Guild Wars 2

Gwaihir.1745:

Heres the jist of the build but I wouldn’t recommend it for wvw. It works in pvp since people are forced to ress on a point, and you just don’t do that vs burning damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsf7dlsAhyhYzQwbIwPEHJEVeG+vB8usBQCg3gMYFA-TpgAQBA4JAIxyAAA

I mean it doesn’t have to be the best build in the world, just needs to function well enough. Is celestial thing still post hot or did it die?

Ghotistyx.6942:

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

try this

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_Symbolic

but then use the menders amulet version.

The supportive version of the Symbolic Guardian is probably the best definition of bruiser so far. A Burn build would probably be second.

Guess it’s time to mix and match gear to find a similar stat combination as menders then.

Gwaihir.1745:

I play a core bruiser guard. In a pvp match I can do around 500k damage usually and heal 200-250k. Its great since I can burst people down while supporting my teams necro.

What would the wvw variation be? I like the healing amount you’ve listed!

Buran.3796:

“Bruiser” usually refers to a tank which slowly wins the fights through attrition; power trapper and burning DH/Guard aren’t exactly “tanks” but both have sustain and trend to win fights gradually eroding their foes -instead of through huge burst-.

Yeah I know what a bruiser is, don’t want zerker medi trappers or marauders as I prefer to be tanky and helping my roamers out with a tankish set. I’ll look at burn DH but I don’t think they use shouts either.

Does it exist? I might consider coming back from hiatus with a friend since I quit after playing HoT, got tired of the power creep etc. Used to play cleric/ptv guardian in wvw but now I’m curious if there’s any all around build/stats that has good sustain and average damage. I can craft zealots and celestial but not anything hot related atm. Usually roam with a small group of 2-3, so shouts prefered, even though they seem to suck now.

Zephyra.4709:

Since ANet doesn’t bother making build-saving templates or gear saving ones at that I have a few mesmer alts. Each of which is fixated on a certain role for WvW – and WvW is what I play most be it roaming or zerging.

Note; don’t take any of these suggestions seriously. I play these build styles for FUN, not 100% effectiveness.

• Boonshare yolo tank – Minstrel stats

With minstrel’s it’s basically full tank stats with boon duration. Hammer in the fact that mesmer carries boon sharing capabilities adds to the current plethora of debatable ‘too much boon sharing’ meta. With Spring Rolls nourishment I can maintain 8+ mins of swiftness on myself, and share it with pretty much the entire zerg, along with whatever other boons I chug out all the while being ridiculously tanky. The only downside? Hits like a wet noodle. Won’t kill anyone with it, but it can be annoying to take down.

• Full zerk-twerk-time interrupt power burst – Berserker stats

Pretty sure this build is on metabattle already, but I generally tweak aspects to my own liking. It’s difficult these days to land stuns/dazes on classes due to the passive stability/stun-break creep meta going on. Full lock-down mesmer was a pretty hot topic months back as it could literally 100-0 players in a few seconds. It’s still do-able, but you also can die fast, too. Sometimes it’s fun to just chain stuns/dazes for days… Signet of Domination, the heal signet plus Moa with Blurred Inscriptions trait can make things a bit more sustainable when things go south.

You’re going to have a rough time with zerker in WvW, I suggest probably adding in a bit of toughness into your gear, but make sure you can still land crits. Otherwise, Marauder stats are available and differ slightly from zerker in that it has a bit of vitality into the mixture.

• Full cancer most annoying build ever, almost 2nd to ghost thief – full Dire stats

This is literally the pinnacle of aids. In fact, it might be worse if you added in some Trailblazer stats into the mixture considering that’s added condition duration, but jeeze. Full Dire mesmer is meta and has been for a long time. If you’re running solo or small scale you will most likely run into one of these guys.

Currently running torment runes on mine; I wasn’t sure if I should pick up Perplexity runes or if they’re even still viable due to the recent change but condi mesmer in general is just ludicrous to fight against and play with due to the passive DoT condi’s along with stealth and re positioning via Blink or Continuum Split for even more disease spamming capabilities all the while being very tanky due to Dire’s stats; vitality + toughness.

Play condi mesmer if you really want to add to your collection of salty orphan tears in the form of whispers.

Hope this helps a bit, I know you’re probably looking for a suitable, sustainable build that can 1v1 or last longer in skirmishes so I recommend taking a look at metabattle for an idea… that or make your own builds and see what works for you.

