Guild Wars 2

Im getting close to getting my tag, and am mostly interested in 5-15 man groups causing chaos in enemy BLs. That said, i dont know what character i should get it on. I’ve got warrior, guardian, and engineer all at 80. My warrior would be with the standard knight/cavalier 0/10/30/0/30 hammer build, my guard with 0/0/30/20/20 build with hammer/staff and consecration a, or my engi with a 10/0/30/20/10 1963 healing power build with bombs, EG, and toolkit. I know warrior can do the most damage while being tanky, guard and engi are both very tanky, and near impossible to down, but at the cost of almost no damage. My engi can provide group stealth, which is really amazing when you encounter an enemy group, and can get up to 2500+ hps to everyone in a 360 radius. But my guard has long lasting stability and projectile reflection, as well as near perma protection for anyone within a 240 radius of me. Anyone having experience leading a small man group, any advice you could give would be awesome!

Don’t get a tag, it attracts pugs like bees to honey.

Not if you want 5-15 anyways.

Don’t get a tag even if you’re commanding 40+ people unless you want 3/4 of them to be strangers.

Also agree with not getting a tag.

Tag attracts tons of lvl 20 upleveled rally bait. Don’t use it.

Get a tag if you’re prepared to have headaches.

For a havoc squad, you want a majority of burst damage/cc classes. Hammer warriors, thieves, mesmers, d/d aura share eles and engies should be your priority. Just don’t complain too hard when a zerg comes your way though lol.

3 Warrior, 1 Guardian, 1 Necro. Multiply as you see fit.

One of the big mistakes we see from folks starting out on small man groups is the over use of defensive gear/builds. If you are running 5-10 you will spend a lot of time fighting larger groups and you need to kill folks fast, not whittle them down.

Jaxs.5830:

One of the big mistakes we see from folks starting out on small man groups is the over use of defensive gear/builds. If you are running 5-10 you will spend a lot of time fighting larger groups and you need to kill folks fast, not whittle them down.

I agree, but you need to stay alive long enough in order to kill them. That means a mix of tanks and heavy dmg (even some glass cannons, as long as they know how to play). It’s a mistake to go full damage and no tank/support.

Support is one of the things a small group can not miss. A dedicated and skillful guardian healer can heal 5 people to full and still deal damage, add boons and do some crowd control through wards. This means those 4 other people can focus solely on the killing of enemies.

You need a guardian for every small man group (5 or less). Aside from that, I would mix condition damage and burst damage 50/50.

I should clarify, im getting a tag for the purpose of attracting pugs. I can only get a guild group going if a lot of people are online and up to it, and since im often online at odd hours thats not very often. I realize with pugs i wont get the best coordination or players, but its what i got. Im just looking for what would give me the easiest time in supporting them with stability and other needed things you can’t rely on a pug for. With those in mind tho, i think guard may be what i want. Im mixing my stats to get 17k health, 3k+armor, 30-40% crit chance, 70-80 crit dmg, 500-700 healing power, and 2k power. So would AH or meditations be better?

Something like this. My thought process is ill be solo roaming with my tag on, and some pugs will come and follow.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS8dlUgiD3GSNEf4ERVh4h9QjZ0jXPgYEbIA-j0CBYfCyEFwEHAEBQJQFRjtYqIas6aYKXAqXQqYK1W0FRrWIABLAA-w

Carpboy.7145:

I should clarify, im getting a tag for the purpose of attracting pugs. I can only get a guild group going if a lot of people are online and up to it, and since im often online at odd hours thats not very often. I realize with pugs i wont get the best coordination or players, but its what i got. Im just looking for what would give me the easiest time in supporting them with stability and other needed things you can’t rely on a pug for. With those in mind tho, i think guard may be what i want. Im mixing my stats to get 17k health, 3k+armor, 30-40% crit chance, 70-80 crit dmg, 500-700 healing power, and 2k power. So would AH or meditations be better?

AH isnt support. Better to go a shout build, imo, if your goal is support.

Jaxs.5830:

Carpboy.7145:

I should clarify, im getting a tag for the purpose of attracting pugs. I can only get a guild group going if a lot of people are online and up to it, and since im often online at odd hours thats not very often. I realize with pugs i wont get the best coordination or players, but its what i got. Im just looking for what would give me the easiest time in supporting them with stability and other needed things you can’t rely on a pug for. With those in mind tho, i think guard may be what i want. Im mixing my stats to get 17k health, 3k+armor, 30-40% crit chance, 70-80 crit dmg, 500-700 healing power, and 2k power. So would AH or meditations be better?

