Guild Wars 2

I realize durability runes are the meta basically for guards in wvw now.

What gear would be the best to apply them to? PTV, sentinel, or a celestial ascended set I made awhile ago.

Thanks for any advice

Those will be fun with soldier’s
I ll give them a try…

Seteruss.4058:

Those will be fun with soldier’s
I ll give them a try…

I guess PTV is the standard. I used the build editor site and the celestial ascended gives me a bit of healing power and crit chance and ferocity is higher as well.

Just not sure what the best choice is.

Personally i like a lot to run inside enemies and have extra toughness for protection and in addition with all of our blocks make me almost unkillable.
I okay support role after all inside wvw..

Soldiers for more DPS or Sent yeah for a little more survive. Power Tough/Vit is just – too good for PvP support/tank. Celestial spreads too thinly, yeah you get other things but the key stats you want is just lower. But you don’t need to be religious about going Soldiers or PTV for everything. Do full armor, make weap cleric or zerk if you want more heals/DPS, amulet or rings/accessories.

Now you actually never state you want to be a tank/bunker/support Guard; just assumed by title and gear mentioned…

Thanks for advice guys.

I gave it a go on my celestial gear with PTV weapons/trinks and I feel like a machine. I even tagged up cause on my server we are always outnumbered, figured that be a good test of the gear. Just gotta get the feel for guard and pug tagging again, that’s a whole another conversation lol

I prefer a mix of Wanderer’s, Commander’s and a few Sentinel pieces. The extra Boon duration is very noticible. Channeling 18 seconds of might duration, or pumping out protection and stability that lasts longer tends to be quite valuable. AoE Boon stripping is just not that great to counter boons to be honest.

Julius Seizure.4985:

I prefer a mix of Wanderer’s, Commander’s and a few Sentinel pieces. The extra Boon duration is very noticible. Channeling 18 seconds of might duration, or pumping out protection and stability that lasts longer tends to be quite valuable. AoE Boon stripping is just not that great to counter boons to be honest.

+1 I prefer wanderer’s to soldiers. That extra Boon duration is great

Spartacus.3192:

Julius Seizure.4985:

I prefer a mix of Wanderer’s, Commander’s and a few Sentinel pieces. The extra Boon duration is very noticible. Channeling 18 seconds of might duration, or pumping out protection and stability that lasts longer tends to be quite valuable. AoE Boon stripping is just not that great to counter boons to be honest.

+1 I prefer wanderer’s to soldiers. That extra Boon duration is great

And if u have a Rev on your team it makes wonders, altough besides block(wich doesnt matter boon duration) and protection, shouts are more for condition removal than expecting anything decent from its boon effects.

Lots of people are going PVT gear with celestial trinkets. I don’t know why.

I still like my old trooper’s runes and haven’t tried duri yet.

Svarty.8019:

Lots of people are going PVT gear with celestial trinkets. I don’t know why.

I still like my old trooper’s runes and haven’t tried duri yet.

Wich does not make sense it gets same 2k power and less 500 armor and arround 10khp less than the bunker DH with troopers.

I still use troopers to.

Celestial is a trick; it seems in theory or if u don’t have raw comparison numbers like ohhh this is great! It’s not bad, it’s sufficient in many ways but not ideal at all for a tanky build.

Wanderer is nice and underrated imo – Commanders depends but the OP doesn’t have those ascended. Sent is Soldiers just more vit than power and more common.

Also I recently tried trooper runes and – well, not on my Guardian but I may since Retreat and Stand Your Ground can easily be used w/ tanky WvW build. But yeah Trooper is nice alt to Dura runes.

Not sure why celestial would be a thing on a tank guardian.

I mean condi damage? Nice 30 extra damage burn tick. Healing power? Nice But you can get it elsewhere. Guardians don’t really have much that scales that well with healing powers beyond dodge heals.

Your job is to be in the enemy’s face, keep them down and on you, while supporting fellow frontliners. Nonsense like tickling them with fire damage or trickling heals when the eles can do a much better job then you will just make you a jack of no trades.

It’s why PVT is the golden standard. Bulk, bulk, smash. No gimmicks. You can take a hit and while your hits aren’t exactly super exciting, they still can pressure the enemy.

