Guild Wars 2

Thanks for your posts, of course I have searched the Wiki and everywhere online, visited the vendors etc. before I posted here.

Ah well, so we wait.

I don’t see that we have a Crafting forum so I’ll post here.

Is there an Ascended Chrysocola/Chrysocola Necklace?

…which is Condition Damage/Power/Vitality

I know there are Ascended necks that have some mix of these attributes but I haven’t found a straight up Ascended Chry/Chry necklace in game. Any help?

Try this build, it’s my tank/support/healer. Yes I like to have stability too, it’s useful in many situations.

Try this build, it’s my tank/support/healer. Yes I like to have stability too, it’s useful in many situations.

heh crazy thread, ya’ll need to get outside.

So having given up on any real tanking in GW2, I worked this weekend on this PvE DPS burn build, it’s pretty kitten fun. It’s not min/max, as a tank I cannot play a glassy build, makes me want to stick forks in my eyes. So it has enough toughness and vit to make it resilient. The burning is a kick. BURN BABY BURN. I have my own build generator, see attached.

Rotation for Vets and above is Judges, Zealot’s Flame, throw it (Zealot’s Fire), Purging Flames, (by here you have 12 stacks or so of burn), Feel My Wrath, then sword skills or Torch 5 until Zealot’s comes back up. Always throw your Zealots it gives you 3 stack of burning.

On trash don’t waste Judges or Purging use Sword 2 to leap and then Zealots, sometimes Purging if a mass of trash.

You know I’ve been a gamer a long time, and I’ve played a tank in every game. But in GW2 I’m a tank without a job, with little or no aggro mechanic. So I have tried to adapt, I love a tanky build, and I have a tanky support/healer build. But no one wants that. I was in a dungeon run tonight:

Leader: I didn’t know people still ran non-DH builds.
Me: I’m a melee, not a kitten archer.
Leader. haha. Well what kind of Guard are you?
Me: support
Leader: Can you switch out to DPS, we already have a Druid.

I built a DPS Guardian, and I built a Warrior, but I am not a DPS, I don’t like DPS. I’m a tank. I really don’t think GW2 is the game for me in my usual role.

Maybe I’ll just give in and roll a mage. Robe & sandals, staff, zoom pow zippp. Ugh.

Guardians are Chandrian…

Which one? And what would be the point, there it is. I write my own build editors, I call it Gear Grinder lol. I have one for all the games our guild has played over the years. I tend to be our guild crafter and build reccomender-er, at least give them a place to start.

I love having a shield too. My tank build uses mace/shield and this condi DPS build 1h sword/shield.

I know I give away DPS but I just don’t like the other weapons.

Thanks all, good info, things I haven’t thought of.

Yes this is much better:

Played a Guardian since launch, because I’m a tank, I’ve always played a tank in all games. We all took a long break and came back for HoT. GW2 feels like Asheron’s Call did to me, where there was no artificial aggro mechanic like in a lot of modern MMO’s. No trinity as ANet says. I know at launch there was aggro, maybe it was hidden and seems to have been nerfed now, because I built a high-Toughness Guardian and I would pull bosses out of fights without hitting them, just by running past.

Anyway this time round I’ve created an extreme ‘tank’ build, see attachment, I wanted a max tank/survive/heal group/boon group/condi removal for group build. I went all Minstrel/Ambrite, I’m used to playing high mitigation/low DPS tank builds, I have no problem with it.

Except my guild says they really don’t notice much difference when I’m in the group. A little more boonage, a few condis removed, a bit of healing, but nothing game-changing where they are saying “This will be a tough fight we need Chazcon to tank”

Seems all classes here are basically DPS with a smattering of their own boon/condi removal/healing (again I suspect by design with ANet focused on killing the trinity).

I guess I’ll give up on the tank/group support mindset and add in DPS on a new build, and create more of a rounded build. A hybrid. Sounds so boring, I love my extreme tank builds really.

Thank you for catching this and fixing it! I thought I was losing my mind there for a bit

Chaz Tank

This is my Guardian build. I really enjoy it and thought I’d share. Our thing is to 2- and 3-man dungeons, regardless of how the game was designed we still think and play tank/DPS (with everyone contributing healing, some more than others). This build is very tanky, and works well for how I play and how my group plays. I don’t PvP and it’s not made for that. I only use certain weapons and that’s a personal and RP choice. Also, credit where due, this build is based on BigTee’s GodMode Guardian Lonewolf build. I’ve made a few tweaks.