AH isnt support. Better to go a shout build, imo, if your goal is support.

I know AH isnt support. But with the hammer chain, its tons of heals for myself, and perma protection for everyone else. I’d argue consecrations are best for support anyway. Im just trying to find the best balance between offense, defense, and support.

Hi

I have been playing a guard since early release, so have the opportunity to do everything in this game as a guard, experiment with lots of different builds for lots of different focusses ranging from a very small roaming WvW team to full large scale group support and likewise in PvE from full DPS to support.

Honestly the best small group set-up you can have currently in this game is a hybrid build. For a 5 man hammer is a horrible weapon, go GS for better dmg, a little extra mobility and an extra group cleanse via lightfield + whirl combo. For large scale and surprisingly melee stacks on dungeon bosses, hammers are good.

Your build lacks boon uptime and provides zero group support. For small teams you should ditch AH as you have, however, you need boon uptime and you need to provide better heals and shielding and stability via virtues to your group mates, also, the 30 pointer in guard virtues is the only group stunbreaker with stability and shielding in the game. This is critical. Run reduced shout CD and Renewed focus. Between “Stand Your Ground” , “Hold The Line” and the added boons and stability and stun breaker from virtues you have a virtually spammable set-up that will take care of your entire group. Also, unlike meditations, your virtues can be activated even when all your skills are disabled when being stunned etc. This again is huge.

get your DPS via gear variations not traits. leave your traits on actual group support and means for your group to get away from things and move fast. You can actually get half decent DPS by going with celestial jewelry, zerk armor, and whatever weapons. I tend to go with main weapon DPS and second weapon support utility with eitehr cleric or bunker stats.

When running a 10-15 man, I would recommend having 2 mesmers, 1 fully offensive shatter and 1 hybrid with focus on glamour. 2 thieves for spiking and offense, rest pretty standard fare, warriors, guards, necros.

One other thing, mobility is king. Period. Small team needs to be extremely mobile and quick. To that account, any slow members should be running Traveller’s or Runes of Speed. Not only do they give you 25% passive movement but also free up a utility slot and/or trait slots from those people that have used traits / utilities for movement. This is especially true for mesmers, guards, necros (if they dont use spectral walk and arent traited for boon uptime), etc. The only class that never needs those for mobility is warrior. Everyone else does at least with some builds. I also recommend having at least 1 engi, the nuking kind that puts out a crap load of dmg., avoid rangers.

For large group, simply switch your armor to PTV or Clerics or mix with melandru runes, switch your GS for Hammer, keep a staff handy and you’re set. Don’t use meditations, they are good exclusively for 1 v 1 provide very little group support due to the CDs when compared with your other tools, and don’t waste your slots for DPS support, your team mates even in small teams do that much much better at far lower costs to their traitlines, CDs and in general effort.

Tongku.5326:

Hi

I have been playing a guard since early release, so have the opportunity to do everything in this game as a guard, experiment with lots of different builds for lots of different focusses ranging from a very small roaming WvW team to full large scale group support and likewise in PvE from full DPS to support.

Honestly the best small group set-up you can have currently in this game is a hybrid build. For a 5 man hammer is a horrible weapon, go GS for better dmg, a little extra mobility and an extra group cleanse via lightfield + whirl combo. For large scale and surprisingly melee stacks on dungeon bosses, hammers are good.

Your build lacks boon uptime and provides zero group support. For small teams you should ditch AH as you have, however, you need boon uptime and you need to provide better heals and shielding and stability via virtues to your group mates, also, the 30 pointer in guard virtues is the only group stunbreaker with stability and shielding in the game. This is critical. Run reduced shout CD and Renewed focus. Between “Stand Your Ground” , “Hold The Line” and the added boons and stability and stun breaker from virtues you have a virtually spammable set-up that will take care of your entire group. Also, unlike meditations, your virtues can be activated even when all your skills are disabled when being stunned etc. This again is huge.

get your DPS via gear variations not traits. leave your traits on actual group support and means for your group to get away from things and move fast. You can actually get half decent DPS by going with celestial jewelry, zerk armor, and whatever weapons. I tend to go with main weapon DPS and second weapon support utility with eitehr cleric or bunker stats.

