Guild Wars 2

People have been discussing Guardian DPS a lot lately, so I thought I’d share this build. It’s not new, and I obviously didn’t invent it, but new Guardians are always asking for builds and this is one of the best builds for solo PvE content. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s not pinned to the forum.

This is a Guardian PvE solo/roaming build. It is a great build for map completion, leveling, and any time you aren’t playing in an organized group.

Setup
The weapons you will be using with this build are:

• Greatsword; for taking down groups of enemies quickly.
• Sword; a well rounded weapon that’s good against single-targets.
• Focus; a great support weapon for the Sword and Greatsword.

You want gear with Power, Precision, and Critical-hit damage (Berserker gear). You wont find it every level if you’re leveling, but Strong, Honed, or Penetrating gear all have similar stats.

This is a 30/30/0/0/10 build. For all you new players, that means you put 30 trait points into Zeal, 30 into Radiance, and 10 into Virtues. Here is the traits you should pick:

Zeal.

• (ii) +10% damage vs. Burning foes.
• (vii) Greatsword attacks deal 5% extra damage and heal you.
• (viii) Focus skills recharge 20% faster or (xi) +50% Spirit weapon damage

Radiance.

• (vi) Blind also applies 3 stacks of vulnerability.
• (viii) Spirit Weapons cause burning.
• (xi) +15% critical-hit chance with one-handed weapons.

Virtues

• (v) Spirit Weapons last 50% longer or (i) +20% damage while effected by aegis.

Slot skills:

• Shelter is better than Signet of Resolve because you don’t need the condition removal. The block can save your life.
• Sword of Justice lasts longer and has a shorter cooldown than other Spirit Weapons.
• Hammer of Wisdom doesn’t last as long as Sword but it knocks back foes.
• Other Spirit Weapons aren’t useful, so you can take whatever you want here. I like Retreat because of quickness and aegis. You can try Purging Flames, or Judge’s Intervention, or Bane Signet if you want.

Why This Build Works

• Every time you activate Virtue of Justice:
  * You and your Spirit weapons apply massive burning damage.
  * You and your Spirit weapons gain might.
  * All nearby foes are blinded.
  * All nearby foes receive 3 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds (each stack reduces opponent’s armor by 1%).

• 3 ways to remove conditions. Ray of Judgement from the Focus, and Whirling Wrath or Blinding Blade on a Symbol of Wrath from the Greatsword.

• You have 4 blinds at your disposal including Virtue of Justice, which recharges when you kill a foe. Each one of those applies 3 stacks of vulnerability, and blind is a great defensive skill.

• Spirit weapons apply burning to foes, so you will always deal 15% extra damage.

• Because you have 4 blinds and 2 blocks you have a high level of survivability.

• Opponents tend to attack Spirit Weapons if you kite them, so if you’re low on health you can attack enemies in the back while they attack your Spirit Weapons.

• The Greatsword’s Symbol of Wrath also applies vulnerability and deals extra damage.

This is a really solid build. It has high damage and high survivability if you use your blinds/blocks properly. I use this build to solo a lot of Champions in this game.

This build is weak against Dredge though, since they are immune to Blind. They still gain vulnerability, so you just lose defense.

I hope this helps anyone who is new to the Guardian class or who hasn’t found a trait spec they like yet. From what I understand, if you were to go for DPS in WvW or PvP it would be a similar build to this (…not that I am suggesting Guardians should roam in PvP). Again, I don’t claim credit for this build. It has been around a while and it’s an intuitive set-up.