Guild Wars 2

My fianceé ONLY played healers in other MMO’s. It was a really hard time to explain that in GW2 the healing is not the same as in other games. She felt confused and sort of… disappointed. But now she accepted: healing in GW2 comes from skills and not from sheer numbers on your character sheet. The only niche healing power is good: pvp bunker and wvw roam-small scale.

In wvw I tried a healer guardian… it was fun to keep the guys alive at a tower gate while 2-3 AC’s were firing at us… really… But there was no point of the whole build

Do not give up!

Have a look at this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQJAoYlcMowhNOwzB8rNgDgRMIMDEPACAvwiXhlAA-TVSAABYcCA4R9HwUSMxDAAATQppcDG9AxqEEp9HIDAzYA-w

Forget the ascended things and gear at all but pay attention to the traits:

massive crit chance due to Air trait points
perma regen: check
perma vigor: check
perma fury: check

What I would try: start with 2 elements! Air as offence and water as defence. Attack in Air, do as much as you can then switch to water when you have conditions or lower than 50% HP. Use your water skills to do some (low) damage and heal to full. Switch to air and deal more damage. Use your defensive utilities (cantrips and shield) in air attunement. Keep swapping! It only takes a few minutes – an hour to learn this two.
Once in Air: autoattack!!! Use your Shocking Aura but while it is active do NOT use air#2. After the aura dissappers you can use the LightningTouch to inflict weakness or the Updraft to knock back. Do not spam these!
Once in Water: Use CleansingWave then Cone of Cold to heal yourself. If your opponent stuns-interrupts make sure you use these right after you Updraft in Air or used Shocking Aura.
Once you learn this you can add a third element. Your call: Fire or Earth.

I suggest Fire: after you used your Updraft switch to Fire immediately and cast Fire#3, then #2, then try to land Fire#5.

Make sure you use the right utilities: cantrips are your best friends to learn the basics.
Also Arcane skills have some nice effect. Do not bother to combo might now. Learn to stay alive. And trust me: Once you learn to use your defensive skills (weapon, utility) elementalist becomes a beast!

I hope this helps!

EDIT: elementalist is a key element of the PvP parties, very-very strong in PvE and unreplaceble in WvW… Try some easier content… Hey some of the harder story missions even teach me a lesson while on my Guardian Nobody is invincible!

Well some D/D ele are unkillable if not 3v1 but this is another story

Get the accessories! They are much cheaper and easier to get than the armour pieces especially if we talk about ascended armour… If you have a full set of ascended knight armour you are pretty much set. Get some cleric/berserker weapons… whatever you like. Crafting another purple weapon is still less painful than do the same with armours.

My two cents…

Just copy-pasted this for you:
Hello!
There are two different keybinding methods:
First one is called “reach”: you use the ESDF for moving. You can easily press YAQW and RTG and SHIFT+RTG buttons. Easy combinations: 10
Second one is called “modifier”: you use your little finger to hold down SHIFT and/or the CTRL key. You can press Q, ERF, SHIFT+ERF, CTRL+ERF buttons. Easy combinations: 10
Also never forget: the easiest keystroke is the SPACE. So now I always have the SPACE+modifiers binded.

and this is the tread from the past:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Keyboard-layout/first#post4513868

Currently I’m using:
Q: weapon swap
ER: weapon skills #1 and #2
SHIFT+ER: weapon skills #3 and #4
CTRL+R: weapon skill #5
SHIFT+SPACE, CTRL+SPACE and CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE for three utilities
Redragon Perdition mouse Num pad: 4 profession skills, healing skill and the elite.
Extra button: dodge
If you don’t have a gaming mouse you can move the attunement bindings to the number keys.

Hmm Ragna, your build is great…

I will give it a try too… But I will not trait for Justice is Blind… And I will also get the 3000 armour somehow… You know sometimes I’m the only guardian and strength in numbers is not always available…

Just a question: are you sure that Pure of Hearth is better than Protective Reviver? Or do I miss something I must be aware of?

