Guild Wars 2

This isn’t only for current GS(Greatsword) users, it also goes to players who’ve used the GS as their main weapon before. Even if you don’t use a GS, but would like you give your insight, feel free to do so

Currently I’m at level 56, and I’ve been using GS/Staff up until now. The GS is an awesome weapon, and I love the look of it on a heavily armored toon.

From my whole experience using the Staff as my secondary, I can’t help but notice that of all the time I’m actually using it, 95% of it is for the speed buff while moving from place to place. The other 5%, is used for tagging mobs in zerg events.

I’ve used Mace+Focus on dungeon runs before, but I’m not too sure if that would work in general world exploration. I mean yea, it still works, but PvE isn’t too demanding.

Currently my traits follow as:
Zeal – 0
Radiance – 15
Valor – 6
Honor – 20
Virtues – 5

Bottom line, I’m just looking for advice on what secondary weapon set would benefit a GS user the most. I can always tweak my build regarding the secondary weapon set.

Thanks in advance

I actually use Staff as my primary weapon. It’s autoattack is an AOE and if specced right, it can hit like a freakin’ truck. Like 1K hits to 5 mobs at once. Orb of light hits everything in it’s path for 1200 meters and can crit for 2500+. Symbol of Swiftness can be used as a DOT and an HOT (Damage over time and Heal over Time), as well as a Light Combo Field, in addition to granting swiftness. Empower is an amazing group heal AND group buff, with 12 stacks of might to increase everyone’s DPS. Line of warding is good for controlling mobs and the Light combo field. So I find Staff to be superior to Greatsword on many levels. And the two synergize well together.

I typically run with Staff/Scepter/Focus. I like the Scepter/Focus combo for ranged and boss fights, and staff for when I gotta get up close and deal with lots of mobs.

Hammer also synergizes well with GS, and it can hit pretty hard. But I like the versatility of having a ranged weapon slotted for when I need it.

Bottom line: Greatsword/Staff is a good combo. Followed by Greatsword/Scepter/Focus.

I use Staff as an alternate. Great AoE and some support.

At L80 I currently use Staff for my secondary weapon most times in wPvE for the same reasons you do (speed) as well as healing and kiting.

I also swap to Sword/Focus or Mace/Focus when I need to be more tanky (although I’ve noticed I’m doing this less and less as my gear has progressed) as well as Hammer when I want to be more DPS (GS + Hammer = tons of fun )

I also use a staff for my secondary. Being able to self heal around 10-15k hp every 20 seconds while throwing aoe might and a 3-3.5k heal to those around me is nice.

Hard to say. It kind of depends on my build. I’ve used Greatsword with a bunch of different builds, but the most common weapon swap for me is Staff, Scepter/* and Mace/Focus.

I’ve used Greatsword + Mace/Focus while leveling or soloing to give me better defensive options. Staff pairs great with GS if I’m running Altruistic Healing (and I often am), and is a nice midline option in general. Scepter if the content demands it (certain Dynamic Events and Dungeon content really suits having a Scepter on hand.)

Occasionally I’ll swap Mace/Focus for Sword/Focus with Greatsword, but not often. This is in situations where I want to have lots of Blinds.

I use sword and shield for my other set, blink blind, block projectiles while doing around 3k damage with your 3, group wide 33% damage reduction and a knockback that can be used in many ways, I havent had too much success with the staff or scepter and you could probably go with sword focus or mace focus since youll be in melee range most of the time.

GS/Staff

Talking from a WvW stand point. Speed Increase is nice to have, especially on a short cooldown. Get back to the your Zerg fast if you should be downed & stomped. If you should happen to run into a zerg traveling, switch to Retreat before you get in combat and stack that with ur swiftness symbol, u can keep up your swiftness for pretty long.

As Ultra stated, the Staff is great. Often under appreciated. If you should not happen to want to take the front line, or if u have a big ol’ char/norn warrior let him charge in first and cast ur AoE auto attack right at his back sending the cone out infront of the direction he is heading. Most people wont notice you all that much if u dont make it obvious, they’ll be paying too much attention to the warrior.

Orb of light can be a clutch healing attack to a friend in need if u get the aiming for it down. Empower gives so many stacks of might as well as healing (even more so with Aulteristic Healing involved with it as well as nearby allies.). Line of Warding, super good, if im with my team and we need to escape i’ll usually try and hang in the back and use LoW to block a bridge or plug a tunnel and buy yourself and your team a couple seconds if you happened to be chased by anyone.

