Guild Wars 2

I haven’t played for a while so apologies if this is now out of date, the last thing I did was Thermonova Fractal!

This is the general 15/15/0/20/20 hammer build that I use:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83935-dps-hammer-synergy-with-lightning-hammer-elementalist/

With my muck around guild group I tended to run with both fire fields and the wall. Fields for everyone!

(try not to get your light fields stuck in the fire ones).

I like the idea of a finisher on staff when it finishes (gives players/mobs the chance to interupt).

Sceptre really should have a projectile finisher, if they insist on leaving it as it is.

Shield has bigger problems that i’m not sure a finisher would solve.

For a start as far as I know the 6th piece of Rune of Might is still bugged.

I would try to avoid making a build that will work in WvW AND PvE, they’re just too different and you’ll kitten yourself in dungeons trying to use a WvW build.

You’ll find about 10 different views from various people on AH and builds so I won’t bother adding to that! Certainly for PvE there comes a point where you’re adding defence for no reason and just lowering your damage.

If you want to go for an AH type build you could even argue Scholar runes as you’ve got a daft amount of healing. You can’t tank this game so this is a main argument for zerker dps.

Personally I run a Knights+1zerker armour, zerker weapon and trinkets Hammer/Staff build with boon duration runes. But some people hate hammer, love GS or find sword awkward.

A slight buff in health – one counter argument is that we get protection. Come sit in my symbol and you get protection too, now what?

Merging of symbol traits – Perhaps tack the healing part onto longer symbols?

Work out a way to stop having so many symbol traits in so many places! It’s bad enough that they’re static, but why is one of them 25 points in zeal?!

Change the blast on light fields. If you pvp or wvw this might be less of an issue, but blasting on a light field is a bit pants in PvE.

Field priorities – perhaps a generic, or player-based way of giving fields priorities? Like if a fire field is down, this takes priority over a light field? This one is harder to do and it’s more a ‘would be nice’ feature.

Improvement to the 25 virtues trait. It makes no sense that you can get 10% damage if the mob has a condition in one tree, but in an equal place the best you can get is 8% if you have every boon going. Maybe make it 2% per boon with a cap at 10%?

Hallowed ground gets a buff, as well as Purging flames? Happy Charrdian.

You could also debate whether you could switch in the 10% reduced damage signet for one of your consecrations. You don’t need reflect all the time, but when you do, perhaps swap it out for Hallowed Ground.

But as I say, who knows what will be announced next Tues. I’d sit tight for now.

Also looking at the gear stat choices, i’d still at least go full zerker accessories.

For build 1 In virtues i’d go VI then IX.

I’m running a 15/15/0/30/10 build at the moment with full zerker, and coming from a mix of knights and zerker with an AH spec, the new dungeon was certainly a wake up call for me!

I’m thinking builds will change, they talk about improving support skills (and I assume traits?) so I’m trying not to think too much about various builds until next tuesday!

The idea of 10/0/0/30/30 with hammer/staff interests me from a support/boon duration point of view (I have 45% boon runes and 20% boon food too) so i’ll be interested to see what DOES happen next week!

I’m not totally sure I see the point, you can get them from temples and most people not saving for their 4th legendary are swimming in karma.

(edit) unless you’re thinking in preparation of ascended?

I’m impressed you’ve managed to get 500 emp fragments without trying! That was the one thing that took time with me.

As for the dragonite, do temples and world bosses. Temples seem to give the most, plus they’re a bit more entertaining (aside from the sodding Lyssa gorilla shudders)

Slightly related question. I’ve just got a new hammer and want to put the 25 stack power sigil on it. When I’m able to transmute the ascended hammer with this current skin, what happens about the sigil/infusions. Does a fourth category appear just for the infusions? Or if I put over the current sigil, does that override the new sigil slot and the infusion slots?

(hope that made sense…)

“No one likes popping shouts when they are not needed just because you have 20 stacks of confusion and bleeding.”

That seems like a good reason TO pop a shout to be honest. Why can’t you have both? You pick up conditions quicker than the lightning fields one-shot you to death once you’re downed on Golem now.

I have to agree with Jax, even though my PVP time is fairly limited by experienced players standards, I don’t see what this build really brings that a 10/30/30 doesn’t do better. I concede 30 in Valor gives you more toughness and crit dmg, but I doubt your crit is huge anyway. I find AH to be a bit underwhelming in PVP too, but maybe that’s just me.

If you’re going to go at least 20 in boon duration and you have 2h mastery, I’d prefer to just use a staff instead of a sword and free up the utility spot.

Just my two cents anyway.

Ah thank you! I always assumed it was just if I had a friend on another server and i’d be their ‘guest’.

I opened 3 sets of 10 boxes and each time got two shards, so 3% seems a little pessimistic.

