Shield or Focus for AH guardian?
Game mode?
PvE: dont use AH
PvP: Focus
Hello darkness, my old friend.
Focus. Shield won’t save you while CC’d but focus 5 can, not to mention it can secure stomps with both skills.
While shiled has its moments ~96,4% of bunker guards take focus.
Focus. Shield won’t save you while CC’d but focus 5 can, not to mention it can secure stomps with both skills.
While shiled has its moments ~96,4% of bunker guards take focus.
I would be using this for pvp
Focus is 100% superior to shield.
Focus is 100% superior to shield.
The problem im having with the focus right now is im really squishy with it. When I bring focus in the big fights I tend to do A LOT, my health drops incredibly fast. I haven’t been having that problem with the sheild, but what is making the focus a better option?
Which do you think is better to go with my mace in a AH build?
Mace: #1 Melee cleave #2 Symbol on your location #3 Block/Damages. Melee weapon so you need a target to stay close
Shield: #4 Does absolutely nothing #5 Pushes enemy away from you
Focus: #4 Blind and Regen #5 Blocks attacks or damages enemy
The Mace and Focus has a good symbiosis while the shield at its current state does the opposite of what you want when you’re using a Mace.
I’d love if they Shield would get a whole rework, #4 could do something like “Block 1 attack, apply 2 second of Chill on attacker” like some NPCS already do. But now? Focus in 99% of all cases
9 Guardians later…
(edited by Vikkela.7261)
Which do you think is better to go with my mace in a AH build?
Mace: #1 Melee cleave #2 Symbol on your location #3 Block/Damages. Melee weapon so you need a target to stay close
Shield: #4 Does absolutely nothing #5 Pushes enemy away from you
Focus: #4 Blind and Regen #5 Blocks attacks or damages enemyThe Mace and Focus has a good symbiosis while the shield at its current state does the opposite of what you want when you’re using a Mace.
I’d love if they Shield would get a whole rework, #4 could do something like “Block 1 attack, apply 2 second of Chill on attacker” like some NPCS already do. But now? Focus in 99% of all cases
I guess I need to learn how to live with focus then, I do have a few questions though. Should I use strength in numbers? Another thing I always wanted to know is why sigil of intelligence on both is always recommended? A general strat on staying alive might help too xD
Which do you think is better to go with my mace in a AH build?
Mace: #1 Melee cleave #2 Symbol on your location #3 Block/Damages. Melee weapon so you need a target to stay close
Shield: #4 Does absolutely nothing #5 Pushes enemy away from you
Focus: #4 Blind and Regen #5 Blocks attacks or damages enemyThe Mace and Focus has a good symbiosis while the shield at its current state does the opposite of what you want when you’re using a Mace.
I’d love if they Shield would get a whole rework, #4 could do something like “Block 1 attack, apply 2 second of Chill on attacker” like some NPCS already do. But now? Focus in 99% of all casesI guess I need to learn how to live with focus then, I do have a few questions though. Should I use strength in numbers? Another thing I always wanted to know is why sigil of intelligence on both is always recommended? A general strat on staying alive might help too xD
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Altruistic_Healing_Bunker <- gear, traits, sigils, viable options etc are listed here along with usage.
Your crit chance is pretty low, Sigil of Intelligence helps to proc the trait that gives you vigor upon landing a crit hit.
The Focus is generally considered a lot better and with some reason. It offers more survivability than the Shield does, which is what you’re looking for when playing an AH build. The Blinds and Blocks are generally more useful than anything the Shield has to offer. On top of that, Focus can help you with some extra burst damage.
That being said, I still quite like the Shield (more than most people here). I tend to run it when I’m playing with my guild group, where the healing, the ranged absorb and the knockdown become more useful (because my group can capitalize on it). That still lets you run the Shield for only one skill (seriously, the 4 skill is horrible).
Focus is 100% superior to shield.