It doesnt really accomplish extraordinary dmg but its definitely good. Staff is a support weapon at its core. If your running a WvW squad, people will love you, zergs will love you.

But it wont help once you get to breaking down a gate too well (unless you fire it through the door to hit people fixing the gate) or defend against cannons/burning oil/rangers/other ranged enemys. If your worried about Ranged, grab a Scepter/Focus or Torch. If your ok with disadvantaging yourself with ranged and would shy away from those fights in order to provide more ally support, i would stick with the staff.

- Tzenjin

Staff for mobility and overall support. Personal choice for PvE since you tap mobs with it in big DE. In WvW, great for roaming and keep defending.
Scepter/focus for range offense and defense. Use this about 50% of the time in dungeon. In WvW, great for harassing defenders during a siege with Smite.
Hammer for all out melee offense. In WvW, good for small skirmishes.

I use mace and focus as my secondary to a lot of weapon set ups simply because it feels like good solid ground to fall back on when I find myself overwhelmed or in an unfamiliar situation. Being able to mitigate so many attacks with these two weapons can be a life saver. Skills 3, 4 and 5 all either block or cause the next incoming attack to miss. Pair that up with Justice is blind, activating virtue of courage and a utility skill like haste and you can avoid a lot of incoming pain.

Another set that I love is the sword and torch for offense minded individuals. The torch gives great AoE in a cone and removes conditions it’s great for flanking a massive battle because you can remove conditions from allies and burn enemies at the same time. And you always have sword skill 2 for a quick blind.

I pair either of these two weapons sets frequently with any of the two handed weapons.

GS staff is a good combo. Mixing gs with scepter though is a waste imo. The traits for it that would make scepter/focus viable are already being used to make your GS viable. Where as both benefit from 20% cdr on two handed weapons.

I switched over to sword&focus/torch with scepter&focus/torch off set because of the way it all stacked up. Hard to beat a staff for tagging in cursed shore with all of the bots though. Staff tags like a boss.

Well. I’ve use scepter/shield as my secondary set to GS. It’s a defensive set with Vit + Toughness and it’s great for staying in the fight when your health drops and healings are on cooldown.
I like to play melee (GS is great for that) but at some point you need a viable range weapon and scepter is the only option for us. And since this is a fall-back weapon I use it with shield for maximized survival.

Hammer. Maximum AOE dmg.

i use GS as my weapon weapon, as secondary slot i have scepter/shield for when needing to fight against dangerous bosses to be meleeing around, as well as long range attacking.

alternatively i also have a staff in ivnentory for speed buff when its needed.

Gotta go GS/Staff. Two-handed Mastery is awesome. Its not just having a 20% CD reduction, its also being 20% more useful in combat. Empower works so well with Whirling Wrath.

Regrettably, I always have a scepter and focus in my bag. There are too many zones that need a good ranged weapon.

Interesting replies, thank you to everyone who has contributed.

Looks like I’ll be sticking with my Staff, with Mace+Focus/Shield for dungeons. Unless certain events call for it. I’m gonna practice with the Staff on more of the support role to see how I am with it. I never once though of using that clutch #2 skill to heal an ally, and that Altruistic Healing, I’ll have to try it out when I hit 80.

I’ve tried the scepter, but it just feels like I’m playing some slow, slow tennis.

I actually use Mace/Focus as my main and GS as secondary. My build revolves around Symbols, Blinds and Vulnerability so this weapon set makes most sense, for me anyway. I’ve never really used the Scepter since I never felt like I needed range (in PvE anyway), but I still carry one around just in case.

I soloed my way to 65 so far without doing any dungeons so I doubt my build is viable for runs and what not, but in general PvE I can pretty much rally any group of mobs and take them down pretty easily even if they are a few levels higher than me. It makes completing Hearts and Events so much easier. I’m aiming towards an 25/15/0/30/0 build, grabbing all the symbols major and minor traits. The synergy with Writ of Persistence and Symbolic Exposure is excellent, just with the Mace I can stack up Vulnerability on multiple mobs at once while maintaining an almost constant Symbol around me. And if I ever start to get overwhelmed, I switch to my GS to immediately apply a second symbol over the first one which pretty much doubles my Vuln. stacks, healing and damage done. It gets a bit tricky with Champion mobs as they have to stick to the symbol as long as possible for the maximum effect, but it can be done a bit more easily if your alone since you won’t lose the aggro and can simply circle around it while dodging/mitigating.

