Guild Wars 2

So my problem is i find 1 hand sword, lacking in everything i know its supposed to be for control but it sounds good on paper but in application its… meh i mean i love 1 hand swords and shields, now im willing to risk losing the shield for a build but all the builds that i like seem to gravitate to greatsword, (im a wvw>pve/pvp, meaning wvw is my focus and pve pvp are equal grounds)

I wanna be a tanking damage dealer with a hint of added support, which i know i can do, one of the reason i decided to get rid of my warrrior /thief main that i put so much time into because i like being in the frontlines using melee in wvw zergs (epic)

So tankiness IS wanted, just not specced full tank, ide really like to use sword/shield and then either sceptor or probably staff for that xtra support.

Any thoughts guys? i may be willing to give up sword / shield and use sword / focus, i just like the look of 1 hand swords better, and thye better fit my character, but man it just seems like the greatsword skill set is so much better and versitile the 1h sword jus seems like.. lacking, is that number 2 or 3 (cant remember. not the tepeporting one)
even worth using? its the skill were you shoot projectiles while u swing ur 1h sword while making a shield, im not talking about the cc flashing blade know the greatswords moves i slick its jus all the greatswords look so big, i did find the smallest ones available but their still not what i want..

So ide like to hear some people thoughts, i heard somthing about 1 hand sword being best for a crit / constant might proc build and using 1h sword being better because it crits more ? ( dont know why it crits more, keep in mind im still new sort of to guardian only level 26)

For sure the sword isn’t a particularly strong dps weapon – but it has a fair amount of utility.

If you trait into Radiance, you get the advantage of Right Hand Strength which gives +15% crit chance ( this applies to other one handed weapons too ). It has a good fast autoattack which helps stack the crits up, so slotting Sigils that take advantage of crits is a good idea ( eg ones that stack up Might ).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Right-Hand_Strength

Radiance also gives you Blind Exposure which applies Vulnerability on blind ( and Blind is what Flashing Blade gives you in addition to the gap closer ). Admittedly 1% damage increase isn’t a great deal, but Flashing Blade is an AoE skill and lasts for 5 seconds.

Skill #1’s auto attack gives a mini-AoE on the third swing ( although the range is short ).

Zealots Defense while a cool looking skill does have issues. You are rooted to the spot while you cast it, and it’s easy to evade. It does however block some projectiles that fly down it’s cone, so it can be situationally useful against some ranged attacks.

It has good synergy with focus, giving a lot of blind and blocking utility ( aswell as keeping you mobile ). Mobility is always good, and flashing blade teleports through obstacles and over different heights ( provided there’s a “route” to the opponent )

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.

I’m currently leveling my guardian so I have no experience at endgame. However I was just reading this post where Gaunglai shows sword auto attack to be the 2nd highest dps weapon. Thoughts?

TY
Blood~

Actually on the contrary, sword is on of the strongest single target damage available to guardian, look at the DPS tests in altruistic healing thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Hammer-and-Altruistic-Healing-gameplay/first#post532589

also there is another thread dedicated just to DPS tests by Guanglai Kangy

I’m leveling with Sword and it’s dealing some great damage. As Tarsius mentioned, the Radiance trait line will add some serious damage for 1h sword, as well as the blind/vulnerability synergy. For the tankiness you want, try Focus off hand. Gives you another blind (for more vulnerability) as well as good defense. I don’t gear for +cond dmg but you’ll easily be able to keep your burns rolling on your target due to sword’s fast attack speed and #3’s rapid attack. Also, the sword #3 attack doubles as a projectile defense. I think it’s a great combo.

not goin for condition dmg seras, but ah ok gonna try to make my own build around crit pocc’ing with sword /shield or maybe if i have to… sword/focus

Sword/torch is the main dmg set up for 1handers. This utilizes a good mix of single target with a splash of aoe with the torch. If you are running dps 1h then thats probably the set up for you.

Sword/focus leaves much to be desired in the utility and the dmg department so. If you wont dmg look above if you are looking for utility go scepter/focus.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf5dlYg6CHHSNEfIFRuArHEEh+DXw1DISxGC

I leveled up with this build and quite liked it.

-0/30/30/5/5

-1h/focus and scepter/torch

-Then you add in omnomberry pie and a consumable that adds 6% of toughness to power and 4% of vitality to power.

Sigil of blood and sigil of leeching in berserker weapons.

Sigil of blood seem to stack with omnomberry pie so basically every crit (2s cd on sigil of blood) gives you over 300hp back.

Add in signet of judgment and stand your ground and one more signet for control and knights armor with soldier runes and knight earrings and amulet and berserker rings.

this setup would be about:
13k hp
3k attack
3k armor
80% crit
51% crit damage
Support from shout and virtues.

Test this and see what happens with your healthpool when using skill 5 on torch, skill 3 on 1h sword or when you succeed in hitting with smite on multiple targets.

Just super fun and you can do all types of content with it.

Its a blast if you are into 1h weapons and its the one i play mostly atm.

you can swap sigil of blood for a sigil that proccs a 5s bleed 60% of the times when crit.

