Guild Wars 2

So, I hit 80 on my sylvari guardian, but I’m still new. Pretty terrible as well. Plaing through HotW I get downed somewhat often.

Now, I’ve got , 30 in valor, 20 in honor, and 20 in virtues. With the way I’ve been performing I’m assuming this is terribad. However it may just be because I suck terribly.

It’s also probably fair to assume that my armor, although at 80, is also terrible. My toughness only reaches into the 1 thousands, and my defense only reaches into the 2 thousands.

Now, I’ve only got about 6 gold. So, I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on what equipment to get, what traits to follow through with, and just generally not how to be terrible at this game.

grats on hitting 80! ; ))

0/0/30/20/20 can be seen as a “defensive” build. but with the right traits / gear, you can still hit hard. it’s not a bad trait setup and i have one build that runs exactly that.

i remember when i hit 80, the armor choices were daunting and i wasn’t sure what to do at all. so don’t worry and don’t rush. take your time and rule number 1: never forget how to enjoy the game!

that being said, i went from a mix of greens and blues to slowly getting a full set of rare armor, piece by piece. i also invested as soon as i could in exotic weapons, because at that point, going to an exotic weapon wa a shuge DPS increase – kill faster = more money, less dmg against you, etc etc. then i started to work towards full exotic sets.

i went for all Knight’s armor to start with. high toughness (which will help you with your armor), some power and precision. many Guards sort of set the armor benchmark to be around 3k, which is around 1.8k toughness. then you can tweak up and down depending on your play style.

if you feel you’re dying a lot, you can try to go for Soldiers / Power Toughness Vitality armor – which you can get from the AC, SE and HotW dungeons, as well as using karma (42k a pop) at the various Temple karma vanders after clearing the temples in Orr (lvl 80 zones).

then once you find a play style you enjoy, you can start to experiment with more combinations. as a starting point, full knight’s with soldier chest and pants is quite survivable.

but even more important than gear, learn to dodge from the big hits! the more dungeons you do, the more you’ll be able to tell which hits are going to hurt the most and you can completely avoid those. positioning can be important too, don’t stand in the middle of 5 – 6 dungeon mobs, hoping to survive without actively and mitigating dmg proactively. we have a ton of blinds, blocks, stability to help us survive. also, using Line of Sight can help a lot as well so be aware of your surroundings and use them to youer advantage!

this was kind of all over the place, but hope it helps. there are a variety of Builds posted on this sub-forum by many vet and knowledgeable Guards that you can take a look at.

• Brutaly’s AH and Crithammer guide (see stickied)
• Silentstorm’s Paladin
• Blasino’s Allpa (which is geared towards fresh 80’s so you can check that out)
• Harbinger’s Paragon

which i feel are all very “hybrid”, low learning curve, highly effective builds. keep looking as there are a lot more guides out there and Guards and you can take a look at as you keep getting ebtter and better at the Guardian ; )))

it’s a sturdy class, but takes some learning and effort to play effectively!

I feel there is a steep learning curve in some PvE Dungeons. Take a look at the enemies you’re facing, under the target nameplate it will tell you what special things they do like Knockdown or Heal Allies. This should give you some indication on what to expect. Vigor and Dodge are your best friends in some of this content also, watch for animations and observe what the targets are doing. Eventually you will know what the animations mean and what to expect. It’s not really chaos, but it seems like it at first.

At 80 I geared with all Power/Toughness/Vitality gear and as I learned the content I started to change out items for Zerkers, Knights and Valks gear. I’d suggest getting into Yellow’s ASAP and finalize with Exotics when you’re ready. I’m to a point where I’m happy with my mix. Stats sit around 2.9k armor, 17k hp, 3k power and 35% crit unbuffed.

Weapons and Runes play a big part. Hammer with some Boon Duration can give you full time Protection as long as you are hitting something and stand in your Seal, use this to good effect with Altruistic Healing trait. Mace/Shield has Protection and Healing. Shouts are great for survival SYS and HTL toughen ya up and SYG has the wonderful Stability buff. Staff and Greatsword work nicely with Altruistic Healing also if you have a melee heavy group. If your crit is decent Omnomberry Pie and Master Maintenance Oil consumables are very helpful.

Hammer and GSword both have Combo Fields and Finishers that you can use. I like GSword 4>3>2 to throw out boons and clear conditions. Hammer Autochain1>2 is another easy way to throw Boons for use with AH.

GL,

Blood~

Here is my Build that I run in dungeons and I love it and the DPS is great and so is the survivability

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3|9.1g.h15.e.1g.h8|2.1g.h15|1n.b1j.1a.b1j.1n.b1j.1n.b1j.1n.a1.1n.a1|1g.64.1g.64.1g.61.1n.61.1n.64.2s.d14|0.a2.u69b.u38a.0|54.7|e

I’d go with tanshiniza’s build. It’s pretty solid and self explanatory. I don’t personally run it because my build is refined for my style of play — but I can say that his is very straight forward and you’ll have a very easy-going time in general play.

As for acquiring gear, dungeons can be fine. I don’t want to get into karma as that’s worth researching on your own. When I was new to the game and needed gear I google’d farm spots and just bought a cheap MF set to farm charged and corrupted lodestones. Really bland but it got the job done within a reasonable amount of time. I’m sure someone will post a much friendlier method of going about your gear than I did, but this is what I did because I could do it alone.

I have run a 0/0/30/20/20 build in WvW for months now and it very good so your build should not be the problem. I can’t speak to dungeons or fracs because I find them dull, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t perform adequately there as well.

Your difficulties are almost certainly a matter of having bad gear, perhaps making poor gear choices and a bit of inexperience.

If you don’t have exotic armor yet, run AC since it’s sorta easy so you can get a Power/Toughness/Vitality armor, or if you can spend some gold craft Valkyrie/Knight exotic pieces to help.

