Guild Wars 2

so i have been asked and whispered to explain why i think hybrid guardian is better than the full zerk guardian or full condition guardian (although ppl still dont recognized condi guardian)

first everyone know whats the meaning of dps – damage per second
but unfortunately ppl forget about the meaning of sdps – sustain dps which is your dmg in time interval

although zerk can yield much higher dps with full crit dmg and higher crit chance he can do it only in small intervals so it may be bast against golems in the mist but against enemy who dodges and react to your action the interval get shorter so over all sdps is getting bit low

so you asked yourself why not to go full condition. its the miror answer to the zerk. full condition works better in longer fight so in longer interval can yield better sdps as conditions ticks every second but in the other hand you lose some short high dps which can down your enemy much faster.

this analysis is true for every class but as some other classes have the ability to better cc, defensive game play like mesmer thief and necro, or good re-engage like engi/warrior/ele. the guardian have only blind and few blocks to help him out

thus if you go full zerk as guardian you sometime can yield better dmg but in overall gameplay most classes can re engage, stealth, dodges so you sdps will be much lower.
thus i find that hybrid which takes both direct dmg and put condition dmg pressure yield best sdps and also can perform well in every situation like solo, group ,zerk etc

after testing the builds out there i came into this build
the concept :
burning 100% to utilize 2 ticks of burning which does 1.2-1.4 dmg while you direct dmg also high
so overall dmg even if play defensively or your enemy dodge he still take 1.4k dmg
so the sdps is higher
here is the build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRArd8flsApcoVDxbI8DNR8QY94bbVBX/PnD-TlCEgAvq/sr8j4gAwu/g0TAwT7QnOgBzfHKBBOBAkCAmtAA-w
(you can go more zerk but i find it that 2.8k toughness is best spot for group play)

you have with sword 37% dmg and with scepter 27% dmg
you can constant burn your enemies around you
you have 100% burning duration

the sword cleaves and the rotations is 2.5 seconds
testing the AA (auto attacks) result in the best sdps
sword rotation example against 2600 armor enemy:
(direct dmg)
AA1 – 1315
AA2 – 1315
AA3 – 1458*1.1*1.1*1.07*(0.60.4*1.76) – 2461
(burning)
953
= 6044 damage which is 2.4k dps and with 10 might stacks its 2.8k dps

the same full zerk build with 10 migh stacks will result in 8099 which is 3.2k dps but with 10k health and 2.4k toughness

amazing isnt it- > result of burning dmg duration.

i will try to put video of it in wvw group play
also radian fire fixed

So, this is a hybrid of Power and Condition damage? I always think of a hybrid as a mix of DPS (Power or Condi) and Tankiness.

here you got triple hybrid
2800 armor
2500 power
700 condition
40% crit chance
176% crit dmg

Hi all ( sorry for my english)

I had some time to lose so i tried some theorycrafting trying to improve this build to make it corresponding to a more versatile stuff ( in fact, instead of runes/sigils, the stuff used is what i used for guild primes and i’m not that rich)

So here is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApcoVDxZI8DNR8Ql1YUdA0AP61/wMkDA-TVSBwAXuIA4U/5sSwb7PUW5XKNDLOQAAeAA51BQKAYWGB-w

And the explanations:
I have moved the points from radiance to Zeal —> You can hit Amplified Wrath , Zealous blade and gain +200power ( it compensate the damage modifier).
If you look at the burning damage, they are better now with clearly less condition damage (and these points go into Tankiness)

Moreover, I use the remaining points in Virtues line -> the minor trait is a must-have for group play and finally we take Master of Consecrations.

Now if you look at the skills it’s quite the same : I take purging flame instead of contemplation of purity —> For team play it’s clearly much more better and you have burning damage as a gift ( and the cooldown is twice less !!)

Finally, my last point of interogations is about the sigils. I clearly don’t know what to take, sigil of intelligence can provide a freaky burst ( with the 185% ferocity damage and the sigil of force) that compensate the loss of precision.

In fact we may loose 5% overall dps but we are clearly more tanky and the damade are “constant” ( not RNG).

What’s your opinion ? ( and which sigil can we use to optimize damage &/or tankiness, energy is just too eazy2Take..)

could be interesting for group play and viable for heavy front dmg dealer.

calculating your average dmg is a bit lower
on 10 seconds you gonna swap and get 100% crit chance so with AA is every 4 seconds
with 10 stack of might and full stack your AA GS gonna do (with the 3rd attack for example) 1617*1.1*1.07*(0.85+0.15*1.85)=2145*3/4+3520*1/4=2455+1305=3796 best scenario as you wont swap every 10 seconds exactly so your dmg in average will be lower. i will guess 10%.

while the build above will do with 3rd sword attack
1671*1.1*1.1*1.07*(0.6+0.4*1.76)+1128=3948 . so this 150 dmg with full rotation on your skills can yield about 2-3k difference when fighting
and also scepter as range weapon can put pressure from 1200 range and voj can be activated more frequently for aoe blind and burning longer. and this build is suited for every situation roaming/group play etc.

on the other hand you got 200+ armor although 2800 for me is enough for group play and you got better base hp with group support

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

So, this is a hybrid of Power and Condition damage? I always think of a hybrid as a mix of DPS (Power or Condi) and Tankiness.