Note: I’m mostly a WvW player and usually I can find somebody on the ground to proc the trait…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQJARSlsApaotCxcI8DNBEBkJYGddYA-TlSBwA4U/hryD+aCOrE8qSsIPAA86AOu/gmjAAgLBQAAEgbezs5NDYoD9mD9m3sUAMpMC-w

Here is my example build.

I keep swapping weapon (cleric staff), traits (altruistic healing, two handed mastery, strength in numbers, etc… you name it…) and accessories (more cleric or knight or berserker). And food obviously…

Armour and basic trait points stay the same.

Hi there and welcome!

Wvw/fractal/open world can be enjoyed in mostly the same gear and alter the traits but the dungeon runs are not optimal running this build. Sure if you do a dungeon every now and then and you have some friends who do not care if it takes a bit longer go for it. The current optimal tactic “a.k.a: the Meta” is get full damage gear and the needed support from traits.

(you can check the www.metabattle.com for these builds)

In wvw the smaller the group gets the more offensive stat you can use.

Large scale wvw aka zerg:
frontline guardian: incredibly durable staff+either GS or Hammer. PowerToughnessVitality armour, cleric and knight accessories. Heal power is usually between 600 and 1200. 3000 armour value is the very minimum I used to have around 3300.
shout guardian: pretty much the same with traited Pure of Voice and sometimes Trooper runes. PVT and knight mix. No healing power needed so you can have more defence or offence instead.

Small scale havoc: the above builds can also be used but the game prefers more damage here:
tanky meditation: 00644 with meditation traits and abilities. Consecration or Shout can be added. PVT armour and as much berserker as you can sqeeze in without being too paper. Get the 3000 armour with Knight’s. Every weapon can be useful here but GS and Hammer are dominant. Scepter and Focus can be the main weapon choice due to less AoE needed here.

group and solo: you can do everything here! Nomad, full zerk everything can work. You mostly play alone or with your friends so if you run some silly build no stranger sends you into the hell

Fractal: 00644 tanky medi works fine in low level fractals. You have to change utilities/traits before every fight.

Open word: press tab – press 1 – loot

Silverwastes: the PvE meta is berserker but I do not suggest to play full offence an this map. 00644 build works just fine. Put as many power/precision/ferocity on as you can and stay alive. PVT armour and some wvw experience helps a lot…

Some magic numbers:

armour: 3000-3300 below this you are a wet tissue while more than this is a too much of sacrifice.
power: get at least 2000 with buffs such as food-sharpening stone-bloodlust.
vitality: get more than 15k! You need some defence. Everything above 20k is a waste in my opinion.
precision: aim for about 20% to proc critical hit related traits and sigils. 30% + fury gives you the sweet 50% chance.
ferocity: Precision>Ferocity. If you build for healing power this is the stat you will sacrifice. You can get around 200% crit damage with soldier’s+berserker.
healing power: usually 0, but you can build for it. If you wanna play “healer support” aim for 1000 heal on dodge roll. So around 870 healing power.
condition damage: usually 0, but you can build for it. In solo/party gameplay a “hybrid” can be good…ish. I do not recommend this but hey! it’s your game play as you want!

Happy guardin’!

1, condition build
2, movement speed like everybody else
3, ranged weapon
4, velocity on scepter auto
5, cast time reduction on hammer auto3
6, shield fix
7, CD reduction on Merciful Intervetion…

Hi there…

If you don’t like to run triple or double shouts + purging flames… like me (and the team composition allows it and also your leader…) then the JI is a nice addition. Sure you want to be with the melee train but it gets a bit oldschool anyways.

In the fray of a battle there is always some chance to use it. Stomp, defend your backline (they are much more important now…), catch low HP casters, etc…

If the MI had some CD reduction I would use it much more often too. Since the stability changes any way to get to B point from A without crossing the crap on the ground is a nice thing…

My 2 cents…

Just what BarnabeJonez said…

plus you can check this very useful guide:

http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/

It IS outdated but it gives you some starting points.

About your future plans:

A well balanced build with Pvt (sorry for this) armour and a variety of DPS/Survivability accessories with good rune sets like pack or traveller will be enough for the whole PvE-WvW playstyle…

In wvw: some thoughness and vitality is a MUST unless you build for full condi (guardians are not able to…) or you wanna play full berserker (you don’t want to).

