Guild Wars 2

Hello guys !

I would want to play a support based build, and I’m really not good with that. Do some of you have some advices to give me ? I don’t really know what is called “support” in this game, since I can directly heal people, I thought it was that, but I think it’s not enough. What skills and traits do you recommend me ?

I also posted my current build I use for both WvW and PVE, because I want to know if you guys think it could be improved. Here is the link to this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsf7dlsAhmhY5QwRIwPEH+DlNAqg6EHDl3eeD3L4DA-TlyDABKcSAa4JAoy+DQp8QOtC/oEDATMLq+zhKBfTXAA-w

For sPVP I use the knight amulet, unfortunatly, builds are less flexible in that particular game mode.

Now here is why each of the things were taken:

I’ve made a build mainly oriented into DPS and sustain, a mix of both, I searched for a long time how to increase my durability, without taking away the DPS from a zerk build. I managed, even added some mobility.

A mix of soldier armor and knight/captain jewels keeps the same DPS than a zerker, while adding HP and toughness (up to 3100 armor no traits, 3250 with “strength in number” ), if you take the right traits, obviously, and 20k hp.

You loose ferocity, and a bit of precision, but it’s compensated by traits +10% crit rate on burned ennemies – and they always are, thanks to “judge’s intervention” (mobility !) and “purification flames”, and torch, and trait that triggers – zealot’s flame when I crit, even if the skill on my torch is on reuse – and +15% with 1h weapons, sword/torch ftw, the burn damage also increase the DPS a bit, Also, with the trait that adds fury and a heal to meditation, I have a pretty decent fury uptime, that makes a total of 83% crit rate, approximatively.

Added the ultimate Superior Rune of Strength, to stack a lot of might, alongside with the trait that gives might to you and allies when you crit. I’m almost always at 12 might on common ennemies (they die quickly) and up to 18 might on resistant ones Not counting on my awesome warrior partner, who can get me straight to 25 might 100% uptime on champions and players.

The Signet of Judgement to add some durability to the character, with a trait that boosts signet, I get -12% damage as a passive, and retaliation for me, weakness for my foes when I activate it (but I really never do). I use the one that boosts power (+216 power with the trait) in dungeons.

Now I took the sword over the mace because I wanted to be able to move on the battlefield, the guardian hasn’t the +25% passive speed bonus. Also, I can blind people with 2, and block incoming projectiles with the 3. The third attack with 1 also deals 3 blows, which increase the crit chances and improve my chances of getting another stack of might.
The torch, obviously because I can use twice as much the zealot’s flame, even if it’s CD, the trait sometimes triggers when I crit, and I can throw again the zealot’s fire, which increase insanely the DPS.

The second set of weapons is not really used that much, but the 5 of focus saved me more than one time, while the scepter allows me to deal damage from afar when needed (which is pretty rare because I TP on ennemies), I tend to use the staff, outside of battle, to increase my speed (but my warrior partner’s banners are more effective at that), to stack some might before the fight begins, and to split ennemy groups.

I kept exotic earing because ascended is too expensive for me at the moment, also, I don’t do fractales yet, and it allows me to get a bit more of precision with the upgrades.

Now I’m aware, I lost some DPS from ferocity, but not that much, and what I gained in defense is worth it, to me.

You have almost zero support in that build. It’s just a tank build that sacrifice both DPS and Support for your personal survivability. Here the list of your support.

- F1 Blind Spam. Most dungeon build already have that.
- Empowering Might. WvW build already have that and some PvE build too.
- Strength in numbers. WvW build already have that.

So now. Are you looking for a support build or a personal survivability build?

I should have said that the 2 builds aren’t related. The one I linked is the one I use atm, and is bunker aimed, with some DPS.

I am looking for a completely different one to be able to support.

You shouldn’t use the same build for WvW and PvE, they need way too different things.

So you are looking at a PvE and WvW support build. For what purpose specifically?

PvE : Dungeon, Fractal, Open World, ?
WvW : Roaming or Zerging?

Well the might staking isnt any good at a guardian, its just a waste of trait and potential, we guardians realy suck at might stacking, also we need help with precision. You should consider any of the main trinity of gw2 dps-control-support. I personaly dont see the guardian as Support, healing, condi cleansing, might, and some other boons are necesary, and we guardians can hardly bring any of those, and of course if we want actually do something, you need to gear up for that, yes we have condi cleansing, and healing, but you need to invest on them, gear up for healing power, or using shout for condis, and that means using pure of voice trait, or runes of the soldier, sure you have condi on medi guard, but you are loosing skills, and meditations have long cd. And lets face it, we need to be at the front lines to survive, if we stay behind we’re dead, so I use the guardian as control, you have estability, blocks, blinds, and combo fields; might and others boons, come from other players around, you just deal dmg and block or interrupt spike damage. Of course you can do the same with a tanky build, but if the enemy comes for you, and you hit them with a rubber sword, theyre just going to dps you down, because you wont be a threat to them, what you can do? Heal yourself back to 100%; a well placed combo can 1 shot anyone, no matther how much heal you have.
On the long run, what you need to survive its to have control over others, because you can outheal a big spike dmg, or heal every condi your team or you have.
On the long run, when your skills are on cd, your team and you, are going to die if the enemy isnt dead.
Take a look at some PvP championship finals, and youll see a good bunker guardian on the play.

