Guild Wars 2

I am new to guild wars and a friend has helped me get this far. I recently got my first character to 80, a guardian obviously. I know the build I am posting is not “The best” dps, but it’s something I’m playing with.

Basically, it’s a burning AOE build using a greatsword(celestial exotic) and Soldiers armor(rabid helm). I’m trying to decide what runes to put in the armor. I believe I get near constant burn from my traits and therefore may not need balthazar to keep the burn on. (Hammer/staff are my switch weapons depending, but mostly for utility or boredom)

So my choices are likely to be Balthazar, adventurer, scavenger, or undead…I was hoping some theorycrafter might want to suggest which way to go. Here is the build I have worked out. Again, I know it’s probably no where near the dps of a Berzerker, and yes I’ve looked at some of the other burn builds on here.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVMQJARSl0ApSoFCxVI0wNR8QldK2izoVjQ1BQD8oA-TRhAABBpGA0XAgdU9BPdAA8AAAA-e

Thank you very much for any help.

what are you using that build for? conditions on guardians are pretty bad overall though.

as for the runes, if you wanna go for condi damage and are using soldier (i’d first swap to dire) and use Necromancer runes maybe?

I’m using it because I like the idea of it. As I said it’s not likely to be the best dps there is, but I like the idea of AOE burn with some power to it. For now I’ve determined that the supreme justice trait keeps the duration up as much as I need so I won’t need Balthazar. So the question became adventurer or scavenger. I’m going to try scavenger while I’m still new enough to the game to need the help.

Is this for WvW, open world, or dungeons?

Use whatever runes, because that build is not really a good idea at the first place. I won’t pushing you into the meta or anything. I’m just saying, there is a HUGE variety of good build for the guardian and your is not one of those.

How what game mode to you plan on using that build? PvE I suppose, since you took the take to select PvE mode on the build website. You are playing GS + H, that’s a good weapon combinaison, if you like it, there is some really good build.

- 3/5/0/4/2 : Is a good all around build.
- 5/5/0/4/0 : Is more DPS oriented.

But at this point, you don’t need to go full zerker if you don’t want. You can use a mix of soldier, knight, valkyrie, etc. Enough to make you feel good with your own survivability. That’s nowhere near the DPS of a true meta, you still don’t have the gear, the runes, the sigils, the foods, etc. But at least you have a solid build that will give A LOT of support to you team. You will be able to blind, put aegis on your team, reflect projectiles and give almost perma protection.

Seras: It’s for PvE. Right now my group is doing map complete, stories, and getting into dungeons. We are very casual.

Thaddeus: Thank you for the great response. I will have to ask my more knowledgeable friend what traits I might take in the builds you suggested. I would like to take things that will help the group. My role is mostly dps with a bit of an offtank feel. I come from WoW so having no exact roles makes it a bit hard to define for me. Soldier feels right though(plus I don’t have much to spend so I’m sticking with what I got) So far the constant AOE burn feels good. I may try out a berzerker build on my own a bit to see how that feels. GS+H is what feels right. everything else was a bit boring IMO.

I tried a spirit weapon heavy build, but did NOT like the cast time before every pull and it was not easy to control, so I switched out the weapons for fire and it feels better.

For now I’ve gone with scavenging. They were relatively cheap and will help keep me alive while I improve.

I’d go with Runes of the Flame Legion. +7% damage to burning foes, plus +30% burning duration. Will really help your build if you’re focusing on hybrid condition/power and constant burning.

As an aside: Searing Flames is kind of a waste in open world unless you’re fighting Dredge. You’re rocking 3 signets. Signet Mastery in that same line would be way more helpful.

Seras: great suggestions on both counts. I will try them out. Thank you.

Ya for runes the two best cheap options are either Flame Legion Runes or Ruby Orbs. Flame Legion is superior, but you accumulate Ruby Orbs like crazy (i have like 150 in my bank) so you can choose to use those if you want, the lost in dps from using them is not enough so you won’t feel the difference if you are a casual using soldier gear anyway.

For the trait of the two build I talked about.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQBgi4BJrx2+5VdBw85WA-e
and
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQBYi4Bx2PvqNQDMfuF-e

Writ of Persistance will allow you to give perma protection since the symbol on the Hammer auto-attack will last as long as it take you to cast it.
Master of consecration if for more support. Its good for some situation (Fractal, SE, CM, Arah, etc) But when you don’t need that (CoF, CoE, AC, etc) you can switch that trait to Unscathed Contender.
Radiant Fire can seem like a really weird choose since you don’t use a torch and its not a condi build. You take that only because the 5th pt in Radiance is so good, but you have no good option in Radiance trait for a GS + H build. So you take Radiant Fire for the increase burn duration. After all you have a trait that give you 10% dmg against a burning foe so you want to have that 10% active as much as you can

Quick tips. Don’t interrupt the Hammer auto-attack chain. The third strike in the chain is your best dmg and its the one that give you protection, so each time you interrupt the chain you lose a good amount of dps. Also, GS is good mostly for the burst attack (skill 2, 3, 4 and 5), other than that try no to use the GS auto-attack and try to swith to hammer instead. The Hammer is the opposite and you will have only little use of all the hammer skill except for the auto-attack, which is really good. Standard utilities skills are usually retreat (new player view that skill as only swiftness, but it also give you and your team an aegis), wall of reflection (when needed) and purging flame. But stand your ground, hallowed ground, shield of avenger and signet of bane are all good utility skill that you may wanna use from time to time.