In PvE you can do everything with this gear setup apart of speed-running dungeons. You can still do them but slower. Fractals however always need some “standing power” so I say this kind of gear is good for low level fractals too. You need different traits and utilities but thats all…

Happy Guardin’!

The forum ate my post AGAIN! This is getting annoying!

So posting#2:

Runes:
Hoelbrak: 10g
Traveller: 7g
Pack: 5g
Speed: 2g each

Do not put any expensive runes in Karma-Badge gear you cannot salvage them! Speed runes are actually cheaper then the average price of a crafted PVT armour so feel free to slot your karma armour with them and then swap the whole armour set with decent runes.

Sigils can be also costy:
Energy: 8g
Force: 7g
Fire: 4g

And you need some good food/spanner:
Bowl of Seaweed Salad (swiftness on kill, damage while moving): 57s
Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup (-40% condi duration): 38s
Bowl of Poultry and Leek Soup (-36% condi duration): 15s
Mango Pie (health every second): 1s

So wvw can be really expensive but not unreachable at all. It’s absolutely fine to use cheap…ish gear and consumables but make sure your build is good!

But if you two are swimming in gold then forget what I said before…

A so-so geared but correctly built new wvw player who wants to learn is much-much better then full ascended+legendary geared player who uses crap build and thinks that he knows everything!

Have fun!

My first question is: do you have access to movement speed runes like Speed or Traveller?
I know it sounds silly but these runes really effecting your build/weapon choices.

If you both have access then there is no need to run Retreat! or Staff weapon.
If you have Pack runes either staff or the shout does the job.

So…

Guardian #1: semi-offensive meditation. GS+Sc/F or Hammer. Something like 20660 or 21641 build. 3 meditations obviously but you might get rid of the CoP condi remove and slot Merciful Intervention for added support. PVT armour, zerker weapons and mix of knight/zerker/soldier accessories.

Guardian #2: shout anchor. GS+Hammer. 00464 build with PureOfVoice but basically any build does the job with PoV. SyG, SY and HoldTheLine shouts or you can use (and trait for it…) PurgingFlames. Gear same as above.

This couple can be incredibly durable and they have access to a lot of CC. Their condition removal ability with PurgingFlames, CoP, Traited shouts, traited F2, and SmiteCondition is bursty but they still need -36/40% condition duration food.

And the other good thing: a few simply change some utilities and traits and you two are ready to havoc

Happy Guardin’!

I didn’t really decide yet if I like the nerf or not. My guardian surely got a decent hit but my ele was pretty much buffed.

The things I feel too OP are the circular stun fields namely Static. The different lines or walls are easy to avoid while they still fulfil their role. You can walk along them and even if you got AoE spike you can dodge-leap back to safety. They are mostly single purpose depending on the situation. Offence or defence. Linear ward skills can determine the enemies movement or strip a stability stack with no target limit. Fine for me.
The circular wards prevent the enemy’s any movement. They cannot fall back or attack, they cannot really dodge. Ring of Warding is melee range so I can understand why the no target limit. However the StaticField should not have unlimited “charges”. It forces you to use your stability stack or die. The counterplay is very limited. This is my only concern about the Stability change.

EDIT:

Oh, I don’t really call for nerf for eles. I’m absolutely aware that the static is one of their important “zerg” skill. But now they can safely hide in the main blob without risking to get hammered to death. Sniping them is very-very difficult nowadays. You cannot just send two rangers and a thief to hunt down those pesky eles because they are protected by a whole hammertrain. Attacking them with melee forces are countered by themselves. Catch 22.

It took me quiet a few minutes to find this :P

Hamster, this video is just hilarious!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Hi there!

Missions are good but they are only a sidenote of a chapter. The hearts are pretty funny sometimes like doing I.Q. tests on skritts, juicing frogs, launching cows from catapult or killing 10 wolves…

Doing personal story is a great thing especially if you like reading or watching movies. There are some really epic moments in the personal story line like how to kill a dragon (with magic rod), who to sacrifice, what order you join etc…

If you like to use your braincells you can try to earn some money via the trading post. Someone finds this entertaining. If you are one of them check this out:
https://www.gw2spidy.com/

You can manipulate the market, calculating profit and deficit and earn some gold.

