Guild Wars 2

Defensive

Bunker —
The recent nerfs to bunker builds severely reduce the selection of builds we had to choose from. At the moment there are two main focuses: Teamfights and Solo Point Control, you have to take both into consideration when choosing a build. Bunker Guardians are amazing due to the amount of team healing they put out while being able to easily get stomps and reses. Don’t forget the scepter is by far the highest damage weapon for the bunker, not in direct damage but through snares you can make sure you ally’s burst hits (could mean the difference between 2k and 14k damage).

Pros:

• Large AoE condition removal
• High Armour/Heals
• Loads of dodge rolls
• Unrivaled Support
• Can be High Control
• Great Bunker

Cons:

• Weak to sustained DPS (45s+)
• Can be bursted if you don’t pay attention
• Low DPS but can hit high with intelligence sigils

Standard Bunker (St / Sc-Fc) – http://tinyurl.com/lkepj5q (NEW)
This is your standard bunker build there are a few minor changes you can make, like bringing an extra consecration or Tome of Courage but if you don’t know what you’re doing just play this.
Map Specific:
Nifhel/Foefire: Coming SooN!
Temple: Coming SooN!

Control Bunker (Hm / Sc-Sh) – http://tinyurl.com/kfhp3oq (NEW)
My favourite Bunker build by far, you can carry your team more with this build if you get time alone with the enemy bunker. If all you’re doing is teamfighting I would recommend the Standard Bunker (except Khylo/Spirit ofc).
Map Specific:
Khylo/Skyhammer: http://tinyurl.com/k4xr5aw
Spirit: http://tinyurl.com/mp95t35

Thought I might leave this in as a fun build:

Binding Bunker (Hm / Sc-Sh) – http://tinyurl.com/leydb53
This bunker build uses Binding Jeopardy to set up spikes with large amounts of vulnerability for easy kills. In co-ordinated teams this will give you quicker kills and in less co-ordinated teams it gives you more of a chance of landing a kill. On Temple you can win team fights at mid EXTREMELY fast with your roamer.

Link to my youtube uploads:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RoknnOut/videos?view=0&flow=grid

Link to my Stream:
http://www.twitch.tv/jaxsilven

PvE/WvW Build
http://tinyurl.com/cvaz3wd
I have a new pve/wvw build, will upload it later >: )

As always thanks for reading!! ^^

I’ve followed your stuff on Guru for a while =). Its a lot of good info. I’ve actually altered Kaypud’s and other symbols builds to a bunker style for s/tpvp. Works great but lacks the CC your mid bunker provides.

I also use a symbol build in WWW/PvE too, and its pretty amazing. I’m really surprised more guardians do not focus on symbols more often. Very powerful tools: offense, defense, buffing, pseudo area denial, and combo field. Built right you can pretty much have a symbol up most of the time.

Blasino.3128:

I’ve followed your stuff on Guru for a while =). Its a lot of good info. I’ve actually altered Kaypud’s and other symbols builds to a bunker style for s/tpvp. Works great but lacks the CC your mid bunker provides.

I also use a symbol build in WWW/PvE too, and its pretty amazing. I’m really surprised more guardians do not focus on symbols more often. Very powerful tools: offense, defense, buffing, pseudo area denial, and combo field. Built right you can pretty much have a symbol up most of the time.

Thanks man. Yeah there’s currently a triangle for Guardian Builds: Bunker > Roamer > Symbol DPS > Bunker.
And I use the same in PvE but with target sanct.

Tips:
1. Use Tinyurl to make links clickable.
2. Videos.

I’m glad you’ve made this topic on official forum. I’ve been following you on twitch/youtube for a while and I learnt a lot.

Keep up the good work!

For anyone interested – Silven youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/RoknnOut .

thanks to Blasino, i’ve been thinking more about symbol builds and good seeing these guides as well! will check our your channel as well. good stuff and well though out builds.

Yeah pretty much the only thing holding offensive guards back right now is just how good their defensive builds are compared to all the other bunkers in the game. Most teams are going to want you to go defensive if you land a spot on a team and unless you run double guard which is much rarer for comps now.

Great build list btw.

Red Falcon.8257:

Tips:
1. Use Tinyurl to make links clickable.
2. Videos.

Thanks! I put them all as tinyurl and I have videos on my stream and youtube, which I also posted. Unfortunately if you need anymore than what are up on there I can’t make more until May 7th! =(

kubetz.3058:

I’m glad you’ve made this topic on official forum. I’ve been following you on twitch/youtube for a while and I learnt a lot.

Keep up the good work!

For anyone interested – Silven youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/RoknnOut .

