Guild Wars 2

I am getting to the point that I am able to get into dungeons. The situation is that I am not even in two weeks of playing yet so I have little idea what I am supposed to do while in a dungeon.

I have just been leveling as Greatsword with three signets just because I didn’t need to activate them. Is there a specific reason why Guardians are wanted for dungeons that I should know about?

Seems to be two schools of thinking on this one:

1. Guardian (or anyone else for that matter) should bring as much damage as possible, making the dungeon experience go as quickly as possible. This means everyone should be in DPS builds. This is not for the inexperienced player because for this to work, your other teammates must also be as capable to do their top DPS while staying alive. Essentially, this school of thought is akin to soloing … but with a team to split aggro enough among themselves long enough so that a few dodges and some heals will get you through your aggro window. When I envision this approach in practical terms, I think of open world Champion encounters with only 5 people to kill it.

2. Guardian should bring their strengths to the group. The concept of the Guardian is evident. We bring an increase of mostly defensive capabilities to our team. Builds of this sort are hybrids (a combo of different things; tanking, damage, support, heals) or very strong support (boon spam and duration increase). The builds are more flexible in terms of gear and who you can team with and more appropriate for pick up groups (PUGs) or people that need more carrying through. This is a more recommended route for the new dungeoneer that may lack resources or experience to sit in with group 1.

Alright, thanks for that.

What kind of weapon should I run with if I am going Support type?

A more accurate answer would be to list the weapons and some of the things that they do to support. You choose the kind of support you want to provide the team.

Mace: Regen boon through symbol
Hammer: Protection boon through symbol
Shield: Blocking and AoE reflects
Staff: Swiftness boon through symbol, Might boon stacking for team, direct heals for team

And just load up on Shouts to help out the team?

Is there a specific level or gear that I need to do something like AC? (I played Charr so I always saw people yelling for it)

I’m not sure loading on shouts is the best approach. Those kind of choices (IMO) depend on what’s happening with your team. You can always swap to whatever skills/traits you need as you progress and see what you need. For example, If your team needs alot of revives, you could trait to Protective Reviver.

I can’t comment on level … I didn’t do any dungeons until level 80 because I didn’t want to limit myself.

I used this for my first few dungeons as a guardian. The main reasoning being that:

-I get a lot of boon uptime, and on skills that primarily apply boons to people, this is a significant boost to their effectiveness.

-I hate conditions.

-With unknown (or um… generally short-lived) group members it helps to get more uptime from them, too. Not to forget yourself, if you’re new to it (do avoid huge spikes of damage though, cleric’s isn’t as immediately durable as knight’s or soldier’s).

-Can easily change to the cooldown reduction for consecrations (or meditations, but… meh) which is handy if I want a puddle of stability or wall of reflect (or, for some reason, a meditation). Also the group-wide stunbreak, if you decide on having less aegis/stability.

-Swiftness for ever and ever.

-Dodging for pretty close to ever and ever, with (significant) heal on dodge.

-Can somewhat make up for its low (LOW) damage by applying 12 stacks of might to everyone with the staff, which will last as long as the skill takes to recharge and also heals them/you. Also the potential for the short-cooldown consecration which gives you a fire field (without losing the condition removal of a shout) if anyone is handy to blow things up in it for extra might.

It’s pretty dull and slow in open world PVE though, but you can take 15 traits trait-points from wherever you don’t need them, and reach for the Virtue of Justice recharge on kills thing, plus vulnerability on blind, and spamming that will get you a lot of fire/might while blinding enemies around you, so you don’t need to change gear really, just traits.

get a staff, spam empower, your pug group will <3 u.

Guardians generally are expected to bring condition clearing, aegis, and projectile reflection. Which of those you focus on will depend on the specific dungeon. Caudecus’s Manor is full of ranged enemies that can one or two shot you, so reflect skills are crucial. Twilight Arbor is basically one giant poison cloud, so you’ll want to bring condition clearing (you can trait your shouts to do this if you go 30 deep in to honor). Team wide aegis is strong in all dugeons, and by taking “retreat” and renewed focus we can give our whole team 3 blocks back to back.

From there it’s up to you and your team’s playstyle. If you like hammer, use fire fields to might stack with blast finishers (this is especially strong if you’re running with a lightning hammer ele.) Sword/focus can make for a great blind spamming build. The only thing i would discourage building towards is healing – gw2 is very much about active defense and damage mitigation, rather than the traditional tank/heal model. Aegis, blinds, reflects and vigor (for more dodge rolls) can prevent much more damage than we could heal through, and we don’t need to invest in a primary stat slot to get full effectiveness.

Whichever build you choose, it’s best to keep one of each weapon in your pack – or at the very least bring a staff (utility), a scepter (ranged), and your melee weapon of choice.

