Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’m halfway through leveling my Guardian up and wanted to ask if there was a build (not for leveling, for when I hit 80) that has relatively passive Defense… but Active offense, instead of the opposite.

I kind of want to wear Soldier’s gear, because I like the idea of being REALLY hard to kill… but I’m wondering if there is a way to still dish out some damage while in Soldier’s gear? I was thinking of a burning/spirit weapon focused build with Soldier’s, or even using the Knight Amulet, and then Force of Will in the Vitality line to give me 17k~ HP still with 3k Armor.

Anyone know of any builds or Guardian playstyles that fit this description?

Cheers.

Of the top of my head, you could run dire armor with soldier everything else, with a 6/4/0/0/4 and scepter for a hybrid ranged and quite tanky build. Permeating wrath and supreme justice (for burning) or absolute resolution (for regen and condi removal). Aim for 100% burn duration (30% zeal, 20% radiance trait, 30% flame legion runes, 20% smoldering sigil for example). The damage from burning and scepter will be pretty nice.

If you want defense in the form of heals, then consider a cleric/zealot/knight mix with force of will to shore up health. You should end up with a bunch of healing power, and a bunch of actual power and precision as well. Consider points in valor for extra toughness and survivability traits.

Unfortunately spirit weapons are rather unimpressive compared to most any other summon. They have a healthbar (that people say is too small) and they despawn and will go on full cooldown after a given amount if time. That means even if they somehow didn’t die to all the aoe flying around, they still might leave you when you most need them.

Actually I use that build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAsdlsApcoVDxbI8DNR8gY9nWbqKw1/CmD-TBCEABFqEkl9HUU9nnUi5kyj40DAwDAggTAAA-e

Very good dps (total bonus of 37% damage: 10% by sword and 27% against burning enemy), 50% critical chance (35% + 15% by onehanded weapon).
And very good defence: 3300 toughness, 16k hp (for a guardian it’s a good amount of hp…) and healing Meditations that grant you Fury, mobility and clean conditions. And if you need you can use merciful Intervention to heal 2k2k hp in only one utility skill (and heal allies by 2k hp).
About your second weapon set, I use scepter + focus/shield/torch, depending on the situation. You can also use Staff to support, or GS. But whit 2 handed weapons you lose 15% critical rate.

If you want to be more defensive you can use Dolyak runes, to obtain more toughness, vitality and passive healt regen.

If you want a total passive healing ability you can only be a bunker build whit dolyak rune, Altruistic Healing and Traited Virtues of Resolve.
Spirit Weapons don’t work. In dungeon, spvp or wvsw is the useless build ever. Spirit weapons die quickly, expecially in wvsw and against multiple mobs or a boss. That’s why you never see a spirit weapon guardian in game.

You can make a 0/0/6/6/2 or 0/0/6/4/4 Hybrid whit Soldier Armor and Knight Weapons and Jewels, to obtain defence and a lot of critical rate. But you will be a Supporter whit a lot of damage, nothing more.

If you really want a full Passive Healing Skills and Active Damage Skills try the Warrior.

As someone who ran soldier’s for approx 6 months, I can tell you it has very little DPS. I’d say go with Knight’s simply because it’s still tanky and offers slightly better DPS. Hammer auto attack will offer you almost perma protection allowing you to wear more DPS oriented armor.

Hammer. Hammer deals outstanding damage but also has the added bonus of aoe protection at the end of every autoattack chain.

Mace. Mace deals damage similar to sword but with small aoe heals at the end of every autoattack chain. Plus it’s got a symbol with aoe regen on a very low cooldown.

These 2 weapons basically let you autoattack while maintaining passive defense/regen. Obviously, guardian has a slew of other active defense skills, such as shouts, aegis, and blocks.

Silv.9207:

Actually I use that build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAsdlsApcoVDxbI8DNR8gY9nWbqKw1/CmD-TBCEABFqEkl9HUU9nnUi5kyj40DAwDAggTAAA-e

Very good dps (total bonus of 37% damage: 10% by sword and 27% against burning enemy), 50% critical chance (35% + 15% by onehanded weapon).
And very good defence: 3300 toughness, 16k hp (for a guardian it’s a good amount of hp…) and healing Meditations that grant you Fury, mobility and clean conditions. And if you need you can use merciful Intervention to heal 2k2k hp in only one utility skill (and heal allies by 2k hp).
About your second weapon set, I use scepter + focus/shield/torch, depending on the situation. You can also use Staff to support, or GS. But whit 2 handed weapons you lose 15% critical rate.

If you want to be more defensive you can use Dolyak runes, to obtain more toughness, vitality and passive healt regen.

If you want a total passive healing ability you can only be a bunker build whit dolyak rune, Altruistic Healing and Traited Virtues of Resolve.
Spirit Weapons don’t work. In dungeon, spvp or wvsw is the useless build ever. Spirit weapons die quickly, expecially in wvsw and against multiple mobs or a boss. That’s why you never see a spirit weapon guardian in game.

You can make a 0/0/6/6/2 or 0/0/6/4/4 Hybrid whit Soldier Armor and Knight Weapons and Jewels, to obtain defence and a lot of critical rate. But you will be a Supporter whit a lot of damage, nothing more.

If you really want a full Passive Healing Skills and Active Damage Skills try the Warrior.

Ya that’s not very good dps. That lesss than average dps at most. Very good dps is when you have DPS trait, DPS gear and DPS food&nourishment.

You can’t have very good dps if you have hybrid trait, defensive gear and no food or nourishment. Its not as bad as a AH/Soldier gear build, but that closer to the bottom than to the TOP dps. Either go
- full DPS trait with Defensive gear or
- Offensive gear with defensive trait or
- Hybrid trait with Hybrid gear

Then you can say, that’s an hybrid build with normal dps.

If you go hybrid gear with full DPS trait or DPS gear with hybrid trait, then you can say you have good dps.