Guild Wars 2

Currently have a lv 52 Guardian, and as she was one of the only characters made after the trait rework, I gotta unlock ’em all.

But which ones should I shoot for first? While leveling I’m definitely putting everything in Zeal and Virtues, but for endgame I’m probably going to do PvE and I’ll likely go for a tanky power or support build. That said, I’d rather not roll with yet another crit-based build (already have 3.5 characters doing that) so I’m not sure if I want to invest time in unlocking Radiance and Valor traits.

Or, in other words: For PvE, what are the go-to traits in Zeal, Honor, and Virtues that I should try to unlock ASAP?

Well for a start in PvE the only way to be effective is to run full berserker builds even on Guardian, the truth hurts I know. Fiery wrath is something you always have for 10% more damage, 5 points in radiance for 10% Mod is also a good one to get, also having unscathed contender, master of consecrations and absolute resolution is handy. Zealous blade since you will be using GS a lot. Honor trait-line is only used if using hammer build or if you need extra vigor basically so don’t worry too much about that

Well, that’s kind of disappointing. I was hoping I could go Greatsword/Hammer while leveling and Hammer/Staff for groups, but if crits are the only viable build then I might have to try another class. I already have a Mesmer, Thief, Necro, and Elementalist who all use crit builds (though the Ele is staff and can swap between crit DPS and support – she’s the “.5” bit), and I rolled a Guardian thinking I could try something different.

Everything is viable. You can run dungeons naked if you want. But when you enter a team, the 4 other guy expect you to do your job, and your job is damage mitigation along with condi removal and stability. Toughness and vitality from gear will make you unkillable, but that doesn’t help your party at all, they don’t really care if you have 5k more hp, you may recover from a mistake when they don’t, but less dps equals more time to fail a dodge or something. The best support you can get is by using different utilities not tied to gear at all. For leveling, greatsword is indeed the best weapon with whatever suits you on swap, i myself used gs/ sword focus for my 3 guard and it works wonder. Put some points in radiance and virtues first, then move to zeal.

As you seem to want to play mostly as a Hammer Guardian: (ordered by importance)

Zeal:
- Fiery Wrath
- Spirit-Weapon Mastery, Zealous Blade, Scepter Power

Radiance:
- Blind Exposure
- Radiant Fire
- Powerful Blades, Right-Hand Strength

Valor: (overall the least important traits)
- Retributive Armor
- Strength in Numbers, Altruistic Healing

Honor:
- Superior Aria, Writ of Persistence
- Writ of the Merciful

Virtues:
- Master of Consecrations
- Unscathed Contender, Absolute Resolution

A Guardian supports its team with defensive support like
Wall of Reflection, Hallowed Ground, Purging Flames, “Retreat!”, “Stand your Ground!”, Virtue of Courage, and to a lesser degree Shield of the Avenger, Absolute Resolution and perma-Protection from Hammer,
not with stats.