Guild Wars 2

Dawdler.8521:

I’d say Warrior before Guardian. If you make a tank Guardian everyone will just ignore him, if you make a dps/condi guard he will be far glassier than dps warrior. The warrior can also give all 3 easy perma swiftness, freeing up runes and skills (guard can, but mark just isnt as good for smaller numbers, you want multiple marks), not to mention better mobility than guard.

That said… I would probably pick another range. Condi trapper ranger should be great for it. Or of course another thief/mes.

Guardians don’t get ignored when the other two are a thief and a mesmer getting healed out their kitten

What an absolute joke. Why can’t they let us pay them $50 for their kitten specialisations, and let us play their kittenty new pve content if thats what we feel like doing

Virtues>AH any day of the week. I think all these people claiming AH is necesarry for a bunker haven’t played much bunker pvp. Shelter on the other hand…

Pretty much everything BUT necro would work. Maybe with reaper, but necro just has nowhere near enough mobility for a 3 man. It would get slaughtered every time

I’d suggest either a support guardian, or a condi engi. Mesmer and thief can both easily drop agro, so the 3rd class is most likely going to end up taking most of the aggro. Because of that, you need either a tanky guardian, who also provides heaps of team utility, or a condi engineer, which can be both tanky and mobile, whilst being able to do plenty of damage.

It’s pretty important to have at least one member with decent condition damage. Therefore, if your mesmer and thief are both power builds, having a condi engi would be pretty vital for your comp.
Small group combat in gw2 is interesting, because it’s possible for everyone to pretty much sustain themselves, however having a strong support like a guardian can make it easier for everyone. It really just depends on how you want to play it

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

Ferrari. Speicifically built car. High performance. Extremely fast off of mark. Extremely fast over short distances. High maintenance. Small fuel reserves.

1964 hemi big blacl anything. Solid performance. Slowish off the mark. Respectable speed over shot distances. Lower maintenance. Large fuel reserves. Extremely fast over long distances.

Which one is faster?

Purely depends over which distances you choose to measure them. Guardian has high damage off the mark, very little else behind it. Warrior has ok damage off the mark, but builds up to massive damage and has a lot more staying power behind it. Better armor, better health, better coefficients, better movement. If you want High melee DPS..stick with warrior. Guardian starts well but finishes badly and heavily relies upon your target making multiple mistakes.

Actually that’s very much wrong. A zerker gaurdian WILL have a shtload of damage off the mark, but they also have a shtload of sustain. If it’s a long fight, the guardian will win. Warrior has to rely on a passive 300 heal per second, whereas a gaurdian has 3 2k heals on a relatively short cool down. If the warrior can’t manage to lock down a gaurd and burst him in a couple of hits, the gaurdian will outsustain him easy.

Not worth it at all, unless you run full rabid condi build like the guy above suggested, but you’d have to be a bit of a moron to do that anyway.

If you want a chill, put hydromancy on your hammer. Much lower CD, AND it does damage (quit a lot if you’re zerker)

Dee Jay.2460:

Imo Guardian group-support is the most imbalanced thing in this game.

lol

CMF.5461:

Facts:
hit for 6k with smite condition (confirmed)
used healing meditations (probable)
target had around 2200 armor (confirmed)

Speculation:
14k hp (possible)

Based on a build editor, the only way to get a 6k smite condition on a 2200 armor target is to have full/most zerker gear, 10% burning, 10% condition target, 25 stacks of might and/or vulnerability stacks.

So 2 or 3 in zeal, at least 5 in radiance, and 6 in valor.

This puts the player at around 10k health, but the OP said it “felt” like 14k life. The “feel” may have been based on how much damage his attacks did to the hp bar percentage, and blocks/blinds can attribute to lower damage being done, as well as protection and incoming healing in bursts. So I put less merit in the total life and base it on actual damage done.

Sounds like he was a glassy meditation build with high burst. 2/5/6/x/x
Probably wearing enough zerk for at least 210-220% crit damage, and most likely runes with damage modifiers on them as well, like scholar or strength.

Based on damage reported done and game mechanics, that seems like the only way to achieve 6k damage on a smite condition to a 2200 armor target.

Smite Condition is really weird. It sometimes randomly hits for up to like 9k. I think it’s just some weird kind of bug. Generally it won’t hit any higher than 2k, 3-4k on really squishy targets.

Oh sorry, I updated the link. I also changed it to WvW mode to show you what kinda stats you’ll be getting.