If you enjoy exploring you can do map completion. If you enjoy some challenging jumping puzzles you can find plenty of them.

And if you are standing in a beautiful area why not make a screenshot and collect some pics? Oh, if your armour looks crap there plenty of colours you can get to recolour your look. You can even discover new shades with “cooking”.

You can chat people and join a guild to always have a helping hand somewhere near. You can try PvP to gut out some ugly fellows or join a commander in Edge of the Mist for some epic battles.

There are many dungeons (first one is at level 30 I believe) and you might enjoy them with your guild or new friends.

I’m sure you gonna find your way to enjoy this awesome game

P.S.: message me if you have any questions…

Have fun!

40 kb/sec… again… I let this crap run overnight…

I will see what gonna happen…

hehe, kitten this sith…

I gave up for today…

this patch sucks

removed gemfx… nothing happened…

my fianceé never used gem or sweet still struct on the patch screen… meanwhile half of my guild are playing just fine…

I’m a sad panda…

There was only one “force” to drive hardcore AI-killers “aka:PvE-ers” to do some wvw. They might or might not like wvw but they HAD to do a tiny-little bit of it. Now this is all gone…

My question: can I get full map completion without a PvE map?

Just you know… pve-ers hate to go to wvw and get a SM vista. I hate the Pve maps to get…. basically everything… traits-skill points-achievements-gold.

I’m speechless…

Hunter.4783:

Sauncho.8076:

is also worthless in a 1 v 1. It’s glass or a poor man’s bunker, not much else.

Pretty much this. Other classes can both roam and bunker better than you. There is NO REASON to bring a guardian in a 5v5 right now.

Warrior ele, engie thief, x

where X being a double of the first 3 will ALWAYS be superior to bringing a guardian.

You are right! That’s why the WEET+Ele comp won the tournament against the WEET+Gua team…

Oh wait…

Sw+F / GS never provided any support that’s why the “meta” medi build was called selfish.
But this was the meta written in stone so everybody used this build… Now Tage just spiced this up with a hammer what was considered a “lame” weapon by many and all the sudden the new “meta” was born…

The hammer did exist before but it did not provide the DPS/burst of a GS… However id provides more utility…

This is how meta changes…

Dhemize: we got a troll-sale weekend now… GW2 is cheaper than ever so I just suggested the game for a few of my friends…

But hopefully after 8th of March they get the banhammer with superior sigil of troll slaying and hit with it hard… on EU servers too…

Imao

EDIT: I think Europe has a bit less cheaters than the NA servers but we got at least one prominent server of trolling-cheating. I’m not saying they all are (I apologise…) but the troll/player value is well over the normal there…

The server’s name is in my signature

Thank you Joe! These are some really good infos.

I hope you going to make a review after the release…

Keep it up boss!

06044 or 06026 is the way to go… in zerg bursting you WANT Lighting Rod. LR has no AoE cap so this is the most powerfull trait elementalist have.

You can be tanky with this trait setup (8 points in defensive trait lines..) but with Pack runes and Air and Fire sigils you can be a real offensive support.

My two coppers..

EDIT: I’m stupid? You need energy sigil… must have

Do not forget that the second the fight gets to 2v2 the hammer becomes a really good weapon… If a focused target wastes dodge and you are able to land ANY of your 2-to-5 skills it’s a win.

20 tomes still missing for an instant 80 Revenant but I guess I still can get enough before the HoT. I just started to farm some ascended materials to gear it (weapons at least…). I have enough Karma and badges to sort out the armour problem. Also I have some ascended trinkets/accessories hidden in my bank (condi damage mostly but who cares…).

10 minutes after I geared my Rev I gonna head into the Jungle and terrorise everybody with the lack of my skill to play the profession :P

This is my plan

And Garambola is right… If somebody cannot give up a bottle of coke every week to buy the HoT….? I don’t know what to say…

Hey Joe! Welcome back

Q: are we going to have “squad layout” in Wvw/PvE? Or at least customisable party frames? Any UI improvements?