Hey, thanks for the info. I’ve mained guardian for years and always just played my mesmer as my cancer condi alt, but power shatter or power PU has looked interesting so I’ve been looking around. I’m really not used to the full zerker 1900 armor playstyle since with guard, even full zerkers and like cavalier gets you 2600ish armor. I’ll probably just use inspiration for cleanse and keep trying full zerker or something.

Ithilwen.1529:

I’m successfully running vanilla condi PU in unranked. Yes, I have HoT on both accounts but I’m not liking sword/shield. I didn’t sign up to be a jock (warrior.)

Condi is strong, been running it prior but I’m just trying to find the best power build suited for my wvw roaming.

Should I be going full zerker or have other stuff mixed in? I can fight most classes fine but war and thief doing 15k+ crits is rough in zerkers.

Exciton.8942:

dom/chaos/chrono PU power shatter definitely works but I would prefer dom/illusion/chrono power shatter for more burst and utility.

Otherwise you can go for chaos/illusion/chrono condition shatter. But I don’t think it is as strong as the meta inspiration/illusion/chrono variant.

Can’t decide if I should go pure power PU or hybrid yet.. Was thinking hybrid but I’d want more condi traits like mistrust which don’t really fit in the build, so I may try dom/chaos/chrono

Ah I see. I was messing with the build editor and was having trouble dropping insp and chrono without travelers, which messes up my rune slot. I’ll miss the condi cleanse and speed but I might just have to try dom/duel/chaos..

Tired of using meta builds / condi in pvp and want to go back to wvw roaming. Are there any viable power or hybrid pu builds around?

Zsymon.8457:

Sylpheed.8163:

If you think it’s the best healing skill in the game, you should try it. I did exactly that when they buffed meditations and added the heal, it’s not as good as it seems. If you run meditations, the majority of what you listed is already applied to other heals as well. Basically just gaining 25% outgoing damage heal and 4 seconds of fury. I instantly felt how hard it hurt to lose shelter and would still use the trap heal over wrath if I had to choose.

That doesn’t make sense though, the heal does what it does, why does it matter if other skills have similar effects. What matters is the value you get from using that heal, and to me what you get seems quite nice. I didn’t say I thought it was the best heal in the game, I said it was one of the best. I might be wrong of course, it’s how it seems to me.

Like I said, if you think it’s so good you should use it then. On paper it’s nice, but it’s not what it seems. Everyone else is stating why it’s not that good too, even if you get “value” from having smite trait. The value you speak of is literally 4 extra seconds of fury and a heal, which finally puts it on par with shelter’s heal. The damage converted to heal is Wrath specific, and most people prefer shelter’s block since it’s way more likely to negate more damage than the 25% heal from wrath would do, or trap heal for the daze and near double heal amount. If you’re a PvEr then there’s not much to discuss as it’s all preference, but I’m speaking from a PvP point of view.

If you think it’s the best healing skill in the game, you should try it. I did exactly that when they buffed meditations and added the heal, it’s not as good as it seems. If you run meditations, the majority of what you listed is already applied to other heals as well. Basically just gaining 25% outgoing damage heal and 4 seconds of fury. I instantly felt how hard it hurt to lose shelter and would still use the trap heal over wrath if I had to choose.

Yes, it’s pointless. The only benefit of taking both is that one has a shorter CD, so after the initial trigger the next time you have like a 5 second window to clear one CC and then another once the second stunbreak is off cool down.

robertjan.2197:

I appreciate the videos you posted, however, at least be prepared to answer peoples questions.. I sent you a PM 2 days ago as well as the above reply. No answer. Either post the links and be prepared to help other players who need some advise, or don’t post them at all.

Why do you feel so entitled to tell people what they can and can’t do, just because you don’t know how the build site works lmao. Get over yourself.

tanshiniza.8629:

Sylpheed.8163:

cletiscake.9173:

Sylpheed.8163:

I had my hopes up for a non-meta healing-tank build for pvp/wvw. Rip.

Im not much of a pvper, but ive wanted to try the celestial version of my build in WvW as a Medi Trap Guard. The stats look good enough and you would have amazing sustain and condi cleanse. Empowering Might would allow to really get that DPS going. What do you think?

