Guild Wars 2

Hi all PvP masters. I am looking for a SPvP(not ranked) bunky build for my Guardian. I must admit i suck at Guardian @ PVP. I can get a zerky ranger or hambow War in there and out but i cant Guard right.
I saw some builds with staff, but isn’t the staff damage to low? Plus i dont see it adding that much of mobility.
Maybe i was ezz mode hambowing too much with war that i am not “bunking”(Oo?) right with guard.
Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Guardian bunker has fallen to the wayside in favor of more damaging oriented bunkers, such as engies or elementalists. They can hold a point, stay mobile, and maintain self sustain while still doing threatening damage.

Guardian can still bunker, but it is challenging versus the current meta. Conditions will be your downfall, and you will lose the condition cleanse race at the moment.

Staff primarily was used with bunker guardians because of the group might it provided to help push the fight to your teams favor as well as synergy with altruistic healing to keep the guardian alive. Less about the mobility, but it helped some with the severe lack of in/out combat movement speed of the guardian.

If you build bunker as a guardian your damage is abysmally low and reliant on team members. Again you can vastly improve team damage, and can be critical in a team fight, but that is for the most organized settings.

Currently most people are trying to dps guard, since bunkering has become less effective.

If you still want to press with bunker guardian, typically you run 0/x/6/6/x picking up altruistic healing and pure of voice while running a shout build. Soldiers rune for more shout condi removal and clerics. Sigils will be energy on both weapons and your choice of maybe intellect to keep vigor up and continue to dodge roll heal between weapon swaps.

Normally mace/focus for the blocks and staff for the synergy with AH and team fights as I mentioned, but you can also run scepter to help lock down kills with immoblize or run knockbacks with shield or hammer for some points. Sword and greatsword are much less often used.

Torch may be nice for team condi clears, but hasn’t seen the light of day very much. Maybe more with current cooldown changes, yet it does nothing for you defensively. Good source of burning…but low condition damage as a typical bunker.

There are other alternatives to the bunker traits such as going 0/x/x/6/4 to pick up absolute resolution. This provides a bit more condition removal, but you lose out on AH (which is only useful if allies are near by, and if you are constantly alone, it gets less effect). You could try to 0/x/6/x/4, but you lose out on condition cleansing again. meditation heals may be interesting…but never really advertised as a bunker.

TLDR – Guard bunking relies on allies near by and more about team fights and not solo skill. Hard to do in todays meta, but still helps in most unorganized matches.

So you’re looking for something like a D/D ele or Shoutbow that has decent sustain and damage? No such thing exists for guardian.

You either go med zerker or bunker guard (which is made for support/bunkering, not taking down enemies).

CMF’s breakdown is solid. Bunker Guardian won’t kill most (skilled) players, but it still has a role to play.

It’s indeed important to be close to your allies, since you can do a lot to keep them alive and to set up kills. Generally this means that you should go mid (even if you play unranked it can be useful to share this with your team before the game starts), but you shouldn’t stay in one place, especially if you keep getting killed without your team helping you out. Go where the fighting is and try to stay close to teammates. If you’re alone defending a point be sure to ping the minimap. I also find it personally useful to call out strategy and targets, since a defensive playstyle often leaves you with a little more time for such things.

This is the build I’ve used for quite a while now and it suits me great. I do swap out “Hold the Line!” for Wall of Reflection frequently, if the other team has a lot of ranged players. (Especially good against careless Rangers).

Other things that keep you alive:

• Orb of Light is best detonated for the heal and the extra damage.
• Empower is best used as a Heal skill, but you can also use it to set up kills. You generally need this skill to go off, so try to combine it “Stand Your Ground!” or Shield of Wrath.
• The following skill-chain can do some major damage: Empower —> Orb of Light (detonate it) —> Swap to Mace (Sigil of Intelligence) —> Protector’s Strike —> Shield of Wrath —> Virtue of Justice. This can catch squishier players by surprise and is your best shot at doing serious damage.
• Line of Warding is very versatile. Use it to get enemies off your allies and off points, use to prevent people from reaching downed players (so you can rezz or stomp).
• Protector’s Strike is most useful if the enemy is in the middle of an attack-chain. The block is generally more useful than the Protection.
• Ray of Judgment cleanses a condition. It’s easy to forget this.
• Shelter is a great heal, but over time you’ll learn to also use the block really well. Sometimes I even use it just to stop burst, even if I have a lot of health.
• The main use of your Shouts is to cleanse conditions, but they also have great secondary uses. Try to learn what conditions need cleansing right now, and which you can let tick. (Poison and Chill are, in my opinion the most dangerous ones.) The best time to use Shouts is when you can both cleanse two conditions and need the effect.
• “Save Yourselves!” can also let you dish out some decent damage.
• Make sure you use Renewed Focus only when all your Virtues are on cooldown. This can be easy to forget :-) If need be, quickly activate them during the channel of Renewed Focus.
• Five or six seconds before the match starts, drop a Symbol of Swiftness.
• Dodge often.
• Resolute Healer can be used to knock people off point. It can often be beneficial to start rezzing someone who’s basically a lost cause just for the knockback. Immediately stop rezzing them and get back to doing useful things.