Noob questions time, it’s to do with guesting.

a) how on earth do you do it
b) you talk about finding a server and guesting on it. Do I have to know someone on that server or can I just ‘go to it?’

AzernakO.9627:

Newbie Here:

What exactly is the AHEM build used for? Is it just a PvP thing where it has a fairly heft sustainability?

In PvP I find AH just doesn’t cut it, the healing you receive doesn’t do enough and there are better ways to stay alive (bunker) or just all out dps.

I use AHEM for PvE and WvW. In PvE at times it’s a bit of overkill but then you get other situations where you can take a lot of damage and just shrug it off, especially in a solider shout build.

In WvW I use the same build because i’m lazy, but it’s great at keeping you topped up with conditions flying everywhere, Staff’s Empower is a shed load of healing with players around you.

I somehow got it first try (that I was trying to do it) with a spirit weapon build and sceptre. I even gave up at 30% because I thought i’d killed a couple of oozes, so just went all out. Then I won and got the ach. My only assumption is that spirit weapons don’t count!

On the one hand I did it first try and didn’t think it was hard at all. But since everyone doesn’t start with the same stats, gear and traits i’ll share mine. But first, I think the reason you had issues was probably that you were too glass cannon. 2.1k Armour with buffs seems pretty low.

Standard AH build 0/15/30/20/5 (this is my normal build, no optimised for the gauntlet) with 80 pre 8% crit damage food (I had some that needed using up).

6. Healing Signet
7. Stand Your Ground
8. Hold The Line
9. 180 power signet.

Mostly knights armour, zerker trinkets.

Basic tactics really (since it was my first go I wasn’t sure what to expect). Round them up with GS5 and pull them together, then slap them with the GS. I tried to do healer first but ended up doing captain. Then the rogue, then healer then the aoe guy (aoe, red circles, by now it should be 2nd nature to avoid). AH is generating a daft amount of healing, along with dodge rolls, virtues and whatever else.

I bought the hammer skin earlier and used it in pvp. Did you accidentally click the ‘use normally’ button instead of use for PvP?

Jax.5261:

Thanks. To respond to your questions:

• Most people feel that they need way more condition removal in this meta, while I don’t agree with them completely, we definitely do need this minor trait. There have been countless times fear would have screwed me over and this trait has saved me, that’s reason enough to bring it.
• Consecrated Ground means you can cast Sanctuary anywhere, this means if your ally was going down somewhere else (which happens most of the time) you can still deny the stomp and secure the res. You’ll rarely ever get normal Sanctuary to deny the stomp.
• Dual Energy sigils are extremely important on this build as they let you live against numerous enemies for long periods of time. It’s also important to note that dodge rolls make up most of your healing and missing out on that energy sigil means a lot of health/damage mitigation you’re missing out on.
  That being said there are times where I only need 1 energy sigil to survive, but that’s in extremely specific situations where I make no mistakes and it’s usually to counter other players with Doom/Hydromancy, etc. (not something you’re really thinking about in hotjoin).

Thanks for your reply. I’ll keep these changes and see how I get on then, I understand what you mean about CG so i’ll be trying that out!

One last thought. I mentioned about condition removal (maybe too much?) and if I swap in Purity, what are your thoughts on using Dolyak runes instead of Soldier? Or is an extra removal on shout for me and allies nearby too good to negate?

I’ve started dabbling in pvp and up to rank 10, so nothing very exciting.

I’d been running with a staff/hammer build with a 0/0/30/30/10 just off my own ideas and it was pretty decent. I looked around and tried a few 1h builds but just couldn’t get to grips with it, probably due to my AH staff/gs/hammer playstyle in pve.

I looked at your sticky (very nice by the way, easy to understand) and tried the Spirit Watch build and it’s great! Before I had retreat on my bars a lot due to me being a typical capper rather than killer (I think that was drummed into me from WoW days “Fight near the cap for gods sake!”) but with the extra boon duration and swapping in 2h mastery, swiftness is just as good and I can put Sanctuary on my bars, a move i’ve barely used before to be honest, but so good for taking off some pressure when trying to cap and helping out allies.

A couple of points/changes i’ve made and you may agree or disagree with, i’m the noob after all.

Valor 10pts. I’ve gone for Strength in Numbers over Purity. It strikes me as we have so much removal with the shouts and the virtue, do we need that as well?

Virtues 10pts. I’ve gone for Master of Conc over Consecrated Ground. Maybe I just don’t understand CG but shorter cd and longer sanc seems better to me?

Sigil of Energy on hammer. This may be the way I play but a lot of times I found that I didn’t switch from staff to hammer with energy missing. Perhaps it’ll just take some time to get used to, but for now i’ve gone for Sigil of Hydromancy (I haven’t tested this one so it may be pants).

If anyone thinks i’ve chosen weaker options please say, i’m happy to learn!

