Guild Wars 2

Basically what I would like to do is create a Lifesteal build based around 2 skills, Zealot’s Defense, and Cleansing Flame.

The idea here is to get my crit chance up to a significant level (60-70%) and wear Berserker’s armor, trinkets, and weapons. I would use the Superior Sigil of Blood and Omnomberry Pie for % chance to heal on crit.

The only reason I think this would work is because of my Thief build centered around the same concept but using the skill Pistol Whip, which does 9 quick attacks and can heal me for pretty insane amounts. This makes my Thief quite “tanky” while wearing DPS gear and outputting some really nice numbers.

So to break it down a bit further, I am thinking the 9 attacks from Zealot’s Defence, along with the 10 attacks from Cleansing Flame could equate to a very significant amount of self healing, while maintaining a lot of damage. Even as a Thief I am able to face tank pretty much anything in the game with just Pistol Whip … Could this be used through a Guardian build?

This is the build I am considering:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mccoc9Mz0mGLrmmGvNmaxGVVMMaqVo08kil7khT7070c7kGf70V7ofD70m

Any feedback is appricated.

EDIT: I should also note that this is for PvE only.

The wiki states that there is either a 2 or 5 second cooldown on sigil activation. As such, for the purposes of healing, it’s hard to justify reliance on fast hitting skills when at that crit chance level any other weapon would work just as well. You could possibly get away with empowering might + altruistic healing for the bulk of it, but sigil of blood would mostly be consigned to topping off.

kaffaljidhma.1496:

The wiki states that there is either a 2 or 5 second cooldown on sigil activation. As such, for the purposes of healing, it’s hard to justify reliance on fast hitting skills when at that crit chance level any other weapon would work just as well. You could possibly get away with empowering might + altruistic healing for the bulk of it, but sigil of blood would mostly be consigned to topping off.

There is a 2 sec Internal Cooldown on the Sigil, but not on the Omnomberry Pie, which you would get most of your healing from. With just the Pie my Thief can fully heal himself in about 2 Pistol Whips depending on how many procs he gets from the Omnomberry Pie. I would consider replacing the Sigil of Blood, because as you said, there is an internal cooldown.

Update

Apon looking at the Sword auto-attack chain attack, it looks like the final attack would work well with this build. It is a 3x attack that will hit a single target 3 times, or 3 targets once each. This may be a good filler while waiting for Zealot’s Defence, and Cleansing Flame to come off cooldown.

Heal on crit food will most likely be nerfed in upcoming patches, but it could work well while it lasts.

Can you get by with 10 in valor? Selfless daring and shout recharge would be kind of nice for those spammy fractal bosses that don’t even let you get off a combo.

kaffaljidhma.1496:

Can you get by with 10 in valor? Selfless daring and shout recharge would be kind of nice for those spammy fractal bosses that don’t even let you get off a combo.

Thats a great idea, and something I may have to look into. On my Thief I am able to face tank most bosses, with the occasional dodge when necessary (some attacks you just have to move no matter what). What I am hoping to do here is to create a very high DPS Guardian via critical hits, and make him beefy through lifesteal. As I said, I know it works on a Thief with Pistol Whip … what I am not sure about is if it will work with a Guardian who has to deal with cooldowns (Thieves have no cooldowns).

No one really interested in the Lifesteal Guardian build eh?

Well my wife and I tried this build out last night and it worked very well.

We got her up to 72% natural crit chance, which was augmented by my Thief and our Warrior friend constantly dropping Fury boons on the group, which brought her up to 92% crit chance. Zealots Defense and Cleansing Flame were hitting like a truck! At one point I looked over at her screen and saw a 15k crit, we had her up to 22 stacks of Might at that point though.

She face tanked Path 1 and 2 of CoF without any problems in full Berserker gear. The only real problem I saw with this build is that with such a low health pool, if you are not attacking you go down really fast. You need to take as many Stun breakers as you can to avoid being CC’d at all. One Cleansing Flame brought her from about 15% health up to about 90% health … its a dangerous way to play, but its very possible to pull off. I would imangin in the higher level Fractals you would get 1 shotted a lot of you were not careful.

I tried something very similar in Arah last night, worked well. I’m not in Berserker’s but I could tell that this did some decent damage and has good potential. I am going to regear for higher Crit and see how it pans out. I am currently running 20K hp, 2.6K armor, 2.7K Attack and just over 50% crit. I’m pretty sure I can drop the hp down some for more crit though. Used Mixed Berry Pie and Superior Sigil of Blood. Running 10/30/0/25/5 so I can support some M/S Symbol healing or 2h if needed. My play style is more about keeping Burning on the target and getting somewhat of a rotation down. This does well with Sc/F also.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Blood~

Mixed Berry Pie

I do not think the build will work without Omnomberry Pie to be honest. The “Heal on Crit” effect has no internal cooldown, which means when you crit nearly every attack on an attack that hits 10 times in 2 seconds, you have 10 chances at 66% to heal for ~400. This is what keeps you alive through pretty much anything that can not one shot you. This is also how my 10k health Thief is able to face tank every dungeon path in the game and still be able to critically hit for an average of about 9k.

