Eirene Woodheart – Thief
Valkrylot – Guardian
~Underworld~
Valkrylot – Guardian
~Underworld~
[WvW] Healway/support build critique
Hey there! I’m a veteran guardian and I’ve played since the beta with the same original build, just making constant variations of it until it became what it is now (it started as a consecrations only build!).
I’ll compare it to mine and tell you what I think about yours.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWlsApWolCxVI8DRRFBldLOf6tB7DEgIcDA-TJxHAB1eJAQqMgO7PAwTAAA
Of course my build has been crafted mostly in spvp and wvw roaming in groups of about 3 players (I despise zergs)
The main issue I see in your build is the lack of stability. Stability is along with protection are the best forms of support you can give. It gives me the feeling you’re focusing too much on healing. If you want a healer you should take a glance at the water elementalist.
Notice how I get two skills with stability. You can even swap vengeful with master of consecrations and with hallowed ground you’ll give nearly permanent stability if you rotate properly. In dungeons I tend to get that trait to use consecrations.
Notice also how I have runes of the trooper (soldier) instead of runes of the monk. We have nearly the same boon duration, healing and toughness (remove from runes, add from traits) but I don’t have the vestige of critical damage, which is more of less useless; but also more vitality.
At the expense of 10% more outgoing healing (which I make up with healing aegis) I get all my utilities to heal two conditions. Do the consecration swap for purging flames and you’ll make your team immune to conditions. And that’s godlike with the current meta.
I don’t have battle presence. I’ll give you that.
You can get that instead of pure of voice but believe me that removing 2 condis with each shout isn’t comparable to removing just one. That’s because dangerous condis are often bundled with inoffensive condis. You’ll end up removing the inoffensive one more often than you’d want to; having to waste another utility to get that one out.
I greatsword instead of anything else because of the mobility it gives. Things get ugly? You can leap out. And it deals damage.
But you can swap to anything else if you prefer, one of my favourites is hammer to blast light fields for area retaliation.
Cleric gear gives some power, which I use for the permanent retaliation. That’s why vengeful over anything else. It’s great considering how virtues give retaliation too. Notice how vengeful also works on retaliation applied to allies. And facing a team with permanent retaliation (staff might also says hello), big protection and stability uptime, constant healing and nearly immune to condis IS scary.
You can change the pure of heart for dual handed mastery, but each aegis heals over 1k so this means with renewed focus you can chain 3 times virtue of courage which is a good emergency heal of 3k just with courage (then you’ll be out with greatsword leap). 2k to allies.
Also, the 2 points I’ve configured in radiance and valor are absolutely free for you to change.
Right now I have em like that because virtues recharge fast meaning aoe blind each 20 seconds and valorous defense does well with aegis healing.
But you can put them both in valor for strength in numbers (although I prefer burn on block with so many aegis with shelter).
Or you could put them both in radiance if you want to unlock signet mastery. The healing signet is a big one (it heals DOUBLE as much as shelter) and you can trade retreat for any choice of signet you want. 1200 range knockdown with 200 extra power is delicious. Or even more retaliation stun breaker with aoe weakness. Yum yum!
Interesting choices, here’s what i run, i run main support Guardian for our guild havoc squad in WvW.
some fraps of the build in action here.
http://vimeo.com/92799101
http://vimeo.com/91035370
I actually recently had to change my build, i never ran any soldiers and ran mass boon duration for long uptimes on my protection coupled with long uptimes on vigour for all the dodge roll heals, i think with 25 heal stacks it hits for around 1.7k. Under the old set i had 85% boon duration, the patch nerfed me down to a more sedate 60%.
There are some things you will want to change, you probably wont want sigil of frailty, i run that just to help bury our necro’s condis deeper, both of our Guards do in our core group.
The tome is a really specific tool, if u plan on being on the front line all the time pushing you will want renewed focus. This goes for the heal as well you will want shelter in that case rather than healing breeze.
