Guild Wars 2

Hello guardians

So I have just begun to do dungeons and I want to make sure I will contribute to the party adequately. I am pretty comfortable with the bunker build I play now because I dont go down too much but I am contemplating other builds being more useful to a group.

So my question is if you are running a dungeon and and there is a guardian with you what would you prefer their build be?:
Something like a 10/30/0/30/0 maximizing dps
Altruistic healing, decent but not great damage build 0/0/30/30/10
Or a cleric wearing 0/0/10/30/30 mace/shield, healing symbols, extra long boon giver but hits like a wet noodle

I realize its a tricky question because a lot depends on the group composition, so we are speaking in generalities assuming the party will have at least a couple people who deal good damage.

THanks

Ha! Cleric does not scale horribly. 1.5k dodge heals are awesome, as is >200 hp per second from Absolute Resolution. Battle Presence then spreads that healing to party members, even when the virtue is on cooldown (meaning you get a 2k+ heal without losing healing each second). With a boon heavy Virtues build, regen lasts long enough that healing power absolutely helps. Throw in healing symbols and you’ve got an easy 500 healing per second in addition to over 10k burst healing potential. There are a lot of reasons to go cleric.

I’ve run both the DPS build and the AH build that you mentioned in a lot of dungeons and they both worked out very well. They are both very viable dungeon builds in my experience. I honestly don’t think that my party members could tell the difference between the two.

I found the AH build to be sturdier than the DPS build, but with a noticeable (to me) decrease in DPS that made me feel that I wasn’t contributing as much as I could be to the party. Even with full zerker armor, trinkets, and weapons I didn’t think that I brought enough DPS to the table with the AH build, and I could survive quite well built this way.

With the DPS build, I am a little less sturdy but bring much more DPS which is always helpful (recent example – having to solo the end of a COF path 2 Mag event in a PUG and trying to bring down the Flame Legion Assassins). I mix in a few pieces of soldiers armor depending on content difficulty, and the rest of the gear is zerker. With this I survive just as well as I did with the AH build.

Again, as long as I am criting and giving out might, using shouts and reflections appropriately, and not dying too much, no one in my dungeon party seems to notice or care what build I run.

As to what I would prefer in my group, I would prefer the high DPS build. Things seem to go much better in dungeons when the party has more DPS (as long as you aren’t getting downed all the time while bringing it).

i dont want any other guardian in the party as 1 guard (me) is enough
i do run the boring 0/5/30/30/5 AH build though with all but 1 celestial trinkets

Whatever you choose, I would advise you err on the side of offensive capability. You can actually rely on your team to provide some level of their own defense and even some team ones. You will already provide enough team support with your intrinsic tools. I definitely don’t think you should load up on mace/shield in Clerics with a 0/0/30/30/10 build. Try to balance yourself somewhere in the middle on the damage/defense spectrum.

In theory, I’d definitely prefer another guard with the DPS build. But since there is virtually no one else in my guild who knows how to play any kind of DPS, I’d probably want some kind of healway in practice. At least that’s better than all those soldier-bricks and helps me to survive the too long fights.

10/25/0/25/10
Everything berserker, except cavalier backpiece.

DPS guardian all the way, we don’t need full defensive traits and equip to be a support class.
The worst guardians imho are those who play staff as primary weapon as they didn’t understand the class at all.

I would want a Guardian that stays alive and does his/her best to push as much dps as he/she can. I’ve run with Tank/Healer combos and it just seems slow and more challenging. Pure of Voice is very nice to run with and shouts are great support. The more Wall of Reflection and Avengers Shields the better. I love running with a Hammer guardian for that protection, don’t run 2 though.

In any case if you need Altruistic Healing to stay up then go for it, if not hit the DPS build. The DPS build is quite versatile also, it can get tanky with a Hammer and some gear change, can’t really go wrong if you can survive it.

Blood~

Bloodgruve.6038:

I would want a Guardian that stays alive and does his/her best to push as much dps as he/she can. I’ve run with Tank/Healer combos and it just seems slow and more challenging. Pure of Voice is very nice to run with and shouts are great support. The more Wall of Reflection and Avengers Shields the better. I love running with a Hammer guardian for that protection, don’t run 2 though.

In any case if you need Altruistic Healing to stay up then go for it, if not hit the DPS build. The DPS build is quite versatile also, it can get tanky with a Hammer and some gear change, can’t really go wrong if you can survive it.

Blood~

i dont see why you wouldnt want 2 hammer guardians, with a 4 second blast finisher theyre much more party oriented than gs guardians

@op definetly 0/x/x/30/10 for that pure of voice and WoR/shield

From what I see here…..Anet’s design ethic of pick whatever you want, as long as it’s dps is alive and kicking.
In my experience having SOMEBODY that’s focused on supporting makes things run that bit smoother….

Hi OP, i would prefer DPS guard in my party.