This is a new build im running as a high end r40 tourny only bunker guardian, this is what i have come up with that has been helping me when games as i have moved slightly more away from the bunker position and more toward the fully support position^^. I have played over 800 matches and very experienced so just want to share with you what ive come up with XD. So if u see any spots that could be improved fell free to leave a comment with ur suggestions. Hope u like it and dont forget to upvote if u do
I don’t know if you can still edit but your build has a typo. You call your heal Healing Breeze in the description but you have Signet of Resolve slotted.
Cool build though. I love people that understand the strength of the dodge heal coefficient!
hmmm yeah its a typo in the description i gues :O i def mean to have the Signet heal(I hope to see a day when we can make healing breeze viable XD) and yup the dodge heal is exactly that a extra HEAL so might as well make good use of it
Nice build. Signet of Resolve and Hallowed Ground are both extremely underrated by the majority of players, and you demonstrate and explain how they can be put to good use here. I was actually running something just about identical at one point, but swapped “Save Yourselves” for “Hold the Line” in favor of the shorter CD on a 2x condi cleanse, and I went with Sigil of Accuracy on the Mace rather than stamina in order to capitalize on the vigor procs from symbol ticks (even though your crit % sucks you put out a lot of hits with the symbols for fairly consistent vigor up time).
Roamer is a tricky one for guardian’s sub-par mobility. Can’t wait to see what you do there.
+1 for Hallowed Ground being underrated. I also rarely see it mentioned that it works wonderfully with altruistic healing builds – up to (69+0.01*HP) * 5 * 11 healing for yourself over 10 seconds if you have it filled with Allies.
I’m going to say that your build is very similar to that build, but a less optimized version of it. I’ll go over the major differences between the build you’ve given and the mainstream build, and reasons as to why the mainstream build is to be generally preferred in top level play:
Signet of Resolve over Shelter: So, there’s a few problems with using the signet heal in a bunker build over Shelter. First, it heals for too much. What I mean by that is it heals for over half your health with cleric/cleric, so in order to get the full use out of the heal, you have to let yourself get down to around 7k health, which is just a bit too risky when you’re facing teams with coordinated burst (a single scepter air burst or a basi + backstab + heartseeker gets ya). Also, the signet heal is more telegraphed and requires Stability to ensure that it goes through without being interrupted (focus 5 also helps here, I admit), and you can’t always afford to be using your Stability so frivolously. Another thing is that Shelter is better at helping you survive focus fire, and in reality “heals” for more than it looks like it does in the form of its 2s block duration. There are a few corner cases where Shelter can be annoying (unblockable attacks like Corrupt Boon and Spectral Wall, Ring/Line of Warding to name the most troublesome ones), but for the most part, Shelter is the tried and tested heal for bunker Guardian for a very good reason.
10 points taken out of Virtues and put into Radiance: So, first of all, the passives you’re getting in Radiance are much worse than what you get from Virtues, since you’re running Shouts and Staff + Mace, you’re dumping out tons of boons and dropping that boon duration and virtue recharge rate is a considerable sacrifice in order to pick up some condition damage and crit rate. The big deal here, though, is losing out on taking Indomitable Courage (X in Virtues). With Renewed Focus, that’s 2 extra AoE Stabilities that you won’t have access to in teamfights, and each of those often equate to a stomp or a res that you will have much more trouble getting against good players with stuns/knockbacks ready. Losing the very powerful Indomitable Courage isn’t worth it just to buff the 2nd best heal option you have for the build.
Writ of the Merciful instead of Resolute Healer: This one’s a bit more debatable, especially after the recent buff to symbol size for the Staff and Mace. I tried Writ out more myself when I was lesser experienced. In theory, Writ of the Merciful sounds pretty good on paper, giving your symbols that extra bit of sustain for your group. In practice, though, it’s mostly just sustain for yourself, since you’re typically the only person that stands in your own symbols for any length of time. The amount of extra healing effect your symbols give with this trait (a little over 200/s) pales in comparison to the amount of extra damage your DPS will take by standing together inside that circle in order to get it. DPS want to be constantly running, kiting, and dodging to deal and avoid damage, not standing inside a little circle bunched up together to get AoEd. On the other hand, Resolute Healer is arguably the most powerful res trait in the game. It’s just silly the kinds of resses you are able to get off sometimes with it. Even if sometimes the knockback aspect of it is useless because the other team already has Stability, the projectile absorption aspect of it is still great at protecting you, the body, and your other teammates that are ressing from ranged cleave damage, which sometimes makes all the difference between getting that res or not.
