Guild Wars 2

Indeed, Everlasting Sacred Path scooped me up and I’m very impressed so far.

Hi, my name is Danson (at least in internet land) and I’ve played Guild Wars 2 here and there since launch. I played a TON at launch, and put a majority of my 800-some hours into it within the first 6 months. This, as you can imagine, burned me out a little bit. Since then, I’ve played very casually, maybe once a week, and this is mostly due to having nobody to play with. I’m a pretty social player so this has been problematic.

What I’m looking for is a group of people that are relatively focused in their play. Weekly activities, like Fractals, Dungeons, and World Bosses would be awesome. I have done a fair bit of roleplaying in other games but never found a good group in GW2 to join up with. Social roleplaying events would be a plus. Mainly, my focus is getting in with a group of people who play actively and who aren’t going to abandon the game for the latest release.

I main a Guardian, and enjoy that playstyle a lot. I’m leveling a Norn Elementalist, a Charr Ranger, and a Sylvari Warrior, though not super actively (again, it kinda sucks playing alone. Especially when leveling, where groups make content much easier and more enjoyable). I haven’t touched Fractals a whole lot, I don’t have full ascended gear, and I wouldn’t even dream of ever getting a Legendary (in 800 hours, I have not gotten a precursor or any sort of valuable loot whatsoever. Even Exotics are few and far between). I’m familiar with most dungeons, but I have never even tried Arah.

If you think your guild would be a decent fit for me, please let me know. Ideally I am looking to join a few so that I have a diverse group of people to play with. I’m interested in WvW, SPvP, PvE, and RP and if that means being in a separate guild for each, that’s fine. I look forward to reading responses or being contacted in-game!

The tooltip is definitely wrong, don’t worry. It is in fact a very sizeable group heal now, provided you hit on every tick. You don’t need to stack HP for it to be useful, but it’s a far bigger reason to go that route if that’s what you want.

You know, not every skill was made for PvP. Yeah, smart players are going to leave the area of effect of spells. Duh. There’s also 90% of the rest of the game to play, and consecrations kick kitten at that. You don’t even know the name of Hallowed Ground or SANCTUARY, and you’re calling consecrations useless? You’ve never used them. Give me a break.

Oxxy.7068:

And to be honest with you, do you know any people good at dodging bosses tells running AH because they don’t care about efficiency? :/

No, I don’t know anybody that prescribes cookie cutter builds regardless of who they’re talking to. When I see people offer build advice, they typically ask questions about the player’s style, comfort level, interests in the game, stuff like that. People are very diverse. What works for some doesn’t work for all. I know you disagree with me on that but that’s my stance. I, for one, would never tell somebody who was unsure about their build to just “go Zerker, go DPS, and don’t die scrub”.

Oxxy.7068:

If you don’t care about being effective, fine, but… OP asked, and i quote: “Why are AH builds frowned upon?”, and what i just said is the very awnser for his question.
And to be honest with you, do you know any people good at dodging bosses tells running AH because they don’t care about efficiency? :/
I may sound like a kitten, but truth is most people take this kind of stuff too personally, and most people also hate being wrong.

He asked why they’re frowned upon, and the reason they’re frowned upon is because some players make a point to belittle those who use them and proclaim them ineffective, when in actuality they’re effective enough to handle any content currently in the game. That doesn’t mean they’re the most effective, but they’re not ineffective, and they’re not useless.

It’s not that I don’t care about being effective. I am effective. I complete the tasks I set out to do in the game very proficiently. I don’t care about being the MOST effective. I don’t care about MIN-MAXING, or POWERGAMING, like you do. I think the reason there’s a lot of resistance in the topic is because you are basically saying,

“This is the best build and if you don’t use it you are ineffective and bad.”

…which is kind of a crazy thing to say when people are completing content with flying colors. I think we all understand what you’re saying. In the right person’s hands and under the right circumstances, an ideal build is one that forgoes any sort of defense because there’s already a damage AVOIDANCE mechanic in the game. If you can perfect the system, then defense isn’t needed. That leaves room for more offense, which makes dungeons go more quickly.

I understand. Completely. But that’s not the only way to play. That’s the only thing anyone is trying to say here, as far as I can tell. Can you accept that, while your way may be the most effective, there are dozens of perfectly adequate ways to accomplish the exact same tasks?

