Guild Wars 2

So the “your not a healer” thread got me to thinking about what my own personal build has evolved into based on my game-play preferences. I’ll post a few pics to illustrate my take on the AH hammer build that (I hope) reflects my philosophy: maximizing stats in a stable way. Limiting the number of bonuses that occur when something else procs and emphasizing things that provide a flat, stable increase in performance. I like utility skills with a short cooldown, omnom loaf for flat stat increase and divinity runes for the same effect. One notable exception is the superior sigil of blood which has a 60% chance of lifesteal on crit…this just seems too useful to me so far. I am in no way implying my philosophy is superior in any way, only that it seems to work well for me. So, as I queried in the title, what is yours?

Right now, I’m running dungeons trying new builds both posted by others and my own variations of things. However, my own personal playstyle that I love is Immortal. I have all clerics gear so my healingpower is nice and high. It helps that my friend(warrior) and I have worked our characters perfectly to work for each other. As a guardian(main) My main focus is keeping me and the warrior alive. Multiple warriors if that’s how the party worked out. My symbold are larger and heal allies, plus my dodge roll. My passive regen goes to allies. My mace heals me nicely and my warrior if he happens to pass me =P.

I almost never leave focoused battle field unless I need to. This way, I’m both putting out decent damage to the main cluster/boss and keeping mainly myself and warrior(s) healed. With the right kinda warrior, we keep each other alive a lot easier.

That’s my playstyle, anyways. Keep myself and warrior(s) alive and buffed and still keep aggro. That mostly keeps pressure off any ranged fighters. Usually at the most they get a single enemy which they should be able to handle. If its a single boss, a ranged fighter should know enough to dodge by watching movements.

Haven’t really had trouble with this playstyle yet, and my warrior loves me >_<

Why are you showing stats with an unnamed foodbuff on?

Jake.8639:

Why are you showing stats with an unnamed foodbuff on?

He said he was using omnom loaf. ^^

Survivability, burst and mobility… trying to get the most out of all three in WvW.

WvW Build

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmcz0mz9MmanNmmanNm0GxG0MsVoqMR8khT

Greatsword and Scepter/Focus. I use Accuracy Sigils.
Power/Tough/Vit with Rune of Melandru
-40% Stun Duration Food
Sharpening Stones

With this build I’m constantly pushing the front lines where I want them to be. When I have a fellow Guild Guardian on with me..we can push and hold almost any spot for as long as we want. I’m still on the fence of whether I want Retaliation after Aegis, or 20% Shout Recharge, but it’s a minimal decision. Healing isn’t -that- strong, but it’s enough to keep me going and I have enough -Stun/Cdmg duration to keep me mobile and durable.

I’m still very curious to see a good Dungeon build or Fractal build.

10/30/30/0/0 is my build. RHS build with meditation healing along with mango pies for an added 88 hps ontop of the passive virtue healing. Built for selfish wvw gameplay, but also great for sniping people in group fights. It also doesnt rely on buffs except for passive might on blocks which are just an added bonus to the build. I guess my build philosophy would be to ensure your own survival before allies because you cant control the stupid things others might do. And also to make sure you can cover yourself if you do happen to get stuck alone.

Bash, you make it sound like it’s you vs the world man lol. Don’t you have a strong guild to help back you in every fight?

That’s a solid burst build I used to play with it a month back, but I wanted to contribute more to my groups around me and help push lines instead of feeding them a free death from time to time.

Pretty much was for a while. My guild had pretty much died for few weeks before i transfered to a new server so i was pretty much going solo during that time. I also hate the standard AH/EM and love 1h sword builds. (most of which are more on the selfish style to begin with) also enjoy dueling and whatnot so i guess i just favor soloist builds anyways.

However this build does work well in groups too. Yes it doesnt hand out buffs like other builds can but it is a very tanky build with decent damage. It can charge and split front lines very well while not making you a free kill. And assuming you have allies with you that follow into the heat of battle you can rack up a fair number of kills without being in real danger.

Edit: just realized my sig needs updating. I am actually on the same server as you (sor). But havent been able to play due to moving to a new apartment. :(

Ever looking for a guild Vengeance is always accepting active WvWers

I’m still tinkering with a 1h Sword build as I just bought one with badges. It’s a great weapon I feel for front lines/solo builds, I just can’t figure out too many solid builds for 1h weapons in general.

I off hand Scepter with the whole basis of just snaring my target for a quick burst.

Honestly the only ones are x/30/30/x/x ones for the most part. To make 1hs workable you really need rhs and the crit bonus damage along with the toughness of the valor tree make it almost always required. The only other build that would work well with the 1h weapons are burn builds which focus on procing virtue as quickly as possible, but those are kinda iffy on how viable they are compared to the other builds. If you look up the thread i made a guide for my build that is pretty solid for 1h and lists the full details. Just look up swordmaster and it should come up, or look in my previous posts.

I don’t know about the whole your not a healer line. I’ve already proven for 3 months with the paladin build we are. And for the record they’re isn’t a healer in this game. Because you can’t directly heal a team aggressively. You can passively do it and place fields down but no trinity healing exists period. But the reason why the Paladin build got so highly popular is i figured out how to control heal. And have more control over where and what you can heal.

Which was the whole reason for calling it Paladin in the first place. So now you have my theory on that build. My other builds like Berserker and revamped build now soldier. Are based off of personal experience and fandom. I tend to shy away from throwing away completely what a class is. So even with Berserker being a all or nothing theme. I didn’t abandon what the guardian was just for damage. To be honest that just make the guardian a nerfed warrior.

But it doesn’t matter what build you choose do what is effective for you. Peoples opinions on that don’t matter. Don’t just follow my builds or anyone elses because it’s popular. Do what you like to do and not give a kitten about how it looks. As long as you like doing it is all that matters.