But Medi Trap is meta.. 3:

99.9% of my time is spent in WvW Sylpheed so I would recommend giving my build a crack as I designed it with WvW in mind and being able to tank multiple targets while killing people off.

Link to what I run in WvW below:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR5en8cCVDhdDBmDBkdilGiSe4T+n/aYXgAArAigRA-TlxHABPq+Tj6GA4iAw++DMpEcJlfAA-w

I left the additional sigil slot open as it really is down to preference but I do recommend Accuracy for Mace and Lightning for Greatsword.

Hey Tan,

That’s exactly what I run minus the armour/runes and some utilities. Same traits, same accessories, hammer/mace+shield. I could give zealots another try later I suppose, still have my old set that I gave up on. Will report results later!

cletiscake.9173:

Sylpheed.8163:

I had my hopes up for a non-meta healing-tank build for pvp/wvw. Rip.

Im not much of a pvper, but ive wanted to try the celestial version of my build in WvW as a Medi Trap Guard. The stats look good enough and you would have amazing sustain and condi cleanse. Empowering Might would allow to really get that DPS going. What do you think?

But Medi Trap is meta.. 3:

I had my hopes up for a non-meta healing-tank build for pvp/wvw. Rip.

Loading.4503:

Imo it’s better to just go with condi cleanse for wvw now than the reduction, so I swapped out my hoelbrak for strength and tossed in a Sigil of cleansing and keep berserker stance on my bar full time now. Also not even bothering with lemongrass , so I’m still trying out other foods

That’s good to know. I’ll fetch my strength runes and give them a test in a bit, thanks.

Not too pleased with my main’s specialization, so I decided to dust off my warrior who’s still using melandrus from like 2013 in full zerkers. Are they still decent with the anti-condi food change or should I just change to Strength/Hoelbrak? I only do solo roaming/havocs.

Update – Received my champion’s snowball and it is also not working. What is up with this?

My snowglobe is in my inventory but not being recognized in my collections. This is getting frustrating as no one in game or online support has answered and it’s blocking my progression. Anyone know how to fix this?

Michaela.7489:

This is my Healing build, not to shabby in the armor department since its 3.2k and healing at 1.390k.

However, I did sacrifice attack at only 1.6K

Necromancer, you are in the wrong forums!

I’m confused, this build definitely isn’t the most annoying ever imo.. It’s more or less the exact same build I run except for one utility and weapon set (shortbow). It’s more or less the standard for staff thief for spvp.

Well I usually play solo roaming/havoc so I’ve always done hoelbrak. :x Also it seems like toughness is super paper now, haven’t played in awhile but I can’t tell the difference from 2500 armor and 3000 in wvw.

About to finish gearing my new specs, is hoelbrak still the to go for wvw power builds? I’ve been debating between strength and hoelbrak but was wondering how much the condi % reduction on food is affecting wvw right now.

Aggrostemma.1703:

Hi Jax:

Try something like this:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-BBls;1NFV30G3cFV90;9;4nQO;0147248036;4Tw-6X;1Bk-2Bk-21A

2500 armour, 20k HP, nice party support, good access to Fury (party).

You can swap MI for CoP. Now you have an unlimited condi-to-boon ability and 2 medium CD abilities what cleanse 3 conditions from party members too (and you can smite condies off of you with your Shelter).

Pretty good direct AND condition damage through Burn and the Hammer-Mace-Torch4 nukes.

This is not a bunker build! Far from it! It’s a DPS build with a lot of added support. Purging Flames, Feel My Wrath, Fury on Meditation use, Absolute Resolution, Indomitable Courage, Block, Heal, Condition Cleanse and Protection from mace-torch, Protection, Blast Finisher and some CC from the hammer. You have 2 teleports as well.

I give this to you as a sample so you can work on something.

Happy Guardin’!

This website calculates the trait “Strength in Numbers” so you don’t actually have 2500 armor, you have 2211 without and 2361 with, unless the numbers are different in game.

For now, the best is http://intothemists.com/calc/ I think. I never liked their build calculator, but until GW2skills is updated, just have to make do with.

You mean Radiance.

I was hoping for something other than medi. Everything is medi these days.

I’ve played this exact same build since launch, albeit different runes and trinkets, for WvW havocing mainly because I dislike the meditation play style. It makes you feel like a sponge that can do decent damage, but it suffers from the same ol’ mobility issues and lack of sticking to targets if you do anything outside of that. (I.E. roaming against decent players, condi spam) It’s an alright build, pretty standard for WvW imo. Just don’t expect to beat good players / meta with it solo. It’s fun and fits my tanky/dps style so that’s why I use it, anyway.

