Guild Wars 2

Symbol builds, you pretty much nailed the trait setup for optimal performance.
When you run shouts, consecration and a staff, you should always be aiming to support in a teamfight.

About Bunkers:
Bunkers will die 1v1 yes, but then you’re not to blame. Normally you can stall long enough until your teammates come. Just make sure you type in team chat “1 mid” “2 mid” “im down” “2 to close” “they trebbing mid” ASAP to inform your teammates of what is going on around you. Your goal is to stall until help arrives then assist combat.

You will be useful to the team as a Bunker because you can safely res with your knockbacks, probably tank the AoE cleave for a short time, immobilise enemies for your team, and immediately stomp downed enemies with stability. You can also prevent death by using healing skills to prop up teammates until their CDs are up. By using all of your skills, hopefully you’ll be a big nuisance to the other team. Blind, aegis, knockbacks, launches, walls, reflects… lots of skills to switch and use.

Summary:
Run Bunker when you have a team on TS3 and you have established set roles with bunkers and roamers. Even though team compositions have changed, there is always room for a support Bunker Guardian, and this phenomenon has a reason. Require good communication and responsive listeners. I usually run Bunker in solo queue (or solo in team queue) because no one does and I can offer res and stomp services.
Run Symbol DPS in hotjoin/random tourney to carry your team with a mix of damage and support. Need good teammates for maximal effect.
Run Trip Med when you have a decent group, lack a thief and just want to have fun. Also able to hard carry if skilled.

Guardian is a very group combat oriented class. You’re not meant to 1v1 (except Trip Med). With what you wanted in mind, I hope you enjoy Symbol DPS in PvP.

Ralkuth.1456:

Symbol builds, you pretty much nailed the trait setup for optimal performance.
When you run shouts, consecration and a staff, you should always be aiming to support in a teamfight.

About Bunkers:
Bunkers will die 1v1 yes, but then you’re not to blame. Normally you can stall long enough until your teammates come. Just make sure you type in team chat “1 mid” “2 mid” “im down” “2 to close” “they trebbing mid” ASAP to inform your teammates of what is going on around you. Your goal is to stall until help arrives then assist combat.

You will be useful to the team as a Bunker because you can safely res with your knockbacks, probably tank the AoE cleave for a short time, immobilise enemies for your team, and immediately stomp downed enemies with stability. You can also prevent death by using healing skills to prop up teammates until their CDs are up. By using all of your skills, hopefully you’ll be a big nuisance to the other team. Blind, aegis, knockbacks, launches, walls, reflects… lots of skills to switch and use.

Summary:
Run Bunker when you have a team on TS3 and you have established set roles with bunkers and roamers. Even though team compositions have changed, there is always room for a support Bunker Guardian, and this phenomenon has a reason. Require good communication and responsive listeners. I usually run Bunker in solo queue (or solo in team queue) because no one does and I can offer res and stomp services.
Run Symbol DPS in hotjoin/random tourney to carry your team with a mix of damage and support. Need good teammates for maximal effect.
Run Trip Med when you have a decent group, lack a thief and just want to have fun. Also able to hard carry if skilled.

Guardian is a very group combat oriented class. You’re not meant to 1v1 (except Trip Med). With what you wanted in mind, I hope you enjoy Symbol DPS in PvP.

Thanks! I can’t tell you enoug of much this is helpful!^^

Yeah, I admit I don’t like to play bunker very much, so I don’t exercize much with him. I love meditation, though, even if I still don’t know when to use him. I’m new to guardian and I spent too much time buildcrafting instead of finding a precise role.XD

Another question… What do you think about using sword/focus and hammer for med guardian?

You have no range with that. You can do some 5k hammer crits with it but mobility is exclusively toward-enemy ports.
Your best combo is a JI + Ring of Warding chain with Focus 5 precast and Mighty Blow. This keeps enemy CC’d and nearly guarantees big hits. However you’ll be pretty easy to kite once in hammer (probably use chain, then waste a dodge to catch up). And a blink/stab/blind would negate a lot of damage.
Just have a think about that and see if you still want to run it.

Ralkuth.1456:

You have no range with that. You can do some 5k hammer crits with it but mobility is exclusively toward-enemy ports.
Your best combo is a JI + Ring of Warding chain with Focus 5 precast and Mighty Blow. This keeps enemy CC’d and nearly guarantees big hits. However you’ll be pretty easy to kite once in hammer (probably use chain, then waste a dodge to catch up). And a blink/stab/blind would negate a lot of damage.
Just have a think about that and see if you still want to run it.

Yes, but it might help a bit if I have to go for a teamfight, with more AoE, some cc and AoE protection.

Or I can use Banish clipped with JI, then chains and RoW as a decap combo.

If you can handle it, and you’re happy with it, that’s the build you want.
Keep playing and testing and stressing it and see if it holds up; the basis of making any new builds or practicing established ones.