P.s. is there a more enjoyable thing than hammering someone off Skyhammer?

Make sure you use some of them near other players. You can’t just ‘use’ them, they have to do something. I was at 6/7 too for a while then realised when i’d used the lightning strike before it wasn’t on anyone so didn’t count.

Ah thankyou!

(PVE – group)

Hi Guys, i’m running a shout soldier runes build and am thinking of swapping out the ‘remove one condition every 10 secs’ trait for Strength in Numbers.

When I select the trait however, my Toughness doesn’t change. I’ve zoned out, relogged, nothing.

Is this a bug with the trait or a bug with the displaying of the toughness?

Second question that may apply to the first – does this trait also work with yourself, like the ‘allies’ in AH?

To be fair, mesmers are a bit painful to level to start with, once you get rolling in the higher levels it’s such a different game it’s untrue.

It’s probably best not to ask why…

Also as a side note, I’ve started using the boon duration kit with staff for events such as Dwayna and it’s so good and AH just goes mad with healing, the only time I risk health is if I have to go revive one of the poor classes that don’t have such an absurd trait

I love the staff now it’s been buffed, I find it so good for WvW if you can find others to run with due to the buffs and healing. The 5 ability is also great for blocking runners or blocking off chasers so you can escape. Secondary is GS for when I need to kill something myself, be it a mob or a 1v1 situation. I have a sceptre/shield if I need to go into ranged for a long period.

I’ve started building a boon duration kit, which will give 40% (+5 from traits), with 2 shouts and virtues all getting thrown out as well as the boons from weapons. (And of course Save Yourselves buffing me up to the eyeballs). And with AH, boons = healing!

Sigil wise I have this: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Generosity which i’m assured does work in WvW just not PvP. Because my PvE build is quite critty, a lot of this has translated over and so I wanted a sigil that would aid shaking off conditions. I use Sigil of Blood in my PvE AH Hammer build because it does damage but again heals (I do like the fact I can take the hits in my group and then have to heal the others up with my buffs whilst I merrily get healed with AH and dodging).

I run a 0/15/30/20/5 build in PvE but trying out a 0/5/30/30/5 build in WvW which I like. I’d pick Pure of Voice but apparently they still haven’t sorted that trait, which is a shame.

I come from playing WoW where so much of the time the majority would just run in and i’d have to get the flag myself, or protect the AB base myself, etc etc, so i’m quite happy helping out the team rather than being a loose cannon just trying to kill everything in site. It all depends on your playstyle.

I don’t use it now but as cthorn says it’s useful for vets or if you suddenly get a lot of mobs at once. They can knockdown too which can really save you to get some distance and recover. I don’t have the wolf though so don’t know how it compares to that.

Cacti Eleven.9135:

The trash bag helmet. Nuff said. (TA heavy helmet)

Oh god, why?!

You have nearly the exact same colours and colour scheme as me :o

On topic, I like T2 (picture). T3 comes and goes with me, i’ve never seen it on another player though so it might look better outside of the preview.

@cargan one of the sets on the TP has legs (if you can make out in my picture) with some nice decoration too. I know what you mean about skirts!

(apologies for the picture spam!)

I agree to an extent, although I like my full plate armour now i’ve assembled the bits so far.

Helms are dreadful, the only ones I like are t2 (here) and t3. The rest, pretty much, just don’t work.

I can’t really remember what my armour used to look like but this also has a nice tail flap, so less clipping there

A lot of armour is quite bulky as well, which doesn’t really help as we’re already a bulky race!

Barrage is horrible, Warband is quite nice for levelling when you bump into a vet and need a stun/distraction for a bit.

Don’t waste your time with the rares, as you say you still need lots of mats, just focus on the exotics.

The mats really aren’t that much, if you farm the ori, you just need 5 orbs (between 2g80 and about 8 depending on what you need) and 5 ectos. I admit ectos seem to soar but hopefully you’ve been scavenging your rares you’ve picked up (or sold for more money) and have a few saved up.

Take it slowly, there’s no rush to get all your gear.

On topic – I don’t understand why the rares are like that, that’s why I ignored them completely.

I run with a GS/Hammer in solo play, with an Altruistic Healing build 0/15/30/20/5. AH is a bit ridiculous for self healing, even if you’re only on your own. So ignore that bit for now.
But i’d go 5 into virtues at least even with your build, it’s just too good to ignore with the synergy with Courage.

For most things I stick with my GS, but if I find a vet/champ/group in general I switch to the hammer, which provides the protection I need to stay alive longer.

When levelling I was GS/Scepter-Shield. I’d tend to blow the GS cooldowns, then switch to the secondary and do the same. It was a bit slow at times on vets but they died and I didn’t (hurrah?).

