Guild Wars 2

Originally, I was going to make the typical support type guardian and use durability runes… but that’s such a lame playstyle IMO.

I would rather go with something like this

I feel like guardian has pretty good tools for be a sort of sustained power build with high burst. Anyone try these runes out on guardian?

Are you talking about ZvZ fights or roaming?
Because honestly this build is really selfish for Zerg play,
And if you’re talking about that roaming then I’m definitely not the person to answer

Few critiques

1: For WvW sword has some problems, _(the auto chain misses allot on moving targets or targets with elevation differences

2: Rune of the defender, while defensive has hefty cool downs & without stacking healing power the bonuses aren’t that great.

3: Honor, if your not stacking healing power to boost pure of heart & dodge healing there isn’t much point in them

4: Without a reliable source of swiftness or run speed you will get left behind. I suggest a rune change or making sure an ally has group swiftness.

5: Without some stability your likely to get bounced around like a ping pong ball.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears to be a roaming build that is designed to support a small group more so than either zerging or solo-roaming.

I used to run defender runes pre-HoT. The extra sustain from the 6th rune effect is fantastic. The major problem with this rune though is that you really lack mobility by not taking traveler’s runes.

Pros of your build:
-Fantastic personal sustain
-Good condi-clear; on par with a regular DH roamer.
-Great damage, although predictable, you can combo together some high damage combos like JI —> LB 2 —> f1 (pull) —> f2 leap —>auto x2, wait for target to condi clear and dodge —> LB 2 again.

Cons of your build:
-Low mobility. This will hurt you in some scenarios. Will have difficulty landing hits with sword.
-What support you do provide is only marginally better than what a normal DH roamer can provide without defender runes, or your traits.
-Will be weak vs. condi burst (chill necro, condi-shatter mes, condi revs). Having traited virtue of resolve does help quite a bit.

Suggestions if you roam with this build: Roam with a herald revenant, you need that swiftness. Also, consider traiting Bulwark instead of Hunter’s Determination. That extra 2 seconds could clear 1 more condi, plus the bigger f3 makes blocking attacks for allies much easier.

Overall though, the best kind of support a DH provides to a smaller group is CC, strong burst and decent dps for target focusing. Since you lack in the CC department and instead go for the group-support, I argue you get that group support enough through f3, shield 4 and 5. You could honestly support your group equally well with this same build, but with traveler runes instead of defender runes. The mobility bonus can actually equate to extra sustain itself!

One big problem of the Rune of Defender, the #6 bonus will always start on cooldown because of the perma Aegis that Guard have…

This is true; hence why ranger, engi and mes make better use of that 6th bonus. However it’s mostly not an issue as any half decent guardian should be lasting >30 seconds in a fight. If you’re in such a fight that doesn’t allow this, then it’s unlikely the rune would have helped much anyways.

On my DH I went traveler runes.

Same as on any characters I have that don’t have innate 25%+ runspeed.

Quality of life

fost.9167:

On my DH I went traveler runes.

Same as on any characters I have that don’t have innate 25%+ runspeed.

Quality of life

^This

Yep, I’ve said this before: I resisted using rune of the traveler for the longest time as a roamer in wvw. I ran with the next best thing in terms of min-maxing, and getting at least some swiftness (rune of the pack). I tried traveler runes once when their price dropped, just to see if they were really so great. The qol improvement was amazing, and I doubt I’ll ever go back

^ totally not an infomercial, try em out yourself!

ZvZ: RUNE OF MELANDRU/TROOPER OR ANY TANKY RUNES

GvG: RUN WHAT YOUR GUILD NEEDS

SOLO ROAM: TRAVELERS ONLY. ANYTHING ELSE YOU DESERVE TO BE RUN OVER.

GROUP ROAM: TRAVELERS OR PACK.

DUELING: TRAPPER FOR FUN

Runs of the Defender are not meant for guardians. They’re meant for classes without aegis and good block uptime such as engineers with gear shield or warrior shield. Getting some occasional regeneration doesn’t help, nor does that healing power since you have nothing that scales well with healing power beyond pure of heart. Also, the build doesn’t have unscathed contender, which would greatly benefit from aegis. Might want to look into getting virtues, because that’s a great deal of group support.

For solo roam I would recommend you (if you use at least 2 traps) runes of trapper as the best choice. I have always been fan of runes of traveler, and I actually keep using them many times, but believe me, runes of trapper combined with superior sigil of agility on some weapon gives you the best mobility so far. I have kited from hammer revenants and thieves so easily with them, you can troll people so much with the trap stealth and port, people will lose your target frequently and you wont be focused that much in team fights.