Thanks for the idea, I stupidly forgot to link everybody, is up in OP now ^^

akamon.2769:

thanks to Blasino, i’ve been thinking more about symbol builds and good seeing these guides as well! will check our your channel as well. good stuff and well though out builds.

I linked my PvE build in the OP too ^^. I actually bought commander with gems from tpvp so it works when leading wvw too.

condiments.8043:

Yeah pretty much the only thing holding offensive guards back right now is just how good their defensive builds are compared to all the other bunkers in the game. Most teams are going to want you to go defensive if you land a spot on a team and unless you run double guard which is much rarer for comps now.

Great build list btw.

It depends on your team, I know a lot of people just haven’t seen good offensive Guardians to want them on their team. But they’re definitely becoming more popular, especially with the defence of symbol DPS.

sweet! just checked it out. i’m mainly looking to WvW ; ))

i’m trying to build a symbol Guard with higher offense as well. though until i can get better gear, it’ll be more on the tanky side for now. do you feel for your control build, it’s tough to get the hamemr symbol off while PvP or WvW-ing? as in.. it’s not as “on-demand” as say from the GS and mace. though with the appropriate control skills, am sure you can. i can just imagine laying the hammer symbol down, trapping them with either #3 or #5 and then switch to GS, drop SoW and just watch the numbers tick.

akamon.2769:

sweet! just checked it out. i’m mainly looking to WvW ; ))

i’m trying to build a symbol Guard with higher offense as well. though until i can get better gear, it’ll be more on the tanky side for now. do you feel for your control build, it’s tough to get the hamemr symbol off while PvP or WvW-ing? as in.. it’s not as “on-demand” as say from the GS and mace. though with the appropriate control skills, am sure you can. i can just imagine laying the hammer symbol down, trapping them with either #3 or #5 and then switch to GS, drop SoW and just watch the numbers tick.

A hard question to answer, in WvW I’ve never seen a good player on the other team, ever. So I can run literally whatever I want, it’s why Hammer is so good at damage in WvW but nowhere near as much in PvP, people will let you get off your symbol everytime. In PvP they kite so much, dodge correctly (assuming good players) that you don’t get the symbol off on hammer much, which I’ll explain here:
– You have to use your control abilities to assist in your allies’ burst.
– Which means you take time out of your auto-attack to use your abilities.
– You have to cancel quite often so that their counter to your control is faked out.
– Which means you have even less time to auto-attack.
– Then you have to use your control skills again when their anti-control ends (from the fake out)
– Which wastes even more auto-attack time.
So a lot of your ‘auto-attack time’ is wasted by cancelling skills to fake out dodges and stability, etc. While skills like Banish and Zealot’s Embrace will be almost 100% dodged by good players, which means your symbol will do 0 damage anway. I do love the symbol but it’s rare to see too many of them in a fight, except Bunker v Bunker.
Mighty Blow is dodged so much for some reason, generally it’s because they haven’t positioned themselves very well so they’re target for quite a few MB’s. But it doesn’t always bring consistent damage.
So to completely answer your question:
– Hammer Symbol is not ‘on demand’ in PvP, in WvW it is due to easier players.
– But, the thing with PvP is understanding your skills properly, if you realise you’re about to get off a Hammer Symbol, you simply ring of warding straight after, swap to GS, 4, 2, 5, 3, pull when they run/try heal, back to hammer, 2, 3, 5, 2, etc. And you make the occurence of the symbol extremely useful.
Hope this helped, just yell at me if I missed the mark
Also, I don’t mean to be offensive to WvW players, I’m sure there are good ones out there, just haven’t seen any and I don’t watch w3 streams. Usually I see stuff like RoW + JI → MB → WW. And I think “Well I would’ve dodged that MB and WW completely or even just used SYG and walked out.”

Jax let me start by thanking you for help me with your guides/build on my new Guardian and let me say that you’re balanced roamer build in pvp is a must! Great balance in offence and defence and single target…let the crits fly.
I wanted to ask you one question, in PvE what i should use? I will try it in PvE the same roamer build and what stat’s the armor must have and the type?
Thanks once again keep up the good work ;D

Silven I agree with you that there are generally less skilled www players. I think that is why we tend to think X build is awesome because we can 4v1 terrible players.

I use PvP to improve my skills against very skilled players as I’m a WWW’r first. Like you said, in WWW I drop symbol of faith they sit in it trying to melee me. In PvP they get out of it quickly.

Also, I’m not a fan of Bunker Guardians in WWW. That is why I run a WWW version I made of the symbol build. It has a lot of survivability with a lot of damage. In WWW you can the best of both worlds since gearing isn’t standardized (we can min/max) and we can use consumables.

Akamon and I actually converse a lot, sharing guardian ideas =). We learn from each other with different perspectives on things.