Thanks all for the advice. I was looking for the “Hambow” version of Guard, bit now i see thats not the role this class play. Thanks all gotta practice the zerk in PVP now XD

Unlike other classes, you have to actually sacrifice things to be tanky on a guardian. Because of this, bunker guardian is becoming less common and is falling out of the meta because other classes can do the same job, but just better.

The other day I also tried guardian and bunker seems to be squishier than any celestial build out there. Even full zerk medi guard seems to have more sustain than bunker guard lol.

glock.6590:

The other day I also tried guardian and bunker seems to be squishier than any celestial build out there. Even full zerk medi guard seems to have more sustain than bunker guard lol.

Bunker Guardian has a pretty unique playstyle in that we actually need to consider when and how we defend against certain things. It takes some getting used to, but saying we’ve got less sustain than medi Guardians just isn’t true. Medi Guardians are one of the few builds I can actually kill as Bunker.

Also, coming from Bunker Guardian and trying out Celestial Elementalist or Engineer let’s you realize just how many tools the Guardian has to stay alive.

glock.6590:

The other day I also tried guardian and bunker seems to be squishier than any celestial build out there. Even full zerk medi guard seems to have more sustain than bunker guard lol.

What a lot of people don’t realize, bunker guard is all about active defense. You have to use your blocks, blinds, and skills appropriately. You can easily spot a new bunker guard. They usually blow all their skills very quickly, and then they get punished hard for it.

Most people think you can just stand there and take all the damage, you can’t, especially on a Virtues bunker. The more you play the class, the better you’ll get, and know how to adapt to situations.

I’m going to go on a bit rant here, but oh well.

Bunker Guard requires a different type of player and mindset. It’s all about your team, everything you do needs to help benefit them. If you’re only thinking about yourself, you already failed. You need to know when to sacrifice our own defenses to help them. For example, lets say you’re in a fight and you see some team mates getting loaded with conditions, yet you used all your clears. This is when you need to use your Renewed Focus to refresh your virtues and help them out with clears. Sure you didn’t need it, but your team did. Another example is you see a necro on your team getting trained; you need to get on that necro and use your abilities to help him and not worry about yourself.

This is why a lot of players fail with bunker Guard; it requires very selfless type of mindset. You have to put your ego and personal agenda aside for the better of your team. A lot of other professions are just about you and your own survivability. However, bunker Guard is much different. It’s all about empowering your team (no pun intended), in order to win. This is the reason why I enjoy bunker Guard so much.

Ok I’m done now.

^^ Its also why bunker guards are completly useless. It cant 1v1 , it cant 2v2. It cant even bunker a point because you’ll get decapped by an engi.

Its only good in team fights but these days people just split 1-3-1, so the guard wont be able to rotate and will be useless on every fight that is not 3v3+

Harbinger.8637:

This is why a lot of players fail with bunker Guard; it requires very selfless type of mindset. You have to put your ego and personal agenda aside for the better of your team. A lot of other professions are just about you and your own survivability. However, bunker Guard is much different. It’s all about empowering your team (no pun intended), in order to win. This is the reason why I enjoy bunker Guard so much.

Wow. You just explained why I love playing a Bunker Guardian. It’s pretty much the closest you can get to playing an actual healer/supporter.

glock.6590:

^^ Its also why bunker guards are completly useless. It cant 1v1 , it cant 2v2. It cant even bunker a point because you’ll get decapped by an engi.

Its only good in team fights but these days people just split 1-3-1, so the guard wont be able to rotate and will be useless on every fight that is not 3v3+

Useless is a hyperbole, bunker guard is still very viable, however it largely depends on your comp. The winners of esl from a few weeks ago had a bunker guard and other teams still run them.

