Guild Wars 2

This is something I’ve been playing around with for the past few weeks, and now I feel confident enough to share it. We all know bunker Guard isn’t in the best spot at the moment. It’s still viable; however other classes are more optimal.

One of the reasons is damage, bunker Guard just doesn’t bring damage like other classes. However I found a way around this. Yes, the build is just the standard AH build, nothing really new or fancy about it. However, I took the liberty in tweaking it, mainly the amulet. Cleric doesn’t give you enough damage, same goes for Celestial, and Berserker is too squishy for bunker duties. So I played around with Solider for a bit, and it seemed to get the job done. However, the other day it hit me, the prefect amulet is Valkyrie. Yes, Valkyrie, the amulet nobody uses.

The whole build revolves around a couple of main factors; Mighty Blow, Glacial Heart, and Intelligence sigil. Mighty Blow is one of the hardest hitting, reliable, and shortest CD skills we have; combined that with the power from Valkyrie and the added damage from Glacial Heart. It’s not uncommon get +6k crits on light targets. I tried to pair it with a Fire sigil also for added burst, but I found it to be unreliable. Getting both GH and Fire to proc on the same MB was too troublesome, so I just went with Force.

Standard rotation: Empower> Virtue of Justice>Swap>Mighty Blow

At the end of the day, it’s still a standard bunker Guard, however it brings the much needed damage and CC pressure other builds lack. Biggest problem is it heavily relies on the MB for the damage, if the targets happen to evade or block it; you have to swap weapons and wait for Intelligence proc again.

This build won’t change the meta or anything like that. However, it’s a very viable build for people that want to play bunker, but still pack a punch.

Of course, here is a link to the build. Also a quick video I threw together of some matches today.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApWotCxfH8DRRCRljNY/BnQKcdA8hHAA-TpRBABjVG45jAwFPAAq2fQjDBAAXAAA

I like the idea and initiative, also I have experimented with valk ammys as well in the same mind set as you (gain survival/healing power while maintaining damage).

That said, one personal opinion of mine is that while you have good return on life via AH, the initial burst can still be a bit harsh, condition removal often lags behind regardless of pure of voice and soldiers. Possibly swap pure of voice for Force of Will to make up for the loss of vitality on Valk amulet?

The other issue I have is that there is a huge loss in precision, which make the valk amulet much less effective. I know you have on swap intel sigil, but when I was trying to theory craft a build I tried to make up for precision via radiance and possibly 1h strength.

It loses a ton of vitality though, so maybe intelligence is enough? Or maybe swap to Lyssa or Pack runes?

Healing power has a much lower effect on AH anyway, so maybe go soldiers amulet and keep pure of voice and soldiers runes? As you are not critting a ton anyway.

Just food for thought, don’t know if its better but more ideas. GL!

How much tank is just right or too much? I’ve seen Guards take on 1v2 or even 1v3, bunking a point. Which is ideal for any tank, to hold multiple people for days while his team captures the map.
In zerg scenarios, no one is going to focus a tank unless they’re moa’d. Most of the sustains from vita/heals/toughness/ might not be as ideal.

Where the line should be drawn is up to you.

Saiyan.1704:

How much tank is just right or too much? I’ve seen Guards take on 1v2 or even 1v3, bunking a point. Which is ideal for any tank, to hold multiple people for days while his team captures the map.
In zerg scenarios, no one is going to focus a tank unless they’re moa’d. Most of the sustains from vita/heals/toughness/ might not be as ideal.

Where the line should be drawn is up to you.

Guardian can bunker bad players only, they can be easilly countered by some classes.

Why don’t you go intel/energy on both sets? Force is pretty meh in PvP in general and intel on staff means you can hit okish staff 2 which actually does decent damage on valk and you would have more vigor.

Any of the sigils can be swapped out, Intelligence is the only one that is mandatory for the build to function effectively, the others come down to personal preference.

Regular Guardian bunker has been viable since day 1. It’s only not been viable relatively recently at pretty high levels of pvp because of a couple of currently broken classes namely engineer and elementalist. Surely you don’t think Arena net intends classes to be able to be strong bunkers and do good damage? I know people don’t like to hear stuff like this but those classes that can perform better as bunker then guardian right now will be adjusted. Regardless you build sounds interesting. However I think you pointed out its weak point you are very reliant on landing mighty blow with one of your intelligence sigil attacks.

Instead of making a new thread, I’ll just add this here:

Just some bunker Guard gameplay footage I put together trying out new things, featuring Merciful Intervention.

So Merciful Intervention, a fairly underutilized skill for a couple of reasons. It’s a meditation and medi builds are generally dps heavy and have no real use with it. So players just prefer Judge’s Intervention, since it doesn’t require an ally to teleport. Also since it’s a meditation it doesn’t really see any use in other builds. After playing around with this skill some more, I’ve come to the conclusion, it’s actually decent. When using it in a bunker build, it gives you added mobility, something bunker Guards sorely lack. It also allows for rez and escapes that could not happen without it. Is it a situational skill? Yes, however it’s a skill that can easily mean the difference between a wipe and a victory. Are there better bunker tools out there? For the most part yes. However, MI allows for some fun and creative situations to come out on top of.

^It’s also nice for when people move out of range of Empower before it’s done. Merciful Intervention doesn’t interrupt it.

I’ve also been using Merciful Intervention lately (when I don’t need Wall of Reflection) and I’m very happy with the results. It creates a different sort of “flow” in your playstyle, which I find very fun and the ability itself also does a good amount of work.

You forgot the most important aspect.

Teleports on a heavy armored soldier class are cools and make warriors (and necros/eles for that matter) green with envy.

Cuz you know…teleports