I sometimes see your Army still advertising. Make sure you check out the new WvW maps… We gonna give you a good fight I promise

I personally expect more veterans coming back to check out the expansion. GW2 has always been a casual-friendly game because of the lack of vertical gearing progression. Even if you miss a few month you won’t get left behind. There are some minor balances and some new maps but the core of the game is unchanged.

You can login after a long break and enjoy it for a bit and then go wherever you want. GW2 is waiting for you.

/emorant off

@Black Box: Hm, my fianceé started a guardian… she is 50ish now and she told me that the guardian is by far the easiest profession to level. Her previous profs were: Ele (currently main), necro and mesmer.

My first prof was a ranger… easy as it is than I rolled an ele… it was a challenge for me but I really like it now… My guardian came third and now it is my main. easiest levelling experience so far… even better than ranger’s.

Hehe!

It’s up to you mate… This is a GAME and it’s free for you… Spend your time as you want. Nobody is going to point a knife at you because you play whatever you want.

I think in this game the professions are pretty much balanced while having some catwalk where they really shine. Gua shines everywhere… So does ele and engi (I’m not sure about engi….)

Thief: very good but not that much in pve
Necro: issues in pve
Mesmer: only 1-2 needed in WvW, veil and timewarp is good in pvp-pve aswell
Ranger: the hate is still there, no wvw spot , althrough they are decent roamers or snipers
Engi: this is the profession I know nothing at all… they are welcome in wvw though

Elementalists and guardians never have any issues to get a party where they want…

#EDIT: I just got to the engi forum and saw what you get there…

But really: engi is also good… every prof is good AT SOMETHING. But what you want to do?

ele: versatile fighter/support
gua: versatile support/DPS
engi: slippery jack-of-all-trades
mesmer: insane tricks like moa, timewarp, confusion and chaos
necro: dirty tricks and crapload of survivability
warrior: nice burst and/or nice support… mostly /or
ranger: hate, pet and incredible damage/survivability
thief: don’t even get me started

Pick one! All of them are loveable :P

Hi again voxrar! (I also commented in the guardian forum)

I’m sure we all want to know what aspect of the game you’d like to play? PvE/WvW/PvP? Both profs are strong at the moment in every environment.

Back to the OP: unlike thy guardian the ele is a very active gamestyle. You have to press a button basically every second or less. There are a few “attunement-camping” builds like Fire or Earth but the rest of the builds are using every attunement. It means you have to calculate your CD’s and sigil procs in your head.

Both class can be really rewarding but as an ele you have to work around your skill and attunement CD’s hard while carefully positioning yourself. As a guardian you have to play a more proactive and slower playstyle while anticipating your enemy’s skills.

While very different – in team-support I think these two professions are in par with each other.

My two cents…

Guardian is always a good pick. PvP/WvW/PvE… Your party members can be sure you give some support. A guardian is always built with support. F1-3 skills are always there even if you build for insane DPS. Your support improvements are coming from your traits and not from your weapon or gear (staff is an exception).

Nobody ever says: “No I don’t wan’t a gaur in my party…”

I think the guardian is a very good achetype of a Heavy armour fighter. Not flashy, not fast, no abrakadabra magic casted in quick series. Guardian skills and utilities mean something. If you press a button it changes something.

This is why I like Guardians. They are important, they are powerful and they have natural synergy with every other professions.

My two cents…

Happy Guardin’!

So the fact that you had to have an account without any Infraction point… the 99.99% of the wvw forum community is unacceptable.

I got an IP for as much as saying that ANET’s game is comparable to a much more profitable company who has 9M subscribers. But I did this on the WvW forums so I got infracted LOL.

Anyways: Marmatt is a toast now but after a few days/weeks we gonna learn how to work with him… He is our only hope…

And this makes me sad

Oh crap!

We can play with the WVW forum specialist or the wvw FORUM specialist but…. why not somebody who actually plays WvW? Rank 300 is like 4 month to get?