Traits:
Zeal: 0
Radiance: 15: II – Signet Mastery
Valor: 30: V – Purity, IX – Honorable Shield, XI – Altruistic Healing
Honor: 20: VI – Pure of Heart, X – Writ of the Merciful
Virtues: 5

Weapons:
DPS weapon set: Berserker’s 1h Sword, Berserker’s Shield, Sigils: Earth, Agony
Tank set: Knight’s Mace, Cleric’s Shield, Sigils: Blood, Water

Trinkets:
Guild Defender’s Backpack, gem: Sapphire
Jewelry: All Sapphire

You will want to get the Ascended bling too, every bit helps.

Armor:
All Knight’s Draconic, Runes: 6/6 Earth

Skills:
Signet of Resolve
“Hold the Line!”
“Save Yourselves!”
“Stand Your Ground!”
Renewed Focus

This build has a great combo of mitigation and healing, and not bad DPS for a traditional tank. I really only die if I screw up. Some of the cool things are all the heals, I have my heal skill, heal on dodge roll, heal on the third strike of my mace, heal on Shield of Absorption, heal on Symbol of Faith, heal when I place boons on other people, heal when Aegis comes off, heal on Virtue of Resolve. I’ve got a 3s invuln that recharges my virtues. Virtue of Justice also renews when I kill a foe, and causes blindness when I use it. And there’s more goodness, didn’t list everything.

Sword/Shield I use for DPS and for jumping around to mobs. Mace/Shield for tanking obviously. I have a stack of Omnomberry Bread but I rarely remember to eat it lol.

I do not ‘save’ my virtues when fighting, if I die I will die with every skill on CD. I will constantly hammer all my virtues and utility skills in a fight when they are needed. When I am down below 50% health I’ll hit my personal heal, and the only skill I really save for ‘those moments’ is my elite.

Now there are miles of text about dodge roll and tanking and you can’t tank and there is no trinity, aggro doesn’t exist and a lot of other crap. Let me tell you that you can tank, I mean stand and tank, you have to be smart about staying on top of the fight, and there are only a couple things that will truly one-shot you, that you will have to plan around tactically with your group. Even the best tank will not anticipate every big hit from a boss and you have to be able to take that hit and survive. This build works pretty kitten good for that.

Anyway, I’m sure this isn’t for everyone nor will everyone agree with my choices, but I love this build and it works very well for me and my pals.

FOR THE VITAE!

I never use the mouse in combat, except for a couple of things I can’t map to keyboard. I’d throw the kitten thing away if I could. All keyboard is much faster/more effective imho. Once you get it all ‘in your fingers’ there is no thought process, movement and combat is intuitive and transparent. It takes 2-3 weeks with a new game for me to get it all down. It’s like playing a guitar, really. The bad thing about using a mouse is pointer acquisition, tracking and placing on target. It’s a nightmare in a pressure combat situation with lots of graphic goodness happening on screen.

I say change the shouts so you get this in a group while fighting:

“WAR!”
’Uh huh"
’YEAH!"
“What is it Good For?”
“Absolutely Nothing!”
’Say it again!"

Well I don’t PvP so I’m not worried about that. It’s a lot of fun in PvE.

Chaz Tank

This is my Guardian build. I really enjoy it and thought I’d share. Our thing is to 2- and 3-man dungeons, regardless of how the game was designed we still think and play tank/DPS (with everyone contributing healing, some more than others). This build is very tanky, and works well for how I play and how my group plays. I don’t PvP and it’s not made for that. I only use certain weapons and that’s a personal and RP choice. Also, credit where due, this build is based on BigTee’s GodMode Guardian Lonewolf build. I’ve made a few tweaks.

