Guild Wars 2

Heyo,

My wife is insistent on using the staff with a guardian. She understands it’s subpar and just loves the playstyle and visuals of it.

Guardian is something I admittedly know very little about and have had little interest in, I’m not sure what synergizes with staff.

She’s indicated that she’d like to be tankier than everybody else- being able to survive anything. The archetype she wants to fulfill is angelic protector.

I’ve said she probably wants to use berserker armor but she’s not sure of that- she’s afraid it won’t be tanky enough. I’ve also suggested a Power/Toughness/Vitality setup which she seemed to be more okay with. Runes of the Traveler is also something I recommended because Guardians are slow as hell.

She uses mostly auto attacks with the staff and the number 2 ability, and appreciates the aoe damage of the auto attack.

Any ideas?

Run whatever and deal with the fact you’re a dead weight.

0/

inb4 " wow you’re an elitist"

2/2/2/2/2
full clerics
runes of monk
sigil of life and benevolence

Would she be okay with Zealot’s gear?

Fashion Mage.3712:

Would she be okay with Zealot’s gear?

I’m assuming she’d be good with that or knights or something like that. I’m still going to try to convince her to use berserker’s but knight’s or zealot’s is probably what she’ll end up using.

How does
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAW5el0ApfntCxRI8DNBDBl18xODJ/DXXgIEAA-TxBBABA8AAM/CAslyvi2foPdAZq+jkKBDAcAs7uBAkCQPhRA-e

look?

This one:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAWRl0ApZo1CxVI8DNR8AZ7J+QdBA7nsl/D-TBDBABapMoSVVOTJIWKVA4BAklSq80EU0+DMcIAyUtiAuCA6pDIAwBAXHIEgstA-e

How stuck is she on Staff for combat? I mean, hammer+Staff isn’t terrible leaving staff for everything in between fighting then swapping to hammer for combat. And doing so gives you perma protection, that’s 33% extra tankiness right there.

Is she thinking open world? If so, same thing, if she were ok doing quick swaps to GS she’d be fine.

If she’s stuck on staff so be it

Overall I never like going without my blind spam (3 points in radiance) but one BIG thing I’d mention on those traits, take off unscathed contender. It is a conflicting trait with the rest of the build. If you’re setting up to be tanky you’re assuming you will be hit, that trait assumes you won’t. Consecrations are amazing and Master of Consecrations should be what you grab there most likely.

I’m not a fan of hte larger symbols as they’re already large enough for people to stand in easily. Not a huge fan of battle presence or Empowering might, BP just doesn’t seem powerful enough to me for a GM trait, and EM caps at 5 might stacks if you crit every second… just not enough IMO when you could drop those get your blind spam and 10% fiery wrath etc. Though dropping them you’d lose the health too… /shrug

Overall I’d be trying to get her to be ok with a different weapon for combat and use the staff all other times, if that doesn’t work then unfortunatly you’re kinda shooting yourself in the foot. There’s just not much the staff excels at in combat other than being very good at tagging things and hitting through walls/projectile defense which makes it situationally worthwhile.

With the staff combos though, pull things with staff, empower before a fight swap to the combat weapon, kill, swap back to staff swiftness and move on. I mean even gandalf pulled out a sword when it was time to fight!

If you can get her to go with hammer/staff 33062 can be quite tanky even in full zerk and not be crippling yourself too badly and from there it’d only be a few little adjustments as she gets better and doesn’t need the extra tankiness.

Jerus.4350:

How stuck is she on Staff for combat? I mean, hammer+Staff isn’t terrible leaving staff for everything in between fighting then swapping to hammer for combat. And doing so gives you perma protection, that’s 33% extra tankiness right there.

She’s very stuck on staff- not just a little, either. It fits what she designed the character as and she loves the animation and huge aoe of the staff.

Overall I never like going without my blind spam (3 points in radiance) but one BIG thing I’d mention on those traits, take off unscathed contender. It is a conflicting trait with the rest of the build. If you’re setting up to be tanky you’re assuming you will be hit, that trait assumes you won’t. Consecrations are amazing and Master of Consecrations should be what you grab there most likely.

Noted- thank you.

