Guild Wars 2

I’m going to go ahead and prematurely post this build because I feel this spec is Plat rank material, an extremely strong 1v1 build with good mid fight potential, and it’s just plain fun.

Symbolic-Zeal Burst Build

Scep/Shield
Annulment + Revocation

Sword/Focus
Cleansing + Agility

At first glance you’re going to think I’m crazy leaving Virtues for Zeal but after you land Shield#4 in a group, instantly dealing 1.7k from the wave and 1.2k additional damage per aegis hit that your allies deal, you’ll understand the build’s potential. Shield of Judgment alone can deal 5k damage to one target if he’s near your allies thanks to Shattered Aegis.

Healing
I wouldn’t underestimate Litany’s quick and powerful heal. As pointed out by Kuya.6495, Smiter’s Boon damages remains unaltered so you can use this “smite condition” as another method if burst. Purification makes for a good heal but the cast time on the trap has killed me.

Virtues cleanse and stability replacement
The needs in Virtues is basically replaced by Cleanse on Block and Fragments of Faith trap. Though the cleanse is not good for burst condi’s (that’s why we have 2 smite conditions and a CoP) it still helps against other Condi classes like burn guard and condi thieves.

Amulets
Rune of the Lynx – Mobility and Damages
Rune of Surging – Elite CC and Damages

Last bit of important items:

• Be watchful of ranged classes like Mesmers and Rangers.
• F1 pull inside FoF trap, Scep immob, and collect aegis’s. Profit.
• Don’t be afraid to burst first with traps while using your Heal for a Smite Condition. Method is particularly effective vs unexpecting Revs and Necros.

double smite condition + shield of wrath is glorious.

If I could make a suggestion you may want to test , try using Communal Defenses instead of Stalwart Defender granted you would lose the 240 to toughness when you have the shield but giving your team 5 seconds of Aegis when you succesfully block an attack (15 CD) then add to that they all could be triggering Shattered Aegis for the damage and getting Retaliation after the Aegis ends so your issue with the range attacks (Rangers and Mesmers for example) is resolved because they could quite easily kill themselves if they aren’t careful. Just a thought.

Looks interesting, will definitely have to give it a try.

RUNICBLACK.7630:

If I could make a suggestion you may want to test , try using Communal Defenses instead of Stalwart Defender granted you would lose the 240 to toughness when you have the shield but giving your team 5 seconds of Aegis when you succesfully block an attack (15 CD) then add to that they all could be triggering Shattered Aegis for the damage and getting Retaliation after the Aegis ends so your issue with the range attacks (Rangers and Mesmers for example) is resolved because they could quite easily kill themselves if they aren’t careful. Just a thought.

I was using SD mainly for the Shield’s 20% reduced cooldown on its skills. Considering what Aegis can give you team wide, the CD trait is a fine pick too.

Saiyan.1704:

I’m going to go ahead and prematurely post this build because I feel this spec is Plat rank material, an extremely strong 1v1 build with good mid fight potential, and it’s just plain fun.

Symbolic-Zeal Burst Build

Scep/Shield
Annulment + Revocation

Sword/Focus
Cleansing + Agility

At first glance you’re going to think I’m crazy leaving Virtues for Zeal but after you land Shield#4 in a group, instantly dealing 1.7k from the wave and 1.2k additional damage per aegis hit that your allies deal, you’ll understand the build’s potential. Shield of Judgment alone can deal 5k damage to one target if he’s near your allies thanks to Shattered Aegis.

Healing
I wouldn’t underestimate Litany’s quick and powerful heal. As pointed out by Kuya.6495, Smiter’s Boon damages remains unaltered so you can use this “smite condition” as another method if burst. Purification makes for a good heal but the cast time on the trap has killed me.

Virtues cleanse and stability replacement
The needs in Virtues is basically replaced by Cleanse on Block and Fragments of Faith trap. Though the cleanse is not good for burst condi’s (that’s why we have 2 smite conditions and a CoP) it still helps against other Condi classes like burn guard and condi thieves.

Last bit of important items:

• Be watchful of ranged classes like Mesmers and Rangers.
• F1 pull inside FoF trap, Scep immob, and collect aegists. Profit.
• Don’t be afraid to burst first with traps and both smite conditions. Method is particularly effective vs Revs and Necros.