Crapgame.6519:

Focus 5 isn’t burst in of itself, but it is part of the overall “first strike” package. It is one of those deals like said, pre-fight set-up, you see it cast so you know what is coming next. So react, dodge, CC, etc and there goes “part” of the burst

Also has already stated, if you, has the triple med Zerk/class Guardian, don’t put the enemy down within the first few seconds, chances are high you will die due to lack of:

A. Fight reset
B. Sustain
C. Cool down / ability management

Just about every other class can dis-engage and reset the fight. A zerk Guardian has a bit more difficulty but it isn’t impossible. Traveler runes, GS 3, JI, etc. Some ways to move about.

That’s why I run hammer on my zerker gaurd. JI/ring with shield up, they dodge into ring, kill them.

Techyo.6732:

Moleless, thanks for the help, i can understand that toughness isnt going to add too much after the base 300. here is a build i am running now and enjoying. any suggestions?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApcoVDxbI8DRRDRlTNYvBjQXe9B8ABAA-TpBEwAGuAASOIA23fAwDAIbZACHBAA

Well that’s a PvP build, I was assuming you meant WvW because you mentioned knights trinkets. For traits though, it’s a pretty good start. 6 in honor gives you a big boost in hp. This is good if you’re still getting comfortable with glass cannon playstyle. On my meditation build, I personally run 0 in honor, and put those points in virtues zeal and radiance. Typical trait line for me would be:

2/2/6/0/4

This is slightly higher risk but higher reward. 30% more damage with traits, more power and precision, and extra condi removal. Only downside is your hp is much lower but that’s not too bad because you are basically immune to conditions and you can avoid direct damage with blinds blocks and movement. If you’re having trouble with getting quickly burst down before you can do anything then the extra hp might be a good option to start with

EDIT: Also just looking at the traits you picked, take focused mind over retributive armour when running meditation. The symbol traits are also pretty questionable but it could work i guess.

These are the traits I usually run
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApcoVDxbI8DRR8QlZK+iWNCVFAX/DBROA-TVSDwAJuAgSweK/ep+TlDCQ+9HApbYwDAAg5vDHBASBonyI-w

Sounds like straight up zerker meditation. Pretty hard to counter as a thief.

jportell.2197:

a t s e.9614:

Well since its a PvE thread , if guardian was so hard to play then pugs should ask for warrs only , not heavies. Usually its what I see when I check the LFG system :" heavies only " because they are easier to play.

Like really dude, since when guardian is a hard mode class?

Not saying it’s “hardmode”. However your example of a meditation guardian should get you kicked from any dungeon group. Not just the speed clears. People want guardians for the group boons and reflects etc if you run a triple meditation guardian you come across two issues.

1. Your DPS sucks compared to a non meditation guardian (you lose Dmg% increase traits that you would get otherwise.)
2. Your group support sucks as your three utility slots are taken up by the most selfish utility skills that a guardian has (Think of triple cantrip eles or worse 5 signet warriors).

The only thing you are going to be giving your group is the random blind (assuming you are six deep into precision) and a few stacks of vulnerability here and there. All of which another class can do infinitely better.

PvP DPS builds should never be used in PvE and vice versa.

Uhhh, which Dmg% increase traits are you missing out on by playing meditation?

ArchonWing.9480:

Well, I guess if you feel like you don’t need survival, than it’s a good place to put it in radiance. It would be hard to place the lone point anyways elsewhere.

Purging flames is pretty reliable for me, however hardly perfect, and I will concede that 3/4s cast time is not insignificant and sometimes a more “clutch” skill is more important. Sometimes, you may be dead anyways in 30 seconds so having an extra cast might not even matter. An interesting note about guardians is that our skills generally activate fast outside of consecrations and this is why guardians can put out reliable dps. Even our “slow” hammer still has things like Mighty Blow to just shoot out and overwhelm enemies. So in a number of ways, I can see why you wouldn’t really want skills with activation times to ruin the flow, so to speak.

Exactly. I play a fast paced style and anything (especially a defensive skill) that doesn’t cast instantly just ends up kittening me off.

Also, here’s your typical engage. I’ll cover hammer and GS.

Hammer: Shield of wrath (wait 2 or 3 seconds) + JI/ring (basically start dropping your ring, then JI teleport just before the rings down, it won’t interrupt.) + Smite condition + Mighty Blow(by now, 90% of enemies will run straight into the wall after your shield burst, that’s when you swap to sword) + Zealots defense

GS: JI/flashing blade to close the gap (You can pop these both if you’re far away. It’s better to engage with flashing blade if possible because of the blind) + Smite condition + Whirling Wrath + Pull

A lot of squishy opponents will die to this combo if you hit everything, if not they’ll be at least 50% hp, and already on the back foot.

