Guild Wars 2

So I’m building a sword based crit build for my guardian and was reading a thread in the warrior forums which discusses mixing Knight’s and Berserker’s gear when i realised I have no idea how armour works in this game, I know it reduces damage but I don’t know by how much (i.e. is it a flat % damage reduction per amount of armour or is it more complex?).

Essentially the problem I have is that I can either stack Knight’s and Berserker’s gear and gem it with a mix of rubies and beryls and get a good crit chance and crit damage modifier and about 3000 armour but abysmally low health (talking about 11,000 or so) or I can mix soldier gear with berserker’s and get better health levels and lower toughness and crit damage or I can mix valkyrie gear and berserkers and get higher crit damage and healith at the cost of armour.

This is for PvE, fractals, dungeons and soloing.
Thanks

Is this for a AH/might build?

Most sword specs (mine included) were centered around the synergy of AH and vigor/might procs. You could get alot of them with sword in a hurry. The nerf on the vigor proc rate seriously undermined the tank-ish-ness of this build.

If your dead set on crit then here’s what I ran for a while pre-nerf…

For a good mix of crit & crit damage with P/V/T included I suggest Knights armor, Valk Jewlery, pack runes, and then flavor your sigils / weapons to taste (accuracy sigils for crit chance. zerk, knight, or soldier weapons) weapons and sigils really all depend on what you are try’n to accomplish and your build..

With the above I was able to hold the following stats unbuffed—
(yours may vary and depends on your build and weapons sigil load out)
2.9K armor
15K health
2800-3000ish attack
40% crit
30% crit damage
might/vigor/swift/fury procs almost on CD

These stats aren’t great due it’s fingers in many pies ( 5 stat focus vs 3 stat focus_)and it was made for AH pre-nerf in mind. You won’t be face tanking with this anymore but it may be what your looking for.

This is pretty easy to get with rares and will give you a decent idea of how if feels to drive for a few gold before upgrading to exotics.

I personally switched to full PVT hammer myself ..

2k Power
1.4k Precision
2k toughness
1.6~ Vitality

3.1k attack
28% crit (52% crit dmg)
3.2k armor
17,355hp.

Unbuffed.

Once food and oil starts coming into the equation it gets pretty crazy.

Pick up a PTV weapon. Most people are still bandwagoning the Beserker stat stuff thinking you can only do dps with those weapons but unless ur a glass cannon or a thief the PTV stats on weapons are the best “bang” for your buck.

Toughness raises your Armor, which raises your defense against direct-damage.
Armor will not protect you against condition-damage, where only a high health-pool is beneficial.

So, as a Rule of Thumb:

Vitality > Toughness when it comes to gear.

In PvE, it’s the long fights against elites, champs, and legendary mobs you have to worry about. Most will usually have some sort of condition; and against conditions, having low vitality will get you killed.

Vitality is an umbrella stat that works against everything. In my opinion, Toughness exists for those who wish to invest in bunker-builds (all-out-defense, usually for PvP) or full-support (specialties in the toughness trait-line).

I’m currently mixing Berserker gear with Valkyrie trinkets.
I’m liking it so far (although I went a little mad, hoping to find a combination that was more like my theory-build with the trinket in Heart of the Mists).

i want to say that there are cases where toughness > vitality. what you’ve stated @Dream is more than viable as it’s clearly working for you. and yes, against conditions, vitality is the better choice vs toughness alone, since toughness does nothing against cdns. i’d say a healthy balance can be optimal, or depending on playstyle. i used to don all knight’s gear, and toughness was maxed out. the Guard has a LOT of conditional removal. either through traits or runes or utilities so conditions never really bothered me too much. unless say i was getting focus fired in WvW where no amount of toughness / vitality would have saved me anyways. so really depends how you play.

i’ll want to add that you may want to look at effective HP if that’s your thing and you can find a balance between toughness and vitality. many Guards can also deal with a low HP pool by out-healing the dmg they’re taking and in a sense be more survivable (whether it be through regen or heals).

Thanks, I’m annoyed now that there’s no option for Power/Precision/Vitality gear now : /
What would be the better option then if I want to focus on that? Go for Soldier (Pvt) gear and load up on Emerald orbs for more tough prec and power? I think i calculated I can hit about 55% crit chance (inc. sigil and traits) with that whilst having a decent health pool and armour, although that requires me to use berserker weapons and amulets.
Or should I try Ruby orbs instead so I get some crit damage at the cost of some precision (only about 3% crit overall)? Or Beryl orbs for power/prow/vit?