As for my gear its mostly a mix of magi/clerics, both provide healing power, and i like the crit chance from magi to proc vigour for those 1.7k dodge roll heals. I prefer the monk rune 4 ability to the water rune 6 ability, even tho i lose a little healing power, thats the reason for the 2 differing runesets.
Scepter for the root, ranged dps and the no field AoE damage, shield for the pushback, burst heal, projectile blocking and group protection thats kicked up to 8 seconds by my boon duration.
Staff for the obvious 12 stacks of might to all with a 3k kicker heal at the end(with 25 life stacks), group speed, light field, line of warding.
My trait choices are pretty straight forward, both Guards in our core group run shouts, the other guard more geared to condi removal with soldiers(trooper, why the kitten they rename this?) runes.
Chorazin
[lion]~ riperonis
[tRex]
[lion]~ riperonis
[tRex]
I recently posted this build that may suit your needs as it’s similar enough to the one you posted. You absolutely need group stability in big fights or you are a liability to you and your group:
I don’t like investing too much in healing at the expense of other stats, but there should be a decent amount of outgoing healing with this. I wish there was a power primary, healing power secondary stat set.
The main beneficiaries of healing power are selfless daring (dodge roll heals) so finding a way to replenish your stamina is vital and your mace’s last attack in the chain but it is slow, so it can be a problem.
Also, DO NOT randomly throw symbol of faith down because the light field will interfere with water fields, instead put it off to the side a little. The only real advantage of mace is that it has more control over where the light fields go, so make sure it gets used wisely.
You can of course take absolute resolution instead of indomitable courage, but I feel the build can survive with this level of condi removal. It’s up to you.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Thank you for your input.
You all almost have the same toughness, vitality as me, less healing power, yet still the same healing as mine.
So I tried taking your advice and I got this.
I am hoping I did a little better than my previous.
I ditched the Monk’s runes for the Trooper.
I got ‘Stand Your Ground’.
For the third utility I’m considering; Signet of Judgement, Purging Flames. Save Yourselves! or Retreat. This is what kept me from selecting more traits.
I know you’ll probably tell me to get Pure of Voice, although I feel I’ll be doing better with Battle Presence since I can remove conditions with the runes.
Ok, let me now how wrong I am.
A little of topic although I’m seeing this a lot. I’m still a newb but what is ‘pvt’? Or what does it stand for?
Thanks again guys.
Eirene Woodheart – Thief
Valkrylot – Guardian
~Underworld~
Valkrylot – Guardian
~Underworld~
(edited by Tamuraki.3851)
Thank you for your input.
You all almost have the same toughness, vitality as me, less healing power, yet still the same healing as mine.So I tried taking your advice and I got this.
I am hoping I did a little better than my previous.
I ditched the Monk’s runes for the Trooper.
I got ‘Stand Your Ground’.
For the third utility I’m considering; Signet of Judgement, Purging Flames. Save Yourselves! or Retreat. This is what kept me from selecting more traits.
I know you’ll probably tell me to get Pure of Voice, although I feel I’ll be doing better with Battle Presence since I can remove conditions with the runes.Ok, let me now how wrong I am.
A little of topic although I’m seeing this a lot. I’m still a newb but what is ‘pvt’? Or what does it stand for?
Thanks again guys.
1) PVT = power, toughness, vitality. A good stat combination to mix with your Cleric when you are learning the build to prevent being bursted.
2) POV isn’t so much about cleansing conditions as it is about generating boons, primarily vigor which is the most important boon for a healway build. This is even more apparent now that vigor on crit was nerfed.
3) Personally I would think twice about Soldier runes since you should never rely on your shouts to clear conditions. The boons they provide should be utilized proactively rather than reactively.
Human Guardian
Fort Aspenwood
Fort Aspenwood
Id go SY for the last slot, its not really about the boons you are gaining although there is some synergy there with boon duration. But more about pulling all condis off other party members.
