus is the staple of the build so cannot be taken away. That only leave us to take points away from Zeal and Radiance but both seems to be superior than Wrathful Spirit.

Edit: Wrathful Spirit effect seems to be either 10 or 20 seconds when activate. This may could have been a bug.

Hi one question pls, What stats you use in armor and jewel whith this 10/30/30/0/0 meditations build?

im going for 10,0,30,15,15.

Changed my build alot the last days, hell i spent more time at the build calc then ingame ^^

I dont think my build wil do the same dmg that your build does, but im going for a more defensive build and wear my target down.

I also might stack for extra dmg.
For runes i use:
Rune of the monk 2/6 15% boon duration
Rune of hoelbrak 4/6 +20% might duration and 5% chance to gain might for 20 sec when hit.

Also get might when i block and change weapon. So what do you think about this version of the build?

Btw, anyone know how long the retribution on virtue of retribution is?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#Mmcczz9MmnTammnTama0xffMMzbzM