Techyo.6732:

thats great info, what do you think about gear? I have been considering knights on armor and zerker on trinkets etc. might give me a good balance so I have enough toughness to outlast some group wvw and enough damage to 1v1 easily.

Tbh, with a DPS meditation guard I find you almost have to go all in or it’s not even worth it. You’re gonna have a tiny health pool. That’s fine, but if you don’t have enough damage it can be an issue. TBH, if you want to go that playstyle, you’re better off just going full zerker. It’s gonna be almost impossible for you to 100-0 burst any enemies if you have knights trinkets. This is defensively bad, because if you don’t drop enough damage on your initial burst they’re just going to turn around and hit you back. A full zerker gaurdian will either drop them instantly with a full combo, or it will rattle their kitten and they wont be so quick to go all in on you. Basically what I’m saying is you need to be able to kill them before they kill you. You can’t outbrawl them in a fight because of your health pool, you NEED to be able to burst them down.

The toughness you get from the meditation trait line is pretty much all the toughness you need. Toughness WILL NOT keep you alive with this build, even with knights trinkets, it’s just not enough to be worth it. A meditation build relies on rotation of meditations and MOBILITY to stay alive. You don’t need toughness if they can’t hit you. That’s also why I recommend traveler runes on a zerker build. The movement speed not only keeps you alive, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to kill people too.
Also, flashing blade and JI will save your kitten .

Basically, if you’re choosing this playstyle, your stats are not going to keep you alive. Your skill rotation and movement will keep you alive. Don’t even worry about any defensive stats, just get as much power, prec, and crit damage as possible. You should be aiming for about 2.3k power, 220% crit damage, and 50% crit chance.

Here’s a video of me and a guildmate running this type of build:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSls3ORlJRM

You should aim for around 800-1k healing power, 3.2k toughness and 18k hp. With that you should be kitten near unkillable. Contrary to what the guy above me said, healing power is a kittenload more useful inside a zerg than vitality is. Vitality means nothing when there’s 40 people dropping damage on top of you. You need sustain to tank that and that comes throguh healing power.

ArchonWing.9480:

I’m referring to Renewed Justice, not Renewed Focus as being dubious. While it’s certainly a good trait to have, I feel that it sometimes relies too much of a snowball effect to maintain. In general I like it on dps builds that go deeper into the tree which have to take it anyways.

I still think Purging is a better way to fight conditions because it has almost half the cooldown and works on more than yourself. I do understand that COP is instant and breaks stun, but I haven’t really liked it outside of a dedicated meditation build where you also get perks like heals and fury.

As for the whole power vs precision debate, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a scenario where precision could beat power for guardians, especially with the ferocity hit though I can be proven wrong. For your first build of AH/EM, oil is a good idea because you need it to power altruistic healing. The second build is only proccing off Vigorous Precision of which minimal crit is needed to maintain that.

Anyhow, I think I’ll have to try something similar. My feeling is that these builds sacrifice very little yet maintain rather good damage, which makes zerg surfing a lot less boring.

Ahh yes, sorry for the misunderstanding. Yes you’re right, that’s one of the traits I would have no issue swapping around. It’s only really there for the might stacks, but It’s not entirely necessary. Once it starts doing it’s job, the fight is usually over.

I personally just hate purging flames. Always feels so clunky and unreliable to me, but again that’s personal preference.

The oil really isn’t for the procs (although it is nice), it’s mainly just to boost DPS. As I said, if your crit chance is already low, you’re probably gonna get more damage through an extra 10% crit chance as opposed to 100 or so power. Especially when I’m already sitting on 2.4kish power when I’m stacked, not including might.

I only run sharpening stones if my crit chance is already at a satisfactory level

Sword/focus is the bread and butter of pretty much any meditation build. You seriously need it. Not just for the damage, but also for the mobility, blocks, and most importantly, the blinds. If you’re considering hammer, it would probably be better in your GS slot. People think I’m crazy when I tell them I run zerker without GS, but hammer is insanely under rated on a zerker build. Your DPS is pretty similiar (probably slightly lower, but keep in mind it’s a lot easier to consistently land mighty blows, GS is quite high risk), due to the low CD on mighty blow and the symbol ticks (This is assuming you’re zerker, hammer is pretty weak unless you spec for a lot of damage), but the cc on hammer synergises soo well with sword focus. Drop a ring and you basically have a free full damage combo on them. The main advantage of GS is the pull and the burst through WW. It’s personal preference really. The leap is also nice, but with JI and flashing blade it’s not really necessary.

