Guild Wars 2

How well does a spirit weapon-based build work? I just really love the idea of summoning a bunch of ghost swords and all that nonsense, but I don’t hear a lot of people talk about them, so I’m wondering if they’re of the opinion that they’re not that effective. I’m only just starting my guardian so I don’t have any of the actual skills yet, but I’d guess that I’d focus in Zeal for the relevant traits. At the moment, it would just be a leveling/solo PvE build. Has anyone tried running with spirit weapons before?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Aha! A spirit weapons discussion! I’ve been waiting for this.

I love Spirit Weapons. I’ve been using them for a long time and trying to get the word out. They’re an excellent build, useful in leveling, in sPVP, in dungeons.

My early spirit weapons build can be found right here.

In a nutshell, there are basically two ways to use Spirit Weapons, and two ways to build them: Defensively and Offensively. I built mine Offensively, so I used both Sword and Hammer. If you build Defensively, you can actually safely skip A Fire Inside, since Burning is perfectly useless on both Shield of Avenger and Bow of Truth.

You can take Wrathful Spirits if you want, but it isn’t mandatory. As Danicco pointed out, 10% damage isn’t much for the Spirit Weapons, and A Fire Inside adds a LOT more anyway. Plus, Spirit Weapons builds are already pretty strict.

So, for an offensive build, your setup is 20 Zeal, 20 Radiance and 10 Virtues. This leaves you with a modest 20 points to spread around. A few suggestions, by no means comprehensive, of where to put those 20:

20 in Honor – Additional support to help make up for your lost Utility slots. Empowering Might is pretty nice.
30 Radiance – Even more damage and condition damage. I really like Right Hand Strength, too. There’s something to be said for using Signets for this build as well, in which case you can get some mileage out of Perfect Inscriptions.
30 Virtues – A solid support and damage option. Every build can make use of Virtues, regardless of Utilities. Having stronger Virtue of Justice, faster cooldowns on your Virtues and superior Virtue effects will help round you out.
10 Valor – You could go 20 if you want, but to be honest, the Master Valor traits don’t offer much for a Spirit Weapons build. You can’t really load up on Meditations after all, although if you want to use a Shield, this is a good option. Purity is great for any build.
30 Zeal – Good for Greatsword/Hammer setups that want more out of their Symbols. Will also crank a bit more damage out of your Spirit Weapons.

A quick and dirty run-down of the pro’s and con’s.

Pros:

• Fantastic damage. With A Fire Inside, Eternal Spirit and Improved Duration, Spirit Weapons add a great deal of cumulative damage. Take both Sword and Hammer—use them either independently or at the same time.
• Very powerful knockdown. Hammer’s knockdown is one of our strongest attacks, bar none. It hits like a sackful of doorknobs in the face, and I’ve seen the knockdown pin dungeon bosses to the ground.
• Constant damage. The weapons will (usually) stay on your target regardless of what you’re doing. Even if you’re dodging, running around, downed, reviving an ally, getting out of line of sight or whatever else, your weapons will stay on your target. Sword, in particular, has a very long duration compared to Hammer, and you’ll see quite a lot of total damage out of it.
• Flashy. Spirit Weapons draw attention. They look amazing. They catch everyone’s eye. Everybody knows your build when you’re running a Spirit Weapons. Depending on your ego, this is either a pro or a con.

Cons:

• Cooldown dependent: When your weapons are off cooldown (granted, this isn’t as long as it seems), you’re low on options and have to rely on your own power. A deep Radiance or deep Virtues build can probably lay down enough damage or support (or both) during the downtime that it’s not a major issue.
• Finicky AI: The weapons don’t always behave. They can lag behind, and sometimes they’re off in la-la land when you really need them on an enemy. Eventually you get used to their idiosyncrasis.
• Rigid Build: If you’re going an Offensive route, you’re stuck with just 20 traits to put where you want. Defensive routes can get another 30 points, but are likewise stuck dumping points in Zeal and Radiance when they might not want to.
• Utility Loss: Spirit Weapons eat, at minimum, two Utility slots. You could get away with having just one and taking the Spirit Hammer, and then traiting up your other two slots, but then you’ve devoted an entire build to just one weapon.
• Diminished Traits: Because you can only have one Utility slot free, that really hamstrings your ability to take traits that improve specific utilities. Shout builds and Consecration builds, for example, won’t work all that well simply because you only have one free slot. You could, I suppose, go Signets. Radiance does give Signet bonuses.

So, yeah. I love the build. I’m tinkering with a variation of it now.

Take every trait that has “Spirit Weapons” in it somewhere. That’s about it.
This would be the skeleton build, which gives you 10 more trait-points to spend.

I find them really useful for leveling, but Guardians have plenty of great utility skills that it’s ultimately up to what you prefer playing with.

In order of usefulness (in my opinion): Shield of the Avenger (best ranged damage reduction, really great physical damage reduction (command)), Hammer of Wisdom (damage and Knockdowns), Bow of Truth (terrible condition removing but great AoE heal), Sword of Justice (damages only, command for AoE but it’s not worth against a single target).

For traits, I don’t think taking them all is a good idea, only a few makes them viable already.

In order of importance: Spirit Weapon Mastery (Zeal 10), Eternal Spirit (Zeal 20), Improved Spirit Weapon Duration (Virtue 10), A Fire Inside (Radiance 20), Wrathful Spirits (Zeal 30).

A reduced CD is a must to keep them most of the up obviously. Being able to command them without having them destroyed comes second only because the reduced CD is a prerequisite, since all of their commands are great.
The extended duration from Virtues 10 makes some commands more worthwhile, since you can AoE heal with the Bow twice for example, and Weakness mobs 3~4 times with the Shield, etc.
The damage ones I listed as last because the increase isn’t really that awesome, though “A Fire Inside” from Radiance 20 buffs greatly their damage (it adds a single Burning tick, usually 400~500ish depending on your build, but sometimes may conflict with your own Burning and doesn’t do much – it’ll add a second or so, sometimes not enough for a second tick).
The extra 10% damage is laughable, and only the Sword deals significant damage.

Thanks for the responses, guys. I’m definitely going with a offense-oriented spirit weapon build for leveling:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#cccz0ocMzmxwMMmmxMMGG9MxoaVRVRq

But I have another question. I know that the cooldown on these things activates after they’re destroyed and not after they’re summoned, but with the Eternal Spirit trait, does the cooldown activate after they’re commanded, or does it still wait until they’re duration is up?

I like spirit weapons, but you need to be always attacking something or they “are off in la-la land”. As (it seems) with every skill, the duration is frustratingly short especially when the enemy is at range. And they use up a skill slot that could be a “Retreat!” or “Hold the Line (love isn’t always on time)”.

Spirit Weapons are very powerful if you take all the tactics to make them work and can get the 5 greatsword skill to work. They offer alot of cc and a very high burst. I use them in my spvp spec.

I only go 20 into zeal the extra 10% damage is not a good trade off for more health and 20% reduction off your own cd’s with greatsword.

But I have another question. I know that the cooldown on these things activates after they’re destroyed and not after they’re summoned, but with the Eternal Spirit trait, does the cooldown activate after they’re commanded, or does it still wait until they’re duration is up?

Eternal Spirit gives the “Command” skill a separate cooldown altogether. This means you can Command your weapon several times before they disappear.

The cooldown for the weapons themselves always begin after the duration has run its course. So there’s always some downtime.