I’ve never gone past 15 points to get refreshed Virtue of Courage (this is so good in solo play it’s untrue, Burning+blind+ vulnerability every time you kill a mob, and of course even better with a pack of them.)

Like others have said, I’m not sure a burning build really plays to the strengths of a Guardian. I find condition damage one of our worst stats, which in turn reflects on how long I rate our conditions (damage wise, blind ftw).

Also, how’s your dodging? Even without the trait to heal yourself and allies when you roll, it’s a key part of evading damage and buying you time.

Don’t go with Tome of Wrath for solo, it just disables your other skills and in my opinion doesn’t really help you half the time. Personally I run with Renewed Focus, it gives you 3 secs of Invulnerability, plus refreshes all your virtues (meaning you can pop anything remaining such as Resolve, and then bring them all back again).

Sorry for rambling, hope that all made sense. Keep at it, practice makes perfect

Keep at it, my main is Jewel/Weapon and it took a long time! I went back and completed side zones and even some lower zones just to get all the ore I needed. I want to get 100% map so it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

Now i’m 400 in both and have crafted the exotics I wanted, and my bank alt is 21 and has 391 cooking :P

As a Charr I bought the cheap skin from the event we’ve just had (which i’ve been told exists the rest of the time too), which is a golden lion. I think it looks quite nice and almost a mini me :P

Cultus.8031:

@ OP
Do you have any thoughts about Karaka’s shell (if that’s correct name, cant check i’m at work atm) and stats it gives, is it worth having. I had some sick thoughts about going with shell and triforce pendant, but before i act i would like to hear your thoughts on it.

I’ve added it to mine in replacement of one of my Knight’s Earrings that had a zerker gem, my feeling is the stats i’ve gained (vit, cond. dmg and healing power) outweight the small loss in the stats I had. Not to mention 3% more magic find for free

Triforce is insane but then you’d have to be too to bother getting it

Does the Lyssa 4 piece work with our virtue? I’ve tried it a few times and it’s patchy at best. Is this a bug or does it not count as a healing spell?

I call this the poisonous frog – Midnight Ice and Lemonade, with Fog as the face grill.

Go to your main city. You should find some Asura gates (big swirly round circles on a map) go through there and that should take you to Lion’s Arch.

I completely agree, I don’t mind them not completely holding our hands to do it but half the time no-one seems to have any idea how to do these parts.

I found mine within the ‘my documents > guild wars 2’. It didn’t fix my problem though

Is it me or is the dodge roll healing unchanged? I’ve lost some healing so i’m seeing a lower number, but it’s still about 550 to nearby allies for me, which adds up when you remove the 83 odd healing I had on my old chest.

Anyone else with this? After a few waypoints I always seem to completely crash. It also happens if I swap characters, i’m guessing something to do with loading new areas?

Any ideas? I’ve installed new drivers, tried 10 other tricks, nothing has worked so far and it’s driving me up the wall!

My Charr Guardian sporting a lovely golden armour set and a huge kitten sword

Hmm ok some food for thought What I might do is just change a couple of the jewels around to give pow/pre/crit dmg , which will give a tiny nerf to my crit, remove a bit of toughness (it’s pretty high atm) and give maybe another 6 crit damage.

I also got my story back so that’s another 4% crit damage, all helps!

p.s. Using Sigil of Blood so a decent crit % is always good!

Hi Brutaly,

Sorry I wasn’t very helpful there with what I was trying to type, I realised afterwards you needed more info. With the two bits of gear i’m looking to get, i’ll be sitting on a little over 15k hp. My power will be just above your ‘minimum cap’ and the toughness around or just above your maximum. Precision i’m not too sure on, add about 70 precision to 51%. Crit dmg % will be lower. (all these stats are unbuffed with food/weaponsmithing stone)

So my next question is a 2-parter:

a) what you say is the lowest amount of health you personally would feel happy running with (is it the 14k?)
b) would you reccommend changing a couple of bits of jewellery to lower my toughness and/or precision and increase my crit dmg %

Hi guys,

Thanks for the thread, it’s been very informative and currently rocking the hammer I once hated.

A question regarding runes:

I’ve just crafted my 5th accessory, and have 4/6 Lyssa karma armour, with an exotic hammer. Everything crafted is of the Knight (Tough, Pre, Pow? (I think)) and I’m sitting on 53% crit. I noticed you said 40-60% crit, and i’m a bit worried that by the time I get two more bits of gear (I was thinking of getting the Dwayna chest because the Lyssa has Cond. Damage) and the boots, with the 5th rune on top I’m going to be getting quite high, and that’s even without food.

Would you reccommend that I keep my food plan (certainly in instances, elsewhere who cares) and try a different rune combo? And if so, does anyone have a set that stands out over others?

I only have 16g and when the monthly eventually comes in, i’ll have enough jugs in combination with the booster to get a fair bit of karma.