Of course, boon duration is very powerful too because more stab uptime is good time, which is why wanderers is a thing. Keeping your fellows alive is just as important as keeping yourself alive. You’re a guardian, not a silly ganker that’s looking to brag about never dying. There’s a reason why you’re in such high demand. It’s because you’re literally a pillar of the zerg. Or check up a bit of commanders if you want a bit more damage. Of course, these boon things require a bit of active play to take full advantage of, so you will have to manage things a bit more carefully.

If you’re feeling edgy, a little marauder or zerker can make you a bit more dangerous than the enemy anticipates. Of course, I would have to take a very good damage boost to exchange survival . Exchanging 5% damage for a 5% drop in survivability isn’t desirable to me even if it sounds fair.

Of course, these things may make you a little less durable, but with experience you can definitely experiment what you can live without.

ArchonWing.9480, i think it is in a hope that celestial gimmickness works like it works under some classes, players think it is optimal as well for guardians, while guard needs hard stats investement under the needed/desireable stats while guardian is the class that sacrifice more stats between offensive build and defensive roles, i think more even that ele healers, since we dont gain much surviability with defensive gear, and we loose alot of damage output for a minimal defense gain sicne guardian defenses relly on the active block skill system.

A bit of vitality, abit of crits, a bit of healing etc… no wonder while fighthing some guardians or DH’sall i need it mace auto. :\

RodOfDeath.5247:

I realize durability runes are the meta basically for guards in wvw now.

What gear would be the best to apply them to? PTV, sentinel, or a celestial ascended set I made awhile ago.

Thanks for any advice

I run with mostly PVT, Sentinels chest and legs. Durability are only good when in group with other people using them, otherwise default to melandru or hoelbrak.

I like Wanderer’s since you get more health (and boon duration) with it.

Unless you run Empowering Might or Sigil of Strength you don’t need that high a crit chance if you have herald revenants (so 20-25% crit chance from marauder/commander pieces is acceptable).

Boon duration on Guard/DH thats so 2012 ??? ;P
Imo i dont think that Guardians gain that much from boon duration nowadays, rather have blocks for the heal than expect regen does its work, before getting corrupted.

Aeolus.3615:

Boon duration on Guard/DH thats so 2012 ??? ;P
Imo i dont think that Guardians gain that much from boon duration nowadays, rather have blocks for the heal than expect regen does its work, before getting corrupted.

The reason boon duration went out the window back then was because of the nerf to boon duration runes and the remaining sources were highly inefficient like crap such as stuffing doubloons in exotic trinkets— just inherenly suboptimal and overall gimmicky as all hell.

Nowadays, boon duration comes with strong runes (durability) and strong stat combos such as wanderers and commanders that do not sacrifice many base stats to accomplish their goals. At a certain point you are able to survive any hit and are able to invest in luxuries like boon duration power or healing power or whathaveyou and still survive easy. Being overly tanky helps no one— it’s not like you can body block cleaves or AOEs.

The result is someone almost as tough as full pvt/sentinels yet able to more effectively support the group. There really are no losses here. And then there’s the potential offense increase.

And sure corruption is a problem, but it’s much easier to crap out boons than it is to strip them. There are many more ways to give AOE boons than there are to AOE boon strip/corrupt.

Simply put, with Heralds crapping out resistance/swiftness (thus covering all guardian weaknesses) and the fixes to stability, it’s a great time for any support guardian.

ArchonWing.9480:

Aeolus.3615:

Boon duration on Guard/DH thats so 2012 ??? ;P
Imo i dont think that Guardians gain that much from boon duration nowadays, rather have blocks for the heal than expect regen does its work, before getting corrupted.

The reason boon duration went out the window back then was because of the nerf to boon duration runes and the remaining sources were highly inefficient like crap such as stuffing doubloons in exotic trinkets— just inherenly suboptimal and overall gimmicky as all hell.

Nowadays, boon duration comes with strong runes (durability) and strong stat combos such as wanderers and commanders that do not sacrifice many base stats to accomplish their goals. At a certain point you are able to survive any hit and are able to invest in luxuries like boon duration power or healing power or whathaveyou and still survive easy. Being overly tanky helps no one— it’s not like you can body block cleaves or AOEs.

