Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing a bunker guardian in spvp for a bit and so far I like it, being able to live longer and helping out my teammates feels great

But I have some trouble when to use my shouts :\ There are times where I use them at the right moment, but most of the time I feel like I’m just spamming them, which I know is bad.

Do I use them to help remove conditions off my allies or use them for their effects? Most of the time I use them to removed conditions, which is the “spammy” part.

any help would be great.

Honestly, overthinking it can cause you to mess up. I use my shouts when I feel I’ll gain the most benefit from them. That doesn’t mean I leave my teammates hanging in their time of need, it just means they indirectly benefit from me trying to benefit myself. Shouts won’t turn the tides of a fight dramatically, but there are moments it can change the flow of a battle.

Using hold the line when a thief stealths and obviously is preparing to backstab one of your allies can help save some of their cooldowns (possibly). You have to be strategic for your own advantage in my opinion. Your allies living is one of them.

I feel experience is the better teacher, though. Play more and more

It depends on your shout build specifics. The more boon uptime you have, the less you can care about saving shouts for the right moment. I have Pure of Voice and 6 in virtue trait line on my wvw bunker. I spam my shouts and save virtue of resolve and courage for oh crap moments.

You use them with the intention of placing the boons properly. If you do find your team suffering from craploads of conditions and it looks like no one is going to cleanse themselves, take the initiative and cleanse for them so they don’t end up breaking their rotations.

The only one shout that you need to be aware of at all time is Stand your ground. That’s your most powerful shout, since stomping is one of the most important thing you can do.

A team that can stomp vs a team that can’t will make all the difference.

Thaddeus.4891:

The only one shout that you need to be aware of at all time is Stand your ground. That’s your most powerful shout, since stomping is one of the most important thing you can do.

A team that can stomp vs a team that can’t will make all the difference.

I disagree.
The most powerful shout is SY if you are taking your support role seriously. and since it has the longest cooldown its is the one you need to watch the most and pick its moment very carefully because this can turn a fight around as well.

yes, SYG is important for stomps but only if you attempt to stomp with other players around that can interrupt you. dont waste it on an easy stomp or on classes that can interrupt you from downstate once. you should rather dodge that or use a blind.

so the one that is the least important is HTL especially if you are alone on the point.

more importantly: dont be selfish. if someone else is attempting a stomp who has limited sources of stability give it to them. the mastering begins when you are aware of who is around you and what position he is at in the group panel. you should take time at the beginning of the match to check name, class, race and appearance. often enough you might want to cleanse condis on your group even though you might have none. If your dps buddies fall its a matter of time when you go down as well.

If you are fighting on point and got cripple and a few bleeds on you do not rush to cleanse that. keep your cool an wait for the nasty stuff that will hurt you (confusion in large quantities, burn and 7+ bleedstacks.

if you are fighting a medi guard think twice if you jump at the burn cleanse. it will come back imediately.

watch out for you heal CD and all shout CDs . you might want to wait just before you cast the heal to take care of incoming poison. Even though shelter is not much of a heal – with poison on its really only the block left and that hurts a lot.

if you are charging mid, try to get a fast understanding what classes are coming at you and anticipate their first move. opening with SYG when entering the point with the enemy is mostly a good call since it will be off CD when the first is downed. if it is still on CD well… you might have the upper hand anyways because lets face it your team did a good job at focusing or the enemy is squishy as hell.

this is just my two cents. I am not a hardcore pvp player andjust got recently into it. those are just my observations.

I do play virtue bunker as well but with hammer / mace/focus.
against heavy condi teams I take SY over retreat. if I do pick retreat i use pure of heart instead of resolute healer. you will not miss SY especially if you have boon heavy teammates.

^This guy knows his kitten.

I could be completely off base but SY went from most important shout to 2nd or even third best. It isn’t as big of a game changer anymore thanks to the meta shift. Team wide cleanse is nice no doubt about that, but on a comp where your teamates are already self-sustaining, SYG can be replaced by a lower cd shout that you’ll utilize twice as much in a single fight.

Saiyan.1704:

I could be completely off base but SY went from most important shout to 2nd or even third best. It isn’t as big of a game changer anymore thanks to the meta shift. Team wide cleanse is nice no doubt about that, but on a comp where your teamates are already self-sustaining, SYG can be replaced by a lower cd shout that you’ll utilize twice as much in a single fight.

Sure, but that only applies when you’re running something semi organised or when the people you’re with are half decent.

Asmodal.6489:

Thaddeus.4891:

The only one shout that you need to be aware of at all time is Stand your ground. That’s your most powerful shout, since stomping is one of the most important thing you can do.

A team that can stomp vs a team that can’t will make all the difference.