I completely disagree w/ the WvW comment.

The reason we get it off so much is because there’s soooo many people around you ~all the time~ where you can change to a closer target and still get the 3rd strike off.

That’s why.

Not because there’s “horrible players”… to which there are, but you can still get it off in good guildvsguild encounters.

Enzo Kensei.9850:

Jax let me start by thanking you for help me with your guides/build on my new Guardian and let me say that you’re balanced roamer build in pvp is a must! Great balance in offence and defence and single target…let the crits fly.
I wanted to ask you one question, in PvE what i should use? I will try it in PvE the same roamer build and what stat’s the armor must have and the type?
Thanks once again keep up the good work ;D

Well it’s super strong in PvP for having the ability to 1v1 very well and do well in group fights while having crazy survivability. In this way it’d work in WvW too. PvE I don’t run meditations because symbols just do more for your team and enemies don’t move, so you always get the most out of them. So yeah, it would still work but I think there are better builds. Idk the exact stats, not a PvE guru, but something that has a lot of power 45% crit chance and 17k hp (I’d try for 3k armour too).

Blasino.3128:

Silven I agree with you that there are generally less skilled www players. I think that is why we tend to think X build is awesome because we can 4v1 terrible players.

I use PvP to improve my skills against very skilled players as I’m a WWW’r first. Like you said, in WWW I drop symbol of faith they sit in it trying to melee me. In PvP they get out of it quickly.

Also, I’m not a fan of Bunker Guardians in WWW. That is why I run a WWW version I made of the symbol build. It has a lot of survivability with a lot of damage. In WWW you can the best of both worlds since gearing isn’t standardized (we can min/max) and we can use consumables.

Akamon and I actually converse a lot, sharing guardian ideas =). We learn from each other with different perspectives on things.

Yeah I realise, which always confuses me, I try think of if my enemy was a robot how would they counter me. That’s how I build to in pvp, in WvW there’s no point, Rage sigils in PvP are a must if counting on WW to hit, in WvW it will just hit. So I haven’t specifically made anything for WvW yet, I run symbol DPS but I know Bunker works too with a friend. But you have to rely on your ally, remember bunkers support too, most people don’t know but it’s the immobs/snares which make a bunker such good support.

Amins.3710:

I completely disagree w/ the WvW comment.

The reason we get it off so much is because there’s soooo many people around you ~all the time~ where you can change to a closer target and still get the 3rd strike off.

That’s why.

Not because there’s “horrible players”… to which there are, but you can still get it off in good guildvsguild encounters.

Well I understand what you’re saying, but you can’t really disagree with me saying I’ve never seen a good WvW player XD. On the rare occaision that I WvW or watch a WvW vid/stream, I’ve never seen another player who can dodge correctly, uses their skills effectively or reacts well and fast. Maybe it was just a fluke I’ve never seen a good stream, but it’s fairly safe to say there’s quite a large difference between tpvp and wvw.

Silven,

If you need help to min/max your gear I’d be happy to offer my services =).

Blasino.3128:

Silven,

If you need help to min/max your gear I’d be happy to offer my services =).

Sure mate, the only negative is that I can’t play until the 7th of May, but can definitely take notes in the meantime / theorycraft ^^.

Updated the links that weren’t working!

Jax.5261:

Updated the links that weren’t working!

Hey thanks for the builds. My brother is running the staff/hammer defensive build and loves it. I usually run with him on my ele and the CC options work great for setting up burst.

Any tips for him?

condiments.8043:

Jax.5261:

Updated the links that weren’t working!

Hey thanks for the builds. My brother is running the staff/hammer defensive build and loves it. I usually run with him on my ele and the CC options work great for setting up burst.

Any tips for him?

No worries. The best way to set up burst is actually with scepter 3, but then you lose the control off the hammer or support off the staff, Zealot’s Embrace is usually dodged. But I do love Hammer/Staff (it is what I currently run). Just remember you have to be in team fights to support and be able to hold the middle, I think some people don’t realise they’re meant to be in every team fight.

