Guild Wars 2

As the title implicates, I’m wondering how it works out — more specifically in the 30s and 40s. I’ve always ran the standard GS or hammer but for fun I recently worked on a build with 30 radiance and am -very- pleased with the stats I was able to pull from it. I also did some testing of damage and cleave on test golems and it doesn’t seem that bad.

But before I go and drop a bunch of gold in revamping my guardian, I’d like to hear some opinions from people who have tried it.

For reference the build would be 0/30/30/5/5 and stats with food would be 66.28%crit, 2920armor, 95%crit damage and 14,345hp

Why? Single target, no CC/group utility or symbol. Single target damage is worthless when the greatsword does nearly the same damage single target, but cleaving, whirling finishers, group pull, aoe blind. Or the hammer for short cd blast finisher and with traited symbols perma prot for anyone near the guardian and circle of warding.

I run 48 everyday, and quite frankly even the hammer isn’t that great by then. You’re better off with GS/mace+shield or focus and switch to scepter for some bosses like archdiviner or ice ele.

There’s no point in selfish weapons because even then you don’t touch warrior or thief or even mesmer (that’s the list, with warrior and thief close single target, but warrior blows thief away in aoe and mesmer is a distant third) damage, but you lose symbols and other group utility no one but guardians can bring (eles can pull with earth shield, but sacrifice a utility slot for it).

Outside of the pull, I still believe I could bring adequate aoe and far superior single target damage. Aoe blind is a dumb point because radiance allows me to spam blind anyways for packs of mobs. Also the stats are ridiculously good.

All the basic utility required per situation is still available through utilities. Like I said, it’s just an idea but it’s looking attractive and quite fun.

I do appreciate your input, though! And I do see where you’re coming from, it’s tried and true and is the standard for a reason. I just really want to branch out.

Edit: Actually yeah, I was being optimistic but the aoe would be severely lacking. It’s probably the only thing that’s holding me back slightly. More opinions are welcome though, especially from those who have tried it .

Oh, I’ve tried it. I wanted to put my fractal sword to good use but alas I’ll have to give the skin to one of my alts who will actually use the weapon.

Hey, at least you can use a mainhand sword spec to great effect in wvw and tpvp. It’s a good bursty yet tanky weapon in smaller engagements with nice mobility.