beginner's question re: weapon swapping

beginner's question re: weapon swapping

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Posted by: The Great Al.2546

The Great Al.2546

Hi all, have about 400 hours on my elementalist, trying out a guardian now.

Weapon swapping is a new mechanic to me since I have only had attunement swapping. The elementalist mindset is basically that you are constantly.swapping attunements or you are not making the best use of your class. My question is – do you generally just swap weapons to switch from a melee to ranged (i.e. greatsword to staff), or is it advantageous to find synergies between weapon sets? I.e., the greatsword has a few combo fields, and the hammer has a finisher, so I would imagine that within a fight, weapons are swapped multiple times. Are there any websites that list the most commonly chosen weapons to use as a first and second weapon set? Thanks!

beginner's question re: weapon swapping

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Posted by: Guanglai Kangyi.4318

Guanglai Kangyi.4318

It depends. There are a few things you should recognize about each weapon and it’s relative role for the guardian.

Greatsword: Relatively high skill DPS, relatively low auto-attack DPS. In other words, skills contribute a larger portion of the weapon’s damage. Highest DPS overall.

Sword: Pretty much all auto-attack DPS. Skills contribute nothing. Second-highest DPS option.

Hammer: Almost all auto-attack DPS. Mighty Blow makes a very small DPS contribution. Third-highest DPS option.

Scepter: Very high skill DPS contribution. Smite’s effectiveness varies depending on target size so damage fluctuates. Varies from being the best DPS option to mostly average.

Mace: Average DPS overall. Combined with use of skills, still stronger than greatsword auto-attack.

What this means in practice is that you have a set of weapons that deal consistently high auto-attack DPS, and several weapons that rely heavily on skills to deal damage. This is important because even though greatsword is the best average damage, it’s a skill-based weapon, which means you get a big burst when you use all your skills but then dip relatively low for a few seconds while they recharge. You can circumvent this by unloading your GS burst skills then switching to your other weapon (sword or hammer, but mace works too) while they recharge. The general rotation is Whirling Wrath > Symbol of Wrath > auto-attack a bit > Whirling Wrath > switch weapon > switch back to GS 10s later. This maximizes your DPS, so it’s pretty important to have.

beginner's question re: weapon swapping

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Posted by: Setun.4368

Setun.4368

It is always in your best interests to weapon swap if you can setup good combos with your weapon combos. A quick example would be something like this:

open with scepter & focus. Immobilize with scepter #3, throw down smite and ray of judgement, pop focus #5, then switch to your melee set (hammer, greatsword, w/e), then whack away at the enemy.

beginner's question re: weapon swapping

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Posted by: The Great Al.2546

The Great Al.2546

Really excellent advice, thanks to both of you. Having previously spent all my time as an elementalist, I’m actually struggling to rely on my autoattack at all, as I’ve been conditioned to essentially ignore it. I do like the idea of having one melee and one ranged weapon, although it seems that a lot of builds are built around two melee weapons. From what I gather, Guardian is mostly melee-only unless around one of the few ‘ranged-only’ bosses?

beginner's question re: weapon swapping

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Posted by: Setun.4368

Setun.4368

I keep a hammer and scepter / torch on me at all times, whether pvp or pve. Both weapon sets offer great movement CC with immobilizes (which isn’t affected by stability, and with binding jeopardy each immobilize puts 5 stacks of vulnerability on a target), and ring of warding is great to use in conjunction with judge’s intervention to box in a group of players in wvw skirmishes, making them panic and use their escapes / stability skills early so they’re easier targets for the rest of your group / server to kill. I have seen a lot of Guardians using greatsword and sword/focus recently to maximize the trait ‘blind exposure’ under the radiance line which puts stacks of vulnerability whenever you blind your target(s).

So there are options for you both in choosing pure melee weapon sets or having melee and ranged. =)

beginner's question re: weapon swapping

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Posted by: Guanglai Kangyi.4318

Guanglai Kangyi.4318

You scepter if it’s a big mob, you just stand in melee so you can give/get group buffs. Getting all hits on Smite deals massive damage but it’s size dependent.