Guild Wars 2

Here is a trait build I have been toying with. I am no judge of the guardian’s abilities, so I’d like to read opinions on this.

Playstyle
With 30 points in Virtues you get 30% faster recharge. The traits give bonus boons and you end up with;

F1, Justice: 18 seconds – Might, (v. brief) Retaliation
F2, Resolve: 45 seconds – Regeneration, (v. brief) Retaliation
F3, Courage: 68 seconds – Aegis, Stability, Protection, (v. brief) Retaliation

It is important to fire off F1 at every opportunity for the PBAoE vulnerability and blindness, and Save Yourselves for the damage bonus.

Other shouts should be used as normal, Retreat! for the mid-cooldown Aegis, use blinds if possible when Aegis isn’t available.

Traits
Zeal 0
Radiance 10 (v)
Valor 10 (v)
Honour 20 (vi, ii)
Virtues 30 (i,viii, x)

Link
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mzcz0cMM0mvGammMmam0aaGxoVoMzsa

Explanation
The idea is that it would be a shout-heavy build, utilising synergy of “Save Yourselves” and other boons to give additional damage via the third minor in Virtues – (do extra damage for each boon you have).

The build has another interesting synergy: Radiance 10 (v) -when applying virtue of justice, you blind and make vulnerable all foes around you. This might also synergise with Virtues first minor – (justice also applies might), second minor – (gain retaliation when you activate a virtue) and hence the third Virtues minor – (do extra damage for each boon you have).

Add to this the fact that the Virtue recharge rate is increased by 30% because the build has 30 points into the Virtues line, and Justice becomes even more significant.

In Valour, I went for 10 (v) for the condition remover (couple it with Sigil of Resolve for twice the effect, I think?). The minor is gain Aegis at 50% HP which fits nicely into my theme, especially considering the 10% extra damage while under the effect of Aegis from Virtues (i).

In Honour I went with Aegis heals on removal and 20% shorter shout cooldowns, but I am not sure if I would be better switching Honour (ii) (shouts recharge 20% faster) for Honour (ix) (two-handed weapons recharge 20% faster). A nice bonus is the second minor – dodge rolls heal allies.

In Virtues, see above for (i) 10% extra damage while under Aegis, which should synergise well with the 30 pointer (x) (passive aegis triggers every 30 seconds) when aegis is on passive and the 30% recharge speed when it’s been activated.

Virtues (ix) (resolve passive heals for more and removes 3 conditions when activated) is pretty much filler, but it’s themic filler. If you think any of the others on the 20 point tier are better, use them.

Power of the Virtuous, I’ve read reports of it being only 0.5-1% per boons which is pretty low. Comparing to Radiance Power or Fiery Wrath which is a flat 10% on conditioned/burning targets, Power of the Virtuous is pretty weak.

10% damage while under Aegis is only good if you are to not get hit at all. To get half of its effect (5% is still pretty good for a trait), you can only be hit once every 15 seconds with the 30 seconds VoC trait.

Trungalung.7850:

Power of the Virtuous, I’ve read reports of it being only 0.5-1% per boons which is pretty low. Comparing to Radiance Power or Fiery Wrath which is a flat 10% on conditioned/burning targets, Power of the Virtuous is pretty weak.

Seriously? That’s abysmal. Anet need to fix this.

Trungalung.7850:

10% damage while under Aegis is only good if you are to not get hit at all. To get half of its effect (5% is still pretty good for a trait), you can only be hit once every 15 seconds with the 30 seconds VoC trait.

I don’t know whether you’re correct, the idea with the Virtues line is that you get your virtues back relatively quickly. Plus, you could always use the Retreat! shout between regular aegis’.

I modified it a bit, and changed the first post accordingly. It seems to play ok. I can’t tell if it’s good or not, as I state at the top of the first post. I’d like to read more opinions, please.

This is just coming very close to a bunker build. The problem you run into is that defensive boons are in general much stronger than offensive boons, and you sacrifice a lot of potential to grab those and make them meaningful (+boon duration gear, for instance). This can still be great on offense in pve/dungeons, however.

If I had to guess, +damage for each boon is probably around +1.5-2% for each TYPE of boon (not each stack, and possibly not counting stability); which would make it equivalent to other professions. This is good, but still amounts to a hassle because, really, the only reliable way to stack a lot of boons is “Save Yourselves!”; which has an ungodly cooldown.

10% damage under Aegis is mostly a cute trick to add to burst builds, because attacks apply to blind and shield of wrath first before taking off your aegis; so you can get off a good combo in the meantime.

I would switch out Pure of Heart for Two-Handed Mastery—the healing from the trait is pretty marginal and guess what? The first time your aegis is removed you are at full health!

For PvE I would consider putting 5 more points into radiance (or 10) to recharge virtue of justice on a kill. If you aren’t paying attention this synergy slips by easily; but for a group of foes you can easily spam this skill 5+ times in a few seconds, negating enormous amounts of damage for your team.