Guild Wars 2

Was wondering what the popular builds are. It seems that healing is a common one, but many of the healing spells simply work in a way that aren’t really fit for an MMO…too latency dependent. Any simple amount of lag can render the spell useless; so I find it non-practical. I’m seeking a different build. One that is viable in WvWvW but isn’t built around healing. Also, I know Guardians aren’t the class for high damage. I’m fine with a spec that is beefy and boons with the occasional heal.

Any help is appreciated,
Walrus

I am at an em pass on whether to shelf my guardian in favor of long range combat class with tons of condition dmg, as these 2 factors seem to determine all engagements in WvW.

It has become very disheartening to play as a Guardian class as we have one of the lowest health pools in the game, with the understanding that we should have strong boons / condition removal.

Condition removal is a joke, frankly put. I use Save Yourself in conjunction with Contemplation of Purity for my group, only to get dotted up again a fraction of a second later, with no further mitigation or way to clear all these conditions.

We do not have the 6 second full invuln to all dmg like warriors get, who could use that time to dish out some dmg. We are very limited on how to deal with the long range bombardment as we simply do not have any ranged that can compete. Scepters are not ranged in my opinion, because they are slow moving orbs that are very easily avoided.

I have tried hammer builds with synergetic abilities that heal with every tick depending on how many allies are affected by your boons.

I have played with sword and focus, and did find better survivability, with little opportunity to actually do any dmg and earn badge drops.

Whats silly is that I rolled a new ranger alt, and within 2 days time at low lvl, have managed to earn far more WvW badges then my Guardian by simply standing at range and spamming my abilities at 1500 knowing I am pretty safe and out of harms way, just stopping occasionally to loot the bags that drop at my feet.

In all, I am open to suggestions about the Guardian, but very disappointed in the imbalance I see and experience as a melee player.

What Guardians need is some sort of natural defense against condition dmg, or at the very least, change our condition removals to give us a short term (4-6 second) immunity to further condition damage after using one of our utility skills. What is the point of removing conditions when they just get reapplied the moment after they are removed?

We could use a review on our class and need some help to get us on par with everyone else. Perhaps even a minor health boost would be in order.

To me it seems that the guardian is either fit for siege engine manning, or part of a little squad of roamers and provide buffs + damage.
no decent offensive ranged option is terrible.

Well considering we are a direct counter to everything ranged. I can see why we don’t need a true ranged weapon, yeah I can see it, bombing ranged from behind our wall of reflection…sounds legit.

Could we try and keep this thread about actual builds used in WvWvW? We already have enough threads about our performance in WvWvW and our ranged capabilities.

Get into an organized WvW raid, then you can easily use a melee-centric build successfully. I’m just using my regular PvE Greatsword build with Judge’s Intervention, Save Yourselves, Retreat and Tome of Courage as utility skills.

I just hit level 42.
I can nothing but agree. I seem to be very squishy in almost everything I do. I have built up toughness, vitality, and power from a low level but to no avail. Mobs my own level hit me for over 400. I have mostly greens on, with very good Jewelcrafting made rings, necklace, and earrings. My damage is pitiful, I wail on a target for easily 8-12 seconds before it is downed. It has really deterred me from leveling this class at the state it seems to be in.
I die as quickly as any other melee, but my damage is far from good.
I have been doing some organised WvWvW with guildmates in VOIP. I try to buff, but they simply get stolen. I try to heal but the heals seem to be really buggy. Then, when I get in with my greatsword, even people that aren’t 80 (just have been leveled up for equality), seem to negate most of my damage.

It is disheartening, it seemed like a great class at the time I made it. Perhaps it is indeed time to move on to something for valuable.

My only other thought is that perhaps Guardians would be good in PvE, if there ever was any in this game.

Level 42 isnt exactly representative for level 80 performance though…

Ive got a mixture of Berserker and Knights gear with a Vit/Healing/Prec headpiece.
With 25 Stacks of precision/accuracy I reach about 70% crit rate while having around 14.2k hp. It isnt a lot of hp obviously but I do not see the problems with survivablity that some ppl seem to have?

Im running a Greatsword + Scepter/Torch build with Judges Intervention, Bane Signet and Retreat as Utility. I usually teleport into groups of players, do my thing and get out again without dying – often even without having to have to heal myself.
(Yes I do die sometimes, but expecting to survive just about anything isnt really realistic )

We do have enough threads whining about the lack of range, let’s try and keep just one constructive for once.

I switch between Greatsword, Staff, Hammer and Scepter/Shield depending on what’s needed. The only reason for greatsword is to pull people off walls with Binding Blade, it also works easily with Two-handed mastery which I pick up. Otherwise, Sword/Focus is one hell of a melee combo for Guardians.

Hammer and Staff is my go-to set, I use these in conjunction with consecrations. Wall of Reflection is a staple for WvW, so is “Stand Your Ground!” for any form of PvP, the last slot I switch between Purging Flames and Sanctuary.

The great thing about Hammer and Staff is the ability to block off choke points, Staff also excels at moving your group swiftly throughout the battle field.