That is perma 10% damage from the last minor trait in radiance.

PS at a train and dont remember what stuff is called just what they are doing.

Swapped out for the blood and accuracy sigils.

Stuck with sword/torch and mace/focus.

Basically, the Red Drakes in LS were tearing me up with GS and hammer or mace/focus running Crithammer. With this build you seldom have your health drop below 80%.

Blissified.8369:

So my problem is i find 1 hand sword, lacking in everything i know its supposed to be for control but it sounds good on paper but in application its… meh i mean i love 1 hand swords and shields, now im willing to risk losing the shield for a build but all the builds that i like seem to gravitate to greatsword, (im a wvw>pve/pvp, meaning wvw is my focus and pve pvp are equal grounds)

I wanna be a tanking damage dealer with a hint of added support, which i know i can do, one of the reason i decided to get rid of my warrrior /thief main that i put so much time into because i like being in the frontlines using melee in wvw zergs (epic)

So tankiness IS wanted, just not specced full tank, ide really like to use sword/shield and then either sceptor or probably staff for that xtra support.

Hello here,

I’m playing only Guardian and a lot of WvW. Reading youn it’s also your focus.

The Sword + Shield/Focus is good in WvW but it’s more a tool for me. The DPS is nice only on single target.
Your tools to tank with Sword are the blind and the projectile blocks on 3, with the focus you gain survavibility. I do small scale a lot and Sword+Focus is on my set 90% of the time.

I recommand you to not stacking traits in Radiance because the crit you’ll gain will not help so much in most situations.

You can do DPS while speccing tanky, but you cannot be tanky while speccing DPS.

In WvW, your second set need to have AoE damage like the Greatsword or Hammer. It depend of your gameplay, I always run GS but I take Hammer when we need funnel or on kitten heavy fights. I will meet more fights with multiple opponent than 1vs1, you want DPS, you need AoE and AoE controls.

Now you want be tanky ? You need some tricky combos:
– equip 1 superior sigil of energy per weapon set and take the trait “Vigorous Precision”, this way you’ll regen endurence as hell allowing you to dodge a lot Normal regen is 6 dodges/min, while keeping swaping weapon set you can go to 12 dodges/min, and with the trait you can easily up to 18 dodges/mins when you keep hitting. Dodge = 0 dmg it’s better than 4k of toughness.
– stack things that block (focus / shelter / renewal focus). blocks also = 0 dmg, it’s a way to counter any burst.
– 6 rune of the earth helping stacking protection and give you 5s on projectile immunity on emergency. I personnaly using “Save Yourself !” + my Virtue + Rune of Earth proc and that keep me under protection a lot (-33% reduc dmg).
– stack health regen as counter for low damages (the combo AH + EM can heal a lot)
– stack condition removal
– ~3k armor help a lot.

But keep in mind you’ll never really tank because there is no really class able to tank in the game, all is about mobility. There is only class who can decay the death :p

Here a small vid of my last “tanky” build fighting in WvW if that can help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMoN1qC3JKM

Here’s a build that might work, that I was planning to try when I get the supporting armor:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUIQRAsf7NlYgKCHHyvjiIXg1DAeQ/VVIe4MwI8B;TIAgzCoA

Basically the idea is to use Fiery Wrath, Radiant Power, Elusive power and Powerful Blades to get a total of 35% bonus damage as long as you keep the target burning and you keep dodging. Your high critical rate feeds your vigor, allowing (and requiring) you to dodge often for heals. The high attack rate of both main+offhand sets are meant to keep the burning going, with help from JI and torch. Be sure to use active justice on your next mob before killing the first one for a smooth transition.

It’s main weakness is lack of meaningful AoE.

chtiyonki.6284:

Blissified.8369:

So my problem is i find 1 hand sword, lacking in everything i know its supposed to be for control but it sounds good on paper but in application its… meh i mean i love 1 hand swords and shields, now im willing to risk losing the shield for a build but all the builds that i like seem to gravitate to greatsword, (im a wvw>pve/pvp, meaning wvw is my focus and pve pvp are equal grounds)

I wanna be a tanking damage dealer with a hint of added support, which i know i can do, one of the reason i decided to get rid of my warrrior /thief main that i put so much time into because i like being in the frontlines using melee in wvw zergs (epic)

So tankiness IS wanted, just not specced full tank, ide really like to use sword/shield and then either sceptor or probably staff for that xtra support.

Hello here,

I’m playing only Guardian and a lot of WvW. Reading youn it’s also your focus.

The Sword + Shield/Focus is good in WvW but it’s more a tool for me. The DPS is nice only on single target.
Your tools to tank with Sword are the blind and the projectile blocks on 3, with the focus you gain survavibility. I do small scale a lot and Sword+Focus is on my set 90% of the time.

I recommand you to not stacking traits in Radiance because the crit you’ll gain will not help so much in most situations.

You can do DPS while speccing tanky, but you cannot be tanky while speccing DPS.

