Guild Wars 2

So basically
I’ve been looking at two things with the Guardian. One, that we have Virtue of Resolve, which is a passive regen that can be upgraded, and two, we have a lot of skills that grant retaliation.

The rune of the Dolyak provides passive regen as well, which creates two sources of regeneration for us. I was wondering if there was a way to maximize this passive regeneration, to make it put out crazy amounts of healing.

Going onto to retaliation, I was wondering if there was a way to permanently maintain this boon, seeing as there are traits related to extending and proccing it, maybe there’s a way?

My Theory
I think that there is a build that can be designed with massive regeneration and the upkeep of retaliation. Making any damage taken be thrown back at the enemy, and the rest of the damage that’s left over be healed up quickly by the passive regen. Basically a tank that has insane amounts of regen, which isn’t attached to boons, because both sources are attached to passive effects. (Meaning it can’t be removed!)

Post your ideas!

Builds like you are describing have been around since beta and some subborn players are still running them. In PvE, they still work and retaliation is very useful because the mobs are dumb enough to keep hammering away and most deal small amounts of damage quickly which works in the favor of retal.

However, since beta retaliation has been nerfed, nerfed and nerfed some more and is a shadow of it’s former self. It still works, it still helps, but it isn’t the powerhouse it used to be.

As far as regen goes, I find it helpful, but more often than not it just doesn’t tick high enough to be called “healing”. It’s better called “helping” that’s what it does, it helps. We, as guardians, will not be seeing anything near what a class like ranger can achieve with regen, and even they have to use troll unguent to get truely huge regen. From a pvp aspect, the incoming damage just overwhelms regen and isn’t enough to sustain life. That’s why I prefer hard heals that give a predictable amount of healing. (see: mediation healing with the valor line)

Don’t fall into the trap thinking you can heal tank your way through combat. Healing in GW2 is very different from other games. When thinking about your builds treat Guardian heals as protection, not life sustaining heals.

You real should read the wiki about the retaliation boon since the tool tip in game is misleading. In your post it sounds like you think that the retaliation boon prevents damage. No damage is actually prevented. Think of retaliation as a free attack based off the damage dealt by the source.

Bleeds’s statement about retaliation is true. In my opinion the current state retaliation is the least effective boon we can provide.. Think about it; retaliation only works if you get hit. I think might is probably the best boon we can spam (with the right traits and weapons). Regeneration is probably the second best boon since it’s a passive heal that is only debuffed by poison. Protection boon received a lot of attention with the Altruistic Healing Hammer build. Unless you’re running that build protection boon isn’t as great when compared to regen. Yeah the regen doesn’t give a lot of hp, but it’s still more than protection. Swiftness is good for when you get over your head and need to make a run for it. Aegis is really nice… against one attack.

Just one man’s opinion.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mccM0z0zzMrGNmMGavm9MxGGzobMkMs8kiH707kiH707kiH70z7kNf70c7kNh70z7ofD70m

My current PVE Build. The rotation of shouts and hammer combo allows me to keep retaliation up for an entire fight. Works fine for me.

I don’t PVP so I will leave the advice on a retaliation build to the experts on PVP combat.

Just so you are aware, Rune of Dolyak regen is 30 HP per second and I don’t think it scales iwth healing power. That’s rather weak as a level 6 rune skill IMO.

I know of a Guardian that does just that. runs like 0/0/20/30/30 traits or so, full clerics armor (power/tough/healing) and can tank multiple people at a time in WvW. I personally cant kill said guardian since I run sword/focus + greatsword so all my bursts are multi hit attacks, which end up ripping my face off from the retaliation. Keep in mind also that retaliation does scale with power, so if you want it to do more damage you need to stack it. Hence why clerics is an awesome choice for the build.

Use mango pies to further increase passive regen (+88hp per second)

My sPVP bunker build:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-9s-Bx;0RF-20P3ZFF90;9;6JTJ;448-26915-X;09X;1TsW6TsW66gG

Personally i don’t bother upgrading regen on virtue of resolve since it really doesnt upgrade much.

as for retaliation… use #2 hammer ability whenever you can (while inside your symbols – which will proc every third hit when using hammer – or use mace #2 then switch to hammer and get it that way – or use #2 hammer while in consecration / hammer #5 / mace #5 bubbles – all of which count as light field) to get ae retaliation. Also you can utilize virtues to get a good amount of retaliation time. I am able to keep retaliation up for a long time by doing this (but not for 100% of the fight).

not sure if were talking pvp or pve… but there it is.