I’m a bit disappointed as i was drawn to the guardian by how their toughness line is tied to crit damage and the retributative armour trait is really nice….tempted to try out a mesmer build I had instead but its a S/S one so is probably not much good…seems all the playstyles I like aren’t really catered for in PvE.

You can, however compensate with foods and oils.

Plates of Lemongrass Poultry are amazing, and you could find some use from Quality Maintenance Oil or Superior Sharpening Stones.

DreamOfACure.4382:

Toughness raises your Armor, which raises your defense against direct-damage.
Armor will not protect you against condition-damage, where only a high health-pool is beneficial.

So, as a Rule of Thumb:

Vitality > Toughness when it comes to gear.

In PvE, it’s the long fights against elites, champs, and legendary mobs you have to worry about. Most will usually have some sort of condition; and against conditions, having low vitality will get you killed.

Vitality is an umbrella stat that works against everything. In my opinion, Toughness exists for those who wish to invest in bunker-builds (all-out-defense, usually for PvP) or full-support (specialties in the toughness trait-line).

I’m currently mixing Berserker gear with Valkyrie trinkets.
I’m liking it so far (although I went a little mad, hoping to find a combination that was more like my theory-build with the trinket in Heart of the Mists).

I disagree. Conditions are the least of worries of guardians considering we can cure them in either AH or Monks, therefore stacking vitality isn’t really needed. However that doesn’t mean u should be rocking anything lower than 15k. As for armor u’ll want a minimum of 2.8k. Theres no point in stacking vitality without toughness, and there no point stacking toughness without vitality, you have to find the medium point that works for you.

As a reference.
My HP/Armor:
16815
3150

Xabrin.1749:

Thanks, I’m annoyed now that there’s no option for Power/Precision/Vitality gear now : /

It’s not just you. I’m pretty sure a good portion of GW2 has gone a little mad over it.

I believe ANet has intentionally excluded any appealing combinations of precision/vitality on gear in order to make us more selective in our stat-investments. Which is kind of cool / uncool at the same time, because I WANT THAT STAT-COMBO, but it all the other choices more viable by the lack of comparison.

Some may disagree, but I do think Pow/Prec/Vit is the simplest stat combo, and if it existed, would be the go-to combo for the majority of the population.

The Knight’s trinket in sPvP gives this combo, and it is VERY popular in sPvP.
It just does too well to cover all your bases. Power+Crit is the most reliable damage-source, while Vitality is a fundamentally more reliable stat then Toughness.
The only combination that exists is known as “Magi’s” which is Healing Power/Prec/Vit, with HP being the major stat. Hardly appealing for your typical PvE player.

Archer.1658:

I disagree. Conditions are the least of worries of guardians considering we can cure them in either AH or Monks, therefore stacking vitality isn’t really needed.

You’re not really disagreeing with me, Archer.

Guardians don’t need to stack defenses at all because of their inherent survivability from Virtue of Resolve and Courage.

But it seems to me like you’re not really concerned with the condition-spammed scenarios of PvE. First memorable example of the game: Necros from AC Path 2. They spam Poison AoE everywhere, and that stuff melts you like butter.
Having vitality vs not having vitality is the difference between living for 5 seconds and living for 10 seconds against condition-spammy mobs, condition-curing or not.

Further more…

What your stats should look like depend on your build.

I forgo toughness because my build affords me that luxury.

• Focus triple-block shield. Amazing utility to start your fights with.
• I’m a Hammer Main. Symbol of Protection (plus runes and the occasional shout/trait-bonus) gives me regular protection boons.
• Signet of Judgment. In my opinion, best signet passive in the game. 10% damage reduced against either direct or condition damage so…
  Who needs toughness when you have high uptime on -43% damage-reduction? lol

As a result, I get to enjoy as much vitality as you AND about 40% crit-chance and over 60% crit damage without investing much into either Radiance or Valor.
(The only trait that cures stuff from AH-build is Purity, which only asks for 10 points. lols)

Of course, some people prefer to be beefier so they don’t need to dodge as much.
Like I said, it depends on your build.

Conclusively:

Vitality can be stacked and be made to work in a build whereas stacking toughness has dire consequences.

So, there is totally a point to stacking vitality compared to toughness.

