Guild Wars 2

I was tired of those all guardian “only competetive 30 valor, greatsword builds” so I came up with this build (i didnt used the gw2buildcraft calculator but done it in xls, I am only using the site because it shows much more numbers than other sites)

It uses sword/focus
and scepter/torch (ranged)

you can have it all

(check details for sigils, runes, consumables…)

The site shows effective power 4645 but I have counted in my xls its 4682 for sword
4322 for scepter (effective power is value that depends on many factors and cannot be exactly calculated)
The site shows also 29,52% damage reduction but I am using signet of judgment which adds +10% damage reduction
So the important values are:

Effective power for sword 4682 (this includes crit rate, crit dmg, power, damage +30% from traits and vulnerability and 5 stacks of might and consumables)
Effective power of scepter 4322 (same as above but the damage is 20%)
health pool 17 695
Damage reduction 39.52% (this includes tougness and signet of judgment)

Effective power numbers are used to calculate damage of weapon skills (at the end of this post)

Yes the build completly ignores valor trait
Why is this build “You can have it all” ?
It offers best offense/defense ratio (it offers glass cannon DPS and very high survivability) and condition removal, passive and on shouts used

Why is this build so good ?
It uses damage multipliers from traits:
Zeal +10% damage on burning foes (burning no problem as guardian)
Radiance +10% damage on foes suffering from conditions (burning=condition)
Radiance +5% damage with sword
Honor +?% elusive power (really dont know the mechanics but could be at least +5%)
Radiance +X% blind exposure (with sword and virtue of justice I have 3 blinding skills each of them adding 3 stacks of vulnerability)

Damage table (the numbers were calculated hitting 2600 armor)
The damage table is when you solo
In group those numbers can go up to +50% from my observation
first # is effective damage average (includes crit chance and crit damage)
second # is non crit average
third # is crit average

SWORD:
Sword of Wrath 1372, 866, 1731
Sword Arc 1372, 866, 1731
Sword wave 2573, 1623, 3246
Zealot’s deffense 4545, 2867, 5734
Flashing Blade 343, 216, 433

FOCUS:
Shield of wrath 3563, 2248, 4496
Ray of judgment 713, 450, 899

SCEPTER:
Orb of wrath 1045, 593, 1187
Smite 7837, 4451, 8901

TORCH:
Zealot’s fire 3207, 2023, 4046
Cleansing flames 4704, 2967, 5934

From what I’ve read, Elusive Power is 10%, nothing to be sneezed at, for sure.
I’ll certainly give it a look.

Hate to be a stick in the mud, but running 10/30/30/0/0 would yield about the same results if not better. Dodge roll healing does almost nothing without healing power, And elusive power requires you to be at less than 100% endurance to be optimal, which is fine, but it seems to me like you would have to waste at least one dodge just to get highest damage uptime. Also, I feel the armor is too low. Vitality is obviously great to have, but toughness scales so much better with our self heals, and in return the healing from omnomberry pie.

Your current build sits at
Effective Power 4645.44
Effective Health (EHP) 25106
Damage Reduction 29.52%
based on the site, where as with 30 valor with monks focus, med mastery, and retributive armor runs at

Effective Power 4848.97
Effective Health (EHP) 24042
Damage Reduction 36.8%

You lose 1000 health, but gain 200 effective power, about 7% damage reduction, and a bit over 4% more crit, which procs more omnom pie. You also gain more self heals from monks focus at 1800 per use. All this is constant too, instead of relying on being at <100% endurance.

As much as I would love to not run 30 valor, its just to over powered not to, and will almost always lead to better numbers. (except for the healway build but that is pretty much the only exception.

honor provides better synergy for that build
i.e
faster shout recharge = faster cond removal with 6x rune of the soldier
vigorous precision = more dodge = more heal
empowering might = more power
inspired virtue = even more power

But that build 10/30/30/0/0 seems interesting so I will theorycraft it in xls to see the final results
Thanks for tip

The main problem with 30 radiance and RHS is that sword and scepter underperform against multiple targets. If you play PvE I could see this build working pretty well against single tough mobs. It might work decent for WvW solo roaming. For general WvW group and zerg fighting, you’d be better off with 2h.

