Guild Wars 2

What sigils do you recommend on each weapon for a zerker guard?

For greatsword I was thinking Sigil of Accuracy since critting is more important for skills like Whirling Wrath. But what about other weapons? What do you recommend? (Particularly Wand/Shield.)

I’ll give you some general recommendations, but it would help to know what sort of content you’re looking to do with your Guardian to narrow it down. The more challenging the content, the more desirable defensive sigils become, and vice-versa.

When you’re thinking about sigils for weapons, there are a couple things to keep in mind. One of the most important things is your critical chance, which can potentially eliminate an entire category of sigils if it’s not very high. In the case of a Berserker Guardian, this shouldn’t be an issue, and you can probably take advantage of sigils with effects that trigger on crit. A Fire Sigil, for instance, can increase your DPS significantly if you can proc it regularly (they typically hit for 800-1400 AoE damage per proc, depending on your stats).

The second thing you should keep in mind when choosing sigils for weapons is attack rate. Certain weapons hit more rapidly than others (though the fastest-hitting weapons don’t necessarily have the highest DPS), and the weapons that hit faster will crit more frequently in a certain window of time. This is something to keep in mind for using on-crit sigils, but it can also influence your decision something to take something like a Sigil of Superior Accuracy. Consider a weapon like the Hammer, which does DPS primarily through large, slower hits (compared to weapons like the GS and Scepter, which achieve similar DPS with smaller, faster hits). When using a single-hit skill like the Hammer’s Mighty Blow, it’s all or nothing: for each target, you either crit on that one hit or you don’t, and this can lead to some disparity in your DPS. With a standard AH spec (0/0/30/30/10), this usually means Mighty Blow either does 1.5-2k damage to a standard PvE target (non-crit) or 4-5k (crit). Conversely, with something like the GS, you have many chances to crit every time you use Whirling Wrath, and even with a low-ish crit rate (say 30-35%), your critical strikes will average out over the hits of the attack and deliver relatively consistent (though not necessarily high) DPS. Between the two, then, Accuracy would be a better choice for the Hammer.

Bringing this back once more to the Berserker Guardian, if you have a reasonably high crit chance (think in the 45-50% range, or thereabout), and you’re using weapons like the GS and Scepter, Sigils like Accuracy aren’t going to be as much of a priority for you. If you’re pushing for more offense, you’ll get more DPS out of on-proc sigils like Fire, and even Force would provide more DPS than Accuracy at those levels of crit (your crit has to be fairly low before increasing it will raise your DPS more than power).

If you have an offhand, run a Bloodlust Sigil along with the on-crit sigil of your choice (I’d recommend Fire if you’re not using AH in your build, and Strength if you are). When you hit 25 stacks of Bloodlust, switch your offhand to one with a Force Sigil to maximize your DPS.

If you’re doing more challenging content (dungeons, WvW) and need more defense, my suggestion would be Energy Sigils, since dodge-rolling is the best damage mitigation tool in the game. As a Berserker Guardian, you’ll be particularly dependent on well-timed dodges and good positioning to stay standing, making Energy Sigils invaluable when you’re under heavy fire. As the ever-popular saying goes, dead DPS does no DPS.

Other sigils are more situational. Hydromancy is a possible choice in WvW, particularly on the GS to help land Whirling Wrath. Battle is an okay offensive choice for specs that have low crit chance and good boon duration uptime, but that’s not what you’re looking for. Blood can be used in place of Fire/Strength, but you lose a lot of AoE DPS compared to Fire, and I personally prefer Strength for 5 extra Might stacks along with the passive healing in AH builds. Night can provide a larger damage bonus than Force, but only situationally (though I hear it works in a decent number of dungeons). Speed can be useful for quick map travel in open-world PvE, and I’ve heard that some people like Restoration/Stamina when zerging in WvW, though I’ve never tried either.

So, to sum up, Fire and Strength are two of the best offensive sigils for Guardians, with Strength being better suited to AH builds. Use Superior Accuracy primarily if your crit chance is on the low end, favoring it more on weapons with low attack speeds. Have a Bloodlust/Force sigil on any offhand weapons you’ve got for maximum DPS. Use Energy in place of Fire/Strength if you’re expecting a lot of damage to be coming your way. Other sigils can be viable, but may not be universally useful.

By the way, if SPvP is your thing, most of this advice still applies, but I’ll refer you to Jax’s PvP build thread for the info you need: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/page/3#post2244947