The reason I love playing this Guardian role is because I can support my allies extremely well and if you play well you can solo almost anything. So my advice would be:
– Careful of your dodge rolls, use them properly, don’t spam. If you’re running Vigor builds then use a dodge if you’re at max energy with vigor up (or you waste Vigor and dodges you could’ve had) and you don’t have max HP.
– Mighty Blow tons, you need to do this for damage, if not then you’re not pressuring your enemy.
– Cancel skills when they won’t land correctly or you want to fake the enemy into dodging (press esc near the end of the animation), eg Banish, Ring of Warding and Zealot’s Embrace.
– Keep your auto-attack up, you won’t get too many symbols off in PvP, but if they mess up then you get prot and extra damage.
– Staff is amazing, high AoE damage, hits through sanct to stop channel buffs (orb especially).
– Remeber Line of Warding can snare an enemy better than an imob.
– Keep your allies buffed with Empower (when they ask or you see somebody already stacking, ele combos with fire).
– Swiftness symbol is also damage, consider it when using it, it adds a lot to your fight.
– Mighty blow + fire fields or any field tbh. Make sure you know which gives swiftness, retal, fire etc. You’ll be using mostly fire and light with Ele+Guard.
– If running SoA, you can use it as an interrupt, don’t forget =S
– Remember Shouts remove conds AoE (so Resolve traited), so watch your allies condition bar too.
– And know what your virtues do, I hate not having Justice cause blinding, but you can change that yourself.

There are hundreds of tips I can give so if you need anymore just ask here, maybe something more specific? Mapwise or against a specific combination of enemies.

Just wondering if people would like a thread like:
Guardian Questions and Answers
Where you ask a question and I or somebody else will give an answer.
Strategy, general questions, how to beat certain things.
Would people be interested?

Jax, you can go to Guild Wars 2 > Forums > Professions > Guardians for that type of thread. :P

Are you working on your link for the symbol build?

Jax.5261:

Balanced Roamer (Sw-Sh / GS) – http://tinyurl.com/c5he37d
Balanced between AoE and Single target DPS, both extremely strong. This is so you can easily hop into team fights and still be very strong 1v1. Very resistent to burst builds and can force stomps with high AoE. If you have no clue what your enemy is running this is quite often your best build, if you’re roaming.

One thing.

How can this build roam with no access to swiftness whatsoever?
The point of a roamer is to roam fast and kill, no swiftness is slow as hell.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Jax, you can go to Guild Wars 2 > Forums > Professions > Guardians for that type of thread. :P

Are you working on your link for the symbol build?

I guess so, and which symbol build isn’t working? 0o

Red Falcon.8257:

Jax.5261:

Balanced Roamer (Sw-Sh / GS) – http://tinyurl.com/c5he37d
Balanced between AoE and Single target DPS, both extremely strong. This is so you can easily hop into team fights and still be very strong 1v1. Very resistent to burst builds and can force stomps with high AoE. If you have no clue what your enemy is running this is quite often your best build, if you’re roaming.

One thing.

How can this build roam with no access to swiftness whatsoever?
The point of a roamer is to roam fast and kill, no swiftness is slow as hell.

2 teleports and a leap, can get between points faster than an ele.

Jax.5261:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Jax, you can go to Guild Wars 2 > Forums > Professions > Guardians for that type of thread. :P

Are you working on your link for the symbol build?

I guess so, and which symbol build isn’t working? 0o

Symbol Nuke Builds — (no link)
Symbol builds provide high AoE DPS as well as high amounts of support, through symbol boons and healing. They can easily turn the tides in fights, and can 1v1 very well. They have a few optionals but usually these builds sacrifice armour and health to gain high crits on the symbol ticks (easily over 1.2k tick damage each symbol).

OMG no face melting perma burning build? HAH, J/K

Great work. Someone should sticky. Much more organized than the random ‘post your build’ thread. Thanks for doing this.

@Artemis – what you are referring to is the big picture description of the symbol builds. then listed are 4 variants of a symbol build. : ))

@Jax – quick question – do you think Sigils of Rage are still applicable now after the change? would there be other sigils better suited for the symbol builds?

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Jax.5261:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Jax, you can go to Guild Wars 2 > Forums > Professions > Guardians for that type of thread. :P

Are you working on your link for the symbol build?

I guess so, and which symbol build isn’t working? 0o

Symbol Nuke Builds — (no link)
Symbol builds provide high AoE DPS as well as high amounts of support, through symbol boons and healing. They can easily turn the tides in fights, and can 1v1 very well. They have a few optionals but usually these builds sacrifice armour and health to gain high crits on the symbol ticks (easily over 1.2k tick damage each symbol).

Sorry I’m not sure how to use different headers, that’s the title for the next 4 builds, they’re all Symbol Nuke but specialize slightly differently into different areas.

Obtena.7952:

OMG no face melting perma burning build? HAH, J/K

Great work. Someone should sticky. Much more organized than the random ‘post your build’ thread. Thanks for doing this.

I did play around with Burning builds quite a bit, infact my very first PvP build used burning a lot but that was back in the beta and either (bug/nerf) made it so the smoldering sigils no longer stacked and you don’t get the massive burning duration off VoJ anymore =( And thank you!

akamon.2769:

@Jax – quick question – do you think Sigils of Rage are still applicable now after the change? would there be other sigils better suited for the symbol builds?

