Guild Wars 2

So, I’m leveling up a guardian and have come up with this build after working with a guardian from my guild:

Zeal: 0
Radiance: 0
Valor: 20 (Retributive Armor, Purity)
Honor: 20 (Superior Aria, Empowering Might)
Virtues: 30 (Vengeful, Indomitable Courage, Absolute Resolution)

I was thinking of running this with a mix of P/V/T and berserkers/cavaliers and go for a tank/DPS kind of mix. I run that kind of mix on my elementalist and was hoping to do the same here. Main use for this would be some minor dungeon running and WvW.

My goal was to hit some 16k health and stack toughness and the rest offensive stats. I plan on using Greatsword and Mace/Focus or staff.

Thanks for any help!

Hi,

I personnally run an AHEM build (0/5/30/30/5)…all Knight Armor…soldier runes…Knight Accessories with Ruby jewels…runs at around 16K health unbuffed…close to 50% crit chance and 50% crit damage…perfect compromise between tanking and DPSing in my own opinion…

You should really consider changing to 30 in Valor for AH since it increase your survivability a lot. Upping your crit to the 40% mark (minimum) will really help with your survivability with EM or if you plan on using sigil or food procs.

Like the others say, AHEM is just really good. an x/x/30/30/x gives you AH, EM and 2h Mastery which helps GSword n Staff. 10 in Virtues could improve consecrations like Wall of Reflection. This also lets you run more Berserkers gear, don’t be afraid to run less than 16k hp in PvE with this setup either. I used to put 16k minimum but I’ve been running under 13k lately. Find where you’re comfortable.

Well as I said, this is more for minor dungeon running, more for WvW. I was hoping on using it to give group support/stability a lot and running sigil of energy. Was hoping to be pretty kitten tanky while dishing out “decent” damage.

absolute resolution without healing gear is pretty flat in my opinion. for condi removal, you can run purity + signet + smite condi, which gives you a mix of demand and passive removal. AR is better in spvp; in wvw you will constantly have conditions, removing them doesn’t yield much advantage. If you want to be more extreme, then you can add sigil of genorsity (purity if you are cheap) and/or melandru runes.

If you are extra concerned about stability, then 0/0/30/30/10 for the buffed consecrated ground. This will also give you buffed wall of reflection, which is overall one of our best abilities. With EM you would be increasing the group’s overall damage (when I run EM, and with no points in radiance, I can usually maintain 3-5 stacks which is 105-165 power for everyone. Crit is sexier, but power is the best way to increase damage).

I love trying other builds as well, but the Zeal, Radiance, and Virtues lines are very weak. None of the gold medal talents are truly gold; RHS is nice but it’s only 1h weapons and it’s only 15% crit and it costs 30 pts in an otherwise weak line! Otoh, both of the XI and XII in Valor and Honor are extremely strong, and are supported by either decent (Valor) or excellent (Honor) trait lines. While we can jump through all kinds of hoops to try and create something even vaguely comparable, the truth is that the tools simply aren’t there. For example, if RHS were the X talent and the XI/XII talents were something like gain life on crit, 20% chance to give the group fury (5s) on crit, or something equivalent, now Radiance is a very strong trait line with truly gold talents. If the XI or XII talent in Virtues was something like When activated, all virtues give the activated abilities of all other virtues (e.g. each virtue would cause burning, heal, and aegis), or when activated, virtues remove a condition, heal, and grant 3 stacks of Might to the group, then there might be a reason to go 30 into Virtues. I’m not even sure that these traits would be strong enough to justify 30 into Virtues, but if the heals scaled well with healing power, then AR is great tier 2 trait (supports healing power) and there are a couple good tier 1 traits.

The point is, one can make good builds that are not 30/30, but 30/30 is better, more dependable, and more versatile (especially 0/0/30/30/10). In this build, you can give out might, get heals from buffs, gain more shouts and all their buffs, remove condi passively and via shout, buff shield, buff crit, passively regen allies’ hp, get more swiftness/blast finishers/underwater moves, buff symbols, etc. etc. etc. A RHS build does 1 thing – increase the crit rate of 1h weapons. Seems quite narrow in comparison doesn’t it? Finally, 300 vitality is amazing for a guard, as is 300 toughness. We have few traits that require crits (you’ll be able to keep Vigor up enough without Radiance), so crit rate gives little more than non-object damage). Meh I say.