I love the idea of this and it seems like a lot of fun however I mostly wvw solo roam could this build work in wvw roaming and if so what stats should I get thanks!

I’ve really enjoyed it so far. However, and it definitely seems to be hard countered by the stealthing range-mainting power druid. It’s a bad 1v1 and it’s an absolutely GG +1 since we really don’t have the types of necessary gap closers or escapes. Unfortunately, in the off season, I keep running into games with two or more of them. It actually happened my last seven games in a row.

It’s particularly annoying on Temple & Skyhammer. I say this build is definitely a good one, but if you see those bad match-ups coming, be prepared to swap to something else for that match.

If you’re having trouble with power druids, try switching zeal for virtues and going 1, 2 or 1, and 3. Save shield 5 and sword 3 for pew pew.

If you decide to switch zeal for virtues, change fragment of faith back to test of faith and pull the rng into your trap once his stab is down. A fight vs a power druid playing it at range is basically a waiting game of you using shield 5, sword 3, and f3 to eat his ranged attacks while you cap the point, and then closing the gap with f1 and sword 2 once you’re done capping to retaliate.

Tried the build now, and I love it so far. Has all the same advantages of a marauder symbolic build, but with extra damage. Condi cleanse works fine on it, Litany of Wrath just feels like a better heal than Shelter. Not set on the sigils though, and I changed runes to Lynx so I can get around faster.

Shaogin.2679:

Tried the build now, and I love it so far. Has all the same advantages of a marauder symbolic build, but with extra damage. Condi cleanse works fine on it, Litany of Wrath just feels like a better heal than Shelter. Not set on the sigils though, and I changed runes to Lynx so I can get around faster.

Funny you say that because I haven’t really found the perfect runes for this build. It’s the only thing I’m uncertain with.

Right now I’m using Surging Runes for the stun effect proc after the elite Renewed Focus resolves. I notice it helps fairly well in 1v1’s especially vs good Mesmers/Revs/Rangers. People don’t expect the extra CC, it allows me to cast a couple burst skills rather than go directly to Virtues for survival.

Speed runes are good too for the much needed mobility.

The hybrid Rune of the Pack is good for having a little bit of everything.

So I’m just sticking with Surging right now because I tend to prioritize 1v1 effectiveness but I’m sure most would pick speed runes for the build.

I also switched to Lynx and I’m an even bigger fan after that swap.

It’s really funny fighting evade Thieves with this build. Thieves aren’t much of an issue on Guardian, but this build makes it even easier. You don’t have to worry about timing anything. Just throw a symbol at your feet, keep aegis up, and they just kill theirselves.

It has issues against ranged damage, but that’s an issue I always had on a Symbolic build. I just always close the gap when I can and then LoS when I can’t. Don’t really see much ranged damage dealers these days with all the projectile hate though.

It’s an awesome build.

Ive tried the build ~20 games now and I actually like it.
Some backstory; I never really liked the playstyle of symbol Guard. I’ve always found it super stale and un-interactive. This build however puts a spin on it with Shattered Aegis.

The 1v1 capabilities of the build is actually not bad at all due to the ridiculous retal uptime. (Perma) Along with covering your boons with CoF. This build completly destroyes the Sword/Dagger druid meta build. Which is a nice change of pace considering they like to push us in 1v1s. So far, the weakest 1v1 seem to be vs high shroud condi nec and Scrapper.

The teamfight of this build is not bad either, people tend to underestimate the dmg of the symbols. Especially on marauder gear. It’s not at all unusual that I end the game 1mil dmg+.

What this build lacks compared to medibow is the kill potential. No one should ever die to this build. You have little to no gap close, little to no burst and very little crowd controll. Most classes can just reset or straight up leave if they feel they are getting pressured out.
This build is also abyssmal to thief +1s.

As for runes, Ive settled on Surging. The extra CC after Renewed helps us cycle the cooldowns a bit smoother. I also went with the trap heal, for the most part. I just dont feel like Littany grants enough outside of teamfights.

I don’t have any problems with +1’s especially from Thieves, except if I’m sub 50% health constantly.

