Guild Wars 2

Hi girls and guys!

On the day I levelled this lovely Asura to level 80 I got my 1st year birthday gift too so this must be a special character for me!

I usually play in a 10-15 large group but I’m the 5th guardian there.

We always struggling to separate enemies or catch runners. My D/D ele could handle this fairly well but now I play a gua and we don’t have any other DD ele to RtL,knock, lauch ppl. Our staff LightningRod ele would be good but apart of ONE teleport she cannot really close gap.

So I have to play a bit differently. My idea is the following:

I’ll do a meditation build (02660) with two-handed mastery. Equip GS and Hammer. So I can leap/teleport/run around and knockdown/ward the runners/enemies till my group catches up. Against Stability buff I would like to use 2 boonstripping/10 sec (Nullification sigil and Searing Flames trait). Otherwise Hydromancer Sigils and…. I don’t know Maybe Energy/Purity/Strength.

And if this doesn’t work I can still change some traits AH, EM, or Battle Presence or whatever and be a frontline…ish guardian in a traditional zerg fight.

My build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQJARSlsApaodDxcI8DNhARYVA2xvzX39dB-TlRMgArKzA0Fwo+DsSjt9H0VCSKAmUGB-w

What do you think?

(note: Unfortunately most of the gear pieces are not a subject for change… Just spend half of my money on them… I wish I could afford Travelers or Melandru but since I’m too lazy to farm…

I’m all open for sigil/gear/accessories suugestions too….

Oh, and yes, I’m the one who opened the Entertaining Guardian topic a few weeks ago… I got the hang of it lads!!!! )

Made some minor changes that will make your build a lot more bursty and you’ll have more health too!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQJARSlsApaodDxcI8DNhARZVAgdM8Cz51dwHcBA-TVCEwAQOCAtU/JqSltKBZqsqjuAe7PA4BA84SAEAABgbezbezbezSBExyI-w

I changed Battle Presence to Force of Will because Battle Presence is poop especially without Absolute Resolution.

You say you don’t want to change your runes but you really should though. Swiftness runes are way worse than Traveler runes on a guardian (unless you’re using staff or shouts, and even then I’d say Pack runes or Traveler runes are both better than Swiftness runes).

Seriously, suck it up, run some dungeons and replace those runes! I didn’t change the runes in my altered version of your build, but I that doesn’t change the fact that I think you should.

EDIT: Once you’re comfortable with your medi-guard and you’ve saved up gold for those Traveler runes, change your build to this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQJARSlsApaodDxcI8DRR8gY1oqCg50oX/LYOA-TVCEwAQOCA23fol6PRVqsVJITlVd0FA4BA84SAEAABgbezbezbezSBExyI-w

You’ll be doing tons of damage with that build and probably get the runner down all by yourself without the need of your palls!

Thank you for your feedback! It seems I have to farm those Traveller Runes… It’s not like I did more than 5 dungeons in the last half year But it can be done…

What do you thing about the overall concept? A CC guardian with meditation skills… Like a fight-opener. But still a frontline survivor…

Thank you!

EDIT: Seems just the right way I’m gonna heading… I gonna get some gems instead:D

But seriously… why are traveler runes so much better than swiftness? swiftness is the defensive version of the traveller if I’m not wrong… Traveller is the “Celestial” version of the movement speed runes…

Why not Swiftness runes?

Because you don’t have any sources of swiftness to give to yourself or your party other than the #4 bonus of the Swiftness runes. Those runes would be better if you’re going for a supportive staff guardian with shouts. You’re not playing that kind of guardian though and Traveler runes or Pack runes suit your role a whole lot better. They give you a better stat boost and more offensive capabilities. Not to mention the 10% condition duration that the Traveler runes give you which will increase the time of your burns and your stuns (not by a whole lot but every but helps).
The +15% extra boon duration will help a lot on a meditation guardian. It will make your fury last longer and the boons you get from Contemplation of Purity as well.
The extra vitality that Swiftness runes give you is negligible so that shouldn’t be a reason to go for Swiftness runes.

Why do you want to go defensive though? With the playstyle you have in mind an offensive build would suit your needs so much better. You can still be defensive with 6 in Honor to get Force of Will, not to mention that your real defenses are your active defenses (blocks, dodges, condi-cleanses and boons). You can be a zerky DPS guardian and still be defensive. Once you get comfortable with your guardian and start relying on your (better) active defenses (blocks, dodges, condi-cleanse and boons) and less on passive defenses (armor and vitality) you’ll realize that you really don’t need 20k health or 3000 armor. Those extra points in power and ferocity will be much more beneficial.

EDIT: If you get into the dungeon meta and run a lot of dungeon speed clears on a zerker guardian with scholar runes you’ll quickly learn how powerful your active defenses are. In that situation you have no other choice than to rely on those active defenses because bosses can 1-shot you on such a glassy dungeon build. But trust me, after doing it for a while you’ll have plenty of gold for Traveler runes and you’ll be a lotttttt better at understanding and properly using your guardian’s active defenses. You’ll be able to return to WvW with less vitality and armor but more DPS and you’ll actually feel really powerful and confident with it. That’s how it went for me at least!