I recommend these two build guides by Brazil from [DNT]. His presentation style isn’t to everyone’s taste, but he really knows his stuff. You won’t be able to make full use of his guides till you’re level 80, but it will give you an idea of the kinds of things guardians excell at in a dungeon environment.

Sword/focus blind spam dps – http://youtu.be/IpR45w6Lfwo
Hammer build – http://youtu.be/pZTPyt1BknU

Why would anyone call a build with just 30 trait points spent into offensive line a dps build? You don’t need 30 points spent in honour just to get condition removal. Hammer build isn’t exactly the best with lightning hammer since you create light fields all the time and their duration is even increased, lowering the window during the fight when you can use your fire field skill.

The more you play your guardian, the more your knowledge will deepen. Really try to focus on keeping eyes on screen, particularly on melee players thsat are up close to bosses. Guardians ability to put up block/dmg reduce/buff/condi clear and shake off immobilise is a massive advantage if timed right. Spamming these benefits doesn’t really do much good, but timing them for key moments can make a huge difference between whether a players gets downed or not. Often on some higher level bosses a single downed players quickly leads to them getting defeated and now it is difficult to revive them and from there the team can wipe.

The tricky part is keeping your eyes on screen to see animations and on team health bars to see when conditions are beginning to stack too much.

haviz.1340:

Why would anyone call a build with just 30 trait points spent into offensive line a dps build? You don’t need 30 points spent in honour just to get condition removal. Hammer build isn’t exactly the best with lightning hammer since you create light fields all the time and their duration is even increased, lowering the window during the fight when you can use your fire field skill.

You make some good points, and I won’t claim to be an expert in build optimization. I’ve had good results with both builds, but there may be room for improvement. I’m interested in what you would recommend instead? To your point about hammers, in my experience it’s rare to get100% uptime on fire fields, and so it’s more a matter of being careful and coordinating with your team (easier said than done, of course). For condi removal you could go 20 into virtues for absolute resolution, but personally I like at least 20 in honor for empowering might. I’d still probably put the last 30 into radiance, so that would still be only 30 points spent offensively. There doesn’t seem to be any condi clear traits in zeal so unless you are forgoing traiting for condi clear all together, its seems we’re stuck with 30 in honor or 20 in virtues. Unless I’m missing something? Again I’d love to hear your recommendation.

Edit: perhaps you could do something like 20/30/0/0/20, and take focus cd reduction which takes the bubble down to 36 seconds and the aoe blind to 20. You’re probably a little squishier than you would be with perma vigor and a 46 second retreat, but you’re also getting 200 power as compensation.

GS has condition removal.

haviz.1340:

GS has condition removal.

But it will never remove a condition from you.

I didn’t really find condition removal in most dungeons as something useful.

haviz.1340:

I didn’t really find condition removal in most dungeons as something useful.

Ah, then there I suppose we have a difference of opinion. With that in mind, you could just go 30/30/0/0/10 and use gs whirl for team condi removal. For myself I find the the extra clearing and team wide might stacking from the 30 in honor to be more worth while, but maybe you’re right that it puts into the category of a “support” build. I’ve also found that the 0/30/0/30/10 build works well in pugs, because it tends to meet people’s expectations that guards will bring good condi clearing and boon stacking. But, that may not be your experience. Maybe i’ll go back and try a more offensive build, and see if I’m just paranoid about conditions.

I don’t believe its essential to do max DPS in the dungeon. Most other people playing are DPS clowns. I look at doing medium DPS and supporting.

I strongly suggest 0/0/30/30/10.

Then gear up with lots of crit and crit damage 50% + of each.

The 10 points in virtues will allow you to use Sanctuary by reducing the CD tremendously. There are a lot of pulls where you pull the creature to a spot and it seem to lay down a ton of damage to start the fight. Sanctuary helps you get through this phase and from there its just heals from staff and tome of courage to finish the fight off. If the fight goes on a while a 2nd Sanctuary is helpful. There are certain places where Wall of Reflection is handy. Some other places where the 12 sec stability consecration is good and you might swap that in instead.

Hold the Line is pretty much a staple.

I suggest Hammer and Staff. Or Mace and Staff. Staff has a lot of utility.

Some fights might be better fought at range so you might decide to swap in a scepter. It has no synergy with the build but is flat out more dps in some cases.

The most important thing (and the 1st thing) you should do is “tell your group if you don’t know the fight/dungeon”. After doing that, people will tell you what you need to do (and what utilities that can do the job).

Let me rephrase if you think I somehow offended your world view seeing your aggressive approach. Dedicated condition removal is not necessary in most dungeons and most certainly not in fractals. Key world being dedicated.