I don’t really have a main or secondary weapon set… While I was leveling, I used GS + Sword/torch or focus. They were basically being swapped constantly on swapping cooldown. I tend of open with one weapon set, but didn’t really have a main set that I kept out longer than the other.

In WvW, weaponsets are basically situational. I carry Staff + scepter/shield for supporting, but always bring a GS when I need some damage fast (like rushing out of a tower under siege to bash on rams).

I use weaponsets this way on my other non-guardian characters too, so that’s probably why I never took one of those “20% cooldown reduction of kittenpower weapon” traits.

Pro-Tip for you Telegraph.

You can actually hit their rams (and them) from inside the gate. Try WW and regular auto-attacks as you press yourself against the door from the inside. You’ll be hitting them and they wont even see you.

- Tzenjin

Yeah, but the door is usually a very dangerous place, filled with AOE ouch and burning. People do this (consciously or not) to make it hard for you to repair the gate. That said, spamming the Staff rainbow magic works wonderfully though.

Popping outside is actually safer sometimes because you can drop a wall in front of them, then run around with stability for a few seconds. It takes the AOEer a couple of seconds to recalibrate their targets, and you can dodge and move out of the way.

I alternate between Sword/Shield and Staff as secondary weapons to the Greatsword.

Sword/Shield is excellent for mobility and not letting anything get away, and the Shield is great for some ranged battles. Between Shield of Absorption, Zealot’s Defense and Wall of Reflection, I can’t really die from anything that focuses on ranged attacks.

Staff is the great all around weapon, and my weapon of choice against really hard monsters/areas. A Line of Warding + Wall of Reflection for protection followed by Empower, Symbol of Swiftness, Swap, Symbol of Wrath, Whirling Wrath heals me (I have the Symbols heal Trait and Zealous Blade) for roughly 40% health (during all the time I’m “protected”).

The Staff/GS is also the best combo for getting around, since I don’t want to keep switching an Utility skill for Retreat/Save Yourselves all the time. With just the 20% CD reduction on 2 Handers you get only 3~4 seconds of Swiftness downtime which you can improve with boon duration.

The bad part about it is that the Symbol damages enemies and you won’t use sometimes since you might end up in combat because a stupid raptor is following you.

For WvW (and sPvP), Sword/Shield is the best option for 1v1s, and the Staff’s for groups / sieges.

…which makes me think, ideally I’d run Sword/Shield + Staff if the Greatsword weren’t so great in damage and AoE and everything else…

I use Hammer as main, GS as secondary.

Ultramatum.5162:

I actually use Staff as my primary weapon. It’s autoattack is an AOE and if specced right, it can hit like a freakin’ truck. Like 1K hits to 5 mobs at once. Orb of light hits everything in it’s path for 1200 meters and can crit for 2500+. Symbol of Swiftness can be used as a DOT and an HOT (Damage over time and Heal over Time), as well as a Light Combo Field, in addition to granting swiftness. Empower is an amazing group heal AND group buff, with 12 stacks of might to increase everyone’s DPS. Line of warding is good for controlling mobs and the Light combo field. So I find Staff to be superior to Greatsword on many levels. And the two synergize well together.

I typically run with Staff/Scepter/Focus. I like the Scepter/Focus combo for ranged and boss fights, and staff for when I gotta get up close and deal with lots of mobs.

Hammer also synergizes well with GS, and it can hit pretty hard. But I like the versatility of having a ranged weapon slotted for when I need it.

Bottom line: Greatsword/Staff is a good combo. Followed by Greatsword/Scepter/Focus.

Do you mind posting your build? I use staff as a secondary myself, but so far I only use it in very few instances. Here’s the build I am using http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARWlYg67GHSKEfIFRuA7DEs6x8un9wUgxMC;TwAA2yoEQJhSFlCKKZMyIkxKjTGpMA

Hi Witchdoctor Dan,

You can find a detailed breakdown of my build here:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/71012-beat-mode-pvewvw-ultra-guardian-build-high-damage-good-survivability/

Always carry a staff and sceptre/focus with me
As sceptre is the only actual ranged weapon, you might have to bring it out sometimes and it’s best paired with a focus imo

Mace & Focus. Great survivability with that combination. I know the mace has a bad rep., but it is a largely defensive weapon and people don’t tend to lean towards those. But since switching to this combo as my secondary weapon, I’ve had a lot easier time of some of the tougher battles.

Sword+focus, combined with my great sword i have plenty of blinds and some regeneration/blocking + good mobility

It’s a very active playstyle, compared to face tank and healing.