Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: this isn’t a build of my own; I’m sure that the concepts around are largely known, and I did make my arranges based on the build of a fellowship member in my guild. I’m not pioneering here.

Preamble:

Despite being in the game since August 2011, I didn’t start to play pvp more seriously until the beguinning of 2013. From January to May I did it using a Meditation Guardian, just due I didn’t like how Guardian holders works. From May to August I did change to Hambow Warrior; at that point I did reach rank 80, playing 99% of the time in random teams at

Since then until a month ago, I mainly stayed at Warrior: Meditation DPS builds and hybrids are great at duels, but due the metagame in PvP was moving towards more tanky builds (i.e.: celestial Eles, Engies and Warriors) ,they were also more risky to play, specially in n vs n skirmishes, in which the sustain from other classes and builds clearly outpaced the capabilities to get fast kills from dps builds (not only Guardians).

But a month ago I started to play again Guardian, keeping the basics of the DPS Meditation ones, but focusing the build towards enhancements in sustain. I found those changes useful, and I’m currently forging an ascendent armor for WvW roaming largely based on the same concepts. I think that the build works well in PvP, despite the caps in stats customization, and due the variety in the PvE/WvW gear, can works wonders in duels/small group roaming in WvW. This is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApcoVDxbI8DRRDRljNYHBZQXe9BkABAA-TZBBwAcuAAAeCAjLDUc/hNHEAA

Basics:

In PvP, this build has the foundations of any other Meditation Guardian: Shelter as healing skill, Judge’s Intervention, Smite Condition and Contemplation of Purity as utility skills, and Renewed Focus as elite skill. As for traits, the usual 6 points in Valor are required, with Meditation Mastery and Monk’s Focus as mandatory ones. The third could be Focused Mind, Purity, Retributive Armor or Glacial Heart, based on your preferences.

The weapons of choice are the usual suspects: I like greatsword + sword/focus, but scepter, torch and hammer can be useful in this build; any of them can fit here and can change the way in which you play. As for sigils, the thing is more restricted: either energy or hydromancy, and then accuracy, or air. There’s some others that can be used punctually, but the ones cited had the best synergies with the whole build.

So, what are the changes with the usual Meditation builds? First, the need to spent 6 points in Honor: this will rise the vitality and healing power in 300 points, and will let us to trait Force of Will (another 300 points in vitality) and Pure of Heart. The third trait could be either Two Handed Mastery, Resolute Healer, Writ of the Merciful or Protective Reviver. Pure of Heart and ì]Writ of Merciful[/i] are a complement to Selfless Daring, and one or other can be chosen based on the weapons in use -or even both at the extent of THM-.

As the result of these trait choices the build will have a notable boost in the HP pool, a good base in healing power and the ability to heal yourself on Aegis removal, and you and your team on evades. The second change with Med builds is the amulet of choice: Cleric instead of Berserk. This synergizes with the selected traits. The last 2 trait points can be used as desired; albeit I like the more a 0/1/6/6/1 loadout a 2/0/6/6/0 can be fine, and some others also.

The runes of choice are Superior Runes of the Pack: they provide power and precission + might, swiftness and fury. This build has a low innate critical chance in PvP due the monolitic design of the cleric amulet, BUT the choice of accuracy sigils + Pack runes + Focused Mind will almost grant perma-fury as long as you keep hitting things in combat.

So now, the Guardian gains a lot more sustain: you still have most of the blinds, the burns and the evades of a typical Meditation build, but gets a lot of health points and a ton of healing power; the passive effect from Virtue of Resolve is now stronger and you get large amounts of heals from evades.

Some key features:

What is lost in the exchange is damage, but to how much extent? Compared against the typical Med build around a 30%-50% damage is lost (the amount varies largely based in which kind of damage are you looking for: the changes diminishes more the dps burst than the sustained damage over time).

The thing is that I don’t play this build based on burst: most of the time I kill a foe the largest part of the inflicted damage comes not from gs 2 (Whirlind Wrath) or sword 3 (Zealot’s Defense) or focus 5 (Shield of Wrath), neither Judge’s Intervention or Smite Condition: most of the time the auto attacks from gs and sword are the main sources of the dent in the enemy health pool.

Med Zerks usually try to land a burst doing damage as fast as possible, due with less than 16k HP and 2500 armor sitting next to the enemy can truly hurt. That’s a minor problem for a Meditation Cleric, which in PvP has near 17k HP, over 3000 armor and heals over 1k HP per evade.