And PoV for me is a must have.
Chorazin
[lion]~ riperonis
[tRex]
[lion]~ riperonis
[tRex]
1) PVT = power, toughness, vitality. A good stat combination to mix with your Cleric when you are learning the build to prevent being bursted.
2) POV isn’t so much about cleansing conditions as it is about generating boons, primarily vigor which is the most important boon for a healway build. This is even more apparent now that vigor on crit was nerfed.
3) Personally I would think twice about Soldier runes since you should never rely on your shouts to clear conditions. The boons they provide should be utilized proactively rather than reactively.
1)Thank You.
2/3) I see. I always rely on Absoulte Resolution and Save Yourselves or Purging Flames or all. I do believe condition removal is important, although I may go from on extreme to another.
About vigor; Anybody considered/used/tested Purity of Body? – the new trait in Virtues.
I’m assuming I’m doing well building a healing setup – few changes here and there.
Thanks again.
Eirene Woodheart – Thief
Valkrylot – Guardian
~Underworld~
Valkrylot – Guardian
~Underworld~
Very good advice so far, only thing I’d recommend is using Benevolence over Life. This thread goes into more details about it.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Sigil-of-Benevolence-vs-Sigil-of-Life
Guardian WvW Guide!
Heavens Rage
Heavens Rage
2/3) I see. I always rely on Absoulte Resolution and Save Yourselves or Purging Flames or all. I do believe condition removal is important, although I may go from on extreme to another.
Yes, conditions are strong right now, but the fact (despite what people playing conditions will tell you) is that you can’t look at Guardian, see that they have X, Y and Z… for condition removal, make sure you have all those things and then attempt to create a build around it, all while you are using your abilities poorly trying to make sure you meet that one demand of having condition removal.
I’m assuming I’m doing well building a healing setup – few changes here and there.
Thanks again.
A lot comes down to personal preference, what kind of professions and even people you play with. Go with what you have now and I guarantee you that you will have reconsidered several things in just a few weeks. I have spent close to 1,000 hours playing Healway in groups of 2-3 over the past year and I am still making adjustments, albeit not large ones. The good thing about learning for yourself is that you know the strengths and weaknesses of every trait, weapon and ability from your own experience and can as such tailor your build to situational needs.
About vigor; Anybody considered/used/tested Purity of Body? – the new trait in Virtues.
While I would recommend going 30 into Virtues, I would recommend you take the stability trait instead of this because 15% endurance is largely going to sit useless behind vigor.
Human Guardian
Fort Aspenwood
Fort Aspenwood
Thank you for your input.
You all almost have the same toughness, vitality as me, less healing power, yet still the same healing as mine.So I tried taking your advice and I got this.
I am hoping I did a little better than my previous.
I ditched the Monk’s runes for the Trooper.
I got ‘Stand Your Ground’.
For the third utility I’m considering; Signet of Judgement, Purging Flames. Save Yourselves! or Retreat. This is what kept me from selecting more traits.
I know you’ll probably tell me to get Pure of Voice, although I feel I’ll be doing better with Battle Presence since I can remove conditions with the runes.Ok, let me now how wrong I am.
A little of topic although I’m seeing this a lot. I’m still a newb but what is ‘pvt’? Or what does it stand for?
Thanks again guys.
Any of those choices are good really. Save yourselves is a stunbreak and your build is more than capable of taking away any conditions you draw, while purging flames has a low cooldown. I like the later a bit more for this kind of build because it gives me something to put in the 1st virtues slot, of which I don’t like the other traits very much. (retaliation duration is the least bad but meh)
Signet of Judgement is good because normally we frown on signets due to them being selfish, but judgement is different due to it giving aoe weakness on a good cooldown, and also serves as a stunbreak + retaliation.
Retreat is probably the weakest choice outside of small scale since aegis doesn’t last long in big fights and the way symbol of swiftness can be stacked.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)