Guild Wars 2

So I just hit 80 on my gaurdian and got geared out and I’m using a dungeon build i saw on Meta Battle

but I have people in fractals asking me to use a retaliation upkeep build and I have no idea what they are talking about

People really want it for the Kiel Asuran boss fractal so they can stack on the wall

I’ve scoured to web to find this “retaliation upkeep” build with no luck

I’m pretty sure they asked about “Stability” and not “Retaliation”. In this boss fight it’s a common tactic to stack at a wall, avoiding the laser daze by using party-wide stability and bursting down the golems. As guardian, you should use “Stand your ground!” and “Hallowed ground” for that, having traited “Master of consecrations” for the latter and reduced shout duration for the first (if needed).
No idea wether they messed up the boons names or you missunderstood

ah thank you much

i would assume to bring retaliation along with the stability though so that we can burst the golems down even faster

so is the standard GS/S+F the way to go then?

Jordo.5913:

ah thank you much

i would assume to bring retaliation along with the stability though so that we can burst the golems down even faster

so is the standard GS/S+F the way to go then?

Retaliation is pretty bad in PvE since most of the mobs attack slowly and you usually don’t want to be attacked. Maybe its not too bad against those exact mobs but I pretty sure it is not worth it.

GS/ S+F is the way to go if you want the maximum dps. But Fractal hammer build is also a solid choice. You have a little less dps (3-5% less), but you give perma protection to your team. The trade-off is not worth it in most dungeon because most of the bosses in dungeon only have big attack that you can dodge, don’t last that long and the constant light field of the hammer screw up fire field for Elementalist.

But in Fractal, boss last longer, they usually have a lot of small hit that you can’t all dodge/block and there isn’t as much S/X Elementalist because stacking might isn’t as easy in fractal as it is in dungeon. You often need to dodge in the middle of your stack.

Fractal Hammer actually boost the dmg of your group in high level fractal. With perma protection, putting weakness on boss (skale venom) and slaying potions, you can decrease the incoming damage of all boss by 50-68%. That way your team can actually melee most stuff and not range it.

For the last fight, bring Indomitable Courage (i.e. Stability on F3 activation trait), Shelter, Stand Your Ground, Hallowed Ground, and Wall of Reflection. You’ll be able to provide stability for the whole duration of the fight if you use your stability skills appropriately. Use Wall of Reflection when fighting the Golems, due to the fact they have some projectile attacks.

I would suggest 45005 GS + Mace/Focus for the whole fractal. Sword is also acceptable, but Mace is better in a lot of fractal situations, including this one. Mace provides better multiple target damage (Mace 2 can be pre-cast before nearly all trash fights and it hits 5 targets), Mace 2 and the third strike in the auto chain help keep scholar bonuses up (better than hammer protection, at least in good groups), and versus various hard bosses the block on Mace 3 is fantastic.