I do agree they aren’t really the meta due to cele, however that doesn’t make them useless.

Also if you get decapped by an engi, that’s a player issue. This should never happen to a Virtues bunker, unless you’re just getting outplayed or make a mistake.

Harbinger.8637:

glock.6590:

^^ Its also why bunker guards are completly useless. It cant 1v1 , it cant 2v2. It cant even bunker a point because you’ll get decapped by an engi.

Its only good in team fights but these days people just split 1-3-1, so the guard wont be able to rotate and will be useless on every fight that is not 3v3+

Useless is a hyperbole, bunker guard is still very viable, however it largely depends on your comp. The winners of esl from a few weeks ago had a bunker guard and other teams still run them.

I do agree they aren’t really the meta due to cele, however that doesn’t make them useless.

Also if you get decapped by an engi, that’s a player issue. This should never happen to a Virtues bunker, unless you’re just getting outplayed or make a mistake.

Winners from where ? As far as I’m concerned the Abjured doesn’t run a bunker guard. And it has been proven that NA > EU. And being decapped is a play skill issue? How about supply crate+ grenade spam/AoE spam? The guard will just stand still until he dies instead of letting the engi get the point?

The only thing I can think of that makes bunker guard useful is when you have more than 2 squishies on your team to res them but people rarely use more than 2 zerkers.

You have 60% uptime on vigor and dual energy sigils if you cant dodge every grenade you probably need to l2p the freaking game rofl.
Also just stand just aoe the turrets down with autos since its so easy to do.

Well I don’t play a bunker guard or any type of guard… I just fought bunker guards on my engi and so far every smart guardian left the point and the dumb ones just died in the AoE cleave.

I don’t know why people get so defensive about a fact and not an opinion. Even pro EU guards like Tage rerolled to DPS guard instead of bunker.

glock.6590:

Well I don’t play a bunker guard or any type of guard… I just fought bunker guards on my engi and so far every smart guardian left the point and the dumb ones just died in the AoE cleave.

I don’t know why people get so defensive about a fact and not an opinion. Even pro EU guards like Tage rerolled to DPS guard instead of bunker.

So you’re trying to formulate an argument with having little to no experience on the profession. Also it’s your opinion, it’s not a fact. As I stated before, bunker Guard is viable. Is it the clear choice this meta? No, there are better options. However, saying it flat out sucks and is useless is a complete fabrication.

You came into a Profession’s subsection with little to no knowledge about the class, and tried to make an argument. What did you think was going to happen?

Oh because I need 5k hours on every class to know how the game works? Do I need to play mesmer to realize that thief hard counters mesmer? Do I need to play necro to realize that necro hard counters engi?

I hope not, otherwise I’ll have to play this game 12 hours a day to learn basic information about a class.

Who said anything about 5,000 hours? Maybe you should first consider being proficient with the class before stating baseless claims. Judging by your recent posts and even by what you stated, you have limited knowledge about it.

Well its ok believe what you want lmao. Can you at least tell me what I said wrong about the bunker guard?

Can a bunker guard win a 1v1 fight?
Can a bunker guard win a 2v2 fight?
Can it hold a point if its not gonna win the 1v1?
Does a bunker guard have any mobility?
Is it more useful than a cele ele or a cele warrior?
Do top teams run a bunker guard?

If you think the answer is yes to all those questions, I’m afraid that all those hours on guard did not really help you.

glock.6590:

Well its ok believe what you want lmao. Can you at least tell me what I said wrong about the bunker guard?

Can a bunker guard win a 1v1 fight?
Can a bunker guard win a 2v2 fight?
Can it hold a point if its not gonna win the 1v1?
Does a bunker guard have any mobility?
Is it more useful than a cele ele or a cele warrior?
Do top teams run a bunker guard?

If you think the answer is yes to all those questions, I’m afraid that all those hours on guard did not really help you.

Since when is it a bunkers job to win 1v1?

Yes, a bunker guard can 2v2 depending on the comp.

Yes, a bunker guard can hold a point in a 1v1.

Of course not, that is one of the design concepts behind the profession.

No, a cele ele is more beneficial in this meta. Cele Warrior is debatable.

Yes, 55 hp was the team that won a weekly go4cup with a bunker Guard, a few weeks back.

You said zeker medi Guard has more sustain than a bunker Guard, which is false. You also stated that bunker Guards are completely useless, which is also false. We all know bunker Guard has been pushed out of this meta for more favorable comps, and there are more viable professions in the meta. However, that doesn’t mean they are useless or terrible builds, which is what you’ve been implying.