Traits:
Zeal: 0
Radiance: 15: II – Signet Mastery
Valor: 30: V – Purity, IX – Honorable Shield, XI – Altruistic Healing
Honor: 20: VI – Pure of Heart, X – Writ of the Merciful
Virtues: 5

Weapons:
DPS weapon set: Berserker’s 1h Sword, Berserker’s Shield, Sigils: Earth, Agony
Tank set: Knight’s Mace, Cleric’s Shield, Sigils: Blood, Water

Trinkets:
Guild Defender’s Backpack, gem: Sapphire
Jewelry: All Sapphire

Armor:
All Knight’s Draconic, Runes: 6/6 Earth

Skills:
Signet of Resolve
“Hold the Line!”
“Save Yourselves!”
“Stand Your Ground!”
Renewed Focus

This build has a great combo of mitigation and healing, and not bad DPS for a traditional tank. I really only die if I screw up. Some of the cool things are all the heals, I have my heal skill, heal on dodge roll, heal on the third strike of my mace, heal on Shield of Absorption, heal on Symbol of Faith, heal when I place boons on other people, heal when Aegis comes off, heal on Virtue of Resolve. I’ve got a 3s invuln that recharges my virtues. Virtue of Justice also renews when I kill a foe, and causes blindness when I use it. And there’s more goodness, didn’t list everything.

Sword/Shield I use for DPS and for jumping around to mobs. Mace/Shield for tanking obviously. I have a stack of Omnomberry Bread but I rarely remember to eat it lol.

I do not ‘save’ my virtues when fighting, if I die I will die with every skill on CD. I will constantly hammer all my virtues and utility skills in a fight when they are needed. When I am down below 50% health I’ll hit my personal heal, and the only skill I really save for ‘those moments’ is my elite.

Now there are miles of text about dodge roll and tanking and you can’t tank and there is no trinity, aggro doesn’t exist and a lot of other crap. Let me tell you that you can tank, I mean stand and tank, you have to be smart about staying on top of the fight, and there are only a couple things that will truly one-shot you, that you will have to plan around tactically with your group. Even the best tank will not anticipate every big hit from a boss and you have to be able to take that hit and survive. This build works pretty kitten good for that.

Anyway, I’m sure this isn’t for everyone nor will everyone agree with my choices, but I love this build and it works very well for me and my pals.

FOR THE VITAE!

I’ve changed direction a bit and have made my Warrior more tanky, still with two 1h swords, and then a mace/shield for more defense. Having a blast. My survivability is not on par with my tank-specced Guardian but i wouldn’t expect or want him to be.

Traits are now:
Strength: 0
Arms: 10: III – Deep Cuts
Defense: 20: III – Sure-Footed, IX – Shield Master
Tactics: 30: I – Leg Specialist, VIII – Lung Capacity, XII – Vigorous Shouts
Discipline: 10: IV – Inspiring Shouts

Skills are Mending, “For Great Justice!”, Berserker’s Stance, Balanced Stance, Signet of Rage. If I feel I need or need to provide more healing I’ll slot three shouts.

Gear is two Berserker’s swords, sigils on those Earth and Agony, second set is Knight’s Mace and Shield, sigils are Blood and Water (experimenting with Blood/Blood to see if there is any advantage)

Trinkets are Guild defender Backpack with a Sapphire jewel, jewelry is all Sapphire

Armor is all Knight’s Draconic, runes are 4/6 Krait and 2/6 Afflicted

It’s pretty fun, I use Berserker’s Stance to keep my adrenalin up before I start a fight, start by throwing a sword to get the bleeds going, Risposte and let them hit me, Flurry, FGJ and Berserker’s Stance, auto attack until Flurry is up, repeat. Go to shield if it’s a tough fight, my mindset is stay alive and do some direct damage plus keep bleeds going, but try to stack as much bleed as possible, focus on getting Flurry off on the CD. On a Champ I’ll get Flurry up, jump in, Flurry, roll back out, toss the sword when it’s up while I wait for Flurry & adrenalin to regen.

This is a hell of a lot better build for a ‘Bleed Warrior’ than my first pass, glasscannon is not for me.

And no Retsu, I am not a mobile player, I’m a tank at heart, stand and fight, dodge rolling in my opinion is a ridiculous and arbitrary mechanic.

Yes I would love to see xbows in game.

I would expect a crossbow weapon to have a very slow rate of fire, but a very big heavy-armor-penetrating hit.

TheDuck.4526:

Honestly, the fact that ANet made dungeons so kitten faceroll that you can get away with running 5 signets is enough to show that they’re “viable.”

Sure, you could accomplish more if they chose to run banner of disc. or FGJ to give their fury-less (save for “Save Yourselves!” or the Inner Fire trait, but who the kitten takes that?) guardians some fury. But if you get through the dungeon successfully, I don’t see why it matters.