EDIT 2: As for your build idea. I can see it sort-of work, but at the same time I’m not so sure. The problem with guardian that uses a GS + H is that it has only 1 stun, 1 wall and 1 pull, which are all painfully easy to dodge by skilled players who know what a guardian can do. The idea of an interception guardian is good, but I think you’re looking at the wrong weapons. A sword/focus as your secondary weapon set might actually suit your need a lot better. sword 2 has an amazing gab-closer that also acts as a blind, which will allow you to then switch to GS and put Binding Blades on your runner. If your target then continues to run you can pull him/her back to you and do some amazing burst damage with Whirling Wrath. make sure you’re exactly right on top of your target with WW, that way all your projectiles will hit him/her for maximum DPS.

EDIT 3: Sorry for the extremely long post. I’m terrible at keeping my points short and condensed.

Please, do not forget the Hammer 3 and the Hammer 5….

But anyways… I’m a new guardian… I will try this …. there’s nothing to loose…

If this build isn’t work I can get in the lane as a Gua a be good… hopefully

I wont get near to any dungeons… WoW MMO just did a good job to learn how I hate the dungeons…

Hmm, I guess OP doesn’t really care about farming gold, but I think it’s fine to leave the speed runes for now. I actually use them when alone and haven’t thought about replacing them until now because I find the vitality pretty useful and while traveler runes are better by a bit, I don’t think it’s that big of a difference. Traveler runes offer 252 stat points total vs 175 from speed, but 36 are completely worthless (condition damage), and another 36 is pretty irrelevant for this kind of build (healing power), meanwhile the small smattering of power/precision/ferocity is okay but nothing groundbreaking since precision and ferocity aren’t equal to power when it comes to damage, so it’s mostly for boon duration which other guardian builds handle better. Granted, I have no idea why swiftness is on runes of speed, which is sort of a waste, but whatever. If guardians didn’t need 25% run speed, I wouldn’t give either set the light of day.

However, in a group of 10-15 the 25% movement speed is kinda useless and you’re end up only going to use that when you’re meeting with them, meaning it doesn’t really help in a real fight. I think Pack Runes are a great idea, and cheapie flame legion runes can be something out of left field that can be fun.

I’d also take a point away from radiance and put it into virtues. The extra group support from inspired virtues is going to mean a lot more than removing a boon off some person every 10 seconds.

The phrase ‘interceptor Guardian’ seems like a contradiction in itself. All i will say is; Good Luck

Aggrostemma.1703:

Please, do not forget the Hammer 3 and the Hammer 5….

But anyways… I’m a new guardian… I will try this …. there’s nothing to loose…

If this build isn’t work I can get in the lane as a Gua a be good… hopefully

I didn’t forget about H 3 and 5, those where the skills I was talk about. As a guardian with a GS and H you have 1 stun, 1 wall and 1 pull.

Stun = H3
Wall = H5
Pull = GS5

All of them are painfully easy to avoid by a running enemy.

You can try your build or one of the versions I gave you but I’ll tell you this; if you really like the idea of playing a defensive interceptor with great team support and good burst damage, reroll a warrior and play that. Warrior is and always will be far superior to a guardian when it comes to crowd control and locking an enemy down.

When I’m back home I’ll link you my Warrior build OP, it does exactly what you hope to achieve with your guardian build but better, way frikkin better.

Here is my warrior build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJMQJARSjMdU2ZXHmhwJiglgC5nXBHngAQ5WUFpeBA-TlyHwACuAABeCAhUPgpSweKV4oLYoyqOq4A4QAIa/hAAIAczbezbezbWKAmUGB-w

Take a look at it and consider if warrior might be better suited to your needs and desires.

EDIT: Change the food to Mango Pies if you want a cheaper alternative for your food buff (Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup is quite expensive).

My two cents:

OVERVIEW:
I cannot find a reason to include Searing Flames into any build, let alone this build. Your going to have little control of when you cast fire on an enemy, you have little control over which boon you remove, and with an internal cooldown of 10s it will be very hard to time. I personally think the 10 points in Radiance can go anywhere else and be more effective.

In my opinion Meditation builds are great because they give glass cannon builds the survivability they need to be competitive at the sacrifice of utilities. Your build already has quite a bit of survivability baked in with 6 points in honor and soldier’s armor (6k more health than a DPS build). It’s true that Monks Focus will dramatically increase your survivability, but you are using up all of your utilities (Judges Intervention aside), which I think could be better spent for either CC or gap closing.

You have nothing to apply swiftness (purpose of your runes) except for the runes themselves, which if you are chasing will not get proc since the enemy won’t be attacking a lot.

SUGGESTIONS from smallest changes to greatest:
- Always scrap Searing Flames
- GS+H is good, but also try sword/focus and scepter/focus. One is no better than another so its personal preference.
- Keep same build but try Merciful Intervention instead of Smite or CoP for assisting team mates or if you find yourself caught out of position.
- Keep 6 Valor, but lose Monks Focus for Glacial Heart. This will give you a possible slow on Hammer and free up utilities to something like Judges Intervention, Retreat (team swiftness), Save Yourselves (swiftness plus everything else), Stand Your Ground (stability), or Bane Signet (knockdown + power). You could also consider AH.
- Consider a swap to 0/0/2/6/6. I think your damage is average with your current build and you could consider giving up some damage and go full tank/control keeping the utilities for chasing, but getting increased general party support.

