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.
I prefer the mesmer the most out of those. Although the ele is great too, but it feels incomplete after the huge nerfs.