Guild Wars 2

I’m hoping this build can provide a baseline idea for guardians that like an all-around versatile build which can output solid damage while staying incredibly tough (and also providing support for your group).

10/30/0/30/0 (aka 10 in Zeal, 30 Radiance, 30 Honor) Sword+Focus and Scepter+Shield

PvE and PvP gear has differing stats, if anyone was unaware. The following is for PvE gearing, though I’ve had great success with this build in PvP as well.

All armor is Knights (Toughness > Power + Precision) and all jewelry is Valkyrie (Power > Vitality + Critical Damage).

Stats on weapons can be berserkers or knights. Sigil of Force, Bloodlust, or Accuracy are all ones I have been using recently. Many sigils are viable, I just found the above three at reasonable prices.

Utility Spells are “Save Yourselves” and “Hold the Line” plus whatever third utility fits the situation best. “Hold the Line” is my preference, but Signet of Justice and “Retreat” also are ideal in certain scenarios.

Pros of the build:
-Permanent Vigor, enough that you can constantly dodge to get healing and keep your damage bonus from Elusive Power going.
-Incredible staying power for your entire group. Conditions being turned into boons from shouts and healing from dodges helps everyone. Not to mention the benefits of the shouts themselves, which are significant.
-Two stun breakers, which is crucial for many dungeon scenarios.
-Significant sustained damage in almost any scenario. Your sword is very powerful and crits an incredible amount for high damage. On those fights where you have to back out to do damage at range your scepter can really pack a punch at range with smite.
-When tanking in melee you have 3 blinds and an absorb shield, enough to keep an aggressive opponent at bay for a long time when you include all the dodges you’re doing.
-Enough toughness and vigor to easily act as the initiator/tank vs bosses.

Cons of the build:
-Very limited crowd control. One knockback and one root is really all you provide.
-Kiting and mobility can be challenging. You can easily have swiftness with “Retreat” and “Save Yourselves” but beyond that you lack the tools necessary to keep opponents at bay.
-Limited condition damage (some burning) can make high armor opponents affect your damage output more than some builds.
-Restricted AOE damage. Your sword still hits multiple foes, and smite can hit multiple targets as well, but nowhere near the AOE damage that other classes or greatsword can put out.

I’ve managed to have some glorious moments with this build. I’m hoping some of you will find similar success. As with any build in this game, your playstyle will greatly change the details of how successful you are with it, so adjust as needed to your preferred style.

This seems good. Im going to give it a try.

My guardian is 72 now and have been lost with him in dungeons as dps greatsword. He seems to go down super quick even with some vit and toughness.

tanky , supporty for me now.

Any questions come up while playing it please let me know understanding how fights work is obviously very important to dungeon survival, but this build should let you have the tools you need to be successful.

Not a fan of the Scepter+Shield in dungeon, due to the cramped space and need to go toe-to-toe with ranged mobs anyway. Smite is very nice btw, and never thought of using it in dungeons, so i will try it.

Will let you know hot it fares, i will have to try without 10 zeal (i am only 70 ATM).

I like the idea of the scepter because melee range is a **** in dungeons. At least thats what I have found so far.

Just need work to finish so I can go try this!

I’ll add to this thread from my experience in running through Honor of Waves, Crucible of Eternity, and Arah.
Lvl 80 Guardian Shout/Support Build
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#Mccz0cMMmNvammNvam9MxGGmsqMkMs

Armor – Full Exotic Cleric (Full Superior Rune of the Soldier)
Jewelry – Full Exotic Cleric
GS – Exotic Cleric (Major Sigil of Water Rune)
Mace/Shield – Exotic Cleric (Major Sigil of Water Rune/Superior Sigil of Life)
Food – Strawberry Tart for Vitality + Regen

This build has its advantages in the healing/regen department while boosting over 3K armor. With the Strawberry Tart & Soldier Runes HP is 15K. This build maximizes regen/healing and shouting to allies while in essence ensuring that you will likely not have a status condition on yourself.

The weak side is the DPS but there is a pseudo offense while playing defense in this build.

Retaliation is very powerful in this build and there are a couple of ways to attain it.
1) Use a virtue – (Virtue of Retribution Trait + Vengeful) + Elite Skill Renewed Focus to refresh Virtues
2) Symbol of Wrath for Allies Retaliation + GS Leap for Retaliation
This build works well with Combo field light to trigger Condition Removal or Retaliation.

GS – Symbol of Wrath, Mace – Symbol of Protection, and Shield of Absorption are all Combo field light creators. GS 3/5(Whirl/Bind) would remove conditions while 4(Leap) would give retaliation. With the Increase duration of Symbols (Writhe of Persistence Trait) you should be able to drop symbol of wrath and GS to utilize both retaliation (4) and condition removal (3/5) during the duration.

Healing comes from the tremendous amount of regen/Altruistic healing/Virtue of Resolve/rolling/Mace Heal/Shield Heal and Sigil of Water.

Am I missing something, or did the OP not mention any of the Major Traits in his build?

I’m assuming [Pure of Voice] is in there since he mentions turning conditions into boons.
[Right Handed Strength] and [Empowering Might] since he concentrates on precision and mentions critting often.
[Superior Aria] since he takes at least two shouts?

Several of the others could be tossups.

Apologies, phor, I didn’t mention the major traits. As previously mentioned you should usually pick traits to compliment your playstyle.

However, the ones I use are the following:
*Zeal – II Firey Wrath
*Radiance – II Signet Mastery, X Powerful Blades, XI Right Handed Strength
*Honor – II Superior Aria, VIII Empowering Might, XI Pure of Voice

All of those have worked very well for me. The only one I’m not 100% on is Empowering Might, which has some other possible options to replace it. Overall I’ve found it greatly supports the team though, so I keep going back to it.

Hope this helps you a bit phor, apologies for not including it in the original post.

Sweet.
Pretty much what I expected, but good to see them.

This looks like a fun build. I never really was fond of the Scepter, but I think I’ll have to give it another try.

How do you think this will fare in WvW?

edit: Nvm, just realised the OP wasn’t after a 100% offensive build. Doh.

There’s no point in mixing gear, and you’re not in need of defensive stats unless you intend to get hit, and even if you do get hit several times in a row and get downed, your teammates should be fast to bring you up again. If not, you would’ve been dead anyways.
Since we only have one condition, condition damage is out of the question, just go entirely for berserkers stuff, the damage output is absolutely apekitten.

(Greatsword + Staff)

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