If a build or a player isn’t as good as yours (you), it’s perfectly fine to recognize that. But one thing being better than another doesn’t render the previous thing useless. If you’re playing at 100% efficiency, the rest of us are playing at 80-90% efficiency. Not 0% efficiency.

George Steel.1804:

Danson.1094:

Don’t compare yourselves to others. For every amazing Warrior that does great things with the class is an equally terrible Warrior who has no success at all. They’re both having fun, as should you. The HP discrepancy between Guardian and Warrior is there for balance (at least, as much balance as can be managed with Warrior). It’s well known that we have the smallest health pool. That’s not an indicator of our effectiveness.

Sorry if you misunderstood my post, this has absolutely nothing to do with fun. This has everything to do with effectiveness with a given class at a given skill level.

Do I think I’m as good or better than the warrior featured in this video? Definitely

Have I ever done so much damage, while disruption so many foes, AND staying alive without much support from allies? Not even close.

The problem is currently Guardians have to sacrifice everything for something.

1) Healway: Warrior-esque survivability, PITIFUL damage. Worse especially against condi as much of the damage is based off retaliation
2) Glasscannon/Meditation: Great burst and damage, but simply put, get destroyed by kiting. Better hope you don’t run into a condi engi or necro who have more tricks up their sleeve than you have skills on your toolbar.
3) AH + 15radi or something considered “balanced” : Decent damage, decent condi removal/sustain, bad at keeping targets in range. Okay at a few things, however great at nothing. Trivial when compared to a well-played hammer warrior

I suppose I can’t relate then. I play games for fun, not to gauge the relative effectiveness of a particular string of code.

Shukay has the right idea.. regardless of anything else, it comes down to personal preference. People are going to play what they want to play. Regarding not seeing certain skills used, there are tactful, nice ways that you can suggest these things to players who might not be very skilled yet. Don’t treat them like they’re second class citizens because they don’t understand it as well as you do. That’s just wrong. Offer some advice, if they refuse to heed it, drop it and hope you can finish your run. No need to make fun of them on forums after the fact.

Don’t compare yourselves to others. For every amazing Warrior that does great things with the class is an equally terrible Warrior who has no success at all. They’re both having fun, as should you. The HP discrepancy between Guardian and Warrior is there for balance (at least, as much balance as can be managed with Warrior). It’s well known that we have the smallest health pool. That’s not an indicator of our effectiveness.

Oxxy.7068:

@Shukay
It is a bad trait, because, as pointed our earlier, you have to choose between AH and group support or AH and DPS. You don’t have to use it in order to dish out boons, using AH only rewards yourself, you could’ve put these points on other lines, either PoV, or lasting symbols + lasting consecrations, etc etc.
I’ve got nothing against the fact that some people need it, but that doesn’t make AH any less meh.

Is it so bad to simply want AH? Not need it? The reason I met you with criticism is because when you phrase things like that, it sounds like you’re putting yourself above them. What if its the case that I simply think AH is a cool skill and I like the effect? That’s all I was getting at about personal preference. Even if there is an objectively “best” setup, there are a huge number of people who don’t have any interest in playing that way. NOTE: They don’t have an interest in it. It’s not that they’re not good enough, or that they suck, or they can’t dodge. It’s that they don’t want to run that build. Very important, key thing.

I happen to think Sword/Focus with Meditations is a fun build. What’s not fun about teleporting around? Teleport with your sword, teleport with Judge’s Intervention, teleport with Merciful Intervention.. lots of mobility, and a lot of fun to play.

Also not as effective as other builds. My stance? Who cares.

Apologies for earlier posts. It’s a discussion again.

I’ll add something productive whilst ignoring our friends.

First of all, there is nothing saying that DPS and AH cannot mix. I run full Zerker with trinkets to make sure my baseline damage is acceptable, because a Guardian without Power and Prec at the very least on their armor simply won’t be damaging much at all. Being deep into Valor, in order to get AH, I also pick up an additional 30% crit damage. That brings my crit damage to 89% and my crit chance to 38%, which could obviously be better if my focus was more damage. Depending on how I run my traits, this nets me 4.5k-5k Mighty Blow crits, 3k-3.5k from Orb of Light crits, and 1.5k-2k auto attack crits. I do crit fairly often, too, especially in battle when things like Fury are getting activated.

