Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I recently started playing as a Guardian, and I’ve been loving it so far! Being able to brawl with enemies and really go out of my way to save allies feels awesome, but I’m still unsure as to what to spec for trait-wise. So far, I’ve been aiming for a sort of brawler build, using the bog-standard Power-Toughness-Vitality armor combos, and using a Greatsword and Hammer, so I can play offensively or defensively as I need to.

Anyway, on to the problem – I don’t have enough trait points to get everything I want! Here are the different things I’m considering -

Zealous Blade: Good for extended fights, and gives some excellent skills beforehand that synnergise well with the Hammer and Greatsword (Namely Blindng Jeopardy and Symbolic Exposure). Investing in this line also grants me an extra 200 Power, allowing me to still do decent damage in fights.
Strength In Numbers: An obvious one here, AoE Toughness boosts are helpful to both myself and my team alike, and really aids my survivability when combined with the +100 from the trait line itself.
Battle Presence: Okay, this entire trait line feels excellent to me. AoE healing, a damage bonus that rewards dodging, and Writ of Persistence allowing me to keep protection up on my hammer at all time, combined with +300 Vitality and Healing Power? This is a trait line I really want to invest all the way in.
Absolute Resolution: This skill looks fantastic to me as well, especially combined with the AoE effect it has with Battle Presence. It helps my allies in fights, as well as greatly increasing my survivability by giving Virtue of Resolve a really big regen boost.

Now, the problem is, this would involve me spending a total of 80 trait points – 20 in Zeal, 10 in Valor, 30 in Honor and 20 in Virtues. I really want to combine Absolute Resolution and Battle Presence, as both those lines also offer incredible passive bonuses and other traits, but I also don’t want to miss out on the damage bonus from Zealous Blade’s tree, or the Toughness bonus from that tree either. All of these skills seem very helpful, and I’m really torn trying to figure out which one to let go of >_<

Any help from you guys would be appreciated on this matter, and thanks very much for reading!

I’m not sure if investing in Zealous Blade is such a good idea.

ZB could be fine. Personally I’m not quite a fan of Valor anymore. Maybe its because my guard isn’t pvp/wvw focused, but I’d be willing to drop the 10 in Valor to grab everything else. Otherwise, I’d drop ZB 2nd. Battle Presence and Absolute Resolution aren’t overly fantastic, but its kinda nice, especially if you like to see clouds of green numbers all over your screen.

Slightly unrelated, this kind of makes me feel we need more stat arrays with HPow as a minor trait. Shaman, givers, settlers etc. don’t really help you as a Guardian do too much. Best bet would to be choose your basic direct damage array (zerker, knight, soldier) and mix in some celestial, cleric, or magi, depending on your needs.

I’d say you should pick your traits depending on your team composition and environment.

If you’re planning to ‘pug’ a dungeon like high level fractals on a sunday afternoon then you might be better off with your more defensive trait build of 0 / 0 / 10 / 30 / 20 and you’ll still have 10 points to spend on whatever.

If you think you have a very strong team going on in an easy dungeon you could consider going more offensive and drop the trait points in Valor and Honor and use them in Zeal and Radiance instead. Personally, I don’t think Zealous Blade is considered that strong and you might be better off with a build like 15 / 15 / 0 / 20 / 20 for a more offensive build.

Absolute Resolution is very good, both in Dungeons and WvW.

Regen bonus is nice, but..
Up to 5 × 3 conditions removed ? x2 with Renewed Focus ? Yes please !

@Noah – I see what you’re saying, but I’d rather not constantly have to re-spec my traits for different situations.

@Antares – Yeah, I forgot about the condition removal. If I was to drop points from something else and put them in Virtues, what would I drop the points from?

You really don’t need that 10 in Valor. Absolute Resolution is too good to skip. Battle Presence is largely skippable, though. It doesn’t help other Guardians in your party and the trickle of HP isn’t going to make a huge difference to anyone. Writ of the Merciful is much better in terms of healing your party, but only if you’re a Hammer spec.

Maximum Potato.5923:

@Noah – I see what you’re saying, but I’d rather not constantly have to re-spec my traits for different situations.

Don’t be afraid of the respect. In fact not respecing is even scarier.. Get in the habbit of having different builds for WvW and dungeons. Or run a 10/30/0/5/25 build and have fun with that in WvW(since that is a meta PvE build).

foofad.5162:

Writ of the Merciful is much better in terms of healing your party, but only if you’re a Hammer spec.

The nice thing about Writ of the Merciful is that it also creates an extra healing source for yourself while Battle Presence only affects others.

Noah.4756:

foofad.5162:

Writ of the Merciful is much better in terms of healing your party, but only if you’re a Hammer spec.

The nice thing about Writ of the Merciful is that it also creates an extra healing source for yourself while Battle Presence only affects others.

Bingo. It also stacks infinitely, with any other symbols you drop and with any other guardians in your party.

I don’t often find four people with the sense to stand in my hammer symbol though.

Anyway, absolute resolution is really useful.

fadeaway.2807:

I don’t often find four people with the sense to stand in my hammer symbol though.

Anyway, absolute resolution is really useful.

If they aren’t standing in your symbol and they’re melee, they’re too dumb for Battle Presence or anything else to save them.