In WvW, your second set need to have AoE damage like the Greatsword or Hammer. It depend of your gameplay, I always run GS but I take Hammer when we need funnel or on kitten heavy fights. I will meet more fights with multiple opponent than 1vs1, you want DPS, you need AoE and AoE controls.

Now you want be tanky ? You need some tricky combos:
– equip 1 superior sigil of energy per weapon set and take the trait “Vigorous Precision”, this way you’ll regen endurence as hell allowing you to dodge a lot Normal regen is 6 dodges/min, while keeping swaping weapon set you can go to 12 dodges/min, and with the trait you can easily up to 18 dodges/mins when you keep hitting. Dodge = 0 dmg it’s better than 4k of toughness.
– stack things that block (focus / shelter / renewal focus). blocks also = 0 dmg, it’s a way to counter any burst.
– 6 rune of the earth helping stacking protection and give you 5s on projectile immunity on emergency. I personnaly using “Save Yourself !” + my Virtue + Rune of Earth proc and that keep me under protection a lot (-33% reduc dmg).
– stack health regen as counter for low damages (the combo AH + EM can heal a lot)
– stack condition removal
– ~3k armor help a lot.

But keep in mind you’ll never really tank because there is no really class able to tank in the game, all is about mobility. There is only class who can decay the death :p

Here a small vid of my last “tanky” build fighting in WvW if that can help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMoN1qC3JKM

link to build?

It’s in the vid…

Sword is decent for sustained DPS but it’s not great for general PvE exploring since it kills slowly. The auto-attack hits about as hard as the greatsword’s and you can use Right-Handed Strength with it, which helps a lot. That said, you HAVE to go with RHS if you want to use sword, because otherwise greatsword always does more damage (it still does more even if you do, but at least the sustained is higher). The biggest problem is that you don’t get “burst” skill, since ZD actually hits for the same amount of damage as the auto-attack in the same amount of time, so you’re stuck at your standard sustained DPS level no matter what you do.

Ironically, going sword/shield will actually give you less defense than greatsword, since the GS can go 30 points into Honor or Virtues and still put out decent damage, while the sword suffers heavily from loss of RHS.

I wonder how heavy condition damage spec would work with the sword

Slow really? The 1h sword/torch is far better than any other method for soloing in my experience. Why? I can basically circle strafe a mob using the torch 5 skill taking no damage and avoiding other nasty effects. Can then blind and use sword 3. By then the mob is usually dead. Killing something in 1 rotation seems pretty good imho.

In contrast the skills on the gs and hammer leave me stuck in one spot, so I have to break off my optimal rotation all the time to dodge.

For farming orr, yeah sure GS all the way.

Until the addition of Fractals, I mostly solo PvE’ed (leveling, complete map exploration, Orr farming). I wore full Berserker exotics and used a 10/30/30/0/0 dps/meditation heal build. Besides dps and self heals, it also offers good mobility (600 and 1200 range teleports: sword 2 & Judge’s Intervention) and condition removal (Smite Condition, Contemplation of Purity & can swap Retributive Armor for Purity as well if facing heavy conditions). Sword/torch main, swap is either mace/focus (defensive emergencies… a nice security blanket) or scepter/focus (ranged… boring but decent dps with this build).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf5dlYgSDHHyNEf4Eh1DCCQ/VVIeXPgIFbIA

I don’t know if it is “the best” 1 hand damage build, but it certainly works. It has great burst by Guardian standards (sword 3 ftw). It can dps multiple mobs if you practice lining them up (the 3rd strike of sword 1 hits 3 mobs in a frontal cone + torch 4 & 5 + Smite Condition + Judge’s Intervention). The only mobs that are annoying with this build are Destroyers (immune to fire) and to a lesser degree Dredge (immune to blind). It is absolutely false to think that the great sword is the only viable damage dealer available to guardian. It is preferred by many because great sword is more AoE friendly, but it isn’t the only way. From a solo perspective, I think the 1 hand sword is superior to the great sword.

As much as I like playing an Altruistic Healing build for group content, I miss playing the build above. It just felt so much more fluid. I really do miss the mobility, faster kills, and animations. It was a lot of fun to play.

The lack of combo finisher from the sword / torch combo is also surprising.
I half expected the blinding flash sword to be a leap finisher, but nope.
Greatsword, in comparison, has 2 Whirl Finishers and a Symbol to start a combo field.

It’s easy to see why this weapon set is somewhat unpopular in dungeon content.

If you are looking for a WVW 1h sword build, the one that Brutaly posted is a beast. extremely good damage and very tanky. I personally run sword+ shield / Hammer with that build, mostly because I like the CC that comes with the hammer compared to scepter/offhand. Also I find running Judges intervention is great for pretty much every WvW build as it is a huge gap closer, decent damage burn, but also it does NOT interrupt any of your attacks, so you can cast zealot’s defense, judge in, and insure that every wave hits.

Can’t miss the meditations guardian that goes for damage in sPvP:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf7elYgiDnGyKEfIFRuArHEEh+DXw1DI6wGC;TgAA2CnoqxUjoGbNuak1A