Guild Wars 2

Due to the recent changes on AH + VP Healing I have had to change my spec. I have gone through a few I thought would work but honestly so far only one has been able to deal decent damage and have decent survivability, so I thought I would share for those looking for a 1H sword build.

Gear:
Armor: Currently Half knights (Power, toughness precision) and Half Solder (Power toughness Vitality) with a mix of Crest of the Soldier in the Knights gear, and Beryl Orbs in the soldier gear.
Trinkets: Ancient Karka Shell with Beryl Orb, Berserkers ruby earring, 2x Knights Emerald earring, Valkyrie Beryl amulet, Cavalier’s spineguard with Beryl orb.
Weapons: Berserker’s sword/focus, Valkyrie’s Greatsword
I choose not to use runes because in most cases the 3 Stats you can get from orbs/crests equal out better than rune bonuses, (except for divinity which I am just too cheap to get) this gear is a mix of stats and creates a very hybrid feel. Your Vitality is going to be somewhat low, but not horrible; your toughness should easily get you 3k armor after traits. Your Power should get you to 3k attack after traits/food, and your precision should get you over 40% with about 60%ish crit damage. The sword/focus have some really good defensive abilities so I stick with berserkers’ for those, while I go to Valkyrie’s Greatsword because it is a purely offensive weapon.

Sigils: I am currently testing out sigils at the moment, Sigil of Bloodlust on the 1h sword and Sigil of generosity on the focus are my first choices due to the extra damage and condition removal you get from this combo.

Traits:
10/30/30/0/0

Zeal
II: Fiery Wrath: Deal 10% more damage to burning foes.
Radiance
VI: Blind exposure: Adds 3 stacks of Vulnerability to foes you blind
X: Powerful Blades: 5% more damage with swords and spears
XI: Right hand Strength: 15% crit chance with 1h weapons

Valor:
I: Meditation Mastery: Meditations Recharge 20% faster
VI: Retributive Armor: 5% toughness given to precision
XII: Monk’s Focus: Using a meditation heals you.

Utility Skills:
Shelter: 2s block and heals
Contemplation of Purity: Converts all conditions to boons, stun break
Smite condition: Deal AoE damage and remove 1 condition. If a condition is removed deals double damage.
Judges intervention: Teleport to your target enemy, deal damage, and burn nearby enemies for 3s, breaks stuns.
Elite: Renewed Focus: 3s Immunity and virtue refresh

Food buffs:
Sharpening stone: 6% toughness and 4% vitality given to power
Mango Pies: +88 Health per second, +70 Vit
Bowl of curry butternut squash soup: +100 precision, +10% crit damage.

Mango Pies are great for a defensive style build, as the +88 heals per second goes along great with our passive Virtue of resolve for a steady stream of healing. Use the soup if you prefer going a more offensive build.

Play style:
Because you have Virtue of justice refreshing on every kill, make sure that you use it whenever you are going to burst your target down. Normally the best time is once you get a few stacks of vulnerability up from blinds. However make sure that you do not waste it as it is one of the few ways this build has to actually add burn to an enemy. Make sure you use your blinds wisely as they are also part of your damage. You have a total of 4 blinds with this build (virtue use, flashing blade, Leap of faith, and ray of judgment. Ray can actually apply it twice if it bounces back to your target.

Something else that will increase your damage and burst is proper use of your blocking abilities, Aegis, Shelter, and Shield of Wrath (focus #5). Because this build gives you might on block these skills can actually give you a large damage boost on top of their defenses. Using shelter while being focused by multiple enemies can actually give you a full 25 stack of might which lasts for 15 seconds.

Zealot’s defense, Whirling Wrath, and your 1h Sword auto attack are your main sources of damage, I suggest almost always trying to combo them with Judge’s Intervention to maximize your hits, unless the target is rooted or is directly on top of you. Judges Intervention is an amazing utility because not only is a 1200 range gap closer, but it also does not Interrupt any ability, meaning that you can start casting something like WW and use Judges intervention to teleport directly on top of the target and continue the attack. This will also give you burn on your target, therefore increasing your damage on them even more.

Your defenses for this build are based around blind use, healing through meditation use; Healing through passive regen (if you went with Mango pie) and proper use of shelter/renewed focus. With Mango pies you should be regening around 170 health per second passively. Meditations heal around 1800+ per use; with smite condition being usable every 16 seconds. Shelter is on a 30 second cooldown, heals for about 4.5k but more importantly negates 2s worth of damage, casting renewed focus right after will gives you a total of 5 seconds of immunity. Your condition removal comes from Smite condition, Contemplation of purity, and Sigil of generosity.