They are not, I’m going to change them now, it was specifically to get Whirling Wrath off due to it being so easily dodged.

gotcha. i see you’ve chosen fire. i was deciding between fire and force myself. is going with fire mainly for the added AoE? in terms of adding DPS, i feel it’s one of the best out there, especially with a decent crit build. though i feel Force could be a good contender as well. then again, in terms of those “spike” moments, fire would definitely add more pressure.

akamon.2769:

gotcha. i see you’ve chosen fire. i was deciding between fire and force myself. is going with fire mainly for the added AoE? in terms of adding DPS, i feel it’s one of the best out there, especially with a decent crit build. though i feel Force could be a good contender as well. then again, in terms of those “spike” moments, fire would definitely add more pressure.

You’re absolutely right, just remember although this is a ‘DPS’ build it doesn’t mean you only have to do DPS, the idea with fire/air/rage, etc. is that it randomly procs. So it will catch your enemy offguard, which is extremely important in PvP. If they can judge the damage you’re dealing (force) then a lot of times they know exactly when to pull out, even good players don’t really judge the enemy DPS taking into account the Fire sigil.

For example: when I play against a Symbol DPS Guardian I always know Rage can proc at any moment, so I’m really careful and take note of when it does because I know instantly a Whirling Wrath is coming. But other players won’t and they will easily be hit by all of your Whirling and probably your Binding Blade too.

tl;dr: Fire gives that ‘surprise’ the enemy doesn’t usually anticipate while force means they know exactly how much damage you’re dealing.

ha, i’m learning so much. that’s awesome. one on hand, you can think on-crit procs aren’t as “reliable”, howeer, like you mentioned in PvP setting where those who’ve spent the time know what to expect more often than not, that surprise factor really does make a difference.

good stuff again, Jax!

Hey Jax,

With the latest patch, I’m seeing more condition builds lately. When holding mid I’m ok 1v1. 1v2 gets dicey I die about 50% of the time. 1v3+ I’m going to die pretty fast.

Any tips or is this sort of the rock paper sicsors of pvp.

I’m thinking almost at this points something like melundru runs could be helpful to prevent stacking of conditions so easily?

Blasino.3128:

Hey Jax,

With the latest patch, I’m seeing more condition builds lately. When holding mid I’m ok 1v1. 1v2 gets dicey I die about 50% of the time. 1v3+ I’m going to die pretty fast.

Any tips or is this sort of the rock paper sicsors of pvp.

I’m thinking almost at this points something like melundru runs could be helpful to prevent stacking of conditions so easily?

The two standard team builds before this update were:

• G E R R Me
• G E E R En/W/T

Which means the new meta will be:

• G E R R Me
• G E E R R/N

There isn’t really much change at all in the meta, the same builds do still work. At the moment I’m working on builds using Soldier’s amulet which play much better against condition classes but pressure builds are really strong against them.
I’ll probably be posting them soon (I have to get friends to test the new builds I think of becuase I’m overseas so it takes a bit more time) and if you really are feeling pressure from conditions in solo fights I suggest:

• Smite Conditions > Sanctuary
• Contemplation of Purity > Sanctuary
• Purging Flames > Sanctuary
• Focus > Shield

Smite can put more pressure on your enemy while keeping poison off, contemplation gives you a giant condition stack removal, Purging Flames removes each time you walk in and out of the field and combos really well with Mighty Blow and Eles/Rangers (I love this skill) and the Focus will block the attacks you need to so that you can avoid some of the stacks.

And remember pressuring your enemy is sometimes the best form of defence, the sword totally owns Ranger traps, it doesn’t look like it but you can keep teleporting past the fire fields so that they don’t deal that DPS and the ZD will block the spam the rest of the time.

I don’t suggest switching too much out, but when I play I read my enemy’s classes so that I can know generally what I want to be playing as.

tl;dr: the general population feels the meta has shifted but higher levels of pvp already relied a lot of condition AoE and that’s what these builds are made for.

(PS. not saying you’re low level but the players you’re up against wouldn’t have followed the meta shift before the update since its harder than burst to play and less effective against the bad players they’re hoping to play against)

Good info and ideas for sPVP. I’ve been itch for a while now to try out my guardian and have been hesitant.

I may have missed where this was discussed or something

But with the Roamer build, I see that accessories you’d use but what Armor stats would you go for? Beserkers or Soldiers?

Thanks

Edit : And whats a rune I can use until I can afford a full set of Divinity lol
This is more for WvW and PVE.

Thanks again!

Xystus.3241:

Good info and ideas for sPVP. I’ve been itch for a while now to try out my guardian and have been hesitant.