This is a very aggressive, and rather dangerous build. In order to really make it work you need to get your crit chance as close to 100% as you can, which usually means dropping all Toughness and Vitality.

Superior Sigil of Blood

I found the healing from the Sigil of Blood to be rather lackluster for this build. With the Internal cooldown of 2 seconds (might be as high as 5 … not 100% sure) you get about 90% of your healing from food, and about 10% from the sigil. I think you are better off getting a Rune of Accuracy to up your crit rate by another 5% to be honest.

This does well with Sc/F also.

No I do not believe it would. The only skills that make this build really viable for the Guardian are Zealot’s Defense, and Cleansing Flame. It is because of how many attacks actually happen during the animation. With Zealot’s Defense you get 9 attacks in about 1.5-2 seconds, and with Cleansing Flame you get 10 attacks in about the same time. It is these fast attacks and constant critical hits that keep this glass cannon build alive through nearly anything (again, as long as it does not 1 shot you)

The mixed berry is the same kind of pie as the omnom just 50% instead of 66% and cheaper too. I actually use the blackberry version most of the time and save the omnom for when I really need it. Scepter is great for this, as it hits 15 times with a 6 sec cooldown, thats not to mention its very fast autoattack. Compare that with sword’s 8 hits on a 15 sec cooldown. I agree that 5% more crit is probably better than the sigil of blood.

I was using a similar method on my alt-guardian, but with the (much) cheaper blackberry pie. My distribution was 10/30/x/20/x — last 10 I usually had in virtues (might on justice), but sometimes in valor (precision from toughness).

There really isn’t a lot of difference between your build/methods and mine, except for the sigil: I used perception for more critical chance. I would have preferred more toughness over vitality, but I liked the 2H CD-20% trait too much to give up. It can be swapped for Empowering Might, too — for when you know you’ll be primarily 1H.

Accuracy sigil might be a lot better than perception for harder fights, too. Just a few downed states during a dungeon can effectively boost “always 5%” above the “~10% after a while, IF you never get downed.”

Been playing around with this build, and it works surprisingly well.

Using Omnomberry Pie, Sigil of Blood, and x6 runes of Vampirism. Only difference is I don’t go pure Berserker, I feel like you give up too much survivability. My armor and weapons are Knight and Soldier, then all my trinkets are Berserker and Valkyrie. Then I also put 30 into Zeal so I can get heals from using my Greatsword.

Real fun build, works well for aggressive players. More defensive players will have a harder time with it.

So pretty much attack to stay alive!

Kindread.9481:

Mixed Berry Pie

I do not think the build will work without Omnomberry Pie to be honest. The “Heal on Crit” effect has no internal cooldown, which means when you crit nearly every attack on an attack that hits 10 times in 2 seconds, you have 10 chances at 66% to heal for ~400. This is what keeps you alive through pretty much anything that can not one shot you. This is also how my 10k health Thief is able to face tank every dungeon path in the game and still be able to critically hit for an average of about 9k.

This is a very aggressive, and rather dangerous build. In order to really make it work you need to get your crit chance as close to 100% as you can, which usually means dropping all Toughness and Vitality.

Superior Sigil of Blood

I found the healing from the Sigil of Blood to be rather lackluster for this build. With the Internal cooldown of 2 seconds (might be as high as 5 … not 100% sure) you get about 90% of your healing from food, and about 10% from the sigil. I think you are better off getting a Rune of Accuracy to up your crit rate by another 5% to be honest.

This does well with Sc/F also.

No I do not believe it would. The only skills that make this build really viable for the Guardian are Zealot’s Defense, and Cleansing Flame. It is because of how many attacks actually happen during the animation. With Zealot’s Defense you get 9 attacks in about 1.5-2 seconds, and with Cleansing Flame you get 10 attacks in about the same time. It is these fast attacks and constant critical hits that keep this glass cannon build alive through nearly anything (again, as long as it does not 1 shot you)

I used Mixed Berry because it’s a bit cheaper but yes, Omnom does a better job. No problems with Mixed though.

I have Sigil of Accuracy in my off hand Torch and Blood in my main hand. Which poses a question, does Sigil of Accuracy effect all attacks or just the weapon that it’s attached to? Also, will Sigil of Accuracy stack if you have two slotted? I don’t believe the tooltip takes upgrades into account.

Scepter/Focus is my second standard weapon set for when I need to be at ranged, and it does work well as I can back off and refill my health then jump pack in.

I have adjusted my spec to 0/30/20/20/0 and am using Master Maintenance Oil now which is very nice. I’m sitting at ~70% crit, 18K HP and 2.7K armor. Its a very stable build and I feel it does nice damage. As I get more comfortable I will move less HP and Armor.

BTW, my earlier post was simply stating the build I was messing with, not a critique of yours But again, thanks for the inspiration, I really enjoy this type of build for my guardian. You can only Gsword/Hammer so much before it gets old.

Blood~