I’m not advocating the use of a 5 signet build, as it has been stated previously so many times that the amount of bonus damage you get from deep strike is paltry in comparison to some of the stuff you can give your group. Yes, you see bigger numbers for yourself, but one extremely buffed person does not outweigh 5 moderately buffed people.

Beyond that, if you’re running precision on your gear and you have perma-fury— that bonus precision is kind of… excessive. But whatever floats your boat.

What I’m curious about is how people are running berserker’s gear.

Now I know you’re all going to hop on and call me a bad, but hear me out. I run a full Knight’s set with ruby orbs and ruby / emerald jewelry and a zerker weapon. So I have a decent mix of offense / defense.

But none of that defense really matters in the end. Yes, I dodge. I dodge a LOT and I use the dodge button meaningfully. But that doesn’t matter either. Why? Because I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have aggro.

I’ve run every single dungeon and I find that I’ll have aggro in 90% of encounters. You can only dodge so much before autoattacks do you in.

So 5 signet warrs / zerker wearers, what’s your secret? You always say dodge will save your life, but you only have two, and for attacks that will one shot you. What do you do when you have constant aggro like me and can only stand so many auto attacks? I can kite, but I signed up for a game with no holy trinity.

There is aggro and a trinity, or at least tank/DPS (everybody heals), get over it.

In your case what do you do? What WILL you do?

Bring a Guardian along who will draw aggro, tank, survive, and grin while doing it.

Playing this is making me realize there is a reason I have played a tank since before there was a ‘tank’, starting in Asheron’s Call in 2001. A heavy armor, defensive/protective sword character just fits my personality and playstyle so well.

Despite how different (for me) and interesting this is to play, it’s just SO kitten squishy… it’s very frustrating to not have that extra measure of avoidance and mitigation that I’m used to. I have a Guardian tank that I really enjoy, it’s bliss when i log back on to him.

I’m just not a DPS player. I want to be able to charge into a crowd and take the hits as I wear them down. I’m going to try a more tanky Shout Warrior build (like Imbemboo’s) and see how that works for me.

Olba.5376:

You might want to tweak your boosted durations a bit.

Flurry won’t benefit from anything between 100% and 150%
Sever Artery and Gash won’t benefit from anything between 113% and 125%
Impale and Riposte won’t benefit from anything between 117% and 125%

blank stare

you lost me here. expound?

good tongue twister though. and good info, much appreciated.

Been experimenting with a Bleed Warrior build. What is your take on this?

Goal is attack with max adrenalin, flurry to stack max number of bleeds, roll out, kite and/or block until flurry recharges, repeat. Not intended to stand and fight or tank, or support the group. With this in mind I’m trying to maximize bleed damage and duration.

My arbitrary restrictions are: Must use two 1h swords as main weapons, for weapon set 2 must use 1h sword/shield or mace/shield. No other weapons considered.

Gear: All Rampager’s weapons and armor, Coral jewelry and jewels, Guild Assassin Backpack, Sigils: Earth and Agony, Runes: 3/6 Krait and 3/6 Afflicted.

Traits:
Strength 30
V – Berserker’s Power – Increase damage based on adrenalin 3/7/12%
VIII – Dual Wielding – Increase damage 5% with sword in offhand
XI – Physical Training – Physical skills do 100% more damage and recharge 20% faster

Arms 30
III – Deep Cuts – Bleeds last 50% longer
VIII – Blademaster – Critical chance increased 10% with sword
XI – Furious – Critical hits grant an extra adrenalin strike

Discipline 10
V – Heightened Focus – Increase critical chance based on adrenalin 2/5/9%

Heal: Healing Surge (change out to mending in PvP)

Utility:
Bull’s Charge
Berserker’s Stance
Stomp (change out to Signet of Stamina for PvP)

Elite: Signet of Rage

Stats: This is what all of the above gives me (unbuffed):

Power 1,918
Precision 2,211
Toughness 916
Vitality 916

Attack 2,918
(Power 1,918)
(Weapon Damage 1,000)
(Condition Damage 1,148)

Critical Chance 65%
(Critical Chance 65%)
(Critical Damage 11%)

Armor 2,127
(Toughness 916)
(Defense 1,211)

Health 18,372
(Healing power 0)

Condition Duration 30%
Bleeding Duration 90%
Chance to Bleed on a Critical Hit 93%

My thoughts on this build are, bleeds are the main source of damage. Regular hits and physical skills contribute additional damage. This build has no defense, health or healing. It’s very much plan your attacks carefully, strike, get out, use your CC’s and shield wisely.