I always save a stunbreaker in case there IS a +1 incoming, and I also save Renewed Focus unless I’m on the verge of dying.

For me my worst 1v1 matchup so far has been Shoutbow Druid because of their ability to deal a lot of burst damage while being tankyish.

I tried Marauder but also tried Paladin. I’m using everything that you’re using in your build except I opted for Rune of the Lynx for mobility.

Also the playstyle for this build is a little different than Medi, you need to focus more on fighting on point than engaging enemies kiting around since you lack a lot of gap closers. However, sword 2 does a decent job at getting to enemies. Scepter 3 is good for landing damage as well as Spear of Justice.

Also, despite lacking Virtues, this build is not glass at all. The Fragments of Faith trap is excellent for a stunbreaker because of the following stability. The Aegis it provides is also welcome.

Finally the heal, Litany of Wrath. I love this heal. It scales in teamfights where if the Smite Condition from Smiter’s Boon hits more enemies, more HP is returned back to you. Your symbols will return 25% of damage dealt back to you. It cleans 2 condis off and grants Fury. I love it. Best part is the 16 sec CD.

You know, the more I played this build the more it felt off. So I wentback and compared it to Marauder Symbolic and, don’t know why it didn’t hit me before, I realized this build was trading Honor for Zeal. I kept reading this page thinking yeah, trading Virtues for Zeal isn’t bad. Then it all hit me and I’m like, Symbolic build doesn’t use Virtues, it uses Honor.

Honor is a huge deal for the Symbolic build. It makes the symbols larger and last long, makes our dodge roll heal, makes aegis heal, makes symbols heal. I mean sure this build is fun to mess around with, but you are trading a ton of survival for minimal extra damage.

Went back to the old Symbolic, and everything feels right again.

It’s definitely a change of pace considering we’ve had symbolic bunker builds for a few seasons. I don’t think I’ll be going back to a Menders Honor build, partially because I don’t fancy that play style anymore (I never really was a bunker guard at heart).

I’m preferring a more “burst” approach as oppose to a straight forward side-node bunker build.

Updating the build. Swapped out Smite Condition for Test of Faith for a lot of obvious reasons. Having two Smite Conditions is nice but ToF simply does 3x the burst damage on point especially when utilizing Shield and F1. This makes the build not just a good assaulter/defender but an even better mid fighter in skirmishes.

I also swapped my Sw/Focus – Scep/Shield to Sw/Shield Scep/Focus. I’m using sword blink + ToF + Shield#5. If my knockback gets nullified I can melee inside ToF. This is mainly a play style specific change evolved around ToF.

Hmm ok, I’ll try a few rounds. After the first game of the new version, I prefer the original smite condition version. Let me see if a couple rounds knock off the edge of what just feels awkward.

Been playing with the two utilities, Smite vs ToF. You’re right Smite Condition meshes a bit better with the build. It’s the utility factor I suppose, tackling a +1 Condi class or even that “oomph” heal effect when you really do need that miniscule heal among your medi utilities when getting +1 by a power Rev or Thief.

This build is a lot more potent, than I would imagine. Been playing with ToF mainly and I quite like the another burst to put more pressure when needed (especially in teamfights). Though I was thinking if Judge’s Intervention could be good. The teleports make guard very strong IMO and it would complement the +1 potential (that burst is insane) of this build with lynx.

With Judge’s Intervention try greatsword! You’ll love pair it with Binding Blade or Whirling Wrath

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR8ensABVDhFdCmDB8Dhl4BT+/FAPgX7rJVOoKA0AKAA-TphSAB0+AAAY/hPPIATfEAYtMg1XAAA

It seems solid, Saiyan, ill give it a go.

Although i don’t think it can compete with current Meditrapper build, considering both have kinda the same function. Giving up Honor for a Symbol build can be a little brutal for the performance.

If you wanna really try something different try giving up those meditations and going for Zeal Honor and DH with Menders. You’ll find that your Blocks can be quite powerfull with Shattered Aegis, Pure of Heart and Hunter’s Fortification. You can even take Wrathful Spirit if you want to make the most out of your blocks. I actually run that for unrankeds sometimes and its quite an amuzing build.