So what’s up with the AH? Why would I run that instead of Radiance for more crit? Because I run dungeons with PUGs and with friends who just don’t have the time to play for the hours each day it takes to become completely comfortable with dodging and mitigating damage. In other words, I play with real people, who can make mistakes (myself included). When I’m in full zerker without any self sustain, only support and DPS, those mistakes usually end up as a party wipe (or several).

Having very significant healing on top of my support and my damage helps in those cases. This isn’t a theory. I have suffered through dungeons in full Zerker, traited for DPS, unable to perform well because the other players simply weren’t performing at that level either. With a glass build you aren’t relying on heals to keep you alive, you’re relying on your party to not mess up. I’d rather be able to carry a bad group through a dungeon and succeed than out DPS everybody but fail because someone missed a dodge.

I still have 30 in Honor, which is something that was addressed on the first page. Someone said they’d rather have Honor than Valor. Why not both? I can run Superior Aria and Pure of Voice AND Altruistic Healing. The only way you’re getting more support out of a Guardian is by running 30 Honor/30 Virtues/?, which kind of saps the whole “deal damage” thing that seems so important. Also, the heals I get from AH ARE helping my party. When I use Empower, my party gets 12 stacks of might. When I use Stand Your Ground, my party gets Stability and Retaliation. When I use Hold The Line, my party gets regen and protection. I’m using these skills anyway, especially the shouts, because I have Pure of Voice and Superior Aria. Why not get some healing myself for them? Sure, a lot of the time I’m at 100% HP and barely utilizing the heals. But when kitten hits the fan? Yes, please, thousands of extra health.

I’ll stop rambling now, just wanted to add something productive for players who aren’t sure what to do. There are a lot of choices. I’m apparently using a suboptimal build and experiencing great success with it, which is why I defend it. Your mileage may vary.

purgatoryz.6038:

Pugs are pugs, you get what you get. No sense getting a superiority complex when you are rolling the dice like that.

That said, AH will never be used by the top tier players when they group together, simply because AH doesn’t help the group, at all.

You have to understand, it’s different thinking entirely. Any casual can complete an encounter, the hardcores want to obliterate it. That means everyone running optimal gear, optimal traits, and actually knowing how to use them.

Which also entails doing so at your own discretion and your own leisure. There’s no reason to include anybody else, or to insult others because they don’t want to play that way.

Don’t come here for build advice unless you really want to get into it. The only thing you’ll hear is that you’re a bad player unless you can run full Berserker gear and time dodges perfectly. According to this forum you’re a bad player if you actually get hit by enemies, and good players avoid all forms of damage which would harm the speed of their dungeon run.

In other words, develop your own method. Test it for yourself. Change things around, see how you like it the best. If you are most comfortable playing with the build you have now, stick with it. It’s about fun, not efficiency.

However, I will offer one thing: PVT offers the best defense a Guardian can have as far as pure survivability is concerned, but it really lacks damage. If you swapped your PVT stuff for Knight’s (power, precision, toughness) you would keep a lot of your defense but also gain a boatload more damage.

Tip: You can buy level 76-78ish exotics which are VERY close in stats to level 80 exotics. You’ll be missing a few dozen attribute points and nothing more. Very good way to test out different configurations.

I’m currently running Berserker’s armor and trinkets with boon duration runes like you have, 30 points in Valor (for Altruistic Healing and 30% crit damage). With AH I am able to survive just as well as I am with more defensive armor, and I get rewarded for tossing out all of these boons to my allies. I have 89% crit damage and a 38% chance to crit using this build, in addition to all of the utility that Guardian offers.

Oxxy.7068:

Aza.2105:

AH is only bad if you have the high school mentality. Were when the pack says something is no longer in style you no longer sport it. If they say something is no longer cool its no longer cool.

If you want to be down with the group of players who consider themselves pve elite, you don’t use AH. If you aren’t looking for someone to lead you, not looking to be apart of a group mindset, then you will understand their opinions do not matter. You are free to play how you like.

My funny history about why i don’t use AH:
Got to 80, used it for a day, at some point i was doing CM and realized i had no cleanses, i was also faceplanting alot because of lol bleeding stacks… and AH wasn’t of much help, know what i did? Swaped it to pure of voice.
I didn’t need someone to tell me that AH sucks, but my early experience as a guardian could’ve been better if somebody said these words to me: “Dude, AH is trash”.

