Guild Wars 2

Hey.

I played guardian for quite some time now and i want to share my build.
For me it is by far the strongest bunker build i have ever played.
Hope you guys will enjoy it as much as i do!

Rampager (Offensive Bunker Guardian)

Explanation:

General
Designed for 5-5 with coordinated teamplay.
Also works very well in hotjoins.
The name of this build was chosen because you use Rampager’s Jewel to obtain the high 20% crit chance.

Build
Your damage will be extremely high, considering you’re a bunker guardian.

Where does the damage come from?

1) Soldier’s Amulet: High power and good amount of tankyness. Your auto attacks (and any other attack) will do quite some sustained damage.
2) High Power means high retaliation damage.
3) Rampagers’s Jewel + Sigil of Superior Accuracy + 10pts in Zeal will give you 20% crit chance. That boosts your damage by a lot! It is also a key feature for the insanely high vigor uptime in this build (due to Vigorous Precision).
4) Blind Exposure: Easy to apply/reapply vulnerability stacks.
f1, focus4, scepter3, sword2
5) Virtue of Justice: Very low cooldown with 30pts in Virtues.

All this sources will add up and synergize well.

Your defense

Pretty much a standard shout-bunker guardian build. In the current meta shout-bunker is the strongest bunkerbuild for guardians. I’ll just explain the special stuff that comes with my build.

1) Indomitable Courage (f3 gives stability) is a must. Its a key-feature of this build. One of the most important things for a guardian is that he can get the stomps done. Most guardians save Stand Your Ground for stomping, as it is the only way to stability stomp for them. With this talent you can use f3 for stability stomping. Indomitable Courage gives you the opportunity to actively use SYG in a (team)fight. This is pretty huge, actually.
Aoe-Stability in the right moment can make or break a fight. With a high power team f1/f2(Virtue of Retribution)+SYG+Vengeful (retaliation lasts 25% longer – also on your teammates!) aoe retaliation becomes beast.
SYG is one of the best skills in the game. Indomitable Courage gives you the possibility to use it in a (team)fight as well. Depending on the situation you might want to use both for stomping.
By the way: Dont forget Renewed Focus. It refreshes f3. Depending on how you use it, you potentially can get 3 times stability in a single fight!
(Yes, you can outlast cyclone with that. SYG, f3, Renewed Focus, f3. Lasts way longer than any cyclone ever will.)

2) Vigor: 20% crit chance, sword (specially third auto) and scepter (smite!) means very high vigor uptime. Combined with energy runes, you’ll be able to dodge a lot!
Vigorous Precision with 20% crit chance is absolutely insane.

Talents
1) Indomitable Courage: Allready explained.
2) Absolute Resolution: standard.
3) Vengeful: standard; also boosts retaliation uptime on teammates!
4) Superior Aria/Pure of Voice: standard; both must-have for a shout guardian.
5) Resolute Healer: Great skill. The knockback works more often than you’d think. More important: it denies any projectile. That’s a lot of damage mitigation when you have to res. It is a really good and extremely underrated skill – try it yourself, you’ll be surprised! It also “frees” your shield5 for other stuff in teamfights.
Getting people off a ledge is always main priority with shield5.
If there is no one ledgeing you dont have to save it to prevent someone from stomping anymore, as Resolute Healer will do that for you. You can actively use it in the teamfight now. Kinda the same idea as with Indomitable Courage and Stand Your Ground.
If you play on Khylo, just get Two-Handed Mastery instead. (Sword/Shield and Hammer)
6) Blind Exposure: Allready explained. It boosts your (and your team’s) damage a lot.
100pts in Zeal also help you to reach the 20% crit chance.

Playstyle
Basically as you would play any other shout guardian bunker.
There is one big difference though: You’ll actually dish out quite some damage.
This means: play this build as offensive/aggressive as possible (and as defensively as needed)! The more you attack/pressure, the more damage you’ll negate by making the enemy move/heal. The more you attack, the more crits you deal, the more vigor you get. Don’t play this build passively! Its designed to be offensive/aggressive in most situations, especially in teamfights. I’m not saying rush into the enemies like a full kitten and die, but use your offensive potential skillful/wisely! This is the biggest strength of this build. If you have to leave the point in a teamfight to secure a kill/enough pressure on a target, then do it. You can always recap the neutralized point if you have won the teamfight. So many Guardians stay at the point at all costs so it wont get neutralized in a teamfight. That’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Win the teamfight! If it means you need to get off the point (out of all the aoe), then just do it. This guardian is meant for teamfighting. You need to be where the teamfight is, when the teamfight is. Not before and not after. Dont stand on midpoint like a kitten all the time. If close gets invaded by 4 people go there asap and help. Cant say this often enough: The Guardian needs to be there, where the teamfight is.
You also need to learn against what classes/builds and class combinations you actually need to bunker (use most of your skills defensively) and against what classes you can trade. Ask your team when they will arrive to help – this helps a lot.