The problem im having with the focus right now is im really squishy with it. When I bring focus in the big fights I tend to do A LOT, my health drops incredibly fast. I haven’t been having that problem with the sheild, but what is making the focus a better option?
That shouldn’t happen. The Focus just offers more in terms of survivability. The only thing the Shield really offers is the knockback with the healing, which can give you a bit of a breather. How do you use both weapons? And is this Solo Queue, Hot Join or Group Queue? It could just be that you get focused a lot and your group isn’t helping you survive that.
“Come on, hit me!”
The Focus is generally considered a lot better and with some reason. It offers more survivability than the Shield does, which is what you’re looking for when playing an AH build. The Blinds and Blocks are generally more useful than anything the Shield has to offer. On top of that, Focus can help you with some extra burst damage.
That being said, I still quite like the Shield (more than most people here). I tend to run it when I’m playing with my guild group, where the healing, the ranged absorb and the knockdown become more useful (because my group can capitalize on it). That still lets you run the Shield for only one skill (seriously, the 4 skill is horrible).
Focus is 100% superior to shield.
The problem im having with the focus right now is im really squishy with it. When I bring focus in the big fights I tend to do A LOT, my health drops incredibly fast. I haven’t been having that problem with the sheild, but what is making the focus a better option?
That shouldn’t happen. The Focus just offers more in terms of survivability. The only thing the Shield really offers is the knockback with the healing, which can give you a bit of a breather. How do you use both weapons? And is this Solo Queue, Hot Join or Group Queue? It could just be that you get focused a lot and your group isn’t helping you survive that.
It’s a bit of each, hot joins arent too bad, but rated play it starts to fall apart a bit. They’ll focus me and the heals can’t quite keep up with the burst damage. What should I expect my group to do when I’m using my AH guardian? I need to find out what the mindset is with focus and how to use the focus skills correctly so I can offer a bit more sustain as right now im really, really squishy with it.
Your teammates need to stay close to you so that you can apply boons (and heal yourself), place symbol under etc. Altruistic Healing is as strong as the number of boons you can grant.
Hotjoins will always be hit or miss. I’m really confident in my ability to stay alive against multiple opponents (even successfully defending mid against two players with the wrong traits…) but some hotjoin matches just can’t be helped. If the other team is randomly more organized than you are, there’s no way you’re going to win. And people in hotjoin occasionally run builds that are a lot burstier than what you would expect in sPvP.
If you play rated matches and you get focused, your team should attack the people focusing you down with everything they got. They need to force the opponent on the defensive. With an AH build, you should always have at least one ally with you to get the most out of your build.
Specific advice for using the Focus:
- I find the Blind to be too slow to reliably prevent specific attacks, so I just use it whenever or to cleanse a condition. This probably isn’t optimal in high level play, but at my level it still works.
- Try to use the Blind close to an enemy, that way it’ll probably bounce back to you.
- The Scepter’s shield can be used when stunned and it might be beneficial for you to use it for that.
- I also try to time that shield for when I’m standing in the Mace’s Symbol or have Regeneration or Virtue of Resolve ticking, to get a good deal of uninterrupted healing trickling in.
I find it really odd that you survive significantly longer with the Shield, since when I use it I do so despite it lowering my survivability. Could you describe (in rough terms) how a fight usually goes for you?.
“Come on, hit me!”
Hotjoins will always be hit or miss. I’m really confident in my ability to stay alive against multiple opponents (even successfully defending mid against two players with the wrong traits…) but some hotjoin matches just can’t be helped. If the other team is randomly more organized than you are, there’s no way you’re going to win. And people in hotjoin occasionally run builds that are a lot burstier than what you would expect in sPvP.
If you play rated matches and you get focused, your team should attack the people focusing you down with everything they got. They need to force the opponent on the defensive. With an AH build, you should always have at least one ally with you to get the most out of your build.
Specific advice for using the Focus:
- I find the Blind to be too slow to reliably prevent specific attacks, so I just use it whenever or to cleanse a condition. This probably isn’t optimal in high level play, but at my level it still works.
