Guild Wars 2

Hello!

Created my first alt over the weekend, a female norn guardian, and looking for some suggestions on build, utilities and weapons.

First off, I played a ranger since game launch, so this is quite a switch for me. After battling as much with the limitations and bugs of the class as with the PvE foes, playing a class that works as it says on the tin is a relief! Also, even at low levels, the guardian seems a bit op’ed to me, but that might change with more difficult content.

I have my guardian up to lvl 20 by doing the personal story and some low-level map completion and all weapon skills are unlocked. I am now speed crafting her through the 20’s and 30’s, so she should be at or very close to lvl 40 when going back out into the world. The plan is to solo PvE map content for some time and then start dipping into AC at around lvl 50-60.

So far, I like a mix of signet and shout utilities. For weapons, I have been giving them all a go, but mainly greatsword or hammer with secondary being mace/focus for tough fights or scepter/focus for ranged lesser mobs. Sword/torch is pretty good as well, but not impressed with the staff so far. I use focus rather than shield since the focus skills seem better to me.

The current build:
0/10/0/0/5
Signet Mastery

After the speed crafting or soon after:
0/10/10/10/5
Signet Mastery;
Purity;
Superior Aria

Considering a final build of this:
0/15/30/20/5
Signet Mastery;
Purity; Retributive Armour; Altruistic Healing;
Superior Aria; Two-handed Mastery

Weapons: all Berserker
Armour: initially a mix of crafted Knight and Valkyrie. then p/t/v either from dungeons or temple karma vendors
Runes: undecided, but probably Soldier
Accessories: mix of Knight and Valkyrie.

Any comments and/or suggestions welcome!

I only play guardian and imo builds and what weapons you use are entirely up to you pre lvl 70.

What I did is every 10 lvls buy all new gear to match your lvl and it does not need to be top of the line the cheapest will do. This will help you level at a much faster rate since things will be a tad easier to kill and increase your survivability.

How you play the game after you hit 80 will change a lot because when you start doing harder content you will need specific gear for what you are trying to accomplish. Example from 1 to 70 most always used mace/torch now that I’m 80 I can’t even remember the last time I used a torch.

AH build is the guardians bread and butter once you hit 80 there are 3 or 4 variations of the build you can find just pick the one that fits your play style. Once you hit 70 I would go 0/0/30/30/0. Once you hit 80 then figure out how you want to modify your build.

The best weapon for staying alive in your early stages of leveling is your mace every third swing heals you and then symbol of faith heals you as well.

I started to like staff a bit more as I used it, but started pairing it with some of the traits to get a good deal more efficiency out of it for group play. That is when I really started enjoying it.

Example, Altruistic healing! Symbol of Swiftness, and especially Empower, becoming self healing machines (Empower does 12 stacks of might on 5 allies nearby, which can mean lots of of Altruistic Healing heals).

This is why I initially didn’t find the staff as useful when I was doing solo play.

What specifically are you looking for thoughts on?

bri!!! doode, it’s been so long. rarely do i ever catch you online. :// though, i’ve been getting more and more busy IRL as well. anyways, grats on the new Guardian! i play a Norn as wellD

seems like you’ve done a lot of your homework already. ; )) so you’ve a good setup and on the right track as well. one small thing i’d like to add is, again, while leveling up you can mess around with different builds, though i extremely enjoyed 0/15/x/x/5 as soon as i could. with 5 in Virtues like you have set out, you get added utility to your virtues. then with 15 in Radiance, you get an AoE blind @ 5 pts when you hit VoJ (F1), with the added might from Virtues 5, plus burning attacks. then at 15 pts, VoJ will be refreshed whenever you kill a mob (doesn’t need to be killing blow, just tagged) so this allows for quick work on any given mob in PvE. this made leveling, i won’t say overly easy, but was extremely fun and lets you level a bit faster.

i didn’t really play with Signets so i went with Blind Exposure on Radiance 10 as well, which adds vulnerability to mobs when you blind with, so another added feature for your F1 button.D plus, if you like the GS and sword, it works great too.