But as I said, DEFINATELY run sword/focus. Consider swapping out GS if anything

Mace works great with focus on a zerker build.
Pop shield of wrath: don’t wanna hit me? Take 5k damage to the face. You do wanna hit me? I’ll just pop protecters strike, take 5k damage to the face.

SubHonour Guard.6498:

If your friend is on JQ/BG/SoS then that guardian may have been me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQjbQ4sphDs

Or the numerous other guardians who run full zerk on TC.

Back on topic though, a zerker gaurd can EASILY drop 20k in an opening combo. You don’t even need a greatsword, I do it with my hammer.
Shield of wrath (6-9k) + JI/Ring of Warding + Smite condition (1-4k) + Mighty blow (4-7k) + Zealots defense (6-9k)

Also keep in mind the guardian damage multiplying traits. I run unscathed contender and fiery wrath for an extra 30% damage on the initial hit. With Shield of wrath, they can’t break your aegis which gives 20% damage, and fiery wraths procs on JI which gives 10% damage. Blind exposure also adds 3% damage but I prefer to run Searing flames in that slot to strip stability for my ji + ring combo

ArchonWing.9480:

1st build:

I think conditions would be a big issue, as you only have purity and CoP which is on a long cooldown. Hoelbrak is nice though. So conditions over time aren’t too big of an issue but if you get something like immobo on you that would be problematic.

The other problem is that you really don’t have any mobility. No leaps or teleports though I guess you have 2 immobilizes. Personally, I would want JI instead of the signet.

Finally, Renewed Justice is a somewhat dubious investment outside of zergs since that’s the main situation where you will be able to take advantage of it. It’s solid, and I like it a lot, but it’s also expendable.

As for the healing build, I like it a lot more. I would ditch COP. It just has no real place here; you’d be better off with a traited purging flames which is better for your group. This also allows you to do something useful with the first virtues slot— Unscathed Contender on a melee build is pretty worthless outside of fighting dolyaks and sentries.

For zerg play, I’d take signet of judgement instead— the aoe weakness will have a bigger impact, it’ll make you harder to kill, and most importantly it’s a stunbreak with a low cooldown.

This build on the other hand has the luxury of taking Strength in Numbers over Purity because absolute resolution+renewed focus+ purging flames is more than enough condi clear especially since you take Hoelbrak. Strength in Numbers brings also group support.

I mean 3300+ armor with the occasional judgement signet for another -10% plus + 2000 power, 30% crit chance, 19k base health, close to 1k dodge heals, mass condi clear and support? I think it’s a great idea!

Also take power food over precision food. Power gets more damage out and you’re not proccing anything significant that needs good crit.

Conditions are only an issue in much smaller skirmishes. With proper rotation of CoP and and VoR you can counter that pretty easily. I agree with a few things you said, disagree with a few other things. It’s a bruiser build, so mobility isn’t a key factor. Ypur goal should beto pull aggro and stay alive whilst dropping as much damage as possible, while the rest of your party melts them. Very different playstyle to say a zerker gaurd who would rely on high mobility to stay alive. Renewed Focus is ALWAYS useful, especially outside of zergs. Why you think it’s dubious I honestly have no idea. Definately not ditching COP. Without it, I only have one skill to remove condi bombs. I hate having to pop my renewed focus solely for the condi cleanse. It’s aslo a great stunbreaker.
Unscathed contender shouldn’t really be there. It’s a trait I’ve never tried and I saw it while theorycrafting so thought I’d try it out. Forgot to swap it. (However in saying that, I’ve been using it on my zerker gaurd and it’s AWESOME for engagement.) Bane signet is only there FOR zerg fighting. I prefer it over judgement because I have no issue staying alive as it is, and the straight power boost means that I can sacrifice sharpening stones for oil, which is important because my crit chance is pretty low on the second build. I like to get as close to 40% as possible, and without oil im in the 20’s. 10% crit chance is a serious damage boost when your crit chance is already quite low. Better than power, especially when my power is already so high through stacks.
Roaming I wouldn’t run any signets. Either a shout or meditation.

I appreciate your input though

BuddyChrist.4961:

I’m liking the idea of this build, been looking for a new roaming build(leaning toward your second one). Has anybody tried this build or a similar one? Or do you happen to have any video OP?

This is my “bruiser” build, so it’s mainly an all rounder. Super effective inside zergs because of the high DPS and high survivability. Solo roaming you might have issues due to lack of escapes etc. Works extremely well in a 4-5 man roaming party though.