I see a lot of Warriors on the forums talk about how a glass cannon build is viable (they are usually talking about a GS Burst DPS Warrior build). Is that true, and what about this build, basically swapping bleeds for the burst DPS?

I have played a tank for 12 years in MMOs and this has always been true.

Avoidance/Mitigation builds with lower health pools are always better for tanking than the ‘big ’ol bag of morale’ build with little mitigation for all the reasons the OP has stated.

Never mind the Warrior, take two Guardians and build one with max Vitality across the board in order to maximize his health pool. Use DPS skills and traits and forget any defensive skills. Take the second Guardian and build for Toughness and trait for blocks etc and defense. Put them in the same dungeon taking the same hits, the mitigation build will survive much longer. But you say, vs a Warrior there would be an ever greater delta in the health pool and that would make up for it.

If you’re getting whacked and every hit takes a big chunk out of your health, you’re going to run out at some point. If you can stand there with 500 health and take a beating and survive, because you have a chance to avoid or mitigate every hit, your survival rate will be much higher.

Previous poster is correct it does stack 4 but over time, not on the initial hit.

I’m a Guardian first and foremost, and I rolled a Warrior for some variety and to try out the DPS world. My characters are RP and so my Warrior uses 2 swords and sword/shield. I’m building him to be a ‘Bleed Warrior’ and it’s a lot of fun. He’s like throwing a running lawnmower into a crowd, but he is a lot more squishy than my Guardian, trying to get used to that.

My challenge as he levels and at 80 is to balance direct damage and bleed damage, and give him enough survivability so he’s not a glass cannon. Level 0-30 was rough, probably more my own learning curve as I have played only a tank for years and never a DPS.

Anyway he is a blast and it’s fun to see him stack 18-22 bleeds on a mob (usually only on Vets, regular mobs don’t live that long) and bleed them out. His play style is definitely more run in, strike, stack the bleeds, and run out or shield and let them die, than standing toe to toe.

Very fun but it’s always good to get back on my Guard :P

Danicco.3568:

I think I saw some of the bots who were banned… there’s a spot west of the last Waypoint in Malchor’s Leap before Cursed Shore where there’s a insane respawn of Risen Thralls attacking the Pact in the shore.

There were always a bunch of bots stacked together attacking everything, from level 20~80. The 80 would surely kill the mobs and the low levels would Rally even if they get down.

I reported all of them at least twice.

Then I checked yesterday/the day before, and they weren’t there anymore.
Instead, there were others… ahahahaha!

But I reported them all again =p

Yep, me and my bro go to this exact spot to just have a big killing spree, the mobs are thick but right in the middle of our fun, a train of 5-10 bots, all identical, will run down onto this beach and kill everything in sight on their way through. They are obviously are running on a loop because every 10-15 minutes here they come again. It’s really frustrating.

My solution to the bot problem? Flag them as mobs – allow us to kill them. Now that would be some fun.

Note that I am a ‘keyboarder’ from way back and do not use the mouse in combat. In fact I wouldn’t use it at all if I had more keybinds available (such as in LOTRO, great example). I know there are a certain percentage of us out there in the GW2 playerbase!

Some of these suggestions I know are re-posts but this has been my running list.

1) Allow double-tapping using Turn left and Turn Right keys (typically A and D) to make you dodge roll (if double-tap option is turned on). Currently does not work. (keyboarder!)

2) Make turning with A or D MUCH faster and on par with a mouse-turn, or better yet a turning speed slider that at maxium speed, is as fast as a mouse-turn. (keyboarder!)

3) An option (a new option, or perhaps that works in conjunction with Fast Cast) that aims your cast directly forward in front of your feet. I use a macro that places the mouse cursor in this position that I have to hit before I use a ground target skill. Add this functionality as an option to ground targetted skills. (keyboarder!)

4) Ability to assign hotkeys for Camera Down and Camera Up. (keyboarder!)