- Try to use the Blind close to an enemy, that way it’ll probably bounce back to you.
- The Scepter’s shield can be used when stunned and it might be beneficial for you to use it for that.
- I also try to time that shield for when I’m standing in the Mace’s Symbol or have Regeneration or Virtue of Resolve ticking, to get a good deal of uninterrupted healing trickling in.
I find it really odd that you survive significantly longer with the Shield, since when I use it I do so despite it lowering my survivability. Could you describe (in rough terms) how a fight usually goes for you?.
Thank you for the information, I’ll try to elaborate on the common problem I have with shield vs focus:
I can take more hits and have more 1v1 potential, there’s been times where my team wiped and I was able to hold the enemies off until they re spawn and came back to help me The moment I am left alone or a team mate dies, I am almost instantly down due to no protection against high burst. I’ll be forced to pop shields and use shouts just to survive the long burst, but then that leaves me vulnerable with no utilities. The moment I am focused I am dead faster than I can react.
If my dps partner roaming with me is a read the wind ranger, would you still recommend they stay close to me?
If my dps partner roaming with me is a read the wind ranger, would you still recommend they stay close to me?
Yes, nothing is easier than teleporting past a bunker and burst down the squishy longbow Ranger
9 Guardians later…
Thank you for the information, I’ll try to elaborate on the common problem I have with shield vs focus:
I can take more hits and have more 1v1 potential, there’s been times where my team wiped and I was able to hold the enemies off until they re spawn and came back to help me The moment I am left alone or a team mate dies, I am almost instantly down due to no protection against high burst. I’ll be forced to pop shields and use shouts just to survive the long burst, but then that leaves me vulnerable with no utilities. The moment I am focused I am dead faster than I can react.
If my dps partner roaming with me is a read the wind ranger, would you still recommend they stay close to me?
In most cases of 1v1 (where the enemy isn’t extremely bursty) you should survive well enough without even using a heal skill. In 1v2 you should be able to hold your own (regardless of your offhand) for quite a while, again conditional on the enemies not being completely burst-focused.
You should probably learn to better identify which damage and conditions you can safely ignore and which you really need to block/avoid. (By the way, which sigils do you use on your weapons?) Things like your heal, your blocks and your elite skill should be kept for the really big bursts. Also, if the enemy team has a lot of ranged players (say, 3 professions that are likely to kite you: Engineer, Ranger, some Warriors) consider swapping out one Shout for Wall of Reflection. That helps a lot against ranged bursts.
Your partner should stay close to you, at least in range of your Shouts, but preferably also on your Symbols. You miss out on a lot of extra healing if your boons aren’t reaching them.
“Come on, hit me!”
Thank you for the information, I’ll try to elaborate on the common problem I have with shield vs focus:
I can take more hits and have more 1v1 potential, there’s been times where my team wiped and I was able to hold the enemies off until they re spawn and came back to help me The moment I am left alone or a team mate dies, I am almost instantly down due to no protection against high burst. I’ll be forced to pop shields and use shouts just to survive the long burst, but then that leaves me vulnerable with no utilities. The moment I am focused I am dead faster than I can react.
If my dps partner roaming with me is a read the wind ranger, would you still recommend they stay close to me?
In most cases of 1v1 (where the enemy isn’t extremely bursty) you should survive well enough without even using a heal skill. In 1v2 you should be able to hold your own (regardless of your offhand) for quite a while, again conditional on the enemies not being completely burst-focused.
You should probably learn to better identify which damage and conditions you can safely ignore and which you really need to block/avoid. (By the way, which sigils do you use on your weapons?) Things like your heal, your blocks and your elite skill should be kept for the really big bursts. Also, if the enemy team has a lot of ranged players (say, 3 professions that are likely to kite you: Engineer, Ranger, some Warriors) consider swapping out one Shout for Wall of Reflection. That helps a lot against ranged bursts.