The result is someone almost as tough as full pvt/sentinels yet able to more effectively support the group. There really are no losses here. And then there’s the potential offense increase.

And sure corruption is a problem, but it’s much easier to crap out boons than it is to strip them. There are many more ways to give AOE boons than there are to AOE boon strip/corrupt.

Simply put, with Heralds crapping out resistance/swiftness (thus covering all guardian weaknesses) and the fixes to stability, it’s a great time for any support guardian.

+1 so much this. Boon Duration between 2013 and release of HOT was terrible after ANET fixed the mixing of runes like monk/water etc. Now Wanderer and Commander gear is very efficient. Durability runes are awesome. Plus boon duration food. You can get very good duration . You can have good damage/toughness and boon duration all in one.

Spartacus.3192:

ArchonWing.9480:

Aeolus.3615:

Boon duration on Guard/DH thats so 2012 ??? ;P
Imo i dont think that Guardians gain that much from boon duration nowadays, rather have blocks for the heal than expect regen does its work, before getting corrupted.

The reason boon duration went out the window back then was because of the nerf to boon duration runes and the remaining sources were highly inefficient like crap such as stuffing doubloons in exotic trinkets— just inherenly suboptimal and overall gimmicky as all hell.

Nowadays, boon duration comes with strong runes (durability) and strong stat combos such as wanderers and commanders that do not sacrifice many base stats to accomplish their goals. At a certain point you are able to survive any hit and are able to invest in luxuries like boon duration power or healing power or whathaveyou and still survive easy. Being overly tanky helps no one— it’s not like you can body block cleaves or AOEs.

The result is someone almost as tough as full pvt/sentinels yet able to more effectively support the group. There really are no losses here. And then there’s the potential offense increase.

And sure corruption is a problem, but it’s much easier to crap out boons than it is to strip them. There are many more ways to give AOE boons than there are to AOE boon strip/corrupt.

Simply put, with Heralds crapping out resistance/swiftness (thus covering all guardian weaknesses) and the fixes to stability, it’s a great time for any support guardian.

+1 so much this. Boon Duration between 2013 and release of HOT was terrible after ANET fixed the mixing of runes like monk/water etc. Now Wanderer and Commander gear is very efficient. Durability runes are awesome. Plus boon duration food. You can get very good duration . You can have good damage/toughness and boon duration all in one.

yeah but what boons we do get that increase that much on the boon duration?? :|

Boon share lameness?

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJAWRlsAhmhYtQwVIwPEHJE1dZDgDAvBhQKknh/LAB-TFiFQB9T9HDqMAJK9U3+DA4SAkgnAgVUCaOdBkCIzxAA-w

Empowers last a good amount longer, 11s stability. 2 guardians rotating stab means it’s almost always up without boon share. Can give protection as needed.

This is already a bit overkill on the toughness, so one can also drop some for more damage as needed.

That is actually very decent for a vanilla Guard.

With a rev naerby u can have 100% boon duration ;\, still would be nice to see us sacrificing abit less for shouts have a decent effect.

I actually forgot about the 50% from revs. :S Guess you wouldn’t need boon duration on staff.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJAWRlsAhmhYpQwVIwPEHME1tY7yAAXBTwIkbh8b/A-TViFABAcJAS4JAYuuAjUGQo6EWpEEJle9ryi67PQKgMHDA-w

As a mace shield semi-frontline, actually that heal on aegis is mandatory for me, it means 1k aegis heals for nearby allies + 130-150 heals from symbol AH.
this is what im running: (mostly its suposed to be a range defensive build that removes condis and aplies aegis on allies).
SW SoA actually besides it A.I problems on can be usefull, stun breaks, block that removes condis and heals, more anti pew pew, Anet really needs to resolve the A.I and CD issue.

