Guild Wars 2

Can someone take a look at this Guardian build very carefully and point out any glaring flaws. I feel its balanced and unconventional. However, this would be my first guardian so…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAR8elYgqC33xNEgIFSmiVCBtKMQVKon75SRCJRA-jgCBYLBCdBmiAgIIyJPFRjtMMIFOTjVvATXiIq2boIa1A-e

Thanks all!

hmm its very different ill say and its good to have more guards trying to make more builds but just imo my suggestion is 1 of 2 things 1 either swap ur heal for shelter so that way ur getting more out of ur “Healer’s Retribution” quicker while being a free 2 seconds of block, or 2 just completely remove the 10 out of radiance all together and pick up 10 in honor for “Superior Aria” and get the CD on 2 of ur 3 utilitys shorter timed. 5sec of Stability and Retal and a breakstun every 24sec is to good to pass up!

Here is a link to a just slightly revised build with my suggestions and what they would look like for you ^^ u keep every bit of ur dmg while maintaining a reasonable health pool and better cooldowns on ur most important utilitys
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V9;4NFk40L3wFV90;9;4J-J9J36;258-1;018-4;0F4;1x8fgxpMUJCGW0-gYO0;1kVq0u1zY4_Aa7mWRc4PW8aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;4V8-6R

Also forgot that i would swap the trait Strength in numbers for “Retributive Armor” it will give u a much needed boost to ur crit chance so that u can more reliably dish out ur potential dmg

Well it’s useable, but not optimal. Drop Revenge of the Fallen. It’s honesty not going to help you at all, and pick up Fiery Wrath. Healer’s Retribution really subpar trait. You get three seconds of retaliation every 40 seconds from it. That’s pointless. Since you’re using Resolve I’d recommend Signet Mastery.

There’s some other things I would change, but I don’t want to mess with your build too much.

Healer’s Retribution used to work well with Healing Breeze ( stacking 20+ secs of retal ), but the fixed in a couple of patches ago. Funny, because it was the only possible reason for slotting Healing Breeze or Healer’s Retribution at all

i think the traits set up will work better in this way..
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAR8elYgqC33RKEg4ESmiCMBrUEP3D2DMCA6IA-e

also you could change more and use a dps set up
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAR8elYgqC33RKEgIFSWhC0SBAdQVFiHsHYEA0RA-e

Shukay.3728:

i think the traits set up will work better in this way..
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAR8elYgqC33RKEg4ESmiCMBrUEP3D2DMCA6IA-e

also you could change more and use a dps set up
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAR8elYgqC33RKEgIFSWhC0SBAdQVFiHsHYEA0RA-e

I recommend one of these variations; but I tweaked them a little because I would never recommend “Unscathed Contender” to a new Guardian (or even necessarily to an experienced Guardian).

The problem with your original build, Sandhound, is that it does a little bit of everything. And builds that do a little of everything usually do nothing well.

Leaving OPs build mostly intact:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAR8elUgqC33xNEfIFSmiVCBrUQP3DWBM6ShDJRA-jgCBYLBCdBmiAgIIyJPFRjtMMIFOTjVvATXiIq2boIa1A-e

this is what I’d do personally if I were to run the build. I like the idea of it being unconventional, and though there’s nothing glaringly wrong, I feel these changes might give a little more bang for the buck.

I agree with moving 10 radiance into honor, as you don’t have VoJ recharge on kill, which doesn’t allow as spammy of blinds etc, and your damage won’t suffer too much from the lowered crit chance (you also don’t have any on crit effects afaik). Shout recharge lets you stun break earlier and get your tasty boons faster. Party toughness isn’t bad at all, but replacing the heal sig for shelter may mean replacing that trait for purity, retaining the cleanse each 10s. I took shelter and renewed focus because they’re each a few seconds of breathing room. The lower heal on shelter is offset by potential damage you could block, and it mostly guarantees you get your heal, instead of possibly having it interrupted. renewed focus is an even better shelter as far as mitigation goes, and recharges your virtues, mainly for getting your improved VoR back for more condi cleanse if necessary. I feel its use and recharge outweighs the damage tome currently, which is a bit unfortunate.

I looked over everyone’s suggestions. I appreciate the feedback and I feel that I should have outlined what I wanted from my guardian. Also, this build might change drastically depending on the next Halloween/trait update on the 15th. Anyway this is what I wanted…

I don’t have much faith in healing power because I feel that it only means I get up from being downed more often. This is my first heavy armor character and I feel that I should emphasize more on toughness, therefore eliminating the need to get up at all. I’m not disillusioned to thinking I’ll be some super tank. But I am using the sigil of perception, which resets every time I go down (a problem I have with all my other characters). Not only that but also, I feel I’ll be more useful to a group if I can survive heavy damage. Groups depend on warriors and guardians to pick them back up and act as walking walls in dungeons. I want to be able to do this.

I also want to have a crit build over condition damage because all my characters already do that. I have an condition ele that I love playing and my ranger used to be condition until I decided to wipe that build and wait to see what the new update is bringing. So for this character I just wanted a crit build but I wasn’t sure how to balance the crit damage and precision with power. About where should my power and base damage be for a crit build.

Finally, I picked the SY and CoP utilities because I decided that for normal play it would be a great boon booster / survival balance and the Stand Your Ground is for group support, say for instance for AC or TA dungeon runs. However I do intend to switch out the CoP with Wall of Reflection when needed. That is why I went with the boon duration.