Just some basic stuff i want to add: Tell your team when enemies respawn. If you stomp a ele, just say: ele respawn at xx:xx (stomp + 15seconds).
If you’re stalling a point, tell your team how long you can stall (30-90sec usually). Tell them the actual time, it helps a lot. Can stall till ~xx:xx.
Stalling: That is one of the most important parts (for any bunker guardian really): You need to learn when/against who you can trade blows with and when/against who you just should stand back and use your skills more defensively. Always try to deal as much damage as possible when you stall, so your roamers can kill easier/faster. Play as offensive/aggressive as possible(!) and as defensive as needed.

Build is pretty self-explanatory anyways. Auto attack a lot. Use smite a slot. This skill is insane. Use it for corpse control, use it on snared targets, use it to get vigor.

Some Basic damage combos (with your team, you’re not going to spike anyone alone) would be:

1) (focus 5), focus 4, scepter 3, f1, scepter 2, scepter 1 auto or sword auto
2) (focus 5), focus 4, scepter 3, f1, scepter 2, sword 2, sword 3, sword auto
3) train a target with f1, sword 2, sword auto to make it move; dont underestimate your sustained damage. Even Sword autos will hurt them.

Okay, thats it. Hope you’ll enjoy this build as much as i do!

I’ll definitly give it a shot, since i was thinking these days my bunker build for Tpvp was kinda overdated.
PS.: Wouldn’t be better switch one set of weapons for greatsword to benefit from that sexy +25% retaliation ?

Hey.

You cant count on a teammate stepping into GS4; that would totally cripple his movement/dodges, which is the best damage mitigation in the game. Same goes for yourself. You’re either on the targets face or you’re kiting. Standing in your GS symbol will never really happen long enough to make it count.

I tested this build with GS initially. Even damage wise its not that good, as enemies will kite you too much. They also can kite you with sword/shield, but due to the third sword auto you get way more damage out than with GS.

state of the art.7048:

Hey.

You cant count on a teammate stepping into GS4; that would totally cripple his movement/dodges, which is the best damage mitigation in the game. Same goes for yourself. You’re either on the targets face or you’re kiting. Standing in your GS symbol will never really happen long enough to make it count.

I tested this build with GS initially. Even damage wise its not that good, as enemies will kite you too much. They also can kite you with sword/shield, but due to the third sword auto you get way more damage out than with GS.

I meant retaliation combo, gs 4 > 3

Oh sorry, my bad.
Well thats about 8 seconds retaliation on yourself. Thats pretty good actually.

I still think scepter/focus and sword/shield is better though. You need scepter/focus for the immobilize (coordinate this with your team and it can win a teamfight) and the vulnerability stacks in this build. I prefer sword/shield over GS, because your effective (if enemies starts kiting) single target damage is much higher.
Moreover sword2 and shield5 is just too strong to ignore it. Blinking and getting people of ledges can also make or break a fight with a coordinated team.

state of the art.7048:

Oh sorry, my bad.
Well thats about 8 seconds retaliation on yourself. Thats pretty good actually.

I still think scepter/focus and sword/shield is better though. You need scepter/focus for the immobilize (coordinate this with your team and it can win a teamfight) and the vulnerability stacks in this build. I prefer sword/shield over GS, because your effective (if enemies starts kiting) single target damage is much higher.
Moreover sword2 and shield5 is just too strong to ignore it. Blinking and getting people of ledges can also make or break a fight with a coordinated team.

Yeah, i need to agree with you. I’ve been testing this build with variations and sword/shield is better than GS, even with retaliation extended time. And i’m pretty much enjoying this build, my dmg got an increase of 10~15% and still same survavibility than my old bunker build, without say the vulnerability stack.

Good build man, you got my thumbs up!

PS.: Let me know about any variaton of it, so i can help to test it out in tourneys. i run quite a lot of tourney everyday. :P

Thanks man. I really enjoy playing it as well.
The value you add to your team by the damage dealt with this build – while still being able to bunker/support/stomp properly – is amazing. It becomes a different (more enjoyable) game really. Downside would be, that it takes quite some time to master it.

I think, as soon as people realize how strong a offensive built/played bunker guardian can be, we’ll surely see more of them on the field. Specially in higher level play with coordinated teams.

btw, you don’t need to trait for the stability and I use the stun breaker if I spec into that line (I don’t) because usually the aegis can block their attacks; everyone else is normally pretty busy fighting your friends. also make sure to use the f1 for a free blind midstomp to kill any ranger/engi/warrior/necro/guardian f2 skill.