Guild Wars 2

Are these AH Shout builds still viable in WvW. I have been playing GW2 on and off for a while now, but I have never gotten into WvW too much. Before I took a break (before the trait changes) I was going to make a build where the shouts remove conditions and boons heal you. Was going to go soldiers armor and weapons with zerker trinkets. Are builds like this still viable? I wanted the build to be more of a zerg build anyways. All I seem to see as far as WvW goes is meditation builds. I used a meditation build in pvp, but doesn’t seem that a build like that would help the zerg as much or have as much survivability. Anyways thanks in advance!

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

AH Frontliner: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_AH_Frontliner

That is the build I was referring to. With the trait changes this is still a good build to run if you are in a large zerg? Also would people recommend more hammer or staff? I was going to go for full soldier’s armor with hoelbrek runes. The runes of the trooper also look good, but with trooper runes and pure of voice would a shout remove 2 conditions? Thanks

Most use meditations since they offer more mobility and burst. Monks focus as healing also allows you to trait for larger symbols which is pretty nice for symbol bombing.

Personally i find AH with pure of voice to still be valid in wvw and a great support tool.

If traiting pure of voice i would definitely go with trooper runes as well. The only non shout i use in a ah build is purging flames and from time to time hallowed ground.

So basically i trait ah, pure of voice and master of consecrations. Add smiters boon and strength in numbers from valor. Protective reviver and honorable staff from honor and absolute resultion/glacial heart (depending on using hammer) and indomitable courage or permeating wrath (great with staff 1).

And yes, pure of voice and trooper remove 2 conditions.

This set up is probably the most team/support centric setup you can use.

I would go for a mix of soliders and carrions or celestial. Burning on staff is just to good to pass up on from time to time.

90% i play hammer/staff in zergs with a AH setup.

POV and Trooper do stack. POV (should) convert the first condition, and Trooper will clear a second. Theres also a new stack priority for condition clears, which will target the most dangerous conditions first.. but I don’t have an article explaining how it determines this.

Conditions tends to get applied faster now with the Condi changes, so timing on your purges have a lot of significance in escaping. With wells and AOE being popular in WvW, you have to start making the choice of clearing right as your caught, or waiting 1 or 2 seconds so the Immob generating fields exhaust, so you aren’t recaught.

For front liners, it depends. If your job is front line controls, then Hammer’s Ward is invaluable. Staff gives you the ability lay down swift for the zerg, and the Skill 5 line is great for cutting off a path before moving in with the Hammer or GS for the attack.

Ok great info and thanks! I did mean to say greatsword vs hammer. I do know that the staff is usually essential, but I may be wrong. I guess if I were to go POV and AH it would make sense to probably use the trooper runes over the hoelbrek due to the fact that at the point I am going for more support anyways. If I did decide to go meditation build, Would all soldier’s armor with zerk weapons and trinkets work? Or soldier’s armor and weps with zerk trinkets? Or is adding some carrion pretty necessary to get a little condition damage? With meditation what runes in armor and what weapons would you guys recommend? I realize that with meditation build I wouldn’t be as supportive to the zerg but I like having different builds to choose from = D Lastly if honorable staff is traited, The boon duration while wielding staff goes up 20%, but if I apply the boon while wielding the staff then switch to my 2nd weapon does the boon still have the 20% duration since I applied it while the staff was equipped?

Right now things are a bit weird due to the recent upscaling of offensive output across the board, defense mix is kind of hard to get right. Even full on tank builds are getting melted by well executed zerks builds just from all the raw burst power.

As for carrion, theres not much reason to mix condi damage into your stats, as fire is pretty strong as is, and if you wanted serious burn damage you’d want to focus on it.

As for the Staff Trait, it only procs if you are wielding the staff. Once its proced, it doesn’t matter. Since staff 3 is pulsed, you’ll want to have the staff active until you’re off the symbol.

I’m wondering what AH guards are doing about healing power? Right now I’m running around with mostly soldiers gear and my healing power is a big fat zero thanks to the new trait system removing trait based increases. Do I need to bother with adding healing power with cleric trinkets as a support guard?

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I’m wondering what AH guards are doing about healing power? Right now I’m running around with mostly soldiers gear and my healing power is a big fat zero thanks to the new trait system removing trait based increases. Do I need to bother with adding healing power with cleric trinkets as a support guard?