I didint say medi has more sustain, I said it SEEMS to have more when you play against a good medi zerker guard, because they get those small burst heals.

And no bunker guards cant 2v2. It can watch their partner getting destroyed and res them until they dont have enough cooldowns for another res and eventually lose the 2v2.

But whatever I’m done arguing with some1 that tries to convince me that a sub par build is good when its clearly not.

glock.6590:

I didint say medi has more sustain, I said it SEEMS to have more when you play against a good medi zerker guard, because they get those small burst heals.

And no bunker guards cant 2v2. It can watch their partner getting destoryed and res them until they dont have enough cooldowns for a res and eventually lose the 2v2.

But whatever I’m done arguing with some1 that tries to convince me that a sub par build is good when its clearly not.

It’s fine that you’re done debating, hopefully next time you bring some constructive arguments, and some thing can get accomplished here.

Harbinger.8637:

glock.6590:

The other day I also tried guardian and bunker seems to be squishier than any celestial build out there. Even full zerk medi guard seems to have more sustain than bunker guard lol.

What a lot of people don’t realize, bunker guard is all about active defense. You have to use your blocks, blinds, and skills appropriately. You can easily spot a new bunker guard. They usually blow all their skills very quickly, and then they get punished hard for it.

Most people think you can just stand there and take all the damage, you can’t, especially on a Virtues bunker. The more you play the class, the better you’ll get, and know how to adapt to situations.

I’m going to go on a bit rant here, but oh well.

Bunker Guard requires a different type of player and mindset. It’s all about your team, everything you do needs to help benefit them. If you’re only thinking about yourself, you already failed. You need to know when to sacrifice our own defenses to help them. For example, lets say you’re in a fight and you see some team mates getting loaded with conditions, yet you used all your clears. This is when you need to use your Renewed Focus to refresh your virtues and help them out with clears. Sure you didn’t need it, but your team did. Another example is you see a necro on your team getting trained; you need to get on that necro and use your abilities to help him and not worry about yourself.

This is why a lot of players fail with bunker Guard; it requires very selfless type of mindset. You have to put your ego and personal agenda aside for the better of your team. A lot of other professions are just about you and your own survivability. However, bunker Guard is much different. It’s all about empowering your team (no pun intended), in order to win. This is the reason why I enjoy bunker Guard so much.

Ok I’m done now.

Annd just like that I’m sold on playing bunker guard

Harbinger.8637:

As I stated before, bunker Guard is viable. Is it the clear choice this meta? No, there are better options. However, saying it flat out sucks and is useless is a complete fabrication.

I kinda agree with this. Just because top players move on to another build doesn’t mean the old one is horrible all of the sudden. It might not be optimal and only works in certain comps but it’s still a decent build.

It’s pretty much the same with people suddenly claiming that hambow would be dead just because rom rerolled shoutbow. Sigh.

I run bunker guard with the typical AH shout staff + mace/focus and I am quite successful as a bunker while also being able to 1v1 a meditation guardian, some thieves, hambow/eviscerate warriors, some mesmers and some necros (even though it isn’t my purpose).

It is all about timing, timing your mace block, your focus, placement of your symbols, outlasting, clearing priority conditions, knowing when to heal and not to heal etc etc etc

The only classes I have trouble with are Rangers and Engis, usually engi because of turrets (though I am learning to last longer for my team members to come and back up), rangers typically seem to spam 2 and 5 from a ledge, maybe the knockback too, I typically know that my time on that point is limited and either rally some help or abuse LoS by moving off the point (dependent on map).

Guards are not out of it yet bunker wise as, depending on classes, a decent guard can hold out 2v1 almost indefinitely, 3v1 for long enough for reinforcements. Engineers and Eles are limited in their survival options and can be taken care of much quicker with decent team organisation.

On top of all that, if a Guardian does it’s job properly, they should be supporting strongly and helping with stomps, while using what dmg they have to give to aid in pressure.

No bunker is immune to everything, however the Guardian is still a strong bunker profession with a lot to bring to the table if played properly.

Anyway to drag this thread kicking and screaming back to the original point.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Meditation_Hammer

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Meditation_DPS_Variant

These have nice survivability and decent dmg.

