Guild Wars 2

The trait increases all symbol durations by 2 seconds.

Does that mean that the damage continues to tick for each additional second as well? If so, which is better, Writ of Persistence or Symbolic Power?

In addition, what added effects are influenced by Writ of Persistence? Does hammer symbol tick protection each second and does GS symbol tick retaliation each second? Does synergy with Symbolic Exposure mean that vulnerability will tick like a boss with hammer autoattack?

I’m trying to make a PvE symbol build

I am positive that untraited the SoP disappears inbetween rotations. I use hammer untraited all the time. The +2 seconds makes it a permanent effect. I just tested this in game. There may be a slight graphical overlap, but it doesn’t seem that, according to my combat log time stamps, there is a damage overlap as well.

I hope that helps.

yes and yes they tick both boons and dmg

Thanks. Can you have overlapping instances of the same symbol? Writ makes hammer symbol last 4 seconds, despite the fact that the autoattack rotation is only 2 seconds. Does this mean I’ll have 2 overlapping symbols ticking hardcore damage and protection, or does the new symbol overwrite the old? If it doesn’t overwrite, it seems pretty hardcore to drop a GS symbol, swap to hammer, and unleash autoattacks for serious aoe destruction.

The way I remember it working with Hammer AA is that your new symbol will appear just as the old symbol dissipates. In this way, you’ll constantly have a symbol on the deck ticking damage, vuln, and giving prot.

Seras.5702:

Writ makes hammer symbol last 4 seconds, despite the fact that the autoattack rotation is only 2 seconds.

Last time I remember, it only adds 1 second to Hammer Symbol. It was 50% duration increase rather than flat 2 seconds increase.

@Mariticide – Untraited, yes, that’s how hammer would work. But traited with WoP the symbol would last longer than the aa rotation.

@xFireize – Writ of Persistence – says 2 second increase on wiki and build editor (not at home so can’t check in-game). Which would have hammer symbol last 4 seconds and GS last 6!

Seras.5702:

I’m trying to make a PvE symbol build

For now the best ‘’symbol build’’ is probably the Hammer build.

5/5/0/4/0
or 3/5/0/4/2 if you want master of consecration (like in some fractal)

Edit : About the symbol of the hammer. It take 3.7sec for the whole AA chain and the symbol last 2sec. With the trait, the chain also take 3.7sec, but the symbol last 4 sec. So you need the trait for perma symbol.

Thaddeus has it. Builds are correct, timing is essentially correct (not that the math is wrong, but that untraited, SoP disappears, and traited, you have one overlapping tick. There was a buff some time ago that changed writ of persistence to 2s flat, instead of 50% duration. This change alone increased hammer dps by… 33% I believe people said, and made hammer a viable pve dps weapon.

Also, if writ of persistence and symbolic power were the exact same cost, WoP would be better. Luckily you can have both.

(Phone formatting is weird)

Thanks all. I was using tooltips for autoattak chain duration and I guess didn’t take after-cast into consideration. According to tooltips, chain takes 2.25 seconds. But if it takes 3.7s then this makes more sense.

As for the Symbol Build, you said 5/5/0/4/0. Why? What in the Radiance line should I be taking? I understand the strength of Radiant Power, but 5 pts just for that? What am I missing?

I was thinking more like 5/0/4/4/1 for Fury from Meditations. Can symbols crit?

Clearly I’m missing something.

Upon further review, I’m guessing the build is this to keep the burns rolling so Fiery Wrath is always on?

Yeah, you want the torch trait from Radiance for the extra burn duration to keep Zeal 2 and the Radiance minor 5 traits rolling.

Seras.5702:

As for the Symbol Build, you said 5/5/0/4/0. Why? What in the Radiance line should I be taking? I understand the strength of Radiant Power, but 5 pts just for that? What am I missing?

I was thinking more like 5/0/4/4/1 for Fury from Meditations. Can symbols crit?

Clearly I’m missing something.

You ALWAYS want to have 5pts in radiance for a good PvE Guardian build. Why? The first 3 pts give you the blind spam which is powerful. Then the 5th pts give you Radiant Power. Damage modifier is one of the best way to increase your dmg in this game. That’s why the Elementalist have such a high dmg, since its the only profession that can reach sky high amount of damage modifier in a single build. As a PvE guardian, Radiant Power and Fiery Wrath are the two damage modifier that you want. Together they give you 21% more dmg and if UC can only be activate from time to time, these two are practically always on.

If you use a Sword, the 4th trait is easy, you go with the Sword 10% dmg, but if you have a hammer you need to choose, something else. Radiant Fire is not a good trait, but its the best you can get if you don’t have a sword. And its worth it, just to make sure you get Radiant Power.

5/0/4/4/1 is not that good of a build. Keep in mind, that the base of most if not all good PvE guardian build is 2/5/0/0/0. If you have that, then your build is in the right direction. Guardian don’t have a lot of fury, so for solo meditation fury have some advantage, but most of the time you will have fury in a group. Fury is simply not a strength of the guardian, if you want to absolutely go for it, you gonna lose other things that the guardian do so much better. Let the Warrior, Ranger and Ele in your group take care of fury, they do that way better than you. And yes, symbol can crits.