Guild Wars 2

swiftpaw.6397:

Call me silly but here are some things I have seen from guardians in dungeons that do not make sense to me.

- Guardian claims to be a ‘support guardian’, his main weapon set is sceptre/focus.. every now and again he uses staff empower and calls it a day.

I could do you one better. I partied with random guards too numerous to count that seems to stay indefinitely in staff and just stands there until every Empower CD.

I ask, “Don’t you have other weapons?”

They answer, “I’m built for full support and heals”

“full support and heals”

“full support and heals”

Yet no shouts, no use of swiftness symbol, no detonation of the orb either, and virtues? what’s that?

Here comes the palmtrain, next stop, my face.

Maiden England.3491:

Let me remind you gentlemen that though zerker guardians do more damage, PVT gear still does some decent damage as well. So you’d be contributing somewhat decent dps as well as tanking the entire dungeon.

You’d be fine with Knights instead, and you can still “tank” mobs; full soldiers is just too much defense in PvE — full clerics would be much, MUCH better even. Very mediocre DPS but at least you can pass down your survivability to others via boosted healing.

Stability

Cannot be knocked down, pushed back, launched, stunned, dazed, floated, sunk, or feared.

Only works if you have the boon up BEFORE the CC hits. If you had the Boon and you still got hit by CC — it either got stolen, stripped or you were already CC’ed beforehand.

Shanger.3172:

Thx guys for help. By saying tanky i meant survivability I think i will do smth like Mikemad said. I will mix soldier and berserker with some knight and i’m going to use GS. I think 3k armor and 3k power will be good with high HP and some crits Maybe can someone help me to do traits to my build? 0/10/30/30/0 will be good for that?

Hi OP, since I assume you will be building for mostly PvE, you’ll be OK with 3k Armor/Attack Power but you’ll also want to aim for both of these minimum stat points of:

1.) Near to 30% Critical Chance or higher
2.) the lowest HP you can handle
3.) 30-60%+ Critical DMG

Why are these minimums important?

1.) This level of Critical Chance (30%) will help you proc Vigor enough for you to dodge roll as much as you want, and if you trait for it, proc Might for yourself & your team through Empowering Might (20 Honor – VIII). These then grant you HP per application per person through Altruistic Healing (30 Valor – XI), to which, both Vigor & HP returns will make you very, very tanky.

2.) With Altruistic Healing (30 Valor – XI), its many synergies & your high armor rating — you’ll do fine with an HP value low enough for you to handle comfortably. The +300 Vitality granted by 30 Honor is more than sufficient.

3.) Who wouldn’t say no to more damage really.

On rune setup, you can go:

A.) Ruby Orbs, for pure anadulterated DPS
B.) Boon duration runes which synergize with every single one of your supportive traits and buffs — which in turn makes you either tank better, hit harder, or both.
C.) Lyssa Runes if you hate conditions & debuffs

On traits, the way you’re setup is already fine as is, but I would suggest putting 10 points from Radiance into Zeal for Fiery Wrath. It’s an easy increase in DMG (+10%) in a party or group setting for you.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|a2.0.u56b.u28b.0|0.0|0.0.0.0.0|e

Change the 30-pt Honor trait as needed per situation.

If you plan to be a little more supportive instead, 10 points in Virtues with Master of Consecrations would suffice.

Additional information:

When you’ve grown accustomed to high-level content and challenging boss fights that you’ve simply outgrown the need for Altruistic Healing and Toughness in general, slowly phase in Berserker gear into your current gearset — eventually blossoming into a Zerker Swan.

Don’t let the squishiness of Berserker gear faze you, as guardian has -many- ways to be robust regardless of the loss of toughness.

Plus, you get the cherry on top that are better builds which perform role X or Y that weren’t possible before with 30 points spent in Valor.

Moi.

http://i.imgur.com/N4BCw3O.jpg

Obtena made pretty good burn builds, here are the links to the said builds that may help you:

Her PvE Burn build:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.4|2.1h.hf|2.1h.h4|1h.72.1h.72.1h.72.1h.78.1h.78.1h.78|1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.1o.63.1o.63.1c.62|k25.f6.u12c.0.5|2i.d|v.1d.14.15.0|e

And the PvP version:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|1.1d.h2|c.1d.h1j.d.1f.h2|1h.719.1h.719.1h.719.1d.719.1d.719.1d.719|1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.cc.62|0.0.k25.k29.u289|2w.d|0.1b.16.z.0|e

Though you may need to remove 10 points from the PvP version since you want to use Meditations for the 30-Valor Monk trait.