Guardians are awesome man!! Never hesitate!
All these builds have been tested tons so they’re not just ideas.

Revenant.5498:

I may have missed where this was discussed or something

But with the Roamer build, I see that accessories you’d use but what Armor stats would you go for? Beserkers or Soldiers?

Thanks

Edit : And whats a rune I can use until I can afford a full set of Divinity lol
This is more for WvW and PVE.

Thanks again!

My Build are all for pvp, they may work for pve (I posted up my updated pve set) but they may not so I suggest looking at some of the other threads if you want people to help you out with gear. I don’t play enough pve/wvw to know the gear sorry! Any gameplay though I’d be happy to help pvp or wvw. I’m very good at 1v1/teamfights.
Also divinity aren’t good in WvW/PvE, I know that thanks to Blas ^^

PS: Updated my PvE build on the OP.

Blasino.3128:

Hey Jax,

With the latest patch, I’m seeing more condition builds lately. When holding mid I’m ok 1v1. 1v2 gets dicey I die about 50% of the time. 1v3+ I’m going to die pretty fast.

Any tips or is this sort of the rock paper sicsors of pvp.

I’m thinking almost at this points something like melundru runs could be helpful to prevent stacking of conditions so easily?

hey Blasino! just adding onto what Jax told ya. since i’ve been messing with PvP more (which is AWESOME fun. i don’t know why i didn’t start earlier), i’ve realized that condition builds are galore and fighting against ranger + engi 2v1 is pretty tough. :///

i was playing one of the symbol nuke builds, and after a few rounds, i switched up the Honor traits a bit. i took Pure of Voice over Writ of Persistence. I felt it was a decent trade off as i was able to handle conditions a lot better, while losing some DPS and boons from the symbols, i at least wasn’t dying as much, even against more heavy condition opponents.

akamon.2769:

Blasino.3128:

Hey Jax,

With the latest patch, I’m seeing more condition builds lately. When holding mid I’m ok 1v1. 1v2 gets dicey I die about 50% of the time. 1v3+ I’m going to die pretty fast.

Any tips or is this sort of the rock paper sicsors of pvp.

I’m thinking almost at this points something like melundru runs could be helpful to prevent stacking of conditions so easily?

hey Blasino! just adding onto what Jax told ya. since i’ve been messing with PvP more (which is AWESOME fun. i don’t know why i didn’t start earlier), i’ve realized that condition builds are galore and fighting against ranger + engi 2v1 is pretty tough. :///

i was playing one of the symbol nuke builds, and after a few rounds, i switched up the Honor traits a bit. i took Pure of Voice over Writ of Persistence. I felt it was a decent trade off as i was able to handle conditions a lot better, while losing some DPS and boons from the symbols, i at least wasn’t dying as much, even against more heavy condition opponents.

It seems a lot of people are having trouble with condition classes, so I’ve updated all the Symbol DPS builds to be much stronger against them. Writ of Persistence was never actually needed, I usually ran 2 handed mastery over it, just forgot to update XD.
But yes you’re correct in saying that PoV is very good over WoP.
^^

That is execellent to know. Thanks for the info guys =). I appreciate it. I should have realized the the persistence isn’t really needed, especially in pvp. PvP’rs tend to be smart enough to get out of the big circle.

I started using the roaming builds in PvP for hot joins. I never played a roaming build before in pvp, but holy crap its pretty nice. You can put a lot of pressure on opponents with these builds =). Also, I’ve been a sword hater for a while (still sorta am) but playing with it in PvP helps getting used to it.

Jax.5261:

Enzo Kensei.9850:

Jax let me start by thanking you for help me with your guides/build on my new Guardian and let me say that you’re balanced roamer build in pvp is a must! Great balance in offence and defence and single target…let the crits fly.
I wanted to ask you one question, in PvE what i should use? I will try it in PvE the same roamer build and what stat’s the armor must have and the type?
Thanks once again keep up the good work ;D

Well it’s super strong in PvP for having the ability to 1v1 very well and do well in group fights while having crazy survivability. In this way it’d work in WvW too. PvE I don’t run meditations because symbols just do more for your team and enemies don’t move, so you always get the most out of them. So yeah, it would still work but I think there are better builds. Idk the exact stats, not a PvE guru, but something that has a lot of power 45% crit chance and 17k hp (I’d try for 3k armour too).

Blasino.3128:

Silven I agree with you that there are generally less skilled www players. I think that is why we tend to think X build is awesome because we can 4v1 terrible players.

I use PvP to improve my skills against very skilled players as I’m a WWW’r first. Like you said, in WWW I drop symbol of faith they sit in it trying to melee me. In PvP they get out of it quickly.

