Guild Wars 2

Hi all, just wanted to post about small group Guardian healing to help promote non-zerg WvW play and give some advice on something to try(and have some info to link in my vids description since this prob wont be a popular thread), I feel like a strong support Guardian is the backbone of a small 5~ man roaming group and can make what’s usually a pretty hard style of play alot more doable, i’ll try to keep it brief and in a nutshell just an outline of something for people to try, my background is doing small group world pvp off and on for 10+ years in diff mmos, i’ve played Guardian since beta and have gone through many different builds/styles..

I’ll try to first give an outline of the style of play this build is meant for, I would never use this build soloing, nor dungeons, I wouldn’t use it for running with a zerg I don’t think(I have no experience in that)… it’s mostly focused on 3-7 man sized groups roaming in WvW trying to take on outnumbered fights or baiting/flanking zergs, when I duo I bump up my dps stats, 3 man I bump them up less, 4 or more i’ll probably go for 1700-1800+ healing power(after stacks).

My idea of small group play with my group is to charge in with heavy burst dps and my own burst healing/heavy CC from staff/hammer… retreat with mass invis or shadow refuge, everyone staying tight and calling targets and cc, communicating.

Ok so one good way Guardians can best support a small roaming group in WvW in my humble opinion:

Here’s the trait build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASWlcg6CXFSLEm4ES2DRqkQQsHYUGtRXFSIA

Here’s my most recent video, i’m not sure how well it illustrates the strength of healing i’m trying to emphasize it more in my next one..

(here’s my other most recent one of a continuous long fight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZqlXn-t5o)

Main objective: burst heal and burst cleanse your DPS friends very early in the fight(from traited virtue of resolve activation), provide momentum, prevent them from ducking and dodging out of the way and blowing their heal ability.. stability at the right time, a wall of reflection, retaliation(blast finishers on the light fields! this helps alot outnumbered), CC cooldown dump, heal cooldown dump, dump all cooldowns and get into tome of courage very early if the fight isn’t feeling won yet.

Weapons – Hammer/Staff:

Hammer I use instead of mace/shield or w/e because I feel the immobilize, ring of death, light fields, 4 second cooldown blast finisher for area retaliation are all priceless in WvW, I don’t even care that much about how much damage i’m doing with it but with fury and might buffed up it can do ok with this build… I have played alot with mace/shield in the past and I just feel like the poor healing range makes it all fall apart and be too unreliable in chaotic outnumbered fights with a small group… it’s worth trying for sure and can work well.

Staff is the main weapon, buffing might of course is huge at the start of the fight on the frontline in the mix with stability with the heal going off right when the team needs it, the heal is 3k approx with this healing power.. Line of warding use it at the start, put it on a wall of reflection maybe, make people waste their stability cooldowns, use it on cooldown… #2 orb is tricky to use but can add a good bit of healing to the mix, autoattack all the time to keep the vigor procs going from the honor trait so you can keep dodging on your teammates, has nice reach/spread and when you have might buffed the damage can really add up.

Gear I use mostly clerics with some pieces of precision/vitality/healing power mixed in, after weapon stacks i’m at 1780 healing power unless duo or trioing where I use more dps gear.. i’m using superior runes of altruism 6 piece, I recommend 3x water 3x monk just as much or more.. I don’t have time in my life to run dungeons to get monk runes and i’m happy with altruism, what it does is buff fury for 6 seconds to everyone around me and 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds as well when I do my healing breeze, essentially turning it into a dps shout, don’t underestimate giving your high crit damage friends the fury early in a fight when you need burst damage, it goes a long way, also altruism runes give you 15% boon duration.

Boon duration is a big deal, if a fight turns real difficult and goes long the boons are really going to pay off, my build is a bit more slanted towards DPS and my own personal durability usually with the lemongrass poultry soup instead of 20% boon duration.

Traits as linked above 0/0/10/30/30:

10 into Valor – Strength in Numbers, nearby allies gain 150 toughness, easy choice really for a small group I think.

30 into Honor – 20% off Shout cooldowns a must for Stand your ground and Hold the line for me personally, 20% off 2h cooldowns also a must for me and..

Battle Presence – Heart of the build, with healing power up here it’s constantly ticking for around 240-250 on your teammates, even when they’re pretty far away, even when you’ve activated virtue of resolve it keeps healing your team, if you do the math on how much it heals in total for in a 1 minute fight it’s pretty mind blowing I think, really shines when shifting around retreating, this neverending HoT always helps for this style of play and I feel like it’s one of the great Guardian traits in the game(with high healpower)… Pure of voice is amazing too but IMHO that’s only for the 2nd Guardian in the squad to use if you have one

30 into Virtues – 20% off Consecration cooldowns+longer duration, just for Wall of Reflection, one of the most important abilities imaginable for this style of play..