matemaster.2168:

honor provides better synergy for that build
i.e
faster shout recharge = faster cond removal with 6x rune of the soldier
vigorous precision = more dodge = more heal
empowering might = more power
inspired virtue = even more power

But that build 10/30/30/0/0 seems interesting so I will theorycraft it in xls to see the final results
Thanks for tip

Try this mate,

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3|c.1c.h17.d.1c.h4|b.1c.h14.e.1c.h1l|1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x|1i.67.1g.67.1g.67.1p.67.1p.67.1c.61|a2.u6ab.u26b.0.0|39.1|e

Selfless daring is only good if you have healing power gear.

Bakitten291:

As much as I would love to not run 30 valor, its just to over powered not to, and will almost always lead to better numbers. (except for the healway build but that is pretty much the only exception.)

There are many “Healway” alternatives, different than the Healway build offered on this website (thanks to Christos for daring make public his own Healing Gear build, going against the anti-Healing Power crowd.) Many of them work well even without 30 Valor. In short, it’s a myth that the “best build” is an AH build-for many players, it’s something else.

Popular doesn’t make something “better”, as in this game each person’s favored playstyle has to be taken in consideration. I do like Altruistic Healing, BTW, it’s just that I dislike a lack of willingness to try other things that work great as well. To each their own, though-I respect the right for every Guardian to prefer AH as long as they leave me alone when I use something else that I know works for me.

(Granted, if your Healing Power gear is insufficient, I’d say AH is a great option, since you hardly need to have Healing Power in order to reap its benefits. In my world, 300 Healing Power is really, really poor (note: my opinion, based on my playstyle and when I go about farming with my MF gear, which really, really sucks healing-wise.) Perhaps why most offensive minded people prefer AH over anything else.)

Star Ace.5207:

Bakitten291:

As much as I would love to not run 30 valor, its just to over powered not to, and will almost always lead to better numbers. (except for the healway build but that is pretty much the only exception.)

There are many “Healway” alternatives, different than the Healway build offered on this website (thanks to Christos for daring make public his own Healing Gear build, going against the anti-Healing Power crowd.) Many of them work well even without 30 Valor. In short, it’s a myth that the “best build” is an AH build-for many players, it’s something else.

Popular doesn’t make something “better”, as in this game each person’s favored playstyle has to be taken in consideration. I do like Altruistic Healing, BTW, it’s just that I dislike a lack of willingness to try other things that work great as well. To each their own, though-I respect the right for every Guardian to prefer AH as long as they leave me alone when I use something else that I know works for me.

(Granted, if your Healing Power gear is insufficient, I’d say AH is a great option, since you hardly need to have Healing Power in order to reap its benefits. In my world, 300 Healing Power is really, really poor (note: my opinion, based on my playstyle and when I go about farming with my MF gear, which really, really sucks healing-wise.) Perhaps why most offensive minded people prefer AH over anything else.)

I actually use monks focus in 90% of my builds, but that is beside the point. the point is that valor is actually to strong of a trait line, 300 toughness, 30% crit damage, and 2 of our best self heals all in one line is near impossible to pass up. This has nothing to do with popularity but with actual numbers. Almost all Damage based builds and alot of defensive/balanced builds gimp themselves without taking the 30 in valor just due to what it brings to the table. To the builds that don’t use it I salute you, but the sad fact is that in most builds it is just purely better from a stat and passive perspective.

I remember in the early days people used to complain about how unfocused Valour was. ArenaNet hardly changed anything and now it’s in almost every build.

Zeal +10% damage on burning foes (burning no problem as guardian)

….
i See 10 in zeal and this trait in a Lot of Builds with this argument. Fact is to utelize These 10% you have to keep your target constantly burning and Even then its pnly singletarget if you dont go for a Long burn aoe skill.

