Guild Wars 2

i generally play bunker guard in pvp and am having a ridiculous amount of trouble being able to do anything against condi specs in pvp. Any tips on how to deal with condi specs? Its kind of ridiculous that I’m dodge rolling like a maniac, blowing all of my condi clears and less than a second later I have almost all of the same condis back on me.

Is this just the meta and there is nothing I can really do about it now? Is playing a bunker/support build in spvp a waste of my time?

You’re title says TPvP, then your final question is about yoloqueue. So which is it?
Also, when you play bunker guard, I assume you are always in team fights?

Best way to deal with condition is running; Soldier Runes, Absolute Resolution, and Purging Flames. I’m assuming you’re running a 0/0/10/30/30 bunker. So you can also pick up PoV and Purity.

0 0 30 20 20 contemplation of purity stand your ground and save yourselves. Resolve removes 3 coupled with renewed focus is very useful and run soldiers runes. And make sure to use signet of renewal for heals. + 10 second condi removal trait in zeal. Goodbye condis forever.

I run that along with condi cleanse on staff. There is no better way to clear condis

Necro’s will indeed land you with giant amounts of conditions even after using CoP.

I’m afraid the meta is indeed somewhat about conditions but I can give you some advice.

Before using any condition clearing, look at which conditions you have and how long they last. Some conditions like a short duration weakness aren’t worth getting rid off, in some situations even cripple or vulnerability isn’t worth cleansing.

Bleed stacks and burning is generally what’ll kill you, poison can too, because it hampers healing. You’ll want to clear those. High stacks of bleed must go asap or they’ll kill you fast.

Overall, conditions are the go-to type of damage in PvP so you’ll often die stacked with loads of them. There’s no way to really prevent them entirely.

@Sad Tas: for a Guardian is not expected in the current PvP/roaming meta to survive against a condition based build, specially if we are talking about a Necro.

Take this in consideration: condition builds are specifically tailored to deliver high amount of damage in a constant stream of attacks; since condition damage only requires “condition” stats those builds can save the other stats for being very “tanky” (vitality and toughness). Sadly the same the same isn’t true for non condition builds: they usually demands power, precission (crit chance) and crit damage in order to deal with the enemy so sacrifices in terms of sustainability must be made.

What makes the thing even worse is that condition damage ignores armor, so look at the picture: Guardians are the class (along Eles) with the least amount of HP, geared with a heavy armor which is meaningless against condition builds, provided with blocks and cleanses with a very limited efficiency against a foe which constantly reapply conditions through autoattacks.

So, if your Guardian is a dps build you will probably fall defeated before the foe is down because those builds have too much HP and armor (oftenly also tons of cc) to deal with. And if you ride a bunker build you just can expect a slow death poked at range.

The only way to counter this (in a 1 vs 1) would be using a condition build; sadly condition builds aren’t viable to Guardians (we lack bleeding sources or venom sources because for lore reasons isn’t expected for Guardians such kind of tools) due our fire damage is just a support tool to get access to Fiery Wrath. And anyway, fire damage stacks in duration, not in intensity, so when you land 2 sources of fire in a target the second one doesn’t acts until the first one ends (which explains why fire isn’t a reliable source of condition damage).

Sorry but that’s the truth.

Maybe you can try to bet on the fact necros aren’t so elusive, when you are on dps guard.

Example: as a scepter sword guardian, you can use scepter #3, then scepter #2 then sword #3 to add good pressure. Just an hypotesis, I’m not a guardian veteran.

^ I already tried that. Doesn’t work too well due some Necros can release up to 5 “fear” attacks in matter of seconds, so the gap closers we have are easily negated while they still spam attacks at range. I usually run a build with 2 meditations and “stand your ground!”, so trying to beat a condimancer with strong sources of terror without a single stability must be next to impossible, at equal levels of skill.

Would help to see your build. Necro is a bad match-up for most guardian builds in spvp. The best way to kill them is with stun and knockdowns, something guardians don’t have a lot of. Only thing I could think of is stacking condition removals. Purging flames is a nice 3 removal one on a shorter duration than contemplation of purity. It also reduces duration of conditions by 33%. However, you lose a stun break. You could take both. That would be one full condition wipe, two that remove 3 if you take the virtue, and 2 passives on 10 second timer. If you have renewed focus as an elite, that gives you another 3 with virtue reset. That gives you one utility slot to play with. Space your removals out and only use it when you have some serious stacks of bleeds.
Get rid of healing stats and replace with vitality.

Even then, I am pretty sure a decent necro would out-last a guardian 1v1. That is where you teammates come in. As easy as it is for a necro vs you, a necro is a bad match-up vs other classes. A warrior with tons of stuns and cleansing ire will make quick work of them.

Necros are possibly the worst matchup for a guardian (i also try to avoid mesmers), 1vs1 you will probably end up dead unless you take every condition removal available but yoou would miss the other utilities in pretty much every other fight.
I usually try to keep myself alive while help is coming.

Just mind you, running “SYG!” and popping it without huge boon cover (5 more boons) may be a worst idea ever vs. Terror Necro.
Those who don’t run cheesy Signet of Spite and actually think when playing run Corrupt Boon.
It isn’t as powerful as it was year ago, converting all boons into conditions, but it’s still 5 convert and unblockable. No Necro will hold himself when he sees you popping Free Fear (uncovered stability) for him.
Things like Save Yourselves, Contemplation of purity and often Pure of Voice+Soldier runes (best counter imo) usage is what will save your life vs. current Necromancer.

But be aware, you might spot good Power Necros. They’re not easy or squishy either

I have been running a new bunker build Guardian and was having a riot, until one day when the luck of the draw had me facing a necro & an engineer. It was an eye opening learning experience. Burned down fast would be putting it mildly. I m glad to read that they are somewhat “bunker bane” if you will. The two in tandem was awful. I would literally see 6+ conditions explode across the status bar, cleanse, and they were right back. These two guys seemed keyed in on me so I was toast. Came back the next day and had alot of fun with a different mix. I kept thinking of this post feeling much empathy …

Decay.2354:

I have been running a new bunker build Guardian and was having a riot, until one day when the luck of the draw had me facing a necro & an engineer. It was an eye opening learning experience. Burned down fast would be putting it mildly. I m glad to read that they are somewhat “bunker bane” if you will. The two in tandem was awful. I would literally see 6+ conditions explode across the status bar, cleanse, and they were right back. These two guys seemed keyed in on me so I was toast. Came back the next day and had alot of fun with a different mix. I kept thinking of this post feeling much empathy …

It was the same when I played bunker engi… considering a good part of bunkers’ defense comes from powerful heals, all that poison doesn’t do well.XD

When you take a step back the design is pretty stupid, wouldn’t you agree if you play a Guardian? I mean:

Conditions bypass / free ride over armor
Guardian condition stat is worthless

Just saying…