I disagree.
The most powerful shout is SY if you are taking your support role seriously. and since it has the longest cooldown its is the one you need to watch the most and pick its moment very carefully because this can turn a fight around as well.

yes, SYG is important for stomps but only if you attempt to stomp with other players around that can interrupt you. dont waste it on an easy stomp or on classes that can interrupt you from downstate once. you should rather dodge that or use a blind.

so the one that is the least important is HTL especially if you are alone on the point.

more importantly: dont be selfish. if someone else is attempting a stomp who has limited sources of stability give it to them. the mastering begins when you are aware of who is around you and what position he is at in the group panel. you should take time at the beginning of the match to check name, class, race and appearance. often enough you might want to cleanse condis on your group even though you might have none. If your dps buddies fall its a matter of time when you go down as well.

If you are fighting on point and got cripple and a few bleeds on you do not rush to cleanse that. keep your cool an wait for the nasty stuff that will hurt you (confusion in large quantities, burn and 7+ bleedstacks.

if you are fighting a medi guard think twice if you jump at the burn cleanse. it will come back imediately.

watch out for you heal CD and all shout CDs . you might want to wait just before you cast the heal to take care of incoming poison. Even though shelter is not much of a heal – with poison on its really only the block left and that hurts a lot.

if you are charging mid, try to get a fast understanding what classes are coming at you and anticipate their first move. opening with SYG when entering the point with the enemy is mostly a good call since it will be off CD when the first is downed. if it is still on CD well… you might have the upper hand anyways because lets face it your team did a good job at focusing or the enemy is squishy as hell.

this is just my two cents. I am not a hardcore pvp player andjust got recently into it. those are just my observations.

I do play virtue bunker as well but with hammer / mace/focus.
against heavy condi teams I take SY over retreat. if I do pick retreat i use pure of heart instead of resolute healer. you will not miss SY especially if you have boon heavy teammates.

When are you ever alone on a point as a bunker guardian downing someone? Bunker Guardian is the worst combo in the world for killing anything. SYG is the whole basis for the bunker guardian in spvp. If it didn’t exist no one would want a bunker guardian. Also, its not just stomps SYG secures but rezzes and it’s just not you it can secure those things for but team-mates can do them because they will have stability from it as well. It is the only AoE stability in the game. It also has a sooper short cooldown so you really can’t waste it to easily. Lots of classes can cure conditions. The current meta is full of class that just kitten on conditions. I don’t need to pull conditions from most elementalists for example or even Warriors and Engineers for that matter. I am not saying SY is not potentially very powerful but there can be only one best ability and that’s SYG.

brannigan.9831:

When are you ever alone on a point as a bunker guardian downing someone? Bunker Guardian is the worst combo in the world for killing anything. SYG is the whole basis for the bunker guardian in spvp. If it didn’t exist no one would want a bunker guardian. Also, its not just stomps SYG secures but rezzes and it’s just not you it can secure those things for but team-mates can do them because they will have stability from it as well. It is the only AoE stability in the game. It also has a sooper short cooldown so you really can’t waste it to easily. Lots of classes can cure conditions. The current meta is full of class that just kitten on conditions. I don’t need to pull conditions from most elementalists for example or even Warriors and Engineers for that matter. I am not saying SY is not potentially very powerful but there can be only one best ability and that’s SYG.

First, I am alone on point all the time and even as a bunker guardian i get to stomp a single target quite often. Basically when a teammate downs it and leaves it to rot behause they are moving to another Point. I mostly wait till he/she dies on its on to keep it from respawn but if I can See enemies closing in I go for the stomp. Others situations are two downed or soon to be downed enemies. All i am saying is to be smart about the use.

I could have respected your opinion short of you saying that SYG is not
potentially powerful. Really? SYG literally does everything except stability and is another stun break. taking retreat over it is a hard choice. However I do change my opinion Based on what you wrote. I do swap between SY and retreat but would Never Run without SYG. Hence it is more important to me.

Oh and SYG is not the only aoe stability in game. there are three more. Hint: we have another one.

For anything x-x-x-6-6

SYG>Retreat>HtL>SY

Aegis heal is underrated and pair it with UC. If your facing a heavy condition team swiftness, stability, and strafe running will help more than SY. The lesser cds means higher sustain condition removal and more buffs. Really good amazing long buffs not like SYs short ones.

For anything x-x-6-x-6

SYG>HtL>SY maybe equal to Retreat

for other specs it could change.

irish.3578:

For anything x-x-x-6-6

SYG>Retreat>HtL>SY

Aegis heal is underrated and pair it with UC. If your facing a heavy condition team swiftness, stability, and strafe running will help more than SY. The lesser cds means higher sustain condition removal and more buffs. Really good amazing long buffs not like SYs short ones.

For anything x-x-6-x-6

SYG>HtL>SY maybe equal to Retreat

for other specs it could change.

Since i only run x-x-x-6-6 and after several more rounds I agree. Didn’t miss SY at all. Pure of Heart is a great trait. Yet I always seem to regret taking it over Resolute Healer despite its long CD. But this might be because its effect is more obvious then PoH (which tends to fail a lot against better opponents who know how to secure a stomp). Might be better to prevent the downstate in the first place.

I am also torn between two-hand Mastery. Simply because you can not have enough banish and ring of warding. Simply doesnt offer anything to the group though.