Guild Wars 2

I managed to get one in Ascalonian Catacombs tonight, sold it for a decent amount of gold.

Congrats on hitting 80! Hope you’re in for the long haul when it comes to doing content and having fun

If you’re keen on dungeon diving, there’s currently 2 schools of thought that seem prevalent around here. One is to go full Berserker and “learn to dodge”, which does put out some incredible numbers with your weapon skills, but again, as a full Zerk Guardian, you WILL be kind of squishy, so bear that in mind.

As far as being a solid survivable build is concerned, there are a lot of options, with the PVT/Knight combo being one of the more popular ones with my circle of friends, where you use Zerk weps, PVT armor with Emerald Orbs, and Knight accessories with Ruby jewels. The end result nets you about 3k atk, 3k armor, 15k HP and around 54% crit chance with Truffle Steak and Master Maintenance Oil. It’s not the biggest damage dealer out there, but it does allow you to have some breathing room as you learn the different dungeon encounters and mechanics, so that should you choose to, you can eventually go full Zerk and still be able to tackle these dungeons no problem.

I personally run the PVT hybrid with 0/15/30/20/5 with Blind Exposure in Radiance, Purity, Retributive Armor, and Altruistic Healer in Valor, Empowering Might and Writ of Exaltation in Honor and the 5 points in Virtues for spamming Virtue of Justice and getting might stacks.

Again, there are a lot of options out there, and the best way to see what works for you is to experiment with different gear and trait combinations. Hope you have a good time dungeon diving with your Guardian, and again, grats on getting to 80!

Well, before this thread falls completely off the track, here’s some personal advice for the OP.

The 0/5/30/30/5 build suggested by Draeka would be something you’ll want to look into if you enjoy playing a supportive role, as the trait line specs you for good durability as well as (potentially) throwing out heals with symbols as well as keeping up constant buff on the party. Do go ahead and take a look at the Crit Hammer/Altruistic Healing guide that’s stickied on this forum to get a better idea as to what you can expect here.

I personally roll with a 0/15/30/20/5 build with full Cleric gear, which is designed to keep myself alive above all else, as well as provide the party with a few heals here and there. My weapon choices are Scepter/Shield and Staff, but you can always replace the Staff with a Hammer if you choose to. As far as damage is concerned with this build, it’s pretty constant, especially if you put in certain Sigils in your weapon, such as Sigil of Fire to add more DPS potential.

On the subject of weapons, don’t treat the Scepter as a pure ranged weapon, Smite at melee range followed by some hammer smacking is the equivalent of smacking your opponent with a fully loaded semi, at least in PvE.

I’ve no PvP experience, so I can’t comment there, but do take a quick look around some of the topics like “Post Your Build” thread, as well as the Guardian 101 sticky, which covers a lot of the basic topics, such as weapon synergy and their strengths.

Scepter/Shield:

Orb of Wrath: Your only ranged option as a Guardian. Orb of Wrath has a range of 1200, which allows you to get a few hits in on the enemy before they get up close and personal.

Smite: The Scepter’s best skill in my opinion. Smite is a ground targeted AoE that hits 10 times within the circle. The cooldown is also very short, making this an ideal skill for contributing to group DPS.

Chains of Light: Instant Immobilize with 3 stacks of Vulnerability. Good for keeping a boss in place, and setting up for Smite.

Shield:

Shield of Judgement: Group Protection, it reduces incoming damage by 33%, which is always good, and it also deals damage, while healing your character as well. the cooldown is a bit long, but that’s what weapon swapping is for!

Shield of Absorption: Absorbs projectiles, pushes back enemies without stability, and can be detonated to heal allies. Use this if you see a lightly armored teammate in trouble against enemies.

All in all, my general playstyle is to stay in the front line as much as I can, keeping the enemies away from the rest of the group while keeping my health topped off, simply by attacking and buffing. This build has been one of the most durable I’ve played, and also has been one of the most successful in dungeon runs. While this build may not be putting out the maximum damage output of the Guardian class, it’s a very steady, maintained damage, with the ability to go toe to toe with just about any kind of enemy.

Again, critiques and advice is always welcome, and happy adventuring!

Hello there, fellow Guardians. This is a build I’ve used for about the past 15 levels (65~80) and have had great success with in overworld PvE as well as dungeons. (Mainly CM, since I need more tokens). The main point of this build is durability and healing power, while being able to toss out quick chunks of heals for your teammates as well. In dungeons, most of the time, the cleric build is in the front lines, tanking and supporting the melee teammates while zipping back and forth to keep an eye on the ranged teammates who may be a bit squishier. Here’s the breakdown of the build.

