Guild Wars 2

Hello,

In my guild I have newer players who are brand new to dungeons and fractals that I do training runs with. However with them being new to the game their survivability isn’t at meta build players level. So I was thinking of running a guardian support build to, for lack of better words, carry them a little as they learn the mechanics.

Please no get good responses. They will get there in time. I’m just thinking of the immediate.

I saw a draft build posted on metabattle but I’m not too sure of it. It seems way too tanky for PvE. So mostly I’m looking for any must haves and best gearing options so I’m not aggro’ing everything from 3 maps over if you know what I mean.

I appreciate any and all help and guidance.

Frankly, you dont need to switch your gear to carry new players. Just switch skills and traits. For example, in higher levels using reflections/projectile blocks at raving asura is not necessary but if you know your party members aren’t experienced, you can switch to wall of reflection and spirit shield. Run shouts with pure of voice in condi heavy encounters and if you feel like they are getting downed often, you can even run signet of mercy for that extra pampering. Also, if you are familiar with the content, well timed F3 or “retreat” aegis can save your friends from getting one-shotted.
Changing to full healer on guardian wont help you carry them as dealing damage and ending the encounter faster is often the most effecient way to help your teammates.

Hicci.8761:

Frankly, you dont need to switch your gear to carry new players. Just switch skills and traits. For example, in higher levels using reflections/projectile blocks at raving asura is not necessary but if you know your party members aren’t experienced, you can switch to wall of reflection and spirit shield. Run shouts with pure of voice in condi heavy encounters and if you feel like they are getting downed often, you can even run signet of mercy for that extra pampering. Also, if you are familiar with the content, well timed F3 or “retreat” aegis can save your friends from getting one-shotted.
Changing to full healer on guardian wont help you carry them as dealing damage and ending the encounter faster is often the most effecient way to help your teammates.

I agree yet disagree with you there. I can use some different skills/traits to help. But I think they will learn more if I am keeping them up so they can learn the mechanics first hand. I would run my main (mesmer) if I wanted to quickly end the encounter. But I think if I’m instructing and prodding them through the mechanics themselves then they will learn faster and become more efficient themselves.

Now I’m not saying “full healer” build. But a mix with some zealots or something similar I feel would be beneficial to my purpose.

Thanks for the response!

I’m not sure what you are trying to do exactly. Making yourself more tanky won’t help your teammates. Either you use defensive skills that help them, or you go the healing route.

Perma-protection is a big help, and you can get it from hammer guardian, druid with Stone Spirit + trait, or the Minster chrono build.

As a dragonhunter, you can do things like pop F3 and carry the whole boss fight if the group dps is high enough, but it doesn’t seem like that’s what you are after. I think you would get better results playing a standard healer druid.

RabbitUp.8294:

I’m not sure what you are trying to do exactly. Making yourself more tanky won’t help your teammates. Either you use defensive skills that help them, or you go the healing route.

Perma-protection is a big help, and you can get it from hammer guardian, druid with Stone Spirit + trait, or the Minster chrono build.

As a dragonhunter, you can do things like pop F3 and carry the whole boss fight if the group dps is high enough, but it doesn’t seem like that’s what you are after. I think you would get better results playing a standard healer druid.

Thanks for responding!

First let me clarify that no I’m not trying to go all tanky. I’m trying to be supportive. To me that sounds like heals & protection. I mentioned zealots gear because it has power, precision and healing which may be helpful say if running heal on shouts. That was the rough draft of my thoughts.

I was not aware of the protection up time on hammer. I will research that further.

What would you suggest for a build if I might ask? I thought vanilla guard would be the better option but you mention dragon hunter so was hoping you could provide some direction on what to take on that trait line.

Sorry if I’m confusing. It’s sorta a rough draft in my mind. Was hoping people more experienced on Guardian would have some insight.

Thanks again for your help!!!

http://qtfy.eu/build/guardian/

You can use the hammer build from the link, you get permanent protection from your autoattack symbol, and some healing from Writ of Persistence.

You can use Receive the Light as your heal for group healing.

Instead of Writ, you can use Pure of Voice and Feel my Wrath, but make sure to grab somd cheap +20% boon duration food. You can also change your runes to get boon duration from there, like full Runes of the Water or 4 Runes of the Traveler + 2 platinum doubloons.

Magical Things.8465:

RabbitUp.8294:

I’m not sure what you are trying to do exactly. Making yourself more tanky won’t help your teammates. Either you use defensive skills that help them, or you go the healing route.

Perma-protection is a big help, and you can get it from hammer guardian, druid with Stone Spirit + trait, or the Minster chrono build.

As a dragonhunter, you can do things like pop F3 and carry the whole boss fight if the group dps is high enough, but it doesn’t seem like that’s what you are after. I think you would get better results playing a standard healer druid.

Thanks for responding!

First let me clarify that no I’m not trying to go all tanky. I’m trying to be supportive. To me that sounds like heals & protection. I mentioned zealots gear because it has power, precision and healing which may be helpful say if running heal on shouts. That was the rough draft of my thoughts.

I was not aware of the protection up time on hammer. I will research that further.

What would you suggest for a build if I might ask? I thought vanilla guard would be the better option but you mention dragon hunter so was hoping you could provide some direction on what to take on that trait line.

Sorry if I’m confusing. It’s sorta a rough draft in my mind. Was hoping people more experienced on Guardian would have some insight.

Thanks again for your help!!!

The thing is, just flat out giving you a build is not the way to go here. Guardian is a very versatile profession and needs to be able to adapt to different encounters.

When it comes to DH, no. DH is a pure damage spec and doesn’t provide ANY party support if that’s what you are after.

There are few basic pointers you could advice your friends with: 1) stay close to eachother. Buffs and outgoing healing are not going to help your partymembers if you are split all across the area. 2) Utilize the targeting system. In some encounters like in CoF you need to kill the assassins to prevent them from killing the asura. If you are not using voice-chat, that is the most effecient way of communication. 3) Stay ranged, if you are not comfortable with the mechanics or your ability to dodge untelegraphed attacks. Often this leads to less damage but being dead leads to 0 damage so yeah.

All and all, guardian is not exactly a profession that “carries” a party. As mentioned above, druid is much better when it comes to healing and buffing. Best way to guide them is to go in discord, take a short break before each encounter and give them a run-up. You shouldn’t treat your guildies as idiots that need to be bottle-feeded. They will and SHOULD make mistakes. Normal parties wont have a dedicated nanny guiding them so they should get used to it.