Guild Wars 2

Warning: slightly long post

Little back-story first: I mained a ranger and get to level 80, did everything and then made an alt. A guardian. Needless to say, I wont be gong back to ranger. But I want some input from the longtime guardian community for my build. Thank you in advance for the help.

What I am doing: DUNGEONS. That is really about all I am doing 90% of the time. Any and all dungeons from AC to CoE (working on getting a guild group ready for Arah). So I do not much care about WvW, PvP or world exploration. This is strictly for dungeons.

My role: hopefully support more than anything. I have enough guildies in decked out warriors/thieves/mesmers etc. that we have a pretty good DPS setup whatever our party may be. So since there is no need for me to go pure DPS, I figured I would help alleviate some headache.
What I am running now: I am currently running a 0/0/30/30/10 build with the following skills/traits:

Heal-Shelter
Utility1-Hold The Line
Utility2-Stand Your Ground
Utility3-Save Yourselves ( I swap this as need be for Wall of Reflection/Sanctuary or whatever the need may be)
Elite-Renewed Focus. I found my guilides can survive very well without me using tomes, so I figured this will let me use my virtues more liberally.

Traits:

Purity-lose a condition every 10 seconds (I swap this if there aren’t any conditions to worry about)
Retributive Armor-5% of toughness is given as a bonus to precision
Altruistic Healing-applying a boon to allies heals you

Superior Aria-shouts recharge 20% faster
Empowering Might-allies gain might for 5sec when you critically hit
Two-Handed Mastery-2 handed weapon skills recharge 20% faster

Master of Consecrations-consecration skills recharge 20% faster and last longer.

I run full Knights armor and weapons. My runes are 2x Superior Rune of the Monk, 2x Superior Rune of the Water and 2x Major runes of the Sanctuary (I am sure this is a bug that will eventually be fixed, as the major and minor are not the same as the superior). I have hammer 99% of the time, but I cant quite figure out what sigil would be the best. I am leaning towards either Blood for health steal or maybe water for just a bit of extra HP for my allies. What do you guys/gals think? I keep one of every weapon around just in case I need it. My other is either Staff for Empower/Symbol of Swiftness, or a Scepter/Focus for when I need ranged options. I haven’t found much use for the Mace or Torch yet. Have any of you? I am currently working on getting my trinkets, I am hoping to get all Knights once again, since as I said I don’t care much about massive damage, and this setup allows me to do decent damage and really help my group.

This is what I am doing currently. As of now I haven’t had any trouble in any dungeon besides a random “oops” moment or a party member who wont hold their wait. I can practically face tank any boss with my hammer and some decent guildies. But I want to know if there is anything that I am missing, or that I should try out that will make it better for all of us. I look forward to any input I can get from you all. Thank you very much for taking the time to help me out. See you in game!

P.S.: On an unrelated note, I am having trouble finding an armor look I really dig on my guardian. It is a female sylvari, so any suggestions to help me look amazing? Thanks again!

Wow nobody? I can only assume that:

1) My build is perfect and needs no attention. (yeah right)

2) Nobody has read this. (i can see the nearly 300 reads so thats not true)

3) Nobody cares. (always a possibility)

4) My build is so bad it cannot be fixed. (highly doubtful as it has been working wonders for me)

So even if you guys have no help for my build, what about my armor? I still cant find one that I really like. Help me look awesome!

Your build sounds similar to the paragon one I use from these forums, though you’ve made some choices I don’t quite understand. With hammer you really don’t need the 20% skill reduction (mighty blow isn’t even being used on cooldown anyway typically) so pure of voice would be better (especially with it mostly fixed now).

Also you took master of consecrations but…don’t use any consecrations?

As for sigil I use strength for hammer, rage for greatsword.

Your build is fairly solid, and looks like a decent enough example of an AH dungeon build. I don’t run an AH build (I’ve been running this build and variations since beta), but it does give quite a bit of survivability.