If you’re purely a roamer, a stronger build is probably full zerker meditation, and traveller runes. 2/2/6/4
With sword JI and travelers, you can escape from basically everything. It’s also very much possible to land 20k+ opening combos.
Here’s a video of my and a friend running full zerker. I’m the hammer.

Aoko.3562:

Moleless.1462:

Check out my builds here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/The-WvW-bruiser-build/first#post4001704

They focus on balancing high damage with high survivability. Going either full cleric or full zerker isn’t really ideal in wvw. Full zerker just straight up isn’t viable. You have nowhere near enough toughness or vit to keep a reasonable amount of survivability. A few pieces is fine, but full zerker is just stupid.
Cleric will keep you alive pretty well, but you’ll hit like a wet noodle and it’s not really worth it. You also have a tiny base hp, so you’re susceptible to being burst down quickly if you’re cc’d.
You can mix and match your armour to get a pretty strong set of stats.
As a guard you should be aiming for at least:
1.8k power
30% crit chance
3k toughness
17-20k hp (This is dependent on your healing power, applied fortitude stacks also help a ton with this)
600 healing power (It’s possible to go without healing power, but you need to compensate in your other defensive stats. I’d only ever sacrifice healing power for a big spike in damage. Having at least 600 will help you stay alive a lot longer.)

Those are the same stats I get from just mixing zerker/PTV armor with cleric’s accessories pretty much. Doesn’t work that well from my experience but I’ll give it another try I guess.

It works fine if you play actively. Full clerics is seriously overkill for sustain. If you need that much healing power to stay alive you’re probably doing something wrong.

Also, those stats are pretty minimal. Check out the builds in the link (mainly the second one) to see what kind of numbers are possible.

Check out my builds here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/The-WvW-bruiser-build/first#post4001704

They focus on balancing high damage with high survivability. Going either full cleric or full zerker isn’t really ideal in wvw. Full zerker just straight up isn’t viable. You have nowhere near enough toughness or vit to keep a reasonable amount of survivability. A few pieces is fine, but full zerker is just stupid.
Cleric will keep you alive pretty well, but you’ll hit like a wet noodle and it’s not really worth it. You also have a tiny base hp, so you’re susceptible to being burst down quickly if you’re cc’d.
You can mix and match your armour to get a pretty strong set of stats.
As a guard you should be aiming for at least:
1.8k power
30% crit chance
3k toughness
17-20k hp (This is dependent on your healing power, applied fortitude stacks also help a ton with this)
600 healing power (It’s possible to go without healing power, but you need to compensate in your other defensive stats. I’d only ever sacrifice healing power for a big spike in damage. Having at least 600 will help you stay alive a lot longer.)

I’ve been working pretty kitten finding an optimal build since the big patch, and I think I’ve found a pretty good balance, so I’ve decided to share.

There are two variants. One build is very offensive. It sacrifices sustain through healing power for massive power. The second variant also has high damage, but it has a lot more sustain. In my opinion the second build is stronger, as it’s more well balanced, and you need that extra sustain to stay alive if you find yourself getting focused often. The damage build can survive fine inside a blob, but it can have trouble with condi pressure etc in smaller fights because it lacks sustain.

Pick the first build if you enjoy hitting like a truck, the second build if you want something more balanced.

Also keep in mind that the only ascended gear in the build editor are a few trinkets, this is because they are the only ascended available too me. The numbers on this build have potential to be even higher with better gear.

Beau’s Power Bruiser:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWlsApVodDxQI8DRBABljdBAzYE+r7QKyAA-T1yDwAKOCAxUXhnSMXqU8U5BATcTuEAf0FgQJYgHAgs9HIEggFA-w

0/3/6/4/1

2.3k power (3.5k fully stacked!)
3.2k toughness
19-22k hp
35% precision

This build basically stacks power and might in order to hit like a truck. With 3.2k toughness and around 22k hp with guard stacks (must have), it’s actually a very tanky build, but the damage potential is ridiculous.
With sigil of battle + empower + hoelbrak runes + your trait combo, you can instantly stack 25 stacks of might by yourself, before even engaging in a fight. Assuming you have fully stacked your bloodlust and guard buffs, with 25 stacks of might your effective power will be 3.5k! This combined with your 35% precision makes your dps insane, and you can maintain at least 10 stacks of might throughout a fight due to your hoelbrak runes.

You also have the reset on VoJ in your traits, so once an enemy zerg starts dying, you can spam VoJ, which also stacks might, and you will keep perma 25 stacks and aoe blind at the end of a fight.