Weaknesses:
The main weakness of this build is the retaliation buff. Our big damage causing skills are multi-hit and fast attacks, causing the damage from retaliation to add up very quickly. Pistol/Dagger thieves and D/D bunker ele’s are also very annoying for this build too because of their mobility. This build actually has a decent amount of mobility between flashing blade, leap of faith, and judge’s intervention, however we have no lock down skill to hold other classes in place. The up side to this build however is that in most cases neither of these classes can kill you too quickly, and most of the times it is a stalemate due to your self heals. However I do suggest switching to Scepter/torch if you do end up going 1v1 against these classes, as GS will generally slow you down.

If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this build or any suggestions on different sigils/utilities please share. I hope you all find this build helpful in WvW.

I go 0/30/30/10/0.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmcozV9cmNvGmmNvGm0xxa0MoqVoqM8khs7khA7ki37070M7kNc70V7owX7ow470z7owY70z.

Hit really hard with sword and staff, constantly booning allies always healing. I use this in PvE as well, sometimes I change to meditation traits in 1v1 situations but overall, I blast through both content. Great DPS, great survivability. I love it it.

Personally don’t like staff. I know it has it’s uses, but it just doesn’t put out the damage like i want. As far as AH with shouts I find it kinda underwhelming. the most healing through AH you can get with a shout is about 700 with max allies hit. (assuming 70 per boon, 2 boons per shout, 5 people.) compared to a meditation heal of 1800+ now granted, you obviously get the boon as well as the healing, but most are lack luster duration, other than Save yourselves, which without any decent condition removal is more likely to damn you in WvW group fights than save you.

In the OP, if you swap Retributive Armor for Focused Mind, the meditations Smite Condition and Merciful Intervention become insta-cast, useable even when stunned/disabled. MI will help you get out of the middle of a bad situation sometimes.

Because of the lack of a lock down skill, I’d kept falling away from Right Hand Strength builds in favor of Hammer or Greatsword. Last thing I was running was 10/25/30/0/5 build. I sometime ran Binding Jeopardy instead of Fiery Wrath because with a weapon combo of Hammer and Scepter/Shield, I had two immobilizes.

I ran that build for a bit myself but i found the damage with RHS to be worth more than the 5 in virtues. I also love the 1h sword lol. I actually dont have too many issues with getting caught as you can use purity as a clear all skill then just shelter/renewed focus walk out. If you cant do that you were pretty much screwed anyways. Also MI doesnt work based on target so you could end up really screwing yourself with it. Thats also why I take the 5% crit talent, because 1/4 of a second cast time isnt that much.

I use 0/30/30/5/5 with the new Blind Exposure.

Flashing Blade + Virtue of Justice Activate + Ray of Judgement = 3 stacks of Might + 9 stacks of Vulnerability

If your run Purging Flames you can get another 3 stacks of Might using the Shield of Wrath’s Blast Finisher, plus 3 more through Might of the Protector.

With Focused Mind you can also teleport to retreating foes mid-channel of Zealot’s Defense or Whirling Wrath using Judge’s Intervention.

Try Rune of Lyssa’s Bash. I think you’ll enjoy it more than what the jewels give you in gear once you try it out.

Hmm it is tempting but im not really sure. The build doesn’t really need more crit now that AH + VP is dead. Also since the build runs renewed focus, 3 seconds out of 5 of the boons will be useless. Granted it would give a small amount of healing through regen and some retaliation, but otherwise I dont see it as too great. And the build already has some decent condition removal through smite condition and purity. Right now my orbs + crests give me 120 power, 84 vit, 42 toughness and 6% crit damage, (3 crests of the soldier and 3 beryl orbs). If they ever allow Reaper of grenth to be castable while moving I would most likely try the runes, as i would totally switch to that as my elite.

Ojimaru.8970:

I use 0/30/30/5/5 with the new Blind Exposure.

Flashing Blade + Virtue of Justice Activate + Ray of Judgement = 3 stacks of Might + 9 stacks of Vulnerability

If your run Purging Flames you can get another 3 stacks of Might using the Shield of Wrath’s Blast Finisher, plus 3 more through Might of the Protector.