As for valor increasing dps – sure, if you’re fine with no cleanses, no might on crit, no shout cd and most likely no longer lasting reflects. When i have a guardian on my group i expect him to support with cleanses and barriers, not to look pretty thinking he’s an elementalist. I mean, any elementalist would provide more dps than him, and way more utility anyways.

So you’re bad at picking traits and skills based on the situation, and that means AH is trash. Okay. Pure of Voice isn’t the only cleansing we have, so I’m not sure why switching your build entirely was your first go-to. Why not run Purity and the healing signet? Why not run soldier’s runes and keep the AH? Why not equip Purging Flames, or run with Absolute Resolution? We have a lot of options for condition removal, PoV just happens to be the most broken right now (not for long). Enjoy it while it lasts.

Cpt, I suppose I didn’t consider going AH gets me even more damage in the first place (compared to not going into Valor at all). I’m sure the extra 30% crit damage brings out the strength of Berserker’s. In the case that my damage and survivability go up, it’s a no brainer. As far as runes go, would still going for boon duration have any desirable effect? 10% from virtues and another 40-45% from runes is still pretty sizable, though I don’t know if that benefits me. I go for Two Handed Mastery in Honor and use Staff/Hammer?

And I suppose I should clarify, I’m not horrendous. I can dodge decently well, but Berserker’s offers no room for error. I am never going to strive for zero error, and I need some padding. What’re my options, keeping in mind a general preference for group support? I realize anything but Berserker’s effectively kills my damage but I don’t see much choice for difficult dungeon runs and varying skill levels.

Well, I want to keep my support. I do play with mostly PUGs, and so a lot of the time it isn’t even my own damage avoidance I’m concerned about. I like playing this way, and have no desire to play with players who seldom miss dodges and steamroll dungeons. I like the challenge, and there would be no point in running them to me if I always won. That being said, I think in my own experience, a Guardian with some staying power, healing, and support capability is pretty invaluable.

Basically, I want a “if-kitten-hits-the-fan” Guardian, not an “according to plan” Guardian. I didn’t address this much in the OP, but the suggestion to go AH got me thinking.

Keep in mind Merciful Intervention procs the meditation heal twice. Makes it a pretty good skill. Essentially frees up a space on your utility bar.

I’ve just returned to playing Guardian (and by that I mean GW2 in general. Played at launch, stopped several months back), and in the last couple of days have mostly been working on Twilight Assault, the Aetherblades path. After like.. 6 runs or so, I’m thinking about a couple of things.

My first order of business upon returning was figuring out what gear to run with for dungeons. Most of what I saw said ‘zerker or bust’, basically saying more damage is always good because you’re trash if you get hit anyway. Well, I’m trash. After a few runs in full zerker trying to DPS, I wasn’t happy. Switched up my traits to a boon duration setup and hammer/staff. 30 virtues/30 honor/10 valor (10% damage boost). Liking it a lot better, but still have no self sustainability. Only support.

I’m missing the survivability of a more defensive type build. There were many situations in these dungeon runs where more staying power would have helped the group stay alive, and more damage really didn’t do much. I do really like the damage I am getting from running full zerker and traiting for support, but I just go down so quickly.

Any advice?

I wouldn’t go 20 into Valor in favor of 30 in Virtues.

Jax.5261:

Beesu.9203:

Jax.5261:

http://tinyurl.com/d7gjp3c

Staff if your team is extremely co-ordinated and you don’t need 2 snares.
Staff/Hammer on Spirit and Nifhel usually.
Sword/Shield on Khylo and always hammer on Khylo.

I’d recommend picking up Master of Consecrations instead of Indomitable Courage in the virtues line, been trying it out for the past week and it’s absolutely amazing. Sanctuary lasts 10 seconds on a 90 second cd, even been using it offensively to setup interrupts and knockbacks for kills

That’s what I ran originally, but definitely worth trying out again. I’m significantly better than I was when I first ran Bunker builds ^^.

Danson.1094:

If you choose the ground targeting consecration trait Sanctuary also lasts for 10 seconds, but you get the flexibility of not needing to be right there to lay it down. The cooldown is as normal but it’s a good compromise.

Sorry, that’s actually false. The tooltip is incorrect, the duration is not increased with Consecrated Ground. You do get the much, much faster cast time and the choice of area placement so you can interrupt stomps to a much greater effect.
This also means you can save people on side points easier.