5) Trading Post: New features: Add a Preview option for all armor and weapon items, add more filters so that we can sort by Light/Medium/Heavy armor, and sort by stats or attributes on items (i.e. Vitality, Condition Damage, Boon Duration, etc). Also there are two annoyances: One is that when you buy an item, and go to the ’pick up ’ window to check the purchase, and them go back to your search, the filters are reset to default. You have to set all your filters again. Second, when you move the slider down on the second filter box, the drop-down list disappears and you must open it again. Minor, but nonetheless.

6) Ability to move UI elements around. See attached one example of my ‘keyboarder’ keymap in Excel, and a badly photoshopped image of how I would move my UI elements around to match my layout.

7) More camera options including vertical and horizontal FOV sliders, camera positioning options in relation to our characters (i.e. camera pointing at head instead of back). Great promise in the FoV beta. Looks awesome. Please give us more

8) Please make our in-game currency (gold/silver/copper) account-wide. Or at least give us this option.

9) Add a barbershop for changing our hair styles, color, and facial hair. Also how about a tanning bed while we’re at it? Asura technology! Of course they would have a lightening bed too, those clever Asura! Should O even ask for plastic surgery? (i.e. change our facial features).

10) HOUSING! AND GUILD HOUSING!

11) I miss my LOTRO horse… Don’t tell me to go back to LOTRO – I love this game! Mounts!

12) Put all the sound files in a folder that resides on the client’s computer. This would allow us to customize all the sounds, both on our characters and on NPCs. Imagine the very creative player base putting together complete packages of sounds and sharing them. Instead of "Hold the Line!’, “Stand Firm!” or “Steady, lads!”. Just imagine…

13) On our character selection screen, our characters are ordered by last logged in. PLEASE disable this moving of characters and list them alphabetically, by level, or allow us to move them manually. Or better yet – add options for all of the preceding.

14) Allow us to dye shields. Speaking of shields, how about tower shields? Bucklers?

15) Allow us to transmute any weapon skin over any other weapon, regardless of class or type. For example, on my Warrior I want to wield two swords but have my left hand (offhand) sword look like a dagger. I’d rather it WAS a dagger, blade held straight up not down, but that’s another topic :P Another example: Greatswords are ridiculously huge. I’s skin a normal sword over my greatsword. then I might actually use it :P

15) Allow us to transmute any armor skin over any other armor, regardless of Light/Medium/Heavy.

16) Provide us with a ‘closet’ or ‘wardrobe’ for cosmetic clothing.

OK I’m done lol. Great game, truly the best MMO I’ve played since Asheron’s Call (can’t count your first fall-in-love MMO).

I agree.

Typical karma event on Orr:

“FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!” “FOR GREAT JUSTICE!”

Really?

Zsymon.8457:

I agree with all the OP’s points, these are very simple things that improve gameplay and would take very little effort putting into the game. I bet you can even get unpaid volunteer programmers from the fanbase do things like this. You’d be surprised how many hours a fan would spend working for free on a game he loves, especially if he knows that what he’s doing improves the game he loves.

lol you would have a fan work in the code? No. There is a huge perceptual disconnect between being a great player and a great game programmer, rarely are these found in the same person.

Didn’t really have a problem before, but this is a nice change and I will leave it on. Now that I’ve had a taste I want more. It would be great to have a slider, which I would probably max out.

“Yes, tons. Have you ever spoken to a merchant out in the world? The majority sell nothing consumable weapons.”

Nice comment. And nice sig. Don’t hate. If you don’t understand the question next time please ask, I will explain it to you.

Zarovich.7285:

Here is my take on Guardian and our weapon sets/skills back this up. We as a class are a cross between a Warrior and a Wizard. So basically we are Mage Knights. Does this include support, sure all the classses can fill in a support role even Thiefs. But we are not limited to that in any way, shape or form. We can do DPS/Tank/Support roles just like all the other classes. It will basically come down to how your speced and what skills/weapon sets your using. If anyone makes claims that we are a pigeon holed class and can only do support functions, then don’t listen to them, their clueless anyways.

So we are Gandalfs!

Is there a thrown weapon in the game that can be purchased, crafted etc and used by any class?

In every other MMO I’ve played I carried around a bag of throwing axes to toss at mobs and stir them up.

What is a Guardian in GW2?

Take a Lotro Guardian, take a Lotro Minstrel, put ‘em in a blender, scrape out all the bits of aggro skills and taunts, pour out a little of the defenses because Guards are more squishy here, make sure there are no lumps of healing skills because we don’t really heal like a Minstrel, add in a little DPS powder to make up for it, bake at 425 degrees until golden brown, cool on a rack before serving. Voila, a GW2 Guardian.