Traits:
Zeal: 0
Radiance: 15 [Blind Exposure]
Valor: 30 [Retributive Armor] [Honorable Shield] [Altruistic Healer]
Honor: 20 [Superior Aria] [Writ of the Merciful]
Virtues: 5

As for equipment, I’m currently running a full Cleric set (Power/Toughness/Healing Power), from armors to weapons, giving me the extra toughness and healing power which I love.

Weapons:

Main Hand: Scepter/Shield [Sigil of Water] [Sigil of Bloodlust]
Off Hand: Staff [Sigil of Fire]
Optional: Mace, Hammer

Scepter/Shield is used as my main weapon, simply because I enjoy having a ranged attack method. Using the auto attack to bring enemies in, then immobilize->Smite, followed by a weapon swap to staff for Symbol of Swiftness. With the current setup, I have a 16% crit chance, but even with that, the Flame Blast effect from Staff’s Sigil of Fire is a common occurrence in most large group fights.

Utility Skills:
[Retreat!]
[Stand Your Ground]
[Wall of Reflection]/[Hold the Line]

The utility skill choices are simple. From Honor, we have the Superior Aria trait, which gives us a quicker cooldown on the shouts, which in turn are used as quick heals for the Cleric since we’re running Altruistic Healer. Wall of Reflection is switched in and out for ranged enemies that pack a punch, such as Bandit Riflemen, and if you like doing CM Path 3, Vallog. Also, both Retreat and Stand Your Ground are great for getting your teammates out of a pinch, such as being locked down by constant knockdowns (Seamus).

Elite Skill:

[Renewed Focus]

Allows us to recharge all 3 of our Virtues as well as giving us a 3 second window of invincibility. This is a great panic button, and also, with my current gear (All Masterworks), activating all 3 virtues will refill about 1/2 of my character’s health, which means, if you’re in a pinch, activate your virtues, use Renewed Focus and get back into the fight or retreat accordingly while having more than half of your health recharged.

Weapon Skills:

Staff:

Wave of Wrath: Your auto attack is also your best attack in this case. It pushes out a nice sustained damage on up to 5 targets, with Sigil of Fire, the damage actually is quite impressive.

Orb of Light: Slow, long range, manually detonated projectile. Orb of Light is great for pulling enemies, and is also used for a quick pop heal, if you and your allies are within its blast radius. For pulling, simply cast it from its max range, do NOT detonate and lead the enemies to your group’s place of choosing.

Symbol of Swiftness: Buff, heal, AND damage. Symbol of Swiftness, of course, buffs your allies with swiftness, which is great for kiting enemies. Also, so long as they remain within the area, your allies receive a minor heal every pulse. Great support skill for your melee combatants and a good way to contribute to overall damage.

Empower: 12 stacks of Might. This is one of the best buffs you have available and with your trait/equipment setup, a full cast for this skill will heal you back to full. Also heals your allies at the end for a decent amount.

Line of Warding: The best CC skill available to Guardians in my opinion. Line of Waring is a 5 second “wall” that stops enemies from getting through, making ideal setups for your Wave of Wrath and Orb of Light. However, it will NOT protect you from projectiles.

Mine clicked for me when I picked up my first Flamethrower at a tender level of 9, since then it’s been non-stop hilarity involving fire, fire, and more fire.

In all seriousness, for me, my Engineer really began to shine around Lv30 when I was able to rock Fast Acting Elixirs and Precise Sights. Constantly getting crits on enemies and stacking Bleeding/Vulnerability was a huge change for me as opposed to before’s spray and pray style of play with my full power gear. And once I was able to find out that I got Might Stacks for practically free by using some foods and some basic field combos (Napalm+Supply Crate=Area Might), I’ve become obsessed with stacking Might, which in turn, helped me melt enemies even faster.

Seriously, my old main character, the Guardian is currently collecting dust as I run around spraying fiery love to the local wildlife in whatever region I may happen to be in.

First post here and a big hello to all of you on the forums.

I currently have a Lv38 Human Guardian running Scepter/Torch and Staff.
As far as weapon and armor stats, I’ve gone with Precision and Condition Damage for crits and more damage on burn. So far, it’s working out decently, minus the fact that I’m deathly squishy when it comes to fighting Champions.

So, as the title states, I’m hoping to gather some advice on whether my current setup is a nod to the correct direction or if I should go and switch out to a completely new stat build altogether if I am to survive in the higher level zones. Also, any kind of insight on Guardians and Condition Damage would be highly appreciated, as I love setting things on fire.

And finally, what would be a good investment of my Karma points? Currently, I have a little over 10k Karma points and I am unsure to either keep saving up for an armor set from the Cultural Armor Smiths or if I should just invest in a weapon at Lv40 or so.

Thanks in advance for your time everyone!