I haven’t really heard of hybrid as describing an offense and defense mix. To me, hybrid is power/condi mix. either defensively (soldiers, dire mix) or offensively (rampagers). Cavalier and Knights are your “tanky” sets (like a literal tank. heavy armor, but can still punch some holes). A mix of DPS and Defense I would just call balanced. And then to round out the other sets, anything with healing power is termed sustain.

More on topic, I think hybrids can definitely find a place in pvp formats. My preferred hybrid is Celestial (or if you don’t like crits, and aren’t in spvp) Soldiers/Dire, with a 6 in Zeal and Virtues for Amplified Wrath and Permeating Wrath. I just feel unlimited aoe burning is too powerful to not take advantage of. The only other option I feel would be if you were going scepter and build towards single target exclusively. Nabbing a bunch of damage mods and getting 100% burn would end up nasty.

Scepter Single Target:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJArfl0ApQoNCxSI8DNR8QZ9J8CbQ1BwE8oXFDA-TFiAwAXeAA62fglegkK/Oq+TFlgOM/B4EAQKA/kGB-w
(I’m not too serious about the signets, but those are some nasty looking stats. 2.3k power, 40% crit (1h), 37% damage, 1kcondi (806 tick burns), all with basically 3k armor and 17k hp.)

Ghotistyx.6942:

More on topic, I think hybrids can definitely find a place in pvp formats. My preferred hybrid is Celestial (or if you don’t like crits, and aren’t in spvp) Soldiers/Dire, with a 6 in Zeal and Virtues for Amplified Wrath and Permeating Wrath. I just feel unlimited aoe burning is too powerful to not take advantage of. The only other option I feel would be if you were going scepter and build towards single target exclusively. Nabbing a bunch of damage mods and getting 100% burn would end up nasty.

That is exactly the trait set up I’ve been running with in WvW for the last week now. Celestial gear with Amplified Wrath, Permeating Wrath and Supreme Justice. I use Staff as primary weapon because of the 5 target cap on AA and Scepter or Sword with Focus as secondary set. The amount of area burn you can dish out in zerg scenarios is devastating and you also get a sufficient amount of crits. I haven’t decided on runes and sigils yet. Runes of Strength with Sigils of Battle can increase your damage quite a bit. With Koi Cake and Sigils of Smoldering still get you to 2s of burning. Since I don’t got enough money I currently experiment with cheaper alternatives, though.

Against single enemies the build falls a bit short but that is not what it was built for.

Permeating wrath is great but I feel it’s in the wrong tree. If it was in the Radiance tree you’d see a lot more burning guardians but it’s in a odd tree choice. I’ve been experimenting using mace/focus with burn on block. I have had pretty good luck with it, esp mace 3 with the counter attack + burning the target.

mace is great weapon with huge dmg but the downside of it is a slowest one and easy do avoid

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRArd8flsApcoVDxbI8DRR8QkjtdvVFc9/cOA-TlCBABapkDNlgPrfQiDCAWKF8SZAO7PMt6PA8EAY4EAEAAB4mtZb2mBH9oH9oH9oNzZOzZOzZWKAYmAA-w

Made a few adjustments to your build. Whats your opinion?

if it works for you than its ok
not much of big changes
burning will be 100 dps higher but direct dmg probably will be the same lower
havent got the chnace to try sinister yet…
will work on it soon

Wait condition damage guardian is a thing? They have one condition?

NinjaSonic.1392:

Wait condition damage guardian is a thing? They have one condition?

I wouldn’t underestimate a condi guardian’s damage. A max dps build can hit for 1,352 condi damage per second, in 10s intervals. That’s almost 2k dps if you add your auto attacks. It destroys classes you can’t glue yourself to like stealthy thieves and mesmers. That’s pretty much the whole point to condition builds. That and people don’t expect a Condi Guard so you’ll have the advantage.

The above builds in this thread utilizes high burn uptime in conjunction with high raw damage/crit. It’ll work in scenarios where they’re getting kited (like most guardians) and unable to hit reliably with their melee attacks.

The issue I find with high duration burn builds is, it’s mainly single target perma burn only. It lacks aoe perma burn application unless you run Permeating Wrath.

Permeating Wrath may excel in groups but will do very poorly in almost every other scenario… especially the ability to burst down a focus target. In other words, you might as well run with the traditional Zerk Medi build for high group aoe damage. Zerk medi performs well in that area, as well as other skirmish roles, making it a high performance build.

Burn builds have to be careful with how they engage, and when they engage. Condi Guards can be deviating builds if used correctly. I definitely wouldn’t underestimate the dps potential of these builds.