Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

My girlfriend is creating a guardian and was wanting to go for a supporty/healy guardian. I drafted a build for her and wanted your opinions on whether it was any good or if you could give some pointers on how to improve it.

Here’s the build in the editor.

Depends on the contexts. In WvW/PvP support Guardian is very viable and welcomed, however if this is for PvE, then no, there are much better choices to go. If this is for WvW/PvP, the build is fine, however there are some changes I’d recommend.

So is a support guardian not viable at all in PvE? She hasn’t decided which route she wishes to go however, knowing her she will be strongly focusing on PvE content. If it is viable, can you tell me what are the better choices. You also said you had some recommendations for WvW/PvP, if you don’t mind could you please share?

Zixx.6582:

So is a support guardian not viable at all in PvE? She hasn’t decided which route she wishes to go however, knowing her she will be strongly focusing on PvE content. If it is viable, can you tell me what are the better choices. You also said you had some recommendations for WvW/PvP, if you don’t mind could you please share?

I wouldn’t say it’s not viable, however it’s not even close to being optimal. For PvE I’d recommend starting out here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

As for WvW, the build you posted is fine mechanically, it just needs a few tweaks. Which I’ll post, I tried to leave the build mostly intact, just a few minor changes.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNApdWlsApWotCxfH8DNRCBlZR+P2fIDp4yA0AA-ThyDABFp87UlguoWBAHBAbUVp4HAwAm/Ua/BIOFAnovhUAetMC-e

Zixx.6582:

So is a support guardian not viable at all in PvE? She hasn’t decided which route she wishes to go however, knowing her she will be strongly focusing on PvE content. If it is viable, can you tell me what are the better choices. You also said you had some recommendations for WvW/PvP, if you don’t mind could you please share?

Ya its viable. But not the kind of support most ppl think about when they start the game. Guardian support in PvE is all about aegis, blind, reflection and protection. Healing and tankiness is not that useful in this game.

As a guardian, you support your team by preventing damage, not heal them after. Meta build have a huge focus on both DPS and Active Support. Like I said : blind, Aegis and reflection in dungeon and protection for fractal with the hammer.

Look, I know the image of a Guardian casting out a lot of heals while banishing and pushing away foes from your allies is a tempting one, but unfortunately in this game (in PvE) instead of trying to outheal the sick amount of incoming damage you have access to tools that can prevent and mitigate incoming damage instead, through blocks, reflects, condition cleanse and blinds instead.
Even if you how try to heal your partymembers the enemy mobs will just outdamage the heals you are able to cast out, so it’s better to kill them quickly. I know in the beginning she will feel she will die a lot because with the recommended builds you will end up with a very little healthpool and a source of little toughness and you will feel a little tricked by the image a Guardian has, but you will eventually get hooked on the big numbers you are dealing while supporting your partymembers even though they don’t realise it or thank for it.

So my suggestion would be that you and her would read the link Harbinger posted to Obals guide, it has everything covered, and then she could pick the ‘Max Utility’ build, which would be 4/5/0/0/5 with full berserker gear and scholar runes – however, as Obal has written, we can start off by mixing in some gear that gives a bit more survivability and some cheaper training runes and sigils. You can choose between soldier, celestial and knights to mix in with the berserker gear, I would recommend choosing soldier for the sake of time consument crafting celestial does just for training and knight is not that much more beginner-friendly than berserker

So I’ll post two builds: the training build, and the build she should try to slowly progress towards by replacing a soldier trinket with a berserker one when she feels ready

Yes, I know, the first reaction will be “this is not how I imagined playing Guardian at all would be, I don’t like this”, but it’s a bit like when you as kid hated the salad mom forced you to eat, but then later one day woke up as an adult and realised you actually like salad and know it’s good for you

Zixx.6582:

You also said you had some recommendations for WvW/PvP, if you don’t mind could you please share?

This might help you guys

Meh, you don’t want to bring that kind of stuff in dungeons but general pve is fine for so called “support”. But damage is generally king in most situations and Obal’s guide has the best builds.

For WvW, try this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWlsApWoNDxVI8DNRCBl5M+P2fIEl4yAcBA-TlSAwAauAATV+Vc/Beq/AwEUEzPw0F84QAYRJonnAAZAW2CA-w

Greatsword is just the easiest weapon to get around and just hit people so I tend to recommend it for everyone. You can still use mace/focus but I think it’s a bit hard to use right. This build doesn’t really require much of anything besides leaping to your allies.