Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

Been working on a guardian build for a while and thought I’d share. It does very well in small and large scale battles, can hold a group off for a decent amount of time (dont expect to kill them, but you can deny a cap or hold off for reinforcements), and serves very well as a roamer.

Weapons: scepter/shield and greatsword

The recent changes to GS are meh. This, to me, is a loss of survivability (symbol + whirl = cleanse conditions) since we can’t use our symbol as often. Retal was nice, but you can’t just sit in your symbols or you’re not a threat.

One thing to note for greatsword 5, use this too early. By that I mean, try this order for GS. 3-5-2 then carry on. What this will do is leap to them, throw your 5, then whirl on them. This can do lots of damage and give you 2 advantages that I rarely see other guards have when I fight them. #1 – there is a decent dot on 5 which is now ticking away on your opponent. #2 – That pull/knockdown/interrupt is ready when they start to heal or run.

This is invaluable and so many people just dont do it. Most guards that I fight just spam 5 till i’m at their feet. Almost 100% of the time they’ll go right to 2, so I’ll Judge’s to them (breaks the stun/knockdown from their 5, puts you on them, lights them on fire) then immediately roll away. Now they’ve blown their 5 pull, their interrupt, their dot, and their whirl and i’ve taken a fraction of the damage that I could have taken.

Scepter is SO UNDERVALUED. This thing does a ton of damage, but the orbs are stupidly slow. When I’m holding a node and someone is coming to try to take it, I 3-2-1 with scepter to bring them down a bit, then shield 5 when they get close. This will buy you ~7 or more seconds of them being out of the node, which a lot of time results in a cap. Scepter 2 is also pretty strong, even though I really don’t like it. When combined with 3, its great damage, but usually people move away or the randomness of the swirly derps that is shoots just flat out miss the target. Still, we have no choice in ranged and this thing does better than most give it credit.

Runes: divinity or ogre

For gear, I’m not in love with any particular set of runes. I use Divinity in the calc because its a great catch-all. Part of this MAY have been the bug (that I never noticed) that was fixed on 10-7 with regard to crit damage? Again, I never noticed it so it might not have been a big issue. 60 to all attributes and 10% crit is nice though. Ogre is a good set too for a more dps-focused guard, the rock dog is actually pretty nice and the raw dps is noticeable. Expect to lose a moderate chunk of HP though.

Sigils: Air, Hydromancy, Bloodlust, Blood

Air on a scepter is a good choice. The orbs are slow, but the attack is fast, so you have a lot of 30% chances floating around at any time. Scepter 2 can also proc this for some decent spike damage.

Bloodlust is just a good overall rune to have. It pairs very well with Ogre runes IMO since you’re more focused on killing than surviving, so getting the stacks is a nice addition. For those who do not know, this sigil does NOT give just 1 stack per kill as it does in PVE, it awards 5 per player kill. You get no stacks if the weapon is not being used when they die though, so keep that in mind if you’re weapon swapping. Using 2 bloodlusts usually gives you double the stacks for a kill, though sometimes it seems not to do this.

Hydromancy is a great sigil for this shield, here is my reasoning for that: I start every fight w/ scepter shield so I can control/bubble/protect/ranged dps as I’m running in. Once I’m on someone, I swap to greatsword to punish them in melee. Now, if things go badly, I can swap back to scepter shield which freezes them for 3 sec. I can now retreat, and hit them with scepter 3 once the freeze is up for ~6 seconds of retreating w/o them closing on me.

Blood is a sigil I hardly ever see other people use. It’s great in small scale fights if you’re a solo roamer or recapping nodes. It’s crap in zergs or in 1vMany battles, because the healing just doesn’t keep up with that kind of dps. For me, as a roamer and mostly solo player, it’s not a bad choice for tankier work. Usually pairs with divinity better than ogres due to extra perception.

Skills
6 – I like the signet to heal. The bonus condition removal is nice, and the passive stacks with the trait, removing 2 per 10 seconds or 1 per 5, depending on how you look at it.
7/8/9 – Meditations heal quite well in this build (slightly better w/ Divinity than with Ogre), so I try to use them as often as possible (when it’s a smart move to do so).
-Judge’s is a no brainer, with the traited bonus damage to burning foes, stun break, knockdown removal, teleport, aoe damage AND a heal it’s just a bad kitten button to push.
-Smite is a moderately hard-hitting button. It does decent AOE damage, good damage w/ a condition. If you’re fighting a warrior or especially a ranger, this is a good choice too, as it will remove 1-25 stacks of bleed as one condition. Pretty potent. Also heals you as it is a meditation. This is also a useful ability if you want to put some pressure on a stealth thief or a bunch of mesmer adds on you.
-Save yourselves is a very strong buff as it offers basically every boon you can think of. It can get you in trouble if you have no other support around and you use it in a group fight, stealing everyone’s conditions and setting yourself up for an kitten beating. I use this at the onset of a fight and it makes you a nasty mofo for 12ish seconds. Alternatively, you can put in Contemplation of Purity which will make necros MUCH easier to deal with as they often give you 5+ boons (they are random, so sometimes you’ll get 3 stacks of something instead of 3 separate boons, for example) when you convert their conditions, and it heals you as it is a meditation.

0 – Because the tomes lost stability, they are pretty tough to pull off in the same game-changing fashion that they used to be. Not impossible, but tough. I have been using Renewed Focus recently and I really just don’t like it. Here is what I do, f1, f2, f3, 0. This gives you burning on next attack, might, a heal, regen, aegis, protection. Hitting 0 SHOULD make you invulnerable for 3 seconds but I have died about 200 times while using it. Sometimes is does work, and when it does it’s pretty nice because you have all those boons and your f’s are back and ready for action, but when you just hold still and float while your enemies kill you, thats just a sad, sad day.

Given the choices, I’d go with Tome of Courage if you dont like Renewed Focus, because that heal is disgusting if the other team doesnt CC you during the channel.

So, there are a lot of different ways to play a guardian, and this is just one. This method works for me as I play. I’m sure there are a ton of pro’s out there that can poke holes all over this. To them, I say, it’s all good. I don’t care if you don’t like it, because I do.

Here’s the build. Enjoy.

(copy/paste if you get BAD LINK error)

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAreRlYgiDnGyvDfIFRuAbGE0gVFi31DHCxGC;TYAA2CnIqZQxBiJIA