Tyreal.5230:

Sylpheed.8163:

Tyreal.5230:

This build…
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Empowering-Wrath-Ascended-Stella-Alamarr/first

Erm, no need to post your own link in someone else’s roaming thread. I was using 10/0/30/30/0 on release as soon as I hit 80, does that mean you copied me? Yeah, don’t be a kitten bro.

Has nothing to do with running 2/0/6/6/0. Has to do with the weapons, traits taken in each trait line, sigils used, food used and all gear being exactly the same except 3 to compensate for what he already has (valk back piece) and what he doesn’t have (azurite rings) so he went with soldier rings. It is widely known that most people prefer traveler’s instead of runes of strength with my build for anyone who does run it.

Yeah, ‘cause you’re the only person in the entire GW2 community to ever use that setup.. If you’re gonna go all copyright mode if anyone uses a build close to yours, maybe you shouldn’t share it at all? Sounds more like you want some weird e-fame instead of helping the guardian community. You have your own thread, he has his, chill lol.

Tyreal.5230:

This build…
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Empowering-Wrath-Ascended-Stella-Alamarr/first

Erm, no need to post your own link in someone else’s roaming thread. I was using 10/0/30/30/0 on release as soon as I hit 80, does that mean you copied me? Yeah, don’t be a kitten bro.

Guardians are fanatics.

yLoon.5289:

I’ve played every class to lvl 80 except for Thief. I was like you before, but then i realized, Guardian is just so awesome. =D

My comments to you is : Please delete your Guardian ASAP or try other class and realized how ignorance you are.

Guardian Tips : Ring of Ward in the middle of gang fight.

I have 4 guardians and doubles of every class all maxed 80 and geared for WvW, and guess what? What you’re stating is just an opinion like everyone else here. :O By your logic my perspective of guardian is superior to yours so -you- should stop being ignorant*.

Even if “supporting/defense” is the theme of a guardian, that shouldn’t exclude them from being able to join the meta / having similar qualities (disengage, cripple/chill) of other classes. If guardian is purely a support class in the eyes of Anet, GW2 should be remade as a trinity MMO imo.

xFireize.6318:

I tried all three and picked Melandru. Now I use runes of the pack tho. Less defense but more offensive party support.

I see, I find melandru to be the best so far as well for condi but I think I’m going to give hoelbrak another try with staff for perma 12 stacks of might.. Cleric lacks power and using melandru puts me at 1600~1700 max with my current build. Guess more testing time..

Axelwarrior.9084:

apocom.3172:

I have the feeling that mws doesn’t count for the combo. Everytime i try this with, or without mws, and I move my mouse over the stealth icon, it says 2 secsonds. Which is between 2 and 3.

If we assume, that each hs gives you 3 seconds of stealth, and you regenerate 3 initiative in 3 seconds, you came out of stealth with the same amount of initiative, no matter how often you jumped through the field.

The ratio stealth to unstealth time changes of course.

It doesn’t. MWS only increases the duration of stealth skills, like Hide in Shadows or Cloak & Dagger

^ This, but with P/D I mainly take more into that trait line for the condi removal which instantly clears when you go into stealth, and three seconds after, and also allows you to take infusion even with the nerf. I personally think 3 heart seekers is enough for comboing the stealth, but if you really want that extra 4th post nerf, you could use infiltrator’s signet.

For D/P I generally go more into shadow arts for the extra second into stealth and less into power traits. And as for the number of Heart Seekers I just do it on feel, it can range from one to three depending on the situation really. Just mess around with it!

Thanks. <3 Now I won’t have to waste it on just one character.

Simple question, if I convert my meta achievement skins (Gas mask etc) do I get all three armor types? Or do I just get the skin type of whatever class I’m currently using. (Medium armor if I convert it on my Engineer). Because with the upcoming changes in pvp, I’d rather just blow it there and get all three armor versions of it instead if that’s possible..

Perikittenor.1892:

So instead you stated a lot of the one i already stated and that is the end of the argument?

And i did also say free, now. I would not say that 30 traits into a tree is a free sustain, balanced and good yes. But free, nope.

Then stop complaining, you’re just contradicting yourself.