Absolute Resolution – very important trait, I can’t be without this, improves the passive heal ticks and makes your VoR activate cleanse 3 conditions off you and your group even when they’re far away, I use this very early in a tough fight for the burst 3k heal and to wipe conditions, as soon as I see a few teammates get a bunch of conditions and below 70% health I pop this asap to help them keep momentum and overwhelm, the cooldown is not that long, don’t be afraid to use this, at the start of a fight you pop this with an empower and you’ve put out a 6k+ group heal basically in addition to the VoR ticks/HoT from Hold the line, it all really adds up to enemies thinking your berserker teammates are tanks at the start of a fight.. if you layer an empower, virtue activate and healing breeze you’re putting out 10k+ healing.

Elite Focus – here’s a trait I don’t think many use, i’ve been using it for a long time off and on, Tome of Courage duration goes from 20 to 30, I don’t play small group support without this, especially with the new buffs to tome, also it lets you put out 2x aoe dazes… on that note on to the..

Utilities

Tome of Courage – This thing is my bread and butter for small group roaming even in my DPS builds, spamming #1 puts out alot of healing with high healing power(not easy to aim always though), #2 blinds and cleanses on a very short cooldown, #3 puts out a very long regen/protection on you(as of recent patch) and your teammates, #4 now dazes for 3 seconds(new patch buff), far range, if you time it right this will really throw your enemies off and of course #5 is the amazing long range full heal which is super effective with a class that can stealth you on demand, having 30 seconds of running around with this book out from the elite focus trait is great, tome also makes you tankier when it’s out and you can draw alot of enemy focus fire onto you while they die to your teammates, people see the book and freak out trying to attack you.

Wall of Reflection – One of the greatest WvW abilities of all imho, short cooldown long duration with trait, when you charge into a big group and put this on the frontline it throws the enemies off badly especially ranged, if it’s not doing damage to them it’s causing them to run into your teams DPS or shuffle around wondering what to do, it’s also a useful light field, don’t need to ramble on much about this great ability but you new Guardians need to check it out.

Stand Your Ground – Can’t play without this, short cooldown, retaliation but most important the stability at the right time on the right teammates will allow everyone to execute their plan, watch out for necro wells and stuff.

Hold the line – Not very exciting but the HoT and protection on such a short cooldown really add up and I can’t see not using this shout for this style of play personally, the biggest challenge with shouts is the range isn’t very big, hope your group stays close, positioning is tricky.

HEALING BREEZE:

I think it’s actually a good heal despite the bashing, takes practice to use well, I enjoy using it, heals others for about as much as empower and VoR activate(3500 for me), it all adds up, alot of people want to see it buffed though and I wouldn’t mind.

DODGE HEALING:

From selfless daring 15 in the honor tree, this is a huge part of the playstyle and one of the trickiest parts to master, the range of the heal on teammates is very small, you must keep vigor procced and I use Superior Sigil of Stamina on both weapons(get full endurance on a kill, remember we’re trying to overpower and kill fast), this can put out so much healing if you do it right in addition to the other constant heals happening it’s crazy, just not easy to execute all the time, people are all over the place, a big key to succeeding with your small group with this build I think is getting people finished fast and keep the dodges rolling on your frontline, something i’ve been improving at and trying to do all the time… also part of why I use -40% condition duration food so I don’t get immobilized or crippled as long so I can stay on top of the dodge heals.

FOOD:

I’m using the lemongrass poultry soup alot lately for -40% condition duration on me, I just really like when conditions disappear, especially immobilizes, 20% boon duration is a great choice especially with a 5+ man group, I don’t know what to recommend really here, theres several good choices. Master maintenance oil for precision as well.

Anyways Guardian is such a deep class it’s unbelievable, interested to hear what people think of this style of play or how they do it, really a build in this game needs to suit a group, again I find this works best supporting a high dps group.

Small group play can be really helpful for your faction and be alot of fun, baiting zergs and staying alive can be a big challenge and dying happens alot, I find that there is a big lack of small groups running around in GW2 currently (at least in the higher ranked servers where I am) and would like to see more and I believe a good support Guardian can help alot in keeping people interested in trying it, so I recommend getting some heal gear and ask some berserker friends to go roaming with you some time.

Very similar to what i run for small man, i take mace/shield instead of hammer and well, the staff is indispensable. traits are a little different im running 0,0,20,30,20, because im mace/shield i take honourable shield for cooldown reduction, purity, SY, pure of voice and absolute resolution for condis. superior aria, 2-handed mastery and vengeful.

Gear is pretty much identical, mostly Cleric with a splash of Magi, i use boon duration for my shout uptimes(SY, HTL, SYG), 18 seconds of SYs allows me to push hard into larger numbers and draw fire away from our DPS, throwing out dodge rolls as i go for the 1.5k heals to help keep me going.

I run the tome and healing breeze as well, tome can be a game changer and healing breeze allows me to throw some more healing around although i feel its a little clunky and could use some work.

Im steadily building up some fraps to put together from our killshot warrior(run’n’gun build) PoV and my Guardian PoV. Our group build changes a bit but generally its a capt’n hammer warrior, healway guardian, S/D Ele, D/D ele, run’n’gun War. Sometimes we switch around the eles for mesmers(1 shattercat 1 phantasm) depending on what people want to play.