Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I’m a Charr Guardian, returning to Tyria after a long break with questions!

Before I continue, I will quickly note I haven’t gotten a character to level 80 yet, and my Guardian is level 69 currently. Do note I love to PvP with all scenarios. Whether it be a team fight in WvW, or one on one encounter in a battleground—love it all!

Anyway; enough of my rambling; on with the questions!

- Why did Greatsword’s attack binds change, or am I seeing things?
- What are the Guardian’s worst/best weapon combos?
- What are they weak/strong against?
- Is there a website or forum where I can check out strong builds with information?
- Like the question above, is there armor sets I should aim for first to maximize performance?
- I hear about Karma farming, was there anything I should note that’s optimal for Guardians?
________

Thanks for taking a moment to read these questions, and I understand a slight frustration towards the cliche “what is the best, and only the very very best” for any class. Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to play as much as many who have been level 80 for quite some time.

I ask these questions so I catch up a little more quickly, and step up my game to make sure I’m not hindering my allies. I tend to have a high aptitude for these kind of things but any information would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you once again,

~ Yujiza

To my very limited experience with my Guardian, I’m loving her 0/5/30/30/5 build, with Greatsword and Staff. Had good damage output, and great self healing, along with a decent group heal with Staff #4. Greatsword binds were changed around in a patch, so you aren’t going crazy. As far as karma farming, that’s typically done in Straits of Devastation for level 70-80 range, and also there is a level 80 karma farm in Cursed Shores, although I’ve not done any of that yet, so I can’t go into details on it. For the karma God Temple armor, 42k karma a piece, and you’ll want to focus on the Power/Toughness/Vitality gear from them, and then a mixture of Valkyrie, Knights, or Clerics depending on what roles you are wanting to fill.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARGFZh77IFiPkiIXgtAsHYE+Z86hDpIDB

Here’s the spec link, with the utilities I’m currently using. The heal you can use the Signet heal for an extra condition purge every 10 seconds and a much larger heal on a longer cooldown, or go with Shelter for a smaller heal on a shorter cooldown, but you also gain might when you block with that spec, and you block all attacks for 2 seconds when you use Shelter. With those blocked attacks giving you Might, the Altruistic Healing trait is healing you for each blocked attack also. Kinda a 50/50 on which heal to use, I tend to switch them up.

Yujiza.1026:

- Why did Greatsword’s attack binds change, or am I seeing things?

Symbol of Wrath’s cooldown was increased to 20s (was 10s) and Leap of Faith’s cooldown was decreased to 15s. As the abilities are ordered from lowest cooldown to highest, Symbol of Wrath was moved to #4, while Whirling Wrath and Leap of Faith was moved to #2 and #3 respectively.

Yujiza.1026:

- Like the question above, is there armor sets I should aim for first to maximize performance?

This is dependent on the build/playstyle you’re going for.

Yujiza.1026:

- I hear about Karma farming, was there anything I should note that’s optimal for Guardians?

You can farm karma the old way, i.e. running around Orr and completing dynamic events. However, Champions in dungeons now drop Bags of Wondrous Loot, containing Drop of Liquid Karma (400 Karma), and completing an Explorable path the first time of a day awards 1880 Karma. Nothing specifically needed by Guardians, although keep in mind that Orr is much more barren after the introduction of the Fractals of the Mist.

just to add a few things from my own experiences and thoughts, without repeating what’s already been touched on : )))

- What are the Guardian’s worst/best weapon combos?

- What are they weak/strong against?

weapon choice really depends on what type of playstyle you like. i am personally almost always all 2-handed weapons:

• Hammer – pretty decent control if you mix it up with #3, #4 and even #5. #5 works well against mobs or even PvP if they don’t have stability, not just to trap, but you can even drop it if you see an enemy running towards and just watch them run into it and topple over. #1 chain is pretty powerful with added protection and #2 to self combo. offers great PBAoE
• Greatsword – pretty darn good DPS and feels fast. seems you’re more familiar with this? : )) #5 is what keeps me coming back. #5 —> new #4 —> #2 is what i like openign with for a bunch of mobs. or even in WvW to really mow down some invader’s health fast.
• and Staff – great for traveling, #4 and #5 are great skills as well. #4 with altruistic healing can give you up to (72*12*5) = 4k+ heals at level 80 and given you hit all 5 allies (yourself included) with full 12 stacks of might; staff #1 spam is great for tagging mobs, which i’ll touch on later re: farming, as well as if you’r ein WvW and defending a gate. the other day, i got up to 10 kills just spamming #1 behind a gate. boring perhaps, but effective.
• the rest – although i do have a fondness for the scepter. which i pair up with a shield or focus, depending. the scepter can built to be very strong against single target. the mace and shield/focus combo is extremely survivable. sword provides mobility and also good against single target, but i haven’t used it much since early levels. the torch as well. it’s fun to breathe fire and can add some ranged DPS but i haven’t touched this in a while too.

- Is there a website or forum where I can check out strong builds with information?

• there is the sticky thread, Hammer and Altruistic Healing gameplay thread you can check out. works great with the GS as well. and you can tinker it to your own liking.
• there are quite a few build threads on www.gw2guru.com in the Guardian seb-forum that you can check out as well. one idea is you can test it in open PvE or like some like to do, test diff builds out in the Heart of the Mists

- Like the question above, is there armor sets I should aim for first to maximize performance?

• again, depends how you want to play. if you’re looking for a starting point, all knight’s gear, paired with Soldier’s (pow/vit/tou) chest and pants offer great survivability, along with enough crit to do decent dmg. can go knight’s jewelry as well for even more toughness. or switch out for berserker’s if you want more dmg. many like to mix and match as well.
• personally i feel condition dmg or healing doesn’t add too much for the Guardian. others may beg to differ, however
• runes – a whole lot of chocies! and can be really fun : )) maybe if you share how you want to play your Guardian, people can help offer more advice

- I hear about Karma farming, was there anything I should note that’s optimal for Guardians?

• as Ojimaru mentioned, Orr is pretty barren now. depending on your server and the time you’re on.. i used to just spam staff #1, 2 and 3 for tagging mobs and contribute a sufficient amount to get karma/loot as long as you’re there for the majority of the time.. however, now with the lower population, i just use my hammer or greatsword to play “normally”, as you don’t have to “fight” to tag mobs nowadays..

hope this helps!