This build is honestly ridiculously strong. The one weakness as I mentioned earlier is the sustain. There’s basically no healing power, but you can generally stay alive quite easily due to AH, and your high toughness, but you may have trouble if focused hard in skirmishes or under heavy condi pressure.

Beau’s Healing Bruiser:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASRlsApVodDxQI8DNhDRl57VfYXBF3WeZA0AA-TlCEABEpEbQlgwo+jVKPEwEjEPCAP0FAwFA4hjAQM7PQIAWLAA-w

0/0/4/6/4

2k power (3.3k stacked)
3.1k toughness
19-22k hp
35% prec
850 healing power

This build is similar but very different. Still running Hoelbrak because they are so strong. I seriously recommend these runes right now.
The most obvious difference in this build is the healing power. I dropped a few hundred points in power for a whopping 850 healing power. This massively boosts your ability to stay alive. I dropped 10 points from valor, as I don’t think AH is necesarry with such high healing power. IT doesn’t scale very well with your stats, and your various other sources of healing are more than enoguh to keep you alive without AH once your healing power is over 800.
I decided to instead put another 10 points in virtues, for the virtue of resolve trait. This triat is awesome because it not only strengthens your passive heal, which is kind of needed now since healing signet is so much stronger than virtue of resolve, but it also cures 3 condis on active. Used with Renewed Focus, you can instantly cleanse 6 condis whilst healing 5k+.
This build still relies on stacking might to hit hard. You can still stack 25 stacks by yourself, and sustain around 10 stacks, but you no longer have the voj spam in your traits to give you free might.

This build hits like a truck (however not compared to the build above), but also has a kittenload of durability. You really couldn’t get much tankier than this build without going full bunker, and that’s quite impressive considering how much damage this build can do.

As mentioned earlier, I believe this variant is the strongest, as I’m only sacrificing a smallish amount of power for a kittenload of healing, but if you want to be hitting as hard as possible, and you have faith in your ability to stay alive, you may prefer the first build.

Feedback encouraged

Shiren.9532:

That’s because the time and effort to acquire the dungeon weapons via sPvP tracks is way easier than the PvE equivalent for many dungeons. If you want a full set or Arah weapons it’s far easier and faster to just join sPvP and face opponents of similar skill level to your own to get these weapons than it is to learn the dungeons and deal with the daily grinds.

The regional reward tracks look so bad because the dungeon reward tracks are far too generous.

Actually not really. Seeing that you only get a single piece of armour from a completed dungeon track, as opposed to a full set (like it actually says on the description), it’s generally a hell of a lot faster just running the dungeon if you want gear.

It’s good for me though, because I just hate doing dungeons and would never be running them anyway. Gives me a chance to at least get some dungeon skins.

I’m ranked 348 in solo queue and still regularly have low level players in my games.

Noooooooooooooo. Celestial used to be semi-viable on gaurdian, but crit damage got nerfed to kitten and now it’s probably the worst item you could get. I wouldn’t recomend more than two zerker pieces now. Power scales a lot better than ferocity, so You’re a lot better off just stacking in power and precision, then ditching ferocity for HP/Toughness/Healing power

Force of will is very good and a much needed addition. I get 25k hp with full KNIGHTS armour. That’s unheard of pre patch.

POV isn’t even that good unless you run soldier runes with it, and I defo don’t. Melandru+lemongrass+COP is more than enough to deal with condis.

If you can turn some of that precision into power/toughness, this could be a really strong build.

I play only WvW so I’ll speak from that standpoint. I posted a thread a while ago and a lot of people were interested in knowing the build I was using, so here it is:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARSlUgqC33RKEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741jESRGC-jwyAY/khuCExAigAkALiGbZsIasqaAFDm+MpK3I7OUWlCIilRA-e

(Notice the lack of ascended, so it has potential to go even higher)

Pretty much offensive bruiser spec. Full gaurd stacks etc will bring my attack up to around 3.5k, and my vitality to about 20k. The damage output from this build is ridiculous, but it also has really solid tanking potential. With the armour trait, I get about 3.4k armour in battle. This mitigates a lot of damage, and it makes it possible for me to sustain purely from AH heals. Unless you’re getting focused, you can sit inside an enemy blob without much issue. When things do get really heated, you have shelter or renewed focus to drop agro.

Condi’s: With melandru runes, condis are essentially non-existant when you’re zerg fighting. Smaller scale combat can be a different story. To counter this, I’ll usually change the food when I’m roaming to -40% condi duration. together with melandru runes, this gives me -75% duration. Pure of Voice is usually enough to cover the burst condis when you get fully stacked, but if you’re having big problems with that, you can also use Contemplation of Purity as a utility. Really under rated skill, as it works as a stun-breaker too.