This trait is the Most overated trait for guardians – hands down

Judges intervention is a 3 second aoe burn, using virtue of justice gives the 5 second burn to 5 other people near you who may be attacking other targets, burn on block trait in valor can very easily AoE burn when being focused with shelter active in a group, purging flames in a pure AoE stacking burn. not to mention the virtue trait to make justice an aoe pulse burn. We have ALOT of ways to apply burning for multiple builds. And not only that but in group play other people’s burning counts as well. get a couple guardians or an ele in the mix and groups can have perma burn on them at once. I would hardly say its over rated trait at all..

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

matemaster.2168:

honor provides better synergy for that build
i.e
faster shout recharge = faster cond removal with 6x rune of the soldier
vigorous precision = more dodge = more heal
empowering might = more power
inspired virtue = even more power

But that build 10/30/30/0/0 seems interesting so I will theorycraft it in xls to see the final results
Thanks for tip

Try this mate,

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3|c.1c.h17.d.1c.h4|b.1c.h14.e.1c.h1l|1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x|1i.67.1g.67.1g.67.1p.67.1p.67.1c.61|a2.u6ab.u26b.0.0|39.1|e

Selfless daring is only good if you have healing power gear.

Yes 10/30/30/0/0 build provides better numbers for myself but lacks in group suppport.
Honor and 5 point virtues provides much more benefits for group.
For example I can maintain constant 7 might stacks for group. When fighting large groups of mobs I can maintain 12+stacks of might by myself

If GW2 was more solo oriented game I would for sure use 10/30/30/0/0 build but in GW2 you allways fight with groups
So the benefits I would gain for myself from runing 10/30/30/0/0 build wont overweight benefits I provide for the whole group

Asmodal.6489:

Zeal +10% damage on burning foes (burning no problem as guardian)

….
i See 10 in zeal and this trait in a Lot of Builds with this argument. Fact is to utelize These 10% you have to keep your target constantly burning and Even then its pnly singletarget if you dont go for a Long burn aoe skill.

This trait is the Most overated trait for guardians – hands down

Try using virtue of justice sometimes or play with ele.

Bakitten291:

Judges intervention is a 3 second aoe burn, using virtue of justice gives the 5 second burn to 5 other people near you who may be attacking other targets, burn on block trait in valor can very easily AoE burn when being focused with shelter active in a group, purging flames in a pure AoE stacking burn. not to mention the virtue trait to make justice an aoe pulse burn. We have ALOT of ways to apply burning for multiple builds. And not only that but in group play other people’s burning counts as well. get a couple guardians or an ele in the mix and groups can have perma burn on them at once. I would hardly say its over rated trait at all..

as you described – there is a lot of ifs and buts

yes you can trait for constant burn on 5 targets around you – the op does not. So it is a conditional SINGLE target damage boost.

everyone who uses this trait should question its usefulness in his/her particular build. its not an effective 10% damage increase as most people (like the op) says it is.

if you are min/maxing you build there are better things to pick.

for picking up damage? no there really is not. keep in mind you also get 100 power and 10% condition duration from picking up 10 in zeal. which already adds damage. increases the uptime of your radiant power damage, and also causes burning targets to take a total of 20% extra damage. Also, his build does use torch, which torch #4 is an aoe pulsing burn…

Even without that, once again, we are not the only class that uses burning, and in what case are you not going to be running in a group that you fight a group of enemies? Maybe in open world PvE but you really don’t need to be min/maxing there. Dungeons you will have groups, WvW you can solo roam but at that point you are generally single targeting if you run into a group anyways. So where exactly is the trait so pointless as not to take?

never said its pointless

you are saying its not worth on itself but in combination with 100 power and 10% duration and radiant power for 20% extra damage on a single target?

guess what: i agree – but now you spent 35 trait points to make it usefull – and still on a single target (considering the weapon choice – using a 3 second aoe burn is not utelizing the damage boost from the trait. it merley sets it up)

i do not know which game you are playing but imo most dungeons focus on fighting groups of mobs until you reach the final boss. and in solo pve you will always want as much mobs on you as you can handle. for wvwvw different rules apply – you could easily argue that there is not enough condi removal in this build sp whats the point there?

again: i am not saying the trait is useless.

but i would ask myself if 10% damage increase on single target (+traitline bonus) is really worth it not having aditional condition removal every 10 secs + 100 Toughness and 10% critical damage.

i dont want to hijack this thread for some other discussion – so my advice on OP is drop the 10 in zeal for 10 in valor or go full honor to get some more condition removal in.

or if you really only shooting for single target dps keep the 10 in zeal and reconsider powerful blades. the gain is just really low. inscribed removal is probably better since you already use 2 signets (i assume you use the heal signet)

you did call it the build that has it all…
in the end if you are happy with it and it does work for you i am the last to tell you differently.

top OP. This is a solid build. You use the most out of spamming F1 on kill, and with the crits everyone will be might / vigor buffed quite a bit.