Perikittenor.1892:

-Shield is good for pushing people away, not keeping them in melee.

-Hammer blowout targets one dude with minimal damage, low range and a one second cast time, if they get hit by it then they deserve whatever is coming for them and once again. Push back so that is totally going to help keep you in melee with opponents.

-Hammer Ring is rather nice and the only downside is the annoying stand still wind up 3/4 sec so not terrible. And the bug where people dodge out of it. But beside that, it is really nice.

-Greatsword pull is also really nice indeed, rather obvious and low range to get them in melee but that is about it a really good ability.

-And the wall does not really suffer a lot of weakness, slightly long cooldown but it is a awesome skill so not actually that long, only drawback is once again. The dodge bug where people dodge out of it and it will not really keep people from running away, slight delay yes. But stopping them, no.

-And soft is almost non existent.

Don’t know where you get tons of blinds from, unless you assume you kill a lot of people i can only see three blinds, and one of them has a tedious effect of missing unless in melee.

mitigation and blind is the same thing, but as i can see it if you divide them. I see Aegis, and my though on a one attack block each 40 sec is not that good.

And i don’t see our high sustain either, a 84 (0.06) free sustain is not that good considering we get the lowest base health, sure we can improve it with a trait by about 25% i think, but it is still pitiful. The other sustain would come from what, GS heal 25 for each attack? Symbol heal 107 (0.075), could be rather good depending on what weapon. Altruistic healing, yes awesome sustain but 30 traits locked, or monks focus once again decent burst healing but sustain nope.

Our group support was never in question so you do not really have to bring that up, yet they seem to stealth nerf our support by buffing a lot of other classes support builds, but i never said anything about that.

1:1 ratio on dodge heals, perma vigor which also triggers altruistic, on crit might, symbols, there are so many things that I won’t even bother wasting my time explaining to you. Just don’t say stuff that’s not correct. Peace.

Perikittenor.1892:

To be honest i would be fine to play a sluggish class, infact i knew Guardians were exactly that. A slugish melee class, but i did not think we would be sluggish with low health, damage, no vviable CC both soft and hard.

So.. Shield knock back, hammer blowout, hammer ring, greatsword pull, staff wall, aren’t good hard CC? Our soft CC might lack a bit and our health pool is purposely low to keep us from being broken, but I have no clue what you’re talking about on every other point here. Our damage is great if geared for it, we have tons of blinds, damage mitigation / high sustain healing and unrivaled group support. Maybe you didn’t know what Guardian class actually was.

Hamish.1384:

Sylpheed.8163:

Hamish.1384:

Sylpheed.8163:

ODB.6891:

Sylpheed.8163:

Dat edit. Also, there is no ‘zerker trait’ so I have no clue what you mean by full zerker. Zerker is a gear stat and if I choose to trait correctly I can pull it off just fine. Everyone knows how bad the zeal trait line, no need to regurgitate. The problem is fixing that trait line isn’t going to allow us to go full zerker + full zeal without still covering it with defensive traits or armor. That’s why every one is suggesting many broken ‘buffs’ which won’t work due to balance issues. Also they have to -balance- around PvE as well, which I have no interest in regardless. And showing off your time in game doesn’t really mean much here.. I’ve mained guardian since beta and have eight 80s, just like almost everyone else.

Pretty sure no one ever said anything about a “zerker trait” before you did just now. Full zerker means you are both gearing and traiting for maximum damage versus either survivability and damage or survivability alone. That is a commonly accepted bit of terminology in this game. I don’t profess to have all the answers as to how to fix zeal or anything else in this game, as I am not a developer and do not have the time, inclination, or access to all the game data to make a correct set of decisions. I do know that now is the time apparently to suggest any ideas that can possibly lead to improving zeal as we recently had the ear of a dev. Whether you have interest in a particular game mode or not, that game mode still exists..along with the other game modes and all deserve balance. I personally do not pvp much, but I don’t have a problem with pvp balance…so long as it does not prevent pve balance. As far as I’m concerned, showing off whatever you get from pvp does not matter much either. Nothing really does except enjoyment of whatever game mode one chooses to participate in. I personally began with a warrior main and have been through several other mains until I settled on guardian.