And this is coming from a guy who puts 30 points into Virtues. ;P

Xabrin,

Been 80 on my guardian for a short time but I’ve tried a few different builds. The AH Hammer is great but I wanted something with more damage output and less autopilot so I am messing with a Sword/Tourch and Scepter/Focus build. I ran Arah with it last night and it worked very well. 10/30/0/25/5, 19.9k health, 2.6k armor and Sigil of Blood and Omnomberrry Pie for healing. Crit chance is ~53% and damage is ~40%. I grabbed a random mix of gear from my leftover dungeon tokens looking for Vit>Precision>Power>Toughness>rest and filled um with Crest of the Soldier cuz I’m not sure whit Runes I’m going for yet. Went Vitality before Toughness. My AH Hammer build seems more durable but I don’t mind trading that for noticeably higher damage, just gotta be more proactive on damage mitigation but my main is a Thief and I have squishy training :P

GL
Blood~

It’s possible to get the best of both worlds with the right gear and traits. I find Knight and Valkyrie to be the best overall when trying to achieve this. These are my stats unbuffed, as you can tell when you start adding food and oil it makes it great. My crit dmg is at 57.

One screen is 30/5/30/0/5 and the other is 0/5/30/30/5.

DreamOfACure.4382:

Xabrin.1749:

Thanks, I’m annoyed now that there’s no option for Power/Precision/Vitality gear now : /

It’s not just you. I’m pretty sure a good portion of GW2 has gone a little mad over it.

I believe ANet has intentionally excluded any appealing combinations of precision/vitality on gear in order to make us more selective in our stat-investments. Which is kind of cool / uncool at the same time, because I WANT THAT STAT-COMBO, but it all the other choices more viable by the lack of comparison.

Some may disagree, but I do think Pow/Prec/Vit is the simplest stat combo, and if it existed, would be the go-to combo for the majority of the population.

The Knight’s trinket in sPvP gives this combo, and it is VERY popular in sPvP.
It just does too well to cover all your bases. Power+Crit is the most reliable damage-source, while Vitality is a fundamentally more reliable stat then Toughness.
The only combination that exists is known as “Magi’s” which is Healing Power/Prec/Vit, with HP being the major stat. Hardly appealing for your typical PvE player.

Archer.1658:

I disagree. Conditions are the least of worries of guardians considering we can cure them in either AH or Monks, therefore stacking vitality isn’t really needed.

You’re not really disagreeing with me, Archer.

Guardians don’t need to stack defenses at all because of their inherent survivability from Virtue of Resolve and Courage.

But it seems to me like you’re not really concerned with the condition-spammed scenarios of PvE. First memorable example of the game: Necros from AC Path 2. They spam Poison AoE everywhere, and that stuff melts you like butter.
Having vitality vs not having vitality is the difference between living for 5 seconds and living for 10 seconds against condition-spammy mobs, condition-curing or not.

Further more…

What your stats should look like depend on your build.

I forgo toughness because my build affords me that luxury.

• Focus triple-block shield. Amazing utility to start your fights with.
• I’m a Hammer Main. Symbol of Protection (plus runes and the occasional shout/trait-bonus) gives me regular protection boons.
• Signet of Judgment. In my opinion, best signet passive in the game. 10% damage reduced against either direct or condition damage so…
  Who needs toughness when you have high uptime on -43% damage-reduction? lol

As a result, I get to enjoy as much vitality as you AND about 40% crit-chance and over 60% crit damage without investing much into either Radiance or Valor.
(The only trait that cures stuff from AH-build is Purity, which only asks for 10 points. lols)

Of course, some people prefer to be beefier so they don’t need to dodge as much.
Like I said, it depends on your build.

Conclusively:

Vitality can be stacked and be made to work in a build whereas stacking toughness has dire consequences.

So, there is totally a point to stacking vitality compared to toughness.

And this is coming from a guy who puts 30 points into Virtues. ;P

Your right for PvE ONLY this works fine.

If you’re running anti-condition duration foods I would say generally tough > vit as they seriously reduce the condition dmg you take and thus you don’t need to worry about cond dmg as much. You still do want some vit though… a few exotic beryl jewelries should be enough and will help keep your damage up via crit dmg.

You could also use some of that nummy life stealing on crit food on… but you’ll wind up being cc-ed more (it works on reducing chill durations etc. as well). Dear god the amount of cc that gets shot at me in wvw is redicilous xD

I use meditations + hammer > ah + gs now since that nerf though…

I would say that if you want to run fractals, toughness is better than vitality. Vitality is a disavantadge with agony. It is a %HP damage but you have to heal back more to get to full life if you have the same healing power so it’s more difficult to get back to full health. You don’t have this problem with toughness. Of course when you have high agony resistance, it is less a problem.