Harbinger.8637:

This is why a lot of players fail with bunker Guard; it requires very selfless type of mindset. You have to put your ego and personal agenda aside for the better of your team. A lot of other professions are just about you and your own survivability. However, bunker Guard is much different. It’s all about empowering your team (no pun intended), in order to win. This is the reason why I enjoy bunker Guard so much.

Ok I’m done now.

It isn’t that people / players fail, but more that the game designed fails. I think typically Guardian players know they need to be selfless and put others first but the game doesn’t reward selfless playing(outside of PvE).

In two out of the three meta of play WvW and sPvP reward group play / offensive and zero rewards for defense. That is a major problem. Fix that, and people will be stripping conditions and handing out boons like skittles falling out of the sky. Trust me.

I, for one, enjoy the supporting role that a guardian plays. However, at the end of the night outside busting zergs my bags have very little skittles in them compared to those who are running with the full posse.

Just my take.

EDIT: Oh, and fix shield already!
EDIT 2: Oh, and there is zero reason why any light or medium armor class should outlive / sustain one wearing heavy! Worse design flaw in the game bar none this lack of offensive / defensive class hierarchy

/rant off

Crapgame.6519:

In two out of the three meta of play WvW and sPvP reward group play / offensive and zero rewards for defense. That is a major problem. Fix that, and people will be stripping conditions and handing out boons like skittles falling out of the sky. Trust me.

It’s not just that, but it’s also that most people don’t notice it when you’re properly supporting them. In the clash of particle effects it’s hard to notice the (often subtle) visual effects of the plethora of boons we grant. This makes it hard to be appreciated by your teammates.

Ynna.8769:

Crapgame.6519:

In two out of the three meta of play WvW and sPvP reward group play / offensive and zero rewards for defense. That is a major problem. Fix that, and people will be stripping conditions and handing out boons like skittles falling out of the sky. Trust me.

It’s not just that, but it’s also that most people don’t notice it when you’re properly supporting them. In the clash of particle effects it’s hard to notice the (often subtle) visual effects of the plethora of boons we grant. This makes it hard to be appreciated by your teammates.

Actually, that is a very good point.

Harbinger.8637:

glock.6590:

The other day I also tried guardian and bunker seems to be squishier than any celestial build out there. Even full zerk medi guard seems to have more sustain than bunker guard lol.

What a lot of people don’t realize, bunker guard is all about active defense. You have to use your blocks, blinds, and skills appropriately. You can easily spot a new bunker guard. They usually blow all their skills very quickly, and then they get punished hard for it.

Most people think you can just stand there and take all the damage, you can’t, especially on a Virtues bunker. The more you play the class, the better you’ll get, and know how to adapt to situations.

I’m going to go on a bit rant here, but oh well.

Bunker Guard requires a different type of player and mindset. It’s all about your team, everything you do needs to help benefit them. If you’re only thinking about yourself, you already failed. You need to know when to sacrifice our own defenses to help them. For example, lets say you’re in a fight and you see some team mates getting loaded with conditions, yet you used all your clears. This is when you need to use your Renewed Focus to refresh your virtues and help them out with clears. Sure you didn’t need it, but your team did. Another example is you see a necro on your team getting trained; you need to get on that necro and use your abilities to help him and not worry about yourself.

This is why a lot of players fail with bunker Guard; it requires very selfless type of mindset. You have to put your ego and personal agenda aside for the better of your team. A lot of other professions are just about you and your own survivability. However, bunker Guard is much different. It’s all about empowering your team (no pun intended), in order to win. This is the reason why I enjoy bunker Guard so much.

Ok I’m done now.

I pretty agree with all of your points made. I honestly can’t find any (significant) passive play attached to the spec(or Guardian as a whole). While this excites me because it of more active-play and less reliant on passive benefits, the benefits from said active-play aren’t significant enough, or even outweigh said passives from other professions.

When you look deep into the bunker-guardian spec, you’ll notice it’s the one of only two professions in which you MUST spec heavily into your elite to make it even half-decent. Another issue I’ve encountered is that Guardian’s used to be the king of aoe condition-removal, this now belongs to Warriors.

This post isn’t meant to rant but to enlighten those thinking of playing a Bunker(or Guardian in general). I have over 4k hours with a lot of experience in PvP. I never really enjoyed Bunker guardian so I pretty much played dps. Much like the bunker spec, dps-guardian also requires active defenses and proper positioning to be effective.

So just to reiterate my point: Guardian is the profession that requires the most active-play but I don’t believe it’s rewarded nearly enough, especially when compared to passive counterparts.