My WvW Guardian Builds
Bumping this up. Added another guardian build to my list for being super tanky as well.
Added my latest roaming Guardian build. It is a Meditation build running sword/focus instead of Longbow and no traps like my other roaming Guardian build. This one is running the Dragonhunter spec mainly for the virtues. Immobilize on F2, trap on CC and removing conditions on block are all very useful, especially with Focus offhand.
Hey josh, I saw you had GS for your dragonhunter frontline build…whats the advantage over the hammer?
Hey josh, I saw you had GS for your dragonhunter frontline build…whats the advantage over the hammer?
It is honestly just preference. I’ve actually been playing staff/longbow recently for larger group play. There is only really room for 1 guardian to play like that in the guilds comp that I play with that runs 15-20 people, so I was trying it out and it seems pretty effective.
I like GS more than hammer personally, but both are good choices and necessary to have some of. In that guild I play with, we generally have 3-4 guardians. Driver and 1 other run GS/Staff, 1 runs Hammer/Staff, then if I am on mine, I play GS/Staff or LB/Staff for the CC and extra range pressure if we’re unable to make a push or to help for the engage.
GS pull is one of the main reasons for running GS though. Being able to put as many of your enemies in one place is good for the back line to be able to drop bombs on. At which point the hammer guard rings and the LB guard uses LB5. If everything is timed well with necro wells and ele meteors, its devastating to enemies.
Asphyxia [XT] – Crystal Desert & Fort Aspenwood Roamer
Twitch Stream – AsphyxiaXT
My Builds at XtremeTheory.com
Twitch Stream – AsphyxiaXT
My Builds at XtremeTheory.com
Josh sorry to hijack your thread, but would somethign like this work on group fight?
*asking this due interesting results using boon duration and consecrations on the last days (by observing players behavior).
*one or tow doublon can be used for 100%boon duration on staff.
1st April joke, when gw2 receives a “balance” update.
(edited by Aeolus.3615)
Josh sorry to hijack your thread, but would somethign like this work on group fight?
*asking this due interesting results using boon duration and consecrations on the last days (by observing players behavior).
*one or tow doublon can be used for 100%boon duration on staff.
As far as the traits go, they should be fine. You’ll be feeling it taking Honor line over Valor line though since you lose “Altruistic Healing.” AH is a REALLY nice trait to have for group play, dropping just your staff3 symbol on allies and giving them swiftness is about enough to get you to full HP in a lot of cases.
I would say drop the traveller runes and get durability runes. I’m actually updating my Guardian builds today to reflect that I am now running Durability runes as well.
Wanderer’s gear is something I am not too sure about though. While boon duration is good, you must keep in mind that boons are often stripped before they live out their full duration in larger fights due to things like necro wells. I would really stick with Celestial or a marauder/cav combination if it were me.
As for Consecrations, purging flames is hands down one of the best guardian skills in my opinion. The burning does a decent bit of damage to enemies and it clear conditions from allies – pretty much a win win.
I would say that taking the shout “Stand Your Ground” is a better choice over “Hallowed Ground” because it is not limited to one area where it is dropped and there is a lot less room for error on it. Also keep in mind that even with the trait, the cooldown on Hallowed Ground is still 64 seconds. “Stand Your Ground” is less than half of that being only 30 seconds. Stability is too important to the groups to wait an extra 34 seconds, so I would definitely say drop that one.
As far as Santuary goes, I haven’t personally used it in a very long time, in fact, the last time I did use it, it rooted you still lol. To my knowledge, it is something you can use on the move now, but it also has a 72 second cooldown with the trait. That is a pretty long cooldown and since your build doesn’t have any healing power, it won’t actually do much healing. It is a nice CC, but I would suggest taking either “Hold the Line” which will give a small heal and protection or taking “Fragments of Faith” trap since it grants stability and aegis, breaks stun and also does a little bit of damage.
I’ve been playing longbow/staff on mine recently and it has been pretty nice, but I think there shouldn’t be too many guardians playing that way because you lose your front line for the most part if so. Also remember the longbow 1 and 2 skills are projectiles and will likely hurt you more than help you in groups, so just use the longbow carefully.
I’m not saying that it can’t work, I am just saying that there are better ways to do it.
Asphyxia [XT] – Crystal Desert & Fort Aspenwood Roamer
Twitch Stream – AsphyxiaXT
My Builds at XtremeTheory.com
Twitch Stream – AsphyxiaXT
My Builds at XtremeTheory.com
Durability runes are quite interesting, but most times i end with trooper and traited shouts due my positioning on the field :\, theres to much range damage and range aplyed condi spam.
The reason i was pondering the boon duration on the stability field even if boon gets corrupted it would re apply a longer boon than usual or even cast it on CC spam zone, but at the end u might be right, it is hard to maintain boons that longer due avaliable removals.
sidenote
IMO we should have more guardian usign at least Sanctuary if playign a support guardian, that way Anet could see how behind the skill is, in many ways, it is so sad when we kill another guardian at melee range and he is inside sanctuary…. most cases dont even need stability to get inside and dps it.
If skills are not used they wont even bother to see, due poor data, imo.
1st April joke, when gw2 receives a “balance” update.
(edited by Aeolus.3615)
Durability runes are quite interesting, but most times i end with trooper and traited shouts due my positioning on the field :\, theres to much range damage and range aplyed condi spam.
Trooper runes are still pretty good if you run Stand your Ground and Hold the Line. Durability runes seem to be a bit better because you gain resistance from them, which will mitigate all condition damage for the time of its duration. With the extra 20% boon duration from the runes and if you have any revenants around sharing boon duration or mesmers around sharing boons, that resistance stacks up pretty fast.
The reason i was pondering the boon duration on the stability field even if boon gets corrupted it would re apply a longer boon than usual or even cast it on CC spam zone, but at the end u might be right, it is hard to maintain boons that longer due avaliable removals.
Yeah I get it, the issue is the long cooldown, you can use Stand your Ground twice in the time that hallowed ground is on cooldown unfortunately.
sidenote
IMO we should have more guardian usign at least Sanctuary if playign a support guardian, that way Anet could see how behind the skill is, in many ways, it is so sad when we kill another guardian at melee range and he is inside sanctuary…. most cases dont even need stability to get inside and dps it.If skills are not used they wont even bother to see, due poor data, imo.
I think Sanctuary was cool skill, especially since they changed it to not root you, but its cooldown is far too long to make it worth running compared to other skills that will provide more support.
Asphyxia [XT] – Crystal Desert & Fort Aspenwood Roamer
Twitch Stream – AsphyxiaXT
My Builds at XtremeTheory.com
Twitch Stream – AsphyxiaXT
My Builds at XtremeTheory.com
Bumping this up for visibility, some builds updated. Same links as above.
What would be the ultimate tank build for wvw? Like an old school commander build that is heavily outnumbered.