Is Marmatt"s job only to send a report of our postings?

Like:

“We need GvG”
“Cheaters are everywhere!”
“Fix population problems!”
“WvW players are forced to PvE to make money… Please force the PvE players to do WvW to make money…!”
“GWEN should be GWENTREM!”
“How many achievement points you have after 1 year playing? 6000… Why? I play WvW… Oh kitten…”
“BUGFIX…. NOW!”

I think ANET reduced the CD of these weapons to encourage more players to use it. Such way they can collect more data and analyse it. It’s a prebuff-buff I guess.

All GW2 content can be done while staying in fire attunement with staff or scepter.

But if you wanna feel like a boss go for D/D… After my ranger it was like : “WTF is this swapping and long CD’s and the like…”

You can basically lock down enemies, heal through hard encounters, dodge lethal attacks and make your PUG members say: “Where da hell is dat damage come from…”

Meanwhile you are going to learn to dodge and use your defensive skills wisely.

Ele is Hardcore mode with hardcore reward. And the reward is: FUN!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVQQNAR7dlsApaodDxcI8DRRDRljNYvBlQXe9BkABAA-TVCFwAy3fIl6KAeCAXVCiU5ngLAAKVKyobIxBBgUAMpMC-w

Try this semi-meta build!

Scepter+Focus makes you less vulnerable for kiting. And if you can land a scepter+focus 3,2,4,5 swap GS gs#2 Judge’s Intervention on your unaware target it is likely that he will go down. With GS you have some heal with symbols and some nice Aoe damage too so they have to flee but if you swap for scepter their only option is to melee you otherwise your scepter auto and the immob+Smite will kill them. If they start melee you while you are wielding sc+f you have an extra condi clean/blind and an extra burst with focus#5.

Against feeing foe you have some poison to counter their heal and also your meditation teleport and your GS leap along with the scepter immobilise.

But be aware: your heal comes from your offensive utilities (meditations). So make sure you don’t use your SmiteConditions or CoP for 2-3 “weak” condi like 2 seconds of burning or 2 stacks of vulnerability.

If you have guard kill stacks and want more DPS you can drop 3 points from Honor and get something more damage. Radiance likely.

My 2 cents…

I think Deso is known by the server’s strong PvE population. It is a good thing I note you. They are uplevelled and they are badly build but they are wvw-players. And we have some really strong guilds and also some very talented commanders. Our uplevelled-supported zergs are far from an SFR organised blob… But our pve/wvw community is strong. We encourage players to get into wvw and learn from there. No elitism.

@Ins: That’s not true… In a world where time zones doesn’t exist and the sun sets and rises in the same time and all server has -let it be US or Eu – has the same population…

I think you would find a fair enemy in most of the EU’s servers… If our prime-time was the same… Hell you would even run

Of course!!! After a few infraction points I still believe that the GW2 is one of if not the best MMO out there…

@Black Box: you are right. If the OP wants something Healer guardian the aim should be something like 1k heal on a dodge roll. Support this with healing symbols, staff and there you go. This is far enough.

@Fashion Mage: 02066 IS a water elementalist. Even the Lightning Rod version can be build with 6 or 4 in water. Since we agreed that healing power is usually a wasted stat I was so brave to suggest Soldier/Zerker gear instead. It isn’t a glass build. It’s called “bunker staff” for a reason (I mean the 02066 not the 06062). Water/Monk/whatever runes can work but once you headed down the Power line Strength/Pack gives more oomph.

Agreed on the range statement.

@Black Box: Healer guardian is one of the builds what can use SOME healing power… 300 comes from trait. Put on something like 3-4 hundreds more and you are ready to go. I only suggest this if your havock/zerg seriously lacks WaterFields though. Properly laying down and blasting these fields means more heal than an Asuran amount of Cleric gear…

Hey! What’s wrong with the Deso uplevels?!

… a 39 Desolation Bronze Scout hides behind a 49 Assaulter

Both going to work!

