Guild Wars 2

I know these kind of things have been asked before but its really confusing because the meta is made with intention of everyone in group running meta. I play solo a lot or pug. I noticed half the time there is no might in group and I also died a lot and couldn’t keep scholar buff up when I ran the meta. So to solve that I decided to try an empowering might build.

All my gear is ascended zerker with 6 superior sigil of strength.
2-Zeal /w fiery wrath (10%dmg burning foe)
5-Radiance /w Blind Exposure (blind gives vuln) and Powerful Blades (10%dmg sword and spear)
4-Honor /w Superior Aria(Shout Cooldown) and Empowering might(give might on crit)
3-Virtue /w Master of Consecrations (cooldown and duration of consecrations)

Now I do switch it up sometimes if I need more condi removal or use scepter but that’s the main. What do people think? I know a lot of people dislike empowering might on pve guard buy why? and also since I have hard time keeping scholar buff up if I decide to switch build is keeping runes of strength worth it?

Thanks in advance!

You could just use flame legion runes which are cheap. They are equal to 60% scholar uptime assuming perma burning.

You can better spend that 3rd point in virtues to get 1h strength instead.

EM costs 4 trait points which is a lot to invest that could go to damage multipliers and dps stats. It has an internal cooldown and doesn’t last long so you can stack much might like ps war can. Also if you’re in a group that does stack might your might stacks will overwrite ones that last a lot long which will just hinder the group. If you’re pugging your given up a big chunk of your dps which is probably better spent on you then a couple might stacks to a bearbow.

Not a fan of 1 handed builds but Obal is right.

May as well grab right handed strength.

one nice thing about right handed strength is that if you use it with Assassins gear, crit food & have a group with permanent fury uptime you can reach darn near 100% crit chance (like 97%)

play elementalist or warrior (phalanx strength) if you want might. guard is bad at it ..

So since I invested so much in strength runes if I switch my build back to 4/5/0/0/5, will using strength runes still be a decent option? Cuz I mean other classes will be giving might as well as my greatsword and focus blast finisher.

if you have problem surviving you are better of just use hammer and spam protection and heal(writ of merciful).

learn to spam blind and aegis, get the trait which refresh virtue on kill and keep blinding, greatsword 3 is a blind, retreat is aegis, you have a virtue which is aegis, you have an elite block which refresh your virtue. focus 5 give you a few block. Just spam those.

and just my personal opinion, the 4th tree is better than 5th tree for surviving unless you need reflect. If you need group condition removal, you should probably put point in both 4th and 5th tree.

and about build, you probably should learn to adapt and change it depend on situation. and meta usually assume the players and his teamates are good players which usually isn’t the case in pug.

and about empower the problem is the durartion is pretty short. you probably loss more dps just because you are in staff, and swaping weapon does take some time.

I’d take one out of the 3 in virtues and throw it into honor. If you’re already 4 into it for Empowering Might, you might as well get the damage modifier. So something like a 2/5/0/5/2. You lose Absolute Resolution doing that so your party may suffer, but going 3 into virtues is a waste of a point.

As for the strength runes, you put them on an ascended set right? You can always make a warrior to run phalanx strength on for great might sharing. There’s nothing wrong with having a few classes. I never put strength runes on my guardian though, not worth the investment imo for what’s gained.

Hammer is great for keeping pugs alive too. Also gives you more blast finishers to work with your strength runes.

I tested several options for the EM Guardian and basically the conclusion is what you’ve already been told: DPS loss is way too big compared to the current meta build. Keep in mind I did the tests before the current might and sigils of battle nerf.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/PVE-Might-Stacking-Build-Zerker

One good thing that I got left from those posts is the might stacking rotations IF there’s no PS Warrior or Elementalist in your party.