You really don’t need that much toughness in a build like this. As almost useless conditions are on a guardian, this makes good use of them.

Asmodal.6489:

but now you spent 35 trait points to make it usefull – and still on a single target

Not true, i was just pointing out the full power of his build. The 10% damage increase is plenty enough as it is. Also, the condition talent also applies to any foe with any condition, just like any burning on any other foe. Between AoE blinds, which can also be traited for vulnerability, its very easy to get radiant power active on multiple foes.

Asmodal.6489:

i do not know which game you are playing but imo most dungeons focus on fighting groups of mobs until you reach the final boss.

Once again, your in a group, add in another guardian or an Ele and you have perma burn on most if not all targets. I don’t get why you keep applying single character mechanics to something that you have to group for. Maybe you are the one playing a different game than us?

as I said GW2 is group oriented
When fighting large group of mobs, when activating virtue of justice all allies gains the efect to burn the enemies, one mob dead -> virtue of justice activated again so the result is 90% mobs are constantly burning

When fighting solo, against group of mobs I use purging flames to keep em burning all
Really, there is no problem to keep mobs burning

I’m confused as to what the idea of this build is, pve? pvp? In pve a build that uses scepter sometimes you should have Unscathed Contender available imho, you do not have it all if you don’t get the 20% damage from being ranged and unhit.. I build differently for different instances… for FOTM without 10 in virtues i’d go crazy, consecration duration or unscathed defender, too useful offensively or defensively.. I recommend trying 10/30/0/20/10 or 20/30/0/10/10.

Incomingray.8075:

I’m confused as to what the idea of this build is, pve? pvp? In pve a build that uses scepter sometimes you should have Unscathed Contender available imho, you do not have it all if you don’t get the 20% damage from being ranged and unhit.. I build differently for different instances… for FOTM without 10 in virtues i’d go crazy, consecration duration or unscathed defender, too useful offensively or defensively.. I recommend trying 10/30/0/20/10 or 20/30/0/10/10.

Exactly the build is “cookie cutter” pve, pvp, dungeons, solo farming…

Hits like a truck (single target, AoE) – check
Very good survivability (high HP, average armor, 3-sources of blind) – check
Group support (might, healing, burning…) – check
Ranged mode – check
Condition removal (myself, group) – check

I have no idea what you are talking about, to be quite honest. I tried this build (I have lotsa gold so I don’t mind the expenditure of buying new weapons, armor, runes and sigils, really) but it’s awful. Zero survivability in WvW. Whereas usually I can fight 2-3 people to a standstill on my Guardian, with this build I’m dead in under 45 seconds to a single Thief or Elementalist, the moment Save Yourselves wears off.

Side note; Admittedly though, thieves are a separate problem for me. It’s illogical but thieves own me. Period. If they catch me in the open, I’m dead. I tried retaliation builds; it does not work. They stealth and return when retal has worn off. It doesn’t work. That is all on this topic, I’m ok with it and not seeking “How to counter a thief” advice, lalalalalala….

Sorry, but I am not seeing this build work. At all. Compared to a standard 0/0/30/30/10 with Altruistic Healing and a Hammer, this build is severely kitten It has greater damage output (probably double), about the same hitpoints, but about 750 less toughness and nearly 900 less armor.

That’s not survivability in my book.

Ahewm.

All these builds with no vigor hurt my eyes.

Also, every +x% (except necro curses XI) is additive not multiplicative. E.g. +10% +10% =120% of base duration, not 121%, and +20% + 40% + 10% = 170% of base duration, not 185%. I was using buff duration as an example but the concept is identical for damage.