And about the previous comment on the “well rounded character” vs the “excelling at one thing” charcter, that is of course a matter of perception. Keep in mind that I do zero PvP and WvW. I play PvE exclusively for now. But I am not offended by any of the comments and I look forward to any and all further suggestions that take in to account all of the information I have just provided.

SandHound.6480:

And about the previous comment on the “well rounded character” vs the “excelling at one thing” charcter, that is of course a matter of perception. Keep in mind that I do zero PvP and WvW. I play PvE exclusively for now. But I am not offended by any of the comments and I look forward to any and all further suggestions that take in to account all of the information I have just provided.

Guardians usefulness and purpose comes from what they can bring to a group.

Mainly: Aegis, Team stability, Wall of Reflection, and maybe team condi removal but that is like a secondary job.

I prefer to run Retreat, because it allows me to have 2 consecutive blocks which gives me the chance of keeping my guys off the floor, instead of having to pick them up.

Also running 15 into radiance, with major VI, gives you the ability to spam blinds while stacking with your team. All the blinds means you can blind/block a ton of hits. Coupled with focus #4, you can block a few more hits through blinding.

You need to think about what you will bring to the table for your team, and realize your primary job isn’t to help people up, but give support in keeping them up with our awesome damage mitigation skills(blocks/blinds). The cool thing with guards, is we can do all this while bringing some nice damage.

Traits I can’t be without:
Master of Consecration(Wall of Reflection)
Superior Aria (gets my retreat block quicker)
Blind exposure coupled with Renewed Justice (Spam the blinds!)

After that I decide what else I want to do.(which is usually damage for me after I get those skills slotted)

EDIT:
also remember to swap skills a lot. If you don’t need stability, put something like purging flames which will give a fire field and cure conditions for you and teammates. Stability is for certain situations, so know your dungeons and when to equip it.

SandHound.6480:

I don’t have much faith in healing power because I feel that it only means I get up from being downed more often. This is my first heavy armor character and I feel that I should emphasize more on toughness…

Oh, we’re not advising you to go into Honor for healing power. We’re advising you to go into Honor because the traits are more useful. In general, the Valor trait-line isn’t very useful in PvE.

SandHound.6480:

Groups depend on warriors and guardians to pick them back up and act as walking walls in dungeons. I want to be able to do this.

Guardians that are super-survivable use hammer builds. The hammer drops a symbol of protection during its auto-attack chain, which grants protection and does damage. If you get (VII) in Honor (symbols last longer) it increases hammer DPS by 20-30% and you’ll have protection up on your party almost permanently.

Look at this build You will notice I switched you to Greatsword and Hammer. I also put Signet of Judgment (-10% incoming damage) on your tool bar. The two major traits in Honor work with the Hammer’s auto attack, and they synergize well with the 15 and 25 minor traits in Zeal.

SandHound.6480:

I also want to have a crit build over condition damage because all my characters already do that.

I might be giving you information overload now, but you might want to check out this video. It’s probably the most common Guardian DPS build for dungeon runs, and it will teach you a lot about how Guardians damage builds work. (the build has two different versions, one for GS and one for Sword/Focus.)

Okay, I redid my build. Tell me what you guys think…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAsdSlUgiC33xLEgIFSmCRCBtPAQ1HiHMFYkGB-jgCBYLAoLRkiAgIIiJPFRjtMMsFODRTtATViIq2boIa1A-e

Take five out of Zeal, and put it in Honor or Virtues to get a damage multiplier.

SandHound.6480:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAsdSlUgiC33xLEgIFSmCRCBtPAQ1HiHMFYkGB-jgCBYLAoLRkiAgIIiJPFRjtMMsFODRTtATViIq2boIa1A-e

This is actually a good hammer build. I wouldn’t recommend 25 in honor for that low endurance buff. With perma vigor, you won’t really be at low endurance much. I think the protection and vulnerability stacking will be more beneficial than getting a few extra percent from the boons in virutes or low endurance.

Only thing I’d change is VII Writ of Persistence in you honor master line. That is a ~20% dps boost since your symbols will last longer, therefor doing more damage. Duration > Size.

As far as your skills, its kind of hard to say which to use since they should change depending on what you are doing, so I will stick away from that. But aside from that one master trait change, you have a good build there IMO.(Its a hammer build I wouldn’t mind messing around with).

SandHound.6480:

Okay, I redid my build. Tell me what you guys think…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUUQNAsdSlUgiC33xLEgIFSmCRCBtPAQ1HiHMFYkGB-jgCBYLAoLRkiAgIIiJPFRjtMMsFODRTtATViIq2boIa1A-e

This is a good build. I hope you have fun playing it. It’s almost identical to Brazil the Hue’s hammer build.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Only thing I’d change is VII Writ of Persistence in you honor master line. That is a ~20% dps boost since your symbols will last longer, therefore doing more damage. Duration > Size.

This is good advice.

Harbinger.8637:

Take five out of Zeal, and put it in Honor or Virtues to get a damage multiplier.

This is bad advice. Everyone in your party will benefit from those stacks of vulnerability. The increased damage from 25 in Honor or 25 in Virtues only benefits you and it isn’t very good.

Like I said it all depends on the next up date because I haven’t finished leveling my guardian up, but anymore advice on this subject is welcome and thank you to those who contributed!