When running a 10-15 man, I would recommend having 2 mesmers, 1 fully offensive shatter and 1 hybrid with focus on glamour. 2 thieves for spiking and offense, rest pretty standard fare, warriors, guards, necros.

One other thing, mobility is king. Period. Small team needs to be extremely mobile and quick. To that account, any slow members should be running Traveller’s or Runes of Speed. Not only do they give you 25% passive movement but also free up a utility slot and/or trait slots from those people that have used traits / utilities for movement. This is especially true for mesmers, guards, necros (if they dont use spectral walk and arent traited for boon uptime), etc. The only class that never needs those for mobility is warrior. Everyone else does at least with some builds. I also recommend having at least 1 engi, the nuking kind that puts out a crap load of dmg., avoid rangers.

For large group, simply switch your armor to PTV or Clerics or mix with melandru runes, switch your GS for Hammer, keep a staff handy and you’re set. Don’t use meditations, they are good exclusively for 1 v 1 provide very little group support due to the CDs when compared with your other tools, and don’t waste your slots for DPS support, your team mates even in small teams do that much much better at far lower costs to their traitlines, CDs and in general effort.

Please post the build you’re describing. I’m new to guard and would LOVE to run something like what you’re describing.

Zerker power Necros, the more of them the better. Victory through superior fire power.

Alkaholic.3875:

Tongku.5326:

Hi

I have been playing a guard since early release, so have the opportunity to do everything in this game as a guard, experiment with lots of different builds for lots of different focusses ranging from a very small roaming WvW team to full large scale group support and likewise in PvE from full DPS to support.

Honestly the best small group set-up you can have currently in this game is a hybrid build. For a 5 man hammer is a horrible weapon, go GS for better dmg, a little extra mobility and an extra group cleanse via lightfield + whirl combo. For large scale and surprisingly melee stacks on dungeon bosses, hammers are good.

Your build lacks boon uptime and provides zero group support. For small teams you should ditch AH as you have, however, you need boon uptime and you need to provide better heals and shielding and stability via virtues to your group mates, also, the 30 pointer in guard virtues is the only group stunbreaker with stability and shielding in the game. This is critical. Run reduced shout CD and Renewed focus. Between “Stand Your Ground” , “Hold The Line” and the added boons and stability and stun breaker from virtues you have a virtually spammable set-up that will take care of your entire group. Also, unlike meditations, your virtues can be activated even when all your skills are disabled when being stunned etc. This again is huge.

get your DPS via gear variations not traits. leave your traits on actual group support and means for your group to get away from things and move fast. You can actually get half decent DPS by going with celestial jewelry, zerk armor, and whatever weapons. I tend to go with main weapon DPS and second weapon support utility with eitehr cleric or bunker stats.

When running a 10-15 man, I would recommend having 2 mesmers, 1 fully offensive shatter and 1 hybrid with focus on glamour. 2 thieves for spiking and offense, rest pretty standard fare, warriors, guards, necros.

One other thing, mobility is king. Period. Small team needs to be extremely mobile and quick. To that account, any slow members should be running Traveller’s or Runes of Speed. Not only do they give you 25% passive movement but also free up a utility slot and/or trait slots from those people that have used traits / utilities for movement. This is especially true for mesmers, guards, necros (if they dont use spectral walk and arent traited for boon uptime), etc. The only class that never needs those for mobility is warrior. Everyone else does at least with some builds. I also recommend having at least 1 engi, the nuking kind that puts out a crap load of dmg., avoid rangers.

For large group, simply switch your armor to PTV or Clerics or mix with melandru runes, switch your GS for Hammer, keep a staff handy and you’re set. Don’t use meditations, they are good exclusively for 1 v 1 provide very little group support due to the CDs when compared with your other tools, and don’t waste your slots for DPS support, your team mates even in small teams do that much much better at far lower costs to their traitlines, CDs and in general effort.

Please post the build you’re describing. I’m new to guard and would LOVE to run something like what you’re describing.

0 0 10 30 30
probly can figure it out from there

Y’all may laugh, but I am very successful playing as a ranger running Havoc. I run with a Awe/Horn and LB. Entangle helps take down supply real fast.