Well the biggest thing that stands out to me when I look at those builds is the armor stat. 2.7k is very low for a heavy if you aren’t backing it up with either good vitality or healing power (you lack both). You have really solid power and crit damage, but to be a true “bruiser”, you need a bit more toughness to be able to comfortable soak up front line damage.

I tinkered with your knights version slightly. The main thing i did was sacrifice some of your really high power to bring the toughness up to a reasonable level. However, your base attack is still 3.1k (a lot of this actually comes from changing the food/oil too, so if you’d prefer lower prec and higher power you can change that easy), which is really good keeping in mind yo ualready have 84% crit damage. I also added the bloodlust sigil, so at full stacks you will actually have higher attack stat than what you would have originally.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlUgyC33xKEfIFRuAbBYPwYG741jESRGC-jQCBYfJD9LQEEAJQFRjtyqIasKkYKXRW7KpqYASBExwI-e

Dynnen.6405:

@Moleless: Combine RoW with Judge’s Intervention and its amazing

@Merril: While yes we aren’t the best at chasing people down, being able to hold ground is pointless if you can’t keep people on that ground. Because there are plenty of classes that can hit hard then run away to reset the fight only to come back and hit you again once your defensive abilities are on cooldown. To hold ground you have to be able to control ground. And there are better classes at doing that since we have next to no hard or soft CC.

Ahh yes, something else I forgot to mention. That combo is epic. Sadly I can’t find much room for JI in my utility slots these days. Judges Intervention would be a lot more viable if it was ground targeted imo.

Sube Dai.8496:

As said it is only a roaming <5v5 problem. It is a big problem though.

Even 10-15, condis are still king.

Noah.4756:

Even though they buffed Glacial Heart two months ago it’s still not useful. The 30 second cooldown and the inability to choose when to use the chill makes it a very lackluster trait. You’ll be better of with a Sigil of Hydromancy which has a cooldown of 9 seconds.

Ring of Warding can be potentially useful if you time it right. But you can’t move when you activate the skill and so it becomes hard to catch someone. That’s why most of the time I see guardians use the skill to keep people out instead of inside.

If they could somehow make our elite skill Tome of Wrath more attractive for guardians it could potentially be slotted to finish off players. It has all the right skills: Cripple, Knock Down, Swiftness, Quickness, Fury and a Burn.

Landing RoW is simple. If you’re facign a melee, just let them go all out on you then drop it. If it’s a ranged kiter, you need to open with zealots embrace, double dodge until youre in top of them, then drop the ring. Works 90% of the time. You have to land the zealots embrace first of course, but thats not too hard unless they’re just on full retreat. A mistake I see a lot, is people just trying to stand on top of a moving target than drop the ring. This will hardly ever work. If the target is actively moving, you pretty much always need some other cc on them first before you trap them in a ring.

In zergs, just look for the biggest stack of red, roll into into it then drop that ring.

As a few people have mentioned, it’s not at all an issue in large scales fights. Condi’s dont stick inside a zerg.

Small scale combat is a completely different story. The condi pressure that some classes can apply is just straight up ridiculous. I’m specced almost entirely to counter conditions, yet conditions are still by far the biggest issue for me in small fights. You can’t counter conditions at all. The current condi meta allows for no counter play, and that’s pretty much the definition of a broken mechanic.

Not to mention, the whole playstyle in general is jsut so anti-fun. In my opinion, conditions should be relegated to soft CC only. Condi damage is just completely over the top.

Comprissent.3856:

Thanks [STUN] and [EP] for the fights!

We’ll throw down again in the future

Thanks guys. Awesome fights.

Keep it classy SOS. I don’t think I’ve gone one death in the last 3 days without having 10 people jumping and dancing on my body after de-routing the zerg to catch me while I solo roam.

I’m not sure if it’s because they are incredibly desperate for kills (not surprising as they lose almost every open field trade), or if they just have some gigantic kitten for me in particular.

Tarsius.3170:

One plus with the way it works at the moment, if you’ve had to hit renewed focus as a panic button, you get a couple of seconds to fire any Virtues that still have their active available so the recharge isn’t wasted.

On the other hand I certainly wouldn’t mind it if dodging was disabled while the skill was channelling.

I was about to bring this up. many a time have I used RF as an “oh kitten” button, not having the time to actually pop any unused virtue before I hit the elite. As it works now, I get a few seconds to spam anything I haven’t used. If you don’t get this chance, it’s effectively an entire virtue effect wasted.

