Guild Wars 2

Ive tried a bunch of different builds since hitting 80 and multiple gear loadouts with each. I’ve tried glass cannons, Radiance crit builds, honor/virtue support builds, valor tank type builds, but all of them didn’t mesh well with my playstyle. I’ve finally found a build that fits my solo centric play, but with small utility benefits for my allies. I won’t save the day, but will be incredibly sturdy while putting out some solid dps.

The idea was to solo easily and be a frontliner melee in events. Ive used heavy honor but really like the valor line, even though many consider it lackluster. I’ve also heard meditations are considered meh, but I’ve found for my playse they are multifunctional tools that can be clicked for multiple end results.

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/guardian#1.0.2.0-3.7.5.4.1-0.15.30.20.5-12.7.4.8.5.8

0/15/30/20/5

Lots of burning. Decent amount of crits that hurt. Great self healing (dodge on a fast refill, aegis dropping, meditations, life steal/water sigil, symbols too if needed) mitigation with high toughness and constant protection which meshes very well with that amount of armor, constant retaliation, might (if I don’t slot the +20 2h recharge) and vigor.

Gear for berserker chest/legs, Valkyrie and knight mix other peices. Knights/valk mix jewelry, knight weapon.

Stats look like: 2600 attack (might stacks from staff help alphas), 30 crit with 60 crit damage, 1800 toughness, 16.3k HP, and close to 350 healing.

Hammer all the way for protection and retaliation. It seems to actually do more damage than the GS unless you spec for lots of might duration and fight swarms with GS (something to be said for sustainable 10-15 stacks of might but can’t do it with higher dps and mitigation too).

Anyways it’s a fun build and really fits my playstyle. It’s not support oriented through traits but can easily drop the meditation traits and utilities for a different loadouts. The beauty of this trait loadouts is that it’s not weapon restricted really, nor does it need to be very utility specific., but will benefit most from meditations or signets.

Focus meant for WvW, sPvP, or PvE/Dungeons?

I’ve done a little bit of everything with it. For spvp I really would go with a more support oriented build though, dropping valor to 20, crank honor to 30 and trait for condition removal and shouts. Same loadouts otherwise.

For wvwvw this spec is solid. Not at a Zerg but against roamers I’ve won every 1on1 an quite a few 2v1.

For pve this spec allows you to handle 5 Orr mobs easily. For dungeons I’m finding again going for 30 honor over valor to pull ahead due to group utility but this version works fine in most. I’d swap the staff for scepter focus, and get might for allies on crit. Spec shouts and boons healing allies instead of med heals.

It’s quite versatile, and that 30 crit 60ish crit damage (often overlooked bonus of valor for more damage oriented specs that want to opt for some survivability) is beastly.

I frequently finish off my fights at full HP.

Aren’t all the meditations you picked instant already? (I just tried this, and I’m pretty sure they are)
Because then you can switch out Focused Mind for something else. (Note that the talent calculator you used is outdated. It doesn’t contain the new hammer trait and it still contains Altruistic Healer, which isn’t there anymore… at least I can’t find it )

Kelgrim.2146:

Aren’t all the meditations you picked instant already? (I just tried this, and I’m pretty sure they are)
Because then you can switch out Focused Mind for something else. (Note that the talent calculator you used is outdated. It doesn’t contain the new hammer trait and it still contains Altruistic Healer, which isn’t there anymore… at least I can’t find it )

Smite isn’t instant.

Qelris.6901:

Kelgrim.2146:

Aren’t all the meditations you picked instant already? (I just tried this, and I’m pretty sure they are)
Because then you can switch out Focused Mind for something else. (Note that the talent calculator you used is outdated. It doesn’t contain the new hammer trait and it still contains Altruistic Healer, which isn’t there anymore… at least I can’t find it )

Smite isn’t instant.

You’re right, missed the casting bar. Not sure if it’s worth the trait point though, because the cast time for that is still really short.

Kinda funny,I use 0/15/30/20/5 too,and I also use Hammer/Staff,though I use some different Major Traits,Utilities,and gear.

I do use instant meditations and Smite Condition though. I originally put it up just to try it out because none of the Valor Majors looked very good to me. But I love it now,instant means whenever. That means I can be doing my Hammer combo,be on the symbol windup,and even in the middle of that I can use Smite Condition without stopping my attacks. The difference between short cast time and anytime with no animation is huge,especially on it’s short cooldown.

“I’ve finally found a build that fits my solo centric play”
’nuff said.

Why even roll a guardian?

D I V A: While I’m sure plenty of people chose the Guardian because they want to support (including myself), I’m also pretty sure some people picked the Guardian for the visual appeal, the paladin archetype, because they’ve heard it was really strong…

Never realized instant meant you could use it without interrupting your current action. That makes it a lot stronger indeed!

(Sorta makes sense in the ‘you can do it in an instant’ kind of context)

True but two of the mediations are instant and break stun anyway, the trait is still lacking a little.

How is your damage with 0 power? I’m trying to figure out my spec and would like to do some damage but also want Crit toughness and vitality so trying to figure out which to lower. So having any issues with damage?

This build morphed into crit hammer naturally just by swapping major traits from meditations to AH. I still run this build but dropped some toughness for more power and crit damage. Still solid GS+hammer for pve open world with bloodlust on GS makes the hammer even more beastly. Also swapped into life steal with omnom pie and blood sigil, works surprisingly well. Still swap to a med build for spvp.

At almost 2k power it’s really strong. Usually sustains around 3300 to 3500 attack solo, more in groups. Stats look like (beserk GS with bloodlust,and knights hammer with blood) (scepter/staff/sword are blood, focus/torch/shield are air)
3k attack
2600/2800 armor
40 crit before food, 74/83 crit dmg
16k HP (18k with staff for wvwvw)
Healing power is 200 from traits alone

Solid.

My build is pretty close, besides the gear, but I like a little more damage and crit so I run 0/25/25/20/0 and to compensate for 0 zeal I use bane signet (gives 90 power passive and active can knockdown runners on chase) instead of CP. I found out that this build is excellent for damage and survivability and as you since I changed I never lost a 1v1. I play 99% of the time on WvWvW so this build fits perfect. One thing I might change is the 5 points in Virtues, I really love those addins.