Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow guardians.

Wanted to ask,how do you deal with catching and antikiting as a DPS guardian in PvP?I seem to be lost without traveler runes,and even with both ports on sword and utility i have big problems in catching peeps in most maps.Well at least hiting them,i dont need to catch them :-).I am runing full meditation utils,but can sacrifice one for something if you have good experience with it.Also i am runing GS and sword/focus,where i am also able to swap sword for something with which you have good experience as DPS guards.

Things that help:

Rune of Speed
Sigil of Hydromancy or Ice
Weapons with CCs and or immobilize. (Hammer and Scepter)

rune of speed
scepter/ torch
sword/ forcus

I ve tryed scepter only in WvW so far,but the DPS was quite low and those balls which i fire seem to not reach enemy most of time.Also that root is like 2sec?Do you run with it in PvP as DPS guardian,and kill ppl with it?

With hammer i had worst experience,that thing is so unbelievable slow.

I am using both sigils for chill,but 50% of time the swap one procs out of range,and the crit one i barely notice.

I can get to enemy,i sometimes succesfuly pull with GS,but once they start runing i cant hit them anymore.Do i miss here something,or is it just L2P isue?Got my guard just first month,and played only 10-20 matches so far.

KaporHabakuk.6219:

I ve tryed scepter only in WvW so far,but the DPS was quite low and those balls which i fire seem to not reach enemy most of time.Also that root is like 2sec?Do you run with it in PvP as DPS guardian,and kill ppl with it?

With hammer i had worst experience,that thing is so unbelievable slow.

I am using both sigils for chill,but 50% of time the swap one procs out of range,and the crit one i barely notice.

I can get to enemy,i sometimes succesfuly pull with GS,but once they start runing i cant hit them anymore.Do i miss here something,or is it just L2P isue?Got my guard just first month,and played only 10-20 matches so far.

Scepter is one of the highest dps weapons for guards. However it takes some time getting use to it. The best advice is treat it like a melee weapon, with the option to use it at range. The auto-attack is very slow, but it hits hard. So the closer you are the better. Hammer is the same thing, it takes awhile to get use to it. Hammer is very strong, I cannot state this enough. It brings decent damage with CC options.

You only play a few matches on guard so it’s going to take sometime. DPS guard is a lot harder to master then people think.

sorry about the pandora in the background but it is what it is

and yeah use the scepter like its melee

WvW
I’m not using neither Rune of Speed, neither traveler’s. Instead I’m opting out to keep up swiftness uptime.
I’m running Save Yourselves and Lyssa Runes, but the real way to get that swiftness for me is Bowl of Seaweed Salad together with Sigil of Speed on my second weapon set. You get either 13 seconds, either 26 seconds of swiftness(60% chance) on killing a mob/player this way. Needless to say, if I’m roaming, following a solo cap of a camp I’m having around 1:30 swiftness uptime left and can run anywhere I want.
Well, my build has 30 points in virtues, so that helps with it a bit.
That’s a refreshing solution that allows you to use different runes – namely, Lyssa with it’s amazing (6) effect that makes my Guardian SO strong.
PvP
I’m generally disappointed in PvP mobility as Guardian
It’s either Rune of Speed or deal with it.
But they offer bizarre stats(don’t get me wrong – vitality is good. But with PvP amulets I’m running either barbarian either zerker, and both of them most certainly do not lack vitality!) and provide swiftness while already having passive bonus to movement speed. Since they don’t stack, that feels like adding insult to injury.
So.. I’m dealing without them, somehow. Couldn’t play without my runes of lyssa, still want a godmode button.

Harbinger.8637:

You only play a few matches on guard so it’s going to take sometime. DPS guard is a lot harder to master then people think.

This is true. Guardian dps builds’ only real ranged weapon is the scepter and that one requires certain builds to work. Overall, I find guardian dps in PvP to be much harder to play than any other class, mostly because of the lack of ranged attacks.

However! I’ve learned how to play it and I can say that while walking or moving around as a dps guard is slow, you have many gap closers and good use of them will allow you to catch up and deal huge damage to people in a very short amount of time.

I’ll try and summarize how I play and what I think the weapon options are for mobility

Sword – This weapon is THE guardian duel weapon, the teleport on the short cooldown is so powerful for us because of the mobility it offers us. The auto-attack hits hard, and hits like a truck with 30 in radiance. Skill 3 is very powerful but you need to use it when people don’t see it coming. Skill 2 and then skill 3 will fail in 80% of all cases because people’s first reaction when you teleport is to dodge.

GS – People say it’s bad in PvP, it’s not. It’s good, but you have to use it without being predictable. Skill 3 will close a gap so that’s awesome and skill 5 – Binding Blade (BB) – can be very powerful. The only mistake you can make with GS is trying to use the combo of skill 5 into skill 2 too often. Leave the BB on them for a while, it lasts for 10 seconds, then when you see them casting; pull them in, interrupt, they’ll have forgtten you had it on them and you can whack away. Another good tip is to pull, wait for the invevitable dodge and simply walk along their dodge, THEN use skill 2 when they can’t escape!

Hammer – Slow auto attack but skill 3 immobilises which mean it’s a gap closer, skill 5 will trap them in a ring of doom with you and your hammer for 5 seconds and skill 2 is just rude in the amount of damage it does.

Scepter – Again, skill 3 is immobilise and can be followed up with skill 2 which hits like a truck. It’s also a ranged weapon! So you don’t really need the mobility even!

Focus – Skill 4 blinds and skill 5 allows you to run over to them without being stunned snared or anything. It’s also just wonderful vs hambow. Watch them waste all their hammer stuns on shield blocks. Yum yum!

Judge’s Intervention is also a gap closer.

I run meditations, GS and Sword/focus sometimes swap weapons, if you time your gap closers for when you really need them, the lack of mobility won’t bother you much anymore!

Good luck!

I don’t think that mobility is a problem in PvP; with GS, Scepter and JI is more than enough to poke most of foes and range and burst them at cqc in the base or the center of the map (don’t forget that what matters is the control over the points). Of course if you want to play as a “invader” and to take control over the enemy base you will be supassed in mobility by (at least) Thieves, Warriors, Rangers and Mesmers, but being a DPS Guardian doesn’t mean that your role is to being able to decap any point in the map, but being able to fastly cut down enemies in your base or the center. And Scepter auto attacks + immobilize works wonder to force people to flee away.

Precharge RoW and then JI right at the end. Usually knocks people down if they try to escape. after that i generally follow up with a mighty blow and AA chain before throwing down a zealots embrace and swapping to my other weapon set, which is Sword/Focus usually. I also have a hydromancy sigil to chill people when i swap.

One I forgot to mention, and it gets easily overshadowed is the Bane Signet. 1200 range knockdown and does decent damage. The passive is also good too. Problem is people don’t want to give up a utility slot for it. If you run shouts you generally want two or more. Same goes for meds. So it really doesn’t see that much playtime.