This build isn’t as tanky as a Guardian holder or doesn’t provide as much raw power as a Meditation Guard, but I find myself capable to beat both of them using the “Zen Guardian”, because the better sustain and the capability to deal damage consistently over longer periods of time. I found also that some other classes which previously I found impossible to beat as a Guardian as Necros or Eles are doable with this spec. As the name implies, I play the “Zen Guardian” calmy, keeping pressure on the target at close range, waiting their use of evades, burst and “panic buttons” before even releasing my own burst. Auto attacks are played aggressively while Flashing Blade, Judge’s Intervention or Contemplation of Purity are saved to break inmobilizations or to prevent big burst.

Drawbacks:

About the troubles of the build, has a few: Engineers focused on interrupts and Mesmers with broad access to invisibility and soft control are the ones I struggle the most.

The lack of precission makes mandatory to get close and land crits to get Fury (along with the use of meditations), so builds capable to kite us at range or players with AoE damage while running around pillars and other obstacles while dealing damage can be challenging against a gs/sw+focus loadout.

Players that heavily rely on condition damage can also be a threat, but I found that as long as you notice and prevent their cc tools they can be neutered.

Anyway, I think that this build has a solid use and potential in PvP, so feel free to try it and get your own conclusions. In WvW roaming, due the large avaibility of costomizable gear it gets the best potential, due the same armor can be achieved but getting a lot more power, precission and HP. A few samples based on the same concepts:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApcoVDxbI8DRRDRljNYHBZQXe9BkABAA-TVCBABPqEkjLIgYKfIV9HWVCBwTKoo9HyT3zGHEhAAIA38mZz2sNv5Nv5hO0hO0hO0+5P/5Pv5PLFQELjA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARSlsApaolDxbI8DNR8QVVAgdS8fV61/QQkDA-TliFABfs/AUKHkUdlBVJoKlgGpkDgnAgl6CcUFiEuEABAQAu5Nzm3MwQH6QH6QHa38m38m/8mlCIilRA-w

So, that’s all. I’m not a pro and I’m not playing in any guild devoted to PvP, so I’m sure that a lot of criticism can be made here. I I’ll appreciate any advice, since to date this is the build I’m having more fun and success playing with Guardian, but I want to improve. Thanx and excuses for my poor English.

The build is interesting, for sure.

Healing power, though, is wasted on meditations. It doesn’t scale very well. You’ve gained about 500 healing per use for the total investment, which might be an extra ~3k healing per minute. Selfless Daring scales better, but that’s about the extent. I’m not sure if the sustain gained outweighs the damage loss, I would have to try testing it myself.

I built a sustain oriented meditation build myself a while back, that you might be interested in.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRAsd7flsApaolDxbI8DNR8gY9nWbqKw1/CmD-TpBFwACOBAWLDQ4gAUb/hFHBAAPAAA

It utilizes a 2/6/6/0/0 build with a soldier’s amulet. 24 base crit chance plus 20% on fury and 15% on 1handed weapons. 2100 power, 3k armor and 18k hp. Air/fire on sword for dps, energy/blood for sustain on scepter. You could even do a 0/6/6/1/1 build dropping a bit of damage for sustain.

It does suffer the same problems yours would though. That is a lack of burst and mobility. ~50% uptime on swiftness in combat isn’t terrible, but out of combat you’re a turtle. Traveler runes could be taken over pack runes, dropping some power, precision and fury for consistent movement speed.

Funny thing is I was trying those days to make a Cleric/medi work, except with symbols traited for healing, with hammer/GS. And with Merciful Intervention instead of JI. Didn’t work out pretty well. Maybe in an organized group it might, but in solo it’s not so good.

Yeah, I hate to be a downer, but meditations just don’t synergize well with a cleric’s build set. It’s essentially trying to run a solo build with group support gear.

Hello Buran,

It’s very pleasing to see other people using a “healadin” build. I’ve been using a special brew myself, and it has worked pretty good. You have to keep in mind that this is a very selfish build, and offers little to no support. Here’s my build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApaolDxbI8DRRDRlTNYvBHXXe9B8ABAA-TlSDAB5t/gUKDySJWCPAAoUaMoSQ40NAwBBAS1fk4KAEAAB4m3Mb2mB/8n/8n/8nRIgvLAA-w

It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve in a fight man!

