Guild Wars 2

Greetings fellow Guardians!

I’m a returning player! I played when GW2 traditionally launched for about 3-4 months.

Traditionally, I would assume that there have been significant changes to the game, and classes in general, and I’m a little lost to where to begin.
I’ve tried reading the guides and stickies at the top, and browsing the forums as such, but I’m a little confused.

I used to play a meditation / condi build, (Monks Focus) with Sword+Torch (Emphasis on burning) / Scepter+Shield for defensive and ranged situations when called for. 2/6/6/0/0/0.

Reading upon the forums, I’m looking for something that has min/maxed highest DPS output for guardians (PVE). I see guides for GS, I see guides for Sword+Focus, and I’m just not sure which to follow.

Which gear do I want to run? Berserker?
Which runes are best?
Which Amulet?

Also, I enjoy S/TPVP as well, is there a good guide/build for highest damage output for Guardians that I can possibly follow?

Much appreciated!

metabattle.com

I haven’t played condi or hybrid guardians that much, but there are certainly some viable builds out there!

One of the more offensive burning builds utilizing meditations which I found really fun, is a hybrid build of 6/2/6/0/0, with focus instead of shield. Shield is alright, but it honestly needs some work to be on par with focus. Focus provides much better personal protection, and damage output.

I believe carrion is the main stat distribution used, and as for the rune, you can try krait, flame legion, or balthazer to name a few (ideally one that deals with burning duration, or damage).

Condi guardians can be really fun, and have a really great 1v1 game, however they lose out in team battles due to a lack of team support. From what I’ve heard, they have a leg up on engis, at least more so than med zerk guardians do!

I came back to GW2 just last weekend. I rolled a Guardian for sPvP. I’ve had good results (considering my noob-nish) with this build: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Meditation_DPS_Variant

For PvE

- The optimal choice would be berserker. But it can be harder when you begin. Either you stick with berserker and learn fast, but die a lot at the beginning. Or you take some more defensive pieces and switch to berserker over time as you get more comfortable with your build.
- The optimal choice would be Scholar, but it have a higher price and the 6th bonus can be hard to maintain when you start. Flame Legion rune is a cheaper, but still good option for guardian.
- Amulet? That’s a question for sPvP probably. If you ask for the pve amulet it’s a weird question, but it’s berserker like the rest of your gear.
- GS and Sw/Focus go together. GS have a high burst skill (2 to 5), but a terrible auto-attack, while Sw have no burst, but a good auto-attack. They complete each other. You do a rotation where you do skill 2 to 5 with your gs, then switch to sword to auto-attack while waiting for your GS cooldown to finish.
- There is other option for weapons. You can replace Sword with mace or replace focus for torch. You can use Hammer + anything because you can use hammer only and still achieve a decent dps. Sceptre/Focus is also a really good option in some situation. It’s the highest dps of the guardian but only against slow/large enemies. GS + Sw/Focus is the most popular setup, but you can explore other options each with their pros and cons.

sPvP

If you want a high dps build for guardian in sPvP, then medi guardian is your option. You have different option of weapons for that. Hammer + Sc/Focus following by GS + Sc/Focus are the most popular in the moment.