Guild Wars 2

So just level capped my guardian and I’m thinking mainly running this guy in PvE dungeons and fractals. I know everyone’s gonna say go full zerk but as of now I’m not the best in combat and avoiding damage just yet, so I need a bit more survivability. I’d like to contribute to the damage output, and guardians have like no condition application (in comparison to my condi engi) so that’s probably not the greatest route to go down.

I was thinking along the lines of Valkyrie, Soldier’s, or Knight’s, but I’m not sure. I also could use some tips for runes, sigils, and trinkets.

Again, I’ll probably switch to full Berserker gear once I get better at combat, but right now I’d like to stay alive.

Use the berserker metabuilds but! Pvt amor (trinkets/weapon berserker).
And cheap runes or orbs, ruby orbs, or valkyrie doesn´t rly matter whatever u want as defensive stats.

U will get dmg (because u don´t get heal all the time from things like AH). U can surive but u can learn how, or when u have to avoid dmg instead of just tanking it.

Playing AH with knights gear will not help u. U can facetank most bosses and u will never get better. Just because u will heal yourself soo much.

I recommand 5 points in honor for the beginning.
For example this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR5NoIeIyEb/erMoBHA-TRxBwAVV+ZXHgN1fAY/BZlgAA-e
It´s ok to learn how to play in pve. Try to keep your aegis up and u will learn how to survive.
There are some other builds too. The good old 2/5/0/5/2 for example can help u too.

A good practice of learning how to avoid damage and utilize active defense could be to slot Unscathed Contender. Keeping Aegis up as long as possible requires you to learn when to dodge, blind and reflect and learn the mechanics of the fight but doing so rewards you with a very large damage increase.

Unless your super pro and can dodge/blind everything, 10% damage reduction from Signet of Judgement is the single best thing you can do to improve your PVE survival. You don’t need to change your build, you don’t need to buy new gear. It’s effects are even more pronounced if you run with non-Vitality stats on your gear. It’s not a reactionary effect so it’s one less distraction when your learning. It’s scales based on incoming damage, not your own stats (important if you just took a huge hit). You can swap it out whenever you find you aren’t needing that damage reduction.

When you get super pro, then use sword/GS exclusively for the blinds and dump Signet.

So soldier armor, zerk weapon/trinkets is a good way to start? Possibly keeping the Signet of Judgement if I need the additional survivability? And I’m guessing the key to learning guardian is timing the blinds/reflects and keeping aegis up?

Just making sure I’m understanding this correctly, and thank you all for your input!

Honestly, I would recommend you START with Signet of Judgement using full zerker’s gear because ideally, you’re probably going to to get better and transition towards the most offensive gear set anyways. If it’s not enough for survival for you, then I would recommend revisiting some traits for additional survival instead of different gear. I’m assuming you aren’t swimming in gold, so doing the things you can that are FREE first is better than having 2-3 sets of armor for you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR7dl0ApQo9CxZI8DRR8Al1Ys9DnoqAgbS+PA-TRCBABapMohDCAEXAAsUihz+j6PA8EAySpBjKBzT3ApAYVYE-e

I run this. It seems to allow me to miss a dodge or two and not die immediately. The consecrations provide much needed group support. Its taking advantage of several different + damage modifiers. And it is pretty cheap, just a full set of zerker, you can use exotic accesories, some cheap runes and away you go. I don’t really find toughness does a whole lot, having a bit extra health is quite handy instead.

Don’t ever use signet of judgment. If you have one less utility, it’s one less chance to avoid getting hit. Use rather wall/hg/purging flames/ SotA/ SY to keep yourself alive. Keep 4/5/0/0/5 on your bar ( even in situations where you should use, for instance, 4/6/2/0/2) just to get comfortable with one build. If you get a mix between zerker and something else, go with knight. The extra crit chance will help you. If you still struggle on bosses, move a point for vigor. That would be 4/5/0/1/4.

I’ll go with the zerg meta. Everything zerg i mean. I did the same thing to my ele and at first it seemed to be very embarrassing since I died a lot, but after a while my skills improved a LOT. Recently I tried my guardian and found it’s much much easier for a zerg guardian to survive. Only deaths can teach u something and you’ll learn the skill animation much quicker under the circumstances that you’ll be one shot

That’s the spirit!

Meta build with knight’s/valkyrie’s armor, NEVER go for PVT in PVE unless you’d like a spectator mode on pve. The only situations where pvt can deal decent damage is when fighting structures/super bosses that cannot be crit (tequatl/nightamre tree/ burrows)

Just play in proper gear and practice over and over again. Nobody wants people in bad builds unless they as well are in bad ones.

I understand you aren’t as good as you’d like to be but there’s ways to change that. You will become more comfortable over time.

Go hammer. Skale venom(big dps loss though). Signet of judgement. It will help you more than using random reflects when they aren’t needed!
Eles will hate you so expect that.