Also, I’m not a fan of Bunker Guardians in WWW. That is why I run a WWW version I made of the symbol build. It has a lot of survivability with a lot of damage. In WWW you can the best of both worlds since gearing isn’t standardized (we can min/max) and we can use consumables.

Akamon and I actually converse a lot, sharing guardian ideas =). We learn from each other with different perspectives on things.

Yeah I realise, which always confuses me, I try think of if my enemy was a robot how would they counter me. That’s how I build to in pvp, in WvW there’s no point, Rage sigils in PvP are a must if counting on WW to hit, in WvW it will just hit. So I haven’t specifically made anything for WvW yet, I run symbol DPS but I know Bunker works too with a friend. But you have to rely on your ally, remember bunkers support too, most people don’t know but it’s the immobs/snares which make a bunker such good support.

Amins.3710:

I completely disagree w/ the WvW comment.

The reason we get it off so much is because there’s soooo many people around you ~all the time~ where you can change to a closer target and still get the 3rd strike off.

That’s why.

Not because there’s “horrible players”… to which there are, but you can still get it off in good guildvsguild encounters.

Well I understand what you’re saying, but you can’t really disagree with me saying I’ve never seen a good WvW player XD. On the rare occaision that I WvW or watch a WvW vid/stream, I’ve never seen another player who can dodge correctly, uses their skills effectively or reacts well and fast. Maybe it was just a fluke I’ve never seen a good stream, but it’s fairly safe to say there’s quite a large difference between tpvp and wvw.

Now you’re just being an egotistical kitten.

Amins.3710:

Jax.5261:

Enzo Kensei.9850:

Jax let me start by thanking you for help me with your guides/build on my new Guardian and let me say that you’re balanced roamer build in pvp is a must! Great balance in offence and defence and single target…let the crits fly.
I wanted to ask you one question, in PvE what i should use? I will try it in PvE the same roamer build and what stat’s the armor must have and the type?
Thanks once again keep up the good work ;D

Well it’s super strong in PvP for having the ability to 1v1 very well and do well in group fights while having crazy survivability. In this way it’d work in WvW too. PvE I don’t run meditations because symbols just do more for your team and enemies don’t move, so you always get the most out of them. So yeah, it would still work but I think there are better builds. Idk the exact stats, not a PvE guru, but something that has a lot of power 45% crit chance and 17k hp (I’d try for 3k armour too).

Blasino.3128:

Silven I agree with you that there are generally less skilled www players. I think that is why we tend to think X build is awesome because we can 4v1 terrible players.

I use PvP to improve my skills against very skilled players as I’m a WWW’r first. Like you said, in WWW I drop symbol of faith they sit in it trying to melee me. In PvP they get out of it quickly.

Also, I’m not a fan of Bunker Guardians in WWW. That is why I run a WWW version I made of the symbol build. It has a lot of survivability with a lot of damage. In WWW you can the best of both worlds since gearing isn’t standardized (we can min/max) and we can use consumables.

Akamon and I actually converse a lot, sharing guardian ideas =). We learn from each other with different perspectives on things.

Yeah I realise, which always confuses me, I try think of if my enemy was a robot how would they counter me. That’s how I build to in pvp, in WvW there’s no point, Rage sigils in PvP are a must if counting on WW to hit, in WvW it will just hit. So I haven’t specifically made anything for WvW yet, I run symbol DPS but I know Bunker works too with a friend. But you have to rely on your ally, remember bunkers support too, most people don’t know but it’s the immobs/snares which make a bunker such good support.

Amins.3710:

I completely disagree w/ the WvW comment.

The reason we get it off so much is because there’s soooo many people around you ~all the time~ where you can change to a closer target and still get the 3rd strike off.

That’s why.

Not because there’s “horrible players”… to which there are, but you can still get it off in good guildvsguild encounters.

Well I understand what you’re saying, but you can’t really disagree with me saying I’ve never seen a good WvW player XD. On the rare occaision that I WvW or watch a WvW vid/stream, I’ve never seen another player who can dodge correctly, uses their skills effectively or reacts well and fast. Maybe it was just a fluke I’ve never seen a good stream, but it’s fairly safe to say there’s quite a large difference between tpvp and wvw.

Now you’re just being an egotistical kitten.

Show me a stream with good play then, I’ve already said that.
If the gameplay is good, sure I will accept that WvW does have good players, I’m not against that. But so far I haven’t seen any, all you have to do is link me to a video, I may end up watching their stream a great deal.
I keep saying MAYBE I JUST DIDN’T CLICK ON THE CORRECT STREAMS, but I’ve yet to see a good WvW stream.

You are probably right about the streams. If you are watching a guard trying to 1v1 in WvW, most likely they are out of place and don’t know what they are doing. WvW is mostly a zerg fest for guards and the way to play a guard in a 40v40 is way different than playing a bunker control guard in a tPvP match.