for PvE, i feel mace focus is great. shield has it’s uses but more situational. glad that you enjoy the hammer as well. GS works for the AH build as well, but i felt the hammer really excels with the symbol, as well as self triggering combos and AoE retaliation. know that hammer #5 also acts as a light field even though it doesn’t state so in the tool-tip.

i didn’t enjoy the staff either early on, but at lvl 80 with the exact same build you did, i really started to see it shine. and for similar reaons like Damarus listed above. the high crit rate of your build let even just staff #1 do quite a bit of dmg. and staff #4 acts as a small quick burst heal if you ever need with AH and adds a ton of might stacks to you and your allies. staff #5 is good for area denial or holding chokepoints or keeping mobs away so it has it’s place in dungeons as well. and staff #3 i liked having for running around the open world. : )))

in terms of gear, you’re on a good track as well. Knight’s is a match made in heaven for the Guard and the AH build i feel. the toughness is great. and the high crit rate just means putting AH to better use. and with a smaller health pool, your healing is more effective in a sense. i’ve tried PVT gear using this build and didn’t feel it was quite up to par when compared to full knight’s. for jewelry i had a small mix of valkyrie for some added vit, but even then i felt full knight’s armor and jewelry was more than enough. but of course, experiment on your own and find your sweet spot. ; ))

as for runes, just some other fun suggestions:

• soldier’s works really well with this build, and you get some added vitality there if you wanna keep your gear focused on crit chance % / precision
• water x2 monk x2, major sanctuary x2 for 40% boon duration, which i feel is very strong for Guardians
• a mix of fire, strength, hoelbrak if you want a bit more dmg / might, etc

good luck and let us know if you have anymore questions. hope this helps a bit, and when you’re ready to run AC, and see me on, shoot me a tell and i can tag along!

Thanks akamon, Excursion and Damarus the comments and suggestions!

Yea, my guardian is a pretty hot norn! Will post a screenie soon …

Yup, I did some lurking in this sub-forum before going ahead with the guardian, so was able to plan out a strategy. The stickied 101 guide was very helpful as well. I wish there was a similar guide for all the classes!!

A side note:
I also lurked in the Warrior sub-forum while trying to decide between the two classes. From the posts in that sub-forum, my impression of the warrior players is not great … Speed running dungeons is of no interest to me, and this is the lot who don’t play nice with other classes, particularly rangers. So, this turned me off the warrior class.

I thought the quality of posts in the guardian sub-forum are much better, and the level of understanding of the class seems much higher. So, this had a big impact on my decision to play a guardian …

Ok, back to the interesting stuff ..

From my Ranger leveling experience, I know there is a huge difference between 1-70 and 70-80, and beyond. Then there is the open world PvE vs dungeons, where different set-ups are required.

It is about adaptation, and as long as the class allows some flexibility, then all is good. As I play the class, and open up more utility skills, I am sure some thing will change as I settle in on play-styles that I like for various situations. At level 20, there are not many options, the focus is just staying alive.

Last evening I finished my speed crafting to 400 in 2 crafts and now at lvl 40. I crafted up a set of lvl 35 ‘green’ Hearty armour with toughness/vitality stats. This evening I will craft up a set of Strong weapons or whatever gives me some power/precision or power/crit, and some runes/sigils.

Build is now: 0/10/10/5/5
Signet Mastery; Purity

I need to buy a manual to open the next tier of trait options, and then she is ready to hit the open world again. Now at lvl 40, the class should begin to develop into something.

Nothing wrong with not liking the staff as it is not as helpful as it looks on paper(in it’s current state). I don’t personally use it (most of my time, anyway) because I don’t like gimping myself.

You are really better off by supporting your team through other options. Healing is not among the best support and those might stacks are meh at best, because all that time you’re using staff you are losing out on too much DPS to make it worthwhile.

I suggest you read the stickied threads about guardians.