1, Guardian: I usually run 00644 GS/Hammer(or staff) or 00266 Staff/Hammer (sometimes mace+focus). My gear is soldiers/knights/zerker. In the case of 00266 I aim for around 800 healing power with some clerics-

We all know the strength of a support guardian. Condi remove/stability/CC and heals. Gua gives offensive and defensive sustain. Building a full defensive guardian (nomad/cleric with mace/focus and staff) is a waste of a group spot. You cannot even oneshot critters with this.

2, Elementalist: I usually run 02066 or 06026 LightningRod builds. Soldier/Zerker gear. Healing power is a wasted stat on a support staff elementalist. Most of the zerg’s heal comes from blasting water field which is unaffected by the ele’s healing power. The aoe cleanse is good but you rarely are in close range to your group. So most of the ele’s support comes from fields and hard CC. Offensive and defensive burst. Building a full defensive ele (nomad/cleric with water runes/sigils) is a waste of a group spot too. Go for power/pack or strength runes and beat the crap out of somebody. Use your water fields to heal up between skirmishes/pushes otherwise land your LR stuns or meteors on the enemy.

The main difference is the relatively short cooldown on the guardian’s heal skills like symbols and staff#2. Hell even my 00644 soldier/zerker symbols are healing for 122 a second.

After swapping my main from ele to a guardian was like: WTF is this guar thingy? How the hell is this enjoyable…. Boring crap…

After a few weeks spend in the melee-range of some world boss and even more T1 hammertrain lads I suddenly started to respect the guardian’s playstyle.

As others mentioned playing elementalist is button-spaming and CD calculating. The guardian’s style is nowhere near that. But every button makes a difference. Even the autoattack can change the tide of the battle not to mention your group support utilities and skills.

Elementalist: “I’m an elementalist and I press every button to kill my enemy.”
Guardian: “I am a guardian and if I press any button my enemy dies.”

For example in wvw if you land ANY of your guardian’s weapon skill/utility on your foe s/he is likely in a big trouble. As an ele you have to land almost all of your skills to kill your foe.

My 2 coppers…

Power is the stat you must focus on.

GS is the fastest weapon for leveling. Scepter+Focus also solid choice. You can do just fine with sword and/or torch too but I suggest you stick to the GS as your main weapon.

Focus #4 and #5 scepter #3 and #2 swap to GS leap, whirling wrath and the mob is dead.

Heal: Shelter is very good but you can do fine with Breeze or Signet.
Utilities: Retreat and SaveYourselves for running.
Smite Condition for burst/condi remove (to remove 20 minutes of cripple/poison some mob stacks on you slowing you down a lot) and Judge’s Intervention for flashing around like a boss.
Bane signet for more power. Power is good!
Elite: RenewedFocus is your OhSh’’t! button.

Traits: if you run 2 shouts consider taking Superior Aria or in the case of two meditations run Meditation Mastery (you don’t have to… these are powerful utilities without even traiting them)
For your first trait point take the Radiance, Valor or Virtue minor.
Once you unlock the master traits take the Renewed Justice from Radiance… From now on killing five mobs take less time than killing a single one

Always have sigil of bloodlust on your GS AND your underwater weapon. even the 2 copper minor one. Power is good!

Happy Guardin’!

Hang on guys!

As I quoted: " Masteries are the way you will progress after reaching level 80 in PvE"

…in PvE

So it is possible that on a wvw map you still get level-up skill points. I posted here because I’m not 100% sure how ANET implements this change. Or they can just add a superior siege vendor.

I really hope they thought about us this time

I see it different…

The “no-white-swords” + PPK event was FAR my best experience in GW2 WvW… By a mile or so…

(before you ask: T1 server 8-15 havok guild run)

I don’t think the sup. siege is a problem… The more than 1000 skill points I have free to spend IS a problem… And everybody else has the same amount…

And everybody and their sister buys sup siege now.

Anyway thanks for your comment, that’s another way we must approach this change…

Oh, just before somebody says with 4000 SP left… they will disappear quickly. This change means that a Scroll of Knowledge drop is valuable.

" Masteries are the way you will progress after reaching level 80 in PvE"

Does this mean that a wvw player still gets Skill Points as level-up rewards?

I’m getting really confused here… sorry…