He states going into honor traits doesn’t mean you’re going full zerker, but my gear IS full zerker. We all know Zeal needs buffs, but fixing zeal isn’t the problem. Some of the suggested buffs about boosting our HP/Defensive stats more while speccing for “full zerker” is out right broken. A warrior with zerkers and no defensive traits/stats, regardless of his 3-4k extra HP drops almost nearly as fast. It is practically just a buffer to survive an extra two hits or so. And yeah.. I’ve read every post in this thread, and you should too. Because no one else is reading them and just acting like they know what I’m talking about when a lot of the proposed changes are way out of line. There ARE good proposed changes, and most of these are generally asked by a lot of people such as the need for soft CC.

Sylpheed,

You said: “We don’t really sacrifice that much for a dps build, I run zerkers with 16k HP and find myself being just fine.”

It is widely accepted, that in the “guardian community” a DPS build for a Guardian consists of typically 10/30/30/0/0. Add on top of that Beserker gear (Assumption here being since you didn’t not otherwise state you are FULL beserker) then you would in no way shape or form have 16k HP.

I was confused by this, because this is not possible, but I digress.

One of the bigger issues in my opinion is if a Guard is full berserker running a DPS build he/she has minimal condition removal and VERY low HPs. My server is against SBI this week, I kid you not but the majority of their zergs consist of Necros, Condi Mesmers, LB/Hammer Warriors, the condition meta is out of hand. The ONLY way for Guardians to combat that and survive longer than .000024 seconds is to trait something like 0/0/30/20/20 (or along those lines).

So Sylpheed, if you really WERE running a DPS build, and full beserker gear, you would be sacrificing a lot, a lot of HPs and valuable condition removal, just to get some burst DPS which in the end isn’t comparable to our heavy counterparts the Warrior, who will have almost 6-7k more HP without even gearing/traiting for Vitality.

I might come back to talk when you stop over exaggerating.

That’s ok, I could really care less. I know both classes well enough to base my own opinions of them, I don’t need your input just trying to help you understand what it means when you tell someone you are full DPS and beserker.

You care, hence why you keep responding. If you don’t need my input you would of never clinged onto my responses. I am full berserker guardian. I’ve played this game more than enough, purely from a WvW and sPvP standpoint, and know what I’m talking about. Anyway, I’m glad you’re finally done!

Hamish.1384:

Sylpheed.8163:

ODB.6891:

Sylpheed.8163:

Dat edit. Also, there is no ‘zerker trait’ so I have no clue what you mean by full zerker. Zerker is a gear stat and if I choose to trait correctly I can pull it off just fine. Everyone knows how bad the zeal trait line, no need to regurgitate. The problem is fixing that trait line isn’t going to allow us to go full zerker + full zeal without still covering it with defensive traits or armor. That’s why every one is suggesting many broken ‘buffs’ which won’t work due to balance issues. Also they have to -balance- around PvE as well, which I have no interest in regardless. And showing off your time in game doesn’t really mean much here.. I’ve mained guardian since beta and have eight 80s, just like almost everyone else.

Pretty sure no one ever said anything about a “zerker trait” before you did just now. Full zerker means you are both gearing and traiting for maximum damage versus either survivability and damage or survivability alone. That is a commonly accepted bit of terminology in this game. I don’t profess to have all the answers as to how to fix zeal or anything else in this game, as I am not a developer and do not have the time, inclination, or access to all the game data to make a correct set of decisions. I do know that now is the time apparently to suggest any ideas that can possibly lead to improving zeal as we recently had the ear of a dev. Whether you have interest in a particular game mode or not, that game mode still exists..along with the other game modes and all deserve balance. I personally do not pvp much, but I don’t have a problem with pvp balance…so long as it does not prevent pve balance. As far as I’m concerned, showing off whatever you get from pvp does not matter much either. Nothing really does except enjoyment of whatever game mode one chooses to participate in. I personally began with a warrior main and have been through several other mains until I settled on guardian.

He states going into honor traits doesn’t mean you’re going full zerker, but my gear IS full zerker. We all know Zeal needs buffs, but fixing zeal isn’t the problem. Some of the suggested buffs about boosting our HP/Defensive stats more while speccing for “full zerker” is out right broken. A warrior with zerkers and no defensive traits/stats, regardless of his 3-4k extra HP drops almost nearly as fast. It is practically just a buffer to survive an extra two hits or so. And yeah.. I’ve read every post in this thread, and you should too. Because no one else is reading them and just acting like they know what I’m talking about when a lot of the proposed changes are way out of line. There ARE good proposed changes, and most of these are generally asked by a lot of people such as the need for soft CC.