I’m a huge fan of the Guardian in this game, the game itself is amazing and the Guardian is a blast to play.

I have built mine to be as ‘tanky’ as possible because I refuse to acknowledge the removal of the trinity, lol. There is some aggro mechanic going on with most mobs, but not all. I have no ‘taunts’ or artificial means to control and maintain aggro, but still I see my role in a group as being the ‘rock’ that the group is centered on, my buffs and heals are spammed continuously for my mates, I must contribute my share of DPS, but most of all I must stay alive so that we can all stay alive. I may not always dodge when I need to and I need to be able to absorb a few big hits and recover quickly. Typically I stand toe to toe with the ‘boss’ and try to round up as many lesser mobs as possible and keep them on me, despite the lack of more traditional aggro skills and mechanics. My squishier ranged DPS mates can stand back and fire away for the most part. My melee DPS pals can run in, strike, stick and move around me. These are traditional tank roles and it works well for me, and for my gang in this game.

Combat here is more fluid, homogenous and cross-supporting. Instead of dedicated and specialized Tank, Healer, CC, Buffer/Debuffer and DPS classes, think of it as removing the Healer, CC and Buffer/Debuffer completely and giving everyone both self- and group-healing skills, some CC skills, some buff skills (Boons), and some debuff skills (Conditions). Now add more DPS ability to the (typically) non-DPS classes.

Everyone in a fight needs to contribute DPS. No one can stand back and be a ‘healer’ or fully ‘support class’. Your group needs your DPS to be successful. So as a Guardian you have to wear many hats at once. This definitely keeps you your toes as you need to be much more engaged in combat than you are as a more traditional tank. Instead of just paying attention to the mobs, the peels. the adds and thinking only of aggro, you need to also watch everyone’s health, boons and conditions and act accordingly. And you have to be cranking in the DPS and not just tapping away on the mob while tanking. Throw in the (admittedly arbitrary) dodge-roll/big hit mechanic, that basically forces the entire group to both remain focused on the fight and move often, and combat becomes very fluid and dynamic.

As a long time ‘tank’ across multiple games, the whole idea of setting up good positioning where you are tanking all the mobs, standing in one spot for the whole duration of the fight, have them turned towards you, and your group is behind the mob banging away on him is usually out the window. The whole group in a GW2 fight is moving around a lot (moreso the melee types) and it’s more like a bar brawl than a set-piece battle. And, it’s fun as hell.

Awesome idea, totally agree. this game is so incredibly innovative already, let’s keep it up!

dream – scroll up mate

Ultramatum.5162:

… (Yes, your boon duration increases apply to those you put boons on)…

I run sword/shield for DPS and mace/shield for tanking. My two shields have different stats and sigils, and so I call them my DPS shield and my tanking shield because they are optimized for those roles.

I really enjoy sword (1h sword) with shield for DPS. It’s fast and does good damage, I have a jump skill (teleport), I have my shield for the bash skill and my defensive/healing bubble. Sword does a slight bleed from sigils (I can often keep 2 bleeds stacked on a mob) and it has a couple of AoE components as well.

I don’t use any other weapons at all.

So if Retaliation does not reduce the incoming hit, i.e. you still take the full hit, it’s is not a defensive/protective/mitigation skill, it is a DPS skill.

It is misleading.

I TOTALLY agree. Like the OP, I have suggested that Retreat be renamed to “Charge!”. I’m a bit of a role player, and I REFUSE to slot Retreat. I have never used it once. I am a Guardian, a tank, and I will never shout retreat!

‘Guardians die but do not surrender.’

Really, really well written, +100 rep.

I play a Guardian. I only play a Guardian. I have always only ever played a ‘Guardian’, since I started in MMOs playing Asheron’s Call 12 years ago. And so I really appreciate this guide!

My two cents:

1) Really disrupting to my gameplay to move the skills around.
2) No it is NOT easy to re-learn the new layout, re-train my brain and my muscle memory in my fingers.
3) My 1h sword has a ‘jump’ at #2, if you were going to move the 2h skills around, why not make the 2h ‘jump’ at #2 as well?
4) Allow us to move skills around in our skillbar PLEASE.
5) I don’t use my greatsword much anymore, it’s too frustrating.