The only hitch is I am usually targeted first when our group encounters a hostile group…and we all know how easily rangers melt. That said I normally run a 6 to 1 kill ratio (6 enemy players killed for each time I die).

How would mesmers fare in a havoc squad? Im just curious, as im having a lot of fun in spvp on my mesmer right now. I dont wanna just be a veil and mass invis bot though

Mesmers are rather useful.
> Illusions
> Group stealth (to block stomps)
> Pretty nice crowd control
> Decent aoe

5 Thieves and a Mesmer.

You’d have to play perfectly, but they don’t.

5 man group:
1 guard, 1 necro, 2 warriors, 1 mesmer

10 man group:
2 guards, 1 necro, 4 warriors, 2 eles, 1 mesmer

15 man group:
3 guards, 1 necro, 4 warriors, 2 eles, 3 rangers (shout+spirits and clerics), 1 mesmer, 1 thief (preferably venomshare)

Right, the 15 man group gets interesting. You can build the group in many ways, however 3 guards and 4 warrios should provide all the CC and stability you need, 1 marks necro should be able to take care of AOE alongside 2 eles.
The mesmer is there for portal, veils and null field.
Thief is there to provide more stealth and to stomp unexpecting enemies/hunt down the weaker enemy. The venomshare build also helps a long way increasing group DPS.
The reason to add 3 rangers w/spirits and shouts is because the current state of the ranger allows them to play a mass support role. They can add permanent Swiftness, Regeneration (about 4.7k HP over 14 1/2 sec, means roughly 320hp/sec regen). The new waterspirit allows 5 persons to heal for 850-970 HP once every 10 seconds (70% chance). This means you can get pretty decent PASSIVE heal for the whole party. In extreme cases, all rangers can switch to Healing Spring, which for smaller groups far surpasses the fields generated by eles (more direct healing + condition cleanse).
With the endurance regen nerf, you REALLY want rangers. Their ability to provide AOE vigor (roughly 7sec for each AOE vigor) is priceless.
Add in 1 fire spirit, 1 frost spirit and 1 stone spirit, and the whole party got some serious condition/direct damage/protection uptime going. If all rangers run Brown Bear (2 conditions in 600 AOE, 5 allies – 25 sec CD) + Fern Hound (2000hp direct heal + 4500 regeneration over 14 sec time) / Red Moa (AOE fury) / Krytan Drakehound (AOE Immobilize, 20 sec CD) allows for CC/fury/direct healing.
The moa will heal anything in melee range for around 3000hp with random intervals. Both the canine pets got knockdown attacks which are used frequently, providing more then enough extra CC.

Beyond 15 players, the role and efficiency of having more rangers are questionable. They work best in small teams where they can provide strong support coupled with strong survivability.

EDIT. Currently the ranger build i run. Judge for yourself, however the benefits you get in a small party is not to be taken lightly.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsYTncE1FcZF+VgaZAZVgQePmF2r9cPKlTJEP5DXZF-jkCB4hCiUDQE1gMcAZRFRjt6qIasqZCyKbYqXJ16rIa1SB8tyI-w

5man:
two boon guardians, hammer war, condi necro and maybe an ele. Avoid thieves and rangers.

you win or lose depending if you have guardians. That is how broken the class balance is in this game.

For busting zergs:
boon guardians, tanky hammer war, well necros, eles. Mesmer or 2 for invis.

Boon duration has not been nerfed in wvw and thus the logical choice is to go after the broken classes in wvw: boon guardian+boon ele.

Jaxs.5830:

One of the big mistakes we see from folks starting out on small man groups is the over use of defensive gear/builds. If you are running 5-10 you will spend a lot of time fighting larger groups and you need to kill folks fast, not whittle them down.

Yeah please, everyone in berserk ^^

Eloquence.5207:

5 Thieves and a Mesmer.

This is the best combination if you want to combine fast roaming and ninjaing.
You will evade all the fights at will when crossing zergs, will be able to play hide and cap in fast flipping maps, hide and port squadrons and at the same time your damage outcome will make you capable of give good fights even in lower numbers.

Best,

Haltair, one of the Twelve Shadows

Ps: If you go with bigger numbers other combinations shine.