Focus over Shield: Focus is mainly a DPS offhand, whereas Shield is intended for bunkering. Giving several seconds of Protection (the 2nd most powerful boon in the game) in a cone AoE is very strong for teamfight, and the Shield of Absorption grants up to 4 seconds of projectile absorption, a nice little knockback for interrupts or contesting points, and pops for about a 1.5k heal AoE. When compared to what Focus 4 and 5 give you, it’s really not that close.
Save Yourselves over Hold the Line: Hold the Line is a generally the stronger shout because a) the cooldown is much shorter, b) AoE Protection and Regen are much better for teamfight than a bunch of boons only on yourself, and c) you’re looking to cleanse almost ALL condis AoE with Pure of Voice + Absolute Resolution, so the effect of cleansing 2 AoE and then stacking the rest on yourself isn’t really needed very often.
Hallowed Ground: With the build I gave, there are about 4 reasonable choices for what to put in the place that Sanctuary occupies, and I swap between them depending on the enemy team comp (put here in order from most- to least-used): a) Sanctuary — Amazing against teams with no Guardian, or teams with a lot of projectile attacks like Engi, Ranger, Thief. b) Merciful Intervention — Just recently became viable, heals for more over time than Sanctuary and gives you extra mobility to teleport into a teamfight and such, great for if you expect the other team to play a 3-point strat where you’ll need to rotate a lot. c) Save Yourselves — If you need the extra cleanse or the extra stunbreaker (for instance against CC warrior). d) Hallowed Ground — If you’re doing cannon on Skyhammer, or if you have a really coordinated burst team that includes a Mesmer with Time Warp. Also, keep in mind that Hallowed Ground is hard countered by Well of Corruption.
Tome of Courage over Renewed Focus: A reasonable option, especially at the lower and middle tiers of play. The reasons that most people don’t generally use Tome in top level play are because a) You can’t stomp, res, or give Stability while in book, which are some of your key roles. b) It offers you less survivability than Renewed Focus in 1v2 and 1v3. c) Most teams run some kind of boon removal, especially now with so many condi Necros and boon stealing Thieves, so book 5 can still be rather easily interrupted even with Hallowed Ground or Stand Your Ground.
thanks for the feedback yeah some of these i have known about but especially the book elite which is not popular i guess it comes to down to how a person actually uses it ive played against a lot of top tier teams with this build and have had major success with it, a problem to me with things like sanctuary in the line up is now teams have to much access to stability and even traited its still to long a CD to throw up just have ur opponent stand right in it and continue cleaving the downed body which is all i ever see it used for is rezzes nowadays. The reason i take hallowed ground is not solely for the book elite, it has numerous other usage such as making such as preventing warriors form perma stunning you/keeping necro’s from fearing ur team off points etc. these kinda constructive critiscm is what i look for when i make builds thanks alot and ill def go and check those out like shield over focus, im very aware that it offers more support but that was one of my more selfish weapon choices simply because t synergizes with the mace so well, the mace 3 + shield 5 = 4 blocks from bursting not mention 5 blocks theortically if u have an aegis up i just find that well worth usage
Also i did realize that save yourselves when i made this might not be the most optimal considering its a higher cd and im only running 2 shouts i did struggle with that decision of not using hold the line and after reading i agree hold the line might be a better choice so i have more cleanses coming out more often. Ill def look at that again thanks for the post but besides my last post and this i think ill stick with what i have as it has been working wonders for me and this is only 1 build to fill 1 role this is not a “Bunker” build which is what a few have mistaked it for as it is pretty much a 100% support ^^ with some bunker qualities
I see. Well, in my opinion a lot of people tend to misunderstand what a bunker really is. Some people envision a guy who just stands on the same point all game and never leaves it, like an immobile, unmovable rock, but that’s not really how they’re played most of the time. All it really means is a defensively specced character, typically wearing Cleric or Shaman amulet, that is capable of standing on the point during team fights and holding the cap for the team. It doesn’t mean you never rotate; in fact you should be getting into the team fight as much as possible wherever on the map that it happens since that’s where a Guardian is strongest. As a Guardian, it’s not really a matter of needing to choose whether to bunker or to support. You can and should do either or both at once, as the situation warrants. The ability to give boons and cleanses to the team while tanking damage and holding the cap during the fight is what makes Guardian so powerful.
About Hallowed Ground, it can definitely be good against CC Warrior, but I think I’d only run it against 2 or more of them. Just 1 can be mitigated well enough by timing Stand Your Ground properly, that’s usually enough time for my squishies to peel out and get some distance.
It’s cool to roll your own spec, though, and I wish you the best of luck. Glad to discuss the finer points with you.