Hmm, philosphy on builds….

35%+ Crit
75%+ Crit Dmg
3.1k+ Attk.
2.6 Armor
Shelter
Renewed Focus
H/GS

Yep, that’s about it. Everything else is gravy.

My thinking on builds … I trying to have a single ‘go-to’ build for three main areas:

1. “Max” damage pushing the limit of survival for PVE farming (running a heavy CD 2H weapon build)
2. A support/damage hybrid for dungeon running (running vanilla PVT with emeralds but don’t like it)
3. Something for WvW (haven’t decided what yet … probably some glass cannon high CD/crit thing with sword/torch)

I like my builds to be a bit off the beaten path so I can feel like they have my signature on them. As example, my PVE farming build has alot of condition damage for active burning. It’s not the max damage in the strictest sense, but it’s max for a burning build using 2H weapons.

To make a build I start with and idea, take it to the extreme, then try to strip and replace parts from it to supplement areas I think are lacking for it’s purpose and balance it out.

I like the ‘sure thing’ over the ‘gamble’ so I tend to avoid crit builds unless it’s a 10/30/30 sword build.

I like to know how things work (so I don’t like Toughness as much as I like Vit)

I like fast CD’s even if the effects are a little weaker.

I don’t like circumstantial effects, so I don’t use alot of sigils and runes that proc on crits unless they really add more than any other to the build.

My philosophy would best be described as “multiuse with group leaching”. I built my whole build around dungeon runs, and attempt to adapt it as I learn how to WvW (hated it before this month). I run a 0/0/30/30/10 build with Retreat, Stand Your Ground, and Hold the Line. I use both shout traits, AH, EM and Purity. Hammer is my main, and recently started running mace/shield as secondary and using the shield trait. Not sure what to pick in virtures, i swap it alot, those 5 pts are basically there for boon duration. I run 4 of the new Altruism runes and 2 monk runes.

What I mean by multiuse is that most of my skills are situational, but can be used situationally a couple different ways, if that makes sense lol. Example: I save stand your ground for a stunbreaker. But it can also be used if you need stability to avoid a pull (like kohler) or it can be used for an instant source of retaliation if a baddie throws a multi shot attack at you that you aren’t avoiding. Retreat is for long duration swiftness travel and aegis one time blocks. Hold the line is for regen or protection and as such I usually smack it as soon as it’s off cd. Ofcourse all shouts can be used in a pinch to remove a condition or provide a slight heal, as well as hitting F1 around teamies for a decent heal. I started using shelter to heal recently, which can be used to block attacks, heal of course, give might to allies via altruism runes (also helps it heal more and become close to the heal/sec of the signet, msg me if you want a full breakdown of altruism vs 2 water runes and 2 10% boon duration runes), and receive might from blocking. I run knights everything because I’m geared for the long haul, none of this vitality stuff, base hp is fine. I also run Sigil of Blood because it has a nice mix of damage and healing (also a 5s cd, most ppl don’t know this)

The “with group leaching” part comes from using skills that benefit myself first and foremost. The skills just so happen to positively effect my allies too. That’s not to say that if I’m full hp and not using hold the line and I see a teamie getting low on hp I wont give him some protection and regen, of if he’s gunna take a big hit that I won’t hit Retreat. Hammer follows this philosophy aswell, the protection is for me, but anyone is free to stand in my symbol and get it. Mace/shield I’ve been experimenting with as a means of keeping me or teamies alive better in trickier spots (which don’t come often for me).

I haven’t really seen a shouts write up where people view their role from this pov, hence the wall of text.

Name: [Blank]
Game Aspect: PvE Dungeon (especially pugging)
Philosophy: Emphasize on “flexibility” to adapt to any situation. Improve guardian’s strongest support: Wall of Reflection. Capable of switching from full “tank” to glass cannon DPS or even healing support with a swap on gears, major traits, and utilities.
Requirement: More than one gear set and all weapons.
Food: Omonomberry Ghost, Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew…
Traits Set-up: 0/0/30/30/10
Trait Explanation: Because we cannot swap trait points without visiting the trainer. This is the most balance set up between damage, survivability, and support. The point is being flexible so there’s no “fixed” traits set ups. Here’s some set up example:

• Scepter DPS:* abusing 20% more damage while under aegis. Protective Reviver is there to have another way of gaining aegis, but it can be swapped to anything (such as Pure of Voice on Legendary Archdiviner). Sword of Justice can also be swapped. Gear recommendation: full berserkers. Fight examples: Son of Svanir Legendary Shaman, Captain Amish, etc…

• Hammer on Trash: normal set-up with WoE and WoP against melee mobs. Switch WoP with Empowering Might if there’s a staff Elementalist or a bow Warrior present in the group. Swap Vengeful with Improved Consecration and Retreat with Wall of Reflect if there’s gonna be range mobs. Gear recommendation: balance or full berserkers.

• Range Defense: combination of Shield of the Avenger and Wall of Reflection with Improved Consecration (or Improved Spirit Weapon Duration). Gear recommendation: anything. Example: Grawl Legendary Shaman, Bloomhunger, etc…

• Healing Support: while I rarely use this. It still does its job if the situations call for it. Gear Recommendation: balance, berserkers, or magi. Example: Old Tom zerging strategy…

• Meditations Burst Healing: really situational. Gear Recommendation: any. Examples: Jademaw 40 (or any Jademaw if you don’t have enough AR), pre-fixed Legendary Archdiviner, Giganticus Lupicus, …

Comment: The above set ups are just examples. You can mix and match traits, gears, weapons, and food to anything. There’s a lot more hybrid crossing. Again, the goal is flexibility.