Sylpheed,

You said: “We don’t really sacrifice that much for a dps build, I run zerkers with 16k HP and find myself being just fine.”

It is widely accepted, that in the “guardian community” a DPS build for a Guardian consists of typically 10/30/30/0/0. Add on top of that Beserker gear (Assumption here being since you didn’t not otherwise state you are FULL beserker) then you would in no way shape or form have 16k HP.

I was confused by this, because this is not possible, but I digress.

One of the bigger issues in my opinion is if a Guard is full berserker running a DPS build he/she has minimal condition removal and VERY low HPs. My server is against SBI this week, I kid you not but the majority of their zergs consist of Necros, Condi Mesmers, LB/Hammer Warriors, the condition meta is out of hand. The ONLY way for Guardians to combat that and survive longer than .000024 seconds is to trait something like 0/0/30/20/20 (or along those lines).

So Sylpheed, if you really WERE running a DPS build, and full beserker gear, you would be sacrificing a lot, a lot of HPs and valuable condition removal, just to get some burst DPS which in the end isn’t comparable to our heavy counterparts the Warrior, who will have almost 6-7k more HP without even gearing/traiting for Vitality.

I might come back to talk when you stop over exaggerating.

ODB.6891:

Sylpheed.8163:

Dat edit. Also, there is no ‘zerker trait’ so I have no clue what you mean by full zerker. Zerker is a gear stat and if I choose to trait correctly I can pull it off just fine. Everyone knows how bad the zeal trait line, no need to regurgitate. The problem is fixing that trait line isn’t going to allow us to go full zerker + full zeal without still covering it with defensive traits or armor. That’s why every one is suggesting many broken ‘buffs’ which won’t work due to balance issues. Also they have to -balance- around PvE as well, which I have no interest in regardless. And showing off your time in game doesn’t really mean much here.. I’ve mained guardian since beta and have eight 80s, just like almost everyone else.

Pretty sure no one ever said anything about a “zerker trait” before you did just now. Full zerker means you are both gearing and traiting for maximum damage versus either survivability and damage or survivability alone. That is a commonly accepted bit of terminology in this game. I don’t profess to have all the answers as to how to fix zeal or anything else in this game, as I am not a developer and do not have the time, inclination, or access to all the game data to make a correct set of decisions. I do know that now is the time apparently to suggest any ideas that can possibly lead to improving zeal as we recently had the ear of a dev. Whether you have interest in a particular game mode or not, that game mode still exists..along with the other game modes and all deserve balance. I personally do not pvp much, but I don’t have a problem with pvp balance…so long as it does not prevent pve balance. As far as I’m concerned, showing off whatever you get from pvp does not matter much either. Nothing really does except enjoyment of whatever game mode one chooses to participate in. I personally began with a warrior main and have been through several other mains until I settled on guardian.

He states going into honor traits doesn’t mean you’re going full zerker, but my gear IS full zerker. We all know Zeal needs buffs, but fixing zeal isn’t the problem. Some of the suggested buffs about boosting our HP/Defensive stats more while speccing for “full zerker” is out right broken. A warrior with zerkers and no defensive traits/stats, regardless of his 3-4k extra HP drops almost nearly as fast. It is practically just a buffer to survive an extra two hits or so. And yeah.. I’ve read every post in this thread, and you should too. Because no one else is reading them and just acting like they know what I’m talking about when a lot of the proposed changes are way out of line. There ARE good proposed changes, and most of these are generally asked by a lot of people such as the need for soft CC.

ODB.6891:

Sylpheed.8163:

We don’t really sacrifice that much for a dps build, I run zerkers with 16k HP and find myself being just fine.

…

Please stop, read lucent’s post as he knows what he’s talking about. If you wanna be a War, reroll.

You clearly said you were full zerker and lucent’s post clearly indicates he is not full zerker to reach 16k hp. 25 in honor is not full zerker…its a hybrid build. Full zerker implies glass cannon, not a mix of glass cannon and survival. Not that there is anything wrong with a hybrid build. If you are trying to prove yourself right by pointing at what lucent said, you are just proving yourself wrong and you apparently don’t even realize it.

Your comments about guardians wanting to be warriors is a straw man argument at best. What some of us guardians want to do is to actually be able to use all of our trait lines instead of being locked into traiting honor and or valor to not be instant kills.