With Focused Mind you can also teleport to retreating foes mid-channel of Zealot’s Defense or Whirling Wrath using Judge’s Intervention.

I actually ran a 0/30/30/5/5 build before the VP nerf and loved it. However I dont really feel the need to put the 5 in virtues anymore as it doesnt give me mini bursts of healing anymore. Also when looking at it the might you gain from justice equals out to 105 power, which is almost exactly what you get passively from traiting into zeal, and thats before adding the extra damage when burning. I do miss the added regen and protection from resolve and courage, however my healing is so low that the regen was almost equal to what resolve gave as a passive already.

As far as the judges mid zealot and WW i actually mentioned that in my original post and do that almost all the time, its such an amazing combo.

Actually Bash, the boons come after the 3s.

So you have 3s of invul, conditions are then cleared and boons applied.

On top of that, shelter now gives another boon.

Oh i figured it started on activation, not on Completion, my bad. The random boon on shelter doesnt interest me that much since I cant really count on it to give me the boon i want when in want it. They are more tempting now but I am not sure i am willing to give up the strait stats for a 90s cooldown boost, but its definatly something to consider.

Bakitten291:

Weaknesses:
The main weakness of this build is the retaliation buff. Our big damage causing skills are multi-hit and fast attacks, causing the damage from retaliation to add up very quickly. Pistol/Dagger thieves and D/D bunker ele’s are also very annoying for this build too because of their mobility. This build actually has a decent amount of mobility between flashing blade, leap of faith, and judge’s intervention, however we have no lock down skill to hold other classes in place. The up side to this build however is that in most cases neither of these classes can kill you too quickly, and most of the times it is a stalemate due to your self heals. However I do suggest switching to Scepter/torch if you do end up going 1v1 against these classes, as GS will generally slow you down.

If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this build or any suggestions on different sigils/utilities please share. I hope you all find this build helpful in WvW.

this is pretty much weakness with guardian in general. bunker eles and thieves are annoying for everyone. they are just too kitten good at escaping.

the hard thing im trying to get from this build is what exactly is your focus? to do more damage to survive or find a happy medium?

Bakitten291:

I ran that build for a bit myself but i found the damage with RHS to be worth more than the 5 in virtues. I also love the 1h sword lol. I actually dont have too many issues with getting caught as you can use purity as a clear all skill then just shelter/renewed focus walk out. If you cant do that you were pretty much screwed anyways. Also MI doesnt work based on target so you could end up really screwing yourself with it. Thats also why I take the 5% crit talent, because 1/4 of a second cast time isnt that much.

It’s not just the cast time; in fact, I’d say the cast time reduction is the lesser of the two benefits. It’s that you can MI and/or Smite Condition while disabled.

I also liked 1hs, but I grew to love Hammer more for it’s two different lockdown skills (the Immobilize and the Ring).

erigais.6805:

Bakitten291:

Weaknesses:
The main weakness of this build is the retaliation buff. Our big damage causing skills are multi-hit and fast attacks, causing the damage from retaliation to add up very quickly. Pistol/Dagger thieves and D/D bunker ele’s are also very annoying for this build too because of their mobility. This build actually has a decent amount of mobility between flashing blade, leap of faith, and judge’s intervention, however we have no lock down skill to hold other classes in place. The up side to this build however is that in most cases neither of these classes can kill you too quickly, and most of the times it is a stalemate due to your self heals. However I do suggest switching to Scepter/torch if you do end up going 1v1 against these classes, as GS will generally slow you down.

If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this build or any suggestions on different sigils/utilities please share. I hope you all find this build helpful in WvW.

this is pretty much weakness with guardian in general. bunker eles and thieves are annoying for everyone. they are just too kitten good at escaping.

the hard thing im trying to get from this build is what exactly is your focus? to do more damage to survive or find a happy medium?

The build is more of a Hybrid build. But honestly I think the build is more focused around not having to sacrifice some damage to get the extra defenses. It has solid defenses through meditation healing, high toughness, and decent passive healing (if you go with the mango pies). It can be bursty at times due to it relying on vulnerability and the extra 10% damage on burning foes, and also if you managed to get some good stacks of might from blocking with shelter or Focus #5. It however is not very ally friendly, as nothing it has really gives to your allies, other than vulnerability increasing damage some. It is however very good at staying in group fights and dividing enemy ranks due to people not being able to take the damage it can deal while still having good self healing.