Hammer / Scepter-Focus is really strong at the moment. With 10530520 it’s easily the toughest Meditation build to take down. So if you’re that interested in playing a Hammer Burst build, that’s a good one to check out (don’t forget binding jeopardy).

I’ve found the Mace to be the most amazing burst weapon by far. The burst is not only condensed into a single strike but is also aoe. Even though the mace doesn’t have a mobility skill like the Sword and GS the speed of the burst means you have a lot more mobility in a fight.
The second important point is that it’s a counter-play weapon. Your enemy initiates and instead of playing defensive you turn their initiate into your initiate. This eliminates their immediate ability to defensively react and gives you a free chunk of their health. The build reminds me of a League of Legends joke, where Blitzcrank pulls Leona into his team’s ADC, they’ve essentially given you a free initiate and an advantage. This is the main reason the mace works on good players, backpoint attackers will generally be completely countered by your build due to the counter-play play style.
Which brings me to my final point: Mace doesn’t have to sacrifice any traits to be aggressive and works extremely well with RHS.

Mace is just difficult to play and if played poorly is easily read, you may as well play one of the telegraph burst weapons (sword/GS) if you can’t react to skills fast enough. But if you want to learn/get better/outscale your friends (the term I use when you and your friends progress at a similar rate in skill but their class has way less telegraphed skills/way more sustain so they end up being better than you) I would suggest the mace.

Well I guess I’m back to have a look through the patch, hopefully it isn’t bad for the Guardian.

A lot of new changes due to the patch, I’m back and actively playing now too. Big nerf to Mace Burst and a big change to the Bunker so we’ll see how we go!

Will have an update in a day or 2.

From testing so far I’ve found these two DPS/Burst builds to be the strongest so far:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Fcg;1NFk30G3wF-90;9;494T4J1;309B;108-SRF6Y;1k2Ewk2Ew5BV

and

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Fc3d;0NFk30G3wF-90;9;5TT44;159A09B;4SZG66;1k2Ewk2Ew5BQ

The sigils buffed the GS a gigantic amount, to the point it’s extremely viable.

Rune of the Pirate? Is the parrot thing more than a joke?

Wouldn’t Rune of the Pack be a better choice (group fury, swiftness, 1x might for 10 seconds on 20sec ICD) with 6pc as 125 precision?

Idk why atm but AI is so broken right now, it can easily hit 3k and it hits quite often. So until they fix/nerf it, I’ll be using that or strength.

Why dont you use a scepter ? I love to use the immobilize to set up the GS burst.
Is it because you play in a team and you coordinate your ccs ?

Jax, has pirate been fixed?
I tried it out and it’s more like ~1.7k normal, 2.4k crits on the light golem.

Yeah Pirates fixed now, not even close to what it was hitting, I’m testing a few runes out still, Strength’s looking very good!

I’m going to make a video addressing your comment Tobey, there’s a lot to go through. Before I do though, the short answer is: yes, you don’t need to bring the snare due to the team comps you would play a burst guardian in.

Could you talk about the sigils in your new vid ? Ad the moment, only rage is set in stone for me. However im not sure about the other sigils ?

I tried air+fire, but the dmg wasnt that great. 800 dmg per proc isnt that amazing. I see that you advice battle. Which makes sense with the strength runes. But which sigils would you use with travellers as example ? Maybe endurance or bloodlust ?

I can’t wait to see your updates Silven.

New builds updated, My video is on my twitch channel. I’ve been interrupted 3 times when attempting to make it so I gave up haha.

There may be a few changes over the coming days and DPS is getting a revamp!

I have more changes coming when I have a day off work =(

I think Spirit Weapons are pretty good atm for 1v1s at least; let me know if you look into it~

Jax.5261:

From testing so far I’ve found these two DPS/Burst builds to be the strongest so far:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Fcg;1NFk30G3wF-90;9;494T4J1;309B;108-SRF6Y;1k2Ewk2Ew5BV

and

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Fc3d;0NFk30G3wF-90;9;5TT44;159A09B;4SZG66;1k2Ewk2Ew5BQ

The sigils buffed the GS a gigantic amount, to the point it’s extremely viable.

What do you think of this build?

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAsdRlsApcoVDxbI8DVR8QlZd8i2UVAgz1/QQkDA-TJhFwAAOFAKeCAw3fYaZAA

By putting 20 points in radiance instead of virtues, we get:

+10% damage against foes with condition
+10% sword damage
+3 stacks of vulnerabilities each time we blind a foe.

Without counting the increased precision.

This means that if we use GS blind, virtue of justice and swap to sword and use blind again, we will deal +29% damage compared to a build with 20 virtues.

I tried it, and seems like it’s working really well, for both AoE and single target.

Jax are symbol builds still a viable option now? The condi meta is ridiculous right now. I wonder if they have to be retweeked to run PF, Smite, SYG.

They have always been my favorite builds but have avoided running them lately.

@red: I think you linked the wrong build XD

@Blas: I’m testing them now, I don’t play 8 hours a day like I used to so it takes a lot longer. I’m looking more at control style DPS symbol builds rather than moar domoge. They seem to be doing well with the 2 extra sigils.

