Guild Wars 2

So I decided to record the last couple of games I had before I made it in the top 25 for solo que. I know leaderboards ranking don’t really mean much, but I still had a goal of getting there. I tried to leave out any “ownage” game play, and put long and nice group fight clips. They might not be the best clips, but I feel they are decent.

So here’s some solo que tpvp gameplay from a dps guard point of view.

Well done, congratulations and nice video. Glad you decided to share more typical gameplay instead of “ownage” clips.

Not a bad video, only thing i’d change would be to use shelter instead of Litany of Wrath. What’s your build?

I know a lot of guards hate Litany, but it fits me well. Number of reasons I like it. It promotes aggressive gameplay, it has the shortest CD, and it’s another source of fury.

As for the build here’s the link. I left weapons empty because I use different ones regularly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQBdCRUaoxh4GCfIKkMFFICaLA/QFd9AiioGC-TgAg0CnIYSxkjJDTSmsMB

Fair enough. I’d also take 10 out of Honor and put it into Virtues for stability. I only say this because Pure of Heart is pretty lackluster and since you’re not running much Aegis activation, it might benefit you more.

I did play around with 0/5/30/5/30 for a bit. Wasn’t too fond of it. The stab from Courage is only three seconds and it’s on 69 second cd. If anything I’d just drop JI, pick up SYG, and use Superior Aria.

However I’m fairly happy with the build. It gives you a lot of sustain for a med build. Of course the drawback is like you mentioned with no stab.

Sounds good man, just trying to help. You could also do Supreme justice instead for more damage.

Just out of curiosity, how effective is Unscathed Contender? Aegis is rarely applied in that build and, as far as I know, is removed even when you blind/block. I, myself, can’t really seem to use it effectively.

Aegis is generally applied five times in a fight if I’m alone, more if it’s a team fight. Which is why I use Unscathed Contender and Pure of Heart. Your initial burst is effective the most by Unscathed Contender. You can generally get off most, if not all your burst while maintaining Aegis.

You get Aegis when you hit 50% hp. Thanks to Valorous Defense.
Virtue of Courage Passive
Virtue of Courage Active
Renewed Focused
Virtue of Courage Passive
Virtue of Courage Active

Another thing people have to realize is the other Virtues adept traits aren’t worth taking with this build.

Vengeful- Not that useful. Instead of nine seconds of Retaliation, I get twelve.
Retaliatory Subconscious- Three seconds of Retaliation when CCd, again not worth it.

All other adept trait pertain to Consecrations and Spirit Weapons.

So that leaves Unscathed Contender and Vengeful. So what would you rather have. The ability to do 20% more damage, or three extra seconds of Retaliation.

You can play damage Guard?
Most of the solo queue I get into if I have anything that says damage people automaticly go “Great a damage Guard” with profound sarcasm since that usually is folloed with insult too if we lose, because automaticly is my or any other guards fault.
Since then i go Healway with M/S and Staff if we don’t have bunker, if we have I’ll go GS & Sword/F

mPascoal.4258:

You can play damage Guard?
Most of the solo queue I get into if I have anything that says damage people automaticly go “Great a damage Guard” with profound sarcasm since that usually is folloed with insult too if we lose, because automaticly is my or any other guards fault.
Since then i go Healway with M/S and Staff if we don’t have bunker, if we have I’ll go GS & Sword/F

Tell me about it. Don’t think I’ve ever received more verbal abuse in map chat and whispers when I used a meditation build. Things like “lol this guy is using a new meta?” and “dps guardians are bad” (filtered out the swearing).

That’s because people are misinformed. For the most part I have always ran dps or hybrid guard in pvp. I find bunker to be a bit stale, and doesn’t fit my play style.

Dps guards are completely viable in both spvp and tpvp. They bring a large amount of damage, yet have great sustain if you can manage your blinds, blocks, and dodges.

I see you used a number of different weapons? Care to explain which ones, why, and which sigils?

I usually play Ranger in spvp but guardian for everything else. Never wanted to be a bunker on him so I am interested in your perspective. Thanks.

General weapon combos I’m fond of:

GS/Staff: This gives you great AoE damage and support. Better for team fights then 1v1.

Hammer/Staff: Similar to gs/staff, however you give up some damage for more CC.

GS/Sword+F: Great for sustain damage. Also offers the max amount of blinds.

M+T/Sword+F: Great for burst damage.

Only weapon I tend to stay away from is scepter. The auto attack is too slow and can be easily avoided, making it unreliable. Smite is decent, however it’s also easy to avoid. Shield can be used as an offhand, but I really wouldn’t recommend it in a dps build.

As for sigils:

GS/Staff and Hammer/Staff I use Sigil of Bloodlust and Energy.

GS/Sword+F I like to go for might stacking. With Sigil of Strength, Battle, and Bloodlust.

M+T/Sword+F is similar to the might stacking. However I’ll throw in a Sigil of Force.

i use gs/hammer and the burst is ridiculous. JI + hammer 5 guarantees kills, sometimes multiple.

really good plays, but i feel you’d be so much stronger by dropping staff and using shelter/SoR. i am also not sure how u do well without SYG with all the hambows and engies running around. but obviously it works for u.

mistsim.2748:

i use gs/hammer and the burst is ridiculous. JI + hammer 5 guarantees kills, sometimes multiple.

really good plays, but i feel you’d be so much stronger by dropping staff and using shelter/SoR. i am also not sure how u do well without SYG with all the hambows and engies running around. but obviously it works for u.

what build you run while being gs/ham?

Thanks for sharing this Harbinger. It’s a shame more high end PvPers pass on good info like this more often.

it’s a pretty kitten fun build. sustain is decent, and aoe damage on point is beastly with GS/hammer. ive been flying up the ranks in team arena

Thanks for sharing Shall give this a whirl tonight

I have a question regarding Justice is blind, is the 240 radius, 25 sec cd blind better than say empowering might? I’m currently using the exact same build but with empowering might instead and 10 secs into the fight I’m running 9-12 stacks of might with GS/sw-fc.

Forgot to mention I don’t do spvp anymore unless I’m testing new builds. I stick to WvW roaming mostly.

Empowering Might is nice to have. However I feel it works better if you’re running an AH build with it.

Justice is Blind on the other hand is one of the best minor traits to have imo. Every build I run I make sure to get it. An AoE blind is extremely powerful.

I just tried this build for the last 2 days or so and just can’t get it to work. I’m probably fairly terrible so maybe there is a skill cap I am not seeing and just can’t meet but I feel much weaker on this character then on my ranger in spvp. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I’ve been 2 and 10 on this build. Granted I am not losing alone but can’t help but feel like I am contributing to those losses. I get knocked and pushed around a lot and the damage isn’t very impressive.

what am I doing wrong?

You could try a different med build until you get use to the class. This one is very forgiving, and still pumps out a lot of damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsd7flUgSDHHyKEfIFRuArHA8g+DXw1DIGxGC-TwAA1CnIKSVkrITRyisFNsYVw+jJEA

I’ve been playing the class since launch. Just not in pvp. Thanks I’ll take a look at that build. It could be sPVP is not for me and I should stay out of it.

You shouldn’t stay out of pvp, anyone can be good at it. You just have to practice and get use to it. PvE and PvP for guards is extremely different. A well-known PvEr isn’t going to do well in PvP for the first time, and vice versa.