Thank you for all your feedback guys! I have some constructive criticism to work with.

As I said I will run this build ONLY if I’m not needed as a Hammertrain guardian. It’s mostly theorycrafting on my side. Possibly my D/D ele could do this job more successfully. I blame myself for buying Speed Runes instead of something more useful.

If you are interested I would like to share the logic with you: how I got to this decisions:
1, Meditation: our group lacks initiators. Someone who gets in does some chaos then GTFO
2, Searing Flames: with Judge’s Intervention and Nullification Sigil I can remove 2 buffs. Hopefully either Stability or Swiftness. Both means we can catch the runner. You are right that these are useless in a team vs team or ZvZ fight.
3, GS+Sw-F was my first choice too but Sw-F lacks any CC.
4, Glacial Hearth could be awesome with Hydro sigil and some chill duration runes. But I want to use this gear for the frontline too… And I need some replacement for the AH heal. And chill duration runes in a frontline build are also a big no-no I guess (after second thought: I’m not sure it’s crap, hm…)….
5, In other MMO’s I always had at least one warrior-type character. In GW2 I don’t like Warrior at all. I gave it a ride…. Twice… Both were deleted around 20ish levels. Now I have my 8th character slot unlocked I might give it a 3th look
6, I slot Merciful Intervention in a Zerg fight. In a 10v10… I never did… But now I see that I should!
7, I was thinking on using Bane Sigil as a utility. That’s an 3000 range knockdown (gs leap+JI+Bane Sigil… target lies on the ground… get closer, swap to hammer, immob in close range than ward…)

Tl;dr: Thank you again! Now I have some food for thought…

Personally I think Glacial Heart is just as poop as Searing Flames, if not more so. It’s too situational to be of any reliable use. 2k healing per meditation use is way better (don’t forget that Renewed Focus is a meditation too since the last feature patch!).

Also keep in mind that chill duration runes will only work on Glacial Heart. Any on-weapon-swap or other sources of chilling won’t be affected by runes that increase chill duration.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Personally I think Glacial Heart is just as poop as Searing Flames, if not more so. It’s too situational to be of any reliable use. 2k healing per meditation use is way better (don’t forget that Renewed Focus is a meditation too since the last feature patch!).

I tend to agree that Glacial heart is underwhelming, I only offered the suggestion of Glacial Heart because I think if he sticks with the mindset of Monk’s Focus + 3 meditations he’s not going to have the CC/mobility needed to Intercept and lockdown. With soldiers gear and no +% damage modifiers his damage isn’t quick enough to burst anyone.

My biggest concern for his build is that assuming he opens with JI he will still only have 50% crit chance and Glacial Heart is 50% proc, so he would have to average 4 attacks before a proc.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Personally I think Glacial Heart is just as poop as Searing Flames, if not more so. It’s too situational to be of any reliable use. 2k healing per meditation use is way better (don’t forget that Renewed Focus is a meditation too since the last feature patch!).

Glacial Heart is still terrible and not worth taking. If they actually wanted to make it usable they could do a number of things:

1) Keep it currently as is it, but add a damage multiplier to hammer.

2) Keep the 15 second CD, however make it apply to all weapons.

3) Simply reduce the CD further.

Harbinger.8637:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Personally I think Glacial Heart is just as poop as Searing Flames, if not more so. It’s too situational to be of any reliable use. 2k healing per meditation use is way better (don’t forget that Renewed Focus is a meditation too since the last feature patch!).

Glacial Heart is still terrible and not worth taking. If they actually wanted to make it usable they could do a number of things:

1) Keep it currently as is it, but add a damage multiplier to hammer.

2) Keep the 15 second CD, however make it apply to all weapons.

3) Simply reduce the CD further.

Completely agree.

Hell even making it an Adept trait instead of a Master trait would already be a welcome improvement.

Seriously, such a crappy trait has no reason to be in the Master colum. What was Anet thinking?

Hi guardians!

I was playing the build for a few days and it works for me!

Small changes: 01661 trait. Superior Aria instead of the Symbol trait. Hydromancy sigils +Purity in the Hammer and +Battle in the GS. Changed the hammer to soldier stat. I found Stability an issue so I slotted StandYourGround! instead of CoP.

I also use pure of voice in a small scale encounter and battle presence in a zerg vs zerg situation.

With this changes I can join the front line and not die instantly. Also I’m able to flash out of the line and CC someone. Unfortunately condi removal is poor. I have to rely on the Purity sigil and the Smite (and one shout every 24 sec if it’s tarited). Valor V trait: Purity isn’t going to be better since I loose the -20% recharge on Smite.

So yes you are right lads, this is not a cookie-cutter most-effective-tactic-available build but it’s fun to play and I like it!

If I may ask: give it an hour try in WvW or EotM, it won’t cost you anything and please share your experience!

Thank you and keep guarding!