Try this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5flsAhmhYrQwaIQQEH+DlNAqg6EPClXQcD3L4DA-TRCBABbp8QJlYVq+zCmYA4iAU0+D5pbQSlgB8EAIFgeCtA-e
Ps: sry for the english, isnt my primary lenguaje and im writing on a phone.

Thanks a lot for the intel, guys, and don’t worry for the bad english, I’m not english myself and I understood everything

Wouldn’t your build die a lot, soulTaker ?

Kehlian.4380:

Wouldn’t your build die a lot, soulTaker ?

Well if you play your blocks, blinds, and doges well you’ll be able to survive, and deal a lot of dps, and that scares people attaking you, and with the symbols trait, you will be able to stand on points at pvp and have it all guarded on your symbols, if you want even more dps, you can change radiance with zeal 213, so your teamates will be able to stand there and just melt the enemy down.
Take a notice that using zerker gear youll have a lot of dps, and precision, the precision will trigger empowering might more ofthen.

Something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5flsAhyhYrQwaIQQEHxDVNAeg6F3D/3Wc33JNHA-TxBBABYp8DgLCQe6GKa/hAeCAVq+zZKBJFgeCtA-e

Also if you swap your assassins trinkets for berserker trinkets, you can get 200 more points to dps, while having 66%crit chance.
Keep in mind that this is a more of a pve build, in pvp it will look like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5flsAhyhYrQwaIQQEHxDVNAeg6F3D/3Wc33JNHA-TJBBwAAuIAV3focZgAPBAA

Runes of the soldier gives you more vit and toughness, while leting you clear condis on shouts, and you have very usefull shouts, stand your ground, retreat, and of course the elite feel my wrath, and you only lose 100points on power from using another rune, like pack or scholar.
Using shelter to block a multiple hits attack, will give you might and aegis to your allies. You get symbols from hammer autoatack and mace 2, and symbols heal your allies, and also applies vul to your enemies, so its a win win in a control guardian, your meditation skills heal yourself, grants fury to allies (precision) and they hit like a truck. Give it a try.

Guardian support is done mostly through boons with some healing and condi clear. Without specifics this is the most generalized info I can offer to you.

The support focused specialization for Guardians is Honor; which is usually paired with staff and shouts. You would pick something like Protective Reviver, Honorable Staff, and Pure of Voice to go along with that weapon and utility choice.

The Virtues specialization can add some support to your profession mechanic by using something along the lines of Retaliatory Subconscious, Absolute Resolution, and Indomitable Courage.

SoulTaker.2093:

Kehlian.4380:

Wouldn’t your build die a lot, soulTaker ?

Well if you play your blocks, blinds, and doges well you’ll be able to survive, and deal a lot of dps, and that scares people attaking you, and with the symbols trait, you will be able to stand on points at pvp and have it all guarded on your symbols, if you want even more dps, you can change radiance with zeal 213, so your teamates will be able to stand there and just melt the enemy down.
Take a notice that using zerker gear youll have a lot of dps, and precision, the precision will trigger empowering might more ofthen.

Something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5flsAhyhYrQwaIQQEHxDVNAeg6F3D/3Wc33JNHA-TxBBABYp8DgLCQe6GKa/hAeCAVq+zZKBJFgeCtA-e

Also if you swap your assassins trinkets for berserker trinkets, you can get 200 more points to dps, while having 66%crit chance.
Keep in mind that this is a more of a pve build, in pvp it will look like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5flsAhyhYrQwaIQQEHxDVNAeg6F3D/3Wc33JNHA-TJBBwAAuIAV3focZgAPBAA

Runes of the soldier gives you more vit and toughness, while leting you clear condis on shouts, and you have very usefull shouts, stand your ground, retreat, and of course the elite feel my wrath, and you only lose 100points on power from using another rune, like pack or scholar.
Using shelter to block a multiple hits attack, will give you might and aegis to your allies. You get symbols from hammer autoatack and mace 2, and symbols heal your allies, and also applies vul to your enemies, so its a win win in a control guardian, your meditation skills heal yourself, grants fury to allies (precision) and they hit like a truck. Give it a try.

Well, this works surprisingly (for me) well for sPVP ! Thanks a lot
That also means I’ll finally be able to sell those runes of strength and get some of my money back

Heres a Support/DPS shout build, turning your support abilities into secondary damage sources.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-B;4NFk40J3JGV90;9;4nPN;0156156137;9;1CqNYCqNYa-FiI1hG;3KbK6LbL6MbM6230Cs0VW

For better sustain, you can trait for Symbols and use Mace or Hammer. For solo fun, go virtues and trait for Justice passives. Altruistic Healing used to be the Go-to for self sustain, but with symbols that heal and support coming off others in the group, its not as heavily utilized now.

Theres really no reason not to take Honor in most builds, just because of the free might stacks

Not really a great build for PvE, but it’s decent. Valor and AH are pure surviability with only some minor support in there.

And yes there is reason to not take Honor in some build. Taking Virtue over Honor is around 7% more DPS are you have a quick access to MoC, while Absolute Resolution+Battle Presence is a powerful support trait combinaison.

Not saying that Honor isn’t a good trait line. But saying that there is ‘’no reason’’ to not taking it, is not really true.

Question? Why sword? It’s not a horrible choice, but Mace both have better DPS, Support and Surviability. The only thing sword have going for it is a blind that decrease your dps when you use is and a barely useful reflect on a profession that excel a that with utilities.

You wanted something not meta, and shouts have been not meta for quite some time now. :P

Spirit Wpns Yo – they’re epic and soooo non-meta.

/sarcasm