I would spend 50 pts in Honor if I could.

That, is a well reasoned post right here. Kudos.

I never planned on taking RHS, mainly because a talent that only buffs one type of weapon never suits me. Especially when there is times you need to switch for different weapons like GS/Staff which is mainly what I’ll be running, switching staff for Mace/Focus or a hammer.

My original build came from a guardian I play with and she is pretty unkillable. She does run PVT with clerics though which she told me is necessary for her survival, but she hits like a noodle. I was looking for being tanky but dealing decent damage.

What build/traits then would you recommend with that 0/0/30/30/10?

Something like this comes to mind:
Valor: Purity, Retributive Armor, Altruistic Healing
Honor: Superior Aria, Empowering Might, Writ of the Merciful/Two Handed Mastery
Virtues: Master of Consecrations

With a mix of Knights/Berserkers/PVT and Cavalier gear

To me that is the perfect build, you can do 10 Radiance for signet reduction until you are comfortable. Once you have 500 hours at 80 and you want to try something more fancy/fun/whatever, you’ll have a very solid idea of what you want and don’t want. I don’t know what Cavalier is but I don’t use it, and I don’t care for Berserkers. I’d run Cleric’s for anything challenging and Knight’s for everything else (with a crit sigil, preferably Fire). For running around Orr solo, use Mace Torch, good balance of life and damage.

Beyond the 3k health from traits, I really don’t see the reason for anymore. Did you know that heal on dodge has a 1:1 scaling (329 base)? At 1k healing power, my dodge heals (aoe) for 1,329. That means, every time I dodge I basically give myself +133 vitality. Compare that to regular vitality from PVT. The only people who say HP doesn’t scale well on Guardians are people that are clueless. AH only scales at 1%, however regen scales at 12.5%, dodge 100%, virtue tick 6%, writ 10% (?), healing signet 125%, etc.

Power is what makes you hit hard. Remember that mace and hammer symbols are up near constantly and tick every second and can crit (yay Vigor). IMO 2h weapon spec is only for increasing staff swiftness uptime or going underwater. Unless you really need that shout cd (play to actually see if you do), try larger symbols (more boons and more dmg). I also love symbol duration, I switch it out but almost always come back. Try III, VII, VIII. Note that I didn’t choose these traits randomly or on “feel”; I’ve maximized synergy. Larger symbols? More damage and more allies get buffs (ding AH). Longer symbols? Same (ding AH). EM? Buff group dps via boons (ding AH).

In PvE (and pvp too I believe, but I play my mesmer in pvp), the Guardian is a landlord. You are the encounter’s anchor – the fight will center on you. If the group wants heals and buffs, they can come close (which buffs? Might , regen, stability, etc.? You pick them depending on the encounter). If they need some breathing room, they can run away. If they have AoE ,you are their new best friend.

My warrior can hit the CoF 1 Slave Driver for 21k+ in a single 100b. His axe auto attacks hit for nearly 3k. If you want damage, make a warrior. The Guardian’s toolbox is about area control and making your buddies better – and hey why not add a high dmg 6s blast finisher amirite ;D

I’ve got over 1600 hours logged on my 3 characters, 1k of them being on my elementalist, my other 2 being thief and warrior, I’m quite aware that this character isn’t my damage character. This is going to be WvW centered and needs to survive. I only want it to do decent damage, hence this post.

As far as the healing scale, yea I also know about that. Reason I take cooldown on shouts is because I use them. Retreat/stand your ground are on my bar for WvW for group stability. I theory craft with my resident guardian all the time, this was only another avenue for some info on what is being run ATM by other players. This is one of the build we had discussed, just wanted some other info.

Cavalier gear is power/toughness/crit damage.