Sannhet.8745:

I love when Guanglai talks in absolutes about gear. There are plenty of people (including people far more respected, mainly due to his attitude) who use knights gear to anchor for groups and still put out good damage.

Guanglai does have an attitude, but I have to admit he does have a point at times.

Knights & AH are perfect for the many balanced variations of the cookie-cutter build of 30/30/10, and can even be a defensive-overload if paired with a Hammer. To a degree it can even be said that the said stat build and trait build are training wheels for dungeon/fractal running and is always handy for use in an disorganized, inexperienced Pick-Up Group.

I think his point is that there are better builds to do role X or role Y than the balanced do-it-all but not do-X-or-Y-better AH Knights build, and that if you grown past the point of not needing the AH healing from a lot of practice in your PvE encounters, then an increase in damage or support would suit you just fine —- As that 30 valor is simply sitting pretty from you not getting hit that much anymore from all that good practice.

hellokittyonline.7532:

What rune do i use for this extreme dps build?

I direct you to a very good guide made by Red Falcon:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Frac40-High-DPS-Support-build/first#post1611521

In order to keep the guardian grade-A support without compromising the said extreme DPS, boon duration runes will suit you fine along with the shouts. Soldier runes will also work if you prefer party condition removal.

You CAN drop the whole idea of augmenting your supportive utilities with runes with Ruby Orbs, but I feel the added +12% Crit and what nots aren’t that great compared to greater uptime in all your boons. Guardians do have the easiest access to them after all.

Plus, the loss of additional DPS from the choice of Ruby Orbs to Boon Duration/Soldier runes can help keep your party alive even longer, and alleviate both parties’ possible mistakes. Which basically indirectly keeps sustained DPS alive and well.

Efficiency is dependent on what role you want to be, what encounters you plan on doing (dungeons or high fractals), and how skilled you are as a player. Also to an extent, how organized your group is.

In terms of stat spread, to quote Brutaly who has it spot on:

25-60%% crit
2800-3400 Attack
14k-18k health
2400-3300 armour
200-1200 heal power
51-105% critdamage

If you can hit the minimum or inbetweens of those stats, you’re pretty much golden.
However, you need to adjust them depending on typical roles specified below.

A typical anchor guardian would be sporting Knights armor w/ Berserker accessories with a 0/0/30/30/10 trait build along with either soldier runes or boon duration with shouts. Knights give you enough survivability without compromising on DPS too much. Plus, the boon duration, shouts, and AH from 30 Valor will give you great sustain and support.

A typical support guardian would be full clerics along with 0/X/X/30/X traits, boon duration runes and shouts. While this stat-build has great healing power through Selfless Daring party heals, you will deal low-mediocre DPS. This build seems to be deemed quite ineffectual in general PvE and dungeons as the low DPS may prolong fights which can cause mistakes for both you and your team. However, this has great potential in the PvP game type.

If you drop 30 Valor and let go of Altruistic Healing a whole slew of new builds will open up for you, which are basically the Pure, or Almost-Pure type roles.

A very offensive DPS role but still with support, is easily X/30/X/20/5 with Right-Handed Strength. Deals extreme DPS for a guardian and is still robust and supportive with the right kind of rune and stat spread.

And a very supportive role would be 0/0/X/30/20-30. Supplement with boon duration runes and shouts, with Pure of Voice as needed.

And for the record, I run a boon-duration supportive anchor with Berserker Armor, but with Knights Chest & Legs along with Ascended Zerk amulet with Ascended Cavalier Rings/Trinkets and an Ascended Soldier Backpiece. Plus Knights GS with +5% crit rune and Cleric Staff.

Brings me to unbuffed stats of:

3K-ish Attack
3.1k Armor
43% Crit
79% Crit DMG
15K HP
50% Boon Duration
350 Healing Power

Works completely fine in any sort of dungeon or general PvE without any hiccups.

Zeppelin.6832:

Sadly, when it comes to straight utility and damage, you can’t beat a warrior in PVE.

I think you meant this instead. I disagree that warriors have better utilities that can cover all aspects of PvE than guardians.

You CAN try competing for warrior DPS as a guardian, but you will most likely have to omit some traits that basically make the guardian so unique in PvE in the first place.