Healing power coefficients on guards are abysmal at best. AH has a 1% coefficent (our old 300 Healing power from traits would only yield +3HP under AH)…. thats not even high enough to have a compound effect.

Here are other examples.

6% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Virtue_of_Resolve
2% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zealous_Blade
40% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Monk%27s_Focus (which isn’t bad, but those skills have fairly long cool downs)
?? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Writ_of_Persistence
40% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pure_of_Heart (base 640)
18% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Faithful_Strike

20% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22Receive_the_Light!%22
70% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shelter
125% http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Resolve

When you consider our Base health is ~11,000, even the 125% of Sig of resolve @ 300 Hpow is only +375 HP is insulting. .

The numbers they use are tweaked for extremely long fights, where the over time value is allowed to accumulate. With most fights being burst oriented, its not worth sinking the original 300 back into the build- as don’t gain enough from it. And for long fights, the base values are high enough (and in combination) to perform their intended function, while our active defenses and cleanses keep us alive.

The ONLY possible way HePow would gain value for us is putting us in a situation where we steadily lose small amounts of HP, and are deprived of our active defenses. Since that situation can’t exist without completely breaking the combat model (unless you count environmental DOTs like Agony and Grenth’s touch), its unlikely there will be much pressure to stack healing power. In fact, its far more effective to stack healing traits then it is stack healing power.

I wrestled with this after the trait change while rebuilding the Legendary Shout Guard under the new system. My original plan was Zealots armor, Zerks/Soldiers trinkets, Trooper runes, Sword/Focus and GS. But after a guildie introduced me to the early Meta Medi build I could test with my existing gear, and the functional difference was absolutely massive. And after a little practice, the Mace 2/Judges Intervention opener is so incredibly smooth, I’m hard pressed to run mace without it. Oh… and Mace DPS and Survivability in PvE is shockingly high…. I can even beat Karka Vets solo now (something I was never good at before).

The build I run now is more normalized, so I can swap builds without a complete set of gear (in prep for HOT. I can fine tune it later). Taking the opportunity to use some Wurm Ascended armor chests I’d been holding, I converted it into full Zerks armor set, used a mixture of Soldiers and Assassin’s Trinkets, and Strength runes. It was tricky to lift the defensive stats without losing power under the new gear bonus distributions, but I managed it well enough.

I know its sub-optimal, but its tuned well enough to survive a couple big hits in Boss trains and Silverwastes (so I can be a little lazy and still do fine). A couple test fores into WvW went better then expected, but being a horrid front liner, I’m not able to properly battle test it. Would probably be better as second wave, or mid-liner since it wouldn’t survive the AOE bomb, even with Contemplation.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-B;4NFk30G3JGV90;9;4NPn;0148057147;9;1vhrTvhrTc-FQ3-BCr2;1KbK6LbL6MbM603WGN4N0S

Healing power has terrible scaling with AH. The only reason to do it is if you wanted to focus on dodge healing and maybe get some mileage on battle presence/pure of heart/communal defenses.

It’s not recommended unless you have an overabundance of guardians filling the standard support roles and even if that were the case, you’re probably still contributing with something more typical. Also, with the current meta I just don’t think you’ll be healing enough to keep up with the damage, especially when fights have to be very mobile.

You might want to add a bit of celestial to get your healing power a few points to get better dodge heals, but meh.

I see. Thank you both for the valuable information; I will keep the cleric trinkets on the sidelines for now.

I’m not actually sure there is a support role or model anymore in WvW after the patch. That or the game has changed and there are better suited support trait combinations. The general feed back I’ve got so far after roaming in small groups is:

“Tanky”

But I don’t know how that gets back to supporting the group I’m with and winning fights. I’m currently trying:

All clerics gear / exotic
Clerics accessories / ascended
Clerics weapons (mace, focus, and staff) – exotic
Defenders runes

Virtues 2 2 2 (Retaliatory Subconscious, Absolute Resolution, Indomitable courage)
Honor 1 1 3 (Invigorated Bulwark, Honorable Staff, Force of Will)
Valor 2 3 1 (Smite condition, communal defenses, altruistic healing)

I’ve swapped around AH with Retributive Armor and both seem to work. It seems that I don’t need AH if I’m blocking with focus and mace so it seems a bit much. Large fights I block a ton between mace 3, focus 5, etc.

you do 0 damage in clerics