I think the general consensus is that it is pretty ridiculous that almost no guardian traits beyond 10 points in zeal. There are many reasons for that. One is the issues with symbols and the fact that symbol traits are unavoidable if you go beyond 10 points in zeal. Another issue is the extreme loss of survivability if you do not trait honor and or valor. No one is asking to be a warrior. They are only making comparisons to the only relevant class….the only other one in heavy armor….the only other one expected to dive in head first.

Edited for civility. Thanks Kelnis…forgot myself for a minute there.

Dat edit. Also, there is no ‘zerker trait’ so I have no clue what you mean by full zerker. Zerker is a gear stat and if I choose to trait correctly I can pull it off just fine. Everyone knows how bad the zeal trait line, no need to regurgitate. The problem is fixing that trait line isn’t going to allow us to go full zerker + full zeal without still covering it with defensive traits or armor. That’s why every one is suggesting many broken ‘buffs’ which won’t work due to balance issues. Also they have to -balance- around PvE as well, which I have no interest in regardless. And showing off your time in game doesn’t really mean much here.. I’ve mained guardian since beta and have eight 80s, just like almost everyone else.

Hamish.1384:

Sylpheed.8163:

Makoto.9647:

We don’t really sacrifice that much for a dps build, I run zerkers with 16k HP and find myself being just fine. The only type of warrior I even struggle to fight against is pure regen tank condi warriors in a 1v1 situation, and it just usually draws out into no one dying. If you want to have pure zerkers with the same amount of survivability we currently have + more HP then what’s the point of playing a Warrior? Our DPS spec is viable, and I addressed the need for more soft CC (Which is cripple/chill/snare/etc if you don’t know the terminology). We have a good amount of leaps and blinks and utilities that give movement speed. (Which we won’t need to use if we get more soft CC). You keep saying that we sacrifice too much survivability to go dps spec but most of our needed traits are in the valor / honor lines anyway, and again.. If you want to maintain the survivability we have now with more damage, that’s just broken. There has to be some kind of give and take balance, you can’t have it all.

I would seriously like to know how you have 16K HP in “zerkers”? I assume when you say that, since you did not specify otherwise, that you mean full zerkers, armor, weapons, and trinkets. If you are running a DPS setup, then you don’t have the extra vitality either, so you “should” have about 13,500 HP. Now, as an example, I can run full zerkers with my Warrior, and Im sitting at about 19,500 HP. That’s with nothing traited for vitality, and I guarantee you, I am outdamaging any Guard on the field by about 3 times what they can individually put out. Now, Guardians have burst, yes if spec’d full DPS I can burst a warrior down to about a third of their health in one go.

However, that means everything goes on CD, what happens next is all too familiar for us, they escape – Bulls Charge, Sword #2, GS #3 or #5 whatever you name it. Yes you touched on the fact we need better soft cc, I posted above I think a good fix for our sword #2 and JI to be more efficient they should be area targetable, but you know what, even then a warrior will gain distance on us if they are using the 25% speed trait, unless we are using Traveler Runes. I’ve run a Signet build on a guardian that maximizes vulnerability stacks and Mighty Blow hits hard but the CC you get from our Bane Signet and…the condition damage one is nice but the cast time is too long on them imo.

You also talk about abilities that provide speed, so you are talking about Retreat, and Save Yourselves which are shouts, and if you are running a “Guardian DPS” build you should be using meditations in which case you won’t have either of those on your bar. Can you have DPS with a shout build? Of course you can, but you won’t be able to maximize your burst potential.

I posted above my thoughts about our condition damage being a Guardian only condition not shared with other classes, also someone posted above an idea in the zeal line that converts power to vitality which I think would be a great idea then my idea of giving us base 3500 HP, which BTW still puts us well below that of a Warrior, only one class in the game has less HP then a Guard and that’s Thieves. I think class balance is great, obviously, but ANET needs to address this condition meta, simple fix, add immunity timers. What is the point of condi removal if it gets reapplied instantly, and for a class like us HP is what saves our you know what’s when it comes to conditions, which as pointed out, are second lowest pool in the game. So all that protection we get, don’t mean jack you know what.

Please stop, read lucent’s post as he knows what he’s talking about. If you wanna be a War, reroll.

Then your build is perfectly fine as it is now! Go have fun and kill stuff.