Your partner should stay close to you, at least in range of your Shouts, but preferably also on your Symbols. You miss out on a lot of extra healing if your boons aren’t reaching them.
Im still having some trouble surviving with the focus, it’s not quite having the same sustain as the shield still.
What’s your build look like DrDivine?
What’s your build look like DrDivine?
I just copied the build from meta battle wiki titled “AH bunker Guardian” and on paper, it sounds like it works really well. It has over 3k armor , lots of condi clears and some good heals, but when it comes to relying on the focus I have really bad survivability.
With the shield, it’s a bit more user friendly as it has better cooldowns and a pushback i naddition to +90 toughness. The focus I just can’t survive with, the moment I am focused in a team fight I almost drop instantly. I’ll be taking 8k hits so I have to pop my heals which are struggling to keep up with the massive dps from enemy players. Once the block on the focus is exspired, I die pretty easily.
What’s your build look like DrDivine?
I just copied the build from meta battle wiki titled “AH bunker Guardian” and on paper, it sounds like it works really well. It has over 3k armor , lots of condi clears and some good heals, but when it comes to relying on the focus I have really bad survivability.
With the shield, it’s a bit more user friendly as it has better cooldowns and a pushback i naddition to +90 toughness. The focus I just can’t survive with, the moment I am focused in a team fight I almost drop instantly. I’ll be taking 8k hits so I have to pop my heals which are struggling to keep up with the massive dps from enemy players. Once the block on the focus is exspired, I die pretty easily.
You should not use your healing skill unless you are getting bursted or extremely low on HP. You have many ways to heal yourself up with other skills, like using Empower on staff. Use your healing skill and your elite when you are being heavily focused because they give you block/invulnerability. Use staff 5 to disrupt the burst and gain some time.
And try to LoS. You can’t do that on most capture points, but sometimes you can leave the point for some seconds, especially if you have a D/D ele or a Hambow who can take your place for a bit of time on the point. This gives you time to reset a bit.
And dodge. This is the only possible issue i can see. You are likely facetanking entire shatter combos atm. Keep playing the build and learn to watch out for enemy burst, it’s a matter of practice.
Or you can also try the other bunker guard build: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Traditional_Bunker – Tage often uses this with Sanctuary and Shield, but IMO it’s harder.
What’s your build look like DrDivine?
I just copied the build from meta battle wiki titled “AH bunker Guardian” and on paper, it sounds like it works really well. It has over 3k armor , lots of condi clears and some good heals, but when it comes to relying on the focus I have really bad survivability.
With the shield, it’s a bit more user friendly as it has better cooldowns and a pushback i naddition to +90 toughness. The focus I just can’t survive with, the moment I am focused in a team fight I almost drop instantly. I’ll be taking 8k hits so I have to pop my heals which are struggling to keep up with the massive dps from enemy players. Once the block on the focus is exspired, I die pretty easily.
You should not use your healing skill unless you are getting bursted or extremely low on HP. You have many ways to heal yourself up with other skills, like using Empower on staff. Use your healing skill and your elite when you are being heavily focused because they give you block/invulnerability. Use staff 5 to disrupt the burst and gain some time.
And try to LoS. You can’t do that on most capture points, but sometimes you can leave the point for some seconds, especially if you have a D/D ele or a Hambow who can take your place for a bit of time on the point. This gives you time to reset a bit.
And dodge. This is the only possible issue i can see. You are likely facetanking entire shatter combos atm. Keep playing the build and learn to watch out for enemy burst, it’s a matter of practice.
Or you can also try the other bunker guard build: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Traditional_Bunker – Tage often uses this with Sanctuary and Shield, but IMO it’s harder.
Yeah, I don’t want to dismiss the focus as “bad,” I just don’t have a good grasp on how to use the build. A good example is the double ranged shatter build with mesmer, I was dying A LOT with it before someone told me what to do and how to properly use my utilities and I faired much better. With the AH guardian, I haven’t quite mastered how to react to situations yet lol