Scepter/Shield is great for protecting your own siege engines atop castle walls, using this in junction with Staff is usually what happens. You’re simply best at helping the siege in keep defense or manning one yourself, not sure why no one wants to do this. Your skill set is perfect for this line of defense and the siege weapons easily out do any of your range options, why have such a big allergic reaction to them? If you’re good at manning siege, you easily earn back the badge of honor you spent on it, more than you’d get from not being able to hit anything on the walls. It’s also great for bouncing the people manning flame rams off to stop pressure on your door if just for a moment.

If you must, Tome of Wrath is actually really good for range AoE, sure it’s not as frequent as what other classes can utilize, but it’s there for you to use if you so choose.

Not everyone finds keep defense fun, that’s fine. Then play to the class’ strength. Form a small squad and go take supply camps where melee is more feasible. Being a greatsword hero has its place, just not all the time in siege warfare. If you have the urge, find a situation for it, don’t force it on one, you’ll only have a bad time.

Another situation where melee has it’s place is flanking the ones currently doorbashing on your keep. Of course, you’ll need numbers for this, but so does anyone in order to do exceptionally well in WvW.

At the end of the day, I don’t think WvW is enjoyable solo period, not even on my more range oriented characters. You’re simply limited by what you can do. The best way to really enjoy WvW is to have a team you can count on, then you can play to your full potential. Guardians after all, can be the heart of any group.

Also, Guardians are plenty fine in condition removal, they actually have a lot of options for that, once purging flame gets its bugfix, it’ll be even better. If you’re still dying to conditions, consider the timing in which you remove conditions next time, also seeing as Guardians do have the lowest max HP, vitality is another defense against condition damage.

Guardians are fine in WvW, the ones complaining usually refuse to man sieges or don’t want to take initiative to organize.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#cVccMV9cmClbomClbo9MGxGVRcaboc8kii7kiU70z7070z7kIM70V7ofF70m

I’m playing around with this support build right now and I like it.

I’m not a big WvWer, so I’m sure there are more optimal builds out there. Regardless, this build seems to work reasonably well for my playstyle.

Traits are 0-15-5-20-30.
Major traits are Searing Flames, Superior Aria, Empowering Might, Consecrated Ground, Master of Consecrations, and Permeating Wrath.

My typical armor is crafted Carrion (Power/Condition Damage/Vitality) exotic with 5/6 Superior Krait runes (6th rune on breather, helm has a Rabid suffix).

Primary weapon set is sword and shield. Secondary is a staff.

Signet of Resolve is my heal skill. I haven’t found a reason to change it in a long time.

My default utilities are Wall of Reflection, “Hold the Line!” and “Stand your Ground!” “Save Yourselves!” will occasionally make an appearance, as well as “Retreat!”.

For an Elite I tend to bring Tome of Wrath.

Alone, I have no difficulty taking down a veteran, so I can claim the flags on the road as needed.

When attacking a fort/tower, I tend to play defensively, granting protection, blocking projectiles, and helping allies get back on their feet. When Tome of Wrath is available, I torch the defenders/arrow carts/cannons/anything on the walls. I can stay standing long enough that most opponents break off and run away before I have to consider backing off myself.

When defending a fort/tower, staff #1 through a door helps keep attackers at bay. Line of warding has obvious uses in chokepoints, and Tome of Wrath from the walls can be effective—it is far more effective on the ground.

When making a sortie from a fort/tower, Wall of Reflection protects me from the majority of the attackers while I pick on a target in melee. Line of Warding can be used to stop a runner from making it back to their lines. I try to avoid outdistancing defensive seige equipment and stay close to the walls, preferably in range of casters and rangers.

In an open battle, I treat it like attacking a keep—hang back and rely on defensive abilities to protect your ranged allies, clear out anyone that makes it into your ranks, and when Tome of Wrath is up, toss up protection, aegis, swiftness, plant a Wall of Reflection at their feet and burn them until they break off or Tome of Wrath ends (usually the former).

I play a “zerg” stopper build. If the enemy is trying to take a keep, or you have a clear battle line this is a really effective build.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#cccz0V9coGNnVoGvnV0xGG0zMazaMs8kii7kiU70z7070z7kIM70V7ofF70m

Its premise is burst damage and get the hell out. GS/Staff, I stack persicion (at 48%), toughness/crit damage+, then vit (at about 15.5k).

Basically, I pop reaper of grenth, save yourself, judge’s intervention (teleport 1200 range), whirling wrath/blinding blade, symbol of wrath, leap of faith to blind, then get the hell out with dodge, stand your ground as an extra buffer (breaks stun) and healing breeze which is more consistent in healing than signet of resolve, and instants if needed. I typically can escape a FF back to the keep or out of the line. Switching to the staff gives the additional speed buff if you need a bit more room.

Once back on the line I use the staff to heal/buff teammates and wait for my cooldowns to come back up and then rinse and repeat. I only have 1 range ability of 1200 with the staff (orb of light), which really sucks but a staff is really key to this build because of the speed buff and healing capabilities, once I escape the chaos I’m typically poisoned with all shorts of kitten, so dodging for heal, and using the 2 staff heals will keep you alive.

I have medicore 80 gear I can deal out 5k-15k damage to multi foes which confuses the hell of out them, this can be huge for the team, they can then rush and finish them off.

Pros:
Very good melee AOE damage
Good survivability (for a short time)
Easy retreat, even when you are in the thick of it
Can quickly change the tide of the battle

Cons:
1v1 very tough due to kiting
very limited range
one trick pony
must be patient