I think the best solution here is simply not to dodge out of your elite. It’s something I did a few times when I was starting out, and yes it’s annoying, but you will learn eventually.

AgentChaos.4932:

dat hotkey set up though o.O

Those hotkeys are all just random, out of the way keys, that are assigned to one of the buttons on my mouse.

Ariete.6509:

AgentChaos.4932:

dat hotkey set up though o.O

I suspect he might be using combat mod. I used it myself but it gets impossible to use evasive leaps since autotargetting has to be on for combat ui to work.

Edit: thus making those two hammering abilities not tied to F11,12. They are probably mouse left and mouse right button since combat mod fixes your aim kind of like a fps game, which frees up your mouse buttons.

Almost right. I don’t use combat mod, but I have a G700 mouse with lots of extra buttons.

Seigfried.5938:

I didn’t expect all that chest thumping from TC, and especially not from chris who isn’t even part of this matchup.

I haven’t seen anything more than people celebrating an unexpected victory, which is pretty reasonable considering the circumstances.

Don’t be a sore loser

Bash.7291:

I really wish I had the time invested into WvW to have guard stacks.

Thy are pretty game-changing, not gonna lie

Anyone telling you gaurdian is not a DPS class is wrong. I play only WvW, so I can only speak from experience in that, but I run pretty bunker traits (0/5/30/30/5), and I deal HEAVY DPS. The great thing about gaurdians, is we have SO much natural survivability. People often look at this and think “Hmm, gaurds abilities/traits are obviously defense orientated, I guess I should build defensively too”.
This is bad logic. We have so much defensive and supportive abilities built into the class, it gives us freedom to build awesome DPS stats with our gear. Traits and utilities (with some decent toughness) are more than enough to keep gaurdian alive. Just take advantage of that, and build damage with your gear.

When I’m fully stacked, I hit up to 8k on my mighty blow (rare, squishies I usually hit 4-6k, heavies 2-4k) which is on a 4 second cooldown. I can then follow this up with 2.5-3k auto attacks,(again, not common, but I usually crit between 1.5-2k) and get constant ticks from my prot symol if I can consistently land my AA combo. That is massive damage, and my build does not sacrifice much survivability.

I’m not trying to brag or anything, I’m just giving an example of what the gaurd is actually capable of.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

How did you get those stats?

A lot of theorycrafting
Also stacks

mrauls.6519:

Upleveled

Upleveled legend?

So I recently hit a necro in lich form for 7.7k…… Using Zealot’s Embrace.

I’m not really sure how it happened. I have solid power and crit damage when I’m fully stacked, but the skill only hits for 700 damage, I hit 10x that. Doesn’t really add up.

Anyone else experienced something similiar? I’m sure it must be one of the biggest chain hits out there. I’ll post some proof below, and a pic of my stats.

Nickthemoonwolf.1485:

Also, am I the only one really upset that they REMOVED costume brawl from wvw?

Yes.

Nakoor.1980:

Polismassa.6740:

Moleless.1462:

Lost a kittenload of respect for JQ today, namely [SG]. STUN and RET actually ended up having to abandon the new GvG arena because we had a bunch of SG guildies jumping into every round, and harrasing our stacks before it had even started.

I guess we have to stick with the windmill because people can’t grow the kitten up.

Ok, personally, I would never interrupt a GvG myself, but does it really seem like such a good idea to immediately go GvG in the absolutely brand new arena, open to the public? Even if it wasn’t SG, you know you would likely have random PuGs running in and messing with the match simply because it’s new content.

Why not wait a little for it to cool down, wait for people to get bored of the new zone, and then schedule your GvGs? Not meant to be trolling at all, just a bit of friendly advice.

Edit: Just as an aside, I’m not defending SG here, I don’t agree with what they did at all.

We did it just to test it out and see how it worked. The arena itself was good. The area to move around was wonderful. The adds not so much but we expected that abit. One can always hope.

Great fights with STUN tonight though. RET is hard at work already looking to improve and work out kinks and builds and get back into the flow of things since it’s been so long. Thanks for the scrimmage tonight and hope to fight you again.

We all enjoyed it very much even the ones we lost. I realized some stuff I need to work on myself.

Great fights mate.
It was our first GvG, so we were also mainly looking to improve. Turned out to be a kitten good match-up. I’m sure we’ll see you in the field again, and hopefully we get a chance to properly use the GvG arena some time.

Also a big shout-out to [ONE]. Really strong guild, I have a lot of respect for you guys.

Good fights all round, cheers guys,