It’s not false, I use it all the time without Master of Consecrations. The tooltip says nothing different, it actually reflects the 6 second duration. However, if you count, it lasts for 10.

Also something to consider is that level 76-78 Exotic armor is VERY close to level 80 as far as stats are concerned, but much cheaper in most cases. You could pick up a set of level 78 armor for under 5g, I would guess.

stemare.2578:

Bogy.2953:

bad build is bad , you have a bunch of precision and no crit dmng , why?

Because of empowering might and omnoberry pies. I know my crit damage is not high.

Bogy.2953:

traits are just bad too spread out
too much focus on virtue of justice instead of taking useful traits line and maximizing stats

Why spread out traits are just bad? What are useful traits line for such a build?

Clumsy.6257:

this… my hammer ah/pure of voice build easily outdamages this while providing nearly 10x the team support and damage reduction

hammer hits hard but it’s soo slow, I doubt you can outdamages a GS, especially against large mob groups.

And that’s where you’re wrong. Any “slowness” people experience with Hammer is just their own perception. It is balanced to do just as much damage as anything else, including the GS. I believe the 1h sword is our highest DPS weapon, and GS/Hammer are nearly tied. Not to mention that Hammer gives you so much utility and GS turns you into a glorified spinny Warrior.

If you choose the ground targeting consecration trait Sanctuary also lasts for 10 seconds, but you get the flexibility of not needing to be right there to lay it down. The cooldown is as normal but it’s a good compromise.

Most guards don’t even switch weapons in combat, let alone switch skills and traits outside of it.

Doesn’t matter, nobody here likes your idea and Anet sure as hell won’t like it. Put this effort into your own character and build, you’re not a Guild Wars 2 developer.

Ha! Cleric does not scale horribly. 1.5k dodge heals are awesome, as is >200 hp per second from Absolute Resolution. Battle Presence then spreads that healing to party members, even when the virtue is on cooldown (meaning you get a 2k+ heal without losing healing each second). With a boon heavy Virtues build, regen lasts long enough that healing power absolutely helps. Throw in healing symbols and you’ve got an easy 500 healing per second in addition to over 10k burst healing potential. There are a lot of reasons to go cleric.

SuPaSuPau.1904:

Question: Would grabbing 6 piece’s of giver’s armor (Toughness, Boon duration) be a good alternative to PVT? I figure I can make up for the vitality discrepancies in my trinkets but is an extra 6% boon duration (and a buncha toughness) worth shooting for?

Giver’s is absolutely not worth it, if anything go for Cleric’s.

You’re not playing the class wrong. You are, however, absolutely wrong for assuming that other Guardians are doing it wrong by using a weapon that Anet made available to our class.

CptAurellian.9537:

Danson.1094:

Running PVT on your armor gives you the option of switching weapons and jewelry as needed, while also enabling you to focus on traits that benefit others rather than yourself. That’s what a support build is. The OP said he wanted to support his party.

For the last time: PVT has no viable role in PvE. If you really want to do support, take cleric’s (with maybe a bit magi, if you play so badly that you need the extra health) with a healway build. That beats any PVT crap by worlds since most groups will profit a lot from it. On the other hand, zerker/knight with AH, if you still struggle to survive, or without AH if you do well, will help you to deal much more damage with still some decent support.

Now I’m done with wasting my time on this incredibly stupid issue. Have fun.

Of course you’re done, you’re wildly incorrect.

Except for the fact that by taking AH and EM in the first place, you’re crippling the support that you’re saying you can provide. By providing more up-front vitality, one can completely forgo the Valor line because the self healing is no longer necessary in order to function with an otherwise pitiful health pool. Which is great, since the Adept and Master traits in Valor are terrible.

Would you seriously argue that a build with 30 points in Honor and 30 points in Virtues does not provide more support to a team than a 30 Valor AH build? Where’s your Resolute Healer, Absolute Resolution, Battle Presence or Pure of Voice? Where’s your 10 second duration Sanctuary for interrupts and revives? Where’s the 70% increased boon duration? But yes, clearly wearing armor that grants me more damage but necessitates AH for any sort of staying power is the better supporter.

Running PVT on your armor gives you the option of switching weapons and jewelry as needed, while also enabling you to focus on traits that benefit others rather than yourself. That’s what a support build is. The OP said he wanted to support his party.