Jax.5261:

@red: I think you linked the wrong build XD

I’m sorry :P

Here is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAsdRlsApcoVDxbI8DRR8gY7nWVFAnr/FMHA-TJxHwADeCAa2fAwpAQZZAA

I’m not sure about might stacking sigils (and runes of strenght might be even better), maybe I should use burst ones instead, but it might be fun to add even more damage.

Jax question from a new player here , level 26 guardian , is GS guardian any good for WvW roaming and sPVP ? Im leaning more towards glass cannon GS if that even exists with guardians . Sorry if these questions seem stupid to you but as i mentioned im a new player and i still dont understand a lot .

redslion.9675:

Another question… What do you think about using sword/focus and hammer for med guardian?

You can combo the med teleport and the sword teleport as an 1800 range gap closer. Also applies burning which works well with the 10% more damage on burning target trait if you’re going damage spec. In pvp the teleports also work when there’s a difference in terrain. I’d say the Sw-Focus is very powerfull but now that I’ve tried the mace it offers similar or maybe even better damage, 1 aweomse Symbol and good heals + block

Hey glad to see your updated builds, you’re 2h dps build helped me start in PvP and I’ve slowly moved through all your builds. Really high quality stuff. I just recently switched off your control bunker build for one of the “standard” meta ones. I’m currently running Staff and Mace/Shield because that knockback can save some points.

I haven’t been able to do anything recently due to being hacked. No kittening clue how but I can’t play until it’s resolved.

That really sucks to hear. Guardian PvP isn’t really worth doing unless it’s with your builds, to be honest. At least, that’s how it is for me – and I’m useless. But whatever. Hope the situation gets resolved soon!

Yeah good luck getting that fixed. Your builds certainly helped me in the past and I’d hate to see you unable to get back into the game.

Going to update the builds later today to what I’ve been playing recently.

I would love to see what you’ve been running lately, been messing around with some builds myself. Also curious what do you think of healing breeze? Personally it works better for my team than shelter (though it is easier to interrupt) and I was curious what your thoughts are on the heal. Shelter definitely seems the best all-around heal choice but do you ever run breeze?

Nice to see you around here again! Can’t wait for dem buildz.

Current Burst Roam:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR7dlsApaolDxbI8DVR8QlZK+i2UVAgz1/QQkDA-TpBFwACuAAPeAAl2fgwRAoaZAAHEAA

Shepherd.5839:

I would love to see what you’ve been running lately, been messing around with some builds myself. Also curious what do you think of healing breeze? Personally it works better for my team than shelter (though it is easier to interrupt) and I was curious what your thoughts are on the heal. Shelter definitely seems the best all-around heal choice but do you ever run breeze?

Shelter is used mainly for the block, I rarely find myself needing it to heal.

I find it difficult to fight a pro s/d thief using mediation build. Any advise?

Silven, what about the mace burst build these days?

Jax.5261:

Shelter is used mainly for the block, I rarely find myself needing it to heal.

Well yeah the 2 seconds of block is definitely the strongest part of shelter and the main reason I used it in the past but since using healing breeze I’m a bit torn as it provides a lot better team support than shelter would. Of course it gives me less blocks to proc empowering wrath but I’ve never been very worried about that haha.

Anyways just wanted to get your thoughts on its use. It seems like a very unpopular heal and yet its worked marvelously for me in team queue so I was curious why no one ran it.

I’ve been playing around with this balanced DPS AH HamStaff (quite tanky but has enough dps to kill on it’s own) and I am really liking it so far but am always looking for ways to improve. I was wondering if you could take a look at it and tell me what you think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApVo1CxZI8DNBDRkVL2ZbjXXEFA-TJxHwADOCA62fAwhAoYZAA

EDIT: After some more playing around I have finally settle on this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApVo1CxZI8DNxCRk1L2bdlXHMNA-TJxHwADeCAq2fAwlAoYZAA

Julie Yann.5379:

I’ve been playing around with this balanced DPS AH HamStaff (quite tanky but has enough dps to kill on it’s own) and I am really liking it so far but am always looking for ways to improve. I was wondering if you could take a look at it and tell me what you think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApVo1CxZI8DNBDRkVL2ZbjXXEFA-TJxHwADOCA62fAwhAoYZAA

EDIT: After some more playing around I have finally settle on this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApVo1CxZI8DNxCRk1L2bdlXHMNA-TJxHwADeCAq2fAwlAoYZAA

Sorry I haven’t really played much in a very long time, I didn’t even know celestial got a buff haha.
I’m sure somebody else could answer for you. When I used to play though, Soldier’s were extremely important on this build due to the prominence of Conditions in almost every single match. There have also been huge buffs to Burst Guardians which were already evenly matched when I used this build often.

I’d just like to point out that most of these builds are either outdated/incorrect or not recommended for rated play.

So what builds is up to date ? What do you play guys in spvp ?