That said, these specs are all REALLY great for PvP. I remember using one of your roamer builds last fall and had a great time.

style.6173:

You are probably right about the streams. If you are watching a guard trying to 1v1 in WvW, most likely they are out of place and don’t know what they are doing. WvW is mostly a zerg fest for guards and the way to play a guard in a 40v40 is way different than playing a bunker control guard in a tPvP match.

That said, these specs are all REALLY great for PvP. I remember using one of your roamer builds last fall and had a great time.

As I said I haven’t seen any, feel free to link me to some, I honestly would really like to see some good wvw play. But so far, especially when I play wvw it hasn’t been a challenge at all, very one sided.
And thanks, I’m keeping them constantly updated so nobody has to worry about them being outdated!

sPvP / tPvP is for kids.

WvW is for adults.

I’ve yet to see any good PvP’er.

Here’s a list of really good pvp streams:

• http://www.twitch.tv/matchlesspowerr
• http://www.twitch.tv/thundercatshoooo
• http://www.twitch.tv/phantaram
• http://www.twitch.tv/chaithh
• http://www.twitch.tv/gasmaskftw
• http://www.twitch.tv/loljumper
• http://www.twitch.tv/narcarsis
• http://www.twitch.tv/teldoo
• http://en.twitch.tv/dantoqt
• http://www.twitch.tv/xephtp
• http://www.twitch.tv/helsethgw2
• http://www.twitch.tv/azshene
• http://www.twitch.tv/silentlowell
• http://www.twitch.tv/jaxsilven

Are all good players, just to name a few!

Gives 3% vulnerability for each enemy hit, to each enemy hit, with Leap. Which means if you hit 3 enemies it will give 15vul to all of them

You mean 9vul to all?

I’ve seen some of your guides around for a while now, always helpful info for guardians. Thanks for putting them together and for focusing on a wide variation of builds rather than just one or two.

As for the WvW streams, are you looking for good micro work (duels and roaming) or good macro (zerg busting guilds like VoTF and RG)? I can link you some via pm if you are interested.

Wispy.8679:

Gives 3% vulnerability for each enemy hit, to each enemy hit, with Leap. Which means if you hit 3 enemies it will give 15vul to all of them

You mean 9vul to all?

I’ve seen some of your guides around for a while now, always helpful info for guardians. Thanks for putting them together and for focusing on a wide variation of builds rather than just one or two.

As for the WvW streams, are you looking for good micro work (duels and roaming) or good macro (zerg busting guilds like VoTF and RG)? I can link you some via pm if you are interested.

I’m pretty sure that’s a mistype, but since I haven’t played in a month due to holiday it may be the bug. For some reason I can’t for the life of me remember, you may want to try it quickly on the golem group in HotM sorry!
And thanks I wanted to have a group of builds that I update regularly so people don’t have to fear looking on the forums for one and getting an out-dated build.

Just link the WvW streams here I don’t mind, I’d be looking for micro due to it involving the actual player gameplay. Thanks! ^^

Most people who do wvw roaming make videos rather than stream for the large downtime between fights but here are a couple links.

Team Riot – http://teamriot.org/streams/ They don’t really stream anymore but the past vids and their youtube accounts still have good content.

[AD] guild – https://www.youtube.com/user/RaggokOozo/videos?view=0 Don’t think these guys have a stream setup, but good small force gameplay.

B Sty – http://www.youtube.com/user/YouGotOwnedTT/videos Similar to [AD].

Some more duel orientated vids:

Targaryen – http://www.youtube.com/user/StrawHatPC

Xsorus – http://www.youtube.com/xsorus Good ranger roamer.

Turkish Krul – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnRxcbIhjX0QIq56gRMU7zQ/videos?view=0&flow=grid Ranger beastmaster gameplay.

Yishis – http://www.youtube.com/user/bemeric1/videos?flow=grid&view=0 Very talented roaming thief.

These are just a couple off the top of my head, I’m sure there are still active wvw streamers that focus on roaming and duels but I don’t really keep up with it anymore.

Jax, the staff, mace/focus symbol bomb build… how would that work 0.o?

I’m guessing not so much burst but a continuous stream of damage?

I just wanted to thank you for the defensive symbol nuke build with staff and mace/focus. It really is a great all around team fighting build. The steady aoe damage and healing it puts out is pretty unique and the 12 might stacks from empower are just clutch. I have been using purging flames instead of sanctuary because I have to admit im just bad at using sanctuary lol. I seem to waste it at the wrong times or don’t put it quite exactly where I want it and then Im looking at the long recharge wistfully.