CptAurellian.9537:

The damage of a PVT build does not exist, it’s as simple as that. So no, PVT is the exact opposite of a wise choice if you want to do PvE. That kind of gear is just the maximum of useless egoism – much more short-term defense than necessary, no sustain, no support, no damage.

If you want to play support, cleric will probably be the way to go. You don’t do any damage either, but you can support your group a lot and help them that way. In groups that are not very well organized and don’t play too well, this kind of support guardian is pretty useful. It just loses any function as soon as you play in an organized group of people who know what they do – there, the typical zerker builds beat everything else.

That’s a really stupid conclusion. Short term defense? No sustain? NO SUPPORT? If we are talking about PvE, we are talking about dungeons primarily. I can chain dodges together to provide a 3k burst heal to my party, if necessary. I run Healing Breeze and either shouts or consecrations, and use traits like Protective Reviver and Resolute Healer if warranted. My boon duration keeps regen, might, swiftness, and protection on allies nearly constantly, and I can provide stability very often if needed. I use Hammer/Staff which gives me a hell of a lot utility.

Don’t even attempt to tell me this build doesn’t offer my group healing and support. To suggest someone go Berserker instead while saying this build offers no support is pure idiocy. Your point about organized groups is likewise stupid. Of course more damage is the most beneficial if your group is perfect; but at that point any build is irrelevant. If you have a perfect group that mitigates their own damage, clears their own conditions, heals themselves, and are self-reliant, then it’s obvious that any support build is wasted. However, not everybody plays with the same people every night, and not every group of people plays so much that they can be perfect in a dungeon. That’s the fun of the game for some of us. If I had a group I could steamroll dungeons with effortlessly, I wouldn’t even play the dungeons.

Beyond all of that, as I said before, PVT gives you a solid amount of protection which allows for swapping of jewelry or traits as you see fit. PVT with Berserkers doesn’t do bad damage at all, and PVT with Clerics can do great support. At the end of the day it’s up to personal preference, so don’t come onto the forums trying to spread your one prescribed build as the best because it’s what works best for you in your group.

Farzo.8410:

Danson.1094:

No, the best defense isn’t a good offense. The best offense is a good defense. Your group will benefit a lot more from you staying alive to heal and give boons than they would if you had twice the DPS. Check out the Boonway build here on the forums.

As far as gear goes, I strongly believe you cannot go wrong P/V/T. With that as a base, your traits and jewelry can be infinitely tweaked.

I got full PVT armour and weapons, I play condition remover with shouts and virtue of resolve (0/0/10/30/30)

What would you recommend as jewelries? Even more PVT or perhaps cleric, since I do a little bit of healing with staff?

or is it better to balance out with damage?

I personally run 10/0/0/30/30, PVT armor with Major Water, Superior Water, and Superior Monk runes. For jewelry right now I’m running Clerics. A big portion of my group utility as well as my own survivability comes from Selfless Daring. Since I can’t get AH or Monk’s heals, I rely very heavily on dodge rolls for heals. I keep energy sigils on my weapons and constantly dodge. If necessary, I can chain heal three times with Selfless Daring for a 3k+ heal to anyone close enough, including myself.

So if you want more staying power and group support, go Clerics. If you want the best of DPS and survivability, go Knights. If you simply must have more damage, Zerkers is the best bet.

No, the best defense isn’t a good offense. The best offense is a good defense. Your group will benefit a lot more from you staying alive to heal and give boons than they would if you had twice the DPS. Check out the Boonway build here on the forums.

As far as gear goes, I strongly believe you cannot go wrong P/V/T. With that as a base, your traits and jewelry can be infinitely tweaked.

I’m not sure what you’re after.. you want to run fractals and dungeons with healing symbols. That sounds like a support build to me. Yet you’re asking about using berserker? Berserker certainly wouldn’t benefit your dungeon utility. You need to elaborate on what you want out of the build other than healing symbols.

I’ve recently gotten (nearly) 100% map completion, from about 39%, in the last few weeks. Not particularly quickly, and involved a lot of playing and trying new builds. I currently use an AH/hammer build, though it’s tweaked to my personal tastes and consecration heavy. I personally found that, when solo, a Monk’s Focus build may provide better survivability. A combination of three meditations, each providing a 2k+ heal (at 80), with relatively short cooldowns is a very fun playstyle. It also frees up points that would normally go into virtues for another tree, if you’d prefer. I can’t argue that an AH/hammer (or GS) build is an amazing build for group situations; however, when solo, it seems to lack. This is just in my experience.