Nearly everything in the game is dodgeable (not by just using dodge) so if you’re failing at this, not even all the best gear would help you in hard content. Armor is there to help you in case you fail once or twice, but it won’t help if you can’t avoid damage at all.

If you’re having trouble avoiding damage, start with the Scepter/Staff since they’re ranged. Watch how monsters move, how they attack, what motions they do before, what patterns they follow, and as you gain knowledge you’ll notice they’re predictable.

Then move for melee weapons, but don’t start with dungeon monsters right away. Walk around the world and you’ll see a bunch of the same type of monsters in group events that you can attempt to solo.
Give them a try, and learn. Don’t feel bad about failing and dying, it’s part of the process. If you put some effort and learn, you’ll notice you can actually solo most of the game’s content, even these said group events.

You’ll end up developing your own techniques and habits, such as memorizing the a monster’s attack speed after the 2nd attack, and dodging the 3rd even if it’s a fast attacking monster.
Or you’ll learn you can dodge monsters attacks with a startup animation between 0.5~1sec just by walking through them (with Melee Assist Off in options) or just by walking in circles.
Or how your attack range is usually higher than most monsters and you can keep running and attacking while it’s chasing you.
Or the best ways to use your skills for maximum survivability, such as Binding Blade, dodge (negate 1st hit), Leap of Faith (blind – negate 2nd hit), Pull (negate 3rd hit), VoJ if you have Radiance 5 (negate 4th hit), dodge (negate 5th hit), run for 1 attack so by then you’ll have a dodge and Leap of Faith again, etc…

If you don’t like playing like this, you can also play with the standard way of “taking/dealing” damage as other MMOs using a 0/0/30/30/0 + 10 build focusing on Altruistic Healing, Empowering Might and using a Hammer for high protection uptime and self-healing so you can try to outheal the damage you take.

My suggestion however is to learn how to avoid damage so you can play with whatever weapon and whatever build you want.

First, I’d like to commend you for at least admitting to yourself that you need improvement. — Most people are ignorant and won’t admit this to themselves and therefore.. never improve.

If you find yourself dying a alot, try to build up a Exotic set with Power Vitality Toughness stats. I believe HOTW and AC are the only dungeons that have these stats but I am probably missing one other.

Also, pick up a Hammer. Hammer is great for mitigating damage. -33% incoming damage is huge and has a near 100% uptime. However, some fights require that you range mostly.

Playing as ranged with a Scepter Focus or Shield is nice. Make use of 3 skill on Scepter to immobilize your foe if you need to gain some distance. Shield 4 is awful damage but grants you and your party Protection if aimed properly. I use it as range if I’m expecting some ranged damage and Shield 5 is on CD.

Focus 5 is also nice but is a bit selfish compared to a properly placed Shield 5.

Go with Soldier Runes 6PC (Superior Sigil of the Soldier) in your gear to remove conditions. Also I recommend always using “Hold the Line!” as a shout.

Use a build like 0/0/30/30/10.

Once you get better, you can start replacing your gear with Berserkers for more damage / less survivability.

Hope this helps. I realize it’s probably a bit random but unfortunately didn’t have time to properly format this.

use build 0/5/30/30/5 AH—-> GS/staff

glyphs->
Retributive Armor 5% of toughness is given as a bonus to precision
Purity Lose a condition every 10 seconds
Altruistic Healing Applying a boon to allies heals you
———————————
Superior Aria Shouts recharge 20% faster
Empowering Might Nearby allies gain might for 5s [sic] when you land a critical hit
Pure of Voice Allies affected by shouts convert one condition to a boon
—————————————-
armor-> full knight with lyssa runes 6/6
accesory-> pow/prec/tough
(i have karka event earring (all stats), rings from fractals that gives all stats->hm sun and moon i think rings dont know their names now because i am tired from work all day xD )

it will give you 3100>3200 armor
hp is from 15-17.5(second is wvw bonus) i have now 17k i think.
crit chance 50% with food, crit dmg is 50%
weapon use pow/ prec /tough with quickness sigil on GS/hammer and generosity on staff.

and use omnomberry bar or cake i dont know name now, that food that gives you 66% chance to heal on critical hit and 70 precision.

you wont die that often maybe never , cheers and good luck

Thz.7569:

I’d go with tanshiniza’s build. It’s pretty solid and self explanatory. I don’t personally run it because my build is refined for my style of play — but I can say that his is very straight forward and you’ll have a very easy-going time in general play.

As for acquiring gear, dungeons can be fine. I don’t want to get into karma as that’s worth researching on your own. When I was new to the game and needed gear I google’d farm spots and just bought a cheap MF set to farm charged and corrupted lodestones. Really bland but it got the job done within a reasonable amount of time. I’m sure someone will post a much friendlier method of going about your gear than I did, but this is what I did because I could do it alone.

I am slighlty confused, however. In the second slot on the armors, it has “Divinity”. Is this some kind of rune or anything similar I can apply to equipment? Because I can’t find anything like it in the trading post.

Puma D roronoa.6784:

I am slighlty confused, however. In the second slot on the armors, it has “Divinity”. Is this some kind of rune or anything similar I can apply to equipment? Because I can’t find anything like it in the trading post.

Superior Rune of Divinity

Highly overrated, highly overpriced, and generally inferior to more specialized options. I wouldn’t bother with them.

Quarktastic.1027:

Highly overrated, highly overpriced, and generally inferior to more specialized options. I wouldn’t bother with them.

Agree with the overpriced part but in a balanced (main focus on crit damage) pure of voice build they certainly have their place and are far from inferior, on the contrary i would say.

In general i do agree though, it should probably be the fifth or even sixth set of runes you get..