Shanks.2907:

It does suffer the same problems yours would though. That is a lack of burst and mobility. ~50% uptime on swiftness in combat isn’t terrible, but out of combat you’re a turtle. Traveler runes could be taken over pack runes, dropping some power, precision and fury for consistent movement speed.

I do use Traveler runes with the exotic armor of one of my Guardians (I have two) in PvE/WvW, but after the nerfs in critical damage (ferocity) in both Traveler and Divinity runes their appeal in pure fighting somewhat diminished a lot.

In PvP I like more Pack runes due the distances are short and the procs last enough to cover some of your displacements (taking in consideration that close and mid must be your concerns: far point invading are more a priority for thieves, warriors and some other classes with way better mobility than us.

For WvW, mobility is a bigger problem, but isn’t limited to the low speed guardians move across: also includes the lack of tools to evade skirmishes in clear disadvantage. If you want to focus in taking down camps and ruins with a few fights against players here and there Traveler runes are mandatory, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to cover the maps at reasonable speed. Still, Traveler runes alone wouldn’t save you from being kitted or catched for more fast classes.

The other option is to gain awareness about our reality: guardians doesn’t have optimal tools for mobility or to flee away or conceal, so one can just asume that going in roaming must provide a lot of deaths, but we can chose to die in our own terms, wearing runes designed to duel or fight in small skirmishes instead of using others oriented towards evading a defeat. Guardians are for bushido; if one is afraid to die those shinobi disguised as thieves are better choice :p But I conceed thatTravel runes are very useful roaming in small groups just for preventing you for being an anchor to the team.

As soon as I saw “Preamble” I knew this thread was going to be over my head

you should consider a celestial amulet for the build. while not a meditation basesd, i have a pal that runs an altruistic healing GS staff shout build with the celestial amulet. it is very survivable and can splatter people with the greatsword whirl when it has a bit of might.

^ I did the research, it could work. With my build and cleric amulet the numbers are like:

16905 HP, 3043 armor, 1232 healing power, 1751 power, 19% crit chance, 170% crit damage.

With the same build but celestial amulet would be:

21285 HP, 2831 armor, 738 healing power, 1531 power, 40% crit chance, 199% crit damage.

So how well -on paper- falls one gainst the other? Celestial loses a substantial amount of armor (212), but the total is still high (2831) and in exchage the HP rises hugely (4380), so could compensate the armor lost -specially angainst conditions.

In damage, going from 1751 power + 19% crit chance +170% crit damage vs 1531 power + 40% crit chance + 199% crit damage means gaining ~7%-8% overall damage (this doesn’t take in consideration the fury from meds and pack runes, neither the condition damage enhancement, which in celestial rises from 40 to 488). So, albeit the 1531 attack power seems small, probably the celestial amulet can deal even more damage over time.

The tricky thing is to evaluate how much going from 1232 healing power in cleric to 738 in celestial (a fall of 494) would affect to the healins, specially the passive F2 and the evades. In WvW having around 900 healing power provides ~1000 heal points per evade, but the procs are dfferent in PvP and with cleric and 1232 healing power I think that I gain around 750 HP x evade.

I must check this in the practice, but so far could work.

I have been running the “meta” medi guard build and decided to try a tankier variant.
I found running Knight amulet and the following build was rather fun in spvp last night. Decent HP, a ton of armor, good crit % to trigger sigils and enough DPS to not be ignored. Sigils of generosity help shake off conditions. I am sure it can be improved, let me know what you think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR7dlsApaolDxbI8DRRDRljNYHBZQXe9BkABAA-TZBFABC8AAkb/hoLD02FBAgjAAA

I did some test; with Cleric amulet Virtue of Resolve passive healing is 158 and the heals from the evades reach 1361. With the same build but Celestial amulet the passive healing is 128 and the heals from the evades reach 868.

Despite celestial amulet increases the average auto attack damage by ~15%, and the lost of 30 points from passive heals in VoR isn’t too troublesome, a lost of ~36% in the heals from the dodges are very significative. Not sure if worths the change in PvP. In WvW is a lor more easy to modulate.

Anyway, I did upload some vids testing my current build in PvP (I’m not great, is just for reference to figure how the build fares, and which kind of sustain can be expected):