DH trait dulled senses works on every Guard KB, so i use its effect on shield, as a aoe criple skill.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNApeRlsAhWhYpQwOIwPELLEFWCUBnwVA8ADgc038TPA-TlSDABwomQI6BmUlAFUCGlyPAOBA+qKDT7P4wDAgMTQAA-w

Tip: SW can be casted and then swaped to normal utilities, i have SW traited for underwater and when i move to land i dont have CD on land skills, same happens if i cast SW and then swap that skill.
So its like having 3 SW + 3 traps, it baits targets thinking im using 3 spirit weapons, while i have 3 traps ready to be used.

I tend to run support/command on my Guard in WvW. I like zealot’s armor myself.

Zealots is not a bad stat to mix in if you already can stay alive but I think you really need a build that can take advantage of it. The 2nd link of mine that uses Pure of Heart could for example, much less so the first. I usually sometimes put it where I would normally put berserker in its place (mostly amulet/ring I can get from LS). There’s also crusader as well.

Aeolus.3615:

As a mace shield semi-frontline, actually that heal on aegis is mandatory for me, it means 1k aegis heals for nearby allies + 130-150 heals from symbol AH.
this is what im running: (mostly its suposed to be a range defensive build that removes condis and aplies aegis on allies).
SW SoA actually besides it A.I problems on can be usefull, stun breaks, block that removes condis and heals, more anti pew pew, Anet really needs to resolve the A.I and CD issue.

DH trait dulled senses works on every Guard KB, so i use its effect on shield, as a aoe criple skill.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNApeRlsAhWhYpQwOIwPELLEFWCUBnwVA8ADgc038TPA-TlSDABwomQI6BmUlAFUCGlyPAOBA+qKDT7P4wDAgMTQAA-w

Tip: SW can be casted and then swaped to normal utilities, i have SW traited for underwater and when i move to land i dont have CD on land skills, same happens if i cast SW and then swap that skill.
So its like having 3 SW + 3 traps, it baits targets thinking im using 3 spirit weapons, while i have 3 traps ready to be used.

I would suggest taking Smiter’s Boon over Strength of the Fallen; I switched it a while back and never looked back. It’s generally better to clear more condis at once then it is to clear them one at a time because of junk condis. But the other thing is that it adds a bit of damage.

I also suggest taking Force of Will over Writ of persistence for this build. The bigger symbols aren’t that important in zergs because you can only affect so many people anyways. Plus there’s also the occasional conflict with water fields. I also think it’s too static to really give prolonged healing.

Since you have stacked a lot of vitality already, Force of Will will give you a substantial boost to outgoing healing (26%) because you are using Pure of Heart and shield bubble pops. This also gives you space to take crusaders or zealots to further boost healing power because you can afford to lose some vitality. And if you don’t change a thing, having 26k health means you can easily afford to play more aggressively and also heal/res people for longer.

I’m not too fond of trooper runes, but I suppose I never was. With only 2 shouts and no Pure of Voice I find you could probably get more help elsewhere with melandru/durability, honestly.

Finally, I would definitely ditch dulled senses. Cripple and 1 measly stack of vuln every 19s isn’t really going to matter in a big fight especially when other classes can hand those things out much easier. It’s really only meant for LB with heavy light to really be useful. To make matters worse, you’re usually activating the shield when advancing on the enemy, and those in the front typically have stability.

I almost always default to piercing light, because it decreases the cooldown on hunter’s determination which is great for this build and also a potential lifesaver. That to me is worth it even if I’m running zero traps. Of course, Soaring Devastation is also a really strong option— immobilize is better than cripple.

ArchonWing.9480, u forgot to notice hunter fottification, with all the blocks i have,that is where the cleanse is comming, i actually prefer to do it over time since it will affect nearby allies, will also heal them, and block a atack.

Yeh good point on the the shield with dulled senses, i might change for the damage on F2 landing.
I messed the build i actually have force of will, and sometimes i get 28k-30k deppending the wvw buffs.
And force of will makes arround 26%-28% outgoing healing boost, wich im pondering to get a sigil of transference to enhance that heal on block, WoP is very good only when u have neaby guardian with with a similiar symbold WoP + HA.
Actually with that build i can defeat necros w/o much problems, stale against good druids.

EDIT: traded dulled sense for soaring devastation, it is much better for the role im doing.