Guild Wars 2

I wanted to try out guardian in WvW but I don’t know the class well enough to be making too many decisions. I’ve been researching A LOT, but recent information is jumbled or nobody even mentions their armor combos.

What kind of armor stats do you guys generally run for WvW? Frontliners? Soldiers or Knights? Is Marauders viable? Half zerk?
Do LB DH’s use zerk? Fill me in here. Metabattle is crap at the moment and all the guides are outdated and insist on travelers runes and soldiers. Is that still relevant?

^ Can be quite different based on the role:

• For roaming (medi trap build), I use valkyrie weapons, a couple of valkyrie armor pieces and full zerk everything else. Ideally you can go full zerk, but having less than 15k HP is asking for being one shooted, so I like to have a bit of extra hp. Due the absence of pure valk trinkets, the most cheapets way to achieve extra life is with valk weapons. Most used runes are Traveller.

• For raid purposes can go either marauder armor or nomad. Marauder is excellent (brings everything you need) and you can balance your tankiness and dps mixing the trinkets (which are the most cheap gear to replace). Nomad is used in very coordinated teams in which Guardians are the pure walking walls eating attacks while the damage in the team is provided by other classes. Again, jewelry is easy to obtain and shuffle around. Most used runes are Durability.

Buran.3796:

^ Can be quite different based on the role:

• For roaming (medi trap build), I use valkyrie weapons, a couple of valkyrie armor pieces and full zerk everything else. Ideally you can go full zerk, but having less than 15k HP is asking for being one shooted, so I like to have a bit of extra hp. Due the absence of pure valk trinkets, the most cheapets way to achieve extra life is with valk weapons. Most used runes are Traveller.

• For raid purposes can go either marauder armor or nomad. Marauder is excellent (brings everything you need) and you can balance your tankiness and dps mixing the trinkets (which are the most cheap gear to replace). Nomad is used in very coordinated teams in which Guardians are the pure walking walls eating attacks while the damage in the team is provided by other classes. Again, jewelry is easy to obtain and shuffle around. Most used runes are Durability.

Thanks for the input! What about wanderer’s? I’ve seen quite a few people opt for that.

Wanderers is good for zergs (I even made a build around 100% boon duration because why not?)

Marauders and Soldiers (or a proper use of Cavaliers) is a really good and cheap way to get some good damage based stats. If you’re going for Frontline, aim for minimum 2.8k armor , and then put everything else into Marauder. Backline (LB and traps), you should want at least 2.4k imo.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Wanderers is good for zergs (I even made a build around 100% boon duration because why not?)

Marauders and Soldiers (or a proper use of Cavaliers) is a really good and cheap way to get some good damage based stats. If you’re going for Frontline, aim for minimum 2.8k armor , and then put everything else into Marauder. Backline (LB and traps), you should want at least 2.4k imo.

Hey thanks, this was super helpful. What about trinkets? Is deviating into dps with those ever worth it with the above builds?

Trinkets are included. Its not just armor, but rather whatever gives stats. Once you get to the defensive benchmarks you personally feel comfortable with, in whatever combination you chose, then its always good to go into the damaging stats. This game is about getting the minimum defense you need, and then going for as much damage after that. Some people need less defense, some need more.

I run solo, so I depend on myself about 95% of the time. My gear is Commanders armor, Wanderer weapons, a mix of Knight and Valk trinkets with the Zerk/Valk earrings.

~2400 atk, 3044 armor, 18k health, 35% crit, 40% boon duration, and Traveler runes.

LB/SwFoc weapons. I normally ran GS/SwFoc, but I’m liking the bow.

I’ve had traveler runes for over 2 years, I can’t get away from them. It’s the only way to fly. Unless you’re running with the Zerg or you have a group that can spit out perma swiftness, they’re almost a necessity for WvW.

edit: If you’re running a mediation build, you can drop some off the vitality and go more offensive if you like. I’ve switched to a double trap with 2 shouts build, so I went a little deeper in vitality for survivability. I’m running the signet heal, Fragments of Faith, Stand Your Ground, Procession of Blades, and Feel my Wrath.

My wvw zerg set up involves

Soldier armor + weapon, with zerk accessories. You want to have a 50/50 balanced mix. if you want to be purely frontline, more soldier will not hurt.

I actually run hybrid staff/LB with Valor, honor for Pure of voice and DH.

I tend to run 1 or 2 traps for utilities depending on what i am doing. 2 well placed traps in a choke point = very game changing.

LB gives you options. You are no longer stuck with staff, but can be more offensive while being ranged. A LB2,3,4,5 on a downed player means you put so much pressure on whoever attempts to rez.

Rune of the trooper is a fav of mine as condies are always annoying. Depends on preference.

1 more thing, Pure of Voice gives retreat a 24 sec cooldown with a 20 sec duration swiftness w/o any kind of boon duration. If you use retreat with a staff and trait for empowered staff = perma swiftness while opening your rune slot for something more useful.

(people can QQ about LB2 but core guardian received considerable buffs this update)

For my DH roamer I prob have about 2.6K armor and about 15K health with zerker armor and weapons, soldier trinkets.

This gets really squishy in a hurry for larger battles but is great for small scale engagements. I used to run travelers runes but switched out to flame legion since I rarely run alone now.

For my zerg guard, I’ve gone full tank old school AH shout with nomad’s armor, soldier trinkets, commander weapons, and durability runes. Armor over 3.4K and 23K health, healing and condi clearing up the ying yang. I’m a little short on the damage front, but not totally useless; I can still clear camps solo pretty quickly.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

For my DH roamer I prob have about 2.6K armor and about 15K health with zerker armor and weapons, soldier trinkets.

This gets really squishy in a hurry for larger battles but is great for small scale engagements. I used to run travelers runes but switched out to flame legion since I rarely run alone now.

For my zerg guard, I’ve gone full tank old school AH shout with nomad’s armor, soldier trinkets, commander weapons, and durability runes. Armor over 3.4K and 23K health, healing and condi clearing up the ying yang. I’m a little short on the damage front, but not totally useless; I can still clear camps solo pretty quickly.

Yeah, I am somewhat similar although I am trying to reach 4k armor just to bore people to death Both supply and mercenary camps are a no brainer. Towers too just to screw with the other servers and pause them.

Can’t wait for the original borderland maps to come back which will be a lot more fun for solo roaming and scouting.