The build I run is a little bit squishier, and deals similar damage (possibly a bit more, though let’s face it: guardian DPS isn’t the reason we’re invited to groups), but provides boons for a lot longer. As you’ve apparently discovered (due to your rune choice), boons rock. Giving permanent retaliation, protection, swiftness, and/or regeneration to teammates is incredibly helpful.

The only thing I’d say your build lacks is a really good condition removal for allies. Save Yourselves works, but only once every 48 seconds. A lot of classes don’t have strong condition removal, and conditions can really hamper their damage output and survivability; therefore strong condition removal—at least in certain places, and certain dungeons—can be an incredible “boon” (pun completely intended) to the team. That’s something I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of survivability for.

EDIT: Just realized you asked about sigils. I use Strength for greatsword, Bloodlust on hammer, Water on scepter, Lightning on sword, Force on focus, and various others on staff/mace/torch/shield (which I don’t use often, but they do all definitely have their own uses).

Because I am French i don’t like writing over here, thats why i did not personaly answer.

But the true reason is :
5) you didn’t used a skill tool to make your build

use this one next time (or an other one, nobody mind)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQFASlUgyCXFyvDf4ERWBRi9AjwvjXPcIFZIA

Indeed a lot of people dosent want to read a long post and would prefer a visual aspect.

On another hand, i should tell you than it’s a pretty commun build, already discuted previousely, its a great one, you can use it with small changes.

I personally prefer having retreat instead of hold the line, specifically when time comes to kill the giganticus lupicus, because you can put a shelter on a down mate. Moreover, i enjoy running faster in fight, you also jump longer… very convenient.

The worst thing on your build is that you use only one weapon. At least try starting a fight with the wall of a staff, or the protection of the focus can save you sometimes… Whatever, try to be inventive thatway.

Sorry for my poor english, i’m hopping that should help a little.

I think the main reason nobody has reacted yet is pretty close to point 1.
This build is one of the sturdiest out there, and as you stated, you already have the right armour, runes to match and the proper weapon of choice.

But allow me to nitpick! Or rather, just toss in my two cents.
I personally adjust my traits based on what group I am with. Constantly.
If they are heavier in the melee department, and glass cannons to boot, I’d drop either Two-Handed Mastery or Empowering Might in favour of Writ of the Merciful.

One thing I can actually recommend is the Mace/Shield combination, although that heavily depends on the layout of your group and what you face. If you haven’t got a large amount of healing aboard, then the Mace’s symbol and the healing Mace does on every third auto-attack strike, can really make a difference. I love bringing my Mace when I have Warriors or Thieves with me up front, especially to counter e.g. some hefty burning or bleeding that’s being done and reapplied over the course of a fight.

On the harder bosses, where you know you’ll grab the aggro, Signet of Judgment is a nice skill to swap in. You take 10% less damage while carrying it as a passive. That more than makes up for its boring active use – the one I doubt is worth pressing at all.

As for pretty armour… I do like how “legit” the Tier sets for Sylvari look, especially if you mix and match it with TA’s heavy set. I’m sure if you check the PvP locker for comparisons, you’ll quickly find what tickles your fancy.

Appreciate the responses. Sorry about not using a skill calculator, I post so rarely I had no idea how to do that. As for the Master of Consecratons, I swap out consecrations for shouts when need be. No need to run a consecration when the fight doesnt demand one. I do typically swap weapons in fights, mostly to staff for the buffs. So most of what you guys commented on is already addressed. I appreciate it greatly. Now just to find some armor I like! That is a tough one.

This is very very similar to what I’m doing.

IMO:

Drop empowering might in favor or converting conditions with your shouts. You won’t crit enough for the might to be noticeable, and with Staff skill 4 and a competent mesmer in your group, everyone will be maxed with might already anyhow, especially with reduced two-handed recharge.

I used to love shelter, but then I learned to embrace the healing signet. Its such a huge heal boost, and I almost never find a need to use my healing skill anyway.

I use Soldiers armor with Clerics trinkets and a weapon with Life stacks, so my healing power is sky-high. I’ve found that both Dwanya and Altruism runes work well with this kind of set up.