I’m not a fan of hte larger symbols as they’re already large enough for people to stand in easily. Not a huge fan of battle presence or Empowering might, BP just doesn’t seem powerful enough to me for a GM trait, and EM caps at 5 might stacks if you crit every second… just not enough IMO when you could drop those get your blind spam and 10% fiery wrath etc. Though dropping them you’d lose the health too… /shrug

It’s more for the support aspect than anything. The build I used hits 80% crit rate and I figured you’d have constant stacks.

Overall I’d be trying to get her to be ok with a different weapon for combat and use the staff all other times, if that doesn’t work then unfortunatly you’re kinda shooting yourself in the foot. There’s just not much the staff excels at in combat other than being very good at tagging things and hitting through walls/projectile defense which makes it situationally worthwhile.

Yeah- I’ve told her this before but she’s determined to play staff. She’s been doing fine in open world- I’m worried about running dungeons, we’ll probably have to two-man stuff in fear of pugs yelling at her.

If you can get her to go with hammer/staff 33062 can be quite tanky even in full zerk and not be crippling yourself too badly and from there it’d only be a few little adjustments as she gets better and doesn’t need the extra tankiness.

Yeah. I may keep trying but at this point it’s pretty much just no. I’m not horribly concerned with optimal in the game- I do what’s fun and try to make it viable and I can’t help but applaud her for powering through doing something pretty dang sub optimal.

Though I constantly encourage her to switch weapons.

It’s a game, it’s about fun, so best I can do is wish her the best. Trying to optimize a staff build is kinda like putting a body kit and rims on a pinto, sure you can do it, but you’re still driving a pinto. But, again if she’s having fun that’s all that matters. As far as dungeons go, “all welcome” and if people complain kick em!

GL to you both, I’m actually a big fan of staff, just not in combat.

If she wants to be tankier she should run an AH build, its the build the guy in this thread is asking for

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/AH-EM-build-still-works-any-pure-tank-build

Of course, its not even close to the meta builds but i think this is the build that fits the archetype she is looking for. Altruistic healing trait heals you when you give boons to allies, so when she uses empower on staff 4 or the symbol on 3 she will get healed a lot.

First of all my tip let ur Wife play how ever she want. Girls can be very stubborn about that and they don’t like people tell them how to play

U do that already good

Also how about she do her own build just show her videos on youtube unkillable guardian commander build tapthatmouse pops into my mind.

Knight gear and soldier runes are a nice basic she can be the … Tank heal condition remove angel using staff and gs both pretty weapons or hammer staff if she don’t mind that hammer is slow.

Wish u two fun

If it’s just PvE why not go full zerk armor and trinkets (maybe a few knights pieces) 0-1-6-6-1 AH/EM, 3 shouts, Staff/GS. With runes of exuberance you can get some nice tankiness and decent DPS. Combine empowering might with some sigil of strength and battle and have a constant 10+ stacks of might in combat without even trying.

I’ve used this build for a while now and it works pretty well. Utilities change depending on the situation.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAWRl0ApUotCxWI8DRBDBljNYnhkPirLQECAA-TVCEABJ8IAKe/hoUeko6PbpEkJlYScEAaTXAAXAAA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJAWRl0ApZo1CxVI8DNBARldREhVolBQEgZMEeA-ThiAABws/QXKD4SpnaKBB4CAcpqKC8AA2TTwmqVwnOASBAxWA-e

This is a simple build designed to supplement your basic damage with constant burning.

Were I to run a “staff only nothing else” build, this is probably how I would do it.

Just light everything on fire and watch the world burn. Still have 2k power, so its much more of a hybrid style, but it plays into the completely vast amounts of aoe the staff puts out.

Might is very helpful. If you don’t need the defense, Full Rampager might work better, or if you need more defense, a Soldier/Rabid mix might work better.

marriage is a hell of a drug! jk, man I wish I had a gamer wife. hats off to you

Just grab the same build as the DPS builds posted in other threads. Going staff is large enough of a handicap on itself, no need to make it even worse by grabbing gear like soldier or rabid in PvE.

In other words, go 4/5/0/0/5 and grab berserker gear. Just replace the sword/focus in those builds with the staff. Again though , if she ever wants to have a way easier time (die less, get more loot a lot faster, be more helpful to your group, ect… ) consider suggesting her to start using other weapons. Virtually all other weapons are better in PvE, unless you want to tag in zergs.