Have you submitted a bug report? While this happening could have been anything, I was awarded that bugged skill point mere minutes after filing a bug report and moving on with the zone. Might be worth a shot.

I like to mix and match armor… matching sets just don’t do it for me.

Is there a chart out there that outlines the mitigation each point of armor gets you? I’d like to be able to see the mathematical difference between 2,600, 3,000, and 3,400 armor.

Good catch, I’m not sure what build I was running that gave me 2.5k. However, they definitely heal for close to that — 2090 with only 300 healing power. Still a significant heal, and in my opinion probably on par or better with the healing you get from AH when you aren’t surrounded by friends.

I may have; More than asking questions I was checking my understanding. If my logic regarding these builds doesn’t have any clear holes, that’s good news. I’ve just seen a lot of people with high HP, and I feel like there must be a reason for it. On the other hand, I can’t find one based on my own experience. I suppose a more direct, comprehensive question would be: In the case that I actively seek to reduce the damage I take via conditions, what is another benefit of vitality over toughness (or over any stat, for that matter)?

I use them underwater, and that’s where I see the most use out of them. I used to run a sword/torch damage build with spirit weapons. It is only a good build if you go balls-to-the-wall spirit weapons, it’s tough to mix them in with another build and get any sort of utility out of them.

A third question: I’m not sure I like AH as much as most people. I do realize that in WvW and certain 5-man group situations, AH is amazing. However, I do a lot of solo and duo play, so for me I think Monk’s Focus is better suited. I get a 2.5k heal from each meditation I use, which means I have potentially a 2.5k heal every 16 seconds from Smite Condition, in addition to more condition removal, another heal plus boons and a stun break with Contemplation of Purity, and a teleport/stun break/heal/flame blast with Judge’s Intervention.

If I were to continue using the Hammer for constant protection/retaliation, I don’t see much difference. Again, I do realize that in large groups like WvW AH is unbeatable.

I know a lot of this is available, but I thought I’d put together my own thread so that I can ask more focused questions for me. I see a lot of debate about vitality vs toughness. In other games I typically went with a higher health pool and less mitigation and found that I was happy. In this game, I’m leaning more towards more mitigation and less health. I just haven’t found a reason to stack any vitality beyond what I receive from traits.

One of the arguments I see for stacking vitality is fighting conditions. The idea is that a low health pool generally is ok for most physical damage encounters, but when conditions come into play a low health pool can kill you. However, I’m not sure that stacking vitality is the best answer to this. I happen to have a Knights armor set with Melandru runes on it, which equates to 25% reduced condition duration and stun duration. These runes alone should, in theory, make me 25% less susceptible to conditions — the same feat that 25% more health would accomplish in regard to conditions.

Furthermore, there is a food item out there that reduces condition duration by 40%. This gives me 65% less condition duration. Are conditions a concern at this point? It seems like this is a pretty reliable and comprehensive counter to the drawbacks of low health pools. Aside from that, I have traits like Purity along with many utilities that make dealing with conditions a breeze. Am I missing something? There really seems to be no point in arguing that vitality is needed to survive conditions, because we have so much condition removal already.

Another argument I see is that there is no need for toughness, because we can get almost permanent protection boons. However, the logic here doesn’t make much sense to me. “Because I can reduce damage 33%, what’s the point of mitigating more damage?” seems like a silly question. If you’re reducing 33% without toughness, imagine how much I must be reducing damage WITH toughness. I’m further mitigating an already reduced amount of damage; why is that bad?

Basically I’m somewhat obsessive-compulsive about tweaking and improving my builds. I’ve been running an AH/Hammer 0/0/30/30/10 build for awhile and I’m pretty happy with it. When I’m soloing in PvE I use full Berserker’s gear for 94% critical damage and around 48% crit chance. I’ve been looking at ways to build a more durable Guardian, as there are obvious limitations in dungeons when running full zerkers. However, it seems like most of my preferred builds would exclude vitality as a stat, with the exception of the Honor line. I find a mix of Knights/Zerkers gives me a great crit % without sacrificing durability.

I am open to other ideas, as well, so I’d like to check my understanding and see if I’m missing something here. None of the